kiramaru7 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kiramaru7) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
bluetigerpinkbunny2018-08-17 11:06 pm
kiramaru7) wrote in bluetigerpinkbunny2018-08-17 11:06 pm
Entry tags:
The Fight (June 30, 2015)
Title: The Fight
Author: kira
Prompt: Sneaking in or out
Words: 1915
Summary: Bernd had a fight with his father at dinner, prompting Amber to become very worried about him when things come to a head between father and son later on…
Author’s Note: Thanks to Kat for helping me with details I had forgotten from our rp’verse, as well as pinking this for me. Amber also belongs to Kat; I'm just playing with her.
While Amber was always sneaking over to visit at night, it was rare for her to actually spend the night and when she did, she always slept in the den while Bernd stayed upstairs in his room, unless he felt like visiting. That was mostly due to the fact that one had to walk past Bernd’s father’s room in order to go on a nightly visit. So it was easier for Bernd to do the “visiting” than it was for Amber, since he could always claim he wanted to go downstairs for a drink of milk or a midnight snack. Tonight, Amber wanted some company, or that’s what she kept telling herself, but if she was really being honest about it, she was worried about Bernd.
There had been lots of tears and yelling at dinner and over the stupidest thing too. Since they both needed a language credit to graduate from high school, they both decided to take German. Bernd had insisted it would be an easy A for them both, since he was fluent in it. Amber agreed at the time it was a good idea especially since Bernd had been teaching her words and sentences as long as he knew her. Amber had been doing well, but apparently Bernd had not. Since it was a “do it yourself” class, they were given a text book and some tapes and at end of every chapter they would stay after school and take a test. Bernd easily breezed through them, scoring a hundred on every test, but the teacher assigned to proctor them during these tests became convinced he was somehow cheating. That led to the fight at the dinner table with a hysterical Bernd swearing up and down he never cheated as he did not have to, and Wolfgang not believing a word he said, mainly because his son was not the best student around with A’s being unheard of, while failing to take into account Bernd’s fluency in German. Things had come to a head when Wolfgang threatened to sell Bernd’s beloved horse Blitzkrieg as punishment for cheating and then lying about it. Poor Bernd was stunned. He sat there at dinner, barely touching his food. He silently cleared the table, before heading up to his room and locking the door.
Amber left the den, where she was sleeping, and stepped into the kitchen. Unable to sleep, she hoped the distraction of getting a drink of water would help. Hearing a noise, she froze, before continuing on her way. Bernd had chosen that precise moment to enter the kitchen too. He also froze, but when he saw it was Amber, he hurried over to her.
“Amber!” he whispered. “You’ve gotta help me!” Bernd held onto her like she was a lifeline and he a drowning man. Eyes welling up with tears, he whispered again, “Please! Vati’s gonna sell Blitzkrieg! I want to take him somewhere where Vati won’t find him!”
“Calm down!” Amber whispered back. “Vati’s not going to do anything.”
“Yes, he is!”
“No, he’s not, Bernd. He’s just angry.” She placed her fingertips in his lips, forestalling his argument. “I know you didn’t cheat and deep down Vati knows that too. Come on, half the time you two argue in German. There’s no way you’d be able to do that, if you weren’t fluent.”
Bernd, however, wasn’t convinced. “Please, Amber! Let’s go sleep in the stable, okay?” He was afraid his father had already sold his beloved Friesian and unable to think clearly, Bernd needed to see his horse one last time. “Please!”
Amber sighed. She had a feeling the only way he was going to calm down was if he went out to the stable. As it was, he looked like he was going to be sick, and feeling sorry for him, she agreed to go with him. “Okay, let’s go.”
Bernd nodded, and taking her hand, they headed towards the mudroom. Bernd hurriedly put on his stable clothes, while Amber threw on a sweater and pulled on her boots. She grabbed a flashlight, and taking his hand, they snuck out of the house. Bernd wanted to run, but she forced him to walk slowly towards the stable. When they arrived, Bernd pulled away and ran inside. His heart pounding, he crept over to Blitzkrieg’s stall and peeked in. Bernd let out a tremendous sigh of relief to find his horse was still there.
“I told you he was still there,” Amber said.
“Did not!”
Amber rolled her eyes. She said nothing, relieved that the crisis had passed somewhat. She waited patiently for him to leave, now that Bernd was sure his horse was still there, she felt there was no reason for them to remain in the stable. When he showed no signs of leaving, she decided to say something. “Bernd? Can we go now?”
“You can, but I’m staying here. What if Vati decides to come out here when we’re back inside?”
“He’s not coming out here and Blitzkrieg isn’t going anywhere.”
“You don’t know that,” Bernd said on his way to the tack room. He came back a few minutes later with the cot that they kept in there. “You can sleep on that if you want. I’m gonna sleep in his stall.”
“Bernd, you can’t sleep in there. For one thing, it’s full of horse piss and shit, and for another, he could hurt you very badly if he accidently steps on you.”
Bernd glared at her like an angry two year old.
“Bernd.”
He pouted and she sighed.
“Bernd, I’m going back to the house. You can sleep here if you want.”
He nodded. “Here,” he said, handing her the flashlight. “So you can see where you’re going.”
“Thanks. You sure, you’ll be okay out here?”
“Yeah. I’ve slept out here a few times before.” He left the “whenever I’ve had a fight with Vati and you weren’t around” unsaid. Bernd sat on the cot that he had positioned across the stall door. He reached for the blanket and made himself comfortable. “Night, Amber… and umm, thanks.”
“No problem.” She turned to go. Amber got as far as the door when it opened on its own. Startled, she stepped back.
“There you are,” Wolfgang said as he stepped inside.
“You’re not gonna take him, Vati!”
“I’m your father and it’s my house and my rules and in case you’ve forgotten, you’re in enough trouble as it is, Bernhard.”
Bernd shook his head defiantly. “He’s my horse!”
“Bernhard!”
“But he’s mine!”
Amber hated, seeing them fighting. She wished Vati would back off as Bernd’s voice was sounding more and more hysterical to her.
“He’s not!”
Blitzkrieg, alarmed by the noise, whinnied loudly.
“He doesn’t want to go, Vati! He wants to stay here with me!” Bernd sniffed back his tears.
Wolfgang, tired as well as tired of his son’s nonsense, shouted, “I don’t care what that stupid horse wants, what I say goes!” He did not know what had gotten into his son, but it was bringing out the worst in himself, and he could not believe he was now descending to Bernd’s level and carrying on like a two year old too. He rubbed tiredly at his forehead while muttering softly to himself.
“He’s not a stupid horse!” Bernd burst into tears.
“Grow up already! Mien Gott! I’ve never seen anyone cry like you do!” Wolfgang said irritably.
Bernd, feeling he had nothing to lose now, called his father every name in the book.
Wolfgang shouted back at him. His patience worn thin, he looked like he was about to strike Bernd, instead, he grabbed his son roughly by the arm and shook him.
Amber never felt so helpless. She stood there, wishing they would stop. “Stop it!” Neither one paid any attention to her as their fight became more and more heated. In an act of desperation, Amber cried out in German, “STOP IT!!” It had the desired effect and they both became silent as they turned towards her. She started to laugh.
“Amber?” Wolfgang said. He panted as he stared at her in concern until his son started laughing too, although his laughter had tinge of hysteria to it. “Bernhard?” He let go of him.
“Vati! We were arguing in German like we always do! Why would I cheat on my tests if I know more than the stupid books and tapes?”
Amber nodded. “He’s been helping me and I’ve been doing well on my tests too, but you don’t see Mr. Abrams accusing me of cheating.”
Wolfgang blinked as he ran his hand through his hair. “Your math teacher called me about your German lessons?”
Bernd nodded. “He must’ve, cuz I’ve got about a C average in math and if I was gonna cheat, I’d want to do better than that. Vati, that stuff is so easy; I could have gotten A’s when I was in Kindergarten!”
“Vati, Bernd would never cheat. He struggles in school, but we all help him, even Didi, so he passes everything. German is like the only thing he knows well enough to pass on his own.”
“Yeah. So you believe me now when I said I didn’t cheat?”
Wolfgang nodded. “But that still doesn’t excuse your behavior. I don’t appreciate you mouthing off to me, Bernd.”
“But, Vati!”
“Bernd, leave it,” Amber said. He looked at her and she felt bad about his hurt expression, but it was late, this seemed to be over, and she wanted to get some sleep. In a few hours it would be morning and she had to go to work. “I have work in the morning, unlike you.”
“Oh.” He was tired too, but keyed up over the events of the day.
“I’ll call your teacher on Monday. Now, let’s go back to the house, before I decide to punish you for sneaking out in the middle of the night. And don’t forget you need to be up at five-thirty so you can muck his stall out and your riding lessons.”
Bernd sighed. “Yes, Vati.”
They walked back to the house in silence. Amber held Bernd’s hand, occasionally giving it a squeeze. She was still worried about him as he seemed even paler and more drawn than usual and she wished he would talk to his guidance councilor about his problems, or the school’s psychologist, or anyone that could help him. He was very fragile lately and she was sure the constant fights were adding to his stress, but she had no idea how to help him herself other than to just be there for him. “Hey, Vati?”
“What?”
“Is it okay, if we have a sleepover and I stay in Bernd’s room? We can leave the door open if you want.”
Bernd looked at her wide-eyed in surprise. He blinked, before focusing his attention on his father. “Please, Vati? We won’t do anything stupid, I promise.”
“Me too.”
Wolfgang nodded. “Just leave the door open and go to sleep.” He entered the house followed by his son and would be daughter. Locking up behind them, they all trudge upstairs to bed.
“Gute Nacht,” Wolfgang said softly as he entered room, closing the door behind him.
Amber lay in Bernd’s bed, holding him close. She hoped he was okay as he seemed exhausted now that the whole ordeal about losing his horse was over. Pushing those troubling thoughts aside, it was not long before she had fallen asleep with him.
Author: kira
Prompt: Sneaking in or out
Words: 1915
Summary: Bernd had a fight with his father at dinner, prompting Amber to become very worried about him when things come to a head between father and son later on…
Author’s Note: Thanks to Kat for helping me with details I had forgotten from our rp’verse, as well as pinking this for me. Amber also belongs to Kat; I'm just playing with her.
While Amber was always sneaking over to visit at night, it was rare for her to actually spend the night and when she did, she always slept in the den while Bernd stayed upstairs in his room, unless he felt like visiting. That was mostly due to the fact that one had to walk past Bernd’s father’s room in order to go on a nightly visit. So it was easier for Bernd to do the “visiting” than it was for Amber, since he could always claim he wanted to go downstairs for a drink of milk or a midnight snack. Tonight, Amber wanted some company, or that’s what she kept telling herself, but if she was really being honest about it, she was worried about Bernd.
There had been lots of tears and yelling at dinner and over the stupidest thing too. Since they both needed a language credit to graduate from high school, they both decided to take German. Bernd had insisted it would be an easy A for them both, since he was fluent in it. Amber agreed at the time it was a good idea especially since Bernd had been teaching her words and sentences as long as he knew her. Amber had been doing well, but apparently Bernd had not. Since it was a “do it yourself” class, they were given a text book and some tapes and at end of every chapter they would stay after school and take a test. Bernd easily breezed through them, scoring a hundred on every test, but the teacher assigned to proctor them during these tests became convinced he was somehow cheating. That led to the fight at the dinner table with a hysterical Bernd swearing up and down he never cheated as he did not have to, and Wolfgang not believing a word he said, mainly because his son was not the best student around with A’s being unheard of, while failing to take into account Bernd’s fluency in German. Things had come to a head when Wolfgang threatened to sell Bernd’s beloved horse Blitzkrieg as punishment for cheating and then lying about it. Poor Bernd was stunned. He sat there at dinner, barely touching his food. He silently cleared the table, before heading up to his room and locking the door.
Amber left the den, where she was sleeping, and stepped into the kitchen. Unable to sleep, she hoped the distraction of getting a drink of water would help. Hearing a noise, she froze, before continuing on her way. Bernd had chosen that precise moment to enter the kitchen too. He also froze, but when he saw it was Amber, he hurried over to her.
“Amber!” he whispered. “You’ve gotta help me!” Bernd held onto her like she was a lifeline and he a drowning man. Eyes welling up with tears, he whispered again, “Please! Vati’s gonna sell Blitzkrieg! I want to take him somewhere where Vati won’t find him!”
“Calm down!” Amber whispered back. “Vati’s not going to do anything.”
“Yes, he is!”
“No, he’s not, Bernd. He’s just angry.” She placed her fingertips in his lips, forestalling his argument. “I know you didn’t cheat and deep down Vati knows that too. Come on, half the time you two argue in German. There’s no way you’d be able to do that, if you weren’t fluent.”
Bernd, however, wasn’t convinced. “Please, Amber! Let’s go sleep in the stable, okay?” He was afraid his father had already sold his beloved Friesian and unable to think clearly, Bernd needed to see his horse one last time. “Please!”
Amber sighed. She had a feeling the only way he was going to calm down was if he went out to the stable. As it was, he looked like he was going to be sick, and feeling sorry for him, she agreed to go with him. “Okay, let’s go.”
Bernd nodded, and taking her hand, they headed towards the mudroom. Bernd hurriedly put on his stable clothes, while Amber threw on a sweater and pulled on her boots. She grabbed a flashlight, and taking his hand, they snuck out of the house. Bernd wanted to run, but she forced him to walk slowly towards the stable. When they arrived, Bernd pulled away and ran inside. His heart pounding, he crept over to Blitzkrieg’s stall and peeked in. Bernd let out a tremendous sigh of relief to find his horse was still there.
“I told you he was still there,” Amber said.
“Did not!”
Amber rolled her eyes. She said nothing, relieved that the crisis had passed somewhat. She waited patiently for him to leave, now that Bernd was sure his horse was still there, she felt there was no reason for them to remain in the stable. When he showed no signs of leaving, she decided to say something. “Bernd? Can we go now?”
“You can, but I’m staying here. What if Vati decides to come out here when we’re back inside?”
“He’s not coming out here and Blitzkrieg isn’t going anywhere.”
“You don’t know that,” Bernd said on his way to the tack room. He came back a few minutes later with the cot that they kept in there. “You can sleep on that if you want. I’m gonna sleep in his stall.”
“Bernd, you can’t sleep in there. For one thing, it’s full of horse piss and shit, and for another, he could hurt you very badly if he accidently steps on you.”
Bernd glared at her like an angry two year old.
“Bernd.”
He pouted and she sighed.
“Bernd, I’m going back to the house. You can sleep here if you want.”
He nodded. “Here,” he said, handing her the flashlight. “So you can see where you’re going.”
“Thanks. You sure, you’ll be okay out here?”
“Yeah. I’ve slept out here a few times before.” He left the “whenever I’ve had a fight with Vati and you weren’t around” unsaid. Bernd sat on the cot that he had positioned across the stall door. He reached for the blanket and made himself comfortable. “Night, Amber… and umm, thanks.”
“No problem.” She turned to go. Amber got as far as the door when it opened on its own. Startled, she stepped back.
“There you are,” Wolfgang said as he stepped inside.
“You’re not gonna take him, Vati!”
“I’m your father and it’s my house and my rules and in case you’ve forgotten, you’re in enough trouble as it is, Bernhard.”
Bernd shook his head defiantly. “He’s my horse!”
“Bernhard!”
“But he’s mine!”
Amber hated, seeing them fighting. She wished Vati would back off as Bernd’s voice was sounding more and more hysterical to her.
“He’s not!”
Blitzkrieg, alarmed by the noise, whinnied loudly.
“He doesn’t want to go, Vati! He wants to stay here with me!” Bernd sniffed back his tears.
Wolfgang, tired as well as tired of his son’s nonsense, shouted, “I don’t care what that stupid horse wants, what I say goes!” He did not know what had gotten into his son, but it was bringing out the worst in himself, and he could not believe he was now descending to Bernd’s level and carrying on like a two year old too. He rubbed tiredly at his forehead while muttering softly to himself.
“He’s not a stupid horse!” Bernd burst into tears.
“Grow up already! Mien Gott! I’ve never seen anyone cry like you do!” Wolfgang said irritably.
Bernd, feeling he had nothing to lose now, called his father every name in the book.
Wolfgang shouted back at him. His patience worn thin, he looked like he was about to strike Bernd, instead, he grabbed his son roughly by the arm and shook him.
Amber never felt so helpless. She stood there, wishing they would stop. “Stop it!” Neither one paid any attention to her as their fight became more and more heated. In an act of desperation, Amber cried out in German, “STOP IT!!” It had the desired effect and they both became silent as they turned towards her. She started to laugh.
“Amber?” Wolfgang said. He panted as he stared at her in concern until his son started laughing too, although his laughter had tinge of hysteria to it. “Bernhard?” He let go of him.
“Vati! We were arguing in German like we always do! Why would I cheat on my tests if I know more than the stupid books and tapes?”
Amber nodded. “He’s been helping me and I’ve been doing well on my tests too, but you don’t see Mr. Abrams accusing me of cheating.”
Wolfgang blinked as he ran his hand through his hair. “Your math teacher called me about your German lessons?”
Bernd nodded. “He must’ve, cuz I’ve got about a C average in math and if I was gonna cheat, I’d want to do better than that. Vati, that stuff is so easy; I could have gotten A’s when I was in Kindergarten!”
“Vati, Bernd would never cheat. He struggles in school, but we all help him, even Didi, so he passes everything. German is like the only thing he knows well enough to pass on his own.”
“Yeah. So you believe me now when I said I didn’t cheat?”
Wolfgang nodded. “But that still doesn’t excuse your behavior. I don’t appreciate you mouthing off to me, Bernd.”
“But, Vati!”
“Bernd, leave it,” Amber said. He looked at her and she felt bad about his hurt expression, but it was late, this seemed to be over, and she wanted to get some sleep. In a few hours it would be morning and she had to go to work. “I have work in the morning, unlike you.”
“Oh.” He was tired too, but keyed up over the events of the day.
“I’ll call your teacher on Monday. Now, let’s go back to the house, before I decide to punish you for sneaking out in the middle of the night. And don’t forget you need to be up at five-thirty so you can muck his stall out and your riding lessons.”
Bernd sighed. “Yes, Vati.”
They walked back to the house in silence. Amber held Bernd’s hand, occasionally giving it a squeeze. She was still worried about him as he seemed even paler and more drawn than usual and she wished he would talk to his guidance councilor about his problems, or the school’s psychologist, or anyone that could help him. He was very fragile lately and she was sure the constant fights were adding to his stress, but she had no idea how to help him herself other than to just be there for him. “Hey, Vati?”
“What?”
“Is it okay, if we have a sleepover and I stay in Bernd’s room? We can leave the door open if you want.”
Bernd looked at her wide-eyed in surprise. He blinked, before focusing his attention on his father. “Please, Vati? We won’t do anything stupid, I promise.”
“Me too.”
Wolfgang nodded. “Just leave the door open and go to sleep.” He entered the house followed by his son and would be daughter. Locking up behind them, they all trudge upstairs to bed.
“Gute Nacht,” Wolfgang said softly as he entered room, closing the door behind him.
Amber lay in Bernd’s bed, holding him close. She hoped he was okay as he seemed exhausted now that the whole ordeal about losing his horse was over. Pushing those troubling thoughts aside, it was not long before she had fallen asleep with him.