Ohai thar

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Chapter 6: Curiouser and Curiouser

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The faint dull rays of first sun woke Ludwig from a strangely deep slumber.

He'd had a mesmorizing dream, oddly sweet and comforting, yet it had sparked a sense of longing in him. He rose from the floor and held his head, not used to a painless morning, and then turned his head to find that the young master showed no signs of awakening for some time. Ludwig couldn't know that Feliciano had stayed up a while after he'd gone to sleep, making sure that the servant was comfortable and staring listlessly out of the window. With a sigh of regret – and also a calm satisfaction to have something to do – Ludwig decided to continue sorting things out where he had left off last night. He smiled secretly when a quiet thought of purposely and loudly disrupting the other's sleep came to mind.

The sky soon became bright once more, the city below bathed in the familiar break of day.

While sorting flowers at the window, Ludwig looked below. He could see everything, the market, the plaza, everywhere he used to 'make a living'. Then once more he turned to the bed with a sigh. A familiar anger rang through his body, threatening to burst out unless the sloth of a man woke up soon. It was still very early, so Ludwig smirked as he decided to get the prince on a proper sleeping schedule. Making sure he had finished what he was doing, Ludwig grabbed the handles to the shutters of the window and took one last look to the sleeping prince before slamming them closed.

There was a jolt from the bed and the blonde held in a snigger as he saw the other fidget, confused in the darkness. "Luddy, is that you…?" Feliciano grumbled as he spied a blur of a person with his one open eye. If he could, Ludwig would take a cloth and soap and tell Feliciano he was going to clean up the mess he looked like. The young man was in a state of comfortable rubble, his body barely visible under hair, clothes and crumpled blankets.

"No." The servant said simply as he let in the light once more and got back to cleaning.

"Aww. But if you're not Luddy then who are you?" Feliciano yawned, sitting up and rubbing his eyes with his too-big sleeve. "I was looking forward to seeing him…"

Ludwig shook his head and ignored him. The man was clearly making fun of him. If he thought he could just use Ludwig as a joke then he could forget it.

But no matter what Ludwig was thinking Feliciano merely sat at the edge of the bed with his messy hair and too-big clothes staring at him with tired curiosity. It did take a long moment of busy cleaning for Feliciano to realize Ludwig wasn't going to answer, so like a child he pouted and folded his arms. "You liar, you're definitely Luddy."

"You got me, how smart you are." Ludwig rolled his eyes irritably. "I'll do my chores while you go about your business." He'd hoped that was the end of it, but Feliciano looked a little sad from his words.

"But I didn't give you any orders yet, and I don't think the others would have." The brunette shuffled where he was sitting and started playing with his sleeves. "I was hoping maybe we could talk a bit, and maybe play a game and lay around and laugh…" His voice trailed off. Once again, Ludwig didn't answer. He told himself Feliciano was just trying to get him off guard; he wasn't going to take any chances. But this only made Feliciano pout more, he had finally gotten the prince annoyed. "Jeez you really are no fun; you don't even take naps or talk to me. Aren't you at least happy to be out of that dark and scary place?" This time there was a reaction - a very small one where Ludwig stopped.
Feliciano's expression softened. "I asked about what happened. They told me that you attacked someone. Is that really what you did?" Silence. Feliciano looked down. "But when I asked more they said it was more than one person at once. It's scary to fight anyone; I don't think you would try to hurt more than one person even if you're desperate." Feliciano kicked his feet about thoughtfully while Ludwig managed to put all the clothes – save for certain personals – away. "You're kind of scary too, but you don't seem like the kind of person to attack someone without having a reason. What was the reason? Were they bullying you so you attacked them? Did you have a lot to drink?" He rapid fired the annoying questions, only making Ludwig not want to answer more.

Finally the blonde straightening up and faced him directly. "I have finished temporarily. With your permission I will go and use the restroom." Ludwig pushed some clean clothes onto Feliciano to change into and walked away.

Feliciano looked from the clothes to Ludwig. "Why were they going to kill you?" He asked, though it didn't interrupt Ludwig at all. It wasn't much use anyway, the blonde carried on out of the bedroom door, although Feliciano wondered why he didn't just use the restroom connected to the bedroom.

Ludwig knew he did have to behave himself in case anyone else knew how close the Prince was acting towards him. Besides, getting out of that room might just be his ticket to find the second phase…

...…...

Ludwig was smart, strangely so for someone without proper schooling. Not that he needed it. What he needed was the brain that had already memorized routes to different rooms throughout the tower. Though it was a tower, this building wasn't as big as it would seem to any pauper. In fact inside it was often wider than it was taller – the height came from the many storage rooms and empty unused rooms leading up to the roof.

Temporary cells were underground, along with one room for the guards and their sleeping abodes. Ground floor was all for show, not much use to him. First floor however held one other room for the guards and a well organized kitchen. In his mind Ludwig planned out how to avoid the guards plus anyone whom might have questions and head for the kitchen. If he was lucky the servants were not cooking yet or simply wouldn't notice him.

He used his stealth to get downstairs quickly, cutting corners and using the sound reducing carpet to his advantage. It was strange but on the way he couldn't help but notice the halls. All were coloured similarly in beige and red but it seemed that on the floor with Feliciano's chambers there were a lot more paintings, all with similar style and some not as impressive as others. It was like a timeline of sorts… Ludwig shook his head; he didn't have time to dwell on this. He made it down the safe route without bumping into any distractions and found the kitchen as he had done the day before.

Last time some servants attempted to make conversation with him, if there were servants here he would ignore them with as much annoyance as he did yesterday. But luck was finally on his side once more, it seemed too early for the servants to begin meals and Ludwig was alone. It only took a couple of draws and shelves to find what he was looking for. Once it was hidden inside his clothes Ludwig looked from side to side before attempting to leave the room. Unfortunately it wasn't that easy, less than a hall away he spied some guards coming round the corner that would definitely be suspicious of him. Ludwig thought fast, scurrying down the nearest turn whilst trying to act as natural as possible. They didn't follow. But before he could take a breath of relief, he saw where he had to go to carry on. Ludwig sighed; he had no choice but to go into the quarters of the Captain of the Guards.

The door opened silently and Ludwig was relieved to find no-one present in the room. He remained quiet as he stepped in the still dimly lit room. It seemed someone had recently been here and left a mostly melted candle lantern. Was the captain off duty this early? Either way he should just get out of here, the room was weirdly built to be small with two doors like a place that wasn't really supposed to be used as an abode; Ludwig doubted anyone actually came through here since it was so out of the way. The servant only paid minimal attention to his surroundings; there was well polished armour that looked like it had never been worn, various books relating to work and non-fiction, and a little desk by the other door.

Just before he left he did spy a little piece of interest on said desk. Upon closer inspection it seemed to be a journal of some sort, or at least something to write thoughts down on. Well he was certainly taking that. Straight after he left without making anything else out of place.

...…...

The rest of the way back had as much luck as he'd had coming down, except for one small detail.

Just as he'd touched the handle on the door to Feliciano's quarters he heard a deeper voice from inside than the Prince's. Curious, he pressed his ear to the wood and listened closely.

"It's just an update on the protection protocol, altogether just redistributing guards to areas that need them."

"Well then I guess so, can't I sign them later? And that's a lot of paper just to change-"

"Surely you understand what a time waste it is for you to treat this issue poorly, or does the safety of your subjects not matter to you as much as you tell me it does?"

There was a silent pause.

"Here, on the line right?"

"Exactly. When that street rat returns you can order him to finally organize that bathroom of yours, the servants can give him a mop as well."

The deeper voice continued talking but Ludwig was more worried by muffled footsteps coming closer. He'd better not be seen like this. He hurried down the hall to the corner, waiting for the door to be opened before acting like he had only just started to come down the hall. Who else would come out but the Captain of the Guards.

The guard closed the door and noticed Ludwig quickly, his stern, sarcastic face beating the blonde's by a long shot. "You there, bring these papers to my quarters." He faced Ludwig and passed him the papers in his hand. "Do not go in; simply leave them by the door. It is the room two halls from the kitchen." As though the situation was as simple as the captain moved briskly passed Ludwig, leaving him with a frown as he looked at the papers.

"Shouldn't I go back to Fel- the prince?" Ludwig raised a brow.

The captain stopped, looking back to him with a mixture of surprise and mockery. "I'm surprised you didn't follow my advice. He won't care when you come back so just hurry up with it, and do remember what I told you."

With that it was clear the conversation was over.

Ludwig's frown deepened with worry, and as he looked back to the documents strange emotions both vexing and new began brewing.

...…...

Luckily Ludwig had managed to find a servant he hadn't already made a bad impression on yet and told them that the captain of the guards wanted a servant to carry the documents, leaving him to get back to Feliciano's chambers with time to think. The longer he stayed here the less Ludwig was understanding of the things around him, it had barely been more than a couple of days but still he felt as though there was a riddle here he wasn't even bothering to solve. But he didn't have time for any riddles or secrets; he was heading back to the chambers for one purpose only. It would be quick, easy, and then he would escape. Sure there was a huge chance he would be found, but even if they hung and quartered him Ludwig didn't care. This was going to be the last chapter.

Yes I know I said this chapter would be a big one but I had to split it up into two since I would run out of material afterwards if I didn't, so next chapter I promise will be a biggy if not more interesting~ :)

Please do feel free to leave a review, anything you have to say interests me and helps me