"Umhyggja Var Einu Sinni" is a Hetalia fanfiction about how a brother's love can mean life or death for an ill young man.
Umhyggja Var Einu Sinni
By, Abbey Rose Gould
"We fear for his life."
"I wasn't aware of how serious this has become."
"None of us were."
~Two Months Earlier~
It had been a normal day for us, the Nordic nations. Berwald was making things awkward for Tino, Peter was trying to figure out a jigsaw puzzle on the floor, Mathias was being an idiot, I was scolding him for doing such, and my younger brother, Emil, was sitting quietly as always. But today, it seemed that something about him was... off.
Silence. Utter silence. That is all that came from my younger brother. I looked away from Mathias and sat down next to Emil.
"Is everything alright?" I asked him.
"Já. it's fine, Lukas," he whispered.
I sighed, but took his word for it. Mr. Puffin walked around him, as if to check something. I observed the bird, trying to see if it was trying to accomplish something in particular. Emil picked it up and held it in his lap, which seemed to make it less anxious.
"Were you expecting something?" Emil whispered to me.
"No, just a bit curious is all."
The phone then rang, and Tino got up to answer it.
"Hello? ... Yes, this is the Nordic household. ... Peter is here. ... Do you need to talk to him? ... Okay." Tino handed the phone to Peter, "It's Francis."
Peter took the phone from Tino and held it up to his ear.
"Hello. ... Yeah. ... What do you mean? ... B-But- ... No! That is a lie!" Tears started to stream from Peter's eyes as he hung up the phone.
Tino and Berwald weren't sure what was going on, but they hugged him and told him that everything would be fine.
"It was bound to happen," Emil said, "They set themselves up for it."
"What?" I asked.
"It's the front headline." Emil passed me the newspaper. I took it from him and read the line, "London and Cardiff Bombed Killing Hundreds".
"Oh no..." I said to myself. I looked at my brother, "How did this happen?"
"How should I know?" he said blankly, but I could tell that he was actually feeling overwhelming grief, "The lion and dragon are dead. At least together."
"How could you say that!?" Peter cried, "I thought you were always there for them!"
Tino cringed, Berwald hushed the boy, Mathias stared at Emil, and I could feel myself shaking. We could hear Emil's sobs, as the "incident" had left him with strong emotional trauma.
Emil got up and walked out of the room. I sighed, I knew why he did that. If I was in the same situation, I would've done that same. We looked at Peter, who was obviously confused.
"What just happened?" he asked.
The other three nations couldn't explain it to him, for they didn't know all the details. That left me. Great.
"Uh, well..." I hesitated, "You knew of her psychopathy. She was so out of it that we can't even use her name."
Peter nodded.
"And Arthur's magic?"
Again, the boy nodded.
"Emil had tried to help her more than anyone, but he and I had made a fatal mistake. This incident gave her strong hatred towards me, and Emil a fear of her."
"What happened?" Peter asked. Tino then left the room, for he wasn't one who was very tolerable of blood and angst.
"I can't tell you, Peter. You're too young to comprehend it."
"He c'n t'ke it," Berwald said to me.
"Arthur had used a strong form of magic, and it provoked her so greatly that she went into a murderous state. Emil and I made the mistake of trying to pacify her," I said.
"She almost killed you, didn't she?" Mathias asked.
"Yes. But I have magic on my side. As for Emil... He's lucky to be alive."
"What did she do?" Peter asked with concern in his voice.
"If Arthur hadn't realized what was wrong with the spell, she would have ripped him to pieces. She almost did. He has scars all over his body."
"I see."
"After she recovered from the spell, she believed it to be my fault, and hated me for it. She said things to Emil, that I can't repeat to you. Along with the emotional hurt, she also sliced his legs to the point of immobility."
Peter cringed at this, imagining the texture of the flesh resemble that of flank steak.
"His legs were surgically repaired, and she started to gain her sanity again. She was almost legally sane, until she died..."
Peter nodded, "It scares him, doesn't it?"
"It does, but there's more. You two were very close, right?"
"Yeah. We were inseparable. She would visit often, and usually was very gentle."
"Yes, and she knew us well from when she would visit. Especially Tino and Emil. They weren't exactly friends, just acquaintances. But they cared for her well being. So when she hurt him, his sensitive side came out."
Everyone in the room nodded.
"I'm worried about him now, so please let me check on him."
I walked out of the room, outside of his bedroom. The pained cry of a child. Well, he was a child to me. It worried me, so I opened to door.
"E-Emil...?" I gasped and fell back as to what I saw.
"D-Don't worry about me..." he said, "I'll be okay..."
I ran over to him and gabbed his hand, "What did you do? There's blood everywhere," I said with concern in my voice.
"If I couldn't save either of them, then I failed Peter... That was what Tino and I were trying to accomplish by saving them."
"It isn't your fault that they died, Emil. Do you understand that?"
He looked up at me, "Even so, I could've helped, but I didn't."
I held his hand tighter, "She tried to kill you. That is unforgivable. Yet, you still care."
"Not about her, or Arthur. About Peter, Tino, and Berwald."
I nodded, "Where did you cut yourself?"
Emil shook his head, "I didn't cut myself. I kept coughing up blood, I feel ill all of the sudden..."
I was immediately concerned for his health. I noticed that he was very pale and sweating. He seemed awfully tired and I wasn't sure what from. Stress? Depression? Maybe just a virus? An economic crisis? I hoped that it wasn't the last one.
"Lie down, I'll help you," I said to him."
"Takk," he told me in response.
I placed Emil gently on the bed and put my hand on his forehead. He was very warm, which was somewhat odd since he seemed perfectly fine earlier today. I wanted to get an exact reading for his temperature, so I went into the medicine cabinet and got the thermometer.
"Open your mouth please," I asked him.
Emil did as told and I slipped the thermometer under his tongue. When it sounded, I took it out and looked at the number.
"39.4 Celsius. That's high, bror. Have you been feeling sick all day?"
"Já, a bit," he told me.
"Why didn't you say anything?"
"I didn't want you to worry about me on top of all the bombings and things." He started to cough.
I stroked his back, "You're fine," I murmured, "You'll be okay."
At this point he seemed very tired and in need of rest. I tucked Emil into the bed and wished him a good night.
"Sleep well, bror," I said closing the door.
"Takk..." he whispered in response.
I walked back out to the meeting room where the rest of the Nordics were looking in my direction with curiosity.
"Is he going to be alright?" Tino asked.
"Yes, he'll be fine. He's just a bit sick."
"How sick is just a bit?" Mathias enquired.
"He has a fever and a cough. I'm not too worried though, I'm sureUmhygga he'll be over it soon."
They nodded to him.
"It's getting late," Tino said, "We should all get some sleep."
Berwald took Peter's hand and took the child to his room. Tino followed. I didn't move, I was too worried.
"Hej," Mathias said placing a hand on my shoulder.
"What?" I asked blankly.
Mathias sighed and sat down next to me, "Don't worry about him, it's nothing as you put it."
I clenched my fists, "I was obviously lying, you idiot."
Mathias sat in silence for a while.
"Is there something else you'd like to say?" I asked sarcastically.
He shook his head and walked off to his room. That left me alone at the table. I hadn't realized how tired I was until that moment. Soon overwhelming fatigue washed over me and I fell into a dreamless sleep.
I woke up to the sound of crying. I knew automatically that it was my little brother. I walked over to where it was coming from, the bathroom, and knocked on the door. I could only hear troubled breathing and pained moans.
"Emil," I called, "are you in there?"
I then heard the awful sound of dry heaving, and more sobbing. I opened up the door and cringed at the sight before me. My brother was hovered over the toilet, pale and sick, vomiting everything he had in him. He screamed my name, and I assured him that I was right beside him.
I rubbed small circles into his back, in an attempt to ease his discomfort. Emil eventually stopped throwing up and embraced me tightly, tears flowing down his face.
"Calm yourself," I whispered, "big brother is here now."
I carried him back to his bed and pulled the blankets over him. I sat at his bedside through the night. Soon, I couldn't hear the sound of his breathing. This worried me, so I put a hand on his chest. I could feel no movements in his lungs, and his heartbeat was slow. Emil's face was extremely white at this point, and he wasn't moving at all.
"E-Emil," I said, worry in my voice, "Are you okay?"
No response.
I ran out of the room and grabbed the telephone frantically. I dialled "999".
"999, what is your emergency?" the operator asked.
"My brother is very sick, and he isn't breathing." I gave her my name and address, she told me an ambulance was on its way.
When the ambulance arrived, my brother was loaded onto it and taken to the hospital. I'm not one to show emotion, but I started to weep quietly to myself out of worry.
"Lukas," Tino said to me gently, "Don't worry, it gets you nowhere. Emil will be fine, I'm sure of it."
"Thank you," I said nodding to him.
The next morning, I received a phone call from the hospital. I answered it and could not believe what I was hearing.
To Be Continued...
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