Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The morning light shone bright in the big dining room they were into, almost thirty people inhabiting the table. Noise was all you could hear, not the slight sway of the leaves outside, not the birds chirping, just a bunch of different voices melting into one, not really being able of hearing what they were saying. Luca and Victor were sitting at one extremity of the table, the former talking about how his new machine that would help them in their matches worked, apparently that small engine would connect two chipers together while also emitting an electromagnetic field that would electrocute the hunter if the body was to conduct for way too long. Victor didn’t understand much of what the brunette was saying, not because he didn’t care, more because, first of all Luca already told him about the machine twice while working on it, but would never say that out loud to the inventor, afraid to hurt his feelings, but the actual reason was because he got caught up in the conversation that some other twos, a guy with a green hoodie and a slight eastern Asian accent and a woman with a military uniform on, were talking about.

Apparently yesterday night they heard the front door open and close again soon after but no one was to be seen, they were alerted it might have been an intruder or a thief, but got calmer when they checked none of their belongings were touched.

The news invested Victor much, wondering what or who it might have been, maybe it was the wilding taking his boar for a late-night walk, or maybe one of the younger hunters was trying to scare them.
His questions where short to be answered when the living room door opened again. Weird, everyone was already at the table. The room suddenly turned quiet, everyone’s attention now turned towards the new figure that was in the room, even if they tried to go unnoticed.

The sudden attention clearly startled the newcomer, a short guy with a skinny figure and a long black vest on him covering half of his body, the remaining half covered by black pants that were way too large on him. Even though the weather was quite warm, it wasn’t the fact that the guy was wearing all black and long sleeves that made Victor curious, supposing that maybe he had a loss and was mourning, but it was his completely white hair and purple-ish red eyes that immediately caught his interest.

Victor tried to catch Luca’s attention, too caught up on his explanation that didn’t even acknowledge the presence of the new individual in the room. The latter immediately snatched his entire upper side of the body towards the guy, maybe way too fast for his liking, knocking some silverware off the table and silently cursing himself. He followed the guy every step till he eventually sat on the empty chair in front of the duo. He started to pick at the food in his dish as if he was making sure it wasn’t poisoned or something, avoiding eye contact with everything and everyone, an elbow on the table and his head on his hand.

Luca was the first to talk, flashing him a slight smile “hey there handsome”. The white- haired guy not even glancing his way, maybe not hearing him he supposed. So, he tried once again, “what’s up beautiful”, and at the nth non answer from the guy in front of him he referred to the blonde next to him saying “maybe he’s deaf” before giving his attention back to the character in front of him, tapping near his dish and once he got his attention he signed with a finger near his ear and took it to his mouth before pointing at him. The counterpart looked at him with a confused stare, slightly murmuring a “sorry, what?”

Oh, so hes not deaf!

Luca smiled when he finally got a reaction, even if it wasn’t what he expected. “Finally dear god I’ve been talking to you the last two minutes, I thought you were deaf!”
The older was fearing he already messed up on his first day there, but the almost annoying enthusiasm in his interlocutor voice said otherwise. “Sorry I thinked you was- I- I mean I thinked I was overhearing your conversation”
It was clear to Luca that English wasn’t the guy’s first language, his accent strong as he spoke, but he carried the conversation on anyways. “Do you see any other pretty boy in the room I could possibly be talking to?” honestly? To the white- haired man everyone in that room was prettier than him, even the guy with rabbit teeth who looked like he didn’t shower in months. “Yes…” he simply answered.

Luca giggled slightly, was he already making fun of him? “Well now you know I was talking to you, whats your name?”

“Andrew Kreiss, why do you want to kno-“ his question was interrupted by an hand extended to him which he took reluctantly.

“Luca Balsa, nice to meet you!” he said shaking his hand energetically. How could someone have so much energy on a Monday morning, Andrew wondered. “And this is my friend Victor Grantz, he is mute but don’t worry about it he has his ways to let himself be understood” he added signaling to the tall blonde next to him. Andrew stared at the pair before him, one was a lanky but average height brunette with gray eyes, one with what he supposed was cataract — he knows because he suffered of it once when he was a child — and the same eye that looked like he got beaten up. He was wearing a prison uniform and this added to the black eye for sure didn’t tranquilize Andrew about the guy presence. If he had to say what he looked like he would probably say a stray raccoon of those that go garbage hunting in the middle of the night. On the other hand, the guy next to him was totally the opposite. He was tall, quite fit but not muscular, had blonde hair and hazel eyes, was wearing a red uniform that looked like a mailman uniform. What caught his attention the most was that his lips were sewn shut, he almost wondered what he did to deserve his lips to be sewn that way, maybe he was in political matters. Compared to the raccoon of a guy that was sitting next to him, Victor looked more of a golden retriever.

His train of thoughts was stopped by Luca’s voice once again. “Kreiss right? Are you German by any chance?”
“Yeah, I’m from the north of Württemberg Reich”
“And what do you do for a living Kreiss?”
“I was a grave keeper in a cemetery in Karlsruhe”
“That’s so cool, tombstone architecture is so interesting! Especially the ones from the 1500 I think they’re called gothic? Mhmh yeah that, but also the Victorian ones here in England are quite interesting! The ones from where I came aren’t so special, mainly because Protestants usually bury in graveyards more than cemeteries”

“Protestant?”
“Yeah, I was raised protestant but I’m atheist now, I believe in science more than faith honestly”
Andrew tried to ignore the last part of it the best he could, science, what a bullshit, it was well known that it was God that would have saved us all, not for sure Darwin or who know who. “Where is you from if I can ask?”
“I’m Spanish! Or at least I’ve lived in Spain majority of my life, I don’t remember much of before the accident, y’know, brain damage and stuff, got myself involved in an explosion and a pair of people died, somehow I survived with severe injuries but was accused guilty of it because I was the one working on the invention but honestly? I don’t recall any of it all happening! Or at least not how the police said it happened, but yet no one believed me can you imagine that! Almost got my ass electrocuted on the chair!” the brunette explained, giggling nervously here and there, that’s when a “Shut your mouth felon” came from the other side of the room. Andrew noticed the slight change of expression on Luca’s face, almost as if he tried to act unbothered by it but was actually offended. And Andrew understood the feeling quite too well.

“Hey!” Luca’s voice snapped him back into reality “why don’t you sit next to us? Its annoying to talk from the other side of the table, we don’t bite, I’m too weak to throw a slap figure beating you up” he added patting the empty chair next to him. Andrew was reluctant at first, fidgeting with his gloves as he thought about the offer. He wasn’t yet sure he could trust Luca, but he was for sure intimidated by Victor’s presence, he was almost two times his size, both in height and weight, he sure COULD beat him up if he wanted.

Noticing Andrew’s reluctancy, the inventor added “and don’t worry about the big boy right here, looks all big and tough but he has the heart of a big puppy, right Vic?” he said turning to the blonde, who was slightly blushing, signing him to ‘stop throwing out random compliments’. That was enough to convince Andrew to change his seating from where he was to next to Luca. As soon as he sat, he took in more particular of Luca’s face, he had a canine peaking from his top lip, more noticeable as he spoke, it was almost cute.

His examination suddenly came to a halt when he felt an hand reaching for the bangs covering his left eye. Almost instinctively he stopped the hand that turns out was Luca’s from the wrist and slapped it away, much to Luca’s dismay.
“Alright no touching I get it I get it, albinism am I right?” the owner of the hand asked, to which he was only responded with a “watch your mouth” as if the other thought it was an insult.

“Hey, I’m not insulting you, and before you ask no I’m not calling you an immigrant even, that’s Albania. Albinism is a skin condition in which one is born without pigmentation in his body tissues, hence why the white hair and the colorless eyes” the brunette was quick to explain, that means Andrew wasn’t actually an hell spawn, he wasn’t the son of the devil, he was just, for lack of better words, sick.
“You is very smart isn’t you?”
“it’s you are” he corrected him to which he only received an apologize “hey don’t apologize, it’s a constructive criticism, also I wouldn’t call myself smart, I just have general knowledge” he rectified, which gained him an eye roll from Victor. Andrew noticed it and pointed it out “your friend doesn’t seem to agree with you”.
That gained a little laugh from Luca “well, get used to it, he NEVER agrees with me” he confirmed, which generated a giggle from the three of them.

“So, you said you are German right?” asked Luca at some point as the time in the living room passed by

“Mh? Oh yes, yes I am”
“But you have a strong Russian accent when you speak”
“Sorry about it” the older muttered

“Hey, sorry about what? I like it! I was just curious that’s all”
“Oh- uhm- my mother she- she was Russian and I grow up with her”
“Ooh ok I get it, would it be easier for you to speak Russian then?”

Luca almost missed the way Andrew’s eye sparkled with joy at the question, no one ever bothering to go out their ways just to make it easier for him. “Well, actually yes, it would be more comfortable for me but, I don’t want you to feel forced to learn a new language just for me”
“Voobshche-to, ya uzhe govoryu po-russki, dazhe yesli ya ne ochen' khorosho” suddenly Luca switched, and, for some reason, hearing him making an effort to speak Russian, even if some words were still off, made Andrew almost tear down in joy, never imagining hearing someone that wasn’t his mother speak Russian to make conversation easier for him.
Andrew was, to put it shortly, left speechless. He only straight up asked “otkuda ty znayesh' russkiy?” and his questions were founded, why would a Spanish guy speak Russian out of every language?
Luca tried to formulate the sentence in Russian, but seeing him struggling Andrew told him that English was fine for now.
“Basically, back in 1917 when the Bolsheviks wanted to tear down the Zār and Russia entered a civil war I was called in to work on some inventions to help Moscow and Petrograd with their industrialization, so I had to learn daily Russian to basically survive” this man life didn’t fail to amaze Andrew even more, he has done so many things but didn’t look much older than his 30’s

“Just, how old are you?”
“I’m 23, born In 1898, I was 19 when I moved to Russia” he explained, he was some years younger than himself, who was 26 of the ’95, soon to be 27, and yet he has done so much in his life and god knows just how much more, while he himself had just worked in the shadow, doing nothing but being miserable his whole life.

“Also” started the younger “Victor is also German” to that the blonde hit him with his elbow in the hip, glancing at him. “Alright sorry geez, Austro-Hungarian, god how irritable are you”
“Well technically he’s right, Austro Hungary is not Germany” explained the albino
“What I was trying to say is that if you think it would be easier for you to communicate in German you can easily talk to Vic” to which the blonde just smiled closing his eyes and waved at him as to confirm his words.
“Thank you, I appreciate it very much”
“No problems at all, for anything you can count on us, now if you excuse us, we must get ready for a match” the brunette said getting up from his chair, Victor following right after, “see you around Drew!” he concluded before leaving the living room.

By that point it was only few of them left in the room, and Andrew couldn’t be gladder. His talk with Luca completely drained his social battery out, not that he didn’t like it, but now he just wanted to go back to his assigned room and enjoy some good old silence.

Chapter Text

Soon enough, Andrew’s first match came to happen.

The team seemed balanced enough, there was a brunette lady who carried herself so confidently that it looked like she knew damn well what she was about to do. Andrew felt kind of safe knowing someone so confident was there, probably because so he could rely on her, but at the same time he felt pressured to not mess up in front of her. He looked carefully how she got her perfumes, he supposed, ready. He didn’t quite understand why she carried them in matches, maybe to avoid to stink from sweating?

His attention was immediately caught by another person entering the room, a short, brown skinned guy in a sleeveless hoodie, he also seemed ready to either fight god or become him. The guy was followed right after by a gray haired, very tall person who was wearing a face mask. Their look so intimidating Andrew could almost feel like there was a black aura all around them. Were they wearing makeup? The albino was actually quite confused, they looked like a man but had long hair and make up? Is that even acceptable?

The gray haired person met his gaze as the shorter realized he was staring. If stares could kill, the grave keeper was probably already long end buried, but to avoid any weird situation he tried to introduce himself to break the awkward tension.
“Hi, I’m Andrew, I’m new here” he reluctantly tried to extend him a hand, at which the other just stared more if it was possible, as if he was trying to read all his sins thru his eyes and judging him for them.

“Aesop Carl” they just replied shortly, going back to do whatever they were supposed to be doing before they got interrupted. Their voice was quite low, both in tone and volume, barely above a whisper. But it was for sure a man voice, and to that if before Andrew was confused, now he was fucking confused bro.

As he kept staring at the strange individual next to him, he heard the lady voice calling out to him
“Don’t mind him, he’s just another weirdo, better to have nothing to do with him if you don’t want to get decapitated, right Mr. Carl?” she remarked looking towards the embalmer, whom just side eyed her as a response. “Anyways, I’m Vera Nair, I’d say pleasure to meet you but that would be a huge lie, just don’t get in my way and we will be good alright?”

To say that this entire conversation sent shivers down Andrew’s spine was an understatement. But eventually the hunter arrived too and the match began.

Andrew somehow found himself in this snowy environment, a lot of run down buildings around him. He remember getting a vague explanation on how these matches work. Something about deciphering some machines. He had some words to put in the typewriter. He had an hard time doing it the first time, since he never went to school he had to take his time for it, missing many calibrations in the meanwhile. He didn’t even notice his heartbeat racing faster or a red light approaching behind him. He didn’t even understand how in Heaven’s name he was hit on his back by a fan and was immediately on the ground, wasn’t they supposed to be hit twice before falling? Either ways Andrew already decided that he had enough with all this, barely struggling as he was taken to a chair. He waited as time passed, the hunter always near his chair as he saw someone approaching. It was the short guy from before, taking a hit and freeing him.

He tried to run as if his life depended on it, the mercenary right behind him, screaming at him to stay ahead of him. Andrew tried to do as told, but his back was injured and it hurt as hell. It made it hard for him to run in those conditions. Eventually the hunter got him again. But this time instead of getting taken to a chair he was enveloped by a weird fog and somehow, he got teleported in a coffin.

The albino stood there a good minute to understand what just happened, only being brought back to reality by Aesop’s voice, way too calmly for this whole situation telling him to focus on decoding. So he did.

He stood next to him helping him to decode his machine, not noticing how he was slowing him down by doing so.

“For how long have you been doing this?” the white-haired man asked

“A long” shortly replied the embalmer, trying to cut the conversation short. He hated small talks.

“And how long did it take you to understand how this works?”

“Not as long” deadpanned the other. Quiet finally assured, he could keep doing his job.

Two chipers gone. Dungeon revealed. The perfumer has been kiting for good 60 seconds now. Andrew let out a sigh of relief as if he could finally lay back a bit.

His peace was not long terms tho, as the perfumer brought the hunter right to him since he was now full health, hoping to get a bodyblock. He heard her screaming “help me” as she ran to him. Understood his assignment, Andrew got behind her and tried to help her kite, only to get terrorshocked as he got over a window. Great. Fucking great.

He could hear Vera screaming “you’re on your own” as she run away from the hunter chairing him.

He saw again the gray silhouette running towards him, the mercenary right behind him, and in few seconds, it was pure chaos.

Aesop took the hit, freeing Andrew up, Naib, half health, went to bodyblock. The geisha right behind them. She threw a butterfly at Andrew, rushing directly to him. Naib tried to stun the hunter with a pallet, but got downed without even being hit, what?
Andrew was on his last chair and eventually got sent back to the manor. Naib was ballooned, Aesop got downed, both of them taken to the basement. Luckily Vera made it to the dungeon and got out.

The post-match was… something.
Vera was completely furious. Shouting at Andrew for “throwing”, whatever that meant. Naib was screaming back at Vera, the two starting to fight immediately right after, but eventually teamed on shouting at Andrew.
The only one who wasn’t screaming was Aesop. Yes, he for sure was pissed but he tried to keep his cool as much as possible, instead he just gave Andrew an understanding glare. He walked to him only saying “First times are always like this” and then he left. That guy for sure was weird.

As he got out of the room he was met by Luca, who looked like he was patiently waiting there since the beginning of the match. As soon as the albino got out of the room, the brunette ran to him, ever so energetically, asking him various questions about the match, how it went, who was he teamed with, what did he think of them and all kind of questions. Andrew did not reply to any of them, just getting more and more irritated by his presence. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk to Luca, it’s just that his presence now was too difficult to bare. But Luca didn’t seem to understand his clues as he kept on talking as if nothing was. Ok. Too much.

Andrew stopped in his tracks, fists clenching before turning to Luca and grabbing him by his shoulders with a death grip as he snapped. “DO YOU EVER JUST SHUT UP FOR A SINGLE SECOND? LORD HELP ME IF I HAVE TO DEAL WITH YOUR VOICE ONE SECOND MORE.”

Luca stared at him totally blankly. Slightly scared if you will. He gulped before trying to regain his compsture. “Hey man, if you didn’t want to be bothered you just had to ask, I understand it”

Oh lord what has Andrew done. Shouting at maybe the only person who cared about him in this entirely forsaken manor. Guilt was already starting to swallowing him whole. Not even a sorry was muttered as he let Luca go and quickened his stride directly to his own room, locking the door behind him as he slid down to sit on the pavement, hugging his legs and his shovel.

He felt the room spinning all around him, his head throbbing and his ears ringing as if he just got gunshot. Everything started to bother him, even his own clothes, even his own skin.
He wanted to scream but felt no voice coming out of his throat. He started to scratch on his arms to keep himself grounded. He hated feeling this way, why does he have to feel like this every time something doesn’t go as he planned? Soon enough blood started to form on his arms, it’s not like he wanted all this, but he felt like he had no control at all on his body. He felt like he wanted to crawl out of his own tissues but couldn’t.

Eventually he calmed out, too tired to do anything else he headed directly to his bed, not even bothering to get changed from his dirtied clothes.

Totally forgetting about how he left his friend almost tearing up from his words in the hallway right behind him.

Chapter Text

Luca stared as Andrew left for his personal room, leaving him standing in the hallway, not yet processing what the albino just told him. Yeah, Luca was quite aware of how annoying he could be sometimes, he has been told by multiple people in the manor, and yet he didn’t seem like he was able to change, to get a grip on himself.

Taking his time to collect himself, his thoughts and his tears that were threatening to spill, he made his way to his own room too. He didn’t know why hearing such harsh words from Andrew hurt so much, he barely knew the grave keeper, it’s not like they’re best friends or anything ̶ hell, he probably he wasn’t even an acquaintance to the man!

With his mind overflooding of these kinds of thoughts, Luca got to his room quicker than he remembered the path being. As soon as he got in, he took his boots and orthopedic braces and hurried to his desk, were scraps of ideas and physic notes were standing messily, and took a small utensils set from his drawer.

He waisted no time in useless afterthoughts, his hands fast to get back to work as he was before he went to wait for the older outside of the match room door. How much time did he lose waiting out there? How much of his precious time got waisted, important seconds that he could have used for working on his invention instead…

Time passed by in matters of nothing when you keep yourself busy and in the flinch of an eye it was already dark outside. Luca probably didn’t even notice anyways, his mind too focused on studying the sphere in his hand. Somehow, whenever the electricity field ampliated on the surface of the object, instead of decreasing its farads potential in capacity the more it got far, it seemed like it stayed the same, as if there was another electrical fierce on the inside of the sphere that made its volume increase in electro potentiality. Or maybe, it was something on the outside, some subject radiating a stronger field than the one exercised on the object. As Luca took his hand closer to the sphere to test if his theory was right, he started feeling a strong sense of pressure to his temples. His back began to tense and he felt like his neck was paralyzed, the inventor knew this feeling too well, he has since grown accustomed to feeling his fingers start to twich, his arms and legs spasming and contracting. He tried to get to his bed, to avoid breaking anything, but befor he knew it his vision went black and he was on the ground. His heart pounded in a tachycardic way, his entire body was shaking and his head twitching to the side, he felt like he couldn’t breathe, the headache got louder and louder like an ear-piercing scream in his brain, the few lights in the room started to become too bright, his mouth was agape, saliva spilling on the floor and he felt like choking. He has totally lost control of his own body, of his own limbs.

By the time the epileptic seizure passed, Luca was extremely tired. His back ached, cervical pain getting to his neck and head, he felt fatigued and his heart wouldn’t stop drumming in his chest. He opened his eyes, expecting to find himself in a jail room. He doesn’t remember getting in the place he was into at all.

He scanned his surroundings, searching for something that at least gave him a clue on where he was. When did he get out of jail?

Eyeing the small desk right in front of him, he tried to get up to see if he could find anything useful to help his case, but it felt like his brain couldn’t find his legs. In facts, he didn’t feel his lower limbs at all.

In fear he looked down and, once he made sure that yes, he still had his legs, he tried to get up with the help of the bed, wobblily walking to the desk where the only single useful note he found was “if you need, go two rooms at your left. -Victor”

Victor…

That name sound unknown yet familiar to him. But, in the position he was into, he couldn’t do anything but trust that note.

As he was about to leave, he heard a knocking on his door. His legs not collaborating he just shouted a “come in” to whoever was on the other side.

The person that came in. Luca thought, must have been a creature out of reality, what people would call an angel. His skin pale as the snow, his hair as white as pureness and his eyes radiating the color of the galaxy.

Yeah Luca was pretty sure he was dead.

That was until the angel started talking in a language he understood but not recognize, it was similar to the one he spoke in his own mind.

“Hey, uhm- I came to apologize for- you know, before” he just said shortly in that which sounded like Russian, in a voice as ethereal as his body.

“Yeah no need to really” he replied in his own native language “sorry I’m not really in the humor for a chit chat” then added, hoping the other would understand he’d rather be left alone at the moment. Luckily for Luca, the angel was a very understanding creature. He only said that he would like to talk about it when Luca felt better and left.

As soon as the albino left, Luca started to rummage thru his diary to see if he had written anything about this guy ever, since they seem to know each other, but all he could find was the name Victor in various contexts, maybe in way too many contexts for it to be acceptable, if you know what I mean.

One note read “hey Luca from the future, it’s me, Luca from the past. If your brain damage starts brain damaging again, go at Victor’s in f210. Also beware of the dog, shes nice but she’s ugly so don’t scream when you see her”

He giggled a bit as he read, damn, who ever thought he was so funny.

This led him to what he was planning to do to begin with.

Right

Victor

He gripped at the wall as he tried to make his way to the hallway, holding onto whatever furniture he could find to walk, and, once he knocked at the door that said “Grantz Victor (and Wick)”, he was welcomed by a tall, fit figure with two big honeylike eyes. Eyes that stared at him with worry, but also acknowledgment, as if this wasn’t the first time he saw the brunette in that state and he knew exactly what to do.

“Victor, zar ne?” what- what language was he thinking in? that surely wasn’t English…

But apparently this Victor guy understood and just nodded, taking him form the legs and charging him on his shoulder like a potato bag and helping him his way inside.

As the two comfortably sat on the blonde’s bed, the room’s owner took the stitches out of his mouth, coughing to clear his voice before speaking in a low and quiet voice. “How are you? De si?” his voice sounded strained as if he hasn’t used it in a long time. The other took his time to realize that the blonde was talking to him in two different languages, and as soon as his brain deciphered what he had been asked, he started explaining in Serbian what happened to him.

Victor, not being really fluent in the language, tried to follow him but understood very few. “Možete li pričati sporije, speak slower please” he murmured, struggling to get the right pronunciation of some phonetics.

Luca took a second to calm down from speaking as if he was spitting fax, explaining again what happened in a forced English and then added a quick “hvala puno na pomoći” to thank him for his help. To that Victor only smiled and nodded in response and started to explain the brunette where he was and what happened, reminding him of his short-term amnesia and assuring him that by the time he woke up the day after everything would have gone back to normal.

Luca had a shit ton of questions going on in his mind. What if he woke up and still didn’t remember? What if he forgot more important people in his life?

All those what if’s were cut short by the tiredness that was quickly catching up to him. Victor assured him that it was no problem if he wanted to crush on hid bed for the night, and so he did, almost immediately, letting his body be taken by sleep in the comfort of the presence of the other “stranger”