This chapter is kinda short, but we felt it was a good place to end it. Next one is kinda short too, but again, it needed to be or else it would have just stretched and been boring.
Hope everyone has a great week~!
Happy birthday on Friday, Alfred~!
Once everyone was gathered together, Alfred sending glares at Antonio and Lovino for making the group waste precious Arthur saving time, they began another meeting to form a plan of attack.
"Is it just me, or do these group chats seem to be needed way more than necessary?" Gilbert asked, his arms crossed and propping him up against the back of the chair where Alfred was sitting holding Matthew's mirror. He refused to sit, preferring to stay near his boyfriend and keep anything that might damage the mirror at bay.
"Si, it does," Antonio agreed, sitting on the arm of the occupied couch, holding Lovino in his lap so he couldn't run away and gently petting the Italian's fur.
On the couch, next to the side Antonio had sat on, Feliciano was curled up, his arms around his knees, holding them close to his chest, while Ludwig sat on the far side. Francis' limp body had been placed between them, the Frenchman's head lulled back over the edge of the couch. Straightening up and letting his legs drop back to the ground, Feliciano spoke up.
"How are we suppose to find where they took Arthur?" he asked. "I mean, it's been at least a full day now, maybe longer. We don't know how long he's really been missing. Veh, I think we should look at his house first, since that's were he got taken from, but I don't know if we'd actually be able to find a scent to follow. It could be to stale or have left all the way."
Alfred scowled, a rare expression for the self proclaimed hero. "I don't care what we have to do. I'm going to find Arthur and I'm going to beat the shit out of whoever took him. No one kidnaps my boyfriend, imprisons him, and uses his magic on his friends against his will without answering to me."
In any other situation, what Alfred declared would have been ridiculous, laughable, even. But no one was laughing now. For all the jokes they made about the American, he knew when it was time to be serious.
Yao, who had been standing against a wall, looked around the room at everyone. "Whatever you all decide, this is going to be dangerous. You must all be extremely cautious. These people are dangerous, even without Arthur's magic to aid them. Don't rush into anything. Think carefully. Plan your moves, don't act rashly," he advised.
Ludwig nodded at the words. "Ja. Yao is right. We have to be extra careful now. Not only are we not at top strength, but we also don't know anything about our enemy. We have to learn more about them before we can do anything."
Lovino, who had been glaring between Ludwig and Francis, pulled himself away from Antonio and climbed into Feliciano's la, promptly laying down on it, his head and upper body on Feliciano and his back end on Antonio. After growling at Ludwig, he looked up at Feliciano. "{We can scout. That's why I changed}"
Feliciano nodded. "Good idea, fratello."
"What did he say, Feli-kins?"
"Fratello says that we can be the scouts. Since we can still change into animals, even if it's a dog, it still has a better sense of smell than anyone else." His eyes suddenly lite up with an idea. "Hey! Fratello! We can use Matthew's mirror! The bad people will have to have held it before they trapped him, so it'll have their scent on it!"
Antonio bounced excitedly, seeing where the Italian was going with his idea. "Si si! And I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who touched it after them, so you guys could easily distinguish my scent from there's!"
"Hmm…. Ja… I see…."
Lovino glared at Ludwig, then nodded at Antonio before turning his attention back to his brother and smacking him on the arm with his paw. "{Pet me, dammit! I'm fucking sitting here, aren't I!?}"
Feliciano giggled. "Okay, fratello~. I'll pet you," he said, scratching his twin's ears with one hand and petting down his back with the other. "You're so soft~!"
Lovino nuzzled into the touch with his tail wagging and his foot thumped as he panted happily.
Coughing into his hand, the German vampire spoke up. "Er…. We should focus right now….."
"Yeah, no shit," Alfred snapped angrily. "We need to be focusing on saving Arthur, not fucking around!"
Lovino glared over at the American and bared his teeth with his fur bristling. "{Fuck off!}"
Alfred jerked to his feet, snarling back at the Italian. "Shut the fuck up, you stupid asshole!" he yelled, his anger flaring. "If it was Antonio who was in danger, you wouldn't be putting up with ANY of this shit! You would make everyone shut the hell up and seriously try to figure this out!"
Lovino snarled then jumped off Feliciano and lept at Alfred to bite him.
Instantly Feliciano and Gilbert jumped after them, pulling the two apart before anything could happen. Feliciano wrapped his arms around Lovino's waist, holding him tightly while Gilbert grabbed Alfred's arms and pulled him backwards.
"Hey!" the Prussian barked. "Both of you calm down! Right now! We do NOT have time to be fighting amongst ourselves!"
Lovino ignored him as he struggled to get free, barking loudly and growling.
"Lovino! Stop it!" Feliciano snapped.
Lovino flinched and folded his ears back as he looked back at his brother with a whimper.
"Bad, Lovino," Feliciano said, his voice hard.
Lovino flinched again and whimpered as he submissively licked Feliciano's chin.
Feliciano returned to his seat on the couch, holding Lovino on his lap. "No attacking people," he reprimanded, gently scratching his brother's ears. "I know Al made you mad, but he's stressed right now, so give him a little room, okay?"
On the other side of the room, Gilbert managed to get Alfred to sit back down. The albino sighed and looked at Matthew's mirror, holding onto it tightly. "Do you have any ideas, Birdie?" he asked, wanting to hear to boyfriend's voice so he at least knew he was alright in his little prison.
"U-Um…. W-well… not really…" The Canadian stuttered. "I think everyone already mentioned everything worthwhile…"
"Don't say stuff like that, Birdie! Anything you say is worthwhile!"
Lovino nodded as he curled up in Feliciano's lap. "{Y-You should change too. That way there's more than one damn nose.}"
The younger shook his head. "We have to figure out this first, fratello. If I change now, I'll get distracted and Alfred will just get mad again."
"{We already HAVE a damn plan!}" Lovino growled as he started tugging on Feliciano's sleeve with his teeth. "{We're going to scout! Now come on!}"
"Lovi, noooo," the Italian whined. "We have to make a plan together! We can just come up with our own!"
Lovino glared at Feliciano, then stood up and jumped down off Feliciano and picked up a random ball in that was in a little basket filled with animal toys with his mouth and threw it. "{Fetch!}"
Feliciano eyes widened and he shot after the ball, morphing into a dog mid-run. He snatched the ball out of the air before it could land, then laid down on the floor and chewed on the toy, his fluffy tail wagging happily.
Antonio went over to Lovino and scooped him up. "Lovi, please," he begged. "We really need to figure out a plan. We can't have you and Feli running off on your own. Please, please, please, let us all actually work together this time. It's important!"
Lovino looked up at his face and huffed as he looked away. At the same time, Ludwig awkwardly reached out and gently picked Feliciano up and pet his head.
Feliciano looked up at Ludwig for a moment, then turned his attention back to the ball.
"Well thank you for that UNNEEDED distraction," Alfred spat acidly. "Can we now figure out what to do once we get to the place where they're holding Artie?"
The group settled down then and began to talk. It was finally decided that all of them would be needed for this rescue mission. The plan they all agreed on, after much debate and arguing, mostly from Alfred, was that they would find where Arthur was being held, sneak in, and rescue him. Once they had the magician, they would make sure the kidnappers knew to never mess with them ever again.
"Alright, now all we have to do is decide when the best time to go is," Gilbert said, flicking Francis in the forehead to try and wake him up.
"Why wait? Let's go today! Right now!" Alfred said, looking purposefully towards the door.
"Ja. Let's go. But stay together," Ludwig warned as he gave Feliciano one last pet then set him down.
Lovino padded over and bit down, hard, on Alfred's leg then walked over to Gilbert and pawed at the vampire's leg while staring up at him.
"OW! Fuck you, Lovino!" the American yelled, grabbing his bleeding leg.
Not wanted to get bit, Gilbert held out Matthew's mirror to him so he could get the scent of the kidnappers.
Lovino started smelling the mirror then looked over at his brother and barked. "{Get over here and smell the bastard!}"
"T-This feels very weird…." The ghost stuttered.
Feliciano whined, then sadly left the ball he had been chewing on behind and went to Lovino's side, smelling the mirror. "{Fratello, what about nonno?}" he asked. "{Don't we need to tell him what we're doing?}"
"{He won't let us do this if he knew, dumbass. Hell, he might want us to stay like this with it being safer and all,}" Lovino retorted as he went back to smelling the mirror then walked over to the door and scratched at it.
Feliciano whimpered, feeling like he was betraying their grandfather. Regardless, he followed his twin to the door and scratched at it as well, picking up the scent.
Antonio went to the door, then looked around at everyone. "You guys ready?"
"YES, JUST OPEN THE GODDAMNED DOOR!" Alfred yelled.
The Spaniard jumped, then shoved open the door for the twins.
Lovino burst out the door and took off, following the scent.
"After them!" Ludwig ordered, and the chase was on.