"Hey, Lud!" Alfred called cheerfully as he approached his friend's house.
"Ah, Alfred." Ludwig looked up from where he had been tending his immaculate front garden. "What can I do for you?"
"Gilbert around? Just wanted to have a chat with my favourite brother's boyfriend."
"Ja, he is inside." Ludwig told him, "One moment." He opened the front door and called down the stairs, "Bruder! Alfred is here to speak with you!"
There was a crash and a moment later, Gilbert's head appeared at the bottom of the stairs that led to his basement bedroom, "Huh? What you say, Luddy?" Gilbert looked like he had literally just rolled out of bed, despite it being early in the afternoon. Ludwig repeated himself irritably before going back outside into the garden and closing the door. "Just give me a minute, yeah?" Gilbert called up to Alfred before he disappeared back into his room without giving him a chance to reply.
Alfred hovered awkwardly in the hall. He didn't think he had properly been in the Beilschmidt household before. He had come round with Arthur and Francis before to pick up Matthew when they had been younger but then he had only stayed on the doorstep waiting. He hadn't really had a reason to visit before. He wasn't that close with Ludwig or Gilbert, he'd left that to his brother. He looked along the hall to the kitchen and through the far window he could see a slice of the organised chaos that was the back garden. He had heard Matthew talking about it enough to know that Gilbert was in charge of the small piece of land in the same way that Ludwig looked after the front garden. He also knew that although it looked like a bit of a mess, that was predominantly to get on Ludwig's nerves. Gilbert was as careful about looking after his patch of land as his brother was.
"So..." Gilbert's voice cut through Alfred's thoughts, making him jump slightly, "What does the slightly less awesome but still very awesome brother of my amazingly awesome boyfriend want to talk to me about?"
"My brother," Alfred replied simply, "I presume he told you all about our bet?"
"Ja, that you can get a good grade in your language exams." Gilbert said, walking into the kitchen and opening the fridge, "Why is that enough of a concern for you to come and ask me about it?"
"Because I know what he's like," Alfred told him, watching as Gilbert drank his juice straight out of the carton, "He'll try to flunk it or at least not do as well as he should because he thinks it'll make me feel better if I win the bet. I just want you to make sure that he doesn't. He deserves to do well in his exams, god knows he's smart enough."
Gilbert nodded, wiping his mouth on his sleeve, "That does sound like Birdie." he said slowly, "Sure. I'll talk to him. Make sure he does he work as well as he could. I see him all the time anyway."
"I know you do." Alfred smiled slightly, "I swear you see him more than I do, and I share a room with him."
Gilbert laughed, "I doubt that is true. I'm not seeing him today."
"That's because he has hockey practice though. I'll bet you anything that he'll be round here to see you later." Alfred grinned.
"I don't doubt it." Gilbert conceded.
"Well, I better be off, meeting Kiku." Alfred shrugged after a moment, "Thanks for that, Gil."
Gilbert laughed again, "It's fine. See you around." He led Alfred back to the front door and held it open for him. "Oh!" He added as Alfred stepped outside. "I have a condition to making Birdie work hard."
Alfred turned to him and shrugged, "What is it?"
"If you do German, you have to let me and Luddy help you. No trying to make do on your own if you're struggling."
Alfred thought for a moment before nodding, "Okay. That sounds fair. Thanks, Gilbert."
Gilbert waved his thanks away and laughed, "Now get going. I'm sure Kiku will be waiting for you."
Alfred nodded again, "Yeah, he will. Thanks again!" He turned and ran down the path, adding, "See you, Lud!" to the other boy as he ran past him. He smiled, feeling like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Now all he had to do was be on time to meet up with Kiku.
Author's Note: So, my plan now for this story is to upload on Wednesdays with my new Doctor Who fic going up on Saturdays. And if you lovely readers are very good, you might get a totally-not-date between Kiku and Alfred next week :P