Emil carefully got out of the car and glanced in the direction he could hear Lukas' shouts at Matthias coming from. The morning had gone rather uneventful, maybe due to his rising at four and walking up and down the stairs around ten times before everyone else got up. He made his way over to Lukas as normally as he could and followed the sound of his voice.

This was scary. He wasn't going to deny it, it was terrifying. He didn't know where he was or anything, but no way was he going to let it show. No way. After a minute of walking there was three consecutive taps on his shoulder. Leon. It had been his idea, so Emil knew who he was, and it had seemed to work.

"Heya Em" he said, Lukas stopping talking for a second before continuing. "So, like, you've finally finished Sherlock I hear."

Emil fought the urge to laugh. He'd never seen the show in his life.

"What?" Matthias screeched from a couple of feet away. "You've sold your soul to the devil? Don't go there Emil. Don't go there! It will ruin your life!"

"He's exaggerating" Lukas sighed. "But don't pull an Arthur on me okay? He cried all night when the last episode came out."

"How do you know this?" Matthias asked.

"He called me and refused to end the call" Lukas groaned. "I tried to, but he just kept calling me back. He get's too attached to shows. God help us when Doctor Who ends."

"Never!" Matthias cried and the sound of footsteps ran away.

"Sorry Lukas" Leon laughed. "It's not my fault okay, it has nothing to do with me."

Lukas grumbled something before suddenly vanishing from hearing.

"Okay, so he's just gone inside the door yeah?" Leon narrated. "We'll wait until him and Matthias have completely vanished and then we'll follow alright?"

Emil nodded. "Do you know how far the room is from the door?"

"Not far" Leon said. "But there is a flight of stairs. Will you be alright with them? There's a lift if you want it."

"I'm not Yao" Emil muttered. "I'll be fine."

They started towards the door, Leon holding it open as the taller male passed through, oblivious of his efforts.

"You're welcome" Leon whispered as they passed the receptionist's desk.

"Hm?" Emil glanced around for a second. "Oh, sorry. Thanks."

Leon snorted. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be laughing, but it's funny."

"Shut up" Emil grunted. "So... where's the stairs?"

"They are..." Leon hesitated as they carried on walking. "Here. Turn to your right, take three steps and then step up. They should be there. I'll go ahead and count how many there are."

He vanished and Emil slowly turned and headed towards where Leon had said the stairs were, counting his steps as he went. One, two, three. His foot hit the bottom of a step and he lurched forwards, only just catching the step above with his other foot.

"There are seventeen steps" Leon called from the top. You're on the second step, so you have sixteen left okay."

Emil nodded and slowly made his way up, knowing that at any minute he could fall. The past day, the darkness he'd suddenly been thrown into hadn't bothered him that much really. Now, it scared him. Whichever way he looked it was the same. Black, ink, dark, death. Everywhere it was the same, and the similarity of it all was starting to freak him out. Falling asleep had been weird too. Darkness when he closed his eyes and opened them. It hadn't taken as long as he'd expected, but it had still taken too long for his comfort.

"Three steps" Leon said. "See, you're fine."

He counted down in his head again. Three, two, one... His foot shot down and he screeched, covering his face with his hands. Next to him, he could hear Leon laughing.

"Why would you do that?" Emil shouted, hitting where he was fairly sure Leon was, but ending up swatting thin air, which made Leon laugh more. "Come on, it's not funny."

"I'm sorry" Leon cackled it was just too good an opportunity to miss. "And anyway, it was only the third step that was made up."

"I hate you" Emil muttered.

"No you don't" Leon took his hand and dragged him further down the corridor. "Now come on, it'll probably be starting soon."

"Yeah, yeah" Emil said. "You can let go of my hand you know. I can move by myself."

"But you move slowly" Leon complained.

"Yeah, because..." Emil started but stopped himself abruptly before he could finish the sentence.

"Okay" Leon whispered. "I'm really sorry. We're here now. Your seat is next to Lukas and kinda close to mine alright? When we walk in say Moriarty is one of the greatest bad guys, but not too loudly, just as in a civil conversation."

"Who's Moriarty again?" Emil asked, but it was too late for an answer. He could feel the presence of numerous other people, none thankfully who were looking at him. He said his line and then let Leon drabble on about stuff all in some sort of foreign language. What was a Eurus anyway?

"Your seat's here" Leon said so quietly he barely heard. "You're right next to it. Put out a hand now and you can grab the back of it alright?"

Emil extended a hand and felt the back of the chair, stabbing the space behind it to make sure no one was sitting in it. "Okay. Thank you."

"Anytime" then, abandoning his whisper, "see you later."

"Lukas" Emil hissed just before he sat down.

"What?" Lukas snapped from the chair next to him. "Shut up and sit down."

Emil gave an inaudible sigh of relief that it wasn't someone else and that this was his chair. He sat, rested his head on his hand and glanced down at the table. This was normal. He rarely paid attention, so no one looked twice at him, or bothered him. The only different thing throughout the meeting was his consistent twisting to find the clock. That was normal, except today, he didn't. At one point, about halfway through, he had done, only to remember that it wouldn't matter, and that he'd just stare at exactly the same wall of dark, and turned back to glare at the table.

It took him probably an hour to realise that their lunch break was late by a lot, and no one had mentioned it, but that didn't matter.

The sound of someone irritably stacking papers echoed around the suddenly silent room and someone cleared their throat. "Okay" Ludwig sighed. "It's clear we're not getting anywhere with this."

"We never get anywhere with anything" Arthur groaned.

"Well we got less done today" Ludwig snapped. "And most of it's your fault so I don't know what you're complaining about." He sighed again in a clear attempt to calm himself. "Meeting dismissed."

Emil stayed where he was, waiting for someone to indicate that he had to start moving.

"Sorry Emil" he heard Leon say from behind him. "Teach's insisting that we go now so I can't stop. See you." There was a pause. "By the way, Lukas is standing up" he whispered before disappearing, his feet echoing along the floor of the now virtually empty room. It was almost their custom for the Nordics to wait until everyone else had left before making a move, so now, Emil rose, informed by Leon and glanced around, waiting for any indication that anyone was somewhere. There wasn't a sound.

"Hey Lukas" he said, waiting for a response.

"Hm?"

There is was, but he struggled locating it properly.

"Are we doing anything for the rest of the day?"

There was a momentary pause and a rustling of material.

"No" Tino answered for him. "I wouldn't say we're doing anything. Why d'you ask?"

"Just wondering" Emil said. "And I'm tired."

"You've not done anything all day" Matthias laughed. "You've just stared blankly at the same piece of paper for four hours."

"So?" Emil said. "I'm still tired."

He started walking towards where the voices were coming from, having located them as well as he could without any form of eco-location. For a moment he was alright, then he crashed into the wall, his head slamming into it from his haste to get to the others.

There was a short burst of laughter from Matthias which was quickly cut off by a chocking noise. Then, two hands were placed on his shoulders and he was spun around, clearly to face someone.

"Emil" Lukas said quietly. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Um..." Emil stuttered. This wasn't good. "Uh... three?"

"Okay" Lukas said. "And now?"

"Four?" Emil suggested. It seemed he'd got the first one right, and he was hoping he'd get lucky again.

"It's three again" Lukas said. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine" Emil mentally scolded himself for getting it wrong. "Honestly, I'm fine. I'm just tired as I said."

"Tiredness doesn't make you walk into walls Emil" Matthias pointed out.

There were heavy, quick footsteps towards his direction and Lukas took his hands off his shoulders, letting someone else take his chin.

"Look at me Emil" it was Berwald.

Emil looked up and waited for something to happen. Nothing did. "What?"

"Hm" Berwald grunted.

"Emil what's wrong with your eyes?" Lukas asked.

"Nothing" Emil snatched himself away from Lukas and backed away, hitting the wall again.

"Emil" Berwald said. "Your pupils aren't retracting to the light I shone in them a second ago."

"So" Emil shrugged.

"Walk to the other end of the room" Tino said from somewhere nearby.

"No" Emil snapped, trying to back away more, forgetting the wall. "Why?"

"I just want to make sure you're alright" Tino huffed. "Look. Just walk in the direction that I'm pointing alright?"

"Which way? It's not clear" Emil muttered. There was no way he was going to be able to get out of this one yet.

"Okay then" Tino said. "Don't walk it's fine."

"Can you see anything?" Matthias seemed to materialise to literally right next to him, or, that's what it sounded like. "Anything at all?"

Emil opened his mouth to say something, to reject it, deny the fact that he couldn't see anything, but snapped it closed and gave up, shaking his head. There was a sharp intake of breath from directly in front of him, where he had last heard Lukas talking from.

"Anything?" Matthias pleaded.

Emil just carried on shaking his head.

"Okay" Lukas muttered. "What colour is the carpet?"

"Blue?" Emil suggested. "Carpets are usually blue. Blue or beige."

"Well yeah" Matthias mused. "It is a stereotypical carpet. Good guess."

"What order are we standing in?" Tino said, his voice moving around a little.

"Um..." Emil tried desperately to remember where everyone had been standing. Of course, he didn't know. They could be moving around right now for all he knew. Lukas had been right in front of him, Matthias next to him, from what he remembered. Tino and Berwald were probably on the other side of Lukas somewhere. "Tino, Berwald, Lukas, Matthias?" he guessed.

There was a sigh.

"You really are screwed aren't you?" Matthias said from over where he'd thought Berwald had been.

"Thanks for outlining that for me" Emil grumbled. There was a sound of impact and Matthias whimpered.

"That's not the important bit" Lukas said from where Matthias had been. "Why didn't you tell us? How long has it been like this?"

"Only since yesterday" Emil muttered. "And because..." he stopped short. "I... you'd all make a fuss like you usually do and you don't have to, because I'm not weak, I'm not, but sometimes... you just... you all had more important things to worry about that this, than me."

He was pulled into a hug.

"Don't ever think that Emil okay" Lukas said into his hair. "If there's something wrong just say alright, because you are one of the most important 'things' to us in the house okay. We all love you and if anything, anything happens, remember we're here for you okay, and don't forget it little brother."

Emil hesitated for a second before hugging him back, burying his face in Lukas' shirt, letting the first few tears escape his eyes. "Okay...

Big Brother."

***
Hello again! The story has come to an end (because I have no idea what to do next XD). Thank you so much for reading, voting, commenting etc.
MiddleEarth4eva