"Are you sure it is alright for you to be alone?" Ludwig asked carefully and Gilbert rolled his eyes. "After everything that has happened?"
"Quit pretending you're the older bruder," Gilbert scoffed. "Just go check out the school and I'll be fine up here. I won't answer the door to strangers and I won't use the stove." Gilbert nearly regretted telling Ludwig about what had happened with him getting kidnapped, but he needed some way to explain the whole Kiku showing up thing and why he'd gotten so pissed about it. He left out some of the life-threatening parts, but that wasn't really important. Ludwig still didn't look quite sold, though. He was going to the school to see how the rebuilding was going and get a better idea of when they'd be back in school after an event like that. "Look, I can take care of myself, alright? I've been at this whole fighting thing for a while. I won't let my guard down again."
"Just…be careful," Ludwig sighed and begrudgingly allowed Gilbert to finally push him into the elevator.
"That's what I always do," Gilbert smirked and the door closed, allowing him to let out a sigh of relief. Ludwig had this habit of hovering when he was nervous and, as sweet as it was, Gilbert didn't need someone to hover over him. Besides, he was the older brother, which meant he should hover over Ludwig. So not awesome.
Gilbert slowly moved back to the living room and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the all-too familiar man standing in front of the TV. Gilbert immediately tensed for a fight, but Kiku just sighed and put his hands up in surrender.
"Please, I need you to listen to me," Kiku begged and Gilbert glared at him. "I will not harm you, you have my word."
"How much is that even worth?" Gilbert asked and Kiku winced.
"I promise," Kiku bowed his head. "I will not use any of my abilities."
"What the hell do you even want?" Gilbert snapped. "Why do you keep showing up? It makes no fucking sense! You already betrayed my trust!"
"I had full reason to," Kiku attempted to defend himself.
"Then what the fuck is this reason?" Gilbert yelled. He ran a hand through his hair to calm himself down. It wouldn't do anyone any good if he punched something and they had to replace it. "It's like you don't even remember how bad you fucked up. They tried to kill me, several times! Matthew had to revisit the place that basically ruined his life to try to save me. All because you decided you'd side with the people that want to kill mutants. What kind of a mutant are you if you would do any of that, let alone all of it?"
"I am not siding with them," Kiku snapped, but regained his composure far faster than Gilbert. "I am helping, albeit in a strange way. They would have killed me if I hadn't helped them take you and I apologize, but I knew you would make it out alive. I even helped you by turning on the second elevator for you."
"How can I even know if I can trust anything you say?" Gilbert scoffed, shaking his head.
"Then ask Matthew," Kiku said. "He read Elizabeta's mind and he can read mine. He can tell if I am telling the truth."
"And if you're not and it's just a ploy to kidnap both of us?" Gilbert scoffed. This man had his last chance, he wasn't about to just trust him out of nowhere again.
"Matthew and his abilities are much stronger than me," Kiku admitted. "Much stronger than a lot of mutants, in fact. Not even the company that took you knows the limit of these new skills he has. They are terrified of him."
"What do you even want me for?" Gilbert asked, though he was a little creeped out by the fact that even Kiku knew how powerful Matthew was getting. Just by being around the boy, Gilbert could tell that he was powerful, scarily even, but Gilbert had no idea on what level.
"You know the brother of the man in charge of the company, yes? That is what Elizabeta told me, you saw the building and the name that came with it?"
"And you haven't?" Gilbert asked.
"I am a mutant, would they really share their biggest secret with me?" Kiku sighed. "If you know the boy, you also know that he is nearing the age to take over the company, even without the proper level of schooling. As far as Elizabeta knows, he doesn't hate mutants. If he takes over for his brother-"
"Hold on," Gilbert cut him off. "I can't even trust you or this plan you're creating in your head, and you still honestly expect me to waltz up to my friend and tell him everything? Bullshit. You don't even know him or even if he's capable of taking over this company. He still needs to finish school to learn all of that shit, right? We can't just stage a fucking coup and hope the company turns out alright. This is one of the top companies in the fucking world and you expect me to be perfectly fine with leaving it to a teenager?"
"I know it seems foolish-"
"Foolish doesn't even cut it," Gilbert said coldly.
"But would you prefer someone that despises mutants to stay in charge with as much power as he has?" Kiku continued. "Would you prefer he continues ruining lives like he is now?"
"What's stopping me from just calling the fucking cops on him?" Gilbert snapped.
"He is a wealthy man, he will easily cover anything up that he needs to. And he can easily pay any bail posted," Kiku shook his head.
"Even if he's charged with murder of who knows how many people?" Gilbert snapped.
"Mutants are a gray area in the legal system," Kiku admitted. "We are not considered human, considering our genes, and laws have to be re-written. It would be easy to compare us to African American slaves in American history."
"So you've got yourself in a corner," Gilbert rolled his eyes. "You're plan is to take a kid, barely capable of doing what you're asking, stage a coup with mutants and kick out a guy with apparently infinite power? Are you fucking nuts?"
"Evidently," Kiku muttered.
"Get the hell out of here," Gilbert said. "You're not welcome, you're never welcome. It would have been easier coming here to ask for forgiveness."
"I'm afraid we are too low on time to ask for forgiveness," Kiku sighed. "If you want me to leave, I will. Just know that I have also gone to another source of help, one that evidently is harder for you to control."
And then Kiku simply fell through the floor. Gilbert growled and kicked at the nearest thing, which happened to be their couch. There was a loud snap and it was soon in two pieces but Gilbert didn't care. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. He should call Matthew.
"We have to tell him," Gilbert muttered.
"I'm just not sure what I should do, you know?" Alfred groaned, leaning heavily on a park bench. He'd managed to convince Ivan to go on a walk with him through a park. Ivan was a little hesitant, still unsure about how close they had gotten recently. Alfred was confused about it, too, but he couldn't honestly say he preferred it when he had hate make out sessions with the mutant. He'd managed to get out all of the pent up emotions he had and the secrets he'd learned recently. There was just one part of the puzzle he was missing and that was pissing him off.
"Judging by your explanation, you want to help this man, Kiku," Ivan noted. Alfred groaned. That wasn't the answer he wanted to hear.
"I don't even know who this brother of the dude in charge even is!" Alfred groaned, gripping hard onto his hair. "Sure, it's cool if I even decide to go with the crazy mutant that stalked me into the bathroom, but then I don't even know who I'm going after! What the hell even is that about? He tries to tell me this big secret and this plan, but he doesn't even know the target?"
"The informant you said he talked about seemed to know," Ivan muttered and Alfred glared up at him.
"You're not helpful," Alfred muttered.
"If you go around wasting your time deciding if something is the right decision, the opportunity will leave," Ivan sighed. "You have the highest moral standard of anyone I know, any decision you make is the right one. So deciding whether or not to side with him is not the problem, it is the part you don't know."
"Thanks for psycho analyzing me," Alfred sighed. He needed help, not a therapy session.
"Do you agree with what he wants to do?" Ivan asked.
"Yeah," Alfred huffed. "I mean, this company went after my little bro and turned him mutant! I want them to go down! But can I really help anything? I'm just a human."
"That does come with its perks," Ivan smirked. "You are a normal human. This man, whoever he is, cannot do anything to you."
"Yeah, okay, so I raise hell," Alfred rolled his eyes. "But to who? That's my problem."
"Maybe this Kiku will tell you," Ivan shrugged. "He just wanted to see how you would react to his plan. If you think it is a good one."
"I don't fucking know," Alfred muttered. Everything had gotten so complicated so fast and the only ones he had to talk to were his brother and Ivan. Matthew was out because he was still recovering, Alfred demanded that he stayed home, and Alfred didn't want to drag him back to the company, after everything that happened to him. Ivan was still unaffected by the company, able to hide as much as he wanted, and Alfred could trust him with pretty much anything. "Why is this so hard to figure out?"
"Life shouldn't be coming easy to you," Ivan smiled slightly. "It has never come easy to me, da?"
"Yeah, well that's stupid," Alfred crossed his arms over his chest. "Life should go easy on people sometimes, to make up for being a bitch."
"I think there have been some bright sides to it so far," Ivan smiled and Alfred rolled his eyes.
"Cheesy much?" Alfred muttered and Ivan chuckled.
"Come," Ivan said, looking to the right. "There is an ice cream stand, you like ice cream, da?"
"Yeah," Alfred sighed and slowly stood up. Ice cream did sound pretty good.
"I will make sure it doesn't melt," Ivan offered another smile and Alfred noticed how unnatural it looked before he laughed slightly, punching Ivan in the arm.
"Don't be so nice, it's fucking creepy," Alfred smirked. "Fucking commie."
"Capitalist pig," Ivan gave a different smile, a more genuine one and Alfred took the lead ahead of him, only for Ivan to increase his speed to go ahead. And then the walk to the ice cream stand became a race that nearly took out the vendor.
"Do you really think we should?" Matthew asked into his phone, leaning against his headboard. "That's a lot to swallow and considering everything that's happened…"
"We shouldn't baby him," Gilbert scoffed on the other end of the phone. "He's a big boy that can handle himself. We need to tell him, it's not like it'll be secret for very long at the rate this is going."
"Do you think you'll go along with the plan Kiku told you about?" Matthew asked curiously. Gilbert had called him a few minutes after he'd talked with Kiku, raving on and on about how stupid the man was for going into his house. But Matthew saw something in this plan that he could piece together from Gilbert. Kiku sounded…desperate to do something. Change something. Despite how poor the plan was, it was the best thing they had to stop what was happening. Who knew how many other operations that man had going with his company?
"I don't fucking know," Gilbert muttered. "I mean…it's stupid, right? That's not just me?"
"Do you see a better option? Considering who it is?" Matthew asked and Gilbert sighed heavily. "When do you think we should tell him?"
"Let's just rip the band-aide off," Gilbert said. "Tomorrow. What the hell, it's not like we have school, right?"
"Sure, I don't work tomorrow," Matthew sighed, glancing at his calendar. He'd noticed a while ago that he no longer needed his glasses to see thanks to his new abilities, but he kept them on his face anyway, at least for a sense of normalcy. "Should I text him or something?"
"Nah, I'll call him, he'll listen to me a little more when I tell him it's important," Gilbert sighed. "Think you can sneak away from your brother and get out of the house for once?"
"What about you?" Matthew laughed slightly. "Ludwig's pretty uptight, too."
"I've got my little bro covered," Gilbert said proudly. "You get yours. I'll text you when and where once I get him on board."
"Alright," Matthew nodded and Gilbert hung up, moving on quickly to the next conversation. So they would tell him tomorrow. Matthew sighed heavily, he wanted to keep this from him for as long as possible. But there wasn't much they could do about it. They didn't necessarily have to follow Kiku's plan, but at least knowing they had something could put them in a better position.
Matthew still hardly slept, woken up by the smallest noises. He couldn't go around a corner without looking behind himself. He was scared, and the only way to stop that would be to end this. All of it.
Much intense. Such wow. I wrote about half of this while I was at work today and that was kinda fun. Anyway, things happened and something big is gonna happen next chapter. We finally get to figure out who the boss is! You should all be excited!
Anyway, please review! It keeps me going, really!