Trigger warning for abuse.

"I start the day high and it ends so low
'Cause I'm working for the knife."

On a good day, Dante feels tired.

On a bad day, he is exhausted. He is Atlas, the world balanced on his shoulders.

Dante won’t forget the day he brought Gabe to the hospital.

He never thought his dad would lay a hand on him. He never had in all his eighteen years shown any sign of hurting Gabe, and if Dante had known, he would’ve called social services and gotten him the fuck out of there.

Gabe didn’t call him or even send him a text– he simply sent him his location. The door was locked, so he went around into the backyard. What started as a walk becomes a sprint when he sees his little brother panting in pain by the cellar door.

“Where is he?” He is surprised at how calm his voice is.

“At the bar,” he croaks.

Dante takes off his tank top, telling Gabe to hold it against his head to stop the bleeding. “If you feel like you’re about to pass out, call me,” he orders.

He waits until he’s out of ear shot to call 911. While he waits for help, he takes the metal baseball bat from his jeep and bashes in the windows of his father’s beloved pickup truck. He knows he should be comforting Gabe, but the anger boils and bubbles in his blood until it spills over, out of his heart and into action. His thirst for revenge swallows all reason as he swings the bat repeatedly until he remembers the lighter in his pocket. He considers setting it on fire but all of a sudden he’s out of time.

He hears the emergency vehicle wailing down the street even over the blare of the car alarm, and manages to throw the bat down and zip over to his brother to check if he’s still alive, already feeling guilt for leaving him to fuck with his father’s most prized possession.

“You came back,” he says, dumbfounded.

“Of course I did. Had to take care of something, that’s all.”

When the EMTs find them, Gabe is protesting and pale in the face, mortified.

“It’s okay,” Dante keeps saying. “It’s fine, Gabe.”

“It looks worse than it is. You guys don’t even need to be here,” he explains, even as he slurs from blood loss.

“Who did this to you?” one of them asks.

“Nobody,” Gabe says at the same time Dante says, “Tell the cops to meet us at the hospital.”

He tells the social worker he has enough money to support Gabe. Which is technically true–as long as he stayed in the porn industry and worked two jobs without time to so much as breathe, getting six hours of sleep a night, he could do it.

Dante makes sure Gabe never sees their father again. He makes an honest statement for the police, and Dante testifies against Mr. Mendez in court in his place. Even though his lawyer cites Dante’s mental health issues and claims that he beat his own brother in a fit of rage, Dante brings out the big guns, bringing in the staff at the bar his father frequented to talk about his history of drunken brawls and their mother’s suicide note, which makes more sense in the surrounding scenario of escaping domestic abuse.

“My dad used Gabe’s new dog as leverage,” he says, adjusting his tie. He borrowed a suit from a friend, and it was too tight. “He told my brother if he told anyone the truth, that he would kill his dog. I dug up our past dog’s corpse in the backyard with the police, and as you can see from this statement from the veterinary clinic, her skull has several fractures, which can be added to his already obvious charge of child abuse.”

His father is unusually silent. He pleads not guilty, but gets jail time and Dante is granted custody at 20 years old.

Now, he lays in bed, listening to Gabe scream himself awake. He doesn’t rush in to check on him anymore–he tried that once, and because he’s a spitting image of his abuser, it just makes the whole thing worse. Instead, he puts on the tea kettle and waits for Gabe to come out.

“Hey,” he says nonchalantly.

Gabe is clearly miserable. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

He wants to say more–like how sorry he is that he didn’t rat on their evil father sooner, how he wishes he’d stayed by his side the day he found him, how he wishes he’d stayed and remained the target of Mr. Mendez’s wrath.

Instead, he pours him a cup of tea, and watches as his little brother retreats back into his room.

2

It’s the night before college. Despite being 21, Dante is enrolled as a freshman with Gabe. Gabe is undeclared while Dante is enrolled in Psychology with a minor in Social Work. The college gave them a large scholarship when Dante wrote a letter about their situation, which would be enough as long as Dante kept up his porn revenue and maintained a job while going to school.

Because of Gabe’s… sleeping habits, he, Aiden, and Dante would be living in a triple. He was yet to tell Aiden, but figures he’d be spending so much time in Emma’s dorm, it wouldn’t really matter if he was in the know or not.

The apartment is empty, meaning Dante can make a video.

Dante moves his phone into position. He slips on his fox mask, then rubs his dick and thinks of Aiden until he’s rock hard.

He presses the record button.

“I’m so horny, guys,” he says in a whiney voice, turning around so that the audience could see his fat ass. He pulls his boxers down to reveal his juicy bare butt, cracking open the lube and rubbing his hole, moaning all the while. He fingers himself loudly, thick fingers spreading himself open as he thinks of Aiden’s smirking lips, his calloused hands, and (most of all) his British accent.

Dante lubes up the dildo and slowly slides it up his ass until he’s fully seated. “Fuck, daddy,” he moans, and even though it’s definitely not his kink, he pretends it is for his audience. It’s not the biggest he’s taken, but he sure acts like he is as he moans and bounces.

“Can I cum, daddy? Will you let baby boy cum on your big, fat cock?” A year ago, those words would have him blushing in humiliation, but all they do now is stoke the flames in his stomach, burning fierce and bright as his blood bubbles in his veins.

He pulls out before he can cum with a frustrated whimper, turning around so the camera can catch his winking, shaved asshole.

“Check out my OnlyFans to see more. I’ll be waiting.”

He turns off the camera and thinks. If he can make enough content tonight until Fall Break, he can still release weekly videos if he spreads them out on a schedule…

Dante sighs. He’s in for a long night.