#stop asking!

When Ash settled and the noise outside died down again, Achilles lowered the volume slowly until it was quiet again. He wanted to hear his brother breathe and, subconsciously, make sure there were no threats outside the door. He also checked his messages, swiping them away without reading anything other than the name.

He opened his recent chats, his family and boyfriend pinned at the top. Lyall hadn't responded to his last two messages. Maybe because they were in the same building, or maybe he was just too busy with his own brother. Achilles could only hope they were both doing okay, telling himself he would take a few minutes to check on them as soon as one of his dads had time to watch over his brother in his stead.

But Lyall beat him to it. There was a soft knock on the door, meant to alert Achilles, but not disturb Ash. The door opened just far enough for Lyall to poke his head through, before slipping his body through next and closing the door behind him.

"How is he?" he whispered, gesturing at Ash.

"Dad says he'll be fine." Achilles replied quietly, "Ian gave him something to help him sleep, said it would help him heal."

"Yeah I can imagine using his powers this much is hella draining."

"Mhm." Achilles agreed, finally managing to tear his eyes off of his brother, "How's Luke?"

"Fine." Lyall said a bit too quickly, "Are you holding up okay?"

"Are you?" Achilles countered.

Lyall didn't answer. He looked fidgety, as if he was still running on adrenaline. Achilles blinked as something slowly dawned on him, but he wasn't sure what to say. He wasn't even sure he wanted to say anything, but he knew he had to. For his own sake.

"Ly...are you okay?" he gently asked.

"Don't worry about me."

"But I do..."

"Well then stop!"

A pause fell as Ash stirred a bit. Lyall sighed, pulling a hand through his hair while Achilles got up so they could talk quietly by the door.

"Just tell me, Ly."

"Tell you what?" Lyall snapped a bit.

"What is wrong with you--"

"Nothing's wrong, stop asking!" Lyall hissed.

"Keep it down, you're gonna wake Ash--" Achilles calmly began, but Lyall cut him off again.

"Oh boo-hoo! At least you still have a brother to wake!"

Achilles' stomach sank for a second.

"D-did Luke...die?"

"No..." Lyall said, rolling his eyes, "But he hasn't been himself in years. That's not my brother."

"...well go cry about it." Achilles said, his voice a bit strained through the lump in his throat.

"Excuse me?" Lyall asked.

"You heard me." Achilles said, "Don't think I didn't notice you skipping out on your meds through all this, so I won't take anything you said personally or intentionally, but I really don't want to do this right now, so... You're excused. Come back when you've taken your lithium."

He didn't wait for Lyall to respond, but simply reached past him and opened the door, gesturing for him to get out. Lyall glanced at the door opening before looking bac at Achilles.

"Screw you, Al." he said, before walking out.

Achilles closed the door behind him. Leaning his head against the painted surface as he squeezed his eyes shut.

Love you too...

He sniffled, quickly wiping at his eyes. He took a shaky breath to try to calm down a bit, before turning back and sitting back down at his brother's bedside.

@whumpay

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