Broken Twin

Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction.

I started writing this fic ages ago but I stopped for whatever reason, I thought I might as well finish it today. I'm sorry for the lack of fic recently, I have exams and I'm also working a long fic for this fandom so it'll take a while to come out. I also apologise for any medical errors made in this fic because I really don't know anything about medical stuff due to the fact I err… faint whenever I hear about it, so yeah, the medical details are vary vague in this.

Ahito's phone began to ring, that would be Thran telling him that he was on his way home.

He picked up saying "Big brother!"

"Hello, little brother, I am in a taxi on the way back now. The convention was amazing; I got lots of new parts for my machines! I only wish you could have been there."

"Thran, those sorts of things send me to sleep," he said, yawning to emphasise the point.

"It doesn't take much to send you to sleep little brother."

"That's true, so when do you think you'll be back?" There was a sudden click at Thran's end of the line that indicated that he had hung up.

Ahito shrugged and waited for Thran to call back (he was making the assumption that Thran had accidentally hung up). When after 5 minutes Thran didn't call back, Ahito decided to call Thran back himself to check that everything was fine. No answer. But there was no reason to get worried; the phone could have run out of battery...although Ahito knew his brother well enough to know that Thran wouldn't ever leave a bit of tech uncharged. He had this horrible feeling something was something was wrong- he wasn't sure whether it was common sense that telling him this or whether it was because of the twin-bond he shared with Thran. He told himself it would be alright. It had to be. Maybe Thran had lost signal or something.

So he waited for Thran to come back. He didn't even fall asleep; the worry was keeping him up. After an hour Thran still hadn't come back. That's when he started to get really worried. He was thinking what the logical thing to do was. He could have called his parents but they wouldn't know any more than he did and he didn't want to worry them over what could be nothing. He could have called Micro-ice for some moral support but he didn't really feel like it. Instead he switched on the news to see whether there was a traffic report which could explain why Thran was so late.

What he saw there on the screen shocked him so much that he could barely breathe. The blaze of fire and destruction. A car wreck.

"No," he said, hysterically "that's not Thran. Everyone would get held up in the jam; he's held up."

"The accident victims- Aloru, a 45 year old taxi driver and Thran, defensive player for the Snow Kids, have been taken to hospital and are currently receiving treatment."

Ahito dropped the remote in shock. He couldn't believe that this was happening. Not to his brother.

It then hit him that he knew where his brother was so he ran out of the house and headed for the hospital. All the way he was hoping for Thran to be alright. The news report hadn't said how badly he was injured. He could have just broken his arm or something. The injuries didn't have to be serious. They didn't have to be fatal.

When he finally got there, he wasn't allowed to go into the room, instead a nurse came out to talk to him about what was going on.

"The good news is that your brother's injuries are all treatable. He's not going to die of his injuries and the broken bones will all mend with time...but..."

"What?" Ahito asked, relieved at the first half of the news but at the same time worried about what the 'but' might be.

"I'm afraid your brother's face took quite a lot of damage and he'll be left with permanent scars. I'm sorry."

At first Ahito could only feel relieved. Then he realised what it could mean for Thran. "Okay," he said hoarsely, his throat felt like it was so tight that it was strangling him from the inside. They then sent him home as they wouldn't discharge Thran from the hospital until the next day.

Having to tell their parents what had happened was one of the worst things that Ahito had ever had to do. His parents hadn't known what to do either; they had never expected anything to happen to Thran, he had always been the healthy one, the one with the common sense and intelligence of the family. It had always been Ahito who had been sick.

He didn't get much sleep that night; he was too busy waiting for tomorrow when Thran could come home. He wondered how long it would take for his injuries to heal, or how Thran would react to not being able to play for a while and how he might feel about the scars on his face that would never go away.

In the morning he went with his mother to the hospital to pick Thran up. They had to help him to the car because he had broken his leg; the going was slow as he was still quite vulnerable. Sitting in the car Thran was very quiet, he looked very tired and fragile, it hurt Ahito to see him like that, it was amazing how he was perfectly fine and healthy just 24 hours ago and now he was reduced to someone so broken.

The scars had been made by broken glass and were like a crisscross pattern on the left side of Thran's face, the right side was same as it ever had been apart from a bruised cheek. Ahito tried not to stare too hard, usually he knew what to say to his brother but in this instance all words failed him, Thran had always been the strong and reliable one out of the two.

They got home and helped Thran up to their room. On his bedside table their mother placed all of the medicines that she had gotten from the hospital. Ahito looked at his own bedside table that was similarly covered in medicine bottles and pills.

"Would you like a drink? Or some food?" Ahito asked, hoping he could make Thran more comfortable.

Thran shook his head, slowly, like it was painful.

Ahito thought over what Thran did for him when he was ill, he really wanted to help Thran through this and to be able to look after him properly. "Would you like to watch holo-tv?"

Thran nodded in that same manner and Ahito turned on the tv and passed the remote to Thran who promptly flicked to the main football channel. Thran was watching intently, seemingly engrossed in the broadcast, not saying anything to Ahito whilst they were watching. Ahito wondered whether it hurt Thran to talk at the moment. Eventually Ahito fell asleep whilst watching and when he woke up Thran was asleep. He'd never felt so disconnected with his brother in his life.

Days went by and Thran was gradually getting better and better, especially as Dame Simbai had come by to give some of her unique treatments. But he was still melancholy and he still wasn't speaking much. Ahito was doing his best but he still didn't know how to make things better for his big brother, the whole process was so painful.

"What can I do to help you?" Ahito asked, again, to Thran, looking for anything he could do to alleviate his suffering.

"I'm fine, don't worry, shouldn't you be sleeping?" Thran replied, sounding world weary. Ahito wasn't sure what to say in return so he pretended to fall asleep. He was troubled though, something more that his injuries was plaguing Thran and he wouldn't say what it was.

The other Snow Kids had come to visit; of course they were concerned for their team-mate and wanted to cheer him up. In front of them Thran presented a cheerful front, he acted like everything was okay, taking it all stoically on the chin. The other's reactions had been interesting as well. Most of them had been shocked at the extent of his injuries to start with but soon they were easily reassured that he would be fine and were relaxed around him. Ahito noticed that Mei looked a little more disconcerted than the others, her eyes kept wandering to Thran's scars and then she would avert her eyes and then look again. Ahito supposed it was Mei's vanity that made permanent facial scarring a very distressing prospect. After they left Thran let a sigh of relief go, clearly maintaining the positive façade was a great effort for him. Ahito made a vow to redouble his efforts to assist his brother and to find out what the problem really was.

"Thran, I know you aren't being honest with me about what you are sad about. Please let me help, please," he said, at the next opportunity he got.

Thran looked Ahito and gestured to the scars on his face and shrugged.

"They're getting less noticeable, and Thran no-one is going to judge you because of your face, everyone knows you are a great brother, a great footballer and a really clever guy. A few marks on your face aren't going to matter."

"I don't care about that; it's just that…I don't look like you anymore, I want to look like your brother," Thran said, his tears welling in his eyes.

"You do, a few scars don't change anything, we're still twins," Ahito reassured him.

"Really? I think they make me look really different," Thran said, looking at his reflection in a mirror.

"No, they make you look slightly more cool, like Sonny Blackbones or something, but apart from that we still look pretty much the same."

"I suppose. Thanks Ahito, I guess I was being pretty silly," Thran said, looking happier than he had for days.

"No problem, bro, it's about time you had an irrational moment- I've had loads in my time," he said smiling. The brothers hugged and they knew that everything was going to be okay.

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