Alba limped down the stairs, his movements and looks close to something out of one of America's zombie movies, alas that wasn't the reason for his current appearance, his excuse for the way he was acting could be explained in a simple word; morning. Although the Scottish man was used to waking up early in the morning, there were still some days when his body loved to disagree with his mental alarm clock. Glancing towards the clock which hung low in the hallway Scotland took note of the time, 6:15, meaning Arthur should be up by now. Straightening himself out slightly so that he looked less dead, his hand brushing his red unruly hair backwards in an attempt to control the mess as he walked into the front room. He was expecting to be greeted with the smell of tea and a grunt of acknowledgment from his youngest brother, instead he was greeted with the smell of bacon and pancakes being cooked in the kitchen along with a cry of 'good morning' from said room, drenched in a Welsh accent.
"hey there boyo, where's Artie? he's usually up by now" Alba replied, strolling into the kitchen to grab a cup of tea in an attempt to get his systems working up to their normal standard with the caffeine the drink contained.
"That's what I thought, but when I went to check on the boys this earlier I noticed he was still asleep... I thought he was faking at first so I took a picture on my phone, take a look if you want" Cymru explained whilst flipping the pancakes over in the pan and placing the bacon on top of them. Reaching forward Alba took hold of the younger mans phone, clicking the buttons as fast as he could to see the source backing up his brothers statement. There in front of the eldest Kirkland brother, was one of the cutest pictures he had seen for a long time, well it would have been had he not noticed Arthur's expression within the picture, even with his two sons either side of him the blonde man was still having nightmares. Slight panic began to raise within Alba as he thought of his brothers last morning 'wake up'
"Cymru, how long ago did you take this photo?" his voice cracking slightly as he rushed to stand up, leaving the phone on the table, zoomed in on Arthur's' pain filled face.
"Erm, about half an hour ago, why?" Cymru answered his own voice beginning to fill with worry as he followed Alba up the stairs, before the Scottish man could reply a rather loud cry came from the bed room in front of them, glancing at one another the two brothers ran up the remainder of the stairs, bursting into the room to look upon a picture of hell.
Matthew was crying in the far corner of the room, his body shaking with his violet eyes widened staring at his father rocking himself back and forth, Keith was fairing a bit better as he stood next to Matthew, stroking the boys hair as tears kept falling from his own eyes. Arthur however was the worst of them all, his body was curled up on the bed in a sitting position rocking back and forth, shaking as he muttered apologize to nobody, apologizing for everything; the potato famine, the wars between his brothers and himself, hurting his colonies with his absence. everything.
His green eyes were red and puffy as the tears continued to fall, he couldn't stop crying. His voice cracked with each apology from too much use and emotion, yet he still continued. His hair stuck out in every direction with his movement and abuse his hands gave the blonde locks, pulling on them as he went, never stopping.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry-" He kept apologizing even as Alba made his way over towards him, only sparing himself a few seconds to get in one request from his elder brothers "get them out of here... NOW!" his voice breaking as he screeched the order, quickly returning back to his apologize as Cymru began guiding the two boys out of the room not wanting to upset his twin more or let the boys see their parent like this anymore than was absolutely needed.
"shhh" Alba cooed as he scooped his broken brother into his lap, his arms wrapping around his form holding him still, gently removing the slender hands from the golden locks holding them against his chest as he kissed the crying boys forehead "it's alright brother, shhh it's ok I'm here shhh, you're not there anymore you're safe, here, with me... shhh... how can one dream reduce you to this hmm" Alba kept whispering whilst musing over the same question over and over again, it wasn't until Arthur had begun to calm down a bit, his body still shaking with sobs from the tears he was shedding but now he wasn't fighting his brothers grip, instead he leaned into the embrace trying to hide from whatever was haunting him still.
"wasn't the same dream...was different one... was worse than other one" Arthur muttered out, his sentences separate and broken, like that of an infants, but still understandable. what the hell could he have been dreaming about that could have been worse than the last plague of nightmares, luckily Alba didn't have to ask what the dream was about as Arthur began muttering again about the dream.
"We were in a war... all of us... you, Cymru and Shawn... against me... I shouted at you, tried to shoot you... I got you on the shoulder, Cymru in the leg and s-s-Shawn in the c-c-chest.. I'm sorry... I didn't want to... I got ordered to... I didn't want to fight against you... I'm sorry... but you all came back... Shawn was broken, you all were broken... But I Couldn't stop laughing at your misfortune... I wasn't allowed to help you... any of you when you needed me... ordered not to... you didn't know though... you all left me...I'm so sorry brothers... should have left me...I'm sorry, I'm sorry-" Arthur began trying to fight against his brothers' embrace once again, only to have Alba tighten his grip on his body, not letting him go anywhere as the blonde man began.
"look boyo... it was only a bad, bad dream... Do you really think we would let you get away from us again, after all the trouble we had to go through to find you the last time you went missing... We ain't leaving don't you worry about that lad" Alba couldn't really think of what else to say, all the things his brother had dreamt about were memories of their past wars, only they had all been combined into one large war, all of the brothers knew that each one had their own separate orders, all going along the same lines; destroy the others. None of the brothers wanted to fight, but there wasn't much they could do when their people wanted the wars.
"and anyway, none of us wanted to fight those wars, don't worry lad it is all in the past now" although the words were whispered Arthur heard them clearer than day, a small smile gracing his face before he remembered who saw him like this before his brothers. shooting up out of his brothers' arms Arthur frantically looked around the room for any signs of either of his sons. Alba couldn't stop the smile that inched itself onto his face 'even after all of that, he still worries about his sons'.
"don't worry lad, we took them out of the room when you asked the first time... they didn't see much" Alba explained waiting for his brother to thank him like he usually would, he was not however expecting Arthur to snap his whole body around to face him, his fists gripping at the front of Alba's shirt shaking with the strain they were being put through as Arthur tightened his grip slightly, his face showing nothing but fear.
"You don't understand! they saw, they saw me like that... their faces, their eyes... they feared me! my sons, MY CHILDREN are scared of ME!" Arthur's owns eyes shone with worry and fear, the fear of being alone again, of hurting his children again. He had only just managed to get them back, after all the years of loneliness he had finally managed to gain part of his family back. But he had once again broken their bonds, with an action he did unintentionally, he knew he shouldn't have said yes to sleep with the two, he knew he should have just placed his headphones in his ears to keep his mind from slipping into the darkness which sleep held, he had ruined everything, yet again.
"look lad" Alba cooed, patting Arthur's blonde hair slowly as he spoke "I think the boys were just worried about you, they are probably sat downstairs interrogating Cymru on what just happened, no need to worry yourself sick... now go wash yourself, get tidy, were are heading out before evening 'til then I have something planned" The red-head stated, giving his youngest brother a quick hug before moving out of the room to stand by the banister, leaving a frustrated Brit behind him.
Venturing downstairs, Alba could hear the frustrated screeches erupting from the front room, holding back a sigh the red-head continued on towards the source of the noise.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US SOONER SOMETHING LIKE THAT WAS HAPPENING TO MUM!" an enraged Australian screamed, his voice filled with anger and worry as he swung his arms around in the air glaring heatedly toward Cymru, who seemed to be equal in his anger. Deciding he didn't want to be caught between the two fighting countries, Alba tip-toed over to where Matthew was residing, cuddled up in a small ball his hands gripping tightly around his ears. 'so the lad is still scared of arguments is he' Alba mused, letting his arm wrap around the terrified Canadian, who in turn moved closer to his uncle pleased with the comfort.
"I DIDN'T THINK THE DREAMS WERE THAT BAD! HE NEVER TOLD US!" Cymru roared, his body shaking in anger as took a step closer to his nephew, ready to turn this into a physical fight if need be.
"YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN! YOU'RE HIS BROTHERS! we should have known.." Keith's rage seemed to disappear at the end of his sentence, thoughts of all the times his mum had comforted him when something was wrong, he never needed to tell the elder man if he was scared or hurt he just, knew. How when he and his younger brother had sat at their own house drinking hot chocolate and talking about nonsense, how many times had their mother been sat at home crying, like he was upstairs, the very thought caused shivers to run along Keith's spine, his green eyes dropped, leaving Cymru's glare to look at the dark carpet.
"I know... I know we should have been here for him, we should have been able to guess that something was wrong... then maybe he wouldn't be as bad as he is. I'm not going to make excuses, 'cause I know there are none... We grew up with him, we should have been able to see past his act but-" before Cymru could finish his sentence he was cut off by a raspy voice coming from next to the door. All four men within the room let their heads whip around to face the owner of the voice, Arthur.
"I'm a very good actor brother, I have had years to perfect that skill.. none of you should blame your selves for my mistakes" His voice cracked with each word that passed his lips, his usually soft breathing was raspy from his screaming earlier.
As soon as Matthew had registered that his father had entered the room he launched himself at the man, tears streaming down his cheeks as he pushed his face into Arthur's chest, whimpering slightly when he heard the small rasps escaping the elder blondes throat. glancing towards Keith, Arthur saw the tears which had begun to collect in the brunets eyes, with a small gesture of his hand the Brit called the younger boy over. That was all it took for Keith to run over to his mother, tears flowing freely from his green eyes. Gently Arthur kissed both of his crying children on the top of their heads, an action which gave both hysterical men comfort at this time.
"I'm sorry boys, It seems I have hurt you both yet again" England apologized rubbing his hands over the two separate heads, hoping that he might get something out of his ex-charges.
"w-w-why d-d-didn't y-you tell u-u-us" Matthew muttered, stuttering into his father's chest, Keith nodding in agreement with his head nested in his mother's neck, holding back a sigh Arthur's eyes dimmed slightly, not really wanting to tell his son's about how weak he was.
"I didn't want both of you to worry, it's my job to worry about you not the other way around, anyway it's not always like that"
"but we could help" Keith whispered, not liking the feeling of uselessness he was experiencing at that moment, not being able to protect the ones he loved, even if it was from themselves.
" you have son, don't you worry about that, just by being here and living happy lives you have both been helping me, even if you didn't know it" this time Arthur's voice was soft, light-hearted as he gave an honest smile at both of his sons, before looking at his brothers giving them all the same smile, finally noticing that Shawn had snuck into the room at some point, his face a mixture of worry and satisfaction "all of you have been helping me... thank you"
A comfortable silence fell upon the room, Scotland couldn't help but smile. Even after all that had happened over the past few days, their small family would remain strong, never again would they be alone, as long as they had each other everything would be fine
"It's gonna all work out" he announced, thinking out loud, a grunt in agreement from Shawn signalled that was the only one who heard what his elder brother had said, the others were all running around the house like children, forgetting this morning's episode for the time being. It was just what they all needed.