"No. N-" Mathieu's voice cut his off, "I don't need a date, Mattie! I swear to anyone holy, I'm FINE!" ... "Yes, yes I know. I know I'm not getting any young- I'm the same age as you! AND YOUNGER!" … "UGH Mattie, please! I swear I don't need a romantic relationship! I'm happy where I'm at with my job and I don't need a relationship to distract m- Not right now at least!"

Several knocks, more like bangs, plundered Alfred's door, momentarily distracting him from his brother's long-winded monologue on why Alfred should be a) married or b)dating right now over the phone. Alfred juggling both his coffee cup, filled to the brim, and his work reports that still needed to be reviewed over while his cell phone balanced between his ear and shoulder, struggled to decide whether to put everything down and answer the door or just answer it as he was. The continued frenzied banging at his door gave him his answer.

"Shit- I'm coming! Hold on-! Mathieu, please give me a moment I have to get the do- One moment!" Alfred groaned. He rushed over and pitifully opened the door with his left hand, still occupied by his work report. Before he could fully open the door and cough out a hello the door swung open, promptly pushing him back onto his ass, and a tall figure rushed into past him, into his bedroom.

"Wha- Mattie?" His coffee cup fell out of his hand and luckily fell next to him rather than on him and burning expect. Unluckily though the cup shattered into a million little pieces and the coffee spilled coffee seemed under his hand and pants, and burned him.

"Ow! Shit-ow! What the fuck!" Alfred quickly picked himself up and kicked his cellphone away from the traveling spill coming to its direction. He hopped over the mess, avoiding the glass shards, and rushed to his bedroom.

He stood in his doorway baffling at the scene. "What the fuck? MATTIE!"

His violet, wavy-haired brother stopped his moving and stared at him. "Wha-?"

Alfred stared at him. "Don't you 'what' me, man! What are you doing here!?" Alfred stomped over to him yanking his shirt from Mathieu's hand. "Why are you going through all of my clothes!?"

"You got a date."

"What. No, I don't."

"Yes," Mathieu yanked the shirt back. "You do!" He went back to rummaging through Alfred's dresser, his back hunched over. He stopped suddenly looking at an article of clothing before throwing it onto the bed, "I am setting you up with someone. A blind date!"

"Matthew...Why." It came out as a statement rather than a question.

Mathieu walked to Alfred's closet, skimming through the various clothing, pulling off the ones he deemed nice, and threw them onto the bed. "You have a date in an hour with a nice guy that Yekaterina think you would be good with."

"Matt-" Mathieu cut him off.

"It's at a coffee shop that you like, cause I know you get. Don't want you to feel so confronted that you either start a fight or just leave."

"Ma-"

"I'm also picking out your clothes cause I don't trust you to pick out something nice when you already don't want to do this, but you are going to do this anyways cause I AM YOUR OLDER BROTHER AND YOU DO AS I SAY."

"MATTIE!" Alfred exacerbated.

Mathieu threw down the two shirts in his hand, that he was originally observing, onto the ground and turned to his brother. Alfred stood right next to him so when in doing so they were barely an inch apart. "I'm getting married soon and you are alone Alfred! I want you to bring a date to my wedding! I want you to be with someone and be happy!"

"I am happy! I don't need someone! I have my jo-"

"Alfred! You haven't dated anyone since high school!" Mathieu looked away and to the thrown clothes on the floor. His voice quieted. "You haven't seen anyone since Ludwig…"

Alfred stepped away from him. "Don't."

"He's gone, Alfred. You need to move on. He would have wanted you to…" Mathieu pleaded with him.

Alfred sighed, "I'm-I'm just not rea-"

"Please. Just this once. Just go out with this guy, talk to him a little, see if you have anything in common. Just please!" Mathieu took him by the shoulders and shook him, "For me! See if you like him!"

Moments passed without Alfred's answer.

"Fine."

Mathieu's eyes widened, "Yes! You won't regret this, bro!" He went back to scouring Alfred's closet before feeling satisfied with everything he threw onto the bed. He quickly went to the bed to start creating an outfit from the options, "Trust me, he's so sweet and he's tall! I know you like those tall dudes and he likes sunflowers! He's a nice guy!" Mathieu stopped once more, "Well according to Yekaterina… I've only ever heard things from her...Never actually met him…"

"Matthew! What the heck!"

"N-no, n-no, n-no! This is Kat we're talking about! She's a good judge of character!"

"Mattie! She thinks Arthur is a-" He put folding his hands under his chin and put on a high pitched Russian accent "delightful person to be around."

"Trust me! ALFRED!"

"UGH FINE, but you have to clean the mess you made me make when you rushed into here!"

"Yes! Oh and...we have to do this quick! It was Kat's and I's plan to ambush you last minute with this so you didn't have enough time to change your mind so you only have 15 minutes now!" Mathieu pushed a mountain of clothes into his arms and pushed him forward to the bathroom. "Go put this on, we're gonna be leaving soon. I'm dropping you off!"

Alfred groaned loudly in the bathroom.

The bell rang as Alfred opened the door to the coffee shop. He turned back to where his brother just dropped him off. His brother did a circular movement with his hand, telling him to hurry up and go in. He just sighed. His breath showing as a white cloud. Finally stepping in and closing the door behind him he took his hands from his pockets and rubbed them together. He then cupped them together and blew hot air onto them, trying to speed up the warming process. God did he dislike the cold. How did Mathieu appreciate this weather so much?

Alfred scanned the establishment looking a yellow sunflower. According to what Mattie told him, his blind date's name was Ivan (didn't give a last name) and that he was going to be holding a sunflower.

"Where is he? Where is he? Where is he?" Alfred mumbled to himself.

There didn't seem to be a speck of yellow in this place! Alfred grew impatient. 'Is he not here?' Alfred thought. Suddenly yellow was spotted in his peripheral vision. There in the back corner, directly diagonal from the doorway was a tall, pale-haired, with- what Alfred let out a sigh of relief to- a yellow sunflower. A quite big one too.

'How did I not see that?'

Alfred slowly, but earnestly, walked over to the man. This was it. He was going on a date! Dear god, he hated his brother… He wasn't going to be staying long, only for the coffee. Only until he finished it...Only till..., he finished it.

"Uhm, Hello? Are you Ivan?" The man looked up from his coffee and Alfred was kinda shocked. His eyes, they were like his brothers. He'd never seen anyone else like that! Interesting! He found something to talk about should a topic not come up.

"Oh Da, I am and you are Alfred I presume?" He made to stand up and held out his hand.

"Yep, that's me!" He let out an awkward laugh and took Ivan's hand into his own. Nervously shaking it. 'God save me. I really don't want to be here!'

Ivan made a motion to the chair in front of him for him to sit. Alfred took off his coat and rested it on the back of the chair and slowly sat down in it. They stayed in silence for a couple moments and Alfred thought to break it but, Ivan got to it before him.

"Do you want a drink? I will get you one. On me of course!"

"Oh thank you! Just get me whatever you think looks good. I'm always bad at making choices. I never know what...uh-I want…" Alfred felt as though he was saying too much for such a simple question. "Yep, whatever you think is good…"

Ivan pushed back his chair, the scraping noise bothered Alfred and did a quick smile at him. "Okay, I will be back in a moment." He walked away to the barista counter.

Alfred let out a great sigh. "Oh fuck, I'm not cut out for dating." He banged his elbows on the small round table and rested his chin in his hands. He looked at the man's drink in front of him. It smelt sweet...peppermint? Hm, peppermint was good. I guess this guy has a sweet tooth. That was a point, Alfred loved sweet things.

Alfred continued to observe the man's side of the table. A newspaper was under his drink. He liked to be informed… Has an appreciation for the older way of life as he didn't choose to use his cellphone. His jacket on the chair looked to be old and worn, but very well taken cared of. So he was careful and diligent of his possessions. He buys things once and takes care of them so he doesn't have/need to buy another. Nice, nice. He's off to a very nice start so far. He even went to both get and buy Alfred a drink. Very nice of him. Another point.

Through his observations and deductions, Alfred didn't notice the large man finally returning. Ivan placed his cup on the table as well as a plate with a bear claw. Alfred cocked his head at the pastry. "I got it for you." Ivan said as he sat down and pulled his chair in, "I heard you liked these so I thought you would want one…"

Alfred's face lit up, "God yes I love these! Thank you, dude!" He took a bite of the pastry and moaned. "This place has the best bear claws!" Alfred immediately took his cup and took a sip, his eyes widened. "Aw man White Chocolate mocha!" Alfred smiled at Ivan, who seemed to be enjoying Alfred's reactions to the treats. "You really know your stuff!"

The silence resumed once again. This time Alfred went to break it, "I'm just letting you know now. I'm not looking for a partner or whatever. I don't do dates, my dude."

Ivan raised his eyebrow at that. He heard that this one would be reluctant to the date, but Ivan came anyways. He was always up for a challenge as people say. He did need a little entertainment in his life and he didn't care whether the date went well or not. He was only doing this because his dear sister asked him. He wasn't going to disappoint his sister and trigger another one of her crying fits, though sometimes he swore she was faking it. Only using it to get what she wants...Whatever she was doing it worked cause here Ivan was now. "Is that so?" he smirked.

Alfred's brow furrowed confused. "Yeah, Listen. I don't want to be here. I thank you for this, but I'm only doing this for my brother."

"As I'm doing this for my Sister."

Pause. "I'm only staying till I finish my coffee."

"Then we better work fast." Ivan smiled, "My name is Ivan, I am 28 years old, I was born in Moscow, Russia, I immigrated to the US when I was 16, I work as an engineer building space shuttles, I have a sweet tooth, I love sunflowers, knitting, and cats, and my last boyfriend was when I was 24 years old."

Alfred gapped. Well, if that was how it was going be, "I'm Alfred, I'm 23 years old, I was born in Massachusetts, I moved to here to DC when I was 18, I work as an intern for NASA in building...space shuttles, I love to eat, workout, superheroes, and comics, and my last boyfriend died when we were in high school."

Oh, way to go Alfred for bringing up that last part. Eugh Alfred hated himself.

"Nice to meet you Alfred. I hope to learn as much as I can about you in the time it takes you to finish your coffee."

Alfred was taken back, but...He smiled back. "The same to you, Ivan. Now at first this really took me back but I think it's really cool. Your eyes are just like my brothers! Well actually yours are a little darker in colour, but they're just as awesome!"

Ivan chuckled and took a sip of his coffee, "Really? I don't know anyone else with my eye color."

"I know right! I have to tell him about you, I think he would really like to know else is like him haha."

"You know you have a very nice eye colour. It's very pigmented. You don't see that very often."

Alfred took a took a bite, but kept on talking, "Really? I always thought they were just normal. Just a boring shade of blue."

"Dear god, finishing swallowing before you talk!"

"Haha, nom nom nom!" Ivan threw a napkin at him. "Hey! You aren't supposed to abuse me how dare you!"

"I didn't abuse you I simply gave you some coverage. Do us all a favor and cover your mouth." Ivan sounded stern but he was having some trouble covering up a laugh.

"Ha you think-" Alfred paused to swallow, " I'm funny!"

"Lord help me."

"So mean to me!"

"Not mean just truthful!"

"That's still being mean!" Alfred took another sip from his cup.

"I guess it is, but I think you can handle it, hm?" Ivan raised his brow as he brought his cup to his lips

"Yeah, of course, I can!"

"Haha, how cute," Ivan muttered under his breath.

"Huh? What was that? I could hear?"

"Nothing." He continued to drink from his cup.

"If you say so…" Alfred looked to the sunflower still on the table and picked it up, "Where did you even get this? It's in the middle of Winter?"

"I live by a flower shop. I am a frequent customer for Sunflowers, they even have a small garden of sunflowers just for me, well not just for me they sell to others who want them, but they started it because I would always come in for sunflowers and they never had any."

"That's nice of them! Which flower shop is it, maybe I'll visit it sometimes. My brother is getting married and I think some flowers would be a nice touch to his tux."

"Your brother is getting married?"

"Yeah, this spring coming up. Getting married to some Ukrainian chick. She's really nice." Alfred drank once more, "She apparently comes from Russia though. So same as you. Maybe you guys would get along."

"Alfred just because we are both immigrants from Russia does not mean we would get along." Ivan deadpanned.

Alfred raised his hands in surrender, "Alright, alright I guess so and aren't you gonna tell me where this flower shop is at? I'm gonna check it out!"

Ivan leaned over and took a pen from his to write on the newspaper. Writing down the address he explained the directions and then told him how he could get there via walking from the coffee shop they were at. Ivan drew out a small map on the back of the paper with the address. Alfred thought it was cute. How thorough he was even though it was simple directions. He grabbed his cup to take a sip but all the came down was a couple drops of coffee. He frowned.

"Hey, Ivan." Interrupted Ivan in his directions, "I'm gonna be right back. Give me a couple minutes!"

Ivan nodded his head. Waiting he looked out the window watching as the cars passed and the walking of people. Where were they all going? Seeing a woman in a professional pencil skirt in heels and nothing but a small cardigan through the freezing snow he imagined her coming back from her boyfriend's apartment who just dumped her. She was so angry she only put her shoes on and left. A teenager walked passed, ripped jeans and an oversized tan jacket with fur at the hoodie, Ivan imagined them going to meet up with friends. He recently got the text message to go somewhere with them so he hastily picked out the first thing to wear and set out to the destination. Ivan laughed to himself.

Alfred returned back with a Hello...and two cups of coffee. "This is for you." He said, "I assumed that you like sweet thing and peppermint so I got you a peppermint mocha!"

Ivan stared at Alfred's own cup. "Oh! I got myself a black and white mocha!" He took a sip of it. The whipped cream got onto his nose and upper lip, "I don't know what's in this, but its good!"

Ivan took let out a puff, took his napkin, and wiped off the mess from his face. "Keep yourself clean, how is that so hard for you?"

"Aye! I was gonna lick that off!"

"Were you? Well, here you can have the napkin if you wanted it so bad." Ivan chuckled. He threw the napkin at Alfred.

"Why do you throw napkins at me so much! I just got you another coffee shouldn't you be nice to me!"

Ivan and Alfred laughed and chatted, drank and snacked, and ignored and forgot. Hours went by where they all they did was talk and the drink kept on coming. Every time one would notice one of their drinks gong empty the other stood up and bought two more new drinks. Both two different flavors than before. They both had an unspoken agreement, and challenge, to try every single drink on the menu before they left.

"Wait wait are you telling me your sister is Yekaterina?"

"You're brother is Mathieu?"

"YES!" They both stood quiet before they both busted out laughing. "Oh my god! They set us up with each other!"

"I should have known something was up when Sestra said Mathieu spoke frequently of you so she knew you would be a nice person!"

They both burst out laughing again. "Oh my god, well they sure did do something good for us. You're pretty cool to hang out with Ivan Braginsky."

"As with you Alfred William-Jones."