Or 'In Which Everyone is Angry but Gilbert's Awesomeness Saves the Day.' Ha, I like making up titles for these chapters =D
Special thanks to kind-of-heart, zero434, Italiangurlinamessedupworld, and 518ZombiedDreams for the band name suggestions!
Kitty29 here with the forth chapter of 'To Follow The Music for y'all to enjoy. Sorry this chapter isn't as good as the last, I just didn't have many ideas for it, but nest chapter will better I promise ;;
Even so, please enjoy!
About an hour of phone calls and calling in favours later Antonio had taken the kid and left but not before promising to text Gilbert on the kid's status every hour on the hour. Truthfully Gilbert was worried about him. His already pale skin only looked paler as he left with his friend to get medical attention. Not to mention he had another hacking fit this one worst than the last. Seriously, Gilbert wouldn't be surprised if the blond threw up his lung with now bad it was. His throat must have felt like fucking sandpaper, poor kid. So as soon as he felt the familiar buzzing of his phone he stopped everything he was doing to flip open the device and read the latest update.
hes sleepin gettin blood results now
"Are you going to teach me this song or am I wasting my bloody time being here?"
Gilbert put away his phone and looked back at the moody Brit waiting. Gilbert had asked him to come over about half an hour after the kid left the house so that he would teach him the song he and Antonio had written just yesterday and make adjustments to it. Though Arthur was resistant as first at being called over at such an early hour (before noon! What was Gilbert even doing up?) he eventually came round. So after Gilbert explaining his rather hectic morning to his mate they sat down to work on this song.
"Don't be so heartless," Gilbert replied as he put his phone back in his pocket. "Just checking up on the kid I so awesomely saved and making sure he's not dead."
"Why do you even care so much? I thought you were far too awesome to care about other people." Arthur inquired as he began to pluck the notes he learned so far on his bass.
"He's a runaway, Artie! And runaways gotta stick together," Gilbert answered as he began to play along with his guitar. "When I ran away I had Ludwig there with me, this kid has no one! So I declared myself his awesome temporary guardian!"
"Oh, so you're the one who's going to pay Antonio's bail when he gets arrested for toying with expansive equipment?"
Gilbert narrowed his eyes at the other before he quickened his playing. "Why the hell is everyone so fucking negative? Toni's smarter then he looks! He'll be fine!"
Arthur also narrowed his eyes and matched his pace with Gilbert's. "I still don't see why you couldn't take him to a bloody hospital! Once the staff seen all his wounds I'm sure they would contact the police and they would arrest whoever was abusing the lad in the first place! Or did you even think of that?"
"If the kid wanted the guy to be arrested then he would go to the police not run away! I'm not trying to make decisions for the kid! I'm trying to fucking help him!"
"You bloody say that but you don't even know his name! All I bleeding know about him is that he's young enough to be considered a 'kid!'"
As they argued their music sped up. They were far from playing the song they were trying to learn in the first place. They were just playing for the sake of trying to out play the other.
"You rather I know your fucking name or save your fucking lif—" Gilbert abruptly hit a sour note when a buzzing in his pocket knocked him from his focus. He ignored the Brits triumphant smirk as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his device again. A message from Antonio? But it hasn't even been an hour. He quickly flipped open the device his eyes widening as one simple word flashed back up at him.
bad
Arthur, noting that the Prussian wasn't yelling at him about cheating or demanding a rematch, became concerned. He took off his instrument and stood. "What's wrong?"
Gilbert didn't say anything about he handed his phone over for the other to see. Arthur frowned.
"Bad? Bad? What's bad? What does that even mean?" Arthur clicked the call button before he raised the phone to his ear.
"Hey! I have to pay for that! Use your own phone!" Gilbert argued trying to grab the phone back but Arthur pushed him back from the head and held the phone far away from him.
"Calm down you fucking berk!" Arthur yelled. "I'm trying to call Anton—straight to voice mail." He scowled before closing the phone and tossing it back to Gilbert who practically swan dived to catch it.
"Well, fuck! Are you sure?" Gilbert exclaimed as he flipped open his phone and tried calling the number as well, only to get the same result. "Shit, you're right."
Arthur rolled his eyes but decided to keep his comments to himself as he went to sit back down on the couch and gather his bass. "Well, all we can do is wait until he calls us back."
Gilbert shook his head. "No! Fuck that! You drove here right?"
"I am not driving us t—"
Some fiesta sounding music filled the room and Gilbert immanently picked up the phone. "Toni! What's goi—"
"I can't talk for long!" Antonio interrupted before he shouted something that Gilbert didn't catch. There were a ton of voices and machine noises from Antonio's end and Antonio had to raise his voice so that Gilbert would hear him. "His fever worsened! I can't keep him a secret anymore!"
"The fuc—"
"I'm taking him to the ER!"
"Wait! Toni you can't do tha—"
"HAVE YOU BEEN IN MED SCHOOL TRAINING TO BE A FUCKING RESISTERED NURSE FOR FOUR FUCKING YEARS?" Antonio suddenly shouted, forcing Gilbert to pull the phone away from his ear. "IF I DON'T BRING HIM IN HE'S GONNA DIE AND I AM NOT HAVING THAT ON MY CONCIOUS!" There was a sound in the background like someone crashing into something and Antonio cussed. "I have to go."
Dial tone.
Gilbert simply stared at his phone for a bit, letting what just happened sink in. First, Antonio yelled and cussed...at him! It took quite a lot for Antonio to get angry, and even more so to get him angry at his friends. Whatever state the kid was in must have been bad. He slumped deeper into the couch he was seating in and turned to Arthur who, because Antonio was talking so loudy, heard the conversation as well.
"...Well, shit," Gilbert finally said. Truthful he couldn't help but feel bad. It had only been a few minutes ago that he had proclaimed himself the kid's 'awesome temporary guardian' and now he was dieing? Well what the fuck was he suppose to do? Could he even do anything?
...No. He couldn't.
And Arthur saw that as well.
"I... we need to finish this song," Arthur supplied. Gilbert shook his head.
"Nah...not this song it's too...happy." He reached over and shifted through the papers until he came across one that was completely blank. He grabbed the pen from behind his ear and started to write. "Let's do something new."
There was a pause before Arthur nodded and leaned forward to read what the Prussian was writing.
/ / / \ \ \
If wasn't until the next day did the two hear from the Spaniard again. He was much calmer this time around and even apologized for yelling. He informed the two that Matthew was stable, though would have to stay for a few days to make sure he was fine and run some tests. He said that they could come and see him if they wanted, but he would probably be asleep.
So that's where they were now. Gilbert, Arthur, Antonio and Ludwig were all outside the young teens room, waiting for the Spaniard to allow them inside.
"Hold up, one thing before we go in," Gilbert stalled. "What's the kid's name?"
Antonio glanced down at copy of the teen's chart he managed to get his hands on. "It's Matthew. Matthew Williams..."
The three band members looked at each other, each with the same question in their eye. Just why did that name sound so familiar...?
They shrugged it off before Antonio opened the door to let them inside. But before Gilbert could even take a step in he felt the wind knocked out of him when a blond something barrelled into him.
"Oh Gil! Thank you for finding mon Matheiu! Thank you, thank you, merci merci!"
Francis then preceded to plant sloppy kisses over his face in gratitude, in which Gilbert had to quite literally shove the others face away to get him to stop.
"Holy shit, Franny!" Gilbert exclaimed as he wiped his face, "What the hell are you even doing her..." He trailed off when he looked at the Frenchman(really looked at him) and realized two things.
One, with the long blond hair and same basic face shape he looked just like Matthew! And two, Matthew! He thought he heard that name before. It was from Francis! Mathew was the cousin Francis liked talking about from time to time.
"Wait, this Matthew? This is your cousin?"
At that the other other males looked up shocked.
"No way..."
"They do look similar..."
"Ha! It is funny what a small world this is!"
Francis sighed before he physically deflated. "Oui, Matheiu is my cousin, though I have not seen him in years. I had no idea he was going though so much suffering all by himself! I knew his papa was not the nicest of people, but to harm his own child!"
Antonio stepped forward and pulled the shaking blond into a hug which Francis gratefully accepted. "Don't be so hard on yourself, this wasn't your fault..."
And as the Spaniard continued to say sweet things to the other and Francis hand became to wonder down the dark haired mans back Gilbert decided that now would be a good time to go and see the kid. He walked slowly into the room, with Ludwig and Arthur following closely behind him. It didn't take long for him to spot the teen, seeing as he had his own private room and the bed he was laying on took up a good chuck of it. He didn't seem to notice that the males had entered the room, as he was focused on a notepad that he had on his lap and was scribbling something quite passionately on it. He was out of his street clothes and in the a simple white hospital robe instead (Though they seemed to allow him to keep on the hat). Now because of the shorted sleeves the albino could see the bruises and cuts that also stretched up his forearm. Shit this kid really has been though a lot. Gilbert settled himself down on the chair that he guessed was previously occupied by Francis before he spoke.
"Hey," He said simply and the teen lifted his head and blinked at the three of them.
"Hello Matthew," Ludwig said with a small tilt of his head. "It's good to see that you are better."
Indeed, though the teen was still a bit pale and hooked up to a few machines, he seemed considerably better then when Gilbert first picked him up at the park. He opened his mouth to speak but closed it with a jolt before he flipped the notepad to a new page and wrote something.
Doctors say I shouldn't talk much.
And right under that he even added a small sad face causing Gilbert to emit a small chuckle. Cute. Matthew flipped t a new page and wrote something else.
Thank you very much. For everything.
Gilbert flashed him his infamous grin while Ludwig just nodded, his cheeks a little pink.
"Heh, you can always count on the awesome me!" He then glanced at at Arthur, realizing that the usual over vocal bassist was being rather quiet. "Oh right, and this is Arthur. He didn't help you or anything but he's here cause he really has nothing better to do."
Arthur smacked him in the back of the head. "That's not true!"
Gilbert laughed. "Oh don't be so defensive you boring British bastard!"
Arthur's face became red at that. "Why you—" Though he was interrupted by a small tug on his trousers. He turned to see Matthew smiling up at him sheepishly with his hand extended for the other to shake. There was a small pause before the older man took it.
"Y-Yes, hello. I'm Arthur Kirkland." He introduced and Matthew could do nothing by nod, seeing as he wasn't allowed to talk. "So, er, what were you working on lad?"
At that question Matthew seemed to tense. He looked away before hugging the notepad closer to himself and bringing his knees closer to his body.
Gilbert was intrigued. "Ah, c'mon, you can show us! We'll only laugh if it's something that's supposed to be funny, honest."
Matthew looked towards the other at those words but didn't loosen his grip on the pad. Then, after a few moments of consideration practically threw the notes at the albino before he buried his face into his knees.
More curious due to Matthew's reaction, Gilbert flipped open the note pad to it's first page and stared wide eyed at it's contents. "Artie," He breathed, angling the paper so that he could see it as well.
The Brit leaned over the albinos shoulder and also stared wide eyed at the paper. "Notes...?" Indeed, and notes of the musical kind even. But that wasn't all, on the side were some song lyrics (as he also consistently wrote them he could identify it right away). Though they were obviously just the first drift due to it being hastily written and having many of it's verses scratched out, they were still pretty good.
"'Passionate Rebellion...?'" Gilbert read. "...That's probably the most kick ass song name I've ever heard."
Matthew reached forward and grabbed the notepad hugging it back to his chest, his face a beet red. Luckily for him it was at this time that his nurse walked in and informed everyone that they had to take Matthew away for some tests. The males decided that they should take this time to leave the teen be, and walked out to see a happy Francis grabbing onto a oblivious Antonio's behind.
"Bonjour!" Francis greeted cheerfully. "Have a good chat with my adorable cousin? He takes after me, non?"
Arthur grabbed the french speaking man by the ear and dragged him away. "If he ever takes after you I fear for the decency of mankind."
"Ow! No mean to be so jealous! I was just touching not takin-OW!"
"Sorry the visit was so short," The completely unaffected Antonio said as he walked along with the two other males. "But with the police and tests it was hard to find time."
"So what will happen to Matthew now?" Ludwig asked. "Is there any family he could stay with after the hospital?"
"He's staying with Francis after he gets discharged," Antonio answered. "They're family so I'm pretty sure the police will hand Matthew over to him. To bad he can't stay with you and Gil, huh?...Gil?"
Gilbert snapped out of his daze to look at his drummer. "W-What? Oh shit, sorry for zoning... but seriously 'Passionate Rebellion.' It's a fucking kick ass name!"
Antonio just smiled before he waved. "I'll see you here tomorrow, okay?" He said before he turned and went down another hallway.
Thank you crackberries, xxassassinxx18, Player3, aile-chan, MiSs ArIa, fairy-hime-108, Italiangurlinamessedupworld, zero434, bombayxprodigy, gabieblue, 518ZombiedDreams, digi-smile, Sybil Corvax and Chocola Emo Shizzle for the reviews!