Matthew wondered just how many hours of sleep he got last night. Whatever the answer was, he doubted Alfred slept even less. Matthew was awake when his brother got up with an inconsiderable loud sigh. Not wanting to miss out on anything, Matthew followed quietly, because it wasn't hard to be considerate.

There wasn't much to miss at the moment. Alfred's door was shut with no noises to indicate if anyone was awake and Feliciano was asleep on the couch tangled up in a blanket. Only Kiku sat on the floor by Feliciano with his expressionless eyes fixated on his phone. Seems like he didn't sleep much either.

Alfred didn't notice Kiku was awake and instead just grabbed the carton of juice from the fridge, popped the lid and drank from it. Matthew quietly sighed behind him. Apparently, that was enough to get him noticed.

"Oh, are you cooking breakfast now?" Alfred spoke as he swallowed and put the juice back. Matthew's eyes followed his brother's hand.

He had lost count of how many times he had told Alfred not to do that - drinking out of the shared cartons like that. Now he felt like he had the right to get confrontational and if he didn't say anything it was because he was willfully being a coward! All Matthew had to do was just point out that the glasses were right there and Alfred had no excuse, and then when Alfred argued back Matthew just needed to double down and hold.

But those points were overshadowed by Alfred's question. Alfred's tossing and turning all night must've gotten to Matthew, that had to be the reason why he wasn't endlessly patient with his brother like usual. Like expected.

"Do you want me to? I thought you would because you know what your friends like." Matthew didn't explicitly argue but he was ready to. Alfred was a bully for expecting him to cook every day and couldn't even organize breakfast without him. Alfred was so dependent on him, always taking and taking until Matthew had given up every ounce of his flesh and Alfred was still hungry. Soaking up everything Matthew had to offer until Matthew had nothing left.

"I can just tell you what my friends like," Alfred argued and started opening cupboards. "What do we even have, anyways?"

Matthew had to get out of there. Now. Before he was expected to serve.

"I don't know, just look around," Matthew wasn't about to list off options like a restaurant menu and shut himself in the bathroom.

Being passive-aggressive felt good and getting his way- or at the very least not being used felt good. Maybe he should just start cooking for himself again. But then Alfred would just argue that Matthew should double what he cooked. Matthew stared down his reflection in the mirror as he thought about what he could say to counter that because he needed to be prepared. He needed an iron defence that not even Alfred could argue with.

But Alfred would anyway, that was the problem. Because Matthew would fold after being pressured and pestered. Or, he used to. He felt like it would be different now, even if confrontation didn't work, he wouldn't feel guilty about finding a sneaky way to win.

Why did he feel helpless, even now? Why couldn't he just have the strength of a normal person to demand he be treated right? Probably because normal people, people who weren't him, got treated right just off the bat. They never had to prove, earn or negotiate their worth. It wasn't fair.

Matthew couldn't help but mourn his reflection in the mirror. He had spent so many years worrying about the boy in the mirror and now he had to remember that wasn't even him anymore. But he still felt echoes of that past pain, so clearly it wasn't so easy to leave himself behind after all.

Really, it felt like he was being dramatic for no reason. He liked fresh meals, that was why he cooked every day. If he was cooking already then was it really that hard just to double the recipe of whatever he was cooking?

His face snarled back at him.

Yes. It would be. Why can't he feel that way? Why wasn't he allowed to make demands too? People thought he was weak but when he was put into these situations where the only acceptable response was to comply, of course he seemed like a weak-willed pushover.

He just wouldn't comply. It didn't matter how he went about it, as long as he looked out for himself.

Matthew didn't want to be annoyed. He hated feeling like this especially with everything paying off! He should be happy but once again it was his brother ruining things by being obnoxious.

There was knocking on the door and Matthew jolted. His eyes bored into the door, angry at whoever just sent that shock through him.

"Dude, can ya hurry the fuck up! I need something in there," Alfred whined.

There was that sense of power once again and Matthew let out a breath. He was in control. Not only just of himself.

"Give me a minute."

Matthew forced the tension from his body. He wasn't going to stop himself from feeling anger, but hot wrathful anger was risky. He needed to be cold and calculated. That was the anger that kept his head on his shoulders and him safe on the streets.

He wasn't going to just come out of the bathroom now because Alfred asked him to. Matthew was going to wait a while and let his brother squirm because his twin needed to learn he didn't always get everything when he wanted, and Matthew wasn't always going to give it.

So Matthew waited a couple of minutes and practised keeping his face blank in the mirror before he stepped out.

"What were you doing in there? Building the bathroom?" Alfred grunted as he brushed past. Probably for the best before Matthew said something confrontational, his tongue was posed and just waiting to say something snide. However, it didn't escape his notice that what Alfred said was something Arthur used to say. He wondered if Alfred was aware of it too.

Kiku was now standing by the kitchen counter and staring into a mug of something that looked like tea. It seemed like Alfred had at least figured out that much when it came to entertaining guests. Then Matthew spotted a box on the bench.

Alfred never drank tea, no matter how much Arthur tried to pressure and persuade him into it. Matthew didn't drink tea either, so Kiku must've brought the teabags. For Matthew, Arthur was synonymous with tea so that would explain why Alfred had their cousin on his mind, consciously or not. But it was the first time in a long time that Arthur was on Matthew's mind too, and he found himself reflecting on his actions.

Did Matthew kill Arthur too hastily? Maybe he should've made Arthur one of the later victims so Matthew could reveal himself as the Trail Killer once he had already built the name up and then revelled in Arthur's reaction. That would've been beautiful.

Matthew squeezed his eyes shut and let it go. No one is an expert at something new so Matthew would just have to forgive himself for not knowing better. Arthur's dead now, and that is fine. He enjoyed it at the time and how could he regret that? He could replay Arthur's fading eyes in his mind whenever he liked at it was nice.

But there was something else. When he first started out all of his kills and chosen victims had been known to him and he took delight in giving them what they deserved. It had been so long since he had killed someone who was put in front of him by the universe.

Maybe he just evolved. He knew he was more reaction-driven now than personal-grudge-driven like before. But it still would be nice if he had the opportunity again to kill someone who had wronged him in the past. At least back then there was passion for killing. Right now it was just a matter of expertly slicing a stranger's neck and marking their forehead before moving on.

Ludwig was right about him escalating.

When Alfred came back out he still looked exhausted.

"We'll just have food on the road or something," Alfred announced to Matthew before bursting through his door. "Get up guys we gotta go to the station. We'll have a meeting in the car and get fast food or something with a drive-through."

Upon hearing Alfred's voice, Kiku snapped out of his intense focus on the mug.

"Uh," Kiku tilted his head at Matthew... who just knew his name was forgotten. "Would you like some tea?"

"No thanks," Matthew said quickly. "Did you bring that over?"

"No, Alfred found it." Kiku's fingers played with the tag and spoke distantly. "It was Arthur's favourite."

Oh, Kiku knew those were Arthur's favourite and said it like it was obvious. Matthew could never understand just how well-connected all these normal people were. All of Alfred's friends were one big group and they had no room for anyone else.

"Alright," Alfred snatched their attention as he jangled his keys. "We're gonna- oh wait I just had an idea!"

A tired Gilbert and Antonio loitered beside Matthew, who had no problem being close to them. Alfred quickly grabbed a mug and a new teabag.

"You can drink this, I dunno if it will help but I can't hurt," Alfred exclaimed as he poured a new mug of tea. "Arthur was always going on about the benefits of tea, just drink it and maybe it'll help."

Alfred shoved the mug into Gilbert's hand.

"Lets-a-go!" Alfred stopped again to pivot towards Kiku. "You guys can eat whatever leftovers you can find in the fridge I guess, I dunno what's in there but I'm sure there's something. Anyways, you're in charge! Ka-Ciao!"

Alfred grabbed to pull his friends as he made for the door. "Now come on, we gotta figure out where we're getting breakfast from!"

The volume of the house dropped when the front door was shut.

"I'm going to check on Feliciano," Matthew settled on saying.

"He should still be asleep. Now that he's deep asleep nothing should wake him."

Matthew just nodded.

"Let me know if you need anything then..."

Usually, at this time he'd be by the TV eagerly waiting for the news to start, but he couldn't do that with Feliciano there. But Matthew could just find news articles online and visit the news websites, which was all he wanted to do. It made him paranoid to think that something was happening about the case and he didn't know about it because he wasn't on top of the news. He wanted to know everything that was being said.

He sighed and relaxed his face as he shut himself in his room. Now that he was alone, he didn't have to be 'Matthew' with the face tightly coiled with worry. The bed was still unmade and the house was quiet like there weren't any guests at all. Matthew made his bed before sitting and searching on his phone. The news wasn't anything new, but Matthew still sat through every minute of it. He was about to browse the rest of the internet for entertainment when he heard soft noises coming from outside the room and decided there was something more interesting than the internet's ongoing reaction.

Matthew was a little bit annoyed that Alfred put Kiku in charge. Partly because Alfred put Kiku in charge (instead of Matthew who lived here?) and partly because why did Alfred think he was the boss who could delegate power? His brother had always been bossy and what was worse was people went along with it.

Matthew shook it off. It didn't really matter. He got what he wanted and nothing could ruin that. Plus he had the additional bonus of company in the house, two people who were close friends of his latest victim. Matthew couldn't ask for much more and was happy things had played out as they did. He didn't have any plans today but he found himself hoping that Alfred and the others were gone for as long as possible. He liked Feliciano and Kiku. He never had anything against the latter, not when Kiku was always mindful and respectful, never actually doing anything to use or hurt Matthew.

So Matthew really didn't mind being nice to them and helping them still got him what he wanted, feeding into his thrill so it didn't feel like it obligation.

Matthew stepped into the living room to hear Feliciano insisting that he was fine with a chipper voice and despite Kiku's blank face, he didn't really seem to believe it.

"This is a sleepover, right?" Feliciano said. "We should do sleepover things... like watch movies and have fun?"

"If that's what you wish," Kiku hesitated.

"If you want to watch movies I know Alfred has every streaming platform ever on the TV?" Matthew offered.

Again with the overhelping... but he didn't mind it. His earlier annoyance at Alfred left when his brother left and now he was just in polite company still revelling in the bliss of his achievements. If anything he was helping himself by engaging with them in any way possible and revelling in the thrill.

Eventually, Feliciano insisted on cooking which led to Kiku and Matthew helping out in the kitchen. Feliciano kept insisting to try and turn it into a nice sleepover and by cooking 'something nice' he'd be able to cheer everyone up.

He really seemed a lot like Antonio in a way, and a lot like 'Matthew'. Only everyone rightfully loved Feliciano, who knew it.

It was late afternoon, the three of them were on the couch watching a movie when the front door opened and the peace of the house was disturbed.

"What up guys? Did I miss anything?" Alfred said, voice flat as he tossed the car keys on the kitchen bench. Because of the force he tossed them with and the bench being smooth, they slid right off and clattered on the floor. "Fuck, that's my thirteenth reason."

Antonio pulled a face at Alfred, one of both disapproval and understanding. Gilbert didn't seem to hear.

Matthew immediately raked his eyes over everyone for clues.

Gilbert had been crying, his face was twisted up in anger and his body was tense. The tears were fresh and Matthew wondered if there was an episode in the car. Antonio was practically glued to Gilbert's side with a pained look of frustration and worry. All of them looked like they needed another 24 hours of sleep.

"Not really, we've just been watching movies - oh! And we cooked-" Feliciano went into a rant as he jumped up to skip over to the fridge and grabbed what they had made, intent on sharing.

"What about you guys, are you okay?" Matthew batted the ball back into their court as he and Kiku joined them in the kitchen.

Antonio shook his head like he was hoping no one would ask, making it obvious it was for Gilbert's sake.

"Fuck no, a whole lotta shit happened but do you actually wanna hear all about it?" Alfred remarked as he helped himself to some food.

"Yes! What happened?" Feliciano basically threw himself at Alfred.

"Yeah I know you wanna know but do you actually wanna know-? Never mind. Of course you wanna know." Alfred sighed deeply like it was a huge obligation, which made Feliciano frantically apologise before Alfred quickly cut him off.

"No, uh, I'm just tired and it's a whole lot to repeat so I'll tell you in a minute. You gotta know anyways... Thanks for cooking though!"

Once everyone had a bite to eat and Alfred shoved another cup of tea into Gilbert's hands, everyone was standing around in the kitchen with varying levels of anticipation.

"I don't think we were supposed to repeat it," Antonio chuckled humorlessly.

"He didn't say not to," Alfred shrugged. "Besides, who cares? It's not gonna get out anyways."

Gilbert made a gesture of agreement with an annoyed face, the annoyance coming from whatever happened at the police station.

"Is your grandfather okay?" Feliciano asked timidly and whimpered when Gilbert rolled his eyes.

"He's doing fine, amigo," Antonio put a hand on Feliciano's shoulder. "He's working hard to catch who did this and Ludwig will get justice."

"Yup, even if he has some fucking wack ideas about how to do it," Alfred added. "Anyways, we got a lot of dumb shit to tell and I dunno where to even start."

"How about chronologically?" Kiku suggested and Alfred nodded with consideration.

"Sounds good. So on the night that Lud... died... he actually called Gil and Toni cus he thought they might not be home and so he called them and made them give him their locations. The Chief wanted to know everything that happened during that call just in case it helped the investigation."

Gilbert's face was fucked up and Matthew just knew that Gilbert knew when his brother lost his life. Matthew didn't even know if it was necessary for Gilbert to know yet someone told him regardless. Was it the Grandfather? How cruel.

"Did it help?" Kiku asked.

Alfred waved his hands around unsurely.

"Maybe," Antonio replied. "Because Ludwig was looking for Alfred... well, no one knows why he was looking for Alfred but we know he didn't find him and Al never saw Ludwig..."

"Yeah, we don't know how long he was looking for me either but now we do know that after that call... uh," Alfred was hesitant to say it. "Yeah, the killer found him just after that call so the cops wanted to know if he said anything that could help or hint that could help pin the killer..."

Feliciano had a distraught look on his face but was focused on holding onto Alfred and Antonio's every word.

Antonio wrapped an arm around Gilbert and pulled him in as he murmured something to him. Likely something that was supposed to be reassuring, but Gilbert didn't want to hear any of it. Just glaring at the floor. It looked a little bit funny when he was holding a dainty teacup, reminding Matthew of Arthur.

"Anyways, yeah so we told them everything about that but I don't know if it actually helped," Alfred sighed.

"It might have. The Chief figured that the killer must've done something that wasn't suspiciousto make Ludwig pull over." Antonio insisted with positivity.

"Yeah, wanna hear the worst theory that dumbass had to say?" Alfred sneered. "Chief thought that maybe that fucker looks like me and that made Ludwig pull over and that's how the fucker got in the car."

What? Matthew's fingers twitched at that and he shoved them into his pockets. sure, that was a conclusion to come to but it was all circumstantial. It didn't actually mean anything and the police should know better than to make assumptions unless they were just that desperate. That had to be the case because it just didn't make sense. It was good they wrongly assumed that he got into the car after Ludwig called Gilbert but he could've pulled over for any reason. Why couldn't the police assume that Ludwig could be baited? Or maybe it was because Ludwig would've called it in, right? That's why it wasn't suspicious otherwise Ludwig would've notified someone, right?

Matthew didn't know what to think. He just needed more information. What else happened at the police station?

"He was in the car... when it happened." Kiku's face was stoic and Matthew would've found it just a little bit amusing how far behind everyone else was if he wasn't holding on for learning more. Now he was just annoyed that Alfred hadn't told him everything already.

"Yeah, apparently they could tell cus..." Alfred couldn't say it so instead he made some insensitively descriptive motons that made Feliciano's tears spill over. The boy was still determined to ignore them but did nothing as they cascaded down his cheeks.

"But I think that theory's fucking stupid," Alfred grumbled. "Because Ludwig knows me and Ludwig wasn't a fucking idiot who's fucking blind!"

Suddenly Gilbert was snatching everyone's attention as he held out something he typed on Antonio's phone.

"Yeah exactly. It's a stupid and insulting theory," Alfred remarked after reading.

"What does it say?" Feliciano hiccuped as he kept swiping at his eyes. "I can't read it..."

"'Opa is fucking stupid and if he really loved Lud so much he wouldn't think of something stupid because he always said how smart Lud was.'" Antonio read for him.

"Yeah, it's stupid because I dunno why your Grandpa doesn't get that me and Lud knew each other so he would've known that it wasn't me and wouldn't have let the guy get into the car with him!" Alfred was almost shouting. "It's so fucking stupid! It doesn't factor in that other shit might've happened like what if he pulled over for some other reason that wasn't that he thought he saw me or for someone else or, fuck, I dunno!"

"I'm sure the Chief would've considered that amigo," Antonio tried to pacify. "You're just getting caught up on some speculation. I'm certain he just said that out loud to consider that maybe at first he had found you and pulled over and then the killer talked his way into the car? It was just a theory because all the Chief knows is that the killer had to have distracted Ludwig somehow from his search for you to get into the car... and Ludwig would've have pulled over without calling for backup if it was his choice to pull over, instead of being called over."

"Yeah and the top theory of 'distraction' was someone who he could somehow mistake for me was walking around and when Lud pulled up this guy cottoned on real quick, like unrealistically quick and-" Alfred rubbed his hands together to give everyone the picture of just what this opportunistic killer was thinking. Matthew morbidly could see the humour in it because that's exactly how it went down.

"Like, seriously?" Alfred continued. "It's fucking dumb and means they're stuck on assumptions. There's gotta be other ways this guy non-violently baited Ludwig to pull over for him and then get the drop on him."

Exactly right. Matthew was biting the inside of his cheek as he listened to everything that was being said. Surely the police could come up with other ideas to explain how the Trail Killer got into the car. Hopefully, they convince themselves of a better one than what was almost the truth.

"It's just a possibility they need to consider," Antonio said again. "I'm sure it might help if they rule it out."

Matthew had to consider just for himself that it really was simply said for the sake of considering an option and not the lead the police were leaning on Alfred was acting like they were. But he had to agree, Alfred was right about it being stupid. What could the police do with that information and how could they even prove it? It was dark and maybe Ludwig was just pulling up to anyone on the street to make sure they weren't Alfred despite whether they resembled his twin or not.

Maybe the police were just overthinking it because they were desperate to add to their profile? That had to be it. If they thought the killer looked like Alfred then they'd have race and age along with any features he shared with Alfred... like hair, glasses, demeanour...

"Did anything else happen?" Kiku asked, completely unphased by the way Feliciano's hands were twisting into his sleeve for support.

"Yeah, just you wait until you hear what else this dumbass Chief has in mind- I can't believe that guy's in charge of keeping us safe," Alfred glanced at Gilbert. "Full offence."

Gilbert scowled in agreement.

"Maybe I should break it to him," Antonio glanced between Alfred and Feliciano and Matthew tried to anticipate what was going on. It couldn't be that something worse had happened, right? Because Ludwig was already dead, so what more could hurt Feliciano?

"What happened?" Feliciano said with an intake of breath.

"Nothing!" Alfred went to reassure. "Well, Toni will tell you. It's about Lud's funeral."

"Oh, right. Okay..." Feliciano was still apprehensively nervous. "What about it?"

"The Chief wants to talk to you at the station. We said we'd bring you around later so we can go whenever you like. But... we can tell you what it's about now."

"You're just making it sound more scary by edging," Alfred remarked. "Basically the Chief wants to make his funeral this whole big thing and have it open to the public for anyone to come pay respects."

Matthew's eyes lingered on Alfred. That sounded... tempting. He would love to go to Ludwig's funeral but he had a feeling that just like the curfew, there was a catch. Surely it was all just a move to try and catch him. Something in the funeral must be to get a response from him and try to control how he acts. Still, Matthew wondered if there was a way around it. If the funeral was streamed as everything these days was, then surely he could just watch it from the safety of his home and once he came across the thing that the police would put in there to tempt or taunt him, he just didn't react to it because he'd be expecting it.

"But Lud would've hated that!" Feliciano made a shocked noise as clutched to Kiku harder.

"Yeah it gets worse," Alfred chuckled dryly. "It's not going to be streamed or nothin' but it's gonna get put on blast through the media leading up to it so expect to hear about it 24/7 because they wanna advertise it as much as possible."

Oh, there was the catch. Matthew withheld an annoyed sigh. To attend the funeral everyone had to go there in person. He needed to know more now and bit the inside of his cheek as he waited for Alfred to spill.

"But why does he want to talk to me?" Feliciano's voice trembled.

"Because-" Antonio was interrupted by Gilbert slapping his arm and shoving the phone in his face. Antonio grabbed the phone but continued talking. "Because the Chief wants you and Gilbert to uh, be involved."

Antonio gave Feliciano a sympathetic look and turned to Gilbert's message.

"'I'll tell him I'll only do it if you don't have to do it cus he's an asshole and he said it would be great if my voice didn't heal so I'd sound more raw.'"

"Yeah that was fucked up," Alfred muttered. "Thank fuck he isn't my grandpa. Full offence."

"He was just thinking pragmatically," Antonio remarked and even Matthew was getting annoyed with his optimistic Devil's Advocate. He didn't like people who defended assholes. But he did like that this Grandfather was an asshole to Gilbert.

Feliciano just looked distressed and confused which made Alfred sigh.

"Fuck it. He wants you and Gil to cry on stage at the funeral and beg for Ludwig's killer to turn himself in peacefully," Alfred sounded like he was about to roll his eyes at any moment now. "Then when the memorial is built he wants you two to embarrass yourself again if it didn't work the first time, but then it'll be streamed to the entire nation so everyone can see the memorial! So there's that."

Feliciano made a noise that instantly told everyone how he was not into that idea. But Matthew wasn't caught up on that, he wanted to know exactly what the Chief was planning because it seemed like Alfred had more to say.

"What do you mean if it doesn't work the first time?" He questioned. "What is he trying to make them do?"

"Surely he has something in mind to ask for such a big favour," Kiku added.

"Yeah, apparently hyping the funeral is meant to inspire the killer to come visit the funeral and then when Ludwig's loved ones beg on stage we'll get a reaction."

"Yes, the memorial monument will be will up soon and the Chief thinks that if you two give a statement and make it personal the killer will visit," Antonio further explained, eyes full of pity turned to Feliciano. "I'm so sorry amigo."

"Yeah after Gil and you cry at the memorial and it's put on blast through every media ever, they're gonna stake it out because apparently the killer's gonna wanna visit. Something about the sick fucker thinking it's fun and too tempting but wouldn't the trail fucker know that? Maybe my brain's fucking rotted but I just can't trust the cops! I just can't!" Alfred insisted.

Gilbert huffed in agreement.

If Matthew worried about his stream of law enforcement information being cut off once Ludwig died, he was thankfully mistaken. As long as Gilbert could be used by his Grandfather and Alfred was verbal about his disapproval, then Matthew could always stay one step ahead. He had to admit, visiting the memorial would've 100% been something on his 'to do' list if he saw Gilbert break down on TV... it was scary to think that he might've been caught so easily.

But he would just be content seeing Gilbert break down on TV and he couldn't wait to see it, along with the frustration that came after when the Chief's efforts yielded zero results.

Maybe he could attend the funeral because he knew the others would go regardless of their official involvement or not and if he were one of their friends then of course he'd come for support. It gave him a plausible reason for being there, didn't it? And if it came down to getting a reaction when Gilbert and Feliciano gave scripted eulogies through tears, Matthew knew his acting skills were top-notch. He would be fine.

"'Fuck doing what Opa wants I want that bastard killer to get ripped to shreds on the street the cops would just put him away and protect him in prison.'" Antonio read when Gilbert thrust the phone into his hands.

"Yeah, can't hurt him in prison," Alfred muttered.

"But at least if he gets caught then he'll be stuck in prison and he can't hurt anyone else! Isn't that what Ludwig wanted?" Feliciano whimpered. "I'll meet with the Chief and do whatever he wants because I need to do it for Lud..."

Alfred sighed but didn't say anything as he hugged Feliciano.

"I understand your feelings," Kiku stated as he turned to Gilbert. "But Ludwig would prefer lawful justice as opposed to karma. If you want to honour him then we should do all we can to help the serial killer be arrested."

Gilbert sneered but turned away, seemingly in agreement with what his brother would want. It seemed to hurt him, but he nodded and typed:

"'I'll do the stupid funeral begging thing but I won't change my mind about other things.'"

Matthew raked his eyes up and down Gilbert. That statement could just imply that 'other things' was Gilbert still wished for the Trail Killer to get beaten up, but he could tell from the way Gilbert glanced at Alfred and Antonio that the truth was they were still very much on board with going out hunting at night...

Matthew would have to keep tabs on that. He doubted they'd go out so soon, especially when so many people were staying here and they were trying so hard to keep Feliciano and Kiku in the dark. But he knew it was only a matter of time.