The bed was supposed to be used in turn because there is only one bed in the house. Thus, it would be Arthur's turn to sleep on the floor and handed the bed to Gilbert.
But, unfortunately or not, Arthur fell sick that night, when the rain got to him. Earned him the favour to sleep on the bed again.
He cursed a certain albino who didn't let him take the damn cigarette after the bath. Despite Gilbert had an arrogant look, he was strongly against this smoking thing.
"If you want to live here, then no smoke, of any kind. Got it?" Gilbert bossed after he threw Arthur's cigarette into the sink.
Of course that shut Arthur's yap immediately, he still needed a place to stay. He was in debt with the Prussian guy, but that doesn't mean he won't be bitter. On the side note, Gil also banned him from cooking after he completely forgot about the toast and let it burnt. The blond proceeded to try to make up by smoked the lunch as well.
"It's because of the fever." Arthur protested, mumbled to himself and the pillow.
Gilbert got himself handful afterward. He ran back and forth to take care of Arthur's fever, answer phone calls and do house chores. The house was full of dust and Gil wouldn't have any of it, if not too enthusiastic to clean it all up. He'd saying something like it won't be healthy to live like that. Watching the man from the bed, Arthur couldn't help, but chuckled at his getup. Sometimes, Gilbert noticed it and purposely made Arthur laughed even harder that he could even feel dizzy from it.
Later that day, Antonio came over to delivery the rest of Gil's stuff. So much to the blond's swear not to see this Spanish guy ever again just about yesterday.
Antonio popped his head at the bedroom's entrance, peaked at Arthur,who was lying sick.
"I heard you're having a rough fever, Arthur~" He grinned. Arthur doubted it was genuine.
He responded with a grunt and closed his eyes. Suddenly, a rain of tomatoes poured on his face. Holding the now emptied box, the Spanish man looked so satisfied with Arthur's shocked reaction. " …Tomatoes?!"
" Antonio gave us a truck of tomatoes! Isn't that just awesome!?" Gilbert yelled from the outside, excited from all the tomato boxes he got.
"…A truck of tomatoes?!" The imagining sight in Arthur's mind was terrifying. "What the bloody hell are we going to do with a truck of tomatoes?"
The Spanish guy laughed cheerfully " Oh silly Arthur, don't you know we can do a lot of things with tomato like soup, beef stew, and…", and before Antonio could start counting on his fingers, he quickly dodged the red fruit that aimed for his face.
The tomato war has triggered, them two threw the fruits everywhere and eventually ended up in handling by hand to hand as they wrestled against each other. Arthur, despite being sick, wasn't gentleman at all. Antonio swore that his skin was scratched like it could bleed, in the other hand was tugging on the blond hair roughly.
Before the two of them could make any more mess than it already was, Gilbert came in and grabbed them apart, drilled fist into Antonio's head. Cleaning duty came after that as a punishment, but Arthur was allowed skip for being the sick one. No need to say he enjoyed seeing the enemy got scolded so much. Now he knew their hatred feelings are mutual.
Antonio left as soon as finished the cleaning, claimed he still had businesses to take care of. Gilbert can finally rest from running around, he decided to go out and bought some meats, although for sure their meals will be full of tomatoes for days.
Finally some peaceful moments, Arthur could let himself ease to sleep. After all he was one wanted to get well the most, he owed Gilbert's favour too much already.
In the feverish dream, Arthur felt Gil's cold hand gently placed on his forehead, wiped away the sweats with a cold and wet handkerchief. Sometimes he would open his eyes and peaked through the blurry vision to see the albino sat within a circle of papers on the floor, the bird pillow in his lap, with a somewhat serious look on his face.
"Huh? Ah, did I wake you up?" Gilbert turned over when heard Arthur shifted in the blanket, merely whispered.
It's already dark outside.
"No, not really…what are you doing?" Arthur replied, felt he got a bit better than in the morning.
"Just piling up with the paperwork, you know, credit card, house's insurance and taxes, blah blah."
"It's boring." The Prussian man added with a yawn as stretched his arms.
"You sounded like an adult."
"Ew."
Arthur chuckled at his childish tone.
"How old are you actually?"
"Twenty."
"…Twenty?!" The Brit almost snapped up from the bed. "We're same age?!"
The albino paused his pen and cocked an eyebrow to the other. "What did you even expect?"
"Well , I don't know, you are in a country one ocean away from home? You owned a house alone? I thought you're much older than that." If not the white hair gave away that feeling as well. But, man, having your own house at this age, that's something even if it was from inheritance.
" I'm just that awesome." Gilbert snickered. He turned away, suppressed a cough in his throat. "Hm, but that means, shouldn't you be in college now? " Obviously Gil meant about the reason why Arthur ran away from home.
Arthur went silence. The other didn't seem to bother pressing on, the sound of his pen continued echoing in the room.
Gilbert coughed. "It's getting cold, you should tug yourself in properly." As said, he stood up to get to the kitchen, dragged the pillow along. Arthur followed eyes on the man. He was aware sleeping on the floor wouldn't be so warm, plus, Gil constantly took care of him, the cold bug would affect the other sooner or later.
He stared up the ceiling awhile, before ticked his tongue and got off the bed.
The albino didn't mind flicking the kitchen's light on, swallowed a glassful of water and he breathed hard. Truthfully, he had been pushing himself today, to take care of Arthur and the house at the same time. He didn't want to give space for his mind to scatter in trivial thoughts. The Prussian sighed, placed the empty glass aside and reached for his beloved Gilbird pillow on the counter. Its zipper was opened, he proceeded to close it back up and cleaned up the counter.
"Beilschmidt?"
The switch flicked on as the room suddenly brightened up, gave Gilbert a jump. Arthur wondered if he had a weak nerve or something whenever he got called.
"H-Huh?" The starlight hair man quickly turned around, tossed whatever on his hand into the trash bin behind his back, away from the new presence's eyes. "Arthur, wassup man? Can't sleep?"
Gilbert's reaction was obviously off paces, but Arthur decided to shrug it away " Well, just to check if you're going to sleep soon."
Instead of saying "Did my staying up bothered you?" Gilbert went with a teasing smirk " Why, need the awesome me to sing you a lullaby to sleep?"
Arthur's brows were slightly brought together, but soon they loosened into an amused look. " Sounds good. I'd love to see how you pull that off with your voice."
Gilbert pursed lips into a boyish pout; he couldn't tell whether Arthur was mocking or genuine about it. The British crossed his arms and leaned shoulder against the wall, watched the albino's adorable face.
"Are you going to sleep on floor?" He asked.
"Well, yeah, duh." Gil retorted short, then his shoulder lifted slightly. "Don't worry, it's fine. You're still nursing your fever."
They had been through this conversation before. Gilbert insisted Arthur to stay in bed no matter what and complained how the Brit didn't know how to take care of himself, while the other claimed he did it just fine, they almost fought about it. If both parties were stubborn back then, one of them should be well aware not to be stubborn now. Yet, Arthur had another solution.
"Actually, I was meant to ask…" Arthur paused slightly, reconsidering his words. "… Do you want to sleep with me?"
The vermilion eyes widened and shot look over Arthur in confusion, sputtered. " W-What?"
The Brit studied Gilbert long before tugged a mug smirk.
"… I like the way you think but." His tone teased, although somehow he found the revoking idea wasn't so bad. He practically purred" I meant, we could share the bed. It's huge enough for two people."
To add on, he mouthed secretively "Don't worry, I won't do anything."
Gilbert stiffed slightly, his cheeks reddened, but a challenge smirk soon hid it away. "Please. What could you even possibly do?"
Arthur shrugged, his confident smile wasn't dropped, sent chill to Gilbert's spine. "But what about you? " Gil glanced away, cleared his throat. " Do you mind of sharing the bed? I don't want to make you uncomfortable, man."
"Oh, it's fine." The Briton paused, a bit of guilt slipped in his eyes. " It's better than letting you sleep on the floor. This is… your house."
That left Arthur to a question, why didn't Gil just kick him out of the house for being such a burden?
"…Alright. Let's beat the bed now." Gilbert grinned, carried the bird pillow with him.
"You really like that thing, don't you?" Arthur smiled, eyed on the yellow thing in Gilbert's arms.
"Oi! Gilbird is not "that thing"!"
"...Gilbird? You even named your pillow?" Arthur frowned, muffled a laugh.
" And what's wrong with that?" The albino huffed and landed himself on the bed. He rolled to the side to give Arthur space. " He is my friend."
The look Arthur gave Gilbert was no mistake a pitiful one, made Gil deepened his frown even more. The blond sat down on the edge of the bed, made it dipped slightly.
"You have a fondness for cutesy, huh?" He smiled.
"I'm that awesome." The albino grumbled, nuzzled his face into Gilbird.
The blond rolled his eyes and watched over, admired the sight Gilbert laid out on the bed in his tank top and short sweatpants, a part of his hips revealed slightly under the wrinkle gap.
Arthur might not realize he had been staring at the albino for minutes if the other didn't turn to him with a scowl.
" Go to sleep, Eyebrows, you're still sick!" Gilbert tugged hard on Arthur's sleeve, made the man widened eyes in surprise and slumped on the bed.
Their heads almost touched, the green tea eyes met with the crimson ones. That's when Arthur noticed how Gil's eyes weren't fully red, a part of blue shined on the albinism man's pupils.
Gilbert didn't notice how his own breath paused neither how close their faces were. The British fine facial figure likely enchanted in his view. He slowly reached his hand out, swipe away the sweaty blond bang and made Arthur flinched when he touched his forehead.
"Your fever is down already, that's good." He grinned.
Arthur stared at him before returned the smile "All thanks to you."
"You're welcome." Gilbert withdrew his hand.
"But no, really."
" Ja, ja, praise the awesome me more."
Arthur rolled his eyes, his arm tucked under his head as he looked at the albino.
"My point is, I want to repay you."
Gilbert shrugged. " It's fine as it is."
"No, I don't want to be in debt with anyone for too long."
Gil stared at Arthur's stern look, finally gave in. " I will see about that tomorrow, let us rest now."
"… What about my lullaby?" A smirk tugged on Arthur's lips.
" I thought you didn't want to be indebted."
"I didn't, this one you offered yourself."
Arthur chuckled when Gilbert responded with a long pout.
"…Fine." The albino shifted his body to the side so he can face Arthur properly " Don't blame me if you loved my awesome lullaby too much that you can't sleep." He smirked.
The British man's brows rose up and then he softly smiled." Let's hear it then."
Arthur closed his eyes, braced himself for whatever kind of songs would come up. Knowing Gilbert, a screaming rock song should be predicted.
He heard the other guy coughed and cleared his throat slightly.
Then surprisingly, there wasn't a lyric to be sung, Gilbert softly hummed the lullaby tune. Arthur did not find it familiar, he wondered if it was a German folksong as the pleasant hum putting him at ease.
Gilbert didn't remember when was the last time he sung the song. He used to hum it to put his little brother to sleep, so this would be the first time he sang for an adult like Arthur. But seeing the blond breathed peacefully in his deep sleep, he was glad.
"Guten Nacht, Arthur." He muttered and closed his eyes as well.
(( sorry for the long delay, I have been busy last month and I didn't particularly like how I write so eh, a lot of fixing here and there.
Thank you so much for the feedbacks and I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!
Everything is still snail pace but it's getting there I promise _(:DJL)_ ))