To Be a Hero

Chapter 17

Gilbert's apartment was much cleaner than Alfred would have thought. Everything was in its place--like Mrs. Jones had gone through and organized everything. There was absolutely nothing in the sink, clean or dirty, and one would be hard-pressed to find dust on the floor. Even the windows were spotless.

The kitchen connected to the living room with a step down, and from there Alfred could see the hallway that he suspected would lead to the bedrooms and bathroom. The apartment was quite minimalist, like they were ready to get up and leave any moment. Considering the Beilschmidt brothers' past, chances are they were. The thought made Alfred sad, realising how lonely they were used to being.

His trance was quickly broken by Gilbert. "Don't bother taking off your shoes--none of the rooms have carpets, and I gotta vacuum anyway." Alfred decided to bite his tongue, not mentioning the fact that the place was pristine.

Eerily even footsteps made the entire group--which consisted of Gilbert, Alfred, Mattie, and Ivan (he had shown up at the same time as them, meeting them at the door, while Antonio stayed downstairs helping the Italian brothers get their stuff out of the van)--to lift their heads. Turns out it was Ludwig walking over, who had clearly been caught at a bad time.

He was drying his short hair with a small towel, shirtless, with sweat pants low on his waist. He stared wide eyed at the group, and they all stared back because, holy shit, Alfred thought his hickies were bad. Ludwig was covered from the collar-bone down, small bite marks here and there dotting his skin.

Gilbert held the bridge of his nose while grinning, and Alfred busted out laughing. Mattie was chuckling a bit, too, but Ivan just didn't know what to do. Alfred was also stunned; there was no way that could be from Feli--he was so sweet...

"Jesus," Alfred wheezed. Those bites looked borderline painful.

"I think that's a bit too holy of a word," Gilbert laughed, his stern demeanor falling apart as he looked at his younger brother again. Ludwig threw his towel at him, still blushing. "Go put a shirt on before Feli and Lovino get up here--he will kill you if he sees that." Ludwig rolled his eyes and walked away as Gilbert threw the towel back at him. "Und wir unterhalten uns, wenn Sie zurückkommen, Herr geiler Teenager!" he called after him.

"Sprich für dich!" Ludwig called back from his room.

"Ich bin kein Teenager," Gilbert said, grinning. Sounds of despair repulsion came from the hallway, and Alfred cracked up again.

"I don't even wanna know what you said to him," he said, looking at Gilbert. "Also, where can I set down my stuff, because my bag is heavy as shit."

Gilbert took his stuff and set it beside the coffee table in the living room, showing him and Ivan around the pretty big apartment. "I'm gonna pull out the couch, so you guys could sleep there."

"Let me guess, Mattie will be in a room with you?" Alfred grinned, enjoying how Gilbert paused awkwardly before answering.

"Yeah," he mumbled. "Anyway, both of our couches pull out, so I'll probably kick Ludwig and Feli out of his room and let Toni and Lovino stay there."

"Nein!" Ludwig protested when Gilbert told him. "That's my room." He crossed his arms, displeased. The Vargas' were still not back up, and Antonio was MIA as well, but Gilbert seemed not to care that much. He was much too focused on making Ludwig cooperate--a job that Alfred was glad he didn't have.

"I know that, but you'll still get to sleep with Feli without Lovino watching you like a hawk," Gilbert answered, tone soft again. Clearly this guy had a parenting mode triggered by Ludwig. "And you know he will, or he'd take Feli right out of this apartment if he saw what was under your shirt."