The color on Emil's face fades when he hears Lukas' voice exclaim something in a loud, unfriendly tone.
He remains silent to hear what happens, and in a second he gets an idea of what is happening when Mathias responds in a similar tone, but with more impetus.
He stops what he's doing and stands up, approaching the door and putting his ear against it to collect the environment outside. It's not necessary to concentrate too much to hear, their voices can be perfectly heard from where he is. Definitely, somewhere in the house is going to be the scene of another fight.
Emil walks away from the door and goes to his bed to sit on it and try not to notice the heated exchange of unfriendly words between the two older. He can't help but wonder what could it be this time.
Lately things have been very tense between the two, any minimal signal serves to ignite the fuse of another confrontation. And the worst part is not the frequency of these disputes, but how fast they escalate and how violent they become in just a second. It worries him, and although he doesn't think to admit it, it terrifies him. Especially when he realizes that his own name appears several times between erratic aggressive arguments.
He hears how the situation gets out of control, and the sound of objects crashing against the floor and the walls reaches the room. As usual, Mathias's voice is the most prominent and sudden nerves begin to awaken in him when he notices that he hasn't heard his brother's voice in quite some time.
He sneaks back to the door, and doesn't bother to listen through the door again, instead he hurries to open it and peek out to see outside. The image is terrifying.
The expression on Lukas' face is impassive as he swings the huge axe between his hands and the movement makes him wobble on his feet, barely stopping when the edge of the weapon digs into the side of the Dane's head, without his hands being enough to stop the impulse caused by Lukas' strength. Mathias' body collapses languidly and falls to the ground with a heavy thud, and Lukas drops the handle of the precious battle axe to take care of its owner.
Emil closes the door in a hurry when Lukas leans over to pick up Mathias, his heart beating hard against his chest and he runs to his bed, feeling too shaken to resume what he was doing before.
A few hours later he is awakened by his brother shaking him slightly and repeating his name in the darkness of the room, the only illumination coming from the open door.
"It's time to eat."
The atmosphere is undeniable and overwhelmingly tense, and Emil tries to ignore the obvious fact that there are three dishes at the table, although it's just the two of them, perhaps because of Lukas' habit of serving the table for three. He can't get out of his mind the memory that when he passed Mathias' room he could see that the door was blocked from outside.
He struggles to keep his own hands from trembling when he gets the invasive thought that the hands that cooked that dinner also dug an axe into Mathias' head.
"You're not hungry?"
The question is flat and seems rather disinterested, but the intense look of the elder suggests the opposite.
He quickly shakes his head, assuring him that he is okay. Lukas seems unconvinced with the answer, but after seeing him eat without interruption he decides to end the conversation and takes care of his own dinner.
Two days later, Mathias leaves his room, rubbing his head and looking tormented by a migraine.
Lukas looks up from the table, watching the Dane for a moment, before turning his attention to the food in front of him. Emil watches in silence, leaving the breakfast forgotten to prepare in case he needs to flee the room.
"You woke up earlier this time." Norway spits out, staring at him and drowning his words in a sip of coffee.
Denmark chuckles, without removing his hand from his head, although his tone doesn't sound very amused.
"What do you want me to say, dear?" He moves to the table, plopping himself down on the chair next to Emil and making him shudder, without getting him to turn his gaze away from the table. Lukas doesn't ignore this, fixing his eyes on the Dane. "I can't live without you."
Iceland watches in alarm as his brother's grip on the cup in his hand closes tightly, and for a moment he fears that he will throw it over his head towards Mathias; but before he thinks about ducking as a mean of protection, Lukas takes the cup to his mouth again and gives a slow sip.
"Moron."
It's not the first time, and somehow he knows it won't be the last. He doesn't understand how they haven't learned to live together yet, after so many years, he just hopes that they stop killing each other soon.