Gilbert Beilschmidt thought it was too damn cold for a Sunday summer day. It was windy, too cool for shorts to be worn. But aside from that, there was not a cloud in the sky which allowed the sun to blanket Berlin. He was in a bit of a bad mood because Ludwig made him get out of his nice, warm bed to go grocery shopping because apparently Ludwig 'just doesn't have the time'. It was 4 in the afternoon, what did he mean by 'he didn't have the time'?!

'Ah, well, might as well make the most of it and get a lot of beer and good stuff.' He thought as he pulled out the list. Milk, bread, vegetables, bunch of other crap, and beer. His first stop was to get a coffee and Danish to get him through this gruelling trip. He parked his car at the far edge of the market and got out, making sure to lock it.

He went up to a local bakery run by 'Old Man' Sam, an elderly bald shop keeper that knew almost everyone that lived within the market district and remembered all the names of his frequent customers. He was a squat man, with round glasses, a bent back and a constant kind smile under his silver mustache. He was wearing his red apron today as he brought out some croissants.

"Yo! Sam!"

"Ah, guten tag, Gilbert." He smiled. "Large coffee and maple pecan Danish?"

"Ja! Kesesese!" Gilbert laughed as Gilbird landed on his shoulder. As he leaned on the counter, examining the cake case underneath him, he heard a pitter patter of quick footsteps behind him. A little girl with shoulder length brown hair in a red coat and that went to her knees hopped onto the barstool, pulling herself up. Gilbert watched her pull herself up and she was so small, he thought she wasn't older than three. But he admired her tenacity.

"Strawberry turnover please!" She said with a bright smile in English as she pulled out a 20 Euro bill.

"Ah, hello Robyn." Sam smiled. "Did your mutti give that to you?"

"Nope, lucky money." She knelt on the stool and slid the bill on the counter. Gilbert watched her and saw there was a little yellow duck on her breast pocket and thought it was cute. Sam went to the back without further questions.

Gilbert returned his attention back to the cakes until he heard a little 'Ah.' He turned his attention back to the little girl who looked flustered and kept on stuttering 'Gu…Gu…'

"Gutan tag!" She blurted out and held her hands nervously together as she was staring at Gilbert. Gilbert snorted at her poor German accent but the shy flustered expression she was making was too cute! He didn't want to ruin it by making her cry and he smiled back at her.

"Guten tag, frau~ Aren't you a little cutie?" He grinned and she visibly relaxed with her big brown eyes lighten up once again with joy. She smiled back at him with a little satisfied 'heh' from her mouth. She visibly relaxed and continued stuttering a supposed German word thinking she wanted to talk in German.

"Kn…kneet eyen Enter!" She stated proudly. Gilbert thought for a moment and turned away to pull himself together from laughing too loudly. She was trying to say she wasn't a duck.

"You are such a cute and zilly frau." Gilbert grinned again. "Keep practicing Deutsch, ja?"

"Ja!" She smiled and raised her hand in the air.

"Alright, coffee and Danish for Gilbert. And a turnover for Robyn." Sam came out and gave them both a paper bag.

"Danke, Sam." Gilbert said. "Also-"

"Danke!" Robyn blurted out again and slid off the stool with a little 'oof' as she landed on her feet. She started heading back to the busy sidewalk.

"Hold on a moment, Robyn. Where is your mama?" Sam leaned forward over the counter and called out to her. Gilbert was a little irritated that he was being ignored but even his ego acknowledged that little kids like that did come first. After all, they could have been stepped on easily.

Gilbert shared his Danish with Gilbird who happily munched on it on his shoulder while he was waiting for Sam to finish talking with her. He tuned out the conversation until Sam got his attention.

"Gilbert," Sam switched to German.

"Ja?" Gilbert looked up, thinking he was going to ask if he needed something else which he did.

"Can you do me a favour and make sure Robyn makes it home safely? Her mother not being around makes me uneasy and I have no one to cover for me."

"Okay, Ja, sure." Gilbert shrugged. He thought that whoever her mother is, she was more irresponsible than he could ever be if he let a little three year old wander the city alone. He scanned for her and spotted her at the stoplight. "Hey, frau! Robyn!" he ran up to her before the light turned green.

She turned around with half the turnover in her mouth, looking at him. "Hm?"

"I'll take you home, okay? Can you show me the way?" He towered over her and she didn't seem intimidated. She just looked at him with a blank curious stare and nodded. After she took a bite of her turnover, she started coughing a little bit but didn't seem to be choking.

Gilbert walked beside her across the street and she shyly pointed directions through the city with an occasional 'this way' followed by a cough. Gilbert scowled and thought that her mother was extremely irresponsible for letting a sick three year old wander.

He started to get bored of the silence and after three and a half blocks of wandering, he finally broke it.

"How old are you, frau?" he looked down at her.

"Ahm… Ah… Five." She held up her hand. Gilbert was honestly surprised. He didn't think that five year olds could be that small or could be that overdue for a growth spurt. But Ludwig was a tiny kid too and he was now taller than Gilbert.

"Oh. I see." He followed her to a brown worn down apartment complex. The neighbourhood itself looked shady and he would love to give her mother an 'I would make an awesomer parent than you' rant once she got home.

Robyn coughed again as she struggled to push open the door to the main building. Gilbert looked down and pushed on the handle gently and followed her inside to the second floor. The apartment smelt old mixed with cigarette smoke and seemed damp to him.

Robyn went to the door at the end of the hall and jumped up to the door handle to open it. Once she got in, she turned back to Gilbert with her big eyed stare and the door in both hands. Gilbert was expecting her to slam it shut as kids should do when they see strangers.

"Uhm… Ah… Would…" She coughed again and it sounded like it was getting worse with her starting to wheeze. "Would you like a drink?" She asked timidly. She looked back to where the closet was and she seemed to be disappointed by something. "Mama isn't home…" She sighed.

"Ah… No zhanks. But do you mind if I stay with you until your mutti gets home?" Her mother was definitely going to hear it from him.

"Okay." She waddled off to a room straight ahead as Gilbert stepped inside and shut the door behind him. He walked in and to his left was a sliding front closet and there was a three way split at the end of the hall. Straight ahead was a bedroom, the living room could be seen on the right and a bathroom was on the left.

The living room was very messy with laundry and books everywhere and a small tv stand in the far corner. The kitchen that was accessible by the living room was an absolute mess and there was garbage from fast food everywhere in it. There was a stained towel at the foot of the fridge and juice dripping from the counter.

The apartment's smell was a little better than the hall but it seemed very muggy and Gilbert noticed some brown stains on the ceiling. He heard pitter patter followed by a cough behind him. He turned around to see a stuffed tiger with a black eye barely being held by its string being held up.

"This is Jojo. He thinks you look funny. I told him you're nice." She coughed again.

"I… See." Gilbert forced a smile. "Frau… Where is your mutti? When did you last see her?"

"She's…" She coughed again and presses her hand on her chest. "Work." She tried talking again but her coughing turned into wheezing and got worse. He saw her start crying and immediately scooped her up, running outside for fresh air but her wheezing wouldn't stop.

"Sheisse… You need to go to the hospital." He ran as fast as he could back to his car and put her in the front seat. Her coughing and wheezing was getting louder and it was making him panic. He buckled her in the passenger seat of his two passenger Porsche and drove like a madman to the hospital.

"Kid, whatever you do, don't die on the awesome me!" He drove into the emergency parking lot and ran in with her and her stuffed tiger in his arms. "I need some help here! She can't breathe!"

Two nurses immediately attended to Robyn and put her on a respirator and rolled her away on a stretcher. Gilbert went to the front desk to give information to the triage nurse.

"All I know is her name is Robyn. I just walked her home and she started coughing and that's all I know." He sighed irritably.

"I know her." A Nigerian accent spoke up and a black woman with a bandana in her hair and green scrubs came to the desk. "Robyn Hertz. She and her mother live above us and I sometimes watch her." She turned to Gilbert and touched his arm. "Thank you for your help. We'll take her from here."

"Alright." Gilbert immediately felt relieved. She was in good hands and didn't have to worry about her. She was their problem now and walked off.

Once Gilbert got home, he was greeted by a very pissed off brother. He folded his arms and glared at him.

"You went to a bar, didn't you." He growled. Gilbert suddenly remembered that he forgot about the groceries.

"No, no, I didn't. There was this little girl, zee? She got zick and I took her to the hospital. I'm not pulling zhis out of my ass, West!"

Ludwig looked up and studied him carefully. "Fine. I'll bite. Is she alright?"

"A neighbour of hers is taking care of her so ja. Her mutti didn't show up though."

"You are an idiot." Ludwig sighed. "But she's in the hospital so she is in good hands. Are you listening? Tomorrow, you are going to zhe hospital and you are going to spend at least an hour wiz her and I want to see your visitor's pass. If not, no beer for a year and you get house chores non-stop until you find a job and your own house."

"VHAT?! Zhat is cruel and unawesome punishment!" Gilbert protested.

"Then get the pass and prove zhat vas zhe truth. I'll get Chinese." Ludwig stood up to feed his dogs and get the phone.

"You're zhe best, West!" Gilbert grinned. He didn't really think about her until he went to bed when his ranting mind would not shut up. He really wanted to chew out the mother for bad parenting and wanted to gloat that he pointed out another bad person in the world.

Another thought came into his head. What would happen to the little girl? Did she have any other family or friends? What if she was in that hospital by herself for a really long time?

'Bah.' His mind echoed. 'I survived most of my childhood alone and I turned out just fine! Heck, I even raised West pretty much since Vatti was always working.' He smirked and fell asleep with Gilbird nestling in his hair.

I know I have other fanfictions I should put up... w ... -cough- Pirate Prussia Sequel and Request and other crap -cough- But this was too cute for me to do.

This fic is mostly going to be based on an old rp I did with theArtisticGenius on DA so she gets partial credit.

I own the picture and I'm hoping this will be submitted because I'm having issues getting my other story submission technique working.

I own Robyn Hertz (she's just my self insert OC and I like to play around with her personality/scenarios and this was one of my cuter rps)

I do not own Gilbert Beilschmidt or Hetalia.