Bella POV
I fell into a routine quite easily. Wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, walk to school with everyone, do well in school, get Emil (with Lovi or not), do his hair (which was looking quite nicely, but not finished yet. We just had a bit more near the bottom), homework, dinner, then bed. Two weeks of that quickly got boring. I was used to living in the moment. Emil and I had lived that way for about six months before we stumbled upon Antonio's Home for Runaways. I needed some sort of change up, or I was going to go mad.
Lovino ditched us once again. He still wouldn't tell us where he was going or what he was doing. He just said his was doing his part to help out, whatever the hell that meant. I wasn't going to pry, at least, not now. Usually, Emil would tell me about his day and I would tell him about mine, but today I needed something different.
"Hey, Em?"
He looked up at me. "Yeah?"
"Can we try out a different route today?"
"Yeah, I guess so. Why?"
I shrugged. "I guess I need a change of pace."
"I'm game," he pulled out mirrored sunglasses and a black beanie out of his backpack and put them on. "How do I look?"
I laughed. "You look like hipster." It was true. He already had on some band shirt (that he stole from his brother), tight jeans (that were Feli's but somehow ended up in Emil's room), and a black leather jacket (that Mattie got from his dad, who apparently had a punk phase.)
"That's what I was aiming for. Now, I saw a broom somewhere out here... Ah, there it is." He walked over to it and unscrewed the handle. "There," he said. "I present to you: blind hipster."
I nodded in approval. "Not bad, kid. Not bad at all. But, why do you still have that stuff in your bag?"
He shrugged. "Instant disguise. Speaking of which, you gonna have one?" Emil was always so paranoid that someone was going to recognize him.
"Just a simple one. Take me to the back of the school, and I'll give myself a black eye," I said, pulling out my makeup. Few minutes later, a blind hipster and a girl with a black eye walked into the city.
It was nice in the city, until it started to rain. Before it got heavier, we quickly ran to the nearest bus stop and got undercover there. I was lucky it didn't mess up my eye. There was a spiky-haired blond waiting with us. At first, I thought it was Able, but the guy with us seemed to be around my age. And he was more talkative than my stoic older brother.
"Hej," said the guy.
"Hi," I replied.
"I'm Mathias Køhler. You?"
"I'm Bella Carriedo and this is Nikolaus Steilsson," I said, motioning to Emil, who nodded.
"Nice to meet you," Mathias said.
"A pleasure," Emil muttered.
"So, where you guys heading?" Mathias asked.
"Oh, we're not going anywhere. We're just under here for protection from the rain. Besides, we don't have the money anymore," I explained.
"Hard times, huh?" I could tell he was having a hard time believing us, especially having with a blind hipster with me.
I forced a laugh. "You could say that."
"What do you mean?"
"Excuse me, but I believe that's none of your business," Emil snapped.
"Nikolaus!"
Mathias weakly chuckled. "The kid's got a point. It's none of my business, but I figured we might as well exchange life stories since this rain isn't gonna let up anytime soon."
I looked at Emil. He looked straight ahead, pretending he couldn't see me. I took a deep breath and recited the sob story I knew by heart. It had gotten us far in the past and I was hoping it'd make us a little now. "Well, you see," I began. "My stepmother died a year ago and my father fell into a depression. He began drinking. He became, um, difficult to deal with him. He started insulting and hitting me. And one night," I took a (fake) shaky breath, "he was completely intoxicated, and I'm guessing horny, because he started flirting with me and," I stopped and screwed my eyes up tight. "Anyway, I decided I couldn't live with him anymore. While he was out, I packed up and left. I went over to my friend Erik's. He and his brother Nikolaus," I gestured to Emil, " hid me. It worked well for a good four months. Then, my father found me, and he was mad. Erik tried to hold him off and," I sucked in a breath and let a tear from my "good" eye.
"Erik is dead," Emil interrupted in a flat voice. "That bastard stabbed him through the heart."
Seeing the shocked look on Mathias's face, I picked the story back up. "Then, he found me. He cursed at me and punched me across the face, giving me this black eye. Nikolaus hit him with a bat. That only made him angrier. He took a glass bottle that hit Nik across the eyes."
"I'm blind now," Emil interjected. "We got away but that bastard's still out there. We're on the run."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Mathias said. I could tell he was being sincere.
"What about you? What's your life story?" I asked him.
"Me? Oh, I'm not that interesting."
"C'mon tell us! It can't be worse than our story."
"Fine, fine!" He threw his arms up playfully. "I'll tell you. I come from a patchwork family. My mom's remarried three times and each time I've gotten a new sibling out of it. My dad died when I was six and my mom remarried some swedish guy named Sven Oxenstierna and he brought my step brother, Berwald. Then about two years ago, Sven went MIA so my mom remarried Sigurd Bondevik."
I felt Emil tense next to me. I didn't blame him. I knew that was his old surname. I hope Mathias didn't notice anything. I don't think he did because carried on with his story. "He had two sons when he came to live with us, Lukas and Emil. And Berwald's friend Tino stays over so often, he practically lives with us." He paused in thought. He glanced at Emil. "You know, you kinda remind me of Emil, except his hair is blond, not silver."
It was in that moment that I thanked my lucky stars that Emil wanted to dye his hair. Emil turned towards Mathias's voice. "Really?" he asked, in the aloofness that defines him. Mathias nodded but didn't say anything else about it. "Anyways, I'm in my junior year in high school. And that's about it, really." As, soon as he finished talking the rain started to let up and eventually stop.
"Well, would you look at." Mathias mused.
I looked at Emil. "We better be off. We still have to dig around for dinner." I turned back toward Mathias. "It was nice talking to you."
"Wait," he dug around in his wallet. He pulled out two twenties. "Here."
I took them. I looked up at him, smiling. "Really? Oh, I can't thank you enough!"
He shuffled his feet. "It's no problem. Um, can you two possibly do something for me?"
I tilted my head. "And what would that be?"
"Emil went missing a while ago. If you ever meet him, can you tell him that there are people at home who miss him?"
I swore my heart almost broke on the spot. Emil bit his lip. I could tell he was trying not to cry. "Of course we can," I assured Mathias.
His face lit up. "Really? Thanks a lot! I guess I'll see you around then!"
I smiled. "See you." And then Emil and I were alone. Emil sat down on the bench, removed his sunglasses, and buried his face in his hands. I sat down next to him and rubbed his back in soothing circles. "Em, you okay?"
He looked up at me, tears forming in his eyes. "No."
"People at home miss you. I'm guessing they feel bad about you leaving."
He wiped at his eyes. "They might want me back, but I-I don't want to go back."
"You don't have to go back. We might never run into your family again."
"There's always a chance we might!" he argued.
I couldn't argue with that. There was always the chance that we would run into our past at one point or another. The only thing we can do is hope to do is keep hidden. I stood up and held out my hand. "Let's go home. Our home."
He gave me a small smile and took my hand. "Alright."
I looked at the forty dollars Mathias had given me. "I have an idea."
"Oh, this can't be good."
I playfully swatted him. "My ideas are great and you know it."
"Sure," Emil rolled his eyes sarcastically.
I could only grin.
When we got home, Matthew was waiting for us outside. "So, where were you two? Lovino actually got home before you."
I smiled. "We went through the city."
"I can tell. You got a little something on your eye."
"It's makeup."
He smirked. "Oh, I know. So, how was the city?"
"Good, we made some money."
"Oh, how much?"
"Forty bucks. We picked something up for you."
Matthew raised an eyebrow. I tossed him a pack of cigarettes, which he caught. "Thanks," he said, "but why—?"
Emil rolled his eyes. "We know you're running low and we don't need you twitching like a crackhead."
"Thanks, um, blind hipster?"
"Spot on," Emil muttered.
"Anything happen on your, uh, little excursion?" Matthew asked.
Emil was silent. "We, uh, kinda ran into his stepbrother," I said. "But we weren't caught!"
"That's good," Matthew said, as he lit a cigarette.
"Yeah, um, so I got homework," Emil rushed into the house. He really didn't like the smell of smoke. Antonio was less than happy about Matthew smoking, but said it was alright if he did it outside and could pay for them himself. For some strange reason, the smell of smoke never seemed to linger around Matthew.
I laughed. "I got homework too, Mattie. Nice talking to you," I said, as walked towards the house.
"You too. I got a quick question."
"Shoot."
He grinned. "What story did you use?"
"The one about my abusing father."
"That one seems to be your money maker."
"That it does."
"Well, I'll leave you to your homework, then."
"Okay, enjoy your smoke, Mattie." I walked inside and went straight to my room. I looked at the money in my hand. I never felt remorse when I conned anyone, I couldn't be. But seeing Mathias so concerned about his little brother, about Emil, I almost gave the money back. I collapsed onto my bed. Maybe one day, Emil could go back to his family. But, I knew I could never go back to mine.
And it is done. This gave me some serious writer's block halfway through. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy it. The Nordic family is so complicated. I considered making Tino their cousin, but I didn't so things wouldn't be awkward in future chapters. I'm sorry if this chapter seemed awkward in anyway.
New characters!
Mathias: Denmark
Berwald: Sweden
Tino: Finland
Ages will be added as soon as they become relevant.
Upcoming chapters will include: Feli's POV, the mafia, Toris, lawyers, and much more!
Thank you to everyone who faved, followed, or reviewed! Remember, I don't own Hetalia.
