A little over two hours later, The three decided they didn't have to monitor him any longer. Al snuck into the upstairs bathroom and locked the door. He turned on the shower, and still feeling heavy, tried to induce vomiting. Nothing came up. He tried gagging himself again. Nothing.

He felt like clawing at his stomach. He turned the shower off, took a deep breath, and stepped out.

He saw the familiar form of his Canadian brother rushing downstairs. Of course someone just had to have heard him. How could it have been any different? He opted to lock himself back in the wash room.

Moments later he heard knocking. Al sat at the bottom of the door, feeling broken and defeated. Why. Why was this happening?

"Please open up...for me." Oliver sighed into the door.

He wasn't sure why he did it, but he opened the door just as he had asked.

Oliver took his hand, and led him out to the halls. Francis and Matt could be seen lingering in the other room. Oliver leaned closer to Al, as the boy unconsciously kept himself to the wall.

"Alright dear, what is this?" Oliver's face was plastered with puzzlement. "I really want to help, but I can't figure you out. Was it something I said? Was I pushing you too hard at the bakery? You aren't unhappy with the way you look, are you? Because you're a delightful young man Allen, and I-"

"No, no."Al interrupted covering his face with his hands, rubbing his eyes. "Well, people have made comments about my figure, yes, but that's not what this is about." Al paused to think about how he'd continue his explanation. Oliver looked as if he was planning to speak again, so Al stopped him.

"I felt inadequate. I felt like I was slowing everyone down, and because I didn't care much for food anyways, it was easy to cut out of my life." Al licked his lips nervously. "I felt like I wasn't helping enough, and kind of like I didn't deserve things like food either because of that. Then later, it wasn't so much about my original intentions, rather that I was used to this light empty feeling."

"Al, listen to me. You weren't disappointing us, I've always been proud of you. You need to eat, love, or you're going to hurt yourself."

Al scowled under his breath. "It hurts to now. The heaviness of it, I don't care if it hurts me now, I'd rather keep going like this."

Oliver was bothered by this. "Allen, why?"

Al bit his lip. There was no easy way to avoid the backlash that was soon to come. "You deserve a better brother. You don't need me around, and I'd prefer you didn't have to deal with me. All I do is hurt you. I shouldn't even be here, be anywhere."

There was silence between them.

"You're killing me with this right now!" Oliver screamed "You can't do this anymore! It'll actually kill me!"

Al's eyes widened and he began to back away from his brother, self loathing etched in his features. "I-I didn't mean to-hurt you? I'm hurting you? I didn't-I'm so sorry I should just-"

Oliver's eyes went dark, and he quickly gripped Allen's shoulders. "Stop. Right. There." He closed some of the space between them. "Allen. Just shut up. Shut. Up." Oliver couldn't think straight. He knew what he would do next was wrong and that it wouldn't benefit Allen in any way, but he didn't care anymore.

"Alright. You wanna die? Tell the rest of your family first. I'll call Matt in, then Francis. You can tell them all about how you want to leave them behind, just like you told me."

But Francis had already been watching from behind a corner. "Oliver, that's enough. Let the boy be for now. I'll call Matt to watch him, but you need to-"

"I don't need to do anything! Allen wants to leave us, to leave me!" Oliver said through gritted teeth.

Allen was fear stricken. "Ollie, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it. I take it back. Please stop."

"You bet your arse you're sorry. How could you do this to me- us?"

"That's enough! Oliver, stop that! Look at him!" Francis interjected.

Oliver didn't want to look into Allen's eyes, but reluctantly did so. He let out a small gasp.

Allen wasn't as engaged in the argument as he had thought. He shook slightly as his eyes began to glaze over. Anxiety?

"Allen?" Oliver whispered. "Are you there love?"

Allen just barely shook his head as he sat on the floor, too out of it to move much more.

"Allen, it's okay." He sat down next to the American. "I'm sorry for what I said. I shouldn't have raised my voice at you, dear. Please forgive me."

Allen shook his head.

"Let me get Matt, okay? Would you like to see him?"

Another nod, and Francis went to fetch the Canadian boy.

Having been briefed with the situation, Matt sat down with Al a minute later.

"Hey Al. Let's take some deep breaths, okay?

Matt had put Al to bed within the past hour. Oliver felt guilt for having treated Al as he had. "How did you get him to calm down so easily, Matt?" he asked.

Matt shrugged and looked down. "I had anxiety attacks a lot a few years back. Sometimes you just know what to do to help others with these things when you've experienced them yourself."

Francis and Oliver looked a bit surprised about the confession, but they both nodded politely.

"I admit I was a bit upset with you, Oliver, when Francis told me what happened. But I know you didn't mean to hurt him."

"I really didn't mean to frighten him like that, I just didn't know what to do. You three are all I have, it's always been us against the world. I can't help but feel like this is my fault. I had pushed him too hard to work, I wasn't paying enough attention to him."

Matt chuckled a bit. "No offence, Ollie, but sometimes you pay a little too much attention to him. I think this was bound to happen with or without your involvement."

"Oui." Agreed Francis.

Oliver sighed. "You're right. But I'm not sure what to do now, I just want you all to be happy, and healthy, safe…"

"We need to give him time, mon cher. He may not feel better today, or tomorrow. We need to be patient."

Oliver raised an eyebrow at the french endearment, but shrugged it off. "You're right, but I wish I could take back these bloody awful things I said."

A voice came from another room "It's okay, Ollie. I forgive you."

Oliver jumped. "Allen, what are you doing up? You need your rest, dear-"

"I'm okay. I just needed a few minutes to myself."

Oliver looked weary, but slowly nodded. "Alright, well thank you very much for your forgiveness."

"It's fine." Al said with little emotion. He tilted his head to look at Matt. "Thanks for the help earlier, Matt."

"It's no problem, Al." he smiled politely.

Allen attempted to jump back into a more enthusiastic state. "Do you need help with the bakery, Oliver? What can I do to help out? I can go out if you need more ingredients-"

Oliver looked a bit alarmed at the sudden, obviously artificial attitude. "Not now Al. You don't need to worry about that. I've closed shop today, so we don't need to-"

"You should open it back up. I'm all good, I can do this!" Al insisted.

Matt piped up "How about we do something else today? We can watch a movie."

"I want to work today." Allen continued "I can run the place myself today, if you want-"

Oliver was firm in his response "Not today. We can carry on tomorrow love."

"But I want to get back to work now!" Al whined. "I want to be back to my normal self."

"It's okay not to feel the way you think you should all the time" Matt added. "It's okay to need time to get better. We're your number one fans, Al. We care about you."

"You...care about me?" Al echoed.

"Yes, of course." Oliver took his hands. "We love you, Allen Jones."

Allen was bewildered, but soon everything clicked.

They love me...

This is completely untouched from how I wrote it four years ago. I've barely even looked at it. This was the ending young EverAce came up with and I thought it to be lost forever on a dead computer. Thank you for everything! I'm sorry if it was an angsty mess, but it hurt my pride that this never concluded. Haha. I may look over it the next few days and edit it a bit here and there. What is this site even like now? Are author notes still a thing or are they just annoying? The old person must know.