Important To Me

"Yeah, finally, we've got them!" Anderson laughed, his deft scooping the gems up and shoving them into two separate sacks, evenly dividing them, or at least, as evenly as the orange fox's greed would let him. Brothers or not, he wasn't trusting his sibling to haul as much as he could.

Andrew nodded and reached out, he took his sack, draped it over his shoulder. He noted it's size difference, opened his mouth-
and then suddenly, they both gasped as the alarm went off. Both pairs of green eyes scanning about, they quickly realized that his paler brother's tail had set off one of the motion sensors. Anderson swore Andrew's direction.

"Let's go, move your stupid fucking tail!" He shouted, shoving his twin roughly and making Andrew drop the bag. The gems didn't spill, but grabbing the bag still took precious seconds as the alarm sounded, if they were caught . . .No, don't think like that right now! Andrew told himself as he raced after his brother, said fox had a good head start and was already rounding the corner of the bank as Andrew started running. "I'll see you when we get back to the house, okay, bro?!" The paler fox shouted over the alarms.

"Oh, okay, Andy!" He replied, still lagging. His brother's head start was so big now, it annoyed him some to think about. No time to think! The alarms screeched loudly against his ears as he fought to seek the nearest exit, why was he so slow? Knowing Anderson, the male had probably taken more than half of the gems for himself, yet he had ran faster than Andrew could even if he wasn't carrying anything at all. Well, he does tend to carry more out of greed, maybe that's how he got so strong.

Finally he found an escape, he ran out the door and instantly cursed as he gazed up at a dark lightning-lit sky. The rain pelted his ears, making him shake his head as he set off, running down alleys and wishing he was not alone. He felt his soggy feet cry in protest suddenly, he yelped, falling over and trying to catch his fall only for him to loose his hold on his sack, this time it spilled, the gemstones scattering before him and slipping through the storm drain. "No!" He cried, scrabbling after them, one by one the shiny jewels fell through the gaps of the storm drain. The rain and his own momentum had damned him. His paws finally closed around a single gemstone, larger than the others and as green as could be, it wasn't like the others, not really a gemstone, but instead more of an ornamental one, either way it looked like it was worth something. Damn my clumsy ass.
The round piece of jade clutched between his paws, Andrew glanced down and breathed in deeply. "No wonder I fell." He murmured, a piece of glass was lodged into his right heel and he wondered if he had been too cold or just too scared to notice it. He reached down hesitantly and eased the glass out of his foot, a few tears escaping his eyes as he pried it free, he glanced around, but there was nothing to use as a bandage, the blood flowed freely, mixing with the rain water and turning it a dirty brown. It looked bad, felt worse than it looked. 

He breathed deeply, organizing his thoughts before determination set in and he stood, limping slightly from the pain, the jade was tightly clutched in his left paw. "At this rate I would be better off seeking some sort of shelter than rushing home." He told himself. "But where can I seek refuge in around here?" He wondered if his own words were said out loud so he felt less alone. Likely they were, he didn't often do good for long without his twin.

Weary from the pain and possibly from the blood loss, he felt his thoughts muddle a bit, he continued onward, the occasional bolt of lightning the only other illumination aside from the dim streetlights. "Damnit, I just know he's at home counting the loot, probably even drooling over his half of the reward, meanwhile. . . " the dark fox swayed, his foot slipping in a muddy puddle, he fell face forward, groaning, feeling like all the energy was leaving his body. But his odd little stone lay only a few feet in front of him, he smiled softly. "I'm not going to come out of this empty-pawed this time. I'll die with this in my paws before I'll give up."
He crawled forward, and was startled to find out that where the stone had rolled was beneath a small eave, giving him just enough shelter from the pounding rain to make him smile slightly before he curled up and passed out, the stone clutched tightly against his chest. He prayed no one came lookig to steal it.




Anderson ran through the streets, his eyes wide. "Damnit! How could I be so stupid, what if he got killed? Aw, no, I can't believe I let my own selfish urges override my concern for my little brother, I'm so selfish!" He exclaimed, he reached up, putting both arms over his face more, trying to think of where his brother could have gotten to, he wasn't anywhere near home, so did that mean he had gotten caught? This is all my fault, I should've waited for him, this is not a good time for him to be outside! He ran off, suddenly remembering an old abandoned alley, hopefully his little brother was there.

It was about five minutes later when Anderson came to the alley. "I don't see him. . . " He glanced around, walking along the alley and looking for a trace of his brother. "Andy?" He called. A faint movement caught his eye, someone dark orange-furry, a fox, "Andy!" The older twin exclaimed as he ran up to his trembling kin.

Andrew opened his eye a little bit. "Andy . . .?"

"Oh, lord, what happened, why didn't you come home?" the male asked, his little brother shivered and tried to keep his teeth from chattering as he moved his bushy, white-tipped tail, showing his injured foot.

"Oh, Andy, that looks really bad, can you stand?"

Andrew shivered a bit more and shook his head. ". . . I feel . . . pathetically. . . weak, bro."

Anderson sighed, he hadn't tried this in a long time, but he hoped it would be easy enough. "Okay, Andy, I'm going to try and pick you up, okay?" He had to repeat the question as those green eyes shut tiredly. The young male opened his eyes a bit more, he nodded weakly.
"Okay, here goes everything." He declared as he picked Andrew up and then moved his head so it was resting on his shoulder. He's actually not too heavy, man, he doesn't look good.
Had he not been paying attention to Andrew this long? Had his brother been even eating? How much or little had he been paying mind to his own kin? It stabbed in deeply how neglectful he'd become. Just like our parents. Damn him.

It took a long time to get back, but finally the soaked fox arrived at the door of their house, wasting no time he kicked the door n and laid Andrew down on a bed. Said shivering fox didn't even stir when he was set down, his eyes were shut and he almost seemed dead, but his chest was rising and falling, body trebling. Wringing the excess water out of his tail, Anderson sighed softly to himself.

"Okay, I'll get some washrags, some disinfectant and some bandages and start on his foot, then I'll try and figure out what else is wrong with him." He told himself as he ran off, tearing through the house and trying his hardest to find some medical supplies among the poorly furbished place they dwelled in. He barely found the supplies, finally tearing one of the faded white curtains into strips to use in place of bandages. "Okay, lets see, I'll just clean as much dirt off as I can and then use some disinfectant. . . " He began cleaning Andrew's foot, making the younger fox groan in pain.

"Easy bro, the worst part is next," As he poured some disinfectant onto another rag, he winced, knowing what was about to happen, a deep breath and then he pressed the cloth against the open wound.

Andrew bolted upright, screaming bloody murder, after his throat was hoarse he fell back, collapsing in exhaustion. ". . . that hurt . . ." He whimpered.

Wrapping the makeshift bandages around the male's foot, Anderson nodded, "Yeah, I know, are you alright, bro?"

Andrew nodded and then realized he was still clutching something. His fingers were cold numb, and felt sore to move as he opened his hand and saw it was the green stone. "Heh, it's still here, funny."

"What's that, Andy?"

"Well, I lost all of the loot, but this."

"You lost it all too?" The eldest asked in shock.

"Too? You mean you don't have your half?"

"No, I lost it all on the way here, there was a hole in my bag from when I snagged it on a nail in my haste, so, what is that?"

Andrew sat up, holding a palm to his head, he suddenly realized his foot wasn't hurting so badly, in fact it was bandaged up. "You," he began, glancing around and recognizing the bland interior of their home. "brought me here and bandaged me up?"

Anderson nodded his eyes still fixed upon the round piece of jade. "Yeah, now tell me, what is that?"

Andrew's eyes filled with tears at the happiness he suddenly felt. His brother had actually came after him, he had actually saved him from dying outside, the wound mixed with the cold would have certainly killed him if it hadn't have been for his wonderful twin! He pushed the stone towards the older fox, "I don't know, but it's yours now."

Shock filled Anderson's green eyes, his brother was giving him the only thing he still had from their robbery? "Andy, are you sure?"

Andrew nodded, his eyes full of kindness, "Sure I'm sure, bro, you saved my life, this is the least I can do to repay you for it-" He was hugged by his brother tightly,

"Thank you, Andy, thank you! I don't know what this is, but it's very pretty and I'm sure its worth something. . . " he paused, "but I'm not going to sell it."

"What?!" Andrew  exclaimed, staring at his twin with the look one has when they think you've gone completely crazy. "Why not?!"

"Well, I really like it, and it's like a trinket, this way I can have it to remind me."

"Remind you of what?"

"To remind me of just how important you are to me and that I shouldn't be so hard on you so much." He replied, hugging Andrew tightly.