It had been a very long few days.
They always overestimated pain, Siegfried thought crossly. They always overestimated people who CAUSE it, too. He'd just spent a few boring days trapped in that -- admittedly quite sanitary -- hellhole they called "the hospital".
But at last, he was coming home, he thought (rather less-than-enthusiastically). His other self was chattering on and on about boring topics such as "it's a lovely day outside; let's not waste it; let's spend it playing videogames" and "Star Trek and Star Wars are both cool, really, why do they argue about them?"
How wretchedly uninteresting.
At last, however, he was back home, and at last he could lock that idiot clone back into his room. He walked (a little hesitantly; he had been in bed the large majority of the last few days) slowly to the door, and opened it irritably.

Somebody was at the door! Leon bounded down the twisted staircase, a bit nervous and overall excited. Siegfried was finally coming home, and he would be seeing him again for the first time in a long while. He wondered what had changed since then, not just appearance-wise, and hoped that maybe it could bring them closer. Part of him knew that this was not very likely, as the ever-present hate for Kaiba and his company was everywhere, but he was young and very naive, so he decided to keep his deluded ideas of a big fluffy, sentimental reunion.

He shifted his weight back and forth and wrung his hand behind his back. This was it! He waited for the doorman to do his job, and then he blinked in surprise when he saw not one, but two heads of lustrous pink hair. He knew automatically which one was his brother...well...at least the one he remembered growing up with. The other was chatting on happily about video games and some TV show Leon had heard of but never seen. A bit awed, he looked between them both a few times, then cast his eyes on the "official" Siegfried.

"Welcome home Siegfried...I really missed you." He smiled shyly and walked a bit closer.

"LEON!" the Other Siegfried said, grinning. "Heeeeeey, I remember you! ...well, I, well...of course I do, you're my brother, I'd have to, really, I--"

"Quit your incessant blithering," said the Real Siegfried, rolling his eyes. "You aggravate me to no end with it; can't wait until something happens to you, like Shadow. I'd pay for Shadow to happen to you."

Other Sieg quailed. "But..."

"I don't want to hear another word, Baldrick" Siegfried said, sounding tired and irritable. "Just shut up and go work, or something. Play your inane games. Jump off a cliff. I don't care. Leon," he said, his attention at last turning to his brother. "It has been a while, has it not?" He offered not a trace of affection exhibited physically, and indeed seemed just as uptight and restrained as ever -- perhaps moreso, he appeared rather unhappy about the entire situation. "I hope you've been well."

Leon couldn't help himself, and smiled at "Other Siegfried". "Nice to see you...Mr. other Siegfried." He was so nice, quite unlike the real Sieg. If anything, Leon felt that perhaps he would have made a wonderful brother, and then shook his head to dismiss such thoughts. He also couldn't believe the way Siegfried treated...well, himself, so badly. It was terrible to watch the other one acting so servant-like, hanging on every word and practically obeying the commands made by the real one.

The smile on Leon's face immediately faltered and disappeared once he felt the cold and quite detached attitude of his brother. The very air of his words was so formal, almost as if they were simply two aquaintances, met only a few times. Certainly this should not be the way a family acted. His thoughts of a happy relationship were gone now, and the only thing he could think of was trying not to cry. "I-I've been fine I guess. I really missed you, and I was just really worried." His voice was shaking, try as he might to stop it. "Are you okay? As okay as you can be for now?"

"I," said Siegfried, quietly, calmly, detatchedly, "am fine. While I appreciate your concern for I, your brother and fellow heir to our family's legacy, I think you are taking this all far too seriously. Look at the peon..." He indicated the other Siegfried, who was currently humming and staring up at the sky as though he'd never seen it before. "He never wrote anything worried in his journal, did he? He took it all so well."

"B-but...but I was looking after you the whole time!" Other Sieg said, shocked. "I didn't have TIME to do something like that, did I?"

"Of course you did, idiot. But you didn't, and that's good. I'm not going to punish you for it; you actually did quite well."

"...oh, okay." A look of relief replaced the one of indignation. "'s all okay, Leon," he chirped, "Other Me -- well, your brother -- 's a good person! Deep down," he added under his breath.

"Are you mad at me for caring?" Leon blurted out suddenly. Maybe it was an accident, or perhaps keeping a check on his emotions and letting all sorts of rampant thoughts run wild in his mind finally took a toll on him. "Don't you care about things as important as family Siegfried?"

That was enough to say for now, and he really couldn't believe he'd just said it. Maybe he was a bad person, and maybe he was assuming the worst of his brother. And maybe Siegfried was right, he shouldn't be so worried about a small thing. But getting stabbed didn't seem very small. Trembling slightly, he blinked back the tears that threatened to spill over and stared at a spot on the floor. He didn't want to look at that other one, who probably felt as trapped as he did now. What did it take to win Siegfried's love? Approval even?

"No, of course not; I would be furious if you didn't care, believe me," Siegfried said. "I merely think you're taking this to a bit of a ridiculous level; you don't need to be worried about me when I assure you it doesn't matter that something has happened; I am fine. And I am fine, so I must ask you why you act as though something dreadful has happened? I am alive. We are alive. Hurt? Not really. Therefore it doesn't matter."

"You're not going to sway him," the Other Sieg said lightly, "I couldn't, either."

"Leonhard," Siegfried said, voice dropping a little to be quieter, almost soothing (if indeed he could achieve such a tone), "We are our family's heirs. It is better if there are two of this -- and we should look out for each other when it is really needed -- but when it comes down to it, you should not be so desperate about my safety. Not when I don't tell you to worry..."

Feeling only a little better, he nodded. "Okay...I think I understand, but I know you got hurt. You got stabbed didn't you? That's a really big deal...you could have...." he trailed off and decided not to pursue it. His mind had been temporarily swayed to believe that everything was okay; he'd keep the knowledge and ponder over it in his room later.

"So Siegfried...where did your other self come from? And why am I not supposed to like him? He's really nice, and he cares about you too apparently." He offered a small, unsure smile to the other Siegfried before looking back at his brother, his eyes filled with a bit more intensity, and perhaps even slight rebellion.

"You're not supposed to like me because..." The Other Sieg searched his pocket awkwardly, and pulled out a crumpled list. "Because, er, let's see. 'I'm stupid. I am not a member of the Schraider family, really. I'm pathetic.' Um. Wow. This is a long list; do I really need to read all this--"

"No," Siegfried said, cutting him off with an irritated sigh. "Just know he really isn't worth knowing. Now, we're not sure where he came from, but we suspect he crawled out of a dark pit of Hell. It's the only possible answer."

Other Sieg smiled broadly. "Mmhm, we just don't know!" He seemed to take no heed of the slight.

"Anyways, I'm fine, you shouldn't bother trying to get to know the pleb, and that's all you need to know," finished Siegfried.

If this situation weren't so utterly twisted, Leon might have laughed, as it could be somewhat funny when looked at differently. But having the other Siegfried at such a level as this...well, it was almost inhumane in Leon's mind. He looked away in disgust. "Siegfried, how can you treat people like this? It's wrong."

He looked at other Sieg. "And why do you tolerate it? Just because he's told you you're not worth anything doesn't mean it's true! You're a person too! It's...it's...." And once again, he couldn't finish, and this time two tears rolled down his cheeks. Why did is have to be this way? Why was his brother...seemingly heartless? It was the only word he could think of.

At that moment he really couldn't take anymore, so he ran up to his room. Being alone made it worse, but he didn't want to stay and have his hopes destroyed. He buried his head in his pillow and convinced himself that neither of the two men downstairs would follow him.

"..." said Other Sieg.
"..." said the real one.
"..."
"..."
"...why DO you treat me like this? It's wrong."
"Shut up, peon. How can you deal with it?"
"Shut up, pleb."
"What?"
"...nothing, nothing at all. Your mightiness surpasses me."
"Quite."
"Should we check on him, then? Go upstairs, knock on his door, comfort him?"
"...no. He needs to get over inhumane treatment anyways. How I let him grow so old without exposing him to the truth, I'll never know..."
"...oh. Okay. We'll just...be heartless."
"You need an education on that, I think..."

Leon sniffled slightly, then almost giggled when he heard other Sieg call the real one a "pleb". He still couldn't believe this...how wrong this entire situation was, and how downhill this reunion went. Well fine. If no one was going to come get him, he wasn't going to come. He would sit up here, in his room, which really needed some color and decorations, and think of ways to somehow get Siegfried to care, for both his own sake and other Siegfried's.