Hello again, it's just me, HetaWriter/HetaReader. Matthias and Emma meet again! Thanks go to Xou and Benevolent Ice Queen for the reviews!
Xou: Don't feel bad about not giving me a long review; I'm glad you like this story. Haha, yeah I came across Denmark x Belgium by accident, but since I'm a huge cracker, I started loving it right away. K-kiss? *blushes*
Benevolent Ice Queen: I find the clashing personalities and relationship between Lars and Emma to be quite nice, too. It somewhat reminds me of my own sister and I - her being Belgium, and I the Netherlands. Ah, I'm glad you don't mind that my chapters are short and thank you very much for saying that it's well written! Yes, I will try to update this daily, but I'm not sure by now how many chapters there will be in the end...DenBel is one of your OTP's? You're awesomer than Prussia.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Hetalia.
Now on we go!
The next day brought the start to the weekend. After playing a considerable amount of time with Peter in the morning, Matthias gathered his toolbox, slung his bag over his shoulder and after eating a great lunch with salmon, he waved goodbye to Tino and Peter and set off to the address scrawled on a small piece of paper that Berwald gave him.
Eventually, after questioning some random passers-by, the Dane was able to make it to the address and arched his eyebrows upon looking at the shabby, run-down building before his eyes.
It looked so old and beaten up, that Matthias began to wonder how it was able to hold its own during windy weather.
The Dane scratched his head and shrugged, smirking to himself; this one looked quite like a challenge with its dilapidated, little state.
And Matthias loved a good challenge.
He entered the door, hearing a tinkling from some chimes above his head, and looked around. Much to his surprise, the building was much cleaner inside than what the exterior led him to believe.
The floors were swept and mopped clean, the counter had little to no traces of dust, and even the shelves lacked grime themselves. The only thing that killed the seemingly perfect appearance was the door leading to the back; hanging by its hinge.
"Hello?" Matthias called. "Hello, Dutchman?" he remembered Berwald mentioning that it was a Dutch man who had requested for his services after all. Too bad that the Swede failed to provide him with a name. "Dutchman, you in here?"
When he received no response, Matthias blew some strands of loose blonde hair that dangled slightly over his right eye. He whistled to himself as he drummed his fingers onto the counter, wondering where his employer was.
That was when he noticed a silver bell, its sparkly surface glinting cheekily at him.
The Danish man gazed down at the bell with slight interest, admiring how shiny the silver surface was. Looking around again to see if there were any signs of movement, Matthias saw that there were none. He then poked at its side and finally pressed it, causing a loud ring to emanate throughout the store.
Matthias glanced around to see if he was able to attract anyone's attention.
Nope, nobody came.
A little annoyed, the Dane then chose to ring the bell again. Another loud 'ding!' echoed throughout the whole shop. Suddenly greatly entertained by the bell and its ringing, Matthias gave a small chuckle as he began to whistle and press the bell in an oddly constant beat. He tapped his foot as well as he swayed his head around.
"What the hell is that noise?" grumbled Lars from the couch. He had fallen asleep on it as he watched the FIFA tournament on the television for the whole night. The Dutchman hadn't bothered to get up from his butt and collapse onto his bed, opting instead to stay and sleep on the couch with his coat acting as a makeshift blanket.
Emma came inside with an empty laundry basket. She stared at her brother as she asked, "Bro, what's going on? Who's ringing the shop bell?"
"The hell would I know?" mumbled Lars as he rolled over on his side, now facing the couch. "Go tell the bastard to shut up and get lost…"
"What if it's the handyman?"
Lars slowly craned his neck to face her; his green eyes were now red with dark bags under them from the lack of sleep. "Hit him on the head with his own wrench, whack him in the vital regions with his hammer," he suggested darkly, pale face murderous. "Anything to shut him up…"
Emma sighed when he dropped his head back down onto a cushion, "Oh, Lars…" nevertheless, she smoothed her apron and exited the compartment towards the shop as the bell's ringing grew louder and more irritating, practically wailing into her ears. She rubbed her head, 'Seriously? Who's doing this?'
"Alright, alright! I'm here, now what is it that you need?"
Matthias stopped as soon as he heard a very familiar female voice reach his ears. His jaw dropped when he saw who entered the room.
Likewise, Emma's green orbs widened when she saw who was causing the racket with the store's bell. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "It's you! Um…" she snapped her fingers. "Matthias! From the market! Hi!"
After a few blinks, Matthias mentally slapped himself as he stood upright, posture now straight as the Belgian woman approached the counter. "Y-yeah," he said, shocked that his usually booming voice was now trembling like a leaf. "Yeah, it's me. Hello to you, too, Emma. I didn't know you owned this place…"
At this remark, Emma gave a tinkling laugh, "Yeah, well…this will be mine and my brother's patisserie!"
"Patisserie?" Matthias tilted his head slightly. Sweets came into mind and soon, he remembered when Peter had come home with the seashell shaped chocolates. He couldn't help but lick his lips at the thought of sweets. "Mmm…"
Emma nodded, "That's right! Once this place is fully cleaned up and restored, my bro and I will make this our very own patisserie!"
A smile came onto Matthias' face as he eyed the sparkle in the Belgian woman's emerald eyes. He laughed, "Can't wait to try your products when that comes! Okay, now since you hired me – what's up?" he then pulled out a notepad along with a mini pencil that was smaller than his index finger. Emma marvelled at how he could even hold it, "What do you need my services for, anyway?"
"Well, a few things," Emma began, but hearing the door suddenly give a loud creak, followed by a heavy crash, the Belgian woman yelped while Matthias jumped. She whipped around as the Dane viewed over her shoulder.
The door had finally given way, fallen off from its hinge and crashed onto the ground.
Both were glad that the Belgian woman's counter was way at the front.
"Make that several things," said Emma sheepishly.
Matthias couldn't help but burst out laughing. He began scribbling down on his notepad, "Busted door needs to be fixed…anything else?"
And so Emma began leading the Danish man around the shop and pointed out what needed to be fixed. Matthias followed her around and wrote down more on his notepad, feeling more excited at the amount of damages the building had – this would be a great challenge for him.
And he loved challenges.
"Busted pipeline that doesn't work, hole in the roof needs to be patched up, paint job to be done, windows need to have a thorough clean…" Matthias whistled at his list. He looked at Emma, his baby blues sparkling as he grinned, "You sure need my help here."
Emma smoothed out her apron as she chuckled, "Indeed, we do. Lars tried to clean the windows himself, but after trying for two hours, he cursed at it and gave up."
"I see," Matthias rubbed his chin as he stared at the window, contemplating. "Very well then, I'll clean up the place, sure! I'll come over tomorrow and clean it up – I would need to get all the stuff; I didn't think I would need this much to clean up."
"Sorry if we took up your time," Emma began apologetically, but Matthias waved a hand dismissively.
"Nah, don't be! It's my job after all," Matthias flashed her a bright, warm smile with even-spaced pearly whites.
As she gazed at the Dane's face for a bit, she realized that she was right – he did have dimples. And they accentuated the radiant smile on his face very well.
Matthias began to feel very self-conscious when his employed didn't respond. She was staring right at him, and he thought in alarm, 'There's nothing on my face, is there?!'
"Who the hell are you?" questioned a new voice in a gruff, grumbling tone.
Emma snapped out of her stupor while Matthias whipped his head in direction to the new voice. This particular voice sounded male and much more grown.
Lars had come walking into the shop, unable to fall back to sleep anymore and decided to make some coffee to help him rise up. He had heard Emma talking animatedly with somebody and became highly suspicious when he heard that the person she was with was male.
Matthias stared at Lars for a moment and tilted his head to his right. Lars glared right at the stranger; his green eyes still had the dark bags underneath them. He sipped his coffee, Matthias was amused that there was a rabbit on the cup's surface.
"I'll repeat again," Lars said, his voice soft and deadly. "Who the hell are you, and what are you doing in here?"
"Bro, this is Matthias!" Emma spoke up, spreading a smile on her face. "He's the handyman!"
The intense flame flickered slightly upon the information. The Dutchman stared at the woman, "Seriously? He's the handyman?"
"Yeah! That's me!" Matthias pointed at himself with a thumb. "I'm gonna fix this place up!"
Lars said nothing but his shoulders began to relax as he gazed at the Danish man up and down. He then rubbed his chin with one hand, the other securely holding his Miffy mug, as he peered closely at Matthias.
The Danish man didn't seem to notice that the Dutchman was staring at him and simply read at his notes, beginning to plan out what to fix first and what he needed and not needed for tomorrow.
Emma was nervous from the whole scene before her; her brother never liked cheerful men, that was a known fact. She remembered back in high school, one of her closest friends was a Spaniard who had a kind and caring personality with a smile that rivalled the sun. He was the sweetest boy she had ever known.
Lars hated him with a passion.
However, the Belgian woman attributed Lars' negative feelings from their high school soccer team as well. Lars loved playing soccer and was excited in trying out for the team, but became bedridden with the flu for a whole week, meaning he missed try-outs. Antonio became the school's star striker, which irked the Dutchman since he claimed that he could easily see many weak points in the Spaniard's playing.
Emma in the end was able to convince the coach to keep Lars as a reserve; she knew that her big brother was an exceptional player. He was able to do a private try-out and was given a position as a reserve.
Of course, that all happened several years ago and Emma didn't know what happened to Antonio since then. It was actually quite a large town after all, so it was unsurprising that she couldn't find the Spaniard anymore.
"You look alright, I guess…"
Emma was snapped back into reality upon hearing her brother mumble. Matthias looked up from his notes, a perplexed expression etched onto his face.
"Huh?" the Dane asked, blue eyes feigning innocence.
Lars narrowed his eyes slightly as he took a sip from his mug, "I said I think you're alright…for now…"
"Of course I'm alright!" grinned Matthias. "Why would I not be alright?"
"…a lot of things float by your head, do they?"
"Wait, I don't understand what you mean there; I don't see anything floating by me. Oh! Or can you see stuff like Norge as well?!"
Before her brother could made a snide comment (she could see the Dutchman arch his eyebrow already), Emma quickly cut in, "Okay! Well bro, Matthias said that he'll be able to start fixing things tomorrow, so I guess we'll tune in until then, right?"
Lars snorted with a half-hearted shrug as he then turned his back to the pair, "Whatever floats your boat…" and without another word, the Dutchman sauntered away back to the compartment.
Emma gave a sigh of relief as she turned to Matthias, "I'm sorry if Lars caused any offense; he's not really a bad guy…"
"Cause any offense?" Matthias questioned as he scratched his head. "He didn't offend me in any way…nah! I think he's a cool guy!"
Emma breathed easily again as she smiled, "I'm glad to hear that! Not many people try to understand him at all – he can be really sweet if he wants to."
"Just like Norge," Matthias softly noted to himself. He shook his head, the bright beam returning to his face, "Well, Miss Emma; I'll be coming by tomorrow to start repairs immediately! You can count on that!"
"Thank you so much!" the Belgian woman gave a sincere smile as she clasped her hands at the front and gave a respectful bow. "That really means so much to us!"
Matthias suddenly felt his heart flutter then skip a beat as he gazed right into the woman's eyes. His breath hitched into his throat as his baby blues continued to bear right into those emerald orbs. Not only were her eyes sparkled with such a brilliant light, but her smile made her glow even more.
'Lort…' he thought to himself as he felt his face start to slowly come alight. 'She is so beautiful…'
"Well, I guess I'll be seeing you tomorrow, then?" Emma asked, smile still on her face as she made her way to the back opening. Her sweet voice had cut the Danish man out of his spacey daze.
"Tomorrow?"
"Yes, tomorrow," Emma nodded. "So you can fix the door, the roof and everything else that needs to be fixed, of course!"
"Oh…" Matthias didn't know why, but he couldn't help but feel slightly disheartened from the choice of words that spilled out from the Belgian woman's lovely lips. However, he soon perked up and forced a big grin on his face again. "Of course!" he chirped. "You can bet that I'll fix everything to perfect condition!"
Emma giggled at how enthusiastic he was, "Can't wait for that! Well, goodbye, Matthias! See you tomorrow!"
And with that, like an angel, she floated away.
Matthias watched her leave. He cleared his throat as he gathered his toolbox and slung his bag over his shoulder. A small smile braced his now reddened face as he said in a soft voice that even shocked himself, "Can't wait to start tomorrow, either."
Sappy chapter ending is sappy. But hopefully nobody will brick me yet for doing that.
I honestly don't know now how many chapters this will be, because I'm acting more on impulse and my typing hand than with a plan anymore. I still need to try and update HetaVoice and The Soldier! *Goes in emo corner and starts rocking self back and forth*
Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. As always, I would love to know your thoughts and opinions. Have a nice day! :DDD
