Matthew and Alfred were rolling around on the floor, lashing out at each other, but mostly their fists just hit random objects and they failed to actually strike a blow upon each other. The blond guy with the huge eyebrows (Arthur, Gilbert reminded himself) looked exasperated as all hell. Gilbert knew he felt a little exasperated. And also a little proud. Because Matthew looked like he could kick ass.
"I'll kill you," Matthew hisses as he pinned Alfred down, eyes blazing. Alfred flipped him back over, grabbing a stuffed polar bear, before smashing it to Matthew's head repeatedly with a barrage of war cries. Arthur stepped to the side as the twins went rolling past him, and Gilbert thought that maybe if he were to get back in Birdie's good books (because yes he's definitely going to be mad at him, why wouldn't he be?) he should probably break up this fight, no matter how mildly entertaining it was to watch.
But before Gilbert could even take a step forward, Matthew flung himself backwards with a deep breath, before coughing deeply and swiping his fingers at Alfred, who stopped trying to kill him with a toy animal. The twins both straightened up, Matthew wheezing slightly as he did so, and Arthur bent down, grasping Alfred's forearm and yanking him to his feet.
"You're an idiot," He sighed, "Don't fight. Fighting is not the answer."
"What is the answer then? Knitting and tea?"
"Don't insult my knitting you git."
"Hi, Gil," Matthew said, focusing his attention on Gilbert after regaining his breath, and suddenly Gilbert didn't really know how to talk. His phone buzzed unhelpfully in his pocket. Gilbert ignored it.
"I...It's snowing outside," Was the only thing Gilbert could find it in himself to say. His plan had consisted of; Sneak out, get a cab, come here, knock on the door, and talk to Birdie.
He had not planned much farther than that.
"It is?" Alfred asked suddenly, but Gilbert ignored him in favor for Matthew, whom he extended a hand to and pulled off the floor. Matthew looked strange, as if he too suddenly did not know what to say.
"So," Gilbert said after a long while of silence, "I realize I may have been an idiot."
"Yep," Matthew said as he turned his back to Gilbert, picking up his pillow and hugging it close to his chest as if it were a lifeline, "A big one. I expect an apology."
"My awesomeness wraps itself in an apology hug," Gilbert wrapped his arms loosely around Matthew, before letting go, "Though I still don't know what to say or do now. I was planning to give a speech. But then I realized I actually didn't plan the speech."
Matthew gave him a sideways look as he continued hugging his pillow, fiddling with the ends of the pillowcase to give his hands something to do.
"I still don't really get why you did what you did," Matthew said quietly, "But you're still sort of an idiot if you think it's your fault and that leaving me would be the best course of action."
And with that, he violently slapped Gilbert with his pillow, who fell backwards because gravity.
God damn you, gravity.
"Well I guess I deserved that," Gilbert groaned as his phone buzzed a couple more times, "But it didn't feel awesome. Ugh. I think I can feel my teeth in somewhere in my stomach. Holy shit. Why do you hit so hard. You're supposed to be cute, god damn it."
"I can be cute and hardcore at the same time," Matthew defended, before smiling and reaching a hand out to help Gilbert off the floor, "But we've still got a lot to talk about."
"Like what?" Gilbert asked, still not sure why this conversation was actually going much better than he initially expected it to be. Maybe Toni had some magic to his words. Or maybe it was the somehow soothing presence of Arthur, who seemed like a fixed point while everything else moved around him. Like the hammer that one Norse guy used. Whore or whatever. Whatever it was, for some reason Arthur had a calm aura about him.
"Like your favorite color, your birthday, your favorite animal, what's your favorite things to do, I really don't know these things about you," Matthew ticked off, and Gilbert reached out, grasping the Canadian's soft hand…
Before yanking him down onto the floor with Gilbert.
Unfortunately, Matthew elbowed his crotch, and then Gilbert saw stars.
"Holy-shiiiiiiiiiiiiit," Gilbert groaned as he curled within himself, and his phone buzzed once again. Okay seriously who the hell was texting him at-what was it, two in the morning now? Two in the morning? Wow.
"I'm sorry," Matthew didn't sound sorry, "But you're the one that pulled me down."
Gilbert knew this conversation was going too well. He could hear the concealed iciness in Birdie's voice. Oh well. Maybe Gilbert deserved that.
Guilt came flooding back into Gilbert (along with the pain of having his balls crushed) because this whole thing kind of was his fault. He just had to overreact to everything. How was he supposed to be normal around Matthew when his breathing often sounded like his father's dying breaths?
"Don't mean to interrupt your conversation," Came Alfred's voice, cutting through Gilbert's thoughts, and Gilbert had kinda forgotten he was there, "You said it was snowing, right?"
"Yeah," Gilbert managed, hand going down to massage his own crotch because the fuck it hurt but then realized he was surrounded by people and then withdrew his hand and settled on trying not to cry, "Speaking of which, Birdie, and I am not saying this to reference anything, but….Do you wanna build a snowman?"
They did build a snowman.
In fact, they built two.
Somewhere along rolling the snowman's head across the ground to make it bigger (I mean, unless they were fine with Mr. Snowman having a walnut head, then they kinda needed to, no matter how much Arthur was complaining his arms hurt already) Gilbert went back inside to discard his phone on the table, which had been continually buzzing.
"I'm sure someone's going to call the police soon," Arthur grunted as Matthew and Alfred started the base for a second snowman, "Three adolescents and a handsome young man at two thirty in the morning making snow figures outside, two of which are in pajamas."
"Shut up," Gilbert said as he flung a half-formed snowball at Arthur, "Don't suck the fun out of things, Eyebrows."
"Don't call me that," Arthur said as he swept snow out of his hair, "By the way, I have yet to properly introduce myself. Arthur Kirkland is my name."
"Yeah, I know. Mattie's told me about you. Your younger siblings go to my school," Gilbert said as he began rolling another snowball, "They're twins, right? They're in the ninth year."
"I'm assuming you only know them because of their antics," Arthur groaned as he dodged the snowball that was lobbed his way.
"They give me and my friends a run for our non existent money."
"Gilbert, you're rich," Matthew's voice said as he and Alfred finished the base of the second snowman.
"Franny and Toni aren't."
"Franny? As in…" Arthur's head turned to Matthew, who was now rubbing his scarf against his glasses, "Your cousin?"
"Yep," Matthew said brightly.
"I hate that guy."
"I know."
"Hey, Francis is chill," Gilbert said defensively as he got off his ass and started helping Matthew with the body of the snowman, "Imma put my scarf on this one."
"I'll put my scarf on the other one, then," Matthew said, before slipping it off and turning around, draping it around the first snowman they had built. Alfred had stuck a twig on it's face and on each side of its body, but besides that it looked rather lonely.
"I've got stones for it's eyes," Arthur offered helpfully when he realized he was the only one not helping now.
"Stones for it's eyes, you say?" Alfred asked, lips quirking.
"Yes, why?"
"Guess you could now stay the snow man's eyes will look..Stoned."
They groaned as Alfred laughed.
"D'you know how long it's been since I made a snowman?" Matthew asked, giving Gilbert a sideways look as they lifted its body onto the base.
"No, but I love building snowmen," Gilbert said as he brushed some excess snow off the top of the body, "I used to make a shit ton by myself. When Luddy was with me, we built snow forts and had a snowball fight."
"I've got it's head," Arthur said, holding up a blob of snow.
"No, Artie, we don't want the snowman to be deformed," Alfred said, but Arthur put it on top of the snowman's body anyways, "Well shit. Now we gotta keep it."
"I think it looks just like you, Gil," Matthew said as Gilbert draped his scarf around it.
"Shut up Birdie."
The two stood around the snowman as Arthur and Alfred began building a third, Arthur slowly becoming more enthusiastic about it while Alfred's own enthusiasm depleted into what seemed like exasperation. Maybe Arthur was a leech. Explained while he sucked the fun out of things. And Gilbert's only known him for an hour.
He feels special.
"So...About those questions you had," Gilbert said, bending down and picking up two stones that were both drastically different in size and pressing them into the snowman's head. Snow fell of the side of it.
"Yeah, I expect you to answer them," Matthew grunted as he broke a large stick in half, "Wow, I'm really glad all of these stones and twigs are conveniently in our front yard and not buried under the snow for us to use so we can build these snowmen."
"Well, for starters, my favorite color varies from red, blue, and sometimes purple," Gilbert informed him as he tried reshaping the head into a more circular shape, "But mostly blue. Also my birthday is January eighteenth. My favorite animal...Does a bird count? If so, it's an eagle. But I have a canary. Canaries are cute too. What other questions did you have?"
"Your birthday is January 18th?" Matthew blinked, "You'll be eighteen in a couple of weeks?"
"Yep."
"Oh. Well then," Matthew mumbled quietly as he stuck the sticks on either side of the snowman's body, "I also want to know little stuff about you. I like learning little things about you. Like languages you speak and languages you want to speak. Stuff like that."
"German and English, learning French in school." Gilbert answered, before sliding to the ground and sighing, arms aching, "I want to learn Norwegian, Japanese, and Spanish."
"I speak French and Alfred speaks Spanish, we could help you out there," Matthew offered, settling down next to Alfred.
"Speak for yourself, Mattie!"
"Okay, so Alfred won't help you with that," Matthew grins, before it slowly slides off his face and he sighs, looking back at Gilbert, "You're still a bit of an asshole though. Do you know how much I've suffered these past few days?"
Gilbert was going to answer, he swears he was, but he noticed something on the snowman that Alfred and Arthur were building and it captured his attention.
"What the hell's up with your snowman's chest?" Gilbert asked.
"It's a snowwoman, you see?" Alfred said, gesturing to it, and after a second of silence, everyone was laughing. Gilbert grinned as he got to feet (because he could feel the snow soaking through his pants and now his underwear was wet) and helped Matthew up as well.
"It's a very shitty snowwoman, her boobs are uneven," Matthew said as he focused on it, "And yeah, I understand women don't have perfect boobs, but I'm pretty sure they're boobs aren't that drastic in sizes."
"She's a breast cancer survivor, you fool," Alfred rolled his eyes as Arthur undid his own scarf and draped it over the snowwoman's head, which Gilbert guessed was supposed to be it's hair or something. The light of a car illuminated the snow around them as a familiar, blue citroen rolled down the street, carefully cutting through the ice and snow.
"Aw, shit," Gilbert groaned, "What the-"
The car rolled to a stop and instantly, the door on the passenger's side flew open and Elizabeta popped out, grinning enthusiastically.
"Looks like Toni sent us for no reason," She sang as Roderich opened his door and exited as well, looking high-class as hell in his fucking fancy ass purple coat. God damn this man for being richer than Gilbert.
"Toni sent you guys?" Gilbert asked, feeling scandalized, "Why?"
"You weren't answering your phone and he became concerned that you screwed up and were being murdered by your boyfriend or something," Roderich said with a shrug, "But instead, I see you're building…"
He stared at the snowwoman. The snowwoman's left boob fell off.
"Yeah, so I think we're not needed here. But we should probably take you back to school," Roderich offered to Gilbert, while Elizabeta sidled up to Matthew and squeezed his cheeks.
"You're such an adorable baby," She giggled.
"Why does everybody say that?" Matthew sighed, "I am not cute, I am death."
"Awwww. Look at him, Artie," Alfred joked, "The baby's first words."
"Al. I'll kill you. Slowly."
"Then I'll kill Gilbert before you can get to me."
"Then Gilbert would kill me before you could get to him," Arthur said, raising an eyebrow, "It's a chain reaction, Alfred."
"Whoa guys, calm down and stop planning your Child Murder Superbowls," Gilbert said, holding his hands up, "Nobody's killing anybody."
"Unfortunately."
"Elizabeta, no," Roderich sighed.
"Besides, I'd kill you all first. I've got aim worthy of Hawkeye," Gilbert grinned. Matthew blinked in confusion.
"Who's Hawkguy?"
"Hawkeye, and he's the coolest Avenger," Gilbert said, tapping Matthew's nose.
"No way, it's definitely Captain America," Alfred grinned, puffing his chest up, "Captain America stands for morale and what's right!"
"Hawkeye's cooler, though," Gilbert argued, "He doesn't have any superpowers or shit but he can keep up with billionaire geniuses and large angry green men. He's cool."
"You're both wrong, Thor is obviously the best," Roderich said smoothly, before turning to Gilbert, "We really should get back to school before we're found out. I was almost impaled on the school fence."
"Ugh, fine," Gilbert groaned, "But only because I don't want to be put in detention for a month."
Gilbert turned to Matthew, who was gazing at Roderich awkwardly, before placing a hand on Matthew's shoulder and grinning.
"Call me, maybe?" He asked, and Matthew rolled his eyes.
"Okay," He said, and Gilbert smiled before wrapping his arms around Matthew in a hug. But it felt strange, because Gilbert knew he was still hiding things from Matthew and Matthew didn't sound the same because Matthew must know that Gilbert's up to something.
But Matthew hugged him back, and Arthur retrieved Gilbert's phone from inside.
"Thanks," Gilbert said as Arthur gave it to him, "Nice meeting you, by the way. My awesomeness has blessed you with it's presence."
"Well...I guess, nice meeting you too," Arthur said with a strange smile, as if he did actually want to smile but didn't know how to do so without making it awkward, and Gilbert turned to Alfred.
"Alfred."
"Gilbert." Alfred responded, staring him in the eye.
"Let's go!" Elizabeta cheered, throwing her arms up in the air. Roderich studied Matthew for a moment as Gilbert slid into the back seat of the car, deciding not to fight with Elizabeta this time about who should sit in the passenger's seat.
"I'm going to hold a costume party for Gilbert's birthday," Roderich said after a while, smiling at Matthew, "Would you like to come? You can bring your brother and his boyfriend, too."
Matthew smiled back. He really didn't know why Gilbert complained so much, Roderich seemed like a nice guy.
"I think that'd be fun," He said honestly. Roderich gave Matthew his phone number before getting back into the car, where Elizabeta and Gilbert were fighting over what music to play.
"Gilbert doesn't seem like too bad of a bloke," Arthur said after the car was long gone, "He just takes some warming up to."
"I still don't trust him, but whatever. Costume parties, amirite?" Alfred sighed.
The snowwoman's right boob fell off.
u can tell im trying to be funny when im not
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