- Gilbert's POV -
"Alright, Mattie. Where to first?"
"Have you eaten yet? I already had food before I came here but I don't know about you," Matthew asked as we walked on the sidewalk.
"Uh, yeah, totally. If we want something, we can go back to the café," I said. The truth was that I did eat but of course, it was from a human body.
Matthew handed me some of the flyers and I looked over them, "'Kumajiro'. Are you sure you corrected these?"
"Yes, that's the correct name. I was five when my dad gave me the cat as a Welcome Home present,"
"What do you mean by 'Welcome Home'?" I asked while putting up one of the papers on a pole.
"Well, I didn't know my dad until I was five years old. My mother dropped me off at his house and basically left him in charge with me. I cried when my mother didn't come back so my dad thought a friend would help me get comfortable here,"
"What happened to your mother?" I asked but instantly regretted it when I saw Matthew frown and look down, "Shit, You don't have to tell me,"
"No, it's fine. My dad and her weren't married when she got pregnant so she left and never told him. She found him again when I was five and promised that I will finally see him. I was excited because I always asked where my father was. And well, she left me there and... She never came back. At first, I thought it was because she forgot me so I waited. It wasn't until the next year that I had accepted the fact that she abandoned me," he explained in a quiet voice and pushed up his glasses, "I guess I always been invisible. I never had friends at school when I came here. I still don't to be honest. Maybe it's just a 'me' thing,"
"I'm so sorry about that, Mattie," I whispered.
"It's fine, really," He looked up with a small smile, "I actually prefer my dad over her. I mean, he suddenly had a five year old son he never knew about and did his best to care for him. I'm really grateful for him," He said and taped a flyer on another pole.
"I guess that's why Kumajiro is important to you,"
"Yeah. He never answers to his name though. Sometimes I think he forgets the fact that I'm his owner," He chuckled.
"I guess I can relate. Gilbird is the only family that I know,"
"Your bird?" Matthew raised an eyebrow, "If I may ask, what do you mean he is the only family you know?"
I hesitated and silently cursed at myself for being open. I shouldn't be talking to a human at all but Matthew was kind and pure. If he found out I was a ghoul, I don't know how he'll react. But he is being honest with me and I thought I should be doing the same. Of course, I'm not telling him the full truth, "Well, believe it or not, I have no memory of my past. The only thing I know is that my name is Gilbert and that Feliciano, a waiter in the café, found me in a park,"
Matthew's eyes widen, "You mean you really don't remember anything?"
"Yeah," I nodded, "Feliciano found me and took me in the café and now I work there and live upstairs,"
"Wait, what about your family? You must have one, right?"
"Well, of course I do but I can't remember much. I don't even know if they're still out there and wondering where am I or if I was just forgotten..."
Matthew patted my back and smiled softly, "I guess we're not all that different, Gil,"
I smiled back at him, "Yeah. We're both actually are super awesome!"
We kept on going on our way to put more flyers on. It's been a long time and we were almost done until we reached a dead end. I looked at my watch and realized that we've been walking for hours and was about to get dark. There weren't many people around since everyone knew they would be at risk of being caught as prey for a ghoul. I got worried that Roderich and Elizabetha would wonder where I am, "Mattie, we should go back,"
"Alright, Gil. Do you want to go back to the coffee shop? I can pay for your drink,"
"You don't have to do that, Matt-" We both froze when we saw two figures dressed in black approached us with a gun and a knife pointing towards us. They were covering their faces with black bandanas, only revealing their eyes.
"Give us your wallet!" The one with light blue eyes and spiky blond hair, said aiming the knife at Matthew. We realized that they were robbers and we stayed still.
"Now!" The other one with dark blue eyes and who was shorter than his partner demanded. His voice was quiet but was filled with a menacing tone.
I had the urge to turn into a ghoul to scare them off but I would risk scaring Matthew as well. All I could do was stand in front of him and glared at the two robbers, "We're not giving you shit!"
"Gilbert, no!" Matthew grabbed my hand to pull me away, "What are you doing?!"
The taller one scoffed, "Then so be it!" He didn't hesitate and ran towards me and before I could move, he stabbed me in the right shoulder. I yelped in pain and grabbed the shoulder that started bleeding rapidly.
The shorter one talked again, "What about now? We're giving you another chance to obey," he said coldly as he got closer to both of us.
Matthew was about to take his phone out until the shorter one quickly grabbed his arm, making Matthew drop "Do that and he'll die right now. All we want is your money,"
The one with spiked up hair got closer to me and aimed the knife to my head, "Well?"
Matthew reached for his pocket and before he can take his wallet out, gunshots were heard from behind us. We turned to see a cop car with its headlights blinding us. There was a policeman who aimed his gun towards the two robbers. The two instantly let go and started running away. The cop was about to go after them but saw my injured shoulder and instead paced towards me.
"I saw you two get into some trouble. Someone actually called and told me those two were threatening people again. Sorry that I got here too late to stop them from hurting you," the officer smiled and took out a first aid kit, "I'm Officer Väinämöinen but you can call me Officer Tino. It's much easier to say,"
"I'm Matthew and this is Gilbert," Matthew said quietly and then hit me on my uninjured, "What on earth were you thinking Gil! You could have gotten yourself killed!"
"Tch, that doesn't matter. They were going to hurt you and I was trying to protect you," I said, slightly flustered.
"Gil, I was scared you were going to die!" He said. Despite being shy and quiet, when Matthew lashed out angrily, he was actually kinda scary, "What's the point of being brave if you'll die like that?"
"I get to have an awesome death?" I chuckled.
Matthew sighed and smiled even if he wanted to stay mad, "Don't ever do something stupid like that,"
Officer Tino laughed quietly at our conversation, "Gilbert, right? Can you remove your coat so I can check your wound?"
"No, I'm fine,"
"You're obviously not fine, Gil," Matthew rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. The truth was that I was actually healing quickly because of the ghoul side of me.
I stuck out my tongue at him and took off the coat so Matthew can be satisfied. The wound didn't look deep as it was a couple minutes ago. The Officer stitched it and fixed it, "You should still go to a hospital for that. Would you like me to give you a ride home? If you think robbers are bad, you wouldn't want to mess with ghouls late at night,"
We both nodded and got in and started driving towards the café.
"You said someone called you to help us. Do you know who?"
Officer Tino nodded, "A friend of mine named Berwald was across the street when he saw the action going on. He knew he couldn't stop it on his own so he called me, knowing that I was near by,"
Matthew continued looking at me during the whole ride and I finally looked back at him, "What's wrong?" I asked.
"Are you sure your fine?"
"Matthew, don't worry about me,"
"It's just that- well, I already told you I never had real friends before. And you don't really know me and yet you were willing to risk your life to protect me. Thank you for that..."
"Aww, you don't have to thank me. That's what awesome friends are for!"
"You really think of me as your friend?" He said, finally smiling and calm.
"Of course!"
We finally arrived at the café and I stepped out of the car, "Get home, safely, Mattie,"
"If you're going to be my friend, you should at least get my name right," he smirked.
"Alright, I'm calling you Birdie now,"
"What? Gilbert, that's worse," he said confused.
I laughed and waved, "Goodnight to you too, Birdie," and I closed the cop car door and ran into the café. I watched the Matthew and Officer Tino leave and then saw Feliciano on the main counter.
"Had a good day?"
"Yeah..." I said, wondering if it was a good idea to tell him I almost got myself and Matthew killed by bandits, "Did anybody asked about me?"
"Yeah but I told them you were out for a walk in the shopping mall. They didn't continue to ask anything else,"
"Thanks Feli. I owe ya one,"
I turned on my phone to see text messages appear.
Mattie: If I don't find Kumajiro by next week, can you help me put flyers again? Hopefully, we won't get attacked again, Lol.
I knew if Roderich and Elizabetha found out about this, they wouldn't trust me. It's against their rules to interact with a human. But I'm half human. And I like Matthew. He's kind and trustworthy.
The Awesome Gilbert: Totally :)
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- Matthias' POV -
"How the fuck did that cop appear out of nowhere?!" I asked as we ran back to home.
"I don't know," My partner in crime, Lukas, responded, "But I'm surprised we haven't been caught,"
Once we were almost there, we started walking.
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it, idiot. In these past months, whenever we try to make a kill, the same cop comes,"
"Yeah, so?"
"And you know how Berwald recently started hunting on his own and left us?"
"Yeah..." I looked away at the name of my brother. It always been Lukas, Berwald, and I when we hunted at night. But Berwald decided to move away without telling us why or where so it only Lukas and I now.
"I'm just saying that both those things started around similar times,"
"You don't think Berwald has something to do about this..."
Lukas glared at me and shrugged. He sighed as he took off the black bandana from covering his mouth and put his bangs up with a cross pin that was his good luck charm. He always wore it when we are out in daylight but when we had to disguise ourselves, he kept it in his pocket. I took off my bandana and quickly stole a kiss from him.
"Can you guys not make out in the middle of the street?" we heard someone call out from our house. Emil stood outside the door and tapped his foot impatiently, "Where the hell have you two been?"
"Hunting,"
"I see no bodies with you," the moody teenager commented.
Lukas headed inside while smacking his younger brother on the back of his head, "If you don't stop complaining, you'll be a dead body soon,"
I laughed at him and walked inside and so did Emil. I didn't stop snickering until Lukas hit me with a rolled up newspaper.
"I'm hungry..." Emil whined.
"What did I just say, Emil?" Lukas said as he sat down on the couch and read the newspaper.
"I don't get why I can't go hunting with you two. Now that Berwald is gone, you need someone to fill the spot,"
"You're a kid. It's too dangerous,"
"I'm almost 17! What do I have to do to be treated as an adult! We're ghouls, god dammit!" Emil complained from the kitchen counter.
"You sure act like a little kid. If you call me Big Brother, I'll maybe consider it,"
"You just told me I act like a little kid and yet you want me to call you that?! Matthias, back me up!"
I rolled my eyes and hugged Lukas from behind, "Come on, Lukas. I was hunting when I was 10! It won't hurt him to be exposed a bit,"
Lukas didn't look up and flipped the paper, "Yes, but you were raised by savages, Matthias. Emil has school and that's enough,"
"Lukasssssssss," I hugged him more tightly and shook him around.
He turned around and cupped my face, "If I kiss you right now, will you shut up?"
My eyes lit up and he wasted no second to press his lips against mine. We both smiled as we heard Emil groan and cringe, "You're both weird," he muttered as he walked away to his room.
"I guess that shut him up as well," I chuckled and sat down next to Lukas. His face then turned to a confused expression as he read something and pointed to the news article.
The news article talked about a police officer who had rescued many people by being out late at night, saving them from bandits and robbers. We both made the connection and recognized the officer as the same officer who interrupted us earlier today from killing those two guys.
His name was Tino Väinämöinen and he was short, light blonde hair, and a soft smile. There were other photos alongside the one of the young man in his uniform. There were one of him with a young boy and then there was one of him and Berwald.
My eyes widen in shock. Berwald did had something to do with this man. But why? And what scared me was the idea that Berwald had sabotage our lives for that officer.
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A/N:
NEW CHARACTERS YEET
I decided to add the Nordics after all so that's exciting.
Also, new Cover drawn by me!
Sorry this took long But I was kinda stuck on a writer's block on this chapter. And I have been updating The Little Merman constantly so I thought this one deserved an update as well.
I also been thinking of making a Tumblr for this AU specifically where I can upload my art, answer questions from the characters, put up reference sheets and answer questions about the characters and AU in general. Tell me if you would think that's a good idea?
Thanks for reading so far! I appreciate all comments and votes and I'll see ya next update! (ㅇㅅㅇ❀)