The mad laughter echoed inside the small room along with the pained howls of an innocent man. He had, yet again, found a form of sick entertainment. A toy. Every week was a different person…and a different form of torture, because why settle for the same boring routine every week right?

The frustrated growls echoed in the small office. He had, yet again, found another form of sick entertainment. A victim. Every week was a different person…and a different form of torture leaving little to no clues of the one responsible for the crimes, but he had to settle for the same mad routine every week.

oooooOOOOOooooo

"This is getting me nowhere! It's been nearly three months and without the slightest clue of who that bastard is!" said the man as he slouched over his computer with his hands on his pale face. "It feels like every week this just gets harder to figure out!"

He slumped back in his chair and fixed his red eyes on the celling, tempted to just give up for the night. It was getting late and, as usual, he wasn't making any progress. Six killed in the past month…each different from the other. No clues of the murderer…and no way of finding out. He felt as if, whoever was behind this, was mocking him and he felt mad at himself for that.

"Ummm…Gilbert?" said a voice coming from the door making the man lift his head.

"What is it Antonio?" came his reply, a little harsher than he expected, towards the Spaniard. "Come in."

He did as told and walked inside the small office holding a folder in is arms. "I….I don't…know how to tell you this…" he began. The man, Gilbert, frowned in concern as the giddy Spaniard was rarely a bearer of bad news.

"What is it?" he said, much softer this time.

"Well…we got the report on the most resent victim...from today…" he paused then sighed "I think…you should look at it yourself…"

He handed Gilbert the folder, which he took slowly. He opened it and scanned through the report until his eyes landed on the image of a blonde German. His eyes widened as he dropped the folder and got up from his chair. He refused to believe it…yet the name was clearly there. He read it over and over again, eyes shining with tears. Ludwig Beilshcmidt….his younger brother.

Gilbert left the building early that night, unable to focus on anything else. He went home to his small apartment and fell out cold on the couch, not bothering to do anything else until morning.

Weeks passed and he became more and more determined to look for the one who killed all those people and his brother. He wouldn't stop. Day and night he tried without luck only managing to grow more frustrated and more determined to succeed. He had to.

oooooOOOOOooooo

Gilbert walked home after another useless day of nothing. No new clues. No new victims. No progress. It was getting him more frustrated as it went. He was losing sleep and getting irritated with his coworkers and it seemed that he wasn't the only one bothered by his bad mood. He sighed as he continued walking down the quiet street that was illuminated by a single lamp post and the dull moon.

"This is bullshit…" he murmured out of irritation and continued on his way.

He suddenly stopped and looked up ahead. There was a strange silhouette in the middle of the road and the closer he got to it, the more it looked like a person laying on the ground. He rushed to the stranger and kneeled down next to it.

"Hey, are you ok?" he asked but got no response. He turned the person on his back and noticed it was a man, no younger than him. He had soft curls that went to his chin with a stray lock that went over his face where he had broken glasses resting on his small bleeding nose. His skin was covered in dirt as well as his hoodie and jeans. He appeared to be knocked out but was still breathing.

"Hey…wake up" he tried again, shaking the blonde gently. He slowly opened his, now visible, violet eyes and looked at Gilbert. His eyes widened in fear and he tried to get away but his legs didn't seem to want to work.

"P-please don't hurt me!"

"Whoa, whoa hold on!" he said gently lifting his hands "I'm not going to hurt you…I'm trying to help you…"

The blonde stood still staring at Gilbert, shaking. "You're…not going to hurt me?" he asked.

"No" said gilbert moving closer slowly. "Now, can you tell me your name?"

The blonde frowned slightly "my name? I….I can't…I don't….I don't know, I can't remember!" he said panicking. "I can't remember, I can't remember anything!"

"sh-shh, calm down, its ok." He looked around and realized that they were still in the middle of the road. "Look you can't stay here…it's not safe. Let go back to my place, I'll take care of your wounds and we will solve this in the morning ok?"

He nodded slowly and tried to get up only to have his legs give up and go back down. "Here, let me help" he got up and lifted the small blonde of the ground and carried him home. He was a lot lighter than he expected, so he didn't have any problem. Once they got to his apartment he noticed that the smaller male had fallen asleep. He walked to his room and laid him down on his bed as he went into the restroom to look for his first aid kit.

"Hey…wake up" he said shaking him until he opened his eyes with difficulty. "I know you're tired but I have to fix you up."

He did as told and sat up slowly, his eyes closing every now and then as Gilbert pulled up a chair in front of him. He took off his glasses and looked at his nose. It didn't appear to be broken, thankfully, so it was easily taken care of. He had a few cuts on his now clean face so he took out a cotton ball and rubbing alcohol.

"Ok now stay still or it's gonna burn worse ok?" he said feeling like he was talking to a little kid.

"Ok" came his small reply. He dabbed the cotton ball against his forehead making him flinch and let out a small whine.

"Don't move."

"I'm sorry."

Gilbert sighed and tried again. The blonde flinched every now and then but tried to stay still. "Ok…that should make it better, not take off your hoodie."

"No."

"I need to see if you have any other injuries so take it off."

"I don't want to." He said frowning.

"Stop being such a baby!" he frowned back at him. "What if you have a bad injury?"

"I'm not hurt!" he said crossing his arms with a pout. Gilbert again felt like he was dealing with a little kid.

"Oh not hurt are you?" he grinned "Ok…then you wouldn't mind doing some movements for me?"

"Of course not!"

"Ok…first sit up straight will you?" he smirked. The small blonde straightened his back and sat up straight without signs of difficulty.

"Ok good…now turn your upper body to the right." he obeyed again without difficulty. "To the left?" Again he did. He flinched a little but other than that there was no difficulty.

"Very good" he said with the smirk still on his face "Now can you lift your arms up?"

He hesitated a second then slowly lifted his arms half way. "No, no…up all the way." again he hesitated then ever so slowly he lifted his arms up all the way and a pained yelp escaped his lips.

"And there it is…" he laughed. "It hurts doesn't it?" he didn't reply, he only kept his eyes on the floor and a pout on his face.

"Now, now don't give me that face…now off with it." He moved it take it off but stopped with a yelp. Gilbert sighed and helped him take it off without hurting him. He was awfully skinny and had a couple of tiny scars everywhere including his arms where they looked like permanent nail markings that either he or someone else caused. Gilbert got up and sat next to him on the edge of the bed.

"Turn so I can see your back." he did as told without complaining. There were a couple of bruises on his lower back and the skin on his right shoulder was severely scraped and bleeding. The wound went down his back on the right side. "I told you there would be a bad injury…now hold still." He hissed as the alcohol touched his broken skin but didn't complain. Once the wound was clean Gilbert wrapped it and gave him a clean shirt.

"Now the only thing left would be to check your legs, but since you made a big fuss over your hoodie, I doubt you're gonna want to take your pants off. So I guess I'm just gonna have to take your word for it." He said sitting back down on the chair. "So does anything hurt?"

The blonde tried moving his legs a bit. "No but I can't really feel them…"

"Ok, you're just gonna have to rest a bit- here, put these on" he grabbed some pants and tossed them at the smaller male as he got up and walked out of the room.

He walked to the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge. 'He doesn't remember anything…guess I'm gonna have to check at the office for any reports on a missing person' he thought as he sipped his beer on the way back to his room. He knocked on the closed door and waited.

"Hey kid…you ok in there?" he asked but was followed by silence "hello?" when no reply came again he slowly opened the door a bit. When he couldn't see anything he completely opened it to find the guy knocked out cold on his bed. He sighed and walked over to him.

"Guess I'm sleeping on the couch tonight…" he said to himself as he threw a cover on the blonde and walked out of the room closing the door behind him.

oooooOOOOOooooo

Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring.

"Uuughh…what now!?" growled the albino as he lifted himself from the couch and dragged himself to the phone. "What!"

"You were right mon ami he is very grumpy" said a voice on the other side of the phone.

"What do you want Francis?"

"Well you see Gilbert…Toni here and I have been talking and we think you should get a day to relax and get some rest."

"I can't do that I-"

"No listen, I don't know how you expect to get anything done if you don't have your head cleared and your energy restored so I don't want to hear any complaint and I definitely don't want to see your face here until you are fully rested understood?"

"…you're not gonna let me argue are you?"

"Non…now get a beer and watch some TV or get some sleep."

Gilbert sighed but nodded his head "Yea…ok…"

"Good, see you tomorrow mon ami!"

"Oh wait Francis can you do me a favor?" he asked in a hurry and Francis asked what it was "I need you to see if there is a report on a missing person…blonde, wavy hair, male with violet eyes and glasses."

"I'll see if I find anything." And with that, the call ended. Gilbert looked around the house to see if he would find something interesting to do. When he couldn't find anything he decided to check on his guest. He walked to his room and opened the door slowly finding that the blonde was already up. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, blindly staring out the window.

"Hey kid!" he said as he walked in the room, the other simply turned his head to look at him. "How long have you been up?"

"I don't know…" he said turning his head back to the window.

"Have you remembered anything?" he asked slowly for fear that he was going to start panicking again. He shook his head and continued looking out the window.

"Well I have nothing to do today so I guess I could help you try to remember…if you want." The blonde looked at the ground and after a small pause he nodded.

"Ok good, but let's go eat something first, can you walk?" he asked. The smaller male tried to get up but his legs gave up once again and he almost ended up face to face with the ground if it wasn't for Gilbert. "Ok that's definitely a no…"

"I'm sorry." He squeaked and hid his face in Gilbert's chest.

"No worries, now up you go!" he said lifting him up and caring him out the room and into kitchen where he sat him down at the table.

"Ok now first things first…I need to find you a name. I can't go calling you kid forever."

"I guess not…" he said as Gilbert went back to the fridge. "Do you have any pancakes?" he asked suddenly.

"Pancakes?"

"I really like pancakes…"

Gilbert looked at him with an incredulous look "so you remember that you like pancakes…but somehow you can't remember your name?"

"I guess it's because I'm hungry" he said as his stomach growled loudly. Gilbert laughed.

"I'll see if I have any." He said turning back to the fridge. "So anyways what if I call you Birdie?"

"Birdie?"

"Yea…you kind of remind me of a bird so why not!"

"Oh….I guess I don't mind…"he said and his stomach growled again "ummm so…..pancakes?"

Gilbert popped his head out of the fridge with a plate of pancakes and walked over to the microwave "Pancakes."

After they were done Gilbert sat down with the pancakes, two plates and a bottle of maple syrup. "Birdie" immediately snatched half of the pancakes and drowned them in maple syrup. Gilbert watched in amazement wondering how he was able to eat that before grabbing the rest and eating as well. After breakfast they moved to the couch where they spent the morning and afternoon trying to get "Birdie" to remember anything but without luck, making him angry with himself and getting to the point where he was trying to keep tears of frustration from rolling down his face. Gilbert decided to stop.

"Why can't I remember anything?" said "birdie" as he held his head in his hands "it shouldn't be that hard! "Gilbert was trying to calm him down but nothing he did seemed to work. Eventually he fell asleep on Gilbert's arms. It only six in the afternoon but he let him sleep for a while.

The phone started to ring breaking Gilbert from his thoughts. He carefully moved the blonde and got up.

"Awesome speaking…"

"Hello mon ami!"

"Did you find anything?" he interrupted knowing the reason he called.

"Umm no…I looked through every file from this week and I couldn't find anything" he said in an apologetic voice.

"Oh ok…thanks for letting me know…I'll see you tomorrow." He ended the call and walked up to the sleeping blonde.

"Hey…birdie wake up…" he said shaking him awake gently. "I have to change your bandages."

After getting him fresh bandages, he decided to go to bed early and, because he just couldn't deal with the thought, he let him sleep on the bed and he took the couch. When morning came around he got back to work. He couldn't bring "Birdie" with him in the condition he was in so he let him stay at home, giving him, of course, a way of contacting him in case of an emergency. They day went by and Gilbert still didn't make progress on the murder. He didn't make any progress the next day either or the next. Day after day and he felt stuck. He wanted that bastard dead.

Every day for the next three weeks went by the same way, he would wake up in the morning leaving "Birdie" a note and going off to work, getting no progress made and coming back to find "Birdie" asleep. He guessed "Birdie" hurt himself in his sleep since he would always have a different cut on his face or arms and small trails of blood. After dinner he always tried to try and make "Birdie" remember anything he could only to have him break down and fall asleep in his arms. As the days passed he found himself falling for the other male. He knew he should get attached to him…and yet he found himself not minding to share a bed with him when he didn't want to sleep alone. He found himself not wanting to continue the memory hunt because he didn't want to see him cry. And he found himself fearing that, like his brother, he may be taken away from him.

"Any luck?"

"Not yet…" said the Spaniard "we may be finally getting somewhere with the evidence from todays murder, but it's going to take a while."

Gilbert sighed and ran a pale hand through his hair. "That bastard…when we get him, I'm going to be the one to kill him."

"Gilbert what are you talking about?" asked the Spaniard.

"His punishment is bound to be death penalty…"

"Well yea but…"

"And my brother was a well-respected officer…I doubt they're gonna deny me this…I promise you that." he said more to himself than to Antonio who sighed and continued with his work.

Gilbert went home after that. He walked fast wanting to get home to his little birdie. He didn't like leaving him alone for so long, even though he knew that he had ways of contacting him if he needed. Even sill, he hurried home.

"Birdie…I'm home!" he called but no reply came. "Birdie?" he rushed to the kitchen and the living room but saw no signs of him. He started to panic.

"Birdie!"

"G-Gilbert?" came a pained reply from the bedroom. Gilbert rushed to the room and found the blonde on the ground surrounded by broken glass from the window. He was holding his bloody hand to his chest shaking, his cheeks were tear and blood stained and his hair was a mess. "Gilbert!"

Gilbert wrapped him in his arms and rubbed soothing circles on his back. "Y-you're ok, you're ok" he said mostly to himself.

"I-I don't know what happened…..I woke up a-and there was blood everywhere!" he screamed as tears rolled down his cheeks once more. He wrapped his arms around Gilbert and hid his face in his chest.

"Ssh-hh calm down…I'm here…" he said burring his face in his hair and holding him close. "…I'm here…"

oooooOOOOOooooo

"Gil….are you awake?" he whispered.

"…I am now…"

"I'm sorry…I didn't mean to wake you up…"

"What's wrong birdie?"

"I don't know…I'm scared…" he said. Gilbert turned on his side so he was looking at him directly.

"Scared of what?"

"I keep seeing terrible things in my dreams…it's always the same thing..." he paused for a moment, then continued. "It's always someone getting killed…it always a different person and…I can see it so clearly. A-and there's always blood on my hands when I look down and those screams… I-I can still hear the screams."

Gilbert held his arms out and "Birdie" scooted closer. "It's ok…it's not real…" he said running his fingers through his hair. "All those things are not real…they will be gone when morning comes…and I'll be here until then."

"Gilbert?"

"hmmm?"

"I love you…"

"I love you too."

And with that they both fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning was the same as always and he expected the rest of the day to be the same. Only, it wasn't.

"Gilbert! Gilbert we got it, we finally got with the murderer!" said Antonio excitedly as Gilbert walked through the doors.

"You what! Let me see!" he shouted and followed Antonio into his office. After all this time they finally knew who was responsible for everything.

"I was a bit surprised that someone like him was the one causing all this, but all the evidence points to him." He said. Gilbert was right behind him looking at the screen anxiously. When it finally popped up, he couldn't believe it or rather…he refused to believe it.

"No, no this isn't right…" he said in a hurry "he couldn't…he wouldn't!"

Antonio looked back at him in concern. "Someone you know?"

"Please tell me this is a joke!"

"It's not a joke… all the evidence points to him." He said trying to sound calm.

Gilbert stared at the screen wide eyed, refusing to believe it. And yet…everything made sense to him. The nail markings on his skin, the blood splatters and tiny cuts and bruises every week, the nightmares of the tortured men which now he knew where memories…it was all so clear.

Gilbert's eyes finally left the screen. He couldn't bear to look at the name that was clearly plastered on the screen… 'Mathew Williams' and right next to it was a picture of his "Birdie".

The next moment after that went by in a blur. All he remembered was the screams and pleads of the other male as he was taken away from him. He didn't dare look him in the eye during that so he didn't get to see properly what happened. Mathew was sentenced to death penalty just like Gilbert had said and just as he promised, he was the one who would give the final blow.

And that dreadful day came. Mathew was pushed towards his death with his hands tied behind his back and his eyes blindfolded. He was screaming and crying, begging Gilbert not to do it, but he already had the gun in his hand. He didn't shoot right away, instead he walked up to Mathew and kissed his forehead.

"I'm sorry birdie…" he said as he pointed the gun at his heart "I love you."

The only thing that could be heard was the sound of the gunshot…and the sound of a breaking heart.

HELOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MY LOVELY DUCKLINGS HOW'S THE WORLD TREATING YOU?...ok I'm sorry for any feels cause by this but I take no responsibility for broken hearts, wet eyes or inhuman noises if these symptoms last longer than 24h contact your doctor. ANYWAYS I apologize for making Prussia OOC but I didn't think it was gonna work out with him being loud and obnoxious so yea….I think it turned out right. Anyways that's all I have to say so DUCKLING OUT QUACK!