A/N: Hey all, I'm so sorry for not updating in practically a year! I never thought I would be one of the writers who did that! A lot has been going on for me lately, but I am doing my best to continue and finish the stories that I am writing! Thank you all for being so patient with me during this trying time! Hopefully, I will make it through the difficulty and be able to finish this story within a reasonable time!

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Once everyone was back at Max's house and changed out of their dance attire, they all gathered in the basement to watch movies on the Schmit family home theater, each couple sitting in a different section, yet only one couple was actually watching what was on the screen. Emil, after kissing Leon at the dance in front of the entire student body, had no idea what to do next, especially since they were technically alone in their corner of the home theater.

Every time Emil dared to look over at his new boyfriend, he always found Leon staring at the screen, but whether the Asian boy was watching the movie or not was anybody's guess. Though he loved being able to admire Leon without him noticing, he wished that he would look over and see his boyfriend gazing back for once. With that said, Emil still tended to blush and look away whenever Leon looked over at him, causing the other boy to smirk and chuckle to himself.

Finally, about halfway through the movie, Emil began to feel brave. He slowly reached his arm over to where Leon's was resting between them, gently placing his pale hand over his boyfriend's tanned one. His breath hitched when Leon reached his thumb up and took his pinky finger captive under it.

The two teenage boys locked eyes for a long moment before Leon grinned and leaned closer to Emil. "Hey, Em, it's okay to breathe," he reminded. "In fact, I would prefer it if you breathed."

Emil let out his breath with a burst of quiet laughter. "Sorry," he softly apologized. "You just took me off guard is all."

Leon raised an eyebrow at him. "I took you off guard just by doing that?" he slowly asked. "Well that was just my thumb. Imagine what else I could do." He winked at his boyfriend before leaning in to kiss him.

The Scandinavian boy's eyes widened, but he quickly forgot about the initial shock of it all as his eyes drifted back shut and his mouth opened against the other boy's lips. His arms wrapped around his boyfriend's shoulders, tangling his fingers into the Asian boy's hair as Leon leaned in toward him. Emil held tightly to Leon as they kissed, struggling to keep himself anchored to reality as his head spun with moments of pure fantasy.

Through all of the chaotic, semi-lustful feelings going on in his head as they kissed, Emil felt Leon's hands caressing his sides over his shirt. Unable to contain it all inside of him, he let out a soft moan against his boyfriend's lips. Shocked from the moan in general, he quickly pulled away from the other boy, violet eyes wide.

Leon couldn't keep his excited smile to himself. "What was that?" he softly teased. "Was that what I think it was?"

Cheeks a rosy red in embarrassment, Emil shyly crossed his arms over himself and began to mentally dive back into the depths of his mind to lock away the memory of the first time he made a sexual noise at his boyfriend, hopefully never to be remembered again. And for the rest of the night, he kept every noise to himself, too embarrassed to let Leon hear.

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Lukas rolled up to Max's house just before noon the next morning, radio blasting the music from some new hardcore band he had discovered, causing Emil to blush as his friends all told him how cool his brother was. Emil quickly denied Lukas ever being "cool" and hurried off toward the embarrassingly loud music.

"Bro, check this out!" Lukas excitedly enthused the moment Emil shut his car door. He opened his mouth wide and stuck his tongue out to reveal a diamond stud on his tongue. "I got my tongue pierced!"

Emil tried not to cringe as he buckled his seatbelt. "Oh," was the reaction he finally decided upon. "That's pretty cool, I guess." He turned his head from his brother and blankly stared out the window as they pulled away from the large house.

"You know what I think?" the older of the two thought aloud. "I think we need matching tattoos or something to solidify the fact that we're brothers."

"I think matching addresses on our ID's is solid," Emil stated with a sigh. He appreciated what his brother was trying to do for him, but he felt it was too late in his life for it. Having only met Lukas not even six months ago, Emil wasn't too sure on getting a permanent reminder of the fact that he'd unknowingly had a brother the whole time.

Inside Emil's head, he mentally chided himself for being so rude to Lukas, who was only trying to bond with him and get to know him. But if Lukas had known about him the whole time, why hadn't he come sooner? What made it so important for him to be a caring older brother now, of all times? And also, what made Lukas suddenly turn into being a teenager again instead of the responsible adult older brother that Emil had met that summer? What was really going on with his brother?

"Hello?" Lukas asked, bringing Emil back out of his thoughts. He was answering a call on his phone, which Emil had mistaken as a call for his attention. "Yeah, I just picked him up. We're on our way there." The pale blond listened for a moment. "How should I know? We'll be there in a few minutes." He paused to listen one last time. "Okay, I love you too. Later." Lukas hung up his phone and looked over to his brother. "You don't mind if we go to the University to have lunch with Mat, right?"

Emil shook his head as they turned onto Melrose Drive. He watched as Kinnick Stadium and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics got closer and closer. As they turned onto Hawkins Drive, Emil's eyes went wide. The hospital that his brother-in-law worked at was enormous!

After parking their car, Emil and Lukas walked across a skywalk from the parking ramp to the actual hospital. They took an escalator down to the first floor and ended up in the main lobby. There was a woman playing a beautiful grand piano in the middle of it as they walked toward the cafeteria, which was close to the emergency room, where Mathias worked as a triage nurse.

Mathias was waiting at the entrance to the cafeteria. "Hey guys, thanks for joining me for lunch," he greeted with a grin. "Work has been extra killer today, so it's good to see my two favorite faces." He pulled Lukas into a hug and kissed his cheek. "What do you say we get some food?"

Emil grabbed a tray and stepped into the cafeteria, completely surprised by the large variety of food directly in front of him. His eyes widened at the number of options. At just the sight of the many different cuisines to choose from, his heart began to pick up in speed. There was no way he was going to be able to make a decision to eat something in time to eat with Lukas and Mathias! As he tended to do in those situations, he got in line behind Lukas and just got everything Lukas did.

Once they reached the seating area, which was pretty crowded, Mathias led the way to a table that was empty except for one person. Mathias sat next to the person with a wide grin on his face. "Hey man, what's up?" he greeted as Emil and Lukas walked over and sat down across from Mathias and the person.

"Emil?" the person at the table asked in an all-too-familiar accent. Emil's eyes darted up to see Leon's brother Yao sitting across from him. "What are you doing here?" The thoughts in Yao's head all seemed to connect as he turned to Mathias. "Wait a minute. Don't tell me Emil is younger brother you tell me about?"

The Danish man eyed Yao and Emil suspiciously before speaking. "And how do you know Emil, Yao?"

"Are you kidding?" Yao laughed. "Emil comes to my house all the time. My younger brother is his boyfriend."

Lukas choked on his coffee for a moment, quickly covering his mouth with a napkin. "Wait a minute," he said between coughs. "My little brother is dating your little brother? Since when? Why haven't I heard about this?" He quickly shot a non-threatening sapphire glare over to Emil.

"Oh, it was only made official last night at the dance," Yao quickly answered, ignoring Emil's pleading gaze to him. "Leon texted me about it right after it happened. He was so excited." The Chinese man chuckled. "I swear, Emil and Leon are quite the pair."

Lukas narrowed his eyes at Emil. "So Leon is that friend you were telling me about, huh?" he asked his brother. "The one who also lives with his older brother?" He watched Emil slowly nod before shrugging. "Well all the best to the boys, right?" he cheerfully told Yao.

"That's what I'm thinking," Yao laughed. "Also, who taught Emil his manners? He is the most well-behaved guest we've had in our house in years. Much better than that Korean kid who used to come over all the time."

Emil zoned out as the three adults began talking. He couldn't believe that Yao had so casually told Lukas about his and Leon's relationship. Now Lukas would never let him live it down that he heard about his relationship from a virtual stranger.

All Emil wanted to do was crawl under the table and disappear from existence. Though the spotlight was no longer on him, he could still feel the heat from when it was. His lungs felt heavy and full whenever he breathed, no matter how much air was actually inside them. He could feel his body burning up in some areas, yet there was no chance for anything to relieve it. It were almost as if everything stopped and was now moving again in slow motion, gradually picking up speed.

Once things started to return to normal and make sense once more, Emil noticed that everyone was finished eating. Everyone except for him. His food was left untouched and was now lukewarm. So as not to attract suspicion from the other men at the table, he quickly took a few large bites to make it look like he had been eating the whole time.

The food was like cardboard in his mouth, in the aspects of both taste and texture. Though he had taken a bite of pizza, it felt as if there were sharp and pointy edges to it. His teeth couldn't chew up the thick crust the way he wanted them to, unable to cut the pizza between them. With a hefty gulp, he managed to swallow it, yet he felt it go the whole way to his stomach.

Emil cringed and pushed the tray of food away from him, trying not to attract attention from the others at the table. Luckily, he didn't, which made him feel slightly less nervous than he already was. Trying to find something mindless to do, he pulled his phone out of his pocket. The lock screen was up, showing off a selfie Leon had taken of the two of them at the dance after everything with Eve had gone down. A tiny smile formed on his lips as he gazed at Leon's smile in the picture.

"Is that him?" Lukas asked, shattering Emil's thoughts of peace. He was leaning toward his younger brother and smiling at the lock screen. His sapphire gaze went back up to Yao. "Your brother looks pretty similar to you, Yao."

"Oh, really?" Yao asked, blushing. "Well, thanks. Though we may look similar, Leon and I are complete polar opposites. Emil can attest to that."

With all eyes on him, Emil couldn't help but absently nod his agreement. It was anything he could do to get them to stop looking at him. Attention from adults scared him and made him feel like slightly less of a person. Though the feeling could never be properly put into words, it was more relevant than any other thing Emil had ever felt. Not just relevant, but intense.

Not much longer after that, it was time for Lukas and Emil to leave. Yao had already gone back to work, and Mathias was getting ready to head back to the ER. Emil followed his guardians to the entrance to the ER and quickly averted his eyes when Lukas kissed Mathias goodbye.

"When were you going to tell me about Leon?" Lukas asked once they were in the car. He pulled his seat belt across his body and pushed it into the slot with a small click. "Don't you think that's some exciting news you could have shared with your brother like Leon did with Yao?"

Emil, already buckled in, absently gazed at the concrete wall in front of them. He slowly shrugged. "It's not like I meant to keep it from you. I just thought it didn't matter too much. I mean, it's just a high school boyfriend. It's not like I got married behind your back."

"You might as well have," Lukas sighed, starting the car. "Look, I feel bad that I wasn't around until a few months ago. I'm trying so hard to be part of your life. Like that time you had a hickey and I pretended to not notice," he began, unaware of Emil's red face. "I didn't acknowledge it because I was hoping you'd want to tell me about it. I just want to be someone you can talk to about things. You're my little brother, and I want to give you advice that I wish I had gotten at your age. I didn't have a big brother, but sometimes I look back and wish I had."

"I didn't even know you existed for the majority of my life," Emil defended. "And then when you showed up, you took me away from Mom and brought me to a country where everything is so much more different than anything I had ever known. Excuse me for not telling you everything that goes on in my life. I'm still not used to this whole 'brothers' thing." He crossed his arms over his chest and turned his head to look out the passenger's side window, stopping the conversation right then and there.

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Once Monday morning finally rolled around, Emil felt a bit more relieved. He could finally see Leon again. After the fiasco with Lukas in the car, Emil had barely spoken to him. It was simply small talk over dinner and things of that sort. Though Emil felt awkward about it, there was nothing he could really do.

On the way to school, Emil noticed Lilli stumbling down the street and asked Lukas to pull over and pick her up. His older brother willingly obliged as Emil rolled down the window on his side of the car and called out to the small blonde.

Lilli looked up, startled, at the sound of her name and hurried over to the car. She got into the backseat without a word, eyes red and puffy, her nose bright red. Her hands scrubbed at her eyes as if to wring the last of her tears out of them. It was obvious that something had happened at home that morning or the night before, but Emil knew better than to ask with his brother present.

As Lukas began driving once more, Emil slipped his hand behind his seat and felt Lilli grab it tightly with hers, squeezing it as if her life depended on it. Though Lukas cast his brother and the young girl in the back seat curious looks, he never said a word until after Lilli had hopped out of the car at the school.

Lukas grabbed Emil's arm, holding him back for a brief moment. "I don't know who that girl is, or what your connection to her may be, but it's obvious that she needed you today. Make sure you take care of her, okay?"

Emil nodded and got out, shutting the door behind him. He then turned to Lilli. "I'm sorry about my brother," he apologized as Lukas drove away. "He's a bit strange." He grabbed Lilli's hand in his as he led her toward their friend group's designated meeting place. "Though I have no idea what's going on, I can tell that things aren't okay. I'm not going to try to pry it out of you or make you talk about it. But I will do one thing. I will listen if you ever need to talk about it."

The blonde girl smiled to herself before standing on her tip-toes and kissing his cheek. "Thanks, Emmy," she softly said, forcing a smile. "I'm sorry to have made you worry. I'll try not to let it happen again." Lilli squeezed his hand before letting go and running off toward Natalia.

Emil had never seen Lilli looking so small and defeated, which really made him wonder about her. His mind pondered over what could have made her react in such a way, and within moments it wasn't just her situation that he was pondering. He honestly had no idea what the actual home lives of any of his friends were like. It made him wonder how well he really knew them.

"It's a fucking Monday!" Leon shouted out from behind Emil. He was walking with Yong-Soo and mostly speaking with emphatic hand gestures.

"It doesn't matter if it's a Monday or not," Yong-Soo chimed in as they got closer to their group of friends, "you hate every day that you have to come to school."

"Nah, man," the Cantonese boy said, shaking his head. "What you don't understand is that Monday is kinda like a deception day. You had the whole weekend to just dick around and do whatever, and then Monday just hits you like a knee to the balls. I mean, there are even times where there is no school on Mondays! Then I have to get pissed off at Tuesday, and I really don't like doing that because Tuesday didn't do anything wrong!"

"And just how many drugs are you on?" Neoklis asked Leon once they were close enough. "I mean, everyone hates Monday. Monday is a bitch. But if you think Tuesday is completely innocent, that's where you're wrong. Wednesday is the only day that really has your back because of early outs from school."

Leon dramatically pointed to his friend. "You are absolutely correct, Neo. And that is why we keep you around."

"Actually it's because you don't like doing your own homework, but I guess that's none of my business," Neoklis muttered back, slinging his arm around Raivis, who snickered and snuggled up to him.

Emil smiled at the exchange, thoughts of his friends' home lives instantly leaving his mind. His smile widened as Leon rested his elbow on his shoulder. Oh, how he loved that smile! If it were to ever fade in his presence, there was no telling what he might do. Just the thought of it was almost too much to bear!

"How was your morning?" Leon asked, yawning slightly as he covered his mouth with his hand. "Are things still awkward with you and Luke? Sorry about my brother blabbing to him. I honestly didn't think he knew your brother, or brother-in-law for that matter." He gave Emil a non-committal shrug. "I'm sorry that you had an awkward Sunday because of my dumbass brother."

Emil swatted his hand in front of him as if brushing the topic away from them. "It's fine," he assured. "When things are normal with Luke and me, they're only slightly less awkward than yesterday. Now Mat is the one you need to apologize about." He glanced over at his boyfriend to see Leon grinning with anticipation. "When he got home from work last night, he nearly kicked open my bedroom door to tell me about the 'Rainbow Birds and the Bees', and that was a conversation I really didn't want. Look what you have done to my home life."

The dark-haired boy was doubled over laughing. "Rainbow birds and bees!" he chortled. "That's the best thing I've heard in awhile!"

"Yes," Emil sarcastically commented, "hilarious." He rolled his eyes. "You should've told me that you told Yao, though. That way, I could've texted Lukas and he would have had time to process it before Yao just blurted it out in normal conversation."

"But where is the thrill in that?" Leon joked, softly pinching Emil's cheek.

"Thrill," the Icelandic boy sighed. "Yes. That's what I felt."

.

Being late to second period was not on Emil's agenda for the morning, but his teacher had held him back to discuss proper English phrasing. Since the bell had already rung and he knew he was already counted as tardy, Emil made no effort whatsoever to hurry off to class. Yet while not hurrying, he stumbled upon Lilli crying in the hallway.

She looked up the moment his footsteps stopped before her, trying to blink her tears back into her watery, green eyes. Without a word, she reached out and hugged Emil, wrapping her arms around his torso and burying her face in his chest.

Emil could feel her tears soaking through his shirt, but he wasn't about to pull away. She obviously needed a hug, so that's what he was going to give her. He didn't ask any questions, he just stood there, knowing that it would all make sense at another time.

Once Lilli was finished crying, she finally pulled away and wiped her tears from her eyes with the back of her hands. "Ever since this morning it's been you who has found me each time. God, I'm such a mess. I shouldn't have come to school today." She tried to take a deep breath, but it kept catching in the back of her throat. "I hate guns, I hate them!"

The young blonde leaned against the wall and sunk down to the floor. "My brother had to stay in Fort Madison last night for work, and his girlfriend had to work overnight at her job, so I had to stay with my friend Jiri. That's why I was within walking distance of school." Her eyes began to water again as her face contorted into a frown that didn't suit her. "In the middle of the night, Jiri's best friend Alena called him. She was screaming and panicking. I could tell she was crying. Jiri kept telling her to calm down and speak clearly." Lilli's eyes suddenly looked heavy as her mind's eye remembered everything, as if her green orbs held the weight of the world in them. "Once the message was relayed to him, Jiri took off out the front door, leaving me by myself." The way she looked at that exact moment made her look like the hollow shell of the cheerful and charming teenage girl everyone knew her as. "He called me to check in a little over an hour later. I could hear people yelling and crying in the background. There was a lot of beeping. I could make out that he was at the hospital." A few more tears slipped down her cheeks. "A friend of ours shot himself in the head last night, and we're not sure if he's going to make it. I told Vash not to encourage Arthur to get a gun." She wiped her face. "No one listens to me."

Emil felt as if he had been punched in the stomach. Lilli's words had knocked the wind out of him. Someone she personally knew had shot himself the night before? Just a few hours ago? It seemed too real to Emil. Was this a common thing in America?