A/N: This isn't really something very serious from my part, I'm just trying to get over my writers block, that has lasted for about 6 months now. Yeah, I'm trying to get over it by writing failed, sappy fan fiction. Bear with me, okay? Don't take it too seriously. And be careful not to die from sappiness! o A o
Gilbert Weillschmidt awoke to the sound of three dogs barking downstairs. Groaning, he pushed the comfortable, warm sheets aside, and rolled out of the bed. Rubbing his crimson eyes, he slowly walked down the stairs, one step at the time. With only two steps left, he stopped and scowled at the three dogs sitting at the foot of the stairs, moths open and tails swishing back and forth. One of them, Berlitz, started barking again, and Gilbert continued to scowl at them with a murderous look on his face.
Figuring the mutts were probably hungry, he got the bag of food from the bottom of a cupboard and filled their bowls all the way to the bridge; that way he wouldn't be bothered by his brother's dogs for a while. Since the owner of the dogs himself was nowhere to be seen, Gilbert assumed that he had already gone to his office. A glance at the digital clock on the hallway wall confirmed this; it read 11:23 am. Ludwig usually went to work at 7:30 am.
Gilbert walked around and about in the bottom floor for a while let his gaze wander until it rested on the telephone located on a small table in the living room. The display showed that there was one new message. He guessed it was probably for his younger brother, about work, but curiosity eventually took the best of him, and he pressed a button to hear the message.
"Gilbert", Ludwig's familiar, deep voice said, "I really hope that you're awake by now, and that you'll hear this soon. I'm at my office now, and I forgot my wallet back home. I know you're not extremely busy today, so could bring it over? Fifth floor, third door to the left. Thank you." A beep, and then the house was once again silent.
A quick check around confirmed Ludwig's message, a black leather wallet was laying on the kitchen counter, at the same spot that Ludwig always put it. He often said that he didn't want to waste his time looking for his belongings, and most of the time, whilst shooting hinting glances at his older brother. Ludwig had a special place for everything he owned, no matter if it was socks, extra batteries or ball point pens.
Gilbert, however, did not. He put all of his stuff at places he thought were appropriate for the moment, and most of the time, he'd lose his things, only to find them days, weeks or months later. He wasn't an organized person, and whenever Ludwig tried to lure him into the world of cleanness, order and organization, Gilbert would laugh at him, claiming that he was way to awesome for those kinds of things, and then the next second, he would be hysterically turning the house upside down in search for his Nintendo DS, magazines or bird food.
Gilbert stared blankly at the wallet for a few seconds, before picking it up and turning it around in his hands, debating whether to follow his brother's instructions or pretend that he had not heard the message, and spend the rest of the day playing video games on his Play Station 3.
Suddenly he spotted Blackie sitting in the doorway, staring at Gilbert with big, chocolate eyes.
"What the hell are you looking at," he spat out, while staring back at the mutt.
Blackie barked loudly in response.
"You want me to take this to West, now do you?" Gilbert said, holding up the wallet.
Another bark.
"You know, I don't take orders from dogs," Gilbert murmured "but I guess this can be an exception," he said a little louder while pocketing the wallet.
Blackie barked in approval.
It was chilly outside, quite cold actually. Gilbert shuddered and pulled his old black jacket that looked very similar to a military coat closer to his body. He wished that he had at least brought a scarf, or a pair of gloves.
The November wind silently streaked around the streets, lifting up fallen, dried leaves, and making them do a little dance in the air before they dropped back to the ground.
The walk wasn't very long, at most ten minutes if you were sure of how to go. Gilbert had a faint idea of where Ludwig's fancy office was located, and an even fainter one of how to get there. He could have picked his cell phone up, called Ludwig and asked for directions, but he didn't. He didn't ask any of the few people he met either. He never did. It made him feel stupid, as well as lost. He'd rather wander around until he found what he was looking for than ask.
This was also exactly what he did when he came to the part of the city where most offices and such were located. He walked street up and street down, trying to find the right one of the pompous office buildings. After a good fifteen minutes, he found the one he was looking for, and cautiously walked inside as the automatic glass doors slid open before him. A secretary or receptionist or something closely similar to that looked up at him as he entered and smiled a rehearsed, false smile. In some way, she looked like an insect, something probably caused by her odd, pointy glasses and bright green, glossy blouse. Gilbert decided quite quickly that he didn't like her, and that he wasn't going to ask her where his brother's office was. Instead, he walked over to the elevator, pressed the button that would take it to his floor, and waited.
The elevator arrived, and the door slid open with a quiet "bing". He pressed number five, and waited as the doors slid shut and brought him up to floor five.
Walking through a corridor with glass walls on both sides, showing of spacious offices that probably every single one of them were furnished by top interior designers, he felt oddly out of place. He usually did though, with his shockingly white hair, pale skin and red eyes, but here every one stared at him for what seemed like other reasons. A albino man in a black military jacket, baggy jeans and beaten up, grey sneakers walking through the building like he owned the place while chewing on his already ragged thumbnail just didn't fit in this world of Armani suits, polished Italian shoes and silk ties.
Gilbert stuck his tongue out at the closest person to him just for good measure. It made him feel better.
Ludwig's office was empty. Gilbert assumed that his little brother was out on an errand, or lunch and he decided to take this opportunity to look around in his little brothers working space as he waited for him to get back.
The office was an example of absolute perfection. No dust on the bookshelves, not a paper misplaced on the desk and the ballpoint pens in the drawers were organized after color. This, Gilbert concluded after about ten minutes of going through every inch of the office. Sprawling in a big office chair on wheels by the desk, he spun the seat around until he was slightly dizzy.
He suddenly pulled the wallet out of his pocket and opened it, red eyes scanning the inside. There was a few bills inside, and no coins. A credit card, car license, and what not. Nothing of much interest. He was about to close the wallet again, when something caught his attention.
He suddenly stood up, flipping the wallet shut and putting it back into his pocket. He walked out of the office building and headed in what he thought was the right direction to get home.
Ludwig had a bad day. He hadn't gotten his wallet like he asked for, and therefore, he had no money to buy lunch. He usually brought his own lunch box, to save money, but today was an exception. Therefore, he had starved himself through the day, filling in and signing paper after paper until he was finally done around 10 pm. As he arrived to his and his brother's shared home, he was beyond tired. All he really felt like doing was to get something to eat and then go right to bed and sleep for a few days, or weeks. First thing was first, though.
He found Gilbert in his room. He was lying on the bed, uncharacteristically reading a pretty thick book. Reading wasn't a thing that Gilbert did very often. The door was open, but Ludwig knocked anyway, to be polite. Gilbert didn't move. Deciding that he could probably let himself in, he stepped over piles of dirty clothes, magazines and other various objects lying on the floor. Without thinking, he picked a clean-looking T-skirt from the dark blue carpet and neatly folded it, before putting it on Gilbert's desk and made his way to the queen-size bed where his brother still lied, motionless, with exception of once in a while turning a page in his book.
"Hi," Ludwig said softly. Gilbert showed no sign that he had heard him.
"Did you get my message? On the answering machine? ," he continued.
At this, Gilbert closed his book, and put it at the small table at the side of his bed. Not turning around, he said "No, I didn't. What did I miss?" to his sheets.
"I'd like to say that you're a terrible liar," Ludwig slowly said, "but that would also be a lie. I know you were at the office earlier."
Gilbert sighed and turned to face his brother. "Who told you? Never mind, really. I don't care."
"Why did you leave? I told you to bring my-" Ludwig was interrupted by Gilbert.
"You weren't there," he said simply. "Didn't want to leave it there if some less awesome person decided to steal it away from you."
Ludwig nodded. "You wouldn't want to dare risk that your source of game-money would disappear, now would you?"
Gilbert didn't answer.
Ludwig instead nudged his head towards the book on the table. The cover read "Shadow of the wind". "Good choice," he mumbled, as he sat down on the side of the bed. Gilbert only nodded in response, with an absent look on his face, like he was deep into thought.
They were both silent for a few moments, before Gilbert broke the peace.
"What are you doing here?" His voice came out a little harsher than he'd wanted it too.
A streak of confusion flew across Ludwig's face.
"What do you mean?"
"Aren't you a little busy? I mean, being Italy's little bitch and all-" Gilbert suddenly caught himself, a slightly surprised look on his features, as if he hadn't expected himself to say those words out loud.
"Italy's- I most certainly am not Italy's-"Ludwig stuttered out, his face growing red from something that could be embarrassment, anger or maybe a little of both.
"Original, keeping a photo of him in your wallet, too. He'll be with you at all times that way, am I right?" Gilbert continued.
"I—I don't…" Ludwig said helplessly, scowling at himself for not being able to talk back. His mouth betrayed him, and kept stuttering out pathetic sounds of no sense.
Acting on impulse only, he knew that he'd regret this later as he yanked Gilbert's head closer to him, until their foreheads met. "I didn't put it there. He did it himself, thinking I would forget him if I didn't see his face every day. As if the World Meetings aren't enough."
Gilbert raised an eyebrow at this. "Is he that stupid, really?" His voice was no longer cold and harsh, but held a sparkle of amusement in it.
"Even worse than you think, actually," Ludwig mumbled, before putting his hand at the back of Gilbert's head and pulled them both down so that they were lying face to face on the bed. "And I'm not- I'm not…"
"His little bitch?" Gilbert filled in helpfully, making Ludwig's face flush again.
"Something like that."
Gilbert was absolutely still as Ludwig planted a kiss on his forehead, on his nose and then brushed his lips against Gilbert's.
Gilbert smiled as he did so, raising a hand to brush away a few strands of blonde hair that had escaped Ludwig's otherwise so perfect hairdo. Slowly running his hand down his little brother's spine his breathing synced with the movements of the other's back rising and sinking as his breath became slower and he began to drift off to sleep.
Tomorrow would be as usual again.
One moment shared, only to fly away with the wind like the fallen leaves on the streets to never come again.
A/N: Did you die from sappiness? No? Okay, that's good then.
The book Gilbert was reading, Shadow of the Wind is written by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and it's one of the best books I've ever read. I recommend it to all of you~!