hetalia | Pieces of Obsession

Pieces of Obsession

Rating: PG-13
Genre: Tragedy, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Mystery
Word Count: 4,800+
Characters: Austria, Prussia, Germany, Italy, HRE, fem!Chibitalia, Kugelmugel, Brief: Canada, Netherlands, Denmark, Hungary, Spain, France, England, Romania, Romano
Pairings: PruAus, GerIta, mentioned Romania x Hungary, Spamano and FrUk maybe if you really, really squint.
Warnings: Human AU, Character death, Human Names Used
Summary: One death, Seven lives shattered, Seven stories to be told, One mystery to put together.
Notes: HRE – Adlar , Fem!Chibitalia – Rosalia, Kugelmugel – Edwin, Netherlands – Morgens, Romania – Emilian, Denmark – Matthias. Full A/N at end

Chapter one: Metronome

Roderich’s POV

The clock-like sounds of the metronome filled the room along with the soft melody of the piano. The sound encased the house creating a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere. Unfortunately the mood was shattered in an instant by a shout.

“Hey Specs! Stop playing the god-damn piano and help me get Adlar and Edwin out the door!”

Roderich sighed, closed the piano, and made his way over to where he heard the voice come from. The closer he got, the more clearly he could hear the arguments.

“Edwin! Stop painting and get ready for school!”

There was a pause, and then a muffled voice responding.

“Don’t you throw that paint at me!”

The sound of a bucket hitting a head, or a wall, it was kind of hard to tell, was the response to the yelling.

“Not awesome!” The victim exclaimed, “Adlar! God damn it! Let go of my leg!”

Roderich opened the door and saw a scene that would be rather amusing to most. A young effeminate boy was sitting at the table, a canvas and paint brush in hand, seemingly lost in his own little world. A man that looked like he was in his early to mid twenties had a small amount of paint splattered on his face, and a five year old boy clinging to his leg. Roderich was rather annoyed by the mess.

The pianist sighed at the scene. “Gilbert” Roderich said, “What caused this?” He continued, gesturing to the mess of paint and annoyed Germans.

Gilbert looked up at him and frowned, “What do you think? Edwin won’t stop painting and get ready for school, and Adler won’t let go of my leg for some reason.”

Roderich sighed again and massaged the bridge of his nose.

‘Gilbert can’t even handle two children, how in the world does he manage to take care of a class of thirty?’

“Hey what’s that supposed to mean?” Gilbert said in an annoyed tone.

Apparently he had thought aloud.

“Nothing.” His partner said.

“Are you doubting my awesome ability with children?” Gilbert said starting to get defensive.

Adler and Edwin looked at their parents fighting with worried and confused expressions on their faces. The argument between the couple began to increase before suddenly coming to a halt by the sound of a car horn.

The four looked outside to see Alfred’s car, most likely picking up Edwin.

Roderich sighed for what felt like the hundredth time that day and turned to Edwin.

“Your car pool is here, you can’t them waiting.” He said.

The seven year old didn’t need to be told twice. He gathered his art supplies, said his goodbyes, and ran out the door.

After seeing that the boy made it to the car safely, Roderich let out a deep breath and said, “Adlar is going to be late for kindergarten, I’ll drive him.”

“No,” Gilbert said wiping the paint off his face. “I’ll take him. The kindergarten is on the way to the elementary school anyway. Besides, you need to practice for your recital.”

Surprised in the sudden change of attitude, Roderich merely nodded at his partner.

“Come on Adlar, it’s time for us to go.” Gilbert said ushering the little one out the door.

Roderich waved goodbye and watched as the adult and boy’s retreating figures entered the car.

As the car pulled out of the driveway and out of sight, he had a near irresistible urge to call out and stop them. Yet he ignored it, brushing it off as guilt from the previous argument, and retired to his piano.

But alas, practice was not meant to be, as every time he began to play the phone rang. He managed to ignore it twelve times before the thirteenth finally shattered his patience.

He slammed the piano lid with such fury, that the picture of him, Adlar, Gilbert and Ewin fell off the piano and shattered.

‘Perfect,’ Roderich thought as he stormed over to the phone, ‘Just perfect.’

“Hello?” He said irritably into the speaker, “You have reached the Edelstein-Belischmidt residence. Whatever you’re selling I can assure you no one has any interest in it.” The person on the other line tried to say something, but Roderich cut them off, “Don’t you people ever think that others might have things to do other than being talked into buying your most likely false product?”

He continued to rant for another minute or two before the person on the other end finally managed to cut him off.

“You done yet?” the person said. It either an extremely young boy or a woman with a low voice.

“Oh, Officer Lundailus.” Roderich said identifying the voice, “What has Gilbert done this time? Isn’t it a little early for him to have gotten into trouble?”

“Roderich,” The police officer said trying to remain calm, “Gilbert and Adlar have been in an accident.”

“What?” Roderich said, not being able to process what he had just heard.

“An accident.” The officer repeated, “About two hours ago, someone called 911 to report an accident they saw where a car slammed into the road dividers and than wrapped around a tree. According to the report, Gilbert and Adlar were injured, but I wasn’t told how bad it is.”

“I understand, I’ll be at the hospital right away.” Roderich said already on his way out the door.

“Okay, I’ll keep you updated on everything that happens while you are gone.” Lundailus said before hanging up the phone.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Roderich couldn’t remember driving to the hospital in his blind panic, but fifteen minutes after the call with the officer he found himself running towards the front desk of the hospital.

“Gilbert Belischmidt and Adlar Edelstein-Belischmidt!” Roderich said hastily to the nurse behind the desk.

“…huh?” The nurse replied, “Could you please repeat that?”

“I said Gilbert Belischmidt and Ad-” He started to repeat but was cut off by a low, slightly German accented voice.

“Roderich.” The mystery voice said. The Austrian twirled around to see a tall man, at least six feet. Built like a tank with piercing blue eyes, slicked back blonde hair, and a no-nonsense expression.

“Oh…Ludwig.” Roderich said hastily, walking towards the man, “What’s going on? How’s Gilbert and Adlar?”

“Adlar is alright, just a slight concussion and a broken arm. Feliciano and Rosalia are with him. Gilbert however is still in surgery. The doctors haven’t told us of his condition yet.”

“I understand.” Roderich said walking away, before stopping and turning back around, “Where’s Gilbert’s room?”

The German sighed, “I’ll take you there.”

After walking through the labyrinth of hallways, Ludwig and Roderich finally arrived outside the door of Gilbert’s operation room. They were met by seven people; Elizabeta, an attractive woman with long brown hair and green eyes, Antonio, a cheerful Spaniard, Lovino, a temperamental Italian, Francis, an effeminate looking French man, Arthur, a British man with rather impressive eyebrows, Matthias, a muscular wild looking Danish man, Morgens, a stoic Dutch man, and the youngest, a shy boy Matthew.

Noticing Roderich’s and Ludwig’s presence, each one turned to face the Austrian.

“What the fuck took you so long?” Lovino exclaimed, “It’s been over two god damn hours.”

“Lovi,” Antonio said putting his hand on top of Lovino’s head. “Now’s not the time.”

Lovino merely huffed and sat down on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs the hall had to offer. The area was once again quiet besides the whispered arguments between Francis and Arthur.

Roderich leaned against the door to the operating room, listening to the heart rate monitor that he could barely hear. He was tapping out the beats as if playing the piano to a melody in his head. Silence continued to rule the hallway until the monitor jumped from seventy to nearly three hundred in a matter of seconds.

Than it stopped, and Roderich froze, hoping his hearing momentarily failed him.

After a minute, the doctor opened the door, nearly knocking the stunned man over.

“Belischmidt!” The doctor called. Everyone jumped, suddenly startled from being jostled from their own world.

“Yes?” Ludwig responded.

Everyone looked at the doctor with a hopeful glint in their eyes.

“I’m sorry.” The doctor said with no emotion hinted in his voice, “There was nothing we could do.”

Roderich froze once again, not quite processing what was said, only coming back to reality when Elizabeta began to yell responding to something someone said.

“Antonio’s right!” She exclaimed, “This is just one of Gilbert’s stupid pranks!” Elizabeta began to walk over to the door of Gilbert’s operating room and knocked.

“Haha Gilbert, you got us! Now cut out the act! This isn’t funny!” She said banging harder onto the door with each word until everyone was afraid she would break it down.

Roderich silently winced at the sight of his friend’s denial. It pained him to see her so hysterical. His mind immediately shut down again, and his body and voice went to autopilot.

“Elizabeta, that’s enough!” He said putting his hand on her shoulder trying to remain stoic and not betray his emotion, “Gilbert’s gone.”

Elizabeta merely stared at him in disbelief, momentarily causing his expression to waver. Luckily only she seemed to notice, while others looked at him as if he was a completely heartless bastard.

“NO HE’S NOT!” Matthew yelled. Everyone looked at the usually quiet boy who Roderich forgot was there, “This is Gilbert! He would never die like this! If death came to get him, he would kick death in the balls, flip him off, and tell him to suck his dick.”

After the boy’s exclamation, the room erupted into incomprehensible arguments of denial until Ludwig forced it to come to a stop.

“ENOUGH!” Ludwig yelled, “Gilbert’s gone, no amount of arguing is going to change that. Now, we have to leave and let the doctors do their jobs.”

Elizabeta immediately ran out. Roderich reached out to stop her, but his hand missed her arm and he stumbled slightly. Soon enough everyone left, one by one, until only he and Ludwig were there.

Ludwig turned to him, and said with an emotionless voice, “I’ll show you to Adlar’s room.”

Roderich merely nodded and followed his sort of brother-in-law through the hospital, before reaching a sign with Room 1806 printed on it.

Ludwig knocked softly and opened the door.

The two walked in to a medium sized room with tacky dinosaur wall paper. Occupying the room was an auburn haired man in his early twenties and a five year old girl sleeping on a bed next to an unconscious boy, the same age as the girl, with blonde hair that was partially obscured by bandages. His arm was held in a cast that was nearly as thick as his body.

“Feliciano.” Ludwig said addressing the adult in the room.

“Ciao Ludwig, ciao Roderich.” Feliciano said.

“It’s time to leave now.” Said Ludwig.

“But,” Feliciano tried to argue, “We have to be here when Adlar wakes up!”

“Roderich will be here when he wakes up, Feliciano. And Rosalia clearly needs to get home.” Ludwig said motioning to the girl asleep on the bed, cuddling her friend. As if on cue, Rosalia began to squirm, the adults voices awakening her.

She rubbed her tawny eyes and looked up at the adults.

“Hi Daddy, Hi Uncle Roddy. Where’s Uncle Gil?” She said with a yawn.

“Ve? Oh yeah! When can we see Gilbert?” asked the Italian, not knowing of the man’s passing.

Ludwig looked down, most likely thinking of how to tell his lover and child of his brother’s death.

“The doctors said they would call us when we can visit him.” Ludwig lied, most likely deciding to tell them when they got home, to avoid causing a scene.

Ludwig picked up the half awake girl in his arms and nodded in Roderich’s direction.

“Edwin’s on his way here. One of his teachers volunteered to bring him.” And with those words Ludwig, Feliciano and Rosalia left, leaving the musician alone with Adlar.

Roderich began to absent mindedly stroke Adlar’s hair, lost in his thoughts about the news that had been delivered less than an hour ago. Roderich was snapped out of his musings when he heard a knock on the door.

“Come in.” Roderich called, thinking it was a doctor, but to his surprise it was not. Instead of a middle aged man in a lab coat and horrendous scrubs, there was a young man in his mid-twenties with choppy, ear length dark brown hair and tan skin. There was a young seven year old boy, with platinum blond French braided hair and a backpack, standing next to him. The man walked into the room with a solemn expression.

“Umm…hi. I don’t know if you remember who I am, but I am one of Gilbert’s friends and co-workers.” The man said.

“Oh yes, you’re Seth Lundailus, Officer Lundailus’ older brother, if I’m not mistaken.”

The man, Seth, was clearly caught off guard, not expecting Roderich to remember who he is.

“Yeah.” He confirmed, “Well I brought Edwin…obviously.” Said Seth nervously, placing his hand on the small boy’s shoulder, “So if you need anything at all, just call.”

And with that, the awkward man left the room.

Edwin pulled up a chair besides Roderich and seemed to angle himself in a weird position. After finding the correct angle he nodded his head and grabbed a sketchbook from his backpack. With a sketchbook and pencil in hand he went back to his previous position. After a few seconds of awkward silence and a Roderich staring silently at the boy, who was looking up constantly from his sketchpad, he decided to ask.

“What are you doing?” Roderich said.

“Don’t move.” Edwin responded, staring up at him with his large violet eyes, “You’ll mess up the picture and it won’t be art.”

Roderich merely nodded his head, which earned a glare from the boy because he moved again. After a few more minutes of silence and Edwin’s sketching, someone knocked on the door again.

“Come in.” Roderich turned around and called, earning another glare from Edwin. This time it was a middle aged man in a lab coat and horrendous scrubs.

“Hi everyone, how are you doing?” The doctor said.

“How do you think?” Roderich responded.

“Well other then the concussion, Adlar’s arm is broken in a few places, but you should be able to take him home once he wakes up, after a few more tests, of course.” The doctor replied.

As soon as the doctor finished his sentence, Adlar’s sky blue eyes began to flutter open. He slowly turned his head towards his guardian and older brother and muttered a few incoherent words before the doctor cut him off.

“Well perfect timings, it seems you are awake.” The doctor stated. He then turned around, head peering out door and called for a nurse for assistance. The doctor turned back to Roderich and Edwin, “Can you please wait outside, we have to do a few more tests before he can return home with you.”

“Okay.” Roderich said dragging Edwin out of the room, who was very disappointed in having his sketch unfinished.

After a few hours of waiting outside and Edwin continuously pointing out what and what wasn’t art, the doctor walked out of the room with little Adlar.

“He has some memory loss of the accident, but other than that he is okay, but he might have to stay home for a couple of weeks depending on the condition of not only his arm but his concussion.”

“Okay.” Roderich said picking up the five year old, “Thank you for everything.” Roderich then took hold of Edwin’s hand and proceeded out of the hospital.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After one chaotic car ride home, including Roderich getting lost, Edwin and Adlar arguing after Adlar accidently pulled on Edwin’s braids while asleep, they finally managed to get into the house in one piece.

“Edwin, can you help your brother up to his room?” Roderich asked.

“Can’t Gilbert do it? I see art inspirations outside!” whined Edwin, and with that the two boys ran out of the room into the ‘Lair of Complete and Total Supreme Awesomeness’, aka the basement, to find their other guardian.

Roderich just stood there not knowing what to do.

“Where’s Gilbert? He’s not in his usual spot!” Edwin called from the basement.

“Boys…come here.” Roderich called, “Come back to the music room.”

Roderich didn’t have to wait long before he heard the soft steps of the boys running into the room.

“Where’s Gilbert?”Adlar asked.

“Why is our family photo broken? Did it fall off the piano?” Edwin added while picking up the ruined picture.

“Edwin…Adlar…” Roderich said slowly, as if he was swallowing acid. “Gilbert…he’s gone.”

“You mean at the bar?”Edwin asked, “Than Great Auntie, Great Uncle Lundeilus, or Auntie Lundeilus should bring him back soon!”

At this point, Roderich was doing his best to calm himself.

“No, he’s not at the bar.” Roderich said.

“Then is he at the arcade?” Adlar asked.

“No he’s not there either. He’s not anywhere.” Roderich said, still trying to remain calm, “He’s not coming back.”

“But he was with us this morning.” Adlar stated clearly confused, “He took me to school…I think. I remember him driving me to school!”

“Adlar….you and Gilbert never made it to the school.” Roderich stated, “You guys got in an accident.”

“What kind of accident?” Adlar asked.

“It doesn’t matter; the fact is Gilbert is never coming back.” Roderich said with much pain.

Adlar stood there still confused while Edwin seemed to be grasping some of the situation.

“Why?” Adlar asked.

“He’s just not.” Roderich answered.

“But why?” Adlar whined.

“Is it because of the argument you and Gilbert had this morning?” asked Edwin.

“No Edwin it’s not because of that. I know you two might not understand right now, but he’s in a place right now where he can’t ever come back.” Roderich said nearly letting his emotions slip out, “Now, I have business to do, so go off and play. Alright?”

Adlar looked reluctant, but Edwin grabbed his hand and dragged him outside to play.

Roderich let out a long sigh.

“Gilbert, you moron.” Roderich said under his breath, “Why did you have to do this to us?”

He sat down and opened the lid of the piano and stretched out his fingers before letting the sound of his sorrows play out the tune of Lacrimosa in D minor.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Days passed, every single one the same. Get up, take care of the kids, play and practice his compositions. He would ignore the calls of concern from his friends, mainly Elizabeta, Basch, and Antonio, and each day the children’s questions did not cease. They just kept getting more and more frustrated.

One day, a call from the orchestra came and offered Roderich and opportunity that could possibly make his career sky rocket. All he had to do was compose one piece for the violin they said. Roderich took this as an opportunity for escape, but no matter how hard he tried he could not come up with anything decent. In the end, this caused him so much lack of sleep he ended up passing out in the music room.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Hey Specs! Wake up!” a voice called out. He felt himself be shaken and opened his eyes to reveal a teenager with platinum blonde hair and light blue eyes. Roderich looked at the clock on the nightstand to see it read four A.M.

“Gilbert,” Roderich said in a somewhat groggy voice, “What possessed you to wake me up at this inhumane hour? Better yet, how did you even get into my house?”

Gilbert gave him a manic smile and pointed at the broken second floor window and the tree outside.

Roderich sighed and said, “So, I have to replace the window, again? Do you the slightest idea as to how irritating that is? I might as well not have a window.”

Gilbert rubbed his chin and stated,” Really? I thought it was kind awesome and romantic, but I guess I followed that one book, Robert and Julie wrong.” Gilbert shrugged

“You mean Romeo and Juliet? And romantic? YOU BROKE MY WINDOW! AND AT FOUR AM NO LESS! YOU FOOL!” Roderich yelled, finally fully awake.

“Yeah, yeah, details, details, anyway, Franny and Tonio are waiting outside. We’re headed to a rave. So get your ass up.” Gilbert said.

“A rave…a rave? You woke me up for that? Do you think that makes this situation more romantic? What is wrong with you?” Roderich exclaimed.

“Hey, you said we need to go out more.” Gilbert said.

“When I said that, I meant going to restaurants or movies not, breaking and entering my house at four in the morning to join you and your psychopathic friends at a rave.”

“Whatever.” Gilbert shrugged, as he picked up Roderich and threw him over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes. He then exited with Roderich the same way he entered, out the window and down the tree, somehow managing not to drop the struggling and annoyed Austrian. The teen then proceeded back to a graffiti covered death trap disguised as a car.

“Got him!” Gilbert said addressing the two other occupants, “Now let’s go! Francis get your hands off Roderich!”

Francis just shrugged his shoulders before driving them off.

The quartet finally arrived at their destination after a long ride of bad touching by the perverted French man and an overly cheerful Spaniard trying to calm down a furious Roderich. Upon looking out at the usually abandoned warehouse filled with lights and drunk and/or high teenagers, Roderich glared at Gilbert.

“I am not going in there.” Roderich said.

Gilbert gave him a devilish smirk, “Yeah, you are.” and nodded at Francis and Antonio.

Francis and Antonio merely nodded back and proceeded to grab Roderich by his feet and underarms, and carry his flailing body into the building.

Once in the warehouse, Antonio and Francis unceremoniously dropped Roderich onto the floor. Landing flat on his ass, the smell of booze, sweat and sex assaulted his senses, along with the thumping of the beat. Roderich stood back up and turned to Gilbert.

“We are leaving now!” He said raising his voice.

Gilbert just looked at him and smirked, “Why should we?”

“Possibly because of the illegal activity, the fact we could get imprisoned for years, and I’m also still in my pajamas!” Roderich said gesturing to his outfit and turning around and walking away.

“Oh…forgot about that.” Gilbert said checking out Roderich and shrugging his shoulders, “Oh well, doesn’t matter. We’re supposed to meet up with Liz and Emilian. So let’s go.”

Gilbert grabbed Roderich before he could complain anymore and dragged him into the crowd. Swerving through the sweaty teenage bodies, Gilbert suddenly came to a halt.

“Stay right here, I’m going to get something.” said Gilbert running off deeper into the mass of what Roderich could describe as hell, leaving him standing there awkward and alone.

“Hey there.” a feminine voice said into Roderich’s ear. Roderich turned to see a provocatively dressed girl standing way to close for comfort.

“Uuh-uuh-uhh…h-hello?” Roderich said, getting flustered as the girl sized him up like a cat on the hunt.

“You’re kind of cute. Wanna dance?” She said already grinding against his body.

Unsure, Roderich looked around nervously for anyone he could recognize to save him. Unfortunately the only people he could see that he knew were Francis and Antonio, but both were distracted by annoying Arthur and entertaining various girls.

He looked back to the girl and said, “Um…no thank you?”

“Come on!” The girls said in what she thought was a flirty tone but came off as whiny.

Before Roderich could deny her again, he felt an arm around his shoulder. He looked to his left to see a scowling Gilbert with two glasses in one hand.

“Back off, he’s taken.” Gilbert growled whilst glaring at the girl. The girl merely shrugged her shoulders and walked off to flirt with another weirdly dressed boy who he recognized as Emilian. Roderich turned back around to face Gilbert, not wanting to witness the girl’s demise at Emilian’s girlfriend, Elizabeta, hands for interrupting the argument/glaring match she was having with her boyfriend.

Gilbert snorted, “Well, that chick’s doomed.” and shoved one of the glasses in Roderich’s face, “Here. Drink up.” He said.

“I am not drinking that!” Roderich said.

“Come on, don’t be so unawesome. Just let loose.” Gilbert assured, “Nothing bad will happen.”

“We could get arrested.” Roderich said.

“Nah, not going to happen, police don’t care.” Gilbert said to get Roderich to just drink the alcohol, “The sooner you drink up, the sooner we’ll leave than planned.”

“Fine,” Roderich sighed as he rolled his eyes and threw back the glass, the contents filling his throat.

“Now let’s dance!” Gilbert said already starting to join in the crowd.

“No.”

“Come on, don’t be so unawesome. Just loosen up and go with the beat in your head.”

Unfortunately for him, he could already feel the alcohol taking effect. Despite his brains objection his body began to move to the loud beat.

Drinks and hours later, Roderich and Gilbert stumbled drunkenly out the warehouse and collapsed against the side of their car.

“See? Told you it’d be awesome!” Gilbert said laughing, trying to regain his breath. Roderich merely punched him in the shoulder.

“I wouldn’t say that.” Roderich scoffed.

“Come on! It was awesome!” Gilbert said, and then smirked, “I didn’t think anyone could do that with their hips.”

Roderich blushed and before he could retort, Gilbert had passed out, drunk, on his shoulder. Roderich looked at him and smiled, stroking his hair and listening to his heart beat sync up to the faint music’s tempo. He closed his eyes and joined Gilbert into dreamland.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Roderich opened up with a start, and saw that he had passed out on his piano bench.

“Well,” Roderich thought, “It couldn’t hurt.” He said remembering Gilbert’s words from the dream.

‘Just loosen up and go with the beat in your head’ He thought.

He picked up his violin that he had set next to his piano and began to let the beats in his head translate to the strings of the violin, creating a soft melody. His mind wandered to the memory of Gilbert he had just dreamt of. The music slowly reflected the sounds of Gilberts heart beats, remembering the slow rhythm that he would hear every night as he’d go to sleep. Suddenly the tempo in his head sped up as he drifted to his memories of the heart monitors beeps and he began to play the violin faster and faster to keep up with the tempo, until suddenly, the string had snapped unable to keep up with the force he had been playing.

Roderich just stared at the musical instrument for the first time since Gilbert’s death, and saw his reflection in the shining wood of the violin. He was a mess. His usual neatly combed brown hair looked disheveled and his stern violet eyes exhausted. Roderich then slumped to the ground and let out a hollow laugh.

“Roderich, what’s wrong?”

Roderich looked up to see two small boys standing in the doorway.

Edwin and Adlar walked closer to him, noticing them attempting to hide something large behind their backs.

“Nothing” Roderich sighed.

Edwin and Adlar looked down, “The violin is broken. That’s going to be harder to fix.” They said.

Roderich stared at them slightly confused by their choice of words.

“Fix?” He asked.

The two boys looked up at him and smiled, unveiling the mystery behind their backs. It was a painting of the family. Edwin staring off into a random direction, his large eyes mystified, and Adlar was holding back a wide smile. Both boys were sitting in the laps of Roderich, who looked slightly embarrassed, and Gilbert, who was giving Roderich a kiss on the temple, his eyes hiding a smirk at Roderich’s embarrassment. A large field of edelweiss and corn flowers surrounded them. It was the picture on the piano that Roderich had broken.

Roderich stood up staring at his adopted children slightly surprised.

“Well…”Adlar said fidgeting slightly, “We’ve seen that everyone’s been sad lately, and we remember Auntie Elizabeta saying how important the picture was to you, so we tried to redraw it. Please don’t be sad anymore.”

“We don’t want Gilbert to be upset too when he comes back.” Edwin said.

“So please be happy.” The two said in unison.

Roderich suddenly understood why they had done this. They had seen the picture broken and thought that was the cause of sadness. They didn’t understand yet that it was because Gilbert was gone. He stared at the picture, realizing a scene like that would never happen again, a few tears escaping his eyes.

“Roderich, Roderich. Did we do get it wrong?” Adlar asked.

Roderich shook his head and embraced his two sons, although Adlar was having trouble hugging back with the cast on his arm, “No, you two did everything right. Thank you.”

The two boys were still confused as Roderich thought to himself, ‘Gilbert, if you can hear me, just know that you are a complete and utter fool for leaving us behind…but I still love you.’

A/N:

Zombie: hey everyone. Thank you for reading. I’m sorry for any OOCness (is that even a word? Oh well), if there is any pointers you give us on writing the characters, it would be greatly appreciated! Some OOCness was intentional (such as Gilbert in the beginning, oh and his different hair and eye color was on purpose to, both for reasons that will be explained later in the plot). Advice on how to write Edwin and Adlar (I’m too lazy to write out their actual names) were especially hard to write since we had to write them from a child’s stand point and their actual characters. So…tell us how we did and we’ll try to improve!

Sora: Yeah…so this story was depressing so if there are any errors I’m sorry, but I just had to make sarcastic side comments to get through the story editing without crying. I’m a wimp…I cry easily…yet I write depressing stories. *sigh* Anyways if you’ve read this far thank you very much for giving this story a chance^^ It means a lot to Zombie and I!

Zombie: p.s. what do you think of the OC’s (Seth Lundeilus and Officer Lundeilus)