Matthew Williams woke up to the sound of a sizzling pan and the smell of pancakes.
At first, he didn't know where he was. Then he remembered last night, the freezing iron of the fire escape and Prussia's kindness. The fire had been burnt out, and his glasses sat on an end table, neatly folded up; Matthew didn't remember taking them off himself. A quilt was thrown over him, and from the way the wooden floors creaked it was obvious Prussia's house was an old one. He sat up and rubbed his eyes.
"Birdie!" Prussia said, appearing in Matthew's peripheral vision. "How ya doin'?"
"Um, okay..." He mumbled. Prussia grinned. He'd thought up a killer plan last night, Matthew was going to love it. And it was a plus for him too.
"If you don't get your butt off my couch I just might eat all those pancakes myself." He chucked, twirling the spatula between his fingers. He headed back to the kitchen.
"Oh, um... Prussia?" Matthew said, retrieving his glasses. "Thank you. Really. I can't thank you enough for letting me stay here." He got up and headed towards the kitchen, where Prussia was making pancakes from a mix.
"No probs, bro!" He said cheerily, slapping a few on a plate and placing it on the table. "In fact, I've got a brilliant idea."
Matthew looked up.
"You should come live with me!"
Matthew's mouth dropped open. Here was this guy, who he'd only met yesterday, wanting to room with him. No, correction, wanting to take him in, let him live in his house. He couldn't accept. He really didn't need to go to so much trouble for him.
"No, really, it's fine, you don't have to put up with me, I've got somewhere to go anyway." He lied.
"Is that why you were prepared to spend all night on that staircase?" Prussia countered, taking a plate with three pancakes and spreading butter over them.
Matthew opened his mouth to say something, then shut it. Prussia was right, he didn't have anywhere to go. But why would he move in with a complete stranger?
Prussia slid a plate over to him. He took it gratefully, and looked around the table for some maple syrup.
There wasn't any.
"Do you have any maple syrup?" He asked, reaching for the butter. Prussia shook his head.
"What?!" Was Matthew's first reaction. "Come on, how can you have pancakes and not have maple syrup?"
"I don't know, it's not exactly at the top of my shopping list."
Matthew looked flabbergasted. Prussia started laughing. "You should see your face!" Once he'd calmed down a bit, he made a deal with Matthew. "Alright, I'll buy you maple syrup if you say you'll live with me."
Matthew's only reaction was a confused face.
"I'm just trying to help you out." Prussia shrugged. "It's fine if you don't want to. But," he lowered his voice, as if someone would hear him, "I ran away too. At seventeen. And if someone had offered me help, I would have taken it."
Matthew jumped. "How do you know I ran away?" He asked warily.
"Well I am the creator of one of the most popular websites in the world, I know my way around the internet." Prussia cut a pancake in half. "Your ex sounds like a real bitch."
Matthew flushed. "This is kinda creepy..."
"Don't worry, bro, I was just doing my homework. Wanted to make sure you weren't some crazy guy before I let you stay in my home. So what do you say?" He extended his hand across the table.
Matthew was unsure. On one hand, his internet skills were freaking him out. On the other, he seemed like a pretty decent guy.
He took Prussia's hand and shook it. "Okay, it's a deal. Where can you buy maple syrup around here?"
-oooo-
Twenty minutes later, the two of them were standing in the grocery store, scanning the shelves for a decent bottle of the magical maple fluid, as Matthew called it. Prussia retorted that it sounded like some kind of maple-flavoured lube. Matthew vowed to never call it that again.
"Look, there's a bottle." Prussia reached for a bottle of Aunt Jemima's.
"No, no, no, no." Matthew said, snagging it from his hand. "That stuff's crap. You gotta get the real stuff." He grabbed a glass bottle with a picture of a cabane a sucre on the front.
"But that's more expensive!" Prussia protested.
"It's worth it." Matthew insisted, pressing it into his hands. "It has real maple in it."
Prussia muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "What else should I expect from a Canadian?"
They got in line and paid the extra $2.99 for the real maple syrup, then made their way back to Prussia's house. Once he tried the maple syrup, Prussia agreed that it did taste better and yes, it was worth it. "I told you." Matthew gloated. Prussia did nothing more than raise his eyebrows.
Yes, it seemed they were going to get along just fine.
yes i know there is an accent in cabane a sucre, but i couldn't get the accent to work. It was bein messed up. k? :D also, after the next chapter the plot will probably start to pick up. Now that I have a plot, lol.