10

When Elizabeta woke up in the morning she snuggled back under the covers. She then remembered that she was going to hang out with Gilbert this morning She yawned and rubbed her eyes. Elizabeta was tempted to go back to sleep, but since she didn't know how early Gilbert was going to pick her up, it was better to get up.

She got out of bed and went downstairs to get something to eat for breakfast. No one else was up since it was 8 in the morning on a Sunday. She yawned as she ate her cereal, cursing Gilbert for not giving her a clearer idea of when he was going to pick her up.

After eating she went upstairs to change into clothes. She started to put on just anything, but then realized what kind of situation she was going to be in. Normally she wouldn't have worried too much about what she was going to wear around Gilbert, but she felt like today was going to be a bit different. Still, having no idea what they would doing, she decided wearing a skirt might backfire on her. Plus when she checked the weather, it wasn't going to be exactly that warm. Eventually she wore a pair of skinny jeans with a green frilly top.

At this point, Gilbert still wasn't there. To kill time she started reading her new book. She was just about to get to the point where the heroine confessed her feelings, when she heard a knock on the door. Someone answered the door and quickly afterwards her mother knocked on the door.

"Gilbert is here. He said he's come to pick you up."

Elizabeta closed her book and went downstairs to go meet Gilbert. "So where are we going," she asked.

"You'll find out," he replied.

Elizabeta grabbed her jacket and put it on. Her mother was on the stairs and overhead what was going on and quickly made her own interpretation of what was going on.

"You're going out with Gilbert? Just the two of you?" Her mother got a huge grin on her face. "I hope the two of you have a great time together."

"It's not what you think mom." Elizabeta grabbed Gilbert's arm and said, "I'll be back later." She rushed out of the house with Gilbert behind her.

"Are you still not going to tell me where we're going yet," asked Elizabeta.

Gilbert shook his head. He looked around a saw a car a few feet away from them. "Looks my brother is here now."

"Why is your brother here?"

"We can't walk to where we are going. And since I can't drive yet, Ludwig will drive us to the place."

"Well at least it isn't your parents." They walked toward the car and Gilbert gave got confused when he saw who else was in the car.

They got in the back of the car and Gilbert asked, "What is Feliciano doing here?"

"He decided to visit when you started walking over here. When he found out that I was going to drive you, he wanted to come along as well."

"You guys got up real early in the morning to hang out with each other," said Feliciano. "You must have something really excited to do today. The only reason I'm up this early is because my older brother started yelling at someone on the phone. So where are we going?"

"I wouldn't know. Gilbert is keeping it a secret from me," said Elizabeta.

"Don't worry you'll like it," said Gilbert.

Ludwig started up the car and started driving. "I'll at least let you know that it won't take too long to get there," said Ludwig. "Why Gilbert has to keep it a secret is beyond me," he mumbled under his breath.

The rest of the trip was filled with Feliciano's chatter. Ludwig was right in saying that it wouldn't take long. As soon as Ludwig pulled the car in the parking lot, Elizabeta recognized where they were right away.

"I haven't been here in forever," she exclaimed.

Gilbert grinned. "I said you would like it. This place makes you feel nostalgic doesn't it?" The place that they had stopped at was an arcade that Elizabeta and Gilbert used to go to frequently as children. Now this wasn't just a dinky little arcade. This arcade had its own building and was devoted to updating the games so you could bet to see a new game every few months. Of course that doesn't mean that they got rid of the classic games.

Elizabeta's first thought of when she saw this place was how the atmosphere of a "date" was ruined. While it never was a date, she couldn't necessarily pretend to be going on a romantic outing while being constantly reminded of one's childhood. But that didn't make her sad. If anything it made her happier. Spending some time at a childhood haunt might bring back the closeness that they lost over the years.

Gilbert was thinking about how another part of his plan was falling into place. This time it make her realize that she has the most fun when she is around him. And what better way to do this then bring her to a place where they used to have so much fun when they were kids.

"Well what are you waiting for," Gilbert asked Elizabeta. "Those games aren't going to play themselves you know."

"I'm coming," she said. "I don't understand why this had to be a secret. It's not like you were taking me to somewhere secretive."

Gilbert shrugged his shoulders. "I wanted to see your reaction." They got out of the car and walked inside the building leaving Ludwig and Feliciano alone in the car.

"It won't be long now," said Feliciano.

"Not long till what," asked Ludwig.

"Till they become honest with their feelings with each other."

Ludwig raised an eyebrow. "I guess you could be right. Since you're already here, want to go watch a movie?"

"Sure."

As they walked into the arcade, the sense of nostalgia continued. Other than a few changes in the recent games, nothing much had changed.

"So where do you want to start," asked Gilbert.

Elizabeta thought for a few moments. "How about we start with the older games."

"Sounds good to me. Wait while I go get some tokens." Gilbert left and quickly came back with pockets full of tokens. "I bet I can get a higher score than you in donkey kong."

"You're on."

After that, at least for a while, they were concentrated on their rivalry. This wasn't uncommon, as this is what they mostly did when they went to the arcade as children. They started off with Donkey Kong, which Gilbert won, and it all ended with Dance Dance Revolution with Elizabeta pulling a massive victory.

Since it was lunchtime, they decided to take a break and eat. They ate the typical fare at the arcade, which was pizza. As they ate, they chat with each other.

"Are we going to play video games all day," asked Elizabeta.

"Nah. I figured we would stop here today. Then after that you can decide what to do."

"You're letting me decide?"

Gilbert shrugged his shoulders. "Honestly I don't know what we would do after this, and I don't think I can spend all day playing arcade games."

"I thought you were the type of person that would play video games all day unless someone stopped you."

"The games aren't the problem for me. It's all the screaming children."

At that exact moment a small pair of children decided that it was time to scream their heads off causing them to laugh. It was then decided that they would walk around town, till Ludwig found them to drive them back home. They walked for a while before eventually settling down on a park bench.

They were talking and eventually Elizabeta's sleeping party came up. She started talking about how Lily was such a nice girl and that she was going to invite her. Elizabeta pondered telling Gilbert about her plans with Roderich. She then dismissed the thought from her mind. She thought Gilbert would only make fun of Roderich and eventually might even ruin the plans.

It was then Elizabeta noticed someone out of the corner of her eye. "Oh shit it's Stacy!" She grabbed Gilbert's hand and started pulling him towards a group of trees despite his protests. She pushed him into the cover of the trees and quickly followed him.

"What is going on," asked Gilbert.

She shushed him. "I saw Stacy walking towards us. I don't want to have to deal with her today so I decided we might at least hide. Luckily she didn't see us yet."

As Stacy and her companion started walking closer, Elizabeta crouched down and Gilbert followed suit. It was then that Gilbert noticed how close he was to Elizabeta. As he stared at her profile, a sudden urge to kiss her came onto him. While he wanted nothing more than to do that, he had to resist.

Eventually Stacy passed by and Elizabeta let out a sigh. She turned to talk to Gilbert when she noticed the way he was looking at her. Gilbert quickly looked away, but Elizabeta saw enough to interpret what it meant. Her heart started to beat faster when she thought of what that look could have possibly meant.

"Stacy is long gone so we can leave now," she managed to say. Gilbert gave a quick nod and they left the grove. Elizabeta was struggling of thinking of something to say, but all she could think of was how fast her heart was beating. She decided to push away her thoughts of his look for the moment. Now wasn't the time to think about that. However, her heart wouldn't stop beating.

It was Gilbert who spoke next. "You want to hide inside and go watch a movie," he asked.

Elizabeta regained some of her composure and agreed with him. They walked to the nearby theater. Since it was a small theater, it was only showing one movie at the time. While they both have seen Gremlins a bunch before, they decided it was better than waiting outside and possibly running into Stacy again.

Once they got settled into the seats with their popcorn and drinks, Gilbert realized what kind of situation they were in. This was the perfect situation for him to try and maybe put the next step of his plan into action. This was slightly flirting with her. Not that much but just to see what her reactions would be. He was about to do the cliche yawn and put his arm behind her, but caught himself before doing it. While something like that worked in the movies, he wasn't aware of how well it would work in real life. Would it cause a girl to roll her eyes in how cliche he was or grin with how romantic he was being.

The truth was that Gilbert never flirted with anyone before. Ever since he was little, the only person that he had ever been interested in was Elizabeta. The movie had already started, and Gilbert still hadn't decided on what to do. He was so worried that he was going to mess up flirting, that the movie had ended before he had even tempted anything. After they left the theater Gilbert noticed that Ludwig had texted them that it was time to go home.

During the ride back, both Gilbert and Elizabeta were absorbed in thought. Gilbert was kicking himself for not doing anything, and Elizabeta was busy pondering the meaning of the look he gave her.

Later that night, when Elizabeta was laying in bed, all she could think of was the way that Gilbert had looked at her. She kept on analyzing the look and trying to find possible meanings in it. Of course she thought of how the look meant he liked her. But she didn't want to believe this and end up being wrong. Bringing up her hopes and then having them smashed would only worsen her current situation.

She tried thinking of her slumber party that was coming up, but she couldn't stop thinking about it. The moment kept on playing in her head like a broken record player.

The next week passed uneventfully. With the big test that was coming up on Thursday, neither Elizabeta or Roderich had any time to think about helping each other out. Gilbert had decided to wait a while before pulling off the next part of his plan since he didn't want to rush the process. Vash hadn't contacted Roderich yet out of his own free will, but Elizabeta hoped that it wouldn't take too long before that happened.

Friday came quickly along with Elizabeta's slumber party. The people invited to the sleeping party were Lily, Natalia, and Belle. Usually it would just be Natalia and Belle, but Elizabeta decided Lily would be a good inclusion to their trio.

When Friday rolled around Lily was excited to go to the slumber party. She had never gone to one before, so she was a little nervous but also excited. After school was finished on Friday, Lily headed straight towards Elizabeta's place. She took everything that she would need with her to school so she didn't have to go home. There was no guarantee that Greg would remember that he had already agreed that she could go to the slumber party.

Since Lily would be going straight to Elizabeta's house, they agreed to meet near the entrance of the school so they could walk home together. Lily went there after saying goodbye to her brother and saw that Elizabeta was already waiting for her there. They then started walking to Elizabeta's home.

"Do you know Belle and Natalia," asked Elizabeta.

Lily shook her head in response.

"Belle is a sweet girl. I think you two should get along. Natalia has a prickly nature at first. She'll be really cold and might be outright mean sometimes. Once she warms up to someone she becomes friendly and fiercely protective. So no matter what she says don't assume she hates you."

"So what should I do around her?"

"Just be yourself and don't take anything she says to heart. Hopefully it won't take too long for her to warm up to you."

Lily nodded. When they got to Elizabeta's house, Elizabeta introduced Lily to her parents. They then went upstairs to Elizabeta's room. It wasn't much longer till Belle arrived.

When Lily saw Belle, she got the impression that was a nice person like Elizabeta said.

"Hey Elizabeta," said Belle. She saw Lily on the stairs and gave her a small wave. "You must be Lily! It's nice to meet you!"

Lily said it was nice to meet her as well.

Belle held up a bag that she brought with her. "I brought some chocolate with me."

Elizabeta took the bag and thanked her. It was soon after that that Natalia showed up. Unlike Belle, she didn't say anything when she got walked inside. She just greeted Elizabeta with a brief nod and looked at Lily.

"This is Lily. The girl that I was talking about earlier," said Elizabeta.

"Hello," mumbled Natalia. After this she just walked past Lily and went up into Elizabeta's room.

Elizabeta shrugged at Lily. "Well at least she said hi."

They all walked into Elizabeta's room and got settled. "My parents are ordering pizza later around 6. Around 11 we should at least try to be quiet or they might try to kill me tomorrow. So what do you guys want to do first," Elizabeta asked.

Belle got a sly smile on her face. "How about you tell me what's been going on between you and Gilbert recently," she said.

Elizabeta immediately blushed. "Nothing is going on between us," she stammered out.

"Sure. Then explain why Roderich is asking people if Gilbert has a crush on anybody?"

"Roderich was doing what? He could have at least tried to be more subtle about it," said Elizabeta.

"So you do like him!"

"I didn't say that."

"There's no need to hide it anymore. It's obvious that you like him!"

"Whose Gilbert," asked Lily.

"Elizabeta's childhood friend," said Belle. "You've probably seen him around school since he's kind of hard to miss. He has white hair, red eyes, and has a really loud personality."

"I think I've seen him before."

"All of you have to promise me that you won't tell anybody this," said Elizabeta.

Belle shrugged her shoulders. "Fine. But why does it matter if it's a secret. You guys can't get together if you're afraid to tell him your feelings."

"If this was any other guy I would totally tell him my feelings. I'm afraid if I tell him and he doesn't return my feelings, we will stop being friends," said Elizabeta. "I also don't need any help," she added.

"Ah yes, I can already tell that Roderich is such a valuable asset to you," said Belle sarcastically.

"I can help you out," said Natalia.

"No offense Natalia, but I don't think your approach to guys should be a role model."

Natalia shrugged. "I think my method works perfectly fine."

"Why don't we talk about something else," said Elizabeta.

"Sure," said Belle. "How about you tell us something about yourself," she said to Lily.

"I don't really know what to say."

"Just some basic things like your interests and what not," said Belle.

"Um...I guess I really like pretty things, but I don't know if that's an interest."

"Family," asked Belle.

"I have my big brother Vash," said Lily.

"Vash is your brother," said Natalia in surprise.

"You don't look much like your brother," said Belle.

"I'm not his sister by blood," said Lily. "When I was a little girl I was put in the same foster family as him. Ever since then we've stuck together and he's become the closest thing I have to a family."

"Family is important no matter if it's blood or not," said Natalia. "Take for instance my brother and sister. I would do anything for them and they would do the same."

Lily nodded. She felt the exact same way. Vash was the world to her and she knew that he felt the same way.

"Anyway, who's game for some super smash bros," asked Elizabeta.

"Yes. I will crush all you once again," said Natalia.

Belle sighed. "It's no fun when you win all the time."

"This time we have Lily playing," said Elizabeta. "This might be the end of Natalia's reign of terror."

As it happened, Lily had a knack for playing games. Well at least enough skill that with the joined efforts of Belle and Elizabeta they were finally able to defeat Natalia.

After this Belle decided that it would be a good idea if they painted they each other's nails. While Belle was painting Lily's nails she asked, "So what is it like having Vash for a big brother? I imagine that he can be scary sometimes."

"Not really. He's always been very kind towards me. Though I do get worried about him sometimes."

"About what?"

Lily paused a bit before continuing. "I think that sometimes my brother is overworking himself. When he isn't at his part time job, he's doing homework. I barely see him relax now a days."

"I know how you feel," said Belle. "My brother is only worried about money. He graduated a while back and now he is so concentrated on his job that he rarely comes to visit us anymore. Every time that I try to bring up the subject he starts talking about something else."

"Well at least your brother isn't avoiding you specifically. He rarely stays in the same room as me anymore," said Natalia.

"That's because you freak him out sometimes," said Elizabeta.

Natalia shrugged. "Maybe I wouldn't seem so clingy if he would just hang out with me every once in a while."

"I wish brother would be able to spend more time with me," said Lily.

"How about trying to get him to hang out with you more. He doesn't have to work all the time," said Belle.

"That sounds like a good idea," Lily lied. In reality this wasn't much of a possibility. They needed the money since Greg didn't support them much. Of course she offered to get a part time job as well. But Vash was against that since Lily wasn't old enough and he thought he could handle everything. Lily knew that age wasn't an issue since he was able to get a job when he was her age. But Lily knew that they're would be no arguing with Vash.

Natalia might of sensed Lily's unease, because she quickly changed the subject. Lily silently thanked Natalia.

Later when they were going to sleep, Natalia and Lily where near each other. "It'll get better one day," whispered Natalia.

"What do you mean," asked Lily.

"With your brother. My family was in a bad situation not too long ago."

"Where you...in the foster system?"

Natalia nodded. "Our parents died when we were kids. For a while my older sister tried to take care of us. Then someone informed the authorities and we had to go to the orphanage. Somehow she managed to keep us together for a long time. Then one time we got separated when we were adopted. For me that was a very hard time for me. Growing up they were all that I had, so when I wasn't near them anymore I got depressed."

"What happened?"

"My brother ran away and managed to find us. After that they had no choice put to make sure we were together. We would do whatever it took to make sure that we would always be together. Now we're adopted by an old couple who thought it wouldn't be right to separate us."

"That's sounds nice."

"So keep your chin up. One day it will all work out. You'll see."

The next morning, everyone was leaving to go back to their homes. As Natalia was leaving she waved and said, "See you at school," to Lily.

"She likes you," said Elizabeta.

"I like her as well as well," said Lily. She then saw what time it was and decided she needed to go home. She picked up her bags and said, "Thank you for having me over."

"No problem. It was fun with you here. You should definitely come over more often."

She waved goodbye to Elizabeta and hoped that she would invite her again since she had fun.

When Lily got home she ran into her foster father. The moment she walked in she could tell something was wrong. She looked around for Vash, but then remembered that he was at work.

"You think you can spend the night somewhere else without my permission," asked Greg.

"It was only one night. I was just with a friend. It's not that big of a deal."

"Not that big of a deal! Ever since you guys have come here I have laid down some ground rules. One of them was you must ask my permission to go anywhere ever since you two tried running off!"

"But I did ask you, you just don't remember!"

"You calling me an idiot!"

"No I was just-" Her words were cut off when Greg threw his beer can at her head. Fear coursed through her body and she ran into her room and locked the door as Greg came after her. He started banging on the door. Lily didn't know how much longer the door would last, so she went towards the window. Much to her surprise, the window was nailed down.

She pulled out her phone and sent a text to Vash telling him she needed help. On second thought she sent one to Elizabeta as well. The banging wouldn't stop and only got louder. She quickly ran into the closet and shut the door. She could only hope that someone would come before Greg managed to break down the door.

A/N: Really sorry for the long wait! I got busy with school! Please review!