Decided to upload aother chapter this weekend. Yay! Still don't ow Hetalia
Warnings: Nothing too bad this time, just angry words.
Feliciano glanced at the faces behind him. Elizabeta look determined, Kiku serious, Antonio antsy and impatient to go in and rescue his Prussian friend. Lovino looked bored and a bit nervous, Arthur looked confident and ready, tough he wasn't entirely sure the British man wanted to be there. The Italian was glad they had all come with him, but he was starting to rethink his plans to go into Ivan's house. He was terrified and wanted nothing more than to be the Italian he was, waving a white flag of surrender and sprinting back to his German's house. No. I need to do this for Ludwig. This will make him better... He reminded himself firmly, attempting to swallow his fear. "Alright. Ve~ Antonio and Arthur. You are going to inform Ivan about a suspicion that Lovi and I are planning on sneaking over the wall to find Gilbert. You two lead him to the opposite end of the wall. Get him as far away from his house as possible. Kiku... You go and watch the main guard tower. Radio in if any Russians start to make their way to the house. Elizabeta, Lovino and I will then go into Ivan's house, find Gilbert, and get him over the wall to West Germany. Once we cross over the wall, we'll let you know it is safe to find your ways back over. From there you all can either meet back at Luddy's, or go home." Feliciano explained the plan one last time before glancing at Arthur and Antonio, a silent sign for them to go.
Antonio casually held his ax and took Arthur's hand, smiling in his arrogant, charming way. Of everyone there, the Spaniard looked the least concerned with the potentially dangerous plan they all were about to take part in. His emerald eyes blazed with confidence and the corners of his eyes were crinkled with his smile. :Well. We'll see you all later, si? Oh... Feli... You owe me pasta for this amigo. Come on Iggy. Let's go play with a Russian. Antonio chirped happily as he pulled Arthur along with him towards the house.
The others watched as the couple made their way to the door, all of them secretly afraid, though no one would admit it. There were just too many things that could go wrong... Feliciano was about to call them back and come up with a safer plan when the words died in his throat as the door opened and the Spaniard and Brit walked inside. "Ve~ I guess we've got to go through with this now.." He whispered nervously to himself.
Antonio strolled through Ivan's house one hand still casually holding onto his ax while the other hand and arm had wrapped around the now trembling Arthur's waist. "So Ivan... I must say this isn't exactly what I had expected. This house is much different than the one you have in Russia. Navy walls and a fluffy looking couch? Not something I had expected when Iggy and I decided to drop by."
"I like variety da? Having same thing would be boring." Ivan said, sounding a bit short and frowning slightly. He was already in a poor mood from Gilbert's defiance earlier. He didn't want to have to deal with these two on top of that. "What is it you are wanting?"
A slightly shaken Arthur glanced at Ivan before he spoke. " We have heard that there are plans for someone to hop the wall and try to rescue Gilbert." He said briskly, voice even and business like despite how apprehensive he was on the inside.
Ivan's lavender eyes darkened and flashed with anger. "Nyet! No one will be hopping wall! Where are you hearing this from?" The Russian demanded, glaring down on both Antonio and Arthur, causing them both to take an involuntary step back.
"No need for that. It isn't us. We just thought you should know, amigo. We can take you to where we expect them to cross" Spain said, hiding his sudden panic. Was it the Italians who were crossing the wall or the Germans? And... Did we have the center of the wall? Or was it the southern end... Dios mio! I don't remember!
"Nyet! Not until you say who and where you heard this" Ivan snapped, eyes narrowing dangerously in suspicion. He could feel that something wasn't quite right, he just didn't know exactly what it was. It bothered him and irritated him as he mulled over the different possibilities while the Spaniard and Brit before I'm tried their hardest to keep up a calm facade.
It was Arthur who spoke this time in response to his question, a knot of unease tight in the pit of his stomach. "Francis. Francis said he was talking to Feliciano and Lovino. He said Feli was worried about Ludwig so his brother suggested coming here to kidnap Gilbert and bring him back to Ludwig in West Germany. Feliciano agreed, surprisingly, so Francis called me in a crazed stupor, afraid they were going to get themselves hurt. I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to do about it, and called Antonio to ask his opinion and he suggested we come here to warn you. That way, we can head them off and no one has to get injured or killed." The lie flowed off Arthur's tongue smoothly and somehow he got a sincere light to shine in his eye, he could tell Antonio was impressed by his quick thinking when he caught the look of pure adoration in the man's jade green eyes. To his dismay though, Ivan still looked fairly suspicious.
"Surely you would have been going to talk first to them, da?" The lavender eyes of the Russian flashed dangerously and his voice was hostile. This entire thing was suspicious. It sent his skin crawling and slowly he gripped the pipe that had thus far been hiding in his trench coat. If they were lying, he resolved, they'd pay for it.
"We did. But... Uh..." Antonio tried to think quickly, but his brain was muddled and e really wasn't nearly as good at lying like Arthur was. Think! Why didn't it work? Why didn't they listen to us... "But..." He groped around for a lie in his head, looking helplessly at Arthur.
Bloody wanker! You're going to ruin it all! Arthur mentally shouted as he leapt to his floundering Spaniard's rescue. "We did try to talk to them, but Lovino was being particularly difficult. He was determined to do this because the entire nation of Italy is suffering from Feliciano's grieving over Ludwig's impending dissolve." When Ivan raised an eyebrow and glanced at the flustered looking Antonio, Arthur sighed inwardly and reached on his tip toes to kiss a tanned Spanish cheek. "Act upset." He breathed when he had drawn close enough to Antonio's ear, the kiss disguising his true intention well. "Forgive Antonio and his stuttering. He's still a bit shaken over some of the things Lovino said to him." To Arthur's immense relief, Antonio's face fell, a mask of emotionlessness, mixed with just the right amount of feigned misery.
Ivan was slowly starting to believe them, but he couldn't shake off his nagging suspicion. For a moment he was silent, contemplating what to do, and in the end he shoke his head, pale hair falling into his eyes. "We be staying here and wait for them, da? The Prussian we move to different room and we wait for them to show up. We won't be going to the wall." He said in a firm voice.
With a collective sigh, Antonio and Arthur both nodded feebly. What else could they do? It occured to Antonio that at some point they'd have to try to get word to the others, but he wasn't sure how they'd manage that when they were in Ivan's house. Unfortunately, if Feliciano, Elizabeta, and Lovino showed up now, they'd all be in trouble.
Antonio glanced at Arthur, taking in the British man's proud appearance with worried, jade green eyes as Ivan lead them out of the living room to a door under the stairs. As they drew closer, he could feel the hostility, rage and agony rolling from the door in waves. "Ivan. What's behind the door, amigo?" He said in a quiet, yet thunderous voice. His conquistador voice, rumbling with challenge. Fervently he prayed he was wrong in his suspicions, but deep down he knew who he'd find behind the door.
"Gilbert." Ivan said simply, voice bright and completely unfazed by Antonio's hostility as he unlocked the door. He stood aside to allow his guests to go down before him. "Please, you guys first."
"Are you mad?! I'm not going down there! There is no reason for me to! Why do you need us to go down there with you?" Arthur asked indignantly. If Ivan sent them down there, somehow he just knew they'd stay down there. He wasn't able to protest long though as Ivan pushed him down the stairs with a broad grin. Arthur cried out in fear as his foot slipped and he crashed against the first stair, bashing his head against the edge of the stair. Before he knew it he was bouncing down the stairs, each time he landed with a sickening impact against his back, stomach, head, ribs... He came to a bruised, bloody stop at the bottom, dazed and wracked with achy pain.
"Arthur!" Antonio cried, racing down the stairs three at a time to get to the fallen blonde man. "Damn it Ivan! Tu puta! What the hell was that for?!" He snarled furiously, gathering Arthur in his strong arms. A pained gasp fell from his lips as Arthur whimpered softly and his green eyes flicked up to the giddily laughing Russian still at the top of the stairs.
"I don't want you being in my house alone, da? Nataliya could be deciding to be dropping by. She'd kill you in my house. I don't know what you are being up to, but I will be finding out. Don't want you to be doing stupid things while I am gone, da? Kolkolkol~" Ivan giggled and slammed the door shut, sealing their fate with the sound of the lock sliding home, trapping them in his basement.
"This doesn't look good..." Arthur rasped with wide, scared emerald eyes and a soft cough. He had gashed open his head with the fall, but other than that, as far as he could tell he'd be fine. Sore and bruised, but fine. Soft, tan fingertips caressed his cheek as he spoke and he pressed against them, drawing comfort from the soft touch. "It'll be alright, love. We'll get out of this. We always do." He assured with a weak smile.
Gilbert slowly regained consciousness to the sound of a Brit speaking quietly. Arthur. His brain recognized the familiar voice, but it didn't understand why he was hearing Arthur's voice, nor could it decipher what he was saying. He didn't have long to muse about the oddity of hearing Arthur's voice when the intense agony exploded everywhere in his body. His sides. His chest. His back. His head. His head! Mein Gott! Verdammt my head... He felt nauseous from the sheer amount of pain. As soon as he located the roaring, fiery agony in his head, his other aches and pains dulled and seemed to retreat into his temple, tripling the sickening sensation until it laying as still as possible was all Gilbert could manage. A weak whimper escaped his throat when he tilted his throbbing skull away from the light, and he flinched when a too loud voice said something. It took him a good five minutes to realize it was Arthur saying his name.
"Gilbert." Arthur said softly for the fifth time. He glanced worriedly at Antonio through a swollen eye. "Antonio he looks awful! I would have thought him dead if he wasn't a nation..." He whispered urgently. Recently the obnoxious albino nation had managed to irritate Arthur greatly, but he didn't hate the man and it was painful to see him so physically abused and broken like this. Even if he had hated Gilbert, no one deserved to be beaten the way Gilbert so obviously had been.
"Iggy, he isn't dead. We just saw him move and you can hear his chest rattle when he breaths... He's still alive. We'll find a way to get him out of here and fix him up... He'll be ok..." Antonio responded, though even the laid back Spanish man sounded desperately worried.
The worry in the two men's voices pricked at Gilbert's pride as he laid there. He forced himself up into a sitting position, cursing vehemently in a raspy whisper. It took him an agonizingly long amount of time and by the time he was fully upright he was drenched in an icy sweat, shaking violently and so light headed and nauseous a fountain of blood and bile spewed from his between his cracked lips, the acidic solution burning his raw throat. "I'm alive." He rasped almost silently.
"Bloody hell you lunatic! Lay back down before you hurt yourself further! We need you to tell us the best way out of here!" Arthur snapped, jumping when a few splashes of blood dribbled against his shoulder. His voice was harsh and angry from his worry and fear, but he relaxed noticeably when Antonio's arms snaked around his waist.
"Breathe amor. He was trying to make us feel better si?" Antonio's voice soothed both Arthur and Gilbert like a cool breeze amid the burning fear and pain that filled the room to bursting. "Though... He is right amigo. Sitting up probably wasn't the smartest thing to do."
A painful, wheezing sigh caught in Gilbert's throat. "Why are you here?" He rasped in his weak, whispery voice. "He catch you guys too?"
"Well.. We were supposed to lure Ivan away from here so Feliciano, Lovino and Elizabeta could come and bust you out, but the Russian wa-"
"Eliza? Liza is coming here?! What is wrong with y-" Gilbert's brief spark of anger and strength was destroyed by wracking coughs and another fountain of blood spewing from his mouth. No. Elizabeta couldn't be coming here. She needed to be home safe... They all did.
Antonio waited calmly for Gilbert to finish hacking before he continued, acting as if he hadn't been interupted. "The Russian was suspicious of us and threw us down here..."
"That's so unawesome. So now you succeeded in getting everyone captured. Gott that was smart." Gilbert tried to growl, but his voice only came out as a pitiful raspy whisper.
"He failed to mention that so far it is only us that have been captured, as far as we know. He threw us down here and it sounded like he was going somewhere, but I don't really know. He could still be watching for Feliciano and the others." Arthur said with a sigh. He wiggled out of Antonio's arms and sat on the ground slowly, wincing as his back twinged a bit in protest. "I got thrown down stairs for you Gilbert, you better be grateful we're trying to save you." He muttered.
"So where is the little tawny haired Italian then?" Gilbert asked with another round of harsh coughing. Bruder I'm shocked. I wouldn't have thought you'd send your ditsy little Feli out to come get me. Why didn't you just come yourself? Gilbert thought with sadness and longing tugging at his heart. "Und more importantly, why isn't mein kleiner bruder, mein Luddy with him? It isn't like him to, one, put his Italian an danger and two, make him do his bidding... On an even more important note, I didn't realize they were even on speaking terms again..."
"You... Might want to wait to have Feliciano explain everything to you personally." Arthur said carefully, his entire being as neutral as possible. "Assuming they don't have problems with Ivan, they should be here any minute. You have to understand though, they very easily could abandon us when they realize how dangerous this is." He sounded incredibly depressed by the thought and before he knew it, Antonio had sat beside him and gently pulled him into his lap. It might be awhile before I see home again... He thought, sighing softly. "We were wrong Gilbert... We all were. To think both you and Ludwig would be ok separated... to think your nations would be ok. I don't think any of us expected either of you to suffer so much and for that I am deeply sorry." Arthur met Gilbert's crimson eyes, completely sincere and regretful. "Once we do get out of here and if this comes down to a war... Know the all of Britain has your back. My brothers will be frustrated, but they won't go against what I say."
"Espana as well, amigo. I've always had your back, but it's nice to say it again. I don't like seeing you so beaten up. It is impressive to me that you haven't broken yet, though I guess it isn't surprising. Ivan doesn't seem one to give up any more than you do... What is it he wants that causes him to torture you like this though?" Antonio asked curiously, jade green eyes glittering with concern.
Gilbert was completely silent save the rattling sound that accompanied his labored breathing. His crimson eyes clouded with an undecipherable, massive amount of emotion. "My nation... Ivan... Ivan wants my nation." He whispered almost silently after a while. "He wants my nation, and is furious that I won't just lay at his feet and give it to him... So he beats me... I can't let him have Prussia... East Germany... Whatever you want to call it. I have to stay existing to get back to mein bruder..." He was silent for a long while again before looking up at Arthur and Antonio. "If we escape and this whole thing does come down to a fight, don't risk anything for me. You two don't need to be wounded on my behalf. It would just make your lives harder..."
"And what would you do if you got captured again? Ivan is treating you badly already...I don't want to imagine how much worse things could get." Antonio said firmly, an uncharacteristic frown fixed on his face as he gestured to the indent on Gilbert's temple and cheek bone from where the pipe shattered the support structures in his face. "I'll help you as long as I have the strength as a nation to."
Knowing he wouldn't give up, Gilbert just nodded with a low sigh. "Ja... Fine." He grumbled despondently. "Let's just not plan for issues, ja? Then we can all go home..."
They found Gilbert! But Ivan is still in the house... How are Feliciano and the others going to get them out? Review? :)