Brothers

Summary of chapter two: After relaying the facts to himself, Asch left Luke in Guy's capable hands and set off to find Natalia. Spying her standing alone on the balcony he joins her side. He takes the opportunity to purpose to her, however, she declines and leaves him by himself.

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Chapter Three

Rain

Asch trudged back inside slowly, dragging his boots as he went. The maids, uniformed in their lines of three assembled and bowed to him as he entered, not that he noticed, or cared for that matter. Instead, as he walked down the hall his eyes swayed and found himself staring at the floor. Not that he wanted to look anywhere else. The corridors themselves had been designed by snobbish nobles who enjoyed their own image to such a degree they wanted to see it everywhere; thus the countless mirrors.

Asch found himself face-to-face with one of the largest at the end of the hallway. It gleamed, spotless from the maids constant attentions. The figure glaring back at him displeased him though.

Asch brought his hands to his features. The pads of his finger tips met damp that trailed down his face and fallen onto the material of his jumper darkening it in small patches. The usually emotionless green eyes stared back in deep sorrow, the white surrounding his irises was tinted pink. He was a mess.

The shock wore off and instead another feeling settled in its place.

Asch clamped his hands down over his eyes, shielding his head bent forward of his own accord. He couldn't bear to look at himself. He was an utter disgrace. He never seen himself so worked up like this before, except once. Then, his legs weakened, his knees gave way under him causing him to fall shakily to the ground.

He couldn't stop himself, he never felt like this in his life. It was as though he stuck in a contemporary state between panic and pain. He didn't understand, he had watched people die, he had caused their deaths! Why was it only now, when he was shunned by someone he loved did it ache so much inside? Or perhaps that was it.

Love.

He had fought all these years to keep himself alive, because he thought someone loved him. Because he dreamed someone would be there at the end of the day for him to come home to, that missing link that kept him together. And it was all just a lie...

Asch let his hands drop into his lap; let his head droop down onto his chest; let his hair fall across is shoulders. He put his thoughts to rest, stared blankly at the tiles on the floor...

...And let the tears continue down his cheeks.

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Guy had sat promptly in the corner as instructed, watching with jealous eyes as the doctor examined Luke. At least the view was satisfactory. Or at least it would be if that jackass didn't keep getting in the way, thought the blond shifting to look around the daft woman at the shirtless red-head she hid from his sight.

When at last she was finished, she packed up and led Guy out of the room.

"So doc, what's wrong with him?" Guy asked with as much restraint as he could muster, though the corner of his eye was twitching ever so sightly.

The woman ignored his tone."Your friend has ingested some rather nasty poison. Thankfully, it could not work it's full potential due to a lack of food in his stomach. Considering his weight... I'd say he ate it about a week ago."

Guy stood frozen unsure if he should laugh or cry. Luke wasn't fussy, he'd usually eat anything Guy gave him, fruit, veg or otherwise. He'd eat when he was hungry and never skipped dinner. At least not to Guy's knowledge.

"Wait a minute, if Luke has had this stuff in his system for a week, how come it's acting up now?" Guy scratched the back of his head.

The doctor seemed to be expecting the question for she seemed to have prepared an answer prior to his asking. "It's simple." She said it as if he was an idiot, "You see, when poison disolves in the body, it is broken down by the stomach and goes into the blood. Depending on how much a person has eaten affects how fast the poison is released. If a person eats very little, the poison is released in small percentages. However, that's very unique to this particular poison, if it had been any other...well, you can guess."

Guy looked blankly at her. "You still haven't answered it."

"Sir, it's obvious the young man in that room hasn't been eating properly for the last couple of weeks. That may have saved his life, however, it could have also shortened it. You're lucky that whoever put this deadly concoction together wasn't very good at it. The only reason that he coughed up blood in the first place was because the dead cells were piling up in his body and his body was too weak to get rid of them."

She left shortly after that and Guy returned to the room, only to catch a certain red-head jumping back into bed and pretended to sleep. Guy smirked, after all these years, Luke had stayed the same in some ways. Like his habit of eavesdropping, which, as Guy had just learned never seemed to change.

Guy loomed over the body that was supposedly 'sleeping', and inquired with a familiar sterness in his voice, "Luke, do you really think I missed that?"

Luke opened one emerald green eye and stared back at Guy: guilty as charged.

"I was that obvious, huh?" Guy nodded, his azure eyes continued their ruthless glare. "I didn't hear everything, honestly. I only got to the-" Luke stopped realising that Guy wasn't amused, and decided that his first tactic of pretend sleeping may have held up longer and proved more fruitful than babbling.

When Luke sat up silently with his knees against his chest, fidgeting anxiously with the sheets, Guy leaned back and his expression softened. As with his old regime, if the young red-head learned his lesson soon enough, punishment would wait until a later, much more convenient time, or if Luke stayed in his good books he might just forget about it. Might.

Guy sighed seating himself beside the boy. "What am I going to do with you?" He said ruffling Luke's hair, then pushing back Luke's bangs he added, "You look better at least." He was avoiding the question he wanted to ask. It had become a dire nag in the back of his mind since the doctor had mentioned food and lack of it.

Even though he sensed the danger had not yet passed, Luke decided that Guy's arms were just too inviting and snuggled up between them tucking his nose under the blonde's chin as he did.

When Luke was finished curling up against him Guy held him close. "Now Luke," Luke looked up at him, his childish green eyes were gleaming as if begging Guy silently to stay away from that issue, Guy could only chuckle. "Sorry Luke, but that trick stopped working on me years ago." Luke scowled as Guy continued," C'mon now, if you can't tell me, who can you tell?" To emphasie his point Guy rubbed the younger male's back reassuringly.

Luke relaxed a touch and replied. "No one looks at me the same anymore, where ever I go I get the 'Oh it's the Replica' expression. People avoid me in the halls or go to idoitic lenghts not to speak to me, just yesterday when I tryed to talk to one of the maids she pretended she fell out the window... Guy, not even my own parents will look with me!" Luke buried his head back under Guy's chin.

Guy knew he was try not to start crying, but this issue was so delicate and Guy was struggling even now to think of a possible course of action that would not hurt the small bundle of hysterics in his arms.

So, he did what he used to do for the child. Guy picked Luke up from under the bed sheets and brought him onto his lap carefully. Slowly he rocked Luke until the young redhead had fallen asleep. It always worked.

He relaxed his arm slightly leaning Luke back with it. The gentle pads of his glove cleared his face of tears. Then Guy caught sight of something that made his heart melt. The boy was still clutching tightly to his jacket.

"I love you Luke. But you'll never know." He whispered softly, his lips pressed close to Luke's forehead.

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Asch woke up, but it was only then that he realised he had fallen asleep in the first place.

Surrounded by a warm, soft white material and a floaty mellow sensation in his guts which made him feel sleepy, Asch rolled onto his back, stretching out until he realised his hands weren't moving in the direction he wanted them to go. His entire body was numb and ridged as if all the strength had been sapped out of it. He must have slept oddly last night, he had never felt this first thing in the morning.

He scraped gingerly through his memories last night looking for any evidence that he had gotten drunk. He remembered meeting with Natalia and....oh...Natalia, he proposed to Natalia, didn't he? And she declined, didn't she?But, what next?

Drowsily he pulled himself up, or at least part way. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of a familiar seven year old, curled up and and snoozing away happily beside him.

Shocked was not the word that first came to mind when Asch examined the situation.

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"Nothing is ever as simple as it seems, especially when two certain redheads are involved. A huge misunderstanding, a couple of apologies and a few drinks might smooth things out now but until you know the truth nothing can be done to quell that towering gloom of mystery.

Next episode: Last Night."