My Rarepair Secret Santa gift for ayaoianimegirl! They asked for South Italy/Prussia and either a Hurt/Comfort, Fluff or Sick fic, so naturally it became incredibly domestic fluff. I hope you'll enjoy! :D
"Gilbert?" Lovino called loudly, stomping down the stairs of the basement as he squinted at the newspaper. "Have you seen my—" He paused. "What are you doing?"
Gilbert, covered in a layer of dust, was digging through the moving boxes they still hadn't bothered to empty. He glanced up at Lovino shortly before moving boxes again. "I'm looking for the Christmas decorations. Have I seen what?"
"My reading glasses." Lovino frowned. "The Christmas decorations are in the attic." He frowned more. "Gilbert, it's barely November. We're not putting up Christmas anything before December."
Gilbert flicked his wrist in a dismissive wave, and Lovino took a moment to appreciate his behind before rolling up his newspaper and slapping it. Gilbert jolted, hit his head against the shelve and toppled two boxes labelled Easter shit and great-nan's tacky crap. The awful noise of porcelain breaking echoed through their large basement, and they both winced as they remembered that Gilbert's great-nan's tacky crap consisted of tableware.
Lovino sighed, touching his forehead briefly as he tossed the newspaper on a rickety coffee table and helped Gilbert right the other precariously stacked boxes. Then they opened the box, now a tacky collection of shards and potential murder weapons, and decided it wasn't worth sorting through; Gilbert had hated it anyway.
Gilbert lifted the box up the stairs and briefly went outside to throw it in the dumpster, returning to find Lovino moving magazines, books and decorations in search of his glasses.
"How you manage to lose them once a week, at least, is beyond me," Gilbert said, lifting the pillows.
Lovino grunted from his position on the floor, feeling blindly underneath the cabinet. With a defeated sigh, Lovino slumped and pressed his face against the rug, running a hand through his hair in frustration.
Gilbert was about to climb the stairs to scour the bedroom and the study when he noticed the red-rimmed devils lying in the windowsill beside whatever succulent Lovino liked to place around the house.
After snatching the glasses, Gilbert dropped down next to Lovino on the rug. He placed them in Lovino's hair and said, "We should get you some of those old people glasses chains so you can wear it around your neck and save us from Missing Glasses Limbo."
"Ugh, please spare me," Lovino muttered and glanced up at Gilbert. "Why were you looking for Christmas shit in the basement?"
Gilbert waggled his eyebrows, resting his hand on Lovino's lower back. "It's the special Christmas shit."
"Do I want to know what that means?"
"It means all the crud I bought over the years on the Christmas markets back home. I had Ludwig ship it this way because we now actually have the space to do weird Christmas shit." Gilbert pursed his lips. "It should be in the basement."
"If that's you asking whether I threw anything out, then the answer is no," Lovino said, sitting up and taking off his glasses, sliding them in his breast pocket. Apparently, he was allowed to do so, but when Gilbert put pens in his, he was being old-fashioned and tasteless.
Gilbert hummed absently, frowning at nothing in particular until Lovino cupped his cheek and kissed him shortly.
"I'll help you look," Lovino said, patting Gilbert's thigh. "After lunch, that is."
Lunch was spent discussing what, exactly, they were going to do for Christmas. Both their families were in their respective countries, the two of them having met during university, both exchange students, both less than excited to be assigned roommates. A rocky start had slowly evolved in a friendship lodged in a mutual agreement that if Americans thought Europeans were weird, Americans had to be insane. They hadn't started dating until the last half-year of university and had both decided to stay in the USA after Lovino had been offered the opportunity to paint for a very up-end gallery and Gilbert had somehow managed to land a job at an IT firm that allowed him very lenient hours as long as he did as asked.
"My family did invite us, you know," Gilbert said. "They want to meet you face to face."
"Gilbert, no offence, but if we're going to Germany, I would at least like to be more proficient in the language beyond 'Gutentag, ich spreche kein Deutsch.' I'd feel bad forcing your entire extended family to speak English."
Gilbert laughed, reaching across the table to touch Lovino's cheek fondly. "That's fair. I need to work on my Italian, too."
"Definitely. My family sure as hell doesn't speak English." Lovino paused, pursed his lips. "Grandma is going to raise hell. I haven't gone back to Italy for three years."
"Let's save up for summer then." Gilbert leaned back in his chair, grinning at Lovino's confusion. "We'll go to Italy in summer and to Germany for Christmas. Next year."
"Should we really spend our savings on that?" Not that they were strapped for cash or anything, but they weren't rolling in it either. There wasn't that much room for frivolous spending, even if they both made fairly good wages.
"My old man's," Gilbert replied with a grin. "He offered to pay half. To Germany, that is. We'll have to figure something out for Italy."
Lovino smiled and took his hand. "I could probably wheedle a little from my grandparents as well, especially if grandma wants me there so badly."
"See! We'll have a reprieve from this mad country soon enough."
Lovino snorted as he stood to collect the dishes. Gilbert kissed his cheek and said he was returning to the basement and Lovino promised to search the attic after he was done cleaning up.
It wasn't until it was almost time for Gilbert to begin dinner that Lovino came down to fetch him, taking him upstairs to the second guest bedroom.
"I honestly don't know how it got there," Lovino said from behind Gilbert as he inspected the box. There were dust bunnies in his hair, leftover from rummaging around the attic, and Gilbert deliberately didn't tell him about them so he could brush them out later.
But first he focused on the box, taped shut despite clearly being too full to close normally. He peeled at the tape until Lovino left to get a box cutter from the study and Gilbert breathed a sigh of relief to find everything still in order. Lovino raised his eyebrows as Gilbert closed the box again, for as much as it could, leaving it be for now in favour of catching Lovino's waist. Lovino slowly brushed his hand up Gilbert's arm and tilted his head as Gilbert leaned in for a kiss.
"You're gonna love them," Gilbert said against his lips, grinning as Lovino pinched him, and kissed him again.
"Somehow that worries me." Yet Lovino was smiling, pressing one last soft kiss to Gilbert's lips before stepping back. "I don't want to see them before December, Gilbert."
"You won't!" Gilbert chirped and laughed when Lovino gave him one last look before going back downstairs, leaving Gilbert to figure out how exactly he could decorate the whole house during the night of thirty November without Lovino noticing.
For now he decided to simply stuff the box back into the closet, scrunching his nose at the dust. They hadn't had much use for the guest bedrooms and they had both been a little too busy lately to think of cleaning spaces not in common use. He vowed to clean it somewhere next week as he'd be done with a large project by then.
Heading downstairs, he found Lovino returning from the study, heavy novel in hand, and he all but dove onto the couch with the remote in hand, patting the space between his legs for Lovino to take. Lovino rolled his eyes, but did settle against his boyfriend's chest. Gilbert turned on the TV, finding the sport channel, and wrapped an arm around Lovino's waist, shifting until he found a comfortable position.
It took a whole biathlon and half the ski jumping contest until Lovino dozed off, novel in his lap and head lolling against Gilbert's chest. Gilbert reached up to run his fingers through his hair teasingly, brushing out the dust, deciding that they would just have to order takeout tonight as he was far too comfortable to move now.
Lovino mumbled something unintelligible as Gilbert whispered, "One day, I'll marry you," just because he felt like being cheesy (and if he was being honest, just because even if he had to spend the rest of his life in Missing Glasses Limbo, he would do so in a heartbeat).
Three weeks later
"Gilbert."
"Yes, Schatz?"
Lovino scowled at the small town now setup on their windowsill, flickering lights and too much tinsel surrounding it. Honestly, that was the least obnoxious thing that currently decorated their house, but Lovino had to focus on something before he'd burst into laughter. Gilbert knew that; he noticed the way his lips trembled. Normally, he'd keep up the act for longer, but mornings demanded low energy spending, so Lovino shook his head and snorted, running a hand through his still messy bangs.
"I did say not before December, didn't I?" he said, leaning back against Gilbert's chest as the other wrapped his arms around his stomach.
"And it's December now," Gilbert sang happily, smiling brightly as Lovino indulged him in a soft kiss. "Love you!"
Lovino hummed, eyes falling back on the scene in front of him, breathing a sigh caught somewhere between exasperation and fondness. "Love you too."
He was quiet for a very long time, and Gilbert was trying to shuffle them toward the couch, but then Lovino squeezed his hand and twisted around his grip, reaching up to cup his cheeks. There was something unusually serious in his eyes, thumbs gently brushing Gilbert's skin as he seemed to mull over his words carefully.
Eventually, he asked, "Do you mean it, when you say you'll marry me one day?"
Gilbert had to remember how to breathe. "I thought you were sleeping."
Lovino rolled his eyes. "I was dozing, and your hand was very distracting."
"I…" Gilbert closed his mouth again, swallowed, nervously ran his hands along Lovino's sides. "I mean, I didn't just say it. I just—" He waved a hand vaguely.
"Right." Lovino's hands slid down to his shoulders. "What would you say if I asked you now?"
Gilbert blinked. "To marry you?"
"Yes."
There was a moment of tense silence where Gilbert processed that line of questioning, eyes staring blankly at the Christmas decorations. Then he looked down at the man still in his arms, who regarded him so seriously, yet his nervousness revealed itself through his thinned lips, the way his fingers played with the hair at the back of Gilbert's neck.
"Oh," he said, dumbly. "I—don't you, like, have to kneel?"
Lovino pursed his lips, pressing a hand against Gilbert's chest and telling him to stay put as he marched back up the stairs. Gilbert didn't think he could've moved, not as Lovino's words ran on repeat, his brain struggling to actually process anything.
When Lovino came back down, he wasted no time in taking Gilbert's hand and kneeling in front of him, holding up a small felt box, looking only mildly nervous and a lot more mildly exasperated.
"Gilbert," he started, "I… I hadn't exactly figured it'd happen like this, but honestly? I think this is better." He took a deep breath and continued, "So, um, would you marry me?"
Gilbert just stared at him. Because if Lovino hadn't figured it would happen like this, Gilbert felt as if he was years past this moment and still couldn't quite grasp how they had gotten to this point. Honestly, at worst he had expected arguments on awful Christmas decorations, at most a lot of exasperation, but a marriage proposal—no, that had been far, far away from Gilbert's expectancies.
That wasn't to say he didn't want to marry Lovino. Fuck, he's been telling him in his sleep for two years now, simply never finding the gall to actually go out and buy an engagement ring, some pretty golden thing that sat so innocently in a small felt box, as presented to him now.
"Oh, shit, Lovi," Gilbert said, fell to his knees and kissed him, free hand coming to rest against the back of Lovino's neck. And he couldn't stop kissing Lovino, even as he began to sputter and giggle and began to slam his hand against Gilbert's shoulder because he still hadn't given an answer, dammit!
"Fuck, Lovi." And Gilbert caught his other hand, felt box now forever associated with a blunt force weapon. "Yes, of course."
Lovino couldn't even pretend to huff, the smile easily overpowering any annoyance he may have felt. Instead, he simply shrugged off Gilbert's hands, took the ring from the box, tossed the box somewhere past his shoulder so he could grab Gilbert's hand and slide the ring onto his finger, pressing a soft kiss to the metal afterwards.
Gilbert stared at it, part of him still disbelieving, would probably stay in that state for quite some time, and then he threw his arms around Lovino once more, probably squeezing the air from Lovino's lungs.
Lovino chuckled breathlessly, nose squished against Gilbert's collarbone, arms circling Gilbert slowly, rubbing his back as Gilbert took the time to fully process everything.
"How long have you been planning that?" Gilbert asked once he finally felt marginally grounded and released Lovino, though he let his hands slide down Lovino's arms and held his hands.
Lovino chuckled, bashfully lowering his eyes to where he rubbed the engagement ring—and Gilbert would have to get used to calling it his engagement ring. "Since half a year ago? I think it was the fourth time I caught you confessing that to me, and I had had it with waiting around till you got your act together."
Gilbert choked. "But you never—"
"I figured I'd spare your dignity."
"Until today."
Lovino laughed. "Until today. But I figured both of ours are pretty shot now."
"No. Just mine." Gilbert squeezed Lovino's fingers. "I'm absolutely fine with it, though."
"Hm, I bet," Lovino muttered just before Gilbert kissed him again, slow and lovingly.
They didn't get off the floor until they were both too hungry to stave it off any longer with distracting kisses and touches. As Gilbert prepared breakfast, and almost burned it because he got distracted by the glint of metal on his finger, he couldn't help but grin stupidly as he put the plates on the table, brushing behind Lovino.
"I take this as Christmas decoration approval too then," he whispered, and Lovino turned his head so he could kiss Gilbert's cheek.
"I guess I'll just have to learn to live with it," he murmured and squeezed Gilbert's hand.
It got a little out of hand by the end… but I couldn't neglect the opportunity to give Lovi a chance to propose for once.