Chapter Text
Emil always told himself that the boy who'd shown up one day alongside his so-called 'father' wasn't really his brother.
At least, when he turned eleven, that's what he said. Previously, loneliness had taken a toll strong enough to cause him to latch quite firmly onto this figure, whoever he was.
When Emil was younger, he had adored the boy, calling him 'big brother' and trailing behind him like a lost puppy. Lukas had always taken care of him, from the moment he'd walked through the door with their 'father'.
Lukas had been eight at the time, and Emil only six, but they had bonded while their family reunited. The two years had done nothing more than put Lukas at just old enough to care for Emil sensibly, not to mention how mature he had always been, no matter his age.
For a few glorious years, everything was perfect. Emil had been born in Iceland, and for less than a year, he and his mother had lived there before coming to the States. Apparently, his brother had been born in Norway and was left with the 'father' there for several years before the parents had decided to bring the family together for the first time.
Emil didn't know if that man was his true father. His mother never straight out told him, yet she said Lukas was his brother.
Always, Lukas was his brother. Until he'd gotten older.
Until the perfect years began to fade until they were nothing but a distant memory.
Their little piece of life had shifted.
His mother fell very ill, he and Lukas had been at her side when she'd let out that last shuddering breath that shook her body for a final time, the smile she'd been forcing for her tearful children fading with the light in her eyes.
After that, the 'father' had changed as well. He became cruel; after a point, he'd even grown abusive. One night after a terrifying argument between his now thirteen-year-old brother and his father, Lukas had snapped. His fury at Emil's yet again coming to him in tears with a swelling bruise on his cheek, drove him to shove the horrid man they called 'father' away.
He'd then promptly turned, seized Emil by the hand, and the two of them had left with nothing but the clothes on their backs and Emil's beloved stuffed puffin. They'd run off into the streets, and their 'father' if that was to be believed, hadn't bothered to go after them.
Things had been difficult after that, but for once, fate seemed to be kind.
Lukas had been confiding in one of his teachers from school about the situation with his family, and the grandmother-like woman had given the boys a home without hesitation. With the kind lady providing them a home, the boys had continued with school, and the second he was old enough, Lukas had taken a job to help pay for anything he could for him and his brother.
Of course, there had to have been a fight.
It had been a horrible argument. The topic was Lukas coming to Emil's school so they could walk home. At the time, Lukas had recently turned sixteen, making Emil fourteen. Emil was just about to graduate into the same high school Lukas attended, but as it was the older of the pair still walked to the middle school almost every school day to walk home with his brother.
What was it that had started that fight?
Was it that Emil felt embarrassed about his big brother coming to walk him home from school?
Did Lukas say something wrong in front of Emil's friends?
Whatever it was, it hadn't mattered. The fact that Emil couldn't draw it to his mind must have meant it hadn't been that important.
All Emil knew was that it had made him furious. He'd erupted at his brother the second they were out of sight of his friends.
After attacking the older boy with a barrage of hateful words, Emil had paused to breathe. Hand's fisted, violet-blue eyes nearly identical to the one before him, narrow and glaring.
For the first time in his life, Emil saw tears welling hotly in those similar eyes. For as long as he could remember, the young Norwegian only once cried, and that had been the day of their mother's departure from this world.
He wasn't that big on smiling either, or frowning, or really making any sort of expression. But hearing such words spewing from his brother's mouth, all directed at him, had brought the dam that had held back the tears since their mother's passing crashing down.
Emil had taken a breath to apologize, realizing he'd hurt the one person he had left in this world. Lukas hadn't said a word, he'd turned his back on his brother and ran before the younger could see the tears beginning to fight their way from behind his eyelids and leak out down his cheeks.
That night, dinner had been the same, and for a few small hours, Emil thought his brother had forgiven him for his words until he had heard the last words Lukas had to say before retiring to bed.
"I'm going to sleep. Good night, ma'am, dinner was great."
He hadn't said a thing to Emil. Usually, every night, without fail, never once forgetting, he'd always say 'Good night, brother' before he went to sleep, it was the one time of the day where Emil would let him get away with saying that they were brothers out loud, and every once in a blue moon, Emil would say, "Good night, brother." in response.
The next day in the inklings of early morning, Emil had awoken to the sound of Lukas screaming.
He sprinted into the hall, slipping and tripping on sheets that were tangled around his legs. He ripped the door to his brother's room open, the floor was strewn with his blankets and several pillows, just in time to see a figure disappear from the pried open window.
"LUKAS!"
Emil had dashed to the window, leaning out to see the telltale, pale blonde curl being forced into a car, disappearing along with a pair of wide violet-blue, terrified eyes staring up at the window before a gloved hand landed on the top of his head and pushed him out of sight. Emil had thought to run down the stairs and out the door to try and stop them, but now it was too late. The car started with a soft revving and took off down the street, after the initial screech of tires on the asphalt, the plain black van had been gone.
And so was Emil's big brother.
Two years later
Chatter flooded the halls of the high school as the final bell rang, teens thronged the tile passageways, eager to return home for the weekend.
"What're you, like, doing this week, mate?" Li, Emil's closest friend, questioned.
Emil glanced over at the Chinese boy, who was wearing his usual red's, black's, and golds with overly long sleeves and sneakers. Emil himself wore a weathered gray long sleeve with a brown cargo jacket on top, jeans, and white sneakers.
He shrugged lazily.
"Who knows....whatever I have time for after I finish my homework." He replied.
"Cool," Li said, that was his usual response to a statement such as that.
A horn honked above the sea of voices and clomping feet, Li glanced to the road to see an older teen with a lighter head of brown hair than Li's, a goofy smile on his face. He was waving out the driver's window at him.
"There's Yong Soo. We're going on a day trip to the mountains on Saturday, so I'm afraid I won't be able to, like, see you until Monday. Later!"
With that, the boy waved to his gray-haired friend and ran off to jump into the backseat of the massive eight-seater car, him having seven siblings and no parents, a car of this size was definitely necessary.
Emil had met Li in a way neither of them was happy with, but both were glad to have each other.
Li's oldest brother, Yao, had turned sixteen, and not a week later he'd been kidnapped by a large black van, the next year his second oldest brother Kiku had been taken away the exact same way, a little over two weeks past sixteen.
The police had connected this with how Lukas had been taken barely two weeks after his own sixteenth birthday had been celebrated the same month as Kiku's. Emil had met Li and his remaining five older siblings, Yong Soo being oldest among them now that Yao and Kiku were gone. Miracle have it, the boy had turned sixteen a little under a year ago, and nothing had happened to him. Same with his twin, who'd turned sixteen mere minutes later.
The extra precautions they had taken may have had something to do with it. The pair of youngest siblings sort of just hung around with each other. Occasionally they talked about what happened to their brothers. Most of the time, they choose to just know the other knew what they were going through, and they turned out to be enough for the duo.
They never discussed the strangeness of it all. How such similar kidnappings could happen, and how it could become such a string, form such a pattern, without any evidence showing up.
How a city like theirs could have things like this happening, without even a shred of a clue as to the whereabouts of the missing teens.
No. They never talked about it. But they knew each other.
And that was enough.
Emil waved back before turning to head home, treading down the same sidewalk he always took, he froze when he saw a familiar black van pull around the opposite corner.
The kid shook his head. No way, stop dreaming, that's not the same car, there's no way it could be.
These thoughts didn't stop the young man from dodging across the street and peering around the corner.
He was greatly surprised when, with a soft hissing sound, Emil got a face full of gas from a gloved hand and a person who's features blurred like smoke when he tried to get a good look at them standing over him.
Then his eyes rolled up, and he went unconscious.