Gilbert was your average guy. Went to high school and college, got a job, and lived. He could be quite a trouble maker, especially with his friends Francis and Antonio. His life was normal, his days were fine, he had friends. But he wasn't happy. He could remember the root of his unhappiness, it was a subject he didn't want to dwell on but none the less he found himself thinking about it. The wedding.
"Gilbert!" Eliza called as she ran over toward him. Gilbert's face immediately brightened as she ran up.
"Hey Eliz-" Gilbert started but Eliza cut him off.
"I have wonderful news!" Eliza gushed, "Roderich proposed last night!" Gilbert's smile faded slightly.
"Oh," He said, "I didn't realize you guys were that serious."
"Is something wrong Gilbert? I know you and Roderich don't get along that well, but-"
"No, no that's awesome news; I hope the two of you will be very happy together." Gilbert said, but his heart wasn't in it. Eliza never even noticed how his smile didn't touch his eyes.
Every day since then, Gilbert had just been going through the motions. He had gone to the wedding, of course. He had controlled himself. He allowed himself one last dance with Eliza. He sometimes stopped by their household but it sickened him to see the girl who was once so fierce and independent changed into someone feminine and dependent. She was happy though, and that was the only thing that kept him sane.
"Mon ami!" Francis called to Gilbert across the cafe. Gilbert chuckled as his friend sauntered up. "It's been so long!"
"It's been 2 weeks Francis," Gilbert corrected, "That's not that long."
"But mon ami! I used to see you every single day! Now seeing you only sometimes fills my heart with an overflow of emotion!" Francis exclaimed dramatically while sliding into the booth.
"I know you're upset about the lack of my awesome presence, but that doesn't mean you have to act so melodramatic," Gilbert smirked.
"Melodramatic! Such an insult to my fine acting skills!" Francis exclaimed, but he mirrored Gilbert's smirk.
Gilbert smiled and extended his hand across the table, this caused the Frenchman to smile and shake his hand.
"I see you still remember some of the French customs," Francis grinned.
"Yep! I'm a smart Prussian!" Gilbert exclaimed.
"Well you know we are good friends, technically we should faire la bise!" Francis complained.
"Look I don't care what you call it, it's kissing and it's weird," Gilbert responded. Francis pouted. They went silent for a few seconds, before Francis decided to bring up 'that' topic.
"So have you had any hot dates recently?" Francis asked. Gilbert sighed.
"You know I'm not really into the whole dating scene anymore," Gilbert answered harshly.
"I just wondered mon ami! I just want you to be happy, you've been so sad and you're like un frere to me, a… bruder," Francis defended, his tongue tripping over the strange German word.
"Francis, you're like my bruder too. But it's too soon." Gilbert explained.
"Gilbert, it's been 6 years since the wedding. It's time you moved on!" Francis exclaimed.
"I'm not ready to just move on," Gilbert replied.
"Non! I will not stand for this!" Francis yelled slamming his hands down on the table, making Gilbert jump. "I have let you grieve long enough! You'll never get over her unless you try."
"But Francis-"
"Oui, I know you loved her but you're drained of life these days! Don't let love kill you, embrace it and then let it go!" Francis told him.
"Francis… I still love her," Gilbert said softly.
"Then why haven't you told her." Francis asked gently.
"I just want her to be happy." Gilbert answered firmly.
"I just want you to be happy." Francis countered.
"I get the feeling you have something planned," Gilbert stated.
"Well of course!" Francis smirked.
Gilbert stared down at the paper in his hand, Francis' careful, delicate handwriting swirled around his paper laying out the details of a date Francis had planned for him.
Gilbert sighed he didn't really want to be on this date, but he also didn't want to be alone with his thoughts. He looked around looking for the girl that was described on the paper. He eyed a smallish pretty girl with long blond hair pulled up into pigtails and red hair clips keeping her hair out of her eyes. Francis' notes said the girls name was Maddie Williams.
"Er Hello, my name is Gilbert Beilschmidt, and you must be Maddie?"
"Oh um, yes!" She said quietly. "Are you who I'm here to go to the movies with? A man, Francis, told me it would be either him or someone else. Oh but I don't mean to pry! I'm terribly sorry!" She bowed slightly in apology. She was cute; Gilbert admitted to himself, Francis was still very good at playing matchmaker, maybe too good. Gilbert sighed, he could fall in love with this girl, they could be each other's everything, but there was one problem. She wasn't Elizaveta Héderváry. She was Maddie Williams.
"I'm the one who should apologize," Gilbert admitted to her, "I'm not really looking for a relationship, although Francis thinks otherwise." To his surprise she looked up at him and smiled.
"Really? I didn't really want to come on this date either to tell you the truth. I've got my eyes on someone else," She bit her lip for a minute before continuing, "Francis told me you love a married woman. Is that true?"
"Um, well yeah. Of course when you put it that way it sounds a little creepy," Gilbert told her. She smiled gently.
"It's not too creepy; after all, I'm in love with a man who will never settle down, so I understand," She told him quietly.
"Well, I'm not doing anything else tonight; do you maybe want to go eat somewhere?" Gilbert asked.
"I'd like that," she said smiling, "We may not be looking for a relationship but we could be friends."
"That would be pretty awesome," Gilbert told her.
"So tell me about this Elizaveta? Why do you love her? What's your story?" Maddie asked. The two were sitting in a fairly nice restaurant talking over dinner.
"Well, she's gorgeous; however, she never used to show that side of her, she was adventuresome, daring, independent, and she was mine. We were best friends for years we didn't need anyone but each other. Then we went to high school, and she became friends with a guy named Kiku but they were just friends, I became friends with Francis and this other guy named Antonio, things were awesome! Then came the new kid Roderich. He was super smart, super fancy, and super good at music. He was pretty cool at first but then I started to notice Eliza giving him adoring glances across the room and him gazing at her when she wasn't looking. And before I knew it, they were dating." Gilbert chuckled slightly, "They both loved each other, even an idiot like myself could see that. So I never told her how much I love her, because she was happy and I didn't want to ruin that." He smiled sadly.
"Awwww that's so sweet." Maddie cooed. "Uh well, I mean, it sucks that you didn't end up together but still!" This made Gilbert chuckle.
"Well enough about my sob story, let's hear yours! Who's this mystery guy you love?"
"Oh um well I'd be way too embarrassed to talk about him," Maddie said blushing.
"Don't worry about it you don't have to tell me." Gilbert told her. She giggled hesitantly and then worked on finishing her meal, Gilbert followed suit and they finished their meals in a comfortable silence.
"Hey Gilbert?" Maddie asked as she put down her fork.
"Yeah?" He answered.
"If you had a way to go back to high school and change your timeline so that you could have a chance with Eliza, would you do it?" She asked hesitantly.
"Well, yeah. Of course I would," He answered, "But that's impossible." He brought his fork up to his mouth to take one last bite of his food.
"Well actually, it's not." He dropped his fork. "I know someone who could make it possible." The fork clattered to the floor.
"Maddie Williams! How many times must I tell you?! You can't tell just anyone about my powers! You're going to bring back the witch hunting days!" An angry looking blond British man yelled.
"I'm sorry Arthur but I wanted to help him, and I knew you could!" He brushed past Maddie and yanked a hair out of Gilbert's head.
"Ow hey! What the heck?" Gilbert complained.
"Oh hush up! It's for the potion," Arthur told him whizzing past them again to grab some 'eye of newt'. After he dumped that into his big black cauldron he finally stopped rushing around and stared closely at Gilbert.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Arthur questioned, "You don't want to wait and see what else this timeline has to offer?"
"I know what this timeline has to offer, misery and despair for the rest of my life." He replied flatly finally admitting that to himself.
"Alright then step into the circle," He said gesturing toward a weird circle with a strange design drawn onto the floor. Arthur ran to each of the candles surrounding the circle and filled the bowls under each of them with potion and lit them.
"Alright. Before I do this, Gilbert, you should know my name is Arthur Kirkland and I've lived in this house all my life. Now I hope you're ready," Arthur spoke some weird ancient words mixed with the names of some famous people and the circle started to glow. Maddie watched quietly from the sides watching her friend be engulfed in white light and then Gilbert was gone.
A/N:
This idea has been floating around my head and my ipod for probably 3 months now, but once I became super busy I lost creativity for it. Now that creativity is back and I'm really excited to be writing it. This is one of those stories that I know exactly what's going to happen at the end but the middle is a mystery, so it should be rather fun to write ;)
Thanks to the lovely BlossomingLuck for Beta reading this chapter, it was much appreciated.
For those that follow me, no this has nothing to do with my previous story, I will hopefully update that soon.
Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia.
No flames please! Do not repost this anywhere, plagiarism is wrong.
Human names guide-
Gilbert- Prussia
Elizaveta- Hungary
Roderich- Austria
Francis- France
Maddie- fem!Canada [Yes I know a lot of people dislike the fem!countries, but it was necessary that I put her in here]
Arthur- Britain