The next few days passed by almost uneventfully. No calls from child services about how they would have to find them a new home, and Greg didn't do anything to disturb the waters. During this time Vash had a lot of thinking to do. About what to do in order to be able to stay with Lily. He didn't want to have to rely on others in order to get out of this mess. He didn't want to burden others with his problems. However this mentality is what made their problems occur last time and Vash was well aware of this. And deep down he had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to get out of this mess all on his own. This time he might have to get help from someone else.
During school he managed to get Elizabeta by herself. "What do you think the chances are for me to become Lily's guardian?"
"I'm not a lawyer so I'm not that sure, but I have a feeling it would take a long time for it to happen."
"What do you mean by that."
"You will have to prove that you can take care of Lily. For that you will most likely need to get an apartment, and a stable job. And on top of that you will have to graduate as well. All of those things are going to take a lot of time." Elizabeta sighed and for a second a pained expression came across her face. "Honestly I don't think we'll have the time to do that. We might have scared Greg off but I have feeling that won't last long. He'll gain back his senses, realize he doesn't have to be scared off a bunch of teenagers, and try to get you guys to stay so he can keep the money. We'll make sure he won't be able to keep you guys, but you and Lily might be separated."
Vash didn't like hearing this. He knew it was probably the truth, but hearing it out loud certainly didn't help with anything. He thanked Elizabeta and pretended to walk to class. He occasionally skipped out of not wanting to get involved in class activities, but right now he needed some time with his thoughts. He needed to make a decision in order to save Lily. And while it might not be easy for him he will probably have to swallow his pride.
It was late at night and everybody was in bed when Roderich heard a knock on his door. He wasn't actually asleep since he was composing music, but he was curious who was still up at this hour. He opened up the door and saw it was Vash. "Can I talk to you," asked Vash.
Roderich nodded and let him in. "I'm been thinking a lot about what we should be doing for the whole legal guardianship thing lately," Vash continued. "And I've come to a decision." Vash stared in Roderich's eyes and Roderich saw a silent plea in his eyes. "I think it would be best if your parents become our legal guardians."
"You sure about this," asked Roderich.
Vash nodded. "Honestly I don't think we'll have a lot of time and in order for me to become Lily's guardian time is something we desperately need. However if your parents can't do anything I understand perfectly."
Roderich smiled and took Vash's hand. "I'm sure they will be willing to help. They'll probably feel a sense of obligation since what happened last time was sort of their fault. Plus I will do anything in my power to make them do this."
"Thanks."
Roderich smiled at him. "Don't mention it. That's what friends are for."
The next morning, Roderich was staring at his phone, debating at what to say to his parents. They weren't supposed to return back for another month at least. And it wasn't like they were just traveling for a vacation so they could just return home anytime. They were going to conferences that they couldn't miss. Roderich wouldn't normally even dare of thinking of calling his parents to get them to come back home early, but this wasn't for him. This was for Vash, someone who was a very important person to him. With these thoughts in his head, he was able to gather enough courage to pick up the phone.
Dialing his mother's number he put it to his ear and patiently waited for her to pick it up. He knew she wasn't at a meeting, since they gave him their schedule, but knowing his mother she might not hear her phone go off. Just as he was about to think that she wasn't going to pick up her phone she did.
"It's rare for you to call me," his mother said. "Is there something wrong?"
Roderich steeled himself as what he had to do next was going to certainly be difficult. "Nothing is wrong with me but I do have a favor to ask of you."
"What's that. Your father and I can't do much since we're not home but we'll try."
"That's the thing. This will require for you to come home. Do you have somewhere you have to be soon?"
"No. What's going on?"
"It's a long story." Roderich spent what seemed like half an hour explaining the whole situation. He didn't leave out the details with the gun considering he knew his mother would get him to tell her about it anyways. When he finished there was silence on the other end of the line that worried him a bit.
"Let me talk to your father. I'll call you back when we've come to a decision."
"Alright. Just promise me you won't go to the authorities."
"I promise."
And with that the phone conversation ended leaving Roderich a little tired. It took a lot out of him to talk to his parents like that since it wasn't something he was used to doing. Put he did have a little hope. His mother and father were the type of people who couldn't help but give assistance to others. The only thing he was concerned about was if they would think it was better to leave it to the authorities.
Worrying about it wasn't going to do anything so he got up to tell everyone how calling his parents went down so far.
Roderich was pacing through the living room and it was starting to get on Vash's nerves.
"You're making me nervous," he yelled.
Roderich stopped and mumbled an apology. "They should have called back by now is all."
Vash motioned for Roderich to sit next to him and Roderich complied. "You shouldn't be worrying about this so much. This is my problem."
"I just want you to be happy is all."
Vash allowed a small smile at this. Not many people cared about his own happiness so it made him feel a little important knowing that he was important to someone.
"How's Lily taking everything?"
"The usual. She seems to be more concerned about me than about herself. I wouldn't mind it so much if she hadn't gone through that earlier experience."
"Maybe she'll open up to Elizabeta." While Vash and Roderich were waiting for the phone call from Roderich's parents Elizabeta was taking Lily out to get their nails done. Elizabeta had claimed that she didn't like getting her nails done alone, but in truth they were trying to keep Lily's mind off what happened. Even though she claimed she was okay she still slept with Vash instead of her own bed. And every once in a while she got an odd expression over her face showing that everything wasn't okay. She wouldn't open up about it to Vash so the hope was Elizabeta could get it out of her.
Elizabeta and Lily were getting their nails done and chatting. While Lily was talking and seemed interested in the conversation, Elizabeta noticed that she only did the bare minimum to keep the conversation going. Elizabeta kept on glancing at her from the corner of her eye and Lily seemed out of it. Elizabeta bit her lip getting slowly worried by this. Lily had been putting out of this front of being okay, but it was becoming clear that she wasn't okay.
They had finished getting their nails done and were eating pretzels on a bench outside. Seeing a chance Elizabeta took it. "How have you been holding up?"
There was a slight pause before Lily responded. "I'm fine."
"I know you've been covering up how bad it is not to worry anyone, but that's extremely unhealthy. I would really like if you would talk to me."
Lily gave a fake smile to Elizabeta. "I assure you everything is fine."
Elizabeta was going to protest when someone walked behind them and took a portion of Elizabeta's pretzel. She didn't even have to look behind her to know it was Natalia.
"You mind," she asked.
"I would let you do the same." Natalia gave a small wave to Lily who waved back.
Elizabeta then had an idea. "I forgot to buy a drink. It won't take long so you two can wait till I come back." She got up and as she passed Natalia she whispered in her ear, "Make her talk." She then walked back into the mall and hoped this tactic would work better.
Natalia sat down on the bench next to her and it was silent for a while as Lily was eating her pretzel and Natalia was thinking. "How have you and your brother been doing? You still worried about him," Natalia asked.
Lily put her pretzel down beside her and bit her lip. "A bit." Natalia looked at Lily and saw the pain that she was all too aware of. She put her hand over Lily's.
"You can tell me what's wrong. I'll understand."
Lily had been struggling to keep the tears back, but she finally lost her self control. She put her hand in her face and started bawling. "I'm afraid that they'll take me away from brother and I won't see him anymore. Everyone keeps on saying they'll take care of it, but I have a feeling that it won't work out."
Natalia put her arms around Lily's shoulder and pulled her close. "For a long time I was worried about the same thing as you. Fortunately for me my big brother wouldn't let what I feared happen. Do you think your brother would let you get taken away from him?"
Lily shook her head no. "Then it won't happen. Now I'm not saying that you shouldn't worry, but you need to rely on your big brother and remember that you are important to him as he is to you."
Lily nodded and Natalia waited patiently as Lily's sobs started to die down. "Give me your phone."
Lily took it our of her bag and handed it to Natalia. Natalia then opened it up and started entering in her contact info. When she was done she handed it back to Lily. "Whenever you need someone to talk to just call or text me. Don't ever worry about waking me up. I go to bed late and usually wake up early to." Natalia then ruffled Lily's hair. "I'm here if you need me."
Lily thanked her and gave her a relieved smile. Getting it all of her chest did end up helping her in the end since she felt like she was at peace with herself now.
Elizabeta was waiting from a far for a signal that it was okay for her to come back to the bench. Natalia looked back and gave a slight nod indicating that she was done. Elizabeta returned to the bench and was happy to see the first genuine smile she had seen on Lily's face for a long time.
After they returned from getting their nails done, Roderich's parents still haven't called back. The hours ticked by and Elizabeta started to get calls from her parents since it was taking a long time for her to come home. Seeing that it was going to take a long time for Roderich's parents to call back she arranged to stay the night. She wanted to know right away if something happened. At midnight they forced Lily to go to bed.
Finally at 1 in the morning, Roderich's phone went off. Roderich nearly tripped over the coffee table to grab the phone. "Hello," he said.
"Honey, it's your mother."
Roderich tightened his grip on the phone. "Have you and father decided what to do yet?"
"We have come to a decision. We've decided to become their legal guardians so they won't have to be separated."
Roderich was flooded with relief and barely heard her next words. "We've managed to tweak our schedules so that we'll be able to come back next week. Plus we've contacted our lawyer so we'll start the process to become their legal guardian right away. That's why it took so long to call back."
"That's fine."
"Has their guardian try to get them to back since the incident?"
"No."
"Alright. If anything should happen please go the police. I know you're afraid he might say something about the gun, but their safety is more important."
"I will."
"See you next week. Love you."
"Love you too."
Roderich hung up the phone and felt like a huge burden had been lifted off his shoulders.
"What did she say," asked Vash not hiding the concern in his voice.
Roderich smiled at him. "They said they'll become your legal guardians. They'll be here next week and they can start the procedure."
Elizabeta cheered in the background and Vash did something unexpected. He hugged Roderich.
Roderich was surprised at the uncharacteristic behavior but quickly returned the hug. "Thank you," Vash whispered.
Roderich was going to say that he didn't have to thank him, but he knew that Vash would only protest at that so he just said your welcome.
They then heard a sneeze from the stairs and everyone turned around. Lily then sheepishly came out into the open. "I thought I told you to go to bed," Vash said.
"I know but I couldn't go to sleep not knowing what would happen."
Vash sighed and motioned for her to come towards him and he hugged her. "It's okay. I just didn't want you to worry with the rest of us."
"Sending me to my room would only make me worry even more."
"Yeah, sorry about that."
"Well I don't know about all of you, but I'm tired and going to get some sleep," said Elizabeta. Saying goodnight she went to one of the guest rooms. Seeing that it was really late, everyone else decided to follow suit.
But before going to bed Lily hugged Roderich and he returned the hug. "Thanks for all you've done for us. Without you I don't know what would have happened to us."
"You're welcome. And remember that I would do this all over again if I needed to."
Elizabeta woke up next morning with her phone going off. Groaning, she started reaching for her phone until she managed to find it under her pillow. Opening up an eye to look at the screen she saw that she was getting a bunch of texts from Gilbert. All of them were saying wake up in all caps. And as they kept on coming Elizabeta groaned as she realized that Gilbert was blowing up her phone. Knowing he wouldn't stop till she responded she started typing up a response.
'What do you want?'
'Looks like Miss Sleepy Head decided to wake up finally.'
'It's the weekend. I think I'm entitled to sleep in.'
"Till noon?"
Confused for a second Elizabeta looked at the time and saw that it was indeed noon.
'Shit.' She didn't need him to respond to know that he was laughing his head off.
'Well when you finally wake up you come to my house. I'm bored.'
'I'm not your personal entertainer.' Despite this she got up and started getting ready. It was good that Gilbert texted her since she needed to relax a bit after stressing out about what would happen to Vash and Lily this entire time. She said goodbye to everyone and went to her house to pick up a change of clothes. After telling her parents where she would be, she walked over to Gilbert's house.
As she was nearing the stairs she heard a familiar laughter and looked up in time to see a water balloon fly towards her face.
"Shit!" Her attempt to dodge failed and her face was now soaking wet. She glared up to the window where it came from and Gilbert started leaning out of the window.
"You took so long so I had to entertain myself some how."
Gilbert was laughing so hard that he didn't see Elizabeta go for the garden hose and he soon got drenched.
"You asked for it," he shouted. He started whipping more balloons at Elizabeta as she continued to try and spray him. They're little battle was stopped when Ludwig started yelling at them for wasting water.
"Are you going to come out here," asked Elizabeta.
"You're coming in here to clean up my room."
After they were done cleaning up Gilbert's room he decided that they should play video games. When Elizabeta pointed out that he could have played them by himself he just shrugged. They spent the next hours playing video games until Ludwig said he wanted Gilbert to help making dinner. Instead of just standing around Elizabeta decided to help them out.
When their competitive nature started to impend the process of making dinner Ludwig stopped them and told them to just clean anything. This of course was turned into a competition as well. After dinner they played some more games until the sun started setting.
Then Gilbert suggested that the watch the sunset from their old spot. Their old spot was them climbing out on the roof by Gilbert's window and sitting on the west side of the house.
"It's been forever since I've been up here," said Elizabeta.
Gilbert just nodded in agreement. He fidgeted around a bit before asking, "Why did you stop hanging out with me?"
Elizabeta just stared at him confused by what he said.
"I meant when we were kids. We used to hang out all the time and then you kind of ditched me for Roderich. I was just wondering why."
"Oh," said Elizabeta. "It's a long story."
"I've got time."
"The reason I stopped hanging out with you is because my mother wanted me to start acting more like a lady. She met Roderich's parents and figured a young gentleman would be a good influence for me. She started not letting me come over to your house and used to come up with excuses why I couldn't. But I knew she thought you were a bad influence on me."
Gilbert snorted. "She should have realized it went both ways. I don't get how you could stand being around Roderich all the time."
Elizabeta shrugged. "He's not that bad when you get used to him."
"Why didn't you try and rebel?" Gilbert said it with so much emotion in his voice that Elizabeta was dazed by it for a few seconds.
"I tried to, believe me. But after all my rebelling and my situation not improving I guess I just kind of gave up. When my mother started wanting me to wear girly clothes I didn't resist. I even eventually stop asking to coming over to your place."
"It's not too late to rebel and all that. You can stop wearing girly clothes."
Elizabeta picked at her skirt. "I guess, but I'm kinda used to it now."
"Well I think you look better in less girly clothes. You look more relaxed and like yourself."
Elizabeta smiled at him. "Thanks."
There wasn't much light left so Elizabeta got up to go inside when Gilbert stopped her.
"There's something I want to show you first."
Curious she sat back down.
Gilbert picked up extension cords that he tucked away and held one in each hand.
During the week he had been planning on the perfect way to ask Elizabeta out. Eventually he came up with the perfect plan. He would light up the words 'go out with me?' on the nearby trees with christmas lights. After he made sure the words were clear and visible from the roof where they sat, he decided there weren't enough lights. So he added a crap ton more around the trees and even borrowed some from his neighbors. He made sure each strand worked and looked okay where they were, but he hadn't tried them all together yet. So what happened next shouldn't have been too much of a surprise.
He plugged them together and for a split second the lights lit up and it looked bright and to him awesome. Then everything went horribly wrong.
There was a pop sound and the lights immediately turned off. Gilbert was wondering what happened when he noticed all the lights in the house were off as well.
"GILBERT," Ludwig yelled.
Gilbert was freaking out while Elizabeta was laughing at the whole situation beside him.
"Did you at least see what it said," he asked.
Elizabeta shook her head. "Why?"
"I was trying to ask you to go out with me."
Elizabeta stopped laughing and surprise spread across her face. "Are you serious," she whispered.
Gilbert was about to reply that yes he was serious when he was interrupted. Ludwig put his head out of the window and started to yell at Gilbert. Gilbert was pushing on his head and trying to force him back into the room. "I'm doing something important right now. You can yell at me later."
Gilbert turned back to Elizabeta and felt himself blush. He wasn't prepared for this scenario at all, but he was here now and he might as well go the full distance.
"I've liked you for a long time and would like to go out on a date with you. I understand if you don't want to and we can still be friends if you don't want to go out with me. All I ask is you give me a chance."
There he said it. Now he had to wait for her response and it felt like it was taking forever as he felt every beat of his heart.
Elizabeta wondered if this was all a dream. The very thing that she had been worrying about had been solved right in front of her. It felt like a weight had been taken off her shoulder and she was completely over taken by joy.
She realized then that she hadn't responded to his question. Her voice was surprisingly steady as she said, "Yes, I would like to go out with you."
Gilbert couldn't help but grin. "So how's Wednesday for a date," he asked.
"Wednesday's fine," she said.
"Now that's done with can you please tell me what the hell you did," said Ludwig from Gilbert's room.
Gilbert sheepishly went inside and started explaining what he did.
Ludwig was annoyed at his brother's idiocy, but he kept himself from yelling too much considering his reasons behind it. He waited till Elizabeta was gone to truly yell at his brother, but he was lenient on him since it was a while since he saw his brother this happy.
A/N: I would have gotten this out yesterday, but I got preoccupied with something else. That otome game should come out soon so the release date might effect how soon the next chapter will come out. The two people I ship now should be more obvious after this chapter! I haven't decided how much they will be in there but they will get together some place during this fic. As always please review!
