Cough.
Cough. Cough. Cough.
Cough. Cough. Cough. Cough. Cough. Cough. Cough-huarkgl !
Greece doubled up with pain as he was choking with his coughing fits. He leaned on the wall of the corridor and brought his fist to his mouth to stifle the noise. He continued coughing for a few seconds, his coughing fits growing more and more violent. Cough. His throat was burning, irritated by the cold and the incessant cough. Cough. Cough. His lungs were far worst; they had been tortured like that for months, and now they were tired of those efforts. Cough. Cough. Cough. He could feel his temples throbbing, his head desperately claiming oxygen. Cough. Cough. Cough. Cough. Tears of pain were rolling down his cheeks; he needed to breathe, to breathe, to breathe, to BREATHE ! Cough.
Heracles breathed in deeply when his diaphragm finally calmed down. He was feeling giddy; he would have given anything to be somewhere else. Somewhere warm. What was he doing here in the first place ? What had they done to have to run away like criminals ? Silly humans.
Greece's eyes went to rest on his fist, the one he had used to stifle his coughing fits. There was a few drops of blood. It has only been growing worse since yesterday. The Greek brought his sleeve to his mouth and wiped away the blood which was dripping on his chin.
Well, I won't stay here until the cows come home. Hereupon, he began to walk again, trying to control his feverish shivers. He reached the end of the corridor; he glanced at a notice board on the wall and turned left. He continued walking, stopping every five minutes to cough and spit out a little blood, until the corridor forked once more. He turned left, then right, then climb some stairs. The setting had changed; Heracles was no longer in a cold passage with metallic doors, he was now walking in a large, warm corridor, with wall-to-wall carpet on the ground. Only the lightning was the same, white and artificial.
Greece jumped in surprise when he felt something vibrate in his pocket. He quickly took out his phone and checked the caller – it was Germany. The Mediterranean nation cleared his throat and picked up.
"γειά σου…" he began.
"GREECE !You… you… arschloch ! Where the hell are you !?" Germany yelled, bursting Greece's eardrum.
"Germany, lower your voice. You're – cough ! - hurting my ears. And stay polite."
"Stay polite !? We had reached the p… our destination, and suddenly you disappear ! And now we have to use our probably tapped phones, and we have barely ten minutes left before the deadline, and we have to find you, and you want me to STAY POLITE !? And what's with this blank voice ?" Ludwig continued shouting.
"Don't – cough ! cough ! - look for me. And this is my – cough ! - normal voice."
"I know this is you normal voice, that's precisely that which is wrong… And why shouldn't we go and look for you ?"
"I can't – cough ! - come with you. I would only be a nuisance in my current– cough ! cough ! cough ! - state."
"What the hell do you mean…?" the German asked. "Wait… Don't tell me that your economic troubles are that bad !?"
"I don't think it's only my – cough ! - economic situation. I must have– cough ! cough ! - caught something in the sewer; which means that it's my human body which is ill – cough ! cough ! coughurkgl !"
"Greece ! Are you all right ?" Netherlands voice asked through the phone.
"Δεν."
"What ?"
"No."
"Wait a second !" Belgium spoke up. "No matter how ill you are, we can't just let you behind us !"
"Greece, he's right. I don't mind if you disagree, we'll go and look for you. So now tell us where the hell you are !" Germany got angry.
Σκατά, they're stubborn.
"Wait a – cough ! - minute. I must stay here. Me - cough ! cough ! - me being ill isn't the - cough ! - only reason. There's something I - cough ! cough !- have to - cough ! -do here - cough ! cough !" Heracles' sentence was choked by an umpteenth coughing fit. The Greek doubled up and stifled it with his sleeve, staining it with blood. Well, it wasn't like if it was perfectly clean at the first place.
"I, like, understand totally nothing between your coughing fits…" Poland mumbled.
"IsaidthatIhadtostayherebecau sethereissomethingIhavetodo." Greece repeated.
"Then tell us what !" Germany yelled.
"Not by phone. And I'm afraid I'll have to hang up, or the security system will come back before you could leave. Anyway, don't look for me and go away."
"Wait a min-" Greece cut Ludwig in the middle of his sentence, then dropped his phone on the ground and crashed it under his shoe. Japan would have fainted if he had seen that, Heracles thought while collecting the pieces of his broken phone.
"Tuuut… Tuuut… Tuuut…"
"Did he hang up ?" Belgium asked.
"Apparently he did." Netherlands answered.
"I'll… I'll try to call him again." Germany said while dialing the number again.
"We're sorry; you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service…"
"What the hell ?" Ludwig groaned.
"He must have broken his phone." Netherlands answered.
"Scheiße !" the German shouted, nearly breaking his own phone by hanging up a bit too violently.
"Hey, Germany, calm down ! Like, totally !" Poland told him.
"How can I be calm in this situation !? And now, what are we supposed to do !?"
"Go away from here ?" Poland suggested.
"And let him behind us !?" Belgium spoke up.
"It's the only rational choice." Netherlands replied. "We haven't enough time to go and get him, and even if we find him, he wouldn't want to come with us. We can't force him to come."
"But he's ill and… and he'll be alone against the humans !" Belgium retorted.
"Don't worry about him. I, like, don't really know him. But I can like, tell you that he's totally not born yesterday. He'll be, like, totally fine." Poland said.
Germany sighed deeply. He had fought the Greek during WW2, and he could tell that he would be perfectly able to manage by himself if he was in his normal state. But Heracles was ill, very ill. And this time, it wasn't an army against another army. It was a manhunt.
Ludwig eventually sat down in the pilot's seat and started the plane's engine. Belgium, in the copilot's seat, turned to him.
"So we let him behind us..?"
"If only we could avoid it." The German answered while leading the plane to the runway.
He felt so tired.
δεν (Greek) : No
γειά σου (Greek) : Hello
Σκατά(Greek) : Sh*t
Scheiße (German) : Sh*t
Arschloch (German) : Assh*le
A/N : I've now posted here all the chapters I've written. You'll have to wait for the next one now.
Hetalia © to Hidekaz Himaruya.
This fanfiction © me.
