... *hides in a ditch* DON'T KILL ME! I'm sorry! I totally didn't mean to have a like 3 month hiatus, I swear... I just got caught up in stuff and it takes so much self discipline that I lack to just sit down and type a whole chapter by myself. THUS. NEVER EVER AGAIN allow me to write a whole chapter by myself again. My own fanfics are proof enough that I am a procrastinator! DUN DUN DUN. In case you couldn't figure it out from my rambling, this whole chapter is written by none other than only me! =D You all better enjoy my hard work -3- ALSO! We're totally close to 100 reviews, so don't forget! The 100th reviewer gets a oneshot of a pairing of their choice written by me and Go-chan! Without further ado, CHAPTER TEN

Chapter Ten: Chick Draft

"West! Pancakes and sausage~? Oh you do love me~!"

A gruff grunt was the only response given as the clink of a plate being set on the table sounded.

Groggily, Fritz opened his beady little eyes and nuzzled into the silver locks caressing his body. He was tempted to go back to sleep, for it had been quite some time since he was last able to sleep in Gilbert's hair the whole night, but the smell of fresh pancakes made his stomach growl. With a quiet peep, Fritz popped out of his nest of silver locks to let his owner know he wanted food.

When Gilbert didn't reach up and pick him up to put on the table, Fritz peeped again in annoyance. What was Gilbert's problem? Surprisingly, the albino still did not show signs of noticing Fritz and instead, it was West who spoke up.

"Bruder, your bird is in your hair."

Gilbert's head jerked up, almost throwing Fritz off, as he looked up from his breakfast. "Oh! I thought I was just going crazy! Sorry Fritz!" He grabbed Fritz from his hair and set him on the edge of his plate.

"Thank you GilGil!" Fritz chirped cheerily as his owner poured sunflower seeds onto an empty space of plate he cleared, but his thanks only came out as a peep to the humans, because, after all, who ever heard of humans speaking bird?

That was what Fritz was after all, a bird. But not just any old bird, oh no. Despite his strong resemblance to a little, fuzzy, and yellow chick, he was not a chicken. Oh no, baby chickens couldn't fly and definitely didn't live as long as he did. He was a special bird, a one of a kind bird, a bird that only Gilbert could own: a Gilbird.

He was the only Gilbird in existence and took pride in the fact. No one else could be a Gilbird and Gilbert would never be able to replace him… It was this fact that kept Fritz happy these days. Gilbert was always forgetting about him (-coughauthorstoocough-) and romping around with West. Sure, Fritz was happy that Gilbert was finally with West. Gilbert had loved West from as long as Fritz could remember! And Gilbert was always so lonesome… Even if he tried to convince himself he liked it. So yes, it was better now… For Gilbert. Because now that he never had a second feeling lonely, it was Fritz that felt the lonely void in his heart…

Fritz let out a dejected sigh as he picked at his sunflower seeds. It just wasn't fair! West got Gilbert all the time now and when Gilbert wasn't with West, he was with Francis or Antonio! And what was Fritz left with?

"Fritz! Fritz! Fritz! Fritz! Play with meeeee~ Bitte, bitte, bitte?"

In came Exhibit A also know as, Aster. The large golden retriever bounded into the kitchen, completely ready to jump into Gilbert's lap if it wasn't for the giant wall of German that stood in her way. Aster stepped on her breaks and skidded into West's knees with a surprised woof.

"What do you think you're doing Aster?" The large German said sternly as he pushed the dog away from the table.

Aster hung her head dejectedly and flopped down on the ground. "Friiiiitz, I wanna plaaay. You're so mean!"

"Can you not be quiet for breakfast?"

Of course Exhibit B would come in to scold Aster. Fritz rolled his eyes at the Doberman and tried his best to ignore the stupid dogs. Really, they were so unworthy of his awesome presence, Gilbert said so! Berlitz was a total stick in the mud like West and Aster was so hyperactive she was scary… The only dog Fritz halfway liked was Exhibit C: Blackie. The mellow German Shepard was nowhere to be seen, so it was safe to assume he was still sleeping.

"Hey West, we have anything planned for the day?" Gilbert asked through a mouthful of pancakes.

Not bothering to scold his brother over his table manners, it was a long lost battle, West nodded and he swallowed his food before speaking. "I thought we should go visit Antonio and the Italies today to see how they are faring."

"Oh sweet sounds fun!" Gilbert scooped Fritz into his hands and ran off to his room to get dressed. Naturally, Fritz was dressed up in a matching ensemble. Today, Gilbert decided to give them both skull scarves around their necks. Fritz chirped happily and flew into Gilbert's hair to get comfy. Since West was coming along, they were going to take the car. For some reason West didn't enjoy riding Gilbert's sidecar for his motorcycle.

"Hey West can we pick up Francis on the way? He'll wanna hang with Antonio too!" Gilbert asked as he pranced back into the kitchen.

"Hey Fritz are you sticking around to play?" Aster was at Gilbert's feet, looking up at his head with a giant smile.

Fritz rolled his eyes and poked his head out of Gilbert's silver locks. "Why would I do something like that? Jeez you're so stupid and unawesome Aster!"

"Well that's not a very nice thing to say Fritz," Blackie mumbled from the dog pillow in the corner of the room.

"Well it's true! Jeez! Don't go siding with her!" Fritz huffed and popped back into Gilbert's hair. He nuzzled his face against the soft material of his scarf. It just wasn't fair. Gilbert ignored him to have to socialize with these idiots…

"Oooi! Guess who decided to grace you with his presence!"

Fritz sighed and kicked at the ground beneath his feet as the door to Antonio's house closed. There was no reason for him to stick around! Gilbert was just going to forget about him again and play with his friends. So why should he stick around? He shouldn't! Despite the sense of fear being alone, outside of all places, for the first time ever, Fritz held his head high and started walking in some random direction.

Once the large Spanish house was out of sight, the weight of true loneliness weighed down on Fritz. He stopped walking and plopped down onto the ground, tears filling his eyes. This just sucked… He sniffled and rubbed his eyes with his wings as he spoke to himself. "It's not big deal. Gilbert was alone all the time and he says it's awesome!"

"How can being alone be awesome, amigo?"

Fritz chirped in surprise and jumped to his feet. He turned around to see a smiling brown chick, the black stripes around his face accenting his large smile. With a scowl to hide his embarrassment at being surprised and being overhead talking to himself, Fritz said,
"What do you think you're doing going around and scaring the awesome me?"

The brown chick laughed and bowed his head apologetically. "Lo siento! I'm Armond! Hola! Who are you? I don't think I've ever seen you around before!"

"Ha!" Fritz placed his wingtips to his body haughtily and held his beak up proudly. "Of course you haven't! I live in the country of awesome and I'm always with my even awesomer owner Gilbert! He is beyond awesome! I'm Fritz by the way! Nice to meet you! Do you live around here? Want to be friends?"

Armond laughed at this strange creature before him and nodded off in the distance. "I live on the farm down that way. I would love to be your amigo Fritz!" He cocked his head curiously after glancing around shortly. "Though if you're always with your awesome Gilbert, where is he now?"

"Out hanging with his friends…" Fritz responded sullenly.

"Well then! All the more reason for me to be your friend Fritz! Would you like to come meet my family?"

Brightening instantly, Fritz nodded and skipped over next to Armond to give him a hug. "That sounds really fun! Let's go!"

Pleased to see his new friend no longer moping, Armond put a wing around Fritz and led him in the direction of his home. How wonderful! Everyone was going to just love meeting Fritz!

Upon arriving at the farm, all of the Spanish chicks flocked around the new arrival and Fritz was immediately the center of attention. Questions were flying around at a rapid pace and he did his best to answer them all. He would have felt lost if it weren't for Armond, who stuck by his side the entire process. Eventually the chicks' curiosity was satisfied and they started playing games.

Time flew by for Fritz. He really was having a lot of fun. Sure, he had some chick friends back at home, but they mostly hung around for Gilbert. Something about Gilbert made chicks just love him… All the other chicks didn't really like Fritz much for always being with Gilbert. Fritz knew they were just jealous of his awesome status… But it did get rather sad just watching them play together and never being invited to join… Especially now that Gilbert was ignoring him…

"Aaah, amigo, don't you think you should be heading back soon?"

"Ja, ja. I suppose, but shush! We're supposed to be hiding Armond!" Fritz whispered urgently as he noticed a shadow approaching him. Before his new friend could respond, Fritz placed his wings over the other's beak and another chick walked past their hiding spot. Once the designated "it" had past, Armond pulled away from Fritz with a frown.

"It's no good to just run away from your owner, Fritz. He must be worried about you!"

Fritz huffed and crossed his wings defiantly. "He's too busy playing with West and his friends to care about me anymore."

"Still amigo, you need to go home!"

Silence hung over the two as Fritz stared at Armond in disbelief. Was this really happening? Was he destined to be lonely and forever without Gilbert or a friend? Tears pricked at Fritz's eyes as he turned away from Armond. "Fine I get it… You don't want me around here anymore. You decided that you don't like me anymore just like Gilbert did. Fine, I'll just go home. It was fun Armond…"

Just as Fritz started to walk away, laughter erupted from behind him. With a teary glare, Fritz looked over his shoulder to see Armond rolling around the ground, shaking with laughter. "What's so funny? Is my pain that funny?"

In an attempt to compose himself, Armond sat up and shook his head. "No! No amigo! Lo siento! I did not mean to make it seem like I was laughing at your misunderstanding! I wasn't asking you to leave because I was bored of you! I'm worried you're going to regret not going back, silly!"

Once again there was silence as Fritz stared at the tan chick. He flushed and looked away. How could he be so stupid and over dramatic? Jeez, he was acting like a girl. "Sorry, my bad… I'm just touchy… Yeah I guess I'll go home. Still had fun thou-"

"Wait a second silly!" Armond laughed as he trotted up next to Fritz. "I want to go with you, if that is all right. I love adventures and it would be so fun to see more than outside this farm! Also…" A large smile was fit on Armond's face as he nudged Fritz. "I rather like you amigo."

"Wel-Well of course you do!" Fritz joined Armond in laughing as they started walking away from the farm. "I'm awesome after all!"

"Amigo, do you even know what awesome means? You throw the word around with such ease." Armond asked curiously.

"Well awesome is awesome… I'm awesome! Gilbert tells me so!"

A small chuckle came from Armond as he shook his head. "Oh so you aren't as arrogant as your speech portrays you to be."

"Arrogant? What are you talking about Armond? Jeez you're werid."

"Si, but so are you Fritz~"

With no argument to that statement, Fritz just laughed and bumped against his new friend playfully. Everything seemed so much better now. It didn't matter if Gilbert didn't care about him anymore! He had a new friend now! Laughing again, Fritz held his head high without a care.

The rest of the trip back to Antonio's house was relatively quiet, except for the few random bursts of giddy laughter from the excited Fritz. Upon arriving at the house, the first thing Fritz noticed was the lack of a German car in the driveway. Surely that couldn't be possible…

"Stay here!" Fritz ordered as he flew up to the windowsill of one of the kitchen windows and peered inside. No one was there. He continued checking windows until there was no doubt in the matter. Gilbert was gone. Gilbert had left without him. It didn't matter that he had a new friend that liked him, Fritz was crushed. Ever so slowly he drifted down back to Armond, tears building. "He-he isn't here. He didn't even lo-look for me."

Pulling Fritz into a hug, Armond nuzzled him comfortingly. "Now, now, you don't know that amigo! Maybe Gilbert went back home in search of you! You said yourself that you've never been apart from him before! He must have no idea where to start looking! He must be- No, no, he is worried sick!"

"Really, you think?" Fritz asked with a sniffle as he looked up to Armond. "He really didn't abandon me?"

"Of course he didn't amigo! Do you know the way home? We can get back and you'll see how worried he is!"

"Duh I know the way home," Fritz mumbled with a roll of his eyes. He had lost count of how many times Gilbert had come over to Antonio's. "Let's go."

"Amigo, por favor, let us stop for directions! We are lost!"

"Nein! We aren't lost! I'm just a little confused cause we're taking a different route, that's all!"

"Dios mío! This is the third time we've past that tree. Admit it, we are lost!"

Fritz turned to stare at Armond exasperatedly. "Listen, we are not-"

"Losssst are you mon chersssss?"

Both chicks squeaked in surprised and looked to the source of the slick source, a large and green snake. Said creature chuckled airily at their surprise and start slithering closer. "I can fix that. Isssssn't that wonderful?"

"Ahha, no that's perfectly fine mensch. We don't need any fixing. All is good!" Fritz chirped as he and Armond started stepping away backwards.

"S-Si!" Armond all but yelled. "We are great! Wonderful! Definitely not lost!"

"Oh mon chersss, you look ssssso ssssscared. Do not fear, you won't have to worry about anything ssssoon," the snake said with a sinister grin as its mouth opened to reveal its pointed fangs.

"Merde! You stupid chicks, always running off from the pens!" Flying out of the bushes came a fluffy, white dog. It landed on the snake and pushed its head into the ground with all the force of his jump. The Great Pyrenees puppy looked to Armond and Fritz with a scowl. "Watch the birdies, Mama says. Watch the stupid birdies. All you stupid birds do is get into trouble!"

The dog stepped off the snake and smiled at his handiwork before glaring at the chicks. "Trying to do something 'brave' and 'impressive' to get the attention away from Jacques? Attention whores, the lot of you. Come on, back to the pens with you."

Too stunned to object, Armond and Fritz allowed themselves to be herded through the bushes and quite some distance before coming upon a small farmhouse. Before either could inform the puppy that they didn't belong, they found themselves inside a pen with many other chicks.

"Ah well scheiße, this sucks. Now what?" Fritz asked as he looked to Armond.

"I do not know, amigo. Maybe the leader here will know how to get us out of here and in the direction of Germany…"

"Good idea Armond!" Fritz said with a grin as he flapped his wings and pulled himself a good height above the rest of the chicks. "Oi! Who is your leader?"

"That would be moi. Bonjour, mon ami volant étrange. Who may you be?"

The haughty voice came from a golden chick at the end of the pen. He was seated on a plush red cushion that had golden tassels matching his radiant feathers. Atop his head sat a black beret, but it did not hide his peculiar eyes. One of the golden chick's eyes seemed to be stuck in a permanent flirtatious wink, of which he had turned up to Fritz curiously.

"I'm Fritz!" He chirped as he flew over to the golden chick and landed next to him on the cushion. "That's my friend Armond."

"Hola!" Armond called happily as he joined them on the cushion. "Who are you?"

The golden chick gasped in disbelief as he looked from Fritz to Armond. "You do not know who I am? How is that possible?"

"We're not from this pansy country, duuuh," Fritz said with a smirk, only earning him a smack on the head from Armond.

"Don't be rude to him, amigo," he reprimanded sternly.

Laughing at these strange newcomers, the golden chick stood to bow to them. "Je suis Jacques~" he cooed.

"Yeah that's great Jacques. Do you know which way Germany is? I'm trying to get back home."

"L'Allemagne?"

"Ja!"

"Sí!"

"The country of potatoes and stern men?"

"Ja ja!"

"Sí sí!"

"Rather nearby, isn't it?"

"Ja ja ja!"

"Sí sí sí!"

"Ah well I have no idea where it is~"

Fritz and Armond stared at Jacques in disbelief, the former struggling to resist the urge to strangle the pompous chick then and there. Through a gritted beak, Fritz growled, "Why the fuck did you egg us on?"

"Because your expressions were priceless! Oh mon Dieu! So very funny!" Jacques chuckled and turned his winking eye to them. "But I merely jest. I do know which way l'Allemagne lies."

"Oh good! That is good! Can you show us a way out as well Jacques?" Armond asked with a bright smile.

"On one condition!" The French chick said dramatically, raising his wing up with one feather pointed up for good measure.

Fritz sighed and rolled his eyes. "What's your condition?"

"Tell me where you got that gorgeous scarf!" Jacques exclaimed as he reached out and stroked the material around Fritz's neck. "I have never seen a chick other than myself with a fashion sense!"

"Oh…" Fritz burst into laughed and got to his feet as well. "My owner gives me clothes! He gets them specially made by one of his friends!"

"Mon Dieu, you have more clothing? I have two conditions then! Allow me to accompany you to this place of fashion for our kind!"

"Well Jacques," Fritz said with a grin. "We have a deal!"

It took another good solid few hours, but the trio eventually found the Beilschmidt residence. With a jubilant chirp, Fritz ran into his home with his two new friends.

"West! What could have happened to him? He could be anywhere! He could be out in the cold night all alone without anyone to comfort him! A snake could eat him! He could be stuck somewhere and I can't help him!"

"Bruder, you need to calm down," Ludwig said in a level voice as he pulled Gilbert into a hug, trying desperately to calm the frantic Prussian.

Once they had gotten home from Antonio's, Gilbert noticed that Fritz was missing. He called both Antonio and Francis multiple times and had even driven back to Antonio's on his motorcycle in hopes of finding his feathery companion. After hours of tearing through both Antonio's house and their own, Gilbert had yet to find his precious bird.

"What if he hates me for not noticing he was gone sooner? What if he ran away? What if he's hated me for a while! I haven't been paying much attention to him lately! Oh West he ran away because I'm been neglecting him!" Gilbert was close to tears as he buried his face into Ludwig's broad chest, his breath already erratic and close to hyperventilating.

"You need to calm down Gilbert. Working yourself into hysterics isn't going to help find Fritz. We just need to retrace out steps again once the sun rises and we'll find him. Don't worry, we will find him."

"You don't know that!" Gilbert wailed, tears finally breaking after hours of them threatening to fall. How could he go on with Fritz? Fritz was there to keep him sane through the hardest years of his existence. How could he possibly continue in the happiest years without Fritz? Just thinking of his precious chick somewhere all alone made Gilbert moan at the helplessness of his situation and continue crying.

Unable to come up with words to comfort the distraught albino, Ludwig sighed and hugged Gilbert close, gently rocking him back and forth. Maybe once Gilbert fell asleep he could go out looking again…

Aster's frantic barking pulled both men out of their thoughts and their eyes to the living room window where the Golden Retriever was seated. Gilbert gasped and dashed over to the window and threw it open. "FRITZ!" He shrieked in pure euphoria.

Without a second thought, Gilbert scooped the messy chick into his hands and hugged him tight, his tears still streaming down his cheeks, but this time from joy. "Oh Fritz, Fritz! I missed you so much! I was so worried! I'm so sorry! You probably felt the need to teach me a lesson, didn't you? I'll never ever, ever ignore you again! Oh Fritz, ich liebe dich!"

Fritz was practically radiating happiness as he nuzzled Gilbert. He chirped loving words back to his human companion, all worries and woes completely eradicated. How could he ever think that Gilbert of all people didn't care about him anymore? He was a Gilbird for goodness sake! Gilbert needed his Gilbird!

"Ahem, Bruder… Look back to the window…"

Gilbert's reunion was paused as he glanced to the window to see two other chicks staring back at him. He laughed and looked down to Fritz. "You sly dog! Brought over some friends did you? How long have you known them you awesome creature? Are they staying? Cause they sure are welcome too!"

"Was?"

"Oh come on West, what are two more birds? Chill!" Gilbert smirked and nuzzled Fritz against his cheek. "Not so alone anymore, are we Fritz?"

End of Chapter Ten

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So I take no credit for this dearies. This was all Haya. Thus you having to wait so long to get it XD

We had the idea for this for a while, then I asked her to start it so I could have something for a German project ^^ you see, what we had to do was do an original children's story in German. That's where Armond and Jacques were born xD Armond got his name from Antonio Banderas in Interview with a Vampire (yes, it's spelled Armand there, but Armond is the Spanish speling) and Jacques from A Tale of Two Cities with all the Jacques O.o they creeped me out… The dogs have the names and breeds of what's been given for Luddy's, we just randomly came up with some interesting personalities for them

So, über love for Haya-chan people!

And on a side note, I'd like to say I'm officially a dork xD I'm voluntarily taking an 8th period next year. At our school we can take something called Independent Study where you choose an area of interest and study it under the supervision of a teacher and give a presentation to people at the end of the year. Guess what mine is? Prussian history! XD That's right, I'm spending an hour every day after school to study the awesome GilGil! A very, very, VERY little amount of people request Independent Study, for obvious reasons, but I'm the first that's doing it in history. Yeah, I'm a dork… So I'm gonna try and do some fics with Haya with historical background from what I learn ^^

mensch = man

scheiße = shit

Dios mío! = My God!

Bonjour, mon ami volant étrange = Hello, my strange flying friend