Emil was doing homework in the living room when Lukas came home.

He was eerily calm and passive, unlike he'd been since Matthias had been in the hospital.

Emil knew something was wrong, and watched Lukas hang his coat up, quietly make his way to the kitchen as if in a trance.

Something was very wrong when Lukas returned with a cup of tea- not coffee- and sat on the couch across from Emil. Emil pretended to read his textbook, but he honestly couldn't focus with Lukas' intense gaze on him. Finally, he gave in and looked up.

"How's Matthias?"

"Oh," Lukas said, his voice forcibly conversational, "he's woken up." He bobbed his tea bag in his water absently, staring at his cup. "He just... can't remember anything." He said the last part so softly, almost bemusedly, and Emil could hear sirens going off in his head.

"Anything?" Emil asked. This was really bad. Emil knew that Lukas has been on the verge of a mental breakdown since that night, and he had a feeling may be the final straw.

"Anything," Lukas confirmed coldly.

Lukas was still sitting, apparently transfixed with his cup, and Emil stared at him. Tonight was going to be hard.

"What did the doctors say?" Emil asked tentatively. He had to tread lightly; he didn't want to make this worse.

"They said it was temporary."

Emil nodded slowly. "That's good."

"Oh, yeah, it's great," Lukas said, standing. "I'm going to go read." He trudged up stairs without another word.

Emil knew that that actually meant he was going to get shitfaced drunk. Their house was built with a study room, right next to Emil's bedroom, and the shelves were covered with built-in shelves stacked with books. More recently, however, Lukas had moved aside some of the books and replaced them with liquor bottles.

When Emil went to bed that night, Lukas had not come out from the study since he had secluded himself in there a few hours before. Through the walls, Emil could hear the occasional clank of glass as he poured another shot. When Lukas would let out a particularly loud sigh, Emil would hear and his heart would ache. He wanted to be able to comfort Lukas, take away the bottle and make him go to bed, but he was sure that would just make Lukas angry. And he really didn't want to see his brother in that state, anyway. He was a bit of a coward, he would admit it.

It was a quarter till midnight and Emil couldn't sleep when the sobbing started, interrupted by the occasional painful moan.

Emil couldn't sleep through this, frozen in his bed and biting his lip. He could imagine Lukas, lowered to the floor and gripping a bottle of booze. HE could imagine his cheeks wet and red even as he tried to smother the pitiful sounds he was making. His hands were shaking, Emil was sure of it, if not his whole body. Emil and never heard Lukas cry like this before. It rattled him, made his heart ache and his lungs hurt. His head pounded. He wanted to sleep and be able to to ignore what his brother must be feeling but he couldn't do anything.

He could imagine what Lukas was thinking. 'It's my fault. If I had encouraged him to stay the night...' 'What if he never remembers me...'

'What if he does remember, and he blames me for this happening to him.'

'What if I tell him my feelings and he hates me for it.'

Emil did not sleep that night.


Ivan was a little distracted that next day. He was still a little embarrassed over Yao's off that morning. That was, perhaps, how he completely ignored and didn't notice the excited chatter at the bar at work that night. The club still hadn't opened, and everyone was huddled at the bar, as per usual. Ivan stood nearby, listening to none of what they were saying.

It was unfortunate, though, that he didn't listen, but if he had been paying attention he'd have learned two important things. First, that Matthias had woken up with amnesia earlier that day. Second, he'd have heard that Antonio and Lovino were getting married in August (the date had been decided on almost immediately after the engagement had been announced to Mama Carriedo and Grandpa Augustus).

Tino was naturally the one who reported on Matthias, but no one really knew where the info on Antonio and Lovino came from. Lars was working that day, but he hadn't even come in from the alley where he was smoking before everyone was abuzz with the news.

At one point, Antonio had come asking for where Lars was, and Tino hesitantly pointed him out to the alley.

Everyone knew it was awkward to talk about Lars' cancer. In fact, after the first night that it had been revealed that Lars had cancer, almost no one ever talked about it. They knew Lars still smoked, and most of them figured that he was going to do himself in with it one way or another- and that it was his right to do so without scrutiny from the rest of them.

Antonio and Bella were trying to get him to stop smoking. Obviously, from the looks of an angry Antonio leading a bored and flippant looking Lars, still holding the butt of his cigarette, back into the club, it wasn't working.

Privately, everyone was wondering how much longer Lars would even be able to work. He was pale, seeming to be physically smaller than he really was, and still wearing that hat.

Ivan watched Antonio bring Lars to a corner and tell him off. He really wasn't paying attention, rather running over his own personal problems and dilemmas in his head.

Before Ivan even noticed, the club was opening and people were filing in. Francis was among them, and he greeted Ivan very amicably, waking Ivan from his own thoughts.

"Hello, Francis," Ivan responded monotonously, exasperated by the man's never ending flamboyance. He was wearing some awful bright purple skinny jeans, which Ivan eyed with disgust. Francis, recognizing this, just grinned and all but pranced away. Ivan took a moment to ponder the absence of Franc's poss- no Gilbert, weird- before forgetting about it altogether.

Francis quickly sought out Antonio in his back office.

"Hello~" he sang, swinging the door shut behind him and sitting on Antonio's desk. "I have the funniest story to tell you."

Antonio smiled up at his friend and put his pen and papers aside. "Alright, then I'll have a story for you, too."

"Well, Gil had a date tonight- he said it was a 'blind date'; he still thinks we don't know about Elizaveta- so naturally I went and helped him pick out an outfit because he has the fashion sense of a horse," Antonio nodded, chuckling a bit. No one let Gilbert dress himself when it came to important or formal events. "So who is at the Beilschmidt's apartment but cute little Feliciano. And Feliciano was telling Ludwig this adorable little story that Gilbert and I couldn't help but overheard, and you will never guess how shocked we were by it."

"What was the story?"

Francis dropped the smile and rolled his eyes. "Oh, I'm sure you know it," he insisted.

"I'm sure I don't sorry," Antonio said, smiling obliviously.

Francis gave him a scowl. "He told us that Lovino proposed to you!" he exclaimed. "You didn't tell us! How dare you make me hear about one of my best friend's engagements through an outside source! How degrading," he ended dramatically.

"Oh! So you already know? That was going to be my story to tell. Well, I'm sorry, I've just been so busy. My Mama and Lovi's Grandpa are planning it all, you know, and they already know the date and everything."

"You know the date of your wedding before you even told your two best friends. Wow, Antonio."

"Look, when my Mama wants something done, she does it immediately. She already has invitations printed out and distributed to our family. She told Grandpa Augustus to have a list of names and addresses to her by next week for Lovi's family."

"You better have one of those invites for me."

"of course. I've got a stack on the cabinet over there. She sent me to work today with a dozen or so, so I could invite all my employees, too."

"That is the makes of a huge wedding," Francis said with a raised brow as he hopped up to grab one of the cards off the cabinet.

Antonio shrugged. "I think my Mama's figuring that Ricardo's not going to let her have a big wedding for him if he ever does get married, so this is her one big chance."

Francis laughed. "You mom is so cute."


Elizaveta lived in the apartment above Symposium. She woke up every day at three thirty so she could get ready and open shop by five.

Gilbert technically lived with his brother Ludwig and generally woke up at ten so he could get a bowl of cereal before his favorite cartoon started on Nickelodeon.

So, when Gilbert spends the night at Liza's, he hates waking up and he hates her alarm clock with every fiber of his being.

"Gilbert, you have to let me get up," Elizaveta mumbled, trying to detach Gilbert, who had wound his arms around her waist and pressed his face against her back in attempts to prevent her from leaving the warm bed.

He whined when she started slapping at his arms. "It's too early," he complained.

"Stop being a baby. You don't have to get up right now, just let me go."

"Then the bed will be cold."

"Your dead body will be cold if you don't let go of me in the next five seconds," she threatened. He made an offended sound in his throat, but loosened his grip. Liza stood and stretched, yawning, before going to the bathroom. When she came back out, Gilbert was out like a light again. She rolled her eyes fondly and smiled as she got dressed.

Tired, she made her way down stairs to make herself some coffee before the work day started. Out of the goodness of her heart, once she completed her own drink, she started making a sweet, syrupy drink she knew would wake Gilbert up.

The shop opened at five AM, but at four forty five, she heard a knock on the door. Glancing up from the machine, ready to tell whoever it was to come back in fifteen minutes, she was surprised to see Ludwig peering in the window.

She went and unlocked the door and let him in.

"Thank you, Elizaveta. I'm looking for my brother. He didn't come home last night and he didn't call to let me know if he was staying with you, and he's not answering his phone right now, so I thought I'd check here before I start looking at the bars."

Elizaveta smiled sympathetically. It was so Ludwig to expect Gilbert to be a responsible adult and let him know where he was going, or be able to answer his phone coherently before nine AM.

"He's here, don't worry. I'm sorry he worried you," she said through a yawn.

Ludwig was an accountant who worked a full-time job from six to two, and he was awake, showered, clean shaven, and actually alert this early. Even Elizaveta was impressed. How was he related to Gilbert again?

"Since you're here so early and it's partially my fault, how about I make you a coffee?"

Ludwig stood awkwardly near the door, and Elizaveta could tell he wasn't going to accept. "Actually, Feliciano is asleep in the car, and I need to drop him off at home before I get to work. Thank you though," he explained, a light blush on his cheeks as he avoided looking at Elizaveta.

Ludwig was so cute. How the hell was he related to Gil again?

"Alright, well, drive safe. Make sure he gets into his place, we don't want him falling asleep on the way to his door," Elizaveta laughed, waving him off. He blushed and laughed, a bit forced, and left.

Elizaveta smiled and picked up the two cups of coffee she'd made, going back to the stairs and up to her room.

"Gilbert," she cooed, sitting on the bed beside him.

"Mmf," he said, not moving an inch.

"Gilbert, it's time to wake up. Ludwig came looking for you."

"Tell him to go away," he said, rolling to face away from Elizaveta, pressing his face into the pillow.

"He's gone. But you need to get up before I open the shop."

"Whyyy," he pouted, snuggling more under the sheets.

"I brought you coffee."

That perked him up, got him sitting up and looking at Elizaveta, taking the cup from her gratefully.

"Oh my god you are the most beautiful thing I've seen this early in the morning in my entire life."

Elizaveta rolled her eyes and took a sip of her coffee.

Gilbert did too, and Elizaveta watched the look of visible pleasure come over Gilbert.

"Marry me," he breathed, looking at Liza with big eyes.

Elizaveta laughed, like really laughed, and Gilbert laughed with her for almost a full minute. Elizaveta was shaking her head, a hand on her chest trying to control her laughs. Marriage? Elizaveta laughed a little more.

They sat and drank their coffee on the bed in the early morning light. The sun was just about to rise.

"If you get up and get dressed, I'll make you breakfast."

"I really love you."

"You'd better," she said, standing up.

"I really, really love you," he followed her off the bed, giving her a kiss on the cheek and a cheeky grin when she returned it.

"Whatever. Hurry up. I open shop in less than ten minutes. Come down stairs in no less than a shirt, pants, and pair of shoes. I will not have you scaring off my early customers again because you didn't think you needed pants," she said, trailing off toward the top of the stairs.

"Okay that was one time and you need to learn to let it go," he shouted after her.

He grinned and went about taking his neatly folded clothes from last night and putting them on. He sat on the bed for a moment once he was fully dressed and smiled at his hands. He smiled, remembering Elizaveta's laughing face when he jokingly 'proposed'.

It would have been a lot funnier for him if he was completely joking.