SUMMER
She ran and ran and decided to go to the other town next to theirs. She had now decided what she thought that was best for her. She would just run away. She would not come back to that stupid mansion of her father anymore. She didn't care where she would go or what she should do with her life now.
Why would she care? The only two persons who really cared were Kiku and her mother. She already lost her mother and Kiku? It was not she didn't like him but with her father forcing her to marry her friend was something she just couldn't do. So she really had no reason to care anymore.
She stopped on her tracks when she was in a narrow alleyway. She leaned towards the wall as she panted for air, covering her eyes with the back of hand which was lightly clenched.
"I don't understand…" she murmured to no one in particular. "How can he do this to his own daughter? Doesn't he really care about my thoughts…my feelings?"
Unwillingly, some teardrops made their way to her cheeks. But as soon as she felt them, she frustratingly wiped them away. No, she would not allow herself to cry. She had already wasted her stupid tears once for a stupid guy and she would not waste any tears again.
She just glared at the ground as she walked. She knew quite well where she could stay. She would stay in one of her friends' house. And she stopped right in front of the door of the Beilschmidt's residence where her friend, Ludwig, lived. Even though she changed, the only friends that accepted it were Kiku, Ludwig, and Feli. Ludwig didn't mind her changes as long as she wasn't irritatingly disturbing. Feli on the other hand didn't seem to care whether she changed or not since he was always nice to everyone so it wasn't a problem.
She raised her hand to the doorbell. It really didn't matter to her if Ludwig would let her stay or not. She knew that she could always find a way. But she would certainly not go to see if she could stay at Feli's house just because that was where that stupid guy, Lovino, was also residing.
Ding! Dong!
And the door opened to reveal a cheerful Feliciano.
"Ve~ It's Dea!" he beamed as he tried to hug her without warning.
She immediately dodged the hug that he ended up hugging the air and fell over.
"Feliciano, how many times should I say to you that don't do that," Dea calmly said with a frown.
"That isn't so nice, ve~" Feli whined as he stood up, scratching the back of his head.
"Feli, who—" Ludwig cut his sentence as he saw her.
And she simply smirked at him. "Surprise, surprise," then her lips formed a straight line as she crossed her arms and glaring off the distance, tilting her head in a stubborn way. "I ran away."
Ludwig's brows furrowed at her.
"Ve~?"
Dea sighed and looked at her friends. "I need a place to stay."
"Why won't you stay at Kiku's?" Ludwig asked.
"Yeah and be forced to get married? Just a great idea!" she scoffed at him.
"Now I get it," Ludwig muttered. "Why you ran away…"
"Ve? I don't get it?" Feli mindlessly looked back and forth at the two.
"How about at Feli's?" Ludwig suggested.
"Do you really want me to kick your butt, Luddy?" Dea glared at him. "You know too well that I won't go there ever again."
"Eh?! Dea! You don't want to visit me anymore?" Feli whimpered. "But why? Is it because my eyes are always closed? Is it because of my curl? Is it because you don't like pasta? Is it-?"
"No, Feli. It's not because of you," Dea sighed then looked back at Ludwig. "You really don't want me to stay here, do you?"
"It's not because of that," Ludwig coughed. "It's rather because of someone else who's residing here, too."
She just raised her eyebrow at him.
"It's my elder bruder. He's quite…unnerving."
"Ve~ Ludwig's brother is nice! He's always complementing my pastas, ve~" Feli beamed at them.
Ludwig face-palmed. "Yeah. But I don't know if you can manage to live with the kind of bruder I have here, Dea."
"I can manage," Dea nonchalantly replied. "After all, I need hiding place to stay away from my father."
Silence.
"Ve! Ludwig let Dea stay here then~!" Feli clutched Ludwig's shoulder's, rocking him back and forth. "Then I can always visit here. Oh and Kiku, too. Then I will make pasta for us, ve~ Then we can play. Then—"
"Alright, alright!" Ludwig withdrew his self from Feli's grasp and straightened his self. "You can stay."
"Thanks, Luddy!" she smirked.
"But don't blame me if your proud self will clash against my bruder's egoistic self."
Singing obnoxiously something in his native tongue, Gilbert stepped inside their house with a bottle of beer in one hand and a plastic full of canned beer on the other.
"Hey, Ludwig! I bought us some beer!" he shouted. He walked in, kicking the front door closed behind him. "Hey, bruder!" he waited for a reply but there was none. "That's weird. Normally, he would've told me to shut up or something along the lines."
Just right after he said that, the front door behind him opened and his brother walked in.
"Ah, Ludwig! There you are! I bought you some—" Gilbert didn't finished what he was about to say as another person walked in after his brother.
"You're home, bruder," Ludwig noticed.
But Gilbert's eyes weren't on his brother but on the person beside him—the girl beside his brother! She had the lightest platinum blonde hair and her eyes were the same color as his and they were glaring at him as she saw him.
"YOU?!" they both said in unison.
"What are you doing here, stolidus?!" she glared at him.
Gilbert just smirked at her then frowned as he wondered why she was with his brother. "Why are you with my brother?"
"You're brother?"
Ludwig coughed to get their attention. "You know each other?"
"No, but this idiot here has done something unforgiveable!"
"Well, frau, I am so happy that you still remember that!"
She stepped forward and was about to hit him square in the face if only Ludwig didn't stop her.
"Okay, that's enough!" Ludwig said as he put himself in the between the two of them. "See what I meant by your attitudes will clash Dea?" Ludwig turned to her.
"Well, I never know that your elder brother is that scoundrel!" she glared at the albino. "But I have no choice so if I have to live here with THAT around, be that way!"
Ludwig just sighed tiredly.
"Live here? Ludwig, what's the meaning of this? Are you and this girl-?" Gilbert looked at his brother in disbelief. The little chick on his head chirped, disturbed.
"Bruder, this is my friend, Dea Pluvia, and she will be temporarily staying at our house," Ludwig then turned to Dea, "Dea, this is my elder brother, Gilbert. And I wish that the two of you won't cause havoc in this house."
"Ja, ja," Gilbert grinned at Dea. "Why should I cause havoc with a very beautiful frau? I am too awesome for that."
"I won't cause havoc here, Luddy," Dea tauntingly smirked back at him. "But I am not sure if I can stop myself outside this house. I notice that your garden is quite spacious. I wonder what it will look like once I—"
"Anywhere but within this residence!" and with that, Ludwig went upstairs with his hand on his forehead. It seemed that he had enough of his brother and his friend for the night.
"Well frau," Gilbert walked towards here. "How about what I've said the other day? How about being mein awesome girlfriend?"
"Stercus!" she huffed and went upstairs.
"Hm…That girl really is interesting…"
Days passed and Kiku and Feli would visit her in Ludwig's house. It seemed that her father had sent his goons all around the town she came from to search for her. She really was lucky that her father didn't even know that she had friends in the town she was currently in.
Days passed and it seemed that a certain German—er—Prussian wouldn't leave her alone. He would randomly go in her room without a word and would try his 'ways' of wooing her. He even said something to her that was so unlike of him but she knew that it was just some flirting words of his again.
"Hey, frau," he said at that time. "I never really usually say this to anyone 'cause it's so unawesome of me if I ever say this but…you really are the type of girl who is hard to get. So…" he faintly blushed and he quickly turned his back at her to hide it. "I've decided to court you in the most awesome way!" and before he embarrassed himself more, he laughed his weird laugh and walked away.
And from that time on, he seemed to be less irritating. She didn't know why but she found herself becoming soft on him. But because of her proud self, she kept on denying it. But when he asked her to go with him and his brother for a summer outing, her mouth answered 'yes' before she could even think about it. It seemed that Gilbert was starting to get her back to her old gentle self. But she didn't have any plan to go back to her old self. She already had enough pain.
"Mein Dea, come on!" Gilbert called her from where she sat on the sand.
Right now, she was with the Beilschmidt brothers, Kiku, and Feli. They were spending the summer outing at the beach. Kiku understood her decision of running away and he didn't dare to rat her out to her father. He was good at keeping her secrets after all. But he seemed sad about something and he kept frowning whenever she was with Gilbert or Gilbert was around. But just like before she just shrugged it off.
"Dea-chan, aren't you going in the water?" Kiku asked softly beside her. They were currently sitting on the sand while their other friends were at the sea, already enjoying the water.
From Gilbert's grinning face, she turned to Kiku's soft smile.
"Aren't you going?" she asked back with a smirk.
He just stood up then held out a hand at her. "Ikuzo?"
She just rolled her eyes at this but took his hand and walked to the sea hand in hand to which Gilbert glared at.
"Dea! Come on here! The awesome me wants to show you something!" Gilbert called as she stepped in the water. He was at the somewhat deep part of the waters.
"What is it?" she asked as she swam towards him, forgetting the fact that Kiku was still holding her hand and he tugged at it before she could even swim. She stopped and turned to him. "Uhm…Kiku…"
"Take care while swimming, Dea-chan…" he just said as he smiled faintly at her, withdrawing his hand.
"I'll try," she smirked teasingly and swam away.
"At last you're away from that unawesome one," Gilbert murmured when she was near.
"What was that?" she raised an eyebrow at him.
"Nothing," then he grinned and took her hand as he swam further away.
"Hey, where do you think you're taking me?" Dea tried to withdraw her hand but he just tightened his grip.
"You can swim under the water right and hold your breath for a good length of time?" he asked with a smirk.
"She just faintly glared at him. "Of course. And why are you asking?"
"Swim with me and I'll show you something," and he dove underwater.
"Gloating jerk!" she muttered as she did the same.
Under the water, she saw him waved his hand to follow him and she swam to him. This part of the sea was quite deep and he swam deeper and deeper until he stopped by a large coral rock surrounded by weeds and some corals. Multiple fishes swam away as they swam near.
Gilbert then took a water resistant flashlight that he was wearing as a necklace. He flashed Dea his trademark smirk and flash the light on to the coral rock. Dea's mouth almost fell open when she saw what was in the rock. The rock has a large hole and there were some moss here and there. But it was just not that. In the middle of the bottom of the hole of the rock, was an open giant clam. And it had the most beautiful and purest giant white pearl she had ever seen.
Without thinking, her lips curved to a smile. From the pearl she looked at Gilbert who was watching her this whole time. And for the first time, she saw him smiling gently at her. And that what made him stare at him. He looked so…handsome with that smile. Also, the limited light underwater complemented him well. She was not really paying attention very well that she didn't notice him swimming near her until he grabbed her by her waist and pressed her body against his. And this made her flushed. Who wouldn't be flushed? If you're a girl with your two-piece bikini is pressed against this guy on his trunks, will you not be flushed?
But unlike to what she expected, he didn't kiss her but instead he swam to the surface with her in his arms. As soon as they were at the surface, they took in large breaths of air. And the oddest thing they did…was laugh. They laughed without reason at all for they just felt it.
"Thank you, Gilbert," Dea said before she contemplated her words. And when she realized that her body was still in his arms, she withdrew herself and turned her back to his. "I mean, that was cool," she said, returning to her proud self.
"Kesesesese~ you know, you look more beautiful when you smile, frau," he spoke against her ear with a raspy yet gentle voice.
"Dea! Gilbert! Let's go and eat ve~!" Feliciano called out from the shore.
"Time to go," Dea muttered as she swam away. "Hey, idiot, let's go," she called out before completely swimming away.
Gilbert just shook his head amusingly and followed her. He knew that just a little bit and she would certainly open up to him. Sooner or later, he knew…she would feel the same way about him.
