Second chapter! Thank you for the kind reviews. Please keep them coming! They mean a lot. Sorry for the delay, my keyboard was acting up on me. Anywho… enjoy!
Due to untimely circumstances, Gilbert was unable to come back the next day. Matthew had scolded him plenty on the long term effects the game had, such as addiction, insomnia, migraines, loss of sight, all of which never took place post-gameplay. Matthew continued to go on about the law suits that could be filed against him, and Gilbert finally agreed to wait a week until he flew back. Ludwig hadn't touched the subject of his experience, more or less consumed in his own work, maybe even doubtful of what was going on. Nevertheless, Gilbert was reluctant to elaborate on his experience to the public. Probably because no one took him seriously.
One night, Ludwig brought home his fiancé, Feliciano, for dinner, to celebrate Ludwig's promotion with his job. He had been stressing the importance of him getting a partner in the firm of his work, and how their financial problems would be patched up if it happened. Gilbert secretly hoped this would let him loosen up a bit. He wasn't mentally capable to deal with one of his brother's unfortunate anxiety attacks.
A week soared by, and Gilbert missed it from being too absorbed in anticipation. He had implored Matthew to be generous with the time he had in the game. Matthew, with Gilbert's prize-worthy persuasion skills, allowed him an hour, but also saying how time moves quickly in the game, so that was two whole days. On the day of his flight, he practically skipped to the door with a suitcase in hand, but was stopped dead in his tracks as he saw Ludwig sitting at the table, palm pressed against his forehead and the other hand clasping what looked like this month's rent. His finger nails dug into the stationary, threatening to put a few rips in it. Gilbert examined his younger brother wearily, frowning.
"Luddy?"
"Hm? I'm fine, brother." Ludwig had to fight to get the words out, but he hoped his older brother wouldn't notice him slipping.
"You don't have to push yourself, Ludwig," Gilbert's expression was swept off his face and replaced with what could be called a mix of pity and empathy.
"I'm not. The rent was just raised this month due to extra spending. I'll take care of it, you go," Ludwig threw on a calm and relaxed façade, pushing the papers away with a sigh.
"E-Eheh~ I know you can do it! Kesese~ See you this weekend, Luddy~"
Gilbert swore he could hear his brother curse under the panting of his breath.
The flight was almost unbelievably long, with the help of a delay that was caused while he was waiting. Matthew texted him beforehand of how the game was set up, and all it needed now was a player. Gilbert drove through the drizzling town of Toronto, finally arriving at his destination. After brief catch up conversations on subjects Gilbert couldn't care less about (How was the flight? Are you hungry?), Matthew settled his "testing mouse" on the chair, reminding Gilbert of the correlation between the game's time and his own. A half an hour in our time equaled one day in the game. An hour being two days. Matthew brushed it aside, saying he'd leave out the nerdy details.
"You will be a little ahead of the time you left off in, but not much. I toggled with it to make it as if you never left, so any characters you encountered will have no record of your absence," Matthew's eyes took notes of Gilbert's anticipating glances, just to make sure he wasn't showing signs of the side effects.
Within seconds, the scenery was warped, his breath escalated as before, with new sights and smells invading the senses. The darkness finally cleared, and he found himself in the dining room of a familiar friend.
"Gilbert? Are you okay?"
The fork hit the steak in front of the man, as he gingerly cut a bite-sized piece of it to eat. He reached over to grasp the hand of - who else? - him. His hand was soft, and slender. Gilbert peeked up to see his face. A refreshing sight he had waited a week - a long and dragged seven days - to see. "You have not touched your dinner," the prestige man let his teeth graze softly on his lower lip, mostly from worry.
"Sorry," the guest of the house stammered, breaking his gaze from the man to the food. He picked up his fork and stabbed the steak, picking the thing up and taking half the steak in his mouth, nearly engulfing the food whole. Roderich couldn't help but audibly scoff in disgust, but brushed it off in hopes of not pushing the other away with unnecessary manner lessons. He shook his head, sighing. "Gilbert, if you are to dine with a woman you hope to impress someday, it is not attractive to act barbaric with your food," he stated almost matter-of-factly, to which Gilbert rolled his eyes and chuckled lightly. "What would you know about picking up chicks, Mr. flamboyantly dressed piano player? I'll have you know, the ladies love me."
Roderich had no time to argue with the other male about his self-proclaimed career in winning over women. He reached over, one hand snaking around the other and clasping his hand, the other gently pressing on his other. He picked up a fork and knife, and placed it in his grasps. Gilbert, caught off guard by the other's almost nonexistent hesitation, felt his breath shorten.
"Use the fork to grab the food. Use the knife to cut a piece that will fit in your mouth and not take refuge in your teeth," he proceeded the practice, all the while Gilbert averting his gaze while keeping a somewhat calm face. After Roderich's lesson in proper table manners, dinner went by quietly, until the brunette piped up.
"Where do you live, Gilbert?" he asked curiously.
"Um. My, uh, brother has a place, but he's out of town for the week."
"You live with your brother?"
"Yeah, younger brother. Just us. He's helping me out while I get through college."
"What is your brother like, Gilbert?"
"Nit-picky. Overbearing at times. Serious. But… he means well. He works a lot to support us. He has been going through a lot though…" Gilbert recalled his brother's last incident, where he had trouble breathing, fumbling over his words, and the sight scared him. "He's been under a lot of stress."
After minutes of uninterrupted silence that almost stung to sit under, Roderich spoke calmly, "Would you like to stay here, for a while? Until your brother comes back, I mean."
It was out of the blue, catching them both by surprise. Roderich barely could stand company around his house, but never opposed out of his polite exterior. But he only had Elizabeta come around once a week for lunch and a run down of her new, extravagant life with her new, extravagant husband of five months. Maybe some change of routine would take his mind off of her recent announcement of bearing the man's child.
"Um, sure! Kesese~ That'd be cool," Gilbert replied, internally wondering what would drive the man to offer something so generously unhead of.
After dinner and a fabulous dessert as prepared by Roderich's expertise skills in the kitchen, Roderich showed his guest to his room, apologizing for the dust from the room being vacant so long. Gilbert settled himself in the bed, Roderich saying how they would go out for breakfast in the morning. Gilbert laid down, taking a moment to explore his senses in awe of how divine the game turned out to be. He felt the silky bed sheets, inhaled the sweet and fruity smell there was around him, and tasted the apple strudel he just ate. How he wished to live here forever.
In the morning, Gilbert woke up precisely at 8:30. He waited until 8:36 to finally get up and stretch his legs. It didn't feel like he slept at all, but he didn't question it. He traveled downstairs, peeking into the rooms he passed on his way. There was Roderich's bedroom on the right, he presumed from the queen sized bed and the portrait of him and some woman hanging above. He was smiling as he embraced the child in front of him, with one hand slung around a slender yet muscular female with a dress patched up and dirt stained on the hem. He was smiling alright, as anyone could observe. But something struck the male that the smile possessed nothing behind it, no emotion. Simply a politically-correct smile.
The bed was vacant of his host, covers tucked down without a sign of previous life. He pursed his lips, and ventured towards the remaining rooms. In one, however, he spotted the lifting and descending of a blanket on a couch, with a crooked pair of glasses hanging off of the table. He walked inside to find the other man still not awoken. He had light circles under his eyes, so he assumed he was up late. He was in the music room, the piano next to him with a range of instruments up against the wall. Roderich stirred in his sleep, and the albino prayed he wouldn't awake to him watching over him. The music man simply turned to his side, facing away from the couch. His lips parted slightly, and his usually product-consumed hair a mess. Gilbert watched as the other furrowed his brow, and finally cracked his eyes open.
"Oh…" he whispered as he caught sight of his guest, "Good morning. I must have fallen asleep here last night. Were you waiting long?"
"No, no…," Gilbert spoke, still remembering the other's almost unreal state of sleeping so calmly for being so fussy. "I mean, well. Kind of. I'm starving."
"Pardon my manners then… Get dressed quickly. We will go somewhere to eat," Roderich blindly touched around for his glasses, grabbing them and slipping them on. Gilbert took off to change his attire, his wardrobe limited, but he slipped on something slightly favorable. The two of them were out of the house in a half an hour, Roderich demanding the other wait for him to get properly ready.
They went to a small café, not very busy and only hosting a few couple of people, all of which absorbed on their laptops. Roderich paid for their meal, and they found a table outside to sit at. They sat in silence until Gilbert decided to speak. "What do you do playing at a theater? Do you act? Let me guess, you're Cinderella, right?" Gilbert found his joke hysterical, and proceeded to entertain himself with demeaning jokes until Roderich retorted.
"No, Gilbert," he spoke dryly, "I am a pianist for the musicals they have there. On occasions I play violin and cello. Others, I conduct. In fact, this upcoming couple of days I am playing a solo piece for their production of Swan Lake. If you have no plans, I am inquiring if you might… want to…"
"Be your date?" Gilbert leaned in, snickering to himself, his eyes casting a mischievous gaze of intent Roderich was not unaware of. "To rephrase in a less crude manner…!" Roderich exclaimed, "I was wondering if you would be my companion of the night. The theater hosts an after party after the show, and everyone brings someone of sorts with them. Before, I would take my wife, but she… has another companion now."
Roderich sighed, shaking his head. Gilbert smirked, and replied in a somewhat mocking manner, similar to Roderich's way of speaking, "Yes, Roderich, I'll be your… "companion" for the evening."
Roderich rolled his eyes, then smiled softly and nodded. Gilbert nodded as well and started to cough, muttering in the word "date" while he did so. They both ate their meal, and it wasn't long until reality called for his attention back, and before the evening was out, Gilbert looked around in alert to the house of Matthew.
"Game play is over for today. An hour, as promised," Matthew unhooked the gear from his friend, and looked him over. "Why are you smiling?"
Not having noticed his smile, he wiped it off quickly to avoid unnecessary confrontation of his exploration in the game. Matthew let him stay in the guest room, offering an hour tomorrow as well, to see how well he could handle the time of game play, on a mental aspect.
Matthew then stopped in the doorway of the guest bedroom, looking back at the other and smiling. "Get some sleep. Tomorrow… I have a surprise."