Gilbert watched the young merman splash around in the water carefully. It didn't take a Sherlock to realize that Feliciano was anxious. In fact, even John Watson could realize such an act. It had been, what, thirteen years since the incident? Ludwig had been seven at the time and he was twelve then. Now Ludwig was twenty and Gilbert himself was nearing his twenty sixth birthday. Feliciano was almost exactly the way he remembered him to be since he saw him as a kid. Granted, he had drank gallons of seawater, was exhausted, and had been terrified out of his pure white skin, but all the same, it was the same. The same hair, the same innocent eyes, the same creamy blue tail. Even the same curl was still there. It was incredible on how little he had changed.

So, with a smirk on his lips, Gilbert jumped out of the car and walked over to him. Feli scooted back a little bit with fear beginning to cloud his eyes. Gilbert mearly put his hands up gently and gave his best 'trust me' smile he could. "Whoa, whoa, easy there. Don't you remember me?" The albino was using his softest voice he was able to manage. One that Ludwig would hear when his brother was comforting him about his parents or a bad day. "You saved me and my bruder from the storm."

Feli scanned him up and down for any lies or things suspicious in his voice. Yet, nothing arose. He did look a little familiar. In fact, now that he mentioned it, even Ludwig seemed familiar. Yes! The blonde and the albino. With such an odd pair, Feli felt embarrassed to not recognize them immediately.

Ludwig glanced at his brother with confusion written all over his features. "Feliciano saves us? Since when?"

"It was you, alright. I'd never forget you." Gilbert continued on, choosing to ignore Ludwig. "Don't you remember, fish boy?" He began to become more like his usual self and flashed his awesome smile. "Or is it true that your brain is like a fish and you forget everything?"

Ludwig was about to punch his brother when he heard Feliciano laughing. With more confusion stacked on top of him, he turned and saw Feli grinning like a shark. "No way, of course I'd remember you." He pushed himself up with his arms and blinked at him (Ludwig swore he was flirting with his eyes). "But what about you, is it true that a human's brain is smaller than their fist? That's not really awesome if you ask me."

A silence overtook them as the waves crashed over the land and soaked Feli. Ludwig had absolutely no idea what was going on, but he didn't think it was good what either of them had said. Before he could even try to apologize on the others behalf, the two laughed and Gilbert ran out to him. "Feliciano Vargas, you didn't change a bit!"

Feli smiled and grabbed onto Gilbert's arms to the confusion of Ludwig. Gilbert lifted him up and spun around, laughing obnoxiously, quickly followed by Feli. Gilbert tripped over his feet, being the clumsy person that he is, and made the two of them fall into the water.
Feliciano continued to laugh, even though he landed on Gilbert, who was lying face down in the water. Seeing this, Ludwig had to resist the urge to run to his brother with his ankle injured. He was starting to get a little anxious with the two screwing around like that in the water and needed them to stop.

He stopped and thought about it calmly. They were only goofing around, it wasn't like they were going to do anything dangerous. Besides, Feli would help him out if anything happened, right? He felt good about this. In fact, Ludwig smirked to himself, he was about to shrug it off and get into the truck and drive off without his brother. Unfortunately, he looked over to the two again and almost screamed.

He was pretending to drown in the water. "Bruder! Get up right now!"

The two jumped at the viciousness in the voice coming from the blonde. Even Ludwig seemed to be stunned from it. Instead of his usual calm monotone, it was as though something else had spoken, or rather growled, for him.

Gilbert raised his hands slowly in surrender. "Whoa, bro, calm down. It's all good, we were just having some awesome fun."

The words only seemed to help at making him angrier. "You think this is a joke? Some fun in the sun?!"

"West, it doesn't even matter, we were playing-"

"Do you not remember mom and dad? How they were killed in the very water that you're pretending to drown in?! Did you even care when they died?!"

As soon as he said it, Ludwig realized he had gone too far. Gilbert's playful self was gone in that instant and he slowly stood up out of the water. His face was wiped of any emotion and it seemed as though nothing was even there, like he was just a shell of himself.

He walked up to Ludwig and stood there silently. His eyes were unfocused and were emotionless. Ludwig shook his head and closed his eyes before facing him again. "Gilbert, I-"

A punch to the face stopped him.

He quickly sent a hand to his upper cheek, where he was hit. He didn't even have the pride to look up to his brother. He didn't have to know what his face was full of now. Anger and disappointment.

"Of course I cared, you ass," Gilbert snarled. "I cared more than you will ever think."

With those being the only words he was willing to speak to the arschloch, Gilbert went to the other side of the truck and slid in. He started it and waited for his brother to get it. He had faded back into his depression like state and said nothing.

Ludwig looked at him for a few seconds before turning back to Feli. He was still sitting there in the waves, waiting and confused at what was going to happen. Ludwig frowned and sighed, "Feliciano, we'll be back tomorrow-"

"I'LL be back tomorrow. You have a twisted ankle." Gilbert snapped at Ludwig. Ludwig sat in the seat for a minute, in shock of his brother's outburst. He glanced over back at the merman to find he had left.

Gilbert started to drive and ignored Ludwig complaining about he not wearing a seatbelt. In fact, the albino German had completely ignored Ludwig until they got to the house.

Ludwig sighed and was about to get out of the car when the doors locked. It was going to be like this, wasn't it?

"What is it?" Ludwig sighed heavily.

"You know very damn well, what!" Gilbert still had his hands on the wheel and was gripping it quite tightly.

"Gil, you have to know I wasn't thinking-"

"Fucking right you weren't thinking!" He slammed his hands down and snapped his neck to his brother. "I had to be the awesome one, had to swim for miles with you to save us!"

"I know you did, but you pretending to drown-"

"I have the right to do so! I swam for miles and that shows how awesome I am and how I can swim just fine, thank you-"

"Then how do you know Feli?!" Ludwig snapped back at him.

Gilbert freezes and leaned back into his seat. He closed his eyes and frowned, running hands through his hair. He muttered something about needing a beer and turned to his brother. "I need to talk to you about something that happened."

After about twenty or so minutes of explaining all of this to his younger brother, Gilbert finally carried him into the house and set his brother down on the couch.

"Aaaaand that's why I want a beer right now."

Ludwig sighed and set his ankle on the pillow. "Gilbert, why didn't you tell me?"

"And what was I suppose to say? Hey, less awesome brother, I met a kid mermaid that helped us survive, isn't that great?" Gilbert popped open a beer from the fridge and shook his head. "Nein, I wasn't going to do that."

Ludwig and Gilbert sat in silence for a few moments before Ludwig looked back up at him. "I'm sorry I said that."

Gilbert shrugged. "Whatever. The awesome me forgives you."

Ludwig sighed and shook his head. "What about tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow I want to hang out with him."

Ludwig snapped his eyes at him and shook his head. "If you get drunk and blab about him-"

"Then they're going to think I'm drunk, stupid. Look, I just want to see him again. He's beautiful." He smirked and laughed. "And by you blushing, I think you already know that."

Ludwig groaned and rolled over. It was almost evening, but it had felt like it was only morning. He was tired and in pain. More than anything, he was just done with the day. And his brother. And the secrets told. Aaaand everything in general. "When we leave tomorrow I want to stay near the shore."

A sip of beer was the only reaponse he got from his brother.