Like the day before, Ludwig came across Felicia and Lovino, pinned to the locker sets by Ivan, Natalya, and Sadiq. The three Hasser members didn't even need to hit the two cornered Italians. They simply made a wall around them, and Felicia's bruised face could barely be seen peeking around the three bullies before her.
"Verdammt, can't you just leave them alone?!" Ludwig snapped, stomping over to them and physically shoving slight Natalya away angrily. "For Gott's sake, what have these two ever done to you?!"
"Well, they exist, first of all." Ivan said with a dark smirk, extending his hand to Natalya and helping her up. "Which is a privilege that will soon be revoked from you, I'm afraid." he took a step towards Ludwig, and Ludwig swallowed hard.
"Don't touch him!" came a shout, and a white blur rocketed between. Gilbert, shorter even then Ludwig, boldly got up in Ivan's face. It took Ludwig's startled mind to realize that his brother had been speaking German.
Grabbing his brother's shoulders, Ludwig tried to wrestle his brother away. "Bruder, please get out of this!" he hissed into the albino's ear. "You know that if you get into a fight, Opa might actually kill you!"
"Back off, Lud!" Gilbert snapped, his gaze never leaving the Russian's. Natalya, unseen by either Beilschmidt brothers, snuck up and slammed a pointed elbow into Gilbert's side.
Gilbert yelped, and a second later he turned on her. Ludwig knew all too well that Gilbert had no problems hitting a girl, but Ludwig had slightly more morals than his brother, and he grabbed Gilbert before his brother's fist could connect. With all three Hasser's attention focused on Ludwig and Gilbert, Lovino grabbed Felicia's hand and dragged the lovely girl from the school. Ludwig pushed his brother ahead of him, following the Vargas' example and fleeing from the school.
Not quick enough, unfortunately.
Ivan's fist connected just between Ludwig's shoulder blades, pushing the air from his lungs and causing him to stumble. As Ludwig stumbled, Sadiq kicked a well aimed foot at Ludwig's knees, knocking the blond to the ground. It was at that moment when Ivan slammed his large boot into Ludwig's ribs.
Ludwig seriously thought that he was going to die for a moment. Try as he might, he could not draw any air into his lungs, and his side was on fire. He had had the wind knocked out of him before, but it still wrought the fear of suffocation, of death, no matter how many times he experienced it. Eventually, he was able to draw a trickle of air into his lungs, and he choked on it. Before he could recover, Gilbert grabbed his hand, hauling Ludwig to his feet and pulling the blonde out of the school. They ran all the way to the student parking lot, Ludwig's lungs, side, and back all screaming.
"Holy fuck..." Gilbert gasped, hands on his knees. Ludwig merely panted, arms wrapped around his chest to keep his heart from exploding from his chest.
"G-Gil, we missed the bus." Ludwig gasped, wincing.
"Who cares about the goddamn bus?! Lud, are you okay?! That Ivan creep kicked you hard..." Gilbert's crimson eyes glimmered with concern, seeing how Ludwig nursed his injured side.
"Ja, ja, I'll be fine." Ludwig let out a pained laugh. "I've taken harder hits before. Ivan's got nothing on Opa." he said confidently to reassure his brother, straightening and biting his lip as his kicked ribs pulled.
"I know, but still... Seriously, Lud, you could have broken your ribs. You should see a doctor." Gilbert said, still looking rather concerned.
"I'm fine, bruder..." Ludwig said with a sigh. "Although I think I may join a gym..." he grumbled to himself, making Gilbert smile. "Anyways, how will we get home? It'll take awhile if we try to walk."
"This car is Francis's." Gil said. "He already said he'd drive me home. It shouldn't be any trouble for you to ride along, too."
At that moment, Francis approached, chattering flirtatiously with a couple girls from their school. The girls departed to their own vehicles rather reluctantly, and Francis approached them with smile on his face.
"Bonjour, mon ami!" he fairly gushed to Gilbert, who merely rolled his eyes, laughing.
"Save it for your girlfriends." he told Francis with a smirk. "Anyways, where were all of the goddamn teachers?!" Gilbert cried, turning to Ludwig. "For Gott's sake, isn't their job to PREVENT things like this from happening?!"
"Gilbert, please." Ludwig said, trying to calm his brother. "You're calling attention to us. Knock it off and stop acting like a kind, a child."
"Sorry Lud, I'm just pissed." Gilbert grumbled. "Are you sure you feel okay, Lud? We really could take you to the doctor or something..."
"What happened?" Francis asked, blue violet eyes flickering between the two brothers.
"Nothing." both Ludwig and Gilbert spoke at the same time.
"Anyways, can you give Lud a ride home too, Francis?" Gilbert asked of his friend. "He missed the bus, and it'd take forever for him to walk, and you're already driving me home." he said, raising his pale eyebrows.
"I don't mind, but we have to wait for Isabel. I owe her a ride too." Francis said, making a face. "Damn Spaniard is never on time..."
"Says who?" Isabel said with a mock scowl as she approached. "Keep your pants on, Francis, I'm here now." she said, winking at him.
"One does not simply to the fabulous moi to keep his pants on~" Francis declared, climbing into the driver's seat. "Especially not you, Isabel. You know if I was taking them off for anyone it's be-"
"OI!" Gilbert bellowed. "My baby brother is RIGHT HERE, and he does NOT need to hear this!" he cried, shooting a rather apologetic look at Ludwig, who felt his face warming in a blush from the very awkward conversation.
Isabel burst out laughing, along with Francis. They tried to apologize, but they simply couldn't speak through their laughing. Ludwig grit his teeth and climbed into the passenger seat. He had a feeling that it was going to be a long ride home.
-.-.-.-.-.-
When Francis dropped Ludwig off, Gilbert left with the Frenchman, saying something about catching a movie with Isabel and Francis. Ludwig watched them drive off with a feeling of relief, and turned to the house. He scarcely made it through the front door before he was confronted by Opa, who was drunk and unshaven as usual, and wobbling on his feet.
"Opa?" Ludwig asked in confusion. "What are you doing awake?" he asked in low German.
"You... got a phone call, Failure." Opa slurred, gesturing towards the phone and almost falling in his drunken stupor. "Some girl." he squinted, peering at Ludwig through blurry eyes.
"Yes, I see. Thank you, Opa." Ludwig said, never directly meeting Opa's eyes in fear of enraging the man. Opa merely grunted and shuffled into his bedroom, which was on the ground floor. As soon as the older man was out of sight, Ludwig hurried to the phone.
Opa had somehow had the insight to scrawl the callback number on a post-it and left it on the wall by the phone. Ludwig cradled the phone between his shoulder and ear as he listened to the phone ringing. After a moment, a pleasant, lilting female voice was on the other end of the line.
"Ciao?" Felicia asked.
"H-Hello, Felicia." Ludwig stuttered slightly. "My Opa told me that you had called." Ludwig cringed internally. Felicia had been on the phone with his drunken grandfather, and it was always so obvious that Opa was drunk... He hoped very deeply that Opa had not been rude to the pretty Italian.
"Hi Ludwig~" Felicia said cheerfully. A shout sounded on the other end of the line, and Felicia let out a barely audible squeak. When she spoke next, she sound rather subdued. "I was calling to thank you." she said.
"Thank me? What for?" Ludwig asked. His sore ribs twinged, and he placed a hand over the afflicted area.
"You were so brave, standing up to those bullies like that." Felicia breathed, and Ludwig could hear the childlike wonder in her voice, and he could almost picture her sparkling honey eyes. "Your brother was, too. Neither of you got hurt by Ivan and them, did you?" she sounded rather fearful here.
"Ja, we're both fine." Ludwig said. "The Hasser didn't lay a finger on us."
"Hasser?" she sounded confused.
"Translated as Haters." Ludwig explained. "I'm sorry, I forget that not many people here actually speak German." he said, face-palming.
"It's okay." Felicia said, and Ludwig could hear the smile in her voice.
"Oi! Mistake, get off the line!" A deep male voice bellowed from Felicia's end of the line, and Ludwig cringed, years of hearing the familiar-yet-different tone making him automatically aim his eyes downwards, hunching his shoulders.
"I-I have to go..." Felicia fairly whimpered into the line.
"Okay. I'll talk to you tomo-" The line went dead before he could finish, and Ludwig hung up the phone.
Mistake. Someone, Felicia's father if Ludwig had to hazard a guess, had degraded the lovely Italian girl with a dehumanizing nickname just as Opa had christened Ludwig and Gilbert both as "Failure." It was an area in which Ludwig could understand and sympathize with Felicia completely, and it only furthered his thoughts that Felicia, like him, was being abused in her home life.
On the other hand, for the first time in years, Ludwig had had a successful conversation with a female who wasn't related to him. Normally, he blushed and stammered, tripping over his own words and sometimes even his own two feet. He was a terrible person to be allowed around ladies, and he knew it.
Stuck in the house with nothing to do, Ludwig wandered upstairs and flopped on his bed, face down. However, he ended up curled on his side to avoid aggravating his wounded ribs, which were hurting more than he was expecting. With nothing to do to occupy his time (Opa didn't have a TV or radio, and Ludwig couldn't concentrate enough to read), and soon Ludwig's eyes drifted closed.