Author's Notes: Written for my own Character Playlist Challenge on the HPFC Forum, with Rodolphus/Rabastan and a themed playlist of Amanda Palmer (and co.) music.

This collection is certain to contain incest and murder, and likely to contain underage sex and a variety of other unpleasant things.

We grew up closer than most (closer than anything, closer than anything), shared our bed and wore the same clothes

-Evelyn Evelyn-

)O(

Sometimes Rodolphus wondered where he ended and his little brother began.

Memories of the two years of his life that had transpired before Rabastan was born were vague and hazy, and had an unreal quality about them, like an unremembered dream. One might have attributed that to his age and nothing more - after all, how many people truly remember what their life was like when they were two years old? - but Rodolphus thought it more likely that the distance of those memories was just another sign that he was not whole without Rabastan.

They were two halves of the same person.

There was never a time when Rabastan did not crawl into Rodolphus's bed, did not curl against him, did not nuzzle into his shoulder like a baby into its mother's breast. Never a time when Rodolphus was not more of a mother to Rabastan than their own mother was. A lesser brother might have resented having a child forever clinging to him, but Rodolphus never did, for he didn't feel right if he could not hear Rabastan's quiet, raspy breathing in his ear.

And it all might have remained well, if only people had not started their whispering.

If Rodolphus had ever been one to listen to rumours, he would have seen it coming. People simply didn't understand what it was to love someone in the way that Rodolphus loved Rabastan. Of course they would begin to suggest that there was something less than innocent about it. Still, Rodolphus's face heated and he shook with humiliation every time a critical eye landed on him and his brother. Doubtless, that only made people suspect more strongly. Rabastan wished he could shake them and scream at them– How can you think that? He's only a child! I'm only a child!

He said nothing, and only hoped that the rumours would not reach Rabastan's ears. He prayed that no one would break his brother's innocence by accusing him of that sort of depravity.

Some rumour must have eventually reached Rabastan, or perhaps he sensed Rodolphus's fears. Perhaps he knew instinctively - after all, there had never been secrets between the two of them before, and Rodolphus did not know if he even could keep a secret from Rabastan before he tried.

Rabastan whispered pitifully in his ear when the two of them lay bound in each other's arms in Rodolphus's bed.

"Don't leave me."

The words shook Rodolphus, and he instinctively tightened his hold around his little brother.

"I'm not going anywhere."

"Don't leave because of what they say."

Perspiration broke across Rodolphus's brow and palms. He didn't need to ask Rabastan what he was talking about, though he would dearly have loved to believe that he was mistaking his meaning. What they say. What they say about us.

"Don't you hate it?" he whispered instead, and Rabastan trembled against him like a leaf in a gale. "Don't you hate what they think of us?"

"I don't care," Rabastan whispered back. "Don't care about them, just you."

)O(

Don't you feel like severing? (Everything's just come together at last)