A/N: Alright, I apologize for the lateness and I promise this is the last time it will ever happen. Thank you to ChoukoLightSpirit, akiza blackmore, Durbe the Barian, Jean, Kujaku-Lianne Iceshard, and DanuTalislesk for the reviews on the last chapter. Enjoy chapter 7.
Disclaimer: I'm still not Shin Yoshida, so as a result, I still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal or any of the characters (damn).
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Trey yawned and stared groggily up at Quinton. His older brother had been looking after him for the last four hours, making sure that he was comfortable.
"Quinton, I'm okay now," the pinknette said, smiling weakly.
"Are you sure?" Quinton asked.
Trey nodded. He was still getting used to the attention that his brother was now showing him. It was a welcome change from the way things had been just a few days before when Quinton would ignore him.
"I'm perfectly sure," the youngest of the Arclights told his oldest brother. "Besides you need to get back to Quattro. If he's sick too, he'll need you to be there for him too."
"He's…he's not exactly sick…" Quinton admitted.
"What are you talking about?" Trey asked. "If he's not sick, then what's wrong with him?"
Quinton didn't know how to answer Trey's questions. He really needed to check on Quattro to make sure that his other younger brother hadn't harmed himself again. But Trey didn't need to know that part.
"He's just…having a hard time right now," Quinton explained. It wasn't a lie; Quattro was having a very hard time.
"Is...is he hurt?" Trey asked, looking worried.
"He's just going through a rough time right now, Trey," Quinton said, brushing aside Trey's curly bangs. "Don't worry, I'll be right back, I have to go check on him."
"Okay, I'll try to get some sleep," Trey replied, closing his eyes and allowing his body to relax.
Quinton placed another blanket over his youngest brother and without another word, the twenty-year-old son of Byron Arclight exited Trey's room and proceeded on to Quattro's room.
As he made his way down the hall, Quinton could hear Vetrix laughing hysterically. No doubt something or someone had done something stupid on one of the many cartoons that the mask-wearing man-child watched nearly every waking moment that he wasn't lamenting on Dr. Faker and planning out the latter's downfall.
When he entered Quattro's room, the eldest of the Arclight brothers was dismayed to see that his other younger brother was sitting in the window seat, staring out the window, watching the sleet pelt against the glass.
"Quattro..." Quinton was unable to say anything else and willing himself to keep from allowing his repressed emotions to break free.
Slowly, Quattro turned to face his older brother, his scarlet eyes rimmed with red.
"What?" the seventeen-year-old Gimmick Puppet duelist sulked.
"What are you still doing up?" Quinton questioned. "You were supposed to be in bed an hour ago."
"Well sorry, Dad," Quattro snapped. "I didn't realize I had a specific bedtime anymore. Hell, I thought as long as I 'do as I'm told and show Vetrix some respect', you wouldn't give a damn what I do."
"You need to rest," his brother sighed, knowing he sounded like a father arguing with a stubborn child. There had been a number of times in their past that his younger brother had had the same argument with their father whenever he was caught awake past his bedtime.
Quattro's red eyes narrowed as he glared at his brother.
"Leave me the hell alone," he huffed.
"Quattro, I'm trying to help you," Quinton said, sitting beside his brother and trying to place a hand on his shoulder.
"No!" Quattro jerked away.
"Quattro…"
Quinton's voice trailed off when he saw the undeniable anger on his brother's face and the pain in his brother's eyes.
"So this is what it took to get you to finally pay attention…" Quattro said, trying to keep his voice from trembling as he rolled up the sleeves of his pajamas to reveal the cuts on his arms. "It took Trey getting hurt and sick and both of us opening up our wrists to get you to start caring about us again?"
"Quattro, you and Trey are my little brothers, I've always cared for you," Quinton insisted.
"You've got a funny way of showing it," Quattro sneered.
"Look, if this is about the orphanage, I didn't want that either," Quinton told him.
"You have no idea what those people put us through in there," Quattro said. The seventeen-year-old Arclight no longer looked angry; he now looked hurt…and a little scared…
"What do you mean?" Quinton asked, taking his brother's hand and leading him over to his bed and helping him lay down before covering him up.
'I haven't done this since Quattro was about eleven,' Quinton told himself as Quattro yawned and slowly sank into his blankets and pillow.
"I mean that the people who were in charge there were insane," Quattro began, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "When we first got there the building was so quiet, you couldn't even tell there were any kids in there."
Quinton said nothing.
"Then we found out it was because if you made any noise at all, you were punished," Quattro continued.
"Punished? How?" Quinton asked.
"No idea, but I do know that I saw one kid crying and I think he was bleeding," Quattro explained, a faraway look in his scarlet eyes. "After that, Trey and I never wanted to find out what happened if you made noise, caused trouble, or made them angry. We were always quiet, we never caused trouble, and we never misbehaved. But there were times when the woman who ran the place, the one who took us away, would make up something just to be able to punish us."
Quinton didn't know what to say. He would have never agreed to let his brothers go to the orphanage had he known that it would be like that.
"I never knew…"
"Even a year after we got there, Trey cried for you every day," Quattro was still not finished with his tale. "We both wanted you and Father. We kept hoping that each day would be the day that one of you or both of you would come and take us back home, away from that rat hole…but you never did…"
"I know," Quinton could feel his heart swelling with guilt.
"You knew where we were, didn't you?" Quattro asked.
His older brother nodded.
"Yes," Quinton sighed. "I did. I knew exactly where you were."
"You could have at least visited us when we were there," the younger Arclight sibling murmured, his anger now transforming into pain. "At least once...before Trey was adopted.."
"I…I know," Quinton said, looking down. "I'm sorry, Quattro…I should have come to see the two of you...wait...Trey was adopted..."
"And they didn't want me," Quattro told his older brother. "No one ever wanted me. Some people said that because I have red eyes that meant that I was a bad child. And they didn't want a bad child."
"That's ridiculous," Quinton said, feeling himself growing angry.
"No kidding," Quattro replied. "But the day Trey was adopted turned into the worst night of my life."
"What happened?" Quinton asked. "You can tell me."
Quattro looked at him for a minute before sighing and looking down at his lap.
"They…I can't…it's too painful…"
"I'm sorry, Quattro," Quinton said, wrapping his arms around his brother. "I should have visited you...maybe then you wouldn't have begun to hate me."
"Look...sometimes I say things I don't mean, alright?" Quattro spoke up. "I was just mad when I said that, I wasn't thinking. I don't hate you. But I'm still mad about you always putting Vetrix before us."
"Quattro, you want our father back, don't you?" Quinton asked.
"I thought I did," Quattro answered. "But now I'm not so sure anymore. He's changed so much..."
Quinton couldn't disagree with his younger sibling there. He was right, Vetrix was no longer the father that all three of the Arclight brothers had loved and now missed terribly.
"Quattro, if you're tired, you can go to sleep," Quinton said when he saw his sibling rub his eyes sleepily yet again.
Quattro yawned and sank further into his pillows.
"Trey...thinks I hate him…" Quattro whispered tiredly, now trying to sit up. "I…have to talk to him…now"
"But first, get some rest," Quinton said, gently pushing his younger brother back down onto the pillows. "You need to sleep, Quattro."
"Okay," the scar-faced duelist sighed before closing his eyes. "Goodnight, Quinton."
Quinton was stunned by his brother's suddenly submissive attitude. Normally, Quattro would have insisted that he could take care of himself and that he was going to talk to Trey whether Quinton liked it or not. He also wouldn't have said goodnight. The eldest Arclight began to wonder if Quattro was sick or extremely depressed. Though judging by all of his self-inflicted injuries, probably the latter.
Now the silver-haired Number Hunter had reached a stalemate; he needed to be with Trey to keep an eye on him, but he also needed to be here for Quattro. What could he do?
He heard Quattro sigh softly as he drifted off to sleep.
The seventeen-year-old Arclight had turned onto his right side, causing his scar to disappear into his pillow and blankets.
...
Quinton felt himself becoming guiltier by the second. How could he have stood aside and allowed all of this to happen? Both of his little brothers were hurting and all he had done was stay with Vetrix, carrying out his orders, never questioning anything.
Now, he didn't know what to do. Both of his younger brothers were depressed and both coped by harming themselves. He was their brother! It was his job to protect them and to always look out for them. But now here they were, opening their wrists.
Suddenly, Quinton was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard Quattro inhale sharply and loudly.
"Quattro?"
"No...no..." Quattro squeezed his eyes shut tighter. "No...I didn't...do anything..."
"Quattro, what's wrong?"
Quinton knelt beside Quattro, alarmed by his brother's antics.
"No!"
Quattro's eyes flew open and he started to shake.
"Quattro..."
Quinton was at a loss for words. It hurt him to see one of his younger brothers this way; scared and frantic. If he was able to properly convey the emotions he had long since buried, he would have said something to comfort Quattro. But instead, he held the teenage Arclight protectively, hoping to provide some physical comfort.
'What happened to him in that place?' Quinton wondered. 'What did they do to him?'
He was pulled out of his thoughts when he felt Quattro bury his face in his shoulder.
After a few minutes of sitting together on the side of Quattro's bed, Quinton tried to help his brother lie down so that he could rest. But the second that he made the attempt, Quattro latched onto him desperately.
Still Quinton said nothing. He couldn't think of anything to say that could calm his little brother.
"If it helps you...tell me what happened..." the silver-haired Arclight whispered.
"Horrible things..." Quattro choked out. "Those...people...d-did...h-h-horrible...th-things..."
Suddenly, Quattro inhaled sharply and loudly and buried his face in Quinton's coat.
"Quattro?"
Quinton looked down to see that his brother was already drifting off to sleep and he didn't have the heart to disturb him.
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So, how was it? Let me know.
The next chapter will be out on Saturday, October 25th.
