"You- You're..."

'Me... The other side of me.' The words stuck in Aoba's throat. Unable to speak, he simply stared in shock, a thousand questions running through his mind.

Anger. Anger was the first emotion he felt. "What did you do? What did you do to my brother?" he lashed out, fighting back the urge to strangle his other self. "You're here, in his body, instead of him! Why? Does this mean he could have lived? But you had to take him instead? You selfish-"

"Aoba," Ren called out.

"..." The rage was still boiling inside of him, but Aoba kept his mouth shut. After a moment, he firmly asked, "why?"

"Calm down," the boy said nonchalantly, waving one hand weakly. Aoba had the urge to hit him again. He did. He turned to Ren again, and gave him an apologetic look. Ren already knew Aoba had a short temper, but Aoba didn't particularly like to show it.

'Of course it's not my brother. It couldn't be him. I just got my hopes up.' Aoba shook his head slowly before looking back to that other side of him that was possessing his brother's body. His fists clenched in automatic response to that smirk.

Sitting up straight in the hospital bed, he began to speak. "Not exactly the welcome I had hoped for, but whatever. You can go for now, I don't need you at the moment. They'll probably be releasing me soon anyway."

"Y-you-" Aoba stuttered out, the rage still boiling inside of him. "What do I even call you?" he shouted. "You're not my brother! You're certainly not me! Y- You disgust me!" The tears had started to pour down Aoba's face. Ren lifted himself slightly out of Aoba's bag and nudged his shoulder. "I know, Ren," Aoba replied in a defeated sigh.

"Well," the one in question replied hastily, crossing his arms. "I'm obviously you, Aoba, but to make things easier for us, I suppose Sly will suffice."

"Sly..." Aoba repeated slowly. He turned toward the door, glancing a final time at the person in the bed who should have been his brother.

"Don't give me that sad face," he snapped as he watched Aoba leave. "You need me just as much as you need Ren," he called as the door shut.

"I don't even know what to think right now, Ren," Aoba said, sitting down on his bed and curling into a ball. "Am I just supposed to accept this?"

"Try not to worry about it too much," Ren replied, resting his tiny paws on Aoba's shoulder.

"I guess you're right, but... It's all just too much right now." Aoba sighed and lifted his headphones up to cover his ears. A nap might help things.

He woke up hours later to the feeling of Ren gently pushing on his arm.

"What is it, Ren?" Aoba asked, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

"At the front door," Ren replied, jumping off the bed and exiting the bedroom. Aoba groggily followed him down the stairs. At the bottom stood a very surprised and confused Granny, staring intently at the guest standing in the doorway.

"I'm home, Granny," the guest smirked, arms crossed. Granny switched her glance repeatedly between the Aoba in the doorway and the Aoba at the bottom of the stairs.

"Sly," Aoba whispered, walking toward him. Something was very different about him now than compared to a few hours ago. His hair was freshly cut, and dyed blue to look exactly like Aoba's own. And were those colored contacts? His eyes were definitely a darker brown now. "You trying to imitate me?"

"You speak as though I'm not you," he chuckled, uncrossing his arms and taking a step forward. "Maybe you've been the one imitating me all along?" He turned his head. "Ren, don't you think I was always more suited to be the 'real' Aoba?" Ren remained silent but sat down next to Aoba's foot. Sly sighed. "Well if that's your choice... I'm sure you'll change your mind eventually, Ren. I'm sure you'll come to love me as much as you used to love hi-"

"Hey!" Aoba shouted, cutting off Sly. "Watch your mouth, you little-"

"That's enough." Granny voice rang clearly throughout the room. "Now come and eat, both of you," she said sharply, entering the kitchen.

Sly and Aoba followed silently, and sat down silently. The whole meal was silent and awkward. No one asked to pass around any specific bowls or plates, but just took them themselves. No polite dinner conversation was made, and no one tried to make eye contact with anyone else. However, Sly and Aoba appeared to be the only ones feeling the awkwardness of it all. Did Granny understand what was going on or not? Did she even care? Could it possibly be both? Reading her was the hard part. If she didn't know, how simple would it be to explain it to her? 'Yeah, don't worry Granny, that's just the evil other half of myself that possessed my now-dead twin brother's body and now he turned up here at the hospital.' Aoba almost laughed at how ridiculous his thought sounded. It would be better not to have to explain it. But if Granny didn't care, did that mean she was fine with the whole situation, whether she understood it or not? Aoba guessed that all the details would be sorted out in time.

Immediately after finishing his meal Sly rushed up to Aoba's room. Aoba silently helped Granny clean up the table before rushing up after him. Upon entering the bedroom, Aoba found Sly rummaging through the closet, looking carefully at each piece of clothing before tossing it messily onto the bed.

"What are you doing?" Aoba questioned.

"Looking for some better clothes. I can't go out looking like this," he explained, gesturing to his body. Those looked like the clothes Sei had worm when they met... Sei...

"You can't just disrespect my brother like that!" Aoba shouted without thinking.

"Like what?" Sly hissed.

"Like right now! His clothes are all that's left of him, you should try treating them with a little respect! You dyed his hair, too! And who knows what kinds of terrible thing you're going to get yourself into! Sexual things, and fights, and Rhyme. All that stuff. You're going to ruin his body..." Aoba's voice became progressively quieter and less aggressive.

Sly rolled his eyes. "What, you think I'm an idiot? I'm keeping the clothes since they're all that's left of him. As for all that other stuff, you can just calm the fuck down. This body was his gift to me. He gave me this chance to have the life you never let me have, so I'm going to honor his wishes and have some fun. I can't help it if you can't accept his death."

Aoba remained silent. Those words had hurt. Maybe he couldn't accept Sei's death. Maybe trying to protect Sei's body as it was was Aoba's way of denying his brother's death. "Maybe I can't accept his death," Aoba said at last, his voice almost a whisper. "But at least I cared about him."

"I can't believe you got rid of my jacket," Sly complained, throwing the last of Aoba's clothing in a pile. He rummaged through a drawer and pulled out of a pair of dark jeans. He took one of the discarded shirts in the pile, and picked up the jacket on the top of the pile. It had been a birthday gift from Trip. The matching shoes from Virus were still in the bottom of the closet. Sly took those as well, and began to take off his current clothing. Aoba immediately turned in the other direction and stared at the wall as Sly got dressed. "What, never seen yourself naked before?" Sly joked. Aoba didn't respond. "You gonna come out with me, Aoba?" Sly asked as he finished changing.

"Out where?"

"Who knows? Out partying somewhere probably. Find anywhere fun to go in the year I was gone?"

"No." Aoba shook his head, but started laughing upon realizing something. "You can't go out anyway! You don't have ID! And I don't think they just issue entirely new identities for someone in your situation, let alone identification."

"I'll find a way."

"Yeah, good luck with that," Aoba responded sarcastically.

"Whatever. I'm still going out. Just have some fun for once, will you?"

"I have work in the morning. You know, actual responsibilities?"

"Fine," Sly said, zipping up his jacket. His light tone disappeared. "I'll see you around." He raised his hand in a slight wave as he walked out the bedroom door. Before leaving, he turned back to Aoba for a moment. "And you dare think for even a minute that I didn't care about him."

'Because he was the only one who ever cared about me.'

AN: NaNoWriMo began today, so this may be on hold until I either win or give up. Maybe it's better that way though. Do you ever have an idea that sounds so good on the outline, but once you start writing it, it becomes a poorly-written, over-dramatic excuse to write SlyAo smut? I have a lot planned for Sly's character though and it'll be fun to work on his subtle changes.

Anyway, let's hope I get it together in the next month so this idea can end up at least a partial-success.