Chapter 1: Wings

Ludwig glanced wearily at the clock and sighed when it said it was only 7:00pm. He still had to work for another four hours. A loud thud resounded throughout the small room as his head hit the desk in frustration. Why did it have to be so long? Turning back to his work, he began to think that maybe he could finish early. The German shook his head and laughed at himself. Finish early? Only in his dreams. Ludwig worked at home, running his small company. He could only imagine what it would be like to finish quickly.

He had an older brother, named Gilbert, who always thought he was awesome. Gilbert had a wife and two kids, which surprised Ludwig. He never thought that his brother would settle down and have a family. In all honesty, Ludwig was jealous of him. The younger German never had any luck with women. They always turned away once they saw his by the rules nature. He couldn't help that he was that way, it's just how he acted, but evidently no woman wanted that kind of man. What they really wanted was someone who would give them a good time.

Slipping off his reading glasses and setting them down on the desk he lowered his head to the table and let his eyes slide closed. A deep rumble, that resonated through his dreams, woke him up. Rubbing his eyes, he looked at the clock again.

"Shit!" He cursed with a hiss. It was 11:34pm and his work was no where near finished. Standing, he grabbed his papers and stacked them neatly to the side. He was done for the night, so he would have to work harder tomorrow. He was not looking forward to that.

Just as he began to change into a t-shirt and shorts for bed, the ground beneath him began to shake. Slowly, the quake intensified until The German was struggling to stand. He feared that things would fall off the shelf, but when the items showed no signs of budging, he was shocked. That caused his to immediately wonder what was going on. The ground went still instantly. Ludwig looked around and tried to figure out what had just happened. There were never any earthquakes here. He walked out of his bedroom and made a quick walk through the house to make sure nothing was broken.

Nothing looked out of place and he was beginning to wonder if he imagined the whole thing. As he walked back to the room, he passed by the basement door, and heard a quiet patter of what sounded like feet. He paused and slowly extended his hand towards the knob. His hand twitched, as if he were wondering whether he should go down or not. Quickly, he grabbed it and turned the handle, before he could convince himself not to, and opened the door.

It was dark, like he had left it, but the light switch was at the bottom of the stairs. Silently, he cursed himself for not fixing the poor design. He grabbed a metal rod that was leaning against the wall, and slowly desended the stairs, rod raised, ready to attack. As he reached the basement floor, he felt around the wall for the switch. When he found found it, he was about to turn it on when, at that moment, the soft slap of feet against concrete, came towards him. The figure tackled him to the ground and tried to get back up right away.

Ludwig, however, was too fast and swung his fist, hitting the face of his assailant. The figure reeled backwards, giving the German an opportunity to grab the dropped rod and hit him with it. Ludwig let out a smile when he felt it connect with the unknown person, but the smile faded immediately when he heard the child like scream coming from him.

He heard the quick shuffle of feet and then nothing, except a small whimper every now and then, coming from a far corner of the basement. The blonde dropped the rod that he was still holding and turned on the light. Thankful that he could now see, Ludwig looked around for the person. He saw blood littering the floor and trailing to the corner.

Ludwig couldn't believe his eyes as he observed the small figure. On the person's back were beautiful, big wings. One, however, was not very beautiful at the moment. Blood coated the white feathers and began to dry in places. It hung limp to the side while the undamaged one was folded against his back. A pang of guilt shot through the blonde as he realized that he hurt the boy. As he went back to observing, he saw that he had brown hair and a strange curl that poked out of the side. He also noticed that he was naked. A blush lightly covered his cheeks at this realization.

"Uh... a-are you okay?" Ludwig asked. He just about slapped himself for that question. Of course he wasn't okay. His wing was injured. Just then, Ludwig began to laugh. "This is a dream, isn't it?"

The boy flinched at his voice, causing the German to rethink his last statement.

"No it can't be. It's way too vivid."

The figure remained still, with his back towards Ludwig. The blonde walked towards him, cautiously, and place his hand on the boy's shoulder. He gave a violent jerk and turned around, trying to push himself as far away as he could in the small corner. Instantly, the boy regretted doing this and let out another scream of pain. His injured wing was now pressed against him and the wall. Not a good place for that kind of injury. It looked as though the bone in the wing had broken with the impact of the rod.

Another wave of guilt came over Ludwig. He shook himself free of the horrible thoughts and turned his attention back to the boy. He had the most frightened expression that the blonde had ever seen. His breathing was quick as though he were hyperventilating and sweat was forming all over his small, thin body. Taking one more quick look at the wing, Ludwig spoke.

"I'm s-sorry for hurting you, I thought y-you were a thief." The German hoped that he had said the right thing and extended his hand out for the small boy... no, angel... to grab.

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Who is wondering how in the world Gilbert could possibly have settled down with a family? XD. Don't forget to review~!