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A Tale of Two Brothers

Jun 2025 Flavor of the Month: Yuzu Belong to Me!

Sneak Peek

“You don’t understand,” Theodore was sitting on his bed with his head in his hands, the lithe rat’s pink fingers a stark contrast to his obsidian fur. “You just don’t get what it’s like to have such a dangerous power.”

“Come on now Theo,” Fredric, the rat’s older brother said sitting down next to him. “You have this fear like, what, twice a week?”

“Yeah, but this time it’s because I can absorb people’s powers,” Theo squeaked, the much smaller rat leaning into his big brother’s shoulder. “It’s scary. I…I don’t know if this hero program is for me.”

“What? Come on,” Fred had a light tone to his voice. The much larger rat was the spitting image of his younger brother. Well, if the little rat had been working out every day since middle school. “You tested in, like, the top ten percent of the applicants. You belong here.”

Fred gripped his brother’s shoulder and pulled him in. He may only be a year older, but Fred was blessed twice with a powerful body and power. Theo would never admit it, but he was jealous of his brother for having it so much easier than him. Fred had tons of friends, a rotation of boyfriends and girlfriends so plentiful that they practically needed to install a rotating door on his dorm room, and charisma that was made for a hero. He would go on to do great things and Theo…well…the little rat was lucky if he would become a side kick. Not because his power was weak, far from it. He could neutralize people’s powers easily, or at least that’s what they originally thought his power was.

When growing up, Theo found it useful that he could simply touch his brother and will him to stop using his hypnosis powers, but that was few and far between. Now that he could really stretch his legs at a school designed to hone and perfect the use of his power, he found out he wasn’t able to just neutralize a power, but take it.

“It’s easy enough for you to say that,” Theo sniffed. “You were made to be a hero and everyone knows it. Me…my power was made to do great harm.”

“Hey, don’t say that about yourself,” Fred rubbed his brother’s shoulder. “You’re a hero through and through. You just worry too much about what people think of your power. Besides, it’s not like it’s permanent. I always got my power back.”

“Yeah, but now that I’ve been training it…” Theo put a hand on his arm, rubbing it nervously. “I…well…it’s different. I can feel that I’ve only been sipping, skimming the surface of what someone has. There is so much more to take. It’s just that people’s power kind of naturally protects its host so it goes first and eventually trickles back. But…what if I kept going? What if I couldn’t help myself?”

“Oh, come on now, you’d never do that,” Fred decided to take a more direct approach and gently cup his brother’s muzzle. It was so much daintier than his own, those cute doe eyes glittering with the threat of tears. “Hey, look into my eyes.”

“You can’t just hypnotize it away,” Theo sniffed.

“Nah, this is something more powerful than my hypnosis powers,” Fred smirked, his whiskers tilting as he showed off his signature buck toothed smile. “No, these are the words of your big brother. I don’t need to use my powers to keep you from being a villain. I already know you’re never going to be one. You’d never do that.”

“You have to say that because your family,” Theo sighed, but he did feel a bit better. Then his eyes lit up. “Wait…what if you used your power?”

“Huh?” Fred cocked a brow and took his hands from his brother’s face. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re training to be a rehabilitator in mental health as much as you’re training to be a hero, right?” Theo reasoned. “You could, ya know, hypnotize me into not being a villain.”

“That’s not exactly how my power works Theo,” Fred shrugged. “The thing about hypnotism, I can’t make you do anything you wouldn’t want to do yourself. You already don’t want to become a villain so it wouldn’t do much. It’s more about rewiring your brain to bypass specific checks and balances.”

“Well, can’t you rewire my brain to stop me from taking too much stuff from someone?” The younger rat sat up on his bed, his legs crossed. His athletic shorts baggy on him. His brother had the same pair, but they were much larger and tighter. Even his brother’s shirt looked tighter than Theo’s tank.

“That’s pretty complex,” Fred scratched the back of his head. “The most successful I’ve been so far is reinforcing someone’s desire to stop smoking. In the end I didn’t make them really stop so much as bypass their addiction.”

“Well…” Theo’s eyes started to dip, his pink ears folding down.

That sad look struck Fred to his core, his heart aching as he watched the hope drain from his brother’s eyes.

“Okay, I can try,” Fred sighed.

“Really?” Theo looked up, his dark eyes glittering.

“Yeah,” Fred rubbed the back of his neck before shaking his head and quickly clapping his hands together. “Yeah! Let’s do it. You ready for this?”

“Yeah, I’m ready.” Theo nodded quickly, his big pink ears flopping back and forth.

“Okay, so what is it that you fear the most about this situation? I can kind of work it out from there.” Fred sat up on the bed much like his brother was, cross legged, his feet in the lotus position. He was so flexible even with all that muscle. Truly a show of how hard he worked on his body to compensate for the mental aspects of his power.

“I guess…huh,” Theo brought his knuckle up to his lips to ponder and continued by mumbling into it. “I would say that I’m afraid of becoming a villain the most.”

“Well, we can start from there then. You know how this works. Look deep into my eyes,” Fred started, holding out his hands for comfort. Theo obeyed, letting his hands rest in his brother’s much larger mitts, his big brother’s thumbs tenderly brushing the back of his hands. “Now, I’m going to count back from ten, and when I’m done, you’ll be in a deep slumber.”

Theo knew the drill. Fred could do simple commands with general eye contact, but if he really wanted something to stick, he needed to put someone under. The smaller rat didn’t even hear him count down, he was simply under in a void of dark, floating as words slipped in his ears and out the other.

“You won’t fear becoming a villain anymore,” Fred’s voice rolled around in his little brother’s head. It sang through and soothed some anxiety that Theo didn’t know he was holding in his chest. His shoulders relaxed, his breathing evened out, his legs tucked into a perfect lotus stance. He felt loose and relaxed.

“Thanks Fred,” Theo murred in his dreamlike state. “You’d do anything for me, wouldn’t you big bro.”

“Yes,” Fred’s voice echoed back. That word felt amazing on its own. Acceptance, a true form of love that the younger rat rarely felt since their parents passed.

“I can always count on you,” Theo continued to mutter.

“You can…always count…on me…” Fred’s voice was softer, lighter even.

“To do what’s best for me,” Theo sighed, his entire body tingling.

“What’s best…for…for you…”

The darkness was slipping away and reality was coming into focus.

“Thanks Fred, I feel so much better,” Theo paused, his voice deeper than before as his vision cleared. “Holy shit.”

Theo was looking at his big brother, or not so big anymore. They were roughly the same size, his eyes a swirling mess of colors. Did he take his power in the middle of their session?

“What…what are you doing Theo,” Fred gave a soft groan. “I feel…I feel weak.”

Just then, a powerful pulse ran down Fred’s body, his definition fading, his head inching downwards as his clothes became baggier, sagging on his shrunken form. At the same time, Theo’s veins throbbed, pushed up against his skin as his head inched upwards, his muscles clenched and pushed out, causing more thread’s to snap. A wave of euphoria rolled through Theo’s body, his entire form expanding, his mind becoming more clear as he continued to syphon more of his brother into himself.

“Fred, what…how did…” Theo felt a massive well of energy inside his brother that he was digging into. He felt like a tick that had burrowed himself deep and was gulping down power. It was like quenching a thirst he didn’t know he was dying from, the sensation washing over his bones and making them itch as they cracked and expanded. He was still taking, and he knew he could take so much more, become so much more. But wouldn’t that make him a villain?

The thought bounced around in his mind, his thoughts skipping as though his train of thought was forced to switch tracks. Somehow, the normal crushing anxiety of becoming a villain didn’t hit so hard. If anything, he felt numb to the idea, completely void of a feeling one way or the other.

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