Parings: III/IV & V/IV

Rating: T

Warnings: sibling incest

Summary: III and V try to win their brother's affection and Tron wonders why there is so much incest in their household.

Observations

Tron liked to think that usually he was fairly observant, especially when it came to his family. He liked to think that he knew what was happening in his own household at any given time, where he sons where and who they might be with if they were out, the general mood of the family and who was having a particularly good or bad day for no reason at all. That if any of them came to him, he knew why before they opened the door and who would be opening it.

But he had to admit, this had slipped under his radar. This he hadn't noticed until he told off IV for his usual poor manners and V spoke up in his defence. That had been unheard of even before certain unpleasantness had embittered his children, so it was quite a shock now. He at least had the impression that IV was just as stunned as he was as they both stared at V, who hadn't even looked up from his book.

"You're being too hard on him, Father," V said again when no one else spoke up.

By that time, IV was frowning at him thoughtfully, as though he'd finally found an important piece to some sort of puzzle. Tron was careful to keep his expression neutral, hidden behind a mask though it was, and remained silent until V finally looked up at him. But there was no apology in his face, and his eyes said that it wasn't just a fluke, that he was prepared to get into an argument with his beloved father if he was pressed to.

How interesting. Tron smiled and waved a hand, brushing it aside. "Yes, you may be right, V. My apologies."

He kept an eye on them as he left the room. He saw how IV stared at him in shock, and then at V, and how V nearly smiled and reached out a hand to invite him over, perhaps to give him a chance to talk about whatever was bothering him rather than scold him as was the usual course.

He was out of the room before he could see whether IV accepted it. But when he poked his head in later, there lay IV, sprawled across the sofa with his head in V's lap, while V sat with his book in one hand and the other wound into IV's hair. And a tea tray was sitting on the table.

That was when Tron decided that perhaps he wasn't paying enough attention to his children.

It wasn't just V, he discovered as he took to spying on them over the next few weeks. III, while never particularly mean to any of them, he started treating IV a bit nicer than usual, and more than once Tron thought he saw his youngest blushing when IV was in particularly good mood and ruffled his hair or hugged him from behind. Or when III was the one to initiate a hug or clasped his hand or even...

There were quite a few nights where IV was clearly not in a good mood and had either decided to take it out on his brothers or one of them sought him out to listen to him rant and rave. But they did listen and talk to him and remain in his presence far longer than they really had to. It was behavior Tron wasn't surprised to see in III, who had always been more tolerant of his brother and willing to humor him and spend time with him-the two of them had been close even when they were young and spending a couple years with only each other to rely on would have only drawn them closer. Tron was never surprised to see III and IV huddled together somewhere or to see III sitting patiently while IV paced wildly in front of him.

V, on the other hand, usually got rather impatient with IV and his whinging. And those times that Tron caught them talking, it seemed that hadn't changed. V could still be quite short with his brother and they often got up in each others' faces and IV was usually quite a bit louder and angrier with him. But it was...different. Tron sat outside the sitting room one night while V put up with IV, and while he got impatient, it wasn't in the same way. He didn't shut IV down but made remarks that were supposed to get him to think and work out his own problems. And he snapped quite a bit less than Tron thought he ought to. He was obviously really listening and taking things to heart, or instead just giving IV an opportunity to get everything out rather than bottling things up.

IV's talks with III usually ended in IV helping to wash the dishes or a friendly duel and walking each other to their rooms when it was time for bed. IV's talks with V seemed to always lead to IV being carried to to his room after falling asleep on V.

And there were other things. One evening, III roped his brother into helping with dinner and remarkably, it ended up edible and nothing was burned down and IV wore a fragile look of pride the rest of the night. Another evening, V requested that IV help him refresh his skill for some upcoming ball that Tron was certain didn't actually exist, and upon learning that IV didn't know how to dance, took it upon himself to teach him and then insisted he help teach III when III checked in on them.

There were the times that III or V went with IV on a trip out of the house, sometimes to an event as the Asia Champion and sometimes for no particular reason. Tron couldn't exactly follow along at those times, so he took a stab at having a chat with whoever was left behind to see if he could draw out a reason for their sudden support of their brother. III just smiled and said that of course he'd be nice to his brother, they'd always been there for each other and in the end, no matter how angry they might get at each other, they were family. V's smile was far more melancholy and he said that he was just trying to make up for the mistakes he'd made and the time he'd lost with his brothers while their father was gone.

Tron didn't believe either of them, because at the end of the day, the were acting more like they were courting IV than being his brothers, but he couldn't prove it if they weren't going to talk to him. He'd just have to keep watching.

(In the meantime, IV was generally happier after an event than he used to be, and there was a sort of fragile self-confidence about him that had been missing before, and was that really such a bad thing?)

Tron was fairly certain the two of them were working together to achieve whatever result they were aiming for. (Perhaps it was best that way, so there wouldn't be any hurt feelings or resentment between two boys who had always gotten along rather well.) Tron caught them having private moments of their own often enough, although the air around them was different than when either of them were with IV, and as often as they spent time with IV alone, they spend just as much time flirting with him together.

And it was flirting, wasn't it, Tron decided with a sigh. Why else would IV turn that particular shade of red after V whispered something in his ear, or look so content when III brought him an extra piece of cake with his tea and started playing with his hair. Actually, Tron wasn't sure exactly when IV himself had figured it out, but at some point, he stopped seeming so bewildered and hesitant and started appreciating it and flirting back.

He really should have said something when this had all started, he thought as he glanced into V's room to find him kissing IV on his bed. When he'd first started to suspect there was something amiss, that was when he should have put his foot down to stop it.

(But they've all been so much happier these last few weeks, no matter how wrong then reason for it. That's actually been a nice change...)

Tron cleared his throat and watched impassively as the two of them started and knocked their heads together.

"Christopher."

Both of them stared at him looking even more startled and maybe even alarmed. Well, he very rarely called any of them by name any longer, and it had been years since he'd used Christopher's full name. He only used it on those rare occasions when he was particularly proud of his son...or his son had actually gotten himself in quite a lot of trouble. He was sure V could figure out which is was this time.

"Come with me," Tron said quietly as he turned to lead the way out of the room. He glance back in time to see V give IV's hand a reassuring squeeze before he followed after, face already set.

They ran into III not far down the hall and V stopped him and took him aside for a moment, hopefully to warn him not to finish his journey to where IV was waiting. Tron frowned at them as III bit his lip and nodded and turned away. This must have been planned...he could only imagine what they'd been planning to do.

Tron led the way to his study in silence, though he knew that wouldn't have much effect on V-not much would when V made his mind up about something. When they got there, he told V to close the door and made his way over to the chair behind the desk, where he settled with his hands in his lap and feet kicking the air. V chose to remain standing and stopped on the other side.

"Christopher-" but he didn't look worried this time or anything else other than patient "-do you have any idea what you're doing?"

V looked away toward the floor, but he didn't really look or sound ashamed as he replied calmly, "Yes, of course I do."

Tron tilted his head a bit. "Really. Does he?"

Ah, he was sad. That was the emotion there. "Father, I think after everything we've asked of him, we can trust him to know who he wants to date."

"You're only saying that because it's you."

A faint smile. "Probably."

Tron sighed and leaned back in his chair. He was disappointed, of course-V ought to know better by now, he ought to have been better than this period-but he couldn't really decide if he was more disappointed in his sons or in the circumstances that had led them to try to seek such comfort from each other. What they'd had to go through because of Faker and then what he'd asked of them had been hard and they'd all preformed admirably, but that didn't mean it had been fair to any of them.

No, what was really disappointing about this... "I wish you hadn't dragged III into this."

V shook his head and finally looked a bit ashamed. "Actually, it was mostly his idea."

Ah, but he was probably only ashamed for going along with his youngest brother, when he was the one who should have known better and was old enough to be getting them in trouble. He didn't seem to care at all that it was their brother whom they were courting.

That was what was most surprising about this, actually. It wouldn't have surprised him much if IV had been the one to reach out to his brothers, if it had been IV's idea to have an incestuous affair. IV had always been the one who acted out and got himself in the most trouble. And III alone would have been surprising, but not overly so. He was young and had very few people he trusted and IV was the one he trusted the most.

V, however, had always had a good head on his shoulders and rarely did anything without thinking it through first and he'd always been the one who tried his best to be good and impress his father. So if this was something he'd made his mind up about...and it wasn't as if any of them seemed to be unhappy...

"Are you going to send us away?" V asked, his voice quiet but still calm and assured. "Or IV? You know that would destroy him. And," he added with a faint smile, "I don't think any of us would stay put."

No, they probably wouldn't. Tron doubted that shipping any of them halfway across the world would even keep them apart now. They weren't the same children who'd had to struggle to take care of themselves while he'd been away and had to separate because of it. V at least, could probably survive without him. And he was right that it would probably make IV useless; he was always so sensitive.

V smiled again when he didn't say anything and turned to leave, and Tron didn't try to stop him. Of course, he still didn't approve, but he didn't approve of a lot of things his children did. So long as they weren't hurting each other or keeping themselves from being useful...

Still, all of them? Did it have to be all of them? "I don't know where I went wrong with you three..."

V paused halfway out the door just long enough to glance back at him. "If you really cared so much, Father, I think you would have spoken up by now."

Still, it didn't really matter who his sons chose to take to bed (much as he didn't like thinking about it); it was a father's duty to embarrass them and tease them about it as much as possible. So while it took all night to make one properly, he left a beautiful cake sitting in the kitchen for his children to find in the morning, with "Congrats on the sex" scrawled across the top in loopy, elegant writing.