14A/N: *busts open the door* Guess who finally managed to write a new chapter even though it is a short one!Okay. Before I forgot to say this again, Thank you all for the reviews, favorites, kudos and follows! You make me so happy! Honestly, whenever I read a review I am always jumping in joy. Oh, and this prompt was given to me by my awesome friend CodeVassie! (Hi My Awesome Friend! And sorry for being late and for the shortness of this chapter!)
Warnings: OOCness, grammatical errors (in minimum as much as possible).
I do not own Hetalia.
Chapter 4: Looking for the Key
One thing for sure, Google maps was helpful in showing where was the place you were looking for, but as for the ways on how to get there…not that much. In Gilbert's opinion that was the case. Unless he was not using the application correctly, if that was the case then he blames his amnesia.
As he got off the bus, he looked one more time on the piece of paper where he wrote the address of the antique shop. It was probably time to ask the locals where he could locate the street because if he would turn another wrong road one more time then he would be forced to call his younger brother and picked him up like a lost child. And he wanted to avoid such scenario as much as possible.
He was surprised that Ludwig didn't know about the antique shop in the first place.
"Younger Brother, where is this antique place called 'Kirkland's Wonderland'?"
"What, Bruder?"
"Kirkland's Wonderland."
"Um…I don't think I have ever heard of such a place."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"But, you've listened to the record, right? It's been said there, so you've heard it."
Oh, now that he remembered it, he was the one who caused Ludwig to give him a stone cold face and left him alone earlier than his usual schedule. It was a sound conclusion for Gilbert though, because if the others did listen to the record then they had surely made a list also of places where the past Gilbert usually spent his time. And possibly interviewed a few people.
It looks like none of them was a good detective if they only focused on the reason of his current amnesia. Or maybe they didn't want to dig that deep. Either way, Gilbert was just curious who was giving him the cornflowers. That was the only reason why he was doing his own investigation.
"Excuse me, sir." Gilbert approached the man sweeping the floor in front of the bakery. He was blond with violet eyes, a rare color for Gilbert to see but who was him to judge? He himself had a pair of red eyes. The man he had asked was smaller in height compared to Gilbert and had what you could describe as a 'cute face', "May I ask you a question?"
"Oh! Good day!" The man greeted Gilbert cheerfully and stopped his tasked, "How may I help you?"
"Um…good day to you too." Where were his manners? He just blurted out his intention without even saying a greeting, "Do you know where I can find this place?" Gilbert then showed the paper.
"Are you going to 'Kirkland's Wonderland'?"
"Yes."
"Then you can wait for me!"
Gilbert only blinked in surprise when he heard the offer given to him.
"I am supposed to pick up their youngest brother after I finish setting up the shop. My partner and I always look after the little one because his older brothers are too busy in their own works."
"…okay?" he could not help but raised an eyebrow in inquiry.
"Brilliant! My name is Tino Väinämöinen. You can just call me Tino, I know that my last name is difficult to pronounce for other people." Tino offered a hand as a customary when introducing oneself to another.
"Gilbert, Gilbert Beilschmidt. You may call me Gilbert to make things much simpler." He took the hand and shook it firmly once.
Tino giggled a bit from the way Gilbert had introduced himself, "You're such a polite young man. Your kind is rare nowadays."
"Young? Surely you're not that older than me?"
"You'll be surprised." Tino grabbed the broom and entered the bakery. After a few minutes he stepped out again. This time he took off the sky blue apron he was previously wearing. Now he was done with a light blue sweater and black jeans. "Shall we?"
Gilbert nodded in reply and followed Tino.
There were a few things that Gilbert didn't really like. One was being hugged by surprise and two, almost being deaf because someone was kind enough to shout right in front of his ears.
"Uncle Gilbert! It's been a long time! Why did you stop visiting us? I miss you!" the child, probably a twelve year old or younger, squeezed the air out of Gilbert's lungs. He had to give the boy a little bit of credit, for he was slowly killing Gilbert like a prey caught by a snake. That was indeed an incredible strength, like the boy was made of steel…did he really just made a superman reference? Gilbert badly needs air, now.
"Oh, dear! Peter, honey, please let go of the poor man. He is turning blue." Bless Tino for being such a concerning soul.
"Oh…" Peter just realized what he was doing to the 'poor man' and immediately loosened his grip and landed his feet on the floor, "I'm sorry, Uncle Gilbert…" the child pouted, goodness what does Gilbert needed to do in order to stop the Peter from giving him those puppy eyes?
"It's fine…um…Peter, right?"
Peter frowned a little from the uncertain way Gilbert talked to him. It seemed that the child was about to address the albino again when he was interrupted by another voice once again. This time the voice came from the door found behind the cashier counter.
"Tino? Are you here to pick up Peter? I have his bags he—" the man stopped whatever he was going to say when he saw Gilbert standing awkwardly in front of young Peter.
"Gilbert! How are you? You git! At least give us some notice if you plan to be away for months! You didn't even leave any sort of contacts for us to check if you are still alive!" judging from the eyebrows and the appearance of the man, small stature and a messy blond hair accompanied with emerald eyes, Gilbert now assumed that this guy was Arthur Kirkland he had heard from the journal and the one who owns the antique shop.
"Ivan didn't tell us also what's wrong a week after you had a fight with his little sister!"
'Arthur', as Gilbert earlier assumed for no one was bothering to introduced themselves aside from Tino, continued ranting about how impolite it was not to bother visiting after storming out that one fateful day when the female Belarusian walked inside the shop and started a verbal fight with everyone except her older brother which was Ivan in that case. How it was frustrating to wait day in and day out to wait for some sign that Gilbert was still alive and not wallowing himself in self-pity, as Arthur oh so kindly pointed it out. How it was doubly annoying that Ivan was not telling them anything even though they know that their Russian part timer had some knowledge where they could find their self-proclaimed 'awesome Prussian'.
"…ahem." Gilbert tried to stop the ranting in the most polite way as he could possibly do, "I think it's too late to say this but let's have this out of the table in order to avoid further confusion, mostly in my part, just in case." He took a deep breathe when he realized that he was given the opportunity to speak and judging from the raised eyebrow, 'Arthur' seemed curious as well for what he had to say, "Good day, my name is Gilbert Beilschmidt. At least that is what the people in the hospital and my so called family told me, if I am given the wrong information then I'll be happily be corrected. Also, if it is not yet obvious from my earlier statement, I have retrograde amnesia."
Why, oh, why did he need to speak so much? Gilbert was so not used to such long conversations. A thing that was proof of his difference from his past self and was always reminded whenever he talked to someone who used to know him. He then heard a deep sigh and saw 'Arthur' pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Bloody hell, I would like to tell you to stop pulling out your stupid pranks but judging from the way you look at us it seems safe to say that you are serious."
"Yes, I am. I believe I deserved some introductions from you?"
Tino already escorted young Peter away from the shop and Gilbert didn't know how the man with an angelic face managed to convince the little hellion in leaving his 'Uncle Gilbert' and 'Jerk Arthur' alone to talk in private. Whatever it was, Gilbert needed to know it because it appears that technique could be used in the future, who knows?
"Would you like some tea?" offered to him. Arthur led him to the kitchen found at the back of the shop. Gilbert was told that a day off would not hurt anyone and that Arthur had no appointments for the day that was not taken care of by his older brothers.
"If it's no trouble." Gilbert made himself comfortable on one of the chairs found beside the counter.
"You really have changed, I didn't know that amnesia can do this…but then our memories is a big factor in our personality." The kettle was not placed on the stove and now they were waiting for it to boil.
"I've been told too many times."
"…well, this is awkward but let me introduce myself again. I am Arthur Kirkland one of the owners of Kirkland's Wonderland. You've met my youngest brother just now, his name is Peter."
"Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Kirkland."
Arthur stared at him with wide eyes before filling the silence again with his voice.
"I don't think I can get used to this personality shift of yours, Gilbert. And call me Arthur, the name 'Mr. Kirkland' will only serve as confusion because we have five Kirkland living in this area, including young Peter."
"Arthur, then." He complied easily like the topic was not worth fighting, which was the point.
"So, can you explain to me the story of how you find yourself having amnesia?"
"I honestly don't know the whole story but I will try my best if you will help me in return."
"Just like what you have said, I will try my best."
Arthur was not the one who gave him the flowers, this was an obvious fact.