This Empty Northern Hemisphere (A Mumford and Sons fanfiction)

Chapter XIII: This Is The Last Time

Chapter XIII: This Is The Last Time

Ted doesn’t have to stay awake to know when Kate finally arrives home sometime around four in the morning.

Kate has always been clumsy, and never very good at staying quiet when she should; so it is really surprising that Ted wakes up to the sound of things crashing to the ground and his older sister swearing like a sailor as she fumbles to put it back as silently as possible.

Which, needless to say, isn’t that silent at all.

Ted gets up and limps down the hall. When he gets to stairs he plops down, too tired to actually walk down, and slides down them one at a time on his butt. He doesn’t care how ridiculous it looks, as long as it works.

He simply sits on the bottom step, waiting for Kate to flick on a light and notice him, smiling as she continues swearing and attempting to fix things in the dark.

Light floods the room with a click, and Ted can now really see his sister. She has the same blond hair he does, though it’s straight, unlike his unruly curls. She has also gotten it cut short, much shorter than Ted can ever recall seeing it. It’s not a pixie cut, but it’s close.

She turns around to look for something else on the floor, and jumps, letting out a surprised squeal when she sees her little brother on the bottom step.

“Oh my god, Eddy never do that again!” She says in  low hiss, stomping her foot.

“Ted,” He corrects her. He never really had been too fond of his real name, and now he remembers why. It makes him feel like a little kid. “And sorry. You don’t have to whisper, we’re the only ones home.”

Kate huffs unhappily, but she stops whatever it is she’s doing to sit next to Ted on the step.

“You okay?” She asks quietly. Ted has a pair of shorts on currently, so the array of bruises on his leg are clearly visible, and he catches her looking at them with an worrying playing her expression.

Ted pulls his legs up to his chest, feeling rather self conscious about it, and wraps his arms around them.

“Yeah, I’m fine, really.”

“You look pretty awful,” Kate informs him.

Ted glares at her, but there’s not much intensity thrown into it. “Well it’s four in the morning and you just woke me up, what do you expect?”

Kate shrugs, offering a long yawn. “Well, I just made a seven hour car trip to get here. I’m going to bed, and so should you.”

Ted makes no move to get up.

“Do you need help?” Kate asks as she stands. She holds a hand out to him, but Ted waves her away stubbornly, getting to his feet on his own. “Did you go to see a doctor?” She asks, genuinely concerned for her brother.

“No,” Ted admits, slowly climbing the stairs. He wonders very briefly if it’s possible that he was wrong about the bruises just being bruises. It hurts to walk, normal bruises wouldn’t do that, would they?

Kate follow after him slowly, a hand hovering at his shoulder as if she fears he might stumble and need help.

“I’m taking you tomorrow whether you want to go or not,” She says seriously.

“Mum already beat you to it. She got me an appointment already.”

“Good,” Kate says. Once they reach the top of the steps pulls her baby brother into a gentle hug, afraid to hug him too tightly. “When mum called me and told me what happened I just got in the car and started driving. I was really worried, even though she told me you we okay.”