Faint glimmers of sunlight escaped into the dark, light-less room. An outline of a figure stirred on a luxurious four poster bed as bleary, olive eyes blinked open. A voice soon followed, the awakened sleeper whining at the interruption of his wondrous trip through dreamland. Tan feline ears flicked back and forth on the sleeper's head as he heard a voice filter through from the living room," si… si.. Mama. Yo sè (I know). ..okay… si, Roma is doing fine too… Te amo (love you). Adios (bye)." He heard a click as the phone call ended. Lovino's jaws stretched wide in a yawn, hearing the familiar footsteps of the Spaniard approach his door.

The humanus sat up and waited for his human, the bed covers softly pooling at his hips and his tail swishing eagerly. As the luminescent doorknob turned slowly, Antonio shuffled inside and Romano spoke," Where were you last night?"

Antonio jumped in surprise. He assumed Roma would have been asleep until noon and was hoping to spend a long morning in bed with his adorable cat. Smiling to ease Romano's worries, Antonio slipped under red satin bed covers as he reached over with a hand to pet Romano between the ears. The Spaniard chuckled as gentle Roma leaned into his touch and the Spaniard's other arm snaked around a slim waist to bring that warm Italian body closer.

"I'a was working, remember Roma?"

Romano huffed at the casual response as he swatted Antonio's hand away and tilted his head upward to glare up at the man's cheerful (but tired) bottle-green eyes," What kind job has you working that late? You just got home didn't you?"

Antonio shook his head no, but ended up collapsing down on the feathery, soft pillows out of sheer exhaustion. A "chigi" could be heard from his side as Romano hovered over the Spaniard. He pressed his cheek against Antonio's flushed ones as his hands searched Antonio's neck trying to feel his human's temperature and heartbeat (Romano was a humanus, clearly not trained in any medical emergency).The humanus breathed a sigh of relief when he faintly felt the steady rhythm of Antonio's heart under the not-too-warm skin. Romano let another sigh escape his lips as he tucked the covers over Antonio's now muscular and matured body.

Antonio was working a lot nowadays, Romano realized. He didn't know exactly what kind of job the idiot worked. All the stupid man would say was "I'm'a part of the policia now~. Isn't that cool, Roma?" or "I get to protect everyone and that's'a what counts." The vague answers did little to quell Romano's fears that the man was obliviously working himself to an early grave.

Stepping out of expansive plains of satin marred by hills of red folds, Romano stretched, letting out a quiet purring noise as he felt his muscles strain and relax. He softly treaded out the door, momentarily stopping when he heard Antonio let out a breathless," Roma..." Romano grinned, it was nice knowing Antonio still cared about him. The humanus then busied himself with the task of welcoming the day; opening all the curtains and windows to welcome in the warm summer breeze and the scintillating sunlight.

"Bruder, what have you gotten yourself into? I thought I vas the troublemaker of the family," Gilbert asked with amusement at Ludwig's anxiety. He was thoroughly enjoying seeing his 'older' brother practically fly into a panic attack under the focused fascade.

Ludwig glared back at his sibling as he attempted to relay the seriousness of the situation," Gilbert, this is serious. My reputation…and some other things are at stake." Dismissing his brother's concerns with a lackadaisical wave of his hand, Gilbert grinned confidently," Well you've certainly come to the best enforcer for the job, bruder."

Antonio awoke to a tantalizing scent of warm black coffee mixed with the sweet incense of churros. Lovino must have been more worried than he thought. He wriggled his way out of his soft burrow of red blankets and stumbled his way to the kitchen, grinning sleepy from ear to ear. He found his humanus setting the kitchen table, moving busily to place the cup of coffee next to the plate of hot churros, their steams lightly floating up from porcelain plates.

The humanus, swiping a finger across a churro, licked the sticky sugar off his soft fingertips and turned with large olive eyes to face the cheery man in the doorway. "You missed breakfast again.." Antonio stepped closer and hugged his Italian native," Roma made food for me again, and it's'a churros. I'm so happy." Romano's body vibrated with a soft purr in the embrace before he frowned and shoved the Spaniard to a chair," Sit, and don't'a you even think about leaving before you finish."

Shrugging on his Prussian blue jacket, Gilbert smirked as he left Ludwig behind in the familiar restaurant of their childhood. He slipped his hood on as raindrops began to drip, drop from the sky, enshrouding everything in a thin layer of water, like a painting that's been left outside in a storm, the colors blending and fading to bleary hues and outlines. As Gilbert felt the water drip from his slowly darkening coat, he began to plan. There was no way he'd let his brother down, it was the least he could do for his younger (*older) sibling.

A few weeks later, Gilbert's searching and plotting came to fruition. He had discovered Lovino had been sold to a Abran Naldo Carriedo about 10 years ago. To follow his lead, Gilbert currently was wandering the winding streets of Madrid, looking for the address listed in the files.

"Gilbert! Amigo!"

The albino looked up from the gibberish map in his hands to see his old friend from the police academy, Antonio, waving at him from a street corner.

"Oye, Toni. What a surprise seeing you here!"

After a few drinks and a good laugh at their old days in the academy, Gilbert's train of thought finally returned to his task at hand.

"Toni. Have you ever heard of an Abran Naldo Carriedo or his family?"

Grinning down at the reflective surface of the red wine, Antonio tilted his head back and downed his glass. He wiped the red stain off his mouth and answered," Si, he'a's my padre. You're a bit late to see him, Gil. He moved up north with'a mama because of his health.." The Spaniard's lips were pressed in a thin line of worry.

Gilbert pressed no more, aware that he could ruin his chances for information if he continued.

Instead, he offered his old friend more wine and started to divulge in his own personal life since his years in the academy. When the German mentioned his current occupation as an Enforcer, Antonio jumped up excitedly (admittedly not completely sober)," I'm'a policía, too!" and dug through his pockets, pulling out a thin identification card. The 'name'* "Spain" was listed along with a small bar code.

Gilbert's eyes widened as he recognized the familiar insignia in the corner of the little black card, a white rabbit coupled with a thin dagger.

" You're a rabbiter.." his voice trailed off as he stared at the damning card. How the holy Fritz has Antonio become a rabbiter? That man couldn't bring himself to hurt a verdammt butterfly!

Antonio continued to cheerily grin. "Si, people say I'm one of the best."

As he wracked his brain for an explanation, Gilbert recognized the codename "Spain". He had seen it in a classified document... detailing a brutal massacre of the humanus population in rural Spain for...clearing purposes. He then remembered the rumor following the document, a supposition that the entire killing spree was an 'initiation task' to accept new Rabbiters into the ranks. It was sickening really, a test to see how much recruits could kill, to see how twisted their morals were...and to see if they could rein in their conscious for the sake of the government.

Gilbert met his friend's grin with a worried frown. Sighing, he handed the card back to the rabbiter. "Ja, that's'a great for you Toni."

-Preview of Chapter 8 -

" Sell me your cat, Rovino, Romano whatever he's called."

Antonio flinched at the sudden demand, and he gave the albino a long hard look before he burst into laughter," that's'a real funny, Gilbo. But Roma is not for sale."

Gilbert's face set into a frown, " I'm not joking, Antonio. I need that cat."

A dark grin graced the spaniard's face before he replied," ..Gilbert, old amigo. If you so much as touch Roma's muy lindos (very cute) ears, I will rip your hands off. For Romano, I will hurt anyone and everyone.."

Yay Chapter 7~ ^^ ((wow this is my longest story yet.))

* Ludwig is older than Gilbert...But they were abandoned by their parents when Ludwig was only 13. Because Ludwig was left to take care of himself and lil'Gilbert, there were a lot of times Gilbert would see his brother stressed and angry. So Gilbert decided to be the older brother (because he's awesomer) to relieve Ludwig some of the stress.

* Antonio's father's name means "strong, exalted father"

What did you guys think? I know not my best work... x3

but Please REVIEW!~~~~