Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia, only this plot!
Gilbert trudged back down to his basement room clutching his ice-cream and crisps. Yes they do go well together and he wouldn't let anybody tell him otherwise, not even West. Thinking about West and what had just occurred made him even more depressed and he refused to think about it, opting to settle on his sofa and switch the TV on.
-Flashback to 30 minutes ago-
Gilbert was in the living room throwing various items of food in the air and trying to catch it in his mouth. Of course trying was the key word and he ended up with a mess of popcorn, sweets and chocolate scattered around the room, not to mention the various chocolate smears on his face and the cushions of the sofa.
"Kesesese~! These pieces of food think they can escape the awesome Prussia huh? Not a chance in hell!" Gilbert cried out wildly to himself, sounding indeed like the egotistical maniac many thought he was. But the great Kingdom of Prussia is not what it once was: instead of the dashing young man in the smart Prussian blue WWII uniform, the man here is wearing a white T-shirt with various food stains and pyjama bottoms. Instead of a fit, lean body toned from war the Prussia here is more rounded and he looks older, aged by neglect rather than time.
A key was shoved through the keyhole and Gilbert realised that Ludwig was home from his boring ass meetings, not that he missed them at all, he was just bored.
"Yeah that's right, it's their loss after all, they don't have the awesome me to accompany them at their stupid meetings," Gilbert mumbled to himself. He saw West approach the living room and called out to him.
"Yo West! Up for a challenge to COD: Modern Warfare? I bet your pansy ass you can't beat my awesome record!" Gilbert could see that his little brother looked rather tired and that he could do with a break from paperwork. Ludwig entered the room after he heard his brother's call and was about to reply when he saw the state of the room. Food was scattered everywhere and there were stains in his precious carpet and even on the ceiling! 'How in God's name did Gilbert manage to do that', was all Ludwig thought before he saw red.
"Gilbert, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Ludwig cried in anger, his brows furrowing and eyes narrow. He looked at Gilbert and felt exasperated as well as disgusted at the various stains on his face and clothes.
Gilbert, noticing the look of anger on Ludwig's face took a look at his surroundings. 'I guess I kinda made a mess… oops' thought Gilbert, so he decided to backtrack a bit.
"Ah. You see West, I was just trying to do that cool trick when you throw stuff in the air and catch it ya know? Guess it didn't work too well," Gilbert chuckled, trying to ease the mood a little. If Ludwig was angry before, then Gilbert wouldn't know what this is.
"Cool trick? You destroy my living for a 'cool trick'? Why am I not surprised that you always make a mess of things? Look at yourself Gilbert; have you seen what you have become?" Ludwig's voice boomed, and if Gilbert was sheepish before, he was definitely ashamed now.
"You call yourself the Great Kingdom of Prussia, but what has that all come to? You're now nothing but a lazy mooch who stays home all day to eat and watch TV. Have you heard what the other nations say about you, how you have really fallen low?" Gilbert didn't know what to say, he knew he had let himself go a bit these few years but has it really been that bad?
"They say that you are a pathetic lump escaping you troubles, and that you're worse now than you were when you were an arrogant bastard! Do you know how that makes me feel? They feel sorry for me Gilbert, they pity me!" Ludwig finished his rant, eyes flashing with something looking like regret but Gilbert was too busy wishing the ground would open up to notice. Ludwig didn't know what to do after his outburst, he didn't mean some of the harsh words that he had said but the stress had been building up and he couldn't stand the way some of those ignorant people were talking about his brother so he had let off his steam. Unfortunately that just made his situation worse, so Ludwig opted to leave.
Gilbert looked up as the door slammed. 'Look who's the one escaping his troubles now' Gilbert childishly thought to himself. But he knew that some of what West said was right, he is rather pathetic no matter how well he tries to hide it behind his smirks and grins. So he decided to be more pathetic and went to get his ice-cream and crisps.
-Present Time-
Gilbert was happily settled on his sofa watching reruns of some lame show when the doorbell rang. Strange, West never forgets his keys, and even if he did he wouldn't ring the bell. Shrugging to himself Gilbert figured it was probably a delivery man and walked up still wearing his soiled clothes.
To his surprise, when Gilbert opened the door it was not a delivery man, instead it was an elegantly dressed nation with an unruly curl above his neat brown hair. His glasses did little to hide the mutual surprise in his eyes when he saw the silver-haired nation as opposed to the blonde one he was looking for.
"Excuse me Gilbert, is Ludwig here?" Roderich inquired. He noticed that Gilbert was wearing a dirty shirt and some pyjama bottoms. He also noticed that the normally boisterous ex-nation looked subdued and wondered what was wrong.
"No. He's gone out, probably be back later," Gilbert said with a sigh. 'How peculiar, he's normally much less civil when it comes to me, but today not even a nickname' Roderich mused to himself. Prussia must really be upset about something then, Austria decided.
"Ah, I see, I was just going to drop some files off since Ludwig left the meeting in a rush." Roderich replied. There was an awkward pause as he tried to think of something to say and Gilbert just stared at the ground seemingly frozen.
"Erm, Gilbert? Are you okay?" Gilbert looked up and attempted a smirk, but it looked and felt so strained so he just dropped it. Roderich noticed this and decided he should try and help Gilbert overcome this sudden sadness.
"I'm coming in, is that alright? I thought I might as well wait for Ludwig to come back…" Roderich paused and saw Gilbert's mood darkening after he mentioned Ludwig. Gilbert either didn't notice Roderich's pause or just didn't care, but moved aside to let the other man through. Roderich slightly raised a brow at the food on the ceiling but decided not to question Gilbert until later.
"Sorry for the mess, I guess that's just how I am," the uttering was so quiet Roderich nearly missed it if it wasn't near silent.
"Yeah that's what I am, a mess," Gilbert echoed his brother's words and tried to stay together in one piece. Roderich hovered by the chair Gilbert was sat on, unsure of what to do.
"Do they mock me Roddy? Is it true that the others think I'm pathetic?" Gilbert couldn't hold himself together anymore as a few tears rolled down his pale face. Roderich was quite shocked at the tears, but tried to comfort the ex-nation which he had grown close to despite the 'invasion of vital regions' fiasco. Roderich pulled out his handkerchief and delicately wiped Gilbert's face.
Gilbert was again surprised at Roderich, he had not known he would be caring and had expected him to flee at the first sign of tears.
"Gilbert, I do not think you're pathetic, the ones who say so are idiots and I'm sure they know that. Think about it, who else would go about proclaiming their awesomeness with a fluffy chick on their head? You are the only person with enough spunk to do that, and you shouldn't beat yourself up over stupid things like that." Roderich truthfully told Gilbert his opinion on the matter, he was right; the people calling Gilbert names are definitely pathetic. However, Gilbert was still not convinced.
"Roddy, I know you're trying to cheer me up, but like West said I just sit in his house and watch TV and eat, I don't do anything useful and I feel like a waste of space, I can't even brag about my good looks since I'm so fat!" Gilbert's voice rose until he was shouting at the end.
Roderich was upset that his friend thought he was fat, he was only marginally rounder than before and minus the muscle, but with some conditioning Roderich was sure that Gilbert could go back to his former glory.
"Gilbert, do you trust me?" Gilbert was taken aback by the abrupt change in conversation, but nodded his head regardless of how confused he was. Roderich had pulled up a chair next to his and was looking at his face and body with a strange look that made Gilbert feel like he was being examined.
"I'm not going to lie to you," Roderich started, "but you have let yourself go a bit and gotten chubbier," at this Gilbert looked crestfallen but before he could make any degrading comments about himself Roderich cut him off. "However, you are still the same Gilbert that I know and I'm sure our fellow friends would agree," Roderich was referring to the friends that Gilbert had neglected in favour of comforting himself with food. "I'm sure Francis and Antonio would be horrified to see you lose your unique attitude, so I'm proposing a change as of now." Roderich finished his speech and look at Gilbert, he was still confused but gestured for Roderich to continue.
"We need to build your self-confidence up, without that you're hardly awesome!" Gilbert smirked at Roderich's lame attempt at a joke, but this action itself caused Roderich to brighten up.
"I see the smirk is back already! Alright, now of course I wasn't expecting an immediate change but this is looking good." Roderich looked at him seriously before continuing.
"Look Gilbert, you don't have to do any of this if you don't want to, I'm only suggesting things that could make you the awesome self you were before, but please don't think I'm trying to change you, I just want you to be happy like you were before." Gilbert didn't think he'd ever heard Roderich so serious and full of emotion before. Looks like his friend really cared for him more than he thought.
"Of course Roddy, I know you're trying to help and cheer me up, and believe me when I say this is the best I've felt in ages. I've never really spent time with you guys since you were all busy with country stuff and since I'm…" Gilbert shook his negative thoughts out of his head and continued, "Yeah, I wanna get back to my awesome self so I can go claim some vital regions again!" Roderich rolled his eyes and continued with his plan of putting the awesome back into Prussia. He decided that Gilbert would still have a lot of clothes left from when he was skinny, so figured the first step would be for him to be skinny again, but who could physically train him…?
Roderich had an evil idea, and he had a gleam in his eyes that matched Elizaveta's when she spotted yaoi. Gilbert did not like the look in his eyes and raised a brow in question.
"Gilbert, I am aware that you want to regain your former body, and in order to do that you need someone to train you," Roderich couldn't help himself from smirking; Gilbert was going to love this! "I propose that your brother Ludwig could train you, much like he trained Feliciano and Kiku in WWII, and I'm sure Ludwig won't mind, in fact I'm sure he'll love the brotherly bonding," Roderich finished with a smug grin. Gilbert looked horrified at the unfairness of the situation, his baby brother train him? But Gilbert remembered, he and West weren't exactly on good terms right now, and he didn't even know if West would agree to such a plan, and he voiced his thoughts to Roderich.
"Hmm, that could be a problem; well I guess I could always ask Elizaveta, I'm sure she won't mind," Roderich still had a gleam in his eye. 'This plan would work well, two birds one stone', he thought to himself. After all, he knew that Ludwig was always concerned about Gilbert, it just seems that recent stress and the whispers of other nations caused Ludwig to snap at Gilbert, and Roderich also knew that both Ludwig and Elizaveta cared enough to find time for Gilbert's self-recovery journey, and Roderich also knew that Gilbert would definitely choose Ludwig over Elizaveta, therefore killing two birds with one stone by helping Gilbert become fitter and healthier whilst also building a stronger bond with his brother.
'Damn I'm smart, and nobody notices how observant I am just because I wear glasses,' Roderich hmphed to himself, feeling smart and smug.
"Damn Roderich! I don't wanna train with Elizaveta! Fine, I'll talk to West," Gilbert grumbled, he guessed that his brother wasn't that bad, he just needed to make up with him and tell him he wants to become awesome again, 'now won't that be hard?' Gilbert sarcastically thought to himself.
"Alright Gilbert, I'll drop by later this week to see how you're doing, but I think I should go now," Roderich dropped off Ludwig's files from earlier and made his way home, leaving Gilbert to wonder how to clean the mess up and have a chat with West.
-A Few Hours Later-
Ludwig returned from his trip to the pub ready to explain himself and apologize to Gilbert. Imagine his surprise when he saw his living room clean as a new pin, well, as clean as Gilbert could get it within the few hours he had. He saw Gilbert on the sofa, looking pleased with himself whilst fluffing Gilbird's feathers.
"Hey West, you're back! Took your slow ass long enough, I've tidied your living room, kesese~" Gilbert chimed, and Gilbird chirped along too seeing his master so happy again.
Ludwig looked confused and thought this was some weird punishment for his outburst earlier, but Gilbert quickly explained his reasons, and what he wanted Ludwig to help him with.
By the end of their chat both brothers were feeling infinitely better about themselves and each other and they both wanted Gilbert to be back to his awesome self, and for Ludwig to stop worrying about him constantly.
To put it short, it was the start of a fantastic series of events in which Gilbert and Ludwig understood each other better, and Gilbert rekindled his neglected friendships, to find that his friends were waiting for him all along.