A Million Voices [UsUk]

Darkness

Two days later

"Gilbert! We have to go, can you please dress up faster?" A certain Hungarian brunette knocked harshly on their shared bedroom door and groaned inwardly, tapping her foot on the floor in impatience.

"I'm coming, I'm coming! Just a moment, Liz." Gilbert sighed and responded from inside of the room, quickly putting on a long, black trenchcoat and hurrying out of the room where his restless girlfriend was waiting.

Elizabeta was wearing a black dress with lace at the bottom where it reached her boots, a dark grey coat covering most of her upper body. Her hair was tied in a bun, and her usual flower pin was on the front side, holding the fringe as always. 
Gilbert wore a black trenchcoat over a white shirt, and black trousers which showed just how dark everything was. His black shoes were freshly polished, and his silver hair - unlike usually - was combed and set in place.

Today was going to be a dark day.

"Let's go, Mathias is waiting for us." The Hungarian took her boyfriend's hand with a sad and bitter smile before they both headed out of the door, seeing their ride already arrive. Mathias was waiting for the two of them in his car, also dressed up in all black.

As they opened the back doors to the car and sat in, they greeted their friend who just barely muttered a 'hey'. 

"Matt, are you alright?" Gilbert cautiously asked his friend, caring not to disturb him further.

"I'm okay. I don't wanna go." The Dane mumbled and started the car. 

Gilbert and Elizabeta sighed at the same time. "None of us do. We never wanted this to happen in the first place anyway." Elizabeta commented, and the German nodded his head in agreement.

"It's so strange seeing Alfred won't be going with us as well." Mathias added on, and they all had to stay quiet because of that statement.

It was so awfully true.

"Maybe it's better for him not to know for now." Eliza commented in a whisper, and nobody gave a response to that, though they all fully agreed with her.

As they finally arrived at their station, they got out of the car and shivered at the sight.

It was an enormous cemetery - regular coastal towns in Croatia or any other small country wouldn't be able to measure with the size of one London cemetery. This one.

The Highgate graveyard was something everyone feared to visit. Why? If not because of its size and  dark, scary atmosphere. Unfortunately, under the worst circumstances, the three of them had to be there.

It was Arthur Kirkland's funeral.

And the sight was so... Strange. Unwanted, miserable, agonising...

Lukas took the first plane from Oslo to London as soon as he heard the news, excusing himself from the business travel to attend his best friend's funeral. He hated being here so goddamn much, it hurt him to see one of his closest people go like that.

Alfred, his lover... Was not attending the funeral. He was stuck in a hospital in Annapolis, all the way in the United States of America, so far away from England, so  many miles away from the one he loved.

He thought Arthur was still alive.

"Alright, I guess we should gather over there at the entrance." Gilbert said with a sigh of exasperation and they all went to meet with other people that came to the funeral, along with a priest who would be holding the main word. In his early days, Arthur was religious, but later in his life he had completely lost faith.

There weren't many people. Along with Lukas, Gilbert, Mathias and Elizabeta, there were also Arthur's brothers: Allistor, Connor, Liam and Dylan, and some people from work who only now said Arthur was a good friend of theirs, but they knew very well how they acted towards him.

When they all gathered in place, saying their condolences to each other, all devastated and darkened on the inside, the priest held his first word.

"We are all gathered here today to face the dark truth, the death of our very dear Arthur James Kirkland. Born on the 23rd of April 1994, we are sad to say he has passed away two days ago, on the 16th of October 2017, at the age of only twenty - three. May he rest in peace.
His death was caused by, unfortunately, suicide, and we all feel strong grief for his loss. My condolences to everyone close to him. I invite his oldest brother, Allistor Kirkland, to take the word." The young priest said his words in a slightly emotional voice, though his job was too keep  his composure.

Allistor, a red haired Scotsman in a black suit with a blue tie nodded his head with a frown and stepped next to the priest to say his words. He, frankly, felt so crushed by the death of his little brother, that he could barely speak. During the short speech, he began trembling and crying, so the other three present brothers took the word.

When it was Gilbert's turn to speak, he refused to do it. He didn't have the heart to speak about Arthur the way others did - since he was never nice to him. Never truly cared, until it was too late. 

All of those people there, except of Arthur's brothers, weren't honest in their words. So instead of giving his words about Arthur, Gilbert decided to speak up.

"All of us gathered today, not counting in a few exceptions", he began speaking, giving a slight look towards Arthur's brothers at the word exceptions, "weren't Arthur's true friends. In fact... We are one of the reasons why we're gathered here at this exact moment, right now. Then... Why? Why do we talk about him as if he was our closest person, when in reality we all, including me, acted terribly? I... I'm sorry. That's all I wanted to say." 

After his words,  a deadly silence crept above everyone in the "crowd".

Nobody could deny his words.

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A/N

kay, maybe the week timeskip isn't here yet. The funeral was a must-have in the story.

Also, I kinda felt bad for Gilbert feeling like he was one of the guiltiest, so i had to do something about it.

By the way, the names I use for the UK brothers are:

Allistor - Scotland
Connor - Ireland
Liam - N. Ireland
Dylan - Wales

Thanks for reading!