Welcome to Chapter Two! If you're reading this, it means you liked the last chapter. (Hopefully)
Francis Bonnefoy: France
Søren Køhler: Denmark
Nikolai Pettersen: Norway
Erikur Pettersen: Iceland
Antonio Fernández Carriedo: Spain
Lovino Vargas: Romano (South Italy)
Feliciano Vargas: Italy (North Italy)
Ivan Braginsky: Russia
Feliks Łukasiewicz: Poland
Giovanni Antonelli: Seborga
Lieu Nguyễn: Vietnam
Im Yong-Soo: South Korea
Jans Sankt: Germania
Yekaterina 'Katyusha' Braginskaya: Ukraine
This story won't be too long; it'll have three more chapters after this one.
A special thank-you goes out to I . Heart. Good. Fiction, my first reviewer. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter! This chapter is dedicated to you.
Hetalia doesn't belong to me. If it did, the series would focus on the Baltics and the Nordics, XD.
Chapter Two: Pretty in Pink
When Gilbert and Ludwig arrived at the Oxenstierna-Väinämöinen household, the older Beilschmidt brother's feet felt like lead. Telling Arthur Kirkland that his younger brother was brutally tortured and murdered really drained him; he really didn't want to repeat the story to the boy's guardians.
"Hey West," he said, turning to his brother. (The nickname came from an old joke about how he and Ludwig were as opposite as east and west.)
"Yes?" asked the blonde. "And don't call me 'West'!"
"Would you mind explaining to them what happened? I already did it yesterday."
"Sure." Ludwig patted him on the shoulder. Though the two brothers were total opposites, they cared about one another, and understood each other's strengths and weaknesses.
"Just be nice about it," cautioned Gilbert. "You don't want to be robotic."
His younger brother glared at him, and rang the doorbell.
Someone could be heard running to the door, and it quickly opened. "H'llo. May I h'lp ya?"
Standing in the doorway was one of the tallest men Gilbert had ever seen. He inwardly gulped; the man's face looked unfriendly, and his blue-green eyes seemed to stare through his soul.
"Um, yes," he finally said. "Are you Berwald Oxenstierna or Tino Väinämöinen?"
"'m Berw'ld," the tall man mumbled. "What d'you wan'?"
"I'm afraid we have some bad news," the albino replied. "May we come inside?"
"F'ne. D'you want me t' get the oth'rs?"
"Sure, sure." Gilbert waved his hand.
He was only expecting Tino, so when Berwald came back with four people instead of one, he cursed inside his mind. Shit! Only Berwald and Tino are meant to hear this!
Before he could send them away, Ludwig spoke. "Besides Berwald and Tino, are any of you close to Peter Kirkland?"
"Hell yeah we are!" exclaimed another tall man, this one looking much friendlier than Berwald. "We're Berwald's and Tino's friends, but Peter's like family to us!"
The younger Beilschmidt nodded. "Then you may stay. Just tell me all your names."
"Okay," answered the loud man. "I'm Søren Køhler. The blonde guy next to Berwald is Tino. This handsome guy next to me…" He pointed to a man with sandy blonde hair, blue-violet eyes, and an apathetic expression. "…is Nikolai Pettersen. Next to him is his younger brother Erikur."
After Søren introduced him, Erikur spoke. "You said there was bad news, and asked who knew Peter. What happened to him?"
Christ, thought Gilbert, he looks to be around the same age. He could be Peter's classmate!
"How old are you?" he asked.
"What? I'm sixteen, but what does that have to do with anything?" The silver-haired boy's pale blue eyes were filled with concern, though his tone of voice was neutral.
"All five of you better sit down," sighed Gilbert.
"You all know how Peter was going to spend a couple of nights at Raivis Galante's, right?" asked Ludwig.
"S'right," Berwald replied. "Raiv's is a good k'd; he's Pet'r's best fr'end."
"Well, he…he never made it. On the way someone…murdered him."
That's good, West, take it slow, thought the white-haired man.
After a long silence, Søren spoke. "WHAT?"
"He was tortured before finally being killed. Do any of you have any enemies?"
Throughout this entire conversation, Tino gripped Berwald's hand tightly, biting his lip. When Gilbert looked closer, he saw that tears were streaming down his face.
"Are you sure it was him?" Nikolai finally spoke. His voice was apathetic, but his eyes gave away his sadness.
"Arthur identified him earlier today," Gilbert explained. "We have…we have a picture if you want." He began to take the photo out of his bag.
"NO!" Tino yelled. "Not here. I don't want any pictures."
"But Tino, we need to make sure it's him," said Søren, rubbing one of his eyes.
"Shut up!" the shorter blonde stood up and grabbed the tall man by the front of his shirt. "Arthur already indentified him, you son of a bitch! He's dead. My son is dead!"
After the outburst, he sank to the floor, silently crying. Berwald gently lifted him to his feet and wrapped his arms around him.
"Was 't painl'ss?"
Gilbert pinched the bridge of his nose. "No. …He suffered from a subdural hematoma. Do you know what that is?"
The intimidating man closed his eyes, and the albino could have sworn that a tear slid down his cheek. "Y's," he said softly, "I know wh't it is."
"I know I already asked this, but do you have any enemies?" asked Ludwig. "They could have been trying to get to you by hurting Peter."
"There was one person," said Søren, his eyes burning with fury. "He stalked Tino for months, then tried to hurt him when he refused to talk to him."
"What's his name?" asked Gilbert, taking out his notebook and a pencil.
"Braginsky," the blue-eyed man replied. "Ivan Braginsky."
"But he couldn't have done it," added Nikolai. "He's been dead for awhile. He killed himself five years ago."
"Thanks for the name, though; it could be helpful later," said the German.
"One more thing," the white-haired man stated. "How long have you known Peter, Tino?" He was curious about why the blonde was so distraught, even though he had adopted the boy only a year before.
"I knew him since he was born," Tino answered after a long pause. "When my family moved to the U.K. from Finland, I met Arthur, and we became close friends. I was with Peter when he was a baby. Then, the Kirklands moved here when Arthur started high school and Peter was three. After high school, I moved here as well, and met up with them again during college."
"I get it." Gilbert realized that the Finn had practically known Peter all his life. That made this conversation even worse.
Vash was confused as to why Raivis fainted. "Is he okay?"
"Yes, he's fine," stated Toris, who looked sympathetically at the smaller boy. "That happens sometimes. Raivis is very jumpy—he always has been—and is prone to panic attacks. Hearing that Peter was murdered put too much stress on his mind."
The Swiss man narrowed his eyes. The explanation sounded reasonable enough, but he was still suspicious. When he had tried to comfort the boy by placing a hand on his head, he became terrified. He also begged him not to hurt him. The green-eyed man was pretty sure that Raivis Galante was abused by someone. He kept his suspicions to himself, however.
"We don't have any more questions anyways. We should probably get going," he finally said.
"Oh, okay," replied Toris. "Can I have both of your cards, in case one of us needs to contact you?"
"Sure." The blonde gave the boy one of his cards, while Kiku handed one to Eduard (who was still holding Raivis).
Suddenly, Vash noticed a fly buzzing around his head. When the sound got too annoying, he slapped it away. As soon as his hand moved past Toris' face, the younger man winced and clenched his fists.
"Well, thanks for the hospitality, Toris-san," said Kiku, nodding at the brunet.
Both investigators then left the house.
"Something's up with them." Vash wanted to voice his thoughts to someone, and he knew that the Japanese man would listen.
"I agree. I saw Toris' reaction to you swatting that fly away. It's like he expected to be hit."
"Same thing with Raivis," said the blonde. "I don't know about Eduard, but I'm pretty sure the other two were abused some time in their lives."
"I'll tell Yao to do some research on them."
"Thanks, Kiku." Vash wasn't sure why he cared so much about the three brothers, but he did. I wonder why they didn't say anything, though. We're the police; we could have helped them.
The next day…
"We only allow two people at a time in here, but I think we'll make an exception for you." Elizaveta brought the five men (well, the four men and one teenager) down to the morgue once she learned their names and realized whose body they wanted to see.
She noticed that Tino had his hand intertwined with Berwald's, and that Søren stood almost protectively behind Nikolai and Erikur. How cute! If it was a less-serious time, she'd want to pull out her camera and take pictures of the group.
When they were outside the room, she spoke once more. "Are you ready?"
Tino brushed aside a few tears and nodded.
"Our coroner, Roderich Edelstein, is also here, if you have any questions."
With that, the Hungarian opened the door.
It was heartbreaking for Elizaveta to see everyone's reactions to the body. Søren clenched and unclenched his fists, looking angry, Nikolai tilted his head (his emotions weren't really obvious), and Erikur closed his eyes, bringing a hand to his mouth.
"He would have gone to my school this year," the teenager said, his voice detached.
Berwald's and Tino's expressions were the worst, though.
Well of course they are; Peter was their son.
Berwald had his hand above the boy's forehead. He pushed a chunk of hair away from his face. "He alm'st looks l'ke he's asl'p. I h'pe he's somewh're nice."
He turned away, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes.
Tino just stood; his eyes fixed on the body, his mouth open in a silent scream.
"Why would anyone do this?" he finally said. "He was just a boy. How could someone enjoy hurting him?" After he spoke, he turned around and walked out of the morgue. Berwald and the rest of his friends followed.
Before Erikur left, however, he spoke. "Was Peter the first victim?"
Elizaveta was startled, "Yes. Why?"
"This just seems like the work of a serial killer. I learned all about them when I took psychology last year." The sliver-haired teen shrugged. "But what do I know; I'm no expert." He then left.
A serial killer? thought the brunette.
Erikur's words echoed in her head until she reached Wang Yao's computer lab. The Chinese man was listening to music. While dancing with the giant Hello Kitty (though he said it was called 'Shinatty-chan') pillow he kept in the lab.
"Hey Yao!" Elizaveta yelled. When he didn't respond, she removed the earbuds from his ears and slapped him on the back of his head. "You're lucky I don't have my frying pan with me, Panda Boy!"
"Aru~!" he yelped. The Hungarian was famous for threatening to hit people (mostly Gilbert and Francis Bonnefoy, the fingerprint specialist) with a frying pan. She really had one in her office, but she never hit anyone with it. Yet. He put down the pillow and turned off his mp3 player. "Ahem. What do you need, aru?"
The brunette rolled her eyes at the computer specialist's verbal tic. "I need you to see if there were any murders this year that were similar to Peter Kirkland's."
"Will do, aru."
"Thanks, Yao you're so sweet!" Elizaveta adjusted her hairclip. "On a more serious note, do you think Alfred's okay? He's not allowed to investigate, since it's personal for him, and he's assigned to another case, but have you seen him outside the crime lab?"
"No, I haven't but my cousin Lieu Nguyễn has, aru."
"Wait, didn't they hate each other?"
"They did back in college, aru. Now, they're on good terms. She called me the other day, after you sent Alfred home. Apparently, he went to her house and completely broke down, aru."
"Oh," replied the brunette. "Wait? When you say 'good terms', how good are they?"
"Very good, if you catch my drift, aru. They've been dating for six months."
"How the hell didn't I notice?" the Hungarian whined. "Too bad, I thought he and that Arthur guy he always talks about would have been a great couple. Or maybe him and Kiku, since he seems to like Asians…" She cleared her throat when Yao looked at her weirdly. "Anyways, I've got to go bother Antonio about the DNA that was found on Peter's duffle bag. See ya later, Panda Boy."
When she made it to the DNA lab, she heard Antonio singing a song about 'bueno tomatoes'. Of course.
When she entered the lab, the Spanish man smiled and said, "Hola, chica. ¿Cómo estás hoy?"
"Hola, Antonio. I'm good. And do you know what would make my day even better?"
The brunet smiled, his green eyes twinkling. "A date with me?"
Elizaveta promptly slapped the back of his head. "Nice try; I'm married. And who do you think you are? Francis?"
"Well, he did teach me some pickup lines…Anyways, you're here to see if I know who the hair on the duffel bag belonged to, right."
"¡Sí, excelente, Sr. Fernández Carriedo!" The Hungarian clapped, laughing. "Do you have it?"
"Sí, chica. The hair we found matched the DNA of a woman named Yekaterina Braginskaya. She's a nurse, and apparently the hospital she works at makes their employees give some of their DNA to a police database."
"All right. Call Sankt and tell him to bring her in," stated the brunette.
Antonio saluted her. "Will do, Lizzie!"
"Don't call me 'Lizzie' you tomato-loving idiot!" she yelled as she exited the lab.
As she was walking to Captain Jans Sankt's office, she ran into Yao.
"Oh, good! I was looking for you, aru. You were right; there was another murder similar to Peter's. It happened last year in the city next to ours, and the killer was never found. The victim's name was Giovanni Antonelli. He was a fourteen-year-old too." The Chinese man showed her a photo of the boy's corpse on his laptop. "As you can see, the injuries are almost identical. Though no DNA was found anywhere on the body, the cuts were sloppier, aru. And take a look at this."
He zoomed in on the boy's chest, near his neck. "See that, aru?"
"Yeah," answered Elizaveta. "It looks like a word was carved near his neck. What the hell does 'Nil' mean?"
"Here's the interesting part. 'Nil' means 'zero' in Latin, aru," Yao replied.
"So this was victim zero," the brunette realized.
"Exactly, aru."
"Thanks, Yao; you're a star. Now we know we're dealing with a possible serial killer."
"Here's another interesting fact, aru. Giovanni was the younger cousin of the Vargas twins."
The Hungarian's eyes narrowed. Antonio was good friends with Lovino Vargas, the older—and more foul-mouthed—twin, while Ludwig friends with Feliciano, the younger—and more cheerful—twin. "No wonder Toni and Ludwig were depressed last year."
After a brief pause, she continued talking. "Well, I've got to be going. I'm just going to wait in Sankt's office until he brings a suspect in for questioning. See you later!"
With that, she power walked to the Legolas-lookalike's office.
Vash and Ludwig were returning from a routine patrol when the younger Beilschmidt brother's walkie-talkie squawked to life.
"Beilschmidt, we've got a four-nineteen on River Street. I repeat, four-nineteen on River Street!"
"This is Beilschmidt; I understand. I'll be there as soon as I can."
With that, Vash turned on the sirens, and they sped over to the new crime scene, which, like Peter's, was in an alley.
When the two walked underneath the crime scene tape and saw the body, Vash paused. "It's a girl?" he muttered. "Verdammt!" He walked closer to look at the victim. She was dressed in a tight, beige long-sleeved shirt (at least it used to be beige; now it was covered in blood), a pink miniskirt, and pink boots. When the Swiss man looked over the body again, he realized that this girl was missing something all girls had. "She's male," he breathed. "He must be a crossdresser."
Whatever the victim's orientation was, he was still a person. And the blonde felt sickened by what he saw. The boy—he was sure that he was around nineteen—had the same cuts on his face as Peter Kirkland. When he lifted up the shirt a bit, he saw that he had them on his stomach too. The only difference between the two murders was that this boy's eyes were stabbed out, and that his mouth wasn't covered. Blood coated his once-shiny golden-blonde hair, and the Swiss man would bet that he had the same head injury as Peter.
Suddenly, Ke$ha's 'Tik Tok' (Vash knew the song because Yao liked to dance to it in his lab) blared from the victim's phone, which was on the ground next to him. After putting on a latex glove, he answered it.
"Oh, Feliks, thank God you picked up! I was so worried about you!"
Vash nearly dropped the phone. He knew that voice. "Toris?"
"Huh? Officer Zwingli? Why are you on Feliks' phone? Don't tell me he tried to spray paint a squad car pink again!"
"Um, Toris, has Feliks been missing for long?"
"Yeah," the teen answered. "I haven't seen him for two days. Why? Did something happen to him?"
"He's dead, Toris."
"What?" The brunet let out a strangled gasp. "No, he can't be dead. He just can't be!"
"Would you like me to come over to talk after my shift?" What the hell am I saying? I shouldn't care this much about someone; I hate people. Except Ludwig, Elizaveta, and Lili, of course.
"That'll be great." The relief was obvious in the boy's voice.
"Would Eduard and Raivis like to talk too? I have a feeling there's more to this than you told me last time." There I go again! What the hell?
"Y-you're right, Officer Zwingli. I've dealt with this on my own for too long."
"Toris, does this have anything to do with Peter's murder?" Vash questioned.
"No. But it has everything to do with Raivis, Eduard, and I. I…I just need someone to talk to." The boy sounded like he was on the verge of tears.
That settled it for the blonde. "I'll be at your house as soon as my shift is over. See you then."
"Bye."
I can just imagine Lili's face when she discovers I'm becoming…social. The Swiss man sighed.
While Vash was talking with someone on the victim's phone, Ludwig heard a rustling noise near the alley. Suddenly, a man dressed in a white hoodie and jeans ran past him.
It could be a suspect! Making sure his badge was in place, he grabbed his gun and ran after him.
"Stop! Police!" he yelled.
The man came to a complete halt, and turned around. "Thank God!" he exclaimed. "I was being chased by someone, but I think he left when he saw you."
"Did you know you just ran through a crime scene Mr…"
"My name's Im Yong-Soo," answered the man, who looked Korean to Ludwig.
"So, Yong-Soo," the German questioned, "who was chasing you, and why."
"Well, it's a funny story," the Korean man blushed. "I accidentally sat on this guy at a bus station. I had no idea he was even there; he was invisible or something. Anyways, this Cuban guy who was with him got pissed and chased me because I was rude to his friend. I'm just glad he's gone now."
Ludwig tried not to laugh at the man's ridiculous story. "Well, since you did run through a crime scene, you're considered a suspect, and will need to come down to the station for questioning."
"Whatever." Yong-Soo shrugged. "As long as I don't see that crazy Cuban or his invisible friend again."
Once he asked Captain Sankt for permission to leave, he and Vash (as well as Yong-Soo) got into the squad car.
"You do know that police cars were invented in Korea, right."
Ludwig really wanted to facepalm. This guy's the Asian version of Feliciano.
"Hey Ludwig," asked Vash. "Would you mind dropping me off at Raivis' house?"
"Now?" the German wondered. "Why?"
"Toris wanted to talk to me about something, and I want him to answer a few questions about Feliks, the second victim. They were good friends."
"Okay."
When Vash knocked on the door, he knew something was wrong. It swung open, and a bookcase was on the floor. "Toris?" he called. "Eduard? Raivis?"
When he got no answer, he walked inside, drawing his gun (just in case), and inspecting the living room. When he was sure that no one was there, he headed into the kitchen.
He heard sniffling noises coming from behind the island. When he walked to the other side, he nearly dropped his gun. Toris was curled up against the wall, blood dripping from injuries on his face and arms.
"What the hell happened?"
"He listened in on our conversation. He didn't like what I said, so he came here to punish me."
"Toris? What are you talking about? Who did this to you?" Vash felt his heart rate speed up; he was uncharacteristically worried. He sat on the ground next to the injured boy. "Are Raivis and Eduard okay?"
"Yes, they're fine they're in the basement. About the attacker...h-he was wearing a mask, but I knew who he was. His eyes. Those damn eyes…" The brunet's breathing sped up, and he gripped Vash's shoulders, babbling in a language that was neither German nor English. The Swiss man didn't know what it was.
"You know who did this?" The blonde didn't care that there was blood on his newly-cleaned uniform at the moment.
"Taip." Vash assumed this meant 'yes' by the tone. Tears began to slide down the boy's face. "Ivan Braginsky. He's back."
And that's the end of Chapter Two!
I hope the interactions between the investigators was amusing and realistic. (I wanted to make Elizaveta seem more in-character, so I brought in her frying pan and yaoi-fangirlism.)
Yao was so much fun to write. I know he's a bit OOC, but he's loveable.
Germania totally looks like Legolas, XD.
Just in case you were wondering: 'brunet' is the male version of 'brunette'. It's a real word.
I loved writing about Antonio! (Finally! I can put my four years of Spanish classes to good use!)
Argh! Gilbert is so hard to write! (He'll say 'awesome' later, don't worry.)
The scene with the Nordic Five in the morgue made me cry. Hopefully you do too, XD. (It's supposed to be a sad scene.)
Speaking of the Nordic Five, Sweden-speech is really hard to write. I wanted to make him sound like he's grumbling, but make it so it's still easy to read and intelligible. Hopefully, I succeeded.
…Well, now you know that Giovanni (Seborga) was Victim Zero. Peter was the first victim, Feliks was the second, so who's going to be the third? I know, but I'm not spoiling it.
Ooh, Ukraine is a suspect! Bet you didn't see that coming, XD.
Lol, Im Yong-Soo. I wanted to add some comic relief to the chapter. (Hopefully it's not too horrible.) …And Canada and Cuba made a cameo. If you didn't guess, they were the ones chasing Yong-Soo.
Yes, there were hints of AmericaxVietnam in this chapter, XD. I always thought that the pairing was interesting, and it fit with this story.
Gahh! I hate making Russia evil, but he just fits the role too well in AUs. And someone has to be the villain.
Translations:
Hola, chica. ¿Cómo estás hoy?: Hello, girl. How are you today? (Spanish)
Sí,excelente, Sr. FernándezCarriedo!: Yes, excellent, Mr. Fernández Carriedo! (Spanish)
Verdammt: Damn (German)
Taip: Yes (Lithuanian)
I hope you enjoyed the chapter!