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Fandom: The Almighty Johnsons
Characters: Anders Johnson, Ty Johnson, Mike Johnson, Olaf Johnson, Axl Johnson
Pairing: Anders/Ty
Rating: PG-13
Word count: c.3200
Warnings: Incest.
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.
A/N: For the trope bingo prompt: "mind control".
***
Anders turns twenty-one, and suddenly Mike understands why his mother had said the name Bragi in that tone of voice before she'd run off to become a tree, and Mike is filled with the overwhelming urge to become a tree himself.
When Olaf explains what Bragi's powers entail, Mike knows from the look in Anders’ eye that he’s going to be even more insufferable from then on. Anders bitching about his charred leather jacket for years on end is only the beginning of it. It starts with one girl that Anders brings back to the house, reeking of alcohol and giggling while Ty shuts himself in his room and Mike tries to get Axl to sleep. The girl slinks out of the house early next morning as fast as she can, still only half-dressed, and Mike doesn’t need to ask to know that she wouldn’t have gone with Anders if he hadn’t used his powers. And from then on, there’s not a single girl that Anders brings back twice, and half of them leave before the sun is up.
Mike makes Olaf stick around, because he’d actually managed to rock up for Anders’ twenty-first, and Mike certainly isn’t going to handle him alone. But it just makes for an even more crowded house, and Olaf is less than useless.
“It is somewhat despicable,” Olaf slurs, smoking something that Mike doesn’t really want to know about, as they watch the latest girl slip out of the house, shamefaced and confused, while Anders is still snoring away in his bedroom. “The fact is, Bragi’s powers are now so weak that Anders isn’t able to talk anyone into doing anything. To some extent, they have to be open to the idea for whatever reason, but Anders is able to sway their judgement in deciding whether to act on it.”
“That doesn’t make it much better,” Mike mutters, and Olaf nods in agreement, blowing smoke in his direction. Mike’s relieved that Anders hasn’t had too much of a bad influence on their younger brothers -- Ty was close to their mother before she disappeared into the forest and though he spent a lot of time around Anders, he managed not to pick up on all his bad habits, but Axl was barely old enough then to remember their mother very clearly. He was a good kid all the same, despite how fucked up their family is, and Mike was glad when Valerie moved to Auckland a while after Mike and his brothers. Since then, she’s been an incredible help with his family, Axl especially, and then she becomes more than just a friend to Mike as well.
Something good finally happens in Mike’s life, he finds someone he loves, and then Anders tries to fuck it all up.
When Axl asks why Anders is leaving, Mike tells him that he’s moved out because he’s old enough that he doesn’t have to stay with them anymore and that he can live by himself now. Mike doesn’t tell the others the whole story, but he’s ten years old, and even if he doesn’t know what exactly Anders has done, he knows that he’s done something, and that with Anders, it’s never good.. Olaf buggers off somewhere again in the middle of it all, but Mike can’t really bring himself to care all that much. It’s not hard for Ty to put the pieces together, between the way that Mike’s angrier at Anders than he’s ever been before, and how upset Valerie is for a while, but he asks Anders about it anyway.
“It was for Mike’s own sake,” is all Anders will say, and he’s serious instead of his usual flippant self. Ty tries to push Anders for more, but he won’t give him anything else, and Ty knows that it’s Anders’ own twisted, selfish way of trying to help, combined with some sudden change in him that Ty doesn’t understand, and won’t for years.
“I’ll see you around, bro,” Anders says before he leaves, the last of his things thrown in a box in his hands. “Don’t be a stranger.”
Anders stays away like Mike wants, but Ty still goes to see him, sometimes bringing Axl along. Mike is quietly disapproving, but he can’t exactly stop them. No matter what Anders has done, he’s still their brother. The visits are sparse, because they both still have to live with Mike and it is overall a much more pleasant experience when he’s not fuming over Anders, and Anders is better in small doses anyway.
Olaf comes and goes, usually managing to pop up when something significant happens, which is about the extent of his usefulness as an oracle. He crashes at Mike’s place whenever he decides to show up, which drives Valerie mad, but at least the lack of Anders makes them all grateful that the entire Johnson family isn’t under the same roof anymore.
“I sense that I’m needed here,” Olaf says, during one of his more extended visits.
“For what?”
“I’m not entirely sure yet.”
“Then go be needed in someone else’s house for free,” Mike tells him, because Olaf eats more than Axl and Ty combined, and why he ends up on Ander’s doorstep.
“I sense that I’m needed here,” Olaf says, when Anders asks him what he wants.
“What about Mike’s place?”
“I’ve been kicked out,” Olaf says, having the gall to sound wounded and betrayed, and Anders rolls his eyes. “Abandoned, left out to—“
“Yeah, yeah,” Anders mutters, and stands aside to let him in. It’s not too bad, really – Olaf cleans out his refrigerator in a matter of days, but he pays rent in good weed, so Anders isn’t too bothered with it at first, though his patience starts stretching thin after Olaf’s been there for three weeks, and he still doesn’t know why exactly he needs to be there.
Anders has a pretty good hold on his powers by now – he’s been practising regularly, for research purposes that just happen to have side benefits, of course – but he’s not entirely sure about all his limitations, and it occurs to him that Olaf might have some answers.
“Hey grandpa,” Anders says, passing the joint back to Olaf. “So my powers don’t work on other gods, like you and Mike. But what about someone who is going to become a god but hasn’t turned twenty-one yet?”
Olaf hums thoughtfully, puffing on the joint. “I’ve got no idea.”
Anders’ defence is that a lot of things seem like good ideas when you’re stoned. Olaf has some high-quality stuff. And Ty just happens to drop round that afternoon, when Olaf’s half passed out on the couch and Anders is still mulling over his question from before. Axl’s too young for this, but Ty, he was always a mature one. He can handle it.
“I see Olaf doesn’t really care where he sleeps,” Ty comments, glancing towards him. Olaf twitches his hand in Ty’s direction in greeting before rolling over and burying his face in a cushion. "Why’s he still here, anyway?”
“No idea.” Anders looks at Ty thoughtfully, then beckons to him. “Hey, come here.”
Ty comes to a stop in front of Anders, who eyes him curiously. “Anders, what are you doing? Wait, are you high?”
Ignoring the questions, Anders looks him in the eye and starts speaking, and everything else suddenly fades away. Olaf’s snores disappear and it’s only Anders’ words that mean anything now, the sound of his voice, beautiful in a way that Ty has somehow never noticed before, and there’s nothing that he wants more than to do exactly as Anders says. When Ty reaches out to touch his face, Anders grants him the most beautiful smile he’s ever seen, and Ty will do anything he wants, as long as it’ll keep that expression on his face.
Anders has the answer to his question now, but he doesn’t stop – Ty’s pressing himself closer, moving slowly but more curious than unhesitating, and Anders has to crane his neck a little to keep eye contact. Ty really shot up when he was sixteen and now he’s got a hand on Anders’ jaw, leaning down to press their mouths together. Ty’s lips are soft and warm and chapped, and Anders wonders how much experience he has. Not much, he’s guessing, and thinks that that’s something he should fix. He’s sliding a hand up to the back of Ty’s head, pulling him even closer, and Ty’s not going slow anymore, but then there’s a cough and a crash from behind them, and the spell is broken.
They turn around to see Olaf scrabbling for the beer bottle he’s just dropped and staring at Anders in disbelief. Ty jumps away from Anders, realizing what’s just happened but not knowing why, and before Anders can get a word out, Ty’s mumbled an embarrassed goodbye and is out the door by the time Olaf composes himself.
“Well,” Olaf says. “Perhaps this is why I needed to be here.”
Anders snorts. “Thanks a lot, grandpa. Helpful, as always.”
“Why were you kissing Ty?” Olaf squints at him. His pupils are dilated, and Anders, feeling a lot more sober now, rolls his eyes.
“It turns out my powers do work on those not-yet gods.”
Olaf thinks about that for a minute. Or three. “I suppose that would make sense. But don’t you think you should talk to Ty about it? He’s a sensitive boy, you know.”
“I do know,” Anders says, irritated at Olaf’s interruption, clearly having the Johnson sense of inconvenient timing and stating the obvious. “He’s my brother. But I can’t exactly tell him what actually happened.”
“No, of course not.” Olaf frowns. “Still, I sense that he may need some reassuring.”
Anders grabs his jacket and mutters, “You are the most useless oracle ever.”
“Well, that was unnecessary,” Olaf calls after him, but goes ignored.
He heads straight to Mike’s, not knowing anywhere else Ty would go, figuring that he has to go home eventually. Anders himself hasn’t shown his face there in months, which is how Mike has liked it, and the door almost gets shut in his face as soon as he gets there.
“Hey, hey,” Anders says before the door closes, holding up his hands, trying to placate Mike. “I’m just here to see Ty.”
Mike crosses his arms. “He’s not here. I thought he’d gone to see you.”
“Well, I’ll just wait here then,” Anders pushes past him, ignoring his last pointed remark, and sits himself down at the kitchen table. Val’s out, which is a stroke of luck, because him being with her in the same room right now might be pushing it. Mike’s enough to deal with as it is.
“What’d you do to Ty?”
Anders scoffs. “Always jumping to the worst conclusion, Mike. I didn’t do anything that—“ That he didn’t really want, was how that sentence was going to end, and it’s something he’s said about countless girls in the past, but it’s only really sunk in now.
“That what?”
“Nothing,” Anders says abruptly, and stands up again to leave. “Sorry to bother you.”
Ty wanted it, on some twisted subconscious level. Anders’ already weak powers are too new for him to have the best control over them, and it could have been something tiny – having thought about it, even once – but Anders knows that if he hadn’t wanted it at all, he wouldn’t have been persuaded.
He wanted it, and he’ll come back – Anders is sure of it. Or he would have been, if not for Olaf and his big mouth. Mike turns up at Anders’ place for the first time, but doesn’t come in, just snarls at Anders from across the threshold.
“I can’t believe even you would do that, Anders,” he’s ranting, and Anders is only half listening, tuning Mike out and concentrating more on cursing Olaf silently, because he really is a nuisance. “—taking advantage of Ty like that, I thought even you would have boundaries.”
Anders rolls his eyes, but it only makes Mike angrier.
“I couldn’t stop you from seeing Ty and Axl before, but now I want you to stay away.” Mike fixes Anders with a glare that’s probably meant to be threatening, but it’s been directed at Anders so many times that he sees it as nothing more than an irritant, and not something to be taken seriously. If Ty and Axl want to see Anders, then they will.
What Anders doesn't realise for a while is that Mike only really started discouraging their brothers from seeing him after the incident with Ty, and as a result, it's months before he sees any of them again. Even then, it's only by coincidence that Ty's in the same bar as him.
Anders spots him in a corner and drunkenly stumbles over, the two girls he’d just been about to take home trailing after him. “Ty! Little brother, it’s been too long. Mike keeping you away?”
“Something like that,” Ty says quietly, but his eyes are fixed on the girls who are tugging at Anders’ arm.
“Come have a drink with us,” Anders says, slurring a little. “I haven’t seen you since--”
Ty cuts him off before he can finish. “No thanks, Anders.”
After that, it's not until two weeks before Ty's twenty first birthday that he sees or speaks to any of his brothers. Anders feels vaguely insulted when Mike calls to remind him about it, like he’s forgotten the most important day of Ty’s life so far. This is when things will change again, and Ty will finally understand why their lives are so fucked up. Anders wouldn't miss it for the world.
It's been almost two years since Anders has seen Ty, when he shows up on Ty’s doorstep with a sword in his hand, there’s the expected surprise and apprehension on Ty’s face, but it’s controlled, and he’s not giving anything away.
"Hey, bro," Anders says. "Time to go become a man."
"What are you talking about?"
"You'll find out soon enough," Anders says, and pulls him out the door.
It’s not really a comfort for Ty to find that it’s not just Anders who’s acting strangely, but the majority of his family. But Anders knows that soon enough, things will start making sense again, and when Mike shows him the paper-rock-scissors trick, he can see Ty’s stubborn disbelief start to crumble. Anders remembers how that feels, to realize that all the talk of gods wasn’t just bullshit, back when it was just Olaf and Mike explaining it to him.
Even now, it’s kind of ridiculous to think about, but the lightning sure is a hell of a rush.
The air in the forest gets rapidly cooler as the flash of light fades, and Olaf informs the dazed, slightly singed Ty that he is Hodr, the god of all things cold and dark, with a sympathetic clap on the shoulder.
“What does that mean?” Ty manages to ask.
“Well,” Olaf says, withdrawing his hand and wincing a little, "it appears that the cold part has manifested itself literally."
Anders brushes off Mike’s insistence that he should take Ty home and does it himself, but Ty’s quiet throughout the ride, still processing everything. The car is too cold for a sunny day like this, and Anders is feeling the chill, but Ty doesn't seem to be.
“You’re taking this well,” Anders says, because Ty’s a lot calmer than he’d expected. Some remarks about how he can’t believe that this has happened, perhaps, but there’s nothing.
“Not really,” Ty replies.
"I won't be needing an air conditioner with you around," Anders jokes, but Ty doesn't respond.
When he finally does speak again, it’s the question that Anders has been expecting, ever since they’d all explained their powers back in the forest, and Ty had fixed him with that silent stare. "So your powers...you can make people do whatever you want? And sleeping with all those girls, that was. That was you using your powers."
"Not whatever I want," Anders corrects him. "It doesn't work like that. Our powers are weak, which is why all you're doing is making the room kind of cold. I can't make people do anything they don't really want to do, deep down."
"So that time you--" Ty stops, frustrated, unable to finish his sentence, but Anders does it for you.
"I might have used my powers when you kissed me, but like I said. I couldn't make you do anything you didn't actually want to."
"People wouldn't sleep with you just because you asked them nicely, not if you weren't a god," Ty snaps.
Anders pulls up Ty's driveway, grabs Ty’s wrist before he can get out of the car. Ty’s skin is startlingly cool. "You liked it, you just didn't want to face that."
Ty wrenches his arm away, and the air gets a little colder. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"I don't think you stayed away because I kissed you," Anders accuses, leaning closer. "Two years, Ty, you didn't stay away just because Mike said so. You did it because you liked it, and you were too afraid of that to admit it."
Ty starts to protest again, but Anders kisses him hard, and his lips are warm -- warmer than Ty remembers, but maybe that's because no part of him feels warm anymore. It's just cold. He kisses back at first, not thinking, just chasing that warmth, and Anders grins against his mouth before Ty finally shoves him away and gets out of the car, slamming the door behind him. Anders just watches as he goes back inside his flat, confident that this time, he really will come back.
It’s been two years, and they’ve let everything fester and build up, and the dam is breached -- Anders is just waiting for the water to come rushing through. He knows that Ty is just arguing with himself, too stubborn to give in right away, but Anders can wait. It takes almost a week for Ty to come round, when Anders is starting to get impatient, but it was worth it.
“Sometimes I hate you,” is the first thing Ty says when the door opens, and Anders just pulls him inside and kisses him, surprised and pleased when he closes the door and promptly finds himself pressed up against it.
Later on, when they’re in Anders’ bedroom, Ty’s still got his shirt on and Anders is naked, burrowing under the covers for warmth.
“Am I cold? I can’t really feel it anymore.”
“Yeah, you are. But I don’t mind.” It’s casual, but open and sincere, a side of Anders that hardly ever comes out. He’s not bothered by it, because it’s unique. It’s nothing like all the other girls Anders has been with. It’s Ty, and he likes that this reminds him of that, even if it’s a part of him that Ty himself will grow to hate.
“I should still punch you, for using your powers on me.”
“Even though I got you to see the light?” Anders yelps as Ty sticks his cold hand on the side of his neck, then mumbles into his pillow. “Later, then. Sleeping now.”
“This is kind of wrong,” Ty mutters, settling back into the pillows beside Anders, and Anders laughs.
“Yeah, it is. But who cares?”
Characters: Anders Johnson, Ty Johnson, Mike Johnson, Olaf Johnson, Axl Johnson
Pairing: Anders/Ty
Rating: PG-13
Word count: c.3200
Warnings: Incest.
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.
A/N: For the trope bingo prompt: "mind control".
***
Anders turns twenty-one, and suddenly Mike understands why his mother had said the name Bragi in that tone of voice before she'd run off to become a tree, and Mike is filled with the overwhelming urge to become a tree himself.
When Olaf explains what Bragi's powers entail, Mike knows from the look in Anders’ eye that he’s going to be even more insufferable from then on. Anders bitching about his charred leather jacket for years on end is only the beginning of it. It starts with one girl that Anders brings back to the house, reeking of alcohol and giggling while Ty shuts himself in his room and Mike tries to get Axl to sleep. The girl slinks out of the house early next morning as fast as she can, still only half-dressed, and Mike doesn’t need to ask to know that she wouldn’t have gone with Anders if he hadn’t used his powers. And from then on, there’s not a single girl that Anders brings back twice, and half of them leave before the sun is up.
Mike makes Olaf stick around, because he’d actually managed to rock up for Anders’ twenty-first, and Mike certainly isn’t going to handle him alone. But it just makes for an even more crowded house, and Olaf is less than useless.
“It is somewhat despicable,” Olaf slurs, smoking something that Mike doesn’t really want to know about, as they watch the latest girl slip out of the house, shamefaced and confused, while Anders is still snoring away in his bedroom. “The fact is, Bragi’s powers are now so weak that Anders isn’t able to talk anyone into doing anything. To some extent, they have to be open to the idea for whatever reason, but Anders is able to sway their judgement in deciding whether to act on it.”
“That doesn’t make it much better,” Mike mutters, and Olaf nods in agreement, blowing smoke in his direction. Mike’s relieved that Anders hasn’t had too much of a bad influence on their younger brothers -- Ty was close to their mother before she disappeared into the forest and though he spent a lot of time around Anders, he managed not to pick up on all his bad habits, but Axl was barely old enough then to remember their mother very clearly. He was a good kid all the same, despite how fucked up their family is, and Mike was glad when Valerie moved to Auckland a while after Mike and his brothers. Since then, she’s been an incredible help with his family, Axl especially, and then she becomes more than just a friend to Mike as well.
Something good finally happens in Mike’s life, he finds someone he loves, and then Anders tries to fuck it all up.
When Axl asks why Anders is leaving, Mike tells him that he’s moved out because he’s old enough that he doesn’t have to stay with them anymore and that he can live by himself now. Mike doesn’t tell the others the whole story, but he’s ten years old, and even if he doesn’t know what exactly Anders has done, he knows that he’s done something, and that with Anders, it’s never good.. Olaf buggers off somewhere again in the middle of it all, but Mike can’t really bring himself to care all that much. It’s not hard for Ty to put the pieces together, between the way that Mike’s angrier at Anders than he’s ever been before, and how upset Valerie is for a while, but he asks Anders about it anyway.
“It was for Mike’s own sake,” is all Anders will say, and he’s serious instead of his usual flippant self. Ty tries to push Anders for more, but he won’t give him anything else, and Ty knows that it’s Anders’ own twisted, selfish way of trying to help, combined with some sudden change in him that Ty doesn’t understand, and won’t for years.
“I’ll see you around, bro,” Anders says before he leaves, the last of his things thrown in a box in his hands. “Don’t be a stranger.”
Anders stays away like Mike wants, but Ty still goes to see him, sometimes bringing Axl along. Mike is quietly disapproving, but he can’t exactly stop them. No matter what Anders has done, he’s still their brother. The visits are sparse, because they both still have to live with Mike and it is overall a much more pleasant experience when he’s not fuming over Anders, and Anders is better in small doses anyway.
Olaf comes and goes, usually managing to pop up when something significant happens, which is about the extent of his usefulness as an oracle. He crashes at Mike’s place whenever he decides to show up, which drives Valerie mad, but at least the lack of Anders makes them all grateful that the entire Johnson family isn’t under the same roof anymore.
“I sense that I’m needed here,” Olaf says, during one of his more extended visits.
“For what?”
“I’m not entirely sure yet.”
“Then go be needed in someone else’s house for free,” Mike tells him, because Olaf eats more than Axl and Ty combined, and why he ends up on Ander’s doorstep.
“I sense that I’m needed here,” Olaf says, when Anders asks him what he wants.
“What about Mike’s place?”
“I’ve been kicked out,” Olaf says, having the gall to sound wounded and betrayed, and Anders rolls his eyes. “Abandoned, left out to—“
“Yeah, yeah,” Anders mutters, and stands aside to let him in. It’s not too bad, really – Olaf cleans out his refrigerator in a matter of days, but he pays rent in good weed, so Anders isn’t too bothered with it at first, though his patience starts stretching thin after Olaf’s been there for three weeks, and he still doesn’t know why exactly he needs to be there.
Anders has a pretty good hold on his powers by now – he’s been practising regularly, for research purposes that just happen to have side benefits, of course – but he’s not entirely sure about all his limitations, and it occurs to him that Olaf might have some answers.
“Hey grandpa,” Anders says, passing the joint back to Olaf. “So my powers don’t work on other gods, like you and Mike. But what about someone who is going to become a god but hasn’t turned twenty-one yet?”
Olaf hums thoughtfully, puffing on the joint. “I’ve got no idea.”
Anders’ defence is that a lot of things seem like good ideas when you’re stoned. Olaf has some high-quality stuff. And Ty just happens to drop round that afternoon, when Olaf’s half passed out on the couch and Anders is still mulling over his question from before. Axl’s too young for this, but Ty, he was always a mature one. He can handle it.
“I see Olaf doesn’t really care where he sleeps,” Ty comments, glancing towards him. Olaf twitches his hand in Ty’s direction in greeting before rolling over and burying his face in a cushion. "Why’s he still here, anyway?”
“No idea.” Anders looks at Ty thoughtfully, then beckons to him. “Hey, come here.”
Ty comes to a stop in front of Anders, who eyes him curiously. “Anders, what are you doing? Wait, are you high?”
Ignoring the questions, Anders looks him in the eye and starts speaking, and everything else suddenly fades away. Olaf’s snores disappear and it’s only Anders’ words that mean anything now, the sound of his voice, beautiful in a way that Ty has somehow never noticed before, and there’s nothing that he wants more than to do exactly as Anders says. When Ty reaches out to touch his face, Anders grants him the most beautiful smile he’s ever seen, and Ty will do anything he wants, as long as it’ll keep that expression on his face.
Anders has the answer to his question now, but he doesn’t stop – Ty’s pressing himself closer, moving slowly but more curious than unhesitating, and Anders has to crane his neck a little to keep eye contact. Ty really shot up when he was sixteen and now he’s got a hand on Anders’ jaw, leaning down to press their mouths together. Ty’s lips are soft and warm and chapped, and Anders wonders how much experience he has. Not much, he’s guessing, and thinks that that’s something he should fix. He’s sliding a hand up to the back of Ty’s head, pulling him even closer, and Ty’s not going slow anymore, but then there’s a cough and a crash from behind them, and the spell is broken.
They turn around to see Olaf scrabbling for the beer bottle he’s just dropped and staring at Anders in disbelief. Ty jumps away from Anders, realizing what’s just happened but not knowing why, and before Anders can get a word out, Ty’s mumbled an embarrassed goodbye and is out the door by the time Olaf composes himself.
“Well,” Olaf says. “Perhaps this is why I needed to be here.”
Anders snorts. “Thanks a lot, grandpa. Helpful, as always.”
“Why were you kissing Ty?” Olaf squints at him. His pupils are dilated, and Anders, feeling a lot more sober now, rolls his eyes.
“It turns out my powers do work on those not-yet gods.”
Olaf thinks about that for a minute. Or three. “I suppose that would make sense. But don’t you think you should talk to Ty about it? He’s a sensitive boy, you know.”
“I do know,” Anders says, irritated at Olaf’s interruption, clearly having the Johnson sense of inconvenient timing and stating the obvious. “He’s my brother. But I can’t exactly tell him what actually happened.”
“No, of course not.” Olaf frowns. “Still, I sense that he may need some reassuring.”
Anders grabs his jacket and mutters, “You are the most useless oracle ever.”
“Well, that was unnecessary,” Olaf calls after him, but goes ignored.
He heads straight to Mike’s, not knowing anywhere else Ty would go, figuring that he has to go home eventually. Anders himself hasn’t shown his face there in months, which is how Mike has liked it, and the door almost gets shut in his face as soon as he gets there.
“Hey, hey,” Anders says before the door closes, holding up his hands, trying to placate Mike. “I’m just here to see Ty.”
Mike crosses his arms. “He’s not here. I thought he’d gone to see you.”
“Well, I’ll just wait here then,” Anders pushes past him, ignoring his last pointed remark, and sits himself down at the kitchen table. Val’s out, which is a stroke of luck, because him being with her in the same room right now might be pushing it. Mike’s enough to deal with as it is.
“What’d you do to Ty?”
Anders scoffs. “Always jumping to the worst conclusion, Mike. I didn’t do anything that—“ That he didn’t really want, was how that sentence was going to end, and it’s something he’s said about countless girls in the past, but it’s only really sunk in now.
“That what?”
“Nothing,” Anders says abruptly, and stands up again to leave. “Sorry to bother you.”
Ty wanted it, on some twisted subconscious level. Anders’ already weak powers are too new for him to have the best control over them, and it could have been something tiny – having thought about it, even once – but Anders knows that if he hadn’t wanted it at all, he wouldn’t have been persuaded.
He wanted it, and he’ll come back – Anders is sure of it. Or he would have been, if not for Olaf and his big mouth. Mike turns up at Anders’ place for the first time, but doesn’t come in, just snarls at Anders from across the threshold.
“I can’t believe even you would do that, Anders,” he’s ranting, and Anders is only half listening, tuning Mike out and concentrating more on cursing Olaf silently, because he really is a nuisance. “—taking advantage of Ty like that, I thought even you would have boundaries.”
Anders rolls his eyes, but it only makes Mike angrier.
“I couldn’t stop you from seeing Ty and Axl before, but now I want you to stay away.” Mike fixes Anders with a glare that’s probably meant to be threatening, but it’s been directed at Anders so many times that he sees it as nothing more than an irritant, and not something to be taken seriously. If Ty and Axl want to see Anders, then they will.
What Anders doesn't realise for a while is that Mike only really started discouraging their brothers from seeing him after the incident with Ty, and as a result, it's months before he sees any of them again. Even then, it's only by coincidence that Ty's in the same bar as him.
Anders spots him in a corner and drunkenly stumbles over, the two girls he’d just been about to take home trailing after him. “Ty! Little brother, it’s been too long. Mike keeping you away?”
“Something like that,” Ty says quietly, but his eyes are fixed on the girls who are tugging at Anders’ arm.
“Come have a drink with us,” Anders says, slurring a little. “I haven’t seen you since--”
Ty cuts him off before he can finish. “No thanks, Anders.”
After that, it's not until two weeks before Ty's twenty first birthday that he sees or speaks to any of his brothers. Anders feels vaguely insulted when Mike calls to remind him about it, like he’s forgotten the most important day of Ty’s life so far. This is when things will change again, and Ty will finally understand why their lives are so fucked up. Anders wouldn't miss it for the world.
It's been almost two years since Anders has seen Ty, when he shows up on Ty’s doorstep with a sword in his hand, there’s the expected surprise and apprehension on Ty’s face, but it’s controlled, and he’s not giving anything away.
"Hey, bro," Anders says. "Time to go become a man."
"What are you talking about?"
"You'll find out soon enough," Anders says, and pulls him out the door.
It’s not really a comfort for Ty to find that it’s not just Anders who’s acting strangely, but the majority of his family. But Anders knows that soon enough, things will start making sense again, and when Mike shows him the paper-rock-scissors trick, he can see Ty’s stubborn disbelief start to crumble. Anders remembers how that feels, to realize that all the talk of gods wasn’t just bullshit, back when it was just Olaf and Mike explaining it to him.
Even now, it’s kind of ridiculous to think about, but the lightning sure is a hell of a rush.
The air in the forest gets rapidly cooler as the flash of light fades, and Olaf informs the dazed, slightly singed Ty that he is Hodr, the god of all things cold and dark, with a sympathetic clap on the shoulder.
“What does that mean?” Ty manages to ask.
“Well,” Olaf says, withdrawing his hand and wincing a little, "it appears that the cold part has manifested itself literally."
Anders brushes off Mike’s insistence that he should take Ty home and does it himself, but Ty’s quiet throughout the ride, still processing everything. The car is too cold for a sunny day like this, and Anders is feeling the chill, but Ty doesn't seem to be.
“You’re taking this well,” Anders says, because Ty’s a lot calmer than he’d expected. Some remarks about how he can’t believe that this has happened, perhaps, but there’s nothing.
“Not really,” Ty replies.
"I won't be needing an air conditioner with you around," Anders jokes, but Ty doesn't respond.
When he finally does speak again, it’s the question that Anders has been expecting, ever since they’d all explained their powers back in the forest, and Ty had fixed him with that silent stare. "So your powers...you can make people do whatever you want? And sleeping with all those girls, that was. That was you using your powers."
"Not whatever I want," Anders corrects him. "It doesn't work like that. Our powers are weak, which is why all you're doing is making the room kind of cold. I can't make people do anything they don't really want to do, deep down."
"So that time you--" Ty stops, frustrated, unable to finish his sentence, but Anders does it for you.
"I might have used my powers when you kissed me, but like I said. I couldn't make you do anything you didn't actually want to."
"People wouldn't sleep with you just because you asked them nicely, not if you weren't a god," Ty snaps.
Anders pulls up Ty's driveway, grabs Ty’s wrist before he can get out of the car. Ty’s skin is startlingly cool. "You liked it, you just didn't want to face that."
Ty wrenches his arm away, and the air gets a little colder. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"I don't think you stayed away because I kissed you," Anders accuses, leaning closer. "Two years, Ty, you didn't stay away just because Mike said so. You did it because you liked it, and you were too afraid of that to admit it."
Ty starts to protest again, but Anders kisses him hard, and his lips are warm -- warmer than Ty remembers, but maybe that's because no part of him feels warm anymore. It's just cold. He kisses back at first, not thinking, just chasing that warmth, and Anders grins against his mouth before Ty finally shoves him away and gets out of the car, slamming the door behind him. Anders just watches as he goes back inside his flat, confident that this time, he really will come back.
It’s been two years, and they’ve let everything fester and build up, and the dam is breached -- Anders is just waiting for the water to come rushing through. He knows that Ty is just arguing with himself, too stubborn to give in right away, but Anders can wait. It takes almost a week for Ty to come round, when Anders is starting to get impatient, but it was worth it.
“Sometimes I hate you,” is the first thing Ty says when the door opens, and Anders just pulls him inside and kisses him, surprised and pleased when he closes the door and promptly finds himself pressed up against it.
Later on, when they’re in Anders’ bedroom, Ty’s still got his shirt on and Anders is naked, burrowing under the covers for warmth.
“Am I cold? I can’t really feel it anymore.”
“Yeah, you are. But I don’t mind.” It’s casual, but open and sincere, a side of Anders that hardly ever comes out. He’s not bothered by it, because it’s unique. It’s nothing like all the other girls Anders has been with. It’s Ty, and he likes that this reminds him of that, even if it’s a part of him that Ty himself will grow to hate.
“I should still punch you, for using your powers on me.”
“Even though I got you to see the light?” Anders yelps as Ty sticks his cold hand on the side of his neck, then mumbles into his pillow. “Later, then. Sleeping now.”
“This is kind of wrong,” Ty mutters, settling back into the pillows beside Anders, and Anders laughs.
“Yeah, it is. But who cares?”
