A/N: Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter 5
"I can't believe she kicked us out! We didn't get any info out of'em, not even why he's here!" Alfred whined while on the elevator going to the ground floor.
"It wouldn't have been that much of a problem if you hadn't talked so much, and if you hadn't gotten lost on the way to the room, we may have gotten something from him."
Alfred playfully pouted, then his expression changed. "You never did tell me why you were sitting in front of the door." The elevator door opened and they stepped out.
Blue-violet eyes widened and a faint blush reappeared on his face. No. Matthew did not want to think about that again. Hmm… Francis did have a nice body. It was lean and he looked strong too, not overly muscled, but just enough to know that they were there and could be used if need be...Wait...He shouldn't be thinking such things! But while on the topic, there were quite a few scars on the other's back. He wondered how they had gotten there. Some of the scars looked like they had been quite painful when acquiring them.
Matthew jolted a little when his phone vibrated in his back pocket. He took it out and tapped his thumb over the answer icon on the screen not looking at the Caller ID. "Hello?"
"Hey, Matthew, did I catch ya at a bad time?"
"Oh, hey Elijah! Umm...no...why?"
There was a slight pause on the other end of the line. "Could ya come in about forty-five minutes to cover for Nari until 5:00 pm?"
Matthew glanced in the direction of his brother who had taken up talking to Tino, for lack of anything else better to do. Al probably wouldn't be too happy about this... He sighed and answered, "Sure, but I don't have my unifor—"
"That's fine. We have extras in the back!" Elijah cut him off. "So...will you come?" His voice hopeful.
The Canadian nodded but then remembered that the other couldn't see him. "Sure, I'll be there soon." They said their goodbyes and hung up. "Al, I have to go to work."
Alfred paused his conversation with Tino. Too bad, it seemed that they were getting along quite well; no surprise there. Alfred's eyebrows furrowed. "I thought you were off today."
"Well, someone got sick." He shrugged at his brother, then turned to Tino and smiled. "It was good seeing you!"
Tino grinned, gave them their helmets, and waved them goodbye.
France shifted, getting more comfortable in the warm sheets. He slowly opened his eyes, letting his eyes refocus and take in his surroundings. When had he gotten back to his room? He remembered meeting Mathieu and Alfred, Michelle coming to get him, then going to the room for his usual check-ups, then...nothing.
He groaned when he sat up. They must've given him something. France?
There was no reply. Francis didn't sense his presence either. Perhaps whatever he had been given must have affected France more so than himself.
The door slammed open, startling the Frenchman.
Antonio's voice came through the threshold of the door. "There's something wrong with—" The urgency left his voice when his eyes landed on Francis. Now it was full with concern. "¿Amigo? You don't look so good. ¿Qué pasó?"
"I believe they gave me something, again." He shifted. "What's wrong with who?" he asked still slightly drowsy.
Green eyes were filled with worry. "There's something wrong with Gil!"
"Elaborate s'il te plait because I'm not quite following you."
"He..ummm…the door's barricaded and..." Antonio seemed to be in distress.
Francis sighed as he got out of bed. "Where is he?"
The Spaniard grabbed his hand and led him to where their friend was on the first floor. They arrived at Gilbert's door. Francis tried the door and found that it was indeed barricaded in some way. How Gilbert pulled it off, Francis would never know. Antonio knocked and called the other's name. There was no reply.
"Gilbert," Francis called, "S'il te plait open the door. We only wish to help."
A shuffling was finally heard after a few moments, as well as the sound of a heavy object being dragged across the floor, and the door swung open. They stepped inside and closed the door behind them. Gilbert was sitting on the bed staring at the far wall; crimson eyes unfocused. Francis and Antonio sat on either side of him. Antonio kept quiet, rubbing soothing circles on the albino's back.
"Cher, what bothers you so?"
Gilbert didn't reply.
"Gil…," Francis tried again.
"He was here," the albino began weakly. His voice was way too hollow; there wasn't any egotistical flair in it either. Whatever was bothering Gilbert must have been very serious. "I couldn't even talk to him." His voice rose in volume. "That bastard locked me out from my own self!"
Francis blinked. "We'll take this one step at a time," he said. "Who was here?"
Gilbert stood up, walking away from them. "Roderich."
Francis thought for a moment. That name did sound familiar, but where had he heard that name before?
It's his, or was his boyfriend's name. There was an inward groan made by France. What did they give us anyway?
He hadn't noticed that France was back. It was probably because he was preoccupied about worrying about his friend. I don't know... Are you okay?
I should be fine. A little disoriented, but fine.
Francis vaguely remembered Gilbert telling him about the Germ—no, Austrian, when they had first met. Francis and Antonio had been friends for a long time. He had met the Spaniard after things had turned for the worst back home. The two of them had met Gilbert about three years ago.
"Who's the bastard?"
The blond glanced at Antonio in disbelief.
"What? It's a valid question," Antonio defended.
"Prussia."
Both men on the bed directed their attention back to their friend.
"Amigo, maybe next week will be better," Antonio offered quietly.
Cursing loudly, Gilbert slammed his fist into the wall. "Why won't you just leave me alone!"
"Gil..." Antonio began, but the blond stopped him by placing a hand on his leg to get the other's attention. Francis shook his head, willing the other to understand. It would be better for Gilbert to work it out with Prussia alone. Having all that pent-up energy would never end well. If Gilbert could work this out on his own, it would prove beneficial for the three of them.
However, that wasn't the case. The albino became more vocal and physical over the corse of a few minutes. The albino threw various items across the room. One item, the table, shattered on impact with the far wall near the bathroom door. He kept arguing with himself, in German of corse, so the other two in the room didn't understand what was being said, or yelled in this case. Francis could only hear the tone in the other's voice to try to gauge the situation. He still didn't know what to do. If this kept getting out of hand, the doctors would probably come and take him somewhere.
"Gilbert! You need to calm down!" Antonio was the one who spoke what the Frenchman was thinking. "If you don't…" but his pleadings fell on deaf ears.
As if on cue, the door slammed open, and three doctors raced across the threshold: Toris, Francis' doctor; Sadiq, Antonio's doctor; and looking somewhat alert Heracles, Gilbert's doctor. Both Sadiq and Heracles managed to somewhat restrain the Prussian; however just because the physical abuse of his room had temporally ceased did not mean his struggles and mouth did.
"LET GO OF ME YOU BASTARDS!"
"Go get the sedative!" Sadiq barked the order at Toris, who quickly darted out the room and returned with a needle filled with a slightly translucent liquid.
Seeing this, which snapped them out of their initial shock, both stood up and steeped forward as if they were going to help their friend get loose from the doctors.
Taking note of their movements, Toris uttered sternly, "If you come any closer, I will have to consider you two as a threat to the situation and I will inject you both with this as well. I really don't want to have to do that," he added after a momenta as if it were an afterthought.
The Spaniard and the Frenchman stopped in their forward movement. Francis didn't want to be injected with something else. He had just woken up from whatever they had given him earlier.
"Don't make this harder on yourself," Heracles murmured softly. "Just relax and calm down."
Francis hated that he could do nothing, for he would be drugged as well, to help Gilbert. There was another volley of rough German from the albino in response to Heracles' suggestion. It had been a long time since he had heard such angry German from the albino.
=Sadiq nodded and Toris injected Gilbert. Gilbert continued to thrash about and yell for a short while, then signs of him weakening began to show. His retaliations were becoming less and less and his voice had lowered in volume. His crimson eyes closed and his body went limp in Heracles and Sadiq's arms. There was no response from Gilbert.
Francis gasped, his hand went to cover his mouth. Was this how it always worked when sedatives were involved? He hadn't been present when Spain in rage, but Gilbert had told him the basics on what happened, but not all the details. What had they used on the albino? Was he—No, he couldn't be...could he?
Francis took another steep forward but stopped when he felt Antonio grab his wrist. He glanced back at the Spaniard who shook his head.
He is still breathing, calmly came France's voice.
Quoi?
Look closer. He is just unconscious.
Francis focused his gaze on Gilbert's chest. Indeed, there was steady movement. Merci mon Dieu! He knew that their doctors wouldn't kill him, but still that scared him. Antonio's voice ripped him away from his inner thoughts.
"Where are you taking him?"
The three doctors shared a look before one of them answered Antonio's question.
"He'll be in isolation for a few days," said Sadiq. "If everything goes well, he 'll be out in about two to three days." He paused for a moment, then said, "But if he doesn't get better, he may be in there for quite some time. Usually he's out in a day or so, so you two shouldn't worry."
Francis and Antonio could only watch as their best friend was carried out the room.
"Matthew...Matthew!"
The blond was startled by the voice.
"You okay?" the voice asked.
Matthew turned around to see who it was. The woman standing beside him was a regular at the restaurant. Whenever she ate here, it was usually later. Maybe she had plans for later. She had dirty blond hair, stopping at her lower back and bluish-greenish-grayish eyes. Yes, her eyes were a unique mix of three colors. He had met her when he first started working here. Her name was Thalia, and she was the first person, besides his coworkers, who noticed him while he was at work at the restaurant. Now he was usually noticed by others. At least the patrons didn't run him over anymore.
"...Yeah," he finally responded. "Why, do I not look it?" He led her to her usual table by the window. He wasn't the host, but everyone knew where she sat: it was always by the window, which usually was his section. He handed her a menu, but she held up a hand to gently push it back. Matthew gave her a quizzical look.
"Surprise me. And to answer your question, you looked like you were away with the fairies. If you have time, we could talk about it."
He glanced around. "You're the only on in my section as of now and I get off in about ten minutes. Let me go put your order in."
The last few minutes of his job quickly flew by. Once he had clocked out, changed back into his clothes, and returned the extra uniform to Elijah, he took a seat facing Thalia.
"I didn't think you worked today."
"Wasn't supposed to."
Her brows furrowed slightly in confusion. "Then why…?"
"I was filling in for someone."
She gave a genuine smile. "Always the considerate friend," she remarked, earning a light flush from the other. "And easily embarrassed."
"Shut up! That's not true," he playfully defended.
She only smirked in amusement. "So what's on your mind? What had you gazing off into the distance earlier?"
Should he tell her? It wasn't like he completely knew himself...Well, that was partially a lie. He should start out vaguely and gauge her reaction to see if he would continue in more detail, or just let the issue die. "...I met someone earlier today," he began.
She raised a brow in interest, but didn't say a word.
"I'm conducting an interview for a large part of my grade in one of my classes." He paused, trying to figure out what to say and how to say the next part. "He seems...interesting, to say the least, though we haven't officially started the questioning, I'm slightly intrigued." Did he really just say that last part aloud?'
"'We'? Wait. What? 'Intrigued'?"
Yep. He had said that out loud. "Al and I are doing this together." He ignored her other question, not really wanting to delve deeper into the matter until he thoroughly understood what was going on. Maybe he could stroke her ego a bit to get her attention to move elsewhere since she had reacted that way. "When I finish writing up the paper, could you, maybe, edit it?" he shyly asked.
She beamed. "Of course I will! It's not like you make many errors anyway!"
Good that worked out nicely. "Thanks." His phone began ringing. He picked it up and answered it. "Hello?"
"Mattie, come on! Let's go!"
There was no mistaking that voice. "Alright. I'll be out in a minute." He hung up and directed his attention at Thalia. "Al's waiting for me outside. I must be going," he said apologetically.
"Oh, okay. It was lovely seeing you again. Bye, Matthew."
A/N: Thanks for reading!
Translations:
¿Qué pasó? — What happened?
