AN/ On time! And hopefully not trash like the last one. I didn't write this one feverish, exhausted, and high on cough medicine. Anyways, I really like how this chapter turned out. By the way, if there are any errors in terms of consistency then just let me know. There were a few things I was iffy on and I double-checked. But if you notice it just tell me. Sorry, long note!

LUKAS CREPT over to where Emil sat on the roof, settling down next to him. He sighed and fixed his eyes on the sea in the distance. He waved his hand in front of his face to clear a cloud of smoke, "Can you put that out, please?"

Emil took his cigarette out of his mouth, "Are you going to make me eat it?" Emil murmured.

Lukas shook his head, "No… That'd be cruel."

"I'd probably deserve it…" Emil snubbed the cigarette and threw it in Berwald and Tino's gutter.

"Feeling guilty?" Lukas snorted, "That's new."

Emil rolled his eyes, "Not anymore I'm not."

There was a small silence between them, while they thought of what to say. Lukas turned to his little brother, "Why'd you do it?"

"Why'd you?" Emil shot back, looking straight back.

Even Emil didn't catch the slightest changes in Lukas's face and eyes. He didn't catch the flicker of regret in his eyes and the way his mouth twitched in guilt. Emil looked into his brother's face and saw a blank, cold man. Lukas wet his lips and rubbed his chin, "I honestly don't know."

Emil narrowed his eyes, "Really?! That's your answer?"

"I-…"

"No!" Emil shouted, cutting him off, "What the hell drives someone to break another's heart?!" He slammed his hand on his knee.

Lukas eyed Emil curiously, "It's complicated."

"Don't give me that bullshit." Emil groaned, anger melting as soon as it had appeared. He leaned back, lying down and staring up at the overcast sky, "Natalia's perfect."

"… What the hell is going on between you two?" Lukas asked.

Emil let out a loose a short, sarcastic laugh, "That's just it. Absolutely nothing."

"I meant, how did you meet her? Why were you talking to her?" Lukas leaned back himself, lying down next to his brother.

He didn't see Emil's blush, "She… she models for me. For pictures."

Lukas chuckled a little, "Please don't say she models naked."

"Have I ever asked anyone else to take their clothes off?" Emil glared at him, watching his brother's peaceful face. Lukas watched the clouds fondly, as if he'd seen an old friend. It only enticed Emil more, "How can you just sit here? How can you live with yourself?"

Lukas furrowed his brow and glanced at the teen from the corner of his eye, "… What do you mean?"

Emil looked back up to the sky, "You had the perfect woman, than cheated on her with her best friend. You broke her heart." Emil sighed, "I'd be awfully torn up right now." He said matter-of-factly.

"You should know that I'm not one to outwardly show my emotion." Lukas sighed himself, and turned his head to look at his brother.

"Why'd you do it?" Emil asked quietly.

Lukas closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, "I could sleep up here…"

"Lukas, please tell me." Emil was dying to know. Partly because he was curious, and partly because he desperately didn't want to be so upset with his brother anymore.

"She told me that…" Lukas started, than closed his mouth mid-sentence, face tensing slightly. Something tightened his chest, and made his eyes twitch. He sat up and looked away from Emil, "She told me something I never wanted to hear. And other… things on top of that."

"So you overreacted?" Emil stared at his brother's back, "And you're just an asshole?" He sat up, confused, "That's what you're telling me? What on earth did she say?"

"I can't tell you…" Lukas could hardly think about it. Not that it was a heinous and unforgivable act, it just hurt. He felt vulnerable, something he hadn't felt in a long time. Sometimes it made him feel hurt enough to justify what he'd done.

"Why? Because it'll just make you look worse? I don't even know if that's possible right now. You have a fight with your girlfriend and then you date her best friend? What the hell is that?" Emil started to get worked up again, and his brother ignoring him was only making him angrier.

Emil huffed angrily and jumped up to his feet. He grabbed Lukas's shoulders and pushed him over, falling himself. Lukas twisted around, "What the hell are you doing?"

Emil wrapped his arms around Lukas's waists and tried his best to roll the larger man under himself. Lukas grunted in annoyance and grabbed Emil's wrist. He got to his seat and pulled his little brother up with him, "We're on a roof, Emil! Stop!"

"You stop!" Emil whined. He tried to break free of Lukas's grip, but was too weak. Lukas grabbed his free arm, trying to stop Emil's flailing. Unlike his brother he hadn't forgotten how close they were to the edge. Emil wouldn't be held, when pulling didn't work he threw himself into Lukas.

Lukas cried out as he started falling. He landed roughly on the shingles. Emil made a small noise of triumph as he pinned his brother down beneath him. He pulled back his arm and landed a punch on Lukas's jaw. The elder's indigo eyes flashed dangerously, "Don't start this Emil. You know you'll lose."

Emil hesitated this time, but punched his brother again. Lukas reached up and grabbed Emil by the collar, he rolled them over again. His foot slipped off of the roof for a second, and he scrambled to get away from the edge. Emil turned on his stomach and started crawling away. Lukas grabbed the back of his shirt to pull himself away from the edge. Emil turned around, slapping Lukas in the face. He jerked backwards, too far, and tipped back and off the roof.

Natalia watched her phone come alive, vibrating over the kitchen table and sporting a picture of Brigitte. The blonde was winking at the camera, smirking and holding up her martini. Natalia couldn't tell you which night it had been taken. So many of the nights with Brigitte looked like that.

The phone went dark for a moment, then lit up again. This time beeping and showing a missed call alert. Natalia sighed and leaned onto the table. Brigitte had been calling her all day, and all day Natalia ignored her. She didn't want to talk to her.

Ever again.

What did Brigitte even want to say? Sorry for being a horrible human being! Hope I didn't hurt anyone's feelings. What was there to say between them? Nothing at this point could save their friendship. Natalia was torn between hating Brigitte and happily never seeing her again and crying at the very same fact. She found it strange that a secret emerging from the dark woods could be enough to rip apart years of friendship. Maybe that meant that their friendship had already been decaying. Or maybe it wasn't a true friendship at all.

Natalia lifted her head when the phone gave a small buzz, signaling a new text message. She glanced at it and saw it was from Brigitte. Natalia reached for the small machine, stopping halfway and deciding to grab the end of a strand of her pale blonde hair and starting twisting it around her fingers. Slowly the hair wrapped tightly around her fingers started to cut off circulation, and they went numb. Natalia stared, watching her fingers turn pink then purple. She supposed that Brigitte had been the same way, slowly squeezing the air out of her.

When they first met in high school things had been better, they were best friends in every sense of the way. Natalia didn't mind admitting that she became harsh and cold for a while after the death of her father, and she had plenty of drama that had kept attention on her while pushing Brigitte in the shadows. But Natalia had been there for Brigitte after the death of her parents, and when her brother left.

Despite all of the support and care Natalia had given her - Something that had been difficult for her – Brigitte still came out of it all as a selfish and almost cruel person. Natalia could cut her some slack, she was selfish herself, and not doing so would be awfully hypocritical. But she liked to believe that she'd never be selfish enough to steal someone's love.

Scowling, Natalia got up and went to her bathroom, pushing thoughts of Brigitte out of her mind. She looked in the mirror, wandering just what was wrong with her: long, pale hair, high cheekbones, intense blue eyes, a curvy frame, and thick lips. She knew she was beautiful. So that wasn't it. Natalia turned to the side, putting one hand on her stomach and one on her behind. She had gone through her age of bad body image, and now was completely confident with her appearance. She was in no way fat, maybe too skinny. So that wasn't it either. Besides, Lukas wasn't that superficial.

She could have been pushing him away too hard. Perhaps pulling away from the few and modest touches, or ignoring him for days when she was upset and been too hard on him. But his 'revenge' seemed simply too severe. And he had his fair share of problems. Always there, constantly helping. Natalia wasn't weak. She was perfectly fine alone, and she hated being babied.

They were both at fault for not trusting each other though. Natalia walked to her room, kneeling onto her bed and sprawling out. She stared at a picture of her and Lukas still on her nightstand. She couldn't seem to get rid of that picture. It seemed that for all the distrust she held during her and Lukas's relationship something deep down inside trusted him deeply. Trusted him to come back to her.

The same thing that wanted to believe she'd grow up to be a princess when she grew older, the same thing that still believed. And whenever she thought about it she felt like a kid, a pitiful child. Tears stung her eyes and she raised a hand to her mouth, sobbing into it. She was pathetic. Pathetic for believing in fairy tales like friendship, and happiness, and love.