AN: Are you guys ready for the (probably) second-to-last chapter? Of COURSE you are! :D This is where the happy happens. Please review and tell me if you like how it gets resolved!

And again, to the loser will go a bonus chapter. So don't just check out if your favorite loses!

Maddie tried to swallow back the lump in her throat as she turned on her phone. When the screen lit up, she saw that she had missed twenty calls, been left eleven voice messages, and received thirty-two texts, all from Gilbert save a handful of messages from Alfred.

She wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. Was he desperate? Or just pathetic?

Or was he both, and not afraid of appearing pathetic anymore?

Maddie opened her voicemail inbox and set the phone on speaker. Soon Gilbert's voice filled her room, making her eyes water slightly.

They sat there on her bed for almost half an hour, listening to and reading every message in the order they arrived.

"Hey, it's me again. Listen, we need to talk. You don't know the whole story. It wasn't a competition, it really wasn't. I really do care about you, Maddie. Please just say you'll talk."

Please just talk to me

It wasn't a competition, I swear. That was something stupid. What I feel about you had nothing to do with it

"Maddie, I've been sitting outside your door since 10:30. Britt and Alfred won't let me in. I guess they mean well, but I really need to see you. Call me back, please."

I understand if you think I'm lying, but I'm really not

"Listen to me, about the competition. It was nothing, really! It was something idiotic I did because I couldn't stand the thought of Francis getting his hands on you. At first I was afraid he just wanted to screw around with you, and I couldn't take that. I couldn't stand somebody thinking about you like that. I really care so much about you. Please, call me back. Don't ignore me."

I just hope you're reading these

"Please don't ignore me. I can take you hating me, I know that you're hurting, but please just don't act like I don't exist. You're my whole world, and I can't stand not being there when I know I've upset you."

I never wanted to hurt you, ever

I bet you're crying right now, and I hate it. Please, just let me know you're reading these messages and listening to my calls

"Birdie, listen. Ich liebe dich. Ah, you don't speak German, why am I such a moron…? That means that I love you. Gott, I love you so much. Please, forgive me. I'm so, so sorry. Just don't cry, okay? You can hate me, you can ignore me. Just please, don't cry."

I'd rather you just forget all this ever happened. I love you, but I'd rather you forget about me than be so sad

Please, just don't cry. I'd give anything to make it so you'd never have to cry ever again

"I'm sorry. Hate me if you want, but hate me for being a dummkopf, not for lying about loving you. That was never a lie, ever. You've got to believe that. No matter what happens, I'll love you, Birdie. Prussian's honor. Ich liebe dich."

When the last message was gone, the trio of girls sat in silence, staring at the phone in awe. Maddie trembled slightly, feeling a little weak.

She'd never heard Gilbert be serious in the slightest, much less as serious as she heard him be over the phone. He wouldn't be that persistent if he was lying, would he? Had he really been out there since ten thirty waiting to see her?

"Do…do you think he means it?" Maddie asked softly.

"I really do, Canada," Mei said. "He seemed really distraught."

"Yeah, and worried too!" Feliciana chimed in.

Maddie sat in silence for a long time, staring at her folded hands in her lap, fidgeting indecisively. "I love him," she admitted after a long moment. "But I don't know if I can trust him…"

"Just go talk to him," Mei urged.

Maddie nodded slowly. "I will… But, later, okay? Once all this has gotten a chance to sink in, I'll go."

"Okay!" Feliciana clapped her hands. "How about we do some girl stuff in the meantime?"

"That sounds fun," Mei said. "How about we do manicures for each other?"

Maddie nodded, managing a grateful—if somewhat wavering—smile for them. "Thanks, you two."

They both hugged her tight. "Of course! What are friends for?" Feliciana giggled.

Feliciana dashed back to her dorm to collect Elizaveta's assortment of nail polishes and manicuring tools, and after she returned they all rifled through the colors to select one. Feliciana picked lime green and a deep crimson to paint tomatoes over the green background. Maddie chose white with a red maple leaf on it, and Mei settled on deep blue with a white sunburst, like the flag of Taiwan.

Drawing little pictures on their nails was both time-consuming and required a great deal of focus—a perfect combination for keeping Gilbert out of Maddie's head. As she painted the miniscule maple leaves onto her nails, she felt more at ease than she had felt since last night, when he'd broken her heart.

They'd just decided to do their toenails as well when there came a knock at the door.

"Come in," Maddie called, looking up to see who it could be.

Britt opened the door, looking uncharacteristically timid. "Oh, um. Maddie, could I have a word with you? Out here, if you don't mind."

Mei waved Maddie on. "Go ahead. I still have to help Feliciana with the tomatoes on her right hand," she assured her. They'd all taken turns helping each other paint the nails on their dominant hands, and Feliciana's was the only one still pictureless.

Nervously, Maddie stepped out into the living room after Britt. Alfred was still there, lounging across their couch with a big bowl of ice cream on his lap.

"That's my ice cream," Maddie said weakly.

Alfred grinned and pointedly stuck his tongue straight into the ice cream to put his germs all over it. "Well it's mine now!"

Maddie made a face. "How old are you?"

He ignored her and pointed to Britt with his spoon. "I think she has some stuff to say to you."

Slightly disappointed that her stalling hadn't worked better, Maddie inhaled deeply and turned to face Britt.

Britt flushed and shuffled her feet. "Well… You see…" With an exasperated sigh she brought her gaze up to meet Maddie's. "What I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry for what I said last night. That was my anger at Francis talking. It wasn't your fault, and it was unjust of me to blame you."

Maddie was taken aback by Britt's proffered olive branch. "Oh… Thanks, Britt. That was very nice of you to apologize. I understand, and I'm really sorry Francis did that because of me."

The blonde Brit shook her head and waved the last comment away with a flick of her wrist. "It wasn't your fault at all. He's just a sleazy prick, and that won't ever change."

"Don't say that," Maddie said. "Maybe someday, when he meets the right girl, he'll get better."

"We can hope," Britt said, but she didn't seem convinced.

"Hey, give the Frenchy some credit," Alfred said from the couch. He trapped Britt's waist with an arm and tugged her blushing and spluttering onto his lap. "Anybody can be fixed up by love. Sometimes it just takes a hero," he said with a pointed wink.

Britt growled at him. "You give yourself too much credit."

Alfred ignored that and glanced at Maddie with a cocky grin. "In case you didn't notice, we're kind of an item now."

Maddie had to laugh at that. "Yeah, I figured," she snickered.

A blushing Britt shoved herself off of Alfred's lap. "Don't get too comfortable, Yank," she warned.

Maddie leaned over to kiss her brother's cheek. "Congrats," she whispered, giving him a quick hug. "I'm happy for you." When she pulled back she raised her voice so Britt could hear. "Thank you guys."

"No problem, baby sister," he said smilingly.

As Maddie straightened she finally felt the rumble of her stomach. "Oh. Have you guys eaten yet?"

"Nope," Alfred said. "You making something?"

"I can!" cried Feliciana, bursting out of Maddie's room with Mei following at a more subdued pace at her heels. "Let's make pasta, Maddie!"

The spunky Italian's excitement at the prospect of her favorite food was infectious. Maddie found herself smiling as her friend dragged her into the kitchen and began raiding their refrigerator and cabinets for the ingredients for a late lunch.

Elbow-deep in flour, Maddie, Feliciana, and Mei kneaded dough for the pasta. The work brought Maddie's spirits up with its calming physical regularity, and as they rolled the dough flat the three friends were laughing and joking as though it was any other lunch and not a consolation mission.

"Let's do fettuccine!" Feliciana suggested. "Since you don't have a pasta maker, it'll be easy to cut the noodles!"

"Okay," Maddie agreed. She fished a couple of knives out of their drawer and passed them around. The trio of friends set to slicing and laughing at each other's poor technique—except Feliciana, of course. Hers were as perfectly and professionally done as those of a master chef.

Together they dumped their noodles into the water to boil, then turned their attention to the sauce. They decided to go with chicken fettuccine alfredo, although Feliciana had to be mostly responsible for the sauce for that.

Alfred and Britt followed their noses into the kitchen soon before the food was finished. Maddie was collecting plates from the cupboard and utensils from the drawer, and Mei and Feliciana were doing a final taste test of the cream sauce. "Perfect!" Feliciana declared gleefully and began spooning generous portions onto each plate.

"This smells amazing," Alfred moaned. "Can I eat now?"

"Not yet, Captain America," Feliciana scolded. "Wait until everyone has theirs!"

Mollified by being called Captain America, Alfred settled back into his chair to wait. Britt took the one to his left. Feliciana hustled Maddie into the chair on Alfred's other side and made Mei sit between Britt and Maddie while the Italian chef served the rest of the pasta. Then she drew up a chair between Maddie and Mei—as the table only seated four—and declared, "Bon apetit!"

The hungry high schoolers complied gratefully. They ate and laughed and talked until they'd teased a smile from Maddie's still glum face. They tried to conceal it from her, but Maddie could tell that they were all giving it their best effort to make her forget her sadness. Even Britt was acting more cheerful than usual, forcing laughter at things she would normally scoff at and containing her seismic explosions at Alfred's cheesy displays of affection.

Maybe she was just still emotional, or the scene was genuinely moving, but Maddie couldn't help her world from blurring through a screen of tears and a few droplets from falling to her plate as she watched her friends doing so much to help her. When had she ever had friends like this? For the very first time, Madeline Williams was truly, deeply grateful to be at Hetalia High so that she could have all these wonderful friends at her side.

"Hey, sis!" Alfred shook her shoulder. "None of that." His words seemed callous, but the concern in his eyes was genuine and deep.

Maddie scrubbed at her eyes with the sleeve of her blue pajama sweatshirt. "Thank you," she mumbled. "All of you."

The whole scene seemed to glow. Feliciana beamed at her; Mei smiled in that soft but impossibly warm way of hers; Britt's tense shoulders relaxed slightly as her lips turned upwards in a rare smile; and Maddie's brother took her hand, rubbing his thumb comfortingly against her hand. He winked at her and said, "Well, whaddaya expect? We love you, baby sister."

Gratitude swelled in Maddie, a cleansing flood that washed away all her bitterness and heartbreak. Surely, her pain did not go away—but now she had perspective. Losing Gilbert was not the end of the world. She had all these strong shoulders to lean on when she was weak, all these hands to help her climb back to her feet when she fell. She was not alone in this, or in anything. Gilbert could still love her, but even if he didn't, these friends would not fail.

"Thank you all," she said again. Then she got to her feet. "That was delicious," she added to Feliciana, who glowed at the compliment.

"Where are you going?" Alfred asked. Her hand was still tucked into his, and when she tried to tug it out of his grasp he didn't let go.

"I think I've been in my pajamas long enough today," she said with a smile.

The others looked relieved to hear her encouraged. "I think so too," Alfred said laughingly.

Maddie rolled her eyes and reclaimed her hand. "I'll be in the shower."

The hot water rushing over her body was a welcome shock. Maddie didn't think she'd ever been so happy to take a shower in her life.

When she got out of the shower, Mei and Feliciana had gone, but Alfred was still there, playing a card game with Britt at the kitchen table. Judging by her explosive cursing, he was winning.

Maddie was back in her normal clothes—a T-shirt and jeans—and had tied her still-damp hair into pigtails. Without wanting to disturb the couple at the table, she retreated back into her room and sat on her bed. And steeled herself for what she had to do.

She hugged Kumajirou tight to her chest for comfort as she thought. She had to go see Gilbert, that much was certain, but it was so hard to motivate herself to go. It was so tempting to believe in the words he'd said in his messages, that he loved her—but the truth was, it could easily be that he was lying. And she loved him too much to be able to bear the weight of a second rejection easily.

As hard as it was to put her heart out there to be damaged once more, she knew it had to be done. Because she did love him, she had to do it. If there was even a chance he was in earnest, she had to gamble on it. Love made people do crazy things, and she was about to throw all her carefully cultivated logic and caution to the winds for this, for Gilbert.

Drawing a deep fortifying breath, Maddie got to her feet and opened her door as quietly as possible. Mei and Feliciana had said that Alfred and Britt were trying to keep Gilbert out—it wasn't likely that they would be eager to let her walk out to see him, even if it was of her own volition.

Unfortunately, Alfred wasn't as idiotic as everyone believed. When it came to school, maybe he was, but in street smarts he was actually more well-endowed than Maddie. He heard her as she snuck over to the door and called, "Hey! What are you doing?"

Maddie clenched her fists, trying to draw strength from deep within herself. "I need to go talk to Gilbert."

Alfred's objections were instantaneous and vehement, as she'd known they would be. He stood up sharply, probably ready to get between her and the door. "Are you like emo or something? You gotta like pain to want to do that."

"I know he might reject me," Maddie said softly. "But I've got to do this."

"No, you don't," he objected. He was coming forward slowly, hands outstretched toward her as if to a wild animal who might bolt. "You can just stay here and not bother yourselves with those two jerkbags anymore!"

"I can't do that!" she cried as her fists clenched harder, her voice coming out loud and sharp enough that it took the couple aback. She hardly ever raised her voice, and it always shocked when she did. "Alfred, I think I might love him. I have to do this."

"But, Maddie…" He was before her now, and he drew her into his arms. "I don't want you to have to hurt like that," he said softly. "I hate it when you cry."

"He told me that too," Maddie whispered. She squeezed him back, then released him and pulled back—keeping a grip on his hands—so that their identical blue eyes met. "Alfred, you never gave up on Britt, no matter how many times she hurt you, no matter how many people told you to give it up. You loved her too much to ever turn away. Well, I won't, either. This is important to me, Alfred, and I have to go."

There was a long poignant pause. "I don't like it," he said finally. "But… Do what ya gotta do."

Maddie smiled. "Thanks, Al."

He returned the grin halfheartedly. "I hope I don't regret this."

With a final squeeze of his hand, Maddie released him and set her hand on the front door handle. She took a deep breath to fuel her courage, and then she opened the door.

Gilbert scrambled to his feet when he saw her come out. He really had been there all day—his clothes were rumpled and his hair was a mess, from what looked like constantly passing his hands through it. As always, her heart did a tap dance at the sight of his exotic crimson eyes, but this time it was even more vigorous than usual because of how startled she was by the desperation in the scarlet pools of his eyes.

"Bir—Maddie," he gasped. "I don't know—"

"Shh," she admonished. The calm in her voice and expression surprised her. "Let's go to the park or something, okay? I'm sure you're sick of this hallway, and people walk through here too often for us to talk properly."

Gilbert seemed taken aback by her composure. "Uh, okay…" He followed her out of the dorm building and to the park. As they walked, his discomfort seemed to multiply. Maddie's expression and voice were perfectly cool, without even a trace of the heartbreak he had no doubt expected to see.

But what he could not know was that beneath her unruffled exterior, Maddie trembled and clung to her composure by her fingernails, on the edge of losing herself to all the emotions he incited in her. She struggled against the urge to take his strong hand, which she'd held so few times but felt like she knew so well. She fought the waves of tears until they retreated back into her eyes. She confined her heart so that its fluttering wouldn't send it flying into her throat or plummeting into her shoes.

The night was cool, and the wind chased playfully through the park, nipping at their heels like an excited puppy. It was like they were being gently guided to where Maddie had intended to take him all along.

Maddie sat down on a bench in a secluded area of the park. She often read here or did homework when she felt like she needed some air. Their little glade was ringed by trees that cut it off from the rest of the park, which offered sufficient privacy for them to have their talk.

Gilbert sat down beside her but at a respectful distance. The gap between them seemed so wide, a chasm of only a foot. He was silent for a long moment, maybe unsure of what to say.

He started to say something, but Maddie cut him off. Her voice was unfriendly and flat when she said, "You know, if you wanted to do something to me, we're all alone now." The words shocked even Maddie. She had no idea where they had come from—they'd just spilled out on their own accord. What had possessed her to challenge him like that? What if he actually did something?

But Gilbert looked just as taken aback as she was. "Gott, no," he said vehemently. "There's no way I'd do that."

The speed and definiteness of his answer was…almost insulting. She'd hoped he wouldn't do anything to her, but flatly refusing to…?

He saw the look on her face and backpedaled quickly. "Oh, no, I didn't mean it like… That's not what I was saying!" Her face remained impassive. Gilbert swore under his breath. "I'd really hoped this would go smoother." He pushed his hand through his white hair and stared at the ground as he carefully collected his words. "It's not like I don't…want you…it's just… I mean, I'm a guy, and I've been a little…loose, I'll admit…" He saw in her eyes that he was losing her. "Okay, I've slept around a lot, alright? It's hard for me not to think like that! I do want you, Birdie—I mean, Maddie. But it's different with you."

"How so?" she asked, trying to hide the curiosity his statement had piqued.

"I want you, but not like I've wanted other girls," he explained. "With them, I was pretty much leading with my… Er." Hot crimson flooded his face, explosive against his pallid skin. "What I'm saying is, with you, I love you more than I want you. It's more important to me that you're happy. I'd rather protect you than get you in bed." His hands, wrapped around the edge of the bench seat, tightened as if he was having a hard time keeping them firmly where they belonged. "You matter to me like none of the others did, Birdie. I see your face and not your body. I love you for who you are, not what you can give me. I want you, your soul I guess, not just your body."

Despite the unpracticed sloppiness of the speech, Maddie was touched by his words. His crimson eyes were earnest, and his words carried truth, or she was as deplorable a judge of character as ever existed.

Feliciana and Mei had thought him to be serious too. They couldn't all be wrong, could they?

"Then what was the competition about?" she asked, struggling to pin down the fringes of her composure when all she wanted to do was go into his arms and cry.

"It was to see who could get the first kiss," he explained. He turned his gaze from her, but not before she saw it tighten with pain. Pain that she hadn't responded to his confession, maybe? "It wasn't like we were trying to get into your pants or anything. We just… I don't know what we were thinking. It was right after we met you, and we both just fell in love at first sight. I guess it was kind of hypocritical, but we both wanted to keep you safe from the other, because I guess we both thought that the other just wanted you for a good time. So we decided to make it a competition. Raise the stakes." He winced. "It was stupid. But I just wanted you to be mine, I swear. The kiss was hardly related at all. I just thought that if I did manage to get the first kiss, then Francis would back down…

"I was scared," he admitted. "I mean, the entire thing depended on you. We were both trying our hardest, so it would come down to which of us you loved. And I didn't want to lose you. I guess Frankreich threw a wrench in that for both of us though." His voice broke slightly, but he cleared his throat to hide it.

Maddie digested this. Could she trust him? Well, it WOULD be just like a pair of boys to make a competition out of something like this, she thought. She wanted so much to trust him. She wanted to believe that this love she felt was real and not just a product of his whims and desires.

She remembered the break in his voice in his last sentence. Where he'd admitted she was lost to him. Would he, Gilbert Beilshmidt, proud son of Germany and strong heir to a powerful family, have come so perilously close to crying over a girl he did not love?

Her small hand covered his. He looked at it in shock, then raised eyes full of hope he barely dared to harbor to her face.

She looked away, gazing off into the trees. "I'd never had a boyfriend," she said. "Or been kissed. Or been in love. Before I met you, that is."

"Maddie…"

"I'd always been invisible, even back home where I grew up. No one talked to me, and I didn't have many friends. I wanted so badly to be loved," she said softly. "I wanted someone to notice that I was there, and notice that I was worth noticing.

"And then I come here, and suddenly I have friends right and left, and two guys seem to fall for me right away. It seemed too good to be true. Me, the invisible girl. I was loved, Gilbert, for the first time ever by someone outside of my family. I felt important to someone, like my existence meant something, even though the people back home had never noticed it. Here my heart is so full. I want it to stay that way."

The wind rushed into their clearing and blew Maddie's pigtails back. She tilted her face towards the sweet breeze. "I love the feeling I have here," she confided. "The world seems open to me here, and the people in it. But the thing about not having ever had friends is that I don't know how to deal with heartbreak. I don't know how to hurt. I didn't want to make a decision between you and Francis because I was afraid of pricking my perfect bubble and having to face that hurt." Her grip tightened on his hand. "My heart is just a baby. It's got a lot to learn. But…would you take it anyway?"

There was a moment of shell-shocked silence. Then Gilbert tugged her into his arms hard so that they collided in a tight embrace. "Of course," he whispered in her ear. "Nothing would make me happier. Gott, thank you for understanding."

Her arms locked around him as tears began to slip from under her closed lids. "I'm sorry I—"

"Please don't apologize," he pled. "I don't think I could deal with you apologizing after all the crap I did to you."

"Okay," she agreed, squeezed almost breathless by his embrace. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling.

"Ich liebe dich," he breathed, burying his face in her shoulder and neck. "Oh, dang, I mean—"

"I love you too," she said, stroking the fine white hair on the nape of his neck. "Je'taime, Gilbert."

He pulled back ever so slightly to rest his forehead on hers. The backs of his fingers stroked across her jaw, painting lines of fire across her skin. "Can I…"

She turned pink, but nodded all the same.

Reverently Gilbert brought their mouths together and kissed her. It was still so unfamiliar, the warm press of his lips beckoning her to come closer, closer, to search within herself and him for the ties that bound them and venerate them forever, but she knew she would have a very long time to grow used to it.

The kiss was seasoned with the tears that continued to slip down her face, but she could still taste something different and special on his lips. It must be rare, she thought, that Gilbert kissed a girl with so much contentment and bliss, not pressing for more, not prying or demanding, being swept away by the emotions behind the kiss instead of the physical sensation.

She had to end the kiss when she began to grow light-headed. Even Gilbert was a little breathless when she leaned against his chest, listening as their heartbeats fell into synch.

He slid his hands through her golden hair. "That was, without a doubt, the most awesome kiss ever," he told her.

Maddie smiled against his chest. "Thank you."

A moment of contented silence passed between them as they held each other contentedly. "So, any way we can convince your brother not to kill me?" he asked nonchalantly.

She giggled. "We can always try."

His lips pressed into her hair. "But we should stay here awhile first."

"I agree." Right now, there was nowhere else in the world Maddie would rather be.

AN: AWWWWW! I love Gil's confessions. So awkward but sincere :3 I rewrote them like four times because I wasn't sure how to make it in character but still sweet! Hopefully it worked out :)