When Gilbert finally left the room, he was pale and bore a frown that didn't look natural on him. Matthew stood from the chair he'd been sitting at and Gilbert sighed, running a hand through his hair.
"You probably wanna know what the hell's happening, huh?" Gilbert asked with a small smirk, but he obviously didn't mean it. Matthew sighed.
"We steal from the rich and give to the poor," Matthew explained and Gilbert blinked in surprise. "Arthur finds rich people that are basically assholes and we steal from them and hand out the money to the people in the city. That's our secret. Arthur told me I could finally tell you."
"Heh, go figure," Gilbert smiled slightly, a true smile. "You held up your end of the deal. I guess I should, too, huh?"
"You don't have to," Matthew shrugged. Gilbert just shook his head and sighed.
"Nah…" Gilbert muttered. Matthew sat back down in his chair and motioned for Gilbert to sit in the one beside him. Gilbert slumped down in the chair, looking up at the ceiling. "You see…my brother and I were kinda like people for hire. We were low on money and we needed some. People were willing to pay for hard jobs like destroying important projects. I even killed someone for it.
"One day, we got this assignment in London, they didn't really tell us what it was, just that we should destroy it. Something about getting in the wrong hands or whatever the hell. I made Ludwig keep watch, don't worry, he was a hell of a lot younger than what you saw. And this is gonna sound really stupid, but when I broke in to destroy the thing…it was this prototype machine. I just touched it, didn't even get a chance to destroy it, and it was like I moved rooms or something, everything was so different. The machine broke itself right in front of me. Alarms went off everywhere and these guards came in, but they didn't look like anything I knew before. I barely got away and onto the streets of London, Ludwig wasn't anywhere. But it definitely didn't look the same. I was used to cars on the ground, but now they were in the sky. Circuses had tents instead of domes from where I came from."
"I've heard about time machines before," Matthew muttered, "but I thought they were all still prototypes or something."
"Guess you figured it out," Gilbert smiled lightly. "I had no idea what the hell I was doing and I couldn't understand anything worth shit. These punks thought I was hilarious and dragged me all the way to your circus. They beat the shit out of me in the middle of a show. Elizaveta found me and then came back with Arthur and took me in. I never got a chance to try to look for Ludwig."
"Alfred and I were abandoned," Matthew muttered nonchalantly. "Arthur and Francis picked us up to take care of us. Arthur was disowned by his brothers while Francis' only real love was killed. Ivan nearly got killed protecting his sisters from a terrorist bombing and lost his arms. Antonio was homeless and had to steal in order to live. Lovi and Feli were in jail for attempted assassination. Roderich was mugged and had his head nearly bashed in, giving him brain damage to the point where he can't play piano anymore. Elizaveta was a soldier in the Middle East and nearly went insane when she came back home."
"Why are you-"
"Everyone here has a story," Matthew smiled at him. "Most of time, they're less than good. But we're a family, regardless of our pasts or our hardships. So, you're from the past. Okay. At this point, there's really nothing that can be done to fix anything. All you can really do is…move on, I guess. Take what you have and keep going, making the best out of it. Your brother's still alive after you've been gone for how many years?"
"Fifty," Gilbert informed and Matthew nodded.
"He waited for you and was able to hold his own," Matthew said. "That has to make you proud, right? He continued on without you, in hopes you would be safe. Now you'll have to return the favor and continue on without him, knowing that he's safe."
"Where'd you get all these words of wisdom from?" Gilbert laughed slightly, messing up Matthew's hair.
"I've been around depressed people most of my life," Matthew rolled his eyes, carefully fixing his hair that would be messed up with that night's performance anyway. "A lot of people come to the circus with a lot of their hardships still on their minds. After they're with our family for long enough, sure everything's still there, but they've learned to live with it. So, I was abandoned, my parents didn't want me and couldn't even care enough to give me a name. I was practically forgotten in the hospital nursery because I was so quiet and I nearly died. Once I was too old for the nursery, I was kicked out of the hospital because they needed the room and didn't have the money to get me somewhere safe. I was going to die except Francis and Arthur found me. Which means I got to meet a bunch of amazing people and I learned I had a talent I would have completely ignored if I had a normal life. Honestly, I prefer this life over anyone else's."
"There's no way of taking back what happened," Gilbert sighed. "To anyone, I guess. Brows just better make sure we're coming back to Berlin often!" Gilbert started laughing and Matthew smiled. "There's no way in Hell I'm gonna leave him alone for as long as I did before!"
"Good," Matthew nodded with a slight smile of his own. "We should be heading back, we've been gone for over an hour and Alfred's gonna start worrying soon."
"I'll tell Lud I'll be back tomorrow," Gilbert said happily, standing up before disappearing behind the door again.
"Mattie!" Alfred whined the second Matthew stepped into the main dome with Gilbert, pulling his "brother" into a tight hug that left Matthew breathless. "Where the hell did you go? Did you get hurt?" Immediately, Alfred started looking over Matthew, who started laughing at his antics.
"I'm fine," Matthew pushed him away lightly. "Besides, you know I can handle myself if I had to fight, anyway."
"You do play hockey," Gilbert mused behind him and Matthew rolled his eyes. Alfred eyes them carefully, a grin cracking onto his face.
"Did you two go on another date or something?" Alfred smirked.
"No!" Matthew groaned. "It was…personal business for Gilbert. It's nothing like what you think we were doing!"
"Found my little bro!" Gilbert laughed proudly. "He's not so little since the last time I saw him, but that's how shit works, I guess."
"You've got a brother?" Alfred asked. "What the hell are you doing sticking around here for? You should either get him to join us or go with him."
"He'd prefer it if I stayed," Gilbert shrugged and Matthew slowly attempted to walk away from the conversation. "Oi, Birdie, where do you think you're going?"
"I think I should try to practice," Matthew sighed, slumping slightly. "I haven't even touched that tightrope since we got here."
"Same as always, Mattie," Alfred laughed. "Wanna go up with me?"
"No, you should just continue having your little best friend moment with Gil," Matthew laughed, quickly ducking away and making his way through the main dome to the tightrope. People were bustling around and Arthur was pacing, apparently practicing his German, while Francis seemed to stalk him from behind with a bright smile. Matthew rolled his eyes and looked at his attire, which was far too baggy for him to practice very well on the tightrope. Matthew figured, as he was climbing up to the top of the tower, he could easily take off his sweatshirt and other baggy shirt and just put them back on before he came back down. It wasn't like anyone really looked up at him while he was practicing. They had their own things to do.
Matthew had no idea how long he was up on the tightrope for, but he did love the feeling of being up there alone, free to get lost in it all. Alfred had figured out in Belgium that their new tightrope could change colors and Matthew amused himself by looking at it while he stood on his hands for as long as his body could handle. Once he was done, Matthew simply walked to the tower where he left his sweatshirt. He didn't really want to put it on, since he was already hot and sweating, but he wasn't about to just walk through the circus without a shirt on. Sadly, when he reached the tower, Matthew noticed there was a severe lack of red sweatshirts or his other shirt. His shoes were gone, too, but that wasn't as big of a deal.
"Alfred," Matthew sighed, knowing Gilbert was too afraid of heights to climb up to the top just to take Matthew's clothing. Matthew blushed slightly as he glanced down at the people still in the main dome. There were quite a few people down there, including a very obvious white head of hair. "I'm gonna kill him…" Matthew muttered, wondering if he could look around to find his "brother" but he had no such luck. With a small sigh, Matthew began to climb down, his blush growing brighter and deeper the further he went down.
Matthew nodded slightly when no one noticed him once he set foot on the ground. Taking a rather deep breath, Matthew quickly started moving for the exit, only to have it blocked when he was only a few feet away by a certain albino. The blush was officially worse.
"Why are ya walking around like that, Birdie?" Gilbert asked with a wicked smirk that told Matthew he knew exactly what happened. He was holding on of his knives calmly with one hand while the other had a very cold hand on Matthew's shoulder.
"Did you and Alfred do this on purpose?" Matthew asked and Gilbert started laughing.
"It was fucking hilarious when you didn't even see him climb up there to take your shit!" Gilbert laughed, using Matthew as support to keep himself standing. "Oh, Gott, this is great!"
"Will you please let me through so I can get my clothes back and so I can kill Alfred?" Matthew asked quietly.
"But you're so adorable when you're embarrassed like that," Gilbert smirked, leaning his face very close to Matthew's. Matthew felt like his face was on fire now. "You know, if I hadn't already seen you in tights, I would never have guessed that you were so lean under that sweatshirt you love to wear."
"Yeah, well, I don't really think I need to show everyone," Matthew muttered, trying to stare at the ground.
"You're so adorable," Gilbert smirked, pulling Matthew into a small hug that had the Canadian even more embarrassed.
"Yeah, I think I know that by now," Matthew sighed, not moving much to get away from him and get to his clothes. "Think you'll let me through to go kill Alfred or are you going to be keeping me to embarrass me even more?"
"Well, Elizaveta is practically dying over there so I think I've done my job," Gilbert laughed, releasing Matthew, who stared up at him with an exasperated expression. He was used to Alfred messing with him, but now that he had a new buddy that seemed to love to see Matthew blush to help him, Matthew just knew it would only get worse. "One more thing, though," Gilbert winked before leaning down just slightly to press his lips against Matthew's.
Matthew immediately jerked slightly in surprise, but Gilbert placed his free hand behind his head to keep him there. Matthew didn't quite mind and nearly moved to kiss him back, but then he heard the shouts and whistles from the rest of the circus and he pushed away from Gilbert, who started cackling like mad. Matthew hit him weakly in the arm.
"It's my fault for saying I didn't mind if everyone knew," Matthew sighed, smiling slightly, and ran out of the main dome before Elizaveta made it over to him to start harassing both of them. Once Matthew finally found his "brother", he gave him a good punch to the stomach as revenge. But they were both laughing about it later.
It was so deep in the first half that I had to lighten up the mood in the second half. This isn't meant to be a very angsty fic, but this is me writing, so who am I kidding? In any case, we got some back story for a few characters there. And people were already guessing the whole "Gilbert's from the past" thing, from pretty much chapter 1 or 2. But it's still a big reveal!
Anywho, please review! It's nice!