AN: Ah, there's another PruCan story with the title of Message. First come first serve, should I rename this series? I got a ribbon and a Tawnyblood medal. Ku fu fu fu~ The more I think about it, the more I relate it to Pokemon. And talking about Pokemon, there was this game where I thought Moltres was a chicken. Thanks for the reviews too. :) Forgot to mention that before.

Gilbert didn't sleep in his own bed last night. The memories of what happened about a week ago were still too freshly embedded into his mind and now thinking about it, it's a bit embarrassing. When he was sitting on his bed after Francis's phone call, he wondered what would have happened if he had died.

Would he have been able to come to terms with the fact that he's a bit afraid of change?

The word 'a bit' doesn't really cover the true extent of his fear, but that's all he's willing to admit for the moment.

"Oh sigh." He mumbles to himself as he rolls off the couch, landing on the ground with some difficulties. He stretches, arms reaching upwards and his fingers grabbing at the air as a low groan of appreciation came forth. He hums to himself as he rubs the small of his back and trudges off to the bathroom.

He comes back out twenty minutes later, humming a song softly under his breath. He walks into his kitchen, opening the fridge and pulling out the milk. Good old milk, was it spoiled? Gilbert shook the jug, its contents jiggling like Jell-o. "Oh ew, that's disgusting. I barely drank any of it too."

Just great, what am I supposed to eat? There was nothing in the cabinets and whatever was left in there was definitely contaminated by the dead cockroach he found in his cereal box. God, he knew he had a bug infestation in this ratty apartment. It was just a matter of what and when…

"Gilbird, where do you think I should eat?" The fat bird tipped his head curiously at his owner before flying over to Gil's broken coffee maker. He's always meant to replace that. "A coffee shop huh? Maybe I should, but should I bring somebody with me? It'll be weird if I go alone…"

Pyo!

Gil spluttered, but that quickly turned into a raucous cough when he chocked on his spit. "Don't talk that way about Matt!" He snapped. Then it clicked that he was scolding his pet bird for talking about his friend. That definitely wasn't weird. "Okay, I think it's time for me to take some of my meds." He sighed, getting up and dragging his feet over into his living room. He scooped up his bag with one scoop and yanks the top open.

"Where the hell did I put them?"

He throws everything out, not caring where it lands or where it goes. There was only one thing one his mind and that was to find the freaking bottle. Gilbird stares at his owner for a little bit more before seeming to hang his head sadly. He beats his wings once and he's off in the air, skillfully dodging the flying projectile of lint and worn up papers.

The gold-colored bird landed at his namesake's side, beady eyes trained on a single sheet of paper floating down. He could see something blue scribbled onto it, but it looked like gibberish. For all he knew, it might as well be gibberish. Regardless of what it said though, Gilbird latched onto the scrap of paper before it could float away like the other worthless trash.

Something deep in his tiny pulsing heart told him that Gilbert would want to see this.

Gilbird tipped his head to the side as he watched Gilbert toss something small and oval-shaped into his mouth before the man twisted the cap back on and threw it into his bag. Gilbird made a little reminder to himself to check out what the hell that was when his owner went to sleep.

Pyo!

"What, what, what?" The words dragged out despite the impatient tone underlying in his voice. He frowns at the curious sight of a young bird with a piece of paper in his mouth. "Now boy, what'cha got there?" Gilbert reached for it, but Gilbird was quicker. He dropped the thing onto the ground and slapped his scaly foot onto it.

Pyo, pyo.

"That's my doctor's number, Gil." The German's face screwed up at the words that left his mouth. Okay, so he shouldn't try to give Gilbird a nickname. He jerked the scrap out from under Gilbird, the bird tumbling over. He gave an angry chirp, but by then Gilbert wasn't listening. "What would I want with Mr. Williams's—Oh. OH. Mattie seems like the type to be living with his dad still. Maybe." He sighed, picking himself off the ground and wandering over to where his phone was. Gilbird flew after him, slowing to a stop to nestle himself into thick white hair.

His phone was one of those old types, the kind where you dialed numbers by rotating the dial itself. It was a sweet thing that Gilbert had found in his old home (the one that he used to share with his brother and his lover). He had fixed it up, polished it with a little bit of spit, and tah-dah! The thing was as good as new.

About how he acquired his awesome vintage phone aside… he dialed in the number, feeling those caterpillars in his stomachs slowly wrapping themselves into cocoons. And now was the metamorphous as he listened to the phone ringing. It was still ringing, still ringing, and finally the caterpillars transformed into those lovely butterflies.

"H-Hey Mr. Williams," He wiped his palms on his jeans. When did they get so sweaty? "I'm not calling because of uh, medical stuff… um, I'm just wondering if—"

"About my son right?"

"Yeah… can I talk to him?"

"You just missed him. He usually leaves at this time to some… café that he likes." There was a pause of the other side of the phone line and Gil could hear the man moving before he spoke up again, sounding just a bit peeved off, "If you want I can tell you the name of the shop. He should be there by now."

"I'll really appreciate that Doc."

"Yeah, sure, I know. Uh, I think the name was something like—"

"Allied Hearts Café." Gilbert read off, a small upturn of his lips contrasting with the dubious look on his face as he stared at the stand up menu situated at the outside. "Huh, the soup of the day is Split Pea Soup." His lip grew a margin bigger. Probably not as good as mine, but what the hell, came all the way here so why not try it.

It was weird to be walking into such a shop like this one; one that wasn't very heavily populated, but had enough people to make it seem… well, cozy. Or maybe it was just the warm colors that made up the walls or the fact that he sat in his car for thirty minutes to get to this damn place. Mr. Williams wasn't kidding when he said it was almost on the other side of town.

Red eyes scanned the area for a familiar head of wavy blonde tresses. It shouldn't be that hard, especially with that one crazy curl of Matthew's that was just in his face. And indeed it wasn't that difficult, Gil found the other sitting at a window booth reading a newspaper ("I bet he's reading the stocks." Gilbert joked to himself) and snacking on well… something that he couldn't see too well from this distance.

Time to fix that~

Agilely dodging fellow costumers and waitresses, he slid into the seat on the other side of Matt, propping his elbows on the polished desk, and did his best to smile innocently at the other. It turned into a more… mischievous type of smile as the newspaper was slowly lowered to reveal Matt's non-too-pleased look.

"Hey Matt."

Those pretty blue-violet eyes narrowed before they darted over to the side and the newspaper was back up again, a makeshift barrier from the predatory glint in the other's eyes. "Hey Gil… what are you doing here?"

"What?" He slowly pushed the newspaper down, taking away Matt's shield. "Can't I visit a friend?" Gilbert tried his best to smile reassuringly at the other, but it did nothing more than cause Matt to slowly… back… away. "Come on, is it really that weird that I'm here?"

"It is when your home is on the other side of town." Matthew retorted, big lavender-colored eyes staring right into those bemused crimson red eyes. They stared at each other for awhile before the blonde broke contact first, finding the comic section of the newspaper very interesting… despite the fact that he reread it twice already. "Don't get me wrong or anything, it's nice that you would here just to see me."

He flippantly waved off the comment, a bit more interested in flagging down a waitress at the moment. "It's nothing, kid." He said after telling the poor waitress that he wanted some of the soup-of-the-day and an espresso coffee with a touch of vanilla and a whole lot of real sugar. None of that low-carb, no-fat junk. Gil tapped his slender fingers along the table as Matthew picked up the newspaper, flipped to a new page, and popped something into his mouth.

"Are you eating Smarties?"

He looked over his glasses only to frown as a blush made it way to his cheeks and ears. "Yes I am." Matt said defensively. What, did Gil have a problem with Smarties or something that he should be aware about? Like he got Smarties stuck up his nose once as a kid and had to go to the hospital to get it removed (He never let Alfred live that one down)? "Do you want some, eh?"

"Nah, I'm just a bit disappointed by your… way of eating Smarties. So not awesome."

Matthew was confused, but that was obvious by his deer-in-the headlight look. "What's wrong with the way I'm eating Smarties?"

"You're not getting the best part." He whined, reaching over to grab the rest of the Smarties. All of them were still in one piece, but not for long. Gilbert smiled as he proceeded to smash the rest of them so that there were no survivors. Poor Smarties. "See, the powder is the best part. It just melts on your tongue." He didn't pay attention to the look of distress on the blonde's face. With skilled hands, Gil formed the end of the wrapper into a demented circular shape and brought it to his lips. He took in a quick suck before puffing out Smartie powder.

"Gil… are you suggesting I should smoke Smarties?" Blue-violet eyes stayed glued on the powder as it elegantly curled in on itself, a little private dance for the two of them before it dispersed into the café's atmosphere. He hated to admit it, but it did look rather… pretty.

"Why yes, yes I am." He handed over the Smartie cigar, a goofy smile on his face. Matthew took the thing with a frown on his face and stared down at the multitude of colored powder. Gilbert motioned for him to continue, smile on his face still. "Come on, it's not hard."

The blonde grumbled something under his breath before bringing the end to his lips. He sucked it in and immediately started coughing. He struggled to regain his breath all the while glaring at Gilbert who seemed to find great amusement in watching Matt splutter and cough about. "I—" The blonde coughed. "—I, I—"

"You shoulda seen the look on your face."Gilbert said as he took back the fake cigarette and took a quick puff of it. "Absolutely hilarious."

"How do you do that?"

"Do what? Smoke Smarties?"

"Yes."

The albino shrugged and poured some of the powder into his mouth, wincing a bit at the sharp pain on his tongue. When did I cut my tongue? "You inhale it and blow it back out before it's too damp to do anything." He shrugged at his own explanation before taking another 'drag' out of Matt's Smarties. "It's not that hard. I learned it in like… five minutes." He handed back the wrapping. "Just keep trying. Maybe curl your tongue to make a tunnel or something."

"A tunnel?"

"Yeah, a tunnel. Thing." He opened his mouth, revealing the position his tongue was in. "That's what I was doing when I first did it successfully." His lips twitched into a smirk at the oh-so intense look on concentration on Matt's face. It was pretty damn endearing. "Try it."

And that was what the younger male did. He poured all the powder onto his tongue and blew it all back out. Ungracefully and right into Gilbert's face. The older man cursed as the powder flew into his face and swatted his hands around in a futile effort to get the damned thing away. Matthew just laughed.

"Well, you managed to do it." He grumbled. "Just in a really fucked up way." Matthew laughed harder, not noticing a waitress heading towards them. "It was like a motherfucking blow-dryer man." Gilbert scoffed as Gilbird fluttered down onto Matt's hand to try and eat some of that yummy and fun looking stuff.

"Excuse me sir, but we're going to have to ask you to leave." Spoke a new voice. Both men looked up to find the grim face of a young waitress. "There is no smoking policy here and you two are breaking it so can you please leave?"

"W-What? But we're not smoking-smoking!"

"Yeah, we're just smoking Smarties. Nothing harmful about that."

The waitress frowned, eyes darting over to the side. "Um, well…" Gilbert bit his bottom lip in a pathetic attempt to keep from laughing when he noticed that the woman was blinking Morse Code over to another one of her co-workers. She did not receive the help she so desperately wanted as the other one laughed—and pointed—at her before running off. "You know, um, I think it's best you leave before my boss decides to come out."

"I-I got it miss, if you'll excuse me…" Matthew started gathering up all his stuff when a pale hand held out stopped him. Matt peered blankly at Gilbert before glaring when he realized that the albino was riling for an argument.

He wouldn't do it. Nooo…

"Sorry girl, but we're not actually breaking any rules."

Oh, he went there.

"Gil, now's not a time to get technical."

"Just chill Birdie, I got this~ I got this~" He didn't see the figure that slipped out from behind the working counter until the man was standing next to the waitress. All conversation in the café slowly died off as the store's owner looked at Gilbert and Matthew. The girl paled when he turned his gaze to her, nervously biting her lip to keep from—well, it looked like she was about to cry, but honestly everybody looked like they were about to cry as the tall man loomed down on them.

"Is ther' a pr'blem?"

"No Mr. Ox…en…stier…na." She said, voice dropping low as she struggled to remember the man's last name. Or how to pronounce it for that matter. Oh dammit, did she mispronounce his name? Why's he staring at her? Oh God, is she shaking now? "Er, sir?"

"Tol' y'u to call m' Berw'ld." He mumbled, those teal eyes staring straight at her. She thought she was about to faint from fear. Is it possible to do that? Berwald turned back to the other two, Gilbert swallowing visibly underneath that stony stare while Matthew just shrank into the corner of the booth. "W're y'u smo'k'ng?"

Matthew looked to Gilbert, his eyes clearly screaming out, 'What the hell did he just say?' Gilbert coughed into his fist once, before attempting to answer. He failed the first time, it being a nonsensical babbling of German. "Um, we're weren't smoking-smoking… just smoking… Smarties."

"Smarti's?"

"Y-Yeah… candy."

Berwald slowly nodded his head, a grunt the only thing to show that he understood what Gilbert had told him. "Bad influ'nc'." He commented, mostly to himself, but that didn't stop the others from nodding in argument. Mostly out of fear, but whatever. "Le've y'u off wi'h a warnin' t'is tim'. Don't do it ag'n."

"Yes, sir!" Gilbert and Matthew quickly gathered their stuff and as they dashed out of the café, watching them run off while nonchalantly waving them goodbye was Berwald.

"Did you see that man's face? I thought he was going to eat me!"

"He wouldn't eat you. Well, maybe not as a main course. Maybe a snack."

"Gil!"

The older man laughed, slapping Matthew on the back as they strolled through the park. Gil had recomposed himself shortly after running away like some hornet chasing after some invader, but Matthew on the other hand… he was still a bit out of it. Gilbert slung his arm over the younger's shoulder, forcing him to get a bit closer and walk a bit slower than that brisk pace he was going at before.

"Matt chill, you're wound up like one of those Japanese toys that I got in the mail one day." He said, waving his right hand around in a lazy circle as he guided the both of them over to a large tree with a free patch of grassy shade. He sat down on the grass, Matthew clumsily following suit.

"You know what, eh? I'm not so surprised that you get random toys in the mail anymore. Not after seeing your apartment."

"What? Is my awesome pad that weird?"

"I went to use your bathroom once, but I didn't when I realized that two panda plushies were staring at me."

"Oh." Gilbert rubbed his chin, red eyes absentmindedly watching three tweens goofing around. "I've been looking for those guys." He looked away from the scene when one of the children caught his eye. "Been meaning to sell them on Ebay, but I can't do that when I can't even find them."

Matt just nodded his head, more interested in why Gilbert was watching a couple of kids play. A twenty-five or so year old man watching a couple of prepubescent kids just doesn't send a good first image, no matter how innocent it really is. "Gil, do you want to go play with them? I think they're playing Tag."

He snorted and spluttered, but the blush on his face told the world the truth. "Aren't we a little too old to play Tag with a bunch of kids?" He retorted, stubbornly keeping his lips from betraying any of his hope. Sadly, Matthew was able to read him like a book under a magnifying glass.

"Well, I'm going to go ask them if I can join." He said as he got up, patting fallen leaves and dirt off his clothes. He readjusted his bag as slowly as possible, trying to give Gilbert enough time to get over his pride. It didn't work so Matt took a step. And then another. And another before Gil finally stood up.

"You're going to look like a retard running around playing tag by yourself with a bunch of kids and normally I wouldn't mind that," He glared at the grin threatening to break out on the blonde's face. "But you're my friend and I can't let you do that."

"Aw, I'm blessed to have a friend like you."

"Damn right." And with that the both of them made their way over to the kids, not noticing another fair-haired male watching them off to the side. His eyebrows furrowed as he watched Gil and Matt get nearer and nearer to the children. He saw how they were staring at those kids, especially at his son. What were they doing? What did they want? When his son stopped running and waited for those two to get to him, he decided that it was time to interfere.

The Prussian peered blankly down at the young blonde staring up at him. He was at the total lost of what to say and honestly… all he could see where those hairy eyebrows. Are they REAL? He wondered to himself as Matt nudged him with his elbow. "Um, hi."

"Hey." The kid greeted in return, taking a step back to stand closer to his friends: a young girl with a bandage on her forehead and her curly brown hair tied up high and off to the side, and another boy who looked a tad bit older (but not by much) with auburn hair and a strange curl unlike one he has ever seen… sticking straight out of his head.

The blonde looked off the side, his massive eyebrows furrowing as his eyes searched out somebody and… there he was! "Dad! Over here!" Gilbert and Matthew looked over to where the kid was waving at before exchanging worried glances.

Oh shit.

The trio of kids instantly moves to stand behind him, peering behind his legs at the strangers in curiosity. Gilbert and Matt stare down at him as he stares back up at them, nobody making a move to break the silence. Well, nobody made a move for about five minutes. "Um, why are you approaching my kids?"

Gilbert sent Matt a look along the lines of, 'You were the one who wanted to act on our impulses. You answer.' And so Matt nervously chuckles and sticks out his hand in greeting. "I'm Matthew Williams," He withdrew his hand when the other didn't shake it and pointed at his albino companion. "And this is Gilbert Beilschmidt."

Maybe there was something wrong with Gilbert. There was definitely something wrong with him as he blabbed out, "We just wanted to play Tag with them. None of us are interested in kids… that way. Yeah."

Matthew wanted to slap himself.

The older male warily eyed Gilbert before slowly nodding. "I'm Tino…" And as if that was a magic word for everything being okay in the world, the small blonde standing by his side suddenly burst into energetic rambling.

"Hi! I'm Peter and this is Bianca," Peter pointed to the girl with the curly hair who waved at them lazily, her interest lost in the new people now that Tino had decided that they weren't threats. "And that is Marcello!" Peter redirected their attention to the boy with the one crazy curl who smiled cheerfully at them and waved at them with enough energy to make up for Bianca's half assed one.

"So you want to play Tag with us right? Well, there's some rules that you gotta know! Like there's no home base since only lame-os do that!" He grabbed both Gilbert's and Matthew's hands and dragged them off all the while listing what they can and can't do in an intense game of Tag.

Bianca and Marcello shared one glance at each other before running off after him, calling out to him to stop talking and just get playing already. Tino watched the five of them dash off before sighing and going back to his place at the shade. He left his book right at the climax…

It was around six when Tino finally called for the five of them to end their game of Lava Tag. He could hear a loud call of, "Last one there is a rotten egg!" From Gilbert he bet and it wasn't long before he was struggling to keep himself upright with Peter hugging him fiercely while screaming out that he won. Matt and Gilbert finished last for Gilbert had the grand and bright idea that now would be a good time to try some kind of a… tag team thing, but it just ended up with Matthew getting a piggyback ride from Gil.

"Hey Tino, thanks for paying for our meals by the way. Forgot to thank you for that." Gilbert smiled as he let Matthew off his back and shook hands with Tino. The shorter blonde blonde smiled at the two of them.

"It's not a problem."

"That's nice to hear, but if there's ever, um, any way of repay you please tell us." The Canadian said this time, shyly fixing his glasses as Tino smiled at him in a way that reminded him of his mother.

"I'll keep that in mind."

Peter munched on his lollipop, blue eyes darting between Gilbert and Matthew. He looked over to Bianca and Marcello, motioning those two closer and whispered into their ears. All three looked over to the duo before looking back at each other. Bianca and Marcello pointed at Peter. He mouthed a heartfelt 'I hate you' to them before tugging on Gilbert's shirt.

"Hmn? What is it kid?"

"Are you two fags?"

Well that was surprising.

The first one to move was the Italian Marcello who immediately clamped his hand over Peter's mouth; his eyes wide as he stared up at the speechless look on the adults' faces. "Peter you dumbass!"

The first adult to regain their marbles was a livid Finish man. "Marcello, did you teach Peter that word?" He sighed heavily at the guilty look on the Italian's face as he tried to explain that the word just… slipped out when Peter was actually paying attention to him. "Oh my God… what a mess." Tino rubbed at his forehead before turning over to Gilbert and Matt. "I'm so sorry about that. Peter's just a kid, he didn't mean what he said."

"Yes I did—Ow! What was that for? Daaaad, Bianca hit me!"

Tino sighed again. "I'm so sorry about that, I'll talk to Peter about that later. I'm so—"

"Yep kid, we're totally faggy for each other." Gilbert announced as he grabbed Matt by his shoulder and tugged them flush together. He gave Matthew no time to question what was going on in his mind. "But you know, I like the term gay more 'cause—you know, it's more awesome. You're awesome right?"

"I'm awesome!"

"Yeah, you're totally awesome and remember, they don't say fag. That's a dumb word." Well, so is gay in the way some people used it, but Tino can tell him that. "Soooo… anything else?"

This time it was Bianca who spoke up, interest evident in her eyes. "You guys don't act like most couples. Like Peter's parents are always kissing and making kissy faces and stuff. " Matthew looked over to see Tino's face a very unhealthy shade of red. "Do all couples do that?"

"Okay kids, that's enough. They have to get home too you know." The Finish man stated while ushering the protesting kids over to where their stuff where. He looked over his shoulder and smiled the two. "My husband and I work at the Allied Hearts Café, if you ever have some free time feel free to visit okay? It'll be nice to see you two again." With that said, he left the 'couple' to their own devices.

As soon as the family was out of eyesight and earshot, Matthew punched Gilbert in the arm. Really hard. He yelped, rubbing his arm as his eyes followed the figure of the blonde as he started walking back to the sidewalk.

"Matt! What was that for?" He called out, catching up with little effort. Their footsteps matched step-for-step, but the Canadian refused to meet the probing gaze of the German lest he see the blush on his face. "Come on Matt, what's wrong?"

"Y-You just told utter strangers that we're dating!"

"Do you have a problem with gay people?"

"No! I-It's just—"

"Is it me?" Matt looked up in surprise, the worried tone in Gilbert's voice shocking. The older man watched Matt for who know's how long, only looking down when he felt the other's fingers tangling themselves with his. He smiled, a fond type that Matt has never seen before. "You know, this is nice. Pretending to be a gay couple with you. We should do this more often."

Matt didn't answer, but Gilbert's smile grew larger at the slight squeeze he felt. As the two of them continued strolling down the street to their cars, the night sky blossoming behind them into stars… Gilbert could honestly say that today should be written down into history.

When he woke up in the middle of the night with a hankering for something warm and resembling soup, Gil wondered when Matthew had managed to place a blue cornflower in his microwave.

Oh well.