A Million Voices [UsUk]

Holidays

Christmas

"Merry Christmas everyone!" Gilbert shouted out happily as he walked into the pub, everyone greeting him and some throwing back a 'merry Christmas' to him as well. Elizabeta and Mathias were already at the pub, but Gilbert was late because he brought presents for them. Early presents. They were supposed to give gifts to each other in the evening, but he just couldn't resist.

Elizabeta chuckled and waved to him, pulling out a chair so he could join them. "Merry Christmas, Gilbert!" The Dane and the Hungarian shouted out in unison. "What do you have in the bag, I wonder?" Mathias smirked, giving a forwards glance towards the small bag that their German friend was holding.

Gilbert smirked and blushed a little as he pulled out two small boxes from the bag  - well, one was small and one was medium sized.. One was pink with flowers on, and the other one had a fire drawn on it.
He passed the pink bag to Mathias, making the Dane blush a little. "Really, Gilbert?" He smirked and took the box into his hands.
"And the other one for my future wife." He chuckled and passed Elizabeta the box, she took it with a smile.

"Oh my god, Gilbert! You actually got me a small sword!" Elizabeta chuckled and grinned in awe as she held the little gift in her hands. "Thank you so much!" She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, making the German turn red a little.

"Read what it says on the handle." He insisted. "I might have engraved a thing."

"Forever yours, Gilbert", she read and laughed a little, before turning to him with a loving smile. "It's really sweet." She softly said, and blushed just a tiny bit.

When Mathias opened his box, firstly he was a little confused. "You bought me a bracelet?"

"Just look at it closer, would ya?" He chuckled and nudged the Dane.

"Mathias og Lukas, sammen for alltid/evigt", it said in a small text. "Oh my god. Gil. This is too cute! Thank you for this." He hugged the German and quickly put the bracelet on.

"Dammit, love's really got to you." He added on, nudging Gilbert with a smirk.

"Oh, what can you do?" The German replied with an innocent smile.

"The gifts are amazing, though. We're really happy." Elizabeta smiled to him and got the hold of his hand under the table.

Mathias smiled at the sight a little. "Tonight, Lukas said he's taking me out for dinner. And for some reason, we're going to a place where most musicians come over, and he's bringing his violin along. Do you think he has, uh, written a song for me?"

"Of course he has! That's awesome! If I played an instrument, that would be something I would do for mine and Elizabeta's first Christmas together." Gilbert widely grinned and nodded.

"Uh, sorry to break the happy, but I don't know how to make Alfred cheerful this Christmas." Elizabeta interrupted, though she did like the idea of Gilbert playing her a song. "I called him today, but nobody's answering. As usual."

Gilbert sighed and shook his head. "I don't know. He's grieving, and this was supposed to be his and Arthur's first Christmas together," he stated the obvious.

"No shit, Sherlock. We just have to get him out of the house somehow. I have no idea how." Mathias shrugged.

Elizabeta thought for a second, looking aside into the distance. "Hmm... Are you guys going to Francis' big Christmas party? He's literally inviting everyone from, well, this pub."

Gilbert and Mathias shouted a 'yes' in unison and chuckled a little. "Yeah. We should bring Alfred along. If everything was as usual, Alfred would be one of the first people invited." The Dane sighed a little sadly. "He had a lot of friends. I... I really feel bad for how he isolated from everyone. He never even hangs out with us anymore."

"Anyway, we'll ask him today. Though he'll probably refuse - wait. He only trusts Elizabeta. Liz, you've got to take him to the party tonight. He trusts only you, Liz, since you've started doing therapy with him." Gilbert suggested to the Hungarian, earning a nod from her.

"I'll try my best to get him out of the house tonight. He has to go." Elizabeta gave a few nods in agreement. "I wasn't always close friends with Alfred, but I remember all the parties where he was the, well, the fun source on them. I'm sad how that changed."

Everyone agreed with that.

Alfred was always outgoing, straightforward and cheerful, and when he met Arthur for the first time, somewhere in June, he was even happier. But Arthur always seemed very introverted and shy, and very rude if spoken to. Nobody saw it as a cry for help, they all just saw it as stuck up, rude, or just not good at socializing. Nobody saw... The bigger picture.
And even after his illness was revealed, after the hospital incident, they all acted the same towards him, except Alfred.
It hurt Alfred deeply that his lover experiences such pain on a daily basis.

He had always feared of Arthur taking his life.

And when it happened... It broke him like nothing before. Not only he had to live with memories of the airplane crash, but... The thought of his lover just ending his life made him feel so powerless, useless, miserable... As if it was his fault. As if he deserved to take all the pain Arthur had felt throughout his life.

"Alfred told me that he is scared to love again just because he doesn't want to lose somebody like he lost Arthur. He said that he... Doesn't deserve anyone." Elizabeta muttered, looking down.

"We have to find him somebody to love." They concluded at the same time.

"And I know exactly who to ask for help..."

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A/N

I want to say merry Christmas, but it's not actually Christmas. It's goddamn July.

I hate summer from the bottom of my heart. Maybe writing about winter days will make me feel wintery.

Thanks for reading!