It's time to meet some more of the side characters.

Chapter 3

So what happened next?

You already know. We've heard this story before.

I know, but it's such a nice story.

I can't listen to the idiot's voice any longer. Matthew, you go.

You could tell this part if you wanted…

I'm waiting until we get to the good stuff.

Matthew Williams

Matthew felt he deserved all of the medals that ever were for dealing with Alfred's bullshit. Of course it was his brother who found a pretty girl with insanely long hair.

And no, that wasn't even the best part.

Alfred had agreed to take her to see the lanterns that they lit every year on the lost Princess' birthday.

"I cannot believe you let this girl talk you into going into the heart of the kingdom when we are currently the most wanted man in the entire kingdom!" Matthew yelled after several moments of staring at his brother in stunned silence, "And I meant that singularly!"

And Alfred? Alfred. Laughed. "Oh, right. Huh. I guess we did just steal the crown. Eh. We'll figure something out. Besides, it'll be fun. It's not like Gilbert will expect us to show our faces so soon."

"Figure some- figure something out?! Are you completely out of your mind?" his voice had turned to a hiss, as he was trying not to let the girl hear him. It was completely rude to argue in front of people you just met. It was bad enough he'd yelled this much in front of her, even if Alfred did deserve that and more. Finally Matthew huffed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Look. Just… okay, so what happened. You went farther than I expected. I had to walk all of the way here, thank you very fucking much."

Alfred rolled his eyes, "Yeah? Well, I had to run here. All night. Listen, Gilbert's got this freaky demon horse." When Matthew raised a dubious eyebrow, Alfred added, "Hey, I'm not exaggerating! I swear! I made a jump using-" his twin glanced over at the girl, who was in the midst of rolling through the grass as if she's never done anything so fun. That was a strange thing. She acted as if she'd never touched something as simple as grass in her life. She acted like a newborn experiencing the world with utter glee and curiosity for the first time. "- using the thing. I swear nothing could have done it, not even a horse. But this one did! Any little tricks I threw at them, nothing! And that horse looked like it was going to slaughter me and roast me over the pits of Hell, okay! It had green eyes of evil!"

"Yeah, okay. That's nice Alfred. So you did get away with the crown, didn't you?" Matthew asked, no longer feeling like entertaining Alfred's exaggerations.

Alfred nodded, "Oh, yeah, of course." he cleared his throat awkwardly, telling Matthew there was more to that story. He raised an eyebrow but let it go. He was just so tired. "I managed to shake off Gilbert and his demon horse by hiding here. I think I scared Antonia though." he motioned to the girl who had begun to splash in the little pond, laughing delightedly the entire time, "Yeah. She kinda tied me up and stuff, but no big deal!"

Matthew opened his mouth to question that, but decided he didn't really want to know so he just didn't.

"Hey, Antonia!" Alfred called. The girl looked up, and walked to join them when Alfred waved her over. Alfred smiled charmingly and motioned to Matthew. "This is my twin brother Matthew Williams. And Mattie, this is Antonia."

Matthew smiled politely despite his anger and said, "Hello. It's nice to meet you. I hope my brother hasn't been too troublesome."

"Oh, no!" the girl shook her head and smiled back, "It's wonderful to meet you, Matthew! I'm sorry for keeping your brother so long. I just haven't ever met an actual person that wasn't papa before!"

He blinked. Had he heard that right? Would it be rude to ask for clarification?

On another note, Matthew was starting to understand how she had convinced his brother to escort her into the kingdom so easily. His brother liked pretty girls to begin with. This kind of girl was going to ping like crazy on his brother's insane hero radar. Matthew just wished he could stay out of it, and maybe sleep for a week. Then he'd make pancakes and relax at the Snuggly Duckling while Alfred could run around and play hero.

"Well, let's go!" Alfred said, throwing an arm over Matthew's shoulder, "We've got to go get shoes for Antonia first. And Mattie, if we're lucky we might run into Gilbert again, without the demon horse." Alfred said the last bit in a teasing tone. Matthew was not impressed.

"You better hope we don't. We don't have that much time to waste if we want to be there for the lanterns." Matthew argued, trying to pretend he hadn't noticed what Alfred really meant there.

Alfred smiled and poked him in the side. Evidently his brother wouldn't let him play oblivious, "But I thought you said he was sexy a few weeks ago! Or something like that…"

"But Matthias got me drunk!" Matthew protested, pushing his brother away, "It doesn't count!"

"It totally does." Alfred replied, grinning like an idiot. Because he was an idiot.

Matthew crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows. He had come prepared for this argument. "Oh? If that counts, then I guess you flirting with Toris last week definitely counts. Should I tell Feliks?"

Alfred dived forward and grabbed Matthew's arm in a vice-like grip in alarm, and pleaded, "No, Mattie, don't do that to me! You're my twin, you can't betray me like that! Feliks is creative! He won't just kill me quickly! He'll want me to suffer. And you know what that means! Pink. Bedazzled. Hell."

He was about to reply when he felt a weight on his shoulder. He turned his head and came face-to-face with a chameleon with narrowed green-hazel eyes. Matthew froze. He got the feeling that he was being judged, which was strange since this was a chameleon glaring at him.

Finally, the chameleon turned to look at Antonia and nodded approvingly. With that he jumped to Antonia's shoulder as if he belonged there.

"What?!" Alfred protested, "That's not fair! You like my twin, but not me? Hold me, Mattie, I've been struck a terrible blow!" He flung himself into Matthew's arms. The more sensible twin, used to this behavior, only sighed and pat Alfred's head. Then he peeled his brother away and straightened his hair as he always did.

Alfred smiled and turned back to Antonia, "So, let's get going. There's more to see than just this." he motioned to the hollow around them. Her green eyes went wide, and she nodded. As she began to run out of the hollow, Alfred followed her. Both of them were laughing.

Matthew just let out a sigh and followed at a more sedate pace. He rubbed his eyes. The sun was way too bright. It was about noon. He wondered where exactly Alfred planned on going. They had three days to get there, which was more than it would normally take. The trip could be made at a leisurely pace- a good thing if Antonia's endurance wasn't the best.

He met up with Al, who was standing just outside of the cave leading to the hollow and watching as Antonia ran to observe trees, bushes, and flowers, still with the delight of a newborn.

"See, Mattie, I really think we're doing a good thing." Alfred said, motioning the the girl as she kicked fallen leaves into the air, not minding the mess her hair was soon to become. Matthew was starting to worry it would get tangled up in all of the random debris in the forest. "Look at how happy she is."

Matthew narrowed his eyes at his brother, "That doesn't mean this wasn't a stupid idea."

"I actually did this!" the girl suddenly shouted, throwing her hands above her head, "I can't believe I actually did this!" Matthew raised an eyebrow and turned to his brother, who could only shrug.

For the next several minutes, Matthew watched as the girl seemed to argue with herself over whether or not leaving was actually a good idea. He could have told her it wasn't, but she seemed to have a completely different reason for why. From what Matthew gathered, she had an overprotective father who would greatly disapprove of a venture off into the kingdom.

Why did Al always have to find the strangest people? As she seemed to get more distraught, Matthew pointed to Antonia and gave Alfred a look to indicate that the girl was his problem. Finally, upon watching him flounder to figure out a way to help, Matthew decided he could bail his brother out just this once.

"Maybe we should take her to meet the family." Matthew suggested quietly, "We can get shoes from Feliks and Emma, we both know they'll have some to fit her. They should be able to do something with her hair, too. Besides, we can spend the night on real beds. I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. We should get there at about dinner time, if we start now."

"You're a genius, Mattie!" Alfred announced, relieved. He turned to Antonia and whistled to get her attention, "Hey! How do you feel about making a stop to meet our family? We'll be able to get shoes for you there, and do something about the hair. They'll feed us up for sure, and we'll just sleep there for the night."

The girl smiled again. She seemed to smile with the same absurd ease Alfred managed. "Your family? Of course! What are they like?"

As the three of them began to start walking, Alfred explained, "Well, they aren't our actual blood-related family. But they are family all the same. We're going to the Snuggly Duckling, Aunt Katyusha's tavern- everyone either works there or spends most of their time there. You'll really like them. They can be a bit strange, but I'm sure they'll welcome you."

Matthew walked at Antonia's other side, unsure of how to take the chameleon on her shoulder watching him. It was no longer glaring and judging so much, but it was still unnerving for a chameleon to be paying so much attention to him. "So, what about this chameleon of yours? I mean, I assume it's yours… is it?"

"His name's Romano." Antonia answered with a nod, "He's my friend, and the cutest chameleon in the world!" Said chameleon did not seem to be very impressed at being referred to as 'cute'. It, Romano, stuck his tongue out at Antonia, but she only giggled. Curiosity sated, Matthew allowed Alfred to take over the small talk, knowing his brother was much better at making conversation. Matthew could only watch them with frequent eye-rolls and exchange exasperated looks with Romano the chameleon at their expense. Reflecting on that action, it was strange that the chameleon was the one that was his most sane companion, but Matthew decided it would be better not to question that too much.

As the afternoon wore on, they discovered Antonia really didn't have the best endurance for long walks. She kept up a happy attitude despite it. Points to her for that.

At long last, as the sun was beginning to set, they arrived in the settlement that surrounded the Snuggly Duckling. When the familiar building came into sight, Matthew gave a relieved smile. He was so ready to eat and then crash.

"Here we are!" Alfred announced, clapping a hand onto Antonia's chameleon-free shoulder. He swept his arm forward in a dramatic motion to indicate the tavern, "May I present the Snuggly Duckling, prime establishment and safe haven for any seeking neutral ground!"

I think it would be best to have Antonia tell the rest of this part.

What? Why?

So she can share her first impressions of everyone.

Oh. I guess that would be a good idea.

Antonia

"Aunt Katyusha! We're home and we brought a friend!" Alfred announced as he flung the door open and shoved Antonia in front of him. She went tense as she nearly barreled right into a muscular chest. She looked up, and up, and up, to see a broad man with blonde hair and narrowed aqua eyes behind a pair of square glasses. She let out a little squeak, jumping back and nearly running into Alfred behind her. She had never seen anyone so tall and scary in her life!

Antonia looked around and saw a man stalking his way towards them from across the room. The first thing she noticed was his scowl. "Alfred. Matthew." he said evenly as he came to a stop in front of them. "Where have you been? We expected you back yesterday at the latest. " Antonia winced- that had been her fault. She felt bad for making this guy angry, especially at Alfred and Matthew. They were so nice! The man looked to Antonia before she could explain, "And who is she?"

"Vash!" came another voice, a woman's voice. "Don't be so rude when we have a new guest. Our boys are home safe, and that's what matters." Antonia saw a pretty woman, older than they were though she didn't know how ages translated into looks so she couldn't pinpoint an exact age difference. One of the first things she noticed about the platinum blonde was her huge breasts, and then her smile.

The woman shook Antonia's hand and said, "Welcome! Here, make yourself at home. Any friend of the twins' is a friend of all of us." She cast a look back to the others, almost like the warning look Romano sometimes gave her as a reminder to behave. So was this woman like Romano, then?

Antonia had to smile. She could never be afraid of anyone like Romano. "Thank you. I'm Antonia. It's wonderful to meet you."

"I'm Yekaterina Braginsky, but you can just call me Aunt Katyusha, dear." the woman replied. So this was the owner of the tavern that Alfred had mentioned. "I'll go make something for the three of you. I shouldn't be long. Why don't you introduce this nice young woman to everyone, Alfred, Matthew?" the woman's voice sounded vaguely threatening at the last sentence, but Antonia shook it off. She was so nice, and still smiling so Antonia was probably wrong.

Alfred nodded and slung an arm around Antonia's shoulders. They approached the scowling blonde that Katyusha had referred to as Vash. "This is Vash Zwingli. Vash, this is Antonia. Vash is in charge of finances and security- he's the one who keeps this place actually running."

"I guess it's nice to meet you." Vash said with a somewhat pained expression. Antonia tried a small smile. A young teenage girl that looked remarkably similar to Vash, same shoulder-length blonde hair, green eyes, and everything approached. The girl carried a serving tray and wore an apron decorated with little pink flowers. There was a purple ribbon in her hair.

"Brother, you should be nicer to new people, I think." the girl said in the sweetest voice Antonia had ever heard. "They'll think you don't like them if you frown. You should show everyone your nice smile."

Vash looked down and muttered something under his breath. After a moment he peeked up at Antonia under his bangs, before straightening. He motioned to the girl next to him, "This is my little sister, Lili."

Alfred leaned close to Antonia to whisper, "She's a waitress here. No one messes with her. The last time someone tried, they only survived because Vash wanted to make an example to scare everyone else off, and Berwald was sick."

"Yeah, and who was it again that set the poor guy up for failure?" Matthew asked, light violet eyes narrowed in his brother's direction.

"Hey, I was trying to help Lili out. How was I supposed to know the weirdo would get so handsy?" Alfred asked defensively, "Anyway, I feel kind of bad for her. If Vash has his way, she'll never get a boyfriend even if she wants one."

"This is, like, so exciting! You're so pretty!" a new voice announced. It was another blonde, but Antonia couldn't figure out if they were male or female. They were dragging a brunette man behind them. "I'm Feliks, and this is Toris! We're so pleased to meet you! I'm sometimes a bartender here, but it's Tino's shift, so…" the man- at least she hoped she got that right- let out a giggle.

"I'm Antonia." she replied. His enthusiasm was infectious.

"Your dress is gorgeous. Did you make it yourself?" Feliks demanded, marching right up to her and yanking a handful of fabric for a closer look, "Because I don't recognize the design. Unless it's some obscure foreign thing?"

Antonia shook her head, "No, I made it myself, with some of the fabric papa brought me."

His eyes went almost comically wide as he squealed, "Oh. My. God. That's perfect! I design clothes, too! I would love to get your opinion on some of the designs I have! I've just never actually met anyone else who shared the passion for it. This is the best day of my life!"

"I'm sorry about him, Miss Antonia." said the brunette beside Feliks with an uncertain smile. Something about him reminded her a bit of Matthew. "Feliks, we should let her introduce herself to everyone else. Then you can talk about clothes." Feliks seemed happy enough with that plan, happily chattering to Toris while they made their way back to their table.

Alfred whispered, "Feliks is pretty cool. He got really drunk about a week ago and challenged Berwald- the guy right there, really tall-" he motioned to the man whose chest Antonia had met when she first walked in, "to a fight. Feliks broke a nail, so Toris had to bail him out. Berwald didn't seem to take it too seriously. And Toris… well, Toris may seem all quiet and stuff, but he's a lot like Matthew. It's the quiet ones you want to watch out for. If you mess with him, just be prepared for him to get revenge on you months later, when you don't even remember what you did."

Antonia didn't have a chance to reply before a man with gravity-defying blonde hair and sparkling ice blue eyes bounded forward and came to a stop in front of her. He took her hand and shook it. "Hi! I'm Matthias Køhler. But you can call me whatever you want!" With that, he winked, an easy grin on his face. She felt Romano jump to attention on her shoulder, a signal that the man had somehow activated Romano's protective instincts. However, another man wearing a cross hair clip in his light blonde hair walked up with a bored expression on his face and yanked Matthias' tie. Matthias sputtered and began to choke, but the newest man didn't seem to care.

"At least try to act like you've been housetrained around guests." the newcomer ordered in a monotone while Matthias attempted to right himself when the man let go of his tie.

"That's Lukas Bondevik." Alfred said at her confused look, "Me and Mattie- actually, everyone else, too- have bets on when he and Matthias are finally going to stop dancing around each other. Toris is the only one who thinks it won't happen, because Matthias is oblivious and Lukas is in denial, but it would be too painful to watch that forever so we have backup plans to ensure it happens to preserve everyone's sanity. Mattie says they already are together, but I don't believe him for a second. Matthias would have bragged to anyone who stayed still long enough and Emil would be complaining about being mentally scarred for life." Alfred pointed to a silver-haired teenager sitting alone at a table to the side, watching the proceedings with vague disinterest. "That's Emil- Lukas' little brother. He has a pet puffin, and despite how much he hates it he acts a lot like Lukas. It's easy to tease him; he just gets so annoyed."

Matthias smiled once he regained his breath, "Well, it's very nice to meet you! So what's with all the hair?" Antonia gave a nervous laugh, unsure of how to answer. She couldn't tell him she had magic hair that lost the magic if cut.

"You're being annoying. Come on." Lukas ordered after a long look at Antonia, grabbing onto Matthias' tie again to pull him away. Lukas held up a hand in what might have been a farewell wave to Antonia and then they were gone.

"Don't let Lukas fool you with that aloof act. He's basically everyone's overbearing older brother once he gets attached. Emil gets the worst of that, being his actual little brother. Also, when he's really drunk he's been known to dance on tables. Hard to take him too seriously after that… Well, okay, it's not. He can actually be a bit intimidating when you actually make him angry, but, well, who isn't?" Alfred informed her.

Matthew sighed, "Thanks, Alfred, for reminding me of that night. It was traumatizing for everyone. The hearing in my left ear hasn't been the same since you, Matthias, and Feliks decided to start screeching at the top of your lungs. Then you tried to convince me it was 'music'. You would have given Mr. Edelstein a heart attack if he'd heard you say that."

"We were singing, not screeching." Alfred argued, reaching around Antonia to lightly shove his brother on the shoulder, "It's not like you were much better. That's the night you made Emil dance with you and in revenge he got you to basically shout for the whole bar to hear how attractive you thought Gilbert was. Besides, it's not that hard to make Roderich have a heart attack. He's old and stuffy."

Matthew let out a snort of laughter as a new woman approached them.

"Alfred, Matthew!" said the smiling blonde woman, "Are you going to introduce me to your pretty new friend?" She was wearing the same apron that Lili was wearing.

Alfred smiled, a similar smile to the one Francis got when he went off on a tangent about how pretty she was, and replied, "Of course, I wouldn't ever forget you. Antonia, this is Emma. Emma, this is Antonia."

"It's nice to meet you!" Antonia said, holding out her hand. Two people thus far had taken her hand and shaken it. That seemed to be some sort of expected greeting. Suddenly, she found herself face-first in the other woman's bosom.

"Oh, you're just so adorable and polite!" Emma exclaimed, wrapping her arms tightly around Antonia's shoulders. "You need to keep this one, boys. And that's an order." Emma giggled, letting Antonia go. Emma seemed really friendly.

Emma sighed and put her hands on her hips. Her smile seemed a little like when Francis had brought home a present but was trying to pretend he hadn't. "Well, I've got to get back to work. Once the dinner shift is over, let's say we talk more." Emma winked and flounced away. Oh, so she must work here, too.

Alfred clapped her on the shoulder and turned to the tall man, Berwald wasn't it, and said, "Hey, man! How's it been?"

"Fine." Berwald replied. His voice was deep and quiet, like rumbling thunder in the distance.

"Well, this is Antonia. And Antonia, this is Berwald! He's like my bro that isn't Mattie. He's the one who introduced me to this place years ago. He helps Vash with security. I know he looks a bit scary, but he's a big teddy bear- unless you hurt Tino." Alfred said, taking a step closer to Berwald and motioning to each of them in turn.

If Berwald had Alfred's vote of confidence, he couldn't be bad. Antonia offered an uncertain smile and said, "I'm sorry for running into you earlier."

"It's fine." replied Berwald with a shrug of his shoulders. Antonia smiled as Alfred bounced forward and wrapped the taller man in a fierce hug.

Once Alfred let go, he said, "Well, I've got to introduce Antonia to Tino. We'll talk later. Come on, Mattie, Antonia."

As Alfred led the way towards the bar in the back, the short man behind it called, "Alfred, Matthew, how did it go? Did either of you get hurt?" The man had bright violet eyes and a big smile. Antonia guessed he was probably one of the shortest people in the room.

"I got hit on the head, but I'm fine." Alfred replied as they arrived at the bar. Alfred leaned against the counter while Matthew stood beside him and Antonia took a seat. Romano was still watching everything carefully from her shoulder. Until he became more comfortable, she didn't think he would leave it.

The man behind the bar looked as if he didn't believe Alfred, turning to Matthew for answers. Matthew said, "You know my brother. He's got a hard head. He could get hit in the head with a brick and still be just as annoying as always."

"You're right." the man replied with a relieved giggle. Then he turned to Antonia, "Hello! I'm Tino Väinämöinen. It's a pleasure to meet you. You said your name was Antonia, right? That's such a nice name. I hope no one has been too bothersome."

Antonia shook her head, "No, not at all. Everyone's been nice. So you work here, too, right?" She was pretty sure Feliks had mentioned Tino as the one being, what was it? On shift or something like that. She didn't quite get it.

"Oh, yes, I've worked here since the beginning. That was years ago!" Tino replied, "There weren't so many of us, then."

"So, Tino, has Kiku shown back up yet?" Alfred asked as his eyes scanned the tavern. He sounded a little worried to Antonia.

Tino shook his head with a frown, "No. Not yet." After a moment, Tino smiled and said, "Well, I'm sure he'll turn up again soon! Everyone eventually does!"

"Yeah, you're right." Alfred replied, sparing one last scan of the room.

After a few minutes of conversation, Matthew tugged Alfred's sleeve and said, "We should probably get a table. Aunt Katyusha said she was making something for us."

"Oh, yeah. Catch you later, Tino!" Alfred said, waving his hands before he bounced off to the table the silver-haired teenager, Emil, was sitting at. Emil looked up when they arrived from feeding a strange black and white bird sitting on the chair beside him. Alfred sat down on Emil's other side while Matthew and Antonia sat across from them.

"What took you two so long?" Emil asked, not sparing Antonia a second glance. "Everyone was worried. It was annoying."

"Eh, we got sidetracked. We split up and Gilbert chased me for like, twelve hours. I ended up breaking into Antonia's tower, and now we've got a job to escort her into the kingdom in three days, for the lanterns. Then we'll take her back home." Alfred answered.

Emil leaned back and crossed his arms, "And Matthew agreed to that."

Matthew let out a breath of air, "Yeah, it's stupid, but Al's going to go anyway. If you can't beat him, join him."

"What? Why's that stupid?" Antonia asked. She was the only one that had a problem with that, or at least she thought. It was her who was disobeying her father's rules, after all.

"They're wanted thieves." Emil answered, boredly staring at his nails, "The entire kingdom's on alert for them. Or, at least, for Alfred. Well, both of them, but everyone is stupid enough to think that there's only one of them." Oh. No wonder Matthew had been so angry.

Before Antonia could say anything, Alfred announced, "Well, it's fine! We already agreed to do it so as the hero I have to see it done, no matter how many freaky demon horses Gilbert finds!"

I love Katyusha and Vash's home for strays. It is truly beautiful.

Thank you for your time.