Was It Worth The Cost?

Well.. Damn.

Over 100 reads- What? Y'all are wild.

Sorry to keep everyone waiting, hope you enjoy this one!

I should include this WARNING for the queasier stomachs.
Mentions of blood.
((Very brief.))

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     "Yo.. Now that's we have the chance, we should talk about what France went off about."

     North looked up from his homework, to his brother, who had set aside his assignments in favor of picking at a couple of frays on the corner of a blanket. The pair were in Thirteens bedroom, both to escape the insanity that was their household after a long Tuesday, and to be able to talk without worry for eavesdroppers. "Where are we supposed to start?"

     New England shrugged, abandoning the blanket to twirl a pencil around his fingers, "Well, for one, we dunno if what the guy said is even true.. and it's not like we can actually ask Dad about it." He pointed out, ignoring the exasperated expression North wore.

     "No shit." The younger brother rolled his eyes, "We should get out facts straight before we try confronting anyone about it."

     A moment of hesitation.

     "What if it's true..? Think about it, Dad being some black-market dealer for colonies ain't such a faraway idea."

     North covered his mouth, but that didn't stop the snort from slipping through anyway, "Do you have any idea how dumb that sounds?"

     "It's not dumb!"

     "Keep telling yourself that.."

     A lapse of silence in which the more responsible of the two began working diligently on his schoolwork, finishing up a few final problems. Thirteen didn't move to grab his stuff, simply starring at his sibling with a dead-to-the-world look in his eyes that was actually.. somewhat unnerving.

     "Hey, spaceman."

     Thirteen snapped back into focus, "..Huh?"

     "Stop thinking about it, let's just finish our work so our dads don't have your head when you get bad marks." The pre-teens had a short stare-down before the other finally nodded and sluggishly pulled his textbook into his lap.

     It took nearly an hour for the older brother to finish his work, mostly because of all the 'what if's' and 'maybes' plaguing his poor mind. Most were scenarios he knew just wouldn't happen, but couldn't help imagining anyway.

     Forcing a sigh from his lips and looking around his room, the boy paused with his mouth half open because it seemed North was nowhere to be seen anymore.. Must have gotten tired of waiting for him and went to do his own thing.

     NE should have noticed him leaving. Another sign that his head's in the clouds far too often now.

     Bringing his now completed homework back his his bag and proceeding to stuff his things into it unceremoniously, the colony took it upon himself to reflect on the events that transpired over the past week or so. From hearing about France, to meeting the man himself the other day at the mall, and then learning a more bamboozling side of the story.

     In short, he was still curious, he wanted to push something, to push someone for information, answers of some kind that could quell the storm of questions brewing in his mind.

     The boy roughly zipped up his backpack, catching the zipper on a stray paper and mumbling about something about how he needed to start getting organized. Norths paperwork was filed neatly into color-coded folders, with neatly decorated labels and all.. Hell, he couldn't be surprised if the young boy even made sure everything was dated and put in order too.