Gilbert was pissed off. There was no other way to put it. He hadn't had a wink of sleep, what with the 'activities' happening next door and the nightmares that followed when everything eventually went quiet.
He slouched into the kitchen, sending "evil-death-rays-of-doom™" at his brother and at Feli (who he noticed was sitting rather awkwardly on his chair).
"Morning." He grumbled sullenly, helping himself to coffee.
"Morning bruder!" Ludwig replied with far too much of an innocent tone to his voice.
"Have fun last night?" Inquired Gilbert, snickering inwardly as Ludwig squirmed under his gaze.
"Thought so."
"Luddy, what's Gil talking about~?" asked Feliciano innocently.
"Nothing you need to worry abo..."
"You had fun last night before you went to sleep did you not Feli?"
"Oh~! Si!"
"I thought as much. I could hear you through the wall."
"Sorry bruder; I thought you were asleep!" butted in Ludwig apologetically.
"I wouldn't have stayed asleep for long if I had been asleep, with the noise you were all making!"
"But it was fun wasn't it Luddy~!"
"Gilbert, if you can't control what you say, out."
"But West! You know I have nowhere else to go!"
"Can we do it again tonight Luddy~?"
"Gil, I was joking. Feli, now is not the time to discuss such matters."
Ludwig stood up from the table abruptly. "I'm going to work. Gil, behave. No taking Feli shopping again."
"But you liked that maid outfit didn't you Luddy~"
"Ja… But that's beside the point!" Ludwig snapped irritably, grabbing his jacket, briefcase and car keys before striding down the hallway and out of the door.
Feliciano's face suddenly fell. "He didn't kiss me goodbye!" he cried, his previous bouncy mood vanishing instantly. His voice became increasingly shrill and panicked as his alarm began to set in.
Gilbert recognised the signs immediately, and raced for the phone hitting speed dial.
"West?" he barked as soon as his brother picked up.
"Ja, what now Gilbert, I left less than two minutes ago."
"Come back quickly! It's an emergency!"
"If Gilbird's missing again, try looking in your hair." He sighed irritably.
"This is a proper emergency this time – it's Feli. He's having one of his panic attacks."
There was a short pause, during which Gilbert could hear the squeal of car breaks and the honk of car horns as Ludwig screeched to a halt and began driving home.
"I'll be right there."
Roderich woke up on the sofa. He stumbled around his apartment aimlessly for a few minutes after realising he was still wearing his formal clothes from the previous evening before finding his way to his bedroom and getting changed.
As he was absent-mindedly buttering a croissant, it hit him as to why he hadn't been in his bed – he'd flopped on the settee the second Vash had left, and proceeded to cry himself to sleep.
"How could I be so stupid?" He asked himself, "I had a perfect partner, a perfect life ahead of me, then I had to go and fall hook line and sinker for a complete stranger!".
Roderich finished his breakfast and merely threw his plate in the sink to clean later, before resigning himself to a day of venting his frustrations through playing the piano. As he sat down on the edge of the plush cushioned bench to begin playing, he noticed a folded slip of card propped up on the ledge in front of his music. It read simply:
"Dear Roderich,
It's over. I think we both know why.
Vash Zwingli"
"No…" Roderich gasped aloud, stunned by the abruptness of the message. "There's no turning back now" he thought to himself, "You've lost your chance at a parents-approved partner, so there's nothing stopping you from getting together with Gilbert." He smiled faintly at this prospect, before his dream began its dizzying descent to crashing and burning. "But what if he doesn't like me back…?"
Ludwig flung the door open, not caring as it dented the wall behind it.
"Feli!" he cried out desperately, tearing down the hallway. "Gil? Feli? Where are you?"
"In here Lud!" called Gilbert from the living room, still sounding panicked.
"Feli! Calm down! I'm here now!" Ludwig murmured soothingly in Feliciano's ear, stroking his hair softly.
Feli's whole body continued to shake violently as sobs wracked his slight frame.
"Don't worry Feliciano. I'll never leave you. Gil, go call my secretary and say I'm ill."
"Sure. Glad to see you're finally having your rebellious teenager phrase, West!"
"Gilbert, nein."
"'Kay, I'll go call Bel."
Ludwig pulled Feliciano closer and Gilbert, sensing that he was intruding, went to call Ludwig's secretary, Bel.
Hurriedly shaking some cat food into bowls for the hungry animals, Roderich reached for his coat, before running out of the door, heading to Gilbert's house. He didn't know if he would be welcome, or if he would even be home, but he felt he had to try.
"If only I'd remembered to ask for his number."
But then, Gilbert had reminded him of the fact that Roderich had his address, so he surely wanted to be contacted, right?
Roderich blotted all doubts from his mind as he punched the address into his car's sat nav. He pulled out from his underground car park, and waved at Tino and Berwald's adopted son Peter who was riding his bike along the road as he passed.
He arrived at the house to find the door wide open, and the wails of someone clearly distressed coming from within. Roderich stepped out of his car, and walked around the BMW parked haphazardly in the driveway, with its door still flung open too. As he raised his hand to ring the beel, he saw Gilbert appearing from a side room, returning a landline handset to its holder.
"G-good morning, G-gilbert!" stuttered Roderich, surprized to see him. "What's going on?"
Gilbert's face seemed to light up, and the pained wrinkles that had previously marred his expression melted. "Morning Specs. It's a long story. I'll speak in a second: I need to go speak to my brother. Come in a minute, you'll have to go in the kitchen I'm afraid – the sitting room's kinda occupied…"
Roderich followed Gilbert along a hallway and into a pristine kitchen, where he perched on the offered stool at the counter. Gilbert dashed back down the hall into what was presumably the lounge. The crying continued, yet seemed to be lessening as the seconds passed.
Gilbert appeared a moment later, running his hands through his already tousled hair.
"So what was it you wanted?" he asked, hopping up onto another stool opposite Roderich. "Did you come to ask the awesome me out on a date?"
Roderich began sputtering, partly out of shock, and partly out of embarrassment at being found out.
"Has my awesome presence rendered you speechless?" Gilbert teased, before adding "It was a joke… Jeez Specs… Don't take things so literally."
Roderich felt his spirits fall a little as Gilbert brushed off his previous comment with barely a second thought.
"Oh... I w-was going to ask if y-you wanted to come round for dinner t-tonight?"
"Awesome! I'd love to come!"
"You would?!"
"I would consider it an honour your highness!" Gilbert leapt of his stool and took a mock bow.
"Why thank you kind sir!"
"Prithee tell how one dost gettest to thou abode?"
"Stop with the posh stuff now - I don't speak like that!"
"Alas! Kind sir! Do you wish to deny your humble servant his pleasure?"
Gilbert snickered at his own barely concealed innuendo.
Roderich looked blankly at him for a moment, before comprehending.
"Gilbert! That is most inappropriate!"
"You can't accuse me of having a dirty mind without having one too – how else would you understand me?"
"Shut up. Do you want my address or not?"
"Ja, write it on here." Gilbert chucked a magnetic notepad from the fridge at him along with a biro from the counter.
Apartment 3, no. 14 Sonata Avenue
Gilbert recognised the first line of the address as a prestigious tree-lined avenue, and snickered at how fitting the name was – Roderich would choose to live somewhere with a music-themed name!
"What time do you want me to come over?"
"6:30? Is that alright with you?"
"That would be awesome."
"WHAT IS THIS?!" wailed a distraught Anna.
"LUUUUKAAAAS?! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"
Lukas cursed under his breath – what had he done now?
"Yes, darling?"
"WHY did I find a 'Тараканы!' t-shirt under our bed?"
"Ah. I went to a concert with a friend from orchestra?"
Lukas hoped she would overlook the questioning hesitation in his voice and believe the thinly concealed lie.
"In which case, WHY DID YOU NOT INVITE ME!"
"He only had two tickets."
This was partly true – Mathias was a friend from orchestra, and had only bought two tickets. However, Lukas was not going to mention this to his wife, as he didn't want this argument to escalate any further. Anna was not the noisiest of people, so when she was angry, Lukas took her seriously: he didn't want her asking why he had 'stayed late' at work for the last few months. He did genuinely love her, but had grown to see her as more of more as a sister, rather than a romantic partner.
"Oh." She sighed, dejectedly.
"Look. I'll take you to a concert of theirs next time one's on in this country – okay?"
"Alright." She stood up to peck Lukas on the cheek, before continuing to tidy up the bedroom, whilst Lukas returned to making dinner (as Anna had long ago given up on attempting to produce edible meals that were not poisonous: it was obvious who Roderich had inherited his cooking skills from).
"I'm going to miss you when you find out and leave me, Sweetheart."
A/N
Aiiiiiieeeee! WHY am I so bad at updating?!
Aaaaaanyway, some bombshells in this chapter, as well as the development of the romance... And the DenNor subplot.
I have a few questions for you in reviews however:
1) Am I including too many OCs? Because I think I am, and it's getting silly - they're only in there too annoy/please my school friends.
2) Is the romance too hurried? - I will be including some "merry banter" once the romance is going, because it would be too OOC if they got along the WHOLE time!
Leading on from that,
3) Are they too OOC?
Annnyway, goodbye! I WILL update soon as I'm going away for a week WITH my laptop so shoult be able to get some writing done!
Emily Prustrian
