Dec 7.
Like Elizaveta had predicted the frontyard was covered in crystals, giving all a sense of wonderland. Gilbert seemed to be in a happy mood and all through breakfast he spoke about whatever came to mind. This had a soothing affect on the female nation and as the morning passed by in happy manner. Elizaveta managed to bath both Gilbert and Blackie and although her bathroom looked like a warzone she concidered it a general victory to her. The two were now dried up and clean, although Blackie seemed rather displeased with the entire ordeal. Suddenly there was a ring at the door and Elizaveta, figuring it was Lilly, hurried over to open. Outside were three boys at the ages between 7 and 10 looking up at her eagerly. She vaguely recognized them as the neighboring children.
"Helo Miss Hedevary." the eldest boy said with a polite smile.
"Helo children." she replied warily. "How can I help you young boys today?"
The eldest kept talking.
"We saw a boy in your window yesterday and we wondered if he wanted to play with us!"
Elizaveta blinked in surprise.
"I - I w-will have to ask him I guess." she said still a little warily. "Hold on a sec."
She smiled sweetly at them and turned to Gilbert who had been looking curiously at her from the doorway with Blackie. Elizaveta figured he had heard.
"Well do you?"
Gilbert nodded shyly.
"Then let's get you ready!" Elizaveta said with a bright smile.

"Hi I'm Adrian!" the first boy said when Gilbert eventually ventured out of the house.
"I'm Demeter." the second boy said.
"And I'm Jakab." the last said.
"I'm Gilbert." Gilbert said shyly.
"Cool! Where are you from? How do you know miss Hedevary?" Adrian asked being the eldest and most curious one.
"I usually live with my brother in Germany but he got busy. Elizaveta is his friend."
"Wow you really know good Hungarian!" Demeter complimented.
Jakab who was closest in age with Gilbert whined in irritation.
"Whatever! Can't we just play?"
Gilbert was more than eager to agree with that, not really happy about having to lie about his life.
Adrian rolled his eyes.
"Fine, snowball fight. I'm with Demeter on our yard and you'll be on this one!"
Before either Jakab or Gilbert could argue the two older boys had run of to the other side of the fence and started to prepare a fort. Jakab muttered something but set to build one of his own.
"It's unfair!" he complained as he worked not even caring that Gilbert was helping. "It's always me against them!"
Gilbert smiled a little more confidential.
"Not today it isn't! I'm in your team today! And I'm awesome."
Jakab rolled his eyes.
"Yeah right."
Gilbert huffed.
"It's true! I've never lost a battle in my life!" That was more or less true right?
Jakab seemed to brighten a little.
"Really? You think you can take down my mean brothers?"
Gilbert was now fullout working on the protective wall between them and the enemy.
"You bet! Plus," he added with a smirk. "We have a secret weapon."

The battle was fierce but not once was Gilbert hit by the snowballs from the enemy. He dodged, crawled jumped and swirled in order to avoid every projectile while saving Jakab from getting hit as well and throwing snowballs back at the other two. Adrian and Demeter seemed generally annoyed by this and put more force into every snowball thrown which only got them less accurate.
"We're winning this!" Jakab yelled only to have his wide smile falter seconds later.
Gilbert followed his gaze and saw another two boys heading their way and crouching next to Adrian and Demeter.
"It seems like they've got some re-infocement." Gilbert muttered.
He threw himself to the ground seconds later with Jakab with him just as a rain of snowball came their way.
"What do we do now!?" Jakab cried in panic.
"We wait." Gilbert muttered back.
"Wait for what?"
Suddenly there was a loud bark and Blackie came running. Gilbert grinned madly.
"That!"

Elizaveta had taken Blackie for a walk while Gilbert played. Her neighbor had assured that she could keep an eye on him until she got back. Although the snow lay thick the walk went fairly well apart from the time when they stumbled upon another dog. On their way back, Elizaveta's phone suddenly went off. The reciever-ID read in bold letters. Ludwig.
"Helo? Luddie is that you?"
"Ja that is me." a tired voice answered. " Roderich told me you were looking after Gilbert for me, how is he doing?"
Elizaveta smiled adoringly.
"He's absolutely adorable!" she said. "I'll send you pictures later! And he's been really well behaved as well. "
"That's good to hear." Ludwig replied. "Listen Elizaveta," Ludwig began hesitantly. "Do you think you can have him there for another week? I'm stuck in a blizzard in Stockholm right now and won't be getting anywhere."
Elizaveta hummed in thought.
"Although I could do that Ludwig. I think it's better not to."
She giggled at the tired groan that came form Ludwig on the other side.
"Why not?"
"Well," Elizaveta began hesitantly. "Did it ever occur to you why Gilbert was suddenly turned back to a seven year old?"
There was a stunned silence on the other side so Elizaveta continued.
"You were not yet born at the time but at the age of seven, Gilbert was the representation of the teutonic knights."
"So?"
"Well I think that was, apart from his time with Frederich II, the happiest time of his life. He had yet to face many hardships in life, as he was young and knew not the bitterness that come with being a big nation. Perhaps whoever did this to him, wanted to give him an opportunity to be unconditionally happy again."
Yet again there was no answer. Had she taken his entire abilty to speak away?
"Perhaps we should let him be with other people as well, so that we are sure his childhood is as good as possible. Also I doubt I'm the only one who has conflicts to solve with Gilbert."
"Conflicts?" Ludwig seemed to finally have found his voice again. Elizaveta sighed in annoyance.
"I thought you were supposed to be clever. Anyway Lilly is coming over tonight and if all works well, Gilbert will be somewhere in Switzerland tomorrow. The two may not be too close, but they are family."
"I'm not sure I understand what you're saying," Ludwig admitted. "But right now I just need to know that Gilbert is safe somewhere."
Elizaveta smiled.
"You're a good brother. I gotta go now but call Vash tomorrow. Bye!" Before Ludwig could protest Elizaveta hung up. The reason was the scene where we left Gilbert. In surprise at the chaos on her yard she accidentally let go of Blackie's leash who instantly leapt to his master's aid. The distraction of the dog was all Gilbert needed to shoot up from his hiding place and fire of the last four snowballs. Each one hit with impressive perfection and all four boys stumbled to the ground. Gilbert whooped in victory.
"I'm awesome!"
The other four boys got up and crossed the fence.
"Nicely played." Adrian said and stretched out his hand.
Gilbert grinned.
"You too, but it was Jakab who did most of the things, I just worked on the side a little."
Adrian raised an eyebrow.
"Really?"
Gilbert grinned even wider.
"Yup, you have the coolest brother ever!"
Elizaveta was more or less melting. It seemed as though Gilbert was trying his very best to help his new friend out and it was absolutely adorable. Adrian smiled.
"Come on Jakab let's get home." he threw his arm around his brother's shoulder and after all saying goodbye to Gilbert they headed inside. Gilbert smiled when he finally noticed Elizaveta and ran over to hug her.
"I had the best snowballfight ever!"
Elizaveta smiled as well and hugged back.
"I should have known you'd be good at them." she said with a laugh.
They both looked up when they heard crunching footsteps stopping at their yard. Lilly was looking at them with a stunned expression.
"What on earth happened to your yard?"