The steady sizzle of butter in the pan kept him distracted as he gave a quick stir to his batter and started pouring dollops in. Last night was… something the blonde concluded as he set the pitcher aside and picked up the spatula. Something amazing…? Something spectacular…? Something awesome-?

No, no, no! Mathew chided himself and shook his head fiercely. His still damp hair after his morning shower to wash away the remaining evidence of last night slapped him in the eye and he winced and had to rub at it. It was absolutely important that after hearing that all night that he didn't fall into the trap of including it into his vocabulary. It would be worse than if he spent the day with someone who used 'like' between every other word and somehow picked up the habit.

Still his feelings were a bit mixed as he tended to his breakfast. There was a man he barely knew beyond a first name basis in his apartment, using his shower. Naked in his shower… Water running down him…

"Maple dammit!" he cursed aloud, slamming the spatula against the stove in his frustration. The clock already read 10:30 and who knew when Al would return home? He was always slow to make that walk of triumph home after a long night out (never shame because he doubted Alfred ever had any). But the fact remained that at any moment his brother could come strolling through that door and witness his house guest.

And before then they needed to have a quick chat. About how last night was fun. Okay, a little more than fun. But it wasn't going to happen again because it was a one-time deal. Yeah, he bet Gil was planning on skipping out as soon as he could. Not looking back. Not wanting to meet up and have another one of those nights…

He groaned and pried a half finished pancake off the pan, quickly flipping it over. What was he thinking? That they would start some kind of stable relationship based off of sex? Or did it not matter because he was wantonly craving some sort of attention?

'Oh my god,' he suddenly thought, lifting his head to stare at the wall behind the stove, 'I'm turning into Al!' It had to be some kind of transferable disease, not genetics or anything. Maybe he could still find a cure so he too would not become a slut?

And clearly this whole thing with him feeling any kind of attachment was because, although he'd never admit or acknowledge it with actual spoken words, Alfred might be right when he said he wasn't getting enough. That's all this was. He just needed to get out of his room a little more often.

No, that would never happen, he reminded himself with a sigh, grabbing the plate of premade ones resting on the counter beside him. Matthew was the sensible brother, the one with good grades, a good scholarship, who worked hard and kept his head down and out of trouble. He was going to be the one to graduate, get a decent job and start a career to where he would own a picturesque little house somewhere in the countryside to retire to. His family had already planned out his life for him and now he had to fulfil it.

There was a sound behind him and he tried to act cool as he glanced over to see the object of his morning musings walk in still shaking droplets of water out of his hair. "Hey!" He said in a cheerful greeting, walking over to see what he was doing.

"Hey…" Matthew muttered, turning to hide his face over his food prep. Any heat he felt on his skin was due to the stove.

Gil was not deterred in the slightest at the lack of interest and had already made his way over to peer over his shoulder. "What are you making?"

Sounds coming out of his mouth managed something resembling the word 'pancakes' and he couldn't imagine his guest actually making out what he had said. Still the albino grinned and kissed his cheek as though he had understood clearly. "The authentic kind!"

"Right, authentic…." Matthew reiterated, discretely trying to hide the conspicuous box of mix sitting not two feet away from him on the counter. "You want-?" He blinked as Gilbert took the entire plate and started for the small barely four person table they kept in the corner. Perfect. Just great. Matthew struggled to hide some of his disappointment by turning off the stove and containing most of the mess to a single area, trying to ignore the sounds of drawers being opened and shut. "One closest to the sink." He rolled his eyes a little at Gil's happy exclamation at finding where they kept the forks and turned to watch the other cheerfully setting a place for them both at the table.

To be completely honest, he wasn't sure if the other had any manners at all in the entire time they had spent together. Gil was busy making the knives and forks sit at perfect right angles to the edge of the table, something that made Matthew cringe at how he and Al usually tossed whatever clean silverware they had left in a random heap somewhere near their plates. Sometimes that meant eating spaghetti with a spoon, but no one was usually here to judge them for that.

Grabbing the bottle of syrup he had heated up, he joined the other at the table and started helping himself to the breakfast he had made and tried to avoid catching his one-night stand's eye. This turned out to not be as easy as he assumed it would be as Gil rested his chin comfortably on folded hands with a broad smile stuck squarely on his face. He showed some form of restraint and waited until Matt had taken what he wanted before touching the plate himself.

"You're looking awesome today," Gil noted, nearly making Matt choke on his mouthful. "And last night was…"

'Don't say awesome. Don't say awesome. Don't say awesome.'

Gilbert sighed and leaned back in his chair, oddly devoid of any sort of descriptive word, awesome or otherwise. "What would you think of us doing that again sometime?"

"Sure!" They both blinked at how quickly that had escaped from Matthew's mouth and he struggled to regain any sort of composure. Shrugging his shoulders and stabbing another bite worth of pancake he tried to come across a little less eager. "If you would like…"

Gil practically beamed around his own mouthful of breakfast. "You could show me around your time!" he exclaimed. Matthew simply shook his head. Must be some sort of mix up in trying to translate his foreign tongue to English. They'd have to work on that.

His worst fears were realised not 15 minutes after the start of their breakfast when the sound of the lock being turned could be heard from the hall. Matthew froze in his chair, his eyes widening as everything around him seemed to slow. He hadn't thought of a reasonable explanation to give his brother yet. Curses flew through his mind as he eyed the room around him. Gil could hide? Under the table? Out on the fire escape? Just until Matt had found a way to introduce the two beyond "Hey bro, this is the guy I slept with last night!"

His mind wasn't working fast enough and time hadn't actually slowed when two people appeared through the doorway to the kitchen. First up was his brother, Alfred, a near mirror image of himself to anyone but the two of them. Today he wore the wrinkled versions of his clothing from the night before and a broad grin that read that he had a few urges satisfied. Behind him trailed this week's boy toy. Whoever he was, he was shorter than them both and relatively scrawny. His straw coloured hair looked as though it hadn't seen a brush in years though it must have lent the ability of partially covering his cringe worth eyebrows.

Alfred paused three steps in and his already wide grin found a way to grow even wider. "You found someone yourself, Matt?"

"Gil, Al. Al, Gil." There, introductions complete with a few gestures of his fork. Matthew attempted to bury himself further into his already diminished breakfast plate.

Gilbert leapt to his feet grabbing Al's hand and matching near the same indoor tone his brother used. "Your brother is awesome!"

It was at this moment Matthew wondered if it was possible to survive leaping from the fire escape or if he'd need to climb higher.

Alfred already seemed pretty taken by this stranger (likely because he wasn't far from that brand of weird) and pulled him into a hug. "I always hoped someone would take my brother's V-card."

"I'm not a virgin, Al!" When Gil questioningly glanced his way he shook his head further trying to indicate that in no way was last night his first time. Later it would occur to him that perhaps he was confused as to the phrase seeing that certain slang would always escape him.

His brother did little more than a shrug, slapping Gil's shoulder in an approving fashion. "Might as well be. I think you revert back if you haven't knocked boots with someone in… How long has it been?"

"Who's your friend?" Matthew tried to deter this line of questioning, pointing to his partner who had so far been silent during the entire exchange. This did not, however, stop him from casting a disapproving scowl his way and made all of Matthew's French ancestry take in his appearance with a slight air of disgust.

"Oh, right!" Alfred exclaimed happily, grabbing the smaller man by the arm and pulling him forward so he was part of the conversation despite it being fairly clear to everyone else that he likely held little interest in doing so. "Everyone, this is Artie."

"Arthur," he amended, tilting his chin ever so slightly to appear taller to the two standing on either side of him. Matthew stared, realising Arthur's lip held a piercing and briefly wondering if there were more and how he managed to kiss his brother with something possibly getting in the way.

"Artie's got a tat," Alfred continued on, much to the annoyance of Arthur and the relief of Matthew. This one wouldn't likely last long at the current rate. Unless his brother was really that good in bed, but that was something he'd rather not know. No really, he was good not knowing the answer to that.

Gilbert seemed fairly interested in learning this new tidbit of information and happily inquired Alfred to share more, much to the indignation of Arthur. While they all appeared taken by this conversation, Matthew let out a small sigh that this meeting looked to be going well. Even as Alfred snatched a slowly cooling pancake off the plate and stuffed half of it into his mouth, the two chatted easily. Arthur grew bored of them and nodded briefly at Matt before stealing Gil's seat and checking his phone.

Even that didn't seem to amuse him for long, as Arthur cleared his throat loudly and gave Alfred a glare that seemed to be permanently etched onto his face did the two abruptly end their conversation in the middle of discussing the video games they both had played, as despite the genres being similar there were few that both had played. Al blinked and smiled at his guest. "Oh, yeah, I was showing Artie around and then grabbing something to eat." He not so stealthily grabbed another pancake from the plate. "You going to be around later? Maybe you should go to his place tonight." He shrugged in Gil's direction and that was more than enough to hint that Al was looking to bring Arthur back to their place and things could get loud.

"Yeah, sure," Matthew nodded giving him a half smile. Normally on these sorts of nights Matt would head to the library for some late night studying, but maybe spending more time with Gil wouldn't be such a bad thing?

Gilbert's face said otherwise as he grimaced slightly and nodded along stiffly. "Sure, my place."

Alfred didn't notice and fist bumped him, again failing to notice Gil's lack of ability to return the gesture properly. Though, that wasn't entirely new for his perky brother. "Nice to meet you, dude. And remember, break my brother's heart and I'll break you!" He threw a wave to them before making his exit, lover in tow (Al didn't have boyfriends, he had fuck-friends) and left the kitchen feeling quieter without his presence.

Gilbert collapsed back into his chair across from Matt. "I like him."

Of course, he does, Matt considered, it's almost like he was dating his brother.

No, wait, scratch that. That was not something he wanted floating around inside his head.

The dishes clinked as they were stacked together and Gilbert picked them up to take to the sink to begin washing. Matthew watched a mixture of confusion and being pleased coming over him. Maybe it was in some way wise to get to know the person you might want to sleep with again. Maybe double check he wasn't really disease ridden or something.

"So Gil…" he started slowly, watching the rhythmic motions of the other's body as he scrubbed at one of the plates. "Do you have a last name?"

"Beilschmidt," he answered without pause and glanced over his shoulder. "You?"

"Williams. It's my father's name." Alfred went by their mother's given name since the divorce. Confused everyone, but he would explain that another time when he wasn't trying to gather intel. "Where are you from?"

"Germany."

"Then what are you doing here?"

Gil paused and set the dish he had been working on down in the sink. "Because…" He tilted his head up, briefly lost in thought while he thought about what his answer would be, or the correct way to describe it. "I wanted to get out and see something new. I saw a way to do it, and… I took it."

Matthew nodded slightly. "I think I can understand that." He may have daydreamed a few times of quitting school and travelling abroad, hitchhiking with only a backpack full of necessities and seeing all the little towns and villages skipped over between the major attractions. He wouldn't ever do that, but it was nice to dream sometimes.

"You've met Al, but do you have siblings?"

This prompted a laugh. "Yeah, I've got a little brother. He's a soldier in the temporal division. How would you describe him? All strict and doesn't have fun."

He couldn't help narrowing his eyes. Something was lost in translation. "He's a soldier where?"

"Temporal division…?" Gil repeated eyes shifted like he was giving away a great secret he wasn't supposed to tell.

"What's that?"

"Just a division. In the military."

"Specialising in what?"

"Temporal…. Things….?"

"Gilbert," Matthew's tone changed to the scolding tone he occasionally used on Alfred at times when they needed to remember to pay the rent, take out the trash, or someone was being accused of stealing the other's clothes from their laundry. "Temporal as in time?"

Gil laughed nervously. "Yes, good guess."

"So what is he doing there?"

"You won't believe me, but…" Not a great way to start an explanation and it was matched by how nervous Gil began to act. Matthew held his breath wondering how unbelievable the answer was going to be. "He helps to monitor time travel."

Yup, he was sorry he asked. "I can't tell if you're lying or just crazy." Though he'd put money on crazy.

"It's not a lie and I'm not crazy!" The last fork and the mixing bowl were abandoned and would sit in the sink for the next week as Gil came back over towards him. "How can I prove it…? It's 50 years from now, or something close to that. You see I've got this watch," he thrust his right wrist forward, waving around what was definitely an interestingly designed watch, but likely still a regular ordinary watch, "and I stole it from my brother's work because they regulate everything it's almost impossible to go anywhere yourself!"

Thinking back to the night before, Matthew should have listened to his first initial gut feeling about this man. There were things not right with him and he wasn't sure if this was something he could overlook. "Why this time?"

"There were alarms going off and I didn't have a lot of time." He shrugged ever so slightly. "I might have put in a random date and hit go."

Honestly, Matt had heard enough and would need to think through giving this guy a call about spending any more time together. He should have just walked away last night and followed through with his intended plan of hot chocolate at home alone. It would have been a disappointing evening for sure, but not involved having given someone with a depraved mental state his home address. He started shaking his head trying to find the right way to word "I'll call you. Get out," when a certain mischievous spark glinted in the other's eye.

Thrusting out his hand, Gilbert grinned wider than he had since the two first met. "Grab my hand!"

"No."

"Come on, Birdie." He shook his hand in front of him several times to coax the other into doing it. "Grab my hand!"

Matthew tucked his hands into his armpits. "No."

Pouting, but undeterred, Gil tried to pry one of Matt's hands-free. "It'll be awesome!"

"No!" Matthew struggled to keep his arms folded tightly across his chest. "Will you listen to me?"

Clearly not doing so, the albino settled for holding tightly to Matt's elbow. "Alright, how about a week from now?" He punched a few buttons on his watch and with a satisfied smile turned the dial.

In an instant, Matthew was sure he was tripping or possibly even dead. Shapes and colours sparked in front of his eyes in erratic forms he couldn't identify. He lost feeling in his limbs as though his entire body had fallen asleep but at the same time he was convinced he could feel himself being twisted and stretched into fantastic shapes. Then all at once it stopped and he was standing in his own kitchen again.

It took a moment to steady himself and he ripped himself away from Gil who was standing there grinning like the idiot that he was. "What the hell was that?" he hissed. He didn't know what had happened, but he didn't want his guest to stick around and do whatever it was a second time.

Gilbert ignored him and stared out the window. "It's raining."

Matthew followed his gaze unwillingly and still furious, blinking when he saw the droplets splash against the darkened pane. Odd, as it seemed to be sunny a couple of minutes ago. "Don't change the subject. What did you just do to me?"

"Mattie?"

Matthew looked up to see his brother walk in and head for the fridge. "Nice to see you out of your room. Hey, Gil."

He rolled his eyes while Gilbert acknowledged him with a wave. "Real funny, Al."

Alfred looked over the door, orange juice container in hand. "Hey, I've been real worried about you lately. It's been a week and I don't think you've had much to eat…"

Matthew blinked slowly, glancing at Gil. "A week…? Since what?"

"Since…" Alfred pulled out a couple take out containers and put them in front of Matt along with a spoon. "Um… I think it was the morning I first met Gil."

"That was a week ago?" Matthew shook his head. Nope, this was a prank. A rather elaborate prank being pulled on him by his brother and a random stranger. That thought alone made him angrier. It made him wonder how much money Al had paid Gil to sleep with him, or if he just got his kicks from doing it as well.

"Yeah, cause I was with Artie then and-"

"You're not with Arthur?"

Alfred shook his head and looked away. "He was a jerk. But Kiku's nice!"

"Kiku is…?"

"Oh, you haven't met him yet." His brother's smile was wide and he bounced on his feet in his excitement. "But if you're coming out again, maybe I'll bring him around!"

Something crashed in another room causing them all to jump and Alfred to stare in the direction it had come with wide eyes. "I-I'll check it out…" he whispered nervously and slowly began to creep back out to investigate. Matthew moved to follow when his arm was grabbed and he felt that strange sensation a second time. If there was too much of this, he was sure he was going to be sick.

"So, what do you think?" Gil was beaming, "Wait, let me guess. It's awesome right?"

Matthew had stumbled and put his hands on his knees, taking long deep gulping breaths. The spinning and nausea passed quickly and he was able to lift his head to glare at his captor. "What are you doing to me?" he hissed, wondering if Gil had slipped something into his food. "You and Al planned this, didn't you?"

Gilbert blinked and took a step back. "What? I didn't plan any of this with your brother. I just met him!"

"I don't believe you!" he stood slowly, relieved that pancakes did not make a reappearance and his sight didn't black out. "This wasn't funny! I'm leaving!"

He didn't listen to the sudden pleas to get him to stop and wait. Matthew spun and began to march away, taking exactly five steps before he realised he was no longer in his shared kitchen. His pace only slowed marginally and immediately sped back up. They were outside in a darkened alley, therefore supporting his claim to having been drugged earlier and kept going. Best to get away now before his internal organs ended up on the black market.

Gilbert was shouting something behind him, but he was in no mood to listen. He needed to find out where he was and how to get home. Stepping out into the street, there was more noise and an arm roughly pulled him back before he was run over by a carriage.

Yes, a carriage. Matthew needed a minute to completely process that one. A carriage with a horse in front of it that he was sure gave him a cross look and a snort at his almost being trampled beneath its hooves. And not the ones he was used to seeing in the park that gave couples excuses to snuggle close beneath a blanket. This one was splattered with mud and showed signs of having a long and well-travelled life.

"Gil… Did you see…?" Matt turned and stared at his companion who was no longer paying him any attention. Instead, his focus was on his watch which he hummed and shrugged at, then stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"You were saying, Birdie?"

Matthew simply gaped. "Where are we?" he shook his head and amended it to "When are we?"

This seemed to make his companion grin all the more. "So you believe me now?"

Honestly, he wasn't sure what to believe anymore as he looked around the street. A few people passed by and the occasional one spared them a harsh glare at their appearance. Compared to them the pair were severely underdressed.

"Can you take me anywhere? Anytime?" he hazards quietly, his eyes never leaving as a lady gave a quiet gasp and urged the man whose arm she held securely to quicken his pace away from them.

Gilbert looped an arm around him and began to steer him away from the street towards where they had first arrived. "Name it and we'll go."

The idea of being able to travel and explore filled him with excitement. How many people would be given such an opportunity to not only see foreign cities but cities at different periods of time? And with Gil as a companion? He felt silly that his heart beat fluttered at spending more time with the man.

"When it's all done…" he asked quietly when they were safely removed from the pedestrians on the street, "Can we go back to when we left?" Even when faced with something he wanted to run off and do his mind cursed him with reminding him of his responsibilities. He had classes to attend and assignments to complete. And somebody had to keep Alfred out of trouble. His entire life was waiting for him.

Gilbert must have seen some of his troubling thoughts on his face and his smug grin sobered. "If you want me to take you back, I can." It was amazing to see the normally cocky albino to be so disheartened.

"Eventually," he amended. His eyes fixed on the little watch on Gil's wrist and anticipation began to swell. He could do this for himself. He was allowed one adventure before he returned to a boring working life. And no one would have been the wiser if he did ever return.

That seemed enough an answer to put Gil back in brighter spirits and he pressed a few buttons on the screen of the watch before lending his arm to Matt. The blond licked his lips and stared at the open form for date and time. The only thing he wanted to consider for a while would be where or when they went next.