A few minutes.

When ludwig woke up, he was in bed next to Feliciano and he felt like he had shut his eyes a few minutes ago outside of the car and now he had...now he was in bed.

His body remained still, just his tired eyes opening to allow the German to see. The room was dark, he could make out the soft breathing of his husband- But Feliciano's sleep sounded troubled if he were to judge it on how fast and short the breaths were.

He realised that while he could hear Feliciano, he could not quite feel him. He knew that if they were sharing a bed as the breathing next to him suggested, then the brunet would be cuddled up to him, his head on his chest and both arms around Ludwig's body. Ludwig knew that he too would be hugging Feliciano, his arms should be around the waist of his spouse. Their legs should be tangled together.

He couldn't feel that. He couldn't feel the Italian on his chest and he couldn't feel their legs tangled together as they usually were and when the time came that he attempted to move his arms he could not feel them either.

He did not feel like he was in his body at all.

And then everything faded back to black.

These past few months had not been successful- the body was deteriorating around him and Lutz has hardly done any of what he was supposed to. It was difficult to do his job when Feliciano was around. He knew that the Italian had noticed Ludwig's body being colder and paler, he had to have seen the dark lines under his eyes and there was no mistaking the open cuts on his arm and body.

Lutz' only explanation was that he was sick, and feliciano had bought it for a while, but Feliciano was not as foolish as he looked and lutz was sure that he was aware of all the plants and fresh food in the house wilting and dying.

Simply put, this body didn't want him here, and it was reacting badly to it. He hadn't been too worried about how sickly it was starting to appear, but when lines along the skin just started to open up and wouldn't close Lutz had become much more concerned.

He had managed to create a general sense of unrest in the city that Ludwig lived in. The police were not enforcing the law, instead they were now being influenced to abuse their power. The crime rate was up, people were losing their jobs. That was all Lutz had to do- fuck stuff up so that bigger groups from specific departments could take over from there.

The demon was sat outside, a cigarette in his mouth as he thought about how much longer he was supposed to stay up here.

000

For Feliciano, Living with Lutz had been horrible, for starters his rosary beads had gone missing. He wouldn't be too concerned if they hadn't been bought for him by his brother when they were being confirmed. All sorts of things were going missing, and for once Feliciano didn't think that he had just misplaced them. His bible, holy water in the container shaped like Mary, a crucifix- those religious items were all gone. Feliciano knew that he hadn't moved them by mistake because he never used them. They were around the house usually but the brunette never really picked them up and did anything with them. The only thing he'd use occasionally were the rosaries and now everything was gone.

And the plants had been dying, they'd been fine before! The milk was going off within a day of buying it, the fruit and vegetables were growing mould and rotting and none of the animals were as friendly as before. They were always barking or hissing or looking afraid and feliciano had taken them to a vet but he hadn't gotten any possible explanation from the woman.

And then there was Ludwig...

Ludwig looked so pale, his eyes, his hair, his skin- the colour had been drained from everything and he didn't know why.

He wasn't eating as much, he was hardly sleeping, he didn't stay in the house long enough for feliciano to have a conversation with him and that wasn't like Ludwig at all.

Ludwig was nice, ludwig was cute and ludwig was kind. Ludwig loved feliciano and he loved their pets, and ludwig wanted to be a father someday and he wanted the other father to be feliciano. Before this had all happened, and he wasn't quite sure what had happened, the two had been talking about adoption.

And now ludwig was cold and distant and he wasn't Ludwig at all.

000

Unrest. Roderich could sense it. The sky wasn't as blue as it used to be, the sun didn't shine as brightly.

And he'd traced the source all the way back to here. To a normal looking suburban house. It looked just like the houses around it. Nothing special about this place at all. He noticed someone sat on the doorstep, and raised a hand to get his attention. Roderich recognised this guy- Ludolf..? Lud..wig? Ludwig Vargas. He taught at the school. The community around here wasn't as tightly knit as it used to be, but Roderich was sure that this guy worked at the local primary school.

When he noticed that the guy wasn't looking at him, he sighed. Asleep outside? Strange, but not unheard of.

The Austrian lowered his hand, raising an eyebrow. From here, he could make out several wounds on Ludwig's body. On his cheek, his arms, his hands. He wondered where an everyday teacher would get hurt like that- the crime rate had been going up, perhaps he had been mugged?

With Ludwig's frame, he doubted that.

Roderich looked at the house for a few seconds more, turning on his heel and leaving afterwards.

Whatever was going on, this place was in the middle of it.