Please note, this is a sequel for the story "Kneeling at Your Feat".
His lung burned with the forced air of a phlegm filled staccato session of coughs. The carriage bounced and jarred sharply, throwing him carelessly to the side so that he fell against the door. He pressed a frail and slender hand to it before pushing against it to right himself. The brunette coughed again into a closed fist. Inhaling through his nostrils deeply once the fit was over, the prince, as he was of royal blood and the current heir to the throne, nudged his spectacles further up the bridge of his nose. Leaning forward then, he reached over the empty seat across from him to slide open a small metal hatch to speak with his coachman. "Gilbert, do you know how much longer it is until we arrive?" he asked.
"Take another look out the window, Prinzessin," the albino called back as he turned his head to catch the slightest glimmer of near violet irises as the light hit them the split second before the prince leaned back.
Glancing out the window, Roderich saw familiar stone buildings with loose tile roofing, a few of them even using thatch instead. He saw the faded shutters open wide so that several sets of windows were open to allow the sun into the homes of the peasants who were currently bustling along the dirt road, weaving in and out of buildings and bazar stalls. He peeked his head out further to see the mighty stone and marble fortress that closed itself off from the provincial life of the people with a wall and iron gate. The city itself was surrounded by a similar wall in order to protect the capital city of the kingdom from an invasion.
With a harsh command from the makeshift coachman and a tug on the reigns, the horse halted. A few of the guards glanced down at the unknown and rundown carriage to spot a very familiar mop of white which belonged to the officially declared palace guard captain. They shouted down and politely asked him to wait before they scrambled to arrange for the gates to be opened. Gilbert cackled, the sound emitting from his voice similar to a hissing cat. The iron blockade parted with a loud creak that hinted of rust due to weathering after years of use. Once the telltale creak had faded, he snapped the reigns and the horse advanced a short way before he stopped it again in the courtyard.
After securing the reigns, Gilbert hopped down from his perch with a grunt. He strolled around to the door of the carriage before turning its tarnished handle. It flew open and he extended a hand to the prince. The prince accepted the assistance and stepped down, using their joined hands for balance as he all but jumped down. Once he touched down, Gilbert tugged on him and hugged him close, wrapping his other arm around his waist to keep him there. A coy smirk crept onto the knight's face. Prince Edelstein frowned at the display. He opened his mouth, but his words were replaced by a harsh cough. His head slumped against Gilbert's chest, damping the other man's shirt with the sweat that was starting to bead on his forehead. The albino's smile evaporated in an instant and he set a hand to Roderich's forehead. "You're on fire, Little Master," he muttered.
Roderich pushed his hand off with a stubborn groan. "I'm fine," he tersely protested.
An echoing clap sounded with the heavy footfalls of someone storming outside. Furious, the blonde cleared his throat, sufficiently separating the two of them in an instant. Roderich straightened himself up before glancing at his cousin, who he had left in power until his return. "Wohin sind Sie gewesen?" Vash demanded.
"I told you in my letters," the prince replied coolly. "I never strayed out of the kingdom and my important decisions were written in them as well. Technically, I still held my position."
"For starters, you were gone four times longer than you said you would be. Not to mention, the point of your "holiday" was to make you come to your senses and straighten out," Vash argued. He crossed his arms, daring Roderich to dispute his point.
Roderich's face burned as the blood rushed to his cheeks to color them like a ripe tomato. He found that his cousin's wording left a great deal to be desired. "I have-"
"Roderich!" a young woman called. She had hiked up her long emerald skirts to run out to meet him. Her long and beautiful honey brown hair danced behind her. As she embraced him shamelessly, her skirts fell again; her hoopskirt then pushing them back so that she could break personal space boundaries.
"Elizabeta," he greeted his fiancé as he tensed in her arms, never actually returning the gesture. She noticed this with a frown. "How are you?"
"Wonderful," the princess of Magyarország replied, grin returning once more. "You seem well."
"I've been better," Roderich mumbled.
Gilbert seized the moment to wrap a guiding arm around the prince's shoulders. "Actually, ve have business vith the court physician," he cut in.
"We aren't finished her, Beilschmidt," Vash growled.
Gilbert paused to hum as though he were thinking. "Hmm, ja, ve are." He ushered Roderich inside then, all but shoving Vash aside before they entered. On the way to the kitchen, the best place to gain information involving those in the castle, they passed Prince Edelstein's other cousin, Lili. She gave them a hurried greeting before hurrying past them in an equally rushed fashion to meet with her brother.
When they entered the kitchen, they saw a dark haired woman adding seasoning to a large pot that was boiling over the fire. She hummed to herself as she stirred her rich and meaty concoction. She turned away to fetch another ingredient from the many cabinets that lined the walls of the room, but when she caught sight of Gilbert, she dropped the jar she had pulled out. It hit the ground and shattered, the pieces darting all over on the floor along with the peppers that were originally the jars contents. She darted around the debris to catch Gilbert in a hug. "Gilly! It's been too long!" He returned the hug halfheartedly as he though specifically on his reason for having come there. "And Monsieur Edelstein, it's a pleasure." She tugged at her skirts in a courtesy.
"Hey Franny, do you know vhere Über Brows is?" Gilbert asked.
She knitted her own brows together in question before she thought on his description, or rather his nickname for this person. Suddenly, it clicked, signaled by the "oh" she mumbled before nodding. "Oui, 'e's in 'is study. Why? Do you need 'im?"
"Ja," Gilbert told her, not really explaining why it was that he needed to see Arthur. He turned Roderich around. "Tell Bella zat I said "Hallo" und I'll talk to her later." He pushed the prince forward and out the door. Françoise waved them off. She waited until they were gone to begin picking up the glass shards. Despite the fact that the peppers had fallen on the floor, they could be washed and then she would use them later.
"I can walk without your guidance," Roderich grumbled as Gilbert kept a hand to his back, lightly ushering him ahead still.
Gilbert snorted as though he had been told a great joke. "Alright, vhere's Arthur's study?" he asked, pausing in the middle of a hallway at junction. Roderich pointed down the left corridor. Pleased, Gilbert smirked. "You'd be right, if ve vere going to your room."
Roderich sighed, defeated. Apparently, he did need Gilbert's assistance to navigate his own castle. The albino did not seem to mind all too much though. He led the monarch down the correct hall and toward the physician's study. Gilbert knocked on the door and he heard a few muffled curses on the other side. He had probably interrupted the other man, but at that moment, or really any, he could not care less. "What is-" Arthur started before realizing whom he was speaking to. "Gilbert? Your highness? I wasn't aware that you had returned."
"Ve just got back," Gilbert explained.
"How can I help you two?" Arthur shifted in the doorway, opening it an inch more.
Almost on cue, Roderich coughed harshly, a fist close to his mouth as his frame shook. When the fit finished, he wheezed before standing tall once more after having leaned against the arm still around his shoulders in order to keep himself steady.
"I see," Arthur mused, question having been answered. He opened the door wide to allow them entrance, disappearing in the same instance to the back of the rom. He scanned the many titles of his bookcase before pulling a leather bound book without name from off the shelf. Retrieving it, he motioned Roderich to sit on his bed. It was then cracked open as Arthur glanced at the sickly pale brunette before him. "I'll need you to cough again, if you don't mind."
Despite a slanting of his lip, Roderich complied, awkwardly forcing the cough. Leaning closed, Arthur closed his eyes to better listen to the barking cough that had tumbled out after the first few spurious coughs. He opened his eyes again before immediately skimming the book complied of the notes he had taken on the few medical exams he had given the monarchs, as he had started before the deaths of the king and queen, over the years. With unintentional aggression, he clasped the prince's wrist in order to pull it and, more importantly, the handkerchief he had been utilizing closer. His chartreuse eyes lingered on the phlegm that clung to the otherwise pure white cloth before immediately flying to his notes once more.
"So?" Gilbert prompted, arms impatiently crossed.
"Be patient," Arthur snapped. He set the back of his hand to Roderich's forehead. "Any other symptoms?"
"Not unless you count night terrors," Roderich muttered as he returned his snot rag to his pocket. Ever since he had left the castle, perhaps even before that, he had been plagued with warped memories of his parent's and their demise. Visions of a terrible future were frequent as well.
"Shivers," Gilbert added. "On and off."
New information in mind, Arthur flipped through his notes, pages soaring to one side and then the other. His eyes traveled at a lightening like speed back and forth as he searched through the details of King Joseph's, Roderich's father's, illness. A few of the symptoms did match, but this illness did not seem to be progressing as fast or with as much ferociousness. Besides, Arthur's theory was that the previous king had been poisoned slowly, but killed when Lenhard, the previous captain of the guard and his murder, had panicked. He assumed that Gilbert would have watched Roderich like a hawk after risking so much to save him.
Satisfied, Arthur snapped the journal shut. He placed it back on its shelf before pulling out another, this one filled with various recipes for potions and tonics. He sat it on one of his many tables, this one lined with an eclectic amount of herbs and the like, before turning to face the prince and the knight. "I'll have something for you later," the physician told them before strolling closer to Roderich. "I have one more thing to ask, just out of general curiosity. Would you mind if I took a look at the wound I stitched up during the coup?"
Fumbling with the buttons of his tattered and homely jacket, Roderich removed his overcoat. He tugged at the hem of the shirt beneath that to reveal the faded scar that had been left by a sword. Arthur ran a hand over it, earning a shiver and a withdrawing of his patient. Gilbert turned his head as he found himself unable to stare without a flood of guilt swallowing him. He usually did his best to ignore it since in all reality, there was nothing he could have done. "It's healed nicely," Arthur remarked.
Roderich nodded absently while he began buttoning up his overcoat again, having less trouble putting it on than he had taking it off. "I recommend sleep, your highness, and a great deal of it," the physician added. The prince strolled out of the rom and Gilbert moved to follow. "Gilbert, one last thing… do visit your brother when you have the chance."
"I vill," Gilbert told him before filing out. He jogged, not wanting the prince to have the chance to end up lost in his own castle.
"Vati!" a young girl called. She ran as fast as her little feet would carry her. Her clothing, auburn hair, and face were stained with mud, revealing how she had likely been spending her free time before she headed toward the blacksmith's forge. A young Golden Retriever, German Shepard pup colored black and orange with floppy ears and a pointed snout hopped behind her. "Mama!"
The statuesque blonde owner of the forge was not hammering away at his anvil that afternoon. He was currently chatting with his over ecstatic wife as she frantically waved her arms. The golden band on her left right finger, which he had made himself, flashed as it caught the light. A pair of azure eyes and another of hazel turned to meet powder blues as they heard their daughter call for them. "Vhat is it, Calandra?" her father inquired. He frowned though when spotting how filthy she had become in the time that she had wondered to the popular meeting place of the young children of the village.
Her mother, the woman who she obtained a majority of her features from, scooped her up as the toddler teetered over before setting her to rest on her hip. Calandra stilled in her arms. "Onkel's back!" the little girl told them. "I heawd people saying that the pwince and Onkel Gilbewt awe back!"
"Vhat about me?" said person asked as he strolled in, hands shoved into the pockets of his threadbare trousers. The Beilschmidt family all turned their heads to stare at him. Calandra's eyes widened as she finally saw the man she had heard so much about. He gawked, slowly blinking off his shock as he started at her. "You…"
"Ja, ve have a daughter," Ludwig answered the question hanging in the air, a certain pride in his voice. He wrapped an arm around his wife, tugging Margherita and his daughter closer, a genuine smile on his face. "Calandra Beilschmidt."
After a short period, Gilbert clapped his brother on the back. "Congrats, Luddy. She's beautiful, just like her Mutti." Wedging himself between husband and wife, he hugged Marherita, careful not to squish his niece.
"You can hold her if you want," the Italian maid told him.
Gilbert glanced at the little girl and she reached her hands out, curling her fingers as she returned the look with hopeful eyes. He laughed. "C'mere Cali." He then took her, lifting her up in the air as though she weighed nothing before hugging her close. "So, how are you, kiddo?"
"Gut!" Calandra exclaimed as though she were used to talking to her uncle.
"That's good. What does Luddy have you doing while he and Daisy work?" Gilbert shifted her in his arms as she started to slip.
"Sometimes I go with Mama, but Vati likes it when I stay hewe. I play with Silbewn," she answered. Judging on her speech impediment, he could tell that she had meant to say the name Silbern.
All of a sudden, the pup, who had been sitting off to the side barked loudly before rushing over to lick her bare toes. Calandra squealed, legs spreading in the air before she giggled. Two more barks sounded and Gilbert frowned. There should have been four dogs with the new addition, but he soon spotted the absence of Blackie. "Where's Blackie?" He assumed and the lowering of Ludwig's eyes to the ground confirmed it. The old dog had finally keeled over. "I'm sorry," he muttered softly.
"Onkel Gilbewt, what's youw job?" Calandra asked, successfully switching topics in a way only children can.
Shifting the girl in his arms as he exposed his pearly whites, Gilbert lifted Calandra so that she was up on his shoulders. "I'm one of the prince's knights."
"You're a knight?" she asked in awe. He nodded. "That's so cool!"
"You bet it is."
"What's the prince like?" Calandra questioned. Setting her hands on top of her uncle's head, she peered down at him as she waited for her answer.
"Roderich?" Gilbert asked to confirm. "Vell, he's sort of a snobby priss. He's a nag and he isn't zat strong either. But, being a priss also means he has manners. Roddy's smart, but has no memory for anything. Oh, und he plays piano," Gilbert explained, summing Roderich up without realizing that he was probably close to rambling. Cali nodded her understanding as she processed the information. "Maybe you can meet him sometime."
While his description may not have put Roderich in the best light, it could not destroy Calandra's dream of meeting someone who was royalty. After all, Elizabeta seemed nice to her so she figured that Roderich was probably of the same nature. She grinned at the idea and Gilbert smiled back at her before setting her on the ground. He ruffled her hair, successfully making her bangs fall in her face. He told her to go play, telling her that she and her puppy could pretend to be knights. Both he and Ludwig had done the same when they were young, using their now deceased uncle's home to play in and then the streets upon his passing. Calandra called for her pet before hurrying off.
"I'm really happy for you, Luddy." Gilbert told his brother once the little girl was gone.
"Vhat about you? I haven't heard from you since the vedding," Ludwig replied. Gilbert had managed to return to the kingdom to see his little brother's wedding. It was something he was glad he did not miss despite the fact that he had to leave Roderich on his own for a week as he had refused to come along.
"Vhat do you want to know?" Gilbert asked, not sure if Ludwig was looking for some sort of specifics. He also wanted to know what he would do better to omit.
"…I've heard the rumors, Gilbert, but I don't care either vay. I just vant to know if you're happy, if you enjoyed yourself vhile you vere avay," Ludwig replied.
Gilbert knew what his brother was initially referring to. He would have thought the comments would have come earlier, but the beautiful thing about his brother was that he was oblivious, oblivious and he knew when to hold his tongue. The albino closed his eyes and smiled to himself. "Ja, Luddy, I did and I am," he said simply. "Anything else?"
"How is Prince Roderich?" Margherita cut in, tilting her head some to the side.
"Eh…" Gilbert frowned. "He's sick, but Über Brows says he'll be fine in a few days."
"Aw, I-a hope he gets better," Margherita muttered with a frown. She doubted that her brother would be happy to hear that the prince had returned though. Lovino's work load had been rather light since the prince's absence. Although he would have been serving Vash, Vash seemed to have little desire to tolerate Lovino or his work ethic so he handled a great deal of work on his own.
"Me too…" Gilbert agreed. Yet at the same time, he could not help thinking on how long they had been away. Both he and Roderich would have to catch up on the current events in the kingdom along with their own work. Despite the fact that he was bedridden, Gilbert could already foresee that Roderich would push himself to complete his duty. When he mentioned coming back, Roderich seemed more set on assuming the throne than any other time Gilbert had spoken with him. It made him wonder what had changed during the four years that they were away.
Translation Notes:
Prinzessin - Princess
Wohin sind Sie gewesen? - Where have you been?
Ja - Yes
Monsieur - Mister
Vati - Dad/Daddy
Onkel - Uncle
Mutti - Mom/Mommy
Silbern - Silver
Author's Notes:
I know that I am still running the two spin-offs that I have promised all of you and I will be sure to finish them without spoiling anything in this (as best I can at any rate). However, I could not help being plagued by the ideas from this sequel so I finally broke down and wrote the first chapter. As was mentioned in the story itself, Gilbert and Roderich have been gone for a whole four years so they have a great deal of catching up to do.
I hope no one minded too much that I gave Ludwig and Margherita a little girl. The temptation was simply too much and I caved. Calandra is an Italian name meaning skylark. I was hoping I could find a name that was either Italian that sounded somewhat German or vice versa. This was the closest I could find and I'm rather found of the nickname "Cali." When she appears, expect to see it often because Gilbert is a trend setter. Also note that she isn't mean to represent any country, micronation, or even a city. She won't be the only new character to be added as I expect to at least have two more if not five. These five will be nations, but I won't be revealing any identities.
Roderich so happened to be ill in this chapter. I almost feel bad for him given how I tend to torture him in a majority of my writings. However, it will be mentioned later that he was sickly when he was young so this really should come as no surprise to anyone else. Plus, I'm a sucker for a worried Gilbert.
Thank you all for reading and reviewing. I hope you found this to be a good start to the sequel and I hope that you will stay tuned.
