Mind was worried.

Which was normally unheard of, especially recently. But since Heart had returned after the incident, Mind hadn’t heard from them *at all.* Again, it wasn’t completely unheard of, but he should have run into them at least once by now. He even took into account the possibility that Heart was just avoiding him, but even then, they would have exchanged glances in the halls. Mind rarely found himself overthinking anything, so his worries had to be reasonable. And Soul refused to tell Mind anything, which never meant anything good.

Mind had put off looking for Heart himself, assuming they would be hiding for a while. He hadn’t even seen them when Soul took them back, since he had been busy with something at the time. But he couldn’t do that forever.

And Mind felt. . . *guilty.* He had tormented Heart so much, and hadn’t even realized the damage he’d done until it was too late. Hearing that Heart had been trapped in Apathy, even if they had tried to kill him, made his heart ache for the first time in. . . well, it was a long time. Heart and Mind used to get along great, he didn’t exactly remember what had caused the fighting in the first place. Whatever the case, Mind needed to check on Heart.

Heart was still his little brother, after all.

—

Mind’s footsteps echoed in the empty hallway as he made his way to Heart’s room, which was the most obvious place to look, but it made the most sense. He stared at the door for a moment, then knocked. Three uniform knocks, like always. The metal hand sounded strange against the door. He had gotten prosthetics from Soul, with a *lot* of persuasion, of course. He would have made them himself, but if his arms had still been intact to do so, he wouldn’t need prosthetics.

After hearing no response, he knocked on the door again, slightly louder this time. After a long moment, he heard Heart’s timid voice.

“Hello. . ?”

Mind cleared his throat, causing the voice modulator to crackle. “Heart. It’s Mind. May I come in?”

He wondered how Heart would react to his new voice. Most likely, they wouldn’t react well. He sounded nothing like he did before, the artificial voice box making his voice sound deeper and more robotic.

There was a long pause before Heart spoke again. “Uh. . . okay.” They sounded nervous. For good reason, Mind guessed.

Mind slowly opened the door. Heart sat near the edge of their bed, their wings folded messily, crooked feathers poking out in some places. Pitch-black eye sockets stared blankly in his relative direction, and their hair was terribly matted. But what *really* worried Mind was that they were covered in scars, ones that hadn’t been there before the incident. What happened in Apathy? Mind hated to admit that he could already guess what.

He slowly walked towards Heart, making sure his footsteps would be audible as to not startle them. He sat down next to them and stared at the ground. He was unsure of what to tell Heart.

After a stretch of silence, Mind sighed.“I haven’t seen you since you returned from Apathy. I was. . . concerned.” He glanced at Heart. “I wanted to ask how you’ve been. Though I assume the answer wouldn’t be good.”

Heart raised their eyebrows in surprise. They seemed to process the statement for a second. “You were worried about me?” They asked.

Mind narrowed his eyes. “Yes,” he answered tersely. “I mean, yes, I was,” he quickly amended, in a softer tone.

Another pause.

“I thought you hated me,” Heart said in a near whisper. “After what I did. . .”

Mind furrowed his eyebrows. “You were acting irrationally. And I was also in the wrong. But I don’t *hate* you.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. . .” Heart sounded like they might cry.

Mind placed a hand on Heart’s shoulder, squeezing gently. Heart tensed slightly, but Mind kept his hand where it was. “I’m sorry as well, little brother. And I forgive you.”

Heart placed their hand on top of Mind’s, tilting their head. They opened their mouth to speak, then froze. “. . . Little brother?”

“You are my younger brother, correct?” Asked Mind. He cursed himself internally.

“I- yeah, but- you haven’t called me that in such a long time.” A smile crept into Heart’s expression. Mind simply shrugged. He was a bit grateful that Heart couldn’t see his expression.

Mind was about to say something else, but his thoughts were quickly interrupted as Heart suddenly wrapped their arms around his torso, hugging him tightly. He froze and blinked at Heart, admittedly very confused. Heart hadn’t seemed to notice his tenseness, however, and stayed latched to Mind. He hesitantly wrapped one of his arms around Heart’s shoulders, in an awkward attempt to hug them back.

“Mind?” 

“. . . Yes?”

Mind exhaled quietly in relief as Heart pulled away from the hug. He withdrew his arm and looked at Heart, waiting for their response.

“Um. . . what’s with the metal arm?”

Right. Heart was already blinded when Soul had taken Mind’s arms. “It’s a prosthetic. My other arm is the same way. After Soul took your eyes. . . he took my arms.”

Heart looked shocked. “He *what?* Oh, I knew something bad happened, but- but I didn’t expect it to be *this* bad!” Heart paused, then furrowed their brows. “But how come you got prosthetics? I was just thrown in Apathy,” they muttered, somewhat bitterly.

“Well, first of all, Soul just saw that as a fitting punishment. If it would have had any affect on me, I assume I would have the same fate,” Mind said. “Secondly, it took quite a lot of persuading to get Soul to make them. He seemed very adamant about leaving us both disabled for good.”

Heart looked down. “Oh.”

Mind sighed. “Enough about me. Are you okay?” He had just remembered that Heart didn’t answer the question he had came to ask in the first place.

Heart nodded. “I’m fine,” they said unconvincingly. Mind rolled his eyes.

“Heart, please tell me the truth.”

“. . . Okay, I’m not fine.”

“Clearly. If you do not want to specify, that’s okay.”

“Thank you. . .”