Chapter 25. Things We Lost.
"Where are we going, again?" Alfred asked curiously as he followed Arthur through the shadows of the capital. He had no idea why they were there or what they were doing, though Arthur had only come equipped with a single pistol, so Alfred didn't think that it would be a serious mission.
"Hush," Arthur scolded him, hardly stopping long enough to look back at him. Alfred sighed slightly as he followed the man through the back streets. There were a few soldiers here and there but they avoided them easily enough. Arthur checked the streets every time they passed a sign, so that meant that they were going to a specific location.
"Where are we going?" Alfred pressed, but quietly.
"I don't have time to explain," Arthur said rather quickly, stopping short of a major street with soldiers patrolling it. Alfred huffed behind him, but looked ahead. There was a small gap when the soldiers turned and he reacted faster than Arthur, dragging him with him across the street. Arthur wasted no time walking ahead of him once again. Finally, they stopped in front of a street that separated them from…a graveyard?
"What is going on?" Alfred asked skeptically, though when he glanced at Arthur, who hadn't made a move to walk forward, he let out a sigh. Arthur looked…uncertain, almost scared. So this had something to do with his past, huh? "Arthur, I'm not gonna-"
"It's nothing important, don't worry," Arthur muttered and began to walk forward, though Alfred noticed something when he looked back, just to see if there were soldiers. People were walking right towards them. If they were walking in broad daylight, without the fear of being caught by soldiers…
"Arthur," Alfred said simply, gripping onto Arthur's wrist. Arthur glared back at him before attempting to wrestle his hand free. "Someone's here." Arthur got the message easily enough; they needed to hide. Alfred could easily spot a recently abandoned building nearby and both of them ran towards it. Alfred supposed he had caught sight of them before they could see him. Once they made it up to the top floor, Alfred pulled out his gun, just in case. Arthur did the same.
Eventually, two figures showed up and Alfred recognized them easily. Roderich and Matthew. What were they doing here?
"You know anything about this?" Alfred asked Arthur carefully. Arthur just stared ahead, watching them carefully. "Arthur."
"Hush," Arthur said and Alfred fought back a growl.
Alfred watched them quietly, keeping his gun level on them in case they moved too suddenly. Roderich knelt down at a grave and Arthur stiffened. Matthew stayed standing and looked around. Alfred flinched once Matthew's eyes locked on where they were.
Arthur sighed heavily as Matthew raised a pistol to their location.
"What now?" Alfred asked him. "Are you finally gonna talk?"
"Get down there," Arthur sighed. "You don't have many bullets left and you still have your swords. I can give you cover from here."
"You're telling me something when I get back," Alfred sighed, shaking his head as he swiftly ran back down the stairs. Arthur fired the shot first, oddly enough. Was he really that on edge? Matthew fired back, naturally as did Roderich. Alfred sighed as he reached the bottom floor and carefully looked through one of the windows that enabled him to easily see the graveyard from where he was. He needed some way to catch them off guard to give him the upper hand. What he would do once he got them into a fight, he had no idea. There was no telling if they were still on orders to not engage seriously and Alfred didn't even know what they were there for. This was definitely not a good place for him to be in.
Alfred fired a single shot from where he was, attracting Matthew and Roderich's attention long enough for Arthur to be able to fire a few more. His aim was shoddy at best, but it was getting the job done. It was obvious at least Matthew was ready to leave. Roderich, however, was putting Alfred on edge.
Alfred jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding a bullet from Roderich. Alfred gritted his teeth and ran forward, into the graveyard, hiding behind one of the small stones as cover.
"Roderich!" Matthew snapped and a bullet flew off in an odd direction. So Matthew was helping him now, huh? Matthew sounded very different from the last time Alfred had heard him. He was more collected now, apparently, and colder. "Cease fire and retreat!"
"Why should I?" Roderich scoffed. Arthur fired another shot and Alfred heard them move around. He glanced around the side of the stone he was hiding behind. Matthew was holding onto Roderich's arm, which held a gun, successfully holding back the weaker man. Matthew had even dropped his gun. Alfred stored his gun in his pants and stood up from the stone carefully, hands in front of him. He motioned for Arthur to stop his own shooting.
"Neither of us wants to fight, let's just go our separate ways," Alfred offered and Matthew met his eyes carefully before nodding.
Matthew attempted to lead Roderich away, but Roderich managed to wrestle his arm away from Matthew and aimed right at Alfred's head. Alfred reacted quickly, moving his arms in front of his face. The sparks that shot through his right arm as the bullet skated through coursed through Alfred's entire body and he felt the bullet nestle in his left arm. Alfred flinched when he tried to move his right arm and it refused to even budge. Alfred shoved his arm to the side with his left, attempting to ignore the pain that shot through his shoulder. He pulled out his gun once again and aimed right at Roderich's head. The man didn't even seem fazed by this, running right towards Alfred with his gun still pointed at him, ready to fire just waiting for a better shot, despite Matthew practically screaming at him. There was only one way out of this with the way Roderich was acting.
Alfred fired his gun once again, but Roderich's head moved just as Alfred's bullet skated him by. Alfred hadn't noticed the other gunfire that came from above until Roderich laid on the ground with a bullet through the side of his head. Alfred looked at Matthew, who stared at the scene with wide eyes. Sparks continuously shot into Alfred's shoulder and he winced, dropping his gun to hold onto his broken arm. Arthur ran down the stairs in a matter of seconds, standing beside Alfred with his gun pointed at Matthew.
"Why?" Alfred muttered.
"I'm never going to allow you to shoot a person you know," Arthur said simply. Alfred stared at his fallen comrade and he couldn't help but wonder why Matthew hadn't fled yet.
Matthew was more than shocked when Roderich finally managed to wrestle his arm away from him. Roderich was out of his mind with anger and seeing Alfred certainly didn't help. According to Roderich, Alfred was a part of the team that had killed Elizabeta and that was all that mattered. Roderich actually landed a good shot on Alfred, too, taking out Alfred's right arm as he went to protect himself. Matthew pulled another gun on Roderich, ready to fire if he needed to. Roderich had not been given permission from the king to kill Alfred. Alfred was ready to shoot as well as Roderich ran forward, but what surprised Matthew was not the fact that Alfred actually fired.
The surprise came from the shooter above, shooting Roderich directly through his head, making him drop to the ground. Alfred dropped his gun, either out of pain or surprise Matthew couldn't tell, and held onto his broken arm, staring at the scene in front of him. Matthew felt a little bit of panic. Alfred had just said that they didn't want to fight, yet Arthur came from the building with his gun pointed at Matthew, just in case. Matthew hadn't even wanted to fight and…and his own friend had fallen? Roderich hadn't even returned to himself yet, he had been blinded too much by his own rage…
Matthew dropped his gun, pulling out his others and his knives, dropping them on the ground as well. He met Alfred's eyes and his brother nodded, carefully moving to place a hand on Arthur's arm holding a gun. Arthur met his gaze for a fraction of a second with confusion. But Arthur dropped his own gun eventually and Alfred nodded to him.
With a heavy sigh, Matthew slowly made his way to the corpse of his friend. Matthew knelt down and closed his eyes, ensuring he didn't make sudden movements that would make Arthur shoot. There was no doubt the man was already jumpy, considering the fact that he was at the graveyard of the man that had bought and sold him years ago. Matthew hefted Roderich onto his back, ignoring the warm blood that trickled onto his neck. Alfred moved Arthur away from the entrance carefully as Matthew walked by.
"Thanks," Matthew muttered before looking at Arthur. "I don't know why you're here, there's no one to pay respects to." With that, Matthew took off running. He ignored the tears that had started to fall with the body on his back as he ran through the streets, ignoring the concern the soldiers around him showed. Some of them must have been attracted to the commotion, but Alfred and Arthur should have been long gone by now, if they were smart. Matthew shifted the dead weight on his back as he continued to run. He had no idea what he would do, but he couldn't leave another friend, that much he knew.
Roderich had been a good man, he just lost himself in the end, Matthew couldn't blame him for that. He had to do something. He had to ask Ivan for this one favor, after the king had done so much for him. He couldn't let Roderich be forgotten, not like Elizabeta, not even like Feliciano. No one should have to suffer like that.
Alfred cried out in pain as the shocks surged through his arm and into his shoulder, shocking his entire torso. His left hand gripped hard onto his right shoulder, his right arm left on display on the table in front of him. Arthur flinched as he watched. Alfred's arm was shot clean through, shooting out sparks through the hole and Alfred was in pain. He never showed pain before, but this must have been incredibly painful, making him scream as he was. Francis was good with technology, yes, but this was advanced. The second they made it through the door of their hideout, Francis had Alfred take off his usual, long-sleeved shirt that hid most of his prosthetics and forced him onto the couch, Alfred's right arm on the little table. Gilbert had quickly gotten his tools.
Francis was hard at work, trying to fix the wires, each little movement forcing electricity through Alfred's system and resulting in another scream from the man. Alfred's right hand still had yet to move.
"For God's sake, Francis, can't you do this any better?" Arthur snapped as Alfred bit his lip so hard it drew blood after just a second.
Francis sent him a small glare before he continued to work as quickly as he could, Alfred jolting every once in a while, but keeping his right arm still as possible.
"What the hell even happened?" Gilbert pressed and Arthur finally tore his eyes away from Alfred. "Where did you even go?"
"It was to stake out the capital," Arthur muttered, knowing Francis was too busy to make any comments about the lie. Arthur had been stupid, in reality. He had gone to see the grave of the person that had first owned him. And taken Alfred as a guard, but more people than necessary had gotten hurt. "A simple mission. We were…found out by the other side. Matthew and Roderich were there. Matthew tried to hold him back, but Roderich…lost it. We had to shoot him down."
"Roderich's…dead?" Gilbert asked carefully, with wide eyes.
"I'm afraid when he died, he wasn't quite like the Roderich you explained to us," Arthur shook his head. "He was angry, he was hostile, and he was careless."
"You haven't killed a lot of people, right?" Lovino asked casually. Despite Alfred's near constant screams and the severity of the situation, Lovino seemed right as rain. He simply smirked happily, as if he was proud that another member of that team was down. "How was it?"
"Don't make light of this," Arthur said simply. Alfred let out a louder scream than usual and Arthur looked back at him to find that his hand had clenched into a fist, but it didn't seem like he was moving beyond that. "We can stop if this is too much for you."
"What good am I with only one arm?" Alfred asked, with an oddly collected voice. He was in obvious pain, but perhaps he had been through worse. Arthur wasn't about to ask. "Keep going." Francis nodded, albeit shakily, as he continued to work with the wiring inside of Alfred's arm. Arthur noticed that the prosthetic did seem like it was fairly close to an actual arm, but there were parts of it, like the elbow and wrist, where it was just a ball socket. The hole went straight through Alfred's forearm, to the point where Arthur could see the table through it. It occurred to Arthur what would have happened if Alfred didn't have these prosthetics, all because he thought it was a good idea to see a dead man.
"Don't go hard on yourself," Gilbert sighed. "Everyone fucks up every once in a while. Doesn't look like Alfred's mad about it. How could you have known they would find you?"
"Yeah," Arthur muttered. He still wondered what those two were doing at that graveyard. Roderich knelt in front of the grave of the man Arthur had gone to see and Matthew had even told him that there was no one there worth respect. Did they know who Arthur had gone to see?
"The odd part is that Kiku wasn't there," Gilbert mused. "I gotta know what the king's up to now that I'm not in the loop anymore."
"I haven't a clue," Arthur winced when Alfred screamed again and this time, his fingers started to move. He nodded for Francis to keep going. It looked like nearly all of the wires were back in place. The only problem was that they didn't have the equipment to close that hole. "It seems the orders still stand to not engage seriously. Or else Matthew would have actually tried to kill us. The oddest part, however, was the fact that Matthew took the body with him."
"He did?" Gilbert asked, a surprised look tracing his face. "He's not supposed to…"
"The only reason they didn't collect Elizabeta was due to the fact that we were in the building," Arthur sighed.
"We don't exist," Alfred said simply, holding up his right arm and moving it around, wincing only occasionally. "All of us were erased completely when the king took us in. We don't get a burial. We get forgotten. It's as simple as that. I don't know what Matthew was thinking, taking Roderich with him."
"Perhaps he wanted to change that," Arthur mused as Alfred held out his left arm for Francis to take out the bullet that was still lodged in it. He only winced slightly as it was taken out and Francis assessed the damage.
"That's why I let him do it," Alfred sighed. "Looking back at it, if I could do the same for Elizabeta and Feliciano, I would."
"Too late to take it back now," Lovino scoffed.
"Thank you," Ludwig said simply and Alfred nodded to him, wincing as Francis connected a few wires.
"Not quite good as new, but as close as we can get it," Francis nodded, glancing at Arthur. Arthur turned to look out the window. The sun had begun to set by the time they had come back. Alfred was slower, what with his arm hanging useless and causing him pain the entire way back. "I'm sorry we don't have anything to close the holes."
"I'll just wear a shirt like I usually do, no one's gonna notice," Alfred said nonchalantly.
"I'm going to rest," Arthur sighed, walking swiftly out of the room that seemed like it was already too full. "It's been a long day."
"I suppose so," Francis hummed and Arthur shook his head. The door to his room closed behind him as he entered and he let out a long sigh. He hated to admit it, but his heart had practically stopped when he saw the bullet hit Alfred. He had worried if Alfred had actually been hit. For a moment, he forgot that Alfred had prosthetics to protect him. What had gotten over him?
Matthew fought tooth and nail with the soldiers at the capital building. They had seen Roderich, dead on his back, and tried to take him away. Matthew wasn't going to allow that. Yes, his fighting was off with the weight on his back, but he was well-trained enough to fight off the soldiers around him. He stopped, however, when he turned and caught the eyes of Kiku, standing right in front of him. Matthew let out a small breath, more tears slipping past his defenses as Kiku took in the situation.
"You shouldn't have brought him back," Kiku muttered.
"I couldn't leave him," Matthew admitted.
"Stop!" Ivan's voice rang clearly through the air and Matthew and Kiku both froze. The soldiers around them, sure enough, stopped and knelt before the king. Kiku knelt before him as well. Matthew took a deep breath and turned to face the king. It was rather odd to see him outside, it had never occurred to Matthew before then that he had never seen him anywhere but inside of the building. "Soldiers, return to your posts."
"Yes, Your Majesty," flooded through the crowd behind them and the soldiers flooded out.
"Matthew," Ivan said, his voice growing softer and Matthew braved a look at the man's eyes. He was stressed, yes, and this surely wasn't doing anything to help that. But he also looked rather sad. "What is the meaning of this?"
"I'm sorry," Matthew admitted, carefully maneuvering Roderich until the man was on his back on the ground, between Matthew and Ivan. "We did as you ordered and we ran into revolutionaries. Roderich was not acting like himself and he fell. I could not leave him, I ask for your forgiveness."
"Why did you bring him here?" Ivan asked carefully and Matthew felt himself tremble as he forced back the tears.
"I have to ask," Matthew said, bowing his head, "please, for you to allow his burial. I do not want him to be remembered as the broken man he became after Elizabeta's death. He is my friend and I would like for him to be remembered, even if that means as the noble he was before."
Ivan let out a deep sigh and Matthew was almost afraid to look up at the king in front of him. "It seems as though the missing son of Lord Edelstein has finally been found," Ivan said simply and Matthew looked up at Ivan, the tears betraying him once again. Kiku even seemed surprised, though had the discipline to stay kneeling where he was. The king smiled softly at him. "I thank you for the courage it took to retrieve this man."
"Thank you," Matthew smiled back at him. Ivan gave orders to the few soldiers that had stayed and they took Roderich. Ivan gave them clear orders and no one could betray a direct order from the king. At least, that was what Matthew believed. There were very few exceptions, after all.
"You two should rest," Ivan said simply. "With only two of you left, I'm afraid I will need you two by my side constantly."
"Of course," Matthew nodded to him as Kiku stood with a bow to the man before the two headed off to their rather empty home.
And another one down. This one I had problems with. I had it really well planned out in my head, right? And then it refused to work like that on paper, so I had to work with what I had. And I totally didn't expect Alfred to get shot, but I think it worked out rather well. Emotional things happened this chapter, though, Matthew feeling it more than Alfred, oddly enough. This is mostly due to the fact that Matthew was there for most of Roderich's character development. Alfred's affected, yes, he's just learning how to deal with it differently with his new group. There's also the fact that pain is a great distraction from things like that.
Sorry I didn't update twice in the same weekend, despite me saying I had so much time on my hands. Whatever, I updated on Monday to make up for it and we'll see if I write enough to update again during the week. Guess we'll have to wait and find out, huh?
Anyway, I'm done rambling. So please join me next time and, as always, please review!