The conversation on the Casino’s roof had ended abruptly after Roxas’ reply to his younger brother, with the walk back being one filled with silence. Kai was inside his own mind. Roxas was just convinced that he was trying to understand exactly what his words meant, but unbeknownst to Roxas; Kai had already figured it out. Or part of it at least. Kai knew Roxas better than anyone else in the world, had always looked up to his elder brother and most importantly had been the one person which had seen just how dangerous this man could be. He had watched this guy hurt people for the sake of proving he was better, seen the way his words had haunted those who got in the firing line. And those who decided to dare cross his path, stand up to the man...Well, Kai had seen it all. Roxas was always the one left standing, Roxas was always the one who walked away. Roxas always won.

His hazel eyes looked away from the ground to his elder brother walking in front of him and Kai felt sick, sick at the thought that once upon a time he wanted to be just like him. Now? Kai just wanted to survive. He knew once Roxas was done with him, he would be gone; unless he could prove to George that he was worth keeping around. He would say run, but deep down Kai knew there was no running away. Not away from this family; it would always find its way back to him. To survive, you follow. And that was exactly what he decided he was going to do as they walked up to the front door of the prison he learned to call home.

Click

The sound of the door closing behind the brothers was a comforting sound to Roxas, knowing he was away from the prying eyes of society and in the one place he could talk about his plans and darkest thoughts freely. But to Kai, that was the main reason it filled him with anxiety. If walls could speak, they would scream from the horrors that happened behind closed doors. He followed Roxas subconsciously as the two men walked through the passageway and into the living room. His eyes glanced to look up the stairs why he passed, noticing Rose standing at the top, almost trying to hide behind the bannister. He smiled kindly to her, the only person in this house he did smile too because deep down he knew that she felt it too. The feeling of fear, the need to survive. The young girl's lips smiled back at him and for a split second, he felt okay. But quickly his eyes looked back down to the ground when he heard the sound of combat boots hitting the wooden floorboards upstairs.

Finally, when the two were in the living room Kai decided to speak up; he could tell that Roxas was eager.

“You’re going to convince him to leave?” Kai asked, his voice covering up the sound of the boots now making their way down the steps and towards the living room.

“What?” Roxas replied, almost like he didn’t understand what Kai was talking about. Or maybe too distracted with something else.

“That boy. You’re going to convince him to leave?”

“No one mentioned convincing, Kai. I’m going to make sure he never returns.”

Kai paused for a few moments before his eyes widened. He thought he had figured out Roxas’ plan, but it seemed like that this time even Kai was wrong. “Woah, you mean like kill him?” He asked, hoping that he had just misunderstood his brother's words.

“Exactly.”

“You’re going to kill him?!” Kai stepped away from his brother. He had known Roxas to do bad, awful things. But never as far as this. Roxas turned around to look at him, his eyes glazed over to have a much colder look to them. It honestly didn’t even seem like Roxas was looking at Kai, almost like he was staring at something behind the man. But that didn’t matter to Kai, not at the moment. He was still trying to fully comprehend what his brother had just said. It wasn’t until he heard the sound of a scoff come from the doorway that he finally turned around to see who was standing there, his stomach turning when he realised it was Stella.

“You think that’s going to work?” Stella asked, her voice was low for a female, blunt with almost a bitter tone to it. She hated Roxas, and she was sure that the feeling was mutual.”

“Why wouldn’t it?” Roxas spat back. Kai could always feel the shift in tension when these two were in the room, anybody could. He stepped out from in between the two of them as Stella walked closer to Roxas, her footsteps heavy. She stood at about the same height of Roxas at 6 foot tall, her arms crossed, gaze dead set on the man in front of her.

“You don’t think people aren’t going to notice that he’s gone missing?” Stella asked, not looking away from the man for a second. “You really think you can just kill someone, and nothing would fucking come out of it?”

“She has a point, Roxas." Kai chimed in. "He’s on holiday here with his girlfriend’s family, they’re clearly going to notice if suddenly their daughter’s boyfriend hasn’t turned up at the airport.”

“They won’t because we’ll make sure it looks like he left!” Roxas raised his voice, venom dripping from every word. His cold eyes locked with Kai for a second making the man shrink before turning back to Stella, taking another step closer to her; trying to intimidate her. But she didn’t step back, all she did was raise an eyebrow and continued to stare into her cousin’s dark brown eyes. Her own green full of suppressed rage for this man.

“Wait, We-” Kai started before being interrupted by Roxas.

“You think I haven’t fucking been planning this out. I heard them on that roof, I saw the look of desperation in his eyes that his girlfriend would choose him over everyone else. And she didn’t. She still chose her family. Seems like an awfully good reason to me for a boyfriend to fuck off elsewhere and start new.”

“Yes, because every boyfriend leaves their family behind because they got into an argument with their girlfriend,” Stella replied coolly, the tone of sarcasm in her voice made rage bubble up inside Roxas, clenching his fists. Stella, she didn’t know everything that Roxas did. He had been watching these two ever since that conversation with George a few nights ago. He had done his research on little Daniel Nelson. He knew more about this man than he probably knew about himself.

“Why do care so much about this anyway?” Stella finally asked. “You’ve never given a shit about any of George’s plans before, why now.”

“Because I want her!” Roxas yelled, he went to grab at Stella’s collar but she moved quicker, grabbing him by his wrist and slamming him into the wall behind them, now pinning him there by his own collar.

“Don’t fucking touch me.” Stella hissed.

“Then don’t you dare question me.” He spat back. His brown eyes filled with pure rage. He didn’t expect them to understand. They hadn’t seen her, how perfect she was. Her blonde curls how he wished to grab at them. Those lips he wished to hear them speak only his name, cry it out. He wanted to kiss them, claim them as his own...And those eyes, he wanted those eyes to look only at him. His desire though unexplainable to him, it was real. She had woken up something inside him. Of course, he understood that deep down George was only allowing this because then he could start his own little plan but that meant nothing to Roxas. He didn’t care at all about George’s plan. All his cared about was his infatuation with that blonde-haired girl at the casino. He deserved her. Needed her.

“...All this over a girl? You’re going to kill a boy over some silly little crush?” Kai spoke up,a desperate tone in his voice, almost pleading for Roxas to understand just how crazy this sounded. Stella let go of Roxas’ collar and stepped away from him, crossing her arms once more. Roxas kept his eyes locked on Stella for a few moments before finally turning his attention back to Kai, walking towards him, only stopping when Stella took a step forward like she was about to get in between the two brothers.

“You’re not going soft on me are you, Kai? You wouldn’t want me to tell Dad about how you’re questioning his word. Would you?” Roxas’ words slipped from his tongue like poison. Knowing every word was cutting the man like a knife. Kai’s gaze locked with his brother’s for a few moments, the only sound that could be heard was the rain hitting the floor and the thunder still echoing through the city of Vegas. Roxas saw the look in Kai’s eyes, the look of fear, of desire to finally be important in George’s eyes. Or what he thought was the desire to be important, when in reality it was just the desire to survive.

“....No.” Kai replied

“So are you with me?”

“...Yes.” that word slipped from his lips in a whisper, keeping his gaze averted to the ground. A smirk tugged at Roxas’ lips, keeping his eyes on his younger brother for a little longer.

“...Good.” He finally replied before walking out the living room and towards the stairs. He never even let his gaze meet Stella’s why he walked out.

The silence in the room was thick after Roxas’ exit. Stella and Kai both standing there, Kai was lost for words and Stella, Stella just didn’t feel the need to speak. Finally, after a few long minutes of agonizing silence, Kai spoke up to break the tension.

“Why do you care?” Kai asked, his voice was much quieter around Stella.

“What?” Stella asked, arms still crossed, she let her green eyes look away from the doorway and towards the smaller teenage boy, trying to soften her stance around him. But not fully, she understood he wasn’t like Roxas or George, but she didn’t fully trust him. She didn’t fully trust anyone. Not anymore.

“Why do you care about what Roxas is doing? Usually, you don’t give two fucks about anything that happens in this house. Why do you care now?” Kai’s tone though full of genuine curiosity had the hint of bitterness to it. He was somewhat irritated that Stella only now just seemed to care about Roxas’ plans. All those years she had said nothing, why had she chosen now.

“It’s different this time.” Stella replied, her answer short and vague.

“Different?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“Because this isn’t his usual petty shit. There are lives on the line.” She paused, frowning. Trying to find the right words to explain herself.

“You really care about those people?” Kai asked.

Stella ignored his question.

“If Roxas gets caught we’re all fucked. Because if he goes down, he’ll take all of us fucking down with him too.” She finished, her voice had gone back to having that blunt tone lingering behind her words. She turned around on the heels of her boots and walked out of the room, leaving Kai they're alone. He didn’t fully understand what she meant; and he was sure that she hadn’t told him the true reason, that she was hiding it from him. But she had gotten one thing right.

If Roxas went down, He would take them all down with him.