Chapter Text
It was, of course, on a night when Cid was away on business. Stretching his legs, as he put it, “before I lose my mind from your brother’s constant mother-henning.”
He said it with a playful wink so that Clive’s feelings wouldn’t be hurt. But the Founder and everyone else knew there was some truth to his words. Joshua, for one, understood perfectly.
His loving brother would take a serious injury before he let anyone else among his ‘flock’ stub their toe— and Cid, Joshua, and Jill ranked at the top of those he was most protective of… for better or worse.
Sometimes Cid needed to quest with Gav or Goetz, Joshua with Jote or Jill, and Jill with Jote or Tarja, just to keep their sword arms from atrophying.
But on nights like this, Joshua wished Cid was there. Cid always knew what to do .
“Clive, please— you’re hurting me,” Joshua whispered, Clive’s devilish talons anchoring his wrists to the bedspread. The heat didn’t hurt— Ifrit’s natural, spiky armor sprouting from Clive’s arms and legs didn’t hurt— but the lava-orange tears racing down Clive’s sooty-dark face from flickering golden-blue eyes… hurt.
“I’m sorry— Joshua, I’m so sorry,” Clive moaned, lost in a nightmare.
He leaned down, his volcanic-hot breath gusting across Joshua’s fair cheek, and pressed a desperate kiss to Joshua’s lips. Joshua’s pink tongue darted out, teasing the edge of one of Clive’s sharpened teeth.
“I’m here, Clive,” Joshua said. He finally managed to slip a hand free and reach up to caress the feathery crimson burn on his cheek. Clive leaned into his touch with a hiccuping sigh.
“I’m— I’m sorry…” He adjusted his position, tucking his knees beneath Joshua’s thighs and therefore drawing his hips up onto his lap. His mouth drifted down to clamp on the side of his neck, biting gently. “I’m…”
“I know, Clive,” Joshua said tenderly, extending his hand still further to brush through dark strands that felt sun-warmed to the touch.
Both of them were as nude as they’d been when they went to bed, which meant that Joshua’s pale skin practically glowed in the pitch dark of early morning, while Clive’s devilish form practically merged with the shadows, but for the telltale streaks of fire across his skin and through his hair.
“Come back,” he said gently. Clive shook his head almost violently, his grip tightening on Joshua’s hips until blood sprouted to the surface. Joshua gritted his teeth. Internally, the Phoenix screamed in disapproval, and spread its wings vindictively. Joshua shoved it down quickly— that wouldn’t help at all…
“Please, Joshua… Forgive me…” Clive cried, his tears splattering on Joshua’s chest. He crowded down over the top of Joshua, suffocating him with kiss after kiss until finally his tears ran dry… and his semi-primed cock pressed insistently against Joshua’s ass, racing with crimson veins.
“Please… May I…” He groaned, his saliva slicked mouth trailing to Joshua’s shoulder, and then down to lave his chest… He necessarily unpinned Joshua’s other hand in order to move lower, and Joshua’s hands reached in tandem to the top of Clive’s cheeks.
“Look at me,” he said firmly, with unwavering authority. Clive’s head snapped up immediately, his unseeing eyes blinking blearily. A strange teal color, the blue infected by the fear and desperation of gold.
“… You’ll prepare me well, first, won’t you… Beast?” Joshua traced his thumbs across Clive’s cheeks, and Clive flopped his head up-and-down in agreement.
“Thank you,” he whispered, in his strange, split tones. Then he sat back, and with an almost comical crestfallen look, examined his wickedly clawed hands. Joshua waited a moment to see if he would abandon his semi-primed form— but he did not.
With a sigh, he rolled halfway towards the bedside table, and fished a well-used bottle of oil out of the drawer. Clive went back to pinning his hips, as if afraid he was trying to wiggle away, and Joshua huffed out, “Peace. Be still, brother. I will do it.”
Clive seemed not to comprehend, but didn’t protest. Joshua popped the topper off the bottle, and then poured a liberal amount into the palm of his hand. Slippery and thick, it filled his palm like a small puddle. He set the bottle aside and dribbled some from one hand to the other…
And then reached down to wrap both hands around Clive’s engorged cock. Founder, it was huge. And broiling hot. Clive choked and tossed his head, and then rutted into the circle of Joshua’s hands— desperate, like a creature in heat.
The ridges caught and scraped against Joshua’s hands, and even Joshua couldn’t contain a groan. He almost thought Clive might finish like so, but suddenly, a ferocious snarl rent the air, and Clive batted one of Joshua’s hands away and sprung forward, eager to stuff it inside.
“Wait, creature!” Joshua barked, his own power spiking, and lending brightness to his eyes and multiple levels to his voice. Remarkably, Ifrit cowered from him.
Joshua panted in concentration and slipped one hand below. His slippery middle and ring fingers found his own entrance and slipped inside to the first, then second knuckle. It was hard to go as deeply as he wished, but he spread as much as he could, forcing the tight space to open in preparation.
Doggish whimpers split the air, and Joshua finally hooked his heels around the small of Clive’s back and encouraged him closer. The hound’s prick bumped against his fingers as he removed them, and would have shoved in right alongside Joshua’s digits if he’d been any slower.
“Gently,” Joshua hissed forbiddingly. Nodding, Clive bracketed him in and pushed against him, but didn’t manage to penetrate. He thrusted mindlessly along Joshua’s taint, whimpering helplessly.
“Ah…!” Joshua groaned, finally aware of how painfully hard his own flesh was, bobbing upright. A debilitating zing of pleasure went through him with each of Clive’s sloppy, shoving motions, but… Gritting his teeth, he reached down to grasp the girthy, pulsing appendage, and guided it to his hole. It was too big— It wasn’t going to—
“AAH!” Joshua yelped, as the creature punched inside— not gently, he might add, and began pumping into him with abandon. “Mmh! Mm!” Helpless sounds spilled from his mouth and he spread wide for his monstrous brother, as claws raked his sides, blood spilling forth.
Joshua reached up— to do what, he had no idea, but Clive grabbed his wrists with one spindly paw and pinned them bone-breakingly hard above his head, then dove down and latched onto one of Joshua’s nipples, raising tiny pinpricks of blood before abandoning it for the other one.
“Hnn— Nnnn— Ugh—“ Joshua wailed, arching clean off the bed as he was split open. The bedding smoldered all around them, but neither of them noticed.
In the midst of everything, the surprisingly soft pad of Clive’s thumb stroked the underside of Joshua’s straining cock, and he came shortly afterwards, his seed drying and flaking away on his own scorching stomach almost instantly.
Clive crashed forward to claim his mouth in a rough kiss, pushing a thick, elongated tongue deep. Joshua choked on it as Clive burst inside of him, painting his insides with a copious amount of boiling hot seed.
“By the Flame…” Joshua whispered, twitching, his chest heaving with gasps, half raised off the surface of the bed. Clive fucked him slowly through it, a low, satisfying purr streaming between his teeth.
Stinging pinpricks across Joshua’s entire body made themselves known, but he couldn’t be bothered to heal himself just yet. Especially not with the creature still smoldering above him.
… It was a blessing the entire Hideaway hadn’t rushed in to investigate the noise… But perhaps they were used to it by now.
The thought should bring shame, but all Joshua could think of was the strange feeling of fullness from the Eikon’s spend. He groaned, and Clive finally withdrew. He felt streams of the creamy substance spill from him like gobs of honey, and he clenched uselessly around it.
He needn’t have worried for the sanctity of the bedsheets, for the beast slid down his body and went to work cleaning him off— and out — with his tongue.
“Oh, Founder!” Joshua yipped, as that wriggly muscle that had so recently been shoved down his throat, now swirled around his soft prick until it was half-interested again, and Joshua wiggled around like he was the one in heat…
And then Clive jabbed it between his cheeks, cleaning the filthiest and most intimate parts of him, and forced its way through the loosened ring of muscle… “Oh!” Joshua choked, arching helplessly into the treatment.
Thick ribbons of cum were replaced with quickly cooling saliva, and the fluttering flames around Clive’s back and shoulders eventually died down. The dark pall faded back to his usual coloring, and as his tongue shrank back, Joshua could hear again the litany of soft, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Joshua…”
“Kuh… Clive…” Joshua choked breathlessly. He wished to reach for his brother, but frankly hadn’t the energy. He laid back, panting for breath as Clive came back to himself… And tensed up.
“Fuck… J… Joshua…” Clive whispered, his voice thick with bone-chilling terror. At that, Joshua finally found the energy to pry himself upright, but by then, Clive had scrambled backwards— fallen off the bed— and recoiled several feet across the room, practically hyperventilating at the sight of blood trickling across Joshua’s skin.
“Founder— Joshua, oh gods, I—“
“Clive,” Joshua said— his voice was thin and reedy from their coupling, and he tried again, “Clive.”
Clive shook his head and stumbled to his feet— and then with help from his Eikon or his Phoenix Blessing, he burst forward, scooped up his armor and gear… and fled.
“Clive!”
But he was gone.
x
Cid whistled softly at the end of Joshua’s retelling. “So that’s why he’s sequestered himself away…”
“Yes— He had the decency to tell Jill where he was going, to help clear a village from an encroaching aether flood,” Joshua snapped.
“Now, lad…”
“I know ,” Joshua spun on Cid. They’d been walking idly across the Hideaway— Finally Cid had arrived home, and Tarja sent him right to Joshua’s reading room after she cleared him.
“Do you think I don’t know where this springs from? Furthermore, do you think he is the only one with residual trauma from that night?”
Luckily, Joshua had waited until they were away from prying eyes before having his outburst. The wind above the observation deck whipped Joshua’s gold spun hair about.
“I understand how much the Night of Flames torments my brother— I understand that he spent years believing he had killed me, that belief eating away at his insides the way the Blight eats away the land. I understand how terrible it must be to have a memory of his claws piercing my chest— I understand it because I, too, am tormented!
Founder, I am equally impressed by Clive’s daily demonstrations of Ifrit’s power… and terrified ! And I hate it— I know better than anyone else that it was not my brother who is to blame for anything that happened that night— quite the opposite. I feel… violated by the grasp it has on me— And on my brother!
That he should wake up in the middle of the night, blind to his surroundings, sobbing out apologies to me— That he—“
Joshua cut himself off when Cid fished a cigarette out of his pocket and stuck it between his lips, and then stepped forward into Joshua’s bubble. “... Do you mind? I don’t carry a fire crystal around anymore,” Cid said sheepishly.
Joshua gaped at him for a moment, and then stupidly held out a hand to comply. If the Undying found out about this blaspheme— this casual usage of the Phoenix’s power…!
“Surely, with Ramuh—“
“Ah, but then you’d never have let me get a word in edgewise,” Cid teased, eyes glinting. He swaggered away to the railing, puffing away the whole time. Joshua followed, and leaned against the railing beside him.
After several moments of peaceful silence, Cid finally said, “May I suggest… a rather unorthodox solution? Speaking from experience, Clive will be amenable, and it may do each of you a favor…”
x
That’s how Joshua found himself directed by the slowly migrating townsfolk to the area where Clive was busy— not busy evacuating anyone, nor recovering supplies, nor rebuilding— but ostensibly pouting inside the aether flood, and expending his energy on Akashic monsters that weren’t actively threatening anyone .
It was easy enough to find his brother, just as he felled a great beast and sheathed his sword.
“So this is how you make amends to me, is it? By running away?” Joshua said loudly, crossing the distance quickly. Clive whipped towards him with that heartbreakingly innocent look on his face… It was almost difficult to wallop, but Joshua managed.
Clive stumbled with the slap, wide-eyed. “J… Joshua…”
They stared across at each other for a long moment. “Well… I have another proposition for you. Would you like to hear it?” Joshua sighed. Clive could only stare stupidly.
Joshua’s eyes fluttered shut. When they cracked open, they were as blue as the gusts of powdery aether billowing around them, and bright as candles.
“Jah–”
Whoosh . The temperature skyrocketed, and giant Phoenix feathers sprung from Joshua’s back, fanning out like a peacock’s, easily twice or thrice his height, blustering in the breeze. The inky glimmers of blue and black seemed brighter– blinding in the flood.
He stretched his neck out as if exalting in the transformation. His skin plunged to darkness, licked by stripes of fire. His fingernails extended to delicate little points, not broad and bludgeoning like Ifrit’s.
“Joshua–” Clive said– almost sternly .
“Silence,” Joshua snapped, tone split between a bark and a sigh. “I know what you’re going to say, Clive. But you don’t control me. You never have,” his eyes softened. “... You never wanted to. It’s my safety, right? But if you’re concerned about the toll on my body… Here, it’s nothing. I am filled with power. You feel it too, don’t you?” He sighed, shivering.
It was true. The input from the aether flood was almost intoxicating.
“I…”
“I don’t want to hear any apologies, either,” Joshua said, stepping closer– or, rather, sweeping closer. “I’ve never needed them. I’ve never been owed them…” he insisted.
“Joshua…”
“Kneel.”
It was almost shocking, how quickly Clive complied. His knees hit the ground, and he stared up like an atoning sinner at the altar, eyes pricked with tears. His hands clanked heavily atop his knees.
Joshua peered at him for a moment, his eyes strange and alien– and yet, familiar. Finally, he heaved a sigh. He reached forward to caress Clive’s lip with the tip of his thumb, his claw drawing a delicate bead of blood.
“Say your safeword,” Joshua commanded.
“... Saint Sybil,” Clive choked out. Joshua nodded.
“You want so badly to make amends, brother. I fear you’re chasing something you can’t attain. Perhaps– perhaps we are both trying too hard to simply ignore the past.”
Clive bit his lip, for he could only think of one thing to say– and Joshua had requested not to hear it. His gaze dropped miserably to the dirt, forcing Joshua’s claw to puncture a little bit deeper.
“But here’s a different idea,” Joshua dropped his hand and hooked it beneath Clive’s chin, dragging his head upward. “... My Shield. Are you sorry about what happened last night?”
Clive nodded with difficulty. Joshua leaned a bit closer, the heat from his body fanning Clive’s hair back, and making his eyes squint.
“Then… Leave Ifrit behind… and run from me. Fight me, if you wish. I’ll catch you, hold you down, and…” his eyes flickered up, contemplating the proper phrase. “Make us even.”
Joshua dropped Clive’s face, and Clive stared at him slack-jawed. Joshua cracked a small smile. “Would you like a head start? I fear even you’re no match for the Phoenix.”
Clive hesitated for only a moment… and then kicked off. His surroundings flew by in a blur, his feet barely touching the ground…
But it was over almost before it started, for the Phoenix Blessing truly was no match for The Phoenix.
They made it into the shadow of a ravine before Joshua’s claws curled over his shoulders and hauled him backwards. It took everything within to bite down on the instinct to retaliate– but even if Joshua had suggested it, he would never fight back. At least, not with fists, nor with steel.
“Ack!” He yelled as he was tossed to the ground. He rolled, and his chin struck the dirt, blood flooding his mouth. He pounced forward, simply unable to give up so easily– and was thoroughly shocked when Joshua’s boot kicked his side mid-leap– and with the power boost of an Eikon, he easily flipped Clive onto his back.
The sky reeled above for a moment before Joshua planted his foot in the center of Clive’s chest and shoved him down– then surged down over him to crow triumphantly, “Too easy!”
Clive gritted his teeth and reached for some Eikon or other to burst free of Joshua’s grasp. As he ducked into the ravine, a volley of fireballs made stone explode all around him. He threw an arm up to guard his head from falling debris just as Joshua Shifted to the space in front of him, and– standing this close, swiped out with his raptor’s talons to slice deeply across Clive’s chest.
He yelled, stumbling backwards. Joshua jumped after him, pinning him with his presence more than physical force, to the cliffs– and then said in a very low voice– more the Phoenix than Joshua– “I, too, hate that I remember that night in such detail. But nothing will change it. Neither you nor I can take responsibility for it. So if you just want to feel better… Then submit to me.”
Clive gasped for breath like a fish out of water, and was unceremoniously hauled forward, and shoved to the ground. Face down, ass up. Between his unwillingness to raise a hand to this particular foe– as well as Joshua’s formidable strength in this form– he was beaten.
Joshua wasted no time before yanking his sword from his back, casting it aside, and then nicking his belts off, and jerking his pants down– just over the swell of his own rump. He couldn’t help a swell of old terror from the position itself, and screamed, jumping forward–
But Joshua caught him up and dragged him back. His knees scraped on the ground. “Joshua– Please– Please! I’m sorry– I’m so sorry!” ugly sobs ripped from his throat as the Phoenix’s claws breached him– sharp and dry.
“Remember when I said ‘gently’ last night, Brother? Ifrit , are you listening?” Joshua seethed, prodding his fingers in deep. With a dry push and pull, Clive’s hole opened for him, turning angry pink from friction. He sobbed, his fingers clenching in the dirt.
“... You’d do well to mind me when I say something like that,” he finished conversationally. And then replaced his fingers with the spike of his cock. Clive howled as the burning appendage entered him, fucking him open impatiently.
Tears dripped from his face, creating mudcakes on his cheeks as Joshua mounted him. His tail feathers billowed all around, hissing and singing when they smacked Clive’s skin. His ass burned…
Mouth open, teeth scraping pebbles onto his tongue, he cried and greedily accepted the harsh treatment. “Puh– please– please forgive me… Joshua…”
“... You are forgiven by me. Forgive yourself ,” Joshua grunted amidst their base, animalistic joining. His searing hot hand crept down Clive’s belly and beneath the tented material of Clive’s loosened pants.
He tugged on him mercilessly, drawing countless more shrill, broken cries. Before long, Clive shuddered and spilled into the fabric of his own clothes, and then sagged, his face heaving back and forth across the dirt, eyes mostly shut, blurry with tears…
... He quivered when he was finally filled up with something like liquid fire, filled to the brim and then overflowing, like a vase. Joshua pulsed inside and clawed mercilessly at his sides, his chest, his thighs– anywhere the Firebird could reach, dripping possessiveness with each touch.
And then it was Clive’s ass that was dripping… with the excess of the Eikon’s fluids… as Joshua finally withdrew, leaving him to bubble over and soil the back of his pants, to match the front…
“There,” Joshua said sweetly. “Now we are more than even…”
“Th… thank…” Clive choked… but flopped over and passed out before he could finish.
x
They didn’t return to the Hideaway that evening. Clive awoke some time later, tucked warmly into his brother’s side, his head resting on Joshua’s lap, poised in front of a huge, crackling fire– and Joshua’s human fingernails carding delicately, lovingly through his hair.
His skin had been cleaned of dirt– he had the very vaguest flashes of memory of Joshua cleaning him inside of his trousers and setting his clothes straight. Not quite as crassly as Ifrit had tended to Joshua, but…
He opened his mouth to groan, but only a whimper escaped.
“Oh! Clive,” Joshua whispered, his hand pausing in its petting, and hovering over his head. “Are you alright?”
“Yeh… Yes…” Clive whispered. He took stock of his aches and pains– and surprisingly, or maybe not, found none from his nether regions. Joshua had harvested plenty of aether from their surroundings and healed them all.
In the distance, Clive made out a pinprick or two of light from the displaced villagers’ new settlement. The area was devoid of sound– not even crickets could survive in the floods. Above, a few stars shot by, bright white tails fluttering behind them.
His eyelashes fluttered shut and he felt the tension uncoil from his muscles. Shortly after, tears gathered. He opened his lips to say ‘thank you,’ but his throat closed up… With a tiny choke, he clicked his mouth shut again.
“You did so well, Clive,” Joshua murmured, returning to his petting. “I’m… I’m sorry if I was too rough. I knew I should have…”
“It– You were perfect,” Clive interrupted him. Voice tinged with desperation. “Perfect, Joshua… I… How can I deserve…”
He felt more like a child than he ever had before– and here! In the presence of his younger brother! With a sob, he turned his face into Joshua’s stomach, hiding his shame.
Joshua curled down over the top of him, covering him in a tender embrace. Even without the physical presence of his feathers, his body emitted heat, as always. A heat that had always brought him comfort, even in the darkest of times, even when Clive thought Joshua far beyond his reach.
Clive nuzzled ever closer, sniffling.
“... You deserve the world, Clive,” Joshua answered, his own voice uncommonly choked up. “It… It’s my honor…”
Clive craned himself up with some difficulty, his watery eyes meeting his brothers’. “... Thank you…”
“... I’d rather hear that than an apology any day, my beloved brother…” Joshua said, brushing a wayward tear from his own eye.
Clive leaned in for a kiss, his lips covering Joshua’s. He lifted a hand to the First Dominant of Fire’s cheek, hand trembling. They continued like that long into the night, and returned to the Hideaway in the next day or two, a little more whole than before.