Totally Awesome Double Date
300!
This is for barefoot11. We were discussing a while back about two of our favourite pairings and for some reason; I ended up pitching this idea as well as two others. She did one of them and told me that I should do one as well. It took me a while to get to it, but at long last, here it is!
Characters: Prussia, Canada, Poland, Lithuania, France
Disclaimer: Long story is long
Totally Awesome Double Date
When Matthew Williams walked into his home, it was to find the place dark and silent except for a little light coming from the living room which he recognized to be the television. He put his coat away, placed his briefcase by the stairs and then went to the source of the light.
As expected, he found his lover, Gilbert Beilschmidt, lounging on their couch, beer in hand and watching the television. Matthew sighed to himself. He said a quick hello before going to his kitchen and looking for something to eat. It hadn't always been like this.
Matthew remembered a time, early on in their relationship and even some couple of months ago, when he would get back from work and Gilbert would be waiting for him with dinner on the table, or a nice little pleasant surprise, but always greeting him with a warm kiss. Now, if they could have a five minute conversation it was a lot.
It pained him to think that their relationship was dying out. They had been together now for six years and he had always thought that theirs would last. They had met while he had still been in college and they had just clicked.
They grew into the relationship bit by bit and by the looks of it, they were slowly growing out of it. Matthew remembered some of their more passionate moments and when he looked at what they had now, he sometimes wondered it he hadn't dreamt any of that.
He sighed again as he sat down to eat. There was silence in the house except for the faded voices coming from the television. When he was done with his meal, he washed his dish before deciding to retire for the night. He was going to go to their room, but he paused in front of the living room.
"I'm off to bed now, 'night." Gilbert didn't even turn his head from the television and waved him off. Matthew felt something inside of him slowly break.
He made his way to the bedroom, changed out of his clothes, got into his pyjamas and went to bed. He tried sleeping, but he just couldn't. He finally reached for the telephone on the nightstand and dialled up the number of his long time friend.
Feliks was busy combing his hair when the phone rang loudly in the room. He waited for Toris to pick it up, but when the third ring came and the fourth was on its way, he picked it up since he was tired of hearing the noise. He wondered who would be calling at this time.
"Hi, Feliks?" His eyes widened with surprise at the sound of the voice. It felt like forever since he had heard it.
"Oh my gosh, Matthew? Like, you haven't called me in forever." The blonde heard his friend politely smile at that.
"Am I bothering you?"
"No, no, like, don't worry. What's up?"
"This is going to sound silly, but, how do you do it?" There was a pause. Feliks wasn't sure he knew what Matthew was talking about.
"I mean, you've been with Toris since sophomore year and you guys are still going strong, how do you do it?" Understanding came to Feliks. He sighed to himself; if only Matthew knew the truth that it wasn't all peaches and cream in his supposedly paradise.
"Eum, I guess so… listen, d'you, like, want to meet for coffee tomorrow and we could talk about this?"
"Sure, that sounds like a plan." Feliks heard the click of the phone and shut off his own. He turned around and looked at the setting of the guestroom. He had moved in with Toris after their first year of college and ever since last week, he had started sleeping here.
He felt badly lying to Matthew, but he didn't want to tell him yet that he too was having relationship problems. It wasn't so much that they had gotten into a fight, but more like with each passing day, Toris grew more exasperated with him until one night, Feliks had just felt weird sleeping in the same bed. It broke his heart a bit, but there wasn't much he could really do other than try to solve this problem.
Matthew went to sleep shortly after his phone conversation and tried to wait up for Gilbert. The two of them hadn't been intimate in a really long time and the younger man was wondering if he started something whether or not his partner would join and if perhaps it would get them to talk.
He waited an hour, then two, and finally, he fell asleep. Around three am, he felt the bed shift with the weight of a new body and it slightly roused him from his sleep. Matthew watched from the corner of his eye as Gilbert pulled the covers over him and faced the opposing wall. Not even a kiss, not even a cuddle, nothing. Matthew turned around and tried to go back to sleep.
The following afternoon, Matthew met up with Feliks at the local café in the town they lived in. His friend was already there waiting for him and he walked over to the younger man. The two exchanged warm greetings before Matthew sat down.
"Like, how have you been?" Feliks asked his friend once he had placed his order.
"I don't know… I'm not feeling the greatest that's for sure."
"Well, what's going on?" And with that, Matthew explained everything to the other man. He told him of Gilbert's attitude change, of the fact that they couldn't seem to communicate, the cold shoulder, the even colder bed, Matthew spilled his heart out and it felt good to get the weight off of his chest. Feliks remained silent for a moment as he took in the information.
"D'you think he's been unfaithful?" Matthew looked startled by the question.
"Don't play dumb with me. Like, you totally heard right." Feliks said seriously. Matthew thought about it for a moment. Gilbert was always home after work except for the nights he hung out with Francis and Antonio.
"I don't think so. I mean, there's nothing really that would lead me to believe that he did. We're just going through a rough patch." The two were silent for a moment.
"God, you're really lucky Feliks. You and Toris were a match made in heaven." The shorter man looked away and sighed.
"I haven't been totally honest with you, Matt."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, like, Toris and I… we're not totally okay…" Matthew's eyes went wide.
"Shit, I'm sorry; I had no idea." Matthew patted his friend on the back who gave him a small sad smile in return.
"It's okay. Like, you didn't know." The two fell into another lapse of silence.
"Look at us; two fools in love and we don't even know what to do." Matthew finally said. If anything, it got Feliks to laugh.
"Well, I might, like, have a plan or something…" Matthew's heart started beating a bit faster. Feliks always liked to play matchmaker and even though his ideas weren't always safe or sane, Matthew was ready to try everything short of jumping off a building, but even then.
"Well, like, I was reading this article in a magazine the other day and this couple was having problems so they went out on a double date with, like, this other couple that was having problems. The whole point of the date is that, like, the couple will realize that they aren't meant to be with their date and they realize that they really like their significant other or something like that. I'd thought we could totally double date together next week." Matthew stared at Feliks once more.
"No offense, but I already know that you and me won't work out." Feliks laughed.
"No silly. Like, I'll be with Gilbert and you'll be with Toris. That way the plan will totally work out since you don't know him that much and I, like, totally don't know Gilbert." As much as Matthew wanted to say that it was a crazy idea, part of him wanted to try it out. He smiled.
"You've got yourself a double date then." He got up and shook Feliks' hand.
"Awesome!" Feliks said doing the same. Matthew paused in his step and turned around with a sort of nostalgic expression about him.
"He used to say that a lot…"
When Matthew walked into his house, it was to find Gilbert yet again lying on the couch. The younger man went up to him and tried to get his attention.
"So, I made plans for us next week." He finally opted to say. Gilbert only spared him a glance.
"We're going out to Le Viaduc."
"That's nice." Gilbert responded dryly.
"We're not going together." That finally got the silver haired man's attention.
"What do you mean?" He sat up a bit.
"I'm going with Toris and you're going with Feliks." Gilbert pondered this for a moment.
"You mean like a double date?" Matthew nodded.
"Verdamnt."
The end of the week finally came and the day of their double date arrived as well. Matthew drove them to the restaurant and he had hoped that Gilbert would have said something during the ride, but he was as quiet as ever.
They were the first to arrive and went to wait for the other couple. It felt so very weird for Matthew not to be sitting directly in front of, or right next to Gilbert. Feliks had told him that by having them sit in diagonals, it would make the plan work better.
They waited in silence for almost ten minutes and Matthew was more than relieved when he saw Feliks walk in with Toris; Gilbert had looked about ready to explode.
"I'm, like, sorry we're so late! The car wouldn't start." Feliks told them as he sat besides Gilbert. Toris quietly took his seat besides Matthew and gave him a gentle smile.
"It's okay, you didn't miss much."
"Totally cool then! Shall we start?" Matthew nodded and Feliks turned around to greet his date while Matthew did the same.
"So, like, you must be Gilbert, right?" Feliks asked as he eyed the other man. Gilbert certainly was taller and seemed better built than Toris.
"Yup, the one and only, awesome me." The blonde cringed; Matthew hadn't been kidding about the "awesome" complex.
"Uh, huh, that's, like, great, so, d'you have any hobbies?" Part of him was already starting to wonder how he was going to manage an entire evening like this. He was going to lose it.
"I play football, the European kind, and I play the guitar." The other man paused before adding "You?" it was apparently the polite thing to do.
"Well, I like to shop a lot and redecorate. I could, like, shop all day long and then just get home and totally revamp the place." Feliks smiled to himself as he saw Gilbert recoil slightly; it looked as though his plan was already working.
Meanwhile, across the table, Matthew and Toris were quietly chatting. At first, Matt hadn't been quite sure what to make of Toris since he seemed so insecure, but now that the brunette had opened up a bit, Matthew was finding him pleasant to talk to.
"So, I heard you lived in Russia for a bit, how was that?" Matthew asked moving the conversation along.
"It was only for six months. I went there for personal reasons; it was definitively an interesting trip and it opened up my eyes to the culture over there, but at the same time, I realized that I preferred living here." Matthew nodded at that. He was about to ask another question when a waiter walked over to their table.
"Bonsoir messieurs, et bienvenue au restaurant Le Viaduc. Je peux vous servir quelque chose à boire?"/ "Good evening gentlemen, and welcome to the Viaduc restaurant. May I serve you something to drink?" The waiter asked in impeccable French.
"De l'eau, s'il vous plait."/ "Some water, please." Matthew replied casually slipping into his old French habits; the waiter quirked an eyebrow at that while Gilbert hissed from his side of the table but no one heard him.
"C'est toujours un plaisir d'avoir un client qui parle français. Vous pouvez m'appeler Francis, monsieur?..."/ "It's always a pleasure to have a client that speaks French. You can call me Francis, sir?..." Matthew winced slightly as one of Gilbert's best friends tried to flirt with him obviously not knowing or recognizing who he was since the two hadn't really met beforehand. Matthew could feel Gilbert seething from his own spot.
"Matthew, Matthew Williams." He watched as Francis' eyes went wide with recognition and at the same time, Gilbert banged his hands on the table causing the waiter to turn around and smile at his friend as if nothing had happened.
"Hmm, mais c'est très intéressant tout ceci… Autre chose?"/ "Hmm, this is all very interesting… Anything else?"
"De l'eau will be fine." Francis nodded and left, not before waving cheerily at Gilbert, who looked ready to murder him, and winking at Matthew who flushed with colour.
"You know him?" Toris asked from besides him. Matthew snapped out of his reverie and turned his attention to his date.
"He knows Gilbert, actually. I've only met him once of twice, but he was piss drunk, or something akin to that effect. I don't think he remembers me." Toris laughed softly at that.
"It's a small world when you think about it." Matthew nodded in agreement.
Toris smiled at his date. It had been quite a long time since he had last gone out and it felt nice to simply sit there and talk about trivial little things. When Feliks had first told him about their evening plans, he had thought that this night would end up in shambles, but so far, he was having a great time.
Matthew was a quiet man who was polite, but nice to talk to. He was a definite contrast from Feliks, but right now, Toris didn't really mind. He was finding the change quite nice.
"What did you study in back in school?" He asked the blonde haired man.
"I majored in architecture. I work for a local company now. What about yourself?"
"Photojournalism. I did a lot of freelance work until a publishing company for local advertising hired me. Then I got recruited for some environment protection magazine and the rest, as they say, is history." Toris watched as Matthew nodded and chuckled. The laughter was contagious and he soon followed. He remembered a time when he would have moments likes these with Feliks. He wondered why they had stopped.
Gilbert was silently fuming. He did not like one bit how things were going. First off, he didn't like the way Matthew was chatting up the other guy, Toris was his name? And second of all, he didn't like the way they two were getting all cozy and shit.
Matthew was slightly turned to the side to face his dinner date, his elbows resting on the table and his hands folded together. Gilbert noticed the pretty little smile he had on his face and it only made his stomach churn with jealousy. He didn't like the way the younger man's body was slightly bent at an angle so that he was closer still to Toris.
Toris. That brought another issue up all together. That damn brunette was flirting up a storm with his Mattie and Gilbert didn't like this at all. He was laughing at every joke Matthew would make and he did not appreciate it when he tucked a strand of Matthew's hair behind his ear. Their chemistry was getting to be toxic.
His other problem was the fact that his best friend worked in this place and just happened to be their waiter. Gilbert was convinced that everyone was out to get him tonight and if he didn't do something soon, all hell would break lose.
"Helloooo, are you, like, even listening to what I'm telling you?" Feliks said from his right. And that brought on his last problem of the evening. The blonde sitting besides him that was supposed to be his dinner date. Gilbert had been listening to him for well over thirty minutes by now prattling on about ponies, manicures, hair products, shopping and lord knew what and he couldn't take it anymore.
"Of course I'm not! Gott, who the fuck could listen to you talk for so long? Christ, it's a wonder you ever got laid." He snapped at the other man.
"Can you please not talk to him like that? Don't you know it's rude?" Toris said as he got up, anger evident in his eyes.
"No, what's rude is hitting on other people's boyfriend. Just because I was sitting next to Mr. Pony here doesn't mean I didn't see you get all friendly with Matthew. I have news for you pal, but he's taken and you're not bringing him to warm up your bed." Gilbert tried not to yell as he rose from his seat as well and glared daggers at Toris. Matthew and Feliks exchanged a smile.
"Well then, maybe you should learn to treat him better. It's no wonder Matthew was having such a good time, it shouldn't be hard to beat if you're always treating people the same way you were treating Feliks." Toris wasn't usually this brash, but something in him had just snapped when he heard the other man speak that way to Feliks.
"Fuck this! This is not going to work out at all. Matt, I'm sorry for being such an ass these past few weeks. I don't know, but you were working on that project late almost every night and it just got to me. How 'bout we leave this place and go home? I'll cook us something nice and we could just take it slow like we used to, what d'you say?" Gilbert turned to face his lover and hoped beyond hope that Matthew would say yes. It was now that he was starting to understand what this had all been about.
Matthew looked up at him and smiled. He got up and nodded before reaching out for his hand. He linked their fingers together and Gilbert breathed a sigh of relief.
"That sounds great."
"I'm really sorry, Matt." Gilbert whispered to him, completely ignoring the other two men who were smiling at each other.
"It's okay, I forgive you, I'm just glad that everything worked out in the end." To prove his point, he got on his tiptoes and pressed a kiss to the older man's lips. Gilbert instinctively wrapped his arms around Matthew's waist and responded with kind.
"Let's go." The two of them headed towards the door, smiling at each other and placing their arms around one another's waist. Matthew turned his head before going out of the restaurant and mouthed the words "thank you" to Feliks. The other man smiled at him before returning to his conversation with Toris.
Feliks watched his friend leave before looking back at the man before him. Toris had just finished apologizing for his behaviour for the past month and told him why he had been so distant. In the end, both of them had been at fault, but they had found it in their hearts to forgive each other.
"Feliks, are you okay?" The blonde blinked and smiled at his lover.
"You know I, like, totally love you, right?" Toris smiled and took the other's hand before bringing it to his lips and kissing it tenderly.
"Totally." The brunette said, using one of Feliks' expressions. They both laughed and shared a kiss before placing their order with their waiter. Things had turned out for the best.
OWARI
Francis was added in the story since in barefoot11's story she had him as a waiter. I figured I could do the same as a little head's up.
Ouf, this was long to write!
Reviews, no matter how short, even if they are anonymous, mean a lot to me and let me know that my writing brings emotions to you readers out there. I see you, the ones who only favourite, the ones who add me to alert, don't think I don't. Even if it's just an exclamation point, it warms my heart.
Started writing: August 29th 2010, 11:41am
Finished writing: August 30th 2010, 8:22pm
Started typing: September 5th 2010, 3:49pm
Finished typing: September 6th 2010, 12:44pm