I waited outside the infirmary silent, I didn't move, I couldn't breathe, a drop of blood rolled slowly down my face from a cut on my forehead.
No. Alfred's face flushed red in anguish, snot mingling with the tears that dripped slowly downwards. The scattered mess of my assignment strewn around the floor. Pain throbbed through my head and my hand twitched. No! The trembling that made Alfred's muscled body shake like a frightened infant's would. I clenched my hands hard, digging painful crescents into the flesh with my nails.
The door opened and Gilbert strode out of it in a loose red shirt that moved silkily with his movements. He stopped suddenly, only a few steps past the door and spun fluidly to look at me reproachfully.
"Are you coming?" He said, and I watched the white bandages that pinched the split skin on his face together, still noticeably red on his startlingly pale skin.
I stepped forward and fell into his rhythm a half step behind him.
"I don't know what you are so worried about really." The man started, his eyes twitching to my face in an almost compulsive looking way before flicking away to inspect the paintings we passed.
"Everyone thinks you did exceptionally well, considering." He flicked at the fringe of his shirt and emotions raged inside me making it even harder to breathe. I shut them down quickly; my fingertips went numb.
"But you did jump off the fucking building." He cackled and shook his head in disbelief.
"I had thought through so many variations of how exactly you could have managed to get us out of that situation relatively unharmed, yet you chose the only option I hadn't even considered. Granted, the glass room was a complete surprise on our part." He bit his lip and managed to make his facial expression so sorrowful yet so obviously false.
"Our research team couldn't get anywhere near the place without getting shot down, so it was all a little up in the air." He stopped and blinked. "No pun intended." He snickered and twirled on one foot to face me.
"The point of the matter is that no one expected you to do what you did, and I like that, so I'm not going to kill you today. Capisce?" I couldn't even register the relief that made my hands unclench, Gilbert's eyes twinkled and he stuck out his tongue.
"There, much better." He patted my cheek lightly as a slap and wiped the rolling blood away on his shirt and I almost traced the feeling of his hand on my face with my own.
"Go clean yourself up." His hands fell to his sides gracefully, and I could see where my blood stained his hand. "When you are finished, come to the dining hall and there will be food waiting for you. I will be in my study, have Lovino take you there." He spun away from me, and tossed a hand in the air, wrist limp.
"Have fun!" He called and strode away with an easy jump in his step, two guards materialized by his side, falling into step beside him as he led them away.
I walked down the hallway, every step weighing more heavily on my shoulders, so when I reached the door that led to Vargas' room every inch of my body struggled with weight and pain, my footsteps were heavy; I felt loud.
Vargas laid spread eagle on his bed when I entered the room, the lock beeping belatedly behind me before the door closed. The other man had a large white bandage covering the damaged flesh, but I could still see the dark bruising creeping up around his eyes from the break.
"Wha- tha- fuk happen-a you?" He spit out and winced, bringing a hand to his nose then away again, clenching it instead, on the bed.
I ignored him in preference to surveying the room. Nothing much had changed save for the haphazardly spattered drops of blood that led from the entrance of the room to the bathroom on the right.
"Oh dew cud jus ignore be, thas fine." He spat and threw himself from the bed to pace over to me, going on his tiptoes to get into my face.
"Don you thin you-" he sputtered "you c-an jus ignore me becuz you're some big fukin deal aroun here. Nuh uh. I seen pleny of you shok dead bekuz you lot fuk up evry time!" He shoved me against the wall, spittle tinged with a small amount of blood flew onto my face from his gaping mouth and he breathed heavily from his nose. But he could barely take another labored breath before I tripped him smoothly to the floor, guiding him slowly down before letting him drop with an anticlimactic thud. He blinked at his new position and locked his eyes onto my face, daring and angry yet scared, oh so hollowly scared as he stared up at me, towering above him.
I stepped away, disgust filling whatever hollowness there was inside me and into the bathroom, leaving him on the floor and locking he door behind me. I leaned against the counter, letting my muscles relax and surveying my surroundings. The bathroom was small and cream coffee coloured like the rest of the room outside was.
I heard Lovino get up from his position on the floor, and sigh heavily, going back to his bed to flop onto it bonelessly.
I stripped slowly from my clothes, any strength I had outside the room left me and I let my fingers fall heavily to my sides, my body slump against the counter fully, and my hair fall across my face, cutting out the light in a thick golden curtain as my head rested on my shoulder. Every quiet moment seeped through me and settled around me suffocatingly and I closed my eyes, blood and ripped existence, shattered memories assaulted me and I pulled myself up again, struggling out of the rest of my clothing. I didn't dare look at the mirror.
Everything looked new to me and I turned on the shower, letting it heat up until steam rose from the ceramic basin thickly. I stepped into it and watched the blood wash away from my skin, crimson thinning to a light pink down the drain. The water beat down harshly on my skin, making small blood blisters appear and I soap my skin quickly, rubbing it into the small cuts made from the glass then washing them out with the scalding water. I rubbed a small amount of shampoo into my hair and washed the sweat and grease that coated the strands thickly from it. I clenched my muscles tightly under the water.
The steam started to creep underneath the door and the mirror was obscured completely so I turned off the water, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around my waist tightly.
I exited the bathroom, aware of the silence and Vargas' eyes on me, tracking my every move.
"Maybe duh reathon he hasn'd killed you is because he dinks you're pretty" He said offhandly. It might have sounded snide if he hadn't sounded so congested and slightly miserable.
"Das happen before." He said, and I started listening.
"Das one pretty girl tha one. Got attached quick, she died protectin 'im acourse, lotta em do." He looked at me seriously. "He doesn kill allo-em ya know. He wouldn't."
I left him there as he gazed up at the ceiling idly touching the bandages that covered his face.
A woman with watery eyes and wild red hair served me my first meal in the Beilschmidt Manor. She placed the plate in front of me without gusto and it rattled loudly against the glass table before settling. She humphed before turning away with a speed I hadn't expected, but not before eyeing my damp hair distastefully.
I ate as quickly as I could, not even registering what it was that was going into my mouth, the silverware was actually silver though. It gleamed sharply with everything else in the room.
I shut down everything as I sat, till my fingertips numbed and my soul sang out in protest till and that too died into silence. I rose from the chair silently, tucked the wet hair behind my ears with grace, and made my way towards Beilschmidt's study without another sound.
Hey guys! I completely forgot about responding to reviews, which I will most likely do tomorrow. I hope you liked this chapter, if you read into it like I know your english teachers have trained you at least a little bit how to do you should be picking up on some word use (like name usage, repetitive word use when describing things, things like that for instance)
If you couldn't understand Lovi please ask, I tried to make it pretty clear what he was saying. What's that? You should pay attention to what Lovi was saying? Major plot point unveiled itself to me whilst writing that part so i'm rolling with it.
I hope you all had a great Rosh Hashanah, I did, and I hope you have great weekends.
I love you all please remember to like HPTCR, it would mean a lot, and getting reviews makes me want to write faster, keep that in mind. Love you! -Serena