Magitalia

Parallel Chapter Two- Connection Theory

Gilbert noticed a few very interesting things about his new roommate as he somehow managed to eat and check his email at the same time. Like that he possessed some magical ability to pretty much use an entire bottle of maple syrup on a single stack of pancakes and not find it too sweet. And that he apparently found it necessary to try to email his college professors about the work he was missing in classes despite the fact that he was probably magic.

"Eh, is there a reason you're staring at me?", Matthew questioned softly.

He simply shrugged. "Well, I'm sort of wondering when you're gonna realize you used an entire thing of actual syrup on like, five pancakes."

"Oh, don't worry, I brought quite a bit," he was assured with a smile. "I order the stuff in bulk, so it isn't even that expensive, so don't worry about that either."

"But, like, that stuff's super sweet, right?", Gilbert questioned. "Does it even taste good like that?"

With a laugh, Matthew shoved his laptop aside and the plate towards Gilbert. "Well, I've grown accustomed to using enough to drown out the taste of Arthur's cooking, but I think it tastes alright. Try it if you want."

Gilbert picked up a fork and speared a small piece of the fairly soggy pancake off. It was probably sweet enough to give someone a cavity, but was actually pretty good. "Okay, I see your point," he conceded. "Overkill, sure, but I kinda like it. Maybe not quite up to my levels of awesome, but-"

"Ehe, I see you haven't changed much," Matthew chuckled.

Changed? From what? Gilbert was drawing a blank, expressed by a flat "huh?"

Matthew looked back at his computer screen, drawing it closer. "When I met you before," he explained. "Remember, at that party with Francis, you kept going on about how awesome the food was."

Vaguely, he remembered an awkward birthday dinner a year or so prior. Francis had invited some guy he didn't know who didn't say much and had seemed to have been a bit uncomfortable. The whole night had been a big blur, and he couldn't remember for the life of him what that guy had been to Francis, but very distinctly remembered his bright blue eyes. Which didn't line up with the dull violet eyes Matthew had, but maybe he was wearing contacts? Okay, he had glasses on, so that didn't make any sense, so maybe he was just remembering it wrong. "Oh, that was you? Well, I guess you looked familiar. But why were you there? You friends with Franny or something?"

"Um, well…" Matthew muttered the words and began typing something on his laptop. "Did he never mention me?"

He sounded a bit upset as he said it, like he'd expected him to have said a lot more than literally nothing at all. "Well, he's mentioned your older brother," Gilbert added. "Probably you too, but my memory's crap if I don't write it down."

"He didn't talk about me much, did he?", Matthew questioned, sounding less upset and more genuinely hurt. "I mean, I guess it's not really something you'd keep bringing up, but the guy practically raised me!"

Wait, they were really that close? But he couldn't remember Francis acknowledging that Matthew even existed before or after that dinner thing. They'd been friends for years, so why didn't he know Francis was that close to someone? He pressed further. "Really? Then why didn't I know about it? Someone like you at leasts deserves to come up when talking to his most awesome friend, right?"

Matthew sighed. "I- I don't know. Really, it'd be like you never telling one of your friends about the Vargas's, or something. He's been friends with Arthur since before our mom and Arthur's dad married, and Alfred and I always bothered him and treated him like a second big brother or something. I mean, I know that after all that with Arthur we haven't been nearly as close, and I haven't even talked to him in ages, but surely before that he'd-"

"Wait, what with Arthur?", Gilbert interrupted. "He's only mentioned the guy like, once to say he was an a-hole. What, did they break up or something?"

That last part had been a joke. Matthew didn't seem to take it as such, and nodded between bites of his syrup breakfast with some pancake. "That's actually exactly what happened. After years and years of not being subtle at all about how they felt, they started dating, and they were happy for a little while before they just sort of fell apart. Had some big fight about it, and I don't even know what it was really about, but just that they haven't spoken to each other since."

A theory struck Gilbert, and he anxiously pressed to see if it was correct. "Was it like, 'bout a year ago?"

"Eh, that sounds about right."

"So that's why he kept ditching us!", Gilbert exclaimed, proud of his deduction. So all that with him skipping out on plans randomly hadn't been because he'd said or done something that made Francis want to stop hanging out with him. Which meant Antonio had been right, and he probably owed him money for that. "God, he never even told us he had a boyfriend," he grumbled, like he was more bitter about Francis's secret keeping than his own fears being unfounded. "I mean, Toni said that was probably it, but I never bought it. Just figured he was getting tired of us."

Evidently, Matthew didn't overlook that last muttered bit. "Are you alright?", he questioned with all the concern of a person who he'd known for more than a few days.

"But who would ditch someone as cool as me, really?", Gilbert continued, trying to perpetuate the bluff.

That didn't seem to be what Matthew had thought he was worried about, though, judging by his choice of comforting words. "You know, it was sort of inevitable they'd break up. They were always at each other's throats before they got together, and they didn't stop when they were dating. I don't know a lot about your brother and his friend, but it didn't look like that was how they were."

"Yeah, yeah, that's what I told him," Gilbert assured him, but those words had planted a nagging seed at the back of his mind that doubted his push for his brother to admit how he felt was a good thing. He hadn't been worried about that before, and he still doubted that it was possible, but he was sure not grateful that idea had been planted! "I know what I'm doing. I give good advice!", he declared more to himself than Matthew.

Said Matthew continued to look at him like he was being very obvious with his internal freakout. "...Really, are you sure you're alright?"

"No, it's just weird," Gilbert muttered. He was alright, but something occurred to him. Feli and Ludi were mirroring Arthur and Francis, and that wasn't the only creepy coincidence he'd seen since all this magic stuff had started. "Like, all the magic things seem to be connected, right? Practically half the people I know are involved." Slowly, pieces clicked into place. "And I haven't heard from Francis since this all started. So, do you think he might be part of this?"

"Wouldn't surprise me," Matthew admitted. "Nothing else seems to be logical, so it'd be nice if at least this one thing was a reasonable thing to assume. Do you think if we called him and asked-"

Gilbert's phone was already in his hand before Matthew had finished the sentence. "Dunno. I'll try 'im again," he declared with a smirk.

Everything would have gone beautifully had Francis actually answered. But he didn't. It just went to a default voicemail that didn't sound at all like the one his friend had used for the past while.

So he shrugged it off. "Eh, it was just a theory. We can try later." He glanced at the clock on his phone as he said this, and remembered something as he noted what it read. "Besides, it's what, eleven? I was gonna go up to Ludi's school and try to convince one of his teachers to excuse his absences or whatever. He was sort of worried about that, for some reason."

Matthew glanced back at his computer and seemed to jab F5 a few times before giving the now standing Gilbert an unamused glance. "Well, it's nice that he's thinking ahead, but how exactly are you planning to manage to convince someone that he's off saving the world?"

"Simple: I'm friends with his Home Ec teacher."

"And you think that will make them believe you about all this?"

Clearly, he'd never met Liz. "I have a sword I can show her, don't I? Besides, this probably isn't the weirdest thing I've told her."

That seemed to pique Matthew's interest enough to turn him away from the computer screen. "What would that be?"

Okay, that would require some thought. "Maybe when she actually believed me when I told her our friend Roderich had asked me out back in twelfth grade?", he mused as he grabbed the coat on the back of his desk chair and slipped it on. "No, wait, it that time Gilbird stole her phone."

A disbelieving glance was cast at the birdcage next to Gilbert's computer. "Wait, really?"

"Yep! She's a lot more awesome than she looks," Gilbert proudly bragged. Opportunities to gush about his precious bird child were not to be squandered. Normally, such things were only reserved for his diary and an uninterested Ludwig, but now someone was actually listening who seemed to care! "I've seen her trying to draw with a pen and a post-it note before. And it was adorable."

"Ehe, that's pretty cool," Matthew admitted, chuckling and smiling as his eyes followed Gilbird's pecking around. "I didn't realize canaries were that smart."

"Well, I've had her for like, ten years now." He started to feel a bit guilty as his eyes fell on the sleeping Fritz. He couldn't let his other bird feel unloved, even if it wasn't listening. "Fritz is younger, and significantly less awesome, but I love her too."

Matthew gave a confused look. "Fritz is a girl?"

"Well, yeah," Gilbert stated flatly. What else would she be? "The girl ones don't sing. A singing one would have driven Ludi insane."

Luckily, Matthew clarified the source of his confusion. "No, but you named a girl bird Fritz?"

"It's a majestic name for a majestic creature," Gilbert stated matter-of-factly as he neared the front door. "Your point is?"

"N-nothing. But, um, is it really okay for me to stay here while you're out?"

Despite being confused for a moment, Gilbert soon realized that Matthew was, in fact, not getting ready to head out. "Aren't you coming with me?"

"Is that alright? I don't want to intrude on your conversation with your friend…"

Gilbert threw the neatly folded jacket on the back of the couch to Matthew like an invitation. "Well, I'm gonna need someone else to help explain all this, cause I really don't get it."

"I don't either!", Matthew protested, but he was already standing up and putting the borrowed jacket on.

"Two wrongs make a right, I guess," Gilbert stated with a shrug.

One car trip later, and after some annoying talks with a school receptionist, the two of them were walking into a door with a name plate next to it reading "Miss Hedervary", which made Gilbert crack up a little. Elizaveta was standing over some desks with a container of cleaning wipes, muttering something that was probably a bit rude under her breath. Gilbert noted that she was still wearing the engagement ring Roderich had given her a few months ago, and he tried very hard not to feel bitter about it. Liz looked up after a moment, and assumed a smirk.

"Oh, so you can't be bothered to call in to say your brother's sick or something but you can be bothered to come all the way up here?", she sarcastically questioned.

"Look, it's a really long story," he said with a shrug. "One of those things you probably wouldn't believe if it was coming from anyone other than me."

Liz gained a curious glint in her eyes. "Oh, do tell. Does it involve Feliciano as well, because he hasn't been here either."

"Well, for one, and this isn't part of it, I finally won that bet with Lovino."

He half feared that wouldn't be enough to tell her what he was referring to. The small squeal she let out said otherwise. "Ah, took them long enough!", she exclaimed. "What happened? Which of them confessed? Please, tell me all of it!"

"Um, Gilbert, this isn't really a good time for catching up," Matthew interrupted softly.

Glancing behind him, Liz's grin turned a bit sinister. "Oh, who's he?"

"Part of the really long story, I'll get to that," Gilbert assured her.

"Well, if it's gonna take that long, why don't we discuss it over lunch?", Liz suggested. "I'm on lunch break, and I'm not going to just stand around and waste it."

"It's not that long," Gilbert admitted. "Just give me like, five minutes and I'll get there, I swear-"

"Plus there's a nice sandwich place just a block away, so we can walk," Liz continued, unfazed by his protests.

That was Liz-nese for "this is your story so you're buying", so he just shrugged and they exited from the classroom's back door into a courtyard, and from that into a parking lot. He tried to describe the events that had led to their long standing OTP of FeliLudi becoming an actual thing as they did so, but he stopped the second he realized that Matthew had stopped walking.

"Hey, you alright?", he questioned, turning back to his friend.

He saw someone standing in front of Matthew, someone who looked a little familiar but had the posture of a corpse and eyes like one too. What was the guy, Feliks something? He was Ludwig's manager, or at least had been, but he was pretty sure he remembered him being a bit less… zombie-looking.

"Are you here to attack us or something?", he questioned. No answer was given. Just a dull green stare, followed by a spiral of flame around the guy's hand.

"What are you-?" Liz turned around and turned white when she saw that person. "Feliks? What- how are you doing that? Are you okay?"

He responded with a burst of flame that came a bit too close to Gilbert's face. What was that thing he had done a few days ago when that gun guy was shooting at Ludwig? The thing that ended with him getting a sword out? 'Cause he sort of needed that now.

No, the horrified look on Elizaveta's face told him he needed something else. He didn't need to counterattack, he just needed to block the attacks and find out what was going on. So, a warm light within him covered him in hard scales of metal, forming armor around his body. That Feliks guy looked surprised, almost entranced by the transformation, but the glazed over look in his eyes returned quickly.

"What was that?", she questioned.

"Magic, I think," Matthew, who had ran back over towards them in the confusion explained.

Another burst of flame came, but Gilbert reached out to block it. Whatever this armor was, it was pretty heat resistant, at least. And despite not having a mirror on hand, he had to imagine it looked pretty awesome too.

Liz looked at their attacker for a moment before muttering "Feliks, are you even awake?", she questioned, and a bright white light started to envelop her as well, spreading from her ring finger and covering her completely.

AN- You know what's fun about ending parallel chapters on cliffhangers? You all won't get to find out what happens or what's going on right away when I post the next chapter. No, you'll just have to wait for the next bonus chapter to find out what's going on here. Let's just say that you shouldn't be too worried about Poland, 'cause the next parallel chapter is his POV. But enough of that, we need to get back to the main plot.

I'll just leave you with confirming a suspicion any Fairy Tail fan might have regarding Prussia's powers. Meaning yes, they are based on Erza's Requip Magic. So, thanks for reading! -Twilight Joltik