Pairing: Germany/Prussia
Prompt: "Two men are standing at a red traffic light. Despite no car anywhere in sight, neither of them crosses the street. One of them turns to the other and says "Oh, you're German too?"
I talked with people about this and they confirmed again that you indeed always get looks if you jaywalk. I once missed the tram because there were people with me at the traffic light so I didn't dare cross. There is some truth to the stereotype. (from iruhe on tumblr)
How We Met
They were seated at a table in the bar, the four of them: Gilbert, his two friends from childhood, Elizabeta and Roderich (who were together now—big surprise there; note the sarcasm), and his boyfriend, Ludwig.
He and Ludwig had recently moved back to Germany, after graduating from Université Paris Dauphine in Paris, France.
And now Gilbert, Elizabeta and Roderich were catching up while Ludwig tried not to appear to awkwardly uncomfortable and uncertain.
Gilbert noticed, though, and reached over to lace his fingers through Ludwig's.
"I know Elizabeta can be scary," Gilbert said, dodging deftly when Elizabeta tried to smack him in the arm, "but I promise she's harmless until about her seventh drink, at which point she goes on a frying-pan-wielding rampage."
"That was once!" Elizabeta protested indignantly, gesturing with her second bottle of beer.
"Twice," Gilbert corrected with a snort, narrowing his eyes at her and challenging her to argue, before turning back to Ludwig. "And don't mind the prick there," he said, gesturing at Roderich, who pursed his lips and glared coolly. "He's insufferable every single moment he's awake, except for when he's playing the piano, at which point he's tolerable, or drunk enough that he goes on his Wolfgang-Mozart-and-Ludwig-van-Beethoven-both-belong-to-Austria-NOT-Germany-because-REASONS rant, at which point he's amusing."
"I resent that statement," Roderich said haughtily, but Gilbert ignored him.
Ludwig gave Gilbert's hand a reassuring squeeze. "I don't want to run away," he said softly.
"Your countenance claims otherwise," Gilbert said.
"Well, considering that I'm often told my expression looks like I'm planning to murder someone, I'd consider an expression that merely looks like I want to run away to be downright amiable," Ludwig said smoothly, and Gilbert laughed.
"Still, though," he said, leaning over to give Ludwig a quick kiss on the lips, before pulling away to say earnestly: "If you want to escape, I'll run away with you anytime you want."
That prompted a small smile from Ludwig, which Gilbert had to kiss, because it was so beautiful. He practically fell out of his chair to do so, and Ludwig caught him, wrapping an arm around his waist to steady him, chuckling into the kiss.
"You two are so cute together," Elizabeta said when they'd pulled apart. She was smiling happily, eyes bright with interest as she asked, "How did you two meet?"
"Now that's an interesting story," Gilbert grinned, as he slipped back into his own seat, keeping his hand entwined with Ludwig's.
Ludwig groaned. "Please don't let this be the version with the vampire zombies that chase us into a janitor closet, and which we then fend off with cleaning supplies."
"Zombie vampires," Gilbert corrected, winking at Elizabeta when she laughed. "But no, that version of the story is only for people too unawesome to appreciate the subtle beauty that was our first true meeting."
"I don't appreciate the implication that my friends are 'unawesome,'" Ludwig said.
"But they wouldn't get it," Gilbert said, tugging at Ludwig's hand, pouting slightly. "Elizabeta and Roderich will get it!"
"There's nothing to get," Ludwig sighed, before looking at Elizabeta. "We met while waiting to cross the street," he said simply.
"You suck at telling stories!" Gilbert accused, punching him in the arm. "Shut up and let me tell it in all it's awesome glory!"
"Make me," Ludwig challenged.
Something in Gilbert's red eyes glinted, and then he slid over and pressed close, tongue gliding around the inner shell of Ludwig's ear, whispering quietly for Ludwig's hearing only.
A rubicund blush heated Ludwig's cheeks, and he silently nodded, swallowing, jaw clenched. Gilbert pulled away smugly.
Elizabeta was laughing, while Roderich stared on coolly.
Fingers still interlaced with Ludwig's, Gilbert turned to his friends with a grin. "So!" he said. "What happened was—"
Gilbert, Francis and Antonio were walking to a nearby night club, laughing and shoving each other, when they came to light.
The glowing red man told them clearly that they could not cross.
Antonio glanced both ways down the street. "There's no cars coming!" he said, darting out into the street, Francis right behind him.
"Guys!" Gilbert shrieked after them, eyes wide. "What are you doing?!"
"Crossing the street," Francis said, as he and Antonio stopped in the middle of the street to look back at him. "What does it look like we're doing?"
"Jaywalkingis what it looks like you're doing!" Gilbert hissed at them, eyes hard. "You're breaking the law!"
"Just let it go and get over here," Francis said with a shake of his head, walking to the other side of the street.
"No! I'm not a criminal, unlike you guys!" Gilbert said, glaring furiously across the street at them, arms crossed.
"But there are no cars coming," Antonio pointed out, stepping onto the opposite sidewalk and gesturing to the still-empty street.
"That doesn't mean you can just break the law!" Gilbert shouted at them.
"Wenn das jeder täte," a voice next to him agreed.
Gilbert jumped, whirling around to see a tall, broad, blond man with piercing blue eyes standing next to him, also glaring across the street at the Spaniard and Frenchman.
"Oh, you're German too?" Gilbert asked.
"Ja," the man said, still glaring across the street.
The man had an impressive glare, Gilbert thought smugly, turning back to inflict Antonio and Francis with a glare of his own, mimicking the other man's wide and disapproving stance. Surely, with the combined awesomeness of their efforts, Antonio and Francis would feel duly repentant for their infraction.
The Spaniard and Frenchman were fidgeting uncomfortably. "All we did was cross the street!" Francis said indignantly.
"If everybody did that, the system would descend into chaos," Gilbert said.
"And it sets a bad example for kids," the man next to him added.
Gilbert internally cheered. Ha!See Francis or Antonio argue against protecting the lives of innocent children! Gilbert was warming up to this fellow German already.
By now, cars were passing down the street between them, white and red lights smearing in the evening light, the sound of their engines and their tires against the pavement making it hard to hear Antonio's call of, "We'll be waiting at the club for you!" as he and Francis practically fled down the sidewalk away from them.
Gilbert sighed as they left. "They're good people most of the time," he muttered.
The man next to him was silent for a moment. "I have a friend who's American," he said after a beat. "He'll cross the street where there are no crosswalks, and even when there are cars driving down the street. He doesn't care. He just walks out into the street and expects them all to stop for him." The man snorted in frustration. "His argument is: 'What are they going to do, hit him?' He cannot be reasoned with. I've taken to holding onto his jacket when we're out walking to keep him from randomly darting across the street and nearly killing himself and causing car accidents."
Gilbert was staring at him, mouth agape. "You're kidding," he said weakly.
"I'm not," the man said gravely. "I've nearly lost my voice yelling at him for it, but it does no good. His sense of self-entitlement is too deeply ingrained."
Gilbert made a keening noise and turned his gaze to the glowing red man that signaled that they still couldn't walk. It had to be the longest light in the history of ever.
They waited the rest of the time in silence. Not awkward silence—just silence.
The red glowing man disappeared, and the glowing green walking man appeared. The two of them crossed the street.
"Auf Wiedersehen," the man said, holding out his hand.
"Bis bald!" Gilbert grinned, shaking the man's hand.
The man looked at him,then away, down the street. "Vielleicht," he said, before turning and walking west.
Gilbert, smirking to himself, turned and walked east.
"That was beautiful," Elizabeta smiled.
"I know, right?" Gilbert grinned. "It was the beautiful beginning of a beautiful relationship."
"You romanticize it," Ludwig said with a roll of his eyes.
"We're romantic!" Gilbert defended, elbowing him.
"Ouch," Ludwig said obligingly. "Yes, very romantic."
Gilbert made a noise and leaned over to kiss him.
"How did you get together?" Elizabeta asked, leaning forward, eyes shining with curiosity.
"It's a long story," Ludwig said flatly after Gilbert pulled away (Ludwig licking his lips for every lingering taste of the brief kiss).
Gilbert laughed, squeezing Ludwig's hand. "That it is! We met in the first semester of our second year, but didn't actually get together till the second semester of our third year."
"What happened?" Elizabeta prompted. Even Roderich was looking slightly interested.
Gilbert grinned. "Well, see, after we met that first time, we started seeing each other everywhere, I'm not even kidding. At coffee shops, on the streets of Paris, in the university buildings—that was when I realized he was also a student there, and was like, how hadn't I ever seen him before?! Because I surely would have remembered such an awesome figure."
Ludwig snorted. "And I surely would have remembered your distinctive eyes and hair, and your pugnacious and ebullient demeanor."
Gilbert just grinned at him. "It was like when we met, our fate strings got all tangled up, so we couldn't stop crashing into each other after that," he said, nodding.
"You've been talking with Kiku too much," Ludwig muttered under his breath.
"So then," Gilbert continued on, "we kept seeing each other, and eventually I managed to figure out that he was an International Relations major—and, being a History major, that's probably why I hadn't seen him before, which meant that my eyesight wasn't actually failing me, which was a relief—and that his name was Ludwig, and eventually we go to talking about Germany and our families, and then one night he showed up at my dorm room, asking to sleep there—"
"My dormmate had brought a girl in," Ludwig explained. "I couldn't sleep there with them doing things."
"—which turned out to be a common occurrence from that day forward, because apparently Lud's roommate brought a lot of girls back," Gilbert rolled on, "so we got to know each other better, and started hanging out whenever possible, and I got to learn all about all of Ludwig's rather endearing neurotic tics, and he got to learn all about my hidden insecurities that I definitely do not actually have because I am made of pure awesomeness, and then there was this one night where Ludwig came to my room because his was being used for things," he snickered, "and I was standing outside my room with my phone about to call him to ask if I could come over to his room, since mine was also taken that night with people doing things," he snickered again, "and so, since neither of us had anywhere to go, we ended up going out and drinking all night and getting shit-faced, and that led to drunken kissing, and then the next day we both had terrible headaches and I asked him out on a date to the grocery store to get aspirin, which was a fool-proof time for someone who feared rejection to ask someone else out who also feared rejection because he was far too hungover to refuse or put any painful amount of thought into it."
Gilbert grinned. "And that's how we got together!"
"That was quite possibly the longest run-on sentence I've ever heard," Ludwig stated. "And that's saying something, since you're prone to using long run-on sentences."
"You love it," Gilbert said, grin showing teeth.
Ludwig leaned close to whisper in Gilbert's ear: "Ich liebe dich," before pressing a soft kiss to Gilbert's temple. "And that includes all your crazy quirks."
Elizabeta cooed. "Ihr seid perfekt zusammen!" she smiled, before turning to her boyfriend. "Aren't they, Roderich?"
"They're something," Roderich relented.
Gilbert narrowed his eyes at Roderich, before grinning at Elizabeta smugly. "I know, right? My boyfriend is a much better catch than yours."
Elizabeta raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh, I wouldn't go that far," she said, smile turning into a smirk, before she turned and pulled Roderich into a kiss.
Gilbert made gagging noises. Ludwig looked at him, raising an eyebrow.
"What?" Gilbert said, shrugging. "I can't slack on my annoying little brother role! And Roderich's piano isn't here to keyboard-slam."
Ludwig just shook his head, smiling. "All your crazy quirks," he said, using their interlaced hands to pull Gilbert closer.
"Would you do anything for me?" Gilbert simpered, wrapping his arms around Ludwig's neck.
"Anything," Ludwig agreed.
Gilbert smirked, moving a hand to poke Ludwig in his rock-hard abs. "Except cross the street when the light's red."
"Except that," Ludwig agreed.
"And taking a paper from the Zeitungskästen without paying," Gilbert added.
"And that," Ludwig agreed.
"And breaking any law," Gilbert added.
Ludwig buried his nose in Gilbert's niveous hair. "Not necessarily," he murmured. "I'd break a few laws for you."
Gilbert's fingers played with the blond hair at the nape of Ludwig's neck. "Like what?" Gilbert asked.
"I'd break any law that tried to keep me from you," Ludwig murmured, quietly, but with a conviction that made Gilbert shiver. Ludwig moved to press his lips against Gilbert's throat, before moving to his ear. "And you can run away with me anytime you want."
Gilbert made an indistinguishable noise and pulled Ludwig into an ardent kiss.
END.
AN #1: "Germans have a legendary reputation for sticking to the rule book. This is rooted in their (not entirely erroneous, I'm sure you'd agree) belief, that for society to work smoothly, a set of guidelines needs to be obeyed by the majority. And as tempting as it may be, at times, to weasel your way round them, Germans take great pride in resisting, because, "wenn das jeder täte"(if everybody did that), the whole system would descend into chaos. And nobody wants that. It would be just sooo disorderly…
"Foreign visitors have been known to watch with incredulity when witnessing an upstanding German citizen venting their indignation at somebody caught in the act of flaunting rules, some of which may, perhaps, seem rather trivial. For Germans, however, impeding minor infractions, such as failing to pick after your dog or making too much noise on Sundays, is seen as a collective responsibility.
"If you crossed the street in Germany while the little red man was telling you not to, be prepared for your fellow pedestrians to pull you up on it. In the UK, this would NEVER happen. The reason given by Germans as to why they feel the compulsive need to police pedestrian crossings is "to not set kids a bad example". Needless to say, any criticisms of rules conceived to protect lives of innocent children are dead in the water" (ladyofthecakes on WordPress).
Also, as an American, I can tell you that, at least where I live, people really do cross the street whenever and wherever they feel like it. Sometimes I'm waiting at the stoplight, the light turns green, but I have to wait because someone just started crossing the street. Or I have to stop randomly because someone's crossing the street where there isn't a crosswalk—and sometimes there's a crosswalk literally ten feet from where they're crossing. All they had to do was walk ten feet before crossing the street! It drives me nuts.
AN #2: Apparently, Germans always shake everyone's hands when greeting people, and saying goodbye or thank you (GERMANY VS ENGLAND | DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES #1, by Get Germanized on youtube).
AN #3: "Ranked at joint 369th in the world, Université Paris Dauphine is a multidisciplinary institution which specializes in subjects such as economics, math, business, IT, law and the social sciences. The university has three campuses in central Paris; the main campus is located in Porte Dauphine near the famous Arc de Triomphe and hosts 8,750 students and a faculty of 580 teachers. There is also a small school of journalism and one business center in the heart of the Parisian business district, La Defense. Proclaiming a "resolutely international outlook", Université Paris Dauphine boasts a student body comprised of 30% international students" (TopUniversities).
I have never been to Paris, France (hence, the complete and utter lack of any kind of descriptions in this piece). Or to any place in France. (Actually, I haven't even ever been out of the US, sadly.) So I honestly don't know anything about this university, or the city of Paris, or French culture, or anything. But I used Université Paris Dauphine because of its large percentage of international students, and because I needed Gilbert and Ludwig to not be studying in Germany for this prompt to work. However, there's no way they'd study in the US, what with the terribly high education prices here (it's absolutely absurd).
Average tuition for public schools in France is about 200 dollars. Tuition at Université Paris Dauphine is 530 euros (591.45 dollars). (Average tuition in the US 32,405 dollars, but can exceed 60,000 dollars for some private institutions. And even public schools can exceed 10,000 dollars.)
AN #4: While America has a legal drinking age of 21, both Germany and France of a legal drinking age of 16 (though France technically has two ages: 16 for wine and beer, 18 for hard liquor). In the flashback, Gilbert and Ludwig are in their second year of college, so they're 19 or 20.
AN #5: Auf Wiedersehen: Goodbye
Bis bald: See you soon
Vielleicht: Perhaps
AN #6: While the term "I love you" is said all the time in English, diluted and often used very lightly and for any number of things, "I love you" in German holds much more weight. It is not said lightly. It is only said when one truly, deeply loves someone, and it's only used for romantic love. "Ich liebe dich," is not something that is ever said to one's parents, for example. That would be creepy and weird. (Information from Germany vs USA on youtube)
AN #7: Ihr seid perfekt zusammen: You (plural) are perfect together
Hungarian is the official language of Hungary, but there is a minority (11%) that speaks German.
AN #8: "Germans have a strong sense that some of the good things, which exist for everybody's convenience and communal benefit, will be taken away if people don't make an effort to preserve them. One example of this is newspapers sold from "honesty boxes". These "Zeitungskästen" are positioned in accessible locations where you, the customer, is being trusted to deposit the correct amount of change before helping yourself to your daily rag" (ladyofthecakes on WordPress).
AN #9: The line "You can run away with me any time you want" is from the song "Summertime" by My Chemical Romance.
AN #10: Lol, this chapter got so much cuter than I thought it would! And there ended up being way more author notes than I'd originally planned, as well. Whoopsies.