Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia and I am not making money off of this.
Tumblr Prompt: Person A and Person B meet in the middle of the night at a coin launder and wow you're actually attractive I kind of like you do you wanna go grab burgers or something?
Not Beta'd
The light emanating out of the laundromat seemed to be the only beacon of its kind for miles – the rest of the street was black in the wee hours of the morning. It was certainly no time for Gilbert to be taking his little brother to the laundromat. But his roommates – Elizabeta Hedervary and Roderich Edelstein – were fighting again. The little four-year-old had silently gotten Gilbert's attention, one tiny hand on the man's arm causing him to look away from the screen of his laptop. He'd sighed, pulling out his earbuds, preparing to scold Ludwig and tell him to go back to sleep. But then he heard the yelling, and he knew immediately what was wrong.
"Tante Liz and Onkel Roddy are saying mean things to each other again…" Ludwig had whispered, his soft, blue eyes holding a heavy sadness that struck Gilbert's heart.
He'd been saving money to move out on his own, building a nest egg to support both himself and Ludwig. They'd be on welfare but the important part would be that Ludwig would go to school. That's all that mattered. If Gilbert had to go some nights without food, so be it. Closeness with Elizabeta and Roderich had made his heart grow much less fond. This was becoming a toxic environment for both his brother and himself.
Gilbert looked down at the little boy who tightly clasped his hand, staring straight ahead with the most serious of expressions. He'd always been a rather quiet, solemn child. His alpha instincts had been kicking in a whole lot more, lately, wishing to protect and shelter little Ludwig. But he was failing—both as a man and as an alpha.
Sometimes, he felt like he didn't deserve the responsibility of caring for a child… or for anyone else, for that matter.
"Can you be a big boy and open the door for me?" Gilbert asked Ludwig. "I'm carrying this big basket of laundry, see? When you see someone with their hands full like this, it's awesome of you to be kind and help them."
Ludwig nodded quietly, dutifully taking on what seemed to be the important task of opening the door to his brother. He pushed on it hard, and held it open with both hands, watching Gilbert carefully as he passed through. It was imperative he did not fail in the task he'd been given. Gilbert snorted, knowing all of these things running around in his kid brother's mind. He already took life too seriously.
Maybe Gilbert's dire straits were to blame for that. But he was doing the best he could with what he was given… That had to count for something, right?
Surprisingly, there was someone already in the laundromat at that late hour. Gilbert could smell an alpha nearing his heat, and hear the sound of a gruff English accent muttering something that sounded rather… angry or disgusted. It was accompanied by a fresh clean scent… like the one Ludwig emitted. That seemed to come from a bouncy sounding American boy.
Gilbert put his laundry basket up on the counter. Ludwig was hovering at his leg, ever a shy one in the presence of strangers. The albino looked down at the boy.
"You wanna wash those clothes you got on?"
Ludwig just shook his head.
"Okay, that's fine. I'm gonna wash mine. Then I'll have all of my laundry done, isn't that awesome?"
He peeled his tank top off and quickly shucked off his shorts. He didn't spare them a glance as he tossed them along with everything else into the washing machine. He checked his body, simply looking down the front of it, as he was often wont to do with his clothes out of the way.
That "special mark" hadn't appeared yet—just his skin and his ink.
Roderich and Elizabeta didn't seem to share that mark—the kind that someone gained when they met their soulmate. Each person, once they meet their soulmate, would develop a luminescent marking on their body at the same time as the other person. The marks of soulmates were identical.
Yes… perhaps that was why Roddy and Liz fought so often. They were fighting against fate itself.
"What's wrong?"
Gilbert turned around at the sound of the voice—the child he'd heard earlier. There was a little blond boy with spritely, sky blue eyes talking to Ludwig. Ludwig shrank back a bit and offered no response.
Gilbert simply smiled, kneeling down next to his little brother. "Hey, buddy. I'm sure the kid's nice. Why don't you introduce yourself to him?"
Ludwig simply shook his head, and looked straight into Gilbert's eyes. "Don't wanna talk." He hugged Gilbert's leg. "Don't know him. Don't wanna tell him."
Just as Gilbert was preparing a gentle admonishment (the other boy looked a bit hurt, actually), someone else spoke up, someone with a deeper and smoother voice.
"I'm sorry, is Alfred bothering you two?" Gilbert looked up into the apologetic face of the Brit he'd heard earlier.
Gilbert stood. "Uh, nein. No, he's fine. Ludwig is just shy around strangers."
The man was gorgeous, to be sure, and Gilbert had no shame when he took his time ogling him. Sure, this man was another alpha, but there were no rules that said he couldn't look, right? His bright green eyes were absolutely beautiful. He had a rough look to him, with tattoos peeking out from the short sleeves of his black tee shirt, gauges, and various piercings on his ears and two even on his lips.
Gilbert wasn't judging—of course not. He himself had gauges in addition to an eyebrow piercing and a lip piercing. His tattoos were openly visible, and he wondered if that was what this man was looking at as those green orbs raked over his own, ghostly pale body. He couldn't imagine that he was very attractive.
But Gilbert began to get a bit concerned as he saw the man's eyes focused on one spot, around Gilbert's abdomen. He blinked and tilted his head.
"Is there something on my—" words caught in his throat when he looked down.
The mark was there.
Gilbert immediately lunged forward, ripping the man's shirt up. There, underneath the black fabric, lay a softly glowing mark, identical to the one Gilbert now carried.
He yanked his hand back like he'd been burned. His bright red eyes darted back up to the stranger's, and he licked his lips nervously, his mouth suddenly feeling extremely dry.
"Daddy! Daddy, what's wrong?" The little boy—Alfred was his name—was yanking on the man's shirt.
"Not now, Alfie…" The man brushed Alfred off almost dreamily, and continued to stare at Gilbert like he was hallucinating. "Daddy's talking…"
The boy pouted. "Are not…" He mumbled.
Gilbert's hands clenched and unclenched. What was he supposed to do in a situation like this? He'd never met this person before in his life, and they were both alphas, to boot.
He sighed and broke eye contact. He rubbed his face tiredly, feeling a bit too overwhelmed to put all of his feelings into words. Sure, the man was attractive. Sure, Gilbert was happy he'd found his soulmate—some people never found their's.
He looked at those lovely green eyes again and offered a hesitant smile. "Hallo. I—I'm Gilbert. Gilbert Beilschmidt."
The man blinked, seeming to come out of a trance. He nodded quickly. "I am Arthur Kirkland." After a moment, he offered a hand to Gilbert that was just visibly trembling.
The albino had to bite back his instinct at taking advantage at such a show of weakness in front of him—after all, Gilbert was positive he seemed no better off. This whole thing had him pretty shaken up.
"I… uh." That was the best response he could come up with? He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly before sitting down. "So. Um. What brings you to the laundromat at this hour?"
Arthur stared at him for a second longer before shaking his head. "No. No, no, no." He muttered. "This is wrong. This has to be wrong. We're both alphas, it doesn't work like this!"
"Hey, chill," Gilbert felt like he was being rejected. This sucked. There were worse things but truthfully, at the moment he couldn't think of a one. "I'm sure it happens sometimes, I bet we could work it out—"
"Oh, so now you think you can talk to me like you're actually dating me?" Arthur burst out. "No! You can't! Absolutely not! I don't sodding know you from atom!" Gilbert stood to meet the Brit's outburst on his level, not wanting to be talked down to. "How the bleeding hell do you know if this will work or not?" Arthur growled, and stepped closer. "You can't know a damned thing! This is all wrong and I demand we visit a physician to confirm this!"
Ludwig clamped his hands over his ears and started to hum. When Gilbert saw that, he immediately took the boy into his arms, his nose nuzzling into his soft tuft of blonde hair. He rubbed Ludwig's back gently, murmuring words of comfort and assurance to him.
"Is that… your son?" Arthur's gaze had softened considerably along with his voice as he looked at Ludwig.
Gilbert just shook his head. "No… Little brother."
But Ludwig felt like a son. After all, hadn't Gilbert been the one to care for Ludwig all of his four short years on the planet?
"Did that… upset him?" Arthur asked hesitantly.
"You weren't using your inside voice. Of course he would be upset! He has manners." Alfred chided him, crossing his arms. His lip was jutting out and he glared at Gilbert. "Why are you two ignoring me?"
Arthur smiled then, an exasperated, tired, but fond smile. He ruffled Alfred's hair even though the boy ducked out from under his hand after a moment, shaking his head a bit with a tiny, irritated huff. "I'm not ignoring you, love."
He clicked his tongue and didn't look at Arthur, instead choosing to glare at the floor.
"Your son?" Gilbert nodded to Alfred, returning the question.
Arthur looked at Gilbert then, and suddenly he seemed to haggard and run-down that he might collapse. "Yes." He sighed. "For now."
"For now?" Gilbert shifted Ludwig on his hip and titled his head. "What does that mean?"
The Brit just shook his head, another sigh issuing from him.
Gilbert sat again, placing his brother on his knee. "Come on. Sit. Let's just talk about this, okay? I mean… I'm pretty fuc - messed up about this, too. But… the signs don't lie." He gestured with his free hand to his lower abdomen where the marking was.
Arthur sat down wordlessly. Gilbert bit his lip and stared at his washing machine, currently spinning his clothes around and around and around in an endless circle.
Suddenly he turned to look at Arthur. "This would be better if… if we could talk alone." He decided. "How about we take the kids to a friend of mine? I trust them. One of them has been my best friend for years and the other… is kind of an ass, but hey, she's not a bad person. I mean, Chiara's been grumpy since she's been pregnant, but…" Gilbert shrugged. "They wouldn't mind getting the kids for a night or so, so we can sort our own shit out."
Arthur looked at the children and, after a moment, he nodded.
The door to the laundromat opened—another person entered. They smelled sharply of alcohol.
Gilbert continued to watch the laundry spin in silence.
"Daddy…" Alfred whined after a while. "I'm bored!"
Arthur didn't respond, and Gilbert barely registered Ludwig climbing off of his lap to move with hesitant steps toward Alfred.
"Do you want to play with me?"
"You didn't even wanna talk with me before! Besides, why the heck would I play with a stupid baby like you?"
"… Okay."
"… No, no, wait! Ugh. I mean—um, I mean, I guess we can play something! But I get to pick!"
Gilbert briefly watched the two kids with a small, tired smile. But he turned to Arthur. "If it would make you feel better, we could see a doctor... if only to see what an Alpha/Alpha relationship would be like."
Arthur seemed to consider this for a moment. "Yes. Yes, I think that would be a good idea."
The albino nodded. "Alright... Well... while we're sitting here waiting for my laundry to finish, why don't you tell me about yourself? Unless you want me to go first. I'm fine either way."
"No, it's quite alright, I wouldn't mind going first."
Gilbert nodded and leaned forward a bit, resting his elbows on his knees and tipping his head toward Arthur. "Alright."
They remained there for an hour after Gilbert's laundry was washed and dried.
This isn't my best work, but let me know how you think I did.