A/N: Back to Lukas again!

And sorry, this one got delayed a bit.

It was the worst case, someone seeing our fire and deciding to take a look. My eyes snapped open, but I didn't dare to move. After the snapping sound there was only silence left and I thought that maybe, maybe it had only been an animal that came to close to our camp and was now startled by our presence. But I knew well enough that it was an empty hope, the fire had burned down and someone, apparently Francis had covered the ember with ash, so it was still enough to frighten away any animal. Besides we hadn't seen or heard of any animal throughout the entire day so it was unlikely that something would come out now.

That left only one possibility, but why were they so silent?

I was lying in a rather uncomfortable position, I still leaned against Francis but I had slid down slightly and now my body lied on the ground while my upper half twisted against Francis's side. I tried to see out if he was awake, but he gave no indication and that left me to deal with the problem, because if it really was nothing, then there was no point in waking Francis, who had done more than enough already while I just fell asleep.

But what if it was not 'nothing'?

It was still dark and I had no means to tell what time of night it was, the only light came from the glowing ember and the pale sickle of the moon somewhere above me.

I knew I should move and check, but I couldn't muster the courage to do so, I could only lie there, facing the fire with no idea whatsoever was going on behind us. It was terrifying on a whole new level, I knew that there was something, I felt that if I were to just lie here and didn't move it would eventually go away, but even I knew that it wasn't that easy.

And then, before I could gather the courage to move, I heard a sound that couldn't be mistaken, the sound of a step, of a heavy foot planted on firm ground and my eyes widened in horror because now it was there, directly behind us and now there was no way that I could ever find the courage to face it and it would come and get us, and-

"Lukas?"

The voice was hoarse and a little shaky but it was unmistakably and the moment I realized who it belonged to I was up and had crossed half of the distance between us, startling Francis awake, before I stopped midway, frozen in shock and disbelief.

It was Berwald, Berwald stood before me, bruised and battered, his glasses broken and crooked on his nose, his uniform torn and caked in blood. He looked like a ghost in the pale glimmer the burning ember cast on him.

Was this a dream?

"Mon dieu!" Francis exclaimed and stepped forward, but he too stopped before he could reach the other and just stared in disbelief. "We thought you were dead." He said and took another step, brushing past me, and reaching out as if he wanted to touch him and assured that he was real and not a ghost. "Is that really you?" He whispered, still hesitant to cover the last millimeters in fear of breaking the illusion.

"It's me." Berwald said, his voice sounded terrible strained as if he was in pain and upon closer inspection I noticed that not only he had several bandages wrapped around various body parts but also that his right arm hung down limp and unmoving, and it swayed ever so slightly when he moved as if it had no longer the ability to move on its own.

"Berwald." I couldn't believe it, I had been so sure that he died, and yet here he was in one piece and very much alive and I wanted to say something, but the words died on my tongue and so I just stared, tears blurring my vision as I tried to wrap my head around the situation.

And then suddenly we were all in one big bone crushing hug, I couldn't remember getting there but I didn't care, all that mattered was the feeling of muscled solidity under my hands that didn't gave way, no matter how hard I pressed and I sobbed openly, staining Berwalds clothes with tears but I was not the only one, Francis was crying too and even Berwald, big stoic Berwald lost some tears that vanished somewhere down my back.

A painful groan eventually forced us apart, Berwald was hurt and the hug had put further strain on him. I couldn't miss the fact that Berwald was awfully cold to the touch and so we led him towards the fire, where it still was comparably warm and while I stuffed a blanket around Berwalds broad form, Francis rekindled the fire. A heavy silence befell us, no one knew what to say and how to start the inevitable conversation of how Berwald managed to escape and despite all of his injuries was able to find us.

We sat there around the fire, Berwald huddled close to draw heat back into his bodies while Francis and I flanked him trying to share as much of our warmth with him. I brewed another round of makeshift willow tee, figuring that Berwald could need it and to keep back the coughing that had started to shake me again, and since only bitter tea was an awful meal Francis shared some more of his cheese and then in the middle of the comfortable eating and drinking I finally posed the question that had burned on my tongue the entire time.

"How did you get away?"

Berwald set down the cup he had just wanted to drink from and looked at me. It was hard to make out his eyes behind the cracks on his glasses and the darkness didn't make it any easier, but I was I could make out the frown that was plastered on his forehead.

"He let me go." Now I was the one who had to set down his cup as I looked at Berwald, not sure if what I heard was right. "He… what?"

"Ludwig, he let me go." Berwald stated again took up his cup again to take a sip of the tea, wincing slightly at the bitter taste. I had to fight another fit of coughing then so Francis took over for me and asked: "Why would he do that?" Exactly, why would he do that, after Mathias had killed one of his men?

"Don't know." Berwald attempted to shrug but only his left shoulder moved at all, and I could see pain written clearly over his face, and suddenly the worry was back. "Berwald, what happened to your shoulder?" I reached out an arm tentatively, but I was not sure if it was okay for me to touch him. "Got stabbed there." Berwald said with a casualty that he couldn't possibly feel. My hand flew to the front of his uniform coat and I almost ripped of the buttons in my attempt to get his uniform open and treat the wound, but Berwald stopped me with his uninjured arm, gently plucking my fingers from his chest. "S'okay, they treated it."

"Why? I don't understand, Berwald what happened?" Francis had collected some bandages, but put them down now as it became clear that Berwald didn't need any treatment. "I think you should just tell us everything that happened from the moment we got separated." Francis said softly, "That would make things a bit easier." I could only nod in agreement.

"Thought I was going to die for s're, got some heavy blows and fell, but instead of finishing me of they just stopped attacking. Brought me to Ludwig who told them to patch me up and they did and then he told them to bring me to the city gate and leave me there, took my bag though."

"Did he tell you why?" I asked, not sure if I could believe what Berwald had just told me. He was here sure enough, but it didn't make any sense to me. "Said something about having a brother in the same situation, but that's all." Francis sighed, "I think the important part is that he let you go. But how did you find us? Wait, did anyone follow you?" Francis started to look around frantically but the world around our little fire was still dark and silent and gave nothing away of what might have been hiding there.

"Don't think they followed me, there would be no point." Berwald reassured, and Francis calmed down a bit. It was true; they could have just forced Berwald to lead them to us, besides they couldn't have been sure if Berwald would even find us. "So how did you find us?" I repeated Francis' question, now more curious than ever.

"Was simple, just figured you would follow the rainbow and so did I." So technically it all could be accounted to dumb look, if the rainbow hadn't been there he wouldn't have known where to go, and neither would have we.

So in the end it came down to stupid unreliable unpredictable luck.

Brilliant.

Maybe the luck would hold on long enough to lead us to the others. Ha, right, as if it would be that easy. But now we had at least Berwald with us that increased our chances significantly. Neither Francis nor I had anything close to Berwalds experience and knowledge, and that he had proven that countless times when he had led us through the woods after our escape from Mathias' home.

Still, there was something that worried me about Berwalds appearance. "Berwald, can you move your arm?" Something, an unreadable expression flickered over Berwalds face, but it was too fleeting to be really sure and then his deep accented voice broke his stoic features and everything that might or might not have been there was gone. "No." A word, as casually as if it didn't hold any meaning and yet I could feel all the implications looming behind that one single innocent word.

It was not so much the fact that he wouldn't be of much help with his dominant hand restricted like that, no it was something entirely else I feared. My father had always emphasized the importance of keeping one's body in shape, and for a job like his shoulders and arms were most essentially so he took great care to not overstrain them and most importantly don't damage the nerves or muscles. He had a colleague once who got his collar bone broken during a fight, but instead of going to a doctor he just let it heal on its own. Something went wrong though and the healing bone crushed a nerve or something while growing back together and he never could use his arm in the way he used to again.

And with being stabbed the risk was even higher that something got damaged and if I had learned one thing from my father, and the doctor that had treated my hands, that to prevent muscle and nerve damage to be permanent the affected area had to be moved as much as possible. Or at least that was what I thought, and hoped to be true, because there was not much else we could do.

"Show me." I ordered, although there was not really much I could do, but it still felt better than doing nothing. Reluctantly but nonetheless complying, Berwald used his left hand to pull down the sleeve of his jacket, slightly wincing at the pain the movement induced. As he had said, the wound was bandaged, but I could see blood seeping through the once white fabric. "Does it hurt like this?" I asked, keeping my hands from touching the wound or moving his arm. Berwald only shook his head, and I dared to take the arm in my hands and tried to move it around.

Berwald hissed but otherwise kept quiet so I took that as an invitation to move the arm further. It was clear from Berwalds gritted teeth that he was in pain, but I still tried to rotate his shoulder, I was stopped though, not by Berwald himself but by the immobility of the joint. "Try bending his elbow." Francis suggested as I gave up on the shoulder and I followed his suggestion, bending the arm while keeping the shoulder still.

The look of pain had vanished from Berwalds face and he watched with slight curiosity as I played doctor with his arm. "The nerves don't seem to be damaged… I think." I tried to elaborate on my observations, but to be honest I didn't really have a clue myself what I had just done. "You're probably right." Francis agreed as he pulled the bandages out of his bag that he had stuffed back in there after Berwald had claimed that he was fine earlier. "But I don't know if the stiffness in his shoulder is any indicator for further damage, muscles should heal I guess, and he feels pain so the nerves there can't be damaged either so maybe it's just swollen?" I nodded and started to unwrap Berwalds shoulder bandage, the bandages were soaked through with blood and dirt and it would probably be better to rewrap the wound.

Berwald snorted. "Do you actually know what y're talking about?" He raised an eyebrow at both Francis and me and even though the situation was bad and we were in the middle of nowhere with no idea where the others were and how to find them, I couldn't help but laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation, Berwald and Francis soon joining in, the former in a deep baritone the latter in a softer tenor. It was simply too absurd. Like the moment when Francis and I had laughed over my try at an Orushian accent, the laughter relieved much of the tension.

Maybe that was the true secret. That no matter the shit you go through, in the end you are still able to laugh. No matter how stupid the reason.

We soon calmed down again, the wound lied open, a small red hole; looking innocent enough weren't it for the crimson liquid seeping out of it and tainting the surrounding skin. It had obviously been cleaned, there was only fresh blood around the wound and also the wound itself looked clean. Francis edged closer to wrap the fresh bandages around Berwalds shoulder, but I suddenly got an idea and stopped him. "Wait a minute, I'll get some willow bark and we can put it on the wound, it will help the healing and ease the pain."

Francis whistled through his teeth, "Smart one." and I got up to get the bark. I tried to clean it as best as possible by knocking the piece of tree against my leg to get all the dirt out, when I was satisfied I pressed the bark against the wound while Francis wrapped the bandages around. Berwald let all this happen with his usual stoic expression, but I imagined seeing a soft gleam of appreciation in his eyes as we fussed over him.

Satisfied with our work we sat back and grinned at Berwald who carefully touched the newly wrapped wound, before nodding in approval. "Feels good." "I think you should try to move around your arm as much as possible, that's at least what the doctor told me about my hands." Thinking of my hands I suddenly remembered something. I searched a while in my pocket before I found it and then handed it back to Berwald whose eyes lit up as his fingers closed around the charm with Tino's hair.

But they were dulled only a moment later. Because Berwald knew as well as we that we still had to find them and that there wasn't even a guarantee that they had made it in the first place. But they had to face fewer odds than we had and since we had made it I liked to belief that they had made it as well and so we only had to find them. After all we had been trough that task was almost mundane.

"Any clue where they went?" Berwald asked, as he leaned back against the stump of a tree that looked as it had been here since a long time. Francis pulled another dried blanket out of the willow tree and tossed it to Berwald before he snuggled back under the one we had previously shared. The fire had once again burned down, and this time it was I that shoveled the ash above the embers to preserve their burning. "Unfortunately not." Francis said and lifted the blanket to let me in.

We all snuggled together to share as much of our warmth as possible. A heavy silence emerged as we all pondered our next steps, we hadn't really much to go on their present location so all we could do was heading towards we knew they would eventually head to. "We should go to the capital." I finally voiced out loud what at least Berwald must have been thinking too.

"I don't know if or for how long they search for us but sooner or later they will go there, and at least there we know where to look for them." Berwald hummed in agreement, only Francis seemed a little bit confused. "Why is that?" I repositioned my hair clip as it had gone astray somewhere during the night, before I pulled the blanket up to my chin. "Mathias' father lives there, and since Berwald and Mathias are childhood friends of some sorts he knows where to find his father." Francis chuckle lightly, "of some sorts?" I only shrugged, "Yes, they apparently were fighting a lot or something, that is, until Tino came along." "Ah I see, so instead of breaking the friendship apart like so many other tempting little devils he actually helped them like the sweet little angel he is?" I could almost feel Francis' gleeful grin next to me, and even Berwald made a noise that could be interpreted as laughter.

Peaceful quiet settled in then and one after another we fell asleep, and in my dreams I was greeted by a smile that I had never thought I would miss so much and by strong arms that encircled me to never let go again and a warm gentle voice lulled me to sleep in my dreams.

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