I Won't Call You Brother

Chapter 1

Full Summary: Frightened, orphaned little four-year old Emil is taken to live in an orphanage after his mother died. Nobody pays him much attention there except for four other orphan boys who includes him in their little gang. One of them, nine-year old Lukas, takes it upon himself to act as Emil's older brother. Lukas continues to be a doting big brother to Emil even when they have grown up, but Emil doesn't want to call him "brother" anymore.

Emil does not know where he is going.

After his mother was buried, he was carried off by people he did not know away from his mother's grave. He had thrashed and screamed, refusing to come with these strangers but they were big and he was small and he could not fight against them.

"Mama!" he wailed helplessly.

He was placed in the backseat of a car and a woman sat beside him. Emil clutched his stuffed toy, Mr. Puffin, close to his chest, afraid.

The woman smiled at him. "Don't be afraid, Emil. We will not hurt you. We are going to take you to an orphanage and you will live with many other boys who have no parents like you. You will make a lot of friends there, and you won't feel alone."

Emil sniffed. "I want my Mama!"

The woman reached out and patted Emil's hair. "I'm sorry, dear. But your Mama is gone. There is no one else left to take care of you, and that's why we're taking you to the orphanage."

The woman was very nice and sweet, Emil thought, but she was not his Mama, and he wanted his Mama. But his Mama was dead. And they are taking him to an orphanage. Emil does not know what an orphanage is, and he is scared. The woman said that there are other boys in there, but Emil does not want to be with other boys. He only wants to be with his Mama.

"Mama…" Emil cried to himself, hugging Mr. Puffin tight. He can't help but think of his Mama, who was so beautiful, with warm and gentle hands, a loving smile, and a soothing voice. All of it was gone now, for Mama is dead, and she is never coming back.

Emil did not know when he had fallen asleep, but in his dreams, Mama was there, taking him into her arms, kissing him gently on his forehead, carding her fingers through his hair, singing him lullabies and rocking him back and forth like she always used to. And somehow, he was not so afraid of the strangers anymore.

When Emil woke up, the car had stopped. He yawned and rubbed his eyes.

"Did you sleep well?" The woman asked him and smiled at him.

Emil nodded. He was feeling a bit better compared to when he was before he fell asleep.

"I'm very glad to hear that. Look, we're here! This is your new home. Doesn't it look nice?"

Emil looked out of the window and saw a large red house behind huge black gates. It was a lot bigger than the house he and Mama had lived in.

The woman opened the car door and held her hand out for him. "Come on," she smiled warmly at him again.

Emil took her hand and she squeezed it. Slowly, carefully, she lifted him from the seat and carried him out of the car.

He looked up at the woman. "Are you my new Mama?"

The woman laughed and smiled at him affectionately. "Oh, my dear child, I wish I could say yes. But I do not work in this orphanage. I was only tasked to bring you here. You will meet your new Mama soon. She is inside. Are you excited?"

Emil does not know if he is excited. If this woman was going to be his new Mama, he would've been okay with it. But it turns out that his new Mama was another woman. He was scared again.

"Don't leave me here! I want you to be my new Mama, not her!" Emil's eyes were pleading as he clutches her arms.

The woman's eyes looked genuinely sorry as she brushed the tears off his cheeks.

"I'm so sorry, darling. But I can't. The authorities ordered for you to be taken here, and it is not something I can disobey."

Emil's heart was broken for the second time. He cried silently as the woman carried him through the gates, the driver following behind them, carrying bags that contained Emil's belongings.

When they approached the door, the woman rang the doorbell. Emil tightened his grip on her shirt, refusing to let her go.

The door was opened by a tall woman carrying a stick in her hand. "Yes?" Her eyes widened when she saw the visitors. "Oh, it's the new kid?"

The nice woman carrying him gave the woman at the door a huge smile and hefted Emil up so that she could see him better. "His name is Emil. He's only four years old. His mother died just very recently."

The woman at the door took a closer look at Emil's face. He immediately buried his face in the nice woman's neck.

"And the father?" the orphanage woman asked.

The nice woman shook her head. "Emil's mother was a single parent. We didn't find any information about his father."

The orphanage woman nodded her head and opened the door wider. "Alright, then. Come in."

The nice woman followed her inside as she soothingly ran her hands up and down Emil's back. Emil was frightened. He did not want to live in this big, scary house. The orphanage woman scared him very much. She did not smile and she carried a stick. She does not seem like a Mama at all.

As they were led to the living room, Emil saw a bunch of other boys hovering by the stairs, staring at him. He turned his face away. He was scared of them too.

"Okay," the orphanage woman began, eyes staring into Emil's, "I am Miss Thilde, and I run this orphanage. As you can see behind me, there's a lot of other orphan boys in here, ages three up to seventeen."

One of the boys, who looked about ten or eleven years old with wild blond hair, grinned and waved at Emil.

Miss Thilde turned around and glanced at the boy who waved. "That's Mathias, and he's the naughtiest and loudest boy in here. For the love of god, don't be as wild as him. I can't handle another gremlin in this house. I expect you to be a good boy, yes?"

Miss Thilde was waiting for an answer. Emil turned his head to look up at the nice woman's face. She gave him an encouraging smile.

Emil gave a weak nod.

Miss Thilde gave a satisfied smirk. "I can see you're quite the shy little lad. I don't think I'm going to have a lot of problems with you."

Emil had cried when it was time for the nice woman to leave. He had begged, and grabbed at her shirt so tightly that the other boys had to pull Emil away from her.

"I'm sorry, darling," she had said, "I'll visit you again someday, okay?" And then she was gone.

Emil was now all alone in this big scary house, with a bunch of scary other boys, and the scariest among them all was Miss Thilde, who carried a stick and wore an eternal stern face. He was scared of them all that all he could do was cry and shrink in the couch, holding Mr. Puffin tight in his arms and begging for his Mama.

Miss Thilde stood up and gave an exasperated sigh. "You have no more Mama, boy. You could do well to stop crying now." When Emil did not stop crying, she turned to face the other boys. "Can any one of you play with him here or do anything just to make him stop crying? My head is aching!"

"Ohh, I will!" the boy called Mathias raced down the stairs to stand in front of Emil.

"Good," Miss Thilde started stalking out of the living room. "Take care of him."

When Miss Thilde disappeared, Mathias grinned widely at Emil.

"Hey! Stop crying!" Mathias tilted his head to think of something to do. "Ah!" he exclaimed, and then started making various goofy faces in an attempt to make Emil laugh. He squished his face between his hands, then he brought his two hands in his mouth and stretched each side, waggling his tongue.

It did not seem to work. Emil just continued crying.

A hand shoved Mathias aside. This other boy did not have the same wide grin and mischievous face as Mathias. He was quiet, and his dull indigo eyes stared at him curiously. Emil stared back. It seemed that he had forgotten to cry.

"You're so mean, Lukas!" Mathias pouted. "I was just trying to make him laugh!"

Lukas narrowed his eyes at him. "Well, he didn't laugh, did he?"

"He tried, Lukas," Emil turned to see two more boys approaching them. The boy who spoke had a round, smiley face. "Hi there," he said, gently placing his hand on top of Emil's, "my name's Tino, and this is Berwald." He gestured to the boy beside him. Tino looked nice and friendly, while Berwald just stood there with a straight face.

"He-hello," Emil sniffed, his voice small and quiet.

Tino's smile widened. "Don't worry, Emil. We won't hurt you. All of us here has no more Mama and Papa, so we consider each other brothers."

"Brothers?" Emil asked. He had never had a brother. It had only been him and his Mama before. He didn't know what it was like to have a brother.

"Yes," Tino giggled, "we can be your family from now on. Even if we don't have a Mama and Papa, as long as we've got each other, we'll be okay, right guys?" He turned to face his friends.

"For sure!" Mathias jumped on the couch and threw an arm around Emil, "and I will be the best big brother you'll ever have!"

But then Lukas stepped forward and lifted his hand to gently wipe off the tears that still lingered on Emil's puffy cheeks. "I always wanted to have a little brother," he whispered, so softly, as if he were talking to himself. Lukas did not smile at him like Tino and Mathias did, but there was something in his eyes that seemed to communicate itself to Emil. It was something that he always saw in his Mama's eyes. He did not know what it means but he knew that he felt safe. Lukas's hand then went to the top of Emil's head, and he began to gently stroke his hair.

There was something so familiar with Lukas's touch. Emil did not know why but he feels like he should know. But he doesn't know. So he just leant into the touch and smiled.

"Look! He smiled, he is so cute," Tino gasped.

"No fair!" Mathias pouted, "Why didn't my goofy face work?"

"Ye scared'im," Emil hear Berwald speak for the first time.

Lukas's hand then went down to take one of Emil's hands and tugged. "Come on," he said with a small smile, his hand holding Emil's firmly, securely.

For once, Emil did not feel afraid anymore. Somehow, he felt that he would be safe with these four strange boys, and especially safer with Lukas. He felt like he belonged with them, and that everything will all be okay.

Author's Notes:

Hi all, I'm alive! Okay, I know that it's been a year since I last updated Where My Wild Friends Are and I should probably update that one and my other fics instead of posting a new fic BUT I just can't seem to continue it as of now. I don't know why, but I've been trying. I always have the urge to write though, so I tried to write something else instead of USUK. I guess, I needed to write something entirely new, and so here we are now, with this new fic!

Yes, this is going to be NorIce. I normally don't like incest ships but I wanted to explore the relationship of these brothers. I find them so intriguing. Also, I've been obsessed with the Nordics recently and so I wanted to write something about them! I'm thinking of writing a DenNor fic too (it's my 2nd OTP after USUK!) in the near future.

I hope you guys bear with me, the last semester really drained me because of my thesis so I couldn't find any time to write. Hopefully I can update WMWFA and Our Book Bound By Love really soon. I want them to be updated quickly just as much as you guys and sorry if you're starting to think that I'm abandoning them.

Love you all.