Chapter 11

Children Of The Night - Razihel - Part Three

"Mattie!" Gilbert whispered loudly.

Matthew turned. It was hard to see behind the dark building they stood beside, but he could vaguely make out the rest of the group leaning their bikes (Or tossing - Lovino apparently isn't fond of bicycles) on the side of said building and waiting. "Hm?"

"Come on, we're close! We just have to walk a little farther!" Gilbert grinned.

Matthew nodded and followed, parking his bike right beside the wall and joined the group.

Lovino peeked around the corner, and then, without the slightest look at them, waved them over. Matthew felt the smallest inkling that what they were doing was dangerous, but he jogged along down a darkened, empty alley.

Okay, you're definitely queasy about this thing. Lovino is the one you're letting lead, for God's sake.

Lovino turned and leaned against the building to their right, a tall brick structure, his gaze downward and wary. "I hope you're in the mood to climb old, rusted ladders," Lovino muttered, glancing at Matthew, "Because, first of all, you guys can't just hop to the top of the place, and second, I don't have the keys anymore, so we can't go up the stairs."

Everyone else nodded. Matthew nodded also, but with a touch of panic. Lovino's eyes gleaned with determination, and he looked upwards. Exhaling loudly, he turned away and walked down the alleyway, checking around the corners again. Satisfied, he strode towards the ladder attached to the side of the brick building, and started climbing. When Lovino reached the top, he looked around and signaled them to follow.

Antonio was the first to come up, and Francis climbed up soon after. Matthew hung back for a moment, hesitant.

He felt Gilbert squeeze his hand gently, and suddenly a warm sensation swept through him. "Birdie," Gilbert whispered. Matthew turned to face him. "Don't like heights?"

Matthew shook his head and shuddered. "Ugh, no."

"You'll be fine. Trust me, I've done this tons of times before!"

Matthew smiled bashfully and squeezed Gilbert's hand back. "Okay."

"Oi, lovebirds!" Matthew gasped as droplets of cold water fell onto his nose. "Get the hell up here!"

They both looked up. Lovino was on his hands and knees, looking down at them and scowling from the roof. "Why-" Gilbert was cut off.

"Come on!" Lovino ordered sternly. Then, he disappeared over the edge.

Gilbert shook his head."Don't go tellin' me what to do..." He grumbled. He sighed, then tugged Matthew's hand. "Come on."

Matthew nodded.

Matthew heaved himself over the edge of the roof. He panted as he lay on his stomach, and rolled onto his back.

"Don't like heights?" Lovino asked from where he was leaning on the wall of the stairwell.

Matthew shook his head. "Not at all."

"Me neither."

Matthew huffed loudly. He pulled himself into a sitting position and wrapped his arms around his knees. "So, what exactly do you guys do up here?" He asked quietly.

Gilbert, who was sitting with his legs over the edge, shrugged. "Meh... we usually just come up here to be up here."

"There is a very nice view from here, though." Francis added.

Gilbert nodded. "It's better when all of the lights from the buildings are out." He wiggled his way over to Matthew and jabbed his arm. "Hm?"

"Look up."

Matthew craned his neck back. The crescent moon hung low in the sky, and pinpoints of light dotted the pitch black sky. "Someday," Gilbert said quietly, "we could go to the river and see. I bet you'll be able to see every single thing."

Matthew smiled and looked at Gilbert, who was still staring upwards. "Actually?"

Gilbert turned his head. "Yeah."

Matthew looked back down into the alleyway and sighed. He un-wrapped his arms from his legs and scooted away from the edge, then turned around to face the other way.

Antonio had gotten up and was pestering Lovino about something. Lovino didn't seem very compliant, but...

"Fine! Fine!" Lovino muttered. "Gather around for the damn show."

Matthew tilted his head. "Just watch!" Matthew jumped. Gilbert had turned around and was laying on his stomach with his head in one hand. Lovino muttered something under his breath and turned to face the wall he'd been leaning on. He took a few steps back, then ran and leaped at the wall. He kicked off and grappled with the edge, and somehow, pulled himself up on top of the stairwell. Lovino pushed himself up, and stood. "There, I did it. Happy now?"

Antonio clapped. Lovino just rolled his eyes and leaped back down. "Could you teach me to do that?" Francis asked.

Lovino shot him a spiteful look. "Why would I ever do that?"

"Well, maybe I could climb up Jeanne's apartment building and it'd be like a modern Rapunzel. Without the long hair."

Gilbert spoke up. "She does have really short hair."

Lovino furrowed his eyebrows. "She does... hey! I'm not teaching you anything, so don't think I'm agreeing to this, dammit!"

Matthew tried to remember.

Jeanne... oh! It's that woman Francis has been seeing!

...

Out of all of us, he'd seem the gayest, yet here he is.

Breaking all of the stereotypes, isn't he?

Good job.

Matthew was dragged out of his thoughts when he heard yelling in the alleyway below. Gilbert was tugging at his sleeve. "Mattie! Mattie, come on! Lovino can get us into the building and we can figure something out there!"

Matthew nodded quickly. He rose to his feet and scrambled to the stairwell. Lovino was holding the door open and cursing under his breath in Italian. Everyone shuffled inside and Lovino came soon after, and then they were plunged into darkness.

Someone turned their phone on and shone it at their face. "That. Was. Awesome." Gilbert's eyes were wide open and he was grinning.

Francis raised an eyebrow. Antonio just breathed heavily and nodded.

"You guys are so, so... ugh." Lovino's voice echoed down the stairwell. Lovino's eyes went wide open but then he shook his head. "It wasn't anyone I was associated with. Just some drunk street rats, most likely." He huffed. "Let's find our way out of here. I'm not going to settle for sleeping in a basically abandoned, falling-apart fucking tower."

Matthew cleared his throat. "I second that!" Matthew announced urgently. "Let's get out of here so we don't run the risk of running into them again, please!"

Lovino nodded. "He's right." Lovino pushed Francis and Antonio down a step. "Go."

After gathering at the bottom of the stairwell, Lovino warned them to watch out, just in case of any "lurkers", as he had said, and led them to the back exit. They luckily didn't run into any other complications, other than the fact that one of the already-stolen bikes had been stolen again. Antonio ended up running behind them, since Lovino had refused to stand on the back pegs and ride along.

Now they were back where they started, at Gilbert's house.

Antonio was already leaning on the wall, tired from both running and the time - it was around three or four in the morning. Of course, Matthew felt perfectly fine.

Except for the small little yawn that escaped his mouth when he'd walked inside. And maybe his eyelids started drooping.

Okay, fine, I'm tired. Normally I can fight it, but tonight just is not the night. Alright? Alright.

Lovino collapsed onto the couch and let out a loud yawn. He put a pillow over his head and shut his eyes.

guess he's down. Which also means I can't take the couch.

Damn it, Lovino!

Matthew took a glance around. Francis was already upstairs or gone. Antonio was still leaning on his wall. Matthew turned his head towards Gilbert. "If the Spaniard falls asleep on the floor I can situate the place for you."

Matthew shook his head. He simply knew his cheeks were going some shade of red, so he didn't even try to fight it. 'No, no, it's fine! It's fine!"

"Upstairs, third room on the left." Gilbert mumbled. "I'll be up in a minute or two."

Matthew nodded and ran right up the steps.

Third room, third room. Alright, there.

Matthew opened the door.

Hm. Surprisingly, it's actually tidy. Well, mostly. Matthew looked at Gilbert's desk that had been forgotten in a corner. Basically anything that he didn't have a certain spot for was tossed onto here.

Matthew let his eyes sweep over the room. The walls were and off-white color, and there were black stripes painted over them. Posters of various bands hung on the wall in random places and so did a bunch of old and new flyers of his own band.

Matthew walked up to one that had originally read 'Black Eagle: European Tour 2013', but had been scribbled out to say, 'THE BAD FRIENDS: Bad Summer - European Tour 2013'. With the band name in all caps, and written in a very haphazard way. The original looked like it's been printed off of a library printer, and in no color because they couldn't afford it.

So, it was an impromptu tour? Across the whole continent of Europe?

"Lookin' at my old tour stuff?"

Matthew whirled around. 'Uh, y-yeah."

Gilbert came closer and looked at the same poster. "Heh," he chuckled, "I remember that! We printed those off in one of my old bandmate's basements and kept this giant stack in the back of his car. When we took off, we'd staple those to whatever we could. One time we put one in some guy's tree."

Matthew raised an eyebrow. "I'm assuming he didn't appreciate that much?"

"No. But I insist that it is amazing decor." Gilbert imitated (correction: butchered) Francis's accent, and rolled his eyes. "At some point, we decided it was a great idea to ruin all the posters with my horrible handwriting, so, well, we did." Gilbert shrugged. "That's actually where the whole band name came from entirely."

Matthew turned and put his back to the wall. "How?"

"Because the rest of 'Black Eagle'-" Gilbert gagged. "I'm regretting that name so much now."

Matthew laughed dryly.

"The rest of the band hated us for it, and called me a bad friend. And the whole thing was probably the worst summer ever - you get it?"

Matthew nodded. "Gah! I'm drowning in my own backstory, Christ." Gilbert yawned. "Sleep?"

Matthew gave him another small nod, and Gilbert fell backwards onto his bed with a grateful sigh. Matthew kicked off his shoes and sat down on the end of the matress.

"Well?" Gilbert looked up at him with a raised brow. "Make yourself comfortable! I'll even sleep on the floor if you want me to."

Matthew shook his head. "No, it's fine." He got up, lifted the white covers, and wriggled himself underneath. Now, he lay on his side, facing the wall. He snatched a pillow and stuck it under his head.

"Nnn... can I have my pillow back?"

Matthew rolled onto his other side so he faced Gilbert. He lifted his head and flicked Gilbert's nose. "No. You said I should make myself comfortable."

"Well, I'm a pretty nice pillow, too."

Matthew's entire face transformed into a completely undiscovered shade of red and he punched Gilbert lightly in the gut.

"Ow!" He complained.

"If that hurt, you have a serious issue." Matthew rolled back on his side to face the wall again. "Night, Gil."

Gilbert yawned. "G'night, Birdie."

Welp.

This is a little late, but I wanted to get myself sort-of back to the Saturday updates so it was easier to keep up with.

I'm working on the stories I mentioned! Those are going to happen, I swear to God!

Other than that, I don't have much to say.

Later!

-Red