Gilbert looked around. After receiving that email only 15 minutes ago, Gilbert had closed his laptop, gotten changed and ran out of the house. This was it – he was finally going to find out who the hell Loveless Friend was! Gilbert's stomach churned nervously. What if Loveless Friend was some creeper like Russia? Well, not really Russia since Russia was in a happy relationship with America but still. Gilbert shuddered. He hoped he could run away really fast in case that happened.
Now that he was at the park…Gilbert looked around again, strolling around the park, narrowing his eyes at the random nations who were here and there.
"Hello Gilbert!" a voice said cheerfully. Gilbert whirled around to see Liechtenstein and Iceland sitting on the grass, eating what looked like liquorice. Dammit. Gilbert had thought it was Loveless Friend.
"Hey," Gilbert said, walking up to them.
"What are you doing here?" she asked curiously. Gilbert shrugged.
"Fresh air… needed some exercise – you?" Gilbert asked. Liechtenstein beamed at him.
"Me and Hinrik decided that today was a pretty enough day to just sit about and eat liquorice," she replied. Gilbert glanced at Iceland, who nodded at him slightly.
"Thanks," Hinrik said quietly. Gilbert grinned.
"You two have fun," Gilbert said, beginning to turn away.
"Oh wait! Do you want some liquorice?" Heidi asked curiously. Gilbert didn't really like liquorice to be frank but he couldn't resist Heidi's innocent wide eyes.
"Err… sure," Gilbert said, taking the smallest piece he could and popping it into his mouth. He waved the two teenagers goodbye and walked away.
Back to Loveless Friend. Gilbert looked around. He couldn't see anybody save for Netherlands and further away from him, Belgium and [a blushing] Switzerland. Gilbert reckoned Netherlands didn't want to hang out with his sister and her boyfriend who once tried shooting him. So why was he there? Unless…
Oh God no. Netherlands was a nice guy and all but Gilbert really, really, really didn't want him to be Loveless Friend.
Netherlands glanced around and met eyes with Gilbert. He smirked and raised a hand in greeting. Gilbert waved back as Netherlands turned back to what he was doing – which seemed like he was feeding bunnies or something. Gilbert blinked. Weird.
Gilbert checked his watch. It had only been 25 minutes since he had received the email from Loveless Friend. He walked over to a nearby bench and sat down, taking Gilbird out of his hair.
"D'you know who Loveless Friend is?" Gilbert asked it. Gilbird stared at him.
"Piyo!" the bird said. Gilbert sighed, placing Gilbird back on his head.
"I didn't think so," Gilbert said.
It was a rather beautiful day, nice and warm with a soft breeze blowing. Gilbert closed his eyes and smiled as the breeze brushed his face and through his hair [annoying Gilbird, who was trying to stay comfortable on Gilbert's head]. Even if Loveless Friend didn't come perhaps he'd spend the afternoon on this bench… it was rather comfortable and it was such nice weather…
"Gilbert?" a voice asked. Gilbert's eyes opened in surprise.
He let out a sigh of relief. "Oh it's just you," he said as Matthew gave him a confused smile.
"Of course it's me – who else would it be?" Matthew asked, holding onto what looked like a leash.
"Uh nobody. Just expecting someone. Why are you here?" Gilbert asked. Matthew shrugged.
"It was nice outside and Kumakiku needed a walk," Matthew said. Gilbert glanced at the bear, which looked like he was attempting to drag Matthew away. "Heel Kumajiji!" Matthew exclaimed in exasperation.
"You do realize that that's a bear right?" Gilbert asked. Matthew rolled his eyes.
"Of course I do. But Kumakuma needs his walks too," Matthew said. Kumajiro turned his attention away from trying to run away to pounce on Gilbert to paw at Gilbird curiously. "Kumatata!" Matthew exclaimed in horror as Gilbird let out a squawk and flew off. Kumajiro bounded after it, Matthew no longer able to hold onto the leash. "I'm so sorry about that – Kumatino usually has better manners than this," Matthew apologized. Gilbert laughed.
"No worries," he said. Matthew still looked horrified.
"But your bird—"
"It's alright – let's go find them, ok?" Gilbert asked, standing up. The two began walking in the direction Kumajiro had run off in. Gilbert looked around anxiously, desperate to see any nation who might possibly be Loveless Friend.
"I think Kumatintin went that way… Gilbert? Are you listening?" Matthew said, glancing at Gilbert, who was looking in a totally different direction.
"Hmm?" Gilbert asked. "Oh yea – ok," Gilbert said. Matthew frowned.
"Are you looking for something?" Matthew asked.
"I was supposed to meet up with someone but they haven't arrived yet."
"Oh – who?"
"I don't know."
Matthew stared at Gilbert. "What?" he asked in confusion. Gilbert sighed.
"Long story."
"Is it your secret admirer you were so adamant on discovering? To the point of turning me into a girl?" Matthew asked. Gilbert chuckled.
"Yea. Hey Matt? I'm going to tell you a completely hypothetical story ok?" he said suddenly. Now that everyone knew he was Awesome Advice, he could just explain the full story about Loveless Friend to Matthew and see whether or not Matthew knew. In a purely hypothetical manner, so that Matthew wouldn't make fun of him for not being able to figure out who the hell Loveless Friend was, of course.
"Um… ok?" Matthew asked.
"Ok – remember it's completely hypothetical alright? So um… there's this guy named Ludwig and-"
"I thought this was hypothetical."
"It is! Anyways, so Ludwig decides that hey, why not start an advice column?"
"What's it called?"
"Uh… Herr Schtick's Wurst Advice."
"Worst advice?"
"No wurst. Like the food. Anyways, Ludwig gets this email a few days later from some guy… Friendless Love."
"Friendless Love."
"Yea. And it's all 'I really like this guy and don't know what to do' and Ludwig's craving pasta because he ate it all so he's like 'You should get them some pasta. Go ask Feliciano for some' and the next day he receives a package in the mail. Do you know what's in it?"
"Pasta?"
"Pasta! So he's all 'whoa what?' and before he can figure out who sent him the pasta he gets another email from Friendless Love and he tells him to get his crush a present and a few days later he gets a present!"
"What's the present?"
"Uh… a stick."
"A stick?"
"Yea – like Herr Schtick. So Ludwig's pretty surprised that some random person likes him. So he tries to figure it out. He asks Feliciano who asked him for his pasta in the past day and decides that his secret admirer must be Elise, Lars, Alfred… that Cuban guy, Arthur, Francis or Elizaveta," Gilbert continued. Matthew frowned.
"Why them?" he asked.
Because they were Gilbert's suspects when he had been trying to figure out who Loveless Friend was. "Because they were the ones who asked Feliciano for pasta," Gilbert said. "So they're the suspects. Anyways so Ludwig decides that he has to figure out which one -"
"Wait. You're forgetting the biggest suspect," Matthew said. Gilbert stared at Matthew.
"What are you talking about?" Gilbert asked. Matthew shrugged, a rather mischievous smile growing on his face.
"Well from what you're saying, Ludwig tells this person… Friendless Love to ask Feliciano for pasta. So automatically everyone who asked Feliciano for pasta in a certain time period is Friendless Love," Matthew began to say.
"That's what I've been trying to say-"
"But what about Feliciano? Just because Ludwig said in the email to ask Feliciano for some pasta, doesn't mean they had to ask. What if Feliciano had been the one who sent the email in the first place?" Matthew asked, his smile growing.
Gilbert frowned. That made sense but when you paralleled that to Gilbert's case that would mean that…
Oh.
Oh.
"Gilbert? You alright?" Matthew asked as they continued to walk through the park, not really looking for their pets anymore. Gilbert glanced at Matthew briefly before blushing. Oh God how could he have not realized that – that Matthew…
"I'm fine," Gilbert said awkwardly. They could vaguely see Kumajiro run off to the right far in front of them. The two turned in the path to follow him in silence, neither man talking.
How could he not have realized it? It was so obvious. Gilbert glanced at Matthew, who was squinting his eyes, trying to see where Kumajiro was running. Had Matthew always been this cute? Matthew glanced at him.
"Are you sure you're alright? I've never seen you this red before," Matthew joked, grinning. Gilbert blushed harder. Why did Matthew have such a nice smile? Why didn't Gilbert notice this before? Well ok, he did notice it before – once upon a time but… he thought that he had forgotten all about that crush! Gilbert thought he had gotten over Matthew – had he liked the Canadian this entire time? So much for claiming he didn't need love…
"I need your advice on something," Gilbert said quickly, looking away from Matthew. Matthew laughed.
"Is Awesome Advice really asking me for advice? I feel so honoured," Matthew joked. "But sure. Shoot," he said.
Gilbert rolled his eyes. "What if you really liked a good friend of yours and at first you thought that he didn't like you back so you gave up on your crush but then you did find out that he liked you and that you actually never really got over your crush? How would you tell—mmff!" Gilbert said, startled as a pair of lips pressed against his own, muffling his next words. Gilbert stared into Matthew's violet eyes, very surprised, before kissing Matthew back.
Gilbert had honestly expected Matthew to taste like maple syrup. Or pancakes. Or both. But… Matthew tasted minty. Gilbert pulled away from Matthew to stare at the Canadian in the eye.
"Why didn't you tell me you liked me?" Gilbert asked, blushing faintly. Matthew blushed as well.
"I thought it'd be more fun to tell you through Awesome Advice. I heard you mutter that you were good at giving out advice and put two and two together. Besides… I didn't know if you liked me back," Matthew added quietly. Gilbert pulled Matthew closer and grinned.
"But how did Elizaveta know? She was the one who told me someone liked me," Gilbert asked, remembering Elizaveta's cheeky grin and the request for pictures. Matthew smiled.
"She saw me emailing you and wanted to know who I liked. I made her promise not to tell you," Matthew added. Matthew decided not to tell Gilbert what he had agreed to do to make Elizaveta promise.
"And why did Netherlands keep giving me weird looks?" Gilbert demanded. Matthew laughed.
"Lars is one of my closest friends. I told him ages ago about you – Alfred too," Matthew replied. Gilbert looked astonished. At least that explained everything. Gilbert blushed.
"You must've found it funny when I told you I thought Lars or Alfred liked me," Gilbert grumbled. Matthew smirked.
"Really funny," Matthew replied and Gilbert buried his face into Matthew's shoulder in horror. Matthew smelled really nice, like the outdoors and pancakes. Gilbert rather liked the smell.
"Piyo piyo!" a voice chirped. Gilbert looked up to see a blur of yellow before Gilbird landed on his head.
"I guess you found your bird then," Matthew said and Gilbert grinned.
"I see your bear over there," Gilbert pointed out, nodding in a direction behind Matthew. Matthew swivelled in Gilbert's arms to see Kumajiro padding away into the bushes, most probably to curl up into a ball and fall asleep in the shade. Matthew turned back to Gilbert and they smiled at each other awkwardly.
"This…is weird," Matthew said finally, blushing. Gilbert laughed.
"Yeah," Gilbert agreed. They fell back into a silence. "Can… can I kiss you again?" Gilbert asked hopefully. Matthew burst out laughing.
"You don't have to ask," Matthew teased. Gilbert frowned before leaning in and kissing Matthew deeply.
Matthew smiled into the kiss. He had liked Gilbert even before the two of them became friends and… he never really expected that one day he'd find himself kissing the Prussian. Remembering something, Matthew wrapped an arm around Gilbert's waist and pulled his Blackberry out of his pocket with the other. He quickly opened a pre-written text message and pressed 'send', sliding the phone back into his pocket, focusing back on Gilbert. Matthew closed his eyes blissfully, feeling the sun on his back and Gilbert's hands on his back.
Today was a good day.
Elizaveta patted Kumajiro's head absently. Such an intelligent bear… Elizaveta really should thank him later for leading the happy new couple right to her very bush.
Elizaveta dabbed at her nose daintily with a handkerchief that Roderich had so kindly given her. Elizaveta was happy that Gilbert finally managed to find some love – perhaps now he'd let off of harassing Roderich and she wouldn't have to hit him with her frying pan [even though it was kind of fun]. But really, she was happier about the fact that he was finally giving her some good pictures.
Her phone buzzed gently in her pocket. Elizaveta ripped her gaze away from the couple [who were kissing rather enthusiastically, much to Elizaveta's glee] and flipped open her phone to see a text message.
From Matthew W:
Here's my part of the deal. Thnx for not telling Gilbert that I liked him.
Elizaveta smiled and closed her phone, putting it back into her pocket and raising her camera. Snapping a few pictures she noticed Matthew open his eyes again and glance at her bush curiously. Elizaveta sat up and waved at Matthew cheerfully before ducking back down. She saw Matthew blush and – Elizaveta had to stuff her fist into her mouth to hold back a squeal – grabbed Gilbert's ass teasingly. Elizaveta took more pictures, beaming widely.
Oh yes, today was a good day!
The End.
A/N: AND SO, LOVELESS FRIEND IS FINALLY REVEALED. I swear, this sounded better in my head - this was actually one of the scenes I had in my head ever since I first started the story. Gaah I can't believe this story is over already. It seems like a few weeks ago when I decided that hey, I'll start a story about Prussia where I get advice problems from my readers and use them in the story. And now look where I am - over 100 reviews and at least 20 chapters. And with pairings I would've never considered before this x] I've gotten reviews from some of y'all telling me how I made them start shipping certain pairings but truth is - SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME. x]
Thank you so much everyone who has reviewed, faved, and story-alerted this story. You warmed my heart and certainly boosted my confidence in my writing skills. The epilogue for this shall be up this Tuesday. The poll will come to a close on Monday so make sure you get your votes in if you haven't yet! I'll also give y'all a preview of whatever story I'll be writing next. Hint - I think I might be starting two different stories ;D
I love you all and thank you again for sticking with me the entire course of this story! Maple cookies for everyone! ^^