The Rating of the story is being moved up to M, you'll figure it out in due time.
Ludwig did not see Felicia again that day, though he searched and searched for her. He felt oddly sick, refusing even the food that Kiku and the others tried to give him. He couldn't recall being spoken to at all, though he was sure he had seen Elizaveta's lips moving, her green eyes on his face.
A hand clapped down on his shoulder, making Ludwig jump a foot off the cafeteria bench at a painful snap into reality. He looked up to see Gilbert standing over him, crimson eyes concerned.
"Lud, what happened to you? You look awful." Gilbert said bluntly, though his eyes spoke of worry.
"F-Felicia, she... something bad happened to her... I mean really bad... She won't speak to me at all, said she can't see me anymore..." Ludwig said, not caring for once that his voice was breaking and shaken.
Gilbert sighed, clearly at a loss of what to say as he squeezed onto the bench between Ludwig and Kiku, who promptly scooted over to give the albino more room. Gilbert wrapped an arm around his brother, pulling the blond a bit closer and letting Ludwig lean his head on Gilbert. Looking up, Ludwig almost had to laugh at Eliza's expression. The brunette looked as though she were going to explode from the scene of brotherly love and support taking place before her. Even if she supposedly hated Gilbert.
"Well, Lud, maybe I can try talking to her." Gilbert offered. "Try to figure out what's going on. If you want."
Kiku broke in unexpectedly. "I do not believe that that would be for the best, Sempai." the Japanese boy said seriously. "I will assume that Felicia-chan does not know you very well. However, she knows me just as well as she knows Ludwig-san. In conclusion, I shall be the one to speak with Felicia-chan."
"Thank you, Kiku..." Ludwig said with a sigh as the shorter boy stood. "Lovino isn't hear today, so you won't have to worry about being interrupted."
With a small bow, Kiku headed off into the cafeteria, seeking out Felicia, until his dark haired head disappeared from Ludwig's sight. Ludwig let out a short breath, and Eliza reached her hand over the table, putting atop Ludwig's and giving it a gentle squeeze.
"Hang in there, Ludwig." the Hungarian girl said, her green eyes kind.
"Yeah." Mei spoke up suddenly. "I'm sure whatever is going on will be rectified soon, and it'll all be okay. Please hold onto your faith." The shy girl, whom Ludwig had found out was Taiwanese, smiled up at him through her dark bangs.
"Danke." Ludwig said sincerely. "All of you."
Gilbert patted Ludwig's shoulder and stood from the table. "I hate to leave you, but Francis and I having Isabel tutor us through our Spanish work."
"Um, why didn't Francis just take French and breeze right through?" Ludwig asked, a bit confused.
"Well, they knew he was a native speaker, so he wasn't allowed." Gilbert explained. "Just like Isabel can't take Spanish cause she was raised in Spain most of her life. So she's tutoring us."
"In other words just giving you the answers so you can copy them in your own handwriting." Ludwig translated as Gilbert moved away, rejoining his friends at his own lunch table. Eliza laughed softly.
Lunch ended soon after, and Kiku did not return to the table before the bell had rung. Nor did Ludwig see the Japanese student throughout the rest of the day, and was forced to head to work, then home with a sense of failure. He carried a cart full of dirty plates towards the kitchen when he hear from behind him:
"Ludwig-san!"
Ludwig turned, seeing Kiku, and hurried to set the cart down on an empty table, wiping sweat from his brow as Kiku hurried up to him. The Japanese student looked out of breath as he finally made it to where Ludwig stood.
"Did you speak with her?" Ludwig asked, feeling something unnamable curl low in his gut.
"H-Hai." Kiku panted, doubled over for a moment as he caught his breath. "I spoke to Felicia-chan, and when what she told me scared me, I asked Gilbert-sempai to tell me where you worked. Felicia-chan is in terrible danger! I think she is going to kill herself!"
Ludwig would swear that his heart stopped, and his stomach dropped to his toes, making him feel nauseous. A part of him was grateful that he had already set the cart of dishes down, otherwise he would have dropped them by now. Kiku noticed the pallor of Ludwig's skin, and pushed the blond with a surprising amount of strength over to the nearest trashcan, where Ludwig promptly dry heaved, stomach twisting but offering no relief. After a moment he finally vomited, before wiping his mouth and straightening shakily.
"I apologize for touching you, Ludwig-san, but I thought it better if you didn't throw up on the floor." Kiku said hurriedly. "And we must go! Felicia is in danger!" The Japanese boy was so distressed that he even forgot the -chan suffix he always put on her name.
Not needing to be told twice, Ludwig tore off after the smaller, raven haired boy. He never even told his boss or anyone where he going. He just left.
"Where is she?!" Ludwig shouted as they ran.
"I think that she is at home!" Kiku called back. Lovino-san said that her room is in the basement, and I know their house has windows level with the ground! Come on!" The Japanese boy picked up the pace even more. For a tiny fellow, he sure was fast...
After what seemed like forever, they approached Felicia's house. Kiku didn't hesitate, running straight to the window and peering inside, and Ludwig fairly staggered for a moment, trying to breathe as he joined Kiku at the ground level window.
"Can you see her?" Ludwig asked, half noticing that his voice was a bit higher than normal.
Kiku shook his head somberly. "I cannot, Ludwig-san." he said.
Ludwig felt his heart seize, and he rushed to the front door without thinking. He knocked. Not loudly, afraid of upsetting Felicia's foster parents, but urgently. He waited in the following silence with bated breath, ready to flee at a moment's notice. A moment later, the door opened a crack, and a green eye peered through the opening.
"What the hell, Ludwig?!" Lovino whisper yelled, pulling the door open farther as he scowled at the out of breath German on his porch. "And you too, Kiku? What the hell are you guys doing here?!"
Kiku pushed past Ludwig, standing directly in front of Lovino. "Please let us in, Lovino-san!" the Japanese man said, sounding worried. "Please, we need to help your sister!"
At these words, Lovino faltered. He asked them no questions, simply opened the door wider, warning them to keep quiet as they took off towards Felicia's basement bedroom. He followed, his angry facade slipping to reveal just how worried he was for his little sister.
Once they reached the door, Kiku twisted the doorknob, but it was to no avail. The door was locked. He jiggled the knob, and just when Ludwig was sure that they would have to kick the door down to reach her, Lovino came up to them, sliding past them and unlocking the door with a large skeleton key.
Ludwig burst into the room, eyes darting around wildly, but he did not see Felicia. He went quickly to the bed and yanked back the blanket, half expecting to find her underneath, but what he found was more alarming. The amazingly white sheets were stained with blood. Not a lot, but enough to make Ludwig swallow hard. He crossed the room to a door that blended in with the off-white, impersonal walls, and yanked it open with no resistance. It led into a small, crowded closet-type storage area, and for a moment, Ludwig didn't see her.
Then he saw a fallen coat shift, and he lunged forward, yanking it away, and there lie Felicia. She seemed to be only half conscious, and her lovely honey eyes blinked befuddled up at Ludwig. For a moment, Ludwig could see no damage, and he began to relax. Then, his eyes focused. He saw the pallor of her skin, the sweat matting her red bangs to her face, the symptoms associated with significant blood loss. Then he noticed her arms.
Her sleeves were long, but the blood had soaked through the fabric so easily, spreading across the fabric, dripping steadily down her fingers and pooling on the floor. The coat that she had hidden beneath was bloodstained as well.
"Mein Gott, Felicia!" Ludwig reached into the closet and pulled Felicia out easily. It was like the girl weighed nothing. He carried her to her bed.
"I'll get the first aid kit..." Lovino practically whimpered before tearing out of the room as soon as he saw the blood. Kiku helped Ludwig lay Felicia on the bed, and they pulled up her sleeves.
Ludwig had heard somewhere once that people only cut for attention. He did not believe that. He knew people cut because the physical pain was better than the pain inside. He also knew that many times, people cut straight across their wrists, a way that was definitely not harmless but wouldn't necessarily kill them. Felicia had cut the way that those who were serious about dying did. Wrist to the crook of her elbow, one perfectly straight line up each arm. He felt sick, seeing the still bleeding wounds, but he took action immediately. He tore his jacket off, breathing too fast as he tore the sleeves off, using them to bind the wounds as tightly as he could, trying to keep her from losing more blood. His hands shook, but he paid that no mind as he glanced at Felicia's face. Her honey eyes were still open, she seemed too weak to protest against their hopefully life saving action. Her skin was so pale, and Ludwig was worried. How much blood had Felicia already lost by the time they had found her?
And then Lovino was back, a first aid kit clutched tight in his white knuckled grip. Ludwig snatched it from him, opening it, and feeling a flash of relief that it was such a well stocked kit. There was everything in here, from band aids to compression bandages, and Ludwig pulled out the latter, tossing some to Kiku. Together, they tried to stop the bleeding of Felicia's wounds.
"Ludwig-san, I can't get the bleeding to stop!" Kiku sounded positively panicked. Ludwig merely nodded. He was having the same problem, and his hands were slippery with Felicia's lifeblood.
This is it. His stunned mind supplied. She's going to bleed out right in front of me. He seemed oddly calm suddenly as he realized this, but did not stop applying pressure with the bandages, until a smaller hand knocked his out of the way.
Ludwig looked up, seeing Lovino shove past him in slow motion. The redheaded boy tore through the first aid kit, pulling out something that reminded Ludwig an awful lot like tweezers. Lovino bent over Felicia's arm with the device and a small pair of scissors. After a moment, Ludwig realized what the Italian boy was doing. Sutures. He was giving his sister stitches...
Not wanting to be in the way, Ludwig stood against the wall, hardly breathing. Every now and again he could see Felicia twitch or wince, and each movement helped ease the knot of fear in his throat, if only for a fleeting moment. Lovino finished with one arm, tossing Ludwig a roll of gauzy bandages.
"Wrap the stitches!" Lovino ordered breathlessly, his green eyes giving away the panic that his steady hands hid so well. He went to Felicia's other arm, repeating the process with the second wound. Ludwig did as instructed, wrapping the surprisingly neat stitches with the gauze.
Ludwig held Felicia's hand as soon as he finished with the gauze, and her skin was cool beneath his. There was still warmth in the skin, which Ludwig was grateful. He was being reminded all too much of the death of his parents, waiting in the wreckage of a car accident, watching his parents die as he waited for the ambulance to arrive.
Lovino straightened suddenly, and he was bloody as Ludwig and Kiku was. The Japanese boy wrapped the other set of stitches with gauze.
"H-Hell..." Lovino whimpered softly, covering his eyes with a bloodstained hand. Now the boy was trembling, minute tremors that shook him from head to toe.
"Pardon me, Lovino-san." Kiku spoke up a bit hesitantly. "How do you know how to use sutures?"
"A-Ah, I learned a few years ago..." Lovino said. The Italian looked disarmed simply by the absurdity of the situation, his normal bad attitude gone. "I-I want to be a doctor someday, you see?"
"That's lucky right now." Ludwig said, letting out a shaky breath, clutching Felicia's hand tighter, a bit afraid that if he let go, Felicia would slip away.
The girl was unconscious or asleep, and she continued to breath in unsteady, but even, little breaths, and the fear began to loosen its hold on Ludwig's heart, letting him breathe again as well. He was shaking like mad, worse than Lovino, and there was blood all over his work uniform.
"Yeah." Lovino said, his voice rather soft.
"Maybe Ludwig could stay here until she wakes up." Kiku offered, casting a knowing glance between German boy and Italian girl. "I would offer to stay as well, but Mei will worry if I am not home."
"What about your parents?" Lovino asked Ludwig a bit sullenly, the regular bad attitude returning.
"My parents are dead." Ludwig said flatly. "My bruder and I live with our Opa, our grandfather, and he's an abusive alcoholic."
Lovino looked at a loss for words for a moment. "Ah." he finally managed, nodding slightly.
"What would drive Felicia to do this?" Kiku wondered aloud.
"She's always cut." Lovino said, looking down at his sister. "It's just how she copes. But... Something really bad must have happened to her last night... I could hear her scream, but I couldn't do anything.."
Felicia's honey eyes opened suddenly. Their honey colour was hazy from blood loss, but they sparkled just a bit when she saw Ludwig.
"Luddy." she whispered softly.
"Why would you do this to yourself, Felicia?!" Ludwig wasted no time before getting straight to the point.
Felicia grew even paler, and she looked like she were going be sick. She spoke so softly that Ludwig had to bend over her, and still could not hear.
"What?" he asked, urging her to repeat herself louder.
Her honey eyes met his.
"He... He raped me..."