Ludwig rushed home with Feliciano draped over his shoulder; the barely conscious Italian mumbling to himself the whole way. Bursting through the front door, he dumped Feliciano on the sofa unceremoniously and headed straight for the phone. He dialled Gilbert's mobile number and began bouncing on the balls of his feet, impatient for him to pick up. From the living room, the sound of a harpsichord started playing.
"SHEIßE!" swore Ludwig, as he recognized the ringtone to be a piece his brother had written the previous year along with his punk friend, Arthur.
The song continued playing as Ludwig stormed into the living room. Gilbert's phone lay on the coffee table, still merrily singing away. Ludwig stabbed at the buttons on the house phone, and the music stopped as abruptly as it had started.
"L... Lud... Ludwig?" slurred Feliciano from the sofa. Ludwig sighed, and went to sort out his Italian friend; he knew only too well what a handful he could be when drunk.
A muffled "Ve~" came from the sofa - it was going to be a long night...
The next morning, Roderich was woken by the sun streaming through the curtains he had neglected to close the night before. Groaning loudly, he rolled over, only to come face to face with his white cat, Timmy.
He had let Vash's sister Lilli name him, however Timmy was not as cute and cuddly as one may have expected from his name – Lilli was the only person Roderich knew who was brave enough to even attempt to pick him up, and seemed not to notice every time Timmy made a swipe for her face with his claws. The first time Vash had noticed the cat's predatory behaviour, he had attempted to persuade Roderich to get rid of the cat yet Lilli, who was twelve at the time, had promptly burst into tears, and hugged the yowling creature to her chest. Roderich would personally have been glad to be rid of the animal, yet Lilli wouldn't hear of such a thing, her argument being that Roderich's other cat, Tiddiewitts, would be lonely. Tiddiewitts had been his grandmother's cat, yet he had volunteered to look after her when his Grandmother passed away two years previously. Roderich preferred Tiddiewitts to Timmy in the same way that a child prefers chocolate ice cream to cold cauliflower. Even though she was by far the most stupid cat Roderich had ever seen, yet he couldn't help wish it was her he had woken up to.
Roderich leapt out of bed, away from the insane cat, and scrambled for the door, clutching a sheet to his chest. He slept in boxers, but felt that it wasn't proper to wander around the house half naked.
"Nice kitty!" he cooed nervously, backing away towards the kitchen. He grabbed the packet of cat biscuits and shook the biscuits into a ceramic cat dish. Timmy stalked into the kitchen, and meowed at the sight of the food, before hurrying over to it, whilst Roderich jumped out of the way.
Roderich shuffled back to the bedroom, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He looked at the time: 7:40.
"Oh well!" he thought to himself, "Twenty minutes extra won't matter!"
However, his hopes for extra sleep were dashed when he saw Tiddiewitts curled up and asleep right where Roderich had been lying only minutes previously. He cursed under his breath, and went to get dressed. As he pulled on his trousers, he felt something rustle in his pocket. Pulling it out, he realized it was the paper he had written Gilbert's brother's name and address on. Realizing what an important job it was he had to do, he quickly finished dressing, before wolfing down some breakfast and grabbing his indigo coat.
As he headed outside, he noticed it was suspiciously quiet. Looking at his watch, he realised it was still only eight o'clock in the morning. No matter how urgent the news, telling Gilbert's brother would have to wait, as he doubted he would want to be told such big news this early in the morning. Roderich turned and walked back into his apartment, hastily dodging out of the way of a hissing Timmy, and tripping over Tiddiewitts in the process. He would do some baking, take his mind of things.
Deciding to make Donauwelle, a traditional Austrian cake, from a recipe his Grandmother had given him, he set about finding the necessary ingredients. The cake's combination of cherries and chocolate had always comforted him, and reminded him of his Grandparents. Realizing he was in fact out of cherries, Roderich groaned as he realised he would have to go to the shop and buy some. There was no problem with it being too early – the corner shop he always went to took great pride in being open from 7am until 10pm, apart from Sundays, but Roderich had a feeling they would work all day then too, given the chance.
Roderich headed for the door, again trying to avoid the cats in his way. His apartment was almost exactly opposite the shop, one of the things that he had looked for specifically when buying the place: his ability to get lost had been just as great back then. Walking through the door, the shopkeeper, Berwald Oxenstierna mumbled a "g'd mornin' 'drich" before turning back to continue stacking shelves. His fellow shopkeeper, Tino Väinämöinen, waved a cheery hello to Roderich before returning to serving customers. Roderich wandered over to the fruit isle, before bending to pick up a pot of cherries.
"They're b'y one g't one free." muttered Berwald from the other side of the shop. Roderich, always one for saving money, picked up a second pot, before heading for the checkout, however he turned down the wrong isle and ended up on the complete opposite side of the store on the way.
Arriving back at his apartment, Roderich realized that buying two pots of cherries was in fact, a rather stupid move: he wouldn't get a chance to use them both up before they went mouldy. Suddenly, his brain flickered back to a certain silverette, currently residing in a hospital bed; a home-made cake would be sure to cheer him up! Roderich quickly set about making a double-sized batch of the cake – he could give half to Gilbert and bring him some form of relief from the monotonous boredom of the hospital, whilst at the same time using up the second pot of cherries. Roderich put the cake in the oven with a self-satisfied smile, before turning to survey his kitchen. It looked like a bomb had hit it, and then a hurricane come along and shaken up what was left. Groaning, Roderich grabbed a cloth and began cleaning.
About an hour later, Roderich had taken the cake out of the oven, and deemed it a socially acceptable time to pay Ludwig a visit. He put his coat back on and headed out of the door, clutching his hand-held sat-nav that he had extravagantly bought himself after taking a wrong turn whilst in Amsterdam and ending up in the Red Light District (an experience he would rather forget)!
Roderich cautiously approached Ludwig's front door, before timidly ringing the doorbell. A loud cacophony of dogs barking came from inside, before a cheerful young man with auburn hair came to the door.
"H… Hello. Are you Ludwig Beilschmidt?" stuttered Roderich nervously.
"Nope! I'm Feliciano Vargas but you can call me Feli, and Ludwig is here but I think he's still aslee…" The young man broke off suddenly as a new person, who was incredibly tall and muscular, with blond hair came to the door.
"Hello?" he said brusquely. "What do you want?"
Roderich stumbled over his words again, scared by the man's imposing presence.
"A… Are… Are you L… Ludwig?"
"Yes, I am. What was it you wanted?"
"Well, you see, it's about your brother, Gilbert. He…"
"Whatever, he's done, give me the bill, and I will make him pay for it." butted in Ludwig, sighing exasperatedly. This was not an infrequent occurrence then.
"No sir, you appear to have got the wrong idea, Gilbert hasn't done anything wrong; he's in hospital, and sent me to tell you."
Ludwig paled at this, and Feliciano, who had been hovering behind Ludwig, piped up, saying:
"Is Gilbert alright? He looked ill yesterday, didn't he Luddy! Ve~! I hope he's alright, he won't die will he Luddy? He'll be fine won't h…"
"Feliciano!" cried Ludwig, throwing his hands in the air. "Calm down, please." He turned to Roderich:
"Please, come in. Feliciano will make you a cup of tea if you want it."
"Oooo! Tea! Do you want sugar Mr Roderich? Or milk? Or both even! I like both, but Luddy only lik…" Feliciano stopped talking instantly as Ludwig spun round to glare at him.
"Today would be nice Feliciano."
Roderich followed Ludwig to the living room, wondering curiously who Feliciano was.
"Please excuse Feliciano," said Ludwig apologetically. "He tends to get a little over-excited. He stayed the night as he was drunk last night. I have no idea how he has even managed to wake up yet: he doesn't even appear to have a hangover!"
Roderich smiled; Feliciano seemed far too energetic and lively for something such as a hangover to affect him!
"Anyway," he said, once Feliciano had handed him a cup of tea and bounced over to the other settee, plopping down next to an exasperated Ludwig. "Gilbert is in hospital, as he collapsed last night in Hamblin alley, and his heart stopped beating. He has been tested for all sorts of substance abuse, as well as numerous heart conditions, but the doctors can't seem to tell what's wrong with him."
"Is he alright now?" asked Ludwig frantically. "My brother is not known for being able to look after himself!"
Bored with the non-pasta related conversation, Feliciano scrambled off of the sofa and headed off to the kitchen.
"I think he's okay, but I'm not sure. He's in Townsend Ward and, judging from his attitude yesterday when he woke up, he would dearly love some visitors. I'm not sure if the other man in the ward could deal with Feliciano though!" Roderich added in an undertone.
Ludwig nodded knowingly, and paused again before speaking.
"I think he dropped his wallet: I found it in the street. And if you see him before me, can you tell him that Gilbird is okay? I know Gilbert doesn't seem like an overly affectionate person, but he has this little
yellow bird he seems to be obsessed with!"
"Gilbird." said Roderich incredulously. "He named a bird after himself."
"It's the sort of thing he would do; my brother can be an arrogant idiot when he wants to be!"
"Yes..." said Roderich sagely. "I got that feeling whilst speaking to him yesterday!" He looked at his watch.
"Visiting hours start at 11am, and I'm sure Gilbert would be more than grateful for the company."
"Before you go, thank you Roderich. For saving Mein Bruder when I couldn't myself."
A/N
Sorry it's been so long! I was kinda distracted this week by making Hetalia Valentines Day cards! ;)
Anyway, Happy Valentines day (for yesterday)!
Please review - or Francis (who was rejected AGAIN by Arthur last night!) may *accidently* lose his way and find himself in your houses... Maybe Gilbert too, you know how they both enjoy invading Vital Regions... But I'm going to guess that some of you would think this a good thing (*cough* Anna *cough*)!
Bye!
Emily Prustrian
