"Vash" someone interrumped the visual contact trying to get the attention of the blonde.
"Huh?"
"Oh... ehm... sorry" Arthur, who interrupted, looked at the two faces a little bit uncomfortable. "Can I talk to you?"
"To... what? Me? Ehm..." Vash looked at Arthur, then back to Roderich. "Can you give me one minute?"
"Please" Roderich did a pompous gesture inviting him to go.
Vash nodded softly and stood up. Arthur looked curiously at Roderich while he waited for Vash.
Vash placed his chair neatly in his place under the table and turned to Arthur expecting him lead the way. Arthur guided Vash to another table far enough to avoid the Roderich ears.
"What's going on?" asked Vash once they were seated.
"Are you... are you OK? Some people is talking about... strange things."
"Strange things?"
"Yes, about the physiology class today."
"Oh... that. Well, the professor was mad because we were talking, and asked me to go to the front to write a few things. It was... well... it was not good, specially because the class was about..."
"Mmm... nobody mentioned the professor"
Vash blushed with that.
"Oh... n-no? What did they say?"
"It's true that you and Roderich...?"
"That m-me and Ro-Roderich... what?" He asked... quite afraid of the answer.
"Well they say that you... have slept together"
"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!"
"Yes... it's all very confusing, but they say that he described the arousal of a man with green eyes, and he proposed a essay about the homosexuality..."
"Oh... oh... my god" Vash covered his face with his hands. "No. Nononono... no!"
"No? I mean... it's an interesting subject to study and... a disease like anyone other."
"What I am saying is that we did not... sleep t-to... together" Vash... you are REALLY bad at lying.
"Eh? Why are you so nervous?"
"W-What? You are accusing us!"
"What? Me?"
"Well you said we have slept... together."
"Yes..."
"How... O-Or... Why? Why would you imagine such thing? We are two boys!"
"Well... yes, but they say that you... that he describes you in class"
"Me?!" Vash almost screamed, in panic. "No! No. It's not me, it's a friend of him!"
"They said... something about... Green eyes"
"Not... Mine!" he covered his eyes. "We are men!"
"Well, I told them that it couldn't be. But they insist, I wasn't in class..."
"You have to help me stop this, Arthur... Please. If Roderich finds out..."
"But why do they think it?"
"I-I..." Vash blushed, nervous. "I don't know."
"Mmmm... It's strange, they were very sure."
"He was not talking about me, really! I know he said weird things... But..."
"And now... when I interruped, you were... staring into your eyes so deeply, weren't you?"
Vash blushed again thinking that today... It was a nightmare.
"We were just... Looking at each other" he mumbled, guilty.
"Well..." Arthur sighed.
"What would you say if we really... Had slept together?"
"What? Really?"
"We did not! I'm only asking because Roderich and I had a talk about homosexuals and... Well, his views against them are stronger than mine."
"I will say it to them."
"Thank you" He looked at him in the eye. Arthur smiled a little. "Do you think that homosexuals are similar than sleeping with an animal?"
"Ehm... to be honest, I have never thought of it."
"Thank you, that's exactly what I thought!" Vash smiled forgetting his problems.
"But... how it could have happened?"
"No. I'm not saying that it could happen... But imagine that your bed had a... Problem"
"Eh?" Arthur hestiated because he isn't thinking that it really happened.
"What would you do? Sleep on the floor? Or just..."
"What? What are you saying?"
"I just asked what would you think of an homosexual."
"I don't know..."
"Well just... Think about it and you can tell me next time."
"Well... O-Ok... but, maybe it's..."
"Think it thoroughly"
Arthur pursed his lips thinking.
"You can tell me next time I see you... Tomorrow we will be out with Roderich and his mother and brother... Maybe you could help me a bit there."
"How?"
"I can tell you where we are going and you could... Go there, maybe?"
"Oh... but... did you sleep together or not?
"We... No. We are friends. Good friends" Vash didn't look at him.
"Ok, I will go" he smiled. Vash smiled back, thankful.
"I have to return to my table."
"Do you want some drugs? I think I have some aphrodisiacs..."
"A-Aphro... Whaaaat?"
"Well... I mean... I..."
"Why would I need..." wrong question, Vash. "Why would I want to... I... We are just friends! Really!"
"I... I... I just say it because... I have it, it doesn't mean anything."
"I don't need an aphrodisiac!"
"Ok, ok... ehm... I will see you...eh... goodbye."
Vash, once again, wanted to die and Arthur... ran away.
(To Francis loving arms
Nooo!)
Vash returned to Roderich's table lookin worried again.
"Heil"
"Ehm... Hallo. Should we leave?"
"Yes" he closed the sketchbook where he had been writing.
"Arthur told me that...
"What?"
"They know you were talking about them."
"When?"
"About me, about me. Sorry. I have my head somewhere else. They know you were talking about me in class."
Roderich raised his eyebrows.
"That's what Arhur said to me..."
"How did they know?"
"They said you talked about my eyes..."
Roderich frowned and Vash blushed.
"Let's go. I told him it was not me"
"Well, anyway..." Roderich started.
"What?"
"It could be a joke."
"I..." Vash hesitated. "Yes, probably"
"No?"
"No, no. Yes. It must be a joke."
Roderich smiled and Vash tried to smile too but it was not easy.
"I want to talk to you."
"About what?"
"I had been thinking in a plan for the essay."
"Oh... What plan?"
"Well, I think we need a calendar. The empirical method."
"A... Calendar?"
"Yes, to see exactly the days."
"D-Days. Oh... God."
"What?"
"Do you want to check if I wake up excited... ?"
"Ehm... yes... that too."
"Too? What else do you want?"
"Well, the empirical method talks about doing some experiments changing some controlled circumstances to compare the results.
"E-Experiments?! Do you want me to change the variables an see the results?"
"Exactly."
"Wh-What experiments do you have in mind?"
"Well... you can imagine if the arousal is the topic." Welcome to the hell, Switzerland.
"Wh-What?!"
"We will talk about it now, with the calendar."
"What if you don't like what you discover."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, what's the worst disease I can have."
"Whatever it is, you will become healthy."
"What if I don't? What if we cannot cure me."
"Then, we'll find some medication which will help you."
Vash looked at him, worried, because that was his plan. Read about homosexuality and try to cure himself. The problem was that he did not want Roderich to know his problem.
"We should start with easy variables" Roderich took his violint and the calendar from their room "Like which ones?"
"L-Like... Just..." sleeping alone, Vash prayed.
"Aha"
"I don't know. Maybe just a... A... Do you touch yourself?"
"Me?"
"Y-Yes..."
"It doesn't matter" He looked away.
"It matters... Probably if I... Did it..."
"Aha?"
"Does that mean that you do it?"
"I don't understand the relation between it and this."
"I just wanted do feel less pervert when proposing such thing" Vash confessed.
"OK... I do it... sometimes" he admited, without looking him, a little blushed.
"Really? Have you done it while I'm here?"
"Of course not!"
Vash blushed with the idea.
"Enough?"
"Sorry"
Roderich smiled again and Vash opened the door to the morgue.
"Maybe the option would be..."
"Aha?"
"Waking up and take a cold shower."
"Mmm... it doesn't work for my essay."
"You actually want me to get aroused!
"Well... with medical and scientifical purposes."
"Its a bit mean."
"Why? It's a study about your illness
Vash sighed because Roderich was really nice but did not seem to realize how awful the situation was.
"Ok..."
"Good... I will explain you the plan."
Vash nodded... Yes. Welcome to hell.
Roderich left the violin on a table and pulled out the calendar. Vash went closer to him, curious.
"My idea it's to test it on different situations to see the results. For example in diferent times of the day and with diferents circumstances and kinds of stimulation."
"S-Stimulation?
"Yes. I think I should take notes at the beginning, middle and in the end of every test."
"N-Notes? Roderich... That's going to be EMBARRASSING."
"Ehm... well, yes, I know it could be, but... It's me, I'm your friend and another man. I think that I'm not going to see nothing that I haven't seen before. I know that it's just something medical... you must see it in the same way."
"Just medical" Vash sighed again.
"Maybe I could thank you for help me..."
"How?"
"I don't kbow, as your wish"
"I'll have to think about it" Vash smiled just bit.
"That's Ok" Roderich blinked taking the violin.
Vash blushed still smiling, sitting on the floor and opening a book to "study". He actually didn't pretend to study, he just wanted to think. Roderich closed his eyes, concentrated, and started to play.
That's your moment to think, Vash.
Vash relaxed, leaned against the wall and raised his head looking at Roderich thinking briefly of today's morning, hugging him. Or all the times he had held his hand... And the soft caresses with his thumb. The smiles. It was nice having him around. It was familiar, and a warm feeling to take care of each other.
(Vash, you're not thinking what you're supposed to be thinking!)
If he could... He'd stay like this forever. He didn't need anything else. He'd only change a few things, like, well, Roderich investigating his problem, or he actually having this problem. But if they both could just ignore that, he wouldn't mind sleeping next to Roderich and hugging him, or holding hands while going to class... He didn't even mind Roderich teasing him sometimes with his inadequacy to speak with other people or his weirdness.
So, in short, what changed everything was (Austria eating your brains, yes...) his stupid body reacting as if were an homosexual.
Roderich played everything he wants so relaxed, like the time was stopped. He really felt like a fish in the water.
Maybe if he just found a way to... Stop reacting. At all. Arthur told him that he had aphrodisiacs. Maybe he also had drugs that did the exact opposite. It isn't a good idea, but well... It's the only idea he had. He would probably make a brief research tomorrow morning, and he would then ask Arthur to help him get whatever it was that could help him.
Suddenly, Roderich stopped playing to discover Vash looking at him with a dreamer look.
"Someone is here..." he said, tucking the violin on its box.
"What?" Vash turned his head, standing up and blushing because he was looking at Roderich.
"I heard someone entering."
"Oh... We have to go. If they find us here we probably wouldn't be able to return."
The austrian nodded. Vash checked if Roderich violin was already packed and took his hand.
"You have to tell me where you hear them so we can run to the other side"
Roderich nodded again, pressing his hand.
"I heard that on the left" He pointed.
"We enter from there. We will have to find a different open exit" Vash pulled Roderich and started walking. Roderich followed him, hugging his violin.
The problem was that... Even if this was a big building, the morgue was located in the basement, therefore there were not hundreds of exits from the basement. They ended up in a dead end corridor.
"I know who is it!"
"What?"
"It's Gilbert Beilsmidtch, it's his voice."
"No! What's he doing here? Is he alone?"
"I don't think so."
"Give me your violin. We have to hide it. Actually we should. Hide. Both of us. If he sees us here..." He will say what everyone is saying, that we are sleeping together.
"He can neither be here."
"The problem is not just to be here, is what we are doing here."
"How they could imagine what we are doing? Do you think that they listened the violin?"
"No. Not the bloody violin. Come on, we have to hide!"
Roderich nodded, a little scared. Vash searched on his surroundings and of course... There's this cabinet... The helpful austrian, only sobbed a little, hearing carefuly.
Vash entered the cabinet besides him, squeezing himself against his friend because the space was really too small.
"Calm down... We will be fine. If they discover us I will protect you."
Roderich hugged Vash instantly, putting his face on his neck. Of course that led to Vash having goosebumps and again butterflies on his belly.
"They... they say that there is a ghost."
"A ghost?" Vash looked at him in awe.
"Yes... one corpse who plays the violin." Rodich smiled a little, whispering.
"Ah..." Vash understood then that... It was a joke. He smiled.
"They really heard me, but they believe that was a ghost."
"Oh... Well it's better if they imagine that you are a ghost that if they find us here."
"Do you think that I can play something short... here?"
"H-Here? I... Maybe if I move below."
Roderich moved a little, hugging him.
"Oh my..." whispered Vash realizing that...the proximity, hugs and specially Roderich lips around him were... Not helping him.
"Go down, I need the shoulders."
Great, he needed then to... Hug hum and rub him against at him. Experiment one on Vash's arousal.
Roderich didn't pay attention to him while took the violin again to play.
The violin didn't help Vash AT ALL. He was nervous and sweaty and was even shaking a bit.
Roderich played a little, unconfortable until he hearded how Gilbert and Elizabetha run away. Vash was surely about to kill Roderich as a python.
Vash stood there wig his eyes closed and a happy... Part of the anatomy.