This is a headcanon AU that Katherine came up with. Our favorite ship for Prussia is Monaco. In this AU they aren't countries, they're humans. Monaco's name is Natalie Rose LeMar. The Jason character in this story is Australia. Hope you enjoy this rare pair depressing break-up! (And if anyone would like to know, YES Natalie and Gilbert DO end up back together in the end).
"Lilies please, they're her favorite," Gilbert grinned from ear to ear as the florist arranged the bouquet of flowers. It had been a few months since he last saw his girlfriend Natalie. As he worked on his high school senior year for the fourth year in a row, Natalie had been working hard on her first year of college. He couldn't wait to stroll into Pizza Palace and see her smiling face when he shows up with lilies. He handed the florist his money in exchange for the beautiful bouquet. He jogged down the block until he reached the outside of the pizzeria. He let out a few short breaths onto his hand to check the smell, and ran a hand through his hair before opening the door.
When he walked into the restaurant, his smile grew as he saw Natalie sitting at their favorite booth. He started to skip over, when his grin suddenly fell. She was sitting awfully close with a guy that he didn't recognize. Is this one of her friends from class? Or a cousin that she wants to introduce me to? He tried not to jump to ridiculous conclusions like people do in the movies.
As soon as Natalie's eyes locked with Gilbert, her perfect smile instantly appeared on her face, the one he loved so much. When he reached the table, she got up and threw her arms around him in a hug. Gilbert let out a sigh of relief, thanking himself for not overreacting about this guy. After a long standing hug, they both sat across from the from each other, while the mystery guy held a somewhat unsettling smirk on his face.
"Oh Gil I've missed you so much!" she nearly giggled and reached out for his hand on the tabletop and squeezed it.
"I missed you too. I got you these," he added, and pulled out the bouquet from behind his back.
For some reason, Natalie's smile faltered a bit as she reached out for the flowers. "Thank you, they're beautiful."
"I have someone to introduce you to..." Natalie started and bit her bottom lip in what looked like a mix of shame and fear.
Gil put out his hand toward the guy before she could continue. "Hey, I'm Gil!"
"Jason," he nodded with a smile back.
"One of Natalie's friends from school, huh?" Gilbert broke the handshake and then looked over to Natalie for reassurance.
Jason let out a small laugh and looked over to Nat. "Not exactly."
Gilbert raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Okay... classmate? Cousin? Teacher?!"
He continued throwing out guesses until Natalie raised her a voice a bit to stop him.
"No! Gil... this is my... boyfriend."
It seemed as though a thousand emotions swept across Gilbert's face as what she said started to settle in. "Boyfriend?" he asked with a bit of anger, which subsided into sadness, and then his positive attitude reverted back again.
"Yeah. I mean, we talked about having a break while I was in away at college, remember?" she started cautiously.
"I remember that talk... but I didn't think either of us would follow through with it," Gil pursed his lips in frustration as he took a quick glance at Jason, who's smug look never seemed to disappear.
"Oh come on Gilbert, you can't tell me that you haven't been dating while I've been gone," she laughed off in nervousness.
"Yeah I can tell you that actually," he gritted his teeth. "I've been waiting for you. What about all of the times we've slept together on those school vacations you had? How long have you been dating this guy?" he motioned to Jason without actually looking at him.
Natalie's eyes grew wide at the mention of their sex-life in public, and in front of her new college boyfriend. Gilbert could care less at the moment though, and waited for her reply. "We've been dating for about two months now," she confessed.
"Two months?!" he shouted in outrage. He could tell that the entire restaurant staff and customers were staring at him in shock, but he didn't give a fuck.
"Well yeah... I've been meaning to tell you. The right time just hasn't come up yet!" she defended herself, and he watched Natalie's hand grab onto Jason's arm for support.
"It hasn't come up yet? I've been missing you, and loving you, and wishing you'd come home for the last two months, only to find out that you've been dating this... this... smart college douche-bag during that time!"
"Hey! Jason is a good guy! He's really smart, and we have a lot more in common than you and me! That's for sure," she snided, knowing immediately that she had made a mistake by saying that.
"Oh, so I'm just too fucking dumb for you now. Okay, I get it. Sorry Miss. Smarty-Pants that I had to repeat my senior year four fucking times, while you got to go on to college and meet this genius," he remarked sarcastically.
"No Gil, you know that's not what I meant, I–"
"That's exactly what you meant. I'm done here," he stated coldly. "You can keep the flowers to put up in your happy dorm house together." He stormed toward the door when he heard the most hurtful sentance from behind him.
"Jason, I'm gonna go after him. I'll be back in a bit, I love you," Natalie said.
Gilbert felt like his heart stopped, and his body could no longer function. She loves him, he thought to himself. She's been with him for two fucking months, and she loves him.
He regained his strength back and headed out the door, hoping to make his strides long enough that she couldn't keep up. He heard footsteps running behind him that he knew to be Natalie, but he didn't look back.
"Gil, wait!" she yelled to him, but he didn't change his pace as he arrived to an empty parking lot outside of a department store. He saw his parked car in the distance, and he tried to get there as fast as possible without actually running.
"Leave me alone Nat! You've made your decision, so stop following me," he yelled back.
"No Gilbert you don't understand!" she cried and he could hear a quiver in her tone.
Gilbert stopped short, and spun around on his heel as she finally caught up to him. "Oh I don't understand? Is it because I'm too stupid? Because all I fucking understand, is that you have been dating another guy behind my back, and basically cheating on me for two months. While I waited for you day and night at home, thinking about you, and wondering if you were thinking about me too."
"I do think about you Gil, every day," she said, obviously trying to fight back tears.
"No, Natalie. If that were true you would have thought, 'Oh hey, maybe I should let my boyfriend of four years back home know, that I'm sleeping with another guy.'"
"It's not like that, it's–" she stopped, unable to come up with another excuse.
"That's exactly what it's like. And... you want to know what the worst fucking part is?" he fought back his own angry tears as they threatened to leak onto his cheeks. "I heard you say that you love him," he said, and she could tell exactly where this conversation was going as her expression faltered. "You have been together for two months, and you love him. But we were together for four years, during which, I would tell you that I love you nearly every single day, while you kept telling me that you didn't know if love existed, or you just thought we were two young, or whatever other excuse you could come up with. I told you I'd wait for you, but apparently you never actually did love me, because it seems pretty damn easy for you to tell him!" he shouted, unable to stop himself from ranting. "Look at my arm Natalie. These roses are literally on my body because of you, and your middle name, Rose. I did this tattoo, hoping to prove that I love you, but apparently Jason did something intelligent to get you to love him. Because in four years, I couldn't figure it out."
Natalie looked down at the pavement, unable to actually look him in the eye. "Can't we still be friends?" she whispered to the ground.
"Friends?" He repeated louder. "Well since you never actually loved me, isn't it safe to say that our entire relationship we were just fucking friends? Friends with benefits since I took your virginity!" he screamed, knowing he was going too far this time. He just felt like a train without brakes, and he couldn't stop himself from crashing.
Suddenly Natalie's sadness turned to anger as well. "What the fuck is your problem? Why are you so obsessed with me?!" she shouted, attempting to get in his face, even though she was much shorter than him.
"Obsessed with you?" he asked in a darker tone.
"Yes!" she yelled, still coming on strong with rage.
Gilbert wasn't sure what he was doing but he went through the motions of grabbing her cheeks in his hands and pulling her into a hard, and almost angry kiss that took every ounce of strength he had left at the moment. Natalie didn't break away, but she couldn't exactly do so anyway with Gilbert's force. Their lips moved together for a moment, her confidence in the argument started to drain and he finally let her go from the hold and rested his hands on her shoulders. "Maybe I am obsessed with you," he breathed and stared directly into her eyes for a long moment.
Natalie seemed to be speechless, as she kept opening her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. After a moment of silence, Gilbert felt a flaming hot streak across his cheek when her hand reached up to smack him across the face.
His anger was still subsided as he reached up to touch his cool fingers to the heat of his rash. He watched as Natalie stomped away in frustration, back toward Pizza Palace. Gilbert blinked a couple of times before turning toward his car. There were so many thoughts swimming around in his head, but fury wasn't an emotion he had anymore. It was just a numb feeling as he opened the door to his car and got in the driver's seat. He bent down and rested his forehead on the steering wheel. He knew his other emotions would come back in the near future, so he decided to take his moment of nothingness to just rest his head.