Kristoff had never known his little brother Shadow to get sick. It was because his magical half that Kristoff had never expected it was even possible, and now he felt helpless as he watched his little brother lay curled on his side, sweat plastering his long black hair to his forehead. The seventeen-year-old boy shivered, but it had been a struggle to get him to keep on his clothes as he had insisted that he was too hot.
Kris dabbed off the sweat on his little brother’s skin with a damp cloth. Shadow opened his eyes, but his silver-gray eyes were unfocused. They drifted back closed as he lifted a trembling hand and rested it on his older brother’s arm.
“I’m sorry,” he said, voice hoarse from his strange ailment.
Kristoff frowned, and he brushed his brother’s hair off his face.
“Shady, you don’t need to apologize. You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“But I’m always causing so much trouble for you. And you’re always holding yourself back because of me. I’ve ruined your life, and now you’re going to get fired from work because—”
“If you weren’t sick, right now, I’d slap you,” Kristoff said, poking Shadow in his gaunt cheek.
“But I—”
“First, I’m not going to get fired. I’m way too important.”
Kristoff paused both to gauge Shadow’s reaction to his words and to collect his thoughts. Shadow only laid on his bed and listened, so Kristoff continued:
“Second, you have never been nor will ever be too much trouble for me. I fell in love with you the moment I pulled you out of our mother’s body, and I’ve never regretted any of the things I did to make sure you were cared for, understand?”
Had Shadow been feeling better, he would have looked at Kristoff with the dejected look on his face he now wore. Tears slid from the younger boy’s eyes, collecting in the sweat on his cheeks.
“Shadow, answer me,” Kris admonished.
“I’m sorry” was all he said, and Kristoff sighed.
“I’ll take what I said back a bit. Apparently, I’ve failed to help you understand that I love you more than anything, and *that* I do regret, little brother.”
More tears slid down the boy’s face, and his lower lip trembled. Kris wiped his face with the damp washcloth again, and then he kissed him on the sweaty forehead.
“You think you can hold down something to eat?” Kristoff asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve never felt like this before.”
“Right, but let’s give it a try. You’ll need the fuel to get better.”
“Okay.”
Kris gave Shadow one more kiss on the hair, and then he went toward the door, pausing when he thought he heard Shadow’s voice.
“Did you say something?” he asked.
“Love you, too,” the younger boy mumbled.
A soft smile spread on Kris’s face, and then he left the room to see what they had in the kitchen.
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