A/N: I'll say it again so no one will be too disappointed. This is not a Germancest fic and if you don't like GerFra, retreat NOW.
Gilbert sat up straight to listen, when he heard a key being turned and the door to his Berlin flat was opened. He was sitting in the kitchen with his laptop on the table in front of him. It was Friday evening. He was supposed to be alone for the weekend like he always was. His brother only slept here when he had work to do in the capital.
"Did you forget something?" he yelled. He had planned on a lazy weekend on his own after all and West staying would crush all his plans to pieces. Besides, this was totally not awesome, because he knew much to well that his brother had a boyfriend and never stopped shoving that fact right into Gilbert's face. At least, that was Gilbert's opinion on that matter as he loathed that stupid Frenchman his brother had chosen to date. It wasn't like there were any worse men around, were there? Even dating Specs was more awesome than this and Specs was below the end of his personal not-awesome list if anyone asked him.
"No!" he heard West yell back as he slammed the door shut. From what it sounded like, his little brother had dropped his coat and briefcase and ran off into his room. Of course, he slammed that door shut as well, causing Gilbert to definitely not jump for a second time in barely a minute.
Gilbert waited for a while. He wasn't sure if he should go check on his baby brother. He had sounded pissed after all. Maybe they had had a fight today, he mused. Not that this was a particularly bad thing in Gilbert's book. But he still didn't like it if his brother was sad or pissed. What he did like, though, was the thought of him finally, after more than twenty years of persuasion from his awesome big brother, breaking up with that frog eater.
When he had heard nothing for much too long, Gilbert got up with a sigh. This weekend could have been so nice and quiet and lazy. Being a good big brother was really bothersome at times. He shuffled towards the door of Ludwig's room. He knocked, but there was no answer. So he poked his head in the room. West hadn't bothered with lights, so it took Gilbert a moment to notice that his brother was lying on the bed with his back to the door.
"Ludwig?" Gilbert whispered. "Is everything okay?" He tried to sound as sympathetic as possible. It wasn't that easy. He was grinning widely. There was only one reason he could think of that made his brother this miserably. He wondered what Francis had done to his poor baby brother. But he didn't ask. Not now, when his darling little brother was this sad. And he was. Gilbert could feel it.
He waited a moment for an answer. When there was none, he simply entered the room and sat down on the side of the bed. It was big enough for two – a fact Gilbert had grown to hate in more than one night – and so he was still somewhat away and yet close enough to reach out for him.
Listening now from a close position, Gilbert could hear his darling baby brother stifle sobs. In the twilight he could see him hug his cushion and his shoulders shaking. Gilbert bit down on his lips. This hadn't been how he had expected their break up. He had imagined West to run of with some pretty girl or cute guy. He didn't want his little brother to cry alone in his bed at night.
After a while, he gave in. He slipped off his shoes and laid down next to his brother. His attempts to pull his brother into an embrace was at first met with resistance, but he quickly gave in – quicker than Gilbert had ever expected him to. They hadn't been the closest of brothers lately.
Actually, they hadn't so much as talked to each other in months.
They were still sharing a flat in Berlin, sure, but when it came down to everything, it was Gilbert's flat and Ludwig was sleeping in one of the rooms when he had work to do in Berlin and didn't find a way to get it transferred to Bonn or somewhere else. Which was surprisingly rare considering that Ludwig's main place of employment was still the Federal Chancellery.
And on the weekends, Ludwig would drive back to his own place, the house he had lived in for the last sixty years. Gilbert wasn't sure he knew how he felt about his brother's house. When they decided to make Berlin the official capital back in the 90s, he was happy at first, thinking his brother would move in with him, that they would share his East Berlin flat, that always had been too big for one person living there. But Ludwig had refused to sell his house – and Gilbert had troubles with that as well, his brother had managed to live in a house while he only had a flat – and even refused to make Berlin his principal residence. It was stupid in Gilbert's opinion. But he couldn't argue with it after hearing his brother's argumentation. Having one of them offically living in the old capital would show that it was still as important as they tried to make it look like. And there were also ministries located there that Gilbert really shouldn't come close to – which was a joke, Gilbert had thought but then again, they were talking about the Ministry of Defense as well and his brother was a bit touchy on that one.
So Gilbert had given his spare bedroom to his brother and back then, he had been excited about it. But then, they had started to fight every time they had seen each other. And the meetings between them had become rarer over time. Ludwig had gotten up early and had showered and had breakfast before Gilbert even cared to wake. In the evenings, Ludwig would come back late after having eaten out and go straight to his room. Gilbert had hated this state of things between them. But he had been too awesome to ask his brother to go look for his own flat.
And now, he was glad he hadn't. While he was trying to comfort his sobbing little brother, he looked around the room. This wasn't what he had thought this room would look like – he had never entered it while Ludwig wasn't there and he had been not in the mood to do so if he was – and quite frankly, this room didn't look like a room a person lived in. It looked like this was a place to close one's eyes in, there was nothing personal here save maybe for a cell phone charger if that did even count and a book Gilbert bet his brother was trying to read for months.
It made Gilbert feel sad. And he wondered what Ludwig's own place looked like. He had only been there once. Back in 1989 – or maybe it already had been 1990 – he had thought about just moving to his brother. But they had started to fight over Ludwig's relationship as soon as Gilbert had heard of it. In the end, Gilbert had gone back to Berlin to enjoy his solitude which at least promised to be France-free.
And it really had worked out, somehow. It wasn't like Gilbert needed his brother's company anyway. He had friends of his own. And he knew that he was welcome at their places. But from time to time, he had wondered if it would be better if he had just given in and accept the relationship his brother had lived in for longer than he even cared to admit. Since somewhen in the 50s or 60s, I don't know, it was a busy time back then, Ludwig had told him the one time he had cared to ask and actually listen.
Right now, Gilbert considered himself proven. He didn't know what had happened, but he was sure that France had done something really, really bad as he always had expected of him. Gilbert noticed that he was fisting his brother's shirt in anger and quickly relaxed. He didn't want to fight now. He didn't even feel like gloating, telling his brother that he had been right all along. Right now, there was only one thing Gilbert could think about and that was consoling his baby brother and soothing his bruised if not broken heart.
If Gilbert just knew how to do that. All he felt like he could be doing was being here even though he wasn't wanted and petting the crying Ludwig. And he could see that this didn't do any well. He had to admit that Ludwig had cuddled himself up against his chest, but that was about it. It still felt like they were miles apart.
With a sigh, Gilbert pulled himself free. His brother looked up for a second, a questioning look on his face. Gilbert wasn't sure if Ludwig wanted him to stay or just wondered what he was doing here. Gilbert bit his lower lip. He didn't like the second thought. "I'll be right back," he whispered as he brushed through his brother's now messy hair. He didn't bend down to kiss his forehead like he would have done when his brother had been a child.
A little reluctant – well, Gilbert hoped he wasn't imagining it – Ludwig let him go. The look in his brother's eyes told him to stay and made Gilbert bite down harder. He would have to be careful not to draw blood. But it would do no good if he would let his brother cry all night, he told himself. Judging by the time Ludwig had returned, he hadn't eaten yet and Gilbert was hungry so he had figured that something to eat wouldn't hurt and maybe even cheer his little brother up a bit – or at least stop crying which Gilbert found creepy and eerily exciting at the same time.
In the kitchen, Gilbert had to decide what to do. There wasn't much food. He had planed on eating snacks tonight and maybe even tomorrow before he would go shopping. But that wasn't what he wanted to offer Ludwig. He was sure that his brother wasn't a fan of junk food.
So he sat down on his computer and ordered them pizza. He had to guess which sort his brother liked and just hoped his tastes hadn't changed a lot from the time when Gilbert was sure he knew what he had liked. In the end, he gave up guessing and simply ordered the most popular one for Ludwig and his own favorite for himself. Then, he also decided that desert and ice cream would also be not bad and ordered some of those as well.
Before he went back into Ludwig's bedroom, he grabbed two beer. Even though he wasn't sure whether or not it was a good idea to give his baby brother alcohol, he would need it in a situation like this. And he figured that any harm it could do he would be able to take care of the results.
He sat down on the edge of his brother's bed again and handed him one of the bottles. "I thought you could use some," he murmured. He still had no idea what to say. "I ordered pizza, it should be here in half a hour, maybe less." Ludwig nodded, nursing on his beer. Well, at least, Gilbert had done one thing right. He softly brushed through his brother's hair. "When pizza's here, we could go into the living room and watch some TV, okay?" he offered. Eating in bed was a no-no, even though he enjoyed it sometimes. Cleaning up afterwards was usually too much of a pain. And he was sure there would be something on television, it was Friday after all and if there wasn't anything, there would be soccer and that was something they could both agree on. They just couldn't agree on the team they cheered for.
Ludwig nodded slowly. Gilbert put an arm around him and pulled him closer. "We'll get you through this, I promise," he whispered. After all, he was an awesome big brother and an adult, he knew how to behave.
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An hour later, they were sitting in the living room with their pizzas and watched some more or less bad crime series on kabel1. Gilbert had left the couch to his brother and half sat, half lied on the floor in front of it. They didn't talk and stared at the TV while eating but Gilbert considered it an improvement. His brother had at least stopped crying. The pizza was just as good as always and Gilbert was happy with that. This was almost a little bit better than what he had planned for himself.
During one of the commercial breaks – Gilbert swore they got longer every year – he got up. "Care for another beer?" he asked his brother. Ludwig shrugged. He hadn't even half of his pizza and Gilbert had ordered the smallest size for him. "So Coke it is," he sighed, being a responsible adult. He wouldn't let his brother drink himself into oblivion. Even though he would have liked another beer.
He came back with a bottle and two glasses. Ludwig hadn't moved at all and was watching the commercials with some sort of interest, well, at least with the same interest as he had been watching the series. Gilbert glanced at the clock on the wall. Heute wouldn't be up for another hour and the tagesthemen weren't worth watching on Friday nights. He sighed again. He really would like to know what happened. And if it was bad enough to be on the news or if it was just personal.
Not that it would make much of a difference. Considering the state his brother was in, he probably shouldn't watch the news anyway. As much as he knew how much his brother liked watching the news, he doubted it was the right thing to watch tonight. Mindless entertainment of any sort was much better. Gilbert could look up the news on his phone later.
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At quarter past ten, Gilbert decided it was late enough for bed. He switched off the TV. His brother didn't complain at all. This made Gilbert sigh again. He was sure they would have enjoyed a certain program at half past. It was the main reason why he had decided to get to bed early. Worse than news was this one particular show. And he didn't even want to risk zapping into it.
He got the pizza boxes and took them to the kitchen. There, he packed the leftovers on a plate to put them into the fridge. It was enough left for breakfast or lunch the next day. Ludwig had followed him and watched him from the doorframe. Gilbert pretended not to feel creeped out by that behaviour. He wasn't used to have someone following him around anymore.
"Do you want to stay in my bed," he sighed after a while. It wasn't as much a question as it was a statement. He was sure he couldn't leave his brother alone like this. By then, Gilbert was standing in front of his computer and shutting it down for the night – after taking the time to scan the headlines. There wasn't anything there yet. But who knew, maybe tomorrow.
Ludwig was following him as he went in Ludwig's room to get him pyjamas and watched motionlessly. He also followed him as he went to his own room. At this point, Gilbert did sigh again. He pushed the pyjamas into his brother's arms. He had definitely not blushed. "You know how to get changed by yourself, don't you?" he mumbled. "You're too old to make your awesome big brother help you change."
Gilbert turned away to take his own pyjamas and change into them. He didn't dare to turn around and look at Ludwig, but by the sound of it, he changed as well. It would have been muh too awkward for Gilbert to sleep in the same bed with him naked. It just wasn't what one did.
Gilbert looked after it that his brother would brush his teeth – he started to feel like more than a hundred years ago when he had tried to raise his brother as well as he could – and then got into his bed. Sharing it with Ludwig was something he had never expected and he was glad it was big enough for both of them and some space in between. Ludwig lay down with his back turned to him. Gilbert smiled at that a little. Somehow, his little brother had grown but hadn't changed much in his eyes. He still acted like he had as a child, half cuddling with his blanket.
"Good night," Gilbert whispered as he turned off the lights. He wasn't sure if he was allowed to kiss Ludwig's forehead anymore for good night but he did it anyway. Ludwig answered with a grunt and then, after a while: "Sleep thight."
Gilbert smiled to himself as he closed his eyes for the night.