Under The Wisteria Tree- Cinderella x Hetalia AU-PruCan

Chapter 10 - Gilbert

"Two things. One; you forgot shoes."

"What?" Gilbert looked down, and saw bright blue canary-print socks staring back at him. "Oh shit! Gotta fix that!"

"No, no, keep it! It brings out the color in your eyes!" Feliks had already fallen on the floor cracking up. Gilbert rushed to find some dress shoes, then returned, looking in the mirror before asking what the second thing his little Polish friend had mentioned. "Oh right, I wanted you to wear this!" Feliks hurried off, leaving GIlbert alone in his room.

Gil was about to settle down to wait, knowing how long Feliks could take, when he came running back, with something sparkly that Gilbert saw for a second, before Feliks put it on his head.

Gil checked the mirror again. "A tiara? Really, Feliks?"

"What? You look good with it," argued his friend. Again, Gilbert sighed, careful not to rub a hand against the makeup Feliks had applied to his face earlier, the subtle hints of silver and red.

"Okay, is that all?"

"Yes!"

"Okay, we go!" Gilbert spun around in an overdramatic fashion, followed by Feliks. They escorted each other to the royal balcony in the Hall, where Gilbert was "supposed to stay." The balcony didn't really serve any purpose other than being a good place to find people in a crowd. The two princes were supposed to stay there, but neither really cared enough about the rules they set out to stick to them, so it was quite abandoned.

Searching the crowd, Gilbert set out on his personalized "Where's Waldo?" game. He looked for the blond curl in the sea of people, but it was harder than the other nights. The previous nights of the ball were color-coded, so everyone wore gold the first night and silver the second. But the last night was the least formal, where everyone wore what they wanted as long as they put some thought into their appearance.

However, this made it harder to distinguish person from person, as it was genetically impossible for there only to be one blond in the entire kingdom (obvious logic, although it seemed to go over some people's heads...*cough cough* I'm looking at you Disney *cough cough*).

After a few minutes (read: half an hour) of searching, Gilbert decided he'd just keep an eye on the door for when it opened, talk to some people, and wait until he ran into Mattie. He didn't want to not talk to anyone, and there was a chance that Mattie would be held up. They'd find each other later.

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PoV: Birds of the Great Hall

Above the crowd, where the music and chatter could barely be heard, lived a society of birds kept alive by the Beilschmidt brothers. Unbeknownst to said brothers, mostly Gilbert, since he spent more time with the birds, the little ones were planning a way to pay them back for their hospitality. A blond boy had entered the Hall, but the birds recognized him as the one that had been spending so much time with the older prince.

They would've just watched from above, but they saw the boy seem disoriented, and he was in the middle of the crowd when they sensed something was wrong. He had started moving with more speed and purpose, if a little frantically, towards the side of the room. He left for the castle grounds breathing more heavily than normal, and the birds understood that something was amiss.

The flock went to find Gilbird, the one bird of the flock that the younger prince officially allowed Gilbert to take care of, and got him to bring the soon-to-be-king outside while the flock went to the blond, settling around him and trying to lead the younger boy to the castle.

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PoV: Gilbert

"Mattie!" 

Gilbird had interrupted a bland conversation with some brown-haired musician, droning on about some practical subject. Gil quickly excused himself, introduced Feliks to the guy (He didn't know who to feel sorrier for - the Austrian he left with a hyperactive man-child or the friend he had abandoned at the hands of a boring fuck.), and followed Gilbird outside, where he saw a little blond blob of hair flash in the distance. He raced after it hopefully, and called out again.

"Birdie, if that's you, don't go anywhere! I'll find you!"

The blob stopped.

Winding his own path through the grounds he knew so well, he caught up with his little...could he say boyfriend? He would need to ask.

"Gil! I'm sorry, I got stuck in the middle of a crowd and I got really anxious and needed to get out of there so I tried finding a little place in the woods but it turns out it's easier to get lost here than you'd think and I was going to try and find you but-"

Gilbert cut him off with a hug and a kiss to his forehead. "It's okay, I found you anyway, liebing."

Mattie looked at him with a quizzical glance. "Liebing? What does that mean?"

Gilbert winced. Shit, I forgot to ask. "Right. Before I tell you, I have a question for you..."

"Ok, shoot." The blond looked pretty nonchalant about things, Gil didn't want to fuck things up, and oh shit what if he says no and things get awkward and-

"Would you say that we're a couple now?" the prince blurted out, interrupting his own thoughts.

Mattie blushed. "I-I mean, if y-you want..."

"I do! I mean I do want to call you my boyfriend, I just wanted you to be okay with it."
Smiling, Mattie looked up and said "I'm more than okay with it."

Failing to fight a grin of his own, Gilbert kissed Mattie softly and mumbled, "Your smile is contagious, it's too cute."

Mattie just smiled more, playing with Gil's hair and kissing back. "Then I guess you're going to have to get used to smiling a lot more." Pulling back a little, the shorter of the two gazed up at the sky. "It's getting dark, do you want to go back inside?"

"Do you want to go there or to the garden? It's pretty crowded inside, we might get lost."

"Ok, then, to the garden!" Mattie walked off, only to return after a few seconds. "...Which is which way?"

Shaking his head, Gilbert laughed and took his boyfriend's hand, leading him to the lovely little sanctuary. He jumped onto the ledge of the pool, wringing a laugh from his Birdie, who hopped up to join him.

They danced together there, reenacting the last night, except Gilbert didn't hesitate to give the other a little hug or peck on the cheek if he was being too cute, and Mattie didn't blush as much, just giggling and enjoying his time with the prince.Those boundaries had been unnoticed until they disappeared, and by that time they were too long gone to even bother the couple.

Mattie slipped a little when dancing, landing in Gil's arms and about to fall into the pool. With a grin, the older pulled him up and jumped down, kissing the back of his hand. "M'lady," he jested, and spun Mattie down to stand on the ground, only to pick him up bridal style after. The blond yelped, grabbing Gil's shoulders and eyeing the ground like it was his worst enemy. "Are you okay, Birdie?" Gilbert frowned, stopping where he was until Mattie nodded his head.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Alfred just dropped me once when we were kids. I don't trust the floor when it's not under my feet anymore."

Gilbert hid his mouth to muffle a snort of laughter, but failed miserably, immediately spotted by his companion. "What're you laughing at?" Mattie fake-scowled, poking Gil in the stomach and almost causing himself to be dropped.

"I'm sorry, you're just cute even when you're scared, I couldn't help it!" Gil finally set him down on the swing, where Mattie was joined by his boyfriend.

Swinging to the music drifting from the castle, the couple almost forgot where they were.

And it was only them in their little world.