Trials, Tribulations and Textbooks

Chapter 10

Meine Blume/My Flower

Francis was fuming. That meek second year had not only outsmarted him, he had ruined his chances of having company for the evening by translating his words for that beautiful brunette, that he had spent a week trying to win over. He'd been whispering sweet nothings, amongst other things, to her all week, knowing full well she knew nothing of the French language, but simply was caught up in his charms. He had no intentions of a relationship with her of course; having relationships required too much effort for his liking. He preferred to flirt to his heart's content, and the no strings attached sex that would follow his many conquests; gender not an issue for him, as long as he got what he wanted. In his own mind, 'how was he able to confine himself with the restrictions of a partnership? When there are so many beautiful people around him?'

No sooner than the girl had slapped him, the Canadian boy had darted off down the corridor. Francis had followed him for a short while, to discover he had gone to Ms Cavendish's office. He had contemplated waiting for him, purely to give him a piece of his mind for ruining his efforts with the girl, however he was in enough trouble as it was and didn't want to be caught when he got revenge upon him. Instead, he walked back down the corridor and gone to his lesson. He was meant to be in his class more than twenty minutes ago, however he wasn't one for punctuality, he preferred to be 'fashionably late' for most things, well, that was his excuse anyway. Not that he was concerned what the teacher would say, after a flirty wink and some sweet words, she would quickly forget about his tardiness as usual. Francis smiled and pulled his mobile out underneath the desk, quickly tapping a message to Gilbert and Antonio to meet him on the roof after school, he knew that with his two friends, they could all set about a plan to deal with the boy.

Elizaveta pushed her long wavy hair behind her shoulder, absentmindedly touching the small orange hair clip she wore above her ear. Looking to her left, she stole a glance at Gilbert sat beside the window. He was scribbling in that little black note book he carried with him everywhere, his face set in concentration. She highly doubted it had anything to do with the English lesson they were in, he never seemed to pay much attention in class, yet still manage to gain the highest scores, much to her annoyance. The German, or Prussian as he preferred to be referred as, was a wonderful writer, not that she or Gilbert for that matter would ever admit it. When they were younger, he would write little poems for her, and hide them in her backpack to find. Sweet words full of childish charms and dreams, forever claiming he would be her awesome knight. She smiled at the memory, now all he seemed to write were stupid and slightly perverse notes that upset her Austrian boyfriend. She sighed slightly and turned back to the teacher giving the lesson, startled to find the classes attention was on her, and she had no idea why.

"Miss Héderváry, I assume you have been giving me, your fullest attention? Now if you will please answer the question." The teacher said, clearly unimpressed by her lack of concentration. The students in the room snickered, as the look of confusion was still upon her face.

"I uh, sorry…could you repeat the question please?" She asked, blushing in embarrassment, panicking silently, knowing that even when the question was posed to her again, she wouldn't know the answer due to her daydreaming. She nervously looked between the teacher, and her open copy of Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

"Miss Héderváry, in Act 1 – Scene 1, what is the relation—"

"Lysander and Hermia are in love with each other, but Hermia's father, Egeus, favors a second suitor, Demetrius, for his daughter. Demetrius has formerly been in love with Helena but has deserted her, although she still loves him." Gilbert said, his piercing red eyes fixed on her as he answered the question before the teacher had even finished repeating it. She turned to gaze at him in surprise.

"Thank you Gilbert, you are correct, even if the question wasn't for you to answer. Miss Héderváry please pay attention in my class, you cannot expect to reply on others to answer for you in your examinations."

Gilbert laughed sent a trademark grin at the teacher, "What would you do without me?"

"Have a lessoned need for headache medication, Gilbert" The teacher replied before turning back to the whiteboard and continuing the lesson. Elizaveta focused back on her word and listened intently to the teacher, not wanting to be caught out again, when a paper aeroplane landed on her desk. Looking warily at the teacher, she picked it up and opened it, flattening it on her desk.

'You owe me. How about lunch with the awesome me?' It read, flicking her eyes towards Gilbert, she saw his amused smirk. Picking up her pen, she wrote a reply on the paper, before throwing it back at his desk.

'You know I watch Roderich play piano in the music room at lunch, idiot'

'So what? He won't miss you this one time, come on, please?' Gilbert had written back, even adding a little picture of a crying face at the end of the message. Elizaveta sighed. What harm could it do? Roderich was usually so caught up within his music anyway, he barely acknowledged her presence with him. So she doubted he would notice her absence this one time.

'Fine, meet me by the sports field' she replied, throwing the paper back to Gilbert and watched his smile. It wasn't his usual grin, it was a softer smile, almost like one he kept a secret from anyone else; it was the smile he only showed to her. When he noticed her looking he planted the grin back on his face.

'You're paying' He mouthed to her. She rolled her eyes at him and turned back to her work. He always had to make some sort of remark, never able to take anything seriously, even when it was a comment that made him look stupid. He knew full well that all school meals were free. She couldn't help but smile.

Gilbert walked with a bounce in his step, his ipod blasting rock music into his ears as he passed through the corridors on his way to meet Elizaveta. As he passed the locker area he noticed two of the students locked in an argument, with the taller tanned boy of the two looking as if he was about ready to punch the one he was arguing with. Gilbert pressed the pause button on his music player and leant back against the lockers slightly down from the pair and listened grinning. He could see the smaller student, who was currently pushed back against the lockers, was Heracles Karpusi. The Greek boy had a reputation for his fascination with history, particularly surrounding his own country. Last year, the history club had held a presentation evening, to highlight the students work and research, of a topic of history of the students choosing. Generally speaking in was an evening not many attended through sheer boredom, but when he had done his presentation, he had left the students and teachers in awe of his knowledge. The teachers had doubted he would do so well considering he spent most of his classes asleep. The other boy was Sadiq Adnan, Heracles housemate and rival. The Turkish student was a ruthless competitor, and participated in many of the school teams. Gilbert could still remember when he had gone to watch Ludwig at the football team try-outs. It had ended up as a one on one battle between Ludwig and Sadiq, both refusing to accept any form of defeat that would knock their prides. It made him wonder why they were houses together again for their second year at the academy. It was well known that the two had a long standing hatred of one another.

From what Gilbert had heard of their arguing, it seemed that Heracles had decided to encourage his beloved cat claw Sadiq's best coat, after he woken him the day before by chucking a bucket of water over him, as he slept in their garden. Gilbert wondered how their quiet Japanese housemate put up with their constant bickering. He didn't know him very well, only through him being a close friend of Ludwig's, but he guessed he must be very patient or close to snapping one day.

Grinning he decided he had enough of watching the pair and sauntered over to them, neither noticing his approach due to their yelling.

"Geeze, the sexual tension is giving me shivers" he laughed as he gripped both of their heads and pushed them together, an evil grin formed upon his face as the sudden realisation came over the twos faces when their lips were pressed together. No sooner than he had disrupted their quarrel, he quickly darted down the corridor, Sadiq hot on his tail, yelling abuse and cursing at him in anger. Bolting through a group of giggling girls, he ran straight out of the doors of the main building, he quickly looked behind him and saw the Turkish boy had almost caught up with him. He ran in the direction of the fields when he saw Kiku, Ludwig and Feliciano walking towards him. He ran up to them, and hid behind them.

"Help me! I was minding my own business and he started chasing me!" Gilbert said feigning innocence as he stared up at his much taller, younger brother. Ludwig raised his eyebrows at his older brother, not believing one word that he had been told.

"Ludwig! There's a scary man yelling and running at us!" Feliciano squeaked as he latched onto Ludwig's arm, trembling as the angry Sadiq came barrelling towards them. As he got closer Sadiq's green eyes fell on the small Japanese man stood with the group, and he came to a sudden halt, his demeanour changing instantly, almost as if he had forgotten the reason he was angry in the first place.

"H-hello Kiku" he greeted sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. Gilbert used the opportunity to sneak off and hurried towards the field, cutting across it upon seeing Elizaveta sat underneath one of the trees on the other side of the sports field. She was sat with her back leant against the trunk of the large tree, her hands clasped in her lap, watching as he approached her.

"The awesome me is here!" He proudly announced as he stood in front of her, before flopping down and sitting next to her. She glanced over at him as he rummaged through the bag of food she had brought with her from the cafeteria.

"Better late than never I suppose" she chuckled light-heartedly, "where were you anyway?"

"I was doing a service to lovers everywhere! My matchmaking services will be highly sought after!"

She laughed and picked up a sandwich from the bag, tearing the packaging open; she pulled out of the sandwich halves out and took a bite. The two of them sat there for ages in the shade of the tree, just chatting and passing the time. It almost felt like all those time they spent together when they were younger, back when things were much simpler.

When Elizaveta was younger, she was quite the tomboy, preferring to run around with wooden swords and muck about in the mud in her jeans and t-shirts rather than play with dolls and wear dresses. That was how Gilbert and she had met and became as close as they did, even if he was under the pretence that she was a boy. She had been sat in the small playground near her house upon one of the swings, not long after her parents had moved to England from their home in Hungary, just swaying and kicking the sand with her feet as she watched the other children playing together. She was too shy at that point to go over and join them, and had sat by herself, when the silvery haired boy had come up to her, wooden sword in hand.

"Hey dude, wanna join? We need an extra pirate or Francis will beat us again!" He asked motioning over to where three other boys stood. He grabbed her hand and pulled her off the swing and handed her one of the spare swords, "Come on! Or are you not brave enough?"

"Of course I'm brave! I could beat all of you wimps all on my own!" she cried, grinning and following Gilbert to his friends.

Elizaveta chuckled at the memory, and looked over at Gilbert who was staring at her his red eyes filled with curiosity.

"I was just thinking about when I beat you all in that sword fight when we were kids! You were all so weak to me!"

Gilbert scoffed, "As if, I'm too awesome to be beaten. I had to defend you for the most part!" he laughed.

"I really enjoyed those days! Do you remember when we spent hours making that 'secret hideout'? We got in so much trouble for wrecking your father's curtains from his study. They did make a good canopy though…it seems like ages ago now.." She mused.

"Yeah it was all good until you turned into a girl"

She raised her fist and punched a now laughing Gilbert in the arm playfully, as he mockingly put his hands up in defence. She couldn't help but somewhat agree with his statement though.

Everything had changed when she had reached the age of ten. Her mother had become tired of her running around with Gilbert and the others she had befriended, constantly coming home caked in mud and bruises from their escapes. She stopped letting her out with them, and made her start wearing those awful dresses she hated, insisting that she needed to learn to become a young lady, fitting of their family's status. Soon she was sent to etiquette classes with a private tutor, and forced to spend time with other girls of her mothers choosing. Gilbert had persisted in his attempts to see her, often climbing up the tree outside her bedroom window, just to sit and talk with her; sometimes just leaving those little poems on her windowsill when she wasn't home, for her. Despite their ages, they both knew they had feelings for each other, not that either of them knew what they were. When she was eleven, she was woken to the sound of tapping at her window. She had walked over to find Gilbert back in the tree, as he always would be, when he was sure that he wouldn't be caught. Happy at seeing her friend she had opened her window and let him in, laughing when he stood proudly announcing he was here to let her down from the tower she was locked in, 'Meine Blume' he had called her as hegrabbed her hands and twirling her around before placing the small orange clip into her hair. That was the same night she had her first kiss. A kiss, kept secret, even to this day, not that she was ashamed of it. She just wanted it to be theirs, something only they knew.

Her father had been furious when he had arrived home late from work and gone to her room, to bid her goodnight; to find her with Gilbert. He had yelled at them both, mainly at Gilbert however, for 'leading his girl astray'. She had tried to plead with him, tears streaming down her face, that he was her friend, her best friend! But he wouldn't listen, and threw Gilbert out the front door and slammed it shut, leaving him out in the cold of the night.

It was almost over a year until she had seen him again, at the academy in their first year. By that time, she had come to accept her parents' wishes for her, and tried her hardest to keep them happy, even if it wasn't what she wished for in her heart. She spent most of her time with Roderich, whom she had been introduced to at one of her father's work events. Her parents seemed to approve of him, almost eager for them to get to know each other, so she did just that. After a couple of months at the academy, Roderich had asked her parents for their permission to court her, much to their delight. Roderich was nothing like Gilbert, where the silver haired German was mischievous and adventurous; he preferred to spend time practicing the piano and writing music, intent on one day becoming a world famous composer. Over time she had become fond of him, of the gentle way he spoke and the courteous way he treated her, and much to Gilberts anger, had come to love him, burying her true feelings deep within her heart.

Gilbert looked over to her upon noticing how quiet she had become, lost in her thoughts and moved closer to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. Surprised at the lack of resistance she gave him, normally when he tried this, she would hit him with something.

"What's wrong, Meine Blume?" He asked softly, reaching up and brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. She looked up at him with a sorrowful expression, a tear slowly falling down her cheek.

"Oh Gil….why did everything have to be so difficult?" She asked despite her better judgment, nuzzling her cheek into his hand, taking in the warmth from his skin. She felt him gently brush away her tear with a finger, his eyes staring deeply into hers as he raised it to his own face and wiped the tear under his own eye.

"Please don't…when you cry, it makes me want to the same.." He whispered and he stroked her face compassionately and leant his forehead against hers and he closed his eyes. This was the real Gilbert, the Gilbert she knew and held dear, not the brash loud-mouthed idiot he liked to exaggerate when he was around other people. She felt a spark of emotion, she had buried long ago, with the sensation on his touch. Her heart speaking mountains of truth, as emotions flooded her thoughts, about her true feelings for her long-time friend. Slowly she raised her face up to his, her lips brushing over his. Gilbert opened his eyes to gaze into hers, full of passion and longing, and pressing his lips to hers. She leant into the kiss, taking comfort in his embrace before she shoved his away and quickly rose to her feet. He reached his hand out to grasp hers, to try and stop her.

"Wait, Eli, please—"

"I'm sorry Gil….I'm so sorry, I can't.." she whispered as she pulled her hand free and ran across the field towards the school, not noticing the figure that stood by the garden walls watching the scene in dismay, his fists clenched in anger.

A/N Hello! *wave* Sorry for the delay in updating the story! ^_^' I've been busy with work, and Blue is currently uninspired to write at the moment sadly : (

*nervous laugh*

As always, thank you to our kind reviewers and readers!

Please feel free to drop a comment and let me know what you think!

Dead

Translations:

Meine Blume – My flower