There was smoke everywhere. I could hardly see. I tried to open the door, but it was burning hot. I pulled my burned hand back and hoped someone would call the fire department before it was too late. Breathing was getting harder and harder, and then I blacked out…
/~~/
Few months later. Gilbert POV
I walk down the street alone since Francis and Antonio are off doing something I don't care about. I go to the burned house at the end of the street. The three of us were planning on going in together, but the awesome me decided I would go into the abandoned, boarded up house beforehand.
I go to one of the windows, tear the boards off, and awesomely make my way inside.
Everything in the house is burned, damaged by water or smoke, and was covered in debris. I can't tell what the color of anything had been. It's amazing the house is still standing. It will be our awesome new hang out.
I explore the house, but I trip over something in front of the burned sofa.
"What the hell would trip the awesome me?" I ask, standing and looking at what I tripped over. At first, it looked like a polar bear, floating above the floor a bit. I look closer and see a sickly thin, pale blonde lying there, holding the bear. Both are covered in soot, and the boy looks burned.
"Hey, wake up." I shake his shoulder. He doesn't react. He must be unconscious. Why is he here anyway? Well, seeing as I'm in an awesomely good mood, I'll help him out and bring him to my house.
I pick him up to find out he's incredibly light. That can't be good. I bring him over to the window and manage to get the both of us through. I carry him down to my house and I run into Francis on the way.
"Oh, who is this Gil?" he asks.
"I don't know exactly. He was in that burned house."
Francis looks closely at him, rubs some soot off his face, and his eyes light up.
"You found my petite cousin! We thought 'e was dead!" Francis grabs his cousin in a hug.
"How long has he been missing?"
"Two months. Oh, 'e is so light! Will you take care of Mathieu? I would do et, but et is too busy at my house. Please Gil?"
"Why not? Wouldn't be so awesome to put him on the street."
"Oh merci Gil!" He gives me back his cousin and goes back down the street.
I carry Mathieu to my house, glad Ludwig is off somewhere and vati is at work. I lay him down on the sofa, getting soot on it.
After a minute, he starts coughing, then groans a bit as he wakes up. I lean over him and look down at him.
Canada POV
I wake up and the first thing I see is a pair of red eyes looking at me. I try to scream, but it's hoarse and really quiet. I hold Kumamara close and burry my face in his fur, shaking.
Someone takes Kuma from me. They sit me up and I fall back into the sofa. I slowly open my eyes and see an albino sitting next to me and looking at me.
"I'm not going to hurt you. Why were you in that house?"
I look at him, confused for a minute. He's holding Kuma.
"K-K-K-Kum-am-arri."
"What?" I weakly reach out to my polar bear. "Oh. Here." He gives me him and I hold him close. "Now why where you in that house?"
"No one came to get me, and I couldn't get out after they stopped the fire." I slowly say.
"Why couldn't you get out?"
"Everything w-was boarded up. Or too h-hot."
He looks closely at me. "Are you alright?" I shake my head. I start to feel dizzy. "Here, let me get you some water." He gets up and comes back a minute later with a glass of water.
"Here." He gives me the water. I take it, but it shakes in my hands. I quickly drink it and put the glass down before I drop it.
"Are you OK? You're shaking a lot. You look terrible. Here. Come with me." He stands up and walks towards the stairs. He turns around and sees me still sitting on the sofa. "Well, come on."
"I can't."
"What do you mean you can't?" he asks, coming over.
"I can't support my own weight." I murmur, looking away. I know I don't weigh a lot, but I've been getting weaker and weaker without food.
"That's ridiculous. You hardly weigh anything." He grabs my arm and lifts me up. My legs start to shake and I grab onto him before I fall to the floor. He grabs my arms and helps me stand.
"Think you can stand long enough to take a shower?"
"I-I think so."
"Well, come on." He brings me upstairs while I hold onto him so I won't fall. We go to his room. He sits me on his bed, and I fall back to lean against the wall. He gets some clothes from his closet, then takes me to his bathroom. He gives me the clothes he picked for me and closes the door as he leaves.
I look over at the shower. Luckily it looks like I can at least lean against the wall for balance.
I wince a bit as the warm water touches my burned skin. It does feel nice to shower again though. As I shower, I wonder why he went to that house anyway. After it was burned, it wasn't the best place to be…
Two months earlier:
I wake up in my bedroom. I don't know how long I had been out. I stand up, wondering if the fire's still going. I stand and cautiously grab the doorknob with my left, and unburned, hand. It's back to normal temperature, but a little cold, so I open it.
The house is a mess. Everything's all burned and damaged from water. So someone had called the fire department. I guess the firemen hadn't seen me. They had been in my room, since I was soaked and burned.
As I made my way downstairs, I realized that every movement hurts. Maybe if I can make it outside I can get to a hospital. I know I'm completely burned.
I make my way to the door, but I can't open it. I know I'm not that weak. I push harder on the door, but it still won't budge. So I try a window. It's boarded up, and I can't get out. In fact, all the windows are boarded up.
I sigh, figuring I'll be here for a while. I start to go upstairs, but a few stairs about halfway up collapse. I get off the stairs and go sit on the sofa. I wonder how long I'll be able to stay here.
Kumamakaru comes over and jumps up on my lap. He's covered in soot. And I had always been careful to not him dirty. He buries his head in my chest and I hold him close.
A few hours later I go searching around the house for food. Luckily, the food in the refrigerator didn't burn. Unfortunately it stopped working and the only thing I could have was something from a fast food restaurant Alfred had went to. Well, if it was the only thing to eat, I suppose I would have to make it last.
I was going to eat some of it, but Kumadara came over. I would have to share it with him.
We finished it in less than a week. Then I started getting weaker and thinner.
I was moving some part of the ceiling that had fallen, but I couldn't. I had been able to before, but it had been getting harder and harder, though now I can't.
And then I start blacking out, from lack of food probably, at random times. Sometimes I was out for a couple minutes, sometimes half a day, but that only happened once. I was blacking out for longer and longer periods of time. It didn't help that I had trouble breathing in the house either.
So, for two months, at least I think it was two months; I just tried to stay alive. But as it got harder to support my own weight and harder to do that.
Then one day, I couldn't move at all. Kuma tried to help me up, but I couldn't. Then I blacked out for the longest time yet. That must have been when the albino came.
I finish the shower, realizing I don't even know his name.
He picked out shorts and a dark tee for me. The shirt hung loosely on me, and the shorts came down to my shins. It hurts a bit when the fabric touches my burned skin, but I deal with it.
I stumble out the door, and lose my balance, falling onto the albino guy. He catches me and holds me up. He looks a bit worried as he looks at me.
"Come on." He brings me back downstairs and sits me on the sofa. He goes back upstairs. Kuma had woken up and sits next to me, leaning against me. I pet his head.
"Who are you?" he asks, looking up at me.
"I'm… I'm… I'm Canada." I almost forgot who I was again. Must be the lack of food affecting my memory.
The guy comes back with some Aloe Vera and bandages. He sits next to me and takes my legs, putting them over his own.
"Hey, what are you doing?" I ask him as he pushes the shorts up to around the middle of my thighs, making me uncomfortable.
"Don't worry." He spreads the Aloe Vera over the burns on my legs. It stings at first, but then it starts to soothe the burned skin. He wraps the bandages around my legs, then pulls the shorts back down to where they were before.
He sits me up, since I had fallen back on the sofa, and puts his hand to my chest. I wince, since he touched a burned part of it.
He grabs the shirt I have on and starts to pull up. I grab his hands and try to stop him, but he's so much stronger than me. He gets the shirt off me, and I feel even more embarrassed than before.
He holds me against him. He spreads the Aloe Vera on my chest. I wince when it stings, but then relax. He does the same with the burns on my back. He wraps the bandages around me, then does the same with my arms. He helps me back into the shirt and holds me against him again.
"Uh, thanks." I tell him after a minute.
"You're welcome. And by the way, I'm the awesome Gilbert, but you can just call me Gil."
"I'm, uh … Matthew."
"Kesesese. Forget your name often? Well, I'll call you Birdie." He holds me closer to him.
"Why Birdie?"
"Hm? Because you remind me of a little bird. So weak and helpless."
"I'm not weak and helpless." I protest.
"You can't even stand by yourself." He gently rubs my arm. "So, you're my little Birdie. And I'm gonna take care of you 'til you're better. What happened anyway?"
"What happened? Uh, well, my house was burned, but the firemen didn't see me when they put the fire out. The house was boarded up, and I was trapped." I speak quietly and look at Kuma the whole time. I didn't realize I had been holding Gil's arm.
He hugs me and whispers, "I won't abandon you like them Birdie. I promise."
I hug his arms. "Thanks Gil."
The door opens and a blonde man comes in.
"Hey West." Gil greets him. He stops and looks at the two of us on the sofa.
"Who is this and why is there soot all over the couch?"
"This is Birdie. He was in that house down the street, the burned one, so I brought him here. He lived there, but you can't live in a burned down place like that West. Oh, and he's Francis's cousin."
"Mathieu?" He looks at me.
"Matthew, yeah."
"You have nowhere to go?"
"Sorry, I don't."
"Oh, don't apologize Birdie, it's not your fault your house got burned." Gil says. I'm aware of his head on my shoulder.
"Ja, it's not your fault Matthew." 'West' tells me. "You're welcome to stay here. I'll tell Vati about this Gil. Und by the way, I'm Ludwig." He goes upstairs.
"Don't worry about him, he's so uptight. But you know they say, you can't choose your family."
I sigh. "Yeah."
He holds me close. "But that's all right."
"Why's that?"
"'Cuz now I got someone to stay here that isn't family."
"Oh. Uh, OK." I start to feel light headed, so I hold onto Gil's arm tighter. He laughs his weird laugh and holds me closer.
"Hey Birdie, so you have any clothes at your house, or did they all burn?"
"No, they-" I black out again before I finish my sentence.
