Honey, I\'m Home

[Existentially Odd]

Tau arrived at he and his brother\'s apartment as the pink streaks lighting the sky finally began to realise they weren\'t alone and joined forces with one another, heralding the sun\'s ascension.  He yawned as he moved gracefully along, ending the exhausted gesture with jaw-stretching relish, before reaching a hand up to the accessible base of the railing that surrounded the balcony outside the bedrooms in their apartment.  With casual elegance, he half-jumped, half-swung himself upward, clearing the metal barrier easily and landing with a barely-noticeable scraping noise on the gritty cement.

His nostrils flared as he straightened.  The scent was undeniable; he looked down at the metal border of his sliding glass door for a telltale stain, already knowing that his littermate had marked his territory.  His territory, outside the door to Tau\'s room!  It was an unsubtle challenge, and one he had to struggle - with great difficulty - not to meet.  It wouldn\'t do for the Shifter Oligarch to open the button fly of his tatty jeans in the misty dawn light and urinate over the wall of his own home... ohhhh but he wanted to!  It had been ingrained in his DNA to dominate and correct the wrong of Jed\'s mark being more pungent than his.

It was just one of the things he\'d been forced to change, since taking on the new role.  One of the things that had him constantly questioning whether he\'d done the right thing a few weeks ago or not.  Trying not to think about it too hard, he flung open the glass door - for it was never locked - and stepped into his bedroom after toeing his shoes off and leaving them outside.  He didn\'t think he\'d ever get used to shoes; they were indiscriminately vile and hateful things, never allowing his feet to breathe as they always had normally.

"Where are you?" he yelled as he stalked into the apartment\'s main area, his expression dark and humour all gone.  He knew his brother would be there - he was every other day when Tau got home from his job working the graveyard shift at an inner city petrol station - but he was possibly hiding.  The shifter headed towards the kitchen (to get a bucketful of hot water and disinfectant to wash the smell of cougar urine away - lest the neighbours below them started complaining again).  His nostrils arced again as he went, trying to get an early warning on where Jed would spring from.

[Erebus]

The lack of amusement in Tau\'s voice should have made Jedrek reconsider the wisdom in stalking his brother into the kitchen and hiding behind a stack of crates that was their table as he filled a bucket with brownish water from the sink and poured in chemicals that caused his nose to twitch in distaste, but Tau was always in a "shit mood" when he came home from the gas station.

It was his job to take his brother\'s mind off whatever it was that bothered him.

He waited until Tau turned, off-balance by the bucket he held in one hand, and walked by the dark blue plastic containers that had once held milk cartons before he launched his attack.  

"Nnnaager!"  He growled out as he leaped from his hiding place, arms stretched out to catch Tau by his middle.  

Whether Tau dropped the bucket filled to the brim with liquid that sloshed fitfully or used it as a weapon to beat his brother into submission, there would be water covering their floor within the next few seconds.

[Existentially Odd]

Having been frowning at the water as it reluctantly filled his bucket - in a less than hot state - Tau hadn\'t heard Jed\'s approach.  Having then been concentrating on not spilling said water once he\'d deposited chemicals into it and started walking it towards his end of the balcony, he hadn\'t caught his spring, either.  Until it was too late.

He let out a strangled yowl as he dropped the bucket, was heaved away from where it was plummeting towards the floor, gathered the presence of mind to employ his excellent reflexes, lurched against the restraints of his brother\'s arms and only managed to solidly thwack the bucket as he attempted to recover it.  To no avail; Jed plus gravity plus momentum were too great a challenge to overcome in an instant.  He did manage to send the water container to the ground faster... and with a bit of a spin that splashed lukewarm liquid and disinfectant up the wall and through the doorway into the bathroom.

Of course, he only had a glimpse and the ability to anticipate what would truly happen once the tips of his fingers brushed plastic, for the kitchen counter soon blocked his vision as his attacker set him firmly down on his back on the kitchen floor.  Since his head was still craning to see what became of his former possession, he had no real sense of where the floor was, either - so his head came back too far and he smacked the back of it down hard enough to spread a momentary flare of numb happiness across his scalp, before his brain shuddered and kicked up a stink in the form of an immediate headache.

Face scrunched in pain and disbelief, he turned to look towards his brother, finding himself eye to eye with a bare muscular shoulder.  "Jedfuck... " he growled, hands bunching to start extricating himself - by whatever physical means necessary - from the other shifter\'s hold as soon as he\'d got his question out, "what are you doing?!"  The nickname had arisen from stringing his littermate\'s name to the obscenity so often that it had become a habit... by no means could it ever be construed as an endearment. Also, he never said it unless he meant it (which was always).

[Erebus]

Jedrek was snickering loudly as he pushed his feet against the floor to force himself upward and into a sitting position - on Tau\'s chest.  He swung one leg around, preparing himself for any bucking by digging his knees into his brother\'s sides and pressing the heels of his hands against his shoulders.  

Baring his teeth in the semblance of a smile, he leaned down until their noses touched.  "Why ask?  Ain\'t it obvious?"  

There was something else that confused him about Tau.  Why ask questions when he already knew the answer?  

He\'d stalked Tau.  

He\'d pounced.  

Now he nipped and bit at whatever skin his mouth came into contact with (mainly that of Tau\'s neck region).  

They were playing, wrestling.  And Jed was winning so far.

[Existentially Odd]

Tau\'s bright blue eyes narrowed into a glare as he writhed endlessly beneath his brother.  Bucking and rolling and rocking had no effect; Jed had the advantage of balance.  He was almost as tall as Tau, slightly less solid but wily as hell and his cunning made up for any weight disadvantages he might have been forced to endure.

A low, antagonised snarl issued forth as Tau clenched his teeth together and started butting his head at Jed\'s face.  The deep sound of flesh-covered bone striking and grinding against its like, filled the otherwise-silent room as he attempted to dislodge Jed and sit up.  The maneouvre was somewhat futile, he knew, but he was working towards getting Jed a liiiiittle bit closer to his neck - so that his littermate was in the perfect spot for him to be able to hook his feet beneath his armpits and lift/kick him off.

"I told you not to mark the house any more," he grunted, snapping his own teeth at Jed\'s closest thumb, surrendering the safety of a closed mouth when the tempting target strayed too close, gouging at his helpless face.  His fingers dug mercilessly into the bits of leg - naked below the hem of Jed\'s silken boxer shorts - he could hook his hands up to rake at.  Since his arms were fairly effectively pinned (along with his ribs being dug into), he couldn\'t do too much damage... but he took what he could get.  He considered shifting into cougar form but that would be an absolute last resort (even though it would get him out of the restrictive work shirt and jeans he was still wearing) and tantamount to conceding defeat anyway.  Not really one of his favourite options.

[Erebus]

Tau\'s headbutting was effective, especially when his forehead came into contact with Jedrek\'s already once broken nose.  His eyes watered and it felt like his nose had been forced into his brain, but instead of crawling away to lick his wounds, Jedrek only fought back harder.  He tightened his knees around Tau to increase his grip and used both hands to claw at Tau\'s face.  

The only problem with that was he couldn\'t exactly see what he was doing for all the extra tears in his eyes and Tau did manage to bite into his thumb.  He yelped and pulled his hand sideways, not jerking it back, but grabbing the fleshy inside of the other\'s mouth which he pinched and yanked at.  

Instead of voicing what a fucker he thought Tau was, Jedrek was growling with growing frustration.  He was quickly losing his grip on his wiggling sibling and his actions reflected that - they had transformed from exact and planned to flailing and desperate.  

Wild punches hurt just as much as any other, though, if they made contact.

[Existentially Odd]

It became far more difficult to maintain his pattern of movement so that he could force Jed forward, once the asshole had hold of his face.  He regretted biting the thumb now (of course) - since his cheek felt like it was being torn off his head - but still couldn\'t get his hands free.  Once Jed redoubled his knee pressure, Tau was pretty much screwed.  Even his hands stopped digging into bare legs as he yowled in unison with his counterpart, attempting to pull against the slashing, pinching fingers enough to get some space between his hard brow bone and Jedrek\'s nose.

Then he would see about showing the little shit some pain fireworks and dislodging him off his chest.

For all his worming about and toing and froing with his head though, Tau was becoming quite tired and fed up.  He wanted to snatch his arms out and punch; he wanted to bite and get some momentum behind his headbutts - rather than merely grinding flesh and attempting to avoid losing long gouges of skin from Jed\'s scratching.  All of these feelings bottled up as they shoved and hissed at each other; neither giving any quarter, nor being able to take it.

Eventually, his angst exploded and he moved the only part of him that he could; his legs.  Because he hadn\'t managed to get the right leverage to use his feet, he simply bent his knees and started ramming them into Jedrek\'s exposed back.  He was hoping to hit something that would make his brother flinch or curl up.  Kidneys would be excellent; he focussed on not rocking so much and lowering his strikes to the limits his position allowed.  Even if he didn\'t have the accuracy to hit a vital organ - hell, he\'d take ribs at this point; they were pretty tender, too - he at least had force behind the lunges.