"Nii-san…?"

Julius looked up from his dinner (the usual takeout, due to his inability to cook) with an icy sneer. "What do you want, Ludger?"

"U-Um…" Ludger tugged at his pajama shirt, struggling to find a way to ask what he wanted. "Can you tell me about Mommy?"

Julius' blood ran cold. Just thinking of Claudia brought back memories he'd rather not think about, and he struggled to conjure up stories to sedate Ludger's curiosity. As little as he cared for the child, he wasn't so cruel as to cause him unnecessary pain. And telling him his mother died, by his hand no less? Impossible.

"She was a nice woman who loved you a lot." Ludger's gaze inquired him to continue, but he refused and dodged the silent question. "Eat your dinner, Ludger. I can't afford to buy you another meal if yours gets cold." Julius resumed eating after that.

Ludger's mood dampened, though he still persisted. Julius was always so uncomfortable talking about her. There had to be a reason why! And his undying curiosity wouldn't go away until he knew the truth. "If she loved me so much, then why isn't she taking care of me? Did something happen to her?"

"I'm not talking about this, Ludger. Eat your dinner." Julius responded without missing a beat.

"But why? Why can't you tell me about Mommy?"

These incessant questions were quickly getting on Julius' nerves. He had already told Ludger: he wasn't going to talk about this. So why couldn't he just shut up and let him eat in peace? Was that so hard?

"Because I'm not talking about it! For the last time, just eat your dinner."

"But I-!"

"LUDGER!" Julius' fist slammed the table, causing Ludger to flinch back. "If you ask about your mother one more time, I'll make sure you end up where she is! So stop asking me! NOW!"

The message was received loud and clear. Ludger didn't even apologize or look him in the face as he ate his food in utter silence, aside from the fork in his hands occasionally clanging against his plate due to his shaky hands. Julius knew he himself should apologize for losing his temper, but he couldn't bring himself to care enough to do so. He asked Ludger to stop asking him about his mother, he didn't, so he disciplined him. He was perfectly justified, plain and simple.

Once they both finished their plates, Ludger quietly thanked him for the meal (while still avoiding his face) and immediately made a beeline for his room. The older Kresnik shrugged, leaving his younger brother to his devices as he dropped the dishes in the sink for Ludger to clean in the morning. For one reason or another, the child insisted he help out in little ways around the house; Julius never got the hang of household chores, so he let him without complaint.

With dinner finished, Julius had no reason to stay up and thought to turn in for the night. Before he did, he knocked on Ludger's door to get his attention. "Goodnight, Ludger." There was some shifting inside the room, a definite signal of 'leave me alone', and he was more than happy to oblige.

Morning came, and yet there was no Ludger. Normally his younger brother would be bouncing off the walls, yelling from the doorway, 'Get up Nii-san!' and beg him to walk him to school. But when he stepped out of his room, there was nothing. Ludger's bedroom was empty, the plates had been cleaned already, and Ludger's backpack had left the coatrack near the door. The school wasn't far, so Ludger was fine walking there by himself. Julius just made himself some toast, put the dish he'd used away, and headed to the Spirius building as usual.

Maybe yelling at Ludger like that was more of a mistake than he realized.

Julius left work immediately when he received a call from Ludger's teacher a few hours ago (he had to destroy the dimension first, he knew the rules). It'd been the generic warning of 'if you don't call your child in, this absence will be marked as illegitimate', but that meant Ludger never went to school today. Where did he go, then? Julius never showed Ludger the entire city—what if he got lost? He should have never let that brat walk himself to school-!

Just to see if maybe this call was a mistake (of course it wasn't, how could a school make a mistake?), Julius' first stop was the grade school's front desk. "Where's my brother!?" He'd asked the woman up front. Her look was one of…disappointment?

"Mr. Kresnik, we called you about Ludger hours ago. If you were worried, why didn't you come earlier?"

Those words stung in a way Julius couldn't describe. "I-I was… caught up in work, and I couldn't come until now." Why was he making excuses? He didn't show any concern last night about Ludger's wellbeing— "Is Ludger not here?"

His concern was shining through despite his awful excuse, given by the softening of the woman's eyes as she shook her head. "Nobody has seen him near the building today, Mr. Kresnik. But if he turns up, would you like us to call you, provided that you'll answer?"

"I-I'll answer right away, so please… if you see him, tell me." Julius thanked the receptionist with a dip of the head. "I'm going to go search for him. Thank you for doing what you can."

With that lead dead in the water, Julius couldn't begin to think where Ludger may have run off to. The only places Ludger should know well is the school building, the apartment complex, and maybe the Seahaven thanks to him taking Ludger out to eat at the inn once or twice. Just for the sake of his sanity, he checked the Seahaven and even the Train Station for Ludger, asking everyone he passed by if they saw a young boy with while hair and green eyes by himself.

Eventually he found a person who said they thought they saw a boy like the one he described talking to a police officer and the officer guiding the boy to the station. Without even questioning the reason Ludger may do such a thing, Julius rushed to the police station closest to their apartment complex and asked the nearest officer if they saw Ludger.

"…Are you Julius Will Kresnik, sir?" The man asked plainly.

"Yes, I am. Has my bro—Ludger Will Kresnik come this way?"

The officer he spoke to glanced at another officer to his right in what Julius assumed to be some type of code he wasn't understanding. Whatever code lead to the second officer leaving the room to go elsewhere, leaving Julius and the first officer he spoke to alone. "Your brother came to us for help. He told us he ran away from home because you were going to kill him. Was he right, Mr. Kresnik?"

Kill Ludger!? He never said anything like-!

"If you ask about her ONE MORE TIME, I'll make SURE you end up where she is!"

….Ludger had taken his words seriously. Ludger had seriously thought he meant to kill him. He scared Ludger so terribly he ran away from home and told the police on him. And, for once in a long time, all of this was enough for the normally stoic Julius Will Kresnik to cry, in front of a stranger no less.

"I… I never meant…" In his sobbing, Julius tried to justify to both the officer and himself how he never meant this. Not one bit. And yet, at that moment in time, he had. When he said those words, Julius thought of Ludger as just this fly on the wall he wouldn't mind getting rid of or wouldn't lose sleep if it flew off somehow. And now that it had, Julius realized how wrong he'd been and how much that 'brat' he though he disliked actually meant to him. "Please… please let me see him! Even if he doesn't want to come home, I… I need to apologize to him."

"…Alright. Come this way, son." He was lead to the back corner of the building into what he assumed was normally an interrogation room. That same officer from before stood in the corner of the room, eyes trained on him, as Ludger entered from a different door and sat down at the plain table in front of them. Julius sat down on the opposite end, though he wished he could have run up to Ludger and cradled him like he deserved. Something told him making such a move might be seen as an attack, which wouldn't help his case.

"Ludger." Julius said, which was enough for Ludger to flinch and curl up in the seat. "I… I didn't mean what I said last night. Talking about your mother is… hard for me," If only he knew why. "and I didn't know how to tell you that. But I want you to at least know this: no matter what I say, I wouldn't hurt you Ludger. I would never want you to die. Because…" It was humiliating to think this would be his first time saying this. "I love you, Ludger."

Ludger uncurled from his turtle position, blinking back the built-up tears in his eyes. "Y-You mean that…?"

Julius nodded furiously, "Yes, I mean that a million times over. You're my little brother, and I-I couldn't stand to think of what my life would be without you." His hand reached out from across the table, "So please, would you be willing to come back home?"

The officer finally tore his gaze away from Julius to instead stare at Ludger. Ludger smiled at the man and nodded, sliding off his seat to join Julius' side. "Sorry for making you worry, Nii-san." He couldn't reach Julius properly from the height of the chair, so Ludger opted to hug Julius' leg.

"Shh, don't apologize Ludger. I'm the one who should be sorry." Julius consoled his little brother, patting the young boy on the head. "Now, how would you like me to apologize? Maybe some ice cream? Or a quick stop by the pet store to look at the cats?"

"Ooooh, I wanna see the kitties! Can we?" Ludger's eyes lit up, pulling at his older's brother's pant leg.

Julius finally stood up from his seat, taking the hand attached to his pant and guiding it to his palm for him to hold. "Of course. Anything for my baby brother."