Originally posted to my writing blog for Valentine's day. Wrote it at nearly 1AM...

On February 14 of the year 2013, at 10P.M. at night, Gilbert was getting ready for a date.

His date would start in approximately half an hour, and damn if he didn't do his best to look absolutely, indisputably, a-m-a-z-i-n-g. And hot. Not that he didn't already, but well.

Gilbert stood in his bathroom and glared at his reflection, who just couldn't tie his damn tie right. It was getting on Gilbert's nerves, the stubborness of the dumb fabric; it wasn't even as if he didn't understand the practice of readying a tie. He had done it for years, but tonight…it just wasn't working out. Was he nervous? Oh hell no. The great Prussia didn't get nervous! He had fought in wars! Conquered lands! Only passed out 14 times at the sight of Sweden!

There was no way Gilbert was nervous. Nein.

As he finally got his tie to agree with him, he spotted the large rounded container that held his brother's hair gel resting among a bunch of other hair care products that neither of the brothers ever bothered to use. Screw it. Gilbert shrugged and scooped a generous amount of gel into his hands, then rubbed it into his hair in a straight motion.

Hair slicked back, tie tied, dark collared shirt buttoned and face cleaned, Gilbert felt that he was ready. He glanced at his watch: just a few minutes early too. With a wink to himself as he left the bathroom, he set the preparations for his very special date.

Gilbert lit a few candles and placed them on the clothed dining room table, which his brother had so kindly set up for him before he left. He placed a plate of food (he had no idea what it was; Italy had cooked it) at his place at the table and dimmed the lights.

Then Gilbert grabbed his laptop, and placed it right behind the food, screen facing him. Would that be a good view?

He opened that pesky application with the blue icon on his desktop and waited as it loaded. There was too much waiting.

At last, he pressed the button and waited even more as Skype sent his request for a video chat. A few tense moments later and a face popped onto Gilbert's screen, a face he had been waiting to see all day. Gilbert's grin was so wide he felt like an idiot.

"Mattie!"

The man that was nearly 4,000 miles away laughed and waved at this companion through the computer. "Hey, Gilbert. Happy Valentine's Day!" Gilbert thought he could see Matthew's cheeks glowing a little red. Were his eyes a little watery too? The bad image quality made it hard to tell.

"Happy V-Day, Mattie! Can I ask you something?"

Matthew nodded. Or at least that's what it looked like he did.

"Will you marry me?"

Gilbert could clearly see Matthew's face reddening now. Matthew couldn't seem to find what to do with his hands, and covered his eyes with them. It looked like his lips were moving, but Gilbert couldn't make out what he was saying, if anything at all.

Gilbert snickered. "I was kidding. My real question is-" Before he could finish, a frustrated Canadian huffed and threw a pack of tissues at his laptop's webcam.

"Damn you!"

"Hey! You could've gotten that in my food!" Gilbert gestured at the plate in front of him. "I was going to ask, when can I see you in person again? So then I can ask you to marry me. Or hell, maybe you can ask me! I just want to kiss you when it happens."

Right after he finished speaking, Gilbert was met with a dark screen and an extremely annoying sound which meant one thing: Matthew had hung up. Gilbert bit his lip hard. Dammit, had he messed up?

He was about to close Skype when he got an instant message:

'Next week Saturday. I'll arrive in Berlin at noon. Don't be late.'

And a few seconds later:

'You ask me.'