The Legends Still Live On
Bogen Siebundzwanzig-komma-ein: Extras Neun und Zehn
Kapitel Zwölf: Bruders Finte
XXXXXXXXXX
Aboard the Zuikaku within a very specific small house, David Faul was busying himself with making some food.
Normally, he did not perform such a task, instead preferring food that didn't take much effort to prepare. Because he was his namesake: that is, he was lazy. However, this particular occasion saw him making a basic breakfast with bacon, eggs, and toast at seven in the morning, already fully dressed in his Ooarai uniform.
And the reason behind that stumbled into the kitchen soon enough with no dignity whatsoever, wearing just some black sweatpants and a white undershirt. The half-asleep young man was Derrick Faul, David's older brother. The two were very similar in appearance, the biggest change between them being Derrick's overall more raw appearance. He was taller, notably more heavily built and had a messier mop of black hair on his head. It was also obvious he had endured a number of injuries over the years with the number of scars visible on him.
"Morning, brother," David greeted while he plucked the bacon strips off the pan with a pair of tongs, deeming them cooked well enough.
Derrick blinked a few times, still trying to gather his surroundings, before responding. "Ah, morning, brother," he reciprocated with a voice that betrayed his lack of being fully awake as he took in the sight of his brother actually doing something for a change. No doubt this was deliberate on David's part, he figured, as Derrick often harped on his younger brother for his lack of action. David never liked being lectured and often did whatever was necessary to avoid such.
David set two plates with two slices of toast, two eggs, and two strips of bacon, handing one to his brother before heading to the living room. He didn't have a table in the kitchen nor a dedicated dining room, so he made do with the main living room. Derrick followed him and both took a seat on opposite ends of the couch and started to eat, with Derrick turning on the flat-screen with a remote to fill the room with noise. Neither really cared much about watching television in general, but it made the house feel more alive when on, so on it went.
"Hey, you remember what day it is?" Derrick eventually asked out of the blue, pausing his eating.
David glanced at his brother out of the corner of his eye, momentarily pausing. "Tuesday," he soon said.
Derrick furrowed his eyebrows as he thought. "… Wait, doesn't that mean I'm a week early?" he eventually wondered, scratching the side of his forehead with a finger. "I thought I was supposed to be here next week?"
David furrowed his own eyebrows wondering what the hell his brother was talking about. He remembered explicitly that it was supposed to be starting this week that Derrick would stay aboard the ship with him. It didn't make sense that the elder Faul would fail to remember this, considering he had remembered his visit had started yesterday.
But then David's eyebrows rose in slight alarm, as he remembered that Derrick had a reason to be forgetful: the amount of concussions he had endured over the years fighting for the two of them to survive against the mob, first in the urban jungle that was Los Angeles, and then in Ooarai against the Yakuza. The guy just wouldn't die, but that didn't mean his mental capacity couldn't degrade as a result and eventually lead to his death that way.
Derrick was the last family David had left, so if he went, then David was lost. And the thought that Derrick was finally paying the price for keeping them both alive made David's stomach fall in dread.
Then the elder Faul started laughing heartily, which snapped the younger out of his thoughts and made him look over to his brother.
"Oh, god, your face was priceless!" Derrick pointed at David with a finger while still cracking himself up. "I can't believe you fell for that! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
David blinked once before realizing that the whole act was just a ruse on Derrick's part, and he had fallen for it. His face tightened as he grew pissed, and soon he abruptly stood up, picked up his bag from the floor and stormed away to the front door.
Upon opening it, David faintly heard through his brother's perpetual laughter him saying, "Have a good day, brother!"
He responded by swinging the door behind him hard enough to slam it shut, the sound clear and distinct.
XXXXXXXXXX
Soon enough, David met up with a few of his friends on the walk to school, that being Erich, Miho, Anton, Saori, and Mako. The Panzer IV driver was the only one that didn't care much for the murderous look on David's face, instead being more concerned with squirming into a comfortable position on Saori's back so she could sleep for a few more minutes.
Saori and Miho both looked concerned yet also a bit frightened by David's expression. Erich simply raised an eyebrow at the attitude, not fazed in the least. He was curious about what had made David's usually unshakable and uncaring demeanor warp into a look of pure hatred.
"Oh, boy, I know that look," Anton spoke up looking at David directly with a telling look. He was the only one that fully understood why David looked that way, what with being his best friend since they were both children. "Derrick's back, isn't he?" The blonde American said it as if it was a statement rather than a question.
"Fucking asshole…" David grunted out slowly, his frustration very evident.
"Yep, ol' Derrick's back," Anton said in confirmation, fully expecting this kind of behavior out of David in this situation.
"Sound familiar?" Miho whispered to Erich with a teasing grin on her face. In response, Erich mocked her teasing with a silent yakking of his jaws to imitate her chatting while his hand also performed the motion of a mouth opening and closing as if yakking.
The light brunette silently giggled at the blonde's retort. Seeing David pissed with his older brother made her remember similar times where Erich was the same with Alfred. The specific occasion that came to mind first for her was the day when Alfred dyed his hair blonde and wore blue eye contacts to look just like his brother, which he did so he could walk around and act like Erich all day, just to see if anyone would notice the difference.
Erich had eventually run into Alfred, and after a few moments spent comprehending why his brother looked just like him and why there was a crowd watching him yet never the wiser as to the true identity of who they were observing, the blonde uttered pretty much the same thing as David just did: "du Scheißarschloch."
"Seriously, what is wrong with him?" David began to vent his frustrations to everyone else. "He fucking acted like he was losing his memory this morning as a prank, which is such a dick move considering he's endured more concussions than I can count on both hands, yet he still has the nerve to actually joke about it?!"
Miho and Erich glanced at each other, having a silent conversation. 'You want to try speaking with him?' the blonde's gaze read. 'I mean, you're great at talking people down and all that.'
'This is more your domain than it is mine,' the light brunette pointed out with her own expression. 'I don't have any older brothers, unlike you.'
'But what about-' Erich tried to interject with a look, but was cut off.
'Having an older sister is not the same thing,' Miho retorted with an expression that dared the blonde to try and disprove her.
And, knowing that Maho very rarely treated Miho that way, the ultra-ace knew he couldn't. 'Oh, I hate you,' Erich moped about having to speak on the subject, even though he very much didn't want to.
'No you don't,' Miho returned with a self-assured grin and a sing-song-like tilt of her head.
Defeated and humiliated slightly, the blonde turned to David. "Older brothers are often like that," Erich pointed out with a shrug of his shoulders. "Believe me, I know." He muttered the last statement, fully remembering all the times where Alfred played elaborate pranks on him. Of course, Erich got him back with his own jokes, but Alfred's pranks were so well constructed and laid out that it was impossible for the blonde to notice them beforehand until after the damage was done. To everyone else, it made Erich appear like an idiot, because the Black Devil didn't even have to lift a finger to play jokes on the blonde. It was as if Erich was simply walking into them.
Upon hearing that Erich had prior experience with what David went through, the rest of them turned to Miho, wondering if that was true, that being especially the case for Anton and David. They had never seen Alfred show any sort of emotion whatsoever in all the times they had run into him, so hearing that he did the same typical big brother things to Erich was hard to believe. Since Miho knew everything there was to know about Erich, everyone could rely on her being able to tell them if the blond-haired ultra-ace was telling a tall tale or if he was speaking truth.
"It's true," the light brunette shrugged nonchalantly, giving everyone their answer. Miho then grew a somewhat mischievous grin as she sensed an opportunity to tease Erich a bit more. "Like this one time where his brother cospla-"
"NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN NEIN!" Erich immediately cut her off to try and spare himself the humiliation, stomping one of his black combat boots into the ground with each successive utterance of no.
Anton chortled at the unexpected yet still well-played reference to the infamous line from Inglourious Basterds, the same line also causing David to grin as if holding in his own laughter. Saori also got the reference and tried really hard to not laugh either, failing partially.
"Ha ha…" Mako said tiredly from her spot on Saori's back, pitching in with her own relatively subdued reaction.
Miho shook her head with an amused smile at her boyfriend's dramatics. She had to marvel at just how lively Erich made the area around him with his actions. It always amazed her whenever he made everyone in a twenty-meter radius go from irritable to laughing their asses off. It was just one of many reasons why she loved him so.
But she was absolutely telling that story about Alfred cosplaying as Erich flawlessly to the others later, the ultra-ace's pride be damned. It was about time Miho got one-up on the little game they had going with each other to see who could embarrass the other more using their numerous shared moments in time.
XXXXXXXXXX
Part of Projekt Jägermeistern.
XXXXXXXXXX
The author doesn't claim to own "Girls und Panzer" or any other references made. "Girls und Panzer" belongs to Actas. Any references made belong to their respective owners.
Feel free to ask any questions if you have them. Please note, however, that questions asked without being signed in will not be answered. The author would prefer to address questions outside of the story, and leaving questions while signed in provides that ability.