Mikael had never really been one to get along with his brothers. Both of them. Tiziano was eight years older than him and Jai by another two years. He'd only been a toddler when both of them had started attending school, and they had already graduated before he even begun. It didn't help that all three of them were at odds when it came to the heirship. Mikael had never made it a secret that he desired to follow in their father's footsteps. Jai was always the biggest obstacle he needed to overcome, and Tiziano was an enigma he would never understand. He did trust them both with one thing, however. The welfare of their sisters. It grated that Eurydice had gone to Tiziano about what was happening in the school, especially when Tiziano lived in another country. While Primrose Kaster had come to him about her suspicions, he had been looking into whoever had been interacting with his sister. It hadn't been anyone in her year, he'd concluded, but looking at every other year above her was taking time. He'd just ruled out his year, Elio's year, and the year above Eurydice when Tiziano had found out. It was annoying to know that Tiziano knew something he didn't, and he didn't even trust Mikael to deal with it since he was here at the school. And even when they were both here, Eurydice was obviously still being targeted if her reaction during her duel was anything to go by. If she wasn't sleeping off after taking potions, he would be asking her to tell him the truth if it was Ayre who had been targeting her. She had been doing well in her duel until Ayre's cheer. "Are you going to tell me what you know or are you going to continue keeping it to yourself," he told his older brother, sitting across the bed where Eury was currently sleeping.
Tizi leaned back in his chair, for the moment ignoring his brother mostly because he could and it was funny. But no that wasn’t actually what he was doing, he was watching to see if that Morrie girl decided to drop by, because if she did show up, she wouldn’t have been there for long. He had his eyes closed and leaned back as Mikael finally said what he had expected him to say. “I could tell you what I know… but where would be the fun in that? It’s fun to know I was able to do something you weren’t,” he might have been an adult, and had been for a while now, but that didn’t mean he and his brother got on. He and Jai were great friends, and he loved Eury - he loved Mikael too, but that didn’t mean he liked him, or really even trusted him for that matter. “You’ll f#ck it up by doing something stupid.”
Insufferable. If people thought that Mikael was the most insufferable out of his brothers, they've clearly never met Tiziano. He was a wildcard who did what he wanted when he wanted with little regard for the consequences around him. Perhaps it was why he and Mikael didn't get along. Mikael calculated while Tiziano bulldozed. Then again, as the oldest male among the heirs, he had less reason to tiptoe as much as Mikael had to to get this far. "Work as a librarian," he deadpanned. Because really, the only thing that Tiziano had managed to do so far was work in the school. Sure Tiziano could act as a bodyguard now, but what if he wasn't around? What about if he gets fired because he's too busy playing bodyguard to do his actual job? Tiziano may be at the school but until Eury's attacker made a move in front of him, he won't be able to do a d@mn thing. Something had to be done about the attacker so they wouldn't dare come near Eury again, with or without any of them around. And as a student, Mikael would be more... available. "Just because you do stupid things up doesn't mean we all do."
If Tizi could read Mikael’s thoughts, he might have snorted at the description of him, apt as it might have been, because there was more reasons than that for why Tizi and Mikael didn’t get along, some of it was a choice on Tizi’s part, since Mikael had so much of what Tizi wanted, and always had, and even though his mother had told him he could have taken the Nightray name if he wanted, honestly it was too little too late by then. It should have been given to him years ago if Dad had actually wanted him in the family, and even though Jai had chosen to take it years later, no one had ever lied to Jai like they’d lied to Tizi and they all seemed to want Tizi just to forget about all of that. Mikael was the oldest boy, even if Liam had raised boy Jai and Tizi, Mikael was his flesh and blood and that meant something to the rest of the Nightrays, especially a family that held blood so highly like the Nightrays once did. Mikael might not have been a pureblood, but he was still a Nightray. Tizi would never be one. Not really. But there was more than just that too. “It’s quiet and I don’t have to deal with spoiled brats,” he said as an answer to why he might be working in a library. There was nothing wrong with libraries. “So you don’t want me to tell you then?” he asked, examining his wand as he sat back. Mikael was really do nothing to make Tizi want to tell him anything.
It was annoying. That Tiziano was willing to withhold information just to spite Mikael. It wasn't even information that was beneficial to Mikael. And that was why the Slytherin was starting to doubt that Tiziano was really here to stop what was happening to Eurydice. He stared at his brother, wondering if this was him making a move to take out the competition. The whole circumstance was obviously taking a toll on their sister and Tiziano obviously knew something Mikael didn't. If he had to guess, Eurydice had given Tiziano the whole story. Has his brother done anything about it? Aside from parking himself in the Library, Mikael didn't think he had. He didn't want to think that Tiziano would be capitalizing on the situation against Eurydice - in Mikael's mind, their sisters were off-limits, but he was never sure how Jai or Tiziano operated. "Does it matter what I want," he shot back because it didn't actually seem to matter to his brother that Mikael wanted whoever was bullying their sister gone.
Tizi tilted his head slightly, like a dog trying to figure something out, and a slow smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. “Now that’s a bit of a funny question,” he said, twirling his wand between his fingers. “Because from where I’m sitting, what you want only seems to matter when it suits you.” He leaned back, tapping his wand idly against the arm of his chair, his gaze mostly unreadable, but that was probably because Mikael didn’t know Tizi nearly as well as he thought he did, no one did these days. Except mum, and even she was flailing these days. “Yuo think I’m just sitting here doing nothing? That I don’t care what’s happening in this school, to Eury?” His smirk faded slightly, but his voice remained smooth. “Maybe I just don’t think you need to know, or deserve to know everything. Maybe I don’t feel like handing you all the answers when you’ve never given me anything,” his gaze flickered over to Mikael and then he shrugged. “So tell me why should I do anything for you?”
At least Tiziano and Mikael could agree that there was something funny about their conversation. Tiziano seemed to like to think that what Mikael wanted only seemed to matter when it suited Mikael. Mikael on the other hand found it funny to think that Tiziano seemed to think that Tiziano ever gave a f*** what Mikael wanted. Because as far as he could remember, Tiziano never liked him or cared about what he wanted. And yes. Mikael was going to think that Tiziano was here to do nothing because he didn't care enough about what was happening. Perhaps he was here to help Eurydice, Mikael would like to think he was, but Tiziano's never given him a reason to think that he was here to stop it. Providing a safe haven in the library was different than nipping the bud from the start. Was he waiting for Eurydice to be more. harmed than she already was. "Of course, it's all about you," he said as the words settled between them. Here he was trying to get information for their sister and all Tiziano cared about was not giving Mikael anything because Mikael had never been able to provide for his older brother of eight years. "Forget it," he said as he turned to leave. If Tiziano couldn't get past his dislike for Mikael so they could work together to help their sister, then Mikael would just have to do things his own way. He didn't know why he ever thought Tiziano would help him.
Tizi exhaled sharply through his nose, the sound barely audible against the backdrop of standard noise in any hospital wing. They were supposed to be here for Eury, and yet Mikael was so incompetent that Tizi had to come here on his own, uproot his life to fix Mikael’s mess. He wasn’t surprised. The tension in the room was thick, just how Tizi liked it, and Mikael was turning away, making this into some grand declaration of Tizi as the villain because he wasn’t handing him what he wanted on a golden plate. It was frustratingly exhausting and entirely too familiar. “You really think this is just about me?” He asked reaching over to pat Eury on the foot. There was an unmistakable edge to his voice, like a knife running along the surface of something so preciously fragile. An alliance neither of them had entered willingly, or really at all.
“You’re the one making it about us, Mikael. About whether I care enough for your liking. You don’t actually give a damn if I help—you just want to be right about me not doing enough.” It was all he ever wanted after all, it was all anyone ever wanted. No one saw Tizi as a real Nightray, sometimes he wasn’t even sure he was a real Edogawa and he was never a real Raven - so who the f*ck was he actually? Because these days he wasn’t even sure he was Mikael’s brother. He folded his arms and shook his head, glancing back at their sister again. She was here, hurt and Mikael was wasting time picking a fight instead of focusing on that. He was sort of glad it had been Eli that took her out, he was certain he might have jumped the banister had it been anyone else. Mikael’s attitude, more than anything, irritated him.
“If I wanted to do nothing, I wouldn’t be here. But I’m not about to play this game with you.” He was cold, unreadable, but he wasn’t here to let Mikael stretch his ego because he felt inferior, that wasn’t Tizi’s fault. “Go ahead. Storm off. Do things your way. I’m sure that’ll work out well.” It was sharper maybe than he’d intended, but Mikael had pissed him off, and so he didn’t even bother to move and didn’t try to stop Mikael from walking away if that’s what he wanted to do. Tizi had every reason to walk away from the family that liked to lie to him, and yet he was still here. Because he always was here. Despite what Mikael wanted to believe of him.
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