It was a blur of a day to begin with. My wedding day. I was marrying a handsome aristocrat named Roderich Edelstein in a large, beautiful church in the center of the city. Outside, there was a fountain with an angel letting water fall from a gourd that we would take pictures in front of before driving back to our house to change for the reception. We were almost through the ceremony, we had each said our vows and were smiling at each other when it happened.

Just as the priest said in his harmoniously deep voice, "Are there any reasons these two can not be wed? Speak now or forever hold your peace." At the back of the church, the large oak doors opened with a bang. Francis and Antonio burst through them, looking tired and shaken up.

They hadn't been invited, and they weren't dressed nicely or anything. I began to ask, but was cut off. "What are you guys doing-?"

"Listen," Antonio exclaimed. "We have a reason why they can't be wed!"

All the attention was on them so suddenly, and Francis dug in his coat pocket, bringing out several pictures. "This is why! We're so sorry, but you have to know, beau." They thrust the pictures into my hands and looked so apologetic that I was confused.

I looked down at the pictures and gaped. They each held Roderich and Vash Zwingli in bed together having sex. Each held them in different positions, settings, and stages of the act. It was horrifying. My hands shook as I saw the dates in red digits near the top right corner. The most recent was two days before our wedding, and the one most in the past was two years ago. He had been cheating on me for so long.

I looked at him and my hands dropped the pictures, "How could you? H-how could you cheat on me for so long?"

He looked shocked, then glanced down at the pictures he hadn't seen yet. Roderich stooped to pick them up, scrambling to get them away from prying eyes. "Now, dear-"

"Don't you dare call me that! Only someone who actually loves me can call me that, and obviously that isn't you!" I turned to the two crashers, "How did you even get them?"

Antonio looked at me for a moment, then at the ground, "We saw them together one day when we were drinking. So we got some spy stuff from the internet to get pictures. We were gonna tell you sooner, but when he proposed, Gilbert stopped us and said that we shouldn't. He said you'd be happy, and that even if Roderich was a complete douche bag, he wouldn't hurt you if you didn't know about this."

"S-so you kept it a secret because he wanted me to be happy?" I asked, my voice trembling. Tears had been falling down my face, ruining my make up, for the last couple minutes.

They each nodded, looking slightly ashamed, but slightly proud of themselves too. I was secretly happy that Gil had wanted my happiness, although he had declined the invitation to the wedding on account of the fact that he hated us marrying. It was a sweet gesture.

I shook my head, trying to clear my head, and wiped my eyes with my arm. "I can't do this. This is off." I then ran out of the church and into the street, then slipped my shoes off and held them in one of my hands. I began to run again, not knowing exactly where I was going, but I had to get far away from the chapel. I couldn't bear the thought of being around Roderich. It sickened me.

After a while, I found myself in front of a tall brick building. The outsides of it was scarred with burn marks, filth, and graffiti. Next to the door was a series of call buttons, but I already knew what was on them. From the top down was Jones-Kirkland, Wang, Adnan, Bielschmidt, and Machado. Gilbert lived in this building. I had visited it only once but somehow I had remembered the place and had reached it again.

I hit the buzzer for his apartment and a few moments later, I heard the crackling of the mic on the other end. "Hello?"

"Gil, can I come up," I asked, my voice a bit shaky as I spoke.

"Sure, I'll buzz you in." The door buzzed and unlocked, and I found myself racing up the steps to his apartment. When I knocked on his door, he opened it and stared out at me.

I guess it was a strange sight when you thought about it. Me, in a strapless white dress that fit my shape down to my hips then went off in a bell shape. It was a beautiful dress, made of very fine silk. But I was also still sobbing and my make up was smudged and messy. My hair had falled from the bun and french braid it was tied up in earlier, it was now in a tangled mess around my shoulders. I was trembling and looking so damn weak that it killed me to be seen by Gil, my childhood friend and rival.

He then took me by my arm and led me inside. Gilbert pushed me into his bedroom and dug through his clothes drawer. After a few minutes he turned back to me with a large tee that looked comfortable with age and a pair of gray pajama pants. He handed it to me, pointed out the bathroom that led off from the bedroom, and told me that he thought I'd be more comfortable if I changed out of the dress and cleaned myself up.

At first I was insulted, then relieved. I thought the dress was pretty, and more comfortable than the other dresses I had tried on, but I didn't truly like it. I couldn't move the way I wanted, and teh skirt was a bit confining. I didn't like my shoulders being exposed and I always felt like the dress was going to fall down. I scrambled to the bathroom after he had left the room and stripped myself of the dress.

A few moments later I was dressed in Gilbert's clothes and I had combed my hair with my fingers so it wasn't so untidy, but comfortable. My body felt relaxed and amazing. Gilbert had been right, I did feel a bit better when I saw myself in something that didn't connect me to the wedding, but to him, my friend. I washed all of the make up off, leaving smudgy black marks all over a towel, with bits of pink from my lipstick and blush.

I looked in the mirror to inspect myself some more, just so that he wouldn't tease me even more when I left the bathroom. I was shocked to see that the tee was a grassy green one, a tourist shirt from a place we had visited together in college. I had picked out the shirt for him, and he had kept it so long. And now I was wearing it.

A light pink blush tinted my cheeks, but I pushed the lovely, sentimental thoughts away and shook myself. I left the small bathroom and walked back to his living room. Gilbert was sitting in front of the television with a case of beer on the coffee table next to where he had put his feet up. He had his arm slinged over the back of the seat and was looking rather relaxed with a beer in his hand.

I took a beer and sat at the other end of the couch, sipping at it cautiously, as I didn't really want to get so drunk right now. I don't know what knids of bad decisions I would make with my handsome friend at the other end of the couch and me in a rather rattled state. He flipped through channels and settled on Fight Club, but I can't really talk about it.

After the movie was over and he had finished six beers and I had finished two, he turned to me. "What happened?"

"I'm sorta surprised you asked," I croaked.

"I was trying to let you calm down. My awesomeness knows no bounds whem it comes to women," he smirked, which I couldn't help but giggle at.

"Francis and Antonio showed up with pictures of...them...and I broke it all off."

"You know I was involved in that too, right?"

"Yeah," I said. "Thanks for trying to keep me happy."

"It's because I'm so awesome," He said, almost reflexively.

"Anyway, I ran away from it all and somehow ended up here. I don't have anywhere to stay, so I thought I might stop here for a while until I get my head straight. I'll be gone in a few hours," I added quickly, I wasn't sure he wanted me around.

"Stay here then. You can take the bed for tonight. You need to calm yourself some more."

I peered over at him, worried he was kidding, "Really?"

"Sure," Gilbert said and shrugged, sipping his beer. "I wouldn't be awesome if I kicked you out on the streets."

I nodded and smiled, "Thanks Gil. Maybe you are a bit awesome."

He scoffed, "I'm completely awesome, Liz."

"Suuure," I chuckled and he began to laugh too. Soon we were laughing so hard we couldn't breathe over something so incredibly stupid.

Later on, I must have fallen asleep on the couch. The next morning I woke up in Gilbert's bed, and for a minute I was disoriented and didn't remember where I was or how I got there, but it all came back to me in a few seconds. I rubbed my eyes and sat up, then yawned. Crawling out of bed, I went to the bathroom and inspected myself.

I was a mess. Sleep had betrayed me, I thought. I thought briefly of taking a shower, but I didn't have any clothes to change into. I heard a door open and close from the rest of the apartment, then I saw Gilbert come into his room from the mirror.

"Hey Liz, I went by your old place and picked up some clothes for you. And I apologize for looking in your underwear drawer." I was secretly glad he didn't mention that I had shared that apartment with Roderich. He set a bag of clothes down on the edge of the bed and raised his eyebrow at my disshelved appearence.

"I was about to take a shower, okay? I just woke up too," I said indignantly at his look.

He laughed and shook his head, "You're a deep sleeper, I took my shower, got dressed, and ate before you woke up. I'll go make you some breakfast for when you get out of the shower, okay?" Gilbert left the room before I could say anything, and I heard him clatter around in the kitchen.

I looked in the bag and dug out some of my clothes. I was surprised that he had packed my favorites of everything, and I hadn't told him they were my favorite either. My favorite underwear and bra, which were both comfortable and cute. My favorite shirt, a girl's green v-neck. My favorite jeans, a pair of black jeans that had a bit of spandex in them so they clung to my skin comfortably. He even got my favorite pair of shoes, a pair of red Converse low-tops. I smiled and took it all to the bathroom.

I slid out of the borrowed clothes and into the shower, turning the water on hot. I washed myself thoroughly, feeling the soap slide off my skin. It was relaxing and comforting, and I was really glad that it felt so easy to shower in Gil's apartment. Anyone else's, and I would probably be really uncomfortable undressing and washing myself. When I got out, I dried myself with a towel, got dressed, and put my hair up in a towel. I went back to the bag and looked through it, finding my make up bag in there too. I smiled and put on the bare minimum so I wouldn't look like too much of a mess.

After that, I went to the kitchen to see what Gilbert had made. On the counter was an omelette and a note. As I sat down and ate, I read it. It said:

Sorry for leaving so suddenly! My boss called me in for work, I'll be gone until dinner. I'll go by your old place again, text me the stuff you want back and I'll get it for you. If you need a bit of money for anything, I left you $100 in the cookie jar!

I smiled and finished eating, then I sent him a list of things I wanted. Suddenly, I got a craving. I proceeded to search his kitchen for what I needed, but he didn't have anything! I scowled and grabbed the money from the jar, found the spare key, locked up, and ran for the subway. I hopped on the train that ran closest to the store and got off at the station.

As I walked through the store, I ticked off the items I got and calculated each item's worth. I reached check out and was a couple bucks under my limit, so I bought some gum and carried the bags back to the subway. I got back to Gil's apartment pretty quickly, got rid off all the trash from the bags and containers, and set everything out.

I followed all of the instructions from my nagymama's recipe I had memorized in my head. After a while, I took it out of the oven to cool on the rack above it and I began making the second part. I let that sit in a bowl as I checked the heat of the first part. It was cool enough, so I took out a spatula and spread the second part on the first.

Finally, I cleaned everything up and glanced at the clock. It was almost time for Gilbert to come home, so I rummaged through his cupboards until I found some pasta and grabbed some of the fresh vegetables I had got at the store. Thank goodness Feli taught me how to make the best pasta I had ever tasted. I quickly made the sauce, boiled the noodles, and layed evrything out so perfectly.

I heard the sound of the key in the door as I was washing the dishes, "Hey, Liz! I'm back!"

I smiled and looked out to the front hallway where he was walking in. He had a couple boxes of stuff and a duffle bag over his arm, I guess of my stuff. His hair was messy from the wind and his cheeks and nose were rosy from the cold air that had settled in at this time of day. "I made dinner."

He beamed, "Great! You're awesome, ya'know that?" He set the stuff down in the living room, shrugged out of his jacket, and hung it up in the closet. Then we went to the kitchen where the plates were. "This is that Italian guy's recipe, right?" His smile brightened as he smelled it.

"Yeah," I chuckled at his hungry look and we took our plates to the living room and turned the television on. We watched Rocky Horror Picture Show as we ate, every once in a while we piped up to reenact a scene or burst into song. The apartment was full of laughs and hilarious comments, which was a lot different from how Roderich's was.

When we were both finished, and it was at commercial, I took out plates back to the kitchen, dumped the plates in the sink, and moved on to dessert. I sliced us each a piece of cake and handed him a plate once I got back to the living room. He shoveled it down easily, and truthfully so did I. He went to the fridge and got a couple of beers, handed one off to me, then sat back down.

After we had gone through a couple dozen beers, he looked at me for a long time. Then, suddenly, he moved really close to me, turned my head sideways, and muttered. "You've got s'm icing..." He then licked the side of my face.

Blood flushed my face red as I felt his tongue get the icing off. I could feel how close he was, barely an inch away, and how much drunk heat he was radiating. My body was doing the same though, and almost unconsciously I pulled his face slightly to the side and licked some icing off the edge of his mouth. A moment later our lips were locked in a deep, sloppy kiss. Our bodies pressed to one another.

I can't remember anything after that.

The next thing I know, I'm waking up slowly. I'm in Gilbert's bed, I can tell that, and I can feel that I'm missing my clothes. I pulled the sheets up to my chest and sit up, looking groggily around. Gilbert was next to me. In bed. And I could tell he's naked too. All I could think was: Did I...have sex with Gil last night?

Gilbert was slowly waking up too, and the first thing he saw was me, looking hopelessly confused. He sat up, looked down to his lap, then to me, then he got the same look. "Did we...?" He trailed off, scratching the back of his head.

"I don't know," I replied.

"What's the last thing you remember?"

I blushed all over, "Umm...feeling pretty drunk and making out with you."

He nodded in agreement, his cheeks slightly pink too, "Yeah...me too."

I watched him grab the pair of discarded boxers from the floor and pull them on, then I saw him grow pale as he stared at something out of my line of sight, "Yeah, we did have sex."

"How can you be sure though," I said, trying to avoid that conclusion like the plague.

"There's a used condom on the floor."

I felt my skin inflame again, "Oh. Well I guess that's pretty good evidence."

He picked it up and threw it in a trash can by the door, then glanced at me. "You take a shower first, I'll make breakfast." He fled the room, but I didn't get up until I heard him in the kitchen.

I stood shakily, feeling a dull ache in my hips that went along with the throbbing in my head from the hangover. I made my way to the bathroom and turned the water on so it could heat up, then looked at myself in the mirror. I gasped as I saw I had a few hickeys around my collar bone, I flushed pink again as I thought about the night before.

I hopped in the shower, trying to shake such thoughts away. They all barreled toward me though as the hot water hit me. I wanted to know how big he was, how good he was, how gentle he was, how long he lasted...I shook my head clear of the thoughts that circled my mind.

"Dammit, Elizabeta, get your mind out of the gutter. What is wrong with you? You just had sex with your best friend, what is this going to do to your relationship with him?" I asked myself.

Maybe we'll get together, I thought. My stomach felt a bit sick, I didn't know where the thought came from, but I did have a sinking feeling when it was actually a good thought. I didn't know what I wanted, and that killed me.

When my fingers got pruny, I left the shower and dried myself off. I dressed in a mini skirt and a cotton top, along with a pair of high heels and a head band. I put on a bit of make up as usual and fluffed out my hair. When I reached the kitchen, he had pancakes with lots of butter and syrup laid out on the counter, just the way I liked them. As soon as he saw me, his cheeks dusted pink and his eyes widened. I saw him glance at the bottom of my skirt, and I rolled my eyes.

"Don't look like you're checking me out or anything," I said teasingly. I grabbed my plate and began eating.

He scowled playfully, "Oh shut up Liz. I would hardly be a man if I didn't." I raised my eyebrow at him, to which he smirked back. He had apparently proven he was a man last night.

"You doing anything today?" I asked.

"Yup. My day off, so I'm going over to Toni's house to hang with him and Francis. You?"

"I'm gonna see if Feli will meet me at a cafe later, and I'll probably see if I can find any good apartments in the Classifieds," I said.

Gilbert looked like he was going to say something serious, but stopped himself. Instead, he laughed, "Good." I felt a tinge of sadness, I sort of wanted him to tell me that I could stay forever.

As soon as breakfast was over, I dug through the boxes of stuff I asked for and pulled out my favorite purse. It held my favorite lip stick, my wallet, my cell phone, my iPod, and lots of the other bare essentials. I took my phone and called Feli as I waved to Gil and left.

"Veee~? Lizzy?"

"Morning Feli! Can you meet me at our favorite cafe in an hour?"

"Sure! I just got out of bed with Ludwig!"

"Tell me all the details when we get to the cafe, 'kay? I've got some stuff I need to talk out too..." I said, then hung up.

I made my way through the subway and reached the cafe a few minutes early. Feli tromped in a few minutes late and beamed when he saw me. After gathering the data for my FanFiction account, I held my latte in my hand and sighed.

"Feli, I have a huuuuge problem. I...I slept with Gilbert last night, and I can't remember any of it. We were drunk, and I'm living with him until I have a place of my own."

"You slept with Ludy's brother?"

I nodded quietly, "And...and I wish I knew what it was like. And he's making me feel better than I ever did with Roderich...God, Feli, do you think I'm...?"

"Lizzy, I think you LOVE Gil! You would make a great couple anyway, I always thought that."

"You have?"

"Yeah," He said. "You and Gil look really happy when you're together."

I giggled, "Thanks for helping me get my head straight."

"Ah! Roddy has a black eye, did you know that?"

"No! What happened?" I asked, more from wanting to know the gossip than concern for him.

"I heard that Heracles saw Gil go in your old apartment when Roddy let him in. There was a crash a while later, then Gil came out with some stuff and Roddy didn't follow. He says the next time he saw him that Roddy had a black eye and some stitches in his lip."

I gasped, "So Gil beat him up?"

"Veee...That's what I heard," he nodded.

"Why would Gil do that?"

"Well, 'cuz Roddy cheated on you!"

I blinked, my heart fluttered, and my cheeks dusted pink. "D-do you think that-?"

"I think Gil loves you!" Feli piped up, his trademark adorable smile on his face. I smiled softly, my heart beat a little faster. I wished it was true.

The rest of our conversation wasn't important. It was all ridiculous gossiping and comments we forgot minutes after we said them. Later, we separated and smiled as we went on our way. Later, I was going to confess, now that I realized, that I loved Gil. I sat in the park for a while, just looking around and realxing, when I hear two familiar voices. Roderich and Vash.

"Why didn't you just dump her before all of this?" I heard Vash say.

"I needed someone for free housework, and she was an easy target. She was a fool to think I ever loved her," Roderich said coldly.

Vash laughed, "Of course! She's such a slut too, have you seen what she wears half the time? And how she pretty much threw herself at you?" Both men chuckled as they passed behind me. Neither realized I was there.

I was crying, although I didn't realize it until then. I couldn't believe I could let myself cry in public! Or at all for that matter. Nevertheless, my body shook with silent sobs I couldn't break myself of, it was almost painful. I held my shoulders and leaned down, trying to still myself. I finally got myself to stop and straightened up, but those awful words kept running through my head, new thought of my own accompanying them.

"Liz?" I heard the smile in Gil's voice as I saw him approach. He was holding a bouquet of tulips, my favorite flowers, and looked slightly embarrased by it, so his ears were a bit pink.

"Yeah?"

He held out the bouquet, "Um, a florist was gonna get rid of these, so they gave 'em to me for free. I remembered you liked them, so here." He looked slightly embarrassed, but a bit sure of himself too.

I was about to take them, when I halted. I scowled at him as the thoughts shot through my head, piercing my heart like needles. "You know Gilbert...I'm not a fool. I'm not a slut. I don't need you, or anyone. I'm moving out later, you can just throw those away." I turned on my heel and left him. I saw a look of pain and confusion in his eyes as I left.

I booked myself a night in a hotel, checked to make sure my bank account balance was okay, and went back to Gilbert's apartment later. He wasn't there, so I moved quickly. I gathered all of the boxes, bags, and clothes. After everything was packed, I grabbed a pen and a notepad and scribbled a quick note for him:

Thanks for letting me stay.

Bye, Lizzy.

I grabbed my stuff and headed to a hotel. I checked in, got a bellboy to take my stuff up to my room, and settled in. Around eight, I got a call from Gil that I let go to voicemail. Then another. Then another. Then another. After a few minutes of silence after that, I got five consecutive texts from him and another call. I shivered, wishing that I could pick up and let my resolve crumble. But I couldn't. I couldn't let myself trust someone so easily. I couldn't let myself love someone anymore. At midight, I picked up my phone again. I had sic texts from him and eight voicemails. He had long since stopped sending them.

The texts were all basically telling me to call him.

The first voicemail:

"Liz, what's wrong? What happened?" He sounded desperate.

The second:

"If it's about last night, I promise not to let it happen again. Please, talk to me." He sounded worried.

The third:

"Dammit, Lizzy. Why won't you pick the fuck up?" He sounded angry.

The fourth:

"Just fucking talk to me!" He sounded like he was losing his head.

The fifth:

"Stop being an arseloch! Pick up the damn phone already!" He sounded like he had just lost it.

The sixth:

"You didn't have to go! You could've just stayed. I wouldn't've kicked you out!" He sounded like he would make any deal.

The seventh:

"Gott, Liz. What did I do? I promise to fix it..." He sounded like he was almost drunk and about to cry.

The eighth:

It was silent for a second, then, "Elizabeta...I want you here. I need you here. I'm sorry for whatever happened...I must sound like I'm a basket case." A chuckle, "But I can't help it. You make me lose my mind. You've made me nuts since we were young. Gott...Liz, Ich liebe dich. I've had the most fun I've had in years in the past two days. I would give anything to remember everything that happened last night. I would do anything to make you not hate me. I would do anything to make you happy...Please, don't leave me." The message ended.

I was crying once again. My hands clawed at phone, trying to reach the redial button. I heard the ringing as I held the phone to my ear like it was the most precious thing ever.

"Liz! Is that you?"

"Yeah..."

"Gott, Liz, what's wrong?"

"Just something stupid..I heard Roderich and Vash in the park, and they were talking about me..."

I heard him growl through the phone, "Those fucking bastards..."

"No, it's fine! I'm fine now, I think. I wasn't thinking straight before. I just needed time to cool down. Actually, I was really happy you got me flowers. And I was happy to see you because I needed to tell you something."

"Yeah?"

"Isten, Gil. I love you. I want to stay with you."

"I love you too, Liz. You scared the shit out of me before. I felt totally unawesome!"

I giggled, "Gil, I need you to come here, okay? You can help bring my stuff back in the morning, but I need you here. NOW."

"Is this what I think it is, Lizzy?" He teased.

"Gil, all I'm saying is that I'm gonna recreate what we did last night. If you don't want to, then I guess-"

"Where are you?" I gave him directions and grinned as I heard him take notes on the other end. "Be there in a little bit!"

He hung up and a half hour later he knocked on the door of my hotel room. I opened up and smiled at him, "It's about time."

He pulled me into his arms and kissed me deeply, I felt his arms slide across my skin comfortingly. Suddenly, I felt the bed on my back with no recolection of how I got the several meters from the door to the bed. All I could remember was his lips on mine, and in my opinion, that's all I needed to remember.

"Maybe you should've shown me those pictures sooner," I mumbled as I felt his hot lips on the skin of my neck.