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Gilbert hasn’t been his usual annoying self these past few days, and Lovino definitely has noticed.
When they wake up, Gilbert is usually going on a run to wake up better and get his training in, but ever since they were informed about the newest world meeting, he’s stopped and slept past noon.
He’s also super affectionate, which does drive Lovino crazy sometimes, he’s started to miss it.
Before they fall asleep, Gilbert is clinging to Lovino while he tries to brush his teeth, wash his face, pretty much everything. Now he just sits in bed and reads.
While they’re in bed, Gilbert is always hugging him, cuddling him, and kissing him. The most Lovino gets is a kiss and a “Goodnight”.
He’s sick of it. He misses his runs where when he comes back he greets him with a grin and makes a sickeningly sweet remark about Lovino’s morning look. He misses Gilbert’s constant clingyness. He misses the Gilbert he knows.
So, that’s how they ended up in the hallway, with Lovino blocking his path so he’s stuck having to talk to him, “Gil, we need to talk.”
Gilbert looks around like he’s holding emotions back, “About what? Did I do something?”
“Yes you did, well, you’re doing something,” Lovino puts his hands on his hips as he watches Gilbert fidget with the hem of his shirt sleeve.
Gilbert lets out a nervous laugh, “What am I..uh, what am I doing?”
“What are you doing?” Lovino raises his voice, “You are barely even talking to me! You aren’t doing things you usually do and you’re freaking me out!”
“Oh,” He rubs his neck sheepishly and winces at the volume of his lover's voice, “I’m sorry, I guess I'm getting sick or something…”
“You’re not getting sick, Gil, I know when you’re getting sick,” Lovino huffs at him, “You’re overly clingy and you always beg me to make you more food! Plus you always sound so stuffy!”
“Lovi, I swear, I’m fine,” He tries to reassure him. He knows he’s probably not making the best decision by lying straight to Lovino’s face, he can get really angry and scary. He’s really pushing his luck.
“No! You’re not fine, Gil! Stop lying to me!” Lovino growled out as he swatted Gilbert’s arm which earned a small “Ow” as he frowned and rubbed his arm, which Lovino couldn’t deny was a little cute.
“I don’t want to worry you with my stupid worries,” He muttered out.
“You aren’t going to bother me or annoy me. You’re already worrying me by not saying anything!” Lovino kept yelling, “So stop lying and tell me what’s wrong. I promise i’ll listen.”
Gilbert takes a nervous breath, “You..uh,” He avoids eye contact and grins uncomfortably, “you promise?”
Lovino grabs the albinos cheeks and holds his face to look at him properly, “Don’t look away and yes, I promise.”
Lovino grumbled at his lover’s expression, “Stop with that face.”
Before Gilbert could reply, Lovino gently brought his face to his and placed small reassuring kisses to each of his cheeks, and ended on his lips, “Talk.”
Gilbert whined, “Fine,” He took a deep breath, “You know how we have that meeting next week?”
Lovino nodded. He figured it had something to do with the damn meeting. It was harder for Gil to do as much of the work as the rest of the nations since he had just recently been reassigned to take over East Germany, so he’s pretty rusty.
“It’s my boss,” He closed his eyes to reevaluate then reopened them with a deep breath, “I’m just a little embarrassed about it since I keep getting emails from him saying how West gets more and better work done and i’ve tried to explain to him that I haven’t done country work in forever! He just doesn’t listen.” He sniffles, almost like he’s on the verge of tears.
Lovino lets go of his face and rubs the sides of his lover’s arms, “I know amore, Feliciano has told me that your guy’s boss is an asshole.”
“He’s nice when he wants to be,” He mumbles sheepishly with a small smile, “He’s also said that almost every time I try to do the work West does, I always have an error with it and mess up something in the economy,” He whines out.
“And the best part of it all is that I have to make a presentation for the meeting and I have nothing started!” He exclaims with worry.
There’s a moment of silence. Gilbert sniffles and wipes his tears while Lovino tries to think of a solution.
“I know how you’re feeling,” Lovino reassures, “Feliciano always seems to get the best of it all and I get scolded for the work too.”
“Really? Why didn’t you tell me! I want to have a word with your boss!—“ A hand was slapped over his mouth before he could finish.
“I get you wanting to help, but I will get in so much shit so keep your mouth shut!” Lovino yells
Gilbert tries to pry off Lovino’s hand, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” And eventually gets them off with a grunt.
Lovino huffs and crosses his arms again, “Anyways,” He continues with a softer tone, “about the presentation, I can help you with that. I’ve made a few lately.”
A sudden grin flashed on Gilbert’s baby pink lips, “Yeah, that’d be great.” He started to head to his laptop that sat on the couch’s armrest, but was stopped by Lovino’s sudden grip.
“Wait,” He said with a hint of aggression, “Do you want me to make you pasta for dinner?”
It was like Lovino’s words flipped on a switch in Gilbert’s brain and he was suddenly back to his usual “awesome” self, “Hell yes I want your cooking! I love your pasta!”
A small smile slipped onto Lovino’s face as he let go of Gilbert and started waking to the kitchen, which Gilbert followed after like a puppy.
——
The entire time Lovino was preparing the pasta, Gilbert clung to his back like a leech. He silently watched as the Italian boiled the water before adding the pasta noodles, he acted like he’d never seen Lovino cook before.
Lovino complained, of course, but never shoved him off. The albino’s chin rested on his shoulder. Even pressing soft kisses to his neck every other minute to show his appreciation.
“Thanks again, Lovi,” He murmured softly into his ear before leaning forward more to press a kiss to his cheek.
“Mhm,” Left the Italian’s mouth as he continued to stir the pasta around in the boiling water. He couldn’t help but keep a slight smile plastered on his usually scowled face. He missed his Gilbert.
“Lovi?” Gilbert mutters softly as he toys with a dark brown strand of his lovers hair.
“Hm?”
“Ich liebe dich,” He says with a genuine, soft smile filled with love. You could see hearts in his eyes if you looked deep enough.
Lovino pauses his stirring and twists his head and shoulders to face Gilbert. He runs his fingers across the soft, slightly scarred, pale white skin of Gilbert’s cheeks, “I love you too,” He finishes his sentence off with a quick kiss to Gilbert's lips. Gilbert's heart almost burst from love.
As Lovino kept cooking, Gilbert only clung to his back tighter, and gently swayed the two side to side. Which got him yelled at a few times for distracting Lovino, but it was worth it.
After a few more minutes, Lovino took the wooden spoon and gently lifted a fusilli noodle onto it. He used his elbow to nudge Gilbert’s chest a few times to signal for him to move, which he did and Lovino successfully turned around to face him, holding the spoon with the noodle.
“Open,” Lovino gently holds Gilbert’s chin as he lifted the spoon to his mouth, “See if the noodles cooked enough.”
Gilbert quickly opened his mouth to chomp down on the single noodle. A moment passes as he chews it thoroughly, and eventually grins and gives a thumbs up, “Tastes awesome to me!”
Lovino nodded, “Good,” and turned back around to turn off the stove.
To give him space to drain the pot, Gilbert hopped up on the counter to not bother the “master at work”.
“Would you get down from there!” Lovino hisses as he gently tilted the pot to pour the water out, holding the noodles in with the spoon, “I just cleaned the counters a few days ago!”
“My ass isn’t dirty!” He snaps out in defense, “If it bothers you so much I'll clean it again tomorrow.”
The Italian just let out a snicker as he carried the pot back to the stove and set it down on the burner, “What do you want in it?”
“Just the sauce and cheese,” Gilbert says casually, “Hey Lovi?”
“What?” He replies as he got the sauce jar and container of parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top. He didn’t bother to add any other spices, this German he deals with is too picky.
“Can you make a potato too?” He grins enthusiastically.
“No,” He shot out immediately back.
Gilbert whined, “Come on! Please?”
He began to pour the sauce into the pot and stirred it, “No ,Gil. I can’t stand being around them. Make one on your own time! I just made pasta!”
“Fine!” He huffed with a hint of sass, “I still appreciate the pasta…”
He sulks for a while. Noticing Lovino is practically done with the pasta, he hops down from the counter and walks over to the fridge.
“What drink are you getting?” Lovino asks over his shoulder.
“Beer,” He replies simply and leans against the counter behind him to pop open the cap.
Lovino spins around, waving the spoon in his hand, “No beer! I’ve been having to deal with your depressed ass for a while,” He points the sauce-covered spoon at him, “I don’t need your ass drunk.”
He huffs, “Well I love beer! Plus, I figured you’d just drink wine again!”
“I’m making an exception this time,” He turned back around, pointing the spoon from the beer glass to the fridge before he did so, “I want to talk without both of us slurring like idiotas,” He pauses, “And I'm not eating. I had like 20 cannolis earlier.”
Gilbert groans and trudges back to the fridge to replace the beer with a can of coke, “Fine. I’m getting coke then.”
Lovino lets out a sigh of approval.
As Lovino was sprinkling extra cheese on Gilbert’s pasta (just how he knows he likes it) Gilbert felt like he hadn’t really helped a lot, “Hey, Lovi? Want me to put it in a bowl myself?”
“Why does it matter? I’m already done with it, why would you just put it in the bowl,” He grumbles over his shoulder.
“I don’t know!” He exclaimed, throwing his hands up, “I haven’t really done anything!”
Lovino opened the cabinet to get out Gilbert’s favorite bowl: A bowl with little yellow birds painted around the sides he painted when they had a date at a ceramics place, “I said I wanted to make you feel better. You don’t have to do anything.”
Gilbert’s heart filled to the brim with unconditional love. He was so happy to have someone that cared about him this much! Lovino might look like an ass, but sometimes he can be really nice!
He waited till he sent down the bowl so it wouldn’t break, set the coke can down on the counter, and hugged him from behind, “You’re so nice, mein schatz.”
Lovino patted his shoulder, “Mhm.”
He watched as Lovino poured the pot and the pasta slipped into the bowl. He giddily let go to hurry and sit at the table, picking his coke can as he hurried.
“Fatass…” Lovino mumbled under his breath as he grabbed a fork from the drawer and carried the bowl of pasta to the dining table. He pulled out a chair with his free hand to sit next to Gilbert, placing the bowl in front of the albino.
Before Gilbert could grab the bowl, Lovino was already poking at the fusilli noodles and lifting it up to Gilbert’s mouth, “Open.”
Gilbert’s cheeks flushed a pink hue, “U-uh, Lovi? I can feed myself, you know,” He laughed nervously.
“I know,” He tapped the end of the noodle to Gilbert’s bottom lip, “I want to take care of you.”
Gilbert paused, but reluctantly opened his mouth to take the noodle off the fork. In return, Lovino smiled and used his free hand to hold and run his thumb across his lover’s cheek.
“You’re being too nice,” Gilbert says with a gentle smile, “It feels weird, you’re usually an ass.”
“Shut your face, asshat,” He grumbled as he poked and lifted another noodle to Gilbert’s mouth, which he took with ease.
After he swallowed, they stared at each other. Their eyes linking together like they were made for each other. After a moment, Lovino continued his ministrations along his cheek.
“Don’t listen to that ugly potato bastard of a boss,” He moved his hand to play with strands of the platinum follicles, “I don’t see anything wrong with your work. It’s good to me, bello.”
“Thanks, Lovi,” Gilbert said in his scratchy voice, “It really isn’t though. I make a lot of errors.”
“Why don’t you have me check over it before you email it?” Lovino said while poking at more noodles.
Gilbert’s head poked up, “Really? I don’t want to bother you, you already have your work.”
“You won’t bother me,” Lovino said calmly as he fed another noodle past Gilbert’s lips.
He contemplates, “Well, if you say so,” He bites more noodles, “I’ll show you sometimes.”
Lovino nodded silently, “Don’t let them fill your head with untrue bullshit,” He hands Gilbert the fork to finish eating himself, “I should be the only opinion that matters.”
Gilbert moved the chair so he’s sitting closer to the Italian, “It is, but I hate when they say I'm not good enough to represent Germany.”
“Did you tell Ludwig?” Lovino says, leaning his head in his palm with his elbow propped up on the table.
Gilbert shakes his head, “I can’t bring myself to. I know he’ll make a big deal out of it.”
“That’s because it is a big deal!” He sat up straight, “He’d probably lose his shit if he found out that was happening to Feliciano!”
“Yeah, I know, but he’s my little brother,” Gilbert sighs loudly, “It’s difficult.”
Lovino takes a deep breath to reevaluate, “I understand, tesoro,” He takes Gilbert’s hand that isn’t holding the fork and holds it, slowly rubbing his thumb over the top, “but you’re more than that stupid work.”
Gilbert finished the bowl of pasta as Lovino stared at him in a comfortable silence, “You’re so loud, but when you’re gone, I miss the noise.”
“When you’re not clinging to me for once, I miss your warmth,” He forced out.
Gilbert’s cheeks formed a pink hue on his white skin, “You’re being so sweet, Lovi,” He placed the fork back inside the bowl and interlinked their fingers with both hands, “When you're out with Feli or Toni, I miss when you’re always yelling. Even if you are a little mean.”
Lovino scoffed and avoided eye contact, “Shut up, bastardo.”
Gilbert grinned and pounced forward to hug him and attack his cheek in kisses.
“Urgh!” Lovino breathes heavily and yells, “Let go a little, you ape!”
Gilbert loosens his grip on him, “Ich liebe dich, Lovi.”
Lovino catches his breath, “That’s better, I almost died!” He exclaims but wraps his arms around Gilbert's neck, “I love you too…”
He lifted his head up from Lovino’s shoulder, “Let’s go work on my presentation, Yes?”
Lovino lifts his hand to brush away stray hairs that covers the albinos beaming red orbs, “Yeah, I guess it’s a good time to start it.”
He hops up from the wooden chair and pulls Lovino up by his hand, causing him to almost trip, “Watch it!”
“Sorry that you’re slow,” Gilbert laughs obnoxiously in his face.
“I can just not help you on your stupid presentation!” Lovino snaps.
Gilbert quickly frowns and shakes his head, grabbing Lovino’s shoulders, “No please, I’m hopeless!”
“So don’t laugh in my face! I’ll punch it!” He growls, taking Gilbert’s hand and intertwining their fingers again to go sit and work, “Let’s go start your dumbass presentation for not even my country,” He growls, “You’re lucky I like you so much.”
Gilbert smiled widely, showing all of his teeth, “I love you more!” He yells in his scratchy voice, “Let’s go start it now.”