"Mattie?" Alfred called weakly.
He shivered from the gust of snow blown in.
"Matthew wake up." He said as he shook his brother by the shoulder.
To Alfred's relief he finally groaned in response.
"Mattie get up!" Alfred said with much more volume now that he knew his efforts weren't going to waste.
"Mmm…Al quiet, you're hurting me…" He muttered as he tried to tuck his legs under himself. "Al why's it so cold?" He whined before he slowly opened his eyes.
"Th-th-the window's busted." Alfred said as he pulled his wet sweater on tighter.
"Uh oh…Dad's gunna be mad." Matthew said worriedly before he surveyed the damage to the rest of the car, even the front window was cracked.
"R-right! Hey Daddy, can you turn on the h-heat? Dad! Daddy wake up!" Alfred shouted but immediately stopped when Matthew cried out in pain.
"My head hurts…" he whined as he put his hands to his head, only to draw them back in shock. "Alfred…" He said in a terrified voice as he showed his bloodied hand to his twin.
"I-is th-that…Dad! P-papa! Wake up Matt's hurt!" Alfred screamed but was halted again by Matthew's cry of pain.
"Sorry, uh…there's bandages in the pouch…" Alfred suggested weakly as he tried to look for any sort of authority figure.
"I can't reach." Matthew said in a strained voice as he leaned forward and was just out of reach.
"Can y-you get out your car seat?" Alfred asked before he promptly started to work on unbuckling his.
"Nu-uh" Matthew whimpered before he leaned back into his seat in exhausted defeat.
"H-hey, it'll be okay. Once Papa w-wakes up he'll kiss it b-better and wake up dad and we can h-have ice-cream," Alfred said as he tried to carefully sift through the pile of snow and shattered glass that had spilled onto his lap in order to reach his seatbelt buckle. "M-m-make that hot chocolate…" Alfred smiled at his brother's laughter.
"D-do you know what happened?" Matthew asked as he took in their location. It seems like they fell into one of the ditches Papa kept warning Dad about…
"I th-think one of the cars hit us. It was too sn-snowy to see anything..." Alfred said as he stopped to suck on his cold fingers in hopes of warming them.
"Oh, what do we do? D-dad and Papa are sleeping and we can't wake them…" Matthew said before biting his lip in consideration. "Alfred, do you think this is an em-mergency?"
Alfred paused in thought, drool dripping down his fingers before garbling around them "I dunnu 'ad 'n' aha ah 'igh 'ere."
"But they're sleeping." Matthew argued.
Alfred removed his fingers with a sickening slurp. "But the last time I called Uncle Gilber Dad got mad."
"That's because you only called to ask him to take you to the movies."
"I was going to miss the first sh-show of Captain America! Of course that's an emergency!" Alfred shouted but quickly quieted himself at Matthew's wince.
"I'm tired Alfie." Matthew mumbled as he closed his eyes.
"No don't sleep! We have to call someone." Alfred said fearfully, he didn't want to be alone again.
"How are we gunna call?" Matthew asked worriedly as he looked around.
"You still have Papa's phone right?" Alfred asked hopefully.
"Uh, I think so." Matthew said before he started to dig through the car seat's left pocket and pulled it out, cracked but hopefully still functioning. They were never more relieved they listened to Dad when he said to put it in the pocket if they weren't playing with it.
"Who do we call?" Matthew asked nervously.
"Either Uncle Toni or Uncle Gilber remember?"
"Oh, right…what's the password again?" Matthew asked as he turned on the screen.
"Our birthday."
Matthew stilled looked at him expectantly.
"Just give me the phone." Alfred said with a huff as he took the device with an annoyed expression.
"Sorry…" Matthew mumbled embarrassedly as he watched his brother scroll through the contacts with slimy fingers.
"Want to call U-Uncle T-Toni?" Alfred asked as he shivered. He didn't think his saliva would only make his hands colder…
"Okay…"
Alfred waited with baited breath as the phone rang.
"Francis?"
Alfred sighed in relief.
"Uncle Toni!" Alfred shouted into the receiver.
"Ah, don't yell into the phone Alfred. Where's your Dad? Did he say it was okay to call?" Antonio asked with a touch of confusion.
"They're sleeping and we can't wake them up." Alfred said calmly. He felt so much better now that an adult was there to take charge.
"They must be tired then, why don't you give your dad his phone back and ask if you can call back when he wakes up?" Antonio suggested happily.
"W-we can't, we're s-stuck in our car seats." He thought it was pretty obvious he wouldn't be calling if it were that easy.
"Stuck in your car seats? Where are you? What's going on?" Antonio asked with obvious confusion this time, and with a hint of concern.
"W-we're stuck in the s-snow. It was so snowy that we couldn't see anything and this other car came out of nowhere in front of us and blam! The windows are broken and Dad's going to be really-"
"What! Do you know where you are? How do your parents look! Are you okay?" Antonio asked with rapid-fire speed and full-blown terror.
"Uh…" Alfred said in confusion. Uncle Toni was talking too fast and Matthew kept asking what was going on so it only added to the chaos.
"I'm sorry, alright. Are you or Matthew hurt?" He asked in a clear voice, Alfred could hear a lot of movement from the other end of the phone and lots of Italian too.
"I'm just really, really cold and Matthew bumped his head and it's bleeding really bad." Alfred said nervously as he stared at the blood dripping down the side of his twin's head.
"I need you to tell Matthew not to fall asleep okay? You need to keep him awake and try to keep as warm as possible both of you- Lovino call Gilbert!" He heard Antonio shout.
"Mattie, Uncle T said stay awake." Alfred relayed.
"But I'm tired." Matthew whined as he closed his eyes to emphasize.
"Alfred do not let him sleep no matter what!" Antonio said with such seriousness it frightened him.
"O-okay." He whimpered before hitting Matthew's arm.
"Hey!" He shouted in annoyance.
"Uncle Toni t-told me t-to!" Alfred yelled back.
"No he didn't!"
"Yu-huh!"
"No!"
"Yeah!"
"Both of you stop! Alfred put me on speaker phone!" Antonio ordered angrily.
Doing as he was told Alfred pressed the button he hoped was right.
Silence.
"…Did you press the right button?" Matthew asked nervously.
"I think so…" Alfred said fearfully. If he pressed the wrong button and lost their only hope of safety…
"Try pressing it again." Matthew suggested.
"-fred! Alfred!" Antonio was yelling in no longer contained panic.
"Here!" Alfred yelled back.
"Oh dios mio! You scared me so bad! What happened?" Antonio asked in relief.
"I think I pressed the mute button…"
"Okay, forget speaker phone. Just…what do your parents look like?"
"Uh…P-p-papa's head is on h-his shoulder and his neck is all purple…I…I can't see Daddy." Alfred said as he craned his neck to see around the large chair in front of him.
"He's napping on the driving wheel, the front is all wrecked." Matthew supplied as he stared at his British father's slumped form resting on the steering wheel head first with a deflated airbag spread on his lap.
"He's sl-sleeping on the dr-driving wheel and everything's all crumpled up there." Alfred described.
"…o-…okay, now…now I need you to-…you need to be really brave for me and call nine-one-one okay?" Antonio choked out after a moment.
"Wh-what's wrong Uncle T-t-toni?" Alfred asked concernedly.
"N-nothing! Ah, Uncle Lovino just kicked me is all!" He explained before forcing out a weak laugh. "It just…it just really hurt…" he trailed off.
"Are you okay? Oh, tell Uncle Lovi we said hi!" Alfred said happily. Uncle Lovi was the best; he always taught them how to do the coolest stuff and knew how to keep a secret like Uncle Gilbert.
"I w-wanna talk to him!" Matthew whined as he perked up from his sleepy haze at the mention of their other uncle.
"No, I'm talking!" Alfred said as he leaned out of reach.
"Alfred, give him the phone."
"Fine." Alfred said sullenly as he shoved the phone at his twin.
Matthew smiled smugly before putting the phone to his ear "Hello?"
"This is important Matthew, don't go to sleep okay?" Antonio instructed one last time.
"'kay…Love you Uncle Toni" Matthew said softly before trying to hand the phone back to his brother.
"M' han's 're 'oo 'old." Alfred complained after he put his hands back into his mouth.
"I love you both too, remember call nine-one-one and answer the nice person's questions as well as you can." Antonio said kindly before he sniffled.
"Kay. Bye-bye."
"Bye!" Alfred copied.
"Goodbye." he heard Antonio croak before he hung up.
"Now we call…uh…" It was getting harder and harder to remember things…
"Nine-one-one?" Alfred guessed after he removed his fingers from his mouth the wipe some of the slush off of his lap, still mindful of the beads of glass.
"Yeah." Matthew said as he removed the phone from his ear to dial the number, but they both froze at the sight of blood smeared on the screen.
Alfred felt queasy at the sight. "U-uh…j…just wipe it off…" he suggested weakly.
"…'kay…" Matthew complied as he used the front of his sweater to clean it off. There were still smudges on the screen but they were sure their parents would be able to clean it better.
"Nine-one-one, what's your emergency?" He heard a man say.
"Uh…we're stuck in our car seats…" Matthew said hesitantly.
"Where are your parents?" The man asked concernedly.
"H-hey Matt," Alfred slurred. "I-I'm going t-to sleep 'kay? J-j-just keep…t-talking to the person un…until Uncle Toni comes to pick us up. Or…or P-papa or D-dad-dy wakes u-up." He stuttered as he closed his eyes. Uncle Toni never said he couldn't sleep…and he was so tired…maybe when he woke up it would be warmer.
Matthew looked hesitant but nodded reluctantly as he watched his brother fall asleep.
"Um…they're here with us but they're sleeping."
"Can you wake them up?" The man asked gently.
"Nu-uh, we tried shouting too." Matthew whimpered as tears started to pool in his eyes. His head was really starting to hurt now and he was getting really scared without Alfred to distract him.
"Hey, it's going to be okay. What's your name? How old are you?"
"Matthew…I'm four…" he sniffled.
"Alright Matthew, you need to be really brave now okay? Who's in the car with you?" He instructed kindly yet with enough firmness that Matthew knew that this was important.
"Me, my brother Alfred, my Daddy and my Papa." Matthew listed as he took a peak at everyone as he listed their names.
"Okay now can you tell me what happened?"
"Uh…I can't remember…" Matthew admitted in a small voice.
"It's alright. Do you know where you are?"
"No…"
"Alright, are you or anyone else hurt?"
"I…I bumped my head and it's bleeding…my brother said Papa's neck is purple so he must be cold and…Al is really cold too. Daddy's just…just sleeping I think." Matthew described as his tears really started falling.
"Okay, we're going to come get you alright kiddo? I need you to stay awake okay? Make sure your brother doesn't sleep either."
"Why?" Matthew argued tearfully. His head was really starting to hurt and Alfred had already gone to sleep so he didn't want to wake him.
"Because you'll get even more hurt." The man simplified in a comforting tone.
Panic welled up inside Matthew.
"Alfred…Alfred wake up!" He shouted despite the pain and shook his brother's shoulder.
"Matthew I need you to calm down."
"But, He isn't waking up! You said he'll get hurt!" He was wailing now. He was scared and hurt and cold and just so tired…
"I know but you need to stay calm in order to he-"
Matthew lowered the phone to see it was turning off.
The battery died.
.
.
.
"-ke up! Wake up Mattie, we're here!" Alfred shouted excitedly as he roughly shook his twin.
"Wha?" Matthew asked dazedly.
"Come on lads, it's time to meet your grand-mums." Their father said with a soft smile as he opened the passenger door on Matthew's side to unbuckle him.
"Huh?" Matthew asked in confusion. The more aware he became the faster the ache in his head was fading.
"Turns out we fell asleep! We were waiting for you to wake up before we left! Did you know we have a grandma? So cool!" Alfred chattered as their Papa unbuckled him.
"Mhm, and she's going to spoil you two rotten." Their father said as he tickled Matthew's tummy causing him to squeal in delight.
"Like she did to you?" their Papa said teasingly and their Dad blushed before shouting a response.
"Shut up you stupid frog! At least I wasn't raised by a witch!"
"Excuse you! If I remember correctly you cried at her funeral!" Papa yelled back as he pulled Alfred into his arms and carried him around to the other side of their van.
"I-I did not!"
"Daddy what's a funeral?" Matthew asked curiously into the crook of his father's neck.
Their Dad gave their Papa a sad smile.
"It's like a goodbye party…" he answered softly as he took Papa's hand.
"Can we throw one some time?" Alfred asked excitedly as he looked over his Papa's shoulder to look at the wreckage.
"Sure." He said with moist eyes.
And then they all laughed.
Have a nice day!