Pairings brought up/mentioned: Blink-and-you'll-miss-it HunBel
Warnings: None
Note: This chapter was beta-ed by The_OTP_Fangirl on AO3. =3
-3.22-
"Oh, come on," I nearly groan, "just tell her the truth."
Roderich looks at me incredulously as his smartphone goes off once more from the coffee table nearby, the calls coming in quick succession and gradually picking up pace. Having been skillfully herded by Arthur, the whole clan lays sprawled about the formal lounge for a family meeting. The topic of discussion: how much exactly my precious grandsons' mom needs to know about this and how to explain it.
Gilbert glances between myself and his charge, then speaks, "I kind of have to agree with Romulus on this one. I mean, you can't just keep something as big as all this from her."
"But what the hell am I supposed to say?" He asks panickedly, "'oh, hey, Eliza. The twins? Yeah, they're fine; Feli just got attacked by some crazy shadow monster again, then came this close to getting kidnapped by the ghost of his ancestor. Oh, and did I mention the ghost and his also-dead spirit animal are staying with us for some inexplicable reason? And on top of that, we're probably going to have to fight a killer witch, who just so happens to be Arthur's great-whatever-grandmother?!' Yeah, sure, because that conversation would go so damn well."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," the arctic wolf gives a flourish of the eyes, arms crossed. "All I'm saying is that she's gonna find out eventually, so she might as well find out from you instead of the media or some shit."
The Austrian freezes up. "What? What do you mean 'the media?!'"
"Ve~" Feliciano cuts in, "the media knows everything, remember? They knew about Luddy just a few days after we bound ourselves!"
"Okay, we are not letting her find out about from the celebrity gossip column!" He exclaims, clutching the handle of his cream-colored mug so hard his hands turn pale.
Just then, the phone goes off, its cry of 'What you want-' causing Roderich to swallow nervously, a cold sheen coating his face.
I clasp my hands together, looking to the others. "Alright, who wants to answer it?"
"I call not it," Gilbert immediately blurts out.
At his shout, a chorus of 'not it's rings throughout the room, leaving Arthur to release an irritable yell of, "God dammit!"
Huffing and puffing, the rabbit fearlessly approaches the table on which the cell phone resides, grabbing it and pressing the answer button in one fell swoop.
"Hello?" He says grumpily. Right on cue, he holds the device far away from his ear as a female voice begins loudly chewing him out. "Elizabeta- Eliza- Elizabet- MRS. HÉRDERVÁRY! … Thank you. Yes, Roderich is here, yes, he's been ignoring your calls, and yes, there's good reason behind it. Just let me- Wait, what? You- you're what?! No, don't do that! Just listen to-" From the other end comes a monotone dial as he cuts himself off, biting at his lower lip, green eyes clenched shut in a grimace. "... me."
All is quiet as Arthur returns the phone to its owner then turns to address the group, face solemn. "I have bad news… Elizabeta says she's coming over."
"Roderich, please, calm down!"
"CALM DOWN?! HOW CAN I POSSIBLY CALM DOWN?!"
Uncle Roddy frantically paces about the room, pulling at his uncharacteristically ruined hair in panic, eyes wide and dilated. "ELIZA'S GOING TO STAY HERE. I'M GOING TO HAVE TO TELL THIS WHOLE TRAINWRECK OF A STORY TO HER FACE. SHE'S GOING TO KILL ME, OR AT THE VERY LEAST MAKE MY LIFE A LIVING HELL FOR ONE REASON OR ANOTHER. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!"
The arctic wolf blinks. "Um… tell it how it is and move on?"
His charge looks at the other, gaze spiked with contempt and fear.
"Sheisse," he mutters, "okay, maybe not that, but you still need to come clean about this! I mean, come on; grow a pair!"
"... A pair of what?" Aldrich murmurs to himself from the sidelines, only to be promptly hushed by Grandpa Romulus.
"YES, I GET THAT I'M SUPPOSED TO EXPLAIN THIS SHIT, BUT HOW?" He claws at his hair, further making a mess of the chestnut-colored locks.
Wordlessly, Antonio rises from his seat and approaches Roderich. He then grabs him by the shoulder, despite his loud, flailing protests, and begins to slap the Austrian back and forth with his free hand.
"GET-" he exclaims, halting after each hit, "A- GRIP."
"What the- TONI, YOU CAN'T JUST START SLAPPING HIM LIKE THAT!" The elder wolf brother barks, fruitlessly trying to pry the other away from his charge.
"Oh, God dammit all," Arthur hisses, the palm of his hand meeting his forehead with a high-pitched smack.
"Alright, that's it." Cousin Francis jumps to his feet, arms crossed. "This is my house, and I will not have you soil it with your fighting, and arguments, and freaking out over stupid things! EVERYONE SHUT UP!"
At his shout, a stark veil of silence falls over the group, all eyes on the scowling Frenchman. "Honestly, what is wrong with us? Why is that we can't do a single thing without turning the room into a battle arena?! This is just crazy!
"We're a family. Yeah, sure, we're a total catastrophe when it comes to relations and whatever the hell is even happening at this point, but nonetheless, we're still a family and we seriously need to stop this near-constant arguing. Life is short; why would we waste what little time we have together yelling at each other?"
In that moment, we pause to take good, long looks at the people around us. Antonio lets go of Roderich, fratello scratches the back of his neck sheepishly, Gilbert quietly nods his head, and Arthur gazes at Francis with shining, unadulterated admiration of such a wonderful speech. Then, Grandpa Romulus raises a hand.
"Hey, you guys do realize we technically have all of eternity together in the afterlife, right?"
Everyone turns their attention to him.
Gilbert asks confusedly, "we do?"
"Yeah!" He grins. "As it turns out, heaven, hell, and even God don't exist. Well, I mean, there might be some deity or whatever somewhere, but they're not obvious in their presence, nor do they judge who ends up where; the afterlife is like a huge blank canvas that shifts to make exact replicas of scenes from the memories of the dead. As long as you pay attention to things, you can live out your afterlife in the comfort of your own home, and, on top of that, it's really easy to track people down as long as you're stubborn as an ox about it."
Francis blinks. "Huh, okay, so maybe we don't have nearly as short a time together as I originally thought. But regardless, we still need to stop being so consistently terrible to each other!"
The phone rings once more, Aretha Franklin's clear voice ringing out and echoing off the walls of the room, causing Roderich to nearly jump out of his skin.
"Oh sheisse, it's Eliza again!" He exclaims.
"Oh, give me that," Arthur sighs in exasperation, snatching the phone once more to pick it up. He answers the call with a polite "hello," then winces as mama releases another tirade of shouts conveying either panic, anger, or some strange mix of the two. As she continues, the rabbit's skin grows paler and paler, his eyes widening and jaw gaping open at her words.
When the dial finally sounds, he drops the phone.
My cousin approaches him at this odd behavior, one hand on the spirit's shoulder, the other waving side-to-side in front of his face. "Arthur? Mon cher? Are you alright?!"
He looks at Francis blankly, and in a dull, frightened voice proclaims, "Eliza had her private pilot speed the whole way here. She'll be over in less than an hour."
Meanwhile, less than an hour away, three people stand outside a local airport. The first, a tall man with spiked, blond hair, hazel eyes, and a thin but dark scar on his forehead, lugs several bags and suitcases into the trunk of a limousine with the help of the airport staff and driver. Off to the side, his younger sister and her mistress watch them work, talking quietly amongst themselves.
The more petite of the two, a girl with short, dirty blonde hair restrained by a green ribbon headband, gives a cheerful, although cat-like, smile as she responds, "well, if anything, at least we get to see the others again. How long ago was the last time we got in touch with Francis and Arthur? Three years?"
"Urgh, I still can't believe those two. They should know by now not to keep secrets from me when it comes to my kids!" The other fumes, gnawing at a red handkerchief to calm her nerves. Flames steadily burn within her vibrant green eyes, the flower in her hair doing nothing to reduce the fear factor of her rage.
The blonde gives a sigh, placing a hand on Elizabeta's shoulder, "hey, how about I make waffles after you kill them to cheer you up. Is that okay?"
"Belgian?" She asks.
With a grin, the spirit nods exuberantly. "Yup!"
Pulling the cloth from her teeth, she smiles. "Sounds good to me."
A/N:
I RIIISSSSEEEEE! And by that I mean "SHIT, IT'S BEEN TWO MONTHS AND I HAVEN'T POSTED ANYTHING! DX"
Ahh, yeah, really sorry about the long wait! These past two months have been pretty crazy IRL, but now that I'm on Summer vacation, I should definitely be able to update more. In fact, to help make up for the utter bullshit of this unofficial hiatus, I'm going to propose a deal. If I post once a week for the rest of my summer, then I want you guys to send in at least one long, detailed review on each chapter. It doesn't have to be one good review of specific tips and feedback per person, just one or more per chapter. As long as you guys continue to do this, I'll post at least once a week for the entirety of two months. Isn't that great? =D The deal, if you choose to accept it, begins with this chapter, so get to it!
As for the chapter in of itself, guess what? ELIZABETA'S SHOWING UP NEXT CHAPTER! I mean, yeah, it's at the very end, but whatever. XP Also, next chapter will include some insight on Romulus and Aldrich's relationship issues that they're working to solve. So yeah, great plans for the near future. Great plans.
Responses to review(s):
maryranstadler1: Pfft, I know, right? X3 Yeah, that tension's really going to pile up in the next chapter, and I think you guys are going to like the outcome... Also, I'm glad you're enjoying the stuff I'm trying to throw in with Romulus and Aldrich! I really want to write about them more, so I've been working on a side-project sort of thing on the side that I think I might post. So basically, this definitely isn't the last you'll see of them! Also, yes, Gilbert's one of my precious babies, that is exactly the case.
Seele Esser Deutsch: Wow, that's really cool! Personally, I've only been to Germany once, and it was when I was about five years old, so I don't remember much. The main thing that stuck out for me about that trip were the beautiful architecture and flowers and stuff, along with that one time my family and I were at a hotel ordering room service and I sent everyone on a wild goose chase because I wanted McDonald's chicken nuggets. X3 Yeah... I was a tasteless kid. Luckily, that's gradually disappeared as I've grown up. As for my favorite thing about history, I don't really have a favorite country, but I absolutely adore old history, as in pre-Industrial Revolution. What's kind of funny is that I'm really passionate about learning about and discussing the history that happened before and after industrialization, but I can't for the life of me bring myself to enjoy the Industrial Revolution; I simply don't find it interesting, I guess. If I had to choose a favorite time period, I'd probably go with the age of exploration. =3
APDubtalia: Ahahahah, while that'd be good for Lovino and Feliciano, it'd still be bad for Roderich, because Elizabeta would whack him upside the head with something for 'NOT KEEPING MY PRECIOUS BABIES OUT OF THIS TRAINWRECK!' X3 In theory, though, it's a good idea! Well, that, and it gives me some really good inspiration for what could happen next... Thanks for giving me an idea!
Alright, so now that that's all taken care of, I'll see you whenever I end up posting! =3