Chapter 21
The Meeting
"What!?"
"How?!"
"Why did-" Shade was just as confused as the others as he looked down at the floor. Alfred was laying flat down with one arm bent behind his back where Lovino was sitting, keeping him down. It didn't last long though since Lovino quickly got up and backed away while he stared at his hands.
"How did I-" There had been almost no time to react when Alfred had suddenly charged forward but before he had even reached the table, Lovino had turned around to grab the arm flying towards him. Using the momentum of the running nation, he pulled and threw Alfred to his back before he twisted his arm which forced him to roll over. It had gone so fast that Shade almost missed it and it was over before anyone could even react.
"It's just as I thought" Their attention was turned towards Arthur that looked very pleased with himself. He stood up and walked over just as Alfred stood up again, not looking all too happy. Arthur pointed towards Lovino "You got future vision!"
"He got what?" This was not good. Shade looked at Lovino, if he could see the future it could cause some real trouble.
"Future vision. It doesn't seem like it's conscious though, but you know what will happen before it happens. That's-"
"That's why I'm calm all the time and that's what all those weird dreams are." Lovino finished for him before he frowned and mumbled "Though I can't quite remember them" Arthur nodded and was just about to answer when he was hit in the head by a flying whiteboard.
"Ow! What was that for?" He stared at Alfred that furiously pointed at him. Arthur picked up the whiteboard from the floor and read the messy writing out loud.
"Don't use me for your weird tricks" He threw he board back "I said I was going to check my theory didn't I?" Shade watched how the fight continued, one at the verge of yelling while the other was furiously writing, but he barely noticed. Instead he looked at Lovino that was following the fight, slightly amused, and frowned. He had to do something about him or else it was only a matter of time before his plans would be revealed. At the same time, he didn't want to hurt Lovino or get rid of him just yet. He was far too precious to Antonio to be wasted that quickly.
"You will get caught sooner or later. I'm looking forward to it" Shade tried to not react at Antonios mockery but he felt his irritation build up almost immediately.
"Hey"
"You can't hide it, your secret will be out soon enough"
"Antonio!" Lovinos voice snapped him back to reality. "What's up with that face?"
"Nothing, I'm fine" The smile was back on his face but Shade was boiling on the inside. It was hard playing Antonio, why did he have to be smiling all the time? Lovino shrugged and looked back at the fight that had somehow escalated into a physical one that now involved Francis, Yao and Tino as well while Mathias tried to break it up.
"Take a step to your right" Lovino pulled at him until he moved and the same moment he did, a shoe came flying past them at lightning speed. He shrugged again as Shade stared at him "Just had a feeling". They continued to watch the fight were Mathias had gotten shoved away from the struggling group and looked like he was thinking hard. Emil sat on the window ledge and looked out, seemingly uninterested in what was going on. Suddenly, it seemed like Mathias got an idea since he stood up and walked over to Berwald to pick him up. They couldn't hear the conversation but it seemed like Berwald did not agree at all with his suggestion. After a while though he sighed and nodded and they saw how Mathias mouthed 'Good luck' before he walked over to the fighters and threw Berwald into the pile. It ended in seconds after that but soon another fight started on who would get to carry Berwald first.
"That is enough!" Ludwig stood up "Everybody sit down! Let's discuss this like grown-ups!" A silence settled over the room before the first chuckle began, then the next started and it spread like a wildfire through the room.
"I'm sorry but we can't really take you seriously like this" Ludwig sat down again and sighed as he realized that it was no use in trying. Well, at least the fighting had stopped. Once again, they saw how the door opened and the last nation entered.
"I'm terribly sorry for my late arrival" Kiku bowed slightly, a bit flustered about being late.
"It's fine, thought I guess we should get started then?" Mathias looked at Arthur that nodded.
"Yes, let's all sit down." The nations gathered around the table "First of all, Kiku, tell us what happened to you please".
"Yes, of course." Kiku straightened up in his seat "Well, It seems I can communicate with animals."
"What?! Unfair! I want that!" Tino frowned in his seat while Matthew made his way up on the table. Mathias grabbed the edge of the in an attempt to fight the urge to go after him. The cat sat down in front of Kiku and stared at him.
"Huh? So it's Matthew I see." He nodded at the cat that didn't seem to have done much other than just stare at him. "Yes, yes sure I can. To Mathias? Okay" He turned towards Mathias "He say that it wasn't your fault. It's fine" Matthew walked back to his spot in Francis lap while Mathias sighed, a bit relieved. Arthur stood up and the nations turned their attention towards him.
"Listen carefully now, this is what we know" Arthur drew the circles he had seen at Lukas place at the chalkboard placed at the end of the table and explained how they worked. "That's why it's only us here, I sent the outmost circles to Vladimir and called the ones that would most likely be in the middle here. The ones that could be affected the most so to say" He wrote their names and symptoms next to the circle with a question mark at Gilberts name. "Also, we know that there's someone out there that's after us."
"And how do you know this?" Elizabeta looked suspiciously at Arthur that tried his best to avoid her eyes.
"We were attacked, that's all you need to know" She frowned but let him continue "It's someone that can use magic so my theory is that a nation has gotten possessed or something along those lines." There was a silence around the table as they took in all of this information. Arthur looked at them and tried to remember if there was something else he needed to say when he suddenly saw Antonio stand up.
"What about Gilbert? What if he's the one possessed!" There was a gasp coming from around the table as they turned their attention to the list.
"That's a possibility" Arthur got lost in thought while Ludwig seemed to be the only one to disagree with this theory, or at least he didn't want to believe it.
"He's probably just lost or something, that's all" Feliciano patted him on his back, a little bit too hard, to comfort him while the others looked at him with pity. Of course he was worried about his brother, who wouldn't be in the same situation? Arthur looked at the watch.
"It's getting late. All of you are pretty much here so we can keep an eye on you until the outer circles are broken so there's not much else to do" A few yawns came from a few nations as he continued "How about we go to sleep for tonight? We live in groups of two or three at the hotel just across the street so go ahead and partner up" He was just about to sit down when he remembered one last thing "Oh right, also, no one goes out alone"
"Then I'll live with Lovi! It'll be just like old times!" Antonio looked way too happy to be turned down so Lovino only sighed and nodded, after all he didn't feel like anything bad would happen so how could it? Future vision could be handy sometimes. Suddenly, they all felt a chill run down their spines just a moment before small knocks were heard from the window. They looked over and felt their jaws drop as they saw a clearly pissed, small Russian fairy banging on the glass.
"We forgot about Ivan"
"We forgot about Ivan"
"We forgot about Ivan!" The sentence was repeated multiple times in disbelief but soon enough, Mathias got up to let him in. As he opened the window they felt how the cool evening wind blew through the room for a moment.
"Ah, I almost thought you had forgotten about me but that can't be the case right?" He flew over to the very disheartened Yao and sat down on his head.
"Of course not!"
"We would never!"
"We totally did." Luckily, Arthur was fast enough to smudge the writing on Alfreds sign before Ivan could read it.
"What a relief, I was really worried" He slid down to land on Yao's shoulder instead. "I heard something about room partners right? Then I'll live with Yao, we have some things to talk about" Yao looked around at the others in an attempt to find a saviour but with no such luck. They just nodded and smiled back.
"I'm a bit surprised that everyone can see you though, being a fairy and all" Arthur seemed a bit curious but was too tired to investigate any further.
"Well then! Now that that's over with, how about we take our leave? Yao, you can fill Ivan in right?" Mathias smiled and stood up as Yao nodded. The others were soon on their feet as well and followed Mathias through the door. He had chosen a hotel that was close to the meeting hall so they didn't have to carry their luggage too far. They easily checked in, since they were the only ones at the hotel, and after carefully whishing Yao good luck they all went to their rooms to unpack and get some much needed showers and sleep.
.
"Finally" Emil laid back on the bed while Mathias unpacked their clothes into the wardrobe they all now shared. They heard how the shower started, Lukas had insisted that he could handle it himself and even though it had taken a bit of swearing and struggling it seemed like he had finally managed.
"Everything alright?" Mathias finished and sat down next to him. "What you got there?" He pointed at a book in Emils lap.
"Oh, it's a book Lovino brought. His unconscious self or whatever told him to bring it" Emil sat up again and opened it. It was one of three books that Lovino had taken with him and it looked very old. He flipped through the pages and looked at the pictures of people often caught up in battle, almost always in pain. "It's for Lukas to investigate, though he can't really read it yet"
"Hmm, I guess he can look at it when he gets his eyesight back." Mathias stretched out on the bed and yawned. "So do you want to share a bed or have your own?" There was only two beds in the room, one double bed for two people to share and a single bed for the third person.
"Alone. I sleep alone" Emil seemed pretty set on not sharing so Mathias didn't argue. Besides, he'd get to keep a close eye on Lukas without having to feel guilty about it. Lukas came out of the bathroom and everything seemed to have gone fine except for the shirt being put on backwards. While Mathias got up to help him, Emil moved over to his newly claimed bed and started reading. He actually found it quite interesting and was soon lost in the book.
.
"I don't think Gilbert is the one" Lovino looked up at Antonio that just got out of the bathroom. He seemed confused for a moment so Lovino added "You know, the one attacking us."
"And why do you think that?" Lovino scooted over as Antonio sat down next to him on the bed while his shadow just stood still on the wall with its hands balled at its sides.
"I just have a feeling, I think I saw him in a dream" He furrowed his eyebrows for a moment "I think you were there too, running from something"
"Maybe you're just worried about me" Antonio stood up and chuckled through Lovinos protests. As he turned around again, Lovino had already gone to bed.
"I'm going to sleep now." He flinched when he felt Antonio scoot down next to him "You sleep somewhere else!" He sat up and stared angrily at the other.
"But it's cold everywhere else! Come on, it'll be like old times again" Still mumbling protests, Lovino laid down again. He was too tired to argue about it for now and because of this, he fell asleep almost immediately despite feeling irritated at the lullabies hummed by the nation next to him.
The dream felt too real this time. It was as if everything was on fire, the sky, the ground, everything. The light was blinding for a moment before it all suddenly got dark. "kas!" Lovino turned towards the voice and started walking. "ukas!" He started running, the voice was filled with panic. It was asking for help. A light showed up in the distance and he could see the shape of a human floating in the darkness. Was he too late? He stopped right next to the person and could finally see who it was. Emils eyes were empty and he wasn't breathing which made Lovino take a frightened step backwards. He tripped over something and fell through the darkness until he was caught by someone. Antonio looked at him with a smile.
"You're mine now" He smiled even wider, it spread creepily over his whole face. Lovino struggled to get out of the grip but Antonio only pulled him in closer "Just like everything soon will be"
He sat up in the bed, panting and sweating. That was the worst one yet, it had felt like it was already happening or was going to soon. As always, the details were already slipping away but right now he remembered enough. He looked at his side at the still sleeping nation and carefully made his way out of the bed. He had to warm the others. The threat wasn't outside, it was already amongst them. The door wasn't far away, but just as he was reaching out for it he heard a soft voice that now sent chills up his spine.
"Where are you going Lovi?"