"So, where to now, genius?" Matthew panted as they ran around a corner and pressed against the wall. Gilbert just laughed as he quickly caught his own breath. Shortly after Matthew had changed back into clothing for men (sadly) they had tried to get some food and Gilbert was somehow quickly seen. He just knew that the police would be crawling around sometime soon because of that. He looked up at the sky. It was quickly becoming dark and that wasn't good. Maybe they could sleep on a roof near some train and then leave early in the morning for somewhere else?
"How do you feel about sleeping on a roof again?" Gilbert asked casually as he flipped his hood up, over his hair and began to walk calmly. Streetlights were already turning on as they walked past and he was getting a bad feeling. His leg was hurting.
"That sounds fine," Matthew shrugged behind him. "So, they're probably calling the police, right? That means we'll have to leave the country, huh?"
"Yeah, but not right now," Gilbert stated. "That's way too obvious. We'll leave tomorrow morning."
"Where are we going?" Matthew asked curiously.
"Uh, I was thinking Milan," Gilbert offered, looking back at the boy, who smiled brightly. It was a shame he'd taken off all that make-up and that wig. It would have been freaking adorable to see that. Then again, Gilbert had more than enough memories of that dress.
"You mean Italy?" Matthew asked with wide eyes and Gilbert laughed.
"Ja, and after that I was thinking about going to maybe Austria or something," Gilbert stretched his arms over his head. He couldn't help but look around cautiously. His leg was beginning to feel like it was on fire.
"Oh, hey, Gilbird," Matthew giggled and Gilbert glanced back at him to see Gilbird fluttering around the boy.
"Where the hell have you been?" Gilbert sighed. "Seriously, I haven't seen you in years and you keep ditching me, what the hell is up with that?"
The bird swiftly flew in front of Gilbert, stopping in front of his face and Gilbert stopped walking, raising his eyebrow at the bird. His bird had been helpful a few times in the past, but that was when he was a kid, so he assumed by now that it was just coincidence or something. Although, that ache on his scar made him a little curious.
"What is it?" Gilbert asked the bird, even though he knew full well that he couldn't answer. The bird began to fly away, pretty quickly, down the street. Gilbert glanced around the street, subconsciously reaching back to grab onto Matthew's arm.
"What's wrong?" Matthew asked worriedly.
"We're getting out of here," Gilbert muttered and began to run, Matthew following quickly behind.
Suddenly, a large hand gripped onto Gilbert's arm and roughly pulled him aside, into some alleyway, most likely dislocating his shoulder in the process. Before Gilbert could even think, Matthew was out of his grip and two pairs of hands were on his arms and slammed him against a wall. It was dark in the alleyway and Gilbert had a hard time seeing, especially considering how hard his head it, but everything quickly swam into focus. Two very familiar men were holding Matthew by his arms as an even more familiar man stood in front of him, as if appraising him.
"You sick little fuck," Gilbert growled and tried to pull away from the men, but the burning pain in his dislocated shoulder stopped him.
"I do not see what is so interesting about him," Ivan giggled, leaning in closely to look at Matthew, who Gilbert noticed was beginning to breathe quickly and turn white. Ivan moved a hand forward, most likely to touch Matthew, and Gilbert lost it. He didn't care about the pain and he was quickly out of the grip of the two men holding him back. Without a second thought, he rocketed his fist directly into Ivan's face and the man stumbled back slightly, looking rather startled.
"Don't you fucking dare," Gilbert snarled at the man. Someone like him would never touch Matthew, he would make sure of that. When Gilbert glanced at the boy, he only looked more terrified. It looked like he was beginning to have a panic attack.
"You need to learn a lesson, da?" Ivan muttered darkly and Gilbert couldn't even think to move before Ivan punched him in the face so hard that he felt onto his back. His freshly broken nose stung as blood spurted from it and the wind was knocked out of him. Ivan stomped his booted foot right on top of Gilbert's stomach and he counted at least two broken ribs. "I do not like punishing you, little Gilbert," the man sighed as he stomped once again and Gilbert felt himself cough up something he couldn't see.
"Bullshit," Gilbert muttered under his breath. Ivan seemed to be pleased with his work and turned back to Matthew.
"Family must stay with and respect each other, da?" Ivan sighed and stared at Matthew once again, who looked like he was beginning to hyperventilate. Gilbert knew just what to say to set off Ivan enough to ignore Matthew.
"Tell that to your fucking sisters."
The two men holding Matthew dropped their jaws in surprise as Ivan began to shake with rage. Out of nowhere, he pulled out that all-too-familiar pipe from his jacket and slammed it onto the ground right next to Gilbert's head, easily cracking the cement. Gilbert froze in fear for a second before he gripped onto the pipe with both hands and tried to pull it in some way to break Ivan's arm. He knew he stood no chance, however. There was a reason he'd been terrified to run into this man again. It took every ounce of his self-control to ensure he did not shake. There was an extremely high chance that he would lose this fight. But he couldn't. He had to be there for Matthew.
Ivan roughly kicked into Gilbert's stomach again and Gilbert lost his grip on the pipe, which Ivan proceeded to slam into Gilbert's head and Gilbert tumbled over his side from the force. All he could hear was a ringing sound for a while as the world desperately tried to come into focus again. It was hard and took all of Gilbert's concentration, which caused his head to throb even more. He desperately tried to think of something, anything, that could get them out of this mess.
He glanced back at Ivan and Matthew, but he quickly saw a store on the other side of the small street to them with glass windows and, no-doubt, a security system. Gilbert jerkily sat upright, found a fairly large stone. Looking back at that store, he found that it had a security camera pointed at them. Perfect.
"Oi," Gilbert muttered, barely able to stand onto his feet. Ivan quirked an eyebrow, turning to him once again. Gilbert just noticed the fact that Ivan had his hand on Matthew's chin, causing the boy to panic even more and Gilbert's attention snapped into focus, at least for the next few seconds. He threw the stone as hard as he could in the direction of Ivan. It just barely missed him and Ivan looked fairly confused, though the large stone quickly sailed right at its target, smashing the store windows. An alarm blared around them and Gilbert smirked victoriously. "Say cheese."
Ivan turned his attention to the camera stationed at the store window and cursed, letting go of Matthew. With a flick of his wrist, he slammed the pipe into Gilbert's gut, slamming him into the wall of the alleyway and resulting in Gilbert falling to the ground.
"Eduard, Ravis," Ivan sighed and swiftly walked away. The men holding onto Matthew released him and the boy dropped to his knees, breathing deeply. The other men followed shortly after and Gilbert smirked. So he didn't like those guys as much…
"Birdie," Gilbert muttered, slowly bringing himself to crawl over to the poor boy, who was definitely having a panic attack. He barely thought to quickly pop his shoulder back into place. "Don't worry, I'm right here. He's not going to hurt you, police are coming." Matthew wordlessly nodded, obviously hardly hearing him. "Now, we don't wanna get caught, right? So we're going to stand up right now, okay?" Another nod.
"Okay, let's go," Gilbert nodded and slowly stood, standing on very shaky feet, his head burning and his vision swimming. He knew he was probably seconds away from passing out but he couldn't. Not until he knew Matthew was safe and sound somewhere, even if it was just on a roof. Matthew slowly stood up as well and Gilbert shakily smiled at him, though Matthew stared at him with his terrified expression.
"Now, we're going to run as fast as we can," Gilbert muttered, shakily holding onto Matthew's hand. He blacked out for half a second before they started running. It was a very slow pace and Gilbert constantly tripped over himself, though Matthew didn't really seem to notice. Before long, they came close to where Gilbert assumed was…probably close to a train station and they found a building with a fire escape. It took every ounce of concentration to keep himself standing, let alone awake, but Gilbert looked at Matthew and forced himself to smile. He was sure his teeth had blood or something in them.
After taking quite some time to get them both onto the roof, Matthew stumbled to a sitting position on the roof, not letting go of Gilbert's hand. Gilbert practically fell onto his knees, knowing he was extremely close to blacking out. But he couldn't when Matthew was still awake and freaking out.
"Hey, it's okay," Gilbert muttered, pulling the small boy close to him, into a hug he was sure looked extremely awkward, but he was too out of it to care. He barely had the strength to rub Matthew's back, but he did it anyway. Eventually, he wasn't sure how long, Matthew's breathing evened out and Gilbert could see him sleeping.
He then proceeded to black out.
"Just because we saw their car around here, doesn't mean they'll be here," Alfred sighed dramatically, crossing his arms over his chest. They were walking along a street, he his fathers, and Elizaveta, in Berne and they hadn't found anything in hours. The sun was beginning to set.
"It's the only lead we have, lad," Arthur sighed.
"I really wish we had more time to talk to that girl in that cute dress," Francis mused. "She was quite pretty."
"You bloody frog!" Arthur snapped. "Don't focus on sodding girls right now!"
"How could I focus on girls when you're in my line of sight, mon cher?" Francis smirked and Alfred gagged when he saw Arthur turn a shade of red and mutter something incomprehensible under his breath.
"Hold it," Elizaveta stopped walking in the middle of the sidewalk and answered her cell phone. "What is it? … Seriously? Are you sure you have the right number? I don't have time to worry about break-ins ... Are you sure? … I'll be right there."
"What was it?" Alfred pressed as the woman put her phone back in her pocket.
"Follow me, I'll explain on the way," Elizaveta broke out in a run and Alfred followed shortly after. Arthur and Francis protested, though they ran with them anyway. "There was a break-in at a store. Nothing was stolen, but when the police looked at the security cameras, they found Gilbert Beilschmidt and Ivan."
"Both of them?" Arthur asked.
"I thought they weren't working together," Alfred mused. "What are they doing attacking a store?"
"We'll have to see the video," Elizaveta huffed.
"Ivan could still be close-by," Francis warned.
"Don't worry, Dad, I'll be careful," Alfred rolled his eyes and continued to follow the woman as she took a turn and quickly stopped. It was a very small street, probably just barely big enough for one car, and there was a shop just in front of an alleyway with police around it.
"If Gilbert and Ivan were together, for whatever reason, you will need to be far more than careful," Francis warned and Alfred got a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.
What was happening to his brother during all of this?
Finally! That scene between Ivan and Gilbert has been planned since the very beginning of this story! And it's taken a lot longer than I thought to get it out! But I've got it out and I'm so happy with it! Gilbert now has extensive injuries and Matthew will probably have to take the lead for now. Anything could happen. Oh, and FACE and Eliza are back! Barely. You'll get some more of them next chapter, and perhaps a little Ivan, I'm not entirely sure. Guess we'll find out!
Anywho, please review! Action scenes are a bitch, so tell me how I did!
Oh, and special thanks to the guest named Adagio for being reviewer number 400! It means the world to me how popular this whole thing has gotten!