Spoilers: None
Warnings: Violence, threats, medical, fluff, bromance, hurt/comfort, drama, angst
A/N: I watch a lot of train documentaries about the London Underground and British Rail and at least every season will have an episode about employees getting abuse from customers.
Enjoy:
People were staring at him as he got off the train that stopped at Anvil station. Emmet didn't like it when people had a fixed stare on him. Any other day was okay for anyone to stare at him. That's okay, he was a subway boss, he was bound to have a few stares, mainly in awes. But not like this, not tonight. He hated everyone who had a gaze on him at this very moment. Fuck all of you!
It was just after half nine in the evening, on a saturday. His shift normally ended at 7 on a saturday. Any other day was any time after 11 at night he would finish with Ingo. On Saturdays Ingo finished an hour earlier at 6pm, so he could go back to his and Emmet's shared 2 bedroom flat to make them dinner for the night. Dinner on a Saturday and a Sunday was a luxury for them both. Because on weekdays they work from early mornings to late nights, lunches and dinners were either sandwiches from Gear Station vending machines or their small travel on the go shops, cup-a-soup, pastries, fruits and the odd packets of crisps and boiled fruit sweets. And loads of bottles of water and flasks of tea or coffee. Saturdays and Sunday they only work for 6 hours and then would go home. This was the only time they would eat a proper lunch, or dinner with no junk food involved. Just home cooked, healthy, tasty food just for them two.
Emmet had called Ingo half an hour after 6 to tell Ingo he might be a bit late, some odd paperwork and he'd rather finish those at work then do them at home and get distracted by the telly and his older brother's good company. Ingo was fine by this, as he always way, he was so considering and understanding of his younger sibling's dedication to get the job fully done instead of half done.
"No worries," he had replied to him, as while he hooked his coat up on the rack next to the flat kitchen. "Tell me when you are heading home, and we'll get a take out instead, m'kay?"
The thing was… The paperwork was a lie. Emmet was not in his office getting the work done for tomorrow's due date, those had been done during his lunch break. At that time Emmet had made the phone call to his brother, Emmet was no where near Gear Station.
Ingo was now going to find out the truth behind Emmets lie.
Emmet walked out the block of flats lift and down the open hall towards his and Ingo's shared flat. Their flat was near enough at the bottom of the cold, grey hall. Number 65. He stopped in front of the door, its door a dull, grey colour in line with the other doors that lead into somebody else's flat. The same with the gold number plates that were nailed above the spy hole that was drilled and magnified fitted into the door. The same old same old. The hallways just made you feel even more miserable if already your day sucked dick.
But on the other side of Emmet and Ingo's door was the welcoming of warmth from a electric fire, the smell of mulled cinnamon wine from the electric air freshener that pumped perfume every half an hour, but on a mild setting. Plush forest green sofa and the odd armchair was positioned just right for any brother to see their old school, but perfectly working, box Toshiba tv that sat on a old coffee table. Ingo's Chandelure would already be out of its pokeball, enjoying the freedom while probably Ingo would be out on the small terrace having a quick cigarette whilst sitting in one of the 2 garden chairs and where a table would be placed. Ingo would still be waiting for Emmet to come home.
Inside that flat was their own space of freedom away from trains, challenges and paperwork. Where they could play with the pokemon, eat their meals while watching the telly and chat together like brothers, friends and not like work colleagues. It was their own den, somewhere warm and totally safe.
That's where Emmet wanted to be for the past 3 hours, behind that door, with his pokemon and brother, lost in each others company.
His keys went in the lock and turned, unlatching and letting him into the safe zone. Instantly, the warmth hit his face but it seemed all too much, from suddenly being in the cold to in some intense heat. Emmet slowly walked in and quickly, spotted his brother, still in his work shirt without a tie but in grey jogging bottoms and bare feet, in the kitchen, his back to Emmet while he just at that moment took the kettle of its base after boiling to make himself whatever beverage.
Chandelure was already bobbing about the room, enjoying its nights freedom, very content and gave a cheerful chirp when he saw his master's brother return home. Emmet smiled gently back at the Pokemon and then turned to the door to close it before Ingo turned around to face him. He didn't want Ingo to see him like this.
"Emmet!" Ingo called over to his younger brother, who's head was now resting on the closed door, eyes closed. "You're just in time, I just heated the kettle up, would you like a tea or a coffee before we get take out?"
"Er, no, just put a instant hot chocolate in a mug please, Ingo. Cheers."
Ingo looked at his baby brother, thinking that maybe his brother was leaning onto the door like that was because he was tired. Which was only natural, Emmet had been at work longer than he should have, doing paperwork. Ingo shrugged and turned to get a instant chocolate packet out of the tea and coffee cabinet which had a glass filled with chocolate packets for Emmet. He tore one open, the sweet mint one, while still talking to his brother.
"By the way, about the take out," he casually said, pouring the powder into Emmets mug and then adding the hot water. "You forgot to ring me to say you were on your way home." He got out a clean spoon and stirred the watery chocolate mix till it was less bubbly and more smooth. "I said ring me before you leave so I could order the take out and have it nice and hot in the oven by the time you get back."
Oh, Emmet forgot about that. Emmet groaned and pulled back from the door to take off his hat, gloves and coat. The gloves got shoved into the coat pockets and out came something else, and the coat and hat were hung up on the coat rack next to the door. He moved over to his barista of a brother, who's currently putting a bit of Miltank milk in his choccy to make it somewhat a little sweeter and milky too. Ingo also added some milk to his still stewing rooibos tea, making it go a golden colour.
Ingo, without looking up, gave Emmet the carton of milk to put back in the fridge which Emmet was closest to. Emmet opened the fridge and put the milk back in its place, but didn't shut the door, hoping to hide from Ingo some more while his brother prattled on some more.
"Ah, well, never mind. Do you still want take out anyway or just something heated up?"
"Huh? Oh, no, take out is fine. We haven't had take out in a while."
"Brilliant!"
Ingo walked off to the other side of the room, near the sitting area, where they have a mail pile and junk mail pile which has all these pizza, italian, chinese and fish and chip shops menus to chose from. Some had vouchers to use, discounts to certain restaurants if you used their codes. He picked up the menus and walked back over to the kitchen. Emmet at the time had finally shut the fridge door. He looked over at Ingo, who had this smile on his face he always wore when it came to food.
"So, there's our usual Tai, Italian, Chinese and pizza places but there is a new fish and chip shop called 'Rock n' Sole' that just opened up around the corner an-"
Ingo looked up at Emmet for his judgement on what take out to get for their late dinner, when that was when he saw it; Emmet's face.
Emmets bruised, scratched and stitched face that belonged to a very miserable brother who looked to be in somewhat minor pain. He had a split lip, red from the clot it was forming to stop the bleeding. His right cheek had some red, angry scratch marks that were obviously made by a person than a pokemon. The other cheek had a swelling bruise rising slowly. To do with that bruise was one that cover was now growing outwards from Emmets right eye, which said eye was opened just slowly to see red blood vessels popped due to the force of whatever he received. Finally, his left eyebrow was pink and red with small stitches.
He looked horrible and so so sorry for himself.
Probably anyone else's reaction would be that the menus would had slipped from their fingers and fell to the floor with a soft fluttering sound and would have stared with utter horror and shock at their sibling's face. Ingo didn't. As soon as he looked up and faced Emmet and his brain took in just for the first second of looking up, his knees collapsed on him and he nearly fell to the ground if Emmet hadn't grabbed him. Ingo was as pale as a sheet. His eyes were huge with forming tears as he took in the extent of his brothers battered face. He was shaking too, but that was due to some of the rage slowly building up in him toward whoever had the fucking nerve to beat up his darling and big hearted brother.
"Come on, Ingo, let's go over to the sofa, shall we? I'll bring over the drinks in a minute, you just need to sit down for now before you hurt yourself."
They walked slowly to the green sofa, due to Ingo's legs still being a bit wobbly, with Chandelure following his master and younger brother too, hovering a little bit nervously. All the time, Ingo was still looking at the damage for Emmet's face, still holding the menus, and all Emmet wanted to do was shy away from his elder brothers stare. They got to the sofa, and Ingo was dumped in the right corner. Emmet dumped the small box he had pulled out of his jacket pocket, which when Ingo looked over them, were powerful pain medication. Emmet went and got their drinks, feeling Ingo's stare at the back of his head all the time he picked up the drinks and walked back over with them. He set them down on the coffee table on top of the menus now on the table and lowered himself in the empty seat next to Ingo.
Straight away Ingo pulled Emmet towards him and hugged him, tightly but not too tightly, he had no idea if his brother was suffering bodily harm too. Emmet grunted as he was pulled in and hugged by Ingo. But he was grateful Ingo wasn't crushing him in a tight embrace because even though his face looks like shit, he took some punches to his body too. Mostly his stomach and chest got a beating.
Emmet brought his arms up to wrap around Ingo, trying to comfort his shaking brother, listening to Ingo heavily breath, trying not to cry on him because he was the bigger brother and supposed to comfort his younger brother who should be the one crying from being assaulted. But this was very overwhelming to Ingo, he wasn't expecting something like this to walk through their door at half nine at night.
Emmet buried his face, gently into his brother's hair, trying to be careful of the stitches in his eyebrow.
And they sat there, with Chandelure floating next to Ingo, wondering why his brave and strong trainer had suddenly broken down, for at least 5 minutes before Ingo pulled away, the unshed tears now gone, but his eyes red and Emmets collar a little damp from the small amount Ingo sobbed and some of his drool. Emmet didn't mind.
Emmet leaned over for his brothers drink and handed to him and then picked up his own. "Drink," he ordered, which was odd because he rarely ordered his elder sibling to do anything. "Then we get take out."
Ingo was still eyeing Emmet as he gulped down some of the hot liquid of the fragrant tea. Emmet took a small sip of his and then after a 10 second pause, another, then a last gulp down after 10 seconds more. He put his half full mug and Ingo's back onto the table and faced his brother again.
Ingo wasted no time.
"Who?" he darkly asked Emmet, his fists clenching and unclenching.
Emmet shook his head. "It matter's not, Ingo." he gently said to his fuming brother. "The mans in police custody now, he can't do anything and he's going to get a very lengthy charge thrown at him for assault of employee's."
"Charge?" Ingo's voice rose. Emmet shrugged. "A lengthy charge is not fucking good enough, Emmet!"
"Brother, please."
"No! Emmet, no, I refuse to let this go! I am going to sue the bastard till they declare themselves for bankruptcy! Who did this to you?!"
Emmet wanted to bite his lip from trying to refuse to say who assaulted him, but couldn't because of the worry of reopening the lip wound. Instead he still shook his head.
Ingo groaned flung his hands up in the air in anger. Fine, maybe a different approach.
"Where did it happen then? Was is on your way home?"
"No, no. It… It happened at work."
Ingo just saw black and nothing else as the anger reached a new high.
"Work? You're bullshitting me right? Fucking work?!"
"...Yes."
At this point, the height of anger was trying to come back down and Ingo trying to control himself to get some answers out of Emmet, trying to find out who did this to him. Who deserves a fist in the face, in their gut, drumming on their chest and cracking their nuts or squashing ovaries. He was so mad still he didn't care if the attacker was a man or a woman.
Ingo gradually began to breath in and out slowly to calm his rage and to have a decent conversation with his worried brother. Chandelure had floated off far away from his angered trainer, too afraid to do something. Even to chirp made it frightful incase it angered Ingo. The pokemon hovered nearby the kitchen and only watched, waiting for it to safe enough to bob back over. Ingo saw his pokemon hover uneasily in the kitchen area and felt guilty for frightening it. He felt guilty for releasing his rage on Emmet on demanding answers which Emmet didn't want to answer straight away. Ingo felt like he was treating his brother more like the criminal than the victim.
"Okay, alright. I am so sorry, Emmet, I should not be screaming at you like this. I'm treating you like the criminal more than the victim."
"...Do you need a ciggy? You sound like you might."
"No, no, I'm good, I'm being good, haven't had one since the day before last."
Well, that's one good thing that's come out of this conversation, the fact that Ingo is finally trying to quit his dirty habit. But that's not the point.
Ingo just couldn't stop staring at the damage done to his younger siblings once spotless face. The more he started, the worst it looked and he just felt like crying again, knowing that some bugger had the nerve to do such a thing.
"How did it happen?" he asked. "Was it provoked? Did you wind them up? Or did they just do it for the joy of it?"
Emmet sighed and flopped back into the back of the sofa, but winced as the pain spiked in his back and in the end had to reach over for his pain meds and pop two out and drank them down with his cooling hot chocolate. The cup stayed in his hands. Ingo had now reached over and taken his own cup and gulped down some warm rooibos tea while he waited for Emmet to give him the answer.
Emmet licked the sticky liquid off his lips of the hot chocolate, hissed a bit at the sting of his tongue going over the lip wound, tasting a bit of blood with the mix of chocolate.
"It," he began. A slight laugh came out as he thought about it. "For once, Ingo, wasn't to do with me. And," he put his hand up to stop Ingo from butting in with his anger towards the person in the wrong. "It wasn't just a spur of the moment. The man and his girlfriend attacked one of the ticket inspectors before they went to me."
"Ticket inspector?" Ingo asked, a eyebrow raised. Then something else clicked. "Man and his tart?"
"Yeah. At Dockland Station. This man and his girlfriend had been pulled of the Pink line semi fast train by ticket inspectors Bobby and Lulu. Apparently they both tailgated 2 commuters at Stadium Station and Bobby and Lulu had been tracking them till they were getting of; 5 stops later at Dockland. Pulled to a side on the platform, which thank god was empty at the time, and started to question them. It all went tits up from there."
"So how did you manage to get involved then?"
"They were escorted up to the ticket hall. Then the bloke decided enough was enough and started to get all mouthy and cocky with Bobby. At that time was I in the the main staff office getting the Station Master to sign some paper. Couldn't make it down to Gear Station because of him and that busted leg of his, so I saved him the trouble and went to him. It was on the way home."
"So, you were actually on your way home at the time of the assault."
"Yes. So he was signing the paperwork when I look up and spot Bob and Lu dealing with those two and the bloke started to get really agitated. So, I stepped outside of the office and went over to ask what was happening. Was doing my job."
Ingo smiled at that part. Of course Emmet was doing his job, helping his employees out in anyway possible. It now was understandable that Emmet would be assaulted while doing what he loved doing; helping people. That's what everyone loves about him, he is always there to help.
"Of course you were," Ingo said quietly. "That's one of the best qualities of you, Emmet, you're always wanting to help, even though no would want it, you always help."
Emmet grinned gingerly, "I do my best."
"You do more than your best dear, sweet brother. You give it your all."
The grin turned into a smile. "Thanks, Ingo. But anyway, I go over to ask what is happening and the girl tells me to 'fuck off, none of my goddamn business', and from then on its gets really bad and then Bobby is trying to calm the lady down and Lulu trying to get an answer out of them for why they tailgated those 2 commuters. In the end the man said some really nasty comments about Lu and Bobby. Oh god it was the most vile thing I had ever heard said to a lady. He said his say and then Bobby has lost it and Lu looks be on the verge of tears. Next thing I know, the man has delivered a punch to Bobby's gut. It was a good thing only a few people were in the hall cause before I knew it, I was getting in between the man and Bobby and getting a punch in my eye. Then a kick to my chest.
"Lulu I gathered had ran outside to find a officer to arrest the man and his girlfriend who had now also gotten involved and scratched me. Then she moved to Bobby and her boyfriend gave me the split lip, black eye, the other bruises and his ring on his right hand had split my eyebrow open when he punched. All I could see was blood because it was dripping into my eye."
The anger in Ingo grew again at the description of this attack on his brother and one of his employees. The inside of his right cheek was stinging from him chewing it out of anger and keeping himself from bursting from rage again and to stop himself from going to whatever police station and personally beating the shit out of this man and his fucking tramp. And he would do it, Emmet knew he would.
"How bad was Bobby hurt?" he asked.
Emmet drank down some of his hot chocolate. "Bobby walked away with a aching chest and some scratches to his face and neck and that's it."
"How'd he get less injuries than you?"
"He managed to pin the girl down while Lu went to get help."
"Why couldn't he pin the bastard who did all this to you?"
Emmet turned to look in another direction, not meeting his brother's eyes as he mumbled, "I told him not to."
Ingo didn't miss a beat. "You what? You told him not to bother with the man beating you to shit?!"
At this rate, Ingo was fast heading for a meltdown, that's what Emmet thought. "I told him not to bother. Besides, by the time he finished asking me if I needed any help I had already kicked this git in his bollocks and he went down like a sack of shit."
Emmet evilly grinned at that last bit when he turned back to stare at Ingo's gobsmacked face, mouth hung open. Quickly, he composed himself from the shock and said: "Well, I hope you kicked him hard enough to make him infertile."
Emmet laughed but then a pained gasp fell out when he felt his laugh hurt his damaged ribs. He rubbed them gently but the evil smirk still remained on his face. "His love spuds are officially baked beans now. I even think he got scared of me while he was being dragged out of the station. Mostly I think it was because of the blood I spat in his face too."
"Spitting blood in his face?"
"My colleagues and I were the ones who were attacked and I am the boss of the subway. I do what I want, I was in a fit of rage. The spitting was because of the disgusting behaviour towards Lulu."
"He's getting charged for that too I hope. That was an assault, even if it was minor, on one of our employee's."
"Don't worry, I made sure of that. The girls getting charged too. Under my roof, they would not get away."
Ingo smiled, so proud of his younger brother. Emmet was worthy of being the boss, no, the master in white for the subway network. When he applied for the job, Ingo knew Emmet was right for the job because of his loyalty, commitment and passion for the job he was already doing as a Station master/supervisor and for the job he was applying for. He got the job easily, of course, how could he not. As soon as his first day started and as everyday passed at being a subway boss, he grew more passionate at his job that in the end, he'd risk a lot on his head to do what it would take to protect the train network, its machines, it workforce and, most importantly, its driving force of the system, the people who commute using the network.
And just a few hours ago, Emmet showed how committed to the job he was in helping out their ticket inspectors who needed help in the end, even though it resulted in his assault and a trip to the hospital.
Still, even though Ingo was proud of his brothers commitment, he was still fuming about the attack on him.
"Are the police coming to Gear Station tomorrow to talk to me about this?" They better.
Emmet nodded. "Of course. They said they should be calling in just before 11am, no later than 1….. Look, Ingo, as much as I want to I just can't be bothered to go to work tomorrow."
"What the hell made you think you was going into work tomorrow anyway? Really, Emmet, the doctors at the hospital must have told you you would have a few days off to get better?"
"They did, but at the time I was loopy on morphine to really understand and I felt so nice I thought I would be fine for work tomorrow and I didn't care if I looked like death. It wasn't till I got off at Anvile Station did the drugs wear off and the ache took a hold."
Ingo made a low hiss. "You are going to feel that tomorrow." Ingo nodded to the box or drugs on the table. "They give you the strongest medication I hope."
"Yep, some powerful painkillers if paracetamol doesn't help. Its supposed to be only for before bed to help me rest. Should be kicking in in a minute. God, I just ache all over."
Ingo got up and looked down at Emmet. "Just stay there and take it easy okay. Here give me those mugs and I'll put them in the sink to ash up later."
"Okay, thanks." Emmet handed over the mugs to his brother and then settled back into the sofa with a sigh and a teeny wince of pain but nothing else. Those painkillers must be kicking in then. He watched paused for a seconds before asking, "Do you still want take out, Ingo?"
Ingo shrugged and asked back "Do you?"
Emmet nodded with a small smile up at his brother. "Yeah. I'm starving."
Ingo smiled gently at Emmet before turning to walk to their kitchen. Well, at least his brothers appetite is still there. Putting the mugs in the sink to wash up later he got a glass to fill up with water while he called over his shoulder to Emmet, "You choose what to order tonight, Emmet."
"You sure about that?"
"I trust your judgement."
Emmet smiled gently at his brother then a raised an eyebrow when he brought over a glass glass of water.
Ingo just shrugged, "In case you're thirsty, those hot chocolates you drink are very sweet, you know."
Emmet nodded as he was handed the glass. "Cheers," he thanked his brother and then drank the whole glass and handed it over to Ingo and picked up the take-away menu to decided which one to have tonight if he could stay awake that long.
Ingo went back over to the kitchen sink and began to wash up the cups of coffee and hot chocolate and water slowly, taking his time, trying to not get any more angry than he still is about the shape his brother returned home in. He breathed deeply in through his nose, trying to remain calm.
"I think 'Rock 'n' Sole' sound pretty nice," Emmet piped up over to Ingo, jolting the younger man out of his thoughts.
"Oh yeah? That what you fancy or is it just because I said its new and I wanted to try it?"
"That too but also because I fancy it too. Sounds nice. I'll have a small cod and chips with pot of mushy peas"
Ingo turned and beamed, "Sounds like plan, I'll have the same too. I'll put an order through for delivery while you go get freshened up. You look terrible."
"Cheers Ingo, that's nice of you to say so."
"I do try Emmet."
Ememt laughed and proceeded to get up and make his way over to his bedroom to get cleaned up and changed into pyjamas before late dinner.
Ingo made the phone call to the chippy and put in for him and his brothers order for delivery at their address and the woman on the other end repeated his order back at him to make sure she'd got it all down, said for a meal over 10 dollars they get a free liter of cola so that was all well and dandy and said their order should be there in 45 mins because it was busy tonight and their journey could be 10 minute scooter ride from the shop to their block of flats.
Ingo thanked the woman and put the phone down and went over to the bathroom door where he heard the shower getting turned on. He didn't even hear Emmet come out of his room go into the bathroom for a shower. He gently knocked on the door.
"Emmet?"
"Yeah?" his reply came back through the door, sounding tired.
"It will be 45 minutes before eating okay cause the shops busy, okay?"
"That's fine. I'm going to lay down for a while before dinner, alright. I'm shattered and the painkillers are kicking in now."
Ingo frowned. "Emmet if you are tired go straight to bed, alright. I'll cancel dinner and we'll have it another time."
"No, don't do that, I need to eat something, doctor said so. It will be for 30 mins, wake me up 15 mins before 45 minutes. I'll be okay once I get food in my gob."
"... If you're sure?"
"Positive."
"Alright then."
"Thanks."
Ingo walked away and back to sit in the living room, watching whatever was on the telly. Eventually, Chandelure came and joined him, hovering over his right shoulder, giving off a calming effect on his master who deep down inside is still stewing his anger at the man and woman who assaulted his innocent brother.
5 minutes later Ingo hears the door to the bathroom open and close, signalling him of Emmets exit. Ingo turned his head slightly to see his brother come out of the steaming hot room in a soft blue towel, just to make sure he was okay, if he needed any help getting to his bedroom. The padding of his bare feet down the hallway towards Emmet's bedroom was soft, as was the small sigh he gave out and the open and close of the bedroom door. Ingo turned back to the telly showing some kind of document about life in a Pokemon Centre. This sort of thing was not his cup of tea really, but at the mo, he couldn't be bothered to flick through the other channels to find something else half decent on the telly than watch Nurse Joy talk about what was wrong with a certain Chimecho's liver or something like that.
Ingo must've dozed off at some point because there was the sound of the door bell ringing at 10:36 from what the clock was saying, Chandelure was floating off somewhere in the flat and the program on the telly was no longer about the Pokemon Centre but now about a Magikarp fishing program coming in from over the Johto region. Groggy, he got up from seat and made his way over to the front to open it up and accept his and Emmet's very late dinner, exchanging money for grub.
He locked the door after him now knowing they are to expect no one else. He set down the hot paper full of chips, battered fish and mushy peas on the kitchen counter and then yawned widely. God he was shattered, now only discovering this now the food had been delivered, which is just bloody typical ain't it. Still, he had now paid for the food now and if he left it and went to bed instead, it wouldn't taste the same if they heated it up the next day, fish and chips always taste nice piping hot, the batter crisp but also a little soggy from the fat it was once fried in with the chips all wrapped in the newspaper they come hot and fresh in.
Ingo got out plates, cutlery, napkins and was getting drinks from the fridge when he heard the door to his brothers bedroom open and close. Emmet came in from the corner yawning, dressed in just a t-shirt and boxer shorts with his hair a mess from not drying it properly before going for a power nap. Now that his brother was all cleaned up, Ingo could see a better picture of how bad Emmet's injuries are. It's not as bad as he had first thought due to all the blood clotting on his face, but now the bruises were now bright against pale skin, the same with the pink and red inflamed skin around the stitching and scratches from the 'cats claws'. Now he was wearing a short t-shirt, he could also see some bruising on Emmet arms and red from hands grabbing him at the wrists…. And as that a pair of teeth marks?!
"Doctors gave me a shot for the bit mark, don't worry about it Ingo."
Ingo didn't realise he was hard staring at Emmet's right arm until Emmet piped up. Emmet gave a fragile smile and covered the bite with his left hand to stop Ingo staring.
He nodded towards the bag of food. "You going to be mother?"
He meant 'you going to serve, Ingo?'
Ingo tore his stare away and started to pile out the food from the bag onto the plates, but, still….
"How the hell did they even manage to bite hard enough to cause a mark or even tear into your skin through the shirt and coat?"
Emmet grabbed his small pot of mushy peas and poured them out on the plate, "No more talking about tonight, okay? I'm hungry. Can we just eat and speak about it later?"
Emmet didn't really leave his brother to answer as he reached over to grab a handful of soggy, hot chips and then another handful on his plate. Ingo watched Emmet dump salt and onion vinegar on the chips before letting out a small sigh and then also grab a handful of chips too to dump on his plate.
He wasn't going to let this go, and Emmet knew this. Once Ingo was into a subject, he was like a Growlithe sinking its teeth into someone's leg and never wanting to let go. Even if you did shake the dog off, it would jump and latch onto the other leg. The other leg being Ingo trying a different approach to get info out of Emmet. That was the question about the teeth mark on Emmet's arm. That would be answered later, maybe later early tomorrow morning or late tomorrow night.
But for now….
Emmet managed a smile towards his brother while pouring vinegar on his chips, fish and pea's. Ingo raised an eyebrow at his brothers brave attempt to smile at him.
"Did you hear that Brian from Gear Station's security team found out his niece tried to sell him on the web by asking anyone if they 'wanted to go on a date with my gay uncle Brian'?"
Ingo nearly choked on the mouthful of chips, salt, vinegar and peas he had shoved in his gob. His hand went straight over his mouth to stop himself spraying Emmet and the table with food while he coughed, wheezed and laughed at the same time. Emmet continued grinning while his brother tried to regain control over himself, while still trying to eat the mouthful in his mouth. Finally, he's managed to get through the wheezing coughing and had enough control to swallow his food before he wiped his mouth with a tea towel, a grin hiding behind it, before asking, "What on earth? Oh my god, how did that happen?" and then he continued to laugh at one of the predicaments of their employee's love life.
Emmet himself laughed as he thought about what he was told earlier during the day about Brian and his scheming niece. Then he himself stopped laughing and smiled at Ingo with a twinkle in his eyes as he told Ingo what was going on with Brian, but also with a smile knowing he had got his older, protective brothers mind away with what had happened to him earlier during the day. Even if it maybe for the rest of the night but not the rest of and harmony restored at least for tonight. They could both sleep a little better later on.