#welcome to the most dysfunctional sibling relationship ever. there is so much context in this situation we Have Not Posted Yet

[secret-bug-pain-blog]

Febuwhump Day 13 - "You weren't supposed to get hurt"

Part two of the We Forgot To Post Some Prompts Special. This one's family drama edition!

"...Kina?"

What.

Astotheles briefly abandoned his guard to glance to the side. Kina was frozen in the middle of moving into position, staring at the Royal Blade like she'd seen a ghost.

"...Maki?" Kina asked.

...did they know each other???

The Royal Blade- Maki, apparently, if that was his name. It was an odd trick of perspective to try and think of the mantis as the person who would have an informal name, considering that he had been half-certain the bug didn't have any sort of life outside of being Elizant's personal lap dog before now, but considering that Kina seemed to know him-

"I- Kina, what are you doing here? You- the mission- we thought you were dead!" 

Kina reared up- breaking formation entirely, Astotheles noted somewhere in the back of his head, but considering whatever bundle of something she was bringing to light with the Royal Blade, he couldn't really bring himself to resent it. He could easily question it, though. What in Bugaria could have possibly given her the chance to build any sort of relationship with Elizant's top minion?

Kina took a step back as the Blade- Maki, advanced on her. The blade fell limp in his claw as he abandoned his guard almost entirely. "I-"

"You- you were missing for months! Were you here this whole time?" His scent muddled as he advanced further, a mix of emotions that Astotheles struggled to decipher- and that he really shouldn't be spending the time to decipher, in the middle of a battle. Kina continued to back up, driven by the Blade - a sight that would've been almost comedic, if it weren't for the situation at hand. He was barely half her size against a bug that towered over most of the battlefield - and she was still retreating, though she smelled more of shame than of fear.

"Didn't you think that I might still care?" the Blade asked, somewhere between accusatory and hurt, and Kina reacted, flinching back as if she'd been struck.

"I didn't want you to get hurt!" she cried, distress leaking into her scent- an Ant stumbled out of her path as she flared her wings, a cricket darting around her ankles. Astotheles was getting increasingly certain that this was not the time or the place, and yet...!

The battle still raged around them. With the Royal Blade distracted, the tide was changing, if slowly. Astotheles caught a handful of bugs slowing, shooting glances at the unfolding drama in their midst before dealing with the actual fight. Distracted. Off their game.

He didn't have time for this.

"Kina-"

Astotheles had heard enough.

The mantis saw him coming, but he didn't react quickly enough. A sharp blow to the back of the claw, and he was disarmed- another few blows to the head knocked him out before he could bring his guard back up. The Royal Blade crumpled to the sand like a puppet with its strings cut, taken down by a needle-hilt to the head, and Kina jolted to attention, raising her blades in preparation to...

To attack the bug who had downed her squadmate. A conditioned response. And one that Astotheles knew very, very well.

She stared at the bug on the ground like her whole world had abruptly been turned upside down, and all that Astotheles could think was that we don't have time for this.

"We will need to talk about this later," he told Kina. Her expression wavered, stress, worry, relief, and resignment mixing so closely that he struggled to tell where one scent ended and the next began. It was a concerningly long moment before she nodded.

There was history, there. But he didn't have time for whatever new surprise that Kina had been hiding in her back pocket, and right now, he had a battle to win.