Author's Note: okay so you guys are REALLY defensive towards Vali. How sweet. Um, the teachers Isaac and Miria from Baccano, incase you were wondering and the Dr. Takashima from Chapter 4 is from Deadman Wonderland.
When Gilbert arrived home, he headed straight for his room in the basement to change. He dropped his book bag upon entering and quickly changed out of his uniform and into a more comfortable, casual outfit. He put on some regular dark blue jeans, a gray Tee and a military-green jacket, his iron cross necklace visible. With a happy huff he went into the bath room attached to his room and peered at himself in the mirror, seeing the cuts and bruises. He opened the cabinet and pulled out a box of band-aids that he kept stashed away for incidents like this, unwrapping one a placing it on a nasty cut on the side of his neck. One last look in the mirror and he left the bathroom, flicking off the light as he went. "Sup, buddy" Gilbert greeted his little canary, receiving a chirp in response. He unlatched the door, sticking a finger in for the bird to hop onto as he pulled the canary out. "I have tutoring later, but I'm sure that Vali wont mind if I bring you." Gilbert said with a smile to his little bird. Gilbird fluttered his wings and flew from his master's finger, landing in his hair and nesting there with another chirp.
Gilbert hopped upstairs, Gilbird on his head. He made his way to the kitchen , Gilbird flying up to tease the three dogs in there, leading them out of the room and throughout the house. Gilbert smiled and chuckled at this. The front door opened then closed, Gilbert's father entering the kitchen, setting his car keys on the round table in the middle. He made a double-take towards his eldest son, brows furrowing. He walked up to Gilbert and grabbed his jaw tightly, wrenching the boy's face in his own direction. "What the hell did you do?" the father growled, not loosening his grip. Gilbert became angry at the way he was being handled. "What the fuck do you care?" the boy spat. His father's grip tightened, surely leaving bruises, "You do not speak to me in that way." he hissed dangerously through his teeth. Gilbert winced in pain as he father dug his fingers deeper into his flesh. "Let go of me!" The boy growled, taking his father's wrist and yanking it from his face. "After all these years, now you decide to get physical with me." Gilbert glared at his father and clenched his jaw, making fists at his sides. "Was the hell are you talking about?" His father nearly yelled, putting his hands on his hips. "You know damn well was the hell I'm talking about." Gilbert mocked in a deep voice as he tried to imitate the man in front of him. The boy made a turn to leave when his father stopped him. "Gilbert! Don't walk away from me when I am talking to you!" Gil scoffed, "You sound like Mutti. (mom)"
"You wouldn't know that, she left before you even knew her. She left because of you." Gilbert froze at this comment. He swallowed hard, tearing up. He knew that his father said this just to get at him, to make him hurt. And it did, immensely. Gilbert loved his mother dearly, for she was the only one who cared for him, he even looked like her, and for that reason his father hated him. He always blamed Gilbert for her "leaving".
"Don't you ever say that to me." The boy growled angrily. Even though he had never really known his mother, it didn't stop him from loving her as if she were still here and just at the grocery store. He knew that if his mother was still around, his father wouldn't be so cruel to him. "It's true, Gilbert." the father said, crossing his arms. "Are you really going to cry?" he mocked his son. Gil's breathing became harsh as he tried to blink away his tears that threatened to fall. "Fuck you." was all he said before turning around and leaving the kitchen, slamming the basement door as he left his father standing in the kitchen, more pissed than he was before.
Gilbert flopped onto his pillow and cried silently. How could he say that? How cruel could he be to his own son? It hurt him so much to hear his father say that it was his fault that his mother "left". Gilbert wasn't really sure about why his mother left. He wasn't entirely sure she did. He only remembers his mother being kind to him and loving him, even when Ludwig was born, she made sure to give her eldest enough attention as she always had, unlike his father. But one day she just never came home. She left for the grocery store, telling a three year old Gilbert to watch his few month old baby brother until she came back. He remembers nodding with a grin and giving his mother a hug, telling her "Okay! I love you, Mutti! Don't forget the gum drops!", and her laughing and nodding. He remembers her opening the door and smiling one last time at him, only him, and closing the door. She never came back. To this day, Gilbert can't stand even the sight of gum drops.
Gil sat up, rubbing his eyes, trying to clear the tears unsuccessfully. He looked over to the right side of his bed, to the framed photograph of his mother. With a tear streaked face, Gil reached for the photo, bringing it close and looking at the beautiful face of his mother, Julia. She had red eyes like him and long silver hair and a smile on her face. She had a scar on her right cheek, but that didn't take away from her beauty. Tear drops plopped onto the glass protecting the photo as he gingerly ran his fingers down the surface. "Es tut mir leid, Mama. Ich weiß, es ist meine Schuld. Es tut mir leid. (I'm sorry, mom. I know it's my fault. I'm sorry.)" he whispered to the picture. Gilbert eventually looked up and glanced at his alarm clock. He still had half an hour until his tutoring lessons with Valentin. He sighed and set the frame back in it's place and went to the bathroom to tidy himself up.
The basement door slammed shut again, but this time Gilbert was coming from it. His father was sitting on the couch, reading the news paper, when he looked up to see his son. "Gilbert." He acknowledged with a flat voice. "Dick." Gilbert insulted his father with the same tone, shouldering his book bag. He made his way to the front door opening it when his father as asked him, "And just where do you think you're going?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." came the reply accompanied by the slamming of the front door.
Gilbert stood awkwardly on the Romanian's front porch. He was half an hour early, but he didn't know where else to go, he just couldn't be at home anymore. If you could call it that. Finally convincing himself to knock on the door, Gilbert lightly taped on the red painted wood. "Ugh, dummkopf, he's not going to hear that." he scolded himself, ready to knock again when the door opened, revealing a snickering Romanian. Valentin opened the door just enough to reveal himself, "You're early."
"I know, sorry, I can come back later." Gil apologized, a little startled, getting a good look at the other boy. Valentin was wearing his hat Gil had fought so hard for, a pair of large oval no rimmed glasses that added perfectly to his image of Tutor/Teacher, a deep cream colored dress shirt, a few of the top buttons undone, dark maroon striped pants with wide stripes, every other stripe a shade lighter than the dark base, with a frame fitting plaid vest to match, and dark brown loafers to complete the look. "No, it's okay, come in." Valentin said with a smile, opening the door wider and stepping back to let the other boy in. "Who's your friend" The blonde asked, referring to the yellow bird perched on Gilbert's head. "Gilbird."
"Clever." Valentin said sarcastically. "He can stay with Petranella and Zanzibar in Eden's room, I'm sure he'll love it in there."
"Eden's Room?"
"It's just my indoor garden." the blonde said going to open that door at the end of the hallway revealing loads of plants all around. Gilbert urged the little yellow bird to go and he flew into the room, landing on a potted tree's branch. Valentin warned his other pets to be nice and closed the door walking back to Gilbert. "I didn't know you wore glasses." Gilbert said as he looked around the other's home and seeing the piano in the corner, a violin sitting on top of it. "Oh, yeah, I usually wear contacts, but one of them tore when Sadiq hit me with that ball. I have to wear these till I go and get some more." Vali replied almost sheepishly. "You play?" Gil asked, completely throwing the other's response out the window and pointing towards the instruments. "Huh? Oh, yeah." Gilbert tore his eyes from the corner and looked down at the shorter male. "Do you know how to play?" Vali asked, clasping his hands modestly in front of him. Gilbert shook his head, "Nein. My cousin, you know Mr. Edelstein," Valentin nodded, "He's my orchestra teacher!"
"Yea, he tried to teach me piano, but he gave up on me." "like everyone else"
"Well, I can teach you, if you want." Valentin offered, looking up with honesty and innocence. "Really?" The taller boy asked. The blonde nodded with a smile. "I wouldn't mind. Really, I'd love to teach you!" Gilbert grinned at this, "Danke. That would be nice." The blonde smiled again before turning around, "Wunderbar! (wonderful!) And since you're here early, we can get started early. Follow me." Valentin led the short distance to the study. "Hey, how did you know I was here? I mean I barely even knocked." Gilbert asked, jutting a thumb in the direction of the front door. "I seen you through the window." came the blunt reply as Valentin opened the study door, Gilbert closing it once they both entered. "Okay, you can sit there", Valentin pointed to the seat behind the large wooden desk, going to a corner and dragging another chair next to it as Gilbert sat down, "and I'll sit here. So we'll start on what you're having trouble with the most and get it out of the way. Go ahead and take out what you're struggling with." Gilbert did as he was told, reaching into his bag and pulling out his math, English, and history textbooks, along with all of the work for those classes he had to catch up on. Valentin watched, wide eyed, as the other took out all of this stuff. "Looks like I've got my work cut out for me." he mumbled, still staring at the stacks of books and papers. "Alright then, let's get started." The Romanian said with a smile.
Valentin helped Gilbert get through all of his History and most of his English, happy to stop whenever the other boy needed further explanation. All of that taking about three and a half hours. By this time, both boys were exhausted from learning. Gilbert's face was crammed into the binding of his English book as it lay open in the desk, and Valentin's rest directly on the desk, arms at his sides and his eyes closed, glasses off to the side, mumbling a barely audible song to himself. "Was the hell are you singing?" Gilbert's question muffled by the textbook pages. "…Powder." Vali mumbled back. "Was the hell does that mean?"
"It's a song, by Austrian artist and his band, Parov Stelar."
"You're ficken weird, you know that?"
"That doesn't seem to ruin the fact that you still talk to me." Gilbert gave a light hearted scoff when the boy sitting next to him said that. Valentin opened his eyes to look at the German boy who still had his face literally in his book, and smiled. Gilbert moved his head too look at Vali and smiled back. "Vali!" Gilbert furrowed his brows, "Who the hell is that?" he asked. "My brother. In the study!" Valentin yelled back. Aleks popped his head through the study door. "Oh, Hi. Who's this?" he asked, pointing to Gilbert. "My friend Gilbert. I'm tutoring him." Aleks nodded slowly, hanging on the door. "Kaaaay, well I'm going to work. And I let your dog and fluff ball out. If you need me, you know where I am. Love you little brother!" Aleks closed the door and left. Valentin rolled his eyes, lifting his head from the table when he heard, "And use protection!" muffled by the distance and door. Both boys blushed harshly at this, looking away from each other.
"S-sorry about that. My brother cant keep his mouth shut sometimes." Valentin apologized. Gilbert coughed and cleared his throat, "Nein, das ist okay." he cleared his throat again. "Are you hungry?" Valentin offered. "A little." Gil said, still a little red. Valentin stood up and began to gather Gilbert's things. "We can finish this tomorrow. I'll make us some dinner." And with that he left to the kitchen to prepare a simple Romanian style dinner. For his crush. This wont be awkward.
Author's Note: Go Big Brother Bulgaria! Way to be awkward! So who's starting to hate Germania? I am! Oh mein Gott, when I was writing the part about Gil's mom I seriously almost cried. I literally teared up, no joke. Yes, his mother is Fem!Prussia. I know. And the Powder song is a real song by Parov Stelar. I had that song stuck in my head the majority of the day so I had to make Vali at least mumble it to himself.
And now for something completely different: (woo Monty Python reference! Love you John Cleese!)
I will be working on other story, The tale of Silver Stones and Golden Ruby, every other day. So it will be this one, that one, this one, and so forth. Kay? Kay.
So See ya next time!