Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
Part Five: Y Tu Mira
A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews! Hopefully this chapter will be just as good!
Gilbert was getting awfully tired. He had lost the people who had been chasing him a while back, and now he was simply exhausted. He didn't know how long it had been, but it felt like forever! Gilbert sighed quietly, went into an abandoned alley, and crouched inside some cardboard boxes. His memory was splotchy at best, but he was supposed to be a little kid, not some big lumbering adult!
He curled up into a little ball, whimpering. He just wanted to go home, but they had just kept chasing him until he had gotten all lost. He didn't know where to go from here, or where he was supposed to meet this Erzébet person.
He was quiet, occasionally sniffling softly, feeling very out of place in the strange world around him. HE had grown up in the countryside, until he moved to the city when he was 5. But, now he was simply four years old again.
He cried as it started to rain, not that anyone was going to see him like this. Someone was walking by, and he heard footsteps by the place he was hiding, and he quieted very fast. "Hello, is someone there?" A soft voice was heard, kind. Gilbert didn't move, and whoever it was got down on their hands and knees, and Gilbert was staring into the soft violet eyes of a kind looking man.
"Leave me alone." He said harshly in German. He couldn't understand the man. The man's eyes widened as he recognized him. He mumbled some more in English, and reached out to pull him out. When Gilbert pulled away from him, the man simply forced his way in and grabbed the boy in a man's body.
"You're Gilbert Beilschmidt." He heard his name, and nodded quietly, still nervous. He didn't understand what he was saying, but as the man heaved him up onto his feet, he leaned into him tiredly. "Did they really leave you like this?" He mumbled, and held the man up. "Well, I can't be that cruel." He started walking, Gilbert stumbling after him, and eventually the man simply pulled the now partially registered Super onto his back, carrying him to his home.
He would be safe for now, he hoped. Gilbert fell asleep on his back.
Erzébet grumbled as she carried a different sleeping boy. She had been running with Ivan since that morning, and Ludwig was actually pretty heavy. She was very grateful when she was finally able to stop. Gilbert was out there, alone, maybe even getting his memory of her erased at this very moment.
This was terrible. She felt beyond guilty. She set Ludwig down on the nearest couch, and plopped down beside him. It was a relatively small apartment, with some rooms in the back. There was a woman with a very heavy set of breasts who was speaking in rapid Russian with Ivan, glancing over to Erzébet and Ludwig. Erzébet smiled tiredly.
The woman went into the kitchen to get something, and Ivan turned to Erzébet with a smile. "My sister says that it is alright if you stay here. I hope you'll be comfortable here." He left to go after his sister, and she lay down on the couch, absolutely exhausted. She closed her eyes, and was about to fall asleep, when the young woman came back in with cups of tea.
"Hello, you can call me Iryna." She introduced herself, and smiled brightly. "I heard you are helping my brother go after the man who is in charge of registering Supers. That is very admirable of you."
Erzébet took the cup of tea from her eagerly, sitting up and deciding to talk to her. Roderich had been very controlling, ensuring that she couldn't talk to women he didn't approve of- for reasons she now knew to be downright controlling. Erzébet sighed, and took a sip of her tea. Even though it burned her mouth, it felt good. It reminded her that she was alive and free, and she was with people who cared about her, even if was just for a little bit.
Ivan trotted in with a group of two men and one teen. They looked her over curiously. "This is Eduard, Toris, and Raivis." Ivan introduced them. "They are my friends. They are Supers, and they will help us find where Gilbert has gone or find where they have placed him if they have managed to catch him." Ivan smiled; squeezing the teen's shoulder and making him quake. So she wasn't the only one creeped out by the behemoth. That was good to know. Iryna smiled at her, and pat her shoulder.
"I know he's a little odd in the head, but he really has his heart in the right place." She whispered into her ear, and Erzébet nodded.
"I figured something was up. He's a little creepy." She whispered back, and the two women giggled as Ivan flashed them a look.
"Pay attention, Erzébet. The last public Super is either on the run, or already gone. We must find him as soon as possible." She nodded, and Ivan smiled again. "Good. We will start hacking the police station's computers. Then we will block their communication, so that we may invade, and get inside if we find out that he's been taken. If we're too late, than we will work on getting him out before they can set him up with a new identity." Erzébet nodded again, her stomach sinking at the idea. What if Gilbert was already gone? He would have been disappeared from hers and Ludwig's life, forever.
She didn't know what to do, didn't know what she would do when that happened.
The worst thing was, it already had happened.
And she just didn't know it yet.
"Gilbert, wake up." It was a man's voice, though he didn't understand what he was saying, he understood the man was calling for him. The man smiled as he woke up, and watched him warily.
"So you're the White Knight. It's a pity you never trusted me enough to tell me." Matthew spoke, mostly to himself. "I'm," He pointed to himself, "Matthew."
"Matthew." He repeated, understanding the gesture of introducing oneself. He wouldn't understand much beyond that. He was a native German speaker.
"Let's try something. I'm going to try and speak German for you. You gave me a few lessons, back in high school, and I can use the internet for help."
It was a disastrous effort. Gilbert was laughing at him by the end of the first sentence. "Too bad your attitude hasn't changed." Matthew grumbled. Eventually, he managed to get the message across to Gilbert that he was here to help him, and asked him if he was hungry. Gilbert nodded eagerly, smiling.
"You're a bottomless pit." He mumbled as Gilbert stuffed himself. "How long were you been running, probably since they caught you, and that was yesterday morning…So you haven't eaten since then." He patted Gilbert's head, shaking his own. "It's a downright shame. You were always good fun."
Matthew sat down with him, and watched him as he inhaled the food. "Thank you." He quipped, and Matthew smiled.
"I understood that." He mumbled, remembering Gilbert telling him it meant thank you.
Gilbert smiled back at him, chattering in German, while Matthew cleaned up the plates. "I don't know what I'm going to do with a German speaking kid in a man's body, but I won't leave you out to die, that's for sure. And what happened to Ludwig?
A shiver went through his body. "Poor kid. His big bro is dead. Well, maybe I could adopt you both. He could probably teach you English again, I bet." Matthew's expression darkened. "After all, you helped me after my brother died. I have to return the favor."
Gilbert leaned into him tiredly. He was tired after having eaten, and still sleepy from having run almost 20 miles on foot. "I've got you now, Gil. And I will get Ludwig tonight, I promise. For now, rest."
Erzébet was well rested, and Ludwig was asking her questions.
"Where's Gilbert?" He asked, most frequently.
"I don't know." Was her more frequent reply, and that was in fact the best she could give him.
Eduard was on his computer, busy hacking into the police's network, while the other two played cards. They had to wait and see where the police were, first and foremost.
What if they just killed Gilbert? He was 'notorious' enough to warrant that, in Roderich's eyes, after all.
"Why were you so mean to Gilbert, if you want to help him now?" Ludwig asked, sitting beside her, as she was the only person in the room who he knew.
"I didn't like him." She mumbled. "I hated his guts. But that was before I learned that Roderich had essentially made me hate him. For his own selfish reasons."
"Someone made you hate him?" Ludwig was skeptical.
"I'm a registered Super." She explained. "Someone erased my memory. I used to like your brother an awful lot." Erzebet sighed. That explained the dream. Her foggy memory was trying to tell her that Gilbert was the man she was looking for. But she had been too thick headed to picture Gilbert, loud, obnoxious, uncontrollable, could ever be the White Knight. That was what the White Knight-Gilbert- had meant when he said, "You don't really know me at all."
The apparition that had been by her side since the first day she could remember was gone.
She was alone in a room full of people. Alone with all of her mistakes.
A/N: If you liked it, please review! It always puts a smile on my face!