Protector. Chapter 1 A/N:
Disclaimer: Hikari does not own or claim to own Hetalia or any of its characters.
Ludwig's POV
A loud ring jarred Ludwig from his sleep. He forced his eyes open and rapidly blinked the sleepiness out. He tiredly sat up, the bed groaning in protest to his weight shift, and clamped his calloused hand over the phone. He put the phone to his ear.
"Hello." he groaned into the phone. His baritone voice was monotone and muffled with sleep.
"Detective Ludwig?" the voice on the other end asked.
"Ja." Ludwig answered. He held in a groan. He loved his job as a homicide investigator but one thing he despised was being woken up in the middle of the night to look at a stinky corpse of some pour dead soul.
"We have a homicide. A young man; Caucasian with a multiple stab wounds to the torso." the other voice explained. As Ludwig's mind started to function again, Ludwig quickly recognized the voice as the chief, Alfred Jones.
"Alright. What's the address and I'll be right over?" Ludwig asked. In the dark his hand grazed over the desk before he found the note pad and pen that he kept beside the bed for notes when he got calls in the middle of the night.
Alfred read off the address the victim was at. Ludwig's hand flew as he scribbled the address down quickly.
"Alright. I'll see you soon." Ludwig replied. The chief bid him good bye and hung up.
Ludwig sighed and ran a hand through short blond locks. He hated this part of his job not because of seeing dead people day in and day out but because he forced his long time boyfriend to wake up to an empty bed.
Had he been dating someone else he doubted he would even be in a relationship. His boyfriend, Feliciano Vargas, understood everything about him and encouraged him. Even the things he didn't get, he was still supportive of him. Feliciano worked as a cook for a popular Italian restaurant near Times Square. He too worked long hours which made Ludwig not feel as guilty about leaving in the middle of the night. Ripping the page with the address written down off the tablet Ludwig quickly wrote another note:
'Dear Feli, Had to leave to investigate a murder. There is left over pasta in the fridge to warm up. I'll be home as soon as I can. Love, Ludwig.'
Satisfied with his letter, Ludwig got out of the bed being careful as to not wake Feliciano up. Luckily, Feliciano was a heavy sleeper. He had over slept the alarm countless times, requiring for a second alarm, and had never once woken up because of a phone call.
Ludwig crossed the bedroom to where his dresser was. He threw on his formal clothing. He tucked his badge into his pocket for save keeping and quietly left.
He walked to his car in the car garage at a brisk pace. He got in and turned on the car. A piece of paper caught his attention. On the dash was a small post-it note. Ludwig picked it off the dash, his eyes skimming over the paper.
'Have a great day! Love Feli.'
Beside his boyfriends name was a small heart and a smiley face. Ludwig blushed and carefully tucked the note into his breast pocket for safe keeping.
He drove to the address he was given. He was assured that he was at the right place by the flashing police lights illuminating the night sky and police tape standing out prominently in the darkness.
He parked his car and strode to the door. On the door stoop was a crying woman and a shocked couple. That was once of the must unpleasant parts of jobs; dealing with grief stricken families. Fortunately, he didn't have to tell family members that their loved one was dead too often. More often he got to tell them that the killer had been found and was behind bars.
He flashed his badge to an officer by the door without a pause and walked into the apartment. The lobby was crowded with other officers and residents. Ludwig knew a few of the offers in the room but none of the residents.
"Detective Bielschmidt!" a voice called. Ludwig turned to his name and saw Chief Jones waving to him by the stairs. Ludwig hurried to greet his boss.
"The victim is on the third floor. The door is open and Detective Honda is already there." Alfred informed him. Ludwig nodded. He hurried up the stairs to the third floor and went through the door that took him to the apartment hallway.
Glancing down the hallway, Ludwig located the room where the victim was. As he neared, his partner, Kiku Honda, stepped into the hallway. He caught sight of Ludwig and just sighed.
"You're going to want to see this. It's brutal." Kiku said. He was a short man of Japanese descent. He had cropped black hair and dark brown eyes. He was very intelligent and keen on details. His words were few but they spoke with dictation and confidence.
Ludwig braced himself for the carnage that was inside the doorway. The smell of death and blood emanated from the apartment to Ludwig's spot in the hallway.
"Let's get this over with." Ludwig said to himself. He took a breath of air. It wasn't fresh but it was as fresh as he was going to get.
Upon entering the room Ludwig was met with the sight of blood. Blood was streaked across the pale walls, looking like a bright red paint.
Small puddles of scarlet blood had gathered on the carpet. The smell of iron blood flooded Ludwig's nostrils, causing his stomach to churn uncertainly.
Kiku came up beside him, his expression unreadable, "The body's in the bed room."
The two men walked side by side to the bedroom where the horrible scent grew stronger. Lying near the window on their back was the body. The person was male but had shoulder length curly blond hair and wore silk sleeping clothes.
As Ludwig moved closer, he could see a pool blood underneath the man and multiple wounds on his chest.
The mans face was frozen in a scream of agony, his blue eyes wide and staring at the ceiling and his arms had been stretched towards the window- his last chance at escape from his gruesome fate.
"Francis Bonnefoy, 27 year old male, just moved from Paris, France, upcoming artist with a clean record." Kiku recited.
Ludwig knelt down, resisting the earge to gag, and pulled on a pair of gloves. He pulled what was remaining of an expensive silk night shirt off of the mans chest and examined the wounds.
His chest was littered with deep scratches and a few stab wounds, mostly shallow with an exception one in the mans chest. Whoever had killed the man didn't do it quick and had wanted it to be painful.
Glancing around the room Ludwig put the scene into play, "The intruder, our man, entered the bedroom and Mr. Bonnefoy here woke up. Judging by the amount of blood on the bed, I say he cut Mr. Bonnefoy a few times. Mr. Bonnefoy managed to run to the hallway but our man pushed him into the wall judging to the blood directly across the door. He then proceeded to drag him across the wall, creating the streaks of blood before finally throwing him on the ground and stabbing him, creating the shallower wounds. Mr. Bonnefoy here made a last ditch effort to his room where his closest escape i.e. the window was. Our man knocked him to his back and made the fatal stab wound in his chest." Ludwig concluded.
Everyone was silent as they played the events in their mind. It made sense.
"Has the weapon been found?" Ludwig asked. Kiku shook his head.
"No clues were found in the apartment." Kiku said. Ludwig sighed and looked back to the body. Something about the mans eyes gave him the creeps. Maybe it was the way that they were open and so wide. He looked back at the silk still in his hands and noticed some paper.
He plucked the paper out of the pocket and examined it. It was the size of a business but it was blank except for the letters '112224'.
Ludwig's eyebrows knitted together. Kiku looked over his shoulder.
"Do you believe that maybe it's a note from the killer?" Kiku asked. Ludwig shrugged.
"It could be. It's too short to be a phone number and there's no name or address. Maybe it's a code." Ludwig thought aloud.
A person came up with an evidence bag. Ludwig carefully tucked the card inside it and stood up.
"Alright. How about we get a full autopsy on this guy in case we missed anything." Ludwig said.
As paramedics put the body of Francis Bonnefoy into a body bag, Ludwig looked around the house. The only rooms that had been disturbed had been the rooms that Francis and the intruder had wrestled in. Ludwig had to give it to Francis; he had been strong to fight with stab wounds.
Ludwig thought more of the victim. The poor man had just moved to America and gets murdered without even being in his new home for a week. This struck home to Ludwig considering both him and his boyfriend was foreigners. He didn't want to think of his sweet Feliciano getting hurt much less killed. He himself had moved with his brother from Germany and Feliciano had moved from Italy. Poor Feliciano had come alone for business but had decided to move to America permanently after he visited New York and met Ludwig.
Being reminded of his boyfriend Ludwig remembered that it was Feliciano's first day off in a while. Feliciano hardly ever took days off because he loved working at the restaurant but he had arranged to take a day off to spend time with Ludwig.
"I'm going to head out. See you later!" Ludwig called to the others.
Still Germany's POV
Ludwig unlocked the door to the apartment and came in. He faced the door in order to lock it. When he turned around he barely had time to brace himself for the inevitable when Feliciano ran to hug him.
"Ve~ welcome home Luddy!" Feliciano exclaimed. Ludwig blushed and wrapped his strong arms around the Italians lithe form.
"Hi Feli." he said.
"You sound sad." Feliciano commented. He pulled away and tilted his head up to look up at Ludwig. He got an idea and grinned. "Ve~ how about I warm up some of last night's pasta for us?"
Ludwig chortled, "Ok." he said. He wasn't wild over pasta like Feliciano was but if it made Feliciano happy and if he got to eat with him then he would eat it.
"Yay!" Feliciano exclaimed. He raced to the kitchen to start warming up his native cuisine.
Ludwig hung up his jacket up on the hook by the door and followed his boyfriend to the kitchen like a faithful dog.
"Ve~ Romano called me this morning and told me he was coming to New York for business for a few weeks." Feliciano explained.
"Why don't you invite him to stay with us?" Ludwig asked. He wasn't particularly fond of Feliciano's older brother, mostly because Romano yelled almost constantly.
"Hehe, I already offered!" Feliciano grinned causing Ludwig to smile slightly. "Ve~ did you know he broke up with Antonio?"
This was news to the German. Romano might be loud and sour but it was plain to see that Romano loved Antonio in his own unique way. They had been together for what seems like the longest time. Antonio had been his friend for a while until Romano finally accepted one of the multiple opportunities to go on a date with the Spaniard. Romano had been loud and never liked touch while the Spaniard was almost the exact opposite. Ludwig never got how the Spaniard handled the Italian for so long. Maybe he finally realized that Romano wasn't the person for him.
"Yeah, Romano was the one who broke it off." Feliciano said. More news. Why would Romano dump Antonio? Sure, he acted like he didn't like him but he had a special way of showing affection. Without the Spaniard, Romano was alone. Both of their parents were dead, and Feliciano had moved to America leaving Romano with just Antonio.
"Really?" Ludwig asked.
"Si. He didn't tell me why but he must be sad. I really want to cheer him up and spend some time with him so when he comes we're going to spend a lot of time together and go shopping." Feliciano said smiling. The pasta was almost warm now so he started to dish it out.
"Ja. I bet he'll definitely lighten the place." Ludwig said sarcastically. It went right past Feliciano though. The Italian hardly ever noticed sarcastic comments like that.
"Well, I offered for him to stay but he said he already found a place." Feliciano said looking guilty as if he had lied. Ludwig held back a smile at how cute his face was.
"Why didn't he want to stay here? He should have known he could stay with us." Ludwig said.
Feliciano's face reddened, "Um…he said he didn't want to share an apartment with 'the potato bastardo' and that he didn't want to be kept up in the middle of the night by our sex noises." He said.
Ludwig blushed as well, "Oh…um…well…" he stammered. Feliciano giggled and hugged him.
"Ve~ you're so cute Luddy!" he exclaimed jovially. Ludwig blushed and hugged back slightly. Feliciano giggled as Ludwig's stomach rumbled, "Let's eat!"
The couple sat down at the dinner table and started eating the pasta. Feliciano was a very talented cook which was why the restaurant was so popular. Even though Ludwig wasn't wild over pasta he had to admit that his pasta was delicious.
"I'm going to take Romano shopping so he can pick up a pretty girl and we're going to go out and eat dinner and we're going to walk around the city and we're going to have so much fun and he won't be so sad any more and he'll have such a great time that he'll want to move to America as well!" Feliciano rambled on. Ludwig just groaned to himself.
"Just remember that it's Romano and that he's going to be working." Ludwig reminded him gently. Sometimes Feliciano forgot that it was Romano he was talking about and that Romano doesn't show he's having fun like other people. Come to think of it, Ludwig couldn't ever remember hearing Romano laugh or seeing him smile. He lived a hard life but Feliciano lived the same and yet he was the happiest person Ludwig knew.
"Ve~ I know. That's why I want to make him happy." Feliciano smiled. Ludwig smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. Feliciano was so kind.
"The pasta's very good." Ludwig comments.
"Ve~ really?" Feliciano asked hopefully. Ludwig blushed and nodded.
"Ve~ grazie Ludwig!" Feliciano exclaimed hugging Ludwig's arm. Ludwig smiled and blushed a deeper red.
"So when's your brother coming anyway?" Ludwig asked. Feliciano looked guilty again and shrank away.
"Um…well I'm going to pick him up from the air port after you finish your pasta." Feliciano said. Ludwig nearly gagged on the pasta he was chewing.
"That soon!" he asked. Feliciano shrank away and nodded timidly.
"Oh mein gott! Why didn't you tell me earlier! I need to change my clothes!" Ludwig exclaimed.
"I'm sorry! I just got so excited I forgot!" Feliciano squeaked. Ludwig sighed, hating to see him looking so afraid of him. He had never hurt him and he hated it whenever the Italian was hurt or scared.
"It's ok, I suppose. Just try to tell me next time, ok?" Ludwig said. Feliciano smiled and nodded.
"I'm going to change so we can leave. We don't want to be late." Ludwig said, "You know how Romano gets."
"Ve~ ok! I'll clean the dishes." Feliciano said. Ludwig stood up. He bent down and planted a quick though tender kiss on Feliciano's lips. He smiled and left Feliciano dumbstruck in the kitchen to go change.
A/N: Yay! First chapter est done! Updates will be slow since I'm still writing Lost and I got to write a story for English class and a story for Latin IN LATIN. DX. So, I might post those at some point. Also, sorry for any inaccuracy. I only watch one police show (Rizzole and Isles) so I'm not too familiar with stuff like this. If anyone notices a big problem or has any suggestions please tell me! So, enough jibber jabber. Please review! Reviews encourage me to write faster!