After a good ten minutes of running (taking the more confusing route to his apartment, just to be safe) Al decided by now they should be a safe enough distance away to stop for a bit, he slowed down to a jog before finally stopping on a more deserted pathway. It was still about a 45 minute walk from here, but luckily because it was Sunday and now very late at night, it meant that there was nearly nobody around to see them.

Concerned and out of breath slightly he turned to the thing he'd been dragging along behind him. It was hunched over with a paw held to its chest gasping for air and it was making a loud rasping noise like it was struggling to breath properly. Worried Al put his hand on its back and began rubbing circles there, murmuring soft words trying to help ease its breathing and comfort it as the same time. After a minute of this it began to calm down a bit and was able to stand up straight again, it looked up at Al and smiled thankfully at him but its voice sounded shaky and weak when it spoke.

"Thank y-you."

"Hey, no problem. Are you feeling okay?"

"Yes, I'm… I'm fine now." considering how pale and unstable it looked, Al guessed that probably wasn't true, but he decided not to push the issue. There wasn't really anything he could do to help it right now anyway, they needed to get home first. He smiled and petted its shoulder gently.

"Well, it's not too far of a walk until we're home, …around forty-ish minutes I think. Will you be okay with that?"

"Yeah…" it's voice was quiet and distant, sounding far-away. Al frowned feeling his concern rise.

In truth it was beginning to feel extremely dizzy and light-headed, its mind was getting a little jumbled and for a while now its vision had been slightly blurred and its legs were feeling weak. It desperately wanted to sit down and just close its eyes for a moment… but Alfred looked stressed enough as it was. It didn't want to worry him more than he was already or be a bother to him after all that he'd done for it…

Alfred opened his mouth, about to say something else to it when he felt a hand grip his shoulder. His heart leapt painfully to his throat and suppressing a shriek he spun around, tensing up. He was met with the scared violet eyes of his brother, who stood shivering and white-faced, looking much like he'd seen a ghost. Speaking up, his voice was meek and strained.

"U-uh, Al, I t-think it'd probably b-be better if we just called a t-taxi, e-eh?"

"Matt! Hell man, you scared the crap outta me! When did you get here?" Al shouted, letting out a deep breath and closing his eyes, relaxing as he felt his heart slow down from the shock. Matt flinched and stared back at him, startled by his sudden outburst.

"W-what do y-you mean? …I've b-been here the whole t-time…" he trailed off meekly, his brother was gawking at him now. Really. He should be used to this by now with the amount of times this happened, but it still kind of hurt that his own brother could forget about him so easily. I mean, yeah, Al didn't exactly have the best attention span in the world, but still…

Matt was distracted from his thoughts though, when he noticed the fox guy had began to sway warningly on its feet. Alarmed he pointed to it, shouting.

"A-al! watch him! He's-" Alfred, his quick reflexes kicking in, jumped and just barely managed to grab hold of the neck of its t-shirt as it fell suddenly towards the ground, quickly preventing it from hitting its head on the sidewalk. Carefully he lifted it up by its t-shirt trying to get a better grip on it and turned it around gently in his arms and he knelt on the floor holding it and resting its head in the crook of his elbow. It looked sickly pale and was completely dazed, struggling to keep its eyes open. Panicked he shook it gently, hoping to get its attention.

"Hey, oy, dude! What's wrong? Can you hear me?" Al was distressed and wide-eyed as he watched its face intently for any sort of reaction. Panting, it managed to focus its glazed green eyes on him briefly and seemed to try and say something, but only managed a mumbling sound before its eyes slid closed and its body fell completely limp in his arms. At this Al instinctively tightened his hold around it and looked worriedly to matt.

"Matt! What's wrong with him? He's not dead is he?" Matt sighed, he was well known as being the 'smarter' and 'more responsible' of the twins and due to his personal interests he had taken advanced biology in college. Because of his quiet and shy personality he hadn't had a lot of friends so he ended up studying by himself a lot, rather than going out to wild parties and gatherings. This meant he had gotten pretty good grades and had knowledge in the medical field (and just about anything else for that matter).

He knelt on the cold floor next to Alfred and cautiously placed two fingers on the things neck feeling for its pulse. It was weak, but regular which was a good sign, and inspecting its face he could see it was extremely pale with flushed cheeks and large dark circles around its eyes. Feeling its warm forehead, he could tell that it had a fever but it wasn't dangerously high so it shouldn't need to go to a hospital or anything. Pushing up his glasses that had slipped down his nose slightly, he looked at a stressed looking Alfred and smiled uneasily at him, trying to calm him down.

"He's okay. Looks like he just collapsed from exhaustion and stress. He has a temperature but he should be okay after he rests for a while…" he spoke softly, sounding a little uncertain. Al closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath again. He felt a weight lift off his chest hearing Matt's words and couldn't help as he grinned sheepishly at him. Though he didn't show it often he had huge amount of respect for his brother, he knew he could always trust what he said and go to him for help or advice. Often just hearing his soft-spoken voice or seeing him smile was enough to put him at ease and give him more confidence with himself.

"That's good… he's okay. Everything's fine. Okay… now, lets head back, I don't wanna hang around here anymore, and I think we should really get him home." Al was a little shaken, but was soon gaining his normal cheerful self back. He felt a lot safer and more secure now they were away from the circus and that his brother was with him. He smiled, looking down at its now relaxed face he gently he moved some of the untidy hair out of its eyes, absentmindedly rubbing his thumb over its closed eyelid, it looked completely helpless and Al felt a serge of protectivness rise in him. With a soft grunt he stood and heaved up the unconscious fox guy with him so that he was holding onto it bridal style. It was reasonably light and Al was unnaturally strong anyway so he was able to carry it with ease. Shifting it slightly and tightening his hold on it protectively, he set off with a grin in the direction of his apartment, Matt followed by his side quietly for a moment before speaking up softly, almost whispering.

"Al, u-uh, shouldn't we just get a taxi, eh? ..Its dark and, well, we probably look pretty strange walking around in the middle of the night carrying… him…" he trailed off unsure. He didn't really know why but he felt nervous walking around this late, it didn't feel like anyone was watching or following them or anything like that but after the scary encounter they'd just had, he was scared and feeling quite edgy. The night was cold and kind of damp from the rain they'd had earlier in the day and the stars were all hidden by a thick grey blanket of cloud making everything seem darker and more depressing than it actually was. It was also amazingly quiet for a city. Everything was still and empty and their footsteps could be heard clearly, echoing down the deserted street. It could almost be peaceful in a way. Matt shivered, pulling his red hoodie closer to himself and crossing his arms over his chest as a cold breeze ran by them picking up his hair and moving it into his face.

Al frowned, humming quietly in thought at his question before answering.

"...Well, I dunno, like wouldn't it be kind of weird if we just got into a taxi, carrying a guy with… uh, animal legs, and a tail, and stuff…" he had no idea how they would explain this to someone. The fox guy's scruffy green t-shirt and small shorts didn't help at all in hiding what he was. Al bit his lip in concern, now realising that it was probably freezing and it was already sick, he didn't want it to get any sicker than it was. Matt glancing sideways at him noticed his brothers worry. Lightly he put a hand on his arm.

"Hey, Al, do you want to use my hoodie, its pretty warm and you can use it as a blanket for him…" he offered kindly. Though the thing had scared him half to death when he had first met it, after observing the whole ordeal from the side-lines his respect and sympathy had grown for it, it honestly wasn't as scary as it looked. He'd also noticed that his brother had seemed to have taken quite a liking to it, and vice-versa. Matt was also naturally a generous person so he instinctively wanted to help. Alfred smiled at him in gratitude, but shook his head.

"Nah, its okay Mattie, I'll use my own jacket, I just didn't think to use it before, haha! An amazing hero like me can't let his awesome little brother catch a cold now, can he?" he laughed grinning widely, proud of himself for thinking of using his jacket. Matt half-smiled half-pouted at him, happy for the compliment but a little peeved at being treated like he was weaker than his brother (even if it was true to some extent).

"Hey, mind if you hold him a sec, while I get my jacket off?"

"Uh, y-yeah, sure…" before he knew what was happening Matt had the thing placed carefully into his arms, he struggled a bit, trying not to let the limp body slip out of his grasp and to the floor. It was smaller than him, but not by much. He watched quietly as his brother was shrugging off his jacket when he felt it stir slightly and twitch. Panicking a bit he looked down at it worriedly, but it didn't move again. He'd admitted to himself that it wasn't as scary as it looked, but that still didn't mean he wanted it waking up in his arms. After all he didn't know anything about it and he was still uncertain, not fully trusting it yet. Luckily Al stepped in quickly and in a nearly loving way he wrapped his jacket around it like a blanket before taking it back into his own arms. The jacket was very large compared to it and covered nearly the whole body of the thing, with just its head and the bottom of its feet sticking out.

"There, that should feel better for him… lets get back quickly though, if we take that short-cut through the park, we should get back a little quicker." Al said cheerfully and headed off again, his pace a little quicker this time. Matt nodded and followed, staying close to his side the whole way back. The park was close to a grave yard and he wasn't keen on going there even in the day, let alone at night, but he reasoned it would be faster that way and they would be less likely to run into people.

They got back to the apartment complex safely and with no trouble, though by the time they entered Matt was shaky looking quite ruffled. They both lived on the top floor, Al's apartment next door to Matt's. Their father was the head owner of an expensive foreign car company and because of his obsession with his work he was rarely home and almost never saw his son's, so trying to be the loving father he was he gave them a lot of money, trying to buy their affection and at the same time buying them there own apartments and cars too so they could move out of his house. This meant they were both pretty well off and neither of them actually needed a job to get by (though they both ended up doing part-time jobs between college courses and such to pass spare time and to feel useful). Being honest neither of them liked there father at all. He was selfish and greedy and thought money was the equivalent of love. They considered themselves to be the only real family they had and they helped and relied on each other to get through life.

There was a bit of an awkward moment in the elevator on the way to the top floor when a slightly drunk looking couple entered in with them. Both groups just stared at each other silently for a while. Al grinned at them and randomly gave them a thumbs up, they didn't respond and continued to stare until they finally reached their floor and stumbled out. Matt sighed, a bit embarrassed as the doors closed again taking them up to the top floor. They walked quietly down the hall, stopping finally at Al's door.

"So, uh, Mattie, did you wanna stay at mine tonight?"

"No, that's all right, I'll be fine." Matt smiled softly at him, turning to go to his own door.

"Wait, are you sure? I mean it's not like I'm scared of being alone or nothing! but, will you be, you know, okay, by yourself?"

"Gilbert came to stay over remember? Just before we left for the circus, he said he'd play on the Xbox while he waited for me to get back… he's probably asleep by now though…" he replied whispering, wincing as he looked at the time on his watch.

"Oh yeah… well goodnight then."

"Goodnight, I'll come and see you in the morning." Matt said, Al smiled and waved at him as he fished for his keys in his jean pockets. Matt waved gently back headed to his door, opening it quietly. Before he had the chance to close it though, he grimaced hearing the overly loud voice of his brother shouting down the hall.

"And Mattie! don't let that stupid German asshole try and molest you this time or I'll shov-" Matt slammed the door, feeling his cheeks burn. He really wished Al would at least not shout out his name, the poor neighbours probably knew enough about his privet life because of his brother by now.

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- ending the chapter there, tried to make it a little longer this time (sorry if I dragged it out too much though). Thankyou so much for reading and for the nice reviews! ^^