Summary: It is very hard being two teenage gays in love, when you live in 1920s Central Europe. It is very easy to throw around money like you are actually rich, when 'Mr. Erwin Torre' is your donor and has no idea what investigation are supposed to cost.
Notes: Today the update is only slightly delayed. I have now learned that trying to write angsty gay teens with crushes on each other is really difficult, when you are a straight and autistic guy in his 20s, with no experience in romantic relationships. Hopefully it is reasonable enough. Then again I am still writing by the seat of my pants. Friedrich did not exist until yesterday afternoon, when I randomly made him to give Alphonse a crush. Then I decided that I wanted them to have a romantic interaction and suddenly I put myself into a position, where I need to try writing angst, which I dislike.
Awkwardness reigned in the back hall of Hotel Belveder. Both Alphonse and Friedrich were swaying back and forth nervously, but each for a slightly different reason. "I really want this to not be the end," Friedrich almost whispered. "A small part of me absolutely wants to risk it all and try staying with you. A larger part is asking why the hell I am willing to do that for someone I met a few days and shared less than a quarter of an hour in conversation."
"I think that's just our hormones going nuts," Al suggested. "I very much liked that gift, but if someone saw what we just did, I would get fired as a waiter within the hour. And given what they told me after I came to them with a depressed mood about a crush I had on you, my brother and our mutual friend would get fired soon after, because they absolutely refuse to let me go." Friedrich looked at him with wide eyes.
"What?" "You have others that know about what you are? What we are," Friedrich asked as if the very idea was absurd. Well, from his own experiences with hiding it, he understood the sentiment. "Yeah. My brother knows because we have always been close, and our friend understands what it is like to feel oppressed, because she is Romani." There was another moment of silence. "Now I am genuinely rethinking the possibility of running away from home," Friedrich said.
"Please don't! If you worked with us, we could provide for all four, but I strongly doubt your parents would just accept you running away. We just got settled somewhere for longer than a few weeks, and it would feel inappropriate to ruin it for my sake," Alphonse immediately argued. "What about going together, then?" Al blushed. "Sorry, but my brother and friend would not tolerate that. They would track as down and beat me up for abandoning them, because I felt unworthy of dragging them down."
"God, your group sounds so nice to live with. What do I have to have a haughty conservative nitwit for a father and a submissive frail lady for a mother," Friedrich groaned. "Because, as I said, the world is unfair. Besides, we suffer from constant problems of being able to live at least semi-comfortably. We've had several different jobs over the last two months and have travelled all the way from München by either walking, hitch-hiking or travelling on freight wagons. It is not an easy life."
Alphonse did not quite understand, why he felt the desire to do it, but he stepped forward and hugged Friedrich. This time he was on the receiving end of crying. "I assume you would get disowned if you came out," he said with a hint of a questioning tone. "No, worse... I am an only son and an heir to my father's estate. They would absolutely try to set me straight. One of the reasons I wanted to meet you, besides the fact you are a very cute guy..." Oddly, it was both of them that blushed at that.
"... is that I wanted to finally confirm to myself if I was really doomed or not." "Being homosexual doesn't make you doomed," Al argued, despite having trouble of convincing himself. Then a thought occurred to him as he looked at Friedrich looking at the floor with tears in his eyes. "Can I," Al began, but did not manage to finish it on first try and only made Friedrich look up at him. "Can I give you my own gift," he asked, and surprisingly only blushed a bit. "I guess," Friedrich allowed, and slightly closed the gap between them again.
"But I already feel like this going to hurt," he added. "I know it will. But I fell that I need to repay you regardless," he explained, and internally questioned if this was him falling into a role of an alchemist at a really inappropriate time. He slowly pressed his lips against Friedrich's. It was torture, exactly because it felt good for both of them, but they also knew it could not last. This teenage romance was cursed with misfortune from the start.
"Thank you," Friedrich whispered as they separated this time. "At least now I know for sure that I am definitely attracted to boys, and it's not just my imagination." Al smiled. "Well, at least I manage to give you something that will be permanent. Technically, so did you, Friedrich. At least now, I've learned that kissing someone I have romantic feelings for does feel different from other kisses." He got lightly pushed away. "Please, stop giving me those eyes. We just said it is a dumb idea to do anything more, and we keep trying anyway," Friedrich weekly argued.
Alphonse sighed. "I have to get back to work anyway," he admitted, and suddenly looked wretched. Friedrich sighed. "Can I accompany you to the restaurant," he offered, and both had one of their hands twitch slightly. It was an incredibly idiotic idea to do a hand-hold in public, but they did it anyway. "I guess you can." The point, where their hands touched, felt warm, but not unpleasantly so. And they both hated it. Why did this have to feel so good? And why could they not have more of it?
If one of them was a girl, no one would bat an eye. They would probably even get smiles and well wishes. Instead, the fact they were boys, meant that they could have the police called on them. People would grumble about straight teens having sex, but two consenting adults could get arrested for less than that. Any sexual act was grounds for a prison sentence. Every time there was any sound or sight that indicated a passing person, they had to let go of the other's hand.
They walked as slowly as possible without having to actually stop and whether intentionally or subconsciously Al followed a very long and curvy path. "It's Friedrich Trauner. That's my full name," Friedrich said as they reached the front door. "We live in Schwandorf," he added, and looked he was about to start crying again. Al patted his back. "My full name is Alphonse Elric. I don't have a hometown," he said and given Risembool was not accessible to him, it was not a lie.
"If things change, I will try to look for you. But don't feel like you need to wait for me," he promised and gave him another hug without really looking out if someone was watching. Fortunately, none of them was bothered by what they saw, or at least did not feel the need to go and complain to somebody relevant. "I feel like I just promised something impossible," Alphonse whispered. "I appreciate it. Even if we never meet again, I promise to never forget you, Alphonse."
One of the waiters at the Golden Goose meanwhile brought Karl Harrer a plate full of delicious Bavarian pancakes – they look like the Berliner doughnuts, but without the filling – covered with a layer of plum yawn and whipped cream for his late breakfast. Instead of the usual cocoa associated with it, however, Harrer ordered an expensive coffee with a large serving of milk. If Glauer knew where a lot of his money went, he would quickly find his cheques bouncing, but he had no order to send receipts.
One of the hotel employees suddenly approached him and explained to him that his benefactor wished to speak with him. "Mr. Harrer, you have a call at the front desk from a Mr. Erwin Torre at the front desk," he told him. "Ah, thank you, sir. Tell him I will be there right away," Harrer replied and took a sip of his coffee to help swallow down the last piece of the sweet pancake he was currently eating. He then went to the front desk of the hotel and was given one of the several phone receivers there.
"Hello, Mr. Torre, this is Mr. Harrer." "Good morning, Mr. Harrer," answered the voice of Adam Glauer, who kept using 'Erwin Torre' as an alias to cover potentially suspicious activities and publish some of his books on a subject like Freemasonry. "Mr. Neuhaus and I are having some trouble getting into contact with Mr. Meyrink, but we believe we will soon be able to convince him we are genuinely searching for information for the sake of knowledge alone. How are your own attempts going so far?"
Harrer pulled out a little notebook from his shirt pocket to check that he was remembering everything correctly. "Although I was not allowed to investigate anything during the three Christmas Days, I have been given almost complete discretion by the authorities to search through documents and places we deemed key. However, the office of Mr. Baxa has thus far been reticent about allowing us to conduct archaeological digs."
"Unfortunate, but not unexpected," Glauer assessed. "What about the other parts of your research?" "I have been able to locate information regarding locations that were possibly used by the Court Alchemists of Emperor Rudolf II, but the current locations appear to be devoid of anything relevant there today. The Golden Lane was especially disappointing. Although stories abound about the name being associated with transmutation attempts, it has been used as low class dwellings for three centuries."
"That is not ideal, but surely there are other avenues to pursue? What about asking the local inhabitants for information?" Harrer gave a tongue click in annoyance. "I did try to ask around, but in the process I almost ended up involved in a physical altercation with a group of Bolshevik literates, who reside there. President Masaryk's office later issued me with a formal warning, because they received complaints about me loitering."
Glauer loudly sighed. "Mr. Harrer, I am supporting you and Mr. Neuhaus for the sake of gathering information and not so you can keep going around and arguing about politics with people from other countries. Please refrain from getting yourself involved in such trouble, or I will be forced to reassess my involvement," he warned him. "Do not worry, sir, I will try to avoid potentially upsetting the authorities in the future," Harrer told him, but he was trying to hide his genuine annoyance.
Although Glauer founded the original Thule Society, he only cared for actual ancient and occult knowledge and only hated Jews for putting the world in 'interest bondage' as he called it. Although, if he thought there was a chance to learn more, he would gladly go to the learned Jews and try to get information out of them. Indeed, many of his books were once part of a Freemason Jew's personal library, which were bequeathed to Glauer and his Turkish host Hussein Pasha, who were both interested in alchemy and numerology among the Islamic Sufi orders.
"Good. I am glad to hear that. Mr. Harrer. Now, if the office of the Prime Mayor will not give us their permit just yet and pursuing Emperor Rudolf II has been a flop, I believe it would be wise to go out and look at the locations associated with Emperor Charles IV instead. He and his descendant shared their interest in the magical and occult properties of Prague – though with different accents to their work. Charles wanted to make a New Jerusalem.
I suggest going to the old bridge named after him first, since I have been informed it was designed with magical properties in mind. Perhaps we may find more information there. Finally, I know you have been questioning the idea, but I would suggest you try and visit antique shops regardless of your low opinion. Now all the shopkeepers are brilliant minds, who posses immense knowledge, but do not forget that fate is sometimes unpredictable. You may find treasure both in physical form or as immaterial information.
But the latter may be more important. I have enough such experiences from my travels over Asia Minor, after all," Glauer informed him. "I will add that to my schedule. I think suddenly changing the direction of my research would draw unnecessary attention," Harrer said as he wrote down things into his notebook. "Mr. Harrer," Glauer suddenly started talking loudly, "do not underestimate the ability for conditions to change at a drop of a hat. I had once made the error of not planning, and it cost me a year of work.
European politics is not in a place, where we should not be glad for having the Czechoslovak authorities favourable to us." Harrer rolled his eyes. "I will keep that in mind. Are there any other things you wish to tell me?" "Not at the moment, and I assume you do not have any more news for me either." "I do not have any interesting news – just hints to where I could hope to find such information." "Then I believe this will be all for now. Goodbye, Mr. Harrer." "Goodbye, Mr. Torre."
Harrer gave his goodbye a slight sarcastic tone, when mentioning that alias, and, unknowingly, made Glauer do his own eye roll. "Thank you, sir," he said to the hotel clerk as he gave the phone receiver back to him. "Am I expected to pay for the call?" "No, Mr. Harrer, Mr. Torre already paid for it in advance and the money left after payment will be transferred to your account her at the Golden Goose." "Excellent. Goodbye, for now." The clerk bowed to him and Harrer went back to his pancakes.
Alphonse was not able to hide something changed during his snack break. "Okay, why do you look like the incarnation of depression itself," Edward asked his brother as he came back for another bunch of plates to give guests. "Nothing important," Al muttered, and immediately got his escape routes blocked by his brother and Noah. "Bullshit," Ed stated with an unimpressed frown. "We'll not let you wallow in sadness," Noah informed him. "Now be honest about what is troubling you. Is it that crush you got?"
She whispered that last part, although the words themselves did not hint on the homosexual nature of said crush. Alphonse grumbled for a minute and tried to valiantly, but weakly, force his way out by pushing by them. "You want to tell us," Ed pointed out, "otherwise you would not be making an attempt that pathetic." His brother took a loud calming breath and took a stool from under one of the tables to sit on. He then took a quick look around the room to check that nobody else was listening.
"That boy came up to me during the break," he and that got twin 'Oh's from Ed and Noah. "It turns out that he is also attracted to guys and thought I, myself, looked cute. He offered to give me a gift and like an idiot I accepted." His brother and friend looked at each other with confusion, and then almost simultaneously realised what that euphemism stood for. "Did he kiss you?" "Yeah," Al sighed and put his left hand against his cheek.
"It felt perfect. I finally felt like everything was finally perfect and made sense. Like this was a completely natural thing. At the realisation that we cannot have it is so painful." The moment he finished, he got wrapped in a hug from both sides again. This time he did not cry, but he felt like he should. "A teenage heartbreak is a bitch, isn't it," Noah whispered, and he nodded while a tear slid down his face. "I should have stopped it there, but I asked to kiss him back.
And then he accompanied me to the door into the restaurant. We held hands as much as we could. Why did we decide it was a bright idea to play at a couple?! We have tasted heavenly manna, despite knowing we could not have any more of it. His family leaves tomorrow, and his family neither know of his own nor are accepting of homosexuality in general. We couldn't possibly take him in, right?" Edward briefly looked at him with an offended face, and then it softened and his elbows and face fell.
"I want to say we absolutely could, but the longer I think about it, the more I find doubts." Alphonse patted his brother's hand. "It's okay. We agreed it was impossible. His dad is rich and Friedrich is his only son anyway, so we would just make another powerful enemy." "His name is Friedrich Trauner and the family live in Schwandorf. I may have promised to try and find him again if I ever have the chance." He sighed. "I'm drunk on romantic attraction, aren't I," he asked with a despairing tone.
"There is nothing wrong with that," Noah pointed out. "Romantic attraction is a powerful drug and sometimes the results feel good, unlike most drugs. It is not your fault that the kind of romance you would like to have. The world decided it does not like it, and you don't have to accept that if you wish," she consoled him. His brother sighed. "Unfortunately, the assholes in charge of the world won't let you be seen in public. But the private sphere is still open to you. Maybe one day you will be able to fulfil that promise. After all, I heard somewhere that love always hopes."
"Thank you, guys, you are so good at this therapeutic stuff. Maybe you should try to have a career in that," Alphonse joked as he stood up and returned to work before somebody caught him slacking. "I think I'll pass," his brother said and offered him a fist bump, which Al returned. "We are always more than ready to act as your proxy parents," Noah sassed, but he turned it around on her. "Oh, so you are going to start being a couple, too?" He tried to suppress a laugh as they lightly blushed.
"Well, you turned around from wretchedness to humour rather quickly, haven't you," Edward immediately caught him off and started to lightly shove him back to work. "I am just telling like I see it." "We are not basing romance on being friends. That is not a bad base, but without actual feelings involved, I am not going to seriously consider it," Noah pointed out. "So you did consider it," Al accused, and they looked at each other. He wondered how he missed that happening.
"We discussed it in bits over the last few weeks, when we had brakes, and both agreed that our feelings are not romantic at this point," Ed explained. "Maybe someday there we will start to feel romantic attraction to each other, but it will not happen right now," Noah agreed. "But you admit there is a chance," Alphonse partly pointed out and partly asked. "In the sense that I can't predict the future and her abilities provide cryptic nonsense," his brother clarified.
"Yes," Eduard Beneš said as he picked up his phone. "Mr. Minister, you have a call coming from our Diplomatic Office in Berlin," his secretary explained. "Feel free to put them through," the Minister of Foreign Affairs permitted and after a small click the voice of Vlastimil Tusar, the Czechoslovak Ambassador to Germany came through. "Good evening, Eduard. I apologise for calling you so late, but I have some information you may find interesting."
"Vlastimil, you know you could just send it as a piece of diplomatic post," Beneš argued, but got cut off. "This concerns your involvement with Mr. Harrer and I would rather destroy this piece of paper as soon as possible. Get your own piece of paper and start writing this all down, because we get this information in a very illegal way!" Beneš took out a blank page and his pen. "Okay, go ahead and start." After almost four minutes, the page was almost full, although that was because Beneš was writing large letters.
"That is all. Now I am going to go and burn this before we trigger a diplomatic crisis with the Germans," Tusar muttered. "Thank you, Vlastimil. This is more than I expected we would be able to figure out this early on with regard to the Thule Society. You can fully expect an additional gift for providing such a valuable service." "Eduard, quit trying to sugar me! You have Hana for that," complained Tusar in reference to Beneš's wife.
Beneš laughed at the man's annoyance. "No, seriously, thank you for your hard work. Masaryk, Švehla and Udržal will be happy that you managed to dig this up. You have our collective thanks." "Yes, I appreciate that. But I have other things to work on, Eduard, so I'm afraid we'll have to end this call now. Have a good day." "Okay, bye for now," Beneš responded with a smile and put down the receiver, only to take it back almost immediately.
"Please connect me with the office of the Minister of National Defence. Tell them this is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and that Mr. Udržal should be told this concerns 'the odd journalist' and he will know what this is about," Beneš asked the phone exchange. "As you wish, Mr. Beneš," a female voice answered, and for a good fraction of a minute the phone made odd technical sounds as the call was connected through.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Beneš. Did we get some new information about Mr. Harrer?" "Not about the man himself, but our men in Germany have come through after all. Our Ambassador has just informed me of a potential identity for your Mr. Torre." "Well, well, well... This is rather fortuitous timing," Udržal declared. "I have just received news from some of my specialised agents, that Harrer received a call from Mr. Torre a few hours earlier. And they had a very interesting discussion."
Beneš was confused how he could know that before remembering a founding request from the time of his Premiership. "Mr. Udržal, are your subordinates wiretapping the Golden Goose Hotel?" "They are, and before you complain, I asked the Prime Minister for permission to do it. Regardless, I have a quickly written down transcript of their conversation for later. Meanwhile, what has the Ambassador passed on to us?"
The Minister of Foreign Affairs still felt somewhat concerned with casual wiretapping of a public institution like a hotel, but proceeded to give Udržal his information. "The German Courts are currently checking the possibility of prosecuting the Thule Society due to reveals that they were at least tangentially involved with the Putsch attempt in Bavaria and our men have been able to see part of their documentation.
According to the records in question, the Thule Society was founded by a man, who claimed his name was Rudolf Freiherr von Sebottendorff. However, this is disputed since he was not born into nobility, but rather adopted by a German expatriate Baron in the Ottoman Empire just before the Balkan Wars broke out. His real name is Adam Alfred Rudolf Glauer of Hoyerswerda in Saxony, but he also uses a pseudonym, when publishing some of his books, and take a guess what that pseudonym is."
"Does it happen to be 'Erwin Torre' by any chance," Udržal suggested. "Actually it is just 'Torre,' but I still find this a rather interesting coincidence wouldn't you think," Beneš said. "Indeed," his colleague agreed. "This does open up an interesting avenue to pursue and casts a new light on the report I have been given," he added. "This would indicate that this Mr. Glauer has some interesting views that I believe may really pique your interest.
There is striking evidence the man believes Harrer can find actual magic or something close by during his work. He appears to have at least basic knowledge regarding the various philosophies and mystical or occult ideas associated with not just Rudolf II's era, but also with Charles IV's own attempt at creating his New Jerusalem on Earth. Because Mr. Baxa's office is taking time in allowing them to dig in the city, so he told Harrer to investigate the Charles Bridge for signs of magical elements in its design."
Beneš blew an undignified raspberry at hearing that. "What the hell are we involved in? I feel like I am a character in one of Meyrink's books," he scoffed. "Just feel," Udržal asked, "Has the president not told you about my previous report on Harrer's communication?" "What part are you referring to?" "The one, where Harrer, Chairman Neuhaus and presumably this Mr. Glauer are trying to get in contact with said Mr. Meyrink?"
The other end of the line was quiet for a moment, because Beneš started to get a genuine headache and needed to massage his temple, before he would start swearing. "Mr. Beneš, are you okay," Udržal asked, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs almost slammed the receiver down. "I'm fine. But I swear that if this turns into something like a plot line from the Golem, I might actually start screaming. This already feels like a dream half the time." "Unfortunately, this is real," the Minister of National Security pointed out.
In the early morning Alphonse brought breakfast to the table of the Trauner family and tried to not look too obvious. Neither he nor Friedrich had much success and kept casting each other looks that mixed together several emotions – longing being the most obvious of them all. "What's with you this morning," the father asked Friedrich and even at a distance Al heard the tone in his voice and felt a desire to run to that table, grab his love and try running away with him.
He then heavily blushed at the realisation that he had started to think of Friedrich as his love. He was in the deep end and it was making him hurt like hell. He remembered getting disassembled, when the transmutation rebound, but that was at least relatively brief. This felt like somebody was continuously breaking and reforming his heart. He pulled out a napkin and blew into it before going to Edward and Noah.
They did not even ask him about anything. Instead they promptly hugged him. "At least the pain will get better with time," his brother tried to soothe him. "I know, but the knowledge that he has an atrocious home life is making me feel worse. I want to take him away and rescue him from that, but I know I would just be swapping one kind of awful for another." "I saw his dad when I came in. He took one look at me and I felt the contempt hit me like a physical force.
That man can make you feel awful with just a look," Noah noted. "Do you want us to accompany like, when they leave with their car," Edward offered and they received a nod from them. Next time he went outside it was clear that Friedrich had decided that trying to continuing to give longing stares at a random waiter would quickly reveal him a homosexual to his father and he would suffer much worse than he already was. As the family finished up, Friedrich however excused himself to go to the bathroom.
When he came out, he walked up to Alphonse. "I am not sorry I met you. Stay safe. I will never forget yesterday," he quickly whispered and walked away with moisture in his eyes. About an hour later all three asked for a brief brake and went outside under pretence of taking a breath of fresh air. The Trauners had a blue-coloured Audi Type E car and they filled the back with their suitcases. As they drove off and when Friedrich thought his father was not looking, he sent a small wave at Alphonse.
When the car vanished behind the tree line and the sight line between them broke Al started crying and loosened up in preparation for the double hug, which he received a few second later. Edward patted his head. "Sh, Sh... It's alright." "If you want to take a longer brake, we will try to convince Acker to give you one. You've worked enough for him to probably expect that if you are asking, it is probably an actual necessity." "Look you both just did," Alphonse pointed out with his eyes still closed.
"This is about you, so it absolutely counts as 'a necessary extended brake' in my books. If they want me as a cook, then they have to respect that my brother and his wellbeing – physical and psychological – comes first regardless of how much I am needed in the kitchen." Noah nodded. "Also, and I believe Ed will agree with me on that, if eventually you want us to try and trace him down again, then we will happily agree." The elder brother agreed and gave Alphonse a small handkerchief to blow his nose.
"I almost feel like we should start moving again," he then said with a dejected sigh. Before either could answer he explained his reasoning. "I am probably just having an emotional overreaction from all this, but I don't think staying here for much longer will make me feel all that good." Edward and Noah looked to each other and wordlessly made confused or thinking forces for a few moments. "Where would we go," his brother finally asked.
"That is the big problem. A party of me wants to go anywhere, but this place. I don't think I will be able to stay in Eisenstein anymore with this awful memory. The fact it is also a good memory makes it even worse. I understand if you think we have to stay, but if there is any opportunity for us to go somewhere else, then I am willing to take it." The pair continued to give each other looks and then very quietly whispered between themselves.
"Maybe after New Years' Day we could go and find another employment. We will have to ask Acker for suggestions," Noah offered and he gave a weak nod. "I am ready whenever," he said and sniffed before blowing into the napkin again.