Gilbert stared into the glowing warmth of his laptop screen. For a man who normally had to have the last word on anything, he was rather speechless. Was this allowed? And what decided what was allowed or not? The unspoken rules of the universe? Did the universe, at its moment of creation, leave enough room for technological development? Did some higher being simply not plan on Roderich speaking to him over skype? Could his Last Words be… incorrect?
"Gilbert?" The Austrian accent pierced through his wall of questions.
"Ja… I'm Gilbert…" He said, unintelligibly.
"I am glad I found you." Roderich said, the shakiness fading from his voice. He returned to a more stern look, the one Gilbert was familiar with from that fateful night at Nollendorfplatz.
"I… am glad too…!"
"You know, I actually did have a hard time believing in soul mates for a long time. Probably most of my life until a few years ago." He quickly ran a hand back through his tangled hair, smoothing it over to one side. "You see, my parents were not soulmates, so I didn't think such a thing was necessary…"
Roderich continued on, but Gilbert was lost. Lost in his face, lost in the screen, lost in thought. There was something… wrong. Seriously wrong, and Gilbert's mind wandered to the most severe. Could this be some elaborate hoax? Was this a dream? If this was real… could the universe punish them for breaking its laws?
"What are your Last Words?" Gilbert suddenly asked, interrupting Roderich's sentence. In return he received only a disapproving look.
"I won't tell you, that would be… a little morose, don't you agree?" Roderich raised a thin eyebrow, the reflection of Gilbert staring into the screen burned blue onto his rectangular lenses.
"But… didn't I…" Gilbert trailed off.
"Let's not talk about it." Roderich said firmly. Gilbert decided it was clear that Roderich didn't want to discuss the inevitable… what Gilbert had already discussed with himself and hadn't quite come to terms with.
They sat in a box of silence for a long while, waiting for the other to say something. Roderich simply stared straight ahead at him, while he looked all over Roderich's face for some sort of imperfections in the screen, trying to memorize his whole face as if he had not done so from the hundreds of pictures he had seen of him.
"I like your song." Gilbert finally said, boldly and suddenly.
"Oh?" Roderich said with a slight grin, not bothering to ask which one he was referring to. "Well, I'm glad, thank you."
He looked down at his pale hands on his lap and the worn patch of carpet he was sitting on. Something was very wrong…
"Would you like to meet in person some time?" Roderich asked, clearly trying not to be as interested as he was in continuing the conversation.
"...what?" Gilbert stopped the tracks in his mind, everything coming to a hault as he looked back up at his apparent Soulmate.
"I am coming to Berlin for a few of Die Nummerierten's tour dates, perhaps we could get together," Roderich suggested. "Would you like to meet up somewhere? Preferably some place notable, I do have a tendency to get lost, as I'm sure you know…"
What was wrong with him? Did he think he could just… break the unspoken - but not unwritten - laws of the universe? Gilbert was dumbfounded. He thought he took risks, but here was his soulmate willing to break through universal constants just to grab coffee. And what could he say? No? Denying it didn't seem to work with him, either. Maybe Austrians were different?
"Well…" Gilbert pondered for a moment. Should he just? Agree? He already felt like he was breaking enough rules… though did it "count" if you weren't speaking in person? Could they talk over the phone or send texts or…? "We could meet at the Brandenburg Gate or some tourist area, there are plenty of people to guide you around if you do get lost." He was surprised that he managed to say something… so casual.
"That sounds fine. I will give you my phone number, then." This sounded more like a business deal than a date…
"Uh, alright, I'll just type in mine." Gilbert reached down and punched his phone number into the keys, wondering how this could possibly be real. This was a dream, he thought. This had to be a dream.
"Oh, alright, thank you. Well, it is getting late, so we should both go to sleep," Roderich said, running his hands through his hair yet again. "It was nice to get in contact with you, and I will see you soon."
"Ja, ah… good night." He stumbled as Roderich smiled politely and closed out of the call.
Gilbert was a fairly intelligent individual. He knew plenty on engineering, math, those sorts of things. He wasn't too bad at music, history, or writing. But he had always been on edge with the metaphysical. And he decided that whatever sort of situation was happening between him and Roderich and whatever sorts of soulmate rules there were… was a metaphysical something. And whatever this metaphysical something was… well, it was confusing Gilbert, who was rarely at odds with any sort of problem. This simply seemed to be an unfixable one. Those Words on his arm were meant to be the very last thing he ever heard from him…
Abandoning his coffee, he decided this was a problem for another day, and closed the computer and went to bed.
The wind had grown ever so slightly colder in the weeks since he had met Roderich. The crisp smell of cold air was harsh against his face as he walked further and further down the street towards the rendezvous point they had designated. More and more people - tourists - began to gather the further he went towards the popular sight-seeing spot of the Brandenburg Gate. He hoped that Roderich would be able to find his way.
He spotted the statue on the top of the gate as he ventured further down the crowded street. The entire population of Berlin and its tourists were buzzing with the arrival of Die Nummerierten, partially because of the band's popularity, and partially because the news of Roderich Edelstein going on tour with them was spreading through Germany like the plague had centuries before.
The sun was bright, but provided little heat. Gilbert felt ridiculous wearing sunglasses with his leather coat, but his partial albinism wasn't equipped to deal with days like this. Normally, it wasn't nearly this sunny, and of course he and Roderich had picked the wrong day to… apparently meet in public…
The thought still struck him as odd. He looked up and down the street for signs of a sudden crowd, maybe Roderich would be recognized in public. He pushed his aviators further up the bridge of his nose, his view of the entire world filtered through a dark orange lens.
He wasn't quite sure what to do. He wasn't sure if he would be able to text Roderich, as the number was an international one. He wasn't even sure if Roderich was the kind of person to text at all.
He removed his gloves, exposing his pale hands to the autumn chill, and quickly typed out a message.
"I'm in front of the Brandenburg Hotel."
Normally he wouldn't be so formal, but… might as well. The recipient seemed like to fit the type….
He immediately received a message. "Almost there. Across the street." Gilbert looked up immediately, his heart pounding as he scanned up and down the off-white scene. He momentarily paused the entire world around him as he finally spotted Roderich on the opposite sidewalk, his purple coat bright against the fading colors of the tourists and the orange tint of his glasses. Only the street separated them now…
"Roderich!" He called to him, immediately regretting it. He came to the realization that Roderich's Last Words would simply be his name, and one of them was surely meant to die in this moment. He wasn't ready for death, the thought… and he certainly wasn't prepared to watch the man who was supposed to be his soulmate just… drop dead.
Roderich's pointed profile turned to face him, and their eyes met from across the empty road and crowded sidewalks. Roderich made a small, yet polite smile, and began to walk across the street.
...without looking either way…
Gilbert panicked. This was it. Roderich would be struck by a car and that would be the end of him. He would never live happily ever after. Roderich would never again go on tour or write another song or-
Gilbert darted across the street, running at him suddenly, deciding recklessly that if Roderich was to die right here and right now, then Gilbert had nothing. He would die with him, and be barely knew this man…
He grabbed Roderich across the chest and knocked the two of them down onto the pavement, his sunglasses flying and skidding across the street. Roderich's breath audibly flew from his chest before he landed on his bottom. Gilbert, too, hit the ground on his front side, but his scarf had protected his chin from scraping.
The thing that was missing from Gilbert's equation, though, was the car that was to kill them both. There were no cars in sight. Just crowds of people who were now staring at these two men on the ground…
"Gilbert, what on earth are you doing?" Roderich scolded, his voice surreal. This… couldn't be happening. Gilbert had already heard his Last Words, so how was he hearing this now…!
"You just started crossing! You didn't even look!" Gilbert flipped over, covering his eyes with his forearms. Where were his glasses…
"There aren't any cars on this street…!" He said, shakily getting to his feet again. "This is a pedestrian road…!"
Gilbert paused, not moving his arm from his eyes, but reconsidering everything. What was he doing? Of course there were no cars, he had lived in Berlin his whole life, how did he not remember that there were no cars here… how was he speaking with Roderich… "Can you get me my sunglasses?" Was it too late to pretend that he hadn't done that…
"Your what?" Roderich asked indignantly.
"My sunglasses… I can't… I can't have my eyes in the sun…" He spoke quietly, lowering his voice with each word. He hated drawing attention to his strangeness.
The Austrian scoffed. "Don't change the subject, what exactly inspired you to knock both of us down!"
"I'm an albino, you arschloch, get me my damn sunglasses!" He shouted, trying to stand himself back up with one arm.
Roderich was silent for a long moment before Gilbert felt his fingers touch his. His heart raced for a moment as his sunglasses were passed into his fingers. This entire situation was… cartoonish. Surreal. When he placed the sunglasses on and opened his eyes again, he saw not only crowds of people staring, but Roderich standing less than a foot away from him, staring right at him. His dark eyes broke through the now-scratched orange, full of questions.
"Mommy, that's the man from the television!" A child said from several feet away. Suddenly the already noisy crowd grew louder with chatter. Everyone stirred as they realized just who this strange, pale man had knocked down. Not just another stranger, but a celebrity.
Roderich grabbed Gilbert's arm and pulled him away from the crowd, back down the street from which Gilbert had arrived by. Gilbert's heart raced from every kind of adrenaline rush he could imagine. He was with Roderich, he had just had a sudden burst of self-reflection, and he had expected to die. He stumbled behind the brunette man, knowing that Roderich knew nothing of a map of Berlin.
"Where are we going?" Gilbert asked, trying to regain his footing.
"Away from there." He answered firmly. With each word Gilbert became more on-edge. Each word could be his last, he thought, as apparently his Last Words were incorrect. "If we are to be together, are you planning to publicly embarrass me every time we go out?"
Gilbert again froze. "Excuse me?"
"Are you just going to ask me stupid questions all the time? Or are you hard of hearing?" Roderich was far less polite in-person than he was to the camera. He pulled them behind a large map mounted to the side of a building, hiding the two of them from anyone who may have been following. "Now are you going to explain what the hell you were doing!"
"I just… I thought you were going to die!" Gilbert explained, removing his sunglasses in the safety of the shaded alley. Roderich's eyes met with his, and he took a step back in surprise.
"Your eyes are…"
"Yes, they are red. I'm have partial albinism, and I'll try not to look you in the eye if it bothers you, I have to do that at work, so it's not like it bothers me." He put his sunglasses back on, looking back down towards the sunlit street.
The soulmates stood and looked in opposite directions for a few moments. Gilbert's thoughts were everywhere and nowhere. Apparently everything he knew about soulmates and how the universe worked was completely wrong. Eventually, however, Roderich broke the silence. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude."
Gilbert turned and looked at him, "You said we are going to be together." He said flatly, knowing his face appeared emotionless with his eyes hidden behind his glasses.
"We are."
