Trial By Fire

Prologue

How did Alfred even end up in this situation? He could not quite remember himself, but he knew it had to do with Matthew and one of Matthew's friends. Oh yes, Matthew. It was coming back to him now. This was all Matthew's fault. Alfred had not the slightest clue why, but his older brother always had a bit of a complex about their sibling relationship. Alfred was the younger brother and Matthew was the older brother, and they were to behave as such. Only, that never actually happened. Alfred had always been the loud and outspoken one of the two, quite a contrast to the quiet and timid Matthew. As such, it was always Alfred that defended Matthew from all the bullies and made sure he had a voice in things. As luck would have it, even if Matthew was arguably the more mature one or even the saner one, that charisma had always allowed Alfred to look after his brother in a way the older never could. That, and the vocal observations of friends and strangers alike assuming Alfred to be the older twin, gave Matthew his complex. Now if only Alfred could understand why it bothered his brother so much, though that would be a big breakthrough in Matthew's therapy as well. Patience, patience, he supposed.

Regardless, because of that complex Matthew felt that he had to get Alfred a job. The only problem was that he already had one. A freaking good one as a freelance web designer. Good pay, flexible hours more often than not right in the comfort of his own home, and a growing portfolio that beat out professionals in the field when he was just fresh out of college. However, Alfred had always had a weakness when it came to Matthew, especially when tears were involved. Which only served to aid the complex, on another note. This had been one of those occasions, so Alfred accepted. How bad could it be, after all? It was a favor from one of Matthew's friends and Alfred could continue his other job in his downtime. Problem solved. That was until Matthew asked one question, right in the middle of his cheer, that made Alfred a little nervous.

"Can you cook?"

Yes, he could cook. Anyone could in his opinion. Most recipes not only came with a list of ingredients but a step by step instruction list. How hard was it to follow directions? That said, it still bothered him that Matthew would ask that. If anyone would know whether he could cook or not it should have been Matthew, since they had lived together for a good eighteen years growing up sharing kitchen duty. Even now Alfred would be in big trouble if he could not cook being the bachelor he was. Now that he was out of school he had to provide for himself in more ways than one. Could he cook? Of course. Could he do the job that Matthew found for him? Well, he was not so sure anymore.

His anxiety had only been heightened as Matthew spewed the facts of his new occupation bit by bit. His brother had been quite stingy with the details even then when he had not given Alfred so much as a hint without his acceptance. The friend that was getting Alfred the job was a Frenchman by the name of Francis Bonnefey. He knew the man, admittedly, but not nearly as well as Matthew. The two had even been roommates in college for a while, to Alfred's knowledge, and they got along quite well. Part of that had to do with Matthew's second language being French. Sure, Alfred knew French, too. It was a little hard not to when fifty percent of what his older brother said was in the language, but he had always found that life was easier when everyone thought he could only speak English. Just for the record, he had taken Spanish classes as to not give any reason for Matthew to feed his complex, but no one could seem to remember that he was fluent in that as well. Anyway, Francis Bonnefey was not a bad man by any account, but Alfred knew better than to let his guard down around him. He was actually surprised that Matthew's friendship with Francis survived all the Frenchman's inappropriate and self-centered behavior, even with all the man's good points. One such good point had always been his cooking. It was so good that both he and Matthew had told Francis to go to culinary school, though only jokingly. Alfred started to connect the dots before Matthew could even say it: Francis had gone to culinary school. Not only that, as it turned out, but he had started his own business as well. Alfred did not like where this was going at all.

"He is going to hire me, an untrained web designer of all things, as a chef?" Alfred cried, "Because I am not going to be the dishwasher!"

Matthew shook his head desperately at the accusation, "Of course not, Al. I would not do that to you. He really is going to hire you to cook."

"There had to be a catch. Why would a professional catering company, gaining in popularity and with dreams of opening some sort of restaurant or shop, take a step back and hire someone without training on blind faith?" Alfred insisted, "No matter how good of friends you and Francis are, business is business. There is absolutely no way."

"Oh but there is." Matthew chuckled nervously, "But I guess you were kind of right about the catch. Francis will explain in all tomorrow, though. At least go see him!"

The last thing that Alfred wanted to do was find out what type of underhanded agreement he was apparently a part of now and all it entailed, simply because it "was the best thing for him," but that weakness was alive and well. Matthew proved that once more with ease. So he would go. He would go and at least listen to Francis's proposition. He was not agreeing to any more than that and from there at least he would not budge for any amount of tears. Even if Matthew meant well, he could be incredibly manipulative whether or not he meant to. Most people could never see that behind the man's innocent face, but Alfred knew Matthew better than Matthew knew himself sometimes. He had every reason to be suspicious of this deal with Francis.

That suspicion was promptly proven when he attended the meeting. The catch that Alfred had been expecting turned out to have a name: Arthur Kirkland. Apparently he was Francis's business partner despite them fighting like cats and dogs. It had been a partnership out of necessity from what Alfred could piece together. Francis had the skills with people and cuisine and Arthur had business knowhow and capital. He had been essential when the business had first started, and he still was, but to a lesser degree now that they made money. However, Arthur was not satisfied with that. He genuinely loved cooking and that was the only reason he became Francis's partner in the first place. Arthur had wanted to join everyone in the kitchen from the start. The only thing is that simply was not possible, at least not with his talent. Said talent was apparently to turn everything edible to inedible with no more than a mere touch. Alfred had thought Francis was joking when he first heard the words, but his face was the most serious Alfred had ever seen it. What was more is that in recent events Arthur had put himself in the hospital eating his own creations. The one person who had ever had immunity to its toxicity had always been Arthur himself, so this was a whole new step on the inedibility chart. Nevertheless, the man still wanted to not only cook for himself, but for the business as well. And that was where Alfred came in. Alfred was to be Arthur's personal chef and tutor, though namely chef. Francis still needed Arthur very much alive and well, but cooking for someone other than their customers. So Alfred would "teach" him to cook, merely to channel that creativity and frustration away from the business. That and make sure that he would not actually kill himself by eating his own food. It sounded simple enough and Francis seemed pretty desperate, but Alfred could not shake the nagging feeling that this would be far more than he bargained for.

That nagging feeling never went away. Not from the moment that he left that meeting with Francis to when Matthew reminded him why he had even gone to the meeting place in the first place. In fact, if anything it grew stronger until it finally hit a peak: when Alfred was standing right outside his door. Francis had assured him that everything would be fine and that he had called and informed Arthur of the situation. Still, Alfred could not even make himself knock. How did he end up in this situation again? Oh yes, Matthew. Well he had officially made a full mental loop. There was nothing more that he could do now other than knock. Little did Alfred know that the decision to knock on the door that day would change his life forever. As for better or for worse, well even he could not decide that.