Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia

Chapter 10

"Great. Way to go, Artie, and here I thought you were supposed to be one of those guys who had a back-up plan for everything or something," Alfred commented upon realizing that they lost Francis. The youth was tired, worried, upset, and just wanted the world to make sense again; and losing their only clue to finding his friend and the mayor did not make any of these emotions vanish.

"Look, we know he went this way and that he was most likely going back to their den. Call in some back up and have the area searched. Hopefully, we will find him and the others soon, but until then we need to keep our heads calm," Arthur ordered slowly. He understood Alfred being upset, but at the moment he did not want the two of them making such a scene in the middle of the shopping district. Wait…the two of them? When did they lose Gilbert?

While Arthur and Alfred unawesomely ran after the werewolf like a pair of normal people, Gilbert decided to act like the awesome ghost he was and simply go through the objects the others had to maneuver around. Due to this, he was able to quickly pass them and stay on Francis' tail when the others got lost, enabling him to follow the man to a small restaurant. There Francis practically fell into a chair panting and Gilbert was able to curiously watch as the man's eyes flickered back to blue.

The two of them stayed focused on their tasks of catching his breath and watching the other that they almost missed the light-hearted laugh of the only other person out in the sitting area. They did notice the laugh, however, causing them to look in that direction surprised and see the smaller, familiar vampire sitting there. Upon being noticed the vampire asked, "What's up, puppy? Did Arthur decide to let you have a morning run?"

"You look familiar, did I meet you somewhere?" Francis asked Vlad, mentally going through the list of people he knew for some clue as to who this stranger was.

"It's okay if you don't remember me from a couple hours ago, you were pretty worked up at that time. Didn't like having you try to trample me, however. Oh, and hi ghost," Vlad answered evasively.

"Hi Vamp. Shouldn't you be sleeping in a crypt or something?" Gilbert asked with a smirk. Both of them had resided in the area for many decades and had more or less learned about eachother simply by existing. What could they say, the supernatural have a way of meeting with eachother whether on purpose or otherwise.

"Well I was on my way home, but I was still kind of hung-over from the other day at the bar and I smelled something nice in here so I decided to drop by. But now the sun is about to rise and unless I feel like trying to get into the sewers I'm stuck here until tonight," Vlad answered happily, only to have his mood darken when a yelping noise came from the back, causing him to continue, "However if this feeling I have is right, I might want to take a little walk down there."

Before Gilbert could ask what the vampire was getting at, a man with a large smile, curly brown hair, and matching ears and tail rushed out of the back and practically threw himself into hugging Francis. As the man did this he said, "Francis! Thank goodness your back, we were starting to wonder what happened to you. I knew that you were talking earlier about running away from us but I told them you wouldn't! We're amigos and we stick together, right? Wow, you look pretty tired…wait here and I'll get you something to drink, okay."

With all of this said, the other man left for the back to get Francis a glass of water, completely ignoring the intrigued ghost and vampire. Once the man was gone, Gilbert asked, "Was that another one of these werewolf guys?...kesese, looks like I found the den! Now to just get-," Gilbert's sentence was cut short, however, when Vlad slapped the air to make the ghost's mouth momentarily disappear when the other werewolf re-entered the room.

Francis greedily gulped down the glass of water given to him, still panting when the glass was empty. After doing so he asked, "So what have I missed Antonio?"

"A lot really. According to Romulus we're all ready for tonight. We did not even need you to bring Feli here since he came all by himself. So now we just need to lay low for the rest of the day and by tomorrow the city will really begin taking its new form," Antonio happily commented.

"Toni, don't tell me that you actually believe that guy. I mean, has he even told you what the plan is, because I have no idea," Francis asked, causing Antonio to pause and think the idea over.

"I don't know either…but Lovi really seems excited about it and so does Sebo so it can't be all bad. Besides, he keeps saying that as long as we do what he asks everything will be okay. Anyways, you should get back there and report where you've been," Antonio said, only to then finally realize the other two listening to the conversation. Antonio gave a slight smile to the two of them before saying, "Sorry guys, but I just heard that we're going to be closed today so you should probably get out."

"Do we have to? It looks like it's going to be so bright out today," Vlad pouted upon looking out at the now risen sun, shading his eyes from the light.

"Sorry, but that's what our new boss said," Antonio answered, only to pause when another man entered the area and looked at the two guests. The man was Romulus, and he could not help but give the two guests an intrigued look when he realized what they were.

"No, don't let them leave. Instead, Antonio, I want you to show him to where we are keeping our other guests. It might be…interesting to see if we can turn a vampire, but for that to happen it will need to wait for later," Romulus answered with a slight smile and a snap of the fingers; causing Antonio's green eyes to turn yellow and for Vlad to go on edge and expect the fight.

In a fraction of a second, Antonio lunged at Vlad, ripping the vampire's jacket with suddenly produced claws. The jacket was all that was hurt, however, for Vlad was able to leap out of the way and land a safe distance away; a slight smirk glinting in his red eyes. It had been a long time since he had a real fight, not since Lukas and Arthur tried chasing him out of the city almost five years ago as part of their wizard initiation.

Again Antonio attacked the other, Vlad using every trick he knew to stay out of the powerful grip. But the odds were quickly turning against him as Romulus opened the curtains of the many sun-filled windows, allowing the bright light to fill the room and sap Vlad's strength. Gilbert seemed to notice this, and tried to stop the werewolf from opening windows, but he started too late. Soon the room was completely filled with light and Vlad found himself needing to rush into the backroom and into a windowless closet or risk turning to dust due to the rays.

"Humph, and here I thought that you vampires were supposed to be the not-run-and-hide types. Perhaps turning you will be easier than I thought," Romulus smirked while locking the closet from the outside. He then turned to the others and said, "Good job Antonio. Elizabeta, I want you to make sure that he does not escape. As for you Francis, come with me and tell me where the hell you have been."

With this said, the group left the area for their own tasks; leaving it rather easy for Gilbert to float into the closet and see how Vlad was. In response to the question Vlad answered, "I can't believe I let some little wanna-be werewolf chase me into a closet. The other vampires would probably be laughing at me for this."

"Ya, I guess that was pretty unawesome of you," Gilbert agreed.

"It's not totally my fault though…it's partially Matthias' too. He's the one who got me drunk yesterday," Vlad continued.

"Right, blame the alcohol. Safe defense if you want to look even more unawesome," Gilbert commented, rolling his eyes in the darkness.

"Look, just tell Arthur where I am. This is even bigger than he probably thought," Vlad said with a sigh, leaning against the nearby wall. He was an undead, so technically he did not get tired in the way that the living did, but that still did not mean that he could go without a breather to let his muscles relax. The fact that lately he had had not as much blood as usual, thanks to Lukas supposedly running out, also did not help. But that was not going to stop him from getting out of there and teaching that cocky werewolf a thing or two about dealing with a proud Strigoi.

Gilbert nodded to this and smirked, understanding the look of wishing vengeance painted all over Vlad's face. He then said good-bye to the other and casually floated out of the closet through the door; shocking Elizabeta in the process. Confused, she began to lash out at him, only to become even more baffled when he began to laugh at her fists going right through him.

As always, please review~