Blood and Tears

Snowballs and Tunnels

I spent the rest of the night outside, playing and dancing around in the snow. When the sun peeked over the horizon, I watched as tiny rainbows glittered off of the snow. I smiled brightly and turned to the cabin. I wonder if Gilbert is up yet? I got up from the waist deep snow and trudged over to the tiny house. At the door, I looked at my snow covered clothing. That's a problem. Like the one of many in your life. I bit my lip and opened the door to see Gilbert groggily coming to. "Guten Morgen Matthieu. Vhy vere jou outside?"

I walked over and sat on the floor, not wanting to get the furnature wet. "I um.. went outside lastnight to see the Northern Lights." He blankly looked at the window then had an 'Ah-ha!' moment. He slowly got up off the couch and walked to the door and opened it. "Oh verdammt, das ist kalt!" He slammed the door shut, shaking the windows. "How are jou not cold from outside? Zhat's vay too cold for me!" I smiled. "It's my country. I guess I'm use to it." He smiled back making my stomach do flip-flops.

"Come on, let's make breakfast." I got up off the floor. "One minute, I have to change out of these clothes." He nodded and went into the kitchen. I walked around before finding a room with my luggage in it and changing. I had my thick sweater on and a pair of regular blue jeans and some very warm fuzzy socks. I walked out of my room and to the kitchen to see Gilbert trying to make something that wasn't wurst. I sat down quietly and watched him for a minute. It looked like he was trying to make pancakes, but didn't have all the ingredients or the experience.

"Gilbert, what are you doing?" He jumped again, just like when I caught him trying to make wurst with the dishwasher. "Oh, Matthieu. I didn't notice-" He stopped talking when he said the word. "I mean..." I felt a pang in my heart and looked out the window, then looked back at him, faking a smile. "It's alright. Um, what are you making?" I tried to change the subject. He looked so guilty, but dropped the subject and turned to the mess of batter. "Vell, I vas trying to make zhat food zhat Canadians eat all zhe time for breakfast. Vhat's it called?" He asked.

"Pancakes." I replied. He smiled. "Da! Zhat! Uh... Could jou help me?" I smiled. "Yes Gilbert. I can help you cook pancakes." I got up from the table and stood next to him, staring at the batter. I poked it with a wooden spoon and tasted it. I screwed up my face. Mon dieu, that's horrible! I picked up the bowl threw out the contence. "Hey! Vhy did jou do zhat?" Gilbert cried out, horrified that I threw out his attempt at pancakes. "Well for one, you used curtled milk. Two, those lumps in the batter? The butter was bad. Do you want food poisoning?"

He stared at me blankly, then to the bowl. "But... the carton said it spoils in two years." I gave him a funny look then picked up the milk carton. I facepalmed. "Gilbert. This says the milk spoils on... December 12, 2012!? It spoiled two years ago!" His face turned so red, it was comparable to his irises. "Oh. Vhoops." I started to laugh as I opened the fridge to find more milk and butter. "In zhat case... Ve may have to go to zhe store." I sighed. "Really Gilbert?" He nodded and started to the front door.

I shut the fridge and followed him, grabbing a winter coat and gloves. "Alright, zhe nearest town should be just a twenty minute drive. Ve'll get milk and ozer sings needed for food." He opened the door after we slipped on boots. "Vhat zhe hell?!" He said when he couldn't see his car. Or the opening for the side porch to get to the car. "Great. Just great! Now how do ve get to zhe town?!" I sighed and we went back inside, Gilbert fuming about his precious 'baby'.

I looked over and on the wall, perfectly preserved, were two pairs of snow shoes. I ran over and snatched them off the wall, showing them to Gilbert. "We can use these. It's not that far." He rolled his eyes. "Da, da of course! It vould only take us zhe whole day to get zhere!" I pouted. "No it wouldn't. Not if we use these. We can walk on top of the snow with these." At this his eyes narrowed. "No jou can't. Jou'll sink right down into zhe snow." I raised my nose and nodded. "Yes I can. I'll prove it to you."

I walked over to the door and handed him one pair and put the other pair on over my boots. I opened the door and walked out onto the porch, starting to walk on the surface of the snow. I looked back at Gilbert. "Are you coming?" I asked smuggly and continued walking down the driveway. I could hear the snow crunching under his weight as he ran across it to get to me. "I guess jou vere-" Before he could say it, the snow under him gave way and he fell into the waist-deep snow. I laughed and turned around to see him struggling to get out of the cold snow.

I stood on the end of the strong snow and crouched down so i was eye-level with him. "Jou lied to me. I sank right srough!" He complained. I just laughed, that is, I laughed until he reached forward and grabbed me by the collar of my coat and pulled me into the snow. The little particles of ice bit at the skin on my face and I shrieked. Gilbert started to laugh. "G-Gilbert! T-that's not f-f-funny!" I said once I was able to get my head out of the snow. My glasses were stuck in it. He laughed harder. "Jour right, it's hilarious!"

I pouted, then got an idea. I got up out of the snow -which Gilbert hadn't found out how to do- and picked up some snow. I packed it into a ball and smiled at Gilbert. His already pale face drained of blood as he stared at the snowball. He chuckled. "Hey now. Jou vouldn't hit a guy vith glasses, vould jou?" He grabbed my glasses and put them on his face. "Those are my glasses you hoser!" I threw the snowball at him, hitting him square in the face. I watched as he started to move. He pulled himself up, but the snow would crumble and he would fall back down.

Then, he started to make snowballs with the loose snow. Whoops. I turned and ran to the trees the best I could, but it was hard without my glasses. I was surrounded by a rain of snowballs by the time I made it to the trees without falling on my face. "Get back here! Jour a dead man!" He screamed out. The rain of snowballs stopped and I peeked around the side of the tree to see he was gone. What? "Gilbert?" I called out. Nothing responded. I stepped out and walked to where Gilbert was only minutes ago. "Where did you go? Gilbert?" I started to look around the hole he was in and spotted my glasses.

I grabbed them and put them on. "Better." I breathed and walked around. "Gil- AHH!" The snow shoes on my feet were grabbed from underneath and pulled down. Gilbert yanked himself up from the snow, smiling like a madman. "Hahaha! I have zhe element of suprise!" I tripped and fell back, landing in the snow. I rolled over and almost hit Gilbert with my legs, but he ducked back into the hole at the last second. Then, we both sat and stared at eachother, grinning like little children. He ducked into the hole and disappeared. I frowned and crawled forward.

"Gil?" I reached the hole only to see that he wasn't there. Instead, two tunnels branched into different directions. "Gil?" I called down into the hole. I heard shuffling and the crunch of snow, then it was quiet. I opened my mouth to speak again, but Gilbert's arms were thrust through the snow, wrapping around my waist before I could roll away. The snow below me crumbled and I fell through, closing my eyes and something rollled me over onto my back. When I stopped moving I opened my eyes to see Gilbert's face inches from mine. I blushed. "I vin." He said and kissed me.

~I have finished! I hope you guys liked it, took me since Friday to write. I know, its horrible. :'( I am running out of ideas (kinda) and it takes me a while to get a good idea that I think is worthy of the peope that have stayed with this story. (THANKS BTW!)

Instead of question time, I'm going to ask you something else. Ready? Okay. All you guys know that Italy was around when Holy Roman Empire was, right? And Germany wasn't. So tell me this... Why is it portrayed that Germany is older than Italy, but in reality, Germany is younger. This would mean that Italy is older than Germany! MIND BLOWN! (My own theory.) Tell me, what do you guys think?