[FIN] Brothers in Arms

[Suudonym]

Simply talking was often one of the most obscenely difficult things Luke could do when it came to troubles and worries. He was much more comfortable carrying every burden silently - or so he had somehow led himself to believe. When had he ever overcome anything with his own will, though? His hopes had never been rekindled within his own thoughts. Despite realizing this, it was still difficult. Habit drove him into himself at every turn. Even so he knew that he shouldn't keep what he knew from his family, especially given the nature of his mother's recent passing. Contacting his father was as much a worry as it had been over the summer. Being summoned to return home, to a place he knew primarily as a prison and to a people who would call him with a name he didn't recognize as his own - and this time without Guy or Natalia there to help him tolerate it - was not only a possibility but a likelihood.

So he decided to save that conversation for later, when he was more confident in his ability to hold his own in the inevitable argument. Instead, he sent a very simple message: I need to talk to you about something. The recipient of those vague words, sent with undue apprehension, would be his brother.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Asch hadn't exactly been Mr. Social since he'd come back from his trip to Grande Ile. All he did was his duty to Team Rocket and then would retreat to his room, living in near seclusion within the base. After all, he didn't really have any friends to speak of. No one to confide in or even talk to really. At least not anyone that wouldn't piss him off. Thus he just kept to himself.

The message on the phone he used for communication with his brother though, received. He frowned at it. Would could his brother possibly want to talk about this time? Really though, he wasn't in the mood for more bad news if there could possibly be any more.

Fine. I'll be there in an hour.

Assuming that it was their "regular" meeting place.  

[Suudonym]

It wouldn't take quite as long as an hour for Luke to reach the beat-up old church that had somehow become the usual place, but he left immediately nonetheless, putting himself in motion to prevent an escalation in anxiety. The building had suffered a bit more, he found upon arriving, since he had last seen it: some of the windows had been broken presumably from wind tossing around the branches that encased the exterior walls. That only occupied his interests briefly, though. Left with little else to entertain himself as he waited, he paced idly around the room, singing in quiet tones that conserved his breath.  

[BlackPidgeot]

When Asch arrived, Luke would hear the hoofbeats of a Rapidash and an impatient neigh after he'd dismounted the Pokemon. Havoc though soon vanished in a flash of light just before the young man entered the church, spotting his twin immediately.

"What is it this time?" he asked, his voice edged with irritation but he was making a considerable effort to control it.

He looked tired, worn, stressed out really, but he was functioning. Arms were folded and he looked at Luke expectantly.  

[Suudonym]

His song stopped in the middle of a word at the sound of his brother's arrival, and his posture tensed. The words with which he was greeted, as well as their tone and their speaker's expression, left him feeling very small. Asch wasn't in the mood to hear it and Luke wasn't in the mood to say it, but he couldn't very well just say never mind and call it a day now. Gripping the hem of his sleeves, he closed his eyes, drew a breath, and responded, "I was told I should start trying to qualify for a transplant program, if I want to live much longer." He took a moment to be impressed with the fact that he had successfully pronounced every one of those words coherently, to marvel at his heart rate, and to remind himself to breathe. "I just… thought I should probably let you know."  

[BlackPidgeot]

Well... that was something. Clearly not a something he was expecting. Especially so soon after their mother's death. Asch's expression was... stunned, perhaps even horrified. He just stared at his twin for a few moments before letting out a huff and looking away.

"Of course."

Naturally he, both of them, would have such rotten luck. He scowled, but more at his own thoughts than anything Luke had done. Eventually he looked back at his brother with a more evened expression.

"You're going through with it, right?" As in, you had better go through with it.  

[Suudonym]

He swallowed forcibly. His answer was presented in quiet tones, "If I can." It would have been a whole lot less terrifying, after all, if the only question was whether or not he wanted it.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Asch frowned, that wasn't exactly the answer he was looking for. However, he contained his annoyance and merely asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"  

[Suudonym]

"There are examinations. You have to qualify, physically and psychologically." And though one might have expected a potential heart transplant candidate to look rather unhealthy, most of Luke's appearance - a pale complexion with dark eyes that rarely held eye contact, fingers more often than not grasping at something on his person as if to hold onto himself, a diminishing weight reflective of a poor lifestyle, and a small voice that usually sounded some degree of frightened - was the result of a by now chronic sense of stress and anxiety. It hadn't exactly been a good time in his life to tell him that he had to be more optimistic, Or Else.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Asch listened with a straight face, and could immediately see the problem. Yeah, Luke wasn't exactly... psychologically sound, and he looked like a wreck. Hell, they just saw their mother die. Both of them were a wreck really, but Asch was fortunate enough to be healthy.

"Then figure something out. You can't die. ... You're all that father has left."  

[Suudonym]

Luke for once raised his eyes, furrowing his brow in slight confusion or concern. "Did you disown him?" He knew that their father was… much harder to get along with than their mother, after all, and it was easy to portray him as the villain in the story of their childhood.  

[TRHQ Yuri Lowell]

Asch's frown deepened and he turned his eyes away. "I might as well have," he muttered.

"He wanted me to stay. To go back to the way things were. I told him no."

That was the condensed version of it anyway.  

[Suudonym]

"It's different, though," he said, downcast. "What he wants as the head of House Fabre and he wants as your father. He and Mother hoped for years that you would come back some day. Of course he wanted you to stay. But even if you won't be his heir, you're still his son…" Was it so much to ask for just one thing in his life to be even just a little bit pleasant? Maybe even just slightly normal?  

[BlackPidgeot]

Those words stung, and again Asch felt the desire to run back home. To ask his father's forgiveness and stay there. But no, that's now how it could be. Was it too much for him to be pleasant? Maybe.

Asch's fists clenched at his sides, a grimace on his face. "You don't get it! No matter what he may want, I can't go back. That's just how it is."  

[Suudonym]

His head lowered, Luke was powerless to prevent the tears that blurred his sight despite not understanding their cause. "You don't have to go back," he insisted weakly. "Isn't it enough to just write every now and then? He's already lost Mother. Don't make him think you're gone too."