Chapter 7. First Impressions.
Being a girl sucked. Gilbert had no idea how they did it. There's the stupid hair that blows everywhere and gets tangled for no reason at all. There's the pounds of makeup Gilbert could still feel on his face for this stupid parade. There's the stupid dress that gave him no room to move at all. There's the boobs that Gilbert really wasn't in the mood to complain about now. There's the shoes that had Gilbert nearly tripping over himself, if the wish weren't working properly.
And on top of it all, he had to ride on this stupid black horse side-saddle. Whoever invented that technique was an idiot. Gilbert felt like he was about to fall out, so he was practically holding onto the reins and saddle for dear life.
The parade in itself was pretty stupid. There was this group of girls waiting just inside the city after the border of the canopy and they were given a horse to prance around on for a while and show off to everyone in the city. Gilbert was about ready to fall asleep if he wasn't scared he would fall off the stupid horse. And if that wasn't enough, Gilbird had even flown off just when they entered the city, leaving him alone.
And then there was this other thing. If he were to walk around these streets like he normally would, he would be labeled a freak and people would get away from him as quickly as possible. As a girl, he was considered this foreign beauty. The white hair coupled with the red eyes was "majestic" and "beautiful." It was complete bullshit. The sad part was, though, he fit in with these girls, despite being out of the ordinary with his looks.
His now extremely long white hair was silky and flowed perfectly even with a stupid tiara stuck in it. His makeup was applied to accent how pale he was as well as make his red eyes pop. His dress was red and probably made him look adorable, but at this point he didn't care. It was strapless, which led him to think it was constantly falling, but it wasn't, and stopped just above his knees when he stood. There was even this weird frill thing at the bottom. His black heels had these weird strap things that went up, just past his heel and he was pretty sure he was about ready to die.
Arthur had told him that a part of his wish to be a princess ensured that everything involving being a princess would come naturally to him. Walking in heels, riding side-saddle, doing that horrible wave…
Just now, without even trying, he was doing that wave to a few merchants he was sure called him a freak multiple times in the past. Women he knew screamed at sight of him were jealously gossiping on the side.
Eventually, after about an hour, they finally came up to the castle and the horses all stopped in a line. Several servants were already out there and helped each of them down. Gilbert had his problems with letting a servant do all that, but he had to and accepted the help getting him down.
"Thank you," Gilbert nodded to the man, which he noticed none of the other women did. The servant nervously nodded and headed off with the others and Gilbert let out a quiet sigh. He finally got a good view at the garden in the front of the castle, surrounded by these massive walls. It was masterfully created, obviously, with flowerbeds arranged with any kind of flower, even some Gilbert was sure didn't exist in America-Canada. The trees and hedges were trimmed to perfection into some sort of sculpture and there was marble pathways leading all the way through it, even up to the castle itself, which was even more impressive up close.
Gilbert fought back any comment he had and joined the line of girls entering the castle. They were all managing to keep quiet, though Gilbert could tell they were admiring everything around them. He was somewhere in the middle of the line and they continued into the castle. The room they walked into seemed to be some sort of grand hall and, at the far end, were two thrones.
Gilbert immediately saw Matthew, dressed up like the Prince he should be, but he seemed lost in his own world. He didn't even glance at the girls as they eventually made a line in front of the two Princes. The other one looked remarkably similar to Matthew, just a lot more…obnoxious? Cocky?
Finally, Matthew looked up, glancing at the girls as if to humor them. He stopped, though, when he saw Gilbert. He stared at him for a while before turning to his brother. He stood up slightly, stopping his brother from standing up, probably to address them. They spoke in hushed voices, obviously for them not to hear them. Eventually, the other Prince looked at Gilbert, too. The girls around him started looking over at him and all Gilbert could do was smile and shrug. Step one was done; get his attention.
The other Prince cleared his throat. "Alright, hey, ladies." Definitely cocky. "Most of you know the drill. First, you'll go through our Captain of the Guard, Elizaveta." Shit. Gilbert would be in deep trouble if that damn cow figured him out… "Then, you'll go through myself and my advisor, Francis." A man next to him with long, blonde hair, and dark blue eyes with stubble tracing his chin nodded at the group. He was obviously very flirtatious, what with how he was eyeing all of the girls. "Finally, once you get through that, you'll get to see Mattie and we'll see if he likes you enough."
Gilbert noticed that, during the entire speech, Matthew was looking curiously at him. All Gilbert could think to do was nod back at him politely.
"Elizaveta's off doing patrols, so you can go to your rooms for now," the other Prince continued. "You'll be rounded up again once she gets back." He nodded to them happily and sat back down as Gilbert and the girls were shown down a hall by some servants. There were several rooms along this hall and slowly the girls went through to their random rooms. They were all talking to each other, making bets, being obnoxious.
"I guarantee that I'll make it to see him," one girl said.
"How many girls just like you have tried?"
"Oh, please. Prince…what's-his-face won't be able to resist me."
"I'm pretty sure his name is Matthew," Gilbert stated and gave them his best smile before turning into some room and shutting the door. The room had a simple layout, but it was far grander than anything Gilbert had seen in the city. There was a massive bed on the right side of the room with a canopy that almost completely covered the blue comforter. There was a large dresser next to the door that looked like it could hold enough clothes for a year. On the other side of the room was two doors, one that opened to a bathroom and the other Gilbert assumed was a closet, and some sort of a desk with a mirror on it. Everything seemed to be made with the finest wood and cloth, with no mind paid to the expenses, probably.
"So you've made it this far," Arthur's voice sighed and the green smoke soon came out of the necklace charm and turned into Arthur.
"Hell yeah," Gilbert smirked and swiftly made his way to the dresser. He hoped there would be some clothes he wouldn't care wearing.
"You look rather cute," Arthur teased.
"Shut up," Gilbert glared at him for a while and pulled out a drawer. Surprisingly, the dresser was actually fully stocked. He figured all of the women that came through were probably the same perfect size. He was surprised how small his waist actually was. Did these girls ever eat in the first place? He found things like actual pants, which he thought female royalty had never even heard of. "I'm awesome, not cute."
"What are you doing?" Arthur asked.
"I am going to put on some shorts and a T-shirt," Gilbert stated, rummaging some more through the dresser. "Then I'm going to pull this stupid hair back and try to relax."
"You're the one that wanted to be a girl," Arthur sighed.
"Needed to," Gilbert corrected him and finally pulled out what looked like a pair of jean shorts. "Fuck it, I'm wearing these."
"Why are you in such a hurry?" Arthur asked.
"Have you ever been in a dress?" Gilbert asked. "It fucking sucks. And these heels are going to make me fall over eventually."
"They won't," Arthur sighed. "You have all the skill of a princess, relax."
"There is no way I am staying in this dress," Gilbert stated and started towards the door that led to the closet. It was a huge walk-in and he gaped at it for a short while before closing the door behind him and looking through all of the shirts and dresses for a short while before picking out something that looked at least slightly comfortable. He quickly changed out of the dress, having some slight trouble with the stupid zipper, and into the shorts and shirt. When he came out, he went over to the desk and ignored the reflection in the mirror and rummaged through the drawers. Just as he expected, it was one of those mirror things with all the make-up in it.
"What do you expect to do once you're called to meet with that Captain of the Guard?" Arthur asked.
"I'll get back in the damn dress," Gilbert muttered and finally found what he had seen girls use to tie up their hair. "For now, I'm just gonna make myself feel like as much of a guy as possible."
"I highly doubt that is possible," Arthur chuckled.
"Don't make fun of me," Gilbert sighed and started trying to copy what he'd seen girls do to put their hair up. "I'm awesome, end of the line." It took him 5 tries, but he eventually managed to put his hair up into some sort of sad excuse of a ponytail.
"Why do you keep doing that?" Arthur asked.
"Doing what?" Gilbert asked, standing up.
"You keep saying that you're awesome," Arthur chuckled. "Are you compensating for something?"
"Compensating for what?" Gilbert laughed. "I am awesome."
"You are becoming rather comfortable with being a girl," Arthur smirked. "Perhaps it's not too much of a change for you."
"You hating on my awesome five meters now?" Gilbert laughed.
"Five meters?" Arthur raised an eyebrow.
"Hell, yeah," Gilbert nodded happily.
"I'm sure I would have noticed five meters," Arthur sighed.
"Some people are just blind," Gilbert shrugged. "It's fine; no one can be as awesome as me and see my entirety of my awesomeness."
"Now I know you're compensating for something," Arthur chuckled and disappeared into smoke, into the necklace.
"So, what's with the bird, dude?" Alfred asked, sitting across from Matthew. It was lunchtime and the two brothers were in a special side dining hall they usually went to rather than the main one, where all those royal women were eating. A little earlier, this yellow bird that Matthew remembered that stranger owned had flew up to him. It had stayed around and even got along with Kumachili. Right now, Matthew was admiring it as it perched on his finger, ignoring the food placed in front of him.
"He's the pet of that stranger," Matthew smiled at it and it chirped, flying up to nestle in his hair. He couldn't help but laugh.
"Do you think he's around?" Alfred asked. "Watching you?"
"I don't know," Matthew muttered, choosing to ignore his brother's mocking tone. "Do you know who that girl was?"
"The albino?" Alfred shrugged. "Nah. I don't know where half these girls come from. I'm pretty sure half of them are pretending to be royalty."
"Yeah…" Matthew sighed and turned to his food, finally starting to eat it.
"Dude, if you want, I can make sure that albino makes it to you, if you're oh, so interested," Alfred stated.
"Don't do that," Matthew shook his head. "Only let her through if she's possibly worth my time."
"Key word: possibly," Alfred stated. "At this rate, I don't think you'll get yourself a Queen."
"Then we can finally stop trying," Matthew sighed. "It's just getting annoying at this point."
"Your pessimist attitude is getting annoying," Alfred pointed out. "When was the last time you actually came into this thing with an open mind?"
"The first wave," Matthew sighed.
"Like was, like, a freaking year ago!" Alfred groaned. "Come on, dude, just this once. There's only gonna be about four girls that will make it to you, if we're following our trend. Give them all a fair shot."
"If I do, will you quit harassing me about it?" Matthew asked.
"Probably," Alfred shrugged.
"Fine, then," Matthew sighed. "This one time, I'll try."
"Good!" Alfred chimed. "Do you know that the bird is making a nest out of your hair?"
"It's kind of nice," Matthew laughed.
"What, does it relieve stress or something?" Alfred laughed. "Maybe I should get my own, personal nesting bird."
"You're gonna have to get your own," Matthew chuckled. "I think this one likes me enough."
"I'll just steal it while you're asleep," Alfred smiled.
I love brotherly moments, for some reason. Oh, whatever, Gil's finally a girl. When the narrative is in his perspective, he's going to be described as male with pronouns, because he obviously thinks of himself as a guy. In Matthew's perspective, he's going to be described as a girl. I'm trying as hard as I can to make sure he's still really guy-like and I've written fairly far ahead, so I hope I've been doing him/her justice!
As always, please review! It is very much appreciated!
