Chapter 1: We Need Help
Feliciano gazed despondently around the empty restaurant. It was lunch time, and this was their third week with no customers. If things kept up, he and his brother were going to have to close Grandpa Rome's. Their grandfather had founded the place when he'd first come to the United States and left it to his two grandsons when he'd passed away, to keep it in the family. Feli knew his grandfather would be heartbroken to see the state the place was in. All of the furniture was still original and on its last legs. The walls were peeling and the table clothes were badly in need of replacing. But there was no money to take care of what needed to be done.
A cloud of dark smoke drifted out from the kitchen. Feli glanced at it and sighed. He got up from the booth he'd been sitting in and headed to the back. "Fratello, did you burn something again?" he called. "Mind-a your own business, bastardo!" his brother shouted back. Feli turned away from the kitchen door and flopped down at the bar. Much to both Feli and his brother Lovino's dismay, Lovino had been left in charge of the kitchen while Feli had been left the job of manager. Both of their boyfriends also worked in the restaurant, Lovino's boyfriend Antonio as the head waiter and Feli's boyfriend Ludwig as the bartender.
Feli put his head down on the bar and closed his eyes. The restaurant, his home and livelihood, was collapsing around him. He heard the soft clink of a glass next to his head. Looking up, he saw a small glass of cheap wine. Staring through the golden liquid, he saw Ludwig replacing the wine bottle on the rack. "Thanks Luddi," he muttered, downing the drink. His thoughts wandered to the stories his grandpa told him when he was little, about the fairies who lived in tomato boxes. If you did whatever the fairies asked you to do, all of your problems would solve themselves. He wished. He had never been so in need of a box of tomatoes fairy in all his life. The idea that he would have to close Grandpa Rome's seemed like an impossible nightmare…. Impossible Nightmare… Restaurants? Wasn't that the name of a T.V. show? Feli's eyes widened. "Luddi!" "Hmm?" Ludwig responded, turning from where he had been taking inventory. "Isn't your friend Kiku friends with that guy from that T.V. show Impossible Nightmare Restaurants?" Ludwig nodded. "Yes, what of it?" Feli smiled for the first time in weeks. "What if he's our box of tomatoes fairy, Luddi?" Ludwig looked confused. "I have no idea what you are on about, Feli. But I'll invite Kiku over later if you want to talk to him." "Yay! That's happy." Feli spun off the barstool and skipped off through the restaurant. Now he just had to convince Kiku's friend to help him save Grandpa Rome's!