Off to Cannes and a reunion long overdue

[i_got_5_meters]

After having slept for the entirety of their flight from Sweden to France, Gilbert found himself finally awake enough for the excitement to sink in completely. The gang was going to be back together again for the first time in FOREVER. It was going to be himself, Francis, and Antonio with their significant others plus Eeva and Linus in CANNES! FOR

Comments

[i_got_5_meters]

After having stripped down and jumped into the hot tub like an overgrown child, Gilbert settled down into one of the comfortable corner seats, getting over how the heat of the heat of the water made the slight sunburn on his back and shoulders sting for a moment. It was all because of the last dip in the river they'd all taken earlier in the day before leaving camp back in Sweden. It had started to wash his sunscreen off and there was too much excitement surrounding their change in plans to even think about putting more on.

"Gott, Franny." Gilbert lay back, stretching his lean legs out in front of him, wiggling his toes in the bubbles. "Good idea bringing everybody here. This is awesome as hell already. Roughing it was fun, but there's no giant hairy pigs here trying to kill us. Just you with your crazy newsflash." Really, Francis and Arthur finally tying the knot shouldn't have come as a huge surprise, but it still somehow caught the albino off guard when the news was dropped. Perhaps it wasn't so much the fact that his best friend was now a married man that surprised him, but how much the idea of it stuck with him in ways that his mind couldn't fully process.

Gilbert looked over to where Eduard was standing with Eeva and Linus and was glad to see the lot of them weren't just stuffing themselves into a corner and not speaking with anybody. He wanted Eduard to be able to have a good time even though he could be awkward with people he didn't know sometimes. Also since meeting them, Gilbert now felt at least a little protective of their new Finnländer friends, especially with how close they were to Eduard. Gilbert tried not to smile too obviously like a smitten doofus as he watched his boyfriend geek out from across the deck.

"So what's the plan for this festival anyway?" Gilbert asked, wishing he had a cold beer in his hand at the moment. The only other thing that could make the day even better than it was already. "Does it start tomorrow? I got them all suited up anyway. We're ready to kick this shindig off in style."

[viva_la_francis]

Francis noticed the way Gilbert looked at Eduard. Before, Gilbert always looked as his liaisons as a wolf might look at a steak. It was eat it then move on. That was no longer the case, there was a softness to his eyes now, eyes were windows into a persons thoughts and soul and Gilbert was in Love, badly, deeply and appeared to be irrevocably in love with the handsome, bespectacled Estonian. He also noticed what looked like a chick, a fluffly yellow CHICK just sitting on top of the man's head. What faerie looked like a baby chicken? He'd have to ask Arthur if that Chick always sat on Gilbert's head?

He had to shake off the laugh he wanted to make at the total absurdity of the... Gilbird?... sitting on his best friend's head.
So he sat on the edge of the Hottub and dangled his legs into the water.

"The plan, is relax, get adjusted to time. Then over dinner we'll look at the movies being premiered and see what we'd like to attend. We have all access passes to all the events. We can see movies, try and schmooze a few celebrities, drink fine wine, eat delectable food and have a good time. The Chateau is but five minutes from the town center, we can walk there and stagger home again." Francis laughed and then leaned down close.

"Tell me, mon chien préféré de la bière grossiers*, how are things with Eduard? You look happy. Is he 'the one' at last?"

mon chien préféré de la bière grossiers* = (my favorite uncouth beer hound)Franny's affectionate term/nickname for Gilbert.

[i_got_5_meters]

Listening to Francis telling him of the general plan for the trip, Gilbert wriggled his toes some more, swishing his feet in the water just to see the little ripples interrupt the bubbling from the jets. The simple, childish game helped keep his mind distracted from things that he still had a difficult time processing. He knew he loved Eduard a hell of a lot and that he would probably have nothing going for him at all if it weren't for the genius, but the reformed party animal extraordinaire still struggled to sort out some of the things that had been going through his head recently. Francis' news had brought it all back up again for him. During the entirety of the flight to Cannes from Sweden, Gilbert was manically excited to finally relax and let loose a bit, but whenever there was something taking up the space in his mind that the beer hadn't yet muddled, Francis always had a way of making him face it head on.

Verdammt...just when I thought I knew what the fuck was going on in my head...

Gilbert toed at the bubbles again, a small smile turning at the corners of his mouth at his best friend's words. "Things have been...Gott, Franny. It's really hard to explain it all." The albino furrowed his pale brow and sighed, knowing that Francis would never judge him for anything. "Ja, he is. I mean, when that pig almost killed him at camp I was seriously scared shitless. No word of a lie. I was fucking scared."

Francis and Antonio were the only two people to have ever heard him admit to something like that at all in his life. The only other time Gilbert admitted to being scared of anything was the time when he'd been rushed to the hospital after a party the three of them snuck off to in sophomore year. He'd been drinking and dipping into a cocktail of mind altering substances to the point where he nearly OD'd. Francis and Antonio had been there in the back of the ambulance to see him be resuscitated twice. The only thing he'd been able to mutter in slurred German to them with his faltering consciousness was that he was scared. Losing his own life and losing Eduard's...those were the only two things to get Gilbert to say such a thing and truly mean it.

"Hey Franny?" Gilbert looked between Eduard, who was laughing and joking with Eeva, and Francis who sat next to him with that look of caring patience he had seen from the frenchman so many times before. Eduard's ears must have been buzzing because the blond looked his way, still smiling, and waved before straightening his glasses and returning to his conversation across the deck. That look left Gilbert with a renewed smile on his face just like it always did. He tipped his head in a gesture to the glinting band on his friend's hand. "...How long did it take you to convince yourself to ask Eyebrows?"

[viva_la_francis]

Francis reached out and squeezed Gilbert's shoulder. "I did not know Eduard was injured. I can understand the fear. When the one you love is threatened, there is great fear and no shame in admitting so." Francis stated and then smiled. "Would you believe me if I said the first time I laid eyes on him in kindergarten? Why do you think I have chased him all these years. Once I had him, I was not letting go. I have been asking him to Marry me, every night, in French, all year. He finally figured out enough French to understand me." Francis chuckled, revealing how Arthur had excepted his proposal and then he waggled his eyebrows and gave a saucy KNOWING and damn near feral grin.

"I might add, he was also having a wonderful orgasm when I asked this last time." Francis stuck out his tongue with teeth bared in a toothy grin and a mischievous wink. If Arthur found out he divulged that tidbit, he was getting the couch treatment later.

Until he convinced his husband with seduction to change his mind.

[i_got_5_meters]

"Well we got him cleaned and stitched up pretty quick." Gilbert remembered how hard Eduard had squeezed his hand while Eeva stitched him up and swabbed the wound with spirits. He handled it a lot better than expected. "Me, the danskie, and Oxenstierna were taking down the first one when the sow charged out of the bushes. Birdie killed it with an arrow through the brain, but it still managed to take him out on the way down. I'll get him to show you his arm later. That bitch really did a number on him."

Then Francis flashed that grin that Gilbert definitely recognized. "So you just KNEW then? I guess it's just one of those things..." Gilbert decided to let that thought stew in his head for a while, which was still fairly uncharacteristic for the rambunctious albino. Shrugging it off for the time being, Gilbert's signature grin returned in force. "That wouldn't work on Birdie. He already knows enough German. I'll have to try something else."

Oh THAT look on Francis' face was definitely familiar. Gilbert had not only been the object of that sort of saucy mischief before, but he'd seen it plenty of times when the Frenchman would regale him with juicy stories over a few drinks. "Kesesesesesesese...good one, mein freund." Gilbert cackled with a high five. "It must have been good if he said yes instead of hitting you this time, ja. Birdie can't usually speak in actual words for a while after we're finished. Sorry ahead of time if we wake you guys up. When it's good, it's good."

Oh the two of them together...they could even make people with their minds in the gutter blush. They were idiots in love while still being subject to teenage hormones like everyone else. There was a reason Gilbert, Francis, and Antonio had the reputations they did around the school.

[viva_la_francis]

Francis just leveled Gilbert "the look" which loosely translated to: "Please, I know what you sound like during sex which is why your room is in an opposite WING dipsit"...

Francis had more notches in his bedpost than he had BEDPOST in which to notch. Many of them WITH the pasty white assed idiot. So Francis decided to get ornery.

"So... has Estonia invaded Prussian territory yet or is that a distinctly French, repeated, invasion privilege? Should I tell him what he is missing?"

[i_got_5_meters]

And that was when Gilbert nearly choked on nothing more than his own damn breath. His white face had more colour on it then than it ever had to date and the albino's red eyes stared widely at Francis with a look of "what the hell did you just say?" written all through them. THAT was the secret Gilbert had been planning on taking to the grave with him. Only Francis and Antonio knew about that because they were there and they were participants.

Even with a track record that could fill its own wing of the school library, Gilbert had only ever "switched roles" with two people but defended with all the force of his "awesomeness" the image of a guy who had NEVER been topped...ever. Gilbert hadn't even admitted such a thing to Eduard.

"You..." The flabbergasted german wasn't sure exactly what to say to his friend's mischeif. "You rat bastard. You wouldn't dare tell him...would you?"

[viva_la_francis]

"Not if you are nice to me... no. I do so love intrigue and blackmail. What have you done for me lately Gilbert? Other than insult my husband's eyebrows?" Francis was the DEVIL. He had horns and a tail and the proverbial pitchfork, and the PICTURES TO PROVE IT TOO... He dared Gilbert to be a naughty boy.

[i_got_5_meters]

"But...I...but they're so damn fuzzy..." Gilbert's mind stalled. Completely stalled. He was supposed to be trying to save his ass...literally, and not a single damn word or idea was coming up in defense. Really, he shouldn't have even been keeping such a heavily defended secret from the one person he was planning on spending the rest of his life with, but he'd been keeping it from even himself for so long.

"I'll...I'll drink one of Eyebrow-, I mean Artie's beer if that'll work for you, since I can't keep you quiet the way I always used to anymore." Gilbert winked. The german, who considered beer to be its own valued food group, shuddered at the thought of drinking the inferior brew again. It was all he could come up with in a pinch though.

"Wait..."If Gil knew Francis as well as he was sure he knew the devious frenchman, there HAD to be something else. He tried to pick himself up out of his comfortable corner seat in the hot tub to be eye level with his friend, but slipped a little first, making a tiny splash, before righting himself. "How do I know you're not just going to tell Birdie anyway once I go do this?"

Unfortunately for Gilbert, Eduard heard that little splash and, with an innocent and loving smile on his bespectacled face, came walking over to the pair at the tub.

"Hey Gil. What's up over in this neck of the woods?" The Estonian questioned before he noticed the look on Francis' face right next to him. "Oh, umm...sorry. Did I interrupt something?"

[viva_la_francis]

"Oh we've been talking about many things which have been... UP. Where they were... up. Oh you know, things, old... friends, discuss that have been... Up. To catch... UP." Oh Francis had a grasp of all things decidedly innuendo. It was just so fun to watch Gilbert SQUIRM. And Beer? Mon Dieu. Gilbert had known him for twelve years, he should have learned by now the way into Francis' good graces was never BEER or Food for that matter since he cooked rings around everyone else. No, idle threats that made the German panic were far, far, far, more rewarding.

Was that Chick giving him the evil eye and flipping him off? He gave it a look right back that said without words. "Careful or I'll sic Gaston on you..."

Francis was rewarded with a Chick looking at him with horror, thoughts of "I am going to be chicken cordon bleu" on it's little chick face.

[darth_eduard]

Eduard blinked his blue-green eyes from behind his glasses as he looked between his frantically tense boyfriend and the deviously grinning frenchman perched on the ledge of the hot tub like the proverbial Cheshire Cat. The physicist had the distinct feeling he'd wandered into some sort of scheme or something he really shouldn't have. Francis seemed to be particularly fond of the word UP at the moment for some reason. "Either I'm missing a movie reference here or, ummm....jaa...not quite sure what it is I AM missing, actually."

"NOTHING!" Gilbert coughed, mentally treading water and failing miserably. Francis was making him squirm and enjoying every gott damn minute of it. Gilbert had figured offering to make peace with Arthur would have smoothed things over, but it seemed his oldest friend was set on bringing that one secret to the surface. Really, it's not like Eduard finding out that he actually HAD been topped before would be too terribly damaging, and he wasn't even sure his boyfriend was interested in switching roles, but still...that secret had stayed between Gilbert, Francis, and Antonio for so long that the idea of letting it out was making him more nervous than anything. "Everything is fine, ja. Hahahaha...Nothing to worry about here, Birdie."

Oh that was definitely a very TENSE Gilbert. Eduard hadn't seen that kind of awkward nervousness from his usually irrepressibly confident boyfriend since the albino inadvertently walked in on the dreaded skype conversation with Eduard's parents and they saw him completely NAKED. Helping one's boyfriend come out to his parents after they see your white tattoo'd ass traipsing through his bedroom?? Tense. About as tense as Gilbert seemed at the moment. Eduard missed the little yellow chick that peeped in distress as it nestled down into Gilbert's damp, silver hair.

"The tension is so thick right now one could cut it with an oxyacetylene torch. There aren't many things I don't get, but I'm pretty sure I have no idea what you guys are talking about." The confused Estonian's eyebrows shifted as he looked between the two, wondering what sort of cat was on the verge of being let out of the bag. "Oooookay...anybody want to clue me in here? Or should I just shuffle back to where I was?"

[viva_la_francis]

"Oh non non non. Sit, enjoy the water with Gilbert. We were... reminiscing about old times before we all found our loves. Quite interesting times we had. He should tell you them, ALL OF THEM, sometime." Francis said giving a look to Gilbert that said "tell him or *I* will. Secrets are bad.". Leave it to Francis to be a stinker one minute and rather sage the next. He got up and wandered over to where his husband was entertaining the new arrivals. He'd have to remember to ask about chicken fairies.

[i_got_5_meters]

"Verdammt, Franny..." Gilbert grumbled in German at his friend who nonchalantly walked away to flirt with his tea-sipping husband. "Sie böse Bastard..."

Eduard straightened his glasses and quirked an eyebrow at Gilbert, still curious as to what had the albino so worked up. "Why is he an evil bastard, Gil? I still don't get it."

Fuck. Gilbert had forgotten that Eduard could speak German. Cursing himself for getting so worked up over such a seemingly insignificant little secret. It was Eduard though...he couldn't, shouldn't, and didn't want to keep anything from him. Francis always understood Gilbert better than the albino understood himself and had probably pieced enough together from their conversation to know that the time for full disclosure was right then and there. "Alright." Gilbert sat up on the ledge of the hot tub without slipping this time, letting some of the tension out of his body in a long sigh. "This is going to sound really out of con...cont...whatever the fuck that is-"

"Context?" Eduard cut in.

"Ja, context." Gilbert continued. "This is going to sound REALLY out of context, but...Franny asked if we'd...you know...SWITCHED yet."

"I, um...mida??" It took a moment for Eduard to grasp what Gilbert was trying to say, but when it finally dawned on him, the Estonian's face went the most vibrant shade of red. "N-no. We haven't, Gil. Neither of us have."

Gilbert mentally kept all of his fingers crossed that there wouldn't be some sort of loud reaction to what he had to say, because it was weird enough letting it out to his boyfriend and he was sure as hell NOT going to tell everyone else. "About that...it's kind of what Franny was trying to get me to tell you. That's not entirely true...I have...a bunch of times, actually. With Francis and Tony back in the day."

There it was. Now there were no secrets and nothing left unsaid between the two of them. It was fucking awkward as hell, but it needed to be said. Even if Eduard was never interested in the idea, it was still important for Gilbert to make the confession.

[viva_la_francis]

Francis took a moment to look over at the hot tub... he could tell from Gilbert's expression and body language that his job to prod his friend into the truth had succeeded.

Now he could lavish attention to his gorgeous "sidhe" husband on his lap. He still couldn't get over how with his new sight just how much MORE EDIBLE Arthur had become. He was rather grateful no one else could see what he could see. Because he'd have to be beating off admirers with a stick. Preferably one that read "Louisville Slugger". Those ears, those EYES, that skin that glowed in the sun. Oh Francis thought him handsome before, NOW?

There were not enough hours in a day to admire his treasure. Not enough minutes left in his life to speak words of love to this creature.

He was exceedingly happy.

[darth_eduard]

Poor Eduard's face was still a bit red from hearing what Francis had asked Gilbert about, but he really shouldn't be surprised at all. The two of them had a past that the population of the school only stopped talking about once news of Gilbert settling down became the new hot button topic. Once he considered that, the news that his boyfriend finally did manage to stammer out slid right off of him like water on a duck's back.

"Is that it, Gil?" The physicist questioned with a relieved exhalation of breath and a relaxing of his shoulders. "That's what had you so wound up? Why on pluto would you be so afraid to tell me something like that?" Eduard chuckled affectionately and shifted closer to his boyfriend on the ledge of the hot tub.

Gilbert was still looking at his feet and toeing at the paneling of the deck when Eduard finally responded. It wasn't until he heard that quiet laugh and felt the weight of a hand resting on his own that the albino was brought back to the moment. "Du bist in Ordnung mit es, Birdie?" He asked, looking at Eduard with big red eyes. "I mean...you don't think I'm some sort of pansy now or something?"

Eduard gave Gilbert a look of 'ARE YOU SERIOUS?' before shrugging his shoulders, grimacing ever o slightly as he moved his left shoulder the wrong way. It was still sore and uncomfortable at times from his run in at camp. The stitches that Eeva put in and the medic approved would be able to come out before they were ready to leave for the Island. "Gilbert, you might not be able to solve and discuss complex atomic equations, but you're not stupid by any means. Do you REALLY think I care whether or not you've....umm...TAKEN as much as you've given? Come on. You should know me better than that by now."

...and that's when Gilbert's mind broke...

The VERY relieved albino grabbed the beautiful genius by the face and gave him a toe-curling kiss, grinning ear to ear all the way through it. In his enthusiasm, Gilbert lost balance, sending the two of them falling backwards into the hot tub.