@timesewn | x
It was quiet. Perhaps that should have been comforting; silence in the wake of crumbling bricks && screaming && fear. But quiet in a hospital was indicative of only a few things — && one of those things was death. Five felt terribly, terribly guilty as he looked down at his taller, rail-thin brother in his hospital bed. He looked so unwell, though the doctors had told him Number Four would make a full recovery.
He had a hard time being optimistic.
“—I don’t know what you were thinking.” He scolded softly, dark brows furrowed low over dark eyes, “You could have been killed.” He could see the scenario playing out in his head over && over && over again. Like a silent film, a black and white portraiture; the wall crumbling nearly on top of him, a pair of hands pushing him roughly out of the way before the collapsing building swallowed Four whole. He hadn’t been quick enough to move out of the way. He hadn’t been clever enough to see the structural weakness in the wall. He hadn’t been strong enough to dig his brother out of the rubble (One had pushed him aside roughly as he tried to pry the bricks off Four, scowling at him and barking, “Move!! He’ll be dead by the time you uncover him!”)
“—I’m sorry.” He said, tired eyes squeezing shut, “I never meant for you to get hurt protecting me.”
He’d been drifting in and out of semi-consciousness, sometimes mildly aware of what was going on around him, sometimes lost in a dreamless sleep. He tried to wake up, he tried to get his eyes to open, but his eyelids were heavy and the pull of sleep was strong. But still he tried, and every time he got a little closer to waking up.
It was Five’s voice that finally seemed to do the trick.
He remembered now what had happened. The wall beginning to crumble, his brother standing right under it, and - he’d had to do something, right? He’d had to try to push him out of the way. It hadn’t even been a decision he’d made, it’d been instinct. And he remembered, too, the falling bricks hitting him. He remembered collapsing under their weight, and he remembered trying to crawl away as the wall continued to collapse. He was fairly sure he hadn’t managed to get very far.
What he didn’t remember, though, was whether he’d managed to push Five out of the way. He remembered pushing him, yes, but he’d never had the time to check and see if it’d been enough. So when he heard his voice, it was all the motivation he needed to force his eyes open, if only to check and see if Five was in one piece.
“For someone who can do spatial jumps, you’re pretty slow at getting out of the way.” He joked, his voice raspy and cracking from disuse. His lips curled into a weak smile, and he blinked, trying to get his eyes to focus.
