Chapter 3 Innocence
Gil unlocked the door and quietly stepped inside. He saw Ludwig sitting at the kitchen table, a cup of coffee sitting next to him. Gilbird slept on the table next to the cup of coffee. When he turned his head and saw Gilbert, he immediately jumped up, ran over, and hugged him.
"Gilbert!" Gil stumbled back a bit, shocked from Ludwig's sudden hug. Gilbird woke up and peeped. He fluttered over to his owner and nestled himself in Gilbo's messy silver hair.
"Hey Luddy. Didn't think you would miss me that much," Gil smirked hugging his little brother back.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Luddy asked sternly, releasing Gil.
"Uhh..."
"It is one-fucking-thirty in the morning!"
"Don't you dare use those words in front of me, Ludwig!" Gil said angrily.
"Where the hell have you been! You've been gone for 8 and 1/2 hours!"
"Work," Gil muttered.
"Work! WORK!" Ludwig sputtered. "HOW COULD YOU BE AT WORK!"
Gilbert slammed his keys on the kitchen table.
"DON'T YOU DARE RAISE YOUR VOICE AT ME!" Gilbert couldn't believe Ludwig right now. Ludwig took a deep breath and then froze. He stared at Gil with disbelief.
"Gilbert," he eyed the albino suspiciously "Why do you smell like vodka?"
'Shit,' Gil thought 'Luddy doesn't know I work in Feliks's bar.'
"Uhh..."
"Were you out drinking?" Ludwig asked in horror.
"Nein nein! I wasn't!" Gil held up his hands in denial.
"Then why do you smell like vodka?" Ludwig folded his arms and stared at Gil coldly.
"Because... Because... I work with Ivan. He always smells like vodka," Gil lied.
"Gil you don't have to lie to me. I hate it when you lie to me. Please tell me what's wrong," the blonde pleaded.
"Nothing's wrong," Gil turned his head away from his brother.
"Something is wrong Gilbert. You weren't at the social service building the whole time."
"How do you know?" Gil raised an eyebrow.
"I called Toris and asked him where you were around midnight and he said you weren't there."
"Shit."
"What's going on, Gilbert? You say everything's alright but it's not! Please! Tell me!"
"Fine! You wanna know everything that's been going on! Well sit down! I'll tell you why I've been coming home late and why I smell like vodka!" Ludwig quickly sat down in a chair and Gilbert did the same. Gilbert sighed and rubbed his temples.
"Alright. First off, don't interrupt me. Second, don't do anything stupid to help." Ludwig nodded obediently an Gilbert continued.
"Right now, bills are really high and hard to pay. So I work three jobs to pay for everything. I work at the social service building for Ivan, I work at a weapons shop for Vash, and I work at the bar for Feliks. I smell like vodka because I was working at the bar until midnight tonight. Then I went to the post office to finish paying bills so I could mail them out. I didn't get done with that until 1:20 and it took me ten minutes to drive home.
"I'm always acting like there's nothing wrong because I don't want you to worry about me or any of this shit. I haven't slept for two days straight. The last time I slept, I slept for three hours. That's why my eyes are bloodshot. Now you know," Gilbert finished.
"How do you do all that yet still have enough time for college classes and taking care of me?" Ludwig asked in shock.
"Because your my little brüder, and there's always time for you. Und about college..."
"You didn't drop out, did you?"
"...ja," Gil whispered bowing his head in shame.
"Gilbert. You're taking on too much. You can't do everything." Ludwig hugged his older brother.
"But I have to," Gil hugged his brother back and sobbed into his shoulder.
"It'll be okay, Gil," Luddy calmed "You really wanted to graduate, didn't you?"
"Ja! I wanted to be a doctor so bad!" Gil cried.
"I know. You will be because you're going back to college."
"B-but I can't! I can't pay for it!" Gilbert wailed.
"We'll figure something out," the blonde assured.
"We'll?"
"Ja, Gilbo. We're going to figure something out. Things can only get better, right?" Ludwig held his crying brother to his chest.
'I've never seen Gil this upset before,' he thought 'He's way to stressed out from this whole situation.'
"I'm sorry, Luddy," Gil said finally.
"It's okay, Gil. I understand. How about we get some sleep. You could use it."
"Ja. Okay. And we can throw a party or something on the weekend! It will be awesome!" Gil said regaining his playful personality.
"Ja okay. We'll see if we can throw a party," Ludwig agreed.
"Yay! It's gonna be awesome." Gilbert seemed excited, but his voice was so tired, it seemed like he didn't want a party.
"Ja. So guten Nacht, Brüder[1]," Ludwig said as he headed off towards his room. Gil just slammed his head on the table.
"Gilbert!" Ludwig saw the albino's head drop like a brick to the table and instantly worried. But there was no need for worry because Gilbo was snoring away. Ludwig carefully scooped up his sleeping brother and carried him off to his own room. He didn't want to walk down the stairs with an unconscious Gilbert in his arms. So Ludwig laid Gilbert down in the younger German's bed. Ludwig quickly changed into comfortable pajama pants and a black tank top, and laid down next to Gil. Ludwig saw the iron cross around the albino's neck. Ludwig touched his own neck, feeling the cool metal chain of his own iron cross. He remembered when Gilbo got the necklaces for them. Gil's had the name "Gilbo" engraved on the back, while Ludwig's had "Luddy". He touched the silver and black cross and closed his eyes.
' "Hey Luddy! Guess what I got?" A sixteen year old Gil asked holding his arms behind his back.
"What? What is it?" A nine year old Ludwig asked curiously.
"Look!" Gil took his hands out from behind his back. In each hand was a silver and black cross on a silver chain.
"Wow!" Ludwig said in awe. It wasn't often he got presents, especially not one as nice as this.
"These are iron cross necklaces," Gilbo explained "There's one for me and one for you." Gil handed Ludwig the necklace in his right hand. Ludwig took the necklace from his older brother and slid it over his head. Gilbert giggled and ruffled the blonde's hair, effectively messing it up.
"Now we'll be matching! We both got the iron crosses and messy hair," Gil smirked.
"Thanks, Gilbo!" Ludwig said examining his cross.
"I was going to get them for Christmas but they weren't ready," Gil confessed sheepishly. Ludwig hugged his brother.
"It's okay. They're really awesome," Ludwig said purposely using Gil's favourite word.
"Kesesese~ of course they are!" After that, Gil kept getting more and more wrapped up in other things. He hasn't been Gil since then. '
Ludwig was awoken by a sharp loud knocking on the door. He slowly got out of bed, so as not to wake Gilbert, who still slept soundly. Ludwig walked groggily to the door, rubbing his eyes. He opened the door and saw a three men and two women standing there. They were dressed very professionally, with business suits and dresses. The men all wore matching black suits. The tallest man was also the thinnest and had black hair and dark aviator sunglasses on. The next man also wore sunglasses and had curly light brown hair. The shortest man was slightly chubby and had fair blonde hair and cold blue eyes. The first woman had heavy eye makeup and dark red lipstick. She wore a gray business dress and had tall black stiletto heels. She had tightly curled dark brown hair and sparkling hazel eyes. The other lady had straightened red hair and dull green eyes. She wore a gray suit and had gray flats on. She was shorter than the other woman, but Luddy wasn't sure if it was because she was wearing flats or not.
"Can I help you?" Ludwig asked politely. Well as polite as possible. It's hard to be polite when you were just woken up at 8 in the morning on a Saturday.
"Ludwig Beilschmidt?" the short man asked sternly.
"Ja," Ludwig answered nervously.
"Come with us, son," the curly haired man said grabbing Luddy's wrist. Ludwig quickly broke the hold with a technique Gilbert had taught him when he was little.
'Gilbert.'
"Hey! I think that brat broke my wrist!" the man yelled in pain.
"Please," the taller woman said "You need to come with us. Your brother, Gilbert, knows why."
"GILBERT! HOLEN SICH SIE HIER![1]" Ludwig yelled in German to avoid the business people from knowing Gil was going to come. Sure enough, Gilbert came running in the room with a worried expression on his face.
"Luddy! Are you alright? What's going on? And who the hell are you people?" Gil asked.
"We work for a program called the FSFHSS," the man with the hurt wrist said.
"What is that? A government thing? We don't want to buy anything so get out!" Gil said angrily.
"FSFHSS stands for Financial Support For High School Students," woman with the flats elaborated.
"And what do you want?" Gil asked narrowing his red eyes.
"Well you see, Mr. Beilschmidt, currently you have a poor financial situation your in, correct?" the tall man with black hair said.
"Ja," Gil said clenching his teeth.
"Well we are here to put your brother, Ludwig, in a new family with a better financial situation so he can finish high school and go to college without you worrying about his tuition or the food he eats or where he sleeps," the man continued.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" Gilbert screamed.
"Gilbert!" Ludwig screamed as well at his brother's sudden shrieks.
"NO FUCKING WAY YOU'RE TAKING LUDWIG AWAY!"
"Please calm down. It's for the best," the lady in the dress said.
"IT'S NOT FOR THE BEST!"
"Please! I don't want to leave! I'd rather stay here with Gilbert!" Ludwig told the people of the FSFHSS.
"We know you don't want to leave your brother, but you have more of a future with a different family." Gilbert couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"No," Gil hissed dangerously.
"No?"
"No Luddy's not going with you."
"Look, it's not open for discussion. The government says Ludwig Beilschmidt is to be relocated A.S.A.P." Then the men grabbed both of Ludwig's wrists and started to pull him.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!" Ludwig struggled and kicked, trying desperately to break free.
"LUDDY! PLEASE DON'T TAKE HIM FROM ME!" Gilbert cried latching onto his brother.
"GILBERT HELP!" Ludwig tried to hang onto the albino but a few others separated the two.
"WAIT!" Gil ran towards Ludwig but the door was slammed in his face. Gilbert tried to turn the knob, but someone was holding it from the other side.
"PLEASE! LUDWIG! LUDWIG!" Gil pounded on the door, screaming at the top of his lungs. Gil heard the doorknob click, indicating the person had let go. Gil flung the door open and looked down the empty street. Gil walked back inside and closed the door. He leaned against the door and slid to the floor. Sobs racked his body. Gil's thin frame shook with fear. He whipped out his cell phone and looked through his contacts. He had to talk to someone.
'Mattie!' Gil was about to dial the Canadian's number, when he remembered he was in Canada with his girlfriend, Anica[2]. So Gil decided to call Amelia. One ring.
'Pick up.' Two rings.
'Please.' Three rings.
'Amelia.'
"Hero speaking," Amelia's voice sounded from the phone.
"Amelia?"
"Gil Gil! What's up?" From the sound of it, she was eating a burger.
"Can you come over, please?"
"Uhh why?"
"Amelia please," Gil's voice was beginning to sound shaky and hoarse.
"Gil, are you crying?"
"Ja. They took Luddy," Gil whispered.
"I'll be over in five minutes," Amelia said and the line went dead. Gil put his phone down and tried to calm himself down. Gil started coughing violently. He jumped up and ran to the bathroom. He threw open the toilet seat and leaned over, throwing up his empty stomach into it. Stomach acids burned Gilbert's throat as he threw up even more. Then Gil heard the doorbell. Then some knocking.
"Gilbert? GILBERT! IT'S AMELIA!" Gil really couldn't leave the bathroom to open the door. He hoped Amelia would just let herself in. Gilbert heard the door slam open and then shut.
"Gil? Where are you?" Gilbert tried to call out for the American but he felt more bile rise up in his throat. He began throwing up even more in the toilet. Amelia burst into the bathroom and saw her boyfriend leaned over the toilet, puking his stomach up.
"GILBERT!" Amelia cried as she ran over and sat down next to Gil, who was still sick. Amelia rubbed gentle circles on Gil's back, trying to calm him down.
"Sh, Gilbo. It's alright," she calmed. After a few minutes, Gilbert finally stopped throwing up. He leaned back from the toilet and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Amelia leaned over and flushed the vomit down the toilet for Gil.
"Better now?" she asked.
"Sort of," Gilbert answered.
"What happened, Gil?"
"Business people. They took. They took Luddy away. Financial issues." Gil couldn't seem to finish sentences. He started hyperventilating and fresh tears spilt from his eyes.
"Gilbert, love, you need to calm down. Your making yourself sick," Amelia hugged the German. Then, she kissed Gil's forehead.
"You're burning up, Gil Gil," she observed. "I'm going to go find a thermometer. Be right back!" Amelia went off to find a thermometer to take Gilbo's temperature. She returned a minute later with the thermometer Gil kept on top of the fridge. Amelia shoved it in Gil's mouth, causing Gil to sputter a bit.
"Wait a minute," she ordered. After half a minute, the thermometer beeped and
Amelia took the device from the German's mouth.
"Dear God!" she yelled reading it. "Gil! Your temperature is 112 degrees!"
"112?" Gil choked.
"Put your shoes on," Amelia said running out of the room.
"Why?" Gilbert stood up and wobbled a bit.
"I'm taking you to the hospital," Amelia said putting her coat on.
"Why?" Gilbert tried to follow her but she was rushing around so fast, it was hard to keep up.
"WHY! BECAUSE YOU'RE TOTALLY SICK!" She yelled throwing his shoes at him. Gilbert caught both his converse his girlfriend threw at him and put them on. They were just about to leave when Amelia ran back into the house.
'Need something incase Gilbo has to puke his guts up,' she thought. She walked back out with a round plastic container. She handed it to Gil, who was in the passenger seat of Amelia's bright red Ford F150. Then she got in and put the keys in the ignition.
"What's this for?" Gil asked with a confused look.
"You're not about to puke all over my pickup truck!" Amelia said as if it was totally obvious. The two sped off towards the hospital to have the sick Gil taken care of. The entire ride Amelia blabbed away about Kiku's new game or Alfred's scary movies but Gilbert wasn't really listening. When they finally arrived at the hospital, Amelia got out of the car and walked around to help Gilbert.
'Verdammt[3] I can barely walk,' Gil thought as Amelia held onto his arm. Gil walked slowly towards the building with Amelia for support. When they finally reached the building, Amelia made Gil sit down in a chair and she ran off to check him in or something.
"Something wrong, Gil Gil?" a Spanish voice said from behind the albino. Gil spun around to see Antonio, one of his closest friends.
"Antonio! What are you doing here?" Gil asked with surprise. He certainly did not expect the cheery Spaniard to be at the hospital waiting room.
"Oh Lovina had to come here," Antonio said shoving his hands in his pockets. "She got food poisoning from a bad tomato. Poor Lovi~"
"Oh that sucks," Gil said. Antonio nodded and then stared at Gilbert with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Gil asked.
"You look horrific. Like you got hit by a bus or something," Antonio observed.
"Do I seriously look that bad?" Gilbert panicked. If he looked sick, he wouldn't be able to work. He has never taken more than two days off at a time. Ever. Only once because Luddy was sick with the flu.
"Sí. But you'll get better. So you still working five jobs?" Antonio was always able to change the subject so smoothly.
"Nein, I work three," Gil answered.
"Three! I work one and that's still not enough for Lovi. But whatever. As long as she's happy I'm happy," the green-eyed man smiled, thinking of his girlfriend.
"Antonio, you're always happy," Gilbo pointed out.
"True true but Lovi makes me even more happy!"
"If that's possible."
"So how's Ludwig?" Gilbert felt his heart drop. He felt terribly depressed about Ludwig being taken away and extremely angry at the bastards who took him.
"Hey bastard!" Lovina called from behind. Both man spun around to see a short thin Italian girl standing by the door with her arms folded.
"Take me home, dammit!" she demanded.
"Coming Lovi~" Antonio called to her. Then he turned back to his friend.
"I'll see ya later Gilbo. Hopefully we can go out for a drink again with Francis, sí?"
"ANTONIO!" Lovi was getting irritated at the Spaniard's need to talk.
"Ja. You better go take Lovi home before she explodes," Gil joked.
"Sí, I best do that. I wouldn't want my Lovi to explode," Antonio turned to walk over to his girlfriend, but almost walked into her when he realized she was suddenly behind him.
"Dammit you think you can keep me waiting, tomato bastard!" the curl that sort of floated on the side of her head quivered with anger.
"Aw Lovi, I'm sorry," Antonio grabbed the Italian around her waist and pulled her closer to him. Lovina's face instantly turned bright red with embarrassment.
"H-hey! Let, let go of me, dammit!" she struggled a bit to free herself from Antonio.
"Let's go home, okay?" Antonio said, nuzzling his face in Lovi's hair.
"Sí," Lovi answered, and the two of them walked out.
"Hey Gil Gil," Amelia walked up and put her arm around the German. "Feeling better?"
"A little," Gil said. That wasn't exactly true though. He still felt like shit, but he really didn't want to tell Amelia that.
"You sure?" her bright blue eyes shone with concern.
"Not really. But I'll be okay," Gilbo assured.
"Well I, like, signed you up or checked you in or whatever."
"Thanks, 'Melia," Gil said. Then he turned his head and started to cough again into his sleeve. Amelia patted his back and Gil coughed more violently. When Gil pulled his head away from his elbow, there was a dark red stain of blood in his shirt.
"I could take that out," Amelia pointed to the stain that Gil was staring at.
"Toris..."
Gil shuffled through random papers on his desk at the social service building. He had only started working there a few weeks ago. It wasn't a great job, but it was the best he could get at 19. He just met a few guys who worked there as well. The youngest was Ravis, a shaky Latvian boy. He had messy dirty-blonde hair and wide nervous blue eyes. He looked really really young. Younger than Ludwig. But Gil didn't ask questions. The tallest one was Eduard, who was originally from Estonia. He had neat blonde hair that had been combed nicely. He had dull blue eyes behind his square framed glasses. The last one, who also worked there the longest, was Toris. He was a simply Lithuanian man, with shoulder length brown hair and deep blue eyes. His eyes were always full of pain and sorrow. Even when he seemed happy. Gil shoved some papers messily in a file cabinet.
"Morning Gilbert!" a cheery Russian voice said from behind. Ivan was Gilbert's silver haired, violet eyed, creepy-as-hell boss. Gil turned around and saw Ivan standing there with a shiny silver water pipe. He was wiping it with a damp crimson cloth.
"You will work hard today, да?" Ivan smiled as creepily as possible.
"Ja sure," Gil answered, eyeing the pipe suspiciously.
"Good," Ivan spun around and walked out, his snow white scarf flowing behind him. Gil turned back to his work when he heard footsteps stumbling down the hall. There was Toris. The backs of his knees and the crook of both his elbows were bloodied with dark crimson blood. The same shade of the cloth Ivan was wiping his pipe with.
"TORIS!" Gil ran over to the weakened man. The sticky warm liquid spurted from the Lithuanian's veins, spattering Gil's face. Gilbert ripped scraps from his shirt and tried to stop the bleeding.
"Th-thank you," Toris breathed heavily.
"Don't worry about it," Gil replied.
"Get Eduard... or Ravis. They know... where the first aid kit is," Toris stuttered. Gil nodded and ran off to find one of them. He ran blindly down the empty halls. He turned a corner and ran into someone hard. Both bodies fell down at the impacts. A few papers were scattered around. Gil looked over and Eduard sat on the ground.
"Gil, you should be more careful," Eduard said calmly.
"Eduard! Toris told me to find you! He's hurt bad and I don't know where the med kit is!" Gil was shaking slightly. He really hoped the brunette would be okay.
"Ivan. I saw him with the pipe earlier!" Eduard jumped up, ignoring his papers, and ran past Gilbert down the hall. Gil turned and followed him down the hall. They stopped in an unused office and Eduard pulled out a key. He opened a desk drawer with it and took out a first aid kit. He didn't bother locking it again, and ran for the doors.
"Where did you leave him?" Eduard panted as they ran.
"By my office," Gil answered as they burst through a set of doors. In half a minute, they reached Toris. He was sprawled out on the ground, dark red blood leaking out of his arms and legs.
"Ivan sure knows the weakest parts of the body," the Estonian observed as he opened the med kit. He took out a few butterfly bandages and regular thread and a sewing needle.
"You're going to... stitch him up?" Gil asked in horror.
"Yes. It's the only option," Eduard said measuring out a piece of black thread.
"Do you want me to do anything?" Gil asked watching scarlet red blood stain the Lithuanian's pale skin.
"Yes, go get some water from the water fountain. Just fill up a bottle so it doesn't look suspicious," Eduard ordered, poking the needle through Toris's left arm.
'He's not going to be able to bend his arms or legs for a while,' Gil thought as he grabbed a bottle from his desk. He half walked half ran to a water fountain and filled up the bottle. Then he ran back to his two co-workers. When Gilbert got back, he could have thrown up. Toris's inner left elbow was stitched up with the homemade stitches, though blood still seeped through the holes in the stitching. His right arm was halfway stitched up when Gil arrived.
"I-I got the water," Gil announced, holding up the water bottle.
"Alright, pour it over Toris's stitches in his left arm," Eduard commanded, continuing his work. This continued for another half hour. Eduard would stitch and Gilbo would pour water. When the work was finished, Toris reminded Gil of a corpse that had been thrown messily together. When Eduard had flipped Toris over to sew up the back of his knees, he noticed that Toris's stomach had bruises and bumps all over it from being beaten with the pipe. Luckily, Toris recovered in about a week, but Gilbert never forgot what he saw.
"Gilbert!" Gilbert snapped out of the memory and realized he was sitting in the emergency room waiting area with Amelia Jones.
"Huh?"
"I asked if you were alright. You coughed a bit of blood into your elbow and you looked really freaked out at it," Amelia explained.
"Oh. Ja I'm fine now," Gil lied. Amelia was about to say something, but a short lady with shoulder length black hair and pale green eyes called Gilbert into the actual emergency room.
"Please follow me to the x-ray room," the lady said monotonously. Gil and Amelia followed, Amelia squeezing Gilbert's hand the entire time.
"Alright. So we're just going to take some x-rays and run some tests with your lungs."
"Okay," Gil agreed. His stomach was all squirmy. He just wanted to know what was wrong with himself.
The lady took out a clipboard and started writing things down.
"Do you smoke?"
"Nein."
"Did you ever smoke?"
"Nein."
"Have you been losing sleep?"
"Ja."
"Have you been stressed out?"
"Ja."
"Alright. Please lay down on that table there for some x-rays," the doctor said.
"Oh and put on that vest over there," she added pointing to the heavy vest on a hook. Gilbert took it to the table and laid it over himself, as if it was a short blanket. Amelia kissed Gil on the cheek and left the room. After a few seconds, two flashes occurred, indicating two x-rays have been taken.
"We're going to look at these and see what's going on, so we'll call you back in when we have what we need," the dark haired woman told the couple as Gil hung the vest back on the hook.
"Okay, thanks," Amelia said as she led Gil back to the waiting room. When they got there, Gil dropped into one of the seats.
"Tired?" Amelia asked. Gilbo nodded and Amelia leaned her head into his chest.
"Mmm I hope everything goes okay," she wished.
"Ja me too," Gil agreed, running his fingers through Amelia's blonde hair. After a few minutes Gilbert fell asleep with Amelia practically sitting on top of him. Amelia just laid there. She couldn't sleep though. She was too stressed out about her boyfriend's test results. After a few hours another doctor arrived.
"Gilbert Beilschmidt? We have your results."
[1] guten Nacht Brüder - German "Good night, brother"
[2] Anica - This is Romania's name. It's actually a long story of how Mattie's girlfriend is Romania
[3] Verdammt - German "Damn"