Here I Am

Chapter 8

The sound of knocking on his locked bedroom door stirred Germany from his slumber. 

He groaned and kept his eyes stubbornly closed, shifting his position slightly in his bed to get more comfortable. He dismissed the noise that had disturbed him, convinced in his drowsiness that whatever it was didn't matter. Then, the sound increased in volume and urgency, added with the booming voice of a certain Brit, "Germany! Get up! You're harder to wake than France! Wake up--" "--Vous branleur!" 

The voice that interrupted him was undoubtedly France. From the context of the words, and Britain's retort, Germany guessed that the Frenchman had said Britain's favorite curses, in French. The Britain had apparently forgotten about trying to wake Germany up for the moment, because he was too busy yelling at France, but Germany was awake now. The voice of someone who hadn't been in your house before you went to sleep could startle you into that state, at least until you did or didn't realize that danger wasn't there. 

While Britain shouted, Germany threw off his covers, got up, and trudged over to the closet. He wasn't concerned about making his bed, he hadn't focused on any of those things since Italy was taken. He couldn't. He debated on what to wear, but just like everything else since the previously mentioned event, it failed to interest him for very long. He opened the closet doors and rummaged through the clothes, deciding to just pick something and throw it on. Once he did so, he was about to close it when his eye caught something in the closet corner. 

He wasn't sure why it interested him, and he wasn't sure why it was in his closet to begin with. But it was concealed enough usually by clothes that it could have been hidden there for who knew how long without him noticing. 

A brush broom.

It wasn't even a good quality brush room, for as far as Germany knew. If it belonged anywhere, it belonged in a pantry, either near the kitchen or near the trash where you would normally spot such an item. Germany thought about moving it to one of those locations... But yet... He didn't. He couldn't. Something stopped him, deep within his core. Something he couldn't identify, and it bothered him because of it.

While he was distracted, he had failed to notice the Brit had resumed yelling at him, "--break down this door! Are you even listening to me?!" 

Dismissing the thought of the broom for now, he closed the closet doors and moved to his door. A few more knocks resonated from the other side while Germany unlocked it, and the sound ceased when the satisfying click became audible to the Brit. 

When Germany opened the door, he saw Britain and France standing there. Britain looked frustrated but his expression held another emotion he couldn't identify. The Frenchman not far from him looked drunk, which Germany immediately associated with exhaustion. He often made that mistake when he saw France that tired. That he had seen France enough times in that state to realize this, irritated and embarrassed Germany.

They were silent.

"Well, is there a reason you woke me at..." The German had failed to look at the time. When he leaned forward slightly to glimpse at the clock on a wall nearby, and after reading it through squinting eyes, he turned back to the pair with a fierce anger, "It's two in the morning, gott verdammt! There better be a good explanation for this. Italy better be on the couch completely on harmed good explanation. And why the bloody hell is France here?!" 

And why did I just say bloody hell? He wondered, astonished with himself. God, it's too early for this...

Britain seemed to pick up on the oddness of the chosen words, but didn't say anything, although he did get a questioning look, as if he were afraid it would become a habit and he was thinking of new curse words just to avoid having to share any with Germany. 

"I'm here," France said, breaking the silence among the pair. "Because I wanted to see Angleterre. I did not find him at his house and I got worried. So I politely called and asked where he was. He told me and I politely asked to come--"

"And I told you that you couldn't because I was busy, but you came anyway." The Brit snapped, obviously in no better condition than Germany. 

"What about the others?" Germany asked, remembering Alfred and Japan. 

"Alfred didn't want to sleep here so he went home around midnight. Japan left too for something else, I think he said something about meeting someone, but this is besides the point." Britain held up some paper's he'd been holding in one hand. "I was going to just sleep on the couch once I started getting tired, but the truth is I haven't slept a wink. I started getting onto something, and I couldn't stop, and now I've got it. Germany, I'm almost a hundred percent certain I know where Italy is being held."

"Almost?" Germany forced himself to ask, trying to be cautious and not yell at him to grab the keys and start driving without any further explanation. 

"Four locations. Two I'm more certain of but the other two I just couldn't say yes or no to, so I counted them anyway just in case. I numbered the ones we should check out in order to how confident I am that Italy is there. The first one is my most confident..." He rummaged through the paper's until he held up what looked to be a map, scribbled on with notes -- taped as well as drawn -- and circles in red ink, four of the circles to be exact. Each with a number. "Here." Britain pointed to the circle that had the number one in it. 

"I'm pretty tired right now, so I was thinking we could rest up and then start looking tomorrow. If we--" "We're not waiting. We're going now." Germany interrupted, pushing past the Brit. 

"W-What? Germany you're not thinking straight. It's two in the morning and we're all exhausted. If we wait just a few more hours then--" 

"I'm not waiting!" Germany bellowed, whirling on his heel and turning to face Britain with only a few inches between them. "I fail to see why you would wake me--" Probably to gloat, He thought but kept those words to himself. "--and tell me this, but then just say for me to go back to sleep."

"I thought you might want to know! I thought it might make your sleep at least a little more peaceful, since I've noticed that hasn't been your sleeping state as of late."

"I wonder why!" The German barked sarcastically, narrowing his eyes. "Four locations! Four! In one of those four there's a chance that Italy is in there, suffering who knows what! I'm not going to waste even a few hours if it means saving Italy from more pain! Come with me or not, but I'm going! Don't even act like you can stop me."

Britain fell silent.

"We need a plan." France said, reminding the German that he was there.

"We'll wing it." Germany replied, turning around and walking back to his room momentarily so he could fetch his coat. Upon doing that, he also grabbed his car keys. 

"Let's go."