FACE Mertalia

A Wonderful Thing Called Coffee

Alfred woke up the next morning to an Italian snoring in his ear, and was confused before he remembered what had happened the day before. Alfred looked around as he slowly woke up. Veneziano had let Alfred sleep with him on his bedroll, and at some point during the night, had wrapped around Alfred and was now clutching him to his chest. Kumijirou was curled up on Ludwig's bedroll, snoring lightly. Ludwig himself, was already up and sitting nearby, drinking something out of mug and staring into the distance. Alfred quickly squirmed out from under Veneziano's arms, the Italian didn't move, and made his way over to Ludwig.

The German heard him approach and offered the tiniest smile in greeting. "Guten morgen, you slept vell?"

Alfred yawned as he sat down, "Yeah, ... what are you drinking?"

"Coffee, helps me vake up."

"Really? Can I try some?" Alfred begged.

Ludwig gave him a funny look before he shrugged and handed his cup over. Alfred sniffed the warm brown liquid and his eyes grew huge at the marvelous aroma. Ludwig chuckled at the merling's expression, "Go on, if you like it I vas going to make more for Veneziano when he voke up. Mind you, that vill not be for a vhile, he sleeps like the dead."

Alfred took a tiny sip and instantly fell in love. Man, the flavor, bitter but kind of creamy. He felt really buzzy, and wow, wow, WOW! This coffee stuff is AWESOME!!! Alfred thought as he downed the rest. He gave Ludwig his cup back as he started giggling and bouncing all over.

"How in wunderbagen....? I take it you like it then?" Ludwig said as he looked into his now empty mug.

"Like it?! I LOVE IT!!!!!" Alfred squealed as swam all over in front of Ludwig, darting this way and that, doing tricks. "Great, now I'll have two hyper mermaids who can't behave," Ludwig grumbled as he watched Alfred complete a complicated corkscrew manuever.

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After Veneziano woke, two hours later, Alfred had crashed from his sugar/caffeine high. Ludwig had already packed everything up, though there wasn't a whole lot to began with, and had made more coffee for Veneziano; although, Ludwig was careful not to give any to Alfred. Ludwig was concerned that kid was going to do something dangerous if he had any more caffeine.

"Ve~ Grazie, Ludwig." Veneziano said, taking the cup offered to him. Ludwig rolled up the Italian's bedroll as Veneziano happily chatted to Alfred and Kumijioru, sipping his coffee.

Ludwig pulled a shell phone out of his tail pocket and called his brother after he was done tying Veneziano's bedroll to his back, along with his own.

This is the awesome Gilbert Beilschemit speaking.

"Gilbert, it's me, Ludwig."

Oh, what's up little bro? You need girl advice, because I can totally help you out.

"No, that's not vhy I'm calling," Ludwig rubbed his forehead in frustration, "you remember that Russian, Ivan? Do you know where he lives?"

Ivan? Vhy vould you vant to know that?

"You know how Francis Bonnefoy and Arthur Kirkland took in those two kids? Vell, one of them vas kidnapped by Ivan. Ve found the other one hiding nearby yesterday, and after he told us vhat happened, ve decided to help him."

Vait a minute! Did you say Francis Bonnefoy's kids? Because Antonio called me yesterday and told me to keep an eye out for the buggers. Francis is really worried, and, vell, I vould hate for Alfred to get hurt, he is pretty awesome! Not me awesome, but, close!

"Ja, same kids." Ludwig said as he shook his head, "So can you tell me vhere Ivan lives?"

Of course! There is nothing the awesome me doesn't know! Ivan lives reeaaall far north, like, in Russia. So you just go North until you see that huge rock arch and then go right. You can't miss it, that place is like a medieval castle, real spooky.

"Thanks Gil, I'll talk to you later."

Hey! Vait! Vhere are you - ?

Ludwig had already hung up, silenced his phone, and put it back in his pocket, before Gilbert could ask him another stupid question about girls. Ludwig shifted the bedrolls on his back before turning to his group.

"Veneziano, are you carrying the pasta pot?"

"Sí, I am!" The Italian jumped up and grabbed the pot, coming over to Ludwig.

"Gut, then let's go." He said, starting North, with Veneziano, Alfred, and Kumijirou following behind.

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Arthur and Francis had stopped to take a break from tracking. They had headed out soon after Arthur completed his spell, grabbing only some clothes and food. But the spell made Arthur tire easily, as it was sucking at his energy to keep itself going, so they couldn't go very fast. The had only gone a little over ten miles before Arthur called a break. As he was sitting on a mossy boulder watching Arthur sleep below him, Francis felt his phone buzz and pulled it out of his pocket to answer it, "Bonjour, this is Francis."

Francis, it's Antonio. Gilbert just called me and said that one of the chicos was with his hermano.

"What? How did that happen? Ludwig?"

Sí, Ludwig didn't tell him which chico was with them, but did say that one of the chicos was kidnapped by that Russian, Ivan.

"No!" Francis gasped. Arthur woke up when he heard Francis shouting rapid fire French into his phone. "Francis! What's going on?!" Arthur asked.

Francis wailed, "They were kidnapped!", before curling into a ball and dissolving into tears.

"Francis, what do you mean, kidnapped?!" Arthur said, swimming to the top of the boulder, but Francis was crying too hard to answer. Arthur grabbed Francis' phone instead, since Francis had dropped it on the ground when he started sobbing.

"What the bloody hell do you mean, kidnapped?!" Arthur yelled into the phone.

Hola, Arthur, as I told Francis, one of your chicos was kidnapped by Ivan, the Russian. The other one is with Ludwig, Gilbert's little hermano.

"So which one is with Ludwig?"

Gilbert didn't know.

"Well, why didn't the bloody twat ask?!"

He tried, but Ludwig hung up on him and now won't answer his phone.

Arthur growled, "Well, tell Gilbert to try again!"

Of course, amigo.

Antonio hung up. Francis was still trying to pull myself together so Arthur set the phone down next to him. Arthur sat down and held on to Francis as he rocked back and forth quietly. Arthur reached into his own pocket where he kept the orb for safekeeping, and consoled himself. One of them is with Ludwig, and he won't let anything happen to them, so now we only need to find the other twin. Question is which one, and where are they now?