Don't Touch Mysterious Things When You Don't Know What They Are

There was just so much going on lately. But whether good or bad, Alfred always found himself at peace when he was working on what would be his new house. All of his problems took a backseat in his mind. Which is why he would be there long into the night occasionally, Gilbert and Ludwig gone. If he did not have another appointment or plan or impulse to sneak up and see Kiku, then he was here.

Cleaning out the basement.

Gilbert seemed to think it only needed some reinforcing, but would be fine. Ludwig wanted to completely redo it. They were now arguing over explaining it to him, as to what was the best, what needed to be done. Alfred decided to let them decide what was the most important before they remembered it was down to his decision anyway.

It was sort of funny, watching them bicker over stuff. Alfred had always wondered whether that was how real brothers were supposed to be. Gilbert and Ludwig. Lovino and Feliciano. Matthias and Berwald. Roy and Brian and Arthur.

Ah, he had Maddox and Matthew now. Not exactly the same, but it was what Alfred wanted.

So he continued to clean out the basement. The lights needed fixing, new light bulbs were not cutting it. Bringing down a few electric lamps only gave him so much light. He continued to sweep the old floor. This would probably have to be done ten times, there was so much dirt. The broom went into the wall without hitting it.

Alfred stopped, frowning down at where the broom had gone. A hole in the corner? Maybe Ludwig was right and more needed to be redone... though the ceiling was as fine as the floor upstairs. Still, it just let in dirt. What was the problem with that? Plenty, if he recalled. Ludwig had gone over all of the problems of outside getting inside.

Squatting down, he tried to tell how big of a hole it was. Which is when he saw something. The light was reflecting off of something in there which was actually not dirt or rock. With a frown, Alfred stuck his hand in to grab it.

Through his gloves, his hands felt like they were burning. His entire palm turned searing hot and Alfred fell back, unable to let go of it. With a cry he fell to the ground, curling up around his hand and what was clasped in his hand.

Then the pain was gone.

Blinking a few times, Alfred sat back up. His hand let it go and it dropped on the floor. It was an orb. At least, Alfred thought it was. It was hard to see in this light, let alone it was the size of a pocket watch. Flexing his hand a few times, it felt completely normal.

That was odd. With a finger, Alfred poked the orb. It began to roll away. But the more important thing was that his finger did not hurt. So Alfred reached over, grabbed it, and headed upstairs for some light.

It was like a large marble, except for the fact that the surface of it did not seem that clear. Maybe like it was gaseous. Alfred had a larger vocabulary than he liked to use in conversation, but he was not certain any of it would help him describe it.

The hell?

With nothing left to do with it, Alfred stepped outside. He grabbed the attention of the first person he saw to compare notes on the matter. "Hey, Eduard!"

Eduard stopped, probably on his way home from the store. "Alfred. How is your house coming?"

"Slowly but surely," Alfred grinned, stepping into the road. "Have you ever seen something like this before?"

He held it out for Eduard to see. Before he could say anything Eduard picked it up, without any incident. With a frown, Eduard pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. If anyone was to know what it was, it would probably be Eduard. Or Gupta. They happened to know about weird old things like that. And it had to be old if it was down there.

"Never," Eduard admitted, looking back up at him. "It is certainly curious. Where did you find this?"

"In my basement," Alfred jerked a thumb back at his house. "D'you think you could figure out what it is? Probably some glass... marble or something. From somewhere. I figure you or Gupta could figure it out and you are here."

"I suppose I can do that," Eduard nodded, after a short moment of thinking about it. "I will have to take it with me though... unless you'd rather hold on to it?"

"You can keep it!" Alfred put his hands up. "I just sorta want to know what it is when you figure it out. That okay with you?"

"Absolutely. I'll be in touch."

"See you, Eduard."

"Talk to you soon, Alfred."

Alfred watched Eduard walk off before he went back to Arthur's house. Maybe Kiku could have figured it out too. No, Eduard spent a lot of time talking with people online about business deals and new and old things. He would probably find if that was a common thing or not. If not, then Gupta would probably know. There were enough people in this town with weird interests and one of them would know what it was.

Taking off his glove, Alfred flexed his hand.