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The emergency room was surprisingly busy for a Thursday evening. Doctors and nurses were seen rushing back and forth between different patients, and the shrill ringing of the receptionist’s phone was grating Matthew’s ears.
He had been waiting for an hour at this point. He had brought his brother in minutes before the rush and seen to by a nurse right away, but it seemed like he had been one of the unlucky patients that ended up having to wait while more important emergencies were tended to.
You’d think that accidentally setting off fire crackers in your pants would count as more of an emergency. Matt thought to himself, still border-lining on whether to be amused or annoyed by his twin’s stupidity.
The seat next to his remained vacant for less than fifteen minutes after he initially sat down. He heard the plastic cushion groan next to him, and he glanced up from the TIME magazine he had been skimming through. A blond and obviously exasperated man had sat down beside him – donned in a suit that gave off the impression he had been abruptly called away from work.
For an hour they sat in probably the most awkward silence possible. It hadn’t been awkward at first; Matt had been expecting the other man to get up or be called to the desk in a matter of minutes! But apparently, whomever he was waiting for was in the same non-critical condition as his brother.
He shifted in the seat and discarded the magazine that he had been holding onto for the past thirty minutes. There was only a potted plant to his right, and after stealing a glance over at the man’s other side, he saw that a very old woman was asleep in the chair. So much for hoping someone else would strike up conversation. Clearing his throat, he leaned back and looked over at the man.
“So…” Matt almost lost his nerve when sharp blue eyes flickered over to him. “Who are you waiting for?”
He sighed in open annoyance. “My brother.”
“Really? Same here.” Matt grinned a tad wryly. “What did your brother do?”
“He tried to imitate a parkour video that he saw,” he answered, and he rubbed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “And fell off the roof.”
Matt couldn’t hold back a snort. “Holy shit. That must’ve hurt.”
“It happened right as I got home. Quite literally – I watched him fall off the roof as I parked the car.” The other man sighed and shook his head. “What did your brother do?”
“He somehow set off a whole package of fire crackers in his pants.” Matt lifted his hands up and shrugged. “I was in the other room. All I heard were some pops and bangs, followed by a lot of shouting.”
A small grin turned up the man’s lips. “You don’t seem too surprised that it happened to begin with.”
“I could say the same about you and your brother!” Matt quipped, but he was smiling all the same. “I’m Matt, by the way.”
“Ludwig.” They shook hands, finally exchanging a formal greeting, and both subconsciously stole a glance over at the emergency room. “You were waiting here when I showed up, right? Was it this busy all evening?”
“No, it only got busy a couple minutes after we showed up.”
“Hm.” Ludwig leaned back in his seat and the cushions groaned again.
They made chit-chat up until a young man came hobbling over on crutches and with his ankle bound in a stabilizer. Ludwig stood up, and Matt realized that the newcomer was probably his brother.
“Just a sprain!” The pale-haired young man – whom Ludwig had dubbed ‘Gilbert’ during their conversation – cheerily told his brother. “I’ll be out of this in a month or two!”
“Ja, ja… Just no more parkour.”
Matt snickered softly as Ludwig went to follow his brother over to the reception desk and fill out any final paperwork that was needed. It wasn’t long after that when Alfred came waddling over from where the doctors had been keeping him. He was wearing a pair of pants that had clearly come from the hospital’s gift shop.
“Did they cut through your pants or something?” He asked with a quirked brow, heavily amused by the neon blue cheetah print that his twin was currently pulling off.
“My favorite pair of jeans!” Alfred whined and waved a slip of paper at him. “Here’s the prescription they gave me. I have a couple of first degree burns on my thighs. Nothing too bad, though. Thank God!”
“Yeah.” Matt got up from the chair. “It would be terrible if you lost the family jewels to a firecracker.” He stole a glance around for Ludwig, only to catch him and his brother heading towards the exit doors. A pout twisted his lips downwards.
Alfred caught his stare and followed it to Ludwig’s retreating back. “Who’s that?”
“I sat next to him in the waiting room while waiting for your stupid ass.” He shrugged and looked away. “I should’ve gotten his number. He was cute.”
“Yeah, yeah. Can we stop at McDonald’s on the way home? I’m starving!”
Around three or so months passed by, and Matthew thought of Ludwig sparingly. His brother recovered quickly from the firecracker incident and just as quickly resumed being his stupid self. Not that it was anything new for him.
Of course, Alfred ended up in the emergency room again. This time it was because he got into a drunk fistfight and broke his hand – and at a McDonald’s parking lot, none the less!
“Sonnava bitch made me drop my shake!” Alfred was complaining loudly, his voice slightly slurred from the liquor still in his system.
“Why did you even need a shake?” Matt replied tiredly with a sigh. He had been sound asleep when the hospital called him from his brother’s phone. It was definitely not a fun way to be woken up. He was trying not to nod off in the chair, the sound of the nurse putting his brother’s hand into a cast and said brother’s complaining barely enough to keep him up. Vaguely he could hear the curtains of the area next to theirs be drawn open, along with a slightly fretful and panicked voice spurting out apologies.
Looks like someone is having a worse night than me. He thought, blowing air noisily between his lips.
A familiar voice cut through his drowsiness. “Gilbert, it’s not your fault…! Let the nurse work! Stop hovering!”
It was Ludwig, and honestly, Matt couldn’t have been more surprised. He sat in his chair for a few moments later, listening to the commotion on the other side until the nurse – and Ludwig’s brother – had walked away. Only then did he stand up and cautiously peer around. Sure enough, the blond man he had met a few months ago was sitting on the bed with his arm in a sling.
“Ludwig?” Matt called out, his brows lifting in surprise, and he watched the other look up with a start.
“Matt?” For some reason, a red blush streaked across Ludwig’s cheeks. “What are you doing here?”
“My brother was being a dumbass again.” Matt ventured further into the little curtain box and frowned at the sling. “What happened to you? I heard your brother apologizing a lot when you guys came in.”
“Ah…” Now Ludwig looked even more embarrassed than before. “There was a cat on our roof. Gilbert managed to convince me to climb out of our second story window to try to get it and… Well…” He lifted his broken arm to show the results.
“Ouch. That sucks.” Matt paused, and then grinned a little. “Kinda funny that we’re both in the emergency room again, though, huh?”
Ludwig snorted. “I suppose so. Although I would have hoped it wouldn’t be me in the examination bed.”
“Same here.” Matt stuffed his hands into his pockets and glanced off to the side. “So… I should probably go check back up on Alfred. The nurse has probably finished with him by now.”
“Oh.” A disappointed look flickered across his face for a small moment. “I understand. I wouldn’t want to keep you from going home. It’s rather late, after all.”
“Yeah.” There was another pause, and after a moment of internal debate, Matt frowned heavily with determination. “Hey, got a sharpie?”
Surprised, Ludwig glanced around before gesturing to the table beside his bed. Matthew walked over to it, and after a bit of searching, picked up a black sharpie. He then moved to Ludwig’s side, gently taking hold of his injured arm and adjusting the sling so that he could see the white surface of the cast. The cap of the sharpie was plucked off and he wordlessly scribbled down his number.
Ludwig stared down at it – openly dumbfounded and flustered. “W-what’s this?” He asked, looking from the black numbers to Matthew.
“My phone number.” Matt capped the sharpie and set it back down on the table. “I figured waiting for the next time we both end up at the emergency room would be a waste of time. So, uh…” He backed out of the enclosure and flashed the baffled Ludwig one last grin. “Call me sometime, okay?”
He only had to wait less than a day.