brother's retry (the beginning after the end)

chatting with some friends

Waking up to a loud thud I quickly opened my eyes to see that a nurse was moving things around and cleaning the other side of the room. "Um, excuse me, where is Arthur leywin."

She whipped her head. "D-did I wake you? I-I apologize!" she said with a bow.

"It's fine. I should have woken up much earlier anyway, but do you know where my brother is?" I said as I sat up on my bed.

"O-oh yes he has gone back to his normal routine." she said as she raised back up.

"Ughh, that dick. he left me here." I mumbled. Pushing the covers off I went to stand up but the nurse rushed to me trying to stop me. "Why can't I leave?"

Gently pushing me back to the bed she seemed worried. "You were in a worse condition than your brother when you arrived. You should still be healing for at least the next three days before you even attempt to stand!"

"Uh, alright I apologize." After that I waited till she finished cleaning and started working on my core once again. Even once I recover my core should be close enough to light yellow to break through in a week or two.

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After about an hour or so I heard a knock on the door. "It's shirou, can I come in?" I heard my freaky roommate ask.

"Yeah, you can come in." I yelled through the door while I situated myself.

The door swung up as he walked inside looking around before sitting next to the bed. We just sat in a strange silence as I had no clue what to talk about. I doubt he did. I mean we hardly knew each other.

Finally coming up with a question "Shouldn't you be in class?"

"Oh uh, Arthur let us out a bit too early so we have some free time right now. Um, how are you feeling?" he awkwardly asked.

"Eh, I've been through worse. What did Art teach you guys today?" I asked.

"He's trying to teach us what absorbing a spell back into your body could do for a conjurer and launching spells for augmenters." he said as he scratched his head in what seemed to be frustration.

"Ooh that's advanced for you guys. Let me guess it's not going well for you?"

"No! I just don't understand what the hell I'm doing! I'm only a dark orange core so I'm already behind all the other advanced student's. Hey, have you got any tips on this?" he was practically ripping his hair out by this point. I honestly don't wanna help him. It's not possible for it to be a coincidence that he looks exactly like Red. Yet, the pleading look on his face made me cave after a moment.

"Ughhh, fine. I'm guessing you've manifested your element." I said, getting out of bed.

"Y-yeah, I am a fire elemental." he stuttered.

"You can't be serious right now." giving a long sigh I continued on, "shirou, every element needs to be treated differently and as I can use any other element, but fire I can't help you with."

While yes, I could help him, he needs to learn this on his own, and I don't exactly trust him. I don't want to help someone that might harm the people I care for later down the line. I already made that mistake before.

With a disheartened sigh he slumped down into his seat "thanks anyway. When you get out of here let me know if there's anything I can help you with." looking back up he had a warm smile that you would normally only see from a very close friend.

"Hm, yeah I appreciate that. Anyway enough about this, how's the uncrippled life going?" This had quickly spurred the first one on one conversation we have had. The topics had diverged from just school stuff to hobbies but were interrupted by a knock on the door.