The hallway was empty except for a few pieces of paper that had been stepped on so many times that you could no longer read them. Gilbert strutted through the empty hallways, eyeing the clock as the second hand slowly moved. He grinned as he realized he had enough time to pull everything off.

He had everything planned down to the second that he was going put his plan into action. He even left class a few seconds early to make sure he had enough time. And what was he going to do that was so important you ask? He was planning on asking out his best-friend Elizabeta. Gilbert frowned at that thought. Were they still best friends? They still talked and everything, but they didn't hang out as much as they used to.

He decided that it didn't matter and continued walking down the hallway, and started to whistle. He started reviewing the plan in his head to make sure he remembered every little detail. First he was going to catch her at her locker just before she left to go home. After exchanging mild pleasantries he would cut to the chase and ask if she wanted to see a movie with him this weekend. If she asked if it was a date, he would give her a smile and say of course it was. And if she said no-Gilbert halted at that thought. What would he do if that was the response? He then decided there was no way she would say no to someone as awesome as him and continued walking.

The bell rang and kids poured out into the hallway and volume suddenly increased. Gilbert sidestepped the mob and continued walking smoothly towards Elizabeta's locker.

Her locker was in sight, but what awaited him made him groan. Roderich was standing right there with Elizabeta, chatting away. The very sight of him made Gilbert feel the rage boil inside him. Gilbert hid himself in the crowd and opened up a random locker to hide behind. He didn't mean to eavesdrop, but curiosity got the better of him. They were also having a conversation in a crowded hallway, so it's not like they didn't want to be heard.

At first Gilbert couldn't hear anything since the hallway was too loud. Eventually the noise level dropped and he was able to catch what Elizabeta was saying.

"I was wondering if we could walk home together. I have something important to tell you," she said.

"Don't you normally walk home with Gilbert? I don't think he will like it if I take his place," said Roderich.

"Please Roderich? I really need to tell you something."

"Alright."

Gilbert peaked around the edge and saw Elizabeta shuffling her feet and blushing. At that he felt his stomach drop. Elizabeta never got embarrassed over anything. To Gilbert there could be only reason why she suddenly got shy, and that was that she was planning on asking Roderich out when they walked back from school.

Gilbert didn't listen to the rest of the conversation and just shuffled away to his locker. He didn't even bother lifting his head as he walked, his heart just hear too damn much. Eventually he found himself at his locker and mechanically opened and started putting stuff in his bag. He barely even noticed it when Elizabeta walked up beside him.

"I'm going to walk home with Roderich today. I hope that's ok."

Gilbert mumbled something about it being perfectly fine and continued stuffing books in his bag.

"Um…we don't have any math homework today."

Gilbert looked in his hand and noticed that he was holding his math textbook. He just said oh and put it back in his locker.

Elizabeta grew concerned and asked, "Are you alright? You seem kind out of it."

"I'm just tired is all." A complete lie, but he wasn't going to tell her that he felt like garbage because she had just broken his heart. Elizabeta looked like she was going to say something, but just patted him on the back.

"Go to bed early today." She turned and gave him a wave which he half-heartily returned. He looked at his bag and decided that even if he did have homework, he wasn't going to do any of it tonight. He tossed his book bag in the locker and started walking home, a different route than what Elizabeta and Roderich would take.

He hadn't been walking long before it started to rain. Gilbert saw the rain as a stroke of luck, as it covered up the tears that he no longer could keep back.

Elizabeta slowly walked away and looked over her shoulder to see Gilbert in a dazed state. She bit her lower lip and was tempted to ask what the real problem was, but she couldn't leave Roderich waiting too long. He would get impatient and leave without her, and it was really important that she talked to him.

So she continued walking down the now empty hallway and headed towards the front doors where Roderich would be waiting for her. Elizabeta sighed with relief when seeing he was still standing there.

Roderich seemed to be out in his own world, his fingers moving while he stared out into the distance. Elizabeta knew him long enough to know that he was practicing one of the many compositions that he had memorized. She had to tap him on the shoulder so he would acknowledge her presence.

"Sorry. Are you ready to go," he asked.

Elizabeta nodded. Roderich opened up the door and let Elizabeta go ahead of him. They started walking down the stairs when Roderich asked what Elizabeta wanted to talk about.

"How about we wait till we're farther from the school? I don't want anyone eavesdropping on our conversation."

Roderich nodded and would have said more, but he got distracted by something. Elizabeta followed his line of sight and one of their fellow classmates. She peeked a look at Roderich's face and could only describe it as a face of longing. It seemed as her suspicions were correct.

They had started the path home, but there was someone from one of their classes in front of them. Still not wanting to take the chance of being over heard, she decided to wait. All of a sudden she felt a drop on her nose. She looked up and saw the dark overcast. The trees above them were blocking most of the rain, but it wouldn't be long before the trees would be useless. She cursed as she had forgotten her umbrella at home today.

Roderich pulled an umbrella out of his bag and opened it. "We can share my umbrella since you forgot yours." Elizabeta thanked him and moved closer to him.

Sure enough it started to pour, and the sound of the rain covered up most of the noise. Elizabeta saw this as a great opportunity to finally talk about her plan.

"So I realized lately both of our love lives suck," she said.

Roderich raised an eyebrow and slightly turned his head. "Care to explain?"

"Well we both like someone, and circumstances are keeping us apart from them."

Roderich blushed. "I don't like anyone!"

"Bullshit. I see the way you stare at Vash all the time."

Roderich attempted to disagree, but a quick glare from Elizabeta made him submit. "Alright I'll admit I like Vash, but before you play matchmaker our situation isn't exactly that simple."

"That's what I'm talking about. I can help you get Vash, while you help me with dating who I like."

"Which is whom?"

"Gilbert," she said with a slight blush on her cheeks. "And before you say anything, you don't know him like I do. And if you still feel like saying anything I will take this umbrella and run away with it."

Roderich mumbled an ok and kept his thoughts of hatred towards the Prussian to himself. "I still don't see how we can help each other."

"Well first we can listen to each other's situations and come up with solutions."

"Alright. First answer me this. Why me?"

Elizabeta sighed. "You're the only one I trust that will keep my crush on Gilbert a secret from him until the right time. All my other friends would either tell him, or tell his friends which is practically the same thing." Elizabeta smiled at him. "Don't worry I'll keep your crush a secret as well."

Roderich mumbled a thanks and on a whim, decided to go along with Elizabeta's plan. There was no way she could help him, but he might be able to help her. True he hated Gilbert with a passion, but Elizabeta was his friend so he would help her out. "I guess I'll explain my situation first." Roderich took a deep breath before continuing. He had all rights to be nervous since he never told anybody this before. "When we were little we used to best friends. Then I did something completely unforgivable and we haven't talked since. Your turn."

"That doesn't give me much to go off of," she said.

Roderich shrugged. "I really don't feel comfortable talking about it. I never told anyone about this before."

Elizabeta huffed and decided to press him for information later. "For starters we were a lot closer when we were younger. I know certain events transpired that separated us, but I feel like we exchange pleasantries at most now. I also think that my presence annoys him."

Roderich rolled his eyes at that. Elizabeta whacked him and said, "It's true!"

"Then care to explain how the guy who once sent me a death threat because I was spending a bunch of time with you dislikes your presence now," he replied.

"Well one day I wore a new dress that I thought looked really good on me. At first he didn't say anything, and when I asked him about it he said I looked great, but I could tell he was unhappy."

"And because of that you think the guy doesn't like you," Roderich said with disbelief.

"It's not just that. Lately he's been avoiding my gaze and spending less time with me. I've barely even seen him this past week."

"I'm sure you're just misreading everything."

"Are you sure? Because I don't know what I would do if Gilbert hated me." Elizabeta halted and felt the tears starting to well up. She tried closing her eyes to stop them, but she only caused them to fall down her cheeks. Roderich pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to her. Elizabeta gratefully took it and wiped her eyes.

"He doesn't hate you. I'm sure something was on his mind this week, so that's why he might have ignored you."

Elizabeta still had her doubts but she nodded anyways. "Well now that we heard each other's stories I guess we can start coming up with ways to solve our issues."

"I guess we can." But despite these words Roderich had anything but hope left in him.

They resumed walking but nothing else was said between them. They were too wrapped up in their own thoughts. They eventually came to Elizabeta's house when the silence was broken.

"Don't worry. I'll find a way for you to get together Vash." She gave his arm a reassuring squeeze and disappeared into her house.

Roderich slowly started walking to his house, and felt a tiny bit of hope in him. He knew Elizabeta would try her hardest to do what it was that she needed. Maybe, just maybe, he could be together with Vash like he always wanted.

Gilbert shuffled in his house, and let the door close behind him. He watched as water dripped from his hair and clothes onto the floor. Normally this would bother him and he would have cleaned up the mess right away. But right now he didn't have the energy to do anything. He didn't even feel like moving.

"Dry yourself off before you make a bigger mess." Gilbert felt a towel land on his head and looked up to see his brother Ludwig. He numbly took the towel and started to dry off his hair.

"You look like shit. What the hell happened to you." Blunt and straight to the point. Just like his brother. He opened his mouth and was about to explain his heartache, when another voice talked first.

"You can't say that! You have to be gentle about it."

Gilbert looked up and saw Feliciano standing there with his arms around Ludwig. The sight of them caused his heart to hurt even more. It wasn't fair that his brother got to be with someone and he didn't.

He gritted his teeth and walked up stairs to his bedroom, leaving puddles of water on the way. His brother yelled something at him, but he ignored it. He flopped down on his bed and groaned. He stayed motionless for a while, until he started shivering. Not wanting to chance a cold, he took of his wet clothes and reflexively folded them.

He tossed these in the hamper and pulled pjs out of his dresser. The only thing that he wanted to do was just sleep. He put them on and slinked over to his bed. He buried himself under the covers and hoped that when he woke up his heart would hurt less.

"Big brother, can you help me with my homework?"

Vash turned to his little sister, Lily, who held up her math book. He glanced at his watch and saw that he had a little time before he had to work. "Of course I will," he replied.

They sat down at the table and Vash tried to explain how to solve a math problem that Lily was stuck on. In the midst of this their drunken adoptive father walked into the dining room.

Vash glanced up and his eyes hardened as he tried to hide his disgust. The man probably started drinking the second he woke up. He moved closer to Lily in case he needed to protect her. He hadn't hurt either of them yet, but he wasn't taking any chances.

"Why are you here," the man slurred.

"I was just about to leave for work," Vash said. He was required to work part time if he wanted Lily to have food to eat. Greg, his adoptive father, paid the bills and such, but wouldn't pay for any necessities. He wasted all of his money on booze any ways. So he was required to take any work that he could as soon as Greg adopted them. Of course the man got money from "taking care of them" but he wasted that all on booze as well.

He got up and turned to Lily. "You remember what to do," he asked.

Lily nodded her head. Since he couldn't take Lily with him to his new job, he had her lock herself in her room just in case Greg decided to beat her. The man didn't have a past, but there was a couple of times Vash felt like Greg would try to beat the shit out of him. He wanted to leave this house so bad, but the adoption center wouldn't allow them since Greg hadn't actually done anything yet. They just put his suspicions down as him being over protective of his sister. Which he was, but he had to be because she was in real danger.

Vash grabbed his bag and walked out of the room, taking the longest path away from Greg. Once he walked out of the house he glanced around and started walking quickly towards his work place. The neighborhood they lived in wasn't the nicest, and while he could take care of himself he didn't want to take any chances.

He was halfway to his work place when his phone vibrated. He frantically took it out of his pocket, expecting a message from Lily. Seeing that it wasn't he sighed with relief, but he was slightly confused. The only reason he got a phone was in case Lily needed to contact him so no one else should have his number.

He looked at the text and it read:

Hi! My name is Elizabeta and if you're wondering how I got your number, your sister gave it to me. There is something very important that I want to discuss with you. How about we meet up somewhere during lunch time? Text me the place you want to meet at.

The message baffled him, but he decided that he would respond to it tomorrow. He had to ask Lily who Elizabeta was and if she had any idea what she wanted.

I've been meaning to write this fanfic for a while. Tell me what you think!