Homework (Roderich)

[Ludwig Beilschmidt]

Ludwig placed his phone down after reading Roderich's message.

'He'll be here soon.' Thought Ludwig. He pull out his notebook and the image out of his bag setting them on the desk. He already pulled another chair from the other room for Roderich. All he has left is to grab some drinks. Ludwig only took a few steps out of his room before he felt something latched on his ankle. He yelped as he quickly steady himself and looked down to the impish smile of a small black dog.

"Blackie... how many times I told you not to do that." She tilted her head to the right to answer back 'several' to her owner. Signing and shaking his head at his cute pet he continue his journey down to the kitchen. He fixed up some drinks and stopped himself as he reached in the cabinet for the third glass.

'Ah right. He isn't here.'

It was a habit for him. When he get his own drink, Gilbert wanted one too. Always happens when Gilbert brought over some friends. He still doesn't know why it bugs him that Gilbert isn't around. Closing the cabinet door he pour the drink into the two glasses and picked them up and return to his room as he waited for the other to come.

[Roderich Edelstein]

Roderich shifted his shoulder to settle the messenger bag closer to his neck as he switched the violin in his left hand over to the other side and tucked it under his arm. He frowned in thought as he rang the doorbell to the Beilschmidt residence-such inefficient use of effort just so he could ring a doorbell. Kicking it would have required less fumbling effort and announced his presence just as easily, but he reminded himself that he actually had to observe manners. He wasn't like his friend Gilbert.

Which reminded him that he hadn't seen much of the elder Beilschmidt recently. It seemed neither had his younger brother Ludwig, maybe that's why Ludwig had reached out to him more and more recently. He felt the loss of Gilbert's presence more keenly. But Gilbert would be Gilbert. He was always doing things his own way. He'd wander back eventually and until then, Roderich was enjoying the experience of elder brotherhood. He had never had any siblings, so he had long ago adopted Gilbert's younger brother as a sort of extended family.

He could hear the barking and baying of several dogs within. He hoped they would quiet down quickly once he got inside. His last lesson had been with a young flute player that couldn't keep her pitches on a rather difficult piccolo part with the shorter much higher pitched instrument that she was learning. He had spent the last half hour listening to squawking trills and shrill holds that would make a dog cringe and run faster than any dog whistle. So he was now nursing the start of a tension headache that was currently auditioning for the part of villainous migraine.

He noted that no one had come yet, so he steeled his shoulders for the impending hullabaloo as he reached up to ring the doorbell again. Arf, arf, arf - arooo, aroo. Hm, he noted one bark was missing. Then he heard it- a deep throated whuff, whuff.. Then there was a stumbling crash and a growling voice cried out "Argh, ouch-Berlitz!" as a dog's pained yip leaked out. This was one of those times when he was sincerely glad his father had denied him any large pets. They usually had enough people around the place to run into, last thing they needed were animals underfoot to trip over.

Roderich was just shifting his violin back to his left hand, so he couldn't drop the precious instrument, in anticipation of the animal tsunami sure to greet him, when Ludwig swung the door open. He stood in the partially open door, his body blocking the slim opening as he stood flamingo-like with one hand on the doorknob, the other to his head, and one foot moving to block any curious canine nose that tried to peek through the opening.

Roderich might have laughed if; one-he wasn't already quite familiar with the scene minus the hand to the head, and two-he hadn't been in a sour mood and nursing a headache from a long day of classes and screeching, ill-played piccolos.

Instead he simply said with a bit of a sigh, "Well, I'm here. Part the pack, point me to the room we're working in, and let's get some ice for that head of yours."