Author's note: I'm marking this story complete for now; I promise I'll write more in this world once my muse cooperates though!
It was important to have a plan — his mom taught him that. August knew he and his friend Jason shouldn't have been climbing that tree in the backyard, but Jason dared him and then August double-dared Jason and then they were both up the tree that his dad had forbidden him from climbing. (Which was so dumb when you think about it because August knew he had the werewolf gene which pretty much meant he was a superhero — nothing could hurt him!) His mom was right — his dad was such a drama queen.
But then that stupid branch broke they'd been swinging on and the ground was way farther down than they thought. When his wrist snapped, August started crying, forgetting all about being mad at his mom for sending Uncle Matt to babysit even though he was 10 now and should be able to hang out with his friends whenever he wanted without Uncle Matt embarrassing him by trying to be the cool grownup.
Everyone knew Uncle Kol was the only cool grownup.
He stubbornly wiped away most of the tears with his good hand, sitting up with a gasp. Jason was whimpering over on his left and it looked like his leg was bleeding a lot.
"Shit!" August bit his lip, looking around as though his mom would whoosh in and yell at him for cussing. (Which she actually could because she was a vampire which made her a superhero too. And don't even get him started on how even more super hero-y his dad, Aunt Rebekah and Uncles Kol and Elijah were!)
He needed a plan. Thanks to his werewolf genes, his wrist would pop back into place eventually, but Jason probably needed stiches now. Uncle Elijah had a hospital — yes. Good. They could go see him at his work and maybe wouldn't get in trouble because Uncle Elijah would see how responsible he was being by helping his friend and then wouldn't tell his parents. Uncle Elijah really liked manners and stuff like responsibility and being honorable. (His dad said it was because Uncle Elijah was a pretentious wanker. Uncle Kol said it was because Uncle Elijah needed naked hobbies.)
"Come on, Jason," he said, helping his friend up. "We'll get my Uncle Matt to take us to the hospital."
Sniffing, his friend nodded and muttered 'ok' under his breath, wincing when August helped him up.
Uncle Matt went even whiter than usual when he saw them stumbling back inside and he immediately loaded them into his truck, his voice going all weird and high-pitched as he reassured them, "It's going to be ok; everyone's going to be ok!" Speeding through traffic, he rambled, "We'll get to the hospital and call Caroline and uh...Klaus."
August noticed how Uncle Matt winced when he mentioned his dad, and bit back a grin. For some reason, lots of people got that way around his dad. And he could be scary — but not scary to him. They built model pirate ships and his dad told him all about how he and Aunt Rebekah and Uncle Elijah played pirates as they sailed from Spain to New Orleans in the 1700s. They knew a bit about sailing from when they used Viking-type boats back in their village, but his dad said that the Spanish ship they were on was harder to figure out. But Uncle Elijah insisted he knew what he was doing and somehow broke the wheel and a mast and then got tangled up in a sail. His dad and Aunt Rebekah eventually had to fish him out of the ocean. The painting his dad did of the whole thing was really funny.
"Don't worry, Uncle Matt," he said, helping Jason keep the bloody towel pressed against his leg, "Uncle Elijah will be at the hospital to make sure everything goes ok." Poor Uncle Matt — it almost looked like he forgot they were going to his uncle's hospital.
"Yeah, uh, Elijah's a good...person to fix situations like this," Uncle Matt quickly agreed, nervously tapping his fingers along the steering wheel. August rolled his eyes at how weird his uncle was being. Jason's leg was bleeding and even he wasn't acting as freaked out as Uncle Matt. Plus, Uncle Kol said that Uncle Matt should be way more relaxed now because he and Aunt Rebekah had an open marriage, which August was pretty sure meant they had a lot of open houses or something. Although they never seemed to sell their house.
Uncle Elijah met them right out front, bringing a whole army of his employees with him. "Medical humans," he said in his take-no-shit voice that August always thought made him sound bad ass, "Attend to your patient."
Jason sat up in the wheelchair as they started to push him toward a room, pointing at his friend, "But what about August? His wrist got all banged up."
August already could feel his wrist start to move back where it was supposed to go; he freaked out, trying to decide what to tell his friend. Uncle Elijah patted his shoulder, smoothly reassuring his friend, "We've got a room set up for August right next to yours."
"Thanks, Uncle Elijah," he whispered gratefully as he watched Jason get wheeled away.
The corners of his uncle's lips twitched as he replied, "It was nothing. Our family has had some experience hiding out in the open, you know. Over the centuries, your Uncle Kol, in particular, tested the limits of our family's creativity."
Uncle Matt let out a bark of laughter, and then fixed his face back to disappointment and worry. August felt bad — he didn't mean to make his uncle worry though. And he hated making him upset. Uncle Matt was kinda cool in his own way and he tried really hard to fit in with the family. Plus, he did teach him stuff that the rest of the family didn't know about like football and baseball and then there was that time he and Uncle Kol built a wrestling ring in the backyard and Uncle Kol got mad because Uncle Matt wouldn't let him wear tights and a cape because it wasn't that type of wrestling.
Classic Uncle Kol. August grinned, thinking back to some of Uncle Kol's awesome stories like how he inspired the printing press to get invented because he thought the monks were taking too long making copies of all his grim s'mores. And he loved to brag about how Catherine the Great used to be just Catherine the Average before she met him and that Ivan the Terrible could've been Ivan the Spectacular but he wasn't interested in what he was offering. August had asked Uncle Kol what he tried to give him and his dad shouted over whatever his uncle mumbled and said it was baseball cards. So, it must be another one of those grownup stories he'd have to wait to hear about. So far, there were A LOT of stories.
He winced as Uncle Elijah looked at his wrist. "I'd give you some blood, but it appears everything has aligned properly once more and your bruises have all but faded away."
At his uncle's serious tone, August asked worriedly, "Are you going to tell my mom and dad? I mean, I'm ok and Jason's going to be ok, right?"
"August Niklaus, you know that our family is special. We've trusted you with that knowledge and instead you risked our family's safety by behaving foolishly. Also, your friend isn't like us — he could've been seriously hurt."
Uh oh. Uncle Elijah double-named him. Mom must've taught him that. It was funny how much his mom could teach their family when they've been around since almost the dinosaurs or something. Like how she invented the M&M Jar to teach them consequences and how to "use their words." It's really important to his mom that everyone use their words and she even holds "family court" whenever there's a big argument and if the daggers are brought up, dad has to do something Uncle Kol calls "couch duty". For some reason, dad really hated couch duty and went out of his way to avoid it even though their couch was extra fancy. Grownups were weird.
"I'm sorry, Uncle Elijah. I didn't mean for Jason to get hurt." He swallowed, hating how tears were starting to tickle his throat again. "Are you going to do the eye thing to Jason and his parents?"
His uncles exchanged a look and Uncle Elijah seemed really serious when he said, "Yes. We can't trust that your friend didn't see your injuries starting to heal before you arrived at the hospital. Do you understand why?"
August nodded, blinking back tears as he said, "Because we have to keep our family safe."
"You truly are Niklaus' son." August couldn't stop grinning at his Uncle Elijah's words. Checking his watch, Uncle Elijah added, "Your Uncle Matt will take you home while I wrap up things here with your friend and his parents."
Tugging on Uncle Matt's sleeve, August asked, "Do you think mom and dad will be back soon with Uncle Kol, or will it take a while for them to rescue him from Sid Phillis?" Both of his uncles looked confused, so he explained with an eye roll, "Remember? A witch cursed Uncle Kol with Sid Phillis 'cause he was playing with his friend's sisters and his friend didn't like that 'cause she wanted to be his only friend, so she cursed him with Sid Phillis."
His Uncle Matt had turned kinda pink while Uncle Elijah coughed a few times and straightened his tie. They both seemed to be avoiding looking at him and each other. August impatiently said, "The whole thing is dumb — Uncle Kol should get to be friends with whoever he wanted. And who's Sid Phillis anyway?"
Snorting, Uncle Elijah replied, "You should ask Niklaus about it during our family dinner tonight. As I recall, they used to be close friends back in our village."
Family dinner that night was awesome. His mom and dad had rescued Uncle Kol from Sid Phillis and when he asked his dad about being friends with him back when he was human, his mom broke a fancy wine glass. Then there were LOTS of dagger threats. And Uncle Kol said he was the best nephew ever.
