Disclaimer: I OWN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! NOT LORD OF THE RINGS NOR HETALIA! I ONLY OWN DE PLOT GOTS IT? YOU TAKE THE PLOT I COME HUNT YOU DOWN AND HANG YOU BY YOUR THUMBS! XD
"No," I whispered, eyes going wide.
"Lilli, what is it?" Vash asked me.
"Do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"The laughter," and as if on cue he laughed again, louder and more maniacal.
"You mean, The Laugher, my sweet number twenty-four." His voice sounded all around us, and we couldn't figure out where he was. "Lilli, is that?" Vash asked, not saying the name, there was no reason to say the name. I nodded, I was too afraid to speak.
"I heard about your surgery, I wanted to come find you and claim you as my toy." He laughed again, the sound echoing around us.
"RUN!" I finally find my voice and grabbed Vash's hand. We ran through the parking lot towards the car. Little did we know that that was exactly where The Laugher was hiding.
"Well hello there, number twenty-four, you cut your hair. I don't like it, you look less innocent than the last time I saw you. But then again it fits, considering that I took away that very innocence."
"Keep away from her you monster," Vash growled, pushing me behind him.
"Who might this be, hmmm? A boy friend, no he doesn't look at you like that, maybe a- yes. A surrogate brother. How sweet, but I'm afraid I will have to ask you to take your hands off of my property." He said stepping closer to Vash and me. That step was one step to far, Vash gently shoved me to the side, and took his gun out. He aimed but just as he squeezed the trigger The Laugher hit Vash's hand just barely to the side far enough that the bullet just barely missed his head. He reached out with his other hand and yanked me towards him. I reached towards the gun on my leg and grabbed it. I shot him in the shoulder, causing him to let go of me and clutch his own shoulder. I didn't hesitate in pushing him away from me, hard enough to make him stumble and almost fall.
"You little schlampe," he growled, he said backhanding me. I didn't give him the satisfaction of making any noise; I just got up and went to the passenger side of the car. Vash climbed in right after me and started the car.
"Drive." I ordered, before he could speak. He did as I said and drove to our hotel. This just happened to be the hotel that the rest of the world was staying at as well and we were lucky to not run into any other countries. We didn't talk the whole drive or the short trip up to our room but as soon as we were in our room Vash's stoic appearance melted away and he became the worried older brother I knew he was inside.
"Are you alright?" He asked me, running both his hands up and down my body, gently checking for injury.
"Bruder, my body's fine, it's my face that I'm worried about."
"Huh?"
"He backhanded me, remember?" His eyes immediately flew up to my face and widened fractionally. Anyone else wouldn't have been able to tell but I had known him long enough to identify the slight widening.
"Mein Gott," he whispered. I went into the bathroom, looked in the mirror, and gasped. The right side of my face was already starting to bruise. The top of my cheek along with the bottom and corner of my eye was already turning blue and the corner of my mouth along with a small area of my jaw line was a purple color. I could tell they were both going to be black tomorrow and I prayed that no one would question me about them at the World Meeting.
"Lilli, how hard id he hit you?" Vash asked with an unidentifiable tone in his voice.
"Ummm really hard, as I'm sure you can see. These will be black tomorrow," I said hesitantly, not wanting to set off. I knew Vash hated seeing me injured and this was certainly no exception. He ran a hand through his hair before speaking.
"What are we going to tell everyone tomorrow? It's not like you can't just not show up on your birthday. Someone would most likely come here and demand to know what happened not to mention I don't want you alone with the chance of The Laugher getting you." He blushed a little at the end and looked away.
"We will tell them that I was attacked last night when you went to go get the car. Everything will be all right, Bruder."
"Since when did you learn to think on your feet like that?"
"Well lest see, how long have I been hiding that dream from you?"
"Fair point, fair point."
"So what do we do now?" I asked, hoping for a simple answer.
"Mmmm how about supper, TV, and bed?"
"Sounds good to me," I said. So that's exactly what we did. We had a quiet time for the rest of the night and after a Lord of the Rings marathon we went to bed. Just before I fell asleep I heard Vash's voice.
"Gute nacht, Lilli."
"Gute nacht, Bruder."
(AU: you don't have to read this it's just her nightmare.)
'Run, run, RUN!' I kept telling myself, listening to the laughter that seemed to echo all around me. "NO!" I screamed, hitting the brick wall that blocked my path. "Looks like you've nowhere left to go," the man chasing me said. I turned around and tried to say something but all that came out was, "Mmmph." I felt the drugs he had slipped into my drink start to take effect as I slid down the wall, a single tear slid down my cheek as I blacked out.
I found myself lying naked on a strange bed in a strange room. I had bruises and cuts running up and down the length of my body and I knew what had happened. Then I saw it, a note. In elegant script it read, 'You are the 24th victim of the Laugher. Have a nice day.' That was all it said, all it needed to say for me to know that I had been raped.
"NO!" I said, instead of my usual whimper. Then I realized I was sitting up and there were hands on my shoulders lightly shaking me. I opened my eyes and saw Vash sitting in front of me.
"Lilli, Lilli, are you all right?"
"Yeah, fine. It was just a nightmare, Bruder, go back to sleep."
"Was it the nightmare you told me about?" He asked completely ignoring what I had said.
"Yes, but it's not a big deal."
"Of course it was, you were kicking and hitting and whimpering in your dream."
"Oh. Yeah, that sometimes happens."
"You were crying too," He said hesitantly.
"Yeah that also happens. But I'm fine now. You don't need to worry, now go back to sleep." I wiped my face and looked at the clock. 3:42, damn.
"I-I'm going to go do something," I said moving to get up.
"Lilli, you should go back to sleep," Vash said.
"Nein, Bruder. I can't go back to sleep, not yet."
"A-all right." He said.
"You go back to sleep, I won't wake you up, ok."
"Ok, I'll see you in a few hours."
"Gute nacht, Bruder." I said watching him lie back down in his bed.
I went into the bathroom and started cleaning. I cleaned everything, from the floor to the shower and everything in between. Then I came to the mirror. I didn't want to see my face, didn't want to see the bruise. But I had to look sometime and this was that time.
"Mein Gott, I whispered. I pressed my fingers to the black area and hissed at the pain. The parts of my face that had been purple and blue the day before were completely black and the area of cheek in-between them was blue. I crept out of the bathroom and looked at the clock, 5:30 I had an extra half hour so I decided to take a shower. I turned the water to a scalding hot temperature, and tried to scrub away all the bad memories of my past. Eventually giving up I dried off and went to the kitchen to make us breakfast. I made pancakes using the recipe that Matthew had given us.
"Mmmm," I heard Vash waking up.
"Breakfast is almost ready," I called in direction of the beds. I heard the bathroom door close and the toilet flush. When he came back out he had a confused look on his face.
"Lilli did you clean the whole bathroom?" He asked.
"Yup," I said sitting down at my place. He joined me soon after and looked at his breakfast.
"When did you get back to sleep," he asked still looking at his breakfast.
"I didn't, I usually don't after that nightmare, well not until that afternoon when I usually fall asleep." I said.
"What's your plan for today ~" He asked breaking off when he saw my face. Pretending I didn't hear the break off I answered him. "Drink lots of caffeine and crash when we get back here."
"Why don't you nap during the breaks?"He suggested. I hadn't considered that, but it seemed like a very good idea. Vash looked at my face again and couldn't help a, "Mein Gott."
"That's what I said when I saw it."
"Does it- does it hurt?"
"Well of course it hurts, but I've had worse," I said with a shrug.
"Are you sure you want to go to the meeting?"
"Yes." I said with determination. I wasn't going to let The Laugher win, I couldn't. "Come on, we have to get ready," I said when we had both finished eating.
"I'll shower while you change," Vash said heading towards the bathroom, grabbing his suitcase along the way. I went over to my suitcase and chose one of the black dresses. I had been planning to wear it today anyway so the circumstances seemed ironic. The dress itself was floor length with a v-cut that went down to about an inch past my collar bone. The skirt was full and floor length with a crimson pattern all around it. It laced up the back with a crimson ribbon and I added a crimson ribbon around my neck as a choker. Today was my birthday and I wanted to look special.
"Lilli, I forgot to tell you, happy birthday." Vash said coming around the corner.
"Thank you, Bruder."
"When did you get that?"
"On my independence day, Elizaveta gave it to me."
"Oh," he said simply. "Let's get going."
The ride to Denmark's house was short. Vash wanted to let me out at the house but I told him The Laugher wouldn't come after me in broad daylight. Nevertheless he still parked closer. Vash knocked on the door and we heard a come in from somewhere inside the house. We did as instructed and went straight to the meeting room. I sat down next to Vash and laid my head on my arms.
"Lilli, Lilli, the meeting is about to start." I heard Vash's voice I my ear, and the rumbling voice of Ludwig.
"Everybody sit in your seats! Presentations are to be eight minutes long and only of importance and for God's sake Liechtenstein get your head up off the table this isn't nap time…" His voice died out when I lifted my head. I felt stares from all around the table and for the first time I have every witnessed there was Dead. Silence.
AN: HAI! *waves like an idiot* I told you I would update today and guess what I did! Again I'm sorry for lack of Nordics (I love them but not as much as Vash or Matthew) and I made sure to include them in one part, Denmark yelled from somewhere mysterious in his house XD. LOL I got 2 hours of sleep over the weekend and totally ignored my teachers in class today so I'm pretty sure Senora hates me. Meh like I really care. I am so sorry this chapter turned out so bad but it was hell to write on the plus side the next chappie is coming along smoothly! So I'm pretty busy this week what with all the auditions for the play so I might not update till the weekend. I hope to update before then but no promises. I love all of you my lovely readers and anyone who reviews get a hug from Vash
Vash: must I
Me: you must or I will light you on fire now tell the lovely peoples to review *holds flame thrower at his head*
Vash: Please review, bitte.
Translations:
Bitte: please
Mein Gott: My God
Gute Nacht: Good Night
Schlampe: Bitch
Oh yeah those were all German. BAI!