We Are The Fallen

“You should probably go a little easier on the drinks.” Bi-Han blinked and stopped breathing. I know that voice. “I’ve heard they can be deadly.”

The person who was talking to him walked up from behind, circling round to sit at the chair opposite. Bi-Han couldn’t believe who it was, even when face to face with him.

“Kuai Liang?” He questioned, and his brother softly smiled at him.

“Hello Big Brother, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

It had been a while. He hadn’t seen Kuai since their father cast Bi-Han out of heaven. Funny, given it was always Kuai he threatened to send down. Bi-Han made one mistake, just one, and that was it, he was cast away. That wasn’t Kuai’s fault though, it was their fathers. He still remembered the agony as his wings were torn from his body, his own screams harmonising with Kuai’s wailing cry, before the weightless feeling of him falling down to Earth below.

If Kuai was also here, then it seemed father had finally gone through with his previous threats.

“He threw you out,” Bi-Han whispered. Kuai looked a lot worse for wear since the last time he’d laid eyes on him. That scar across his one eye was new, as was the beard. Most alarming, his wings were gone, and while he could have just been hiding them, it seemed far more logical that they were simply no more.

“No, I es-“ Kuai hesitated, swallowing and looking away. “I left.” Kuai blinked a few times before he looked back at his big brother. “Gēgē, I need your help.” He was fidgeting with his hands, and Bi-Han knew that he was nervous about something. “I am… working for someone now. He is trying to find someone called Quan Chi. I know you know where he is.”

“What?” Bi-Han did know where Quan Chi was, but how Kuai knew that he didn’t know. More pressing was whomever Kuai was working for however. “What do you mean, working for someone?”

“When I fell, he found me, and helped me. I made a deal with him, Bi-Han, and that’s why I need to help him find Quan Chi.”

A deal? The only beings really known for making deals were demons.

“What kind of deal?” Bi-Han asked, afraid of the answer.

“I think you know what kind, Bi-Han,” a third but alarmingly familiar voice spoke out. A hand touched his shoulder, and Bi-Han turned his head to look up in disgust at Hanzo Hasashi.

“I thought we agreed I’d sort this out?” Kuai desperately questioned, and somehow that made everything slot into place.

“You were taking too long,” Hanzo claimed, looking down at Bi-Han with a bored look.

Bi-Han knocked the hand off his shoulder, jumping to his feet and summoning his sickle to hold at Hanzo’s throat, shoving the demon against the wall as he did. Hanzo huffed, but otherwise looked unbothered.

“What sick game are you playing Hasashi?” Bi-Han hissed, resisting the urge to push the sickle into Hanzo’s flesh. “What are you forcing my brother into?”

“There is no force involved,” Hanzo replied in a bored tone, before his mouth broke out into a cruel grin. “I don’t do anything to him that he doesn’t want.”

Bi-Han saw red. He suddenly pulled his hand up, sickle still in his grip preparing to slash at the demon’s throat. Kuai’s hand reached out to grab Bi-Han’s wrist and stop him.

“Bi-Han, stop, please.” Kuai struggled to keep Bi-Han’s hand at bay. “When I fell Hanzo found me, and he helped me.”

Bi-han’s eyes flicked over to his little brother, his eyes were wide and watery, practically begging Bi-Han to stop. There was more to Kuai’s falling that he wasn’t telling him. He knew his brother, he knew when he wasn’t being completely truthful.

“What happened?” He asked, pulling away from Hanzo and turning to face Kuai instead. As Bi-han lowered his arm, Kuai let go. “What happened when you fell?”

Kuai blinked a few times, mouth going tight and conflict clear on his face. He cleared his throat a few times.

“After you were gone, Father’s actions got worse.” Kuai’s hand reached up to his face, fingers rubbing at the scar like it was hurting him. Did Father do that to him? “Everything I did was wrong. Everything I did made him angry.” Kuai closed his eyes and swallowed. “One night, I overheard him making plans. He wants you back Bi-Han, and he was going to use me to get to you.”

“But then…” Bi-Han was confused. If their Father was going to use Kuai as bait to bring Bi-Han back to heaven, why would he banish him?

“I couldn’t let him do that to you,” Kuai explained, holding his hand up and summoning a knife. “So. I escaped. I cut my own wings off, and I let myself fall.”

Bi-Han stumbled backwards, hand flying over his mouth, feeling like he was about to throw up. His brother. His beloved little brother. Forced to cut his own wings off to protect the elder. To escape the abuse he suffered. It should have been the other way around. Bi-Han should have been Kuai’s protector, and yet all the evidence in front of him proved that he had failed.

“It’s not your fault,” Kuai cut in before Bi-Han could react, already aware of Bi-Han’s guilt complex and habit of self blame when it came to these things. “It is our Father who shoulders the burden for both our suffering.”

Somehow that did little to comfort Bi-Han. But for the moment, all he could do was put his own feelings aside.

He’d make plans on how his father would suffer for all this later.

“What about him?” Bi-Han hissed, and gestured towards Hanzo with his head. “Where does he come into it?”

“He found me when I fell,” Kuai explained, his eyes briefly glancing over to Hanzo. The demon was leaning against the wall, arms crossed and looking a little bit annoyed at all the talking. “Father wasn’t going to let me go easily, he sent men after me. Hanzo has kept me safe from them since. In turn I aid him in matters such as this.”

“The sex is just a bonus,” Hanzo smugly added, and how Bi-Han resisted jumping him and beating the shit out of him, he really did not know.

“You aren’t helping,” Kuai growled between his teeth, shooting his own glare towards Hanzo. The demon just laughed. He shook his head and returned his attention to Bi-Han. “We need to find Quan Chi, big brother. He’s responsible for a lot of hurt towards a lot of people and we need to stop him. We know you’ve been doing work for him here and there.”

“I have, and that’s why I can’t just tell you where he is.” Bi-Han reached to take Kuai’s shoulders in his hands. “Like Hanzo has helped you, Quan Chi has aided me since I fell. I can’t betray his trust.”

“He is working with Father.”

Oh, how that simple sentence completely shattered Bi-Han’s world.

“It seems with me no longer a viable option, he was willing to make a deal with Quan Chi for your capture,” Kuai explained, his own hands reaching to cradle his brother's face. “Maybe not tonight or tomorrow, but eventually, when you’re no longer of use to him, he will hand you back over to Father.”

Bi-Han swallowed, “he’s going to betray me?”

“Quan Chi is loyal only to himself,” Hanzo roughly added, grimacing slightly. “Believe me, I found that out in a far harsher way than you have.”

“Please, Bi-Han,” Kuai whispered. “We need to stop him.”

Bi-Han grit his teeth. He hated this, everything about this situation was heinous. But Kuai was looking up at him with large pleading eyes and he just could not say no to that.

He couldn’t say no after what their Father had done to both of them.

“Quan Chi lives in a condo on the other side of the city,” Bi-Han spoke, addressing his brother, rather than Hanzo. “I can take you there.”

“Thank you,” Kuai replied, resting his head on Bi-Han’s shoulder. It was the same action they used to do when they were children and Kuai had been punished by their Father. Bi-Han closed his eyes, and gently pet Kuai’s hair.

“We have no time to waste,” Hanzo told them, completely spoiling the moment, although Bi-Han couldn’t say anything in return. “Let’s go.”

And with that Hanzo was walking back towards the exit of the bar. Bi-Han watched him go with nothing but loathing in his heart. If Kuai Liang wasn’t here he’d have killed the bastard.

“Please tell me you aren’t actually having sex with him and that he was just trying to piss me off,” Bi-Han huffed at Kuai Liang, who looked up at him sheepishly. “I know your taste in men has always been terrible, but I refuse to believe it’s that bad.”

Kuai gave an uncomfortable smile, one with a few too many teeth showing as he replied “maybe it’s best I let you keep believing that.”

“Are you two actually coming or what?” Hanzo shouted across the room, not giving Bi-Han chance to argue further on what the hell was wrong with Kuai.

Bi-Han gave Kuai a look that he hoped screamed “are you serious”. All Kuai did in turn was smile and pat his chest a few times. He moved past Bi-Han to go and catch up to Hanzo. Bi-Han grumbled to himself, but still went to follow after them.

Elder Gods give me strength to not strike that demon down before this night is done.

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