Gilbert laughed as he watched Alfred take in the sight of his home – or at least what he managed to maintain on his own with his younger brother's help. He smirked as Alfred immediately headed over to where he'd set up a suit of armor that had belonged to a man he'd considered awesome enough to consider a friend.
"Whoa…you gotta lemme…" Alfred began, reaching for the sword to start messing around with it, only to have Gilbert place a hand on his arm.
"Nein. That's…I remember your swordsmanship." Gilbert said, checking over the armor to make sure it hadn't been jostled at all by the overly eager American. Alfred again looked confusedly to the other man as he watched Gilbert inspect the nonexistent damage in a way that looked more like Ludwig than the typical behavior exhibited by the older German brother.
"What? You taught me how to use muskets and rifles and bayonets…" Alfred said, arching a brow as he tried to follow what the other man was saying. Gilbert snickered as he finally returned his attention to the American, shaking his head at him.
"Precisely. You'll do more damage than even I'd approve of if you mess with that." Gilbert said, laughing again at the insulted look on Alfred's face.
"Hey! I know how to use a sword. Arthur taught me how to use it when I was still little." Alfred said, Gilbert hard-pressed to describe the look he was getting as anything other than a pout as Alfred argued in his defense. "I could totally look like a killer knight and all. Man, I thought you'd be cooler than Arthur. He doesn't want me touching his old rusty tin cans either." Alfred said with a huff, Gilbert unable to keep from snickering quietly. "Alright, alright. Let's find Arthur." Alfred said, pushing past the amused Prussian man to head further into the castle's living quarters to see if he could spot Arthur without the other's help, cupping his hands to his mouth and shouting out for his brother a few times.
"Don't do that! That's a very bad idea!" Gilbert said, placing a hand over the other's mouth as he regarded him with an unexpected look of caution. "There's a reason I haven't kept up other sections of the castle you know." He said, making a show of looking over both shoulders before leaning into the American's face. "You need to beware of the Weisse Frauen…don't make a sound. Don't even blink if you catch even a glimpse or it'll be all over for you." He said, Alfred's eyes widening as he took a moment to translate what the other said.
Alfred harshly pulled away the hand that was covering his mouth, already beginning to shake a little at the thought of confronting ghosts. "What?!" He cried out, Gilbert shushing him and making Alfred wince and look around fearfully. "What?" He repeated in a whisper. "Why didn't you say that before? We…we…we gotta go find Iggy before they do!" He said, Gilbert making placating motions with his hands to keep Alfred still.
"Of course. But just wait here. I need to check on something." Gilbert said, Alfred opening his mouth to protest only to be silenced by the sharp look the other's red eyes inflicted on him. "Don't touch anything." Gilbert said before disappearing around the corner. Alfred stood as still as he could, keeping his whimpers to a minimum.
"Gil…"He called out in a whisper, repeating himself when he got no response. It had grown awfully quiet and the silence was making Alfred nervous, the party noise outside only just barely drifting through the walls. He shifted over to be able to look out the window, scanning the crowd for his twin to possibly signal for help – not that the hero would need it, but it's always a bonus to have your sidekick at the ready, Alfred thought to himself. He was straining to catch of glimpse of his occasionally invisible brother when hands suddenly grasped him from behind on the shoulders, making Alfred jump into the air with a shriek as he whipped around to warily and frightfully see whatever it was that had cornered him. But his terror soon turned to irritation when he saw Gilbert with his phone out, laughing at the American's reaction.
"Ah, mein gott Alfred….that was a totally unawesome girly shriek. I didn't know you could still hit that octave." He laughed, Alfred fumbling with his glasses in an effort to compose himself. "That was for making me lose my lunch earlier." He said, still laughing. "Payback is awesome, like me…" He trailed off, seeing Alfred take a swing toward him in an attempt to grab the camera away.
"Fine, fine….we're even. That wasn't cool dude. Not. Cool." Alfred said as Gilbert pocketed his phone. "I'm startin' to think leaving Iggy here to mess with your stuff might not be such a bad idea. You deal with him when he thinks he's back in World War II or something. He gets like that sometimes when he's drunk and I think you kinda like this castle, so have fun." Alfred said in an irritated tone. Gilbert thought over his words though and Alfred could see the other dreading having to deal with Arthur in that sort of mood. But before either of them could say anything else, a large bang echoed through the room, prompting Alfred to cling to Gilbert as he looked around in fright for the 'white women' ghosts the Prussian had warned him about in the castle.
"Ugh…get off…." Gilbert said after he regained his own composure, thankful that Alfred was both too scared and drunk to realize that he'd also shrieked in a similarly shrill manner as he'd returned the hold Alfred had on him. "That was probably Arthur doing exactly what you said. Come on. I think it came from this way." He said, Alfred timidly following behind him to where Gilbert was sure he'd heard the noise. The albino man gasped as he saw his hidden door wide open, rushing forward to find that Arthur had snooped around enough to find his treasure trove of diaries, casually flipping through one while others lay scattered on the floor.
"Oh, 'ello there." Arthur slurred to them, lazily waving to the two newcomers. "Interesting reading material you have here." He managed to get out, swaying a little and knocking into one of the bookcases again to knock more books onto the floor with an echoing bang.
"Get your hands off of those!" Gilbert yelled once he recovered his sense of speech, lunging toward Arthur and knocking both of them to the ground. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! Give me that!" Gilbert yelled as he and Arthur wrestled with one another while Alfred stood by and watched in both confusion and entertainment at the sight before him.
"No. I'm not done yet." Arthur argued, holding the book just out of Gilbert's grip. "This is good stuff…" He continued to slur out, Gilbert only becoming more frustrated with the other man as the two of them were both hampered by having had a few rounds of beer already. "Wha's this then, hmm? I didn't know you liked…" He started, Gilbert shouting over him to keep Alfred from hearing whatever embarrassing detail the British man was reading aloud and lunging again for Arthur. This time he was successful, the two hitting the ground with an 'oomphf' as Arthur finally dropped the book. This finally spurred Alfred into action, coming over to break up the likely fight about to start. He pulled Gilbert off of Arthur as best he could, Arthur crawling over to a corner to sit up against the wall.
"Easy Gil…he won't remember any of it tomorrow anyway." Alfred said in an attempt to placate the seething Prussian man, his eyes looking fiercer than usual. "You know he won't so just, c'mon…let's get him outta here. If we're lucky, we won't remember this clearly either. C'mon…" Alfred said, urging Gilbert to calm down.
"Hmm? I thought you were all….Teutonic Knights and all that…" Arthur said from where he sat, the two other men looking back over to find he'd grabbed one of the books off the floor and was reading that one now. Gilbert immediately made to resume where he'd left off, Alfred holding him back from actually inflicting any damage. "This is an old…I bet I could still do this one easy…." Arthur said, halting Gilbert's attempts to free himself from Alfred's hold.
"Don't read it aloud!" Gilbert warned in a panicked tone as Arthur began to mumble something as he shakily got to his feet.
"Yeah, like there are ghosts in the castle too…" Alfred said sarcastically, Gilbert squirming with renewed energy to be released.
"There might be if he finishes! That was from Großvater Germania! You don't know what kind of stuff that old man…." Gilbert began, a flash of green and a coughing fit from Arthur signaling that Arthur had done something.
"Well, maybe not today…I think….rest up and get to it later…" Arthur said, yawning once before stumbling back into the bookcase to slide to the floor in a crumpled heap, snores heard shortly afterward from the unconscious man.
"Oh no…" Gilbert said, taking the opportunity of Alfred's surprise to wrench himself from the American to race forward and grab the book that Arthur had stumbled upon. "Oh…let's hope being drunk means nothing happened." He said, looking up from the page to face Alfred. "Even I don't know for sure what Großvater was trying to do with this. It's too old for me to have any clue what the language means." He said, Alfred more concerned with gathering up the passed out British man on the floor.
"Then let's deal with it tomorrow. It was probably some silly flashlight thingamabob he picked up from the fest that gave off that freaky light." Alfred said as he carried Arthur out of the no-longer-secret library and back towards where he knew there to be couch to deposit the unconscious man. "And dude, I'm beat too. For once, Iggy's right and why don't we just sleep on it? 'Kay?" Alfred asked, taking a seat on the floor next to the couch, leaning up against it to get comfortable. "The others will come looking for us in here soon enough anyway…" He said, drifting off to sleep and leaving a concerned Gilbert to deal with his panic on his own.
Gilbert looked around his castle with a new attitude, deciding quickly to go gather the others. "West!" He cried out, desperately hoping the others would find their way over.
