Animal

8

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He avoided Matthew when he was at school. He alerted the principal about his condition, and was excluded from half of the homework that would have normally been due. When school let out, he left, hand-in-hand with Ivan.

The mansion was huge. He'd practically fainted when he'd first seen it. Built with intricacies across it, colored with deep red and gold and earthy brown. It was nothing like the Beilschmidt's mansion, or Romulus' home. This one didn't have to call Rome to scream it's riches. A fountaine stood in the middle of the driveway, a statue bearing her breast to the outside, a sword in her hand.

The other houses in Gardariki were similar, but the Patriarch's was the largest. At first he'd been so scrambled, trying to adjust to the idea of living in a house that large, but now he felt as if he could stay there forever. Around five-hundred could live in Gardariki, and the main house was meant to be able to entertain all of them. The house also had original inhabitants- the great-grandchildren of the siblings of Ivan's great-grandmother. Alfred had met Tolys before- he was the student aid in some of his freshman classes, and had always let him cheat off him. The other two, he didn't know.

When he got home, he would do his homework on the couch while Ivan did his college classes.  He wouldn't pretend to understand the math equations that his professor brought up, but it was nice to have some background noise while he bullshited through his classwork..

This day, however, was different. Today, he directed Feliciano and his horrible driving to his house, in Lutz's oversized van, while Ivan took a bus to the local college.

"Whoa," Raymundo gave a stark laugh, staring up at the mansion, "that's... it's so big."

"I know," Alfred smirked, a cocky look in his eye that made Raymundo give him the tiniest shove.

"You're living well!" Feliciano exclaimed, "I wish my first choice had a silver to their name."

The three of them burst out laughing, Kiku only raising his eyebrow like he did when he was contemplating something.

"Well stop gawking and move it!" Alfred exclaimed, grabbing his bag from the car and walking into the house. His friends follow behind him, glancing around the house, as if expecting something to jump out at them. Alfred supposed it was a pretty big house to be so quiet.

Tolys and Raivis came out after some time, dropping their own two cents into their conversation as they made fun of teachers and cursed out some of the other students.

"Okay, okay, but you just had a hard time convincing Mr. Danit to do anything for you cause you didn't realize that he's half-blind," Tolys waved a finger, "he's such a hard ass cause of it, but you can literally steal and grade your own assignments if you know how to be quiet."

"Is that why he made us say our names whenever we turned in our papers?" Feliciano whined, "Damn. I wouldn't have had to get my father involved in my GPA if that was the case."

Lutz snorted, quickly signing, 'As if you weren't already failing Chemistry.'

"Hey!" Feliciano exclaimed, "That's only because the teacher was a psycho-"

The doorbell rang, and the house fell quiet.

"Were you expecting anyone?" Raymundo whispered.

"No," Alfred said. Ivan wouldn't knock- he would just walk in. So would Chestibor. So would Yekaterina, and Natalia- he couldn't think of anyone who would knock-

It rang again, a series of pounding knocks following it.

"Police department! Open up now!"

Alfred sucked in a breath, covering his mouth with his hand like he was about to be sick, Kiku and Raymundo attempting to comfort him. Feliciano gasped before gaping around as if he was looking for a weapon. Tolys and Raivis, who knew where the weapons were, evaluated what the consequences would be.

Lutz stood up, walking to the door, ignoring the hisses for him to come back.

The beta opened the door slowly, eyeing Francis with suspicion.

"I am looking for Alfred Jones, I have reason to believe he is here."

'I don't know who that is.'

"Well," Francis said, "let me in."

'Do you have a warrant?'

"Stop flapping your hands around, boy, and move."

Francis attempted to push past him, but Lutz pushed back. He signed quickly: 'Go away. Get off my property.'

"Why you little-"

"Francis, it's a mute," Arthur called from the car. So this wasn't work related, and Francis was still just in his costume. Lutz's nose crunched at being called an it, and he fought the urge to shrink back into the house.

Francis sighed, "I'm looking for Alfred Franklin Kirkland-Bonnefoy. Do you know who that is?"

He shook his head.

"Is this your house?"

He nodded.

"Does your pack live in the other houses?"

He nodded.

"So you're a Braginski," Francis' asked. He nodded. Technically, Lutz was, through his brother who married one of them.

"Do you know Ivan Braginski?"

He shook his head.

"Do you know Chestibor Braginski?"

'Other side,' he charaded, until Francis nodded.

"Then goodbye, Mid Braginski," Francis said, walking back to his car. Lutz watched as he drove off from the porch, making sure the gate closed behind him before letting out a breath of relief, walking back into the house. He gave a double thumbs up, and the relief was felt through the walls.

Alfred called Ivan as soon as he dared, tears streaming down his face from the dread and then happiness that had pushed through the air, telling him everything as he promised to get an Uber and come home.

However, when Chestibor called, it was a surprise.

"You guys okay? I heard about the police officer. Same thing happened to my house and Natalia pulled her act off. Anyways, Alfred, I found your clan."

The room was silent as he spoke.

"You are part of the clan called Ganondagan, specifically the pack called Cahokia," he said, "your friend Raymundo is from the same clan, so is that one Juan character you told me about- quite a few of them go to your school, actually... Fedya? Alfred, are you there?"

He curled up in a ball and made a pained noise, his throat practically tearing from the strain it caused. Kiku held him as he sobbed while Raymundo tried to get all the information he could out of Chestibor, who didn't care to answer his questions, but rather stated a few thing:

"All the children were scattered. Most went to an orphanage called Istak Malinche."

"Thank you," Alfred whispered, "thank you so much."