AN/ Fixed! I had a lot of typos in this chapter. And oh my, that An at the end.
MATHIAS LOOKED UP, hearing thumps from the roof. There was some muffled shouting, then the sound of something heavy falling. The man glanced at Berwald, "Should we check on them?"
Berwald shrugged, "Th're pr'ly fine."
Tino nodded, "Lukas won't hurt him."
Emil came tearing down the stairs, eyes wide. He flung open the door, leaving it open as he ran outside. He dropped to his knees by his brother, "OhmyGodareyoualrightI'msosorry! Lukas!"
The man groaned and sat up, "I'm fine." He winced and hissed, "Gah, my foot." He took a deep breath, "Knocked the wind out of me…"
Emil put a hand on his brother's shoulder, "Do you have a concussion? Look at me."
Lukas shrugged him off, "Ugh… I'm fine. I-I…" He furrowed his brow, "Am I wiggling my toes?"
Emil looked at Lukas's foot, "What? Uh, no. Why does that matter?"
"Because it hurts, damn it! And I'm trying to move my foot!" Lukas shouted at him. Emil drew back and fell silence.
Lukas muttered to himself and grabbed Emil's upper arm, "Help me up, will ya?"
Emil got to his feet and pulled Lukas up with him, "Maybe we should take you to the hospital…"
"Nonsen- Ah!" Lukas's knees buckled when he put weight on his hurt foot. Emil grunted and almost fell with him.
"Stand up! I thought you were fine!" Emil shouted at him.
Lukas took a staggered breath and sat back down in the grass, his face pale. Emil squatted next to him, "Lukas?"
"What's going on out here?" Tino came outside, followed by Berwald and Mathias, "What's wrong?"
"Emil pushed me off the roof." Lukas grumbled. The accused's jaw dropped, but he did not protest.
"What?!" Mathias asked, going to help Lukas get up, "Are you okay?"
Lukas slapped Mathias's helping hand away, "I'm fine! Just leave me be."
"Emil! Why would you do that?" Tino grabbed Lukas, ignoring his protests, and lifted him up. The man made a pained face.
"'Re ya hurt?" Berwald supported Lukas from the other side, grumpy face unchanging as he worried for his friend.
"His foot..." Emil murmured.
"It's nothing." Lukas said, although he didn't step down on his left foot.
Mathias crossed his arms and grinned, "Then let's see you walk inside the house. By yourself."
Lukas scowled and shook off Berwald and Tino. He stood on his foot tentatively, and held out his arms, "See? I'm fine."
"Then let's go inside." Mathias turned and waved the others.
"Okay." Lukas retorted sarcastically.
"Okay." Mathias smirked and stared at Lukas.
He took a step, then a quick one, hissing. Lukas continued to move slowly, limping severely.
Tino grimaced, "Maybe you broke your foot…"
"Look! It doesn't even hurt. Let's just go back inside." Lukas stopped at the porch stairs and sat down with a groan.
"Th'ts not th' house…" Berwald peered at Lukas through his glasses.
Tino nodded, "Mathias, go grab Lukas some shoes. Emil will you watch Peter while we're gone?"
"No, Tino, I'm not going to the hospital." Lukas said.
"That's nice. Help him up Berwald."
"Why did Uncle Lukas have to go to the hospital again?" Peter asked without glancing away from his video game for a second.
Emil stared out the window, biting his nails, "He fell."
"Uncle Lukas doesn't seem like the one to fall randomly." Peter paused his game and looked at the teen.
"Did Mathias break his foot? Where they fighting again?"
"… Yeah." Emil huffed and frantically scratched his head.
"Why are you so nervous, Emil?"
"I'm not!" He snapped and marched across the living room to the stairs, "Stay out of trouble and don't bother me." He raced upstairs to his room, feet pounding on the wood floor. Emil felt infinitely safer in his dark room, and even more so in his bed with the makeshift curtain drawn shut.
He could not believe the guilt gnawing at his insides. Even if he had hurt his brother by pushing – Accidentally! – him off a roof, the man was still alive! And maybe the fall would set him straight. All that morality from realization of mortality bullshit.
Emil dug in his jean pocket for his phone, wanting to call and see what was happening. He instead found Lukas's phone, remembering he had found it fell out of Lukas's pocket in the yard. His brother had a new text message.
The teen had faced many moments like this in his life. Finding wallets, people mistaking him for his brother over the phone. (Tino did that the most.) It hardly crossed Emil's mind that he shouldn't snoop, and it seemed his previous guilt had momentarily escaped him. Besides, it was from Brigitte, he could not turn that down.
Emil giggled as he started to read the text, it was long. Something about 'what we're doing is wrong' and then some 'I want to fix things' and more of 'I feel so awful.' Emil's curiosity started to wear thin, as he saw there was nothing of interest to him in the text. Then his eyes danced on a simple, blunt sentence.
'I'm going away for a while, we'll talk when I get back.'
Emil gasped and his finger slammed down on the delete button. "Shit." He exclaimed, frantically looking for a way to get the text back. There was no hope, it was lost.
Emil set the phone beside him, not too worried. If Lukas didn't know the text existed, he wouldn't know Emil had read it. There had been nothing too important in the message, so it shouldn't be a big deal. He pulled his laptop onto his lap and opened it up.
No big deal at all.
Natalia was thankful that the ringing had stopped. Apparently phones did that when you threw them at walls. It had been a peaceful breakfast and now was slowly moving onto a lunch. She should have shut herself on in her apartment a lot sooner, because she felt better than she had in weeks.
Then the knocking started.
Natalia had a slice of pizza halfway to her mouth, she froze, listening. Another few knocks, "Natalia? I know you're in there."
She recognized Brigitte's voice immediately, and set the greasy slice of pizza down. Natalia debated on whether to answer it, and before she even knew it she was looking through the peephole in her door. Sure enough, Brigitte stood in the hall, bundled up and blonde hair pulled back.
Natalia took a deep breath, and opened the door.
Brigitte didn't smile or say hi, and Natalia noticed her bloodshot eyes face-to-face. The woman noticed she had never seen her friend upset or not plastered in make-up.
"Hello." Natalia said after it was clear Brigitte was speechless.
"I'm sorry." Brigitte replied softly.
Natalia looked to the floor, "You're not forgiven."
"I'm going away for a while to see my brother back home." Brigitte put her hands in her pocket, "I'll call when I get back… If I do." Neither spoke for a moment and Brigitte took the opportunity to reach into her large purse and pull out a small envelope, "I have a plane to catch. I can't say it all. But here."
Natalia took the envelope and held it in both hands. It was blank, but heavy. When she looked back up, Brigitte was wiping her eyes with the back of her hand, "I'm sorry."
'That's all you have to say? Seriously?' Natalia stared blankly at Brigitte, feeling the weight of the letter. "You're not forgiven… yet."
Brigitte managed a small smile in response, and walked down the hall. Natalia watched her go, and when she turned to head down the stairs she spoke, "Have a safe flight!"
She saw Brigitte's back pause, "… Thanks."
Natalia shut her door and examined the envelope again, seeing that nothing had changed. She set it on her kitchen table and sat down. Now that Brigitte was gone, what was stopping her from going and seeing Lukas?
AN/ Classy Brigitte. I bet, Lukas would appreciate that there text. -_-