(Sorry for the bland chapter, didn't have much inspiration or motivation for this one)

MA was pacing outside the hospital entrance, waiting for the nurses to bring Mandara out.  It had been almost five weeks that Mandara had been in the hospital and he was finally strong enough to go home, something that MA had obviously been looking forward to.  MA was excited, so much so that he was getting antsy while waiting and begun to nervously preen his wings.

"You should be careful sir, if you preen too much you could start to do damage to the feathers."  A man said, he was the driver of the car that was going to take the brothers home. 

MA looked up at him, "I know, I'm just really antsy is all, what's taking them so long?"

"I don't know sir, but maybe, and I'm only guessing here but maybe because Mandara's wings are broken they have to lead him here on foot, since sitting in a wheelchair would put pressure on the fractures." the driver suggested, which made MA nod in agreement.

Just then, the entrance doors opened and two nurses walked out with Mandara in tow.  MA fluttered his wings with joy and went over to help them.  Mandara's eye hadn't healed completely yet, so he still had bandages covering both of them, making him have to rely on someone to lead him.  MA helped his brother into the car, thanked the nurses, and got in as well.  Once the driver was sure that they were all situated, he signaled to the escort vans in front of them to start driving, and when they did he followed close behind.

The drive to MA and Mandara's house was quite long since it was on the outskirts of the city, it usually wasn't a problem for the brothers as they would normally just fly from place to place, but when you're stuck inside a car things start to get boring pretty quick.  The driver was nice enough to entertain the siblings with some jokes and stories, but when Mandara fell asleep from lack of energy, he had to stop.

They eventually made it to the house without any trouble, MA was definitely glad to get out of the car, but he made sure to get Mandara out first before he got too carried away with stretching out his cramped wings.  Once Mandara was out of the car, MA waved off the escort team and helped his brother inside.  The minute MA opened the door, the pair were instantly greeted by two giant mounds of fur.

"Oh my god!" Mandara exclaimed in surprise as he felt paws jump on him, MA tried to keep the dogs at bay, but they were so happy to see Mandara that they ended up tackling both the brothers to the floor.

"Haha, hey guys, it's good to see you too." Mandara laughed, petting the Husky and Bernese mountain dog while trying not to drown in kisses. "Woah, I forgot how big you two were, has Thunder been overfeeding you guys again?"

"Take it easy you two." MA said, also laughing, "Trigger's already got enough injuries without you crushing him to death."  he managed to get out from under them and stand up, "Flurry, Tank, down!"

The dogs obeyed and jumped off Mandara, leaving him breathing heavily from almost being suffocated in fur and kisses.

"You ok Trigger?  No broken ribs?" MA joked as he pulled his brother up off the ground.

"No, I'm fine, though my bandages are all wet now," he said, rubbing his slobbery face.

MA chuckled, "Well why don't we go fix that," he led Mandara to the living room, the dogs following close behind.  

It was a little difficult getting Mandara through the house without him bumping into everything, MA didn't understand why the doctors bandaged both eyes when only the one was actually injured.  After carefully navigating to the living room, MA sat Mandara down on the couch and walked off to the bathroom where they kept their medkit with the extra bandages.  While MA was gone, Flurry and Tank took the opportunity to attack Mandara with kisses again.

"Pfft- guys, calm down,"  Mandara said, half laughing - half trying to keep their tongues away from his mouth, "I missed you too, but you're both getting too big for - OW!" he cried out.  One of the dogs had stepped on his stomach wound, causing him to lurch forward in pain.  Both Flurry and Tank realized what they did and quickly jumped off the couch, immediately followed by MA running in, holding the medkit.

"Trigger, what happened!?"  He shouted, "Are you ok!?"

"Ugh, n-no ... one of the mutts stepped on my stomach." Mandara winced.

MA rushed to his side and lifted his shirt a bit, the bandages underneath were turning a dark red.  MA turned and glared at the dogs, who hung their heads in shame, upset that they hurt their person.

"I'll deal with you two later." MA said to them, then looked back at Mandara, "Looks like whoever stepped on you accidentally reopened the wound." he let go of his brother's shirt and opened up the medkit, "I'm gonna need you to take off your shirt now."

Mandara's head jolted towards MA, "wait, say that again!"

MA looked up in confusion, "Um, I'm gonna need you to take off your shirt?"

Mandara let out a shaky breath, which made MA more concerned, "What is it?  What did I say?"

"Thunder, that's what Kazakhstan said to me when we first met," Mandara stated

MA sighed, while Mandara was still in the hospital, he told him about everything that happened to him during his time with Ussr, except for the most traumatic parts of course.  MA remembered him talking about his first time with Kaz and the reason why Kaz asked him to remove his shirt in the first place.

"I'm sorry Trigger" he solemnly apologized, "I didn't mean to bring back any painful memories."

"It's ok, it's not your fault," Mandara said, he then wordlessly started to take off his shirt.  Once it was off he heard MA softly gasp.  Despite not being able to see MA, Mandara knew what he gasped at and it made him want to hide, just disappear so his brother didn't have to look at the trainwreck state of his body.  He instinctively tried to cover himself with his wings but was hindered by the bandages binding them closed.

"No, don't move your wings, I'm sorry I gasped." MA said, Mandara just nodded that it was ok.

"C-Can I change your bandages now?" MA asked, Mandara nodded again so he went to work, neither one talking the whole time.  After the bandages on Mandara's stomach were changed and the bleeding stopped, MA moved on to change the slobbery ones over his brother's eyes, except when he touched them Mandara shrunk away from him.  

"Hold still Trigger, I need to-"

"No Thunder.  I ... I don't want them off."

"Well, I know that you need them but they are wet with dog slobber, we have to change them so your eye doesn't get infected again."

"You don't understand brother, something happened to my face after my eye was cut and I don't want anyone else to see it." 

MA sighed and took his brother's hand, "It's ok Trigger, I'm not going to judge you or make you feel bad, so please let me change them."

Mandara pulled his hand away from MA and turned his head to face somewhere else.  MA frowned, he needed to change the bandages, but he couldn't do it if Mandara wasn't going to let him.  The dogs were watching all of this and when Mandara turned away they both exchanged glances, then Flurry padded over to her person and put her head on his knee.  The Mandarian flinched when she did this but instantly relaxed and petted her head for a bit. Thanks to Flurry's reassurance, Mandara was finally comfortable enough to let MA remove the bandages.

Once the last bandage wrap was off Mandara squinted from the brightness, and when his eye adjusted the first thing he saw was MA's smiling face.  Mandara stared at him, he didn't much remember the night he was rescued, so for him, he was seeing his brother's face for the first time in over nine months.  MA was a bit stunned too, but for a different reason.  When he took off the bandages, the red and yellow-orange shield that outlined Mandara's right eye, the one that had been slashed, was completely gone, like it was never there in the first place.  Despite his surprise, MA didn't say anything so as not to upset Mandara, who was tearing up from happiness.  

Mandara suddenly pulled a surprised MA into a hug, "I missed you so much, big brother."

MA smiled and hugged him back, "I missed you too little brother."

The two hugged each other for a long time, just trying to make up for nine months apart.  Eventually, they did part so MA could disinfect the stitches on Mandara's eye and put new bandages over it, but this time he only covered the one so Mandara didn't have to stumble around blindly.  Once he was finally finished, he noticed that Mandara seemed to be having difficulty keeping his eye open and he was swaying a bit.  Figuring he was tired, MA laid him down on the couch so he could sleep.  At first, Mandara protested since Ussr had pretty much made him afraid of sleeping by himself, but after MA reassured him that the militant would stay with him, the country succumbed to his exhaustion and fell asleep.  Once he was certain that Mandara was out, MA collapsed onto one of their armchairs and too fell asleep.

[Again, sorry for the bland chapter, writer's block is a bitch >:(]