PrussiaxReader Nice Guys Finish Last Part 2

He was stupid to think that that girl would be there.  He'd only seen her about three times in the span of six months.  He sat at the bar and gulped down the last of his beer.  He was fuming about Francis.  God, why didn't he trust him?  They'd been friends for over a year now!  Gil was reliable!  His pride was really hurt.  Whatever Francis was planning, it was big, and if it was that big, Gil should know about it.  He was part of the company, too.  He grumbled and glared at the bar-top.

"Can I buy you a drink?"  a familiar voice said next to him.  He looked up in shock to see that girl.
"W-what are you doing here?"
"Riding an elephant, what does it look like?" she rolled her eyes as sarcasm dripped off her voice.  Gilbert swallowed and sighed.  "Had a bad day?"
"Y-yeah."  Why did she care?  She barely knew him.
"You wanna tell me about it, or just make me guess?"
"Guess."
"Someone hurt that oh-so important ego of yours, didn't they?"  Gil looked to her in confusion.

"What?"
"Your ego's huge, and I'm guessing that someone took you down a few pegs.  Treated you like an underling instead of a person."
"How do you-?"
"Please, I know your type is all," she sat down and rested her head in her hand.
"Oh.  I have a type?"
"Yup. The cocky womanizer.  I dated a couple guys like you until I realized they were all ass hats."
"Ass hats?"
"Yeah.  You got a problem with it?"
"No, no.  I just don't thihnk I've ever heard some one use that termanology before."
"Probably not."

The conversation progressed somehow and the two even laughed a little.  Gilbert even managed to get up enough courage to ask for her name again.
"I already told you, didn't I?  Oh,well you probably don't remember, what with all your girlfriends.  It's _______."  He was surprised when she didn't get upset.  Sure she seemd a little irritated, but he assumed that she was always like that.

"But you've never told me your name."
"huh?  I haven't?"  true, Gil usually just skipped the introductions, but he could have sworn...oh, wait, she was right.
"It's Gilbert."  She laughed outright. "What?!"
"That's such an awesome name!"  she giggled.
"Awesome?  how so?"  he really didn't follow her train of thought.
"I mean, you're this womanizing playboy, but you've got a name like Gilbert!  It's just so ironic!"  She sighed when she was finished laughing.  He smiled a little.
"So if you hate the club scene so much, why do you come here so often?" he asked.  It had become evident that she disliked the fact that her friends dragged her there.

"Because I'm the only one they know won't be tempted to drink.  I'm always the designated driver.  Always."
"I'll bet you're a lot more pleasant with a bit of alcohol in you."
"Are you saying I'm not pleasant?"
"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying."
"Well, I thank you for your honesty."  One of her friends, a girl with short hair and huge breasts grabbed her arm.
"Who's this cutie?" she was obviously very drunk.
"Kat, This is Gilbert, the guy who's been trying to get into my pants the last few times we've been here; Gilbert, this is Kat.  She really likes vodka."  Kat giggled and shook Gil's hand.

"I'm not trying to get into your pants," he laughed.  In all honesty, he hadn't even been thinking about picking her up the entire time they'd been talking.  "And let's not forget you're the one who approached me."
"Fine, fine.  So I'm the the one trying to get into his pants," she corrected to her friend, who was definitely lost in the conversation.  Gilbert just laughed.  He couldn't remember a time when talking to a girl had been fun.  In his mind, it was usually just foreplay.  A transitional device to get from the club to a hotel.
"We wanna go home," Kat whined.  She attatched herself to _____'s arm and began blubbering out of no where.

"I-is she okay?"
"Yeah, she's always like this.  Well, I guess I'll see you later Gilbert."
"Yeah, bye."  He waved as she guided her crying friend to the door of the club.  He looked around the dance floor to try and find an easy target he could take home.  For some reason, none of them seemed right though.  That one was drunk, that one was trying too hard, the one over there was just too...easy.  All of them were too easy.  He didn't like the thing welling up in his stomach.  It almost felt like disgust, but he hadn't felt that in a long time, so he brushed it off and just went after the drunk girl.

~

He hated going to clubs on Thursday nights.  He woke up the next morning late and had to rush out of the hotel.  He managed to get to his office on time, only to realize he had the worst hang over in all of history.  I didn't help that Francis was waiting for him.
"What do you want?"
"We need to talk."
"Like hell we do," Gil mumbled.  He passed by his boss and sat at his desk.  Francis sat in one of the chairs across from him.
"This company isn't all that it seems, okay?  Or I should say the people aren't all they seem."
"Obviously."

"Gil, I'm trying to explain stuff here, give me a chance, okay?"  Gil looked at his friend blinked once and then went back to approving some engineering project.  Frncis sighed and continued.  "There are some pretty big things going on right now and when everything's said and done, you'll be there, alright?  It's just, some stuff happened and Toni and I are still trying to work it all out.  Once we do, we'll tell you everything."  Francis seeme sincere, so Gilbert put down his pen nd looked up at his friend.

"Fine.  But just for future reference, should we really be letting that Lovino guy in here?  He seems pretty dangerous.  And what about his brother?"
"No, no.  They're essential.  And Feli's fine, Lovi just has a bit of a temper s all.  I've already talked to Toni about it.  Although I doubt he'll do anything."
"So Toni and Lovino...?"  Francis smiled and snorted.
"Yup.  Neither of them are very subtle about it."  Gilbert nodded.  He didn't want to, but he was starting to get over his anger.  He swallowed and went back to his work.  Francis, sensing that th conversation was over headed to the door.

"I'll see you tonight then?" he asked just as he reached the door frame.
"I'm not going tonight."
"Hm, alright.  See you next week then."
"Yeah."
Gilbert had decided that he didn't want that weird feeling in his stomach.  The beer last night must have been bad and he didn't want to see if it had gotten any better either.  At the end of the day, he just went home.  It was a shame, too, because that girl was sitting at the bar again, waiting to see if he'd approach her.  She hadn't come with her friends this time.  But instead of having Gilbert sitting next to her, she had quite a few burly men try and pick her up.  She turned every single one of them down ferociously, and then left.  She couldn't understand why she was so upset.

~

Gil was woken up early the next morning by a call from his little brother.  He and Gil weren't very close any more, after they moved out for college, but every once in a while, they'd call each other just to check up on the other.  But this time was different.
"Hey Lud, what is it?"
"Um, I need advice."
"Alright! Let your awesome big brother help you!"  Had it been anyone else, Gilbert might have been sceraming into the phone about how early it was, but he made an exception for his little brother.

"I, uh, is it normal to..."
"Lud, you're gonna need to talk clearly.  I can't understand when you dod stuff like that."
"S-sorry, but I think I might have found someone."
"That's great!  What's her name?"
"That's kind of the problem."
"What do you mean?  You don't remember?  Aw, don't worry about that, I don't remember half of my girlfriends' names!"
"No, I know their name, it' just that it, uh," Lud sighed, "It's not a girl."  Gilbert just sat in his bed processing it for a moment.

"Gil?  You still there?"
"What? oh, yeah. I'm here.  So, you found a guy that you think you might like?"
"Y-yeah.  Is that normal?"
"It's not abnormal," Gil didn't really mind homosexuals in the least.  In fact, the way he saw it, it just meant more girls for him, so everybody won.  "What's his name?"
"Feliciano."  Why did that name sound so familiar?  Gilbert used his free hand to rub his eyes.

"So what's the problem?"
"What do I do?"
"what do you mean?"
"Well, I really like him.  What do I do?"
"Tell him?"  Sometimes Gilbert had a hard time understanding his little brother.  He decided not to remind himself that for most of his life he'd been the same way.
"B-but I'm pretty sure he's straight!  He's always flirting with girls and stuff."
"You really know how to pick 'em, don't ya?"  Gilbert laughed.
"Don't laugh!  This is serious!"
"Everythings serious with you Lud."  He heard his little brother swallow over the line.
"I-i just don't know what to do with myself, you know?  This is so different for me."  Gil felt bad for laughing.  His brother really seemed upset about this.  He let out a breath before offering advice.

"Just tell him.  You might be surprised."  Everything always seemed to work out for Lud.  He hoped this would be the same.
"And if he's straight?"
"That's up to you.  You could try and be content as his friend, or you could move on and find someone else."
"I don't like those options."
"No one does, but those are your choices.  Same as everyone else."  There was a pause on the other end of the line.
"Okay."
"You're gonna do it?"
"Well, thinking logically, you're right, so there's really no other way."  Gil smiled a little.  "Thanks Gilbert."
"Sure thing."

~

"Hey, Gil, isn't that that girl you've been chasing after?"  Toni pointed over to a girl sitting at the bar, alone as always.
"_____," he didn't say anything else.  He got up and walked over to her.  "What are you doing here?"  She looked at him as if to say, "really?"
"Oh, that's right, sorry, you're riding an elephant, right?"
"How observant of you."
"Can I buy you a drink?"
"You're persistant, I'll give you that."

~

"This is bad," Francis said under his breath.
"What is?" Toni asked oblviously.  Francis was staring at Gil and that girl.
"He's spending all his time with that one.  He's not even looking at any of the other girls."
"Huh.  You're right."  Francis had filled Toni in about Gil's problems from a couple years ago.  "But I don't really see how that's an issue."
"He's gonna get rejeted again and fall back into his old self."
"Oh."
Francis took a gulp of his drink before continuing.  "I don't thimk I could ever deal with him falling back down, you know?  He was just so unhappy a few years ago."
"But what if she makes him happy?"  Francis just snorted.
"She won't."

~

The next few weeks at the office were stressful.  Gil skipped his weekly bar runs just to keep up with the amount of paper work that was coming in.  There was also talk about a merger with Toni's company and all sorts of crazy things.  Francis had become almost unreachable with all the work both of them were swamped with.  On the rare occasion that they did talk, it was hurried and trivial.

So when Gil, Toni, and Francis finally did go on their first drinking spree in four weeks, it was really quite appreciated.  About half way into the night, though, Toni got a call from an extremely disgruntled Italian.  Gill could hear him yelling over the phone.

"Toni, where the fuck are you?!  If you're out with that God damn Frenach-ass bastard, I'm going to kill you, do you hear me?!  We had an agreement, you ass!"
"Lovi! Lovi! I'm sorry! I'll head home right away!  Just calm down okay?"
"You fucking ass!"  Toni hit the disconnect button and sighed.
"What was that all about?"
"I forgot to make Lovi's dinner."  He picked up his jacket and began scooting out of the booth.

"All that just for dinner?  You're a saint Antonio," Francis laughed.
"Yeah, well I did promise him three meals a day.  Plus some other stuff."  Toni shrugged and waved as he dissappeared into the crowd on his way out.  Once Toni was gone, Gilbert scanned the bar for a familiar figure.  He was dissappointed that it wasn't there.

"Gilbert you see the girl across the floor?"
"Huh?" Gilbert wasn't paying attention at all.
"The brunette over there with the flower in her hair?"
"Oh, yeah."  For some reason she looked odd ly familiar.
"She's been eyeing you for quite some time now.  Aren't you gonna...?"
"Ah, right."  Gilbert got up and went to the bar to order a beer.  Like all the others, she too walked  up to him.  He nodded at her and smiled slightly.  She giggled and ordered a fruity cocktail.  It was when she took a sip of it and glanced slyly at him that he realized just why she was so familiar.

"Lizzie?"
"Huh?"
"Elizabeta?  Is that you?"  It was the girl who'd broken his heart to be with that Rodrich guy.  Gil would never forget.
"Y-yes?  I-"
"It's Gilbert."  Her eyes got wide before she broke into a huge smile.
"Oh, Gilly!  I should have known!  I mean with the white hair and all!  How have you been?"
"Good, good.  And you?"
"Oh, you know, I've been, and all."
"So what are you doing here?"
"I'm here with a friend.  Trying to have a good time before the weekend starts, just like everyone else."  Gil nodded.  Their conversation grew and Gil found out that Lizzie was single and looking for some fun.  When she suggested they go somewhere more private, Gilbert faltered.

If he did it, it would be like the biggest "Fuck you!" to the person he was a couple years ago, which sounded really great, actually.  But there was a nagging in the pit of his stomach.  God, he hated that feeling!  He pushed it out his mind as he wrapped his arm around Lizzie's hip and walked out of the bar.

Francis smiled and nodded as he watched it.  Good.  His friend still had it.  Once that was taken care of, he scanned the dance floor for a girl for himself.  Neither Gil nor francis noticed a pair of eyes becoming more and more upset at the very end of the bar.  Once Francis couldn't see her, She grabbed her purse and cattily walked out of that God awful building.

"I was right," she said as she walked down the lonely street, "They're all the same."