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Quickly he gathered up his things. It wasn't much, a few cardboard boxes and a suitcase of clothes. Ever since his younger brother had departed for their home country of Germany to serve in the army he had moved around a lot, steadily getting rid of his belongings until he was down to the stuff that really mattered. Muttering about how much work it was to move he resolved to discard some things once he got it into Matthew's home. Really he was thinking that he would be less of a burden to the Canadian if he had fewer things cluttering his apartment. Stacking it all into one pile he decided to carry it out all at once.

Straining to lift it Gilbert whistled for Gilbird, who flew straight toward his head, expecting his hair to be uncovered. Then completely confused the little yellow bird settled on his shoulder instead. Even though his hair was a really interesting color he almost never wore hats, claiming that they "masked his awesomeness." Grunting from the effort of moving the big stack he pushed the door open with his foot and made his way back to Matthew's car.

-xXVXx-

He glanced over and saw Gilbert carrying a bunch of stuff and heading straight for the car's trunk. To help the albino put he popped the trunk and hurried around the car to prop it open all the way. As soon as it was possible Gilbert dumped what he was holding inside not even checking to see if it was all unharmed before slamming it shut. Sweat was dripping down his face making it look shiny.

"Gilbert why did you do that? You could have asked me for help or just made two trips!" A few seconds later when his companion failed to answer he asked, "Are you okay?"

"Psh, yeah. I'm awesome remember, it takes more than that to bring me down. Wait here, I have to give my keys back to the landlord and discuss this month's rent." Without pausing to hear his response the eccentric man ran off again, not noticed that his bird had vacated its place on his shoulder.

For about fifteen minutes he waited in his car with the bird that had hopped from Gilbert's shoulder to his.

"What's your name?" Tweeting almost immediately ensued, but of course he didn't understand. "It's kind of ironic you know, a cat owning a pet bird." Chirping again the pile of fluff seemed to practically be laughing. Then Gilbert returned to the seat beside him and they started the drive back to his home after a short confirmation conversation to make sure that Gilbird was there. 'That's right, I remember him mentioning that name before, I should have known.'

What they didn't expect to find when they got back was the door to his apartment wide open and his burger-happy brother inside. As quickly as he could Gilbert started running down the hall towards the sign hanging at the end that said "restroom." It was already to late though, because Alfred had noticed him standing next to him for that split second before the albino had run away. Now he was being questioned.

"Who is he Mattie? I didn't know you had a friend that comes to visit you!" Being as oblivious as he normally was the American didn't notice his obvious discomfort.

"H-He's a person that I..." 'Great now what? I can't just say I found him dying on the road and saved him, that would sound really... You know what, we met last night and he had nowhere to stay and I took pity on him! That's right!' "Found last night. He didn't have anywhere to stay so I invited him to come by this morning," he said in his usual quiet voice. For a moment he thought his brother wasn't buying it, then he shrugged.

"Dude must have had to use the bathroom really bad then to go running off like that."

"Y-Yeah... I'm going to wait out here for him, I'm not sure that he realizes that this is my place." 'Really I have to get his story straight before Alfred sees him. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want it getting out that sometimes he's an animal.' But before he could do anything to prompt his brother further to go back inside Gilbert walked back up to them.

-xXVXx-

"Hey, my name's Gilbert, nice to meet cha." He was doing his best I-don't-care-about-what-you-think tone in an attempt to get the taller blonde to leave him alone. He was sure that it was Matthew's brother, they did look a little bit alike and his new room-mate seemed to know him pretty well.

"I'm Alfred. Matthew told me that he met you out on the street last night, that true?" Though he could be a bit air-headed at times, Alfred definitely did his best to look out for his brother.

"Yeah that sounds just about right," he said, mentally sighing in relief that Matthew seemed to have already come up with some sort of story.

"Where do you live?" Here it was, the question that Matthew tensed at and Alfred seemed to be watching him particularly close. He decided to play it safe and tell the truth. Part of it.

"Well, I don't actually have a place of my own right now..." As of earlier this morning, but technically it was true and Alfred was asking him about where he lived now not last night.

"So where are you planning to sleep tonight?"

"I was hoping to maybe impose on Matthew a bit and crash on his floor. And are you guys related? You seem to be a lot alike." Really not alike at all! He just had to verify that this was indeed the brother. For all he knew Matthew could have a friend named Alfred and a brother named Alfred.

"Yeah, I'm his brother." Finally the Canadian intervened.

"Let's just all go inside please..." The two others agreed and they tramped inside, shedding their coats as they went. It was considerably warmer inside the apartment than it had been out in the hall.

"Hey man, why don't you take your hat off? It's plenty warm in here." Of course it was! This place had a nice heating system and he was baking, but if he took it off his ears would be revealed.

"No, no I'm fine with it on." 'What can I say? There's no valid reason for me to have this thing on! Actually I'm surprised he hasn't commented on my eyes yet-'

"Are you wearing contacts?" '… And there it is.'

"No, this is my natural eye color, and this is my natural skin color and before you ask my hair is also naturally white. Frustrated almost immediately he grumbled to himself until Matthew tapped his arm questioningly, making him stop right away. He was bringing unwanted attention to himself at a time like this. He was still at risk from this crazy American brother of his.

"Mattie did you see Hero before you closed the front door, I brought him with me but I haven't seen him since I started talking to you two." Aw, the idiot cat that he had to show up later. Well he better take a look at the competition.

"I have to..." He couldn't say the bathroom he had just been there! "Do something." Luckily Alfred was to busy forcing Matthew to help him search under the sofa that he slipped into the hall without protest. Once out of sight he pulled his hat off. Once he was actually listening with his ears he found that pesky feline right away, and was surprised that he hadn't realized where it was earlier.

Stuffing his hat back onto his head he headed for the kitchen and saw a slightly opened cabinet on the bottom row next to the floor.

"Bingo," he muttered as he opened it up. What he didn't expect to see was a fluffy blob stuffed into a pot clearly to small to accommodate it. Suddenly the pot tipped over towards him, and he heard the brown cat's meowing from inside

"Stupid animal getting yourself stuck in there, I can beat you any time any place," he hissed under his breath. The dumb thing hissed back from inside the pot, but it clearly didn't have the intended effect on him. "Get out of there you fat lump," he said as he started pulling it out of the cooking tool. As soon as he got the feline out it seemed to take an instant disliking to him, running away towards where Alfred was calling it in the other room.

"There you are." He rolled his eyes. An idiot cat for an idiot person, what a perfect match.

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