A/N: IMPORTANT: Ch. 38 and Ch. 39 have been heavily altered! If you've previously read those chapters before 01/25/25, maybe re-read them? Up to you! You won't be lost reading this chapter.
I was not proud of those chapters. In fact, they kept me up at night. I did my babies a big injustice, and some of y'all may not know what I mean and will never know.
But if you know, you know.
Thank you for your support. ♡
***
A cough rattled his body, wet and weak like he didn't have enough energy to even do such a natural act.
Oskar blinked his watery eyes. A limp white object extended just in front of him, catching his attention as tears were soaked up by his eyelashes.
"Danke," he said gruffly, accepting the tissue and dabbing away the moisture he felt at the corner of his mouth.
[Thanks]
Once he was finished, the sickly man didn't bother to look down at the soft material, already knowing it would be tinged with an unsightly color.
"So?" Oskar's visitor spoke up again after the former had finished collecting himself.
"So what?" his tired voice said as he sank back onto the thin mattress, directing his gaze to the window.
Heute ist es draußen grau...
[It is gray outside today]
The rain sounded like static in his ears as it pattered against the window panes and roof tiles. As Oskar continued to look out the window, he couldn't make out anything but a single tree and a passing car every now and then.
But it was still nice enough to admire.
"Don't you think that'd be nice?" Felix repeated, "Or do you prefer here?"
Oskar frowned, bowing his head just barely as he tried to recall exactly what he was supposed to be giving his opinion on.
Something pertaining to the arrangements that he wouldn't even be alive to give a shit further about, he did know. He didn't care, but his brother did, so Oskar tried to participate in the conversation regardless of his own opinion.
"Oskar," Felix sighed, still yet to receive an answer, "Hörst du zu?"
[Are you listening?]
"Ja," he mumbled as he watched the leaves on the branch closest to his window dip and bounce under the weight of particularly fat raindrops.
"So? Was meinen Sie dazu?"
[What do you think?]
Oskar could hear the sound of a pen scratching on paper as his brother paused before repeating the question.
"Frankreich oder Deutschland?"
[France or Germany?]
"Was auch immer für Sie am einfachsten ist, Lixxy."
[Whichever is easiest for you]
"Don't call me that," Felix grumbled under his breath.
They had already exhausted the light conversation—not that there was ever much to say. Felix had kept in touch over the years, even visited a few times in secret. But this time was different. This was the last. And they both knew it.
Still, Oskar wasn't in a hurry to acknowledge that.
"Give a dying man a break, would you?" Oskar lamented, letting out a particularly gross cough for extra effect.
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Please, with a Cherry on top? | 18+
Romance"Tell me you don't want that," his darkened eyes clashed with her dazed ones, "Say it, and we'll stop right now. Tell me, and I'll go." Silence hung in the air, the distant hum of passing cars and crickets fading into the night. "Cause I have every...
