Note: Hey people, guess who got a new laptop after the last one imploded and has lost all her files?
Exactly, this fella here. So to get back into the mood of writing I will now try a couple of drabbles about the life of young!Ludwig and BigBrother!Gilbert. Have fun

ABC

Abendessen*

Gilbert didn't really know what the thing on his plate was supposed to be, but he knew what he was supposed to do with it. And the beaming face opposite of him at the other side of the table left no space for negotiations. Oh dear lord, have mercy.

He lifted a fork full of something that might have once been scrambled eggs to his lips and swallowed without chewing, to not give the flavour a chance of reaching his taste buds. Still he had to supress a shudder afterwards.

"It's… good. Thank you, Ludwig. But maybe you'll let the cook make dinner again in the future? Otherwise having a cook would be pointless, wouldn't it be?"

There was a hint of disappointment in the blue eyes of his little brother and Gilbert quickly shoved another load of it into his mouth to soothe him. He'd rather have an upset stomach than an upset Ludwig.

Bath

Ludwig huffed and crossed his little arms over his chest, glaring at his naked feet which were sinking into the big red carpet in his brother's office.

"But I don't want to. I took a bath just yesterday. See, I'm not even dirty." He lifted his arms up high into the air and turned around, blinking his blue eyes at his brother over his shoulder.

Gilbert raised a brow sceptically.

"And have you washed behind your ears, yesterday?"

"…no."

"Well guess who's going to take a bath right now!" He scooped the little blond into his arms and set him on his shoulders. Pudgy little fingers tugged on his hair – not too hard, Ludwig was always careful, even when pouting – and small legs kicked around.

"But I don't want to!"

"Do you want to play with the boat?"

The tugging stopped, legs stilled. Hesitating silence. Temptation. Gilbert wouldn't ever let him play with the boat…

"…yes."

"To play with the boat, you'll need water, right? What's an awesome ship without an awesome ocean to rule?" Silence, Gilbert turned his head upwards and smirked in triumph at the calculating look on Ludwig's face. Ah sweet, sweet victory. "Am I right?"

"I guess..."

Forty minutes later a drenched Gilbert leaned over a grinning Ludwig.

"You get out of there!"

"But I don't want to."

Cake

"But Gilbert, I thought the cake was for when Eliza and Cousin Roderich come over?" Ludwig's small hands were fisted into the sleeves of his shirt, his thumb inside of his fist. Gilbert had given up on telling him to stop doing that.

"So? We'll bake a new one tomorrow."

"We? You'll let me help you bake?" Excitedly he shuffled closer, glancing over his shoulder like a boy who was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Well, somehow he was.

"Sure. And then the cake will be even more awesome then this one, since it's me and you combined. But that'd mean that it would be too good for the prissy-… for Roderich again so we can eat two cakes. I'll have Margarte buy a new one."

"If you don't take your hand away from that cake this instance, Gilbert Beilschmidt, so help me God, but I will beat you to the bakery and back!", sounded a voice from the doorway leading to the kitchen.

Ludwig shrieked again, jumping forward into Gilbert who grabbed what was left of the cake in one hand, his brother's hand in the other, and ran to escape the wrath that was their middle aged housekeeper. He was sure that woman could crunch him with his bare hands!

Cake tasted the best anyway when shared between brothers who hid in a dusty closet in the basement.

Duties

Gilbert glanced over his pristine uniform in the mirror for one last time, then turned to retrieve his helmet from his nightstand. Where he had placed it the night before. Where it now was not anymore.

"Shit!" He had to be gone in ten minutes and while he didn't mind pissing off his king he didn't feel in the mood for an hour long scolding. How lucky that he had an idea who the culprit might have been.

"Ludwig?" Gilbert stuck his head out of his room's door and glanced up and down the empty hallway.

A faint shuffle near the window.

"Ludwig." He lowered his voice, softened it. He knew, a too fast approach would make his little brother flee.

Gilbert wandered down the hall and pushed the curtain aside and looked down on the bundled up boy in the corner, chubby arms and drawn up legs holding his helmet captive. He held his head low, refused to look at Gilbert, but the Prussian didn't need to see his face to know he was pouting.

"Ludwig, you know I need to go." The small body curled tighter around the helmet. "We've talked about it, I'll be back in no time and while I'm gone Ida will look after you." A low mumble, tainted with stubbornly held back tears.

"Pardon?"

With a low 'clunk' the helmet landed on the ground and small arms wrapped tightly around his neck instead, a wet face pressing into his skin. Ludwig didn't speak and Gilbert wound his arms around the small body, lifting him up and leaning against the window with him.

He needed to be gone in ten minutes… An hour long scolding couldn't be that bad.

To be continued...

Note: The song I used for this is a German nursery rhyme that goes
ABC, die Katze lief im Schnee.
Und als sie dann nach Hause kam, da hat sie weiße Stiefel an.
ABC, die Katze lief im Schnee.

Translation: ABC, the cat walks through the snow.
And as she arrives home she's wearing white boots.
ABC, the cat walks through the snow.