Chapter 2 - What I Do
"When I visited the neighboring country
There was a boy in green at the city
With a kind voice and smiling face
At first glance, I liked him."
It had been two years since the bullshit from Alfred had started to fall all around Matthew's ears. In the past year, it looked as if things had been getting better. Alfred had toned down his heroics and everyone else seemed to be willing to put up with what little Alfred did do. Which was a huge bonus for Matthew, who was so sick of cleaning up after his brother that he might have started punching the American if he had had to continue doing so.
Everything was going much more smoothly. And Matthew was finding himself actually starting to make friends with other people! There was a man - Gilbert, an ex-Prussian who had suddenly found himself in Germany - that Matthew kept seeing at the world meetings. And, oddly, Gilbert kept seeing him. Right away, Gilbert caught Matthew's interest, and he found himself watching the man from the corner of his eye as the meetings went on, ignoring the actual conversations, which wasn't typical for him at all. After all, he still had to keep an eye on his brother.
So it was that Matthew didn't have the warning of knowing that Gilbert had been opposing Alfred on some level and the American was getting annoyed with it. Visiting Alfred one day, Matthew heard of his brother's plans to eliminate the German to further his own plans. It wasn't the first time Alfred had needed to get rid of someone, and so far Matthew had never let him do it, taking the job upon himself so that Alfred would remain innocent (though everyone knew it was under the Americans orders that these things were happening).
However, this time, it took a great deal of internal effort for Matthew to tell his brother that he would do the dirty work yet again.
"But if my brother's planning for
That person to be eliminated
Then I will answer to that"
As Matthew lowered the gun, his hands began to shake and he couldn't see. Briefly, he wondered if his glasses had wound up broken in the scuffle. But no. A moment later, tears were streaming down his cheeks and sobs were wracking his body. Then his legs gave out and he collapsed next to the body on the floor, considering, for just one moment, what would happen if he turned that gun on himself…
"I wonder why my tears won't stop"
The very next day, Matthew was putting together lunch and looked out to Alfred, who was sitting in the dining room. "I'm making brioche," he called, and heard a small laugh in response.
"I don't even know what that is, but thanks Mattie. I don't know what I'd do without you." The smile Matthew saw on his brother's face caused his heart to stop for a moment. Once again, he realized that everything he did was for that smile - to be able to know that Alfred was safe, innocent, and kept on enjoying the life that he was living. Relief flooded through him, even as fresh tears welled in his eyes.
"I love you, Alfred," he muttered, knowing that his brother wouldn't hear him, his tears falling silently into the food.
"'Today's snack is brioche'
You laugh
A laugh that was ever so innocent."
