A/N: Guess who's back (back again). Hello to all the new followers, and everyone else too, of course. Sorry I wasn't able to update last week, in case you didn't see, I was on vacation. That might've been for the best, because as of last week I was really tired of my computer's shit, but after an amusement park and a concert I was far more forgiving. :) I'm having fun with this story so far, and I hope you are too!

Thanks to all reviewers and followers, you are all so greatly appreciated.

Enjoy the chapter!


Arthur's car wasn't one of the things he had pride in.

He had bought it as an only slightly used Ford, not having known about the problem with the gas and the weird sound the radio made when he turned it on. He had thought it would last him at the time. Arthur believed he was naive then, and had fallen for all the stupid tricks. It was probably too easy for the guys at the dealership to screw him over.

But, then again, it wasn't like he could afford anything better.

The odd thing was, his shitty excuse for a car had actually gained him a friend at the office. A friend that wasn't his partner and/or a girl, and was especially not into being personal.

Arthur had been outside on his break, why had he been out there? In all honesty he had probably been trying to escape the sound of Detective Héderváry's voice, which was most likely starting to give him a headache. When he had stepped outside he noticed someone leaning over his car, sliding their finger along a scratch that at been on it since he had gotten the car.

It took a moment for Arthur to remember who it was, but finally recognized him as a soft spoken Detective in his department.

The man stood up, pulling his arms behind his back, at Arthur's confused expression he stood up straighter, his face just barely betraying embarrassment.

"Hello," He said in greeting. "I was observing your car." The man had an Asian accent Arthur couldn't place at first, but then he remembered the mention of a Japanese man that was quite the genius in multiple cases.

When Arthur didn't reply immediately, the man had continued, stepping forward and bowing. "I'm Kiku Honda. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Arthur had held out a hand, and after a hesitant moment Kiku shook it.

"So, how's my car?" Arthur asked, hiding amusement.

"Oh, I was just thinking of other options. I have relations with someone who works for Lexus, and I'm sure he would love to look into another model." Kiku was quiet, he glanced back at Arthur's car. "It looks very manageable too, though. I would feel very lucky to have it."

Arthur had snorted at this, knowing he would be far more interested in a new car than keeping his piece of shit one.

Kiku looked embarrassed, and he turned his head to the other side of the parking lot. "My car is down there," The car he was indicating towards had turned out to be the one Arthur had always admired from afar, ironically enough. The safe Japanese model was envied by basically everyone at the office, including Detective Héderváry.

The two continued their typical and awkward conversation about cars until their break was over, and thus the impromptu friendship of Arthur and Kiku Honda was formed.

These days, though, Arthur's prime reason to talk to Kiku was for help. Kiku was a genius with picking apart mysteries, and as a Detective, Arthur felt him a very good ally to have. Because of this, he sought out Kiku right as he arrived at the office in his unimproved car.

One of Kiku's many talents was finding people. Anyone Arthur wasn't sure about where or how to find would end up leading him to ask Kiku for help.

And at this particular moment, he was doing just that.

Kiku eyed his computer screen, his expression typically indifferent. "You wanted an Antonio, right?"

Arthur scratched his jaw. "Yeah, I don't know his last name." Kiku raised his eyebrows at this and shook his head, his gaze flicking to Arthur for a second, and then the door.

"Does Miss Elizaveta know anything?" He asked, saying Detective Héderváry's first name with ease.

"Yes, I can go get her." Detective Héderváry hadn't arrived at the office at the time Arthur had, but he assumed she was here now.

Arthur stepped out of the room and found Detective Héderváry among the Officers and Investigators, she was sitting on top of her friend Lili Zwingli's desk, waving her hands in dramatic circles that usually indicated wedding talk. From what Arthur knew, Lili was one of her bridesmaids.

He made eye contact with Detective Héderváry and cocked his head towards Kiku's office, she gave him a thumbs up and mouthed 'one minute'. She lept off the desk after waving goodbye to Lili, making her way towards Arthur and yelling "Fuck off!" at an dick Officer who had apparently commented on her 'great ass'.

She hugged a bewildered Kiku when she entered his office, reminding Arthur that she was closer than he was with nearly all his friends.

Kiku cleared his throat. "Hello, Elizaveta."

"So, what do you little shits want?" Detective Héderváry said with a smile, clapping her hands together.

"We wanted to know names," Kiku said. "Arthur doesn't seem to know any information I can use." His voice lacked the annoyance Arthur would've expected.

But Arthur rolled his eyes at this and shrugged anyways. "I'm supposed to? I know the McDonalds manager's name, that's all I need."

"Oh, yeah, we need his brother's name, which we don't have." Detective Héderváry added, snapping her fingers at Kiku.

"Who was the McDonalds manager?" Something in Kiku's voice made Arthur feel like he already knew.

"Alfred F. Jones." Arthur said, feeling remorse as Detective Héderváry giggled at him.

"Ah," That was all Kiku could find to say for a moment, the room descended into silence for a beat.

"Do'ya know him?" Detective Héderváry asked, pressing her palms together and smiling mischievously.

It was silent again, aside from the clicks from Kiku's computer mouse. "Actually, I can pull him up on Facebook," Detective Héderváry's expression pleaded for an explanation, so he continued. "We were highschool friends, even though he was more athletic, he liked the video games I had." Kiku sounded bored.

"See if you can find his brother on Facebook, if you don't already know his name." Arthur said, turning to his partner to see if they were on the same page, she was in an entirely different universe.

"Say, by any chance, would you know if our friend Alfred has an interest in dudes?" After varying expressions from both people in the room, she shrugged happily "Just so we know." She gave Arthur a pointed look.

Kiku cleared his throat. "Well- uh...He's dated 'dudes' before, I believe." He paused sheepishly. "Alfred was fairly serious with someone in highschool, he never told me anything about it, though."

Detective Héderváry jumped, shaking her hips in a bit of a dancing motion. Arthur, meanwhile, was muttering every curse in the book to himself.

Kiku eyed the pair, his gaze stopping on Detective Héderváry before he spoke. "Was there something that happened to indicate Mr. Jones' sexuality?"

"No." Arthur snapped before his partner could speak. "Not anything that would be worth talking about."

Detective Héderváry opened her mouth in protest, but closed it when Kiku sent her an odd expression. Arthur's partner swallowed and slipped her gaze downward, a bit disappointed she hadn't had the chance to exploit Arthur's personal life farther. "So, do you know his brother?" She mumbled.

Kiku had a curious expression on his face. Arthur wasn't sure if it was because of the conversation about Alfred or what he was looking at on the computer.

His confusion was cleared, though, when Kiku turned his monitor around. The room seem to lose all sound for a second as both him and Detective Héderváry held their breath, exhaling simultaneously when Kiku stood up, pulling a pen out of his front shirt pocket and walking around his desk so he was next to his monitor and facing Arthur and his partner.

The monitor showed three men in a messy apartment, on the far left was obviously Alfred, holding up a beer as if he was toasting, his smile a bit less blinding then it was in person. He looked far more relaxed in a T-shirt, jeans, and a bomber jacket. His hand was mussing the person's hair next to him, who was more or less a shorter and thinner clone of Alfred that had longer hair. The man was smiling tightly, and he was rolling his eyes comically over his glasses, which had slid down his nose slightly. The third person in the picture was clearly not related to either Alfred or the other man, but he smiled along with them, crossing his arms boldly, daring someone to say he didn't belong. The third man was stocky and shorter than Alfred, his dark skin contrasted to the beige walls in the background, he was wearing a shirt that was for a Cuban sports team of some sort.

"I was confused by your statement for a second, as I didn't recall Arthur having a brother." Kiku clicked his pen, eyeing the picture on the screen.

Detective Héderváry sniffed, pointing to the picture. "Well, clearly you found that-"

Kiku nodded. "Yes, the one in obvious relation to Alfred is Matthew Williams, his half brother, I believe. Matthew wasn't around at the time Alfred and I were friends. Alfred's mother rendezvoused with Matthew in Canada for quite a while..."

"They seem pretty close for not having lived with each other most of their lives." Arthur muttered.

Kiku pulled his monitor back around as he returned to his seat at his desk. "I believe they contacted each other via phone and email, and that formed the majority of their relationship. I never put two and two together. Realizing they were brothers, that is. It's odd I didn't realize until now." The Japanese man looked troubled.

Kiku continued to type, clicking something with finality and leaning back in his seat. A printer next to his monitor became active, and soon enough and array of papers were in the tray. Kiku pulled them out and divided them, stapling two packets. "There's some of Matthew's information, including the address for his apartment." He handed a packet to both Arthur and Detective Héderváry. Arthur was reminded of the coupons from Alfred.

Detective Héderváry nodded to herself, reading over the papers. "We'll get a warrant and head over there tomorrow," She paused, looking at Arthur. "And we always have Antonio if Matthew won't talk."

Kiku's stiffened at the reminder of Antonio. "Oh, do you want me to-"

"Come on, I know Antonio's address." Arthur's partner scoffed. Kiku nodded, taking a blank paper from his printer and beginning to rhythmically rip it into smaller squares.

"Who is Antonio?" He asked. "And why are you so excited about what he could possibly know?" Kiku began to make folds in one of the squares.

"You know Lovino Vargas? Short, angry ball of fluff that manages Mazzetto?"

"Yes." The folded paper now seemed to sport a neck.

"Antonio lives with him, and when he's not messing around with Lovino, he's talking about his two best friends. Today, Lovino told Arthur and I that Gilbert, coincidentally, is one of those two friends."

Kiku looked up, setting his hands down. A paper crane rested between them. "Do you know the other of the two friends?"

Detective Héderváry shrugged. "I might. I don't know exactly who it is, but it's a small town, I'll ask Antonio about him."

"Lovino seemed to know Gilbert too." Arthur pointed out. "He could be useful."

"I guess." Detective Héderváry bit her lip, she seemed to spark an idea and brightened. "Hey, we could split up!"

"Split up? What the fuck is this, Scooby Doo?" Arthur snapped. To be honest, he relied on Detective Héderváry too much to stop working with her.

"I only mean for tomorrow." She said. "It makes sense, we'll have the questioning done twice as fast and can review notes tomorrow night."

"We're not in Secondary School either, Detective." Arthur could see where this idea was going, and he didn't like it.

Detective Héderváry raised a finger. "I-" She paused. "Don't know what that means. But seriously! We'll get paid better if this is done faster, maybe even promoted!"

"Your dreams are touching, but honestly, I don't understand why we'd have to do it that way, we just got promoted." Arthur shrugged, exasperated. "And see where it got us? Working undercover at fast food places."

Arthur's partner rolled her eyes, she looked at Kiku.

No, she was not. There was no way she was bringing Kiku into this.

"I think it makes sense." Kiku said. "You can always go back together if you wanted to ask something else."

Arthur slapped a palm to his forehead, he had a sudden headache. "Fine! Go ahead, let's do it."

Detective Héderváry said exactly what Arthur expected her to. "Yay! I'll take Antonio, I know him better. You've got Matthew, alright?"

"Whatever." Arthur groaned. Detective Héderváry smiled more like the Cheshire Cat than he had ever seen before.

Arthur didn't even care when he shook the ground with the slam of his shitty car door. One more jiggly door handle wasn't going to bother him too much, right?


Footnote: I really like Japan, he's just kind of a hard character to write about... especially with all the sass we're seeing in the Season 5 dub clips (don't you want to stop being such a fatbutt?) If you like Hetalia and haven't seen those yet what are you doing?

I'm kind of sad this is another chapter that's not moving the plot too fast, but it should pick up next chapter *evil laughter*.

The third guy in the Facebook picture is Cuba, by the way. Also, if anyone was wondering about the people with Antonio and Lovino in the picture at Mazzetto, it was Belgium and Netherlands.

Hope you enjoyed! Seeya next week!

-Caroline