Saving meinen angel ~PruCan~

Chapter four

Gilbert was home, slumped on the couch. He was staring blankly at the TV and not at all like his usually happy self. His brother had gone off Feliciano's to hang out with him and Kiku, another friend of his. Leaving Gilbert alone with his thoughts.

He couldn't get his mind off of Matthew, no matter how hard he tried. He barely knew the guy, but he did know that he was hurting, and that was enough to eat Gil up inside. Such a sweet and innocent guy such as Matthew should never be put though such things. What had he done to deserve this? The feeling in his stomach only got worse since he got home. He sat up on the couch and put his head in his hands.

"mein gott, I need to do something, anything!" he muttered to himself. The first option that came to his mind was Alfred's party. Gilbert quickly checked the time, 4:00, he still had some time to spare before people started arriving at Alfred's. He jumped up and went down the short hallway to his bathroom, deciding to shower so he could look a little more presentable, even though it was a casual party. After his shower his put on a fresh outfit and towel dried his hair, not bothering to comb it. He then went back to the couch and grabbed the remote. He turned off the television and grabbed his keys.

"Better to be super early than super late, ja?" he said to himself. Gilbert left his apartment room, and casually walked down the stairs. Taking his sweet time so he wasn't to incredibly early. It was only like a ten minute drive out to Alfred's place anyways.
He turned on the radio, passing the time. Nothing notable was on, but he still listened just in case there was a notable song like last time.

Before he knew it, Gilbert arrived at Alfred's place. It was in one of those neighborhoods where most to all of the houses where the same on the outside but different on the inside. They drove him crazy but, hey it was just for a night. He parked his car and got out.
Suddenly, his phone started ringing. He took it out of his pocket and answered.

"Ja?" He said walking up to the door.

"Yo Gil! Do you think you can get here early? I need your help with something!"

Gilbert sighed and rolled his eyes. Still on the phone with him, he walked up to the door.

"Sure, no problem bro." He knocked on the door and waiting for him to open it. He heard a gasp over the phone and Alfred's voice piped up.

"Hold on I think someone just got here give me a second." Gilbert heard some rustling from the other end of the line, and footsteps towards the door. The door opened with the American looking like he was about to greet the newcomer. But, his expression changed once he saw Gilbert instead. The blonde American looked at his phone, and ended the call. He slid the phone in his pocket and gave Gilbert and accusing look.

"Wow, you sure know how to make me look like a dumbass." He said while giving an eye roll. This just made Gilbert laugh.

"Ja... that was the plan." He tease, and brushed past the American to step inside. Alfred gave a sigh and even let out a small laugh himself.

"Come on. Help me set up this place for the party."

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Most of the Guests were already there by this point. Gilbert barely knew any of them aside from Alfred, Matthias, and a few familiar faces from his senior class. But hey, mingling was fine. He was all about mingling.  He was actually just talking to a girl from his senior class at the moment. He remembered how at one point she had a crush on him. It was cute, but he didn't exactly like her the same. They stayed distant friends, though. They were just talking and catching up until Gilbert heard the door behind him open. Late arrivals? Must be. He just glanced back out of curiosity, but had to take a double take. It was Matthew and Máximo. The pale-haired German was honestly surprised to see that they had come. He glanced down at their hands, which were intertwined. But something wasn't right with that. Máximo's knuckles were white, and Matthew seemed to look very uncomfortable. Gilbert's monochromatic eyes narrowed seeing this.

"Hey Gil, you good?" He turned and looked back at the brunette he was previously talking to. He glanced back, then turned to her.

"Uh yeah. I'm fine, they just live in the same apartment I do. I thought I recognized them." He said as a slight cover up, offering a small smile. The girl in front of him nodded and smiled.

"Just making sure. Hey, I'm gonna go see where Rod ran off too. He's probably hiding in the kitchen with his ear buds in again." She rolled her eyes and turned to leave. "I'll catch you later!"

Gilbert watched her leave to go find Roderick. He swore, those two were inseparable sometimes, despite no longer being in a relationship. Now that she was gone, he looked back to see if the Matthew was still by the door, but they had already left by then. The man huffed and decided he needed some fresh air. So he put his hands in his pockets and walked outside. He stepped onto the porch where there were chairs ad coolers set up. It had just began to get dark, and Alfred's fenced in yard was lit up by lanterns strung around the place. It looked rather cool honestly. He walked across the deck to one of the coolers and went to reach for an ipa that was prodding out. He reachEd for it but saw that someone else was too, he shrunk his hand away.

"Oh, sorry I didn't know you were–" he looked up at the person and almost had a heart attack at that very moment.

"Hey, don't worry about it, here you can have it!" The other said in a rather chipper tone. It was Matthew. Smiling and holing out the bottle to Gilbert. He was frozen, but shook it off and slowly took it.

"Are you sure? I could just grab another." He said hesitantly. Matthew shrugged and kept that sweet little smile on his face.

"Nah, it's fine. I am just grab another kind." As he said that he grabbed out a pale ale and used a bottle opener on his keychain to pop the cap off. Gilbert smiled softly and have a sigh.

"If you insist..." He took a sip from his bottle as did Matthew. For a moment, the Canadian looked around.  Then faced Gil.

"Wow, I never knew Al had so many friends. I've actually never been to one of his parties before." He said while leaning back on a post, using his elbows to keep himself up. The pale male tilted his head and let out a small laugh as he replied.

"Well why not? He's your brother doesn't he usually invite you to things?" He asked. He watched Matthew's eyes glance towards the ground. He looked frightened by something. At first Gilbert was confused, but he caught on.

"Oh.... Matthew I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine-.." He said before taking another drink of his beer. His eyes darted back an forth for a moment to make sure they were alone. "Listen Gilbert... I like you. You seem nice and are quite understanding. But I need to to forget about what you saw."
Gil gave him a confused few blinks, he must have been talking about what happened at the apartment complex. "Just....  Please forget you saw anything... And for gods sake please don't tell anyone.... He'll-" Matthew took a sharp pause, before going silent. Gilbert was about to object, but he saw desperation and fear in Matthew's innocent gaze. He thought for a moment then nodded. Matthew gave an appreciative smile and then looked toward the doorway once more.

"Uh... Gilbert.... One more thing...."

"What is it?"

"I can't be seen with you. I'm not even suppose to be talking to you. Máximo doesn't..."

"Oh, you didn't need to tell me that. I could tell by his big grumpy face." Matthew actually laughed at that comment. Gilbert laughed along with him too. It was the first time he had actually heard him laugh. It was beautiful. Then, Matthew took one last look at the back door, he grabbed another beer from the cooler and drank from his once more.

"Well, I better get back to Maximo.... He's probably looking for me." Gilbert could see right through his smile, he don't want to leave... But, Gilbert knew that he had to. So he nodded and said his goodbye. He watched the other leave with a feeling of fear. Not for himself but for Mattie. Because as he turned, his shirt lifted off his side. And all you could see on his hip was a large dark mark, most likely a bruise covered in concealer. Gilbert knew that trick all to well.

For the rest of the night, Gilbert only got glances of Matthew as the Canadian tried to avoid his drunken boyfriends harsh jokes and inappropriate remarks. Why don't anyone else see his unhappiness?

Maybe it was because they didn't know what Gilbert knew. That the insults weren't just jokes after all......