The (un)Pleasant Bits of Life

Chapter 1 - The First Attempt

"Love forms in the most unlikely of situations"

-Unknown

TRIGGER WARNING: SUICIDE ATTEMPT

Gilbert stood in front of his bathroom mirror. He had his hands clenched white on the sink, shaking as he struggled to keep himself up. His arms gave out and he fell onto the tiled floor. His white hair was greasy and unwashed, his skin glimmering with sweat and the albino's red eyes clouded and struggling to stay open. Just fifteen minutes ago, he had taken exactly twenty five aspirin pills, or at least that's what it said on the box.

He had started to feel drowsy just five minutes after he had taken the dosage but now it wasn't just drowsiness. It was pain. Pure, hellish pain where nothing can save you; not even yourself. His head felt like it was on fire, his heart was beating so much; the albino thought it would jump out of his rib cage.

Oh, how he wished he could cry for help. (More like scream for help...) But he was doing this out of his own free will and no one would be able to stop him.

As the pain extended to the rest of his body, Gilbert went through the reasons on why he was enduring this for the millionth time that day.

I'm useless. I'm nothing but a cumber to Ludwig, staying in his house for absolutely nothing. My country iss long gone, no one recognises the name anymore and I bet a number of people would be happy to see me gone.

But that wasn't the only reason. The ex-nation had left out one little thing which he had been trying to ignore for oh-so-long. Whenever he managed to get some sleep, he would dream. Dreams which he never understood.

(Dream Flashback)

There was darkness and a numbness. He could feel nothing until suddenly he felt his body. A sound erupted in the silent darkness. The noise sounded louder than it actually was, amplified by the silence and the echoes inside the darkness.

It sounded like screaming for a few seconds until his ears became accustomed to it. Gilbert followed the noise, which was difficult considering it echoed constantly. And then he saw it.

There was a child with white unruly hair curled up in a ball on the floor. The child looked no older than five years old, or at least physically. The albino suddenly noticed the child was shaking and it hit him.

The child was crying. The child was him.

And that was when the dream had always ended.

(Flashback End)

Gilbert attempted to stand up once more to get one last look at himself before he died. He clenched his hands tightly around the edges of the white sink and hoisted himself up.

It took immense strength to stay up and his arms were shaking as looked in the mirror.

The albino's breathing was short and rapid as his vision started to blur. It hurt to breathe and he could feel his muscles complaining under the weight of his upper body.

"I look like shit..." he murmured faintly as he took in his dishevelled appearance.

He had spent the last three days in his room and ensuite doing nothing. No eating, sleeping, bathing or anything as he planned his death.

And then he heard three knocks. Oh shit... The door's unlocked!

He thought in panic. Within seconds the door of the bathroom was slammed open and the force that had opened it stood in shock. His face was pale and distorted with worry and an inkling of rage.

Time seemed to slow and what took seconds seemed like hours. The blonde man ran towards the albino just as the albino collapsed. Gilbert fell in his arms and, in his last moments of consciousness, whispered, "I always loved you, my brother...".

The brother, Ludwig, pondered for a few seconds on what to do but hurriedly felt his pulse on his neck. It's slow but it's something... He took out his phone from his trouser's pocket and dialled the emergency number.

A voice chimed in with the usual phrase, in German, and he calmly explained, "My brother is in my arms collapsed, he has an empty aspirin box on the bathroom sink. I think he's had an overdose. My address is..." and the German continued until the woman reassured him that there was an ambulance speeding over to his house.

~~x~~

Gilbert's eyes opened slowly. It took a few seconds to get used to the brightness and for him to become fully conscious. He heard a beeping sound, some people speaking in hushed voices and his own breathing which was laboured and weak.

He heard a chair being pushed back, the noise hurt to his painfully sensitive ears. "...Gilbert?..." he heard.

He looked around, searching for the owner of the voice but only seeing blurred shapes. The air smelt sterile and clean and now he heard several chairs being pushed back and several more hushed voices than before.

"I think he's awake..." he heard someone speak with a strong accent. The accent sounded similar and he attempted to move his head to his left to follow the comforting voice, but found that there were straps holding his limbs, including his head, down onto whatever he was laying on.

"Don't move, brother. You'll only hurt yourself... Even more." the voice, his brother, had whispered, taking into account Gilbert's wince at every sound and lowering his voice. Although the last part was barely audible, and Gilbert clearly wasn't supposed to have heard it.

He slipped his eyes shut, attempting to go back to sleep. His brother must have thought he had succeeded because of what he had started to say to himself.

"It's all my fault... How could I have not noticed? He had been showing signs of depression for years and I just ignored each and every one of them... How could I have been so selfish? I should've questioned it when I saw him buy that packet of aspirin! And now he's strapped down to a hospital bed... I could've stopped it!" Ludwig's voice had slowly risen to hysterics until a nurse came by and told him quietly to calm down.

Ah. So that's where I am.

Finally, darkness took over his thoughts and Gilbert slipped into a delicate sleep. He was completely unaware of all the tubes coming in and out of his body and the fact that it wasn't an ordinary hospital that he was in.

~~x~~

A/N: So... My first story in a long while... I'll be surprised if I upload it though! My past few stories were absolutely terrible. There are no excuses. Well, actually... I was around 11ish when I wrote them so... Yeah. I was at THAT age. :/ Well, after years of not actually writing because of being scared that it would be terrible, I've finally started to write stories once more.

I thought up this story in my last art lesson in my entire life on my first day in my new school. There was a cover teacher and we had nothing to do so I started writing a plot for a story. At first, the target amount of words was 2k but now I think I'm aiming for a 10k story. Multi-chaptered, I hope. And I hope I don't quit last minute! And I am trying to improve my writing style! I've incredibly shortened my paragraphs because long paragraphs are a pain to read on ff... :/

As for my other stories... Discontinued until I say otherwise. And yes, I deleted several of my other stories because they were so terrible that I winced. I physically made a horrible sound in my throat. But then again... I was 12 where I wrote Forbidden Feelings... .

Anyways! Enjoy this story! It probably won't have any written smut because I read plenty of it but I can't actually write it. And there'll only be smut at the end and there is a pairing. And it's a suprise! ;)

-HetaMon