Liebe (BxB)

Chapter 5 - Andreas

Andreas felt like death. He'd never liked that expression, felt like death. What did that even mean? Did that mean he felt like death as in the reaper? Or death as in being dead? Neither had made any sense to him. While the first never sounded right, the latter was impossible. No one knew what death felt like, although if Andreas were to guess, he probably would have gone with how he felt right now. His head was pounding, his fingers numb, and eyelids were so heavy it felt almost like they'd been sewn shut.

He groaned and his hand weakly went to his forehead where the pain was definitely the worst.

"He's awake? Joseph, he's awake!" A voice said above him.

Andreas was stuck in a momentary loop of confusion. Joseph? The only Joseph he knew was the old guy at the market that used to try and hassle him into buying some of his fresh produce. And who was this guy talking?

Andreas finally managed to pull his eyes apart. His vision was severally blurred and everything looked as if it was slowly spinning, though he didn't know if that was his eyes doing or his heads.

He tried to lift his head to gauge his surroundings better but a gentle hand pushed him back down.

A different voice from his other side started to speak to him. "Not so fast Princess, you fell out of a tree. Mister smart ass here says you have to take it easy."

Princess? Was this a dream?

"Mind my brother, he's a bit incompetent." Muttered the first voice and finally, all the pieces of the jumbled up puzzle in his brain fell into place. The first voice belonged to Franz and the other to Joseph, the brothers who had witnessed his not so graceful fall from the tree.

Andreas's face felt hot and grew red with embarrassment and he closed his eyes again as a way of shielding himself from the two boys.

The ringing in his ears subsided and he was rather thankful to know that the siren had stopped. A false alarm perhaps? Or maybe he'd been out for far longer then he'd originally thought...

"I- What..?" Andreas said weakly.

Joseph sighed gently. "Does it hurt?"

"Umm... A little..." he said softly, his hand moving to gently rub his head.

"Okay, let's sit you up carefully," Franz said gently. Andreas felt the two boys hands on his arms to help him sit up. They both warily let go of him, and when they saw that Andreas could keep himself up they let go of him.

"Don't worry, you're in good hands," Joseph said to him with a soft smile, wanting to ease the other male's nerves. "Franz is training to be a doctor."

Franz smiled a little as he started gently looking through Andreas's hair for any bruising. Once he was cleared the two young men then helped Andreas to his feet.

"Let's get you home, shall we Bache?" Joseph said to him playfully, looping his arm with the other as they gently led him out of the park and down the path.

"This really isn't necessary. It's okay. I can make my own way home." Andreas said weakly but Franz shook his head.

"You need to be watched for a little while. Make sure you don't have any unseen injuries."

Andreas wanted to protest. He felt so silly being fussed over like this. He didn't even know these boys and yet they were helping him home after his own silly fall. He appreciates it, but he still felt embarrassed.

He finally managed to convince them to let him take the few last steps to the door from the footpath on his own, only because they wanted to stand back and admire his house, this did not help with Andreas's embarrassment.

He waved them goodbye and watched from the door as they left back off down the path, already bickering like classic siblings.

Andreas slipped inside, closing the door quietly. He wanted to escape any scolding and just head up to his room but as he tiptoed to the stairs his father's voice spoke behind him.

"Mutig? What are you doing home so late? Your mother was very worried. Didn't you hear the alarm earlier?"

Andreas swallowed and slowly turned around. "I did, father. I'm sorry I'm so late. I... Ummm..." Andreas had never been very good at fabricating lies. "I met up with a friend from Hitler Youth. We lost track of time."

His father sighed gently and seemed to accept this lie, despite how vague and weak Andreas thought it might have been. He nodded a little and planted his hands on his hips. "Well, clean yourself and get ready for bed. You have an early start tomorrow. Oh, and your sister is already asleep so don't make too much noise."

And with that Andreas climbed the stairs up to his room. He was thankful it had been his father, knowing that if he'd come home to his mother than he'd have had a lot more questions to answer, and probably a lot more lies to fabricate. He didn't like lying, but he knew he couldn't tell them about meeting Joseph and Franz. His parents, his mother especially, had always been very clear on their "Strangers aren't to be trusted rule" which quite frankly, made no sense to Andreas. Everyone is a stranger before you get to know them. Everyone's best friends and even closest family members started off as strangers. Andreas knew this rule eas only there to keep them safe and sure, some caution was needed, but that didn't mean you needed to treat every stranger like a criminal.

Andreas got into fresh new clothes, he brushed his teeth before tucking himself into bed. He stared up at the roof, imagining he could see right through the white ceiling to the stars above. But he couldn't. He had a roof over his head. A roof connected to a vast multi-story house.

His thoughts drifted to the Engel brothers and how transfixed they had been at his house. It made him wonder what their situation was like. What everyone's situations were like. Did he really live that different to everyone else?

These were the thoughts that drifted him to sleep that night. They weren't comforting. He felt alienated. He hoped people didn't treat him differently because of his families financial status.

But he supposed that he could hope all he wanted. It didn't mean that any of it would come true.