BreakxVince

Break hummed cheerfully to himself and ran his finger down his now ridiculously sharp blade, smiling in pleasure as it cut deep, not minding the pain at all. In one quick move he was suddenly up and moving across the room, slipping into a cupboard and traveling across the distance in the way only he could. He came out in the shadow of Vincents balcony, looking most pleasant as he strolled into his room, the sword still unsheathed. "Hey Rat-kun~" His smile widened as he advanced on the man. "Wanna play with me?~"

Vincent had been curled up in his chair, reading a book, tilting his head to the side as he felt a familiar presence. It had been quite awhile since he had received company and he was almost certain that he hadn't come for a pleasant visit. When the man stepped through the open window doors, and opened his mouth, Vincent glanced up from the book he was reading. His multicolored eyes darting to the weapon in his hand, Break was a good threat most of the time, but for some reason, Vince felt his heart wasn't in causing -him- harm this time. He reached for the scissors in his pocket to make sure they were still there and stood, smiling rather pleasantly at the man everyone assumed he despised, but now he had someone else to hate. His own brother. "Why Mr. Hatter, I didn't know you were coming for a visit, if I had known, I'd have made some tea." He stated nonchalantly, acting as if Break wasn't bringing a dangerous weapon closer and closer to him. Of course, he wasn't much worried, he had nothing to live for and even if he did fail, his goals would be realized by someone else. He wasn't however, going to -let- Break kill him. "What's the matter? I thought you'd enjoy playing with Niisan." He stated sharply, though his voice was still naturally cheerful.

Break chuckled lightly, waving his sword as if it was part of his sleeve. "That would be such a waste of tea though~ It isn't near as good with blood in it~" He took a few steps closer, his eye just a bit wild and dangerous, though as to who he were dangerous towards was another question entirely, particularly at the sharp jab at Gilbert. His eyes narrowed a bit, though inwardly he felt rather like he'd been kicked in the gut with a spiked heel. He kept the rest of his expression pleasant though. "Why you can only do it so many times before other things become more interesting rat-kun~" He made a precise slash towards Vincents middle, a hair slower than he could be. "Like cleaning up pest infestations~"

Vincent slid out of the way of the sword with surprising speed, having had several fights with the Baskervilles recently, having to dance out of the way of several of them at once, it was a wonder he was still alive. He chuckled and tilted his head to the side as he watched Break position himself for another attack. "And just why the violence all of a sudden?" he smirked, knowing that the other was really hurting deep down, but would that stop him from pulling his punches at least verbally? No. He was already thinking about how he could use the Hatter to his own advantage, because that's just how Vincent worked. He thought it over and pondered just how to defeat him, it was hard considering he only had his scissors at the moment. He was the only one that could defeat the Baskervilles permanently, so he was needed. He thought for a few moments more and then dashed from the room rather quickly, finding a suitable sword from the armor that was in the hall and turning to face the Hatter. "So you're here because you got broken in pieces hm?" He advanced on the man this time, "Ah now, you're in the same boat as I, mister Hatter."

Break turned on him quickly once again, wanting to make sure he got the point of 'danger' across, not bothering to answer just why he was so determined to see blood tonight. Preferably his own. He was a bit surprised, and surprised to see Vince go for the door, moving to intercept him but holding himself back so he didn't incapacitate the boy, enough that he slipped right past him. He didn't let him get away that easily though, darting down the hall after him, smiling rather brightly as he saw him acquire a more suitable weapon, actually slowing a bit to let him do so. He stopped a few feet away, his face freezing just a little as Vincent hit it right on the spot, starting to twist a little from the dark emotions inside of him. "Then whoever finishes this will be doing the other a favor neh?" He smiled darkly as he advanced on him again, suddenly darting forward and slashing lightning quick, using more of his full speed though he knew Vince would not let him hit him so easily.

Vincent knew the other was going for something else rather than his death, after thinking things over, Vincent finally wrapped his mind around it. All those times ago, when Break had shown up to stop him from using Gilbert to open the realm to the abyss, he would have killed him on the spot, but now....now the rage just wasn't there. At least not for the Hatter, it had been directed at someone else. His stupid elder brother. He chuckled again as Break lunged for him with the sword, stepping out of the way again and grabbing Break's wrist firmly, bringing the sword around with a force you wouldn't expect of the battered Nightray, and instead of finishing him off, knocked the cane right out of his grasp and kicked it hard across the floor, sending it sliding beyond the point of reach. "Mr. Hatter wants to die really badly, I see." His voice lacked it's usual coldness towards the man, just empty of any sort of emotion this time. Normally, he'd have just let Break die, but this time, he saw things just a bit differently. "You're still of use to me." He stated simply, his face lacking expression as he looked straight back at the albino. He suddenly pinned the other man to the floor hard and used his hands and legs to pin both of Break's down. "What has Niisan done to Mr. Hatter? Broken him....that's not the Xerxes Break I knew."

Break stiffened as he was touched, but it was an automatic reaction and he certainly didn't try as hard as he could to break free or keep his sword. He was quite ready for his death, and the bitter taste of disappointment when Vincent didn't follow through nearly put him in tears. It was pathetic, but that was him these days. Pathetic, even more so than usual, enough that he should be wiped from this earth. If it happened to cause a little trouble for Vince, well that would have been a bonus but things weren't going so much to plan. The faintest frustrated growl left him at the thought of something as mild as 'usefulness' was keeping him here, a grunt following as he found himself on the floor, for a second putting up something of a fight, but Vincent really did know what he was doing. He did his best attempt at cheerful defiance, somewhat ruined by the too obvious hint of the tears he was only barely holding back. "Perhaps you never knew me at all~" It was an interesting flip flop between almost believing his pretend cheerfulness and the crushing depression and self hate that drove him to this.

Vincent just stared back at what had once been a very strong man, his eyes softening just a hair, he remembered all the times he was so close to breaking, how this man would be decrepit and just ignore it, laugh at him whenever he failed, and put him down in any way he could think possible. *I deserved those things....but I had my reasons.* He told himself, letting just the faintest hint of a sigh escape him before he smiled down at Break a bit. "Just like Xerxes doesn't know me as well as he would think." He tilted his head at him for the breath of a second before leaning down so their noses nearly touched, his eyes fierce. "Now that you're as broken as you are, I'm going to be the bigger man about it, and ignore your plea for death. You set yourself up for getting hurt, Gilbert-niisan has always been pathetic and worthless, you should have just ended his useless existence." He wrapped an arm around the Hatter and threw him over his shoulder with surprising ease. "But now, Xerxes is going to stop this foolishness and do something useful, because even though you've given up on me, and hate me more than anyone. You're here now, might as well."

Breaks eye narrowed somewhat, not really caring nor understanding just what he was getting at. "I make a point of not knowing sewer rats well." He smirked darkly, refusing to give up on his attempts to provoke the other man to do what he wanted, almost thinking he'd managed to do so with the look in his eyes, feeling another strong stab of disappointment as it turned out he hadn't. He'd rather have been stabbed in the stomach for real rather than hear the words he already knew damn well. The things that made him hate himself even more, and even worse the fact that some fucking retarded irrational bit of him still felt the need to protect the person he'd let rip himself apart. Once he found himself in motion though he snapped back into action. Whatever else he may have had in mind, he had no intent of helping Vincent with his plans. Being the worm he was, he slithered out of grip, landing briefly on one hand before flipping backwards some distance, conveniently landing next to his sword to snatch it up. "If I do anything useful here it'll be following up with my sword in your gut."

"Then do so." Vincent stated calmly, his multicolored eyes showing just how tired he was deep down of their senseless arguing. He sighed softly and put a hand over his red eye, smiling coolly back at the man that had managed to get away from him once more. "Since I have to be a saint before mister Hatter will look at me as a human being, rather than a bug to be stepped on." He turned partly to look down the hall, before anyone would look at him as a human being. He was too used to it though, so he didn't linger on the subject, but the words themselves made something twinge inside him, lingering pain of his own that he hid oh so well. He sneered a bit as he thought about what Gil was probably doing, he was probably in the Rainsworth manor, having wondered where Break was, taking a nap somewhere out of depression. Not really -doing- anything about it, while Vincent was slowly wondering if he could even save what was left of the man he had once hated. "You're right of course, just like everyone else," he still didn't look at him, "I'm a piece of garbage...and yet I -still- didn't hurt the person I used to love." If anyone was a piece of garbage, it was his brother.

Break, as Vincent probably had suspected, didn't move from his spot, even though he hand his hand back on his weapon again. It wasn't guilt he felt at Vincents words, he'd become quite used to being horrible, such a jab at him slid right off purely because it just didn't happen to land in the huge hole that was inside of him. Those last words though...they cut out his heart all over again. For a few seconds he couldn't breathe from the tightness inside of him, under the pressure of all that pain and loathing he usually kept somewhat in check. It was just like that first moment Gil used his words to cut into Break. He took a few deep breathes, as if that would hold off the tears that were coming anyway. His strongest urge was just to sit down in the middle of the floor and sob, but he managed to resist and stagger back towards the balcony, he couldn't...break down any more in front of that man, in front of anyone. "Fine...if you're not going to do it then..." He couldn't talk any more around the lump in his throat. Maybe he'd throw himself off the balcony instead.

Vincent rolled his eyes angrily when the other just started towards the balcony, he couldn't exactly convince him with words right now. He wasn't the right person for that, so he was going to do what he could. He summoned Yamane and sighed using the chain's power to put Break to sleep. Resisting the urge to follow him and forcing Yamane back down with a yawn, for a few moments he just stared at the man that had been the bane of his existence for the longest time, then walked over and knelt down, scooping him up from the floor. "You're irritating sometimes..." he stated calmly, taking Break to his room and putting him down on the bed, he didn't hide the cane to prove he really didn't want a fight, instead just placing it down on the table, and taking a seat in his favorite chair, opening up his book to start reading again. This was going to be a long process, and he soon found himself reading the same sentence, over and over again. He finally just put it down and decided not to bother, spacing off quietly.

Break half turned as he felt the presence of another chain, hatter coming to slow to do any good. Frustration mixed with rabid depression was the last thing he felt before he hit the floor, now locked in his dreams, about the last thing he wanted. He was already repeating his most painful moments over and over in his mind but once he was asleep he got to relive one cutting word after another. He tossed and turned constantly, silent and often crying without his awake mind to resist the need. On the bright side, such an agitated sleep was not long lasting and he quite suddenly started awake, silent again and reaching up with a slight feeling of horror to realize he had been crying, a lot, and he was still in the Nightray house. He gave his face a quick brush and turned Dark eyes on Vincent. He didn't really hate him anymore, he was too broken to do so, but he could almost feel it from the frustration at being held back from his goal. "You're quite the persistent brat.." he murmured lightly.

"It isn't your fault my older brother is a big baby." He muttered softly, pulling himself out of his spacing off rather easily, normally it would have been a bit dangerous to linger in his own dark and twisted mind, but since he had been pleasantly blank the entire time, it was almost like waking up from a nice nap rather than a nightmare. He stood and walked the short distance to the bed, settling down beside him on it, his hands resting to either side of him as he watched Break quietly. "Dying isn't the answer, why protect someone who broke you so thoroughly? You seem to be under the impression that every bad thing that happened was -your- fault. When I've been around Gil a lot longer than you have Mr. Hatter. And what has he done to me? Left me, abandoned me, won't even look at me anymore. There's no guilt there, he really just doesn't care. If he cared, he'd go to a little extra length to do something about what's wrong, instead he sits there like a child and expects those around him to do everything. Why protect someone like that? Yet cut me down instead....you make no sense."

Break watched Vince approach with a well hidden expression, mostly through the hand over his face, hints of bitterness showing through the cracks. He had no intent of pushing at Vincent anymore, since it was clearly not going to happen, particularly now that he was wise to the game. At this moment, his main goal seemed to be getting the heck away from the man who was cutting him in all the wrong ways. He let out a dark chuckle at those last words, shifting his fingers so he could meet Vincents eye. "you know the purpose behind those cuts." He'd come here for one thing only. Any cutting of Vincent was just incidental and necessary to get him to do what he wanted. He turned and slid his legs over the other side of the bed. "I...protect him no more..." There was that thickness again that suggested he had not dried of tears yet. "But that doesn't change anything." He still hurt so very very much. To have hurt the one he cared the most about, again...someone like him should not be allowed to exist. Everything he did only made things worse. He hadn't learned anything at all.

Vincent huffed and shoved him back onto the bed, his eyes narrow and hot with anger. "You...just..." he reached for the scissors inside his pocket and pulled them out, stabbing them into his own arm and instantly feeling the blood trickle down his arm, but he felt better. He sighed and looked at the blood on the blade before tossing them across the room and shattering a mirror when they impacted. "You want to die, psh...you don't deserve to die." He stood and grabbed the other by the front of his shirt, nearly throwing him into the bathroom and slamming the door with his shoe. He didn't know what else to do at this point, he couldn't -comfort- him, Break wouldn't let that happen, and he was nothing but a rat to him anyway. He pulled up his sleeve and started washing the wound gently, he hadn't hurt himself in quite awhile, and it had been the monster's rage deep inside that had caused this one. He was moderately calm in spite of being annoyed at himself.

Break let out another grunt as he was shoved around, looking almost hopeful in the moment those scissors came out, looking truly surprised to see the other man turn then on himself. He frowned and watched the blade, finding something bitterly ironic in him finding it fine to inflict pain on himself, but somehow it wasn't okay for Break to do it. He guessed he just hadn't done enough monstrous things. "You really are-" He growled a bit when he was grabbed, though it might have more to do with the words rather than the action. He could only hope he'd be thrown into something and badly hurt, but of course no such luck. He stayed half sitting where he was thrown for a few moments, not because he couldn't get out, but because he wasn't quite sure what to do from here. All this crying made his brain seem rather foggy, and even though he'd been forced to sleep earlier, he was suddenly very tired. Perhaps because even his own goals seemed like they would be tainted by the mere fact they were -his- and anyone elses who had any remotely similar...it was all too much. He just didn't give a damn about anything other than how much he hated himself anymore.

Vincent reached for the bandages and sighed, he normally had Echo do this for him, but she wasn't around anymore due to an unfortunate accident. He turned and looked at the man whom seemed so self loathing and held the bandage out to him feeling like a child once again and not bothering to hide the look on his face, disgust directed at himself for not being able to do this alone. He had caused the problem, he should fix it. ". . . could you help?" he finally found his voice, and it amazingly enough held not a trace of anger, nor hatred. That was saved for Gilbert and the Baskervilles, whom would both eventually end up dead because of the very reasons Vincent had found justified in his mind. Normally, he would not ask for help, but he was beginning to see that if he was going to get anything accomplished, he'd have to do some things he wasn't used to. That required showing a side of him, he tried to keep locked away from everyone.

Break could feel the eyes on him, but he didn't bother to look up until Vincent actually spoke. He look then was rather slow and strangely emotionless after all the crying he'd been doing in the past couple of hours. That which he hated to do more than just about anything. He seemed to be thinking about it, though it was mostly just him wrapping his mind around the strange idea of Vincent asking him for help. But then he'd stopped at killing Break already, so he supposed he shouldn't be surprised. He didn't answer verbally, but he did take the bandage and get up, moving over close and bandaging the wound with surprising gentleness, about the last thing you'd expect from him. He held no maliciousness anymore towards Vincent though. He was such a monster it really was...silly of him. That didn't stop old habits, but the spite behind it just wasn't there. "That was rather silly of you, telling me off when your stabbing yourself."

"It's hard to control myself when I get really mad at someone or something..." he admitted, lowering his eyes to his arm, finally something inside him clicked two and two together. What he was dreading, was what he needed to do. For what was probably the first time ever, Vincent was thinking about showing some concern for the other. He needed his help, badly, he couldn't do this alone. Break couldn't die because of that. He stared down at his bandaged arm before stepping the small distance between them and pulling the other into a hug, resting his hand on top of the others head and just staying like that. "I'm sorry Niisan hurt you, Xerxes." He wasn't sure what else he could do for him, other than do his best to drag him out of the rut Gil had shoved him into. "You're not a bad person, you just made a mistake, and that mistake was my brother...nothing you did." He didn't know if any of this would even be listened to considering it was coming from him, but to hell if he didn't try damnit.

Break almost felt sympathetic towards that, since his emotions had been getting well into his way a lot. He'd almost made a few disasters because of it, and that wasn't even counting him trying to kill himself. He was abruptly dragged out of his thoughts as he felt arms wrap around him, stiffening and feeling an almost panic like emotion. Not because he was afraid of getting hurt but he was just...he didn't know, in shock. He'd become used to any sort of physical contact mixed with painful words. These...where just baffling. And...just as Vincent had seemed to hit right on the spot before, once again he felt his eyes starting to water strongly and felt a strong urge to throw himself against this man who once upon a time he'd rather die than touch. His hand had clutched around that robe without him even noticing. "you..." What was he supposed to say?...it was hard to think with all this bloody crying. Without realizing it, words started to slip out. "I thought...Thought that I...might have found someone..." Sure he hadn't gone about it the best way but...he grit his teeth as the tears he was trying to hold back spilled over once again. "Damn it..."

Vincent nodded gently in understanding, keeping his arms around the other and letting him struggle with it, to get it out would be better than keeping it in. When Break finally did, he wasn't surprised, he had thought that too when he had his Niisan around, only to realize that he was nothing to Gilbert but something to be left behind. He'd accepted that and got over it, only to have his brother show up and try to plead with him, to get back into touch with him, and Vincent refused to have anything to do with him. He let his hand curl into the Hatter's hair and rested his forehead against his, once upon a time ago, he'd have been disgusted at the thought of touching Break as well, but it didn't matter anymore. He was done hating him, he had come to hate Gil more than he could have anyone else, and then ....when he realized Ms. Ada had only been using him as well, it had been a matter of time before he'd tossed everyone aside in favor of his goals. "Being alone is hard...." he stated really thinking things over before he stated his next sentence, "...but you're not alone, Xerxes."

Break was desperate enough that he didn't mind at all having himself be comforted by this man. He was just...relieved to feel even the tiniest bit better, and feel a touch that didn't make him hate himself. It had been such a very long time since he had such a thing. He half closed his eye, somewhat ashamed but, more than anything hurting, but it was the sort of hurt that might heal...rather than the dark black hole he'd been in before. He was just starting to relax when he heard what shocked him the most. He remained silent for several moments after those words before looking almost sharply at the man in front of him. "I'm not?" Was he offering something? or just sympathizing?

"Of course you're not alone." Vincent stated calmly, noting that sharp look, and seeing the confusion in his face. He slowly reached up and cupped the others face with his hands, and very gently ran his thumbs over his cheeks. "You have me right here, don't you?" He knew he wasn't the best being on the planet, and probably the last that Break would have chosen at any other time, but that didn't stop him from offering up what he could give the man. He didn't hate Break, and he didn't feel sorry for him, even though he was sorry for what his brother had done. The way he saw it though, they could help each other heal, and perhaps get better. That prospect was very appealing to the Nightray, and he was willing to give it a try, if the other could find it in himself to do the same.

Break tilted his face upwards, seeming to be trembling ever so slightly. It was sad to see him so far gone but...it was hard, and he could admit in the deepest depths of his heart that it was a bit scary too. It would be so very very easy for Vince to finish the breaking and turn him into something he wouldn't recognize. But...he didn't feel that strong distrust he usually did, and he very much was in need of this. More tears flowed down his already wet face and he felt like cussing again. He'd become so very weak. He held himself in tense indecision for a few moments before slumping against the other man, giving into that painful urge to take all the comfort that was offered to him. "Hai..." He really was trembling then, but it wasn't from fear.