Under The Mask

Chapter three: Useless

TW drinking, XGaster, blood

Chara watched as Cross turned the bronze doorknob, hearing it creak ever so slightly when his brother pushed it in and open. Immediately they were hit with the smell of alcohol. Oh, how Chara hated that smell.

He followed his older brother into the house, shrugging his backpack of his shoulders, he grabbed it by the loop in the middle while discarding his shoes. Watching as Cross hesitated before slowly walking forwards and peered onto the living room. "He's passed out." Cross signed quickly, Chara let out an almost inaudible relieved sigh.

They tip toed their way upstairs to their shared bedroom. Chara threw his bag on his bed and collapsing next to it right after. His legs felt tired and the side of his had stomach started hurting from all the running.

"WHERE ARE YOU, YOU LITTLE SH!TS!?"

The voice started both of them, booming off the walls and leaving a few seconds of tense silence; until Cross broke it. "I'll go." Chara shot up and grabbed his brother's arm. "Like hell! You went last time and look what happened to you!" He whisper-shouted, using his chin to indicate where Cross' most recent injury had been -his leg-. No way he's going to let that happen again.

"Bu-" "I DON'T HAVE ALL DAY!" The voice came back, even angrier. Cross removed Chara's hand and bolted to the living room so fast Chara had to pause for a second to process it.

Chara clutched his waist with one arm, covering the side of his stomach that was still feeling weird, hoping that would dull the sensation. If it weren't for that he would have went after Cross, but he knew there was no way to change his brother's mind. Instead, he glared at the half open door as if that was the cause for all this and found himself walking towards his bed, falling onto it immediately.

Minutes later, Chara flinched when he heard the oh so familiar sound of glass shattering, he could already see it, small pieces, possibly a hundred, of coloured glass, each one of their gleaming edges covered with shimmering lavender blood.

He shook his head rapidly. No! He shouldn't think that. Maybe XGaster just dropped the bottle and it had nothing to do with Cross getting hurt? Yeah, that's probably what happened.

Chara's thoughts were confirmed when Cross came back into the room. Completely unscathed. Wait no-

Chara snuck a glance at Cross' hands, one under the other, trying to stop the blood that was slowly dripping on the floor; likely coming from the glass that was shattered earlier.

Chara got off his bed, "I'm going to go get bandages, ok?" Cross nodded silently, obviously in no mood to talk. He sat down on the edge of his bed while Chara exited the room.

Chara walked down the small corridor, he could still feel the cold tiles press against his socks every step. Eventually, he reached to where he was going. The washroom.

He turned and opened the doorknob as quietly as he could, as if the most hushed noises could trigger XGaster. Chara honestly didn't know if they did or not but he sure was hell wasn't going to find out.

Having to rest one of his knees onto the counter to reach above the sink, much to Chara's disappointment, he pulled himself up and started looking for the first aid kit. Why it was on the highest shelf Chara had no idea, but he didn't like it.

He finally pulled out the white plastic box he was looking for with a bold plus sign on it. He noticed the roll of paper towels and grabbed one of them with him. Carefully, he brought them back to the room and cleaned the blood off the floor before telling Cross to show him his hand.

"Is there any glass in there?" Cross shook his head.

Chara got to work. Sitting next to Cross and placing the paper towel to his other side. He put the small box on his lap and undid its latches, pulling out a little piece of cotton, Chara took Cross' hand and gently placed it on his injury multiple times, watching as it absorbed his brother's blood, staining it a shade of violet. He left it on the paper towel to be discarded later.

Next, he plucked out two items, a roll of  bandages and a longer section of cotton. Chara also got hold of of a miniature bottle of liquid medicine and slightly covered the cotton with it.

Cross winced when Chara applied the wet cotton on his palm, fingers curling a little. Chara placed the bandage on his brother's wrist and held it down with his thumb while he wrapped his entire palm with it, finishing it off at his wrist where it started.

Chara felt Cross place his hand on his shoulder, he looked up at Cross, who signed out, "What's wrong? You'd usually be tell me how stupid I am for going out there." Cross' voice must be strained, he only signs at home when that happens.

"I- it's just-..." Chara readjusted himself on the bed. "You're the one always taking the blame. You're the one that always gets hurt trying to help me. I want to help, I really do!, it's just-" Chara hugged his knees to his chest.

"I feel useless."