The reason no man knows, let it suffice,
What we behold is censur'd by our eyes.
Where both deliberate, the love is slight:
Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight?
-Christopher Marlowe, Hero and Leander
Gilbert stared at the same trophy cabinets that Mr. Vargas showed them earlier that day. Although he tried not to show it, he too had been quite affected by that day's Literature lesson. Sure, it was weird at first, especially with the fact that Mr. Vargas didn't look extremely serious while talking. In the 10 years that Gilbert had stayed in Hellton, he never learned those lessons or had it handed to him in that manner. It was always those unimportant things like how to find x in the equation or the correct pronunciation of certain Latin words. Today's lesson impacted him a lot more than most other lessons did. It made him realize that he wanted to seize the day for himself, but he didn't really have a reason to do that. Or at least, he couldn't find his purpose for doing it. Yet.
"Are you ready, Mr. Beilschmidt?" Mrs. Karpusi interrupted his thoughts, descending from the steps of the dorm.
Gilbert sighed. "Ready to go, Mrs. Karpusi."
He pushed aside all thoughts of those two Latin words. As of now, he had a dinner to get over with.
In the 10 years that Gilbert had stayed in Hellton, he never actually had the chance to see the town surrounding the old campus. The houses weren't as old as the school's buildings, but they also had an air of age as Mrs. Karpusi drove through the small streets. The old street lamps didn't shine enough light on the road, but it at least gave Gilbert the view of the stars that began twinkling in the dark blue sky. The Greek lady pulled the breaks a few minutes later, announcing their arrival to the Eidelsteins' house.
The teacher and the student got off the car, and Gilbert rang the doorbell. He heard a few voices behind the door ("Roderich, can you get that?" "Sorry, mom. I'm cleaning my Stradivarius.") before hearing a sweet, honey-like voice saying, "I'll get it."
The door opened in slow-motion, revealing an angel. Well, she wasn't actually a legit angel, but if someone gave her wings and a halo, she probably would look like a legit one. Her light brown hair fell in waves past her shoulders, and her bangs were clipped back by three pink flowers. Her forest green eyes seemed to smile despite the cold autumn wind, and Gilbert found himself rendered speechless. Heck, that's never actually happened before.
"Can I help you?" the girl asked after a few moments of silence.
Gilbert swallowed. How long was he staring at her? "Um… Hi. I'm Gilbert Beilschmidt. But otherwise, you can call me 'T-the Awesome One'. T-this is Mrs. Karpusi." Was he stuttering? Okay, that wasn't something an awesome one did at all.
The girl smiled. "Hi, 'The Awesome One'. Good evening, Mrs. Karpusi."
"This is the Eidelsteins' place, right?" Gilbert needed to make sure.
"Of course it is!" Mrs. Karpusi frowned. "Do you doubt my knowledge of the area, Mr. Beilschmidt?"
"N-no, ma'am," Gilbert said. Wrong move, he thought.
"Are you here to see Roderich?" The girl asked, holding back some laughs.
Wait, what? Gilbert narrowed his eyes and pointed. "Are you… Mrs. Eidelstein…?"
She burst out laughing. "No. I'm Elizaveta Hedervary."
Before Gilbert could comprehend Elizaveta's words, an Austrian lady who was in her late 40s appeared next to the girl, looking embarrassed. She brushed her light blonde hair away from her blue eyes. "Sorry about that. Thank you, Elizaveta."
Elizaveta (which was a suitable name for her, Gilbert thought) smiled once more at Gilbert before disappearing into the house.
"I'm Maria Theresa," said the Austrian lady. "You must be Gilbert, right?"
Gilbert nodded, faking a smile. His mind was somewhere else. Elizaveta's dating Roderich Eidelstein…? How am I going to compete with that? HOW DO I COMPETE WITH THAT AUSTRIAN PRODIGY?!
Mrs. Eidelstein told Mrs. Karpusi that she could fetch Gilbert at nine, and motioned the Prussian to enter the house. His mind was caught up with Elizaveta as Mrs. Eidelstein had him sit in their living room. Mr. Eidelstein entered the room after. "Gilbert, how are you?" The Austrian man smiled and shook his hand. "I'm Franz Eidelstein."
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Eidelstein." Those few words were Gilbert's attempt (and failure) at politeness. But the man in front of him didn't seem to notice.
"He's the spitting image of Frederick, huh, Maria?" Mr. Eidelstein remarked. "How is he?"
"He's great, actually. Just did a big case for GM," Gilbert was proud to announce.
"Ha! I know where you're headed then," Mr. Eidelstein grinned. "Like father, like son."
"Have you met our niece Clarita, by the way?" Mrs. Eidelstein smiled. "Clarita, come down here and greet our guest!"
A few seconds later an Asian girl who was probably a few years younger than him stood next to the lady, looking embarrassed. She brushed her dark brown (almost black) hair away from her chocolate brown eyes and stared intently at Gilbert, having never seen an albino before.
"Clarita, say hello!" Mr. Eidelstein insisted, snapping the girl from her trance.
"Tito, I told you how many times that I hate being called 'Clarita'," she said exasperatedly. "I prefer being called 'Maria', thank you very much."
"Yes, but you are not the only Maria here," Mr. Eidelstein pointed out. "That's why that nickname has to stick with you."
"Okay, okay." Maria turned to Gilbert and smiled. "Kumusta, kuya Gilbert! I am Maria Clara dela Cruz. Kuya Antonio and tito Franz told me so much about you. I'm glad that we finally have the opportunity to meet one another!"
"Oh right," Gilbert said, realizing something. "You're Antonio's younger sister?"
"Adopted younger sister," Maria corrected.
"Sit down here, Clarita," Mr. Eidelstein said, motioning to the space next to him. Maria obeyed. The father then turned to the Prussian. "Did Frederick ever tell you about the case we had together?" Gilbert shook his head. "He didn't tell you what happened?"
"No, he didn't," Gilbert replied.
"Oh, well," Mr. Eidelstein began. "We were really stuck. I was sure we had lost the biggest case of my life. Then your father comes to me and tells me, 'I can weasel a settlement, but you'll have to give me the entire fee from our client.' That son of a gun!" He laughed. "Guess what I did."
"Um… You let him have it?"
"I let him have it!" Mr. Eidelstein repeated. He broke into foolish laughter. "I was so desperate. I let your father take the whole fee!"
Mrs. Eidelstein also laughed, wiping a tear from her eye. She stood up. "Excuse me while I see how things are going for dinner."
As she exited, Elizaveta and Roderich Eidelstein (the younger, spitting image of Mr. Eidelstein) came downstairs and stood at the doorpost, smiling (Elizaveta's was just beautiful while Roderich's was just plain awkward and made Gilbert want to send him to hell) and holding hands. Roderich adjusted the strap of his violin bag.
"Dad, may I take the Cadillac?" Roderich asked.
"What's wrong with your car, Roderich?" Mr. Eidelstein asked in reply.
"Kuya Roderich!" Maria suddenly exclaimed. "Where are your manners?" She stood up and walked over to the couple. "Kuya Gilbert, this is kuya Roderich. This is ate Elizaveta, Roderich's girlfriend."
"Hi, Gilbert Beilschmidt," the Prussian said, allowing his tone to drop a few degrees. "We sort of met. Almost."
Elizaveta nodded, smiling.
"Yes, hi." Roderich said abruptly, imitating Gilbert's tone. "Um, dad, is it too much of a problem?"
"I bought you a sports car and suddenly you want to take my car all the time," Mr. Eidelstein pointed out.
"I understand, dad," Roderich said. "It's just that… Mrs. Hedervary feels safer when we're in a bigger car. Right, Elizaveta?"
"It's okay, Roderich," said Elizaveta. "If Mr. Eidelstein insists that we don't use it, then we'll just stick with your car."
"But—"
"It's alright. Seriously."
"No, I—"
"Shall we talk about this privately, Roderich?" Mr. Eidelstein's warm tone disappeared. He stood up and left the room with Roderich.
Gilbert coughed awkwardly and attempted to open up to Elizaveta. "So, um… Where do you study, Elizaveta?"
"Ridgeway High," Elizaveta said, eyes avoiding his. She turned away and started talking to Maria. "How do you like Assumption College, Maria?"
"It's okay if you can manage being stuck with people who only care about boys and soirees," Maria said. "Luckily I found some people who are geeks like me." She winked.
Elizaveta turned to Gilbert. "That's your sister school, right?"
"Yeah, in a way," he replied.
Maria and Elizaveta sat on the couch where Mr. Eidelstein had been seated earlier. "So, Maria, are you going to audition for Shakespeare festival this year?"
"Maybe," said the Asian. "I wanted to join last year, but I needed to pull up my grades…"
"They're doing Hamlet this year," Elizaveta said. "You really should audition, Maria. You did great as Portia in the Merchant of Venice. Maybe you can play as Ophelia this year."
"I don't know. I wanted to play as Lady Macbeth last year, but I didn't even get that role…"
"So, how'd you meet Roderich?" Gilbert butted in. As much as he wanted to know about Maria's acting problems, he kind of had his own problems. His ego fell a bit upon seeing Elizaveta's glare. "I mean… That is… Err…"
"He transferred to our school because his parents wanted to experience different kinds of people. Well, it's not that his classmates weren't unique, but his parents believed that going to a co-ed school for high school would help him handle the culture-shock of going to college better," Elizaveta narrated. "I happened to catch him playing in the music room one day, and that was how we met." She had a sweet smile on her face as she spoke, making Gilbert feel sick. The Hungarian caught herself, then continued talking. "He told me he used to study at Welton."
"Yeah. He was my classmate for a while until we graduated from grade school," Gilbert said.
Elizaveta turned back to Maria. "Really, Maria. You should audi—"
"Elizaveta?" Roderich's voice cut her short. Elizaveta looked up. "Shall we take our leave? I have the keys."
"Okay." Elizaveta rose from her seat. She smiled at Gilbert. "It was nice meeting you, Gilbert. See you next time, Maria."
"Bye, Elizaveta," he and Maria said in unison.
The couple left the room. Gilbert stood up and walked over to the window. He moved the curtains to peek at the outside. Roderich opened the door to the car, motioning Elizaveta to enter in a gentleman-like manner. Elizaveta took his hand, grinned, and planted a kiss on Roderich's lips. Roderich turned as red as a tomato and stiffened, but returned the kiss not long after.
It all made Gilbert sick.
"Something wrong, kuya Gilbert?" Maria's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"No," Gilbert lied. "No, no, no, nothing's wrong."
When Gilbert entered the students' lounge, it was a bit chaotic even if it was already 30 minutes to lights out. Kiku and Yao were working on some sort of "hi-fi system" as they called it, while Alfred, Ivan, and Francis were sitting together and working on the Geometry homework.
"Which postulate states that for every real number, there is exactly one point on the line?" Ivan asked, looking up from his book.
"The Ruler Postulate," Alfred replied without meeting his eyes.
"Thanks." Ivan wrote something in the book then smiled. "I can remember all the concepts, but I can't remember the titles. That's not good…"
Gilbert sat next to Francis. Francis looked up from his notes and grinned. "How was dinner, mon ami?"
The albino sighed. "Terrible. Awful. I've just discovered something worse than Hellton hash."
"Why? What happened?" Alfred asked. "Did you get emotionally scarred or something like that?"
Gilbert shook his head. "Tonight, I met the most beautiful girl in my life."
Francis whistled. "Are you crazy, mon ami? There is nothing wrong with that, unless it turns out she's a nun-in-training. Congratula—!"
"It's worse than a nun-in-training. She's practically engaged," Gilbert spat. "To Roderich Eidelstein."
"The Austrian prodigy, huh?" Ivan butted in. "You've got some tough competition."
"A real person is easier to compete against," Francis said. "Unfortunately I'm competing against God."
"Francis, that was a long time ago," said Gilbert. "Can we please focus on my problems for now?"
"Oui, go ahead. I don't want to be reminded of her, anyway."
"Thank you!"
"That's too bad, Gilbert," Yao joined the conversation from the table where he sat with Kiku.
"Too bad?! It's worse than too bad, Wang!" Gilbert lamented. "It's practically a Shakespearean tragedy! How am I supposed to compete with the fact that she's already in deep with that lucky bastard?"
"All the good ones go for the musicians, you know," Francis pointed out. "The quiet musicians especially. Plus the fact that Roderich has been playing violin and composing pieces ever since he was born. How are you going to beat that?"
"Shut up, Francis." Alfred frowned. "We need to help Gilbert forget about it. Hey Gil, what does the line-point theorem state?"
"I can't just forget about her, Al," Gilbert said, the seriousness in his face quite a sight to see. "And I can't just think about geometry. I'd rather focus on real problems instead of word problems."
The radio that Yao and Kiku were working on interrupted the conversation with a high-pitched hum. The Asians' eyes widened.
"We got it!" Yao exclaimed.
"Yes!" Kiku smiled.
Their joy ended around two minutes later when Mrs. Karpusi entered the room. "All right, boys. Five minutes. Let's go."
The students groaned, then packed up all their things. Yao tried to hide the radio in his lap. Francis leaned close to Gilbert and whispered, "Did you see her naked, mon ami?"
Gilbert scowled. "Very funny, Francis. Isn't there anything else in that brain of yours?"
Mrs. Karpusi crossed her arms and glared at Yao. "That better not be a radio in your lap, Mr. Wang. You know the dorm rules. No radios or beepers."
"It's a science experiment, Karpusi-sensei," said Kiku. "Radar desu."
Yao held up the antenna as if demonstrating it, but his smile didn't quite reach the dorm lady's olive green eyes.
A/N: We've finally reached this chapter, people! Ugh, I finally got over the writer's block I had here. I'm really glad. It looks like the poetry gods finally answered my prayers, thank heavens.
I also apologize if anyone here doesn't ship PruHun. I ship it, so I wanted to try my hand at writing a pairing that isn't my OTP, but is still as important to me.
Try to guess which country Maria Clara (God bless her) is (even if it's sort-of obvious, to be honest here), and maybe I'll give you a cookie or a virtual hug. I don't know. Just tell me in the reviews. We will probably see her more in the future chapters. Just saying~!
Special shout-outs to aphrodite931, Noire Knightmare (the awesome Ariadne-sama), and X for leaving reviews! Thank you also to those who favorite-d, followed, and read this fic. I can't write a chapter without thanking all of you guys, seriously. All of you folks motivate me so much!
Anyways, by now you should know the drill. Leave a comment in the review box below and tell me what you thought about this chapter. Thank you and have a nice day!