The only light in the room came from the mobile spinning lazily above him, the patterns and designs befitting an infant.

He was alone.

It wasn’t just physical. It went beyond that, from tangible to so deep into his soul that he couldn’t quite grasp it. He’d tried to make as much noise as he could when he woke, but even though he knew there was a baby monitor somewhere, he didn’t know where it was now.

Rex didn’t know where Tavi was, and he was afraid.

It felt like he drowsed there for hours, bored enough to watch the mobile twirl and cast shadows on the wall from his crib-shaped cage. He was hungry and thirsty, his stomach growling viciously, and he had enough sense of self to know that he was already tired of a strictly liquid diet.

His jaw permanently ached from where his brother had gagged him, he couldn’t unclench his fingers because of the soft mittens pressing them against his palms, and he desperately needed to move around.

Even being able to change positions in the crib would’ve been a nice change, but he’d chosen well when he’d selected the bonds for Tavi.

Too well.

He lifted his head, trying to crane his neck to look at the door. He couldn’t see anything but darkness and twisting shadows.

When he finally heard the door to the bedroom open, Rex started to thrash all over again, making as much noise as he could around his gag.

He knew something was wrong when Tavi came in, but he couldn’t put words to it. He didn’t know. Without his magic, his senses were dulled, and it felt like he was missing one of his major senses. Sight, sound, scent… and the ability to experience the world around him as only a witch could.

More than that. It wasn’t the sense — it was more like the eye, his fingers, the parts of his body he needed to truly live.

Now that that was taken away, he didn’t even know how his brother could live like this. How could he survive not feeling the bliss of magic at his fingertips, the ability to recognize patterns beyond the mortal ken, the power of being something more than human?

It was terrifying.

Tavi flicked on the light, and Rex squirmed, closing his eyes.

“Sorry, baby,” Tavi said, the voice so like Rex’s own, sounding like silk. “I didn’t mean to be that long.”

A thrill ran through him, and he couldn’t say if it was the so-very-confident tone or the baby that had him responding so strongly. He tried to voice his agitation and indignation through the gag, but he couldn’t get much out.

“Shh,” Tavi hushed him, crossing over to open the crib’s side panels.

The panels on the side of the crib — cage, he violently reminded himself — smoothly swung open with Tavi’s guidance.

Tavi’s hand slid down to Rex’s groin, where he was still — fucking shamefully — hard. His twin frowned. “I thought you would’ve wet yourself by now. You can’t keep fighting it. You’re going to hurt yourself.” He sighed.

Rex glared at him, relying on his anger to keep him from losing himself and thrusting his hips up against his brother’s hand. The word choice didn’t escape him — wet himself, like he was nothing more than the child Tavi was treating him as — and he didn’t like the implications.

As though prompted by his brother’s words, Rex felt his bladder relax. His eyes widened, and he tried to stop it, but it was like his body was fighting him. He hadn’t even known it was coming, then there it was — and Tavi looked fucking pleased.

“There we go,” Tavi said, nodding. “Just took a little longer than I thought it would.”

How many other things was his twin going to do to him? It felt like there would be nothing left of him by the time…

By the time what?

Rex just had to get word to the rest of his family, and they’d put Tavi back into his place. Even the ones who’d always been so sympathetic to their baby brother wouldn’t be able to justify this. They’d have no choice but to condemn him, then…

Rex felt a little queasy, and it had nothing to do with the puffy diaper under his ass and pressing against his cock.

What would they do to Tavi? No. Rex would have to deal with it on his own. They couldn’t know, or they’d take his twin away.

That made everything more complicated. He’d have to start pretending to give in, then his twin would start letting his guard down, then…

Then if he was in a movie, and his brother was stupid, Rex could get free and turn the tables and see just how much Tavi liked being the one strapped down.

All right, so maybe he’d strapped Tavi down before, but never like this. He’d never humiliated him this thoroughly, had never treated him like a baby and taken away his ability to even control his bladder.

He jerked as Tavi unfastened the straps and pulled the diaper back, the wipes still cold and wet against his skin. He was torn between disgust and arousal as his twin folded it up and tossed it, pumping out a little bit of hand sanitizer into his palm before turning his attention back to Rex.

His eyes were dark, intent, and Rex squirmed beneath that gaze despite himself. Tavi lifted Rex’s hips, and… it felt like it was effortless somehow. The last time, his twin had had to work to get his legs up — since he wasn’t exactly cooperating — but this time it was like he was dealing with twigs.

What the…

Tavi slid another diaper beneath him, but instead of fastening it again, he locked eyes with Rex and pumped lotion into his hand. It looked obscene even before Tavi’s hand wrapped around Rex’s cock, but that sent a jolt through him and made it impossible to think about anything but the feeling.

Rex let out a garbled sound behind the pacifier gag, his hips jerking up against his twin’s hand before he forced himself to still again. Tavi didn’t let up, slowly, patiently sliding his hand up and down, and—

It was a diaper change. A fucking diaper change…! He shouldn’t have been this excited, and the feeling of his brother’s fingers around him should’ve had him turned off right away. They didn’t, though; if anything, they made it better.

He moaned.

Tavi said, “That’s Daddy’s good boy. See how good it can be if you behave?” His voice dropped to a whisper. “Isn’t what this what you’ve wanted for so long? Come for me, baby boy.”

He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to come to the thoughts of being Daddy’s good boy, didn’t want to come to the sound of his brother’s voice so seductively sliding into his head and taking hold. But every inexorable stroke brought him one step closer to the edge, and with a choked cry, he couldn’t hold back any longer. He spilled all over Tavi’s hand.

“Fuck,” Tavi whispered.

Rex could turn his head enough to see that Tavi was hard, erection tenting his own pants, but he didn’t expect his brother to unfasten his jeans and ease them and his boxers down. He stared, mouth dropping open as much as the pacifier would let him, as Tavi took the hand smeared with Rex’s cum and…

Oh fuck.

Rex couldn’t catch his breath. Between his own orgasm and watching this — and wondering what the hell Tavi was thinking in that moment — he just squirmed like a baby and watched.

He could imagine Tavi coming over and sliding his cock over his lips, of seeing just how similar it was to his own — of telling him to suck on his cock instead of the pacifier. He moaned around it, helpless, and for once he was glad for the gag.

Because he wasn’t sure if he would’ve been able to resist the urge to beg to do just that.

But Tavi only stood close, his eyes half closed and his teeth dragging along his bottom lip as he worked himself faster and faster. Rex whined, and Tavi met his gaze again, forcing him to confront the thoughts going through his mind even as he was sure his twin had to confront his own.

Neither of them had been too ashamed to come.

Thick, ropey strands of cum spilled onto Rex’s stomach, almost as though Tavi was decorating his skin. It felt final somehow, as if the tattoo on his arm had been transferred to his stomach. He was burning hot, sweat beading his brow, and Tavi choked back any sounds he might’ve made as he stood over Rex.

He moved forward until his cock hovered just above Rex’s mouth, and Rex was torn between the urge to lick and suck and bite and—

Fuck, he was so screwed, and this was so wrong.

Whatever Tavi had been about to do, though, he seemed to lose his nerve. He jerked back, but as he did, a drop of his cum — of their cum — fell onto Rex’s lips, a string trailing down his chin.

Rex stared, wide-eyed, at him. He didn’t know what was going on in his twin’s head as Tavi grabbed another of those wipes and efficiently cleaned them both up, going back to securing the diaper like nothing had happened.

Rex tried to make more urgent noises, but there was something in Tavi’s eyes that stopped him cold when he met them. They were… wrong somehow. They looked distant like the stars, there and not, with something knowing and yet so very ignorant in that gaze.

Tavi didn’t meet his stare for long, going to the dresser and pulling out what looked like… An adult-sized onesie? There was no way his brother was going to be able to wrestle him into that without taking off the bonds, but somehow, that only made him more nervous.

“That’s Daddy’s good boy,” Tavi said softly, fumbling for a moment with the cuff on his left wrist. “If you’re good, you can stretch for a bit. Would you like that?”

His afterglow was still clinging to him — and the knowledge that even if he fought Tavi off, this might still all go to hell — and he didn’t resist, the idea of stretching for a while sounding almost orgasmic in and of itself. He only lay there, blinking, as Tavi gently took the pacifier out of his mouth.

It felt wrong.

He could taste the drop of cum on his lips — that much, Tavi hadn’t wiped away, and his tongue flicked out to taste it. So good, just a hint of—

Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes. It was so wrong. He responded so shamefully every time Tavi treated him this way, and the only thing that kept him from humiliating himself again was that he’d just been milked dry of everything he had in him.

Rex worked his jaw as Tavi unfastened his other wrist with a hand still cool from the wipes, and adrenaline surged through him. His hands were free. He could get the drop on Tavi. He could figure out a way to fix this — could turn the tables, figure out what his twin was doing to him and do it to Tavi instead. He thought that Rex had been too strict before? Tavi would really see it then.

But Rex didn’t do it.

It was a struggle to sit up even with Tavi’s help, and Rex was woozy. He let Tavi support him with an arm slung around his back, and he even let his twin pull his arms through the holes for them and shift so that he could fasten the snaps holding it closed in the front. It was so much more comfortable than being half-naked, and the snaps…

Just like the sound the diaper made every time he moved, the sound of them being snapped into place from the top to halfway down made his cock want to stand at attention. But he was so tired. He didn’t know how long it had been since his last bottle, but it had been long enough for his mind to clear. That was all. He still felt odd, like he was floating almost — and the orgasm had only led to that being even more dizzying.

Tavi gently pressed down on his belly, and Rex let himself be nudged down onto the crib’s mattress. His twin looked at him for a moment, those eyes still inscrutable and foreign, then his hand slid over Rex’s belly and he leaned down just above the diaper and—

Ohfuck.

Was Tavi going to—

Instead of unfastening the diaper again, instead of fulfilling something he’d woken up drenched in sweat from thinking about, his brother’s lips pressed against the skin he’d spilled over just moments earlier…

And gave him a fucking raspberry.

Rex stared dumbly at him, and for the first time he used his hands. He’d have used his fingernails if he could have, but it was impossible to claw at Tavi through the fabric of the mittens. They were breathable, comfortable, just enough to… well, keep him from scratching, like what they did to babies right after they were born.

He snarled, but Tavi caught his hand before he could figure out how to work the strange buckle keeping the base of the mittens secured around his wrist.

“None of that,” Tavi said mildly, as though he hadn’t just stopped his stronger twin cold when he’d tried to fight back.

They should’ve been on more even ground! Neither of them worked out, and it wasn’t like Tavi had had time to bulk up. He didn’t understand. A spell, maybe?

Something wasn’t right.

Only when he went to suckle the pacifier did he remember it wasn’t in his mouth, and that weakened something else inside of him. “Get off me,” he muttered, his voice slurred.

“I don’t think that’s what you really want,” Tavi remarked. He pressed his palm flat against Rex’s chest, keeping him held there with one hand while the other clumsily worked at the bonds securing his feet in place.

“Tavi, this is insane!”

“You didn’t think it was insane when you did these things to me,” Tavi replied, still using that horrible, condescendingly soothing voice people used with children and pets. “When you tied me down, when you cleaned me out, when you kissed me and ground your cock against me. You…” His voice broke, and he stopped. “That doesn’t matter anymore. Now you’re my baby, and that’s all that counts.”

“I am not a baby! That’s— That’s sick! Do you think I’m a goddamn child? Is that what you want me to be?” Rex demanded. “Pervert!”

Tavi stared at him, pausing for a moment. “That’s where people get it wrong, you know.” He unfastened the last cuff, staring down at it instead of looking at Rex. “They think it’s…” He grimaced. “About actual children. It’s not. It’s about…” Tavi took in a deep, shuddering breath. “It’s about power and humiliation and discipline, or…” His twin met his eyes again. “Or it could be about you letting go, baby boy. You’ve had to be the responsible one for so long. Don’t you want to let go, just for a little bit? Let me take care of you for a change?”

Yes.

No.

Rex didn’t know.

Before he could decide or put his thoughts into words, Tavi scooped him up into his arms bridal-style like he weighed nothing, setting him down on a soft, cushioned mat on the floor. “Tummy time,” Tavi said, like nothing had just passed between them.

Fuck this. Rex wasn’t going to just… do this.

He tried to scramble to his feet, but his legs just weren’t working. He could feel them, but as much as he willed them into motion, they wouldn’t react more than a little.

“Babies crawl,” Tavi said. “It’s clean in here. I made sure of it.” The edge of a mocking smile reminded him of how many times he’d said the same thing, and Rex hated it. “You can explore a little bit. There are some soft toys over there,” he pointed to a neatly stacked set of toys, “and when you’re a little bit more grown up, there are more grown-up toys in the living room.”

Rex stared at him, stunned. How much time and effort had Tavi put into this? He knew that he didn’t have a job to try to maintain; there were benefits to being spoiled rotten… even if he wasn’t feeling them right then.

Of course you are. You’re being spoiled.

He willed the voice in his mind to stop, but once it had started, it wouldn’t.

Rex couldn’t help it. His shoulders shook with the force of his sobs as he started to cry, desperate and miserable and confused and aroused all at once, and Tavi scooped him up into his arms and rocked him. His twin shushed him sweetly, and it made everything that much worse.

Then it hit him, why and how—

“Tell me you didn’t,” Rex choked out through strangled sobs. “No. You didn’t.”

Tavi didn’t bat an eye, getting to his feet with Rex in his arms like it was the easiest thing. “That’s going to have to be enough for today. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

“No! Tavi, no!”

Tavi put him down in the crib, turning him slightly so he could swat his bottom. “Daddy,” he corrected.

“Fuck you!”

“There’s another one,” Tavi said pointedly, shifting him to lightly smack his other ass cheek. “Let’s not have a temper tantrum, Rexy.”

It wasn’t like Rex could feel the swats through the diaper, but the intention was there, and it made him feel weaker than ever. “Fuck off,” he muttered. “Daddy.”

“I’m going to keep you from making your punishment worse for yourself,” Tavi said pointedly, grabbing the gag.

Rex was — almost — grateful for the pacifier gag back in his mouth. He sucked on it to distract himself as he tried to flail even as his twin secured him back in his crib like he was a recalcitrant child.

He didn’t bother to fight. If Tavi had done what he thought he had — if he’d gotten vampire blood to augment his own strengths and cancel out some of his weaknesses — Rex was in real trouble. He couldn’t do anything about it, not without his magic, and the idea of his baby brother consuming the blood of the damned…

The trade would never be a fair one, and he knew it. He just didn’t know how much trouble Tavi had gotten himself in — had gotten them both in — but it seemed to be getting worse by the moment.

While Tavi fastened the snaps over his diaper then pulled the side of the crib back into place — like he could really go anywhere anyway — Rex sucked hard on the pacifier.

It wasn’t until his brother had left the room, leaving him staring up at the mobile above him, that he realized Tavi hadn’t secured the gag.

Rex didn’t spit it out, even as the taste of seed lingered on his tongue.