A/N Greetings from cold Sweden! So another chapter is up now and I hope you will enjoy.
Four AM. A quiet part of the day where the city is all asleep. It's too early to get up and it's too late to stay out. Cold beams of sun is ever so slowly reaching out above it in its attempted to melt away the early morning frost. The sun reflects in every drop of water from last nights rain making the trees glisten like diamonds. A powdery mist is slowly rising as a sign to tell that the ground is getting warmed up by the beams of light. The warm light wakes up thousands of birds in the soon to be lively city and the rise to the still pink sky. In just an hour or so the bakers and truckdrivers would start heading for work and in another two hours children would be forced out of their warm bed for yet another year of school. But for now, all was quiet around. The swings hung empty, moving slightly in the mild breeze, the shopping mall was yet to be opened and hardly any cars drove past. All was silent, save for three men walking down an empty road.
"Mon ami, will you please slow down."
The albino, reffered to, none other than our dear main-character, Gilbert Hans Weilschmidt, ignored exactly what his friend had said to him and spead up further.
"Sorry, but I'm late as it is. If I would suddenly slow down as well, I might as well quit the damn thing.
Knowing he was right, his two friends spead up as well.
"Will you at least listen to us?" Francis begged in an exasperated tone.
"Only if you can keep up the pace!"
Replied Gilbert without looking at them. Antonio, who was having a hard time keeping up, stopped a moment before sprinting after.
"Amigo, Francis and I have been talking." He said after catching up again.
"Good for you. " he said non caringly.
"About you." Francis clarified.
Gilbert stopped for a moment.
"About me?"
Antonio sighed in relief for the chance of slowing down.
"Si."
Francis, being a little bit more sensitive elaborated.
"We want you to quit one of your jobs." he said calmly and continuing before Gilbert could protest. "Mon ami, you're working yourself to exhaution if you keep this up. And you've said yourself that you hate one of them. If you'd just let me lend you some money, you could calm down with one job."
Gilbert smiled a bitter smile.
"And what? Give up?" Francis was about to say something but Gilbert interupted. "Look, I'm alright. With my new job at the opera I'll be making a bunch of extra cash and everything will be better. I've got everything under controll."
Neither friend looked exactly convinced.
"Gilbert, where's Ludwig?"
Gilbert cursed under his breath before walking the same way they'd come from.
"I should have woken him before I left to make sure he was up for school. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."
Antonio hurried after him and stopped him before he got too far.
"Don't worry about it amigo. I'll go there to check on him and you can just hurry of to work."
Gilbert looked like he was going to refuse the offer but finally sighed.
"Thank you buddy, I appreciate it."
"No worries." Antonio replied with a smile before bidding both friends goodbye. Gilbert and Francis started walking again.
"What are you going to say to your boss?" Francis asked.
Gilbert shrugged.
"The truth I suppose. He somehow reads through every lie in the book."
Francis shot him a sympaphetic look just as the little cafeé came into view. The little sign reading *Onnellinen Silli* shining brightly with it's welcoming colors.
"I gotta go now, Francis." Gilbert said with a wave.
Francis nodded slightly.
"Goodbye mon ami." After walking a little bit he turned just as Gilbert was about to enter the shop.
"Oh and don't forget to ask for the day off on Saturday."
"Yeah Antonio's wedding, I wouldn't miss it for the world!"
They waved a final goodbye before Gilbert entered the shop with a pling.
"Your late!" a rather unpleasant looking woman said the moment he stepped inside. He hair was made in a bun and blue eyes glared behind square glasses. Gilbert swallowed.
"Sorry mam, I ran into some complications on the way."
The horrid woman pursed her lips in a sneer.
"That's what you say every morning." she said coldly. "And I've told you that if you can't get here in time you don't need to bother coming at all!"
Gilbert bit his lip. It was true that he'd been late resently due to oversleeping in the morning bu the needed the morning job to pay for food. All of the sudden there was a sweet giggle from the kitchen and a young man stepped out.
"Äiti (mom)don't be so harsh on him. It's hard getting up so early in the morning."
The man was about Gilbert age with short blonde hair and dark blue eyes and a sweet smile.
"Goodmorning Gilbert. How are you doing?"
Gilbert smiled back weakly at him.
"Goodmorning mr Väinämöinen. Thank's I'm doing great."
Another great smile.
"That's good to hear. So we have a delivery arriving at 7 and I was hoping you could help unloading some of that before you're off today. Also until then the kitchen is an absolute mess since last night, I would have done it but Susan called and asked if we could meet and with her job, I just couldn't say no and…"
Gilbert raised his hand with a tired smile. He knew that the young finish boy had been having a slightly rough part in his relationship with his girlfriend Susan, a girl from Sweden who worked at the opera. With her complicated times he didn't judge Tino for wanting to see her when he had the chance.
"Don't worry about it Mr Väinämöinen, it'll be my thank you for not firering me."
Mrs Väinämöinen snorted.
"I honestly don't see why you don't. He's completely useless and always late!"
Tino gave her a resigned smile.
"Why don't we all get to work eh?"
Gilbert saluted with a smile to the finish boy and set to work.
His work at the café wasn't the best job but it could have been worse. Mostly he just did whatever Tino or his mother asked him to and in exchange Tino gave him something to eat on his way to his next work. When the clock struck 8 he put down the last box gathered his things.
"Gotta go now Tino." he called to the blonde who was just about to open up for the day. The Fin smiled warmly at him in return.
"Alright, good work today Gil!"
Just as he was about to leave, he turned again.
"Hey Tino? Could I have Saturday off? My friend is getting married to his girlfriend since high-school."
Tino's face lit up in excitement.
"Oh that's wonderfull! Don't worry about it, I'll keep it in check."
Gilbert smiled, glad to have Tino as a boss.
"Thanks, your the best! Give my regards to Susan next time you see her!"
Tino called goodbye back to him before the sounds of the cafe died down as he left.
It took him about ten minutes to get from the café to his second job at Brawang, a huge company in realestatement. It wasn't a very good job. In totall he worked eight hours in a cramped space doing paper-work that no one wanted to do for themselves. His boss Mr Braginsky was a complete psyco and Gilbert honestly pitied his poor Lithuanian assistant who put up with most of his ideas. Reaching the entrance he lazily greeted the very prety receptionist, Mei Wang who was unsurprisingly talking in the phone with one of her friends. She more or less ignored him as he entered so he just moved on. The first few hours went uneventfull but painfully boring. His back was aching and going up at three in the morning was finally getting to him. He was used to it though. He forced himself to supress a jawn and rubbed his eyes a little. It was nearing three which meant he had three hours to go.
Weilschmidt, I need you in my office.
That was the unmistakable voice of Braginsky. Shit. Gilbert restisted the urge to curse out in frustration as he got up and headed for his boss' office. Braginsky's office was huge and painted in an unsettling purpe colour. There were sunflowers on about every free area and in a black leather chair, sat none other than Ivan Braginsky with a creepy smile on his face.
"Sit, da?"
Forcing down the unsettling feeling in his gut, Gilbert did as told. He'd never actually been with the guy face to face but he'd heard what he could do.
"You've been working here for ten years, da?" he asked with a tilt of his head. "
Gilbert nodded, he'd gotten the job, not more than two months after the death of his family. He'd droped out of school and started at the bottom of Brawang in order to provide for himself and Ludwig. They'd stayed stayed with their uncle until Gilbert was 18 before they were kicked out and their uncle took all the money he'd inherited. Fortunately the money he got from Brawang was enough to get them to the city and get the cheapest apartment available. His job wasn't enough for long though and so he'd gotten the job at the café. Now as Ludwig was starting highschool he felt the need to get some money to at least buy his brother a phone and a computer. So he'd gotten a job at the opera.
"Yes sir, I have."
Mr Braginsky smiled.
"Do you like it here?"
"Yes sir." Gilbert lied. He couldn't really admit how much he detested getting out of bed just by the thought of going to this sucky job.
"Good. I had an argument with my wife last night."
"Oh?" Gilbert asked awkwardly. Braginsky's wife, Yao was the other owner of Brawang and known for his feminine reactions to things but he'd never thought the two fought.
"Da, Yao-Yao sent me to the couch and wouldn't let me sleep with him."
"Okay…" Gilbert said uneasily.
"Yao-Yao thinks I'm too mean to my employees."
Gilbert was running out of unsure polite things to say.
"So I decided to be nice and raise you salary." Braginsky said brightly.
Gilbert blinked in surprise.
"A raise?" he asked in surprise. A billion of thoughts ran through his mind of all the things he could do with some extra cash. He could get a bike, perhaps some new stuff for Ludwig. Then a finall thought entered.
"What's the catch?"
Ivan giggled childishly and swirled around in his chair.
"Let's not talk about that right now. All you need to know now is that you start an hour later than usual and get more paid. I'll call you in if something comes up. Good bye."
Gilbert got up as if in a haze and bid his boss goodbye. He worked as usual but his minds were still on the raise. He was given a raise but at what price? Would it make any greater difference? Before he knew it the clock struck six and Gilbert gathered his things. He still had a last job to get to before he could get home to his brother. He waved a lazy goodbye to Mei-Mei at the desk who was still talking on the phone. A light drizzle fell on his head as he stepped outside and made his way to Hetalia Opera.
A/N So there you have it. If there's anything you wonder just let me know.