Roderich walked briskly over to Gilbert, who immediately stopped limping when he had noticed Roderich. The albino grinned widely at the musician, his hand on his stomach absently. "Long time no see, specs. What made you follow me all of a sudden? Couldn't get enough of the awesome me?" Roderich could see that Gilbert was clutching his stomach and his smile was forced. Very forced. Roderich was worried.

"Gilbert, are you okay? You were limping just a moment ago and you're holding your stomach." Gilbert's hand flew to his side, away from his stomach, then to the back of his neck as he stopped walking.

"I was just heading to the nurse's office. I haven't been feeling good the whole day." Roderich knew that from the way Gilbert was heading, he was telling the truth about going to the nurse's office but couldn't figure out what was wrong with the albino. Roderich placed his hand on gilbert's forearm and squeezed lightly.

"Well, get well soon. Otherwise your grades will plummet." He and Gilbert both gave the other a small smile, then nodded at each other and walked separate ways once more.

Roderich did not see Gilbert in their next class together.


Gilbert limped to the nurse's office, successfully hiding his limp from other students who didn't pay attention, which was almost all the students at their school. Once in the nurse's office a nurse came up to him and asked if he wanted to lie down, for he was well-known to all the nurses in the school. He had frequented the nurse's office since he started school, but he would never admit it. He nodded at the nurse and he was led to the room where the spare bed was, reserved specially for him. He laid down on the bed and curled up in a ball, wrapping his arms around his stomach as he shut his eyes tightly, trying to shut out the immense pain. The bell rang and Gilbert groaned quietly at the fact that he was, yet again, missing class and he was sure the nurses would contact his parents and brother and tell them that he needed to go home or to the hospital. He groaned again, as he heard a nurse pick up one of the old corded phones and punch in the familiar number of his parents.

He heard the nurses outside taking pity on him.

"That poor boy,"

"He comes in here almost every day, poor Gil,"

"Yeah, it's a wonder how he's even passing his classes—and with straight A's no less!"

"He only passes because he spends his time in the hospital doing his homework and-"

"Shh! Do you want him to know we know about everything? His parents said not to talk about it within a two room radius of him—he has uncanny hearing and can probably hear us right now!"

Well they were right: he could definitely hear them, even though the door was closed between him and the main nurses' office. A nurse came in and shut the door behind her, a small bag in her hands. She smiled sweetly at him as he shook, a thin sheen of sweat starting on his forehead. She put a comforting hand on his shoulder, making him turn his pain consumed crimson eyes to her. "Dear, we just called your parents and notified your brother. You're going to go home and then straight to the hospital. The nurse's heart clenched at the sight of his face turning from panicked to sad to pained again before he nodded. She held up the small bag in her hands. "I'm going to give you something to dull the pain, okay?" He nodded slightly as he lifted a shaky hand towards her. She took his wrist and took out a large looking but familiar needle. She stuck the needle into his upper arm and pushed down the plunger of the needle, emptying its contents into his arm and to his bloodstream. He sighed as the needle was pulled out from his arm and let the arm wrap itself back around his stomach. She gave him a look of concern as she placed another comforting hand on his shoulder. "Dear, would you like me to call the ambulance and tell them to take you to the hospital?" Gilbert had to think about that for a moment. Be embarrassed and be carried out of here on a stretcher or deal with the verdammt pain until the end of the school day with about four more hours till he gets to go home and then go to the hospital? He sighed, shutting his eyes tightly. He shook his head.

The nurse held back a sigh and nodded. "Alright, sweetie, but don't be afraid to yell if you want me to get the ambulance to hurry up if you need." He nodded minutely and she left him to himself. His eyes felt hot with tears that threatened to spill from his tightly shut eyes. His grip on his stomach was that of death—he wasn't letting go until he got to the hospital or until the pain lessened. He forced himself to think of something else in the meantime. His thoughts turned to the person who haunted his dreams when his pain was at its worst: Roderich Edelstein. He managed to smile through his pain as he thought of the stuffy musician and his sudden interest in marching band. He thought of when he got home and how Mo would react to him—would he start barking and alert his family something was wrong? The dog was always alerting them when Gilbert was in pain or when his medical condition was going to act up. He closed his eyes again and decided he needed to sleep for the rest of the day until he got to the hospital. After a moment of trying to bare the pain, the medicine the nurse had given him had started to take effect and he started to feel exhausted. He fell asleep within seconds in the brightly lit, white room, his last thoughts before unconsciousness being of the musician and his sudden obsession with marching band.


Roderich sat quietly in his last period—study hall, which meant he got to go to a practice room and practice piano for the remainder of the day. He couldn't bring himself to play anything, though. Not after Gilbert had been absent for the rest of the day in all of their shared classes. He had taken notes for the German, as he usually did for the albino even when he was absent unexpectedly. He slumped on the piano bench as he worried about the tall white-blonde. The albino had been his crush ever since they had entered high school, though they had known each other as kids. He couldn't stop thinking of the taller man since freshman year—Gilbert was his muse when it came to composing. If he needed to compose something, he'd always think of the self-proclaimed 'Prussian.' He sighed and closed the piano lid as he looked at his watch. It was almost the end of the period and he packed up his stuff in his backpack when he heard a siren. Not just any siren, an ambulance siren. He wondered what poor soul had to go to the hospital and wandered down to the nurse's office to see and was quite shocked at the sight before him. His eyes widened as he saw his crush, Gilbert Beilschmidt, being lifted onto a stretcher, a plastic mask over his mouth and nose and an I.V. in his arm. The albino's face contorted with pain. He ran forward towards the German and bent over the pained form of the taller male, only to get shoved back by the paramedics.

He called out to the other frantically. "Gilbert! Gilbert! What's happened? Gilbert! Gilbert!" He called again and again but the albino didn't seem to hear him. The white-haired male was rolled out of the building into the ambulance and off to the hospital. The final bell rang and school was out for the day.

Roderich was left standing there wondering. What happened? Was Gilbert sick? Or injured? He suddenly remembered the German's slight limp from earlier. His eyes widened and he rushed into the nurse's office. He had to get some answers before he went to go visit the hospital.