23Disclaimer: Honestly, if I really did own Hetalia, don't you think that I would be swimming in money right now?
I do not own any brands, music, or drinks mentioned within this fic.
Those all belong to their respective owners..
Chapter One – Matthew
Why life is really nice to him for one minute and then decides that he doesn't deserve it, he doesn't even have the faintest clue.
It tries and takes it back and has to make him suffer, he will never know the reason why.
But what he does know is that the college you go to is that of your own free will.
Most people who try to go to college go for getting a good-paying job that makes it as a good career for themselves as a living of their choice right?
In most cases, that would absolutely be held as the truth.
Well, most people are not like Matthew Williams.
If it were his choice, then he would have gone to college and earn a doctoral degree so that he could become a pediatrician. He enjoys working with kids himself because he feels as if he knows what will make them pay attention to what a doctor would tell them.
That and because he feels that if he can't be able to change something within his life, then he can at least know that he would be able to change that child's life in one way or another.
Yep, if he had a choice.
Or option.
…
Too bad that he wasn't given a choice nor a second option.
His father would automatically leave him in the same room if Matthew so much as even mentions about the job that he currently has. Add that to the fact that Matthew is not an assertive person—and well, that practically adds up the situation that he seems to have had gotten himself currently involved in.
Maple.
Well, at least he's getting a decent pay for what his job entitles him to do.
His only complaint is: he wished that he didn't have to go in everyday of the week, go in at a time when most people would be coming home from a stressful day and making dinner for their loved ones. Poor Kumajirou, what is he going to do if Matthew isn't there to feed him?
He releases a huge sigh.
Who's he kidding?
Kumajirou forgets him on a daily basis. If the polar bear isn't busy asking who he is, which is hurtful enough in that of itself, then he's busy looking around for a place to sleep or shuffle in the kitchen and say that he's hungry, and then go back to sleep.
"You would think that he would remember me by now," Matthew muttered as he looked from side to side of the street before walking quickly across the half-empty street.
Passing through with the group of people who go in the same direction as him, he notices that the sidewalks are more manageable to go through. And seeing as it's a Monday, not that many people are going to go through these certain streets; Matthew starts to feel less stressed out and eases up on his strict pace—ever so slightly as to where he was walking towards.
And it's not weird where he was walking at.
Nope.
Or awkward for him.
Yep, not awkward at all.
Not one bit.
You see, since his father refused to let him go to college to get his medical degree, he ended up going to college for a business degree instead.
Ugh.
Matthew doesn't like the concept of the currency behind money norbusiness.
But he wasn't given a choice now, was he?
No, he was never given a choice on which school to go to or to which college he would be able to enjoy.
Even if it has business management classes.
As he continued walking down the sidewalk, he started to notice more and more groups of people waiting in a line outside of a building.
The building looked like one of those that would rather be used as a business office for supplies instead of what it really is used for. The only drawback is that instead of where windows should be proudly displayed, there are outlines of window frames to give it the appearance of it having windows.
It's actually pretty clever, if you didn't dwell on it for too long.
The building itself is white with the panels the color of a dark blue hue that blends really well with the building, but is automatically noticed within the block that it residents itself in.
There is a sign that looks as if it managed to grow out the building, the same color scheme as the building itself. The sign says:
À Deux:
Restaurant — Night Club — Bar
Matthew sighs.
Every time he sees that sign, he wonders why they don't just remove the word 'Bar' since technically when 'Night Club' is mentioned it automatically means that there is a bar.
But his father insists on having it there.
Clarification for the customers, his father claims.
Biscuits.
At least he doesn't have to go in the daytime and get bugged the crap out of Alfred when he's working as the waiter. Alfred should stick as a waiter and not try to work his way into a more difficult position. Honestly, he does a great job as a waiter.
But as a cook or a bartender?
…
Naturally, it spells disaster.
Matthew looks around the line of people trying to find out who the bouncer for tonight is.
Sometimes it's Yao.
Rarely is it Antonio.
A majority of the time it ends up being Ludwig since he can obviously do his job right, without the worry that something might be missed. For example: those who are minors under twenty-one are trying to sneak in the club past the bouncer, and those who are of legal age that aren't trying to outsmart said bouncer.
When Antonio fills in for Yao, he doesn't tend to do his job according to the way that Arthur keeps on telling François to pass along towards Antonio.
Needed explained in lay man's terms, right?
It means that Antonio has a tendency to claim that he knows how old someone is by just looking at their appearance or their I.D., but never both at the same time.
Even to at least see that there isn't any fake I.D.'s floating around. Although about half of the time he's shamelessly flirting with young ladies who aren't even of legal age!
Well, the problem practically speaks for itself, right?
With Yao, he just seems to forget that he's supposed to let them through afterhe's done checking that they are of age.
Seeing that Ludwig was the bouncer for the night made Matthew release a rather big sigh of relief. Staring at the long line in front of him, he was deciding on whether or not he should just wait until the line has managed to wind down.
He patiently brings out his phone and almost died of panic when he saw that the screen on the phone read: 7:45 p.m. If he doesn't get a move on, then he knows for sure that he's going to become late.
And he really doesn't want to hear it from Romano on how late he was on a Monday, of all days. He mostly doesn't want to get on the Italian's bad side so early in the night before it even begins.
Matthew quickly tries to move up the line, ignoring the dirty looks that people were giving him as he kept on stumbling his way to the front of the line. Just as he was almost within reach of the start of the line, a woman firmly grabs Matthew by the arm of his jacket and hurls him back behind her.
"Who do you think you are? Trying to cut to the front of the line like that!" She said, tugging him with more force, making him fall even more behind than to what he originally was.
Matthew started to struggle a bit from within her grasp.
"I-I'm so-so-sorry if it looks like that. But if you could just please let me go? I'm already running late as it is—" He said, still struggling to see if she will let him go.
"Oh no you don't! You should be sent to the back of the line. Or better yet—" She started to grab him fully by the arm now, "You should be banned from this place!" She said, ready to twist his arm.
"Please! No! I didn't do it on purpose!" Matthew cried out as he started to struggle with much more vigor.
'Oh isn't this fuckin' great? First I tell Kumajirou not to wait up for me so that he won't go hungry. Then I find out that I have no gas so I go walking to the fuckin'
club. And now I might just possibly lose an arm all because I need to get to work on fuckin' time! This is sooooooo not my day…' Matthew thought as the woman starts to pull him to the bouncer with her.
He was about to give up and say "fuck it" when a warm hand unclasped the woman's rough hold on his arm.
"Is everything alright ma'am?" Asked a masculine voice, laced with concern, from above.
Both pause as they realize that they have managed to make a scene in front of the line, bouncer included. Matthew, who was the one closest of the two towards said bouncer, opened his clenched eyes from intimidation rather than fear saw blonde hair and blue eyes.
He wanted to sob in relief that he was going to be spared. But before Matthew could so much as even utter a word of thanks to the German, the woman beat him to the punch.
"This young man was trying to be sneaky and cut to the very front of the line!" She shrieked, glaring at Matthew the entire time.
Embarrassed, Matthew responded, "I didn't do it on purpose. I was originally going to go through the side door, but seeing as it was getting late I decided to go through the front."
He pauses, making Ludwig and the woman look at him oddly. "Fuck! Romano is going to kill me at any moment now!" Matthew moans out, messing up his hair with one hand while the other is covering his eyes in mortification.
"Did you say Romano?" Ludwig asks Matthew, mentally willing himself to not grab the boy by his shoulders and start shaking him violently for not mentioning Romano sooner.
Matthew looks up at Ludwig in disbelief.
"Romano is going to kill me if I'm not in before eight!" Matthew shrieks desperately, running both of his hands through his hair as if he's ready to rip it all out of his scalp.
"Mon Dieu! Why do I always seem to attract bad luck instead of good luck, when I need good luck the most in these situations?" He moaned, already trying to look
for the side entrance since he was wasting enough time as it is.
Ludwig focused his attention at Matthew since he started to ranted incomprehensively. "Let me see your I.D.," he says slowly.
Matthew stopped his ranting (in French), fishes out his I.D. from his back pocket, and hands it to Ludwig.
'You have got to be fuckin' shitting me! Now he fuckin' chooses to see my I.D. This is the worst moment for him to fuckin' forgotten who I am!'
In his frustration, Matthew pulls out his phone to see if he spent too much time in the front with Ludwig.
He desperately hopes not.
It read 7:50 p.m.
He calmly closes his phone and puts it in his pocket.
He swallows thickly. If Lutz didn't hurry this up then he will have to call Ivan and help him bust through the door to get the fuckin' hell in side of this stupid club! And next time, he will go through the fucking side door like the little bitch that it is…
They were all (including Matthew himself) going to be at the mercy of Romano, his tomatoes, and his olives if Ludwig doesn't let him pass through as of right now!
Matthew squeaks as he's brought out of his thoughts by feeling Ludwig put his hand upon his shoulder.
"You better hurry up there Matthew. I do not want to be on the bad end of the stick with Romano concerning why one of his employees is being held up by a 'Potatoe Bastard.' I apologize for not having recognized you sooner," Ludwig said, giving Matthew a small smile as a way to amend the damage that he has caused.
"Wait a minute! What the hell is going on right here? How can you let this young man go all Scott-free? He deserves to go to the back of the line!" The woman said, still trying to prove that she still has a sense of power over the situation at hand.
"Just because you didn't get laid yesterday, doesn't mean that you should take out your frustration on Mattie here. You should be ashamed of yourself for even going this far Diana."
The young woman kept her mouth in embarrassment as a young man with dirty blond and ocean blue eyes comes walking to them from the side walk.
The young man wore glasses just like Matthew and his head was adorned with a small curl near the front of his face. He's wearing a black leather jacket, a red ultra-tight V-neck, some blue Levi's®jeans, and a pair of black dress shoes.
He saunters his way over to where Matthew, Diana, Ludwig, but he stopped in front of Matthew.
"What, no 'Thank You' Mattie?" He says as he winked at Matthew. Matthew stared at the blond with his mouth agape in disbelief.
He shakes his head from side to side.
"W-What are you doing here at this hour Al? I thought that your shift ended hours ago…," Matthew said, silently cursing Alfred for making him get in even more late than what is expected out of him.
Double maple.
"Hm? Oh, Franny switched my hours since Iggy was complaining that I got in his way during the daytime!" Alfred said, giving Matthew a peace sign while smiling.
He groaned.
"Romano is going to kill me in—" checks phone, "—5 minutes, Al has managed to become the new waiter for the night, and Kumajirou most likely ate all of the food within my house! Worst night ever!" Matthew shouted, running his hands throughout his hair in irritation.
Alfred and Ludwig stared at each other, and then back at Matthew in fear. If there was one thing that no one wanted to see, it was that nobody wants to see Romano become upset. Not if they value sparing the chance to see Ivan coming over.
And Matthew is pretty sure that his father wants to see that the building is still standing for tomorrow.
Before anybody could so much as comment, the front door to À Deux opened and out popped a light brown-haired person with a big curl coming from the left side of his head.
"Ve, is Matthew here yet? Fratello looks like he's about to throw stuff around the club if Matthew doesn't show up in—" Feliciano says, looking from the line of people to where Ludwig, Alfred, and Matthew were at.
Until he spots Matthew.
"There you are Matthew! Quickly, come with me before Romano really gets mad," Feliciano says, walking and dragging Matthew with him inside. Alfred followed closely behind as Ludwig went to the front of the line.
He came up to Diana with a glare. "You almost cost us to find another person who can be able to bartend as well as Matthew Williams!"
Diana looked at Ludwig in confusion before she stared at him in shock as she realized what she had almost managed to make the club lose.
That's right. Matthew is the bartender at À Deux.
And what's ironic about it is: he's really good at it.
Yeah, it may sound like he's bragging about himself, but let's face it.
He has managed to get the toughest critics within all of Los Angeles to want to come to À Deux for a night of fun.
And that's from all of the reviews that have managed to even name — let alone mention — his name and the club.
He never thought that he would work in the club as a bartender. Yeah sure, he knows how to cook and let's face it; he knows how to act as an impressionable
waiter or even as a host!
But as a bartender?
Not really something that he could try to picture himself as.
When he first heard from his father that he was going to be the new bartender for À Deux, he never thought that he would be able to keep that job.
He laughed hysterically and said that if he was going to be the bartender, then they "might as well try to put Alfred as the waiter." He said it as a joke, but he knew the moment when Arthur and François looked at him with calm gazes, he was going to be the new bartender.
Matthew really doesn't like disobeying his father, so he accepted the job.
And he soon discovered how much of a hassle it would cause him.
"What?"
Matthew did all that he could to not sigh in defeat, but he did it anyway. 'This night is just turning out for the worst,'thought Matthew. And it really didn't help in his case that Romano was just looking at him.
He assumed that if he just told Romano what exactly kept him for fifteen minutes, Romano might actually consider forgiving him.
But all that he managed to get out of him was a 'what?'
Well, he should be thankful that Romano even managed to listen to him this far…
"I-I'm really sorry Romano! I really shouldn't have had bothered to have gone through the main entrance, but I was already running late as it was! Please don't hurt me!" Matthew pleaded as he was getting down on his knees, and clasped his hands together in front of himself.
Romano looked at Matthew impassively as he heard said person ranting about not being late on purpose, along with the excessive pleading in the background.
He releases a huge sigh and starts walking over to Matthew. Matthew, already anxious, started to plead more hysterically as he slowly saw Romano slowly advance towards him.
He closes his eyes as he nervously thought of the choice of words that Romano would tell him that he was going to be fired, shove, punch, or even hit him.
He hears a scoff coming from above him instead.
He looks up in hesitation and sees Romano put his right hand on his right hip as his sigh made the curl on the right side of his head bounce slightly.
"What the hell am I going to do with you Matt?" Romano said in his usual snot-nose bratty way of his.
Matthew goes absolutely still as he sees that what he just thought might come true.
Romano raises an eyebrow at him.
"You seriously thought that I was going to fire you over you coming to work late for the first time?" Romano said, with laughter ringing in his voice. At this, Matthew grew more panicky.
Romano sighed.
"Matthew, you are one of our best bartenders that we've had since Frederick. You really think that we're going to fire you because you were…," Romano takes a
quick glance at his watch, "…5 minutes late? Well, you're not so stop worry about it.
"Since you're always here on time, it's not counted against you…just don't let it become a habit, you got that?" Romano said; hand still on his hip and his body flaring out with attitude.
He has never looked more intimidating to Matthew before than now.
He shudders.
He felt as if though he was going to pass out.
Right here on the floor.
"A-Are you telling me that since I'm not going to be fired—which I am really thankful for—that I'm not going to be repaying you in any special way?" Matthew asked, surprise written all over his face as his eyebrows rose up.
Romano slowly smirks as he lets out a bark of laughter. While he was telling Matthew this, Matthew slowly got up from groveling on the floor.
His eyes widen as he absorbs what Romano has managed to say, sink in: Romano isn't angry at him for being late, but he's not letting him go unscathed.
Pause.
Triple Maple.
This really isn't going to end well, is it?
Romano gives Matthew a stern look as he sits on a chair behind his desk.
His office has nice beige toned furniture, his walls a pale pasty yellow; the carpet rug a richly wine color, the desk a nice polished mahogany color. Only Romano's chair was made out of black leather than beige.
The office was furnished as any other stereotypical club, except that he prefers to have the light on since it's 'retarded that you can't just turn the fucking light on instead of stumbling in the dark.'
In his opinion at any rate.
He extended his hand towards the two seats, in front of his desk, at Matthew. Matthew quickly stumbles his way towards the seat near the right.
As soon as he sat down, he brought his hands on his lap and looked nervously at Romano, fearing the worst.
Romano clasps his hands in front of Matthew, resting his head onto of said hands; he looks directly at him.
"You're going to be punished. But it's not going to seem as awful as you think it is. Now let me see—," Romano says, rummaging through his drawers. Matthew, feeling frozen, looks at Romano in horror as he dreads what he plans on making Matthew do.
"Aha! Found it!" Romano said, pulling out a small black and bounded book. He looks at Matthew slowly and sneers at him.
"Now then, are you ready to start today or wait until tomorrow?"
Matthew swallows.
Yep, definitely not going to end well on his part.
"Can I at least hear what I am going to be doing?" Matthew asks in a hopeful voice.
Romano slowly smirks.
"How about I make you start tomorrow instead?"
"What?"
"I have a feeling you're going to want to start tomorrow anyway, right?"
And to think that he was going to have to worry about it being a Monday...