*DISCLAIMER- I DO NOT OWN HETALIA OR ANY OF IT'S CHARACTERS, SAME FOR HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS, ALL RIGHTS STAY WITH THE CREATORS*
(A/N- I know Antonio is Ludwig's dad? But Antonio fits the busy but happy profile of Cindy's dad from the movie and he is one of Gilbert's best friends in Hetalia so just bear with me)
A long time ago, in the small secluded city of Berlin, a little boy was shopping with his father, a man named Antonio Fernandez de Carriedo. The little boy, Ludwig, was the smallest in his class, but the most serious. His sapphire eyes and pristinely gleaming blonde hair suited him and his little green coat.
"Ahora, Mi hijo - Mi hijo? Ludwig!" Antonio turned on his heel, emerald eyes searching for his little son. "I'm here papa." Ludwig's voice was small but assured behind the mountain of gifts he was carrying. It was Christmas time and the whole town was in the holiday craze, finishing their shopping and mailing as quickly as possible.
"Okay, now we need to finish shopping for los primos and get them mailed out soon, and send Abuelo Constantine su regalo…" Ludwig zoned out after Antonio started listing the presents they needed to buy for their foreign cousins. "Ludwig, Ludwig! Come on mi hijo we gotta get to the post office." Antonio called and brought Ludwig from his trance. The little boy tried to grab his fathers hand but he had too many presents in his arms and hid his crestfallen look with the mountain of brightly wrapped boxes and bags.
The duo entered the post office and Antonio went to his position behind the counter, Ludwig followed him, depositing their gifts in the outgoing mail sorter. "Papa…" Ludwig called to his father who was stuffing the city mailboxes with Christmas cards. "Yes Mi Hijo," Antonio responded sliding his ladder to the left to get to the next mailbox.
"How come no one ever talks about Gilbert, the man who lives on the mountain?" Antonio stopped what he was doing. "Mi Bebe, who told you about Gilbert?" "Alfred F. Jones. I normally don't listen to anything that dummkopf says, but his little brother Matthew agreed." Antonio laughed. "Si, si, little Alfred can seem a little out of control." Ludwig nodded solemnly in agreement. Antonio smiled and ruffled his sons perfectly slicked blonde hair. The boy hated it when he messed with his hair but Toni still did it. It's not like Ludwig would cry or be bratty or anything, he was always on the nice list.
"Papa! Back to Gilbert!" Ludwig snapped, his little face looked so irritated and adorable. "Well mi hijo, Gilbert used to live here in Berlin, he isn't like the rest of us though. El tiene los ojos del diablo, y su pelo es blanco. But the most unforgivable crime, he hates Christmas." Toni sighed then finished putting away his letters. "Mi hijo, look, his mailbox, no Christmas cards, in or out. Ever." Antonio sighed and jumped off his ladder, running to the counter to get more packages in the sorter.
"Ludwig! Can you put this in the back for me, por favor." Ludwig nodded and took the package walking slowly to the back, where he deposited the gift in the corner. On his way out, though, he tripped over a… what was that? He picked it up. A wig. A black wig. "Huh." he said and started walking to the door when he heard a small noise he turned quickly and he saw him. Standing in the back corner of the mail room in a big leather jacket was a man with flashing scarlet eyes and pale white hair. He grinned slowly and sauntered up to the shaking little boy.
"You're You're You're" "Gilbert Beilschmidt." He snarled and Ludwig screamed. Gilbert scoffed and snatched the wig from Ludwig. "Give that back. Didn't anyone teach ju it's not okay to take things that aren't ju!" He angrily started to pull his wig back on and accidentally smacked Ludwig into the sorting machine. "AAAAAAAH!" The boy screamed and struggled to get out from between all the packages.
Gilbert called his dog Berlitz, a mangy golden retriever and she trotted past Ludwig then stopped for a second, and launched herself at Gilbert, and snapped her jaws around his (A/N glorious) butt. Gilbert shouted a strain of curses in his vernacular then yelled at the dog. "BERLITZ! THIS IS NOT A CHEW TOY! GET THAT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH, YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE IT'S BEEN!" Gilbert groaned and pushed the dog off. "Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnne…." He sauntered over to the sorter and grabbed the still struggling Ludwig and set him down a few feet away from the sorter.
Ludwig took a deep breath collecting himself. Where were his manners? This recluse had just saved his life! "Thank you for saving me, Herr Beilschmidt." He said quietly. Gilbert stopped in his tracks. He turned slowly, his grin wide and maniacal spread all over his face. Ludwig broke out into cold sweats.
The menace of Berlin, the man who all children were taught to fear- he'd heard so many ghost stories about the man who lived on the mountain, he even had a nightmare once, Gilbert had evil claws that had dug into Ludwig's chest, the Albino's face had been a blur of fangs and demonic black and red eyes.
"Wrongo." Gilbert's statement brought Ludwig back to reality. "I merely noticed zat ju vere improperly packaged, winzig." Beilschmidts crimson eyes sparkled with malice as he took the little boy and wrapped him quickly and sloppily with a gaudy red paper. The man and his dog left not two seconds after he was done.
Antonio came looking for his smallest child to find the wrapped monster lying on the floor, struggling to untie the double knotted ribbon. "Luddy!" "Papa! Papa! It was so cool I-" Ludwig was interrupted by his fathers joyful exclamation. "You've been practicing your Christmas wrapping! I'm so proud of you!" He helped his son out of the god awful paper, to happy to notice the frown set deep into the little boys face. The two walked hand in hand back to their home, Toni chattering happily about the holiday cheer festival on Saturday, while Ludwig stared at the ground five feet ahead of him.
'Why did that happen? Why does Herr Beilschmidt live on the mountain? What made him leave? Why was everyone so caught up in this frenzy? Why was Christmas so great.'
His thoughts were interrupted by Katrina Vargas-Carriedo, his mother who was standing on the roof of their home, stringing lights up all over in all the colors. "OH JUST YOU WAIT MARIE BONNEFOY! I WILL BEAT YOUR ASS THIS YEAR!" She yelled towards the Carrier's neighbor.
Marie Bonnefoy was Francis Bonnefoy's little sister, she was the apple of Roderich Edelstein's eye, not to mention the rest of Berlin. She was pretty classy, a good cook, she seemed like a classic house-wife, even though she was around 40 to Ludwig's parents 30. She had been in school with Gilbert Beilschmidt and Roderich, according to the rest of her class, after Gilbert's retreat from Berlin and her world, the sparkle in her steely blue eyes was gone, you could see their flatness even now.
Speak of the devil, Marie's door opened and she emerged, in a red silk robe. She looked over and saw the Carriedo's in their yard. "Bonjour! Katrina, your lights are beautiful!" She called to the family. Katrina looked up from the strand she was currently untangling. "I give it my all to keep up with you, Marie!" Katrina yelled from her perch. "I really admire your effort, I'm sure your home will shine the brightest on Christmas." Marie smiled and re-entered her home. Katrina scoffed and continued untangling while Antonio brought his son inside and sent her to bed.
In his room, Ludwig sat staring at the little Christmas decorations. He was so full of questions, of doubt and a need for empirical evidence. Ludwig was so confused, his normal holiday cheer had never arrived and Christmas was this saturday. He sighed and pulled his covers up, his two dogs, Blackie and Aster curled at the foot of his bed, Ludwig fell asleep still melancholy.
Gilbert and Berlitz had arrived back in their cave. Thirty years of living there, it was pretty nice now. He slammed the door and threw a 'stick' for Berlitz to chase, (there was no stick, he just looked like he was throwing something and said "fetch." When the dog ran, he decreed there was no stick, and he was smarter.) Gilbert dropped blue military uniform and threw on just a pair of sweats, ambling to his chair where he was met with no messages on his machine (as usual) and his crippling loneliness. Gilbert flung himself on his bed and welcomed sleep, the far less harsh reality he preferred to his cave.
The next day, Ludwig took his fathers old tape recorder and made a list of people who had social or familial relation to the reclusive albino of the mountain. Ludwig interviewed Gilbert's father, a man named Frederick, and his classmates Roderich Edelstein and Marie Bonnefoy.
Gilbert came to Frederick as all babies do, a breeze sends them down in humbersellas, baskets with umbrellas that delivered babies to parents from the sky. He was different but grew up like the rest of Berlin children, with a deep love of Christmas. (According to Roderich this was not true, Gilbert was often credited with drawings of Santa falling out of the sky and a general Scroogey attitude.)
When Marie, Roderich and Gilbert were all ten, the school had a gift exchange. Their teacher had instructed them to bring a gift and to look nice. All that day, he and Marie had traded looks, (from Ludwig's findings they each had a crush on the other) and Roderich had not liked that, Marie was HIS girlfriend. So HE humiliated Gilbert in front of the whole class about his snowy white hair.
On his way out, Marie had stopped him. "Christmas is great isn't it? I just love the colors- red and white." She had flirted with him as her brother had taught her. Gilbert had gone home and made her an angel topper with anything he found, it even had her honey blonde hair. He went to his bathroom and saw his fathers blonde hair dye (Frederick did not want the world to know he was a 'silver fox').
The next day at their school, all the students were exchanging gifts and the teacher called to see if anyone hadn't. Gilbert emerged from the coat rack, holding his gift, wearing a ridiculously green beanie. His teacher got him to take off his hat and the whole class saw, he had tried to dye his hair, but he hadn't done it right and random pieces of his unruly hair were bright yellow. He then threw the class tree out the window and smashed the gift for Marie.
"It broke my heart." Marie had tears welling in her eyes when Ludwig left.
Ludwig's family, along with everyone else in Berlin accumulated outside of the town hall at exactly 4:00 pm that day. The mayor took the stage along with Marie and a few other officials. The citizens chattered about who they should nominate to be the Cheermeister of their annual Christmas Festival.
The town quieted when they heard Ludwig exclaim "I nominate Gilbert Beilschmidt." The mayor descended, "Ludwig, Gilbert will not come down here! He doesn't even like Christmas!" "Thats why we should nominate him, he's been alone for thirty years on that mountain, he needs yuletide cheer the most out of us all!" The town agreed at the innocent little boy. The crowning of the cheermeister began at 6, Ludwig had exactly 94 minutes to convince GIlbert to come. The rest of the town moved on to the light judging and a few other activities while Ludwig made the precarious ascent to Gilbert's cave.
Gilbert had been laying on his bed singing numbly along with the citizens Christmas songs that could be heard from the tip top of his mountain. He launched up and started to turn on all kinds of vacuums, blenders and old toys, but nothing could drown out their cheerful voices.
Ludwig let himself in, walking cautiously to the accused monster who was fiddling with an alarm clock. "EXCUSE ME." The boy yelled at Gilbert. The noises suddenly stopped. Gilbert turned on his heel. "HOW DARE YOU ENTER GILBERT'S LAIR! THE AUDACITY! CHILDREN THESE DAYS!" "Herr Beilschmidt, me and the people of Berlin have nominated you for Cheermeister at the holiday parade." Ludwig stated.
"KESESESESESE~ Ju have to be joking!" He laughed and LUdwig protested "But you won!" Gilbert stopped laughing. "I von something… ZHE AWESOME ME VON SOMETHING!" HE cried and Berlitz barked as if to say 'shut up stupid.' "Was anyone emotionally damaged?" When Ludwig didn't answer fast enough Gil snapped his fingers "Details! Details!" "Vell, the mayor wasn't very happy." Ludwig stated. Gilbert laughed that same obnoxious kesesese laugh again.
"Marie Bonnefoy will be there." Ludwig said. Gilbert's eyebrows lifted. "So Marie would see me, a winner. Hmmm, 'Sorry Marie baby but the G-Train has left the station!'" He yelled and Ludwig face palmed. "Just be there, ja?" Ludwig said. and he turned on his heel leaving an invitation on the ground as he exited through the doggy door and climbed back down to Berlin.
Gilbert ran to his dresser and had a field day with all of his outfits. He finally found one, at the very back, an old army uniform that had white pants and a blue and red jacket. "I wonder if Marie likes a man in uniform." Berlitz sat on the ratty armchair and licked at a bone.
"Take care of the cave Litz, I'll be back bye like 7 maybe." and Gilbert was off to Berlin, the town that had always sickened him.
The parade itself, was very fun, Gilbert was celebrated and loved- and in turn he celebrated. That ended though, with the holiday pass-it-on. Roderich Edelstein his nemesis since they were ten years old, proposed to Marie. Her mouth hung open as she stared at the huge rock in front of her eyes, speechless. Gilbert gritted his teeth "THAT'S WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT, ISN'T IT!" He accused. "GIFTS! GIFTS GIFTS GIFTS GIFTS!" He scorned Christmas, destroyed the town Christmas tree, and made Marie faint.
The albino went home to form an evil, horrible, brilliant plan.
Later that Christmas eve, Gilbert went to each home and stole every single decoration, present, and even food. He loaded all of his spoils onto a fake santa sleigh and dressed as St. Nick, he and Berlitz drove the sleigh to the very tippity top of the mountain, to dump it all off.
The citizens of Berlin awoke and ran into the streets, their homes devoid of any reminder of the holly jolly time. Roderich arrived, pulled in by Alfred F. Jones, the chief of police. His bed was attached to Alfred's car. "It's all your fault, are you proud of yourself Ludwig!" He pointed his finger at the small boy, whose tears dripped from his eyes.
"If he isn't, I am." Antonio declared, taking his boy and setting him on his hip. "Christmas is not about the presents, thats what Ludwig has been trying to show us, and me. What he's been trying to show me." Ludwig smiled and kissed his father's cheek.
Gilbert had just reached the top with his gigantic load. He sat for a moment, resting. At first, he thought he wasn't actually hearing anything, but it grew louder, more confident. The people of Berlin, they weren't crying or mourning, they were singing. And Gilbert sat there, thinking how they could sing after their presents were all stolen.
"Maybe Christmas, means a little bit more." He thought aloud. As soon as the statement fell from his lips he fell into the snow, his little world imploding, and his puny decrepit heart grew bigger than any heart.
"HERR BEILSCHMIDT!" Gilbert sat up and looked over. "L-L-Ludwig? What are you doing up here?!" "No one should be alone on Christmas." The little boy was blushing so pink, it was adorable. He ran to Gilbert and hugged him tightly. "Merry Christmas." Ludwig whispered. Gilbert smiled widely and stood, ruffling the boys hair. "Hey Luddy, let's get these back to Berlin." Gilbert hooked his thumb at the sleigh. Ludwig nodded and the two began the trip back down.
When they reached the town, Gilbert apologised, and Alfred sauntered up to him. "Merry Christmas Gil-Bro." He smiled and patted the fake Santa's shoulder. "Alfred! Arrest him!" Roderich cried. Alfred turned. "No Roddy dude, Gil-Bro's chill."
The next noise they heard was a scream, everyone turned to see Marie bonnefoy in her scarlet robe slide down the bag of presents. Her hair was pulled up in a bun and she had pushed her sleeves up. "Merry Christmas Roderich, I'm sorry I do have a present for you." She handed him the small ring box. "My heart, it- it's um it's uh well it's his." She turned to Gilbert, and he looked appalled. "Me?" "Always." She whispered. Gilbert grinned widely and ran, picking her up and swinging her in his arms. He set her down and kissed her passionately.
He let her go and did a quick victory dance that included a "Ha-Ha I beat you!" to Roderich. He stopped suddenly and grabbed Elizabeta who was standing next to Roddy. "No sad faces on Christmas!" He said and slammed the two into each others arms, where Elizabeta dipped the OCD pianist into a long kiss.
The town of Berlin calmed down by dinner, Gil was back in his army uniform, turns out Marie did like a man in uniform. Marie stood with him as he cut the turkey for the whole towns feast, that he held, in his own cave. As the guests left hours later, stuffed with food and content to be with their families, Gilbert stopped Ludwig. "Thank you, West. This all came from you, and I have a gift for you." Gilbert took Berlitz and handed his leash to Ludwig. "But this is your-" "Marie's allergic to dogs and I wouldn't trust anyone other than you with Litzy." "Merry Christmas Gilbert." "Merry Christmas, Brohanz."
A/N
Hey guys! It's Christmas Eve and I realised I haven't posted any fanfics about Christmas! Happy Holidays to all of you, thanks for all of your support!
I love all of you!
Kyoko /( ^V^)/
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Quick Dictionary (German S- Spanish F- French)
S Abuelo- Grandpa
S Ahora- Now
F Bonjour - Hello
S Mi hijo- My son
S Los Primos- The cousins
S Su regalo- His present
S El tiene los ojos del diablo, y su pelo es blanco- He has the eyes of the devil, and white hair
G Winzig- Tiny