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damned_lounge2010-10-31 07:06 pm
javits) wrote in damned_lounge2010-10-31 07:06 pm
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Oktoberfest '10: "On the Other Side" by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
javits
Title: On the Other Side
Author: Javits (javits)
Beta: Kes had a look at the beginning to help me get on the right track, and Re looked over the whole thing at the end.
Word Count: 2861
Rating: PG? Maybe PG-13 for a little bit of language.
Character(s): Gilbert Beilschmidt (Prussia), [Roy Nolan (Raphael)], Ludwig Beilschmidt (Germany), Roderich Edelstein (Austria), and [Elizaveta Héderváry (Hungary)], with mentions of Arthur Kirkland (England), Ivan Braginski (Russia), Kiku Honda (Japan), Matthew Williams (Canada), David Gilmour (Klavier), Harry Lucas Jr. (Indiana Jones), Vincent Lant (Venom), Thomas Appleby (Claude), Robert J Appleby (Ronixis), [(Leonardo)], [(Michelangelo)], [(Donatello)], [(Splinter)]
Pairing(s): One-sided Gilbert->Elizaveta, mentions of Roderich/Elizaveta
Summary: It's the weekend, which means it's almost time to go to Landel's to see those who were left behind. A post-Landel's look at the man who once called himself "Prussia".
Notes: I made up stuff about Gilbert and Raph's "real lives" for this (which may or may not be very accurate). Also, it takes place at least six months in the future. I apologize for any butchering of characters.
Gilbert could barely remember a time when he'd been happier. Maybe he'd been happiest when he'd been younger, stumbling into the Professor's house with a scrapped knee or some excuse or another just so he could spend some time hanging around his hero, but that seemed like ages ago now. It wasn't a time he could relive, and he didn't even want to imagine what having the chance to would be like. He'd had more than enough of imagination.
More importantly, moving here after he'd gotten out of the hospital had been the best decision he could have made.
It was a modest life, but it was a good one. He shared a humble apartment out in the suburbs with his birds and a roommate, and he had a job teaching at a local high school—it was a far cry from the university he'd once taught at, but it was for the best. It was... simpler, somehow, and one less thing to remind him about his life before. He had everything he needed now, and it was only a few hours' trip by car to go visit Roderich and Ludwig. He just wished he could see them more often.
He really wished he could see Elizaveta more often as well, but she was a busy woman and they no longer lived close to each other. Sometimes they would visit Roderich together at the hospital and then spend the rest of the day catching up, but those times were even less frequent than visiting those who were actually in the hospital. And... if he were to admit it to himself, it was really for the better, no matter how much he wished they could be closer. It had always hurt a little to see Elizaveta and Roderich together, but it hurt even more to see them separated by the wall of delusions that had risen up between them. It hurt knowing that it had been his fault, and he couldn't forgive himself for what had happened. He couldn't forgive himself for being the first one to retreat to a world where he thought he was a country, of all things. He was grateful that he'd recovered, and only wished that his friends and family would do the same.
It would take time for them to heal, but he had faith Roderich (and Ludwig) would be able to come around.
Until that day, however, Gilbert had things he needed to do and a trip to make tomorrow. Juggling paper bags of groceries between his arms, he fished a key out of his jeans' pockets and jammed it into the lock, twisting it and kicking the door open.
"Hey, welcome back Gil," Roy greeted, craning his neck as he leaned back to see his roommate. He was sprawled on the couch, and Gilbert could see commercials playing on the TV beyond it.
"Hey, yourself," he replied, grinning over his load. "A little help here?"
Roy gave him a long look, surveying him from his head to his feet and back again. "I think you've pretty much got it covered," he concluded, staying put in his spot.
Gilbert laughed, shaking his head, as he hurried for the counter to set down the bags. "What are you still doing here, anyway?" he asked. As soon as the bags had something solid beneath them, he lifted his left wrist above the edge of the one hiding it to check the time. "It's almost six. Shouldn't you have been at work an hour ago?"
Roy was strangely quiet. After a moment of sorting through the bags, Gilbert looked towards the young man again, but he'd already turned away.
"Roy?" Gilbert ventured.
It was a long moment before Roy responded, "Actually... About that..." There was a pause, and then he ducked his head and mumbled something unintelligible.
The groceries could wait. Gilbert headed out of the kitchen towards the couch so that he could see Roy face-to-face. "Sorry? I didn't catch that last part."
"I said I kind of lost the job," Roy repeated. His voice was louder now, bolder. "It's really not that big of a loss; it was a dumb job and the pay was lousy. And the boss had a real stick up his ass; all I did was stop putting up with some caller's shit for one second... For the record, he completely overreacted!"
For a brief moment, Gilbert felt a pang of sympathy for guidance councilors everywhere, but it passed. He flopped onto the couch next to Roy. "You're probably right, but you need to hold down a job, Roy," he said. "Getting the both of us by on my salary alone is pretty tight."
He let the fact that this was the second job Roy had gone through in as many months go by unspoken. At least he'd kept the first job for more than two days... even if three weeks wasn't that great of a record either.
"I know that!" Roy defended. "Look, the call center was just a really bad idea, okay?"
"Okay," Gilbert agreed, leaving it at that. He tilted his head backwards until the counter and the bags on it entered his upside-down view of the kitchen. "You know, I don't think I feel like cooking tonight, and since you're here... Pizza?"
A few seconds passed before Roy answered in a far-off tone, "Sure. Sounds good."
He was thinking of his brothers; Gilbert was certain of it.
"I'll go call it in," Gilbert said, rising from the couch but not yet leaving. He studied Roy out of the corner of his eye for a moment. "Hey... Since you don't have work tomorrow, you could always come out to the hospital with me. I was planning on going there to visit Lutz."
Roy didn't react to the suggestion beyond shrugging. "Yeah, okay. I guess I could go check up on my brothers," he said. There was a pained sort of tension present in his voice that Gilbert understood; it hurt, seeing loved ones that couldn't remember who you really were even if they knew your face. Roy's situation was even worse: from what he'd said, his brothers hadn't even recognized him at first.
But if he read into it, Gilbert would have said that Roy sounded happier already. Even if they weren't in their right minds, it was nice to at least be able to see them again. Sometimes he couldn't decide which was more painful: the physical separation or the mental one.
"Great. We'll leave first thing in the morning," Gilbert stated before heading off to find the phone.
Half an hour later, their pizza arrived with "NOW HIRING!" printed in big, bold letters on the flyer glued to the box. Things were looking up already; along with the pizza had been delivered a possibility for Roy's next job.
--
It had been four months since Gilbert and Roy had started rooming together, and six months since Gilbert had been released from Landel's Institute after his complete recovery. The staff's assistance in starting his new life had been invaluable; they'd helped him find a new place to live, a new job, and the woman who'd once been his nurse had even given him a call every once in a while to see how he was doing.
As soon as he'd gotten settled, Gilbert had started making a trip every Sunday to visit not only his brother and friend, but some of the other friends he'd made while he'd been a patient. Ludwig and Roderich had been visited the most, naturally, but he had also visited others. Several of them were suffering the same delusions of being a country that he'd once had: there was Arthur, whom Gilbert had decided long ago he'd have to have a drink with once he recovered; there was Ivan, who had seemed a lot less imposing after Gilbert had recognized that he was just crazy; there was Kiku, the quiet Japanese man that he only ever visited in private (he'd made the mistake of trying to visit Kiku and Ivan at the same time once, and vowed to never do it again); there was Matthew, who always seemed surprised to see him (like Gilbert would have forgotten one of the not-really-nations).
And then there were those who thankfully didn't think they were countries, but were still deluded in other ways. David had been the first one he'd confided in about his delusions of being Prussia while he'd still been out of his right mind, and now he tried to visit his new friend almost as much as he visited Ludwig and Roderich. There was Ludwig's roommate, Harry Lucas, whom he'd visited once just to clear up the misunderstanding that no, sorry, they weren't countries after all. There was his own former roommate, Vincent, whom he'd also visited once to apologize for that nonsense he'd spewed about partitioning their room; Gilbert had also been pleased to see his bangs had grown back nicely, no matter how weird the style he wore them in was. He'd even visited Thomas sometimes to let him know how Robert was doing when the other man was too busy to come; he'd decided after seeing Roy again to track down the man with the staff's help and had kept in touch since.
Roy he'd met by chance. They'd run into each other—quite literally—in the lobby during Gilbert's second trip out to visit his friends. Gilbert wasn't entirely sure why he'd been so surprised to see Roy that day; he may have been convinced at one time that Roy had died, but he'd also been convinced that he himself was a nation that no longer existed on the world map. After he'd gotten over his shock, they'd chatted while waiting to visit their brothers—Gilbert had been visiting Ludwig that day, and he found out that after Roy's recovery, his own brothers had become ill and were now receiving the same care at Landel's that he had.
It was from Landel's staff, not from Roy himself, that he found out about the young man's situation: with his brothers mentally unwell and his adoptive father old and physically unwell, the young man was more or less fending for himself... and doing a poor job of it.
Gilbert had made up his mind almost immediately to make sure Roy was doing alright. After two weeks of checking up on the young man and realizing just how much trouble the he was getting himself into in order to scrape by, Gilbert extended the offer to let Roy stay with him. The young man didn't accept until a week later, after Gilbert had helped him narrowly avoid landing in jail.
He had started cleaned up his act afterwards, but he still had trouble holding onto a job. Gilbert hoped it would only be a matter of time before that improved, too. He genuinely liked the kid, and it was nice to have someone around... especially someone who wasn't as much of a stick-in-the-mud as Ludwig and Roderich could be. He wanted Roy's brothers to recover, for his sake, but it was hard to imagine Roy leaving once they did. Gilbert may not have been related to Roy by blood, but he considered him to be family by now.
"Mr. Beilschmidt?"
Gilbert looked up sharply at the sound of the nurse's voice. He didn't recognize the woman—she must have been fairly new.
"You can go in to see Ludwig now," she said, smiling. She then looked to Roy, who was sitting next to him. "And I'll be back for you once your brothers are ready, Mr. Nolan."
Roy nodded, but said nothing. Gilbert stood up, gave his roommate a wave, and followed the nurse to the door. He hesitated for a moment—he could still remember the first time he'd been the one waiting on the opposite side of the door, when he'd been so surprised to see Elizaveta and ended up making her cry—but the moment passed and he stepped through, eyes searching for his brother.
Gilbert found him sitting off to one side of the room, his posture straight and rigid. He smiled at the sight (despite a pang of concern for the bandages on Ludwig's arm – he must have fallen) and headed for him, hands slipping into his pockets as he went. "Hey, Lutz!"
West, something in the back of his mind corrected. He ignored it promptly.
Ludwig was silent for a moment but then acknowledged him, "Gilbert."
Somehow, it always gave him hope when Ludwig called him 'Gilbert' instead of 'Prussia', even though he knew by now that his brother was probably just playing along. He wished that just once Ludwig would call him by his name and actually mean it as his real name, his only name...
He took a seat across from Ludwig. "How've you been? How's Roderich?"
"We are doing as well as can be expected," Ludwig respond, carefully as always. Gilbert also wished that Ludwig would let down his guard one of these days. They were brothers, after all; there was no reason for Ludwig to be so cautious around him. "And before you ask: no, we have not gotten..." There was a pause here, and obvious dislike in his tone as he finished, "'better'."
Gilbert sighed. "You've got to let the doctors help you, Lutz," he pleaded. "They know what they're doing, and they're really good at it. I mean, just look at me; I'm walking proof of what they can do."
"Yes," Ludwig agreed, a frown on his lips. "You are."
--
Roy wasn't in the lobby when Gilbert's visit with Ludwig was finished—he must have still been in with his brothers. Gilbert took a seat near the door to wait for him, but he'd no sooner sat down than a familiar voice called his name.
He'd been feeling down in the dumps after seeing Ludwig was no closer to recovering than he'd been months ago, but he brightened instantly at the sight of his childhood friend. He scrambled back to his feet. "Elizaveta! I didn't know you were coming this week!"
Elizaveta looked beautiful as always, and Gilbert could feel his cheeks heating in a blush... that she, if history served, wouldn't even notice. "I hadn't planned on it, but it turned out I had enough time to make the trip... so I just had to come see Mr. Edelstein. Who were you visiting today?"
"Lutz," Gilbert answered quickly. "Just Ludwig this time."
She smiled a pleased-looking smile, and nodded once. "Then you're done here, right? I have some time before I need to leave; we should go have lunch together."
For a moment, Gilbert regretted having brought Roy with him. "Can't; sorry... Roy came with me today—to see his brothers. I'm waiting for him."
"Oh," Elizaveta replied. Gilbert thought she sounded disappointed, but he was pretty sure it was just wishful thinking. "There's no reason he can't join us! We can go once he's finished his visit. He's your friend, after all; I'd like to get to know him better."
Gilbert grinned, slinging a friendly arm over her shoulders. "If you insist... Just don't scare him too much, okay? You can be terrifying sometimes!"
Elizaveta turned her head away with a small huff. "I am not 'terrifying'," she insisted. "And if I am, it's only when you deserve to be terrified."
Gilbert laughed.
It was times like these that he really missed living near Elizaveta, no matter whether having moved away was for his own good or not. He missed her. He missed this. His mind may have been healed, but his heart wasn't quite there yet.
Still, there was all the time in the world to keep working at getting better.
--
Germany found Austria in the music room. The musician was playing some number by Chopin, and he took up a post by the keyboard to listen quietly until the piece had finished.
Once it had, he asked a question, "Did you have a visitor today?"
The corner of Austria's mouth twitched. "I saw Hungary, yes."
Ah. That was somewhat unexpected—usually Hungary's visits were every four weeks, but if she'd come today, it was early. "I saw Prussia," Germany stated. "He asked about you."
A look of irritation flitted across Austria's face. "I hope he did not try to call me... 'Hot Rod' again."
Germany gave a small laugh against his better judgment, but tried to disguise it as a cough. "No, thankfully. But he doesn't seem to have recovered at all from his brainwashing."
Austria was quiet for a moment, running his fingers against the plastic keys of the electric piano. "Nor has Hungary," he said before launching into another complicated piece of music. Ludwig said nothing more; after that visit, he was sure all Austria wanted to do was express his feeling through the notes.
A question was on his mind and had been for months, but now still wasn't the time to ask it. Instead, Germany silently wondered if his brother—the proud, once-strong, and now-fallen Prussia—was happier now that he was just Gilbert Beilschmidt.
He wondered if everything was for the best.
Author: Javits (
javits)Beta: Kes had a look at the beginning to help me get on the right track, and Re looked over the whole thing at the end.
Word Count: 2861
Rating: PG? Maybe PG-13 for a little bit of language.
Character(s): Gilbert Beilschmidt (Prussia), [Roy Nolan (Raphael)], Ludwig Beilschmidt (Germany), Roderich Edelstein (Austria), and [Elizaveta Héderváry (Hungary)], with mentions of Arthur Kirkland (England), Ivan Braginski (Russia), Kiku Honda (Japan), Matthew Williams (Canada), David Gilmour (Klavier), Harry Lucas Jr. (Indiana Jones), Vincent Lant (Venom), Thomas Appleby (Claude), Robert J Appleby (Ronixis), [(Leonardo)], [(Michelangelo)], [(Donatello)], [(Splinter)]
Pairing(s): One-sided Gilbert->Elizaveta, mentions of Roderich/Elizaveta
Summary: It's the weekend, which means it's almost time to go to Landel's to see those who were left behind. A post-Landel's look at the man who once called himself "Prussia".
Notes: I made up stuff about Gilbert and Raph's "real lives" for this (which may or may not be very accurate). Also, it takes place at least six months in the future. I apologize for any butchering of characters.
Gilbert could barely remember a time when he'd been happier. Maybe he'd been happiest when he'd been younger, stumbling into the Professor's house with a scrapped knee or some excuse or another just so he could spend some time hanging around his hero, but that seemed like ages ago now. It wasn't a time he could relive, and he didn't even want to imagine what having the chance to would be like. He'd had more than enough of imagination.
More importantly, moving here after he'd gotten out of the hospital had been the best decision he could have made.
It was a modest life, but it was a good one. He shared a humble apartment out in the suburbs with his birds and a roommate, and he had a job teaching at a local high school—it was a far cry from the university he'd once taught at, but it was for the best. It was... simpler, somehow, and one less thing to remind him about his life before. He had everything he needed now, and it was only a few hours' trip by car to go visit Roderich and Ludwig. He just wished he could see them more often.
He really wished he could see Elizaveta more often as well, but she was a busy woman and they no longer lived close to each other. Sometimes they would visit Roderich together at the hospital and then spend the rest of the day catching up, but those times were even less frequent than visiting those who were actually in the hospital. And... if he were to admit it to himself, it was really for the better, no matter how much he wished they could be closer. It had always hurt a little to see Elizaveta and Roderich together, but it hurt even more to see them separated by the wall of delusions that had risen up between them. It hurt knowing that it had been his fault, and he couldn't forgive himself for what had happened. He couldn't forgive himself for being the first one to retreat to a world where he thought he was a country, of all things. He was grateful that he'd recovered, and only wished that his friends and family would do the same.
It would take time for them to heal, but he had faith Roderich (and Ludwig) would be able to come around.
Until that day, however, Gilbert had things he needed to do and a trip to make tomorrow. Juggling paper bags of groceries between his arms, he fished a key out of his jeans' pockets and jammed it into the lock, twisting it and kicking the door open.
"Hey, welcome back Gil," Roy greeted, craning his neck as he leaned back to see his roommate. He was sprawled on the couch, and Gilbert could see commercials playing on the TV beyond it.
"Hey, yourself," he replied, grinning over his load. "A little help here?"
Roy gave him a long look, surveying him from his head to his feet and back again. "I think you've pretty much got it covered," he concluded, staying put in his spot.
Gilbert laughed, shaking his head, as he hurried for the counter to set down the bags. "What are you still doing here, anyway?" he asked. As soon as the bags had something solid beneath them, he lifted his left wrist above the edge of the one hiding it to check the time. "It's almost six. Shouldn't you have been at work an hour ago?"
Roy was strangely quiet. After a moment of sorting through the bags, Gilbert looked towards the young man again, but he'd already turned away.
"Roy?" Gilbert ventured.
It was a long moment before Roy responded, "Actually... About that..." There was a pause, and then he ducked his head and mumbled something unintelligible.
The groceries could wait. Gilbert headed out of the kitchen towards the couch so that he could see Roy face-to-face. "Sorry? I didn't catch that last part."
"I said I kind of lost the job," Roy repeated. His voice was louder now, bolder. "It's really not that big of a loss; it was a dumb job and the pay was lousy. And the boss had a real stick up his ass; all I did was stop putting up with some caller's shit for one second... For the record, he completely overreacted!"
For a brief moment, Gilbert felt a pang of sympathy for guidance councilors everywhere, but it passed. He flopped onto the couch next to Roy. "You're probably right, but you need to hold down a job, Roy," he said. "Getting the both of us by on my salary alone is pretty tight."
He let the fact that this was the second job Roy had gone through in as many months go by unspoken. At least he'd kept the first job for more than two days... even if three weeks wasn't that great of a record either.
"I know that!" Roy defended. "Look, the call center was just a really bad idea, okay?"
"Okay," Gilbert agreed, leaving it at that. He tilted his head backwards until the counter and the bags on it entered his upside-down view of the kitchen. "You know, I don't think I feel like cooking tonight, and since you're here... Pizza?"
A few seconds passed before Roy answered in a far-off tone, "Sure. Sounds good."
He was thinking of his brothers; Gilbert was certain of it.
"I'll go call it in," Gilbert said, rising from the couch but not yet leaving. He studied Roy out of the corner of his eye for a moment. "Hey... Since you don't have work tomorrow, you could always come out to the hospital with me. I was planning on going there to visit Lutz."
Roy didn't react to the suggestion beyond shrugging. "Yeah, okay. I guess I could go check up on my brothers," he said. There was a pained sort of tension present in his voice that Gilbert understood; it hurt, seeing loved ones that couldn't remember who you really were even if they knew your face. Roy's situation was even worse: from what he'd said, his brothers hadn't even recognized him at first.
But if he read into it, Gilbert would have said that Roy sounded happier already. Even if they weren't in their right minds, it was nice to at least be able to see them again. Sometimes he couldn't decide which was more painful: the physical separation or the mental one.
"Great. We'll leave first thing in the morning," Gilbert stated before heading off to find the phone.
Half an hour later, their pizza arrived with "NOW HIRING!" printed in big, bold letters on the flyer glued to the box. Things were looking up already; along with the pizza had been delivered a possibility for Roy's next job.
It had been four months since Gilbert and Roy had started rooming together, and six months since Gilbert had been released from Landel's Institute after his complete recovery. The staff's assistance in starting his new life had been invaluable; they'd helped him find a new place to live, a new job, and the woman who'd once been his nurse had even given him a call every once in a while to see how he was doing.
As soon as he'd gotten settled, Gilbert had started making a trip every Sunday to visit not only his brother and friend, but some of the other friends he'd made while he'd been a patient. Ludwig and Roderich had been visited the most, naturally, but he had also visited others. Several of them were suffering the same delusions of being a country that he'd once had: there was Arthur, whom Gilbert had decided long ago he'd have to have a drink with once he recovered; there was Ivan, who had seemed a lot less imposing after Gilbert had recognized that he was just crazy; there was Kiku, the quiet Japanese man that he only ever visited in private (he'd made the mistake of trying to visit Kiku and Ivan at the same time once, and vowed to never do it again); there was Matthew, who always seemed surprised to see him (like Gilbert would have forgotten one of the not-really-nations).
And then there were those who thankfully didn't think they were countries, but were still deluded in other ways. David had been the first one he'd confided in about his delusions of being Prussia while he'd still been out of his right mind, and now he tried to visit his new friend almost as much as he visited Ludwig and Roderich. There was Ludwig's roommate, Harry Lucas, whom he'd visited once just to clear up the misunderstanding that no, sorry, they weren't countries after all. There was his own former roommate, Vincent, whom he'd also visited once to apologize for that nonsense he'd spewed about partitioning their room; Gilbert had also been pleased to see his bangs had grown back nicely, no matter how weird the style he wore them in was. He'd even visited Thomas sometimes to let him know how Robert was doing when the other man was too busy to come; he'd decided after seeing Roy again to track down the man with the staff's help and had kept in touch since.
Roy he'd met by chance. They'd run into each other—quite literally—in the lobby during Gilbert's second trip out to visit his friends. Gilbert wasn't entirely sure why he'd been so surprised to see Roy that day; he may have been convinced at one time that Roy had died, but he'd also been convinced that he himself was a nation that no longer existed on the world map. After he'd gotten over his shock, they'd chatted while waiting to visit their brothers—Gilbert had been visiting Ludwig that day, and he found out that after Roy's recovery, his own brothers had become ill and were now receiving the same care at Landel's that he had.
It was from Landel's staff, not from Roy himself, that he found out about the young man's situation: with his brothers mentally unwell and his adoptive father old and physically unwell, the young man was more or less fending for himself... and doing a poor job of it.
Gilbert had made up his mind almost immediately to make sure Roy was doing alright. After two weeks of checking up on the young man and realizing just how much trouble the he was getting himself into in order to scrape by, Gilbert extended the offer to let Roy stay with him. The young man didn't accept until a week later, after Gilbert had helped him narrowly avoid landing in jail.
He had started cleaned up his act afterwards, but he still had trouble holding onto a job. Gilbert hoped it would only be a matter of time before that improved, too. He genuinely liked the kid, and it was nice to have someone around... especially someone who wasn't as much of a stick-in-the-mud as Ludwig and Roderich could be. He wanted Roy's brothers to recover, for his sake, but it was hard to imagine Roy leaving once they did. Gilbert may not have been related to Roy by blood, but he considered him to be family by now.
"Mr. Beilschmidt?"
Gilbert looked up sharply at the sound of the nurse's voice. He didn't recognize the woman—she must have been fairly new.
"You can go in to see Ludwig now," she said, smiling. She then looked to Roy, who was sitting next to him. "And I'll be back for you once your brothers are ready, Mr. Nolan."
Roy nodded, but said nothing. Gilbert stood up, gave his roommate a wave, and followed the nurse to the door. He hesitated for a moment—he could still remember the first time he'd been the one waiting on the opposite side of the door, when he'd been so surprised to see Elizaveta and ended up making her cry—but the moment passed and he stepped through, eyes searching for his brother.
Gilbert found him sitting off to one side of the room, his posture straight and rigid. He smiled at the sight (despite a pang of concern for the bandages on Ludwig's arm – he must have fallen) and headed for him, hands slipping into his pockets as he went. "Hey, Lutz!"
West, something in the back of his mind corrected. He ignored it promptly.
Ludwig was silent for a moment but then acknowledged him, "Gilbert."
Somehow, it always gave him hope when Ludwig called him 'Gilbert' instead of 'Prussia', even though he knew by now that his brother was probably just playing along. He wished that just once Ludwig would call him by his name and actually mean it as his real name, his only name...
He took a seat across from Ludwig. "How've you been? How's Roderich?"
"We are doing as well as can be expected," Ludwig respond, carefully as always. Gilbert also wished that Ludwig would let down his guard one of these days. They were brothers, after all; there was no reason for Ludwig to be so cautious around him. "And before you ask: no, we have not gotten..." There was a pause here, and obvious dislike in his tone as he finished, "'better'."
Gilbert sighed. "You've got to let the doctors help you, Lutz," he pleaded. "They know what they're doing, and they're really good at it. I mean, just look at me; I'm walking proof of what they can do."
"Yes," Ludwig agreed, a frown on his lips. "You are."
Roy wasn't in the lobby when Gilbert's visit with Ludwig was finished—he must have still been in with his brothers. Gilbert took a seat near the door to wait for him, but he'd no sooner sat down than a familiar voice called his name.
He'd been feeling down in the dumps after seeing Ludwig was no closer to recovering than he'd been months ago, but he brightened instantly at the sight of his childhood friend. He scrambled back to his feet. "Elizaveta! I didn't know you were coming this week!"
Elizaveta looked beautiful as always, and Gilbert could feel his cheeks heating in a blush... that she, if history served, wouldn't even notice. "I hadn't planned on it, but it turned out I had enough time to make the trip... so I just had to come see Mr. Edelstein. Who were you visiting today?"
"Lutz," Gilbert answered quickly. "Just Ludwig this time."
She smiled a pleased-looking smile, and nodded once. "Then you're done here, right? I have some time before I need to leave; we should go have lunch together."
For a moment, Gilbert regretted having brought Roy with him. "Can't; sorry... Roy came with me today—to see his brothers. I'm waiting for him."
"Oh," Elizaveta replied. Gilbert thought she sounded disappointed, but he was pretty sure it was just wishful thinking. "There's no reason he can't join us! We can go once he's finished his visit. He's your friend, after all; I'd like to get to know him better."
Gilbert grinned, slinging a friendly arm over her shoulders. "If you insist... Just don't scare him too much, okay? You can be terrifying sometimes!"
Elizaveta turned her head away with a small huff. "I am not 'terrifying'," she insisted. "And if I am, it's only when you deserve to be terrified."
Gilbert laughed.
It was times like these that he really missed living near Elizaveta, no matter whether having moved away was for his own good or not. He missed her. He missed this. His mind may have been healed, but his heart wasn't quite there yet.
Still, there was all the time in the world to keep working at getting better.
Germany found Austria in the music room. The musician was playing some number by Chopin, and he took up a post by the keyboard to listen quietly until the piece had finished.
Once it had, he asked a question, "Did you have a visitor today?"
The corner of Austria's mouth twitched. "I saw Hungary, yes."
Ah. That was somewhat unexpected—usually Hungary's visits were every four weeks, but if she'd come today, it was early. "I saw Prussia," Germany stated. "He asked about you."
A look of irritation flitted across Austria's face. "I hope he did not try to call me... 'Hot Rod' again."
Germany gave a small laugh against his better judgment, but tried to disguise it as a cough. "No, thankfully. But he doesn't seem to have recovered at all from his brainwashing."
Austria was quiet for a moment, running his fingers against the plastic keys of the electric piano. "Nor has Hungary," he said before launching into another complicated piece of music. Ludwig said nothing more; after that visit, he was sure all Austria wanted to do was express his feeling through the notes.
A question was on his mind and had been for months, but now still wasn't the time to ask it. Instead, Germany silently wondered if his brother—the proud, once-strong, and now-fallen Prussia—was happier now that he was just Gilbert Beilschmidt.
He wondered if everything was for the best.