TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR THIS CHAPTER: none
quick note: I moved the full character list to right before the first chapter. Sorry for any inconvenience caused!
It is Monday, 7:34 PM, one week, three days, nineteen hours, and thirty-nine minutes after It happened.
Feliciano gets the call while he's washing the dinner dishes.
They've been arrested.
He hangs up just in time to not burst the officer's eardrum when he yells.
"Yes, ha ha you bastards're going to rot in hell yes yes—"
Ludwig jumps off the couch. "What happened?"
Waving the sponge, Feliciano shouts "They got arrested!" and then hurries over and flings his arms around Ludwig's neck like it's midnight on New Year's, and Ludwig returns the hug until Feliciano realizes he's still holding the sponge and he got the back of Ludwig's shirt all soapy.
They call over Gilbert and Lovino and have some celebratory cake from the freezer and then decide to make a night of it and all argue over what movie to watch, and for a while it feels almost normal.
It is Tuesday, 8:01 AM, one week, four days, eight hours, and six minutes after It happened.
Ludwig has decided that today he will go to work.
The Mask Café is walking distance, at a brisk pace and an early start, and Ludwig is good at both of those things, and the streets haven't hit rush hour yet so he feels a little less watched as he hurries down the sidewalk.
Ludwig had spent most of Sunday evening and Monday looking at the website Yekat— Katyusha had recommended, some kind of forum, and quite a lot of that time had been devoted to working up the nerve to make an account— to open up the possibility of strangers learning about It— but he had.
The bell over the door jingles as Ludwig walks in. The only people there are Manon, who is wiping down a table, Raivis, who is yawning behind the counter, and apparently Marianne, judging from the noise in the kitchen. Manon nods at him, quickly setting up another table.
"Haven't seen you in a while," she says briskly. "Sick?"
"Not exactly. Has everything been okay here?"
"More or less. Some people asked after you— Arthur, Tiina, some regulars. You know." Manon adjusts the chairs as Ludwig ducks behind the counter to tie on his apron.
Raivis gives him a shaky little smile as he enters the kitchen, drumming his fingers against the cash register. "F-feeling better, Mr. Beilschmidt?"
"Mostly, yes." He knows nobody at the café knows about It and he'd honestly prefer to keep it that way, because work has always been how he manages stress and ignores things and It already sits like lead everywhere else in his life and encroaches enough on work as it is— one of them came here a lot, and as the day moves on, Ludwig keeps expecting him to come in through the door as his throat closes up and his hands slow in their mixing.
So instead he works, next to a tired-looking Marianne— she might know a little, Alfred is her nephew and she raised him— and even mans the counter for about five minutes while Raivis and Peter swap shifts. Chun-Yen arrives as well, and it feels like a normal day, and in the flour and smells of bread and brownies Ludwig manages to breathe.
It is Wednesday, 6:11 PM, one week, five days, eighteen hours, and sixteen minutes after It happened.
Gilbert and Lovino have come over again for dinner, and Lovino and Feliciano are making salad, and Ludwig went grocery shopping with Gilbert, and Feliciano can't concentrate on the cucumber he should be slicing.
He needs to tell Lovino. Ever since he was little, he always could tell Lovino everything, and now, he needs to.
"Lovino?"
"Yeah?"
"Promise to listen?"
Lovino stops slicing tomatoes. "Yes."
"I feel kind of like I'm being selfish." Pause, collect thoughts. "Because it's— you know, with Ludwig— it's hard for me but I just feel like I shouldn't think it's hard for me because it's worse for him, it's so much worse and he tries to act like it's not and I just feel really horrible for thinking like that, like I'm complaining about nothing and I shouldn't feel bad for myself because I wasn't hurt like Ludwig and there's all this— this— all this shit he has to deal with and—" He's barely breathed at all and there are tears forming a ball in his throat and Lovino sets down the knife and hugs him. Feliciano leans against his brother.
"That's not selfish," Lovino murmurs. "Hell, it's hard for me and we never even got along that well. You're not selfish, that's bullshit, and you're not 'complaining about nothing'. Say that again and I'll never cook for you in my life." He pats Feliciano on the back, letting him sag a little. They hold the hug for a while, not talking.
Eventually Feliciano pulls away with a quiet "thank you". Lovino nods and returns to the tomato.
"You going to tell Nonno about this?"
Feliciano hangs his head a little. "I'd need to ask Ludwig."
Lovino grunts and Feliciano decides that he will talk to Ludwig about this.
It is Thursday, 10:27 PM, one week, six days, twenty-two hours, and thirty-two minutes after It happened.
They both had to call their grandfathers today.
Ludwig doesn't know how the conversation with Feliciano's rather bull-headed grandfather went, only that he looked tired afterwards and simply said "He's not happy about it".
His own conversation with his Opa had been... interesting, Ludwig had haltingly explained, he'd gone very quiet and his voice had become extremely even and he'd asked a few questions and then hung up. Ludwig knew from experience (mostly Gilbert's fault) that this meant his Opa was so incredibly angry he couldn't be bothered with anger. Feliciano had seemed sort of confused by that.
There hadn't been anything he'd been dreading— blame, denial, disbelief— and he'd called his cousin and his drill-sergeant wife afterwards and nothing he'd been dreading had happened there, just yelling.
Feliciano lifts his head from where it's pillowed on Ludwig's chest. "Nonno said Carlino'd like to come over sometime if that's okay."
"Hm." Ludwig doesn't know much about Feliciano's younger brother, only that he's cheerful and friends with Peter.
"Are you okay with that?"
"'M fine."
"How's the—" —Feliciano gestures a little— "—forum thing?"
"Good. They're nice." Ludwig shuts his eyes. "They gave me some advice about going outside and finding distractions. Things like that."
Feliciano hums. "That's good." He settles back down onto Ludwig, careful not to pin him— that's on the list now, no pinning— and Ludwig rests an arm around him.
"They have a thread for relatives and things like that. If you want."
"I'll look tomorrow," mumbles Feliciano, and Ludwig watches him drift off.
He can go outside, and go to work, and kiss with his mouth closed, and talk to people. He can get through.