Before we fall

(Chp.15) Brother?

TW: wounds

Karl sat on a kitchen stool before Nala as they properly cleaned and rebanaged his eye. Only making feeble small talk to try to take his mind off of the pain.

"Your house is lovely, did you decorate it yourself?" They inquired as they dabbed a disinfectant covered cotton ball around Karl's eye, he sucked in some air through his teeth but remained as still as he could as to not mess up Nala.

"Yeah- I inherited it." He replied, taking notice that GC currently sat on the floor behind Nala with a snide expression displayed across her dirty face.

"Your next GC." He reminded her and watched as her smile dropped into a pout- feeling alittle bad but satisfied that she wasn't looking up at him in such a manner any longer.

"Hey! That's mean-" Harper spoke up, helping Garbadge Child to her feet and walking over to the kitchen with her. Taking his leave he strode back to the living room. Before Karl had the chance to get down from his stool Nala had a question or two to ask.

"Alright- your all done, but I must ask how they got this bad? Don't you have any adults around to help you two?" Nala stepped back and allowed Karl some room to hop down from his seat.

"No, me and GC live here alone- and I'm not entirely professional with all of the medical things." Karl replied as he got up from his stool and began his way twords the door to tell GC it was her turn.

"Come on GC, it won't be that bad!" Karl practically had to drag the little girl into the kitchen. Once he had successfully got her to Nala he simply left the room, not feeling social enough to stay for the moments being.

"Hey it's alright, if Karl can handle it I'm sure a tough kid like you can." Nala lifted Garbadge Child onto the counter and began to unwrap the bandagde around her neck, now simply assuming that the wound was deep enough to be the cause to her absence of words.

"Oh my- what happened here." Was Nala's only reaction to the open wound on GC's neck that pulsed with every shakey breath she took in, it was slightly infected but only because it never had the chance to take in fresh air. She sighed, these kids really didn't know what they were doing.

"Do you have parents GC- or is Karl your brother?" Nala inquired, trying to distract Garbadge Child with meaningless questions and idol discussion- even if she couldn't respond back.

GC shook her head as an awnser to both of Nala's questions, though Nala quickly re-centered her head to continue her cleaning. Karl was a lot like an older brother to GC but they were far from blood related.

As quickly as they could, Nala finished cleaning the little girl's wounds and re-bandaged them. She hardly flinched or pulled away which only lead Nala to wonder how high of a level of pain tolerance could a girl her age possibly have?

They quickly shook that feeling as they helped Garbadge Child off of the counter, watching as she dashed to the living room to play with Harper.

Just as they had begun to clean the mess about them, Karl strode back into the room- quickly dashing to the curtains to draw them close, wincing slightly under the sun's persistent blaze.

"Oh just the guy I was looking for!" Nala smiled warily at the boy as they watched Karl shy from the sun, it confused them slightly but they didn't want to push.

"Say- about you and GC. How did you to come to live together? Knowing that you aren't siblings- I mean." They didn't want to be too inquisitive in the childrens lives but they wanted to know what had happened that made them just so- like, they are. If she could do anything at all she would like to help, though she knew that might not be very much.

To this question Karl simply shrugged, not bothering to make eye contact with Nala as he gave his vague response.

"I just- found her." He didn't feel much like socializing- he never did. He looked up to watch Nala's smile shrink twords his response- he knew if Garbadge Child could talk at the moment she would rant on for hours about their first meeting; there was times he wondered how such a talkative child could manage to stay quite by will for so long, but he supposed if he was in her situation he would do the same.

"Just- found her?! Were you all by yourself before then?" They further probed, completely forgetting that they should keep their modesty when discussing another's life.

"Well- yes, I suppose so." Karl responded, hopeing to end the conversation there so he could go sit with the other two in the living room.

"Alright well- I suppose I shouldn't keep you waiting!" Nala beemed, noticing Karl's egarness to get away.

With the word Karl quickly scurried off to the living room, leaving Nala to sit in their own pool of thoughts.

"How could two kids end up like this- what lead to this..." They mumbled to themself as their thoughts began to swirl around them, forcing them to take a seat and work it out in their mind.

With a sigh they sat back, this would take a lot of time and trust.

Word count 920