When the family took Gilbert home, they showed him around the fancy apartment and where everything is and Tino and Peter chatted to Gilbert more, even though he's gone mute. He still replied with nods and smiles or head-shaking. Peter has really taken to the albino and walked around with him a lot except when Gilbert needed the bathroom and the little boy respected his privacy by waiting outside until the German re-emerged.

Tino didn't mind Gilbert living with them at all. Berwald was most relieved by his calm attitude towards the new resident, and it seemed to stop the Finn from attacking him randomly. But since Tino's taken some of the new medication that Ivan secretly sent to their address, he's been relaxed all the time. Almost TOO relaxed. It worried Berwald, having his husband take medicines that a stranger sent them, but they didn't seem to harm Tino, so he's taken a sigh of relief. The medicines came in simple boxes labelled as legitimate drugs, courtesy of Ivan.

"I don't know where you find these pills, Ber, but they're doing wonders for us and our marriage," Tino cheerfully remarked, snuggling close to his husband one night. Berwald smiled and ruffled his hair, kissing his forehead.

"I'm glad they're helping you," he murmured. He hugged the smaller male around his waist. "How's things going with Eduard then? Is he helping you?"

"Well…" Tino began, "we just talk about how our lives have been since we left university, and a lot has happened since we graduated. For instance, I got married to the best husband in the world," he chuckled and nuzzled Berwald's neck, "while Eduard carried on with psychology studies and wrote his own paper."

"It sounds like he doesn't have much time for a social life," Berwald said.

"He does have the time, but he doesn't really have any friends that he knows well to hang out with, until I met him at the supermarket," Tino replied with a smile, "he was the only friend of mine who can tolerate my liquorice addiction back at uni."

"Aha, I see," his husband chuckled and hugged him close again, feeling glad the bedsheets are keeping the warmth in.

"Berwald, is Gilbert feeling okay?" Tino suddenly asked.

That took the Swede by surprise. "Huh? How do you mean?"

"Well… I wasn't expecting him to be chatty or move around that much, but he seemed to be feeling down a lot lately, even when Peter's around," Tino explained. "Peter really enjoys talking to him a lot as well, though he doesn't seem to notice Gilbert's low mood."

Berwald began to think, sighing softly, as he remembered everything that he knows about Gilbert, Gilbert's family, his job, his boss…

"Well… he lost his baby, so he's probably feeling the shock of that right now, rather than feeling trauma sooner."

"That's so terrible…" Tino mumbled and shut his eyes. "If anything happened to Peter, I'd never forgive myself. Even if Gil's baby wasn't born, I'd feel bad if it was me…"

Berwald simply kissed his forehead again, giving him a tight hug. "He'll be fine if we keep an eye on him. These things take time to heal."

How long it takes for time to heal wounds, he'll never know and neither will anyone, including you.

It's been 5 days since Gilbert moved in with them when Berwald's mobile began to ring unexpectedly. He was sitting at the table eating some breakfast when the device went off.

"Huh? A call?" he murmured and answered the call. "Oxenstierna, speaking."

"Berwald, my dear comrade…~" a voice cooed and the Swede almost dropped his mobile in shock.

"…Ivan?"

"Da, I'm so happy you remembered me~! I was so worried since I saw you go into the burning flats to rescue Gilbert, but it seems as if you're both alive now."

Berwald glanced up across the table to see Peter and Tino happily chat together while washing their dishes. Gilbert isn't around as he's currently sleeping away in the guest room. Nobody should be listening in on the phone conversation.

"What do you want?" Berwald hissed.

"Only Gilbert, silly," Ivan chuckled, "but at my club, I noticed that my best stripper has been missing for a few days and I had a few disappointed war lords who had to make do with the less experienced workers. I want Gilbert back and working for me immediately."

"Like I would allow that," the Swede snarled into the phone, but calmed down and looked up just as Tino glanced over with a curious frown.

"Berwald? What's wrong?" he asked, blinking. Berwald raised his hand to signify that he's busy and quickly got off his seat to leave the apartment and went outside to stand in the empty corridor, shutting the door behind him. The walls and door are soundproof, so hopefully nobody will listen in on him.

"What was that, Berwald?" Ivan giggled, "interlopers?"

"No, my family, the one you threatened to kill, remember?" the man grumbled.

"Oh yes! I remember now! Though I'd love to torture Tino in my own special way…~" the Russian cooed.

"What. Do. You. Want?" Berwald growled, trying not to yell.

"I just want Gilbert to come back to work for me. I have excellent make-up artists who can hide his scars in no time, and this time I want you to come back to be his little toy from 6pm until 9pm as usual everyday."

"What's the point? Seriously?"

"You know too much of everything that I do, Oxenstierna. All you have to do is get laid with Gilbert and I won't kill your family or expose this little scandal to the press about a family man who's cheating on his husband with an illegal immigrant. Not the best movie plot, but it's really easy to not do as I say," Ivan laughed softly.

Berwald leant back against the wall, staring ahead as he slid down to sit on the floor. "Just don't hurt anyone… In the end, you're just gonna go back on your word and ruin everything…"

"On the contrary, Berwald, everything that we are doing right now will lead to bigger and better things in life that will benefit the two of us," the other man disagreed. "It's a secret that I know right now, but I'll let you know more about my grand plan later on. Just go to the club with Gil, get laid and go home and everything will fall into place. Get Gilbert's arse to the club tonight."

With that, the phone call got cut off.

Berwald sighed heavily. He was going to bring up the subject of Gilbert's injuries and his mute state, but he couldn't since Ivan cut him off.

"What? You and Gilbert are going to do the night shift?" Tino asked, confused.

Berwald got his coat on while Gilbert silently did up the buttons on his new coat. They both know what they got to do tonight.

"Yes, we are," the Swede lied, "a couple of co-workers are off sick tonight, so we're standing in to do their job."

"Awww but I wanna play on the game station with Gilbert!" Peter complained from where he was sitting on the sofa. Gilbert just gave him a small wave and an apologetic smile.

"Maybe tomorrow afternoon after school," Berwald chuckled, "Gilbert and I are very busy men, Peter."

Gilbert's burns have partially healed up thanks to the aloe vera cream that Tino's been buying and using on him, but even now they're still sensitive to the touch. It's a problem when you have an activity as physical as sex being carried out on a burn victim's body.

In the car on the way to the sleazy district where the Starlight Glitter club is at, Berwald spoke to Gilbert encouragingly, saying how he'll go as gently as possible.

"Besides… Ivan's not that cruel, right? I can't just hurt you, even by accident. I'd hate myself for years if I hurt you. I'll be gentle, and you can just relax as much as possible."

But as soon as they arrived into the designated room where the large round bed is with all the red-coloured decorations and cheesy lighting, Ivan stepped into the room with them with a small smile.

"Hello, boys. You actually turned up on time! So that means I won't have to randomly kill someone to relieve my anger," he chuckled. He stepped over to them and stroked Gilbert's hair, which is still shorter than usual. The albino resisted the urge to whack him in the face. "You look a whole lot better now, Gil. I'm rather happy about that."

Gilbert said nothing, pursing his lips and shrugged.

"What are you doing here, Ivan?" Berwald asked in mild confusion. "We arrived on time, so what're you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm just here to see if the rumour of Gil going mute is true," the Russian replied. His hand reached down to hold the German's chin in his fingers and moved his head to look at his pinkish skin, examining him like he's a piece of meat. Licking his lips, he let go and turned to leave the room, but stopped short without facing the room's occupants. "Oh, and go rough tonight, Oxenstierna. I want him to have his voice back as soon as possible."

"What?!" Berwald snapped angrily, "No! I'm not hurting him! I'm going gentle!"

There was an eerie silence that persisted in the room before Ivan glanced over his shoulder, raising his eyebrow. "That's an order, Oxenstierna. I want you to make him scream. I have a nasty surprise for you and Gilbert if you don't do as I say."

Gilbert was the first to undress, simply shedding all his clothes to the floor nonchalantly while his companion watched with some dismay.

"Gilbert, I'm really sorry I couldn't convince him…" Berwald began weakly.

The German stopped undressing to raise an eyebrow at him. Berwald's sure that he really hates him right now. But then he carried on taking his clothes off until nothing remained and the albino climbed onto the round bed, watching Berwald with those red eyes. His lips moved, but no words came out. He was mouthing something. Hurry up.

With a silent sigh, Berwald took his jacket off, his shirt, shoes, socks, trousers, underwear until nothing remained and he also clambered onto the bed to sit in front of his friend, suddenly feeling shy and exposed.

"Gilbert, if I hurt you, just hit me or something to let me know—" he spoke, but the German leant over to kiss him briskly, resting his hands on his stomach. His hands are cold and they made the skin on Berwald's stomach flinch, but then they held his hips to pull their bodies close together and they kissed again.

Despite their steamy session going on for a long while, with many climaxes being caused by Gilbert's skills, Gilbert himself didn't say a word. Berwald wasn't worried, because hey, if you're having a good time with a skilled hooker, you wouldn't be thinking about many things.

Just as they panted during a quick break, the door suddenly opened and they sat up quickly in surprise. Ivan walked in, humming happily.

"You two did a great job tonight, but I'm not hearing anything from the songbird…" he glanced at Gilbert.

"What do you want now, Ivan?" Berwald asked, trying not to glare at him.

Ivan reached out to Gilbert's hair, stroking it again with is bare hand and grinned. "Oh, nothing much. I just want to join in on the action with you two, since my little toy is off sick from yesterday's heavy romp…~"

Berwald and Gilbert glanced at each other, sharing worried looks. But then Ivan laughed hard and patted the German's back.

"Just kidding! Oh, it's so fun to tease you two…" he chuckled before pulling his mobile out of his pocket. He touched the screen to unlock it and brought up a photo. "But Matthew here seems to enjoy being teased more than you two do."

For a moment, Gilbert frowned as he seemed to remember something before he grit his teeth and pointed at his mobile as if he's demanding to know something.

"Yes, this is your neighbour, Matthew," Ivan hummed and showed him the picture. It was an image of a young man sitting on a chair in a dimly-lit room while being unconscious. His hands were behind the chair while his shirt was missing with marks scattered on his chest.

"What are you doing with him!?" Berwald ranted, holding a struggling Gilbert close by his wrists to stop him from ripping Ivan to shreds.

Ivan shrugged. "Nothing. Just teasing him like I said. Oh, don't give me that look, Gilbert, I'm not hurting him that badly… yet. You gotta talk soon, or I will hurt him. You can't just shut down and leave your friend in worse danger."

But Gilbert didn't listen and tried to kick out at the Russian, only to have Berwald quickly lie him down on the bed face-first and weighed him down with his own body.

"Don't, Gilbert! You'll make things worse for Matthew!" he quickly spoke.

"That's right, Berwald, you're just as reasonable as Toris. Maybe not as submissive, but just as reasonable," Ivan commented with a soft laugh. "We should do it in my office you know if Gilbert's ever too tired or sick to come in for his special times with you."

Berwald huffed and looked away. "Like hell I would."

"Well… there's a small print to our conditions of these meet-ups," Ivan said, "the both of you can't be off, but I won't do… 'nasty stuff' as long as one of you comes here. If either of you come along alone, then you can have fun with me in the office instead. It's nice and private in there."

Later on, after they got showered at the club's private bathrooms, Berwald drove the car silently down the busy roads with Gilbert sitting beside him in the passenger seat.

While they were stuck in the traffic jam, something amazing happened.

"Berwald…" a light voice rasped before Gilbert coughed.

His friend stared at him in shock before smiling greatly and reached over to give his hand a squeeze. "You can talk now?"

"I really couldn't talk back there, I just felt too scared to speak up or something," the German sighed heavily. "If I could, I'd curse that guy with every swears that I know."

"Yeah… Gilbert, I really needed to ask you something, but I couldn't before because you've gone mute," Berwald spoke quickly. The cars in front of him are still stuck in place, so they're not going anywhere right now. "The doctors said you were having a baby."

"Oh…" Gilbert murmured, looking down at his lap.

"I don't usually question qualified doctors, but… is it true that you're a woman?"

"Half and half," the German mumbled, "I started out as a woman when I came to this country, but after meeting Ivan, he got me to have operations to make me more desirable to clients. He was the only man who's keeping me safe and staying in this country."

"And your official name is Maria?"

"Ja, it is. But you can call me Gilbert since you're cool."

"And…" Berwald looked up to see if the traffic lights have changed, but they still remained their bright red colour. He glanced back to Gilbert. "Whose baby was it?"

Gilbert sighed, wiping his cheek. "It was Ivan's. I had a great night with some wealthy oil baron a few months ago and he gave me the biggest payment ever. And then I celebrated with Ivan for the rest of the night, just us in his office, and that's when it… it's been conceived."

That made Berwald's heart drop. "How did you know it was his?"

"Every guy I sleep with MUST wear protection – Ivan's brutally slaughtered people before for not adhering to the wearing protection rule," Gilbert snorted. "It's Ivan's way of making sure that his property isn't 'marked' by anyone else."

"So the baby was Ivan's…" Berwald murmured.

"Yeah… I didn't even know I was pregnant until I woke up in the hospital, but I shouldn't known from eating a lot more pancakes than normal…"

"So Ivan doesn't know about the baby?"

Gilbert shook his head. "Thankfully. And I hope he never finds out. Otherwise it'll plant in some humanity in that stupid heart of his and give him the ability to feel sympathy to everyone."

"…The only chatter we heard on the bug planted in Berwald's car was about Berwald discussing with Gilbert on his hospital treatment," Toris spoke nervously to Ivan as they stood in the office. Ivan was converting a video footage of Berwald and Gilbert's sexual activities onto a blank DVD as the TVs in the offices were old and only played video cassettes.

"Anything interesting?" Ivan yawned.

"Yes… it's about Gilbert, sir. He says that being crushed under the debris at the burning flats has killed his baby," Toris added.

The Russian boss raised an eyebrow, looking at the young man sceptically.

"Come now, Toris, I'm not in a mood to be joking around with you. Gilbert is a man."

"Not fully. He explained to Berwald that you had him transition into half-male half-female to make him more desirable to clients."

Ivan's stare became a glare and he rested his hand on Toris's shoulder. "Tell me you're joking around."

"I-I'm not, s-sir, I have the recording if you want to listen for yourself…" Toris gulped and the other man yanked his hand off him, storming over to his desk to sit down and seize a bottle of premium vodka, flipped the lid off and gulping a lot of the throat-burning liquid down before sighing heavily. He slammed the bottle back on the desk, giving his assistant a steely gaze.

"Now, Toris, unless you want me to tie you to this chair and have your legs dislocated again, use this opportunity to tell me the truth and let me listen to whatever recording you have."

Shivering, Toris fumbled in his pocket to pull out a small recorder and placed it on the table, pressing the play button before some sounds played.

"And… Whose baby was it?"

"It was Ivan's. I had a great night with some wealthy oil baron a few months ago and he gave me the biggest payment ever. And then I celebrated with Ivan for the rest of the night, just us in his office, and that's when it… it's been conceived."

"How did you know it was his?"

"Every guy I sleep with MUST wear protection – Ivan's brutally slaughtered people before for not adhering to the wearing protection rule. It's Ivan's way of making sure that his property isn't 'marked' by anyone else."

"So the baby was Ivan's…"

"Yeah… I didn't even know I was pregnant until I woke up in the hospital, but I shouldn't known from eating a lot more pancakes than normal…"

"So Ivan doesn't know about the baby?"

"Thankfully. And I hope he never finds out. Otherwise it'll plant in some humanity in that stupid heart of his and give him the ability to feel sympathy to everyone."

SMASH!

Toris yelped and stumbled back as Ivan slammed his fist on the recorder to shatter it into hundreds of pieces. One slam was enough to render the device useless for good. While Ivan's hand began to bleed, Toris gulped and immediately ran off to grab the first aid kit before returning to tend to the cuts with plasters and swabs. Luckily nothing dug into his skin, but Ivan was eerily silent while watching the young man clean his cuts and add the plasters over them.

"S-sir? Is something wrong?" Toris asked, body shaking as he mentally prepared himself to run away.

Ivan shook his head, saying nothing while staring at him.

"I was going to be a father, Toris," he spoke blankly.

Toris sighed and hung his head low. "I know, sir."

"But I killed my own child."

"It was inadvertent, sir. You had no idea."

"I only wanted to scar Gilbert, to teach him a lesson for meeting that Berwald and being friends with him…"

"I'm sure there are better ways of letting him know about your disapproval rather than nearly kill him…"

Suddenly, Ivan chuckled before laughing hard. He pressed his hand against his face, trying to hold back his snickering, but he couldn't stop sounding so jovial.

"I just killed the only thing that Gilbert could've used to legally stay in the country and not depend on me to keep him in this country! And to think that I would've killed him if I knew he was pregnant!" he snorted and laughed loudly, slamming the desk with is free hand. He could barely contain himself. Toris stared at him in confusion, not getting how he could look so sad before being so delighted.

After a few moments of having his laughing fit, Ivan relaxed and smiled, running his hand through his hair while looking over Toris.

"Toris, dump your stuff and sit on my lap, I'm in a good mood now…" he purred, unbuttoning the buttons on his long coat. This perplexed the young man, but he couldn't help but obey him and stepped around the desk to fall into his arms, breathing in the scent of gunfire and alcohol with a very slight smile. Ivan's hands held his hips to pull him further up his lap, rubbing their groins together and Toris bit his lip, feeling his ears heat up.

"I'm still hurt from yesterday…" he murmured, but he still unzipped his own trousers hurriedly, looking at Ivan with a confusing load of conflicting emotions varying from fear, lust, love, hope.

A/N: Finally back and updating stuff! As I said in my other fic, I got a job so I probably won't update much, but I'm glad I updated this.