DISCLAIMER: Even though I mentioned this in chapter one, I'll mention it again: I don't own the characters mentioned within A Little Bit Wicked by Victoria Alexander, Junjou Romantica, the music played, nor the mentioning of colleges in here…All I own is the way I manipulate the characters of Hetalia in certain situations and the plotline. That's about it…=. =
I'm so sorry that this came out later than to what I would have wanted. I had no inspiration to write this chapter for three weeks (oh the woes of working) and I would just knock out flat as soon as I get home (meaning that I had no time to write). When inspiration suddenly hits me, the tower for my computer (the "hard drive" as my cousin likes to call it) decides to be all like "Bitch please! I'm going to like make you suffer for another two weeks until you find something better!" That's how long it took me to find a new tower that I could feel comfortable with, so I had to deal with a corrupt tower along with it fucking around with my file that had this chapter.
When I saved it onto my flash drive (since I got in the habit of saving it on there), it wouldn't let me edit it—let alone open it. I basically had a "How the fuck am I going to update this chapter?" moment. I had to buy a new flash drive since I found out that my old tower had a virus that attached itself onto my flash drive, corrupting all of my fucking files on there and I had to re-type this chapter up. TT^TT
I would just like to honestly thank lightwolfheart and Antonio Carriedo for reviewing in the last chapter (and on telling me how many time skips there were). Sadly, only one of you is mentioned within this chapter—briefly—but don't fret! I already have you involved in some funny stuff in the next chapter (that I am currently typing as we speak), so don't think that I only did that to spite the both of you…-x-;
Chapter Nine – Ludwig
"No!"
Huffing.
"Come on, you know you want it. Everybody wants it from you especially. Wouldn't want your fans to become disappointed, right?"
He thrusts his hips towards another pair in front of him.
He hears him grunt—trying to ignore his advances up to this point. He chuckles lowly.
He always did love a good challenge.
Especially if the challenge is starting to put up a fight within the first ten seconds of even talking to him about meeting him in the back alleyway in a couple of minutes, that is.
"Stop this! I never said that I was interested in you! Let me go this—!"
He kisses those resistant puckered lips in front of him.
Oh, how he missed doing anything sexual with someone for so long.
Even though it's been two weeks, he misses doing these kinds of things with his Aussie.
He frowns.
It was because of that slutty Aussie that he was in this situation—in it with him as his partner.
He shakes his head.
No.
Now was not the time to go down Memory Lane since he needs to pay attention to what's in front of him.
He focuses his attention back on the person within his arms.
Yes, he enjoys that thought very much.
"Are you willing to tell me how much I have to pay in order for you to sleep with me?"
He sees the other person shaking their head furiously.
He frowns.
That wasn't the reaction that he was hoping would come out of him.
"I'd rather let you rape me instead of being paid by you!"
He spits out the words at Adnan.
That's right.
Sadik Adnan.
The other pole dancer there besides Feliciano—when he wasn't working at À Deux, that is.
He shivers as he wonders how long the both of them have been standing out the side door of the club—away from public view besides the alleyway.
He hopes that Yao will come around the corner—since Ludwig has yet to show his sexy ass up—and save him from Adnan's slimy hold on him. Which he was really starting to get nauseates at—if Adnan's firm hold on him is any indication.
He still wonders how Adnan's relationship with that Aussie could have gone for a turn of the worst. He's seen them—first hand too!—and he can't understand how a relationship that looked so promising could end up in ruin, shattered pieces for Adnan. He was willing to make the relationship work—which was a first for Felik to witness considering since that was Adnan's first serious relationship at all—and now it look like he's going to get punished because of his witnessing.
Adnan gives him a creepy smile, making Felik's already climbing heartbeat speed up even more in fear of what the meaning behind that smile is.
Felik feels goose bumps running up and down his spine as he gets a hunch at what Adnan plans on doing to him.
"Is that so?"
He gives Felik a rough shake forcing him to hit the back of his head against the wall hard enough for Felik to feel something starting to seep down, making him realize it was blood that was seeping down from the right side of his head to his neck.
Felik looks at Adnan in horror.
Maybe he won't be able to live through this unharmed as he first thought he was going to be after all.
He automatically starts to make a mental list of all the people that he cares about or of the bad arguments that he has had with—his family, friends, fuck even with his boyfriend—as he starts to whimper and tries to pry Adnan's hands off of his neck where they were from the start of this little episode. Not to mention that he was starting to feel some sort of a bruise forming from the tight grip that Adnan has managed to have held on to.
"And here I was willing to pay you for your services. You know, before you started to work at the club?"
He forces Felik to nod.
'If I'm not like traumatized enough with what Adnan's like about to like do—I'll fucking kill myself. No matter what Toris or like anybody else says!'
Feliks thinks as he notices Adnan's hand trailing down from his bruising neck and starts to caress his collarbone.
Both notice that even though the side door has been left slightly ajar—mostly because Felik has been fighting tooth and nail to not be shoved against the wall—they could hear the sound of music being played floating towards them.
Mostly signaling to Adnan that he better show up from whatever he's doing and get back to work.
Or else.
"There's a place downtown
Where the freaks all come around
It's a hole in the wall
It's a dirty free for all
"When the dark of the night
Comes around, that's the time
That the animal comes alive
Looking for something wild
"And now we're lookin' like pimps
In my gold Trans-Am
Got a water bottle full of whiskey in my handbag
Got my drunk text on
I'll regret it in the mornin'
But tonight I don't give a
I don't give a
I don't give a"
Felik slumps his head in defeat as he realizes which song that was.
He knows how those kinds of songs affect Adnan.
Apparently, he wasn't the only one…
'You just hadto like play that! Of all the like fucking songs that you could like choose in like the meantime, you like picked that one! Stupid Arthur and like all of his shitty-ass song choices!'
Adnan looks at Felik in the eye—his dull green-brown eyes slowly growing in lust.
"You know why I'm acting like this, don't you Felik?"
He murmurs huskily as he rubs his face against the crook of Felik's neck gently, smelling his scent as he does so.
Felik gulps, hoping that Adnan won't mistake his rapidly beating heart for growing lust instead of pure fear.
"I-I don't see wh-why I have to b-be the one you come to. Besides, I never agreed to this!"
Adnan focuses his attention at those petrified light blue eyes.
He shakes his head.
No.
Light blue eyes belonged to that damn two-timing Aussie not to this incredibly sensuous person in front of him within his arms.
Those eyes were nice—a neon green that could pull him in, captivate, make him want to see what color they would turn if he managed to stimulate the male in front of him good enough to have him screaming his name out in pleasure. Make him strive to become a better person that he could be proud of, to always make him say the truth and tell everyone else to fuck off if he wasn't already honest enough to begin with. He would always try to be there to comfort him, tell him to always look at the bright side of his decisions along with the bad—not just the bad ones all by themselves. That and never even dare try to make him remember that slut who broke his heart.
Was it just Felik like hallucinating shit again—or was like Adnan's grip on him starting to like go limp?
Felik shakes his head—since the amount of blood that he was starting to lose was making his eye sight weaken—as his vision sharpens and looks at the arms extended in front of him.
He fails to notice that the Turk placed his hands on either side of his face against the wall with his head slumps down in even more defeat than to what Felik showed earlier—and also noting that if he tries to escape at that very moment—he really would most likely get raped. And it wouldn't matter if Felik tries to sweet talk his way out of it or not this time around. There would have to be a price paid.
Felik was pretty sure that he didn't want to become the one forced on paying it.
So he decided to play it by ear and see how it goes from there. Hoping that when he sees a chance to run—he'll run like the little pansy fairy that he is!—he'll fuckin' run like there's no tomorrow!
"Why is it when I decide to commit myself into a serious relationship, I get hurt badly or it wasn't that serious in the first place?"
Adnan lowly murmurs, making Felik lean his head to the right to catch what he's talking about, and starts to silently weep.
Felik, at a loss for words, mentions the first thing that pops inside of that pretty little blond head of his.
"Did you ever think…?"
Felik starts to mention innocently, making Adnan snap out of his reeve and focus on what Felik was trying to say.
"…that maybe you should like—I don't know—have had checked if the person that you wanted to get into a relationship with was the type to cheat?"
Felik cringes, expecting for Adnan to become upset with him and punish him for speaking to him in a way that makes him angry.
Adnan looks at Felik in amazement that he only used the word 'like' once—and noticing that he was cringing as well—and starts to see that Felik has a point. He should have known that the Aussie was the type to cheat, let alone be the type to deny that anything of the sort was going on.
Adnan starts to feel guilty about his actions—before and after he got together with the Aussie—and feels even more so seeing how he hasn't spoken to what Felik asked him, who was still shaking with nerves coursing in and throughout his body. He starts to feel sick with how he has been going about with his methods, just to get what he thought would have had been the start of a better working relationship, and then realize that it has to be with someone who isn't in a relationship with another person at the moment. It has to be with a person who is single and is willing to be committed. The type who won't go cheating behind your back and lie about it. Even if he has a lot of clues leading up to the cheating and that person still denies it.
Noticing that Adnan wasn't going to be talking soon, Felik tries to think about what to say.
"O-Or I could just be saying from my past experiences. Everyone has their own experiences and I shouldn't be one to judge. If you haven't experienced that, then you should ignore what I said about that right now. If you have though, third time's the charm, right?"
Adnan starts to laugh at Felik's display at trying to lessen the shockingly awkward atmosphere between the two.
Who knew that Felik could be cute when you gave him the chance to be?
"Do not worry about me causing harm to you. I have realized what my actions have caused concerning the Aussie—Steven."
Before Felik could comment, they both hear two girls giggling about some new romance novel that one of the two just recently bought. Something about how this British lady was a scandal and that the Viscount should stay clear of her or something. Something about how normal British people lead very interesting lives when no one's paying attention that is, or some bullshit like that.
"Well I think that Lady Judith shouldn't be with Viscount Gideon because obviously she wants to stay friends with him and he doesn't. Also, because I think that she has this thing for one of her bosom buddies, no?"
Lenny snorts at Kate's biased comment, making Kate slip the finger in her general direction.
"Well, why shouldn't she have a thing for one of her friends? They kept that on the low-key back then, as well as for the men, you know? I don't think that it's fair to keep a relationship like that a secret. Let alone deny that they want one another so much."
"You know what I think? I think that we should meet up with Lorelei at À Deux before she starts claiming that I was letting you see Michelle again—without my consent, mind you—and starts to lecture the both of us as to why we should tell her where we're heading off to."
"It's not my fault that a certain somebody wanted to see her 'Hatori-kun' oh so fuckin' much! Like seriously, I am sooo glad that I play for the other team. Guys just don't have that same sexually erotic appeal that girls do most of the time. And the way that they fuckin' move their—"
"Let's see if she's here already!"
Lenny rushes in quickly, interrupting whatever Kate was about to say, knowing that Kate hit a nerve when she saw that Lenny was blushing in embarrassment. And as to where that statement was about to head off towards.
"I think that we should head in the club now, no? Wouldn't want you to miss out on the chance to hook-up with that one Vietnamese chick that we've seen hanging around for a while now, right?"
Lenny laughs at Kate's hungry expression when she mentioned the Vietnamese. Kate bobs her head in agreement to the curly haired brunette to her left. The girls make their way to the side entrance of the club, ignoring the poorly made intimate display in front of the two, making sure that the door stays the same way that it was when they saw it.
"Hey, did you see those two guys hitting it off? It looks like something from that one manga that I really wanted to buy!"
"Lenny, how many times have I fuckin' told you? I've told you that you've read that manga online thousands of times already! Why don't you try reading that one manga where this dude's older brother's friend ends up having a thing for him? What was the name of that one again? Junjou—?"
The voices from the girls fade away, leaving a panting Felik and a semi-aroused Adnan standing there in the alleyway. Adnan releases his hold on Felik, stepping backwards slowly, watching his every reaction as he does so.
Adnan sighs, noticing that Felik hasn't moved from his spot on the wall. He walks up to Felik, making sure that Felik notices what he is doing throughout the entire time, until he is within two inches from his face. Felik, who has had his eyes closed throughout the whole scene with the two girls walking by and almost completely ignoring them, slowly opening his eyes to see that Adnan has moved closer than to what he saw of his face before he closed them. Confusion written all over his face, Felik turns his head to the side, making Adnan back-up a couple of steps.
Enough space for Felik to run away if he wanted to. But he didn't, which is what's confusing him at the moment. Adnan looks at Felik warily while Felik just stares at him without commenting about anything. It makes Adnan sigh in defeat.
"Look I—"
"I'm really sorry!"
Both stare at each other, trying to understand what the other person said. Adnan, who has already retraced his steps, starts to walk two steps towards Felik very slowly. Felik, who was trying to think of what else he could apologize for, automatically flinches at seeing Adnan starting to come into close contact with the space bubble that he has managed to create for himself since he started to work at the club. That Adnan has completely ignored as he nears a few more inches before he comes to a secure stop in front of him.
Adnan looks at Felik in surprise at how he was acting towards him, then mentally chaises himself and knows that it was because of how rough he was coming on to Felik, making act like that in the first place. Felik slowly starts to press himself against the wall—expecting Adnan at any moment to attack him—not noticing the way that Adnan jerked in a motion that one could automatically call as guilt.
Adnan shakes his head, realizing how Felik was trying to shut off his mind with thoughts and leave his body detached. Almost as if he was—acting as if he was the lowly paid slut that he was making him out to be not that long ago. He feels his stomach twist as he understood the way that Felik's was moving his body. He needed to think of something before Felik goes to the point where people would be afraid to venture off to—realizing what the consequence would end up being, that is.
"It's not awkward until it's interesting."
Felik jolts out of his train of thought that he put himself in as he realizes that Adnan has spoken just now. He shakes his head, making sure to shake hard enough to forget that place that he was recently—including that one fairy that looks sort of just like Toris—as he tries to remember what Sadik had said to get him out of that train of thought.
He could only think of one thing to say though.
"What?"
Original, right?
Adnan releases a laugh that makes Felik's confusion even more pronounced.
Translation?
Felik is even more fuckin' confused than when he was pushed against the wall. At least he could be able to tell what they were going to be doing when Adnan was talking to him dirty. But this, this randomness is too much to take in—even though Adnan is still aroused from earlier. Shaking his head from side to side, he notices Adnan watching him like a hawk—making sure that he doesn't abandon his body again. He flinches.
Adnan sighs, after seeing Felik flinch.
Again.
"I said: it's not awkward until it's interesting. Why, does that strike you as a weird comment to mention out of nowhere?"
Felik snorts.
"I like dunno maybe it's because you like almost like raped me right now and then like suddenly stopped in mid-rape?"
Adnan could hear the sarcasm from where he's standing at. Ignoring the look of distaste on Felik's face, Adnan lets his hand rest on Felik's shoulder and pushes down against it.
"I understand that I have stepped out of line with how my behavior has been recently—but it's only because I've had some personal issues aside from the Aussie that has managed to make me snap."
He sighs, releasing Felik's shoulder in the process and not left unnoticed by Felik.
"I know that I am the least favorite person that you would like to speak with at the moment; I just assumed that you would be able to help me out with my problem. Obviously, that wasn't the most appropriate approach to go by."
Felik snorts in agreement to Adnan's statement, making sure that he understands that Felik is willing to listen to what he says and see if he could help the poor bastard in some way.
He tries to hold back a shudder as he grimances.
Not involving anything sexual.
"Obviously that wasn't like what was like happening here, huh?"
Adnan shakes his head.
"I did not mean to have gone that extreme, but with how you were struggling, it was what made me spurred on by getting you out here that much faster."
Felik looks at Adnan in amazement.
"Oh hell nah! You like did sooo not just like blame this on me right now!"
Adnan looks at Felik in a chiding manner.
"Then how would you like to explain what happened exactly ten minutes ago?"
"…"
"That's what I thought…"
Felik, ignoring the embarrassing blush that was spreading across his cheeks, walks past Adnan.
"Whatever. I have to like get back to work or else I'm gonna like have to talk to Romano why I wasn't like at my post. One of us has to be like back anyway."
"Felik…"
Felik stops walking, looking back at Adnan, noticing that he looked reluctant to have even uttered his name.
"Look…"
Adnan looks at Felik, who was already a good two steps away from the door.
Felik looks off to the side, making Adnan notice that what Felik was about to say was going to be awkward.
"I won't mention this to anyone…so; you don't have to worry about me having a word with Arthur or François—just so long as you don't like mention this to anyone about my past—!"
Adnan holds up his hand, silencing Felik's rant in mid-pause.
"There's nothing to mention as long as there's no drama, right?"
Felik nods his head in agreement, relieved that Adnan caught on quickly.
"Good…I just have one more question to ask of you, and then you could go back in."
Felik, who was breathing a sigh of relief, looks at Adnan as he's up against the wall in contemplation.
"If it's anything about how I ended up like how I am now—"
"How long have you known that one person with the dark brown hair, olive green eyes, and mocha-colored skin?"
Felik blinks at Adnan.
"Say what…?"
Adnan blushes, trying to cover his embarrassment with a cough, making Felik notice that he was trying to act nonchalant about the question.
"Don't tell me—you're interested in Guppie-chan?"
"I-Is that his name?"
He looks at Adnan.
At his intensified blush, Felik squeals.
"So you do, huh? Do you want me to like hook you guys up? Of course you do! Now, were should I like set you guys up? How about that like one table where YongSoo likes to frequent a lot in the club, where that one like lets you see on the dance floor and where you can like easily get up to go to the bathroom and get some drinks at, while it's like dark enough for the two of you to be like flirting and to not be interrupted by anyone like passing by? Or maybe like—?"
"Y-You're not surprised by t-this then?"
"Whaaat?"
Felik looks at Adnan in amusement.
"Why would I be? Obviously Guppie-chan's had like a thing for you for like a while now—so it was only a matter of time before we like found out how you like felt about him—and to know that you like harbor the same feelings for like a while now! Oh like what a fun time this will be! I wonder what he's like wearing tonight... Maybe I should call him up and like ask—?"
He feels Adnan place two hands on either side of his shoulders, making Felik pause in calling Gupta. He smiles at Adnan.
"Am I getting ahead of myself?"
Adnan furiously nods his head in agreement.
"It's too much too fast at the moment."
Felik sighs in disappointment.
Er, dramatically, actually.
At least that's what it looked like in Adnan's opinion.
"And here I like thought that you wanted to like get on the "single-but-interested" bus ride already…"
He murmurs.
"So what do I have to do now?"
Adnan asks, not noticing what Felik muttered.
He looks at Adnan with a smirk.
"We like go in there, and I'll like show you that like by the end of the night, you'll be like leaving with Guppie-chan—or at least to have like a date with him."
Adnan looks at Felik in amazement.
"Shouldn't I get to know him at least?"
Felik's smirk widens.
"I already like know enough to have the two of you like this—" he shows Adnan two of his fingers intertwined closely together "—for the two of you to like get to know one another by like the end of the night. That's like my real goal for tonight. Understand?"
Adnan pretends to sigh in defeat, but Felik could tell that he was excited.
"Well, fuck. Might as well freshen up a bit, right?"
Adnan gives Felik a nervously excited smile.
Felik gives Adnan a reassuring smile, making sure to pat him on the shoulder.
"Like hell yeah!"
And freshen up he will.
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"…I always labeled you as "Luddy's-jerky-older-brother", but I thought that I was being inconsiderate and that you probably had your reasons as to why—"
"Feli—"
"—but after hearing Luddy's theories—er, views on how you really are—it made me think that you just wanted to hit me so that you could make Luddy feel as if it was my fault that he happened to have turned gay—"
At this word, both Beilschmidt brothers flinch at how harsh the word sounds coming from Feliciano's mouth, making them have a fresh stab of guilt.
It also didn't help that they managed to drag the table where Ludwig and Feliciano were around five feet away from the table where 'Tonio and Romano were seated at, talking in a loud voice, and not noting that the couple behind them look at them was slowly making their way to the bathroom in loud voices.
"—it only ended up hurting my self-esteem. I mean, I didn't have much to boost it—what with Lovi always pushing and pulling 'Tonio back and forth; our parents' funerals two months from each other; me just recently finding out that I preferred guys instead of girls—when I met Ludwig, I thought 'Hey, this could be the one person who could help me be who I am. He probably has a good family that supports him on being homosexual as well.' It wasn't until I noticed that you didn't agree with what was going on, did I realize that Luddy didn't tell you at all."
He pauses, letting the words that he uttered sink in to the one person that they were meant to be said towards.
"But then I thought about how you didn't give us a chance to talk to you. You left so quickly that it made your parents reconsider if maybe sending you to boot camp every summer was a good idea since you and your friend had enough supplies to last you a good year while the both of you were on the run. Ludwig would always say that it was his fault—that he should have mentioned something to you before-hand—that he should have given you little hints here and there so that you wouldn't have had been as shocked as you were at that moment.
"I honestly never wanted to cause any harm to anyone—but after seeing how much hatred you had towards me—I started to think that maybe you wanted me to die in the deepest part of the Atlantic Abyss and not have me bothering to waste your time on trying to see a 'dysfunctional relationship' working."
By this point, Gilbert had his face in his hands hunched over; Ludwig trying to comfort Feliciano by pulling him into a hug; and Feliciano looking at Gilbert with an impassive look on his face throughout the entire time they have started to talk to him.
"How many times I've wanted to say 'sorry' to your face, but never getting the courage to call Ludwig on the phone—or go to our parents' house and apologize face to face for all the harm that I've caused you—or tried to make it up to you by sending some of your favorite pasta—"
His breathing hitches up, trying to keep down the urge to cry with choking sobs—not noticing that Feliciano kissed Ludwig and murmured a quick "He gets it now"—before he gets engulfed by Ludwig's and Feliciano's arms around his head and torso.
He pauses in his ranting to look up at the two, making it obvious that he was sobbing very manly tears (awesome manly tears, he mentally added), releasing a shaky sigh of relief at being forgiven by the one person that he needed to hear that from the most.
"I think that you went overboard with getting your revenge Feli."
Ludwig comments carefully, checking to make sure that he has a secure grip on Gilbert—in case he tries to do anything suspicious—towards Feli if he's not paying attention, that is.
"I totally deserved it though, so I can see how Feliciano wanted this revenge to be timed."
Gilbert says, making sure that his breathing has come back to normal, patting Ludwig's arms with his hands and silently telling him 'It's okay now'.
Feliciano nods in agreement.
"I had to think for some time on what type of revenge would get you to understand that you were acting irrational—running away—and not letting us explain not even once about what everyone else thought."
Gilbert sighs, slowly prying Feliciano's arms away from his torso, before he stands up and starts pacing back and forth from the table.
"I didn't think that I would end up running away with Elizaveth, but after she got rejected one too many times by her father what was I supposed to do say 'Hey thing's will get better!' and hope that her father didn't push her over the edge again? No, I had to promise her something that could give her a sturdy ground that won't crumble in front of her feet.
"That's really the only reason why I ended up 'snapping' on all of you at the time. It was to give Elizaveth the edge that she needed to get away from the house of crazies that she was living with—which, might I add, make Elizaveth look like she's the sane one in that house—and since I was the only one who had boot camp, saw me as the only person that she could trust in going 'out in the woods' with."
Ludwig nods.
"That makes more sense since Anastasia, Edward, and Annabelle were calling the F.B.I. and the S.W.A.T. team to search for Elizaveth."
Gilbert shudders, recalling how much trouble him and Elizaveth have managed to have done—especially about how no one slept the first week since her parents were looking everywhere for their 'lost' child.
"Hey Gilbert~"
Gilbert looks over at Feliciano in confusion.
"Do you know where fratello and Antonio have gone to~?"
Both Ludwig and Gilbert blush—making Feliciano bob his head to the side—since they knew where his 'fratello' went.
"Er…Feli—"
"They went outside to get some fresh air! Isn't that right Lutz?"
Gilbert says, cutting off on what Ludwig would tell Feliciano.
Ludwig, looking at Gilbert with an eyebrow raised, agrees.
"Ja, Antonio noticed how flustered Lovino was looking, so he took him outside while you were talking. I tried to tell you but—"
You were still talking to Gilbert about what he did…
Feliciano smiles, understanding what Ludwig meant about the 'but' part hanging in the air.
"We should really finish our food, right Gilbert~?"
Gilbert nods.
"Wouldn't want Vanya's hard work go to waste."
Feliciano perks up.
"You mean to say that a woman cooked us all of our meals~?"
Ludwig notices Gilbert go pale at the mention of 'Vanya' being referred as a woman.
"Uh…let's just say that Vanya isn't a woman, okay Feliciano?"
Feliciano nods in agreement quickly.
"I wonder what's taking fratello so long~?"
Gilbert had to hold in a laugh.
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"I thought that I told you that if you said anything stupid, you weren't going to get me to behave properly!"
"Aww, what's wrong Lovi~? I thought that you said that it was okay to do this~?"
"Yeah, but not with the whole fucking part where you—shiiiiiiiiiit Antonio that fucking hurts!"
"Si mi querido. Yo se, yo se."
Lovino tries to hold back the tears and sobs that want to be released.
"D-Don't do that!"
"¿Porque no?"
"You know I hate it when you talk in fuckin' Spanish!"
"But mi Lovinito loves it when I talk to him en Español~!"
Lovino sighs, having already given up trying on getting away and just letting those fingers go back to what they were doing.
Almost.
"OUCH!"
"¡Ah perdon Lovi! It's just that—"
"I thought t-that you—h-hah!—said that you were going to be—n-ngh!—fucking gentle with m-me!"
"I'm trying to be! Just let me finish doing this and then I could get you back up!"
"No! You've already done enough damage to it!"
"¿Yo te hise daño? You were the one who thought that you could do it yourself! Si sabia que tu hibas a ser esto—"
"Don't act as if you were right this entire time!"
"Lovi, si no paras ahorita, I'm going to hurt you."
"Like hell I'm gonna stop now! Move already!"
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Roderich tries to hold back from running back the direction he came from, not sure if what he's hearing is what really is going on inside.
Sure, he decided to take a break since Gilbert has yet to come back into the kitchen, but then he found out that Gilbert made him drink that Big Gulp® filled to the brim with lemonade, claiming that "Only the most awesomest of men can chug it down without acting all high and mighty about what a waste of time", looking at Roderich the entire time he was saying that. Almost daring Roderich to say it (in that prissy way that he says most stuff) so that Gilbert was right so that he could have another chance to call him a "Baby girl man boy" again.
'Mein Gott how I regret that…' Roderich thought, trying to not appear as if he's on the verge of exploding if he doesn't make it to the restroom in time.
Before he could push open the door and take a leak, he hears a shove against the door, and the next thing he knows he ends up hearing Lovino and Antonio in the restroom doing certain things that make one wonder. Or not.
Not one to dwell on that, Roderich spins on his heel and walks back into the way back of the kitchen. Where there are restrooms for the employees who can't stand to be going at the same place as the customers. Or at least, that's the argument that Nataliya gives Kiku.
After coming from the restroom, Roderich decides to look for Ivan—since he is the only available apart from Roderich himself—who could hold on to a good conversation just as good as him.
That and Roderich is curious as to what Ivan was to Gilbert.
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"—dering if you were going to come home late just like yesterday since you are trying to avoid seeing Nataliya again…?"
"Da, but it's only because Antonio is having a double date with his boyfriend's brother." (^.^)
"Is that so? I thought that they said it was going to be a little kid's party—you know how I enjoy helping when it's those kinds of parties!" (:o)
"Da, it really is hilarious watching everyone here believe that I'm some imbecile that doesn't know how to take hints…" (^.^)
"You know I don't like it when they harass you like that—it's just not right! And here I thought that they were all past that phase to think that you could beat them up…"
"You know that I only add on to their views, right?"
"…that does not make it right. You know that. I don't understand why you don't let them see this side of you! I think that everyone will feel less tense if they see that you are capable of coherent thought, think quickly, and show that you can comprehend what they imply…"
"Um…I may have done something like that today…" (^.^;)
"I wish that you would prove to them that you—what? That's great! What did you do? What did you say? Where they impressed? Did you manage to make some friends—?" (:D)
"They looked as if I was in on their little game…they had this look of complete and absolute horror written upon their faces…" (^.^)
"Oh, that sounds terrible, how could they? That's not right! Do you want me to do something about that? Do you want me to talk to Kiku about this? Or maybe Natali—?"
"Is Nataliya there with you at the moment?"
"Hm? Yes, did you want to talk to her…?" ('.')?
"NO! I-It's just that, you know that she freaks me out, right?"
"Vanya, I know. She only did that because cares about you a lot and didn't want to see you getting hurt by—" (:/)
"Da, but that's not what we were talking about, right?"
"Da, but you could at least be somewhat thankful that she took him off of your hands…" (=.=)
"Literally." (=.=;)
"Is it still that much of a shocker for you?"
"…you knew how much. And yet, in the end to see that he chose Nataliya over me—"
"I know Vanya, I know. I just wished that he didn't do that."(;—;)
"Da, but if he didn't go to her, then I wouldn't have met Alfred…" (^/^)
"This reminds me! Are you going over to his place after you're done over there at Canorous?"
"Ahahaha, well I don't know about that—hey, I think I'm getting a text from him."
"Ah! Okay then! Call me if you need anything, alright?"
"Da, I will call you. Thank you Katyusha." (^.^)
"No problem sweetie! Just make sure to use protection, okay?" (^.^)
"…I really wish you didn't have to say that to me…" (=.=;;)
"Ahahaha, if I don't then who will remind you?" (:D)
"I think that Bella, Elizaveth, and Michelle are starting to have an effect on you…" (-.-;)
"Don't be silly! I just don't want my little brother getting something—or his boyfriend for that matter."
"Hm…if you are sure…" (=.=)
"Of course I'm sure! Why wouldn't I? You would know if I was lying to you."
"Okay then…" (=.=)
"Bye! And good luck!"
"Da, the same goes to you. Don't let Nataliya go home drunk."
"As if she's going to down that much vodka in one go and threaten Edward to start molesting Raivis."
"You'd be surprised by the stuff that she does…".
"O-kay…?"
"Bye." (=.=)
"Bye sweetie!"
CLICK!
Ivan sighs, attempting to put his phone on vibrate.
But before he could so much as open his phone, he hears the ringtone that he put for a certain blond play.
"But if I had you,
That would be the only thing I'd ever need
Yeah if I had you,
Then money, fame and fortune never could compete
If I had you,
Life would be a party, it'd be ecstasy
Yeah, if I had you
You y-y-y-y-you y-y-y-y-y-you y-y-y-y-y-you
If I had—"
He opens it to see what his sunflower sent him.
Vanya!
Do u mind havin'
a movie date nit?
Dn't feels like goin' out
tonit. Wut do u says?
~ Hamburgers FTW
Ivan laughs and types back his response to Alfred.
Sunflower, I thght
tht u wnted 2 go
out tonit since u were
verrry hyper bout
wnting 2 try
tht 1 restaurant…
McDonalds?
~ Sunflower lover
Hell yea! I wanna try
their new menu!
Then again I wanna
stay home! TT^TT
Why r u makin' me choose?
Fuckin' hell Vanya!
~ Hamburgers FTW
Ivan, laughing, quickly replies back.
Nyet, I jus thght tht u
wanted 2 go 2 tht,
but since u don't wanna…
~ Sunflower lover
Nonononononono!
Gah! Now I have 2 choose!
U sucks Vanya!
~ Hamburgers FTW
The only thng tht
I suck is u btw,
u spelled 'suck'
as 'sucks'
~ Sunflower lover
…Tht 1st comment isn't
necessary Vanya
~ Hamburgers FTW
It's only 'cause u
started it :P
~ Sunflower lover
…I hate u sooo much
rit now…smart ass
~ Hamburgers FTW
My butt isn't smart…
an u kno tht u don't have
to go hatin' me rit
now :)
~ Sunflower lover
…ass hole
~ Hamburgers FTW
Before Ivan could comment back, he hears a thud from his far left. Curious as to what could have caused that noise; he slips his phone back inside of his pants, and pulls out a pipe from his right.
It just so happens to be a faucet pipe that leaks.
Ivan, listening to every sudden movement, tries to pin-point exactly where the noise came from; looking under the counter, the oven, the section within the kitchen that is designed specifically for cutting or putting the last touches on a dish, the entrance to the kitchen, behind the shelves where they keep most of the ingredients on hand, the employee's restroom.
Empty.
How odd.
'The only place that I haven't checked is—'
BAM!
Ivan goes skidding backwards—hitting his head against a metal shelf—and noticing that there was something heavy pinning him to said cupboard. Thinking that Berwald must have thought that he was hitting on Tino again, Ivan gets ready to swing the pipe.
"Wait!"
Ivan stops, realizing that the 'something heavy' was a person, he drops the pipe on the floor—making a loud 'Dink!' sound as it does so.
Ivan looks and seeing a disturbed Roderich's face, tries to compose himself.
"That was not a smart move to make Roderich. I assumed that you were someone else and I was about to strike."
Roderich nods, getting off of Ivan just as fast as when he collided with him, and tries to come up with an excuse when he sees the pipe on the floor.
He pauses, finally registering what Ivan said.
Ivan, seeing Roderich realize that he spoke a coherent sentence, mentally smacks himself while thinking, 'I think that I just blew my only chance to not make Roderich suspicious.'
"N-No! You had every reason! I just didn't think that you would use a faucet pipe as a self-defense weapon…"
Roderich looks at Ivan in the eye, making Ivan's skin crawl at the intensity of another pair of violet eyes—not his own, mind you—staring intently at him.
Saying "Awkward~!" at a time like this wouldn't even begin to describe what Ivan felt at the moment.
Not by a long shot.
"You know…"
Roderich starts, making Ivan reconsider about if he actually pulled off the whole 'I'm not as smart as you think I am' act when everyone looked at him in surprise at his honest answer or not.
He honestly hopes that it did though.
"…I was wondering why you act as if though you're not as smart as everyone claims you to be—besides Gilbert, Antonio, and Berwald, that is—you always try to act what people think that you are."
Ivan gulps.
"I-I don't know what you are talking about. I never went to college—"
Liar.
"I'm not as smart as most of the people who work here—"
Katyusha, Nataliya, and Alfred all know that you went to college and got a doctor's degree on child psychology.
"I only chose to work here since the pay is good and so that I could send money to my mother who is sick at the moment."
She's no longer sick, thanks to the large sum of money that you personally gave to her on your first visit to Russia after you worked for Flair Co. within the first five months after you graduated from Chapman.
Roderich looks at Ivan in disbelief.
"Uh-huh…I wasn't asking you if you went to college or why you chose to get a job as a cook for this restaurant."
Ivan frantically tries to think of something to do as to avoid Roderich's questioning gaze. Seeing that he was making some Hamburger Helper®, since Alfred really loves the Cheeseburger flavored one (big surprise there) for their little movie-night, he decides to finish the dish and try to hurry along to get to Alfred's brother's house.
Roderich, knowing that he wasn't going to get an answer from Ivan (not much of a shocker there), places his hand on Ivan's shoulder silently (while Ivan is distracted making the Hamburger Helper®) and shoves.
Ivan, startled by the sudden pressure against his shoulder, quickly looks to his left. Upon seeing Roderich staring at him with a hard gaze, Ivan pulls his shoulder away from Roderich's grasp.
"I know that you're hiding something from me Ivan. If you're not going to tell me, I'll go ask Antonio instead."
I really don't want to ask Antonio, but if it gets Ivan to answer me, then I'll do it.
Roderich, not noticing the look of pure horror on Ivan's face, turns and starts to head for the door to his left.
He's not really going to ask Antonio about me right?
Ivan, panicking, quickly finishes putting the food inside of a self-heating container, and starts to follow Roderich out the door of the kitchen.
"Ve~ Gil, Ludwig and I were wondering if you—"
Ivan runs past the trio who were still sitting in the table that was closest to the door to the kitchen, paying attention to only the quick blur of brown hair and glasses, not noticing how Gilbert froze at the sight of what looked like a poorly written assassin movie on how the guy most likely to get killed is getting chased by said assassin.
Ivan shakes his head.
Now is not the time to get distracted by what is obvious to see in Gilbert's eyes.
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"How many fucking times do I have to tell you to fucking stop doing that?"
"Si Lovi, it's just that yo pense that you wouldn't have been complaining that much!"
Romano huffs.
He tries to push Antonio away from him and more towards the wall that is the closest to the restroom door.
Sure, he was with Antonio in the restroom while Feliciano, Potato Bastard #1 and Potato Bastard #2 were still catching up on stuff.
Did he forget to mention that he was "Eavesdropping" on their conversation?
He did?
Now you know.
Anyways, what were Antonio and Romano doing in the restrooms?
To put it simply:
They were both trying to rush going into the restroom (since Antonio was whispering what he was going to do to Romano if he went home with him), so they were "walking" at a fast pace.
The moment that they enter the men's restroom, Antonio pushes him against the door. Preventing anyone who tries to use the restroom and force them to walk away if they happen to hear certain voices against said door.
"Fuck Antonio! That fucking hurt like a bitch!"
Romano pants as he tries to push Antonio away from him.
"Perdon querido, I didn't mean to make you hurt. Here, let me make it better."
He starts to bring his hands to the back of Romano's head, making sure to caress it gently.
Romano—who was releasing a soft "Ow…"—starts to feel hot as Antonio managed to brush up against a certain curl with his hand.
"Hm? Is my Lovi getting turned on by me curing his boo-boo?"
Antonio says, smirking as he sees Romano twist his head to the side, trying to cover up his blush.
He's not turned on, not at all!
He's totally ignoring the way that his breath is starting to come in short pants as a certain someone is skimming their nose against the crook of his neck, inhaling his scent with a seductive caress.
"You always smell so good Lovino…"
…Maybe not completely ignoring what's happening…
He can't really ignore the way that those lips from that Antonio are giving his neck a great amount of attention. Making sure to pay extra attention and sucking on the pressure point making Romano release a moan as he exposes more of his neck towards Antonio.
Smirking, Antonio starts to make his way up towards Romano's earlobe—making sure to lick the outer shell slowly—and runs his hands up and down his body. Romano groans in response, leaning against Antonio as he starts to feel overcome with pleasure. Antonio, knowing how Romano's reacting, starts to push against Romano even more and gets a low moan as a response.
Romano follows Antonio's command and glides down on the floor, with the Spaniard on top of him and grinding their hips together slowly. Romano moans so low, it makes Antonio's member twitch with arousal.
One minute Antonio's unbuttoning Romano's shirt, the next he's pushed against the floor with a fuming Romano standing and glaring at said Spaniard.
"¿Lovi?"
Romano, huffing at Antonio's obvious display at trying to hide his erection, makes a "Be quiet" gesture with his index finger over his mouth.
Antonio, noticing that Romano was being serious, slowly gets up and joins Romano as they both try to listen to what is happening on the other side of the door.
"¿Que pasó?"
Antonio whispers in Romano's ear, making Romano shiver at how close they were going to actually fuck in the restroom of a restaurant.
Ay Dios mio~!
Feliciano would most likely exclaim that at a time like this…
"I heard someone coming just now…"
Romano whispers back.
"Hm…should we leave querido?"
Romano shakes his head.
"We should pretend that we were just making out—it works every time, right?"
Antonio laughs.
"You know that it won't end with just kissing."
Romano smirks.
"I never claimed that we were just going to kiss."
Antonio's grin widens.
"¿Entonces empesamos ahorita, no?"
Romano pushes himself against Antonio.
"You bet your sweet ass we'll start now."
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All I have to do is go in the restroom, pull Antonio away from making out with his date, and then Ivan will leave me alone!
Roderich makes his way from his hiding spot in the corner of the restaurant's entrance—making sure that a certain Russian wasn't lurking around—and bolts for the men's restroom.
No sooner in leaving his hiding spot, does Ivan suddenly appear from behind the host's desk in a flash.
Startled at where Ivan was hiding, Roderich runs with vigor to the restrooms.
Upon reaching the door, Roderich didn't bother to think why the door suddenly gave way, nor why the first thing that left his lips was "ANTONIO!"
He honestly doesn't have a good explanation to give to the two confused faces in front of him, so it really isn't helping that they're waiting for an explanation as to why their "make-out" session has abruptly ended.
"It looks like you have caught them in the middle of kissing one another Roderich."
Roderich freezes as he hears Ivan comment from behind.
"W-What are you talking about Ivan? I-I was talking to Antonio when his date showed up asking what we were doing talking in the men's restroom."
Roderich was pleading with his eyes that Antonio and Romano to go along with the lie.
He hopes that they understood him.
"Y-Yeah, Roderich was just talking to Antonio about how he knew Feliciano."
Romano automatically says, catching Ivan and Antonio off guard.
Roderich gives him a "Thank you" look.
Romano gives him a "You better explain what's going on here as soon as this weird-o leaves" look.
Roderich slowly nods his head.
Antonio, looking at Ivan in suspicion, sees Romano and Roderich exchanging looks with one another.
"There's no kissing going on Ivan. You are free to go."
"I'm also free to stay."
Ivan points out.
Roderich tries his best not to grit his teeth together at Ivan's suggestion.
"Yes, but we are all going to meet up with Gilbert, and Romano's brother along with his date. Isn't that right Roderich?"
Antonio throws a smile at Roderich is use to, but the look in his eyes say that he shouldn't be alone with Ivan.
"Ah, then I apologize. I assumed the wrong thing when Roderich was questioning me about something. I will be going now."
Ivan says, giving Roderich an intense stare, slowly making his way out of the restroom and back towards the kitchen.
The moment that he turned away from the kitchen door, he fixed the text message that he was composing to Alfred.
How 'bout we have tht
-home-movie-nit
tht u wnted? I'm
suddenly not in th
mood 2 go out 2nit
~ Sunflower lover
Huh? I thght tht I was
gonna choose.
Something wrong babe?
U wanna talk 'bout it?
~ Hamburgers FTW
…
Nothing is wrong
sunflower. Nothing.
~ Sunflower lover
…
We are SO
staying home tonight.
Wanna come over rit now?
Mattie's not home ^ ^
~ Hamburgers FTW
Ivan smiles, seeing how much his Alfred wants to cheer him up when he is feeling down, as he finishes reading what Alfred sent him.
Sometimes, he doesn't know how happy he makes my day.
xCOxOxxCoxCOxOxxCoxoCxxOxOCx
"—and that was why he was chasing me all the way over here."
Romano and Antonio look at each other as Roderich explains what happened earlier.
It also doesn't help that they're all sitting on the floor in the men's restroom.
Go figure.
"Well that still doesn't make any sense."
Romano says, ignoring the look of suspicion on Antonio's face.
Roderich sighs, wondering whether or not Antonio is going to answer him about Ivan.
He hopes that he does.
"He only acts that way to scare people away."
Antonio finally answers, catching Roderich and Romano off guard.
"Why the hell would he do that?"
"Why would he act that way?"
Both ask him.
Antonio sighs, wishing that they would just leave this alone.
"It's mostly because of Ivan's history with Gilbert."
"What? What kind of history does Potato Bastard #2 have with Mr. Weird-o?"
Romano asks, while Roderich just nods his head in agreement.
"That's what I'm curious about. Ivan mostly looked surprised that I was able to see through his façade pretty quickly after he said how to solve Gilbert's problem earlier. You should know you were there at the time Antonio."
Antonio nods his head; Romano just looks plain confused.
"He thought that if you guys saw it way later, there would have been a lot of drama. He's actually smarter than the image he gives off. It's not because he wants to mess around with people—it's that he wants to see how far his experiment can go before other people start to catch on and ruin it."
"What 'experiment'?"
Antonio thinks about it before he answers.
"Maybe experiment isn't the right word. Excuse my Spanish; it sometimes mixes up what I'm trying to say."
"That's why I think he should stick to speaking Spanish as much as he can without messing up, but he doesn't want to still have that Spanish accent hanging around when he's speaking in English."
Romano mutters.
"What do you call those types of tests that involve test subjects in certain temperamental situations in which you watch their reaction to certain elements within a specifically set test?"
Roderich, caught off guard at Antonio's sudden question, tries to answer as best as he can.
"Isn't that the definition of an experiment?"
Romano snorts.
"Yeah, that's the definition of experiment. Sometimes Antonio knows what he's talking about. Other times he does this."
"Then it is 'experiment'?"
Antonio looks at Romano, who nods.
"But that doesn't explain anything! Why would he be conducting an illegal experiment without our knowledge?"
Antonio looks at Roderich.
"As long as the main person that he's conducting the experiment about is notified, it's all good."
Roderich shakes his head.
"Who would he tell that would let him get away with said 'experiment'?"
Pause.
"He wouldn't!"
Antonio nods his head slowly.
"He would."
Roderich sighs.
"Poor Kiku…"
Antonio nods in agreement.
"Wait—how do you, Gilbert, and Berwald know that Ivan's doing this 'experiment' in the first place?"
Antonio makes a face of grimance.
"Gilbert and I happened to have passed by Kiku's office when Ivan was making his proposal the first time that he applied to become the cook for Canorous. Kiku hesitantly accepted, but the only two conditions he said was that Ivan could not use the actually names of those who work here and that he couldn't force anyone who found out to be a part of the 'project' that Ivan was doing."
Romano whistles low.
"That's one thorough man."
Roderich grimances at the thought that he was a part of the 'experiment' that Ivan was conducting.
"Did he ever finish the experiment?"
Antonio nods his head.
"He wouldn't have gotten his doctoral degree in child psychology if he didn't."
"He told me that he didn't go to college."
Antonio shakes his head.
"Anything to mess with the minds of those around him."
Roderich feels uneasy.
"That still doesn't explain how Berwald knows."
Antonio shakes his head before Roderich finished the sentence.
"That has to do with Gilbert and Ivan's past. I don't know much about it myself, but what I do know I can't say. It's not within my place to do so."
Roderich nods his head.
"Are the two of you done eating?"
Romano and Antonio both nod their heads.
Roderich, standing up, helps Romano and Antonio to their feet as well.
"I'm off to go see Elizaveth now. She has to get Gilbert ready for his 'match'."
Antonio nods.
"Gilbert told me about that. Good luck with having to deal with Gilbert when he's drunk."
Roderich looks at Antonio in surprise.
"He never comes home drunk. Quite the opposite actually."
Antonio laughs at Roderich.
"Then he must have realized that he can't expect to remember what happened the night before if he's not drunk."
Roderich laughs with him.
"Well, it was nice meeting you Lovino. Goodnight to the both of you."
"Buenas noches Roderich~!"
"Buena notte Roderich."
As Roderich starts to leave, Romano hears a ringtone flaring off.
"When you give me k-kisses. That's money honey.
Well I'm your lover and your mistress. That's money honey.
When you touch me it's so delicious. That's money honey.
Baby when you tear me to pieces. That's money honey.
That's m-o-n-e-y so sexy"
Noticing that Antonio is giving him a funny look, Romano mutters a quick "Feliciano was messing with my phone again" before he flips it open to see who sent him a text.
Like OMG Romano!
I sooo like need
Ludwig over here stat!
I can't like get Harold
2 like get off his ass
& leave dah club!
Some assistance would b like
overly grateful! _
~ Blondies R Fun
Romano starts to bust up laughing, before he re-reads the message again.
"What are you laughing about Lovi~?"
"Shush."
Romano says as he types his response.
Che palle! Feli,
Potato Bastard #1,
& I r coming over
rit now. Just tying
up some loose ends
over here. See u in
a bit, alrit?
~ DehMafiaLeader
Like fuckin' hurry!
I dunno how long
I can keep him down! TT^TT
~ Blondies R Fun
"Hey Antonio."
"Hm?"
"Let's get back; I have to go to work now."
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"Ve~ Gil, Ludwig and I were wondering if you wanted to see your parents as soon as we finished eating."
Gilbert, who was already back with a second round of Heineken®—after he finished drinking Ludwig's of course!—starts to cough at the mention of his parents.
Ludwig, who was eyeing the drink in his brother's hand, looks up to Feliciano in surprise.
Apparently, he was catching both of the German brothers with one too many surprises tonight. Not that the first topic that he mentioned after Gilbert apologized what really appropriate for the restaurant, but he honestly just wanted Gilbert's honest opinion about his views on using leather in the bedroom.
Although seeing Ludwig's shocked expression was priceless, it was very disappointing that Gilbert only laughed at Ludwig's display.
On the bright side, Gilbert gave him his number so that he could honestly tell him what he thinks about leather. He gave the number to him while Ludwig wasn't looking of course.
That would ruin the fun.
"Is that so?"
Gilbert looks at Ludwig in surprise with his left eyebrow raised.
"I would like to see my parents."
Feliciano looks at Gilbert happily.
"But I don't think that right now would be a good time."
At this response Feliciano pouts, making Gilbert laugh.
"Why not~?"
Gilbert releases a huge sigh.
"Doesn't it sound like you're rushing things Feliciano? Don't get me wrong! I wouldn't want anything in the world right now than to see my parents at the moment—but right after you barely realized that I work here in L.A.? Does that sound right to you?"
Feliciano thinks about, while Ludwig slowly shakes his head.
"You see? Even Ludwig agrees that it would be too soon. Besides, what if our parents are still in contact with Elizaveth's? That would mean that I'm endangering her life for the sake of wanting to see my parents. I can't do that to her. First you tell my parents that I'm working in L.A.—by myself of course—and we'll play it from ear, okay?"
Feliciano looks at Gilbert with sad eyes.
"I thought that I was helping you by telling you about your parents…"
Gilbert ruffles Feliciano's hair as he smiles.
"You did. It's just not the right time for that. You understand though, right?"
Feliciano nods.
"Besides, I'm going to be meeting this hot chick tonight."
Gilbert wiggles his eyebrows at Feliciano, making him laugh at Gilbert's display.
"Is that sometime soon~?"
Gilbert looks at his watch, ready to tell Feliciano that he'll be leaving in a bit, when he hears his ringtone signaling that he's getting a text message.
"Do it now
You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Do it again now
You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Gettin' horny now"
Seeing the look of confusion on Feliciano and Ludwig, Gilbert answers with a simple "France" before they turned to look at their own phones.
Mon Dieu Gilbert!
Where r u?
I thght tht u said
tht u were gonna
b here 2 see my fil?
Or r u not coming?
~ L'amour C'est Mon Nombre
Dude u kno tht Imma
b there! Just give me
½ an hour 2 get ready.
Tht O.K. wit u?
~ The Awesomeness That Is Me
Gilbert chuckles, placing his phone on the table, seeing that Ludwig and Feliciano must have gotten texts around the same time that he did.
Huh, coincidence much?
"It looks like I have to be going soon after all."
Ludwig and Feliciano both look at Gilbert in surprise.
"Okay then~! We have to get going to, right Ludwig~?"
Ludwig nods his head in agreement.
"Oh, is that so? Did you guys get the same text or something?"
Gilbert asks, trying to peer over Ludwig's shoulder to get a better look.
"We have to go to work right now~!"
Feliciano says, making Ludwig feel grateful that he managed to distract Gilbert long enough for him to hide his phone in his pants.
Gilbert smirks.
"Do the both of you work at the same place?"
At the nodding of two heads, Gilbert laughs.
"Kesesesesesesesese~! And here I thought that I wouldn't live to see the day where the both of you work at the same place! Do you guys work in a modeling agency?"
Feliciano shakes his head.
"We work at a bar~!"
Gilbert, who was waiting to hear something better, drops his mouth open in astonishment.
Their fucking around with him right now—right?
"W-What?"
Feliciano nods his head.
"We currently work at À Deux. Ludwig's the bouncer while I'm one of the pole dancers there~"
Ludwig, ashamed that he has to re-live this scenario again, places his head in his hands, hunched over the table as he waits to hear a scorning tone from his older brother.
"You can hook me up with free drinks over there? That place is like fucking hard to get into! I can't wait to rub it in those people's faces that I can get in while they wait for their turn!"
Ludwig looks at Gilbert in surprise, before resting his head in his hands and sighing once more.
"You won't be able to do that all the time Gilbert~!"
At Feliciano's comment, Gilbert pouts.
"And why not? I'm awesome enough!"
Feliciano laughs.
"That's not it! It's just that as employees of the club, we only have a limited amount of freebies that we could use~!"
Gilbert nods his head.
Before he could answer back with a "Makes sense", he hears another ringtone go off.
"I'm only getting started
I won't blackout
This time I got nothing to waste
Let's go a little harder
I'm on fire
I won't blackout
I'm on my way
"I'm only getting started
I won't blackout—"
Knowing who it is, he opens his phone.
I just finished getting a text from Liz.
She said that we need to get
home within the next 20 mins
before she decides that NO
ONE will being going out
this evening at all. Get your
ass in the car already; I'm
already in the driver's seat
waiting for you. Hurry up.
~ The Pianist
Gilbert quickly texts back.
I'm on my way out rit now.
Where u parked?
~ The Awesomeness That Is Me
In front of the
restaurant parking lot.
Hurry.
~ The Pianist
Will do.
~ The Awesomeness That Is Me
"Well you guys, I have to go now. I just got a text from Roderich."
"You know the host Gilbert~?"
Gilbert nods his head.
"He's Liz's boyfriend—my bad—fiancé."
At the mentioning of the word "fiancé" Ludwig and Feliciano look at Gilbert in shock.
"She's getting married?"
"Who's the luck girl~?"
Both questions were asked at the same time, throwing Gilbert off balance.
"Her name is Elizaveth—Liz for short since she can't stand to hear her full name from me. She recently got proposed to, so yeah, she's getting married. Guess who the Best Man is?"
Feliciano gasps, while Ludwig looks surprised.
"You're not serious."
Gilbert nods his head.
"That's right Lutz, I'm the Best Man."
"Who is the Maid of Honor~?"
Gilbert visible blanches.
"H-Her name is Nataliya."
"That sounds like a nice name for a maiden~!"
Gilbert numbly nods his head.
"Y-Yeah, well I have to go now. See you later Lutz! Nice seeing you Feliciano."
"See you later Gilbert~!"
"Bye."
The moment that Gilbert walks out of the door, Romano and Antonio "appear", coming inside of the restaurant and walking towards Ludwig and Feliciano.
"Fratello, you took a really long time to calm down if you're just coming from outside right now~"
Romano, who was trying his best to keep Antonio from grabbing his ass again, looks up at Feliciano in confusion.
When he saw Ludwig give him the "Go along with it", he glared at Ludwig.
"I felt sick so I went to the restroom first. Seeing as I wasn't feeling better, Antonio took me outside to get some fresh air."
Romano easily says, giving Ludwig the "I don't want to owe you shit" look as he stares off to the side.
"Okay then~ I just finished getting a text from France saying that Mattie-dear needs help with what to do with the black box we gave him the other day~!"
Romano nods his head.
"I just finished getting a text from Felik saying that he needs help getting Harold out of the club."
He looks over at Ludwig.
"He says that he's going to need your help."
Ludwig nods.
"Aw~! Does that mean that you're all leaving right now?"
Antonio says, wrapping his arms around Romano's waist.
"Yes we do."
"Si~!"
"Get off of me! Of course we have to fucking go right now you Tomato Bastard!"
All three respond at the same time, making Antonio laugh.
"I'll let Lovi go if he gives me a kiss~!"
Feliciano laughs.
"Fratello wouldn't want to do that in front of all of us Antonio~!"
Romano, spurred on by Feliciano's comment, releases himself from Antonio.
"I'll show you!"
He gets on his toes, and kisses Antonio.
Not just a peck on the lips, hell no.
He did the whole open mouth French-kissing shebang package.
Feliciano and Ludwig stare in shock at what Romano just did.
Well, Feliciano was the one staring; Ludwig had his mouth hanging open and wide enough to let the flies enter.
Antonio feels like he could die right now from how enthusiastic his Lovino is acting right now.
Romano finally removes his mouth away from Antonio.
"Take that Feli~!"
Romano says, feeling very smug at the moment.
Feliciano claps his hands, making Romano look at him in confusion.
"Fratello is starting to come out of his shell more~!"
Feliciano brings Romano into one of his famous bear hugs, making Romano squirm and beg to be released.
"Um, shouldn't we stop those two…?"
Ludwig asks Antonio, worried that Romano might break something and try to get the German to fight him.
Antonio shakes his head, a smile still lingering on his lips.
"They're almost done now."
Sure enough, Feliciano lets go of Romano, making him skid a couple of steps away and hoping that Feliciano doesn't want to give Romano a second round.
Feliciano, feeling embarrassed walks up nervously towards Romano, making him wonder what could have caused Feliciano to change from being happy to being serious in a heartbeat.
"U-Um f-fratello?"
Romano, his right eyebrow furrowed in confusion, slowly nods his head and telling Feliciano to go on with what he wants to tell Romano.
"I may have told Mattie-dear to start looking at all of the things inside of the box and see what he likes already…?"
Romano, who was looking at Antonio, quickly does a whiplash looking at Feliciano as his face turns into one of incredulous.
"You did what? When did you exactly tell him to do this?"
Feliciano, who was already nervous, goes behind Ludwig and winds his arms around his waist.
Romano sighs, walking up to Antonio and hugs him.
"I'll call you when I'm out from work, alright?"
Antonio smiles at Romano.
"You know that I'll wait until you do before I fall asleep."
Romano scoffs.
"Only you would say all of that cheesy lovey-dovey shit."
Feliciano, convinced that Romano wasn't going to scold him, slowly comes from behind Ludwig and hugs him as well.
Romano, waiting for Feliciano to do just that, releases his hold on Antonio and starts to drag Feliciano and Ludwig out of the restaurant.
"I'll see you later Antonio!"
Romano calls back, ignoring the muffled protests of "Noooooo! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!I'm sorry!I'm sorry!I'm sorry!I'm sorry!I'm sorry!I'm sorry!I'm so—" as he exits with Ludwig, who has been surprisingly calm throughout the whole ordeal.
Antonio laughs, heading towards the kitchen, looking for Ivan to tell him to clean up.
When he reaches inside of the kitchen, he sees a note taped to one of the tables.
Antonio,
I received a call from Nataliya
telling me that Katyusha is sick.
I left early because of that.
Do you mind closing the restaurant up?
~ Ivan
P.S. There's some food left from the orders
earlier. They aren't poisoned! Enjoy them! ^ ^
Antonio, surprised, looks over to see that there was indeed food left over.
Mierda.
And here he thought that Ivan was going to do it.
xCOxOxxCoxCOxOxxCoxoCxxOxOCx
"—and then when she finds out that when a man loves another man—"
"France!"
"PAPA!"
Both Arthur and Matthew yell at France.
Well, Arthur yelled at France.
Matthew's yell only managed to reach the volume of how Alfred talks (on a normal basis).
France, who was huffing at the lack of appreciation from the two in front of him, turns his head to the side.
"Such inconsiderately rude behavior! And here I thought that I taught you better than that Mathieu! As for you Arthur, showing such awful behavior to our Mathieu and corrupting him from learning the harsh realities of this world—!"
"You're the one who's bloody doing rude behavior here! And what's that about 'corrupting him'? You're the one who doesn't know which boundaries you should and shouldn't cross! And another thing that I should mention, why did you have to remind me to DJ here? I was obviously going to be coming—there was no need for you to send me twenty bloody text messages saying "Are you going to be DJing tonight?" over and over and over again! Where the fucking bloody hell is Yao at anyways? You are—!"
Matthew, who already gave up on reasoning with his 'Papa', decides to move to the couch farthest away from his bickering parents.
Bored, he decides to walk out of Romano's office and find Felik.
Seeing Toris and Edward hanging around Christian—who is ignoring Matthias at the moment, from the looks of Matthias's pout—Matthew thinks about where Felik is most likely at.
"Hey there cutie, you come here often?"
Matthew, who snapped out of his thoughts, looks to his right and sees YongSoo slowly making his way from the bar towards Matthew with a glazed look in his eyes.
Matthew, who was looking at Caroline being the temporary bartender until either Felik or Matthew showed up, saw that she held up four fingers to him. He nods his head, understanding what Caroline meant by four.
YongSoo has had four hard shots of Russian vodka, and now he's looking at Matthew with a drunken gaze. Matthew sighs, turning around to look for Felik so that they could both haul YongSoo's ass out of the club.
Soon.
"Hey, come back here cutie~!"
Matthew, pretending that he couldn't hear YongSoo, quickly scans the club—hoping to see a streak of blond hair that belongs to Felik.
Seeing something like blond near the edge of the dance floor, Matthew automatically makes his way over there.
"Like no way~! Are you like serious?"
Matthew—sighing in relief that he found Felik so quickly—was about to raise his voice to announce that he was there, when he noticed Felik go on his toes and hug this really tall Turkish-looking stranger that most certainly was not Toris.
Surprised at the sudden flair of intimacy, Matthew blushes in embarrassment and wonders if he should even make his presence known to the two while also mentioning that a certain Egyptian was glaring in their direction at how intimate they were being.
It also wasn't helping with his current image that the tall man was whispering in Felik's ear, making Felik giggle at whatever he was telling the blond.
Matthew, who was starting to become convinced that the tall man was stealing Felik away from Toris, was about to go walk up to the 'couple' and drag Felik away to tell him what the hell was going on—
"EEEEEPPPPP!"
Matthew's view got obscured by a pair of slim hands on his glasses—preventing him to get his vision back.
Before he could figure what was going on, he felt a second pair of slim hands on his mouth, and the next thing that he knows is that he's being dragged somewhere.
Panicking that it was YongSoo, Matthew starts to squeal until there was no tomorrow.
Which, looking at how this was playing out, was looking fairly real at the moment.
Hockey maple.
He hears a door open and then close, shutting off the music that was blaring earlier into a quiet lull.
'The moment that they let go of me, I'll scream like a pansy and try to get my way back inside!'
Matthew thinks, hoping that his kidnapers were generous enough to let him see where they were currently at.
"You could let him go now."
Both pairs of hands automatically release Matthew, making him go head first on the floor disoriented.
"I told you that this was a stupid idea!"
"But I thought that you agreed to do this~?"
"Yeah, but I never agreed about the part where we scare him shitless!"
"…do you think he passed out~?"
"…I honestly hope that he didn't, he has customers that want his attention specifically. What are we going to tell them? 'Oh, Matthew passed out right now; he'll be feeling better soon don't worry?' They're not going to buy that bull shit. If they do, it won't be believable for long. "
Matthew, shaking the disorientation out of him, realizes who the voices talking above him are.
"You guys couldn't have warned me that you were going to drag me into Romano's office?"
Matthew asks, slowly getting up and moving to sit on the couch that he left a few moments ago.
Feliciano and Romano look at one another before they slowly shake their heads, making their curls bounce.
"Would you rather we say "Hi Matthew~!" you squealing like a little girl, and interrupt Felik talking to his friend?"
Romano asks, making Feliciano nod in agreement.
Matthew grimances.
"I was not "Squealing like a little girl", I-I was screaming like there was no tomorrow."
Romano shakes his head, not convinced in the slightest.
Matthew sighs, knowing that he lost that argument.
"Say, where did Papa and Father go? I could have sworn that they were here arguing with each other earlier?"
Feliciano and Romano both nod.
"They were making out~!"
"I kicked them out on the grounds "No making-out with the employees of À Deux." It was mostly said to your Papa, since your Father understood immediately."
Matthew slaps himself on the forehead.
"I'm sorry about that. I didn't know that they were going to do that."
He shakes his head.
"Have you looked inside of the box yet Matthew~?"
Matthew, who was hoping that the floor would swallow him whole, looks up at Feliciano in confusion before he understood what he said.
He shakes his head.
Feliciano breathes a sigh of relief, while Romano glares at him.
"You're lucky that he didn't see anything."
"What are you guys talking about? Feliciano told me that I wasn't allowed to look into the box until the both of you showed up."
Feliciano sticks his tongue out at Romano who huffed.
"That makes things easier and harder at the same time."
Matthew looks at Romano in confusion.
"Easier and harder?"
Romano nods his head.
"Go get the box Feli."
Feliciano walks behind Romano's desk, pulling out the black box.
Romano sighs, walking over to the closet that is behind his chair.
"Matthew looks very stylish tonight~!"
Feliciano comments, giving the box to Matthew, as Romano fishes out a key from his back pocket and opens the closet door.
Matthew nods slowly.
"Alfred helped me pick it out."
Romano scoffs as Feliciano nods along with Matthew's comment.
"The leather really emphasizes the shape of your ass in those pants~!"
Matthew blushes.
"Isn't that something that you should say to your date Feli?"
Feliciano shakes his head.
"If it helps build up your self-esteem, then I'll say it as many times as necessary~!"
Matthew sighs.
"I really don't want to hear you say that again Feli. Could we just agree that my self-esteem went up so that you don't have to say it again?"
Feliciano pouts.
"Then what's the point in me not saying it if your self-esteem doesn't go up~?"
Matthew laughs, ruffling Feliciano's hair.
"As long as you're not mad at me about anything in specific, then my self-esteem will go up. Understand?"
Feliciano nods.
Romano turns around from the closet, walking up to Matthew and Feliciano who were on the couch, and throws an outfit to Feliciano.
"Go change your clothes; the rush hour is about to start in a few minutes."
Feliciano, walking to the restrooms right next door, knew that he was leaving Romano and Matthew alone for a bit in the meantime while he goes off to change.
Romano walks up to Matthew.
"Aren't you going to open it?"
Matthew nods his head.
"I was just wondering when you had that built-in closet."
Romano shrugs.
"I've always had it, even when I originally started out my days here as a pole dancing stripper."
Matthew, who was nodding at Romano's comment, freezes as he understood what Romano said and blushed.
"Say what?"
Romano, knowing that Matthew was blushing out of embarrassment, starts to laugh.
"There's no need to get embarrassed. If anything, I should be the one embarrassed. But I'm not."
He shrugs.
"Open the box already Matthew."
Matthew quickly does what Romano tells him to—but stops when he sees something that doesn't make any sense.
"Um…am I missing something here…?"
Romano looks over to see what Katherine put inside of Matthew's box: mascara, eyeliner, eye shadow, lipstick, lip liner, blush, compact, glitter (for his eye lids), eye drops, lip gloss, contacts, ribbons, hair clips and hair bands, earrings, and a few necklaces.
"I don't see anything missing in there. She actually added more stuff in your box than she did with Feli's. I think Feli would be jealous if you told him though."
xCOxOxxCoxCOxOxxCoxoCxxOxOCx
"She's sooooooo going to kill us!"
"No she won't! We still have five minutes!"
Pause.
They check the time.
"BULLSHIT! THAT WAS FIVE MINUTES AGO!"
"…"
"…?"
"HOLY SHIT, YOU'RE RIGHT!"
"FLOOR IT MAN!"
The engine suddenly stops.
"Hurry up and get inside!"
"Hell no! You go in first!"
"Why me?"
"Because she won't be angry with your ass if she sees you first!"
Roderich and Gilbert both scramble out of the car, trying to not become castrated by a pissed off Elizaveth for coming home five minutes late.
Gilbert, seeing that he was going to reach the door first, quickly shoves Roderich in front of him.
After struggling to open the door for three seconds, Roderich finally manages to pass through.
Gilbert, nervous that Elizaveth was going to bring out the frying pan on his ass, shoves Roderich and plans on running to his room—
Roderich was planning in his head on how to sweet talk Elizaveth about what took them so long to get home—
When they both realize that there was no one in the living room.
Both breathe a sigh of relief, until they hear a laugh coming from the kitchen.
Expecting the worst, Gilbert automatically pulls Roderich in front of him, as they make the trek to the kitchen.
"Yeah, I was thinking about having that! How did you know I was? Ahahahahah and you thought that I wasn't going to do that Michelle!"
Seeing Elizaveth leaning against the wall talking on the phone with Michelle and texting someone on her phone makes Gilbert and Roderich breathe another sigh of relief.
"What's that Michelle? Oh, I'm texting Bella right now. Yeah, she wanted to know why the phone line was busy. So as I was saying—wait."
Elizaveth covers the mouthpiece of the phone with her right hand since her left is busy holding her cellphone, she sees Roderich being held in front of Gilbert as a pagan sacrifice, making her laugh.
She mouths out "Go get changed right now" at Roderich, since Gilbert was being a dumb ass and not looking past Roderich at Elizaveth, and goes back to talking to Michelle.
Roderich tries to make Gilbert release his grip, but Gilbert doesn't budge.
"Gilbert, let me go!"
Roderich tells Gilbert, hoping that he would listen.
"No! You're going to abandon me in my time of need!"
Roderich mentally smacks himself at how childish Gilbert is acting at the moment.
"She told us to go get changed right now."
He hisses at Gilbert, making Gilbert relax his hold on him.
The moment that he released his grip, Roderich went running to Elizaveth and his shared bedroom, leaving Gilbert alone with a chatting Elizaveth.
"Traitor!"
Hisses Gilbert at Roderich before he rounded the corner.
"I'll call you later Michelle, Bella wants to talk to me about something…yeah, and we should! Okay then, bye!"
CLICK!
Shit?
"You're late."
Elizaveth says, crossing her arms around her torso.
Gilbert, who was already at the doorframe of the kitchen, decides to run to his room.
Before he could run, Elizaveth catches him by the collar of his shirt (damn fucking dress shirts!), and starts to drag him to his room.
"Hurry up, or else we'll be leaving without you~!"
Elizaveth says sweetly, watching as Gilbert gives her a face of horror at what the squiggly at the end of the sentence means, and throws him in his room. Making sure that the door was closed, Elizaveth starts to go in the bathroom where her clothes are at, she quickly flips her phone to answer the text message she got from Bella.
Are you going to À Deux tonight?
I heard from Michelle that there
was going to be something interesting
that is going to happen tonight.
~ Chocolate Lover
Roddie-kun, Gilly, and I are
all going tonight. I told Gilly that
I want him to meet this girl who
"just so happens" to work there.
~ Liz
She snaps her phone shut, getting ready to really change into her clothes, when she sees she got a text message from Michelle.
She opens it and sees what the text was.
She smirks.
Phase 2: complete
All that's left is to get Gilbert there in time…
xCOxOxxCoxCOxOxxCoxoCxxOxOCx
"No."
"What?"
"I said no."
"Why~?"
"Because!"
"That's not answer."
"It is too an answer."
"If fratello says it isn't an answer, then it isn't an answer Matthew~"
Matthew moans.
"I don't want to wear that shirt!"
Romano looks at the shirt that he's currently holding.
"I don't see anything wrong with this shirt."
"That's because you're not going to be the one wearing it!"
Romano shakes his head.
"I've worn this shirt before Matthew; there is nothing wrong with it."
Matthew stares at Romano with his mouth open.
"Nothing wrong? Nothing wrong? That shirt looks like it was made for a girl!"
Feliciano looks at the shirt himself.
Yeah, there were frills around the waist.
Sure, the shirt sleeves only go up to his elbows.
So what if the shirt stops near his navel? He's going to be wearing his red shirt underneath, so there's no problem of him flashing anyone his butt.
Feliciano thinks it looks adorable, isn't that what counts?
"I'm not wearing that!"
Then again, maybe Matthew's not looking at this in a positive way.
"But Matthew, it looks cute~! It'll enhance the look of the contacts~!"
Matthew pouts.
"Isn't it bad enough that you've put make-up on me?"
Romano looks at Matthew closely.
Technically, Matthew was struggling the entire time Feliciano was applying the mascara, midnight blue eyeliner, and eye drops; he gave up after Romano applied the light pink blush, red lip stick, and sapphire blue contacts.
Did he forget to mention how much of a bitch it was to not poke Matthew's eyes as he was putting on the contacts?
Well, it was a bitch.
And it was hard to keep Matthew still.
"Details, details. What matters is how you look overall."
Romano comments.
Not a smudge anywhere.
Wow, Feliciano and Romano should really mention this to France later on.
"Look, if you don't wear the shirt, you won't work today and you'll get your paycheck two weeks later than usual."
Matthew sighs in defeat, knowing that his Papa would be disappointed in him.
"Is the shirt going to be tight on me?"
Feliciano and Romano look at each other for a quick second before looking back at Matthew.
"It fits me loosely~!"
"It might fit just right with you Matthew."
xCOxOxxCoxCOxOxxCoxoCxxOxOCx
"Like no way~! Are you like serious?"
Felik releases Adnan, having the strangest feeling that he should let go.
Weird.
"Are you like ready?"
Felik turns to look for Gupta, making sure to keep an ear out for Adnan if he doesn't want to go through with this.
He may act like a moe-foe most of the time, but he's not really one.
"As ready as I'll ever be."
Adnan replies, making Felik smile like a crazy person.
After struggling to find Gupta, Felik fishes out his phone.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going to send Gupta a text. From there I'm going to leave you there with him—don't look at me like that I have a lot of work to do!—and if it gets too awkward, you'll text me, right?"
Adnan nods his head.
Guppie-chan! Where r chu ?
I have ur hot-stud over here!
He's VERY anxious 2 see u!
Where u ?
~ Blondies R Fun
I'm near the second floor, the rail
that's overlooking the dance floor.
I can see you guys from here.
Can you see me? XD
~ Egyptian Blue
Felik snaps his phone shut, looking up on the second floor of the building.
Noticing the specific golden hoop earring that stands out in even the darkness, Felik smiles, and the earlier tension evaporates as quickly as it came in the first place.
He sees Gupta smile back at him, making Felik feel that much more relieved that he thought of using his phone instead of looking around for him.
He waves, making Adnan focus on where he was waving at.
His heart stops as he sees Gupta leaning against the rail, shyly smiling at the both of them.
"Let's go!"
Felik says, dragging a stubborn Adnan up the stairs, ignoring most couples who were trying to get a quick grab at Felik.
When they finally reach the top of the stairs, they see Gupta still leaning against the rail.
Felik, pushing Adnan forward, makes a "text me if you need help" motion with him pointing a finger at Adnan and then pointing at his phone.
Adnan nods, walking towards Gupta.
Felik hopes that neither of the two fucks this up.
If they do, guess who's going to be singing "Gay Bar"?
Here's a hint: it's not going to be Felik.
xCOxOxxCoxCOxOxxCoxoCxxOxOCx
"You done getting dressed Roddie-kun?"
Elizaveth asks, knocking on the door before she enters it.
"Done."
Roderich answers, stepping in front of her, spinning around in a slow circle to show her if she approved of the whole outfit.
"It's perfect!"
He passed.
"Do you think that Gilbert's done in the bathroom?"
Roderich asks, not noticing the way that Elizaveth rolled her eyes.
She scoffs.
"That guy is more of a woman in the bathroom than I am! Let's go tell him we're leaving in five!"
Roderich laughs at Elizaveth's display of rubbing her hands together.
"Or maybe you could tell him that I started the engine?"
Elizaveth laughs, hugging Roderich and giving him a peck on the lips.
"Sometimes you're much worse than me."
"I never claimed to be perfect."
Elizaveth walks to the bathroom, knocking on the door really fast.
"WHAT?"
She rolls her eyes.
"Oh Gilly, we're going to be leaving now~! Roddie-kun already started the engine~!"
"WHAT? You said that you weren't going to leave for another 10 minutes!"
Elizaveth stays silent for a bit.
"Liz? Liz? LIZ! Shit! Ow! I'm coming out now!"
Elizaveth quickly runs to Roderich.
"Get the camera!"
And Roderich follows Elizaveth to the bathroom door.
"WAIT FOR ME!"
SNAP! FLASH!
Confused, Gilbert looks at Elizaveth's laughing face and then at Roderich's face as he lowers the camera.
"Bastards!"
Gilbert says closing the door.
"So? How does it look?"
Elizaveth asks the moment that Gilbert closed the door, looking over Roderich's shoulder to see how the picture of Gilbert rushing out of the bathroom came out.
Well, the leather vest on top of the red polo shirt looks promising.
She just wished that Gilbert actually put the black skinny jeans on, instead of leaving them on the sink.
His hair was done in record time though, so that's got to count for something.
Although the really prize what the really funny look on Gilbert's face as he was about to leave the bathroom—his nose is all scrunched up at an awkward angle, his eyes were a bit cross-eyed, and his mouth was ready to start screaming some profanities.
All in all, a picture worthy of blackmailing Gilbert.
She knew when to call them.
"We'll be waiting for you at the car in two minutes!"
"Wait! I'm done!"
xCOxOxxCoxCOxOxxCoxoCxxOxOCx
"What's wrong with playing Chopin in the car?"
Roderich asks, trying to ignore the way Gilbert keeps on thumping against his seat.
"Um, because it sucks? Who listens to that shit anyway? You know what we should listen to? Schoolyard heroes!"
Roderich wrinkles his nose in disgust.
"That trashy music? Who listens to that?"
Gilbert pushes himself against the seat in front of him.
It just so happens to be the passenger seat where Roderich is currently sitting at. Elizaveth was driving, so that left with Gilbert sitting in the back behind Roderich.
Not a great idea now that Elizaveth and Roderich think about it.
Elizaveth, pissed that two minutes into the ride Roderich and Gilbert were fighting about what they should play in the meantime, pulls out a CD from the little glove compartment.
"Unified diversity
Functioning as one body
Every part encouraged by the other
No one independent of another
You're irreplaceable, indispensable
You're incredible, incredible
"Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
Fighting ends in forgiveness
Unite and fight all division
Beautiful bride
Roderich and Gilbert stare at Elizaveth as the song continues playing.
Well, Roderich was staring.
Gilbert's facial expression was all like "What the fuck? We had this shit?"
"Strengthen your arms now
Train your fingers for battle
Urgency's here now
Train your fingers for battle
Fighting this violence
With your feet wrapped in peace
Sad tears and silence
Now screams of joy
Victory
"Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
Fighting ends in forgiveness
Unite and fight all division
Beautiful bride
"Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
"We're not gonna fall and forget
How far You went to pick us up
If one part's hurt the whole body's sick
If one part mourns we all mourn with Him
Rejoice, we'll sing with you
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah
"Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
Fighting ends in forgiveness
Unite and fight all division
Beautiful bride
"Beautiful bride
Body of Christ
One flesh abiding
Strong and unifying
Fighting ends in forgiveness
Unite and fight all division
Beautiful bride"
xCOxOxxCoxCOxOxxCoxoCxxOxOCx
"Look, we're only saying this for Alfred's good."
"By making me tell him? I don't see how that works."
Feliciano sighs, patting Matthew's hair in place.
"By you telling Alfred what we told you, it would be for his good."
Matthew shakes his head.
"You're going to have to tell him yourself. He won't listen to me."
Romano shakes his head, grimacing at what he was going to say next.
"He only listens to you. Haven't you wondered why he hasn't gotten into trouble with you lately?"
Matthew furrows his eyebrow.
"He's having an at-home date with Ivan tonight at my house—so that counts with him getting me in trouble."
Feliciano tilts his head to the side.
"Don't you normally keep that between the two of you~?"
Matthew shakes his head.
"Papa knows, so it's not as if Alfred's going in that situation completely alone with no one to turn to; unlike me."
Matthew adds the last part bitterly.
"Hey Matthew, do you want to know what the stats are going to be for tonight?"
Matthew, who was trying his best to pull the shirt past his navel, nods at what Romano asked.
"There's Steven who's hitting the Miller®; Frank with Budweiser®; Fernando with Modelo®; Fred has Coors®; Greg with Corona®; and Sebastian with the Heineken®. Martha's drinking the vodka; Samantha won't stop with the piña coladas; Amelia's got a good grip on the long island iced tea—watch out if she starts to pass out—; Hank's got the Bacardi®; Sophia's got the José Cuervo® in her hands; and Erika's got the tequila. So that leaves the whisky, rum, ale, sodas, and water free for the rest of the customers. Need any repeats?"
Matthew shakes his head.
"I've got it; same people, same drinks. Does Felik need me over?"
Romano checks the text message—the one where Felik gave him the stats—and shakes his head.
"He says that it's calm right now."
Matthew sighs.
"So when do I have to go out again?"
Before anyone could respond, Matthew hears the ringtone he set for his Papa ring.
"Do it now
You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Do it again now
You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Gettin' horny now"
Romano and Feliciano start to bust up laughing at the ringtone.
Matthew, laughing along with the Vargas twins, tries to stop his laughing in order to form a proper sentence without giggling.
"Alfred found it for me. Doesn't it describe my Papa perfectly?"
Romano and Feliciano could barely manage to nod their heads in agreement since they were too busy laughing at the song.
Mathieu!
Come over here where
ton père est DJing cette moment!
~ L'amour C'est Mon Nombre
Oui, oui Papa.
Je vien, je vien.
I'll be there in a bit, d'accord?
~ Maple FTW
Matthew sighs.
"Papa wants me to head out right now."
Feliciano nods his head, giving Matthew a big hug.
Romano re-applies the red lip stick and eye drops.
"You're making my eyes too watery Romano."
Matthew says, trying to not let them cascade down his cheek.
"Would you rather we followed you around the entire night until the moment comes to re-apply the eye drops again and you're blushing in embarrassment~?"
Feliciano mentions, leaning his head forward and making his curl bob up in happiness.
The look of horror that Matthew had on his face made Romano nod in silent agreement.
"Good luck out there Matthew."
Matthew smiles at Romano.
"Thanks."
Matthew walks out the door.
"Neh, fratello~?"
Romano, who was locking his closet, looks over at Feliciano.
"Do you think that we should have put a water bra on Matthew~?"
Romano tries to hold in a laugh.
"And here I thought that putting the inserts on him would have been a better idea!"
Both Feliciano and Romano laugh.
They both know that Matthew would have had a heart attack if they added the fake breast inserts.
"Now go back in that restroom and change properly this time!"
xCOxOxxCoxCOxOxxCoxoCxxOxOCx
"Mon Dieu! Oú est Mathieu?"
Arthur rubs his temples, hoping that if he didn't answer France would leave him alone.
"Answer me Arthur!"
…Maybe not.
"How the bloody hell should I know? I'm not the one who sent a text message saying to come over here this instant, now am I?"
France leans against the speakers tiredly where the DJ would be playing in his make shift table near the wall where Romano's office is.
"I thought that if I texted him, he would have come here sooner, non?"
"You probably sent him some weird thing saying "Bring the hottest guy you could find with you over here." Knowing Matthew, he most likely decided to figure out what the hell you said."
Arthur comments, keeping an eye out for Matthew in case the frog manages to not see him and mistaken him for someone else.
He sighs.
One drunken night in Cancun, post-hang over confessions, adopting two adorable blond twins, and now he's bound to the guy in more ways than one.
"Do you see Mathieu anywhere?"
France whispers next to Arthur's ear.
"W-What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?"
Arthur screeches, making sure that there was enough room between the two of them to keep France away in a safe zone.
It was a good thing that Feliciano caught them before France went even further than making-out.
Arthur shudders.
That kind of intimate display should be kept inside of one's house not outside of it.
It seems like France is still trying to blur the line between the two once more.
"You're the one who's bloody distracting me!"
France pouts.
"I'm just trying to help…"
"Bullshit! You're trying to see how far you can go before I say something!"
France smirks, sliding his arms around Arthur's torso.
"Am I accomplishing that well?"
Arthur scoffs.
"Like an apple tree trying to bear fruit in the winter air."
France pouts, releasing Arthur and leaning against the speakers again.
"Oh come on! It was just one simple make-out session!"
"Bullocks! That was a heavy make-out session and you know it!"
Before France could comment, his phone goes off.
Hoping that it's Matthew, he quickly opens it.
Hey Franny-pants!
We're by the entrance!
Think that you could let us in?
Don't want to waste Lutz's freebies
on all of us here.
~ The Awesomeness That Is Me
"What? Is it Matthew?"
Arthur asks, looking over France's shoulder, expecting to see Matthew's response.
"No, it's Gilbert~"
France smiles at Arthur, looking at the main entrance a couple of feet away.
Arthur looks at France in confusion.
"You mean that one friend of yours that couldn't understand the difference between German Chocolate Cake and the knock-off American version?"
France nods.
"Why are you going over to the main entrance?"
France starts to walk in front of the dance floor, looking over his shoulder at Arthur.
"When I send you the text, find Matthew and bring him over to the table that's between the dance floor and the bar. Got that?"
"Yeah, I got it."
Arthur says, patting France on the shoulder as he goes back to the DJ's table.
xCOxOxxCoxCOxOxxCoxoCxxOxOCx
"Are you sure we should be waiting here in front of the line?"
Roderich asks—looking over at Ludwig who's trying his best to not just say "Go in." and at Elizaveth who's trying not to take out her phone and text Michelle—Gilbert, who was waiting on the other side of the door opposite of Ludwig.
Gilbert, looking up from his phone, smiles at Roderich.
"France said that he'll be coming up in two minutes—he'll be here. Trust me."
Roderich sighs, not sure on what he should be doing in the meantime.
Deciding that he should just join Gilbert on the wall, Roderich starts to walk over there.
"Ludwig, I'm looking for Gilbert~! Have you seen him around here?"
A voice says from behind the door, making Ludwig and the trio stare at the door in confusion.
"France! What are you doing behind the door?"
Gilbert says, laughing as he understood that France was too much of a pansy to properly open the door right.
Looking over at Ludwig, Gilbert and Ludwig both open the door, revealing France who is covered in a thin sheet of sweat from trying to open the door.
"Humph. Well the next time that I feel generous—"
Gilbert walks over to France and whispers something in his ear, making him stop mid-rant.
"Ah bon? For a whole heure?"
More whispering.
"Ahohohohohohohohohohohohohoho~! Well forgive me Gilbert! If I had known—Mon Dieu—okay then!"
France turns to Roderich and Elizaveth, who were wondering what Gilbert could have said to make him change his mind so fast.
Ludwig groans, wondering what Gilbert could have possible convinced (or promised) France to apologize so fast.
"Welcome, I am François Bonnefy, the owner of À Deux! As Gilbert's friends, you are free to have the first round of drinks for free, as well as the first pick of the song for the evening. How does that sound?"
Elizaveth laughs as Roderich slowly nods his head.
"That would be lovely France, thank you~!"
Gilbert slaps his hand on France's shoulder.
"Thanks buddy!"
France laughs along with Gilbert, smacking his shoulder too.
xCOxOxxCoxCOxOxxCoxoCxxOxOCx
"Where is Papa, Father?"
A voice asks behind Arthur, making Arthur squeak and drop a CD on the floor and smash into a thousand little pieces.
"Matthew! What did I tell you about sneaking up on people?"
Arthur says, bending down to pick up the pieces.
"I'm sorry Father; do you want me to help you?"
Arthur shakes his head.
"Your Papa wouldn't want you to wrinkle your clothes if he found out that—OH MY GOD WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS ON YOUR FACE?"
Arthur—who was close to having gathered all of the pieces—looks up and seeing Matthew in the make-up that Romano and Feliciano put him in, drops the pieces on the floor, making an even bigger mess.
Matthew, knowing what his father was probably thinking, slowly raises his hands up in a "calm down" gesture and starts to help pick up the pieces.
"At least I won't be called a pretty boy, right Father?"
Arthur slowly nods his head in agreement.
"I thought that you were just going to be changed into some slightly feminine clothes—but to see that they did the entire ensemble—it really makes you look more like a girl instead of a bishouen."
He shakes his head in amazement.
"Your Papa scares me sometimes with the stuff that he says."
Matthew sighs.
"Alfred says that Papa should be a fashion consultant if he keeps going at it like this."
Arthur shakes his head.
"You know that France wouldn't do it if it meant having to stop messing around with the people working here at À Deux."
After they've collected all of the pieces, Arthur walks Matthew over to where France said he would want Matthew to be at.
"Why are we sitting here Father? I thought that Papa wanted to see me?"
Arthur stands right next to Matthew, making sure that he stays put for the next part.
"France is going to come over here right now. He wanted you to be waiting here so that you know who his friend is. That and France doesn't want you to be giving his friend one too many drinks. Do you understand?"
Matthew nods.
"Do you think that Papa's friend is a girl?"
Arthur, who was checking from his phone about the songs playing tonight, looks up at Matthew in surprise.
"What makes you think that it's a girl?"
Matthew shrugs.
"Since Romano and Feliciano dressed me up in girl clothes and put make-up on me, I got the impression that it's a girl."
Arthur mulls that thought over.
"And are you okay with that?"
Matthew shrugs nonchalantly.
"She's going to find out that I'm a guy, so I don't see the point in doing all of this—" he points to his clothes and make-up, "—if she's going to see right through it automatically."
"Do you know the stats for tonight?"
Matthew nods his head.
"Yes Father. I just have to make sure to not let Martha have too much free reign. You'll call Ludwig up if Hank tries anything with Sebastian and Erika again right?"
Arthur nods his head, ready to give Matthew some advice, when he sees France heading over to where they are currently seated at.
And he's found his friend, if the look of those leather pants is anything to go by, that is.
Arthur waves his hand in the air, hoping that France is able to see him in this crowd.
France—who just so happened to have been looking in Arthur's general direction—sees Arthur and waves back, telling the group that their table is over there.
"Thank God! My fucking feet hurt from walking all over the place!"
Elizaveth and Roderich roll their eyes at Gilbert's comment.
France just laughs it off.
"Do you mind if I show you my daughter now Gilbert?"
Gilbert, who was making fun of Roderich's glasses, looks over at France.
"Isn't that what we came here for France?"
Gilbert says, making sure that he was pronunciating every single word slowly.
France nods his head enthusiastically.
"Well, you better be because there's my Mattie-dear right there! She's the one in blue!"
France says, making sure that he was a couple of steps away from the table and not within hearing distance from Matthew.
Gilbert, Roderich, and Elizaveth all focus their attention on Matthew.
Matthew was staring at France in confusion before he realized three things:
1). the woman that was supposedly France's friend was staring at him with a friendly vibe
2). the guy with silver hair was staring way too hard for Matthew's taste
3). did he really convince them that he's a girl?
Matthew sighs before giving a shy smile at the group, standing and making his way over to Elizaveth.
"Hello, my name is Matilda."
Insert really shy smile.
Elizaveth, looking smugly at Gilbert, wraps her hands around Matthew and hugs him.
Surprised at how friendly she was being, Matthew tried giving back the hug.
"I'm Elizaveth! This is my fiancé Roderich and my step-brother Gilbert."
Elizaveth says, releasing Matthew, pointing to Roderich on her left and at Gilbert on her left.
Matthew, trying his best not to feel intimidated, shakes hands with Roderich.
"Hello there."
Roderich gives Matthew a shy smile too.
"Hello."
Matthew was about to shake hands with Gilbert, when France goes in front of him.
"Mattie-dear where have you been~? I had to leave Arthur here in order to find you~!"
Both Matthew and Arthur snort at France's comment, making France sniff off-handedly.
"Papa, you should know by now that when you exaggerate stuff, you leave out the stuff that matters…"
"What are you talking about~? I do not leave out important information! When have I ever done such a thing~?"
Matthew and Arthur look at each other for a good five seconds.
"Two minutes ago?"
France sniffs.
"Who knew that the most famous bartender of À Deux would end up becoming so rude to their Papa~?"
Gilbert laughs at France's display, not noticing Elizaveth signaling Roderich that Matthew's the person that they're looking for.
"Did you say bartender? As in the same bartender who gave me a Strawberry Virgin Piña Colada with the rim covered in sugar and a pineapple slice on the side that one Saturday Karaoke Night?"
Matthew, who was trying to pull away from France, stops upon finally recognizing Elizaveth and Roderich.
"You're the one who wanted more strawberries instead of the actually drink since he—" points at Roderich, "—only wanted an iced tea because someone was playing some rock music and it was getting him irritated!"
Matthew finishes, watching as recognition flashes in Roderich's eyes and Elizaveth squealing at confirming what she assumed at the beginning.
"I thought I felt as if I've seen you before!"
Elizaveth says, bringing Matthew in for another hug, not noticing Gilbert's mouth go slack at the thought that France's daughter was the supposedly famous bartender.
He hopes that it's the only surprise of the night.
xCOxOxxCoxCOxOxxCoxoCxxOxOCx
"So after I like left them, I started to like look for Toris since I like needed to ask him something, but then I like remembered that I was supposed to like report to you with like the stats for the like night. After that, I like remembered that I was like forgetting to like give Feliciano back his like mascara, so I like start coming over here but I like saw Arthur and France making-out and decided to like come back right now!"
Felik says, smiling and nibbling on a Rice Crispy Treat® as he sees Romano pacing back and forth from behind his desk.
Romano sighs.
"Does Matthew know anything about the details for tonight?"
Felik shakes his head.
"Surprisingly, he was more concerned with like why you and Feliciano were like putting make-up on him—by the way, it's like so totally chic on him!—and why he was put in those clothes, so he wasn't like interested in much else."
Romano nods his head.
"Is that it?"
Felik checks his phone one more time.
"Yup!"
He starts to walk to the door.
"I'm like going now; Elizaveth is most likely going to be like wondering like where the hell am I. See ya in a few minutes!"
He closes the door behind him.
"Like, I sooo need to like buy a new Gucci® purse if like Toris does that again. I just like finished buying that bag like a few days ago…"
Felik mutters, scanning the tables to see where Matthew was currently sitting at.
"I thought I felt as if I've seen you before!"
Hearing that comment, Felik looks over to his right, and sees Gilbert getting blocked from meeting Matthew.
Smirking at how coy Elizaveth was being, Felik walks over to Matthew.
"Like I've been like looking all over the place for you Mattie!"
Matthew surprised that Felik got there out of the blue, walks up to Felik and gets pulled into a bear hug.
"Hey you! I've just been talking to Elizaveth right here and—"
"Felik?"
Elizaveth says, looking over Roderich's shoulder, interrupting whatever Matthew was going to say.
"Liz?"
Felik says back, slightly shoving Matthew into Gilbert's arms, and hugs Elizaveth around her waist.
"This almost seems planned…"
Matthew comments, not noticing that he was in Gilbert's grasp, as he watches Elizaveth talking to Felik like a hundred words per minute and Felik responding just as quickly back to Elizaveth making everyone wonder how well they know one another to be talking so fast—let alone understand what the other person is even saying.
"You know, you're free to get out of my arms at any moment."
Gilbert mentions, hoping that Matthew doesn't since he's enjoying how Matthew feels in his arms.
"E-Eh? O-Oh! I'm sorry!"
Matthew says, finally noticing that he was being held with his back against Gilbert's torso, squeaking as he tries to scramble away.
Gilbert laughs, releasing Matthew, and helping him sit down by the chairs near the table.
"Thank you."
Matthew says, completely oblivious to France and Arthur slowly walking away from the scene, giving Gilbert a small smile.
Gilbert laughs.
"Anytime you need someone to help you up, just call me over and I'll help!"
Matthew laughs, trying to cover it with a cough.
"How do you know I'm going to need help?"
Matthew retorts back, making sure to look at Gilbert in the eye.
Gilbert grins.
"My awesomeness knows no bounds."
At Matthew's confused stare, Gilbert elaborates.
"It's like asking 'Why do you sing?' You sing because you know. The same goes for my awesomeness."
Matthew laughs, not sure what the whole point of the explanation was, and smacks Gilbert on the arm.
"You're funny!"
Gilbert smirks.
"I try my best to be whenever I see a cutie around."
Matthew blushes, not sure how to take that comment, averting his eyes from Gilbert and watching the customers moving up and about on the dance floor.
"I don't see one, do you?"
Matthew comments, knowing that he was playing the whole 'I don't think that I'm pretty enough' card, but tries to see if Gilbert would try to make him feel better.
He laughs.
"Are you shitting me? You're fucking gorgeous enough that I'm pulling most of these cheesy lines out of my ass! How does that make you feel now?"
Gilbert says, running his left hand through his hair, knowing that he's telling the truth.
Matthew looks at Gilbert in surprise.
"I thought that you were going to say something even cheesier than that…"
Matthew remarks, making sure he was grinning, letting Gilbert know that he was messing around with him about the whole insecurity comment.
Gilbert grins.
"You're not someone to mess around with."
Matthew shakes his head, resting it on his hands in front of him, as he stares at Gilbert from his left.
"I never said that I was."
xCOxOxxCoxCOxOxxCoxoCxxOxOCx
Romano sighs, after seeing Felik close the door behind him, and walks up to the restroom next to his well-hidden closet.
"At least Matthew won't be oblivious to the entire bet by the time midnight comes rolling around…"
Romano mutters, reaching to open the handle on the restroom door, not focusing on how it slowly starts to open by itself.
"Feliciano! Are you done in there? I thought you said that you were done chang—"
Romano pauses, letting the door swing open, as he sees what made Feliciano stall for so long.
"WHAT THE HELL HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT BRINGING IN POTATO BASTARD NUMBER ONE IN THE FUCKING RESTROOM WITH YOU?"
Feliciano, who was holding Ludwig behind him in a protective stance, tries his best to not cower in fear of his fratello's angry voice.
"LET ALONE MAKE-OUT IN MY FUCKING PERSONALIZED RESTROOM?"
Feliciano cringes, silently shoving Ludwig out the door as Romano shouts more embarrassing things.
"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU THAT THE FUCKING POTATO STAYS OUTSIDE OF THE CLUB NOT INSIDE! WHERE THE HELL IS HE?"
Romano shouts, looking at Feliciano expectantly, with his arms crossed and standing in front of Feliciano intimidatingly.
Feliciano just shrugs at Romano, looking at the ceiling and then at the floor, before he gives his best "Deh~!" look at Romano.
Romano scoffs.
"I know that you brought him in the restroom. Where is he?"
Feliciano tilts his head to the side.
"Isn't Ludwig outside~?"
Romano groans.
"Why do you like to mess with me like that?"
Feliciano smiles, trying to give Romano a comforting hug.
"I was getting his opinion on my outfit~! I wanted to know if he liked it or not!"
Romano just shakes his head.
"So what did he say?"
Romano grounds out.
Feliciano smirks, flipping his hair, as he shakes his hips.
"Oh, he likes it alright."
"THAT'S IT! OUT OF MY OFFICE! NOW!"
Romano snaps, shoving Feliciano out the door, making sure that he grabs the bullhorn on his way out.
"Ahahahahahahahhahahah~! You know that I was kidding right?"
Feliciano says, his laughter bubbling up again at seeing Romano's flushed face, as he makes his way over to the dance floor.
"So where are we going to meet up next? Nataliya said that it was going to be a secret—but she only told Heracles! Do you know how annoying that is? And after I helped her that one time with—"
Before Felik could talk about anything else, he feels himself getting yanked away from Elizaveth and Roderich, and instantly tries to fight back.
"Calm down Felik! It's me Romano!"
Romano says, making sure that Felik's flailing body parts don't go hitting anything important, while still searching around for Matthew.
"You could have like warned me! I was about to like think that you were like someone else that like tried something earlier!"
Felik says, sighing in relief, and looking over at Elizaveth in apology.
"Text you the details?"
Elizaveth nods her head, wondering what was going to happen.
"Why is this so fucking hard? Oi—Felik—have you seen Mattie-dear anywhere?"
Romano asks, not noticing that Matthew was getting along with Gilbert, as he looks at the blond that is currently linking his arm with his at the moment.
Felik nods his head.
"Mattie! Get your ass over here!"
Felik says, interrupting whatever conversation that Matthew and Gilbert were having, making Romano see where Matthew was.
"It's time Mattie!"
Felik says, linking his arm with Matthew's, as Romano starts to lead them to the main bar.
"You're like free to like follow us! It's about to like get interesting around here!"
Felik says, shouting over his shoulder at Elizaveth, Roderich and Gilbert, as he follows Romano and Matthew.
"What exactly am I going to be doing?"
Matthew asks, nervous about having to show any amount of skin in front of all of his customers, as Romano and Felik start to stand on top of the bar.
"Just get up here and stand right in between Felik and me, okay?"
Romano asks, making sure that Matthew's in between them, looking over at Felik.
"You get the microphone Felik."
Felik nods, looking for the wireless microphone that they use to announce winners for the karaoke contest every Saturday night, and walks to the other side of Matthew.
By this time, there was a crowd gathering around the bar instead of the dance floor, as they all wonder what exactly is going on that the manager is there on the bar instead of his office.
Checking that the volume of the bullhorn is as loud as it can be, Romano starts off.
"How are the people enjoying their evening here at À Deux?"
Romano asks, making sure to display enough enthusiasm in his voice to get the people going.
At the unanimous cheers of "Woo!" Romano smirks.
"Tonight we like have a special surprise for like all of you out there!"
Felik says, making sure that he's strutting as he speaks, making Matthew wonder how either one of them could pull off enough sex appeal to capture the attention of everyone in the club.
"That's right Felik! You see our dear friend Mattie-dear needs some help!"
Romano says, smiling as he talks.
"Yeah, Mattie-dear needs to get not one but ten thousand dollars!"
Felik says, emphasizing how much help Matthew is going to need.
At the public's shocked gasp, Romano makes a shushing sound, to make them calm down.
"Now, Mattie just needs it in tips not as if he needs the cash right then and there. So you can all do the math there. Whoever helps give the last amount of money Mattie-dear needs to complete the ten thousand dollars gets first dib's on dating Mattie!"
Matthew looks over at Romano in horror, caught off guard that he was the ultimate prize after the bet was set and done.
Felik nods his head dramatically, wrapping an arm around Matthew waist, hugging him in a comforting way.
"Mattie needs to like get all ten thousand tips within like three months, or else it's 'bye, bye' to À Deux forever!"
Felik says, making sure to pause and capture everyone's attention at how dire the consequence is to help Matthew out in anyway the public can.
Romano nods his head, looking at Matthew and telling him to go along with the whole charade that Felik made up, pulling the bullhorn against his lips.
"Now, to make sure that there won't be a mob up here against the bar, the first person that talks to Mattie-dear will get to tip. The maximum amount of time that they could be alone is for an hour or until they are done. Is that clear everyone?"
As the crowd agrees, Romano Felik and Matthew all descend from the bar.
The first one to capture Matthew's attention was YongSoo.
Matthew smiles at YongSoo, automatically pulling out a tall glass, not noticing that Romano has left with the bullhorn and the microphone.
"Hey there Mattie~! How are you feeling today?"
Matthew laughs.
"Hey Im. Honestly? I don't know how to feel right now. Are you going to want the usual?"
YongSoo nods his head, trying his best to look Matthew in the eyes, but having automatically focused on the blouse that he was wearing.
Matthew sighs, knowing that YongSoo was staring at his chest, trying his best to mix the Long Islanded Iced Tea as quickly as possible and hand it over to YongSoo.
"Thanks Matt. Here's a little something."
YongSoo says, giving Matthew his first tip, making Matthew check how much he's willing to give Matthew right off the bat.
Maple.
"F-F-F-Five hundred dollars? Isn't that a bit too much for you to leave behind as a tip?"
Matthew says, trying to give it back.
YongSoo shakes his head.
"I've got plenty at the house; besides, I'm only giving that much away because you don't know how cute your looks are."
YongSoo says, patting Mattie on the shoulder, taking a long drink and placing the drink back on the bar.
"See you around kid."
Matthew just numbly nods his head, shocked that he got so much right off the bat.
"Eh? Okay, okay. I'm going over there right now. Yes, I see him. Okay. Bye."
A blond man sighs, leaning against the bar, catching Matthew's attention since he's staring right at him.
"Can I help you…?"
"I would like an extra wet mojito—heavy on the vodka."
The bespectacled blond says, rubbing his temples as Matthew does as asked.
"There you are."
Matthew says, sliding the mojito towards the blond man, hoping that he won't have another person tip him right after YongSoo.
"My name's Edward."
The blond man—Edward—offers, catching Matthew off guard, as he starts sipping his mojito.
"Matthew."
Edward sighs.
"Yeah, Felik said you would be."
Matthew looks over at Felik, who was busy trying to get back the Bacardi® from Hank, and then back at Edward.
Edward nods his head.
"I'm only doing this because Felik told me to. So, here you go."
Edward gives Matthew the same amount as YongSoo.
Matthew's eyes bulge out.
"A-A-Are you serious? I can't accept this so soon! Please take this back!"
Matthew says, pushing the five one hundred dollar bills back at Edward, shaking his head while doing so.
Edward laughs.
"Felik said that you would refuse, but not this cutely! You can keep it; I work as a dentist anyway. It's not as if though I'm wasting my money on anything illogical. Have a goodnight."
Edward says, pushing his empty glass towards Matthew, moving to get up and walks back the way he came from.
Matthew looks at the two empty glasses left side-by-side, and sighs.
He starts cleaning the glasses, careful to keep an ear out for Felik if Hank decides to be rough-housing tonight.
"You have such a nice smile, why don't you smile more often?"
Gilbert asks, leaning slightly closer to Matthew, making sure to leave enough room in case Matthew didn't like the sudden closeness.
Matthew blushes.
'Now was not the time to be thinking about that at all!'
Matthew sighs.
'Then why was I thinking about it? It's not as if I'm attracted by him, right? Right. He just thought that I was a girl and he probably thought that if he sweet-talked me into coming home with him, he would have found out that I'm not really a girl as these clothes and make-up try to make me become. Yeah, that's probably it. He got fooled with the appearance, that he didn't bother seeing if I was acting like a girl or not.'
Matthew snorts.
'If he paid attention to how I was bartending, he would have known right away that I'm not a girl. Stupid Gilbert with his stupid impressions about me being a stupid girl. I just want to go home now. Forget the rest of the night, I just want to go to sleep and not bother to remember the rest of this night…'
"Hey you."
Matthew, who was just finishing putting back the drinks in the proper order before Felik fucked it up earlier, looks up in confusion at the person speaking to him.
He looks to his left, then at his right.
Yep, he was definitely talking to Matthew.
"Matthew. The name's Matthew."
Matthew states, looking at the guy in exasperation, hoping that the guy would just order something and leave already.
"Right."
He says, making Matthew wonder if he was Chinese or something.
Judging by how the guy was a brunet with slanted eyes and wearing a kimono, he would guess he was Chinese or Asian.
"Do you know Yao?"
The guy asks, throwing Matthew off-guard.
"Yao? Yeah, he lets me hold on to some of his music in case he forgets to bring it to the club."
Matthew says, wondering why the guy is asking such random questions.
"Hm. So how do I do this? Do I have to order something first or can I give you the money and then leave?"
Matthew stares at the guy in confusion before he understands what the guy was saying.
"What's your name?"
Matthew asks, hoping that the guy would just give his name and tell him what he wants to drink.
"Li Xiao. So how do I do this? This is my first time coming into this club…"
Li Xiao says, his indifferent eyes not giving away his embarrassment at the moment.
Matthew offers a small smile at Li Xiao.
"You order something to drink and then you hand over the tip."
Li Xiao nods, thinking about what he should order, as he sits down on the seat in front of him.
"Does it have to be an alcoholic drink or can it just be a normal drink?"
Matthew shakes his head.
"It can be either or; it really doesn't matter. As long as you get something to drink, you can tip me."
Li Xiao nods.
"Then I'll have some vodka with a hint of orange juice."
Matthew, startled that this person would automatically hit the hard drinks right away, starts to make the drink.
"How old are you Li Xiao? You look a little bit too young to be at a club."
Matthew says, hoping that Li Xiao won't notice that his drink may take longer to make than the other usual ones and that he was going to have to start some small talk.
Li Xiao shrugs his shoulders.
"Just barely turned twenty-one last week; but I've been taste testing since I was eighteen."
Matthew nods his head, looking for the right glass to put Li Xiao's drink in.
"Here you go; hopefully it's not too bitter. I had someone complain to me that it was too bitter."
Matthew says, sliding the drink over.
Li Xiao carefully sips it.
"Whoever told you that was obviously trying too hard to be an ass."
Matthew shakes his head.
"When it's a former ex-boyfriend of your parents, they're bound to be assholes."
"Ouch, well that must have been a slap to your parents' faces."
Matthew laughs.
"Not when they're so into each other. They could hardly care; as long as it doesn't interfere with their sex life, they don't care."
Li Xiao shakes his head.
"Sometimes blunt honesty isn't always a good thing."
Matthew laughs, making Li Xiao twitch a smile.
Finishing his drink, Li Xiao gets up.
"I would really hate for you to never show up in this club again; you're the only sane person by far that I actually don't hate on the first impression."
Matthew slowly shakes his head, smiling as he does so.
"Well, how much did the other two give you?"
Li Xiao asks, paying for his drink.
Matthew hesitates, wondering if he should answer Li Xiao's comment.
"Ah, well, hopefully this will make up for it."
He slides some money over to Matthew across the bar.
"It was nice seeing you Matthew. I hope you win."
Li Xiao says, calling back over his shoulder.
Matthew laughs, reaching over the money that Li Xiao left.
Upon seeing how much Li Xiao tipped him on, Matthew starts laughing hysterically.
Felik, who was near Matthew in order to get the vodka, looks over at Matthew.
"Everything like okay over here?"
Matthew nods his head.
"My first three customers each gave me a five hundred dollar tip, and it's not even near closing time!"
Inspirational music for this chapter: Cassie (Acoustic), Fully Alive (Acoustic), Sorrow, Red Sam, In the Dark, Chasm, and Set Apart This Dream by Flyleaf; Raise Your Weapon (Radio Edit) by Deadmau5; For Your Entertainment by Adam Lambert; Rashiku Ikimasho by Meu; Pins and Needles, Blue, and Looking Glass by The Birthday Massacre.
In case you were wondering who is who:
Li Xiao – Hong Kong
Im YongSoo – South Korea
Berwald – Sweden
Tino – Finland
Bella – Belgium
Michelle – Seychelles
Gupta Muhammad Hassan – Egypt
Sadik Adnan – Turkey
Caroline – Monaco
Edward – Estonia
Felik – Poland
Katyusha – Ukraine
Toris – Lithuania
Matthew Williams – Canada
Alfred F. Jones – America/U.S.A.
Arthur Kirkland – England/UK/Britain
François Bonnefy – France
Ivan Braginski – Russia
Nataliya – Belarus
Heracles Karpusi – Greece
Kiku Honda – Japan
Antonio Carriedo Fernandez – Spain
Lovino (Romano) Vargas – South Italy
Feliciano Veneciano Vargas – North Italy
Ludwig Beilschmidt – West Germany
Gilbert Beilschmidt – East Germany
Elizaveth Hédèvery – Hungary
Roderich Edelstine – Austria