"Um…I don't know if this is, like, personal for a ghost, 'cause I've never actually stopped to talk to one before, but, uh…" Alfred rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "How did you die?"
Gilbert winced slightly. "Tact isn't your strong suit, is it?" He sighed. "Well, it's nothing special, really, no big story to it. Someone broke in, bashed me over the head, and killed me. Simple as that." Arthur sat up a bit straighter, suddenly more interested.
"Who did it?" Alfred squeaked. "Who killed you? Were they ever caught? Was it someone you knew? Was it a family—"
"I don't know." Gilbert left it at that, hoping Alfred would drop the subject.
"But don't you wonder? I mean, if I was murdered, I'd stop at nothing to bring a hero's justice to the culprit!" Alfred jerked to his feet so quickly he knocked his chair over.
"Hero's justice? Kid, there's no such thing as heroes or justice." Gilbert propped his feet on Alfred's overturned seat.
Alfred stuck his tongue out.
Arthur sighed. So what he's saying is that he was wrongfully killed…I think, in that one grimoire, there's a section dedicated entirely to that…I know there's at least one spell I could use…I'll have to see if Ceilí and Bhaltair are busy…
"Artie? You in there?" Gilbert waved his hand in front of Arthur's face. Arthur jerked back and started spluttering. Gilbert cackled. Matthew sighed.
,,
"Hey, Matt?"
Matthew groggily rolled over to face the source of the noise. "What is it, Al?" He slurred.
"Can I sleep in here tonight? Gilbert's really freaking me out." Alfred wrung the edge of his brother's quilt in his hands.
"Tell 'im I said to get out of your room." Matthew responded, tugging the fabric from Alfred's grasp.
"But he's not in my room! It's just, every time I close my eyes I see him, hovering over me, glowing and laughing that freaky laugh!" Alfred chewed his nails as he gave Matthew his best puppy dog eyes.
Unfortunately for Alfred, Matthew wasn't wearing his glasses. "Go back to your own bed."
"But Matt! Please?"
"No. Go away." Matthew grumbled.
"Fine then. But when I start screaming and wake up all of your neighbors, I'm gonna tell them that it was your fault." With a huff bordering on a sniff, Alfred left the room.
Matthew readjusted his blanket, and settled back into his bed. His eyes drifted shut and he had just about managed to fall asleep when he heard footsteps by his bed. "Alfred Freedom Jones, I swear to God, if you do not get out of my room this instant, I am going to prove to you that a puck isn't all that a hockey stick is good for hitting."
A low whistle cut through the dark. "Well damn, Mattie, and I thought I had family issues." Gilbert sat down next to Matthew's hip.
"Ugh. Can't anyone just let me sleep?" Matthew groaned, pulling his pillow over his head.
"Trying to suffocate yourself now?" Gilbert pulled the lump off Matthew's face with a smirk that Matthew-luckily for Gilbert-couldn't see.
"Gimme that back." Matthew ordered, swiping at it halfheartedly.
"Nuh-uh. 'S mine now." Gilbert sprawled across a make-believe bed, hovering over Matthew, pillow squished against his face, held tauntingly just out of the blond's reach.
"I could get Dad to set up some wards to keep you out of my room, you know." Matthew, defeated, slipped from his bed and shuffled to his closet.
"You-you wouldn't really do that…would you?" Gilbert had pulled himself into a sitting position and held the pillow close against his chest. He had sounded almost hurt.
Matthew pulled a spare from the depths of his closet and shook the dust off, wondering how so much could have accumulated in such a short amount of time. He looked up, to see that Gilbert had lowered his feet to the floor in front of the window and was staring out it, transfixed by the crescent moon.
"I didn't, didn't really mean that. I'm sorry." Both pillows lay forgotten on Matthew's floor as he approached Gilbert, guilt mocking him in his mind.
"What do you have to be sorry about? You're not the one that killed me, you're not the one who was more worried about the bloodstain on the floor than the dead brother that caused it, you're not the one who's so pathetic that he couldn't give up his sad excuse of a life and pass on." Gilbert slammed his palm against the glass, blocking the moon. He turned to press his back to the wall and slowly slide down it.
"Can't I just be sorry that I upset you?" Matthew sat on his heels across from Gilbert.
Gilbert laughed quietly, a low, rough sound. "You're too damn nice for your own good, you know that Birdie?"
"I-I didn't know there was such a thing." Matthew smiled hesitantly, crawling across the floor to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with Gilbert.
"There is. In fact, if you look it up in the dictionary, it'll show a picture of you." Gilbert teased as he poked Matthew's arm.
"A good one, I hope." Matthew's smile broadened.
"Nope, nope, of course not. It's the ugliest, most unflattering picture of you in existence." Gilbert giggled at Matthew's over-the-top expression of horror.
"Oh, quelle horreur!" Matthew faked a swoon, back of his hand held to his forehead. Gilbert chuckled.
"We should quiet down, before your family wakes up." Gilbert somehow managed to speak through his cackling.
"Probably." Their eyes met. They burst into choked laughter, both trying to be quiet, neither succeeding.
"Alfred!" Arthur bellowed, barely audible through three separate walls. "Some people are actually trying to sleep! Must you always make so much noise?"
Matthew and Gilbert started laughing even harder when Alfred yelled back that he was asleep.
"Is your family always like this?" Gilbert asked breathlessly, leaning lightly against Matthew.
"Pretty much. Although it does tend to be worse when Maman is around." Matthew's stomach flipped at the way Gilbert was pressed against him, but he ignored it. "What…what was your family like?"
"We fought. A lot. It was fun, though, when we were all together. Mama would always make the most delicious, well, anything, and Papa would tell stories about his Italian friend, and all the trouble they got into when they were kids. Ludwig would be obsessively cleaning the whole time, and I'd make messes just to annoy him." Gilbert grinned at the memories. "Yeah…it was fun."
"It sounds nice." Matthew murmured, still smiling.
"Hm." Gilbert answered noncommittally. He sat up suddenly, and Matthew mourned the loss of his presence for all of five seconds before Gilbert shifted them both around so that Matthew's head was on his lap.
"Wh-what?"
"I figure, since I took your pillow earlier, it's only fair to replace it." Gilbert told him. "Now settle down and quit squirming before I change my mind." Matthew stuck his tongue out, but stilled nonetheless.
After a near eternity of silence, in which he assumed Matthew fell asleep, Gilbert began humming softly as he ran his fingers gently through Matthew's hair.
"Gilbert?" His hand stilled.
"Yeah?"
"How do you say 'good night' in German?" Gilbert resumed his petting.
"Gute Nacht." The words felt familiar on his tongue, like the lyrics to a favorite song.
"Okay. Gute Nacht, then." Matthew whispered.
"Gute Nacht, Vögelchen."
,,
Mathias grinned as he walked confidently through the front door. The key, he'd found, to not getting caught doing something was to act like you weren't. He looked around the unfamiliar house, taking in the long hallway, the pleasant, cheery décor.
As he sauntered into the alien dwelling, he took in the new sights it had to offer. Man, he thought, it's good to be home.
..
Cliffhanger! Woot!
Okay, so I know I made Ludwig seem like a heartless asshole, but see it from his perspective! If he's focusing on the blood, instead of what caused it, he doesn't have to accept the fact that his brother is dead. After he got finished cleaning, he went straight to a bar and got completely smashed, then went to Feli's house and cried 'till he fell asleep/passed out. Um, what else…
Vögelchen-Birdie. I think it just sounds cuter in German.
Oh, quelle horreur!-Oh, how horrible!
Has anyone else ever noticed that everything sounds more dramatic in a Romance language? Seriously, you should try it sometime. Say/listen to something in English, and then say/listen to it again in a Romance language of your choosing. It's true, isn't it? Even if they're both said in exactly the same tone…Did any of you all hear about those Germans at that airport? I don't know many details (my local newspaper only had a tiny blurb about it, apparently they don't want to encourage them), but they were protesting the new body scanner things. A group got together and stripped at an airport.
But enough rambling. Equilibrium out!