Another fic that I'm slowly moving from my livejournal to this account. This was written a long time ago for the kink meme. The first chapter is quite graphic but the rating will drop.
If you find me - Chapter 01
XX
It was hard to tell whether he really was in pain. Arthur was sure that he was - that blood was his, wasn't it? – but it seemed as if his whole body had gone numb. It was strange; as if he were floating, and it was an unpleasant feeling. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate, it was as if someone had stuffed his brain with cotton wool.
He lifted his head, testing the ropes around his wrists. They were still as tight as ever and his arms were aching from hours suspended above his head.
A door opened. Footsteps. Arthur tried to see through the haze of his own clouded mind and the blood dripping down this face. A group of blurry shadows approached him; there were four, maybe five of them. His vision kept splitting too often for him to be sure. The shadows approached. He could hear the sound of heavy boots against hollow wood. A rough hand cupped his chin, tilting his face upwards.
"What? He's still conscious!" mocking laughter came above him.
"No way! His eyes might be open, but look at him! He's totally out of it!"
Their voices sounded so far away. As if they were coming from below the ocean...
"That's no fun!"
Where was he? What had he been doing again?
"Here, cut the ropes. Let's have some fun."
Before Arthur could gather any coherent thoughts, the rope keeping him hanging was slashed and he fell painfully to the ground, the hardness of the uneven wood biting into his knees. For a second, he remembered what pain felt like.
Though his wrists still bound, he managed to lower his arms at last and tried to curl into a ball until an invasive pair of hands pulled him away, pushing him down. He wanted to scream but his voce had flown away at some point, the dark shadows grew a little more distinct. He could see faces, clothes, and cruel smiles of the people leering down at him, staring down at him from where they stood, their shadows engulfing him.
The man who had wrenched open his legs leaned forward, whispering with delight; "So, can I go first?"
XX
Alfred was impatient. How long did it take that bastard Francis to find a simple location? He was working with Ludwig and Alfred's own intelligence agency so it should not be so hard, right? He paced up and down the empty conference hall, trying to hold back from punching everything in sight. Damn it, where was that fucking place?
He thought the age of pirates was long gone; something left to be told in the stories of Arthur's delinquent days. Apparently, he had been wrong. Apparently, in this day and age, pirates had armed security and guns.
By the time the door finally opened, he had been at the point of smashing a chair through the meeting board. Ludwig entered, mopping his brow, he looked exhausted but Alfred had no time to offer his sympathies.
"Where is he?"
XX
Those filthy hands were probably leaving dirt marks on his already bloody body as they pushed him between them with less care than if he were a piece of meat. He had no idea where his clothes went; they were probably in shreds by now, but he was at that moment only half-aware of his nakedness. Half of his mind had deserted him long ago and the rest of it was threatening to go as well.
The next man in the circle took Arthur's limp body, sucking his neck hard enough to leave a mark.
"There, I claimed Coventry!" he laughed harshly and lowered his pants, slamming into Arthur's body with vicious force. "How does it feel to be fucked by a human?"
"Idiot. He can't hear you."
They were wrong there. Arthur could hear them. Barely.
There was no point to the rope around his wrists, Arthur thought. He could not move even if he wanted to. All the while he could feel them inside him, shoving hardened cocks, the necks of wine bottles, the tips of guns, and all manner of things up him, fucking him over and passing him to the next person for their games.
While they positioned him like a doll to be fucked over tables, against the walls, on the hard and dirty floor, he lay, his mind swimming numbly, staring at the ceiling with glazed eyes.
XX
It was nothing more than a filthy, run-down manor house, which had been out of use of years. Alfred practically ran for the front door, ignoring Francis' cries of 'Wait, you stupid idiot!' and Kiku's attempts to hold him back.
As if they had time for a strategy! As if they had the luxury to sit around drawing maps or the area and dividing into task forces! He was a hero and a hero did not wait in the face of danger! Besides, it was Arthur. Arthur needed him.
XX
"What's going on?"
Arthur felt a little of his awareness come back when the person, who had previous been rather enthusiastically forcing the neck of a wine bottle up him, suddenly drew out. He heard incoherent shouts and the sound of footsteps. What was going on?
Whatever. He had no more care. The numbness had worn off and his whole body was now aching. Whatever. He sighed. Whatever. He just wanted to sleep.
XX
They broke in to the manor house rather successfully. Despite the fact that Alfred had tripped security in his mad dash for the front door, despite the fact that Francis could not aim a gun to save his life, they had already captured most of its occupants and were swiftly making their way to the back of the manor.
Ludwig emerged from the right wing, wiping the dust off of his gloved hands. "That's all of them I think," he sighed.
"Then Arthur is - "
"Don't jump the gun, mon ami, he will be here somewhere," Francis laid a hand on his shoulder.
Alfred batted him away. All this wasted time was making him irritable. He wanted to beat the crap out of these so called pirates – he wanted to snort at that title. He remembered the stories Francis told hm of Arthur's days on the high seas. They were nothing like that. – but the urge to find Arthur first was quickly overriding every sense in his body.
Without waiting, he turned on his heel and ran through the manor.
"Mon Dieu!" he heard Francis swear as he pursued him. Alfred raced further ahead, his eyes widening upon the sight of a set of crooked double doors.
Without slowing his pace, he barrelled into them, crying; "Arthur? Hey, Arthur? You in here?"
Francis' footsteps came to a sudden halt behind him. Alfred was not concentrating on Francis though; he was more occupied with what lay in front of him.
Arthur lay naked, covered in blood and cum, piss, alcohol, dirt and all manner of disgusting things. It was a mess, it was horrifying, it – it –
"A – Arthur?" Words failed. Alfred soon found himself stepping forward tentatively, swallowing around the hard lump which had suddenly formed in his throat. At first, he was so afraid that the nation was dead that he dared not breathe. Those eyes were open but dull and unseeing and, as Alfred slowly bent down to pick him up, Arthur's head rolled uselessly to a side.
Alfred's entire body was shaking. Oh dear God, what had happened here? A trembling hand pushed back dirty, sweat-stained strands of sandy hair. Arthur's blood seeped into his clothes but a wave of relief more palpable than Alfred imagined washed over him when he realised his heart was slowly but surely beating in his chest.
However, as soon as relief came, it was replaced by a crashing tide of anger. He was going to fucking kill those men! Who cared what his boss said? He'd kick Ludwig in the nuts if he tried to stop him too! He was going to rip apart their stupid limbs and feed their dicks to the dogs!
His grip on Arthur tightened. Francis said nothing when he carried him out of the room with him, his face striking an oddly solemn picture. He did not attempt to stop the American. Maybe he had enough sense to wait for the storm to calm.
XX
....Monochrome.
That was what Alfred thought every time he looked at Arthur's sleeping face. Arthur, who had been cleaned and clothed in white, lain silently between white sheets in a white room with white curtains and white tiled floors, was like a tentative sketch on an artist's canvas. The sun made his hair shine gold – the only colour apart from Alfred himself in this depressingly white room. He wanted to see a little green too.
Francis had come and gone a few hours earlier, bringing lilies – also white, the idiot – for Arthur to fail to appreciate. Feliciano, accompanied by Ludwig, brought a fruit basket but realised that the only ones eating would be the guests and took it away, deflated. Alfred knew that Kiku was off somewhere making paper cranes, as if that would help anything. Only Alfred stayed the full three days since they had rescued Arthur, staying by his side while he slept.
This was going to kill him. He had never been a patient person and this wait was going to surely bring about his early death. He arranged the lilies, drew and closed the curtains, made laps around the room; anything to keep him occupied while he prayed and waited.
The door opened as he sat by Arthur's bedside. Alfred looked up expectantly, meeting Ludwig's grim expression.
"Have you calmed down now?" he asked sombrely.
Alfred did not reply. He met Ludwig eye for eye, matching gazes of equal solemnity meeting each other across the room.
Ludwig sighed and opened the door wider. "If you want you can come with me but please don't do anything reckless."
Wordlessly, Alfred rose and followed him out of the door, sparing one last glance behind him at Arthur's prone figure.
XX
The man Alfred could only assume was the leader of the ring of pirates they had captured sat tied to a chair, dripping wet and bruised. From the looks of things, they were feeding him only enough to keep him alive.
It was too soft, Alfred thought. There were bruises where there should have been cuts instead. There were not enough lines under the man's eyes, not enough desperation, not enough suffering.
Ludwig took a seat on the opposite chair, a single table separating captor and captive. Alfred positioned himself behind Ludwig, clenching his fists.
"So, are you ready to talk now? Who told you about this?" he asked sternly.
The man laughed. "It was just an experiment. It's not like you're human!"
"Answer the question!" Ludwig barked.
"No, wait," Alfred cut through. "What's this? What's he talking about?"
"Oh are you one of them too?" the man laughed before Ludwig could open his mouth to reply. "It was just an experiment. I heard that when a country goes through economic crisis or outbreaks of disease it affects you, so does that work the other way? For example, if I cut you, could I harm the country's society by doing that? If I capture one of you, would that be the same as having captured the country? Could I control the country through one of you? I bet you've never tried it. I bet you don't even know yourself. Don't you want to - "
"That's enough!" Ludwig jumped to his feet, slamming his palms against the table, but the man continued, almost hysterical.
Alfred silently moved around the side of the table, closer to the ranting man.
"Hey! What happens if I fuck one of you? What happens when two of your kind fucks? Why don't you try it out and tell me?"
Alfred's fist buried itself against the side of the man's face, sending both him and the chair he was tied to sprawling across the floor.
"Alfred!" Ludwig leapt forward, pulling him back before he did anymore harm to their captive.
"Y – You," Alfred seethed. "You...just for that? Just for your stupid curiosity you went and did something like that?!" He made a wild rush for the man, ready to kick his guts in and smash his face like a pumpkin but Ludwig held fast, dragging him inch by inch away from the prisoner.
The man laughed. Despite the red mark on his cheek and the blood trickling down his face he laughed with the force of a hundred deranged hyenas. "Idiot. If what we think is true, wars won't be over physical land anymore, it'll be over who gets you!"
"Who – who gets us?!" Alfred raged. "You fucking son of a – We're not spoils of war! We feel the same things you do! Just because you thought you could get power this way you - "
"Alfred!" Ludwig yelled. "Alfred, calm down!"
"You! You did that to Arthur!?"
"Alfred!"
"You did all of that to him!?"
"Alfred, stop this!"
"You went and - and - !?"
"Alfred!"
Ludwig let go for just a second, spinning him around to face him he slapped a gloved hand straight across Alfred's cheek. "Snap out of it!" he cried, breathing heavily.
Alfred stared at him in silence.
"Mein Gott," he muttered under his breath, "this is going to give me a migraine."
"S...Sorry," Alfred muttered, refusing to look at the prisoner because he knew that would cause his anger to swell but also refusing to look at Ludwig out of guilt. He stared at the floor between his feet instead, mumbling excuses to leave the room and return to Arthur's side.
Ludwig promised that he would report anything new to the others. He had a bad feeling about this. They both did.
XX