Matthew took a deep breath, going into a little grocery store that honestly didn't look too busy. There was a little "HELP WANTED" sign hanging in the door and he figured this would be good. It had been about a week since he had started school and he had gotten to know the schedule that the hockey team had (he was actually beaten up pretty bad and exhausted when he came home the first day, explaining that to Alfred while avoiding the subject of Ivan was near impossible) and got a fairly good idea of what the homework load was going to be for them, so he wanted to get another thing on track; a job. Alfred was sure he'd be working at McDonalds or something, so Matthew left him to that and decided to go to this little shop. He got his groceries here a little while ago and liked the air about it and the fact it wasn't extremely busy.
"Um, excuse me," Matthew said to the man at the counter, a brunette with fairly long hair, green eyes, and he seemed a little nervous, even more so than Matthew. "How do I apply for a job here?"
"You're hired," the man said quickly and Matthew jumped slightly.
"I'm sorry?" Matthew scratched his head. "Shouldn't you at least have me fill out an application or interview me?"
"Do you do drugs?" the man asked.
"No," Matthew shook his head.
"Have you ever done anything illegal?"
"No."
"What days can you work?"
"Um…The weekends, Tuesdays, and Thursdays," Matthew mumbled. "I have school during the week, so I can only work after 3."
"You're hired," the man smiled, quickly running around the counter and extending a hand to him. "My name is Toris Laurinaitis."
"Matthew Williams," Matthew shook his hand.
"Like, oh, my God! Did we hook another one, broski?" another…man?...asked as he came form the back room. He had long, blonde hair, and it was straight, unlike Francis', and he had bright green eyes. The most noteworthy thing, however, was the fact that he was wearing a bright pink skirt along with his work shirt, something Matthew was sure would be against the rules. Then again…if Toris was the boss, he was a bit of a pushover. "No way!" this newcomer shoved Toris out of the way to pull Matthew into an extremely close hug. "I'm, like Feliks, it's totally cool to meet you."
"Um…M-Matthew."
"Sweetness," Feliks smiled. "I'm gonna, like, show you around the back and stuff!" He immediately gripped hard onto Matthew's hand and started pulling him back from where he came.
"We will deal with your paperwork later," Toris chuckled, though he did give Matthew a pitying look as he was dragged to the back room.
He was there for hours, in all honesty. He had to give Alfred a few reassuring texts, telling Alfred he was fine and wouldn't come home with bruises after the poor boy sent him multiple panicked calls. Feliks threatened to take away his phone, jokingly, and Toris reminded him that he didn't have that privilege. Apparently, there were only a few other employees working there, the main ones being Feliks and Toris, which was why they needed help so desperately.
"I'm so sorry for keeping you this long," Toris sighed, looking outside of the store windows. Matthew did the same and saw that the sun was already beginning to set.
"Oh, it's fine, don't worry," Matthew assured him. "I'll be more than happy to help you guys out anyway I can."
"You better, like, make sure you show up again, I like you," Feliks smirked, patting his back.
"Sure," Matthew laughed. "I'll be back Thursday."
A bell twinkled from the door behind them and Toris immediately went behind the counter again and Feliks when to a position that Matthew was sure Toris pointed out to him to do. Matthew just nodded to the two before he turned around to leave. However, when Matthew turned around, he was greeted by something he never thought he'd see.
The man that had just entered the store had the hood from his sweatshirt up and wore sunglasses, and he had, holding in front of him and pointed right into Matthew's face, a cold, dark metal pistol.
"Don't move!" the man shouted. Matthew saw that his hand was shaking, but at this distance, if he shot, Matthew would have definitely been hit. "No one move!" He waved the gun around dangerously and Matthew noticed out of the corner of his eye that Feliks ducked behind one of the shelves. "You!" he pushed past Matthew, who then ducked where Feliks had gone, and went up to Toris. "Fill a bag with money!"
"Like, don't worry," Feliks whispered to him, holding out his phone. Matthew squinted at the screen and scoffed.
"You alerted Twitter?" Matthew scoffed. "What about calling the police?"
"Don't you know anything," Feliks rolled his eyes. "This is how you get Energy, duh!"
"I don't care who comes to save me!" Matthew hissed. "But it seems to me that police are better equipped for something like this!"
"No talking!" the man snapped and Feliks hastily hid his phone before the man came around, pointing his gun at both of them. They both slowly stood up and Matthew saw that he had an empty, plastic bag in his hand. The man, keeping his gun haphazardly pointed at them, went through the shelves and picked up a few things, shoving them in his bag. They were basic things, bread, chips, he went around to the fridges to get milk, went to another aisle to pick up baby food. He just wanted basic things, but by the look of his clothes, he probably couldn't afford them. Probably stole his gun, too.
He then looped back around to where Matthew and Feliks were and held onto Matthew's arm tightly, pulling him to the door, gun poised at Matthew's head. He finally let him ago and ran for the door, but another person entered, quite boisterously, too. Matthew immediately recognized him as Energy and, under different circumstances, would have laughed at how Feliks' plan worked. Looking at him this close, Matthew couldn't help but think that the man had this…familiar air about him.
"Well, shit," Energy laughed and Matthew noticed that his American accent was obviously fake, but it was bad enough to the point where Matthew couldn't figure out what kind of voice he was hiding. "You guys are damn lucky I was close."
"I'll shoot him!" the man trembled, pointing his gun at Matthew again. Energy's eyes widened slightly upon seeing him before diverting his attention back to the gunman.
"Yeah?" Energy scoffed. He took one small, simple step towards the man, who shouted and fired his gun. It felt like everything happened in less than a second. The sound of the gun echoed loudly in Matthew's head and he definitely expected to feel…something. But his vision turned red and he felt…nothing. It took him a moment to realize that he was in one of those energy boxes that Energy could make and saw that the bullet was simply resting on the ground in front of him. Energy stared at him for a while, odd blue eyes looking at him carefully, before he started moving.
Immediately, he was able to get the gun out of the hands of the gunman, knocking it to the ground and it slid slightly more towards Matthew. Energy landed a simple hit to the man's stomach and he doubled over, kneeling down onto the ground.
"Waste of time," Energy muttered and the box around Matthew disappeared. Energy picked up the bags that the man filled and let out a groan. The gunman moaned in pain. "Shit. Get the hell up."
"Wait, are you gonna, like, let him go and stuff?" Feliks popped his head up from behind the shelves.
"Get up, I didn't even hit you with anywhere close to my full strength," Energy sighed. The man slowly stood up, holding onto his gut. "Take your shit and get out of here. Before the police come because of your stupid gunshot."
The man quickly nodded, took his bag of stuff while Energy tossed the bag of money back to Toris, who barely caught it. The man ran out of the store as fast as he could and the store was quiet for a short while.
"Why did you let him go?" Toris asked shakily.
"He's stealing fucking bread, the kid needs a break," Energy scoffed. The more Matthew saw him, the more he noticed that he seemed oddly familiar, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. Finally, red and blue lights started flashing and Energy saluted the people in the store before running off.
"See? My tweet worked," Feliks smirked and Matthew shook his head.
"Oh, my God!" Alfred screeched as soon as Matthew opened the door to their apartment. It had been hours, as Matthew had been interviewed by not only the police, but also the endless amount of news people around the small store. Immediately, Alfred pulled him into a tight hug and Matthew sighed, kicking their door closed. "Holy shit, I saw it all on the news. Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, don't worry," Matthew assured him. "Seriously."
"Dude, Energy was there, right?" Alfred held onto his shoulders, pushing him away slightly. "The news wasn't so clear about that, you gotta tell me, man! Real life hero in person? Holy shit!"
"Yeah, he was there," Matthew chuckled. "He, uh…he let the guy go."
"Wait, are you serious right now?" Alfred's eyes widened. Matthew figured the police wouldn't make it public if the guy was let go. "Why?"
"He was stealing basic stuff, like bread and…and baby food," Matthew shrugged. "If I were in his place, I would have let the guy go, too."
"They said that there was a bullet at the feet of one of the victims," Alfred said. "Did he shoot you? Did Energy save you?"
"Yes and yes," Matthew laughed slightly. "It was terrifying, but those weird energy boxes are actually really cool."
"Is he as hot as all the girls say he is in person?" Alfred laughed, quickly ducking into the kitchen, where there was some kind of microwave meal sitting on a plate on the stove, still steaming hot.
"I didn't know you swung that way," Matthew snorted.
"Nah, a bunch of chicks have been calling me because my bro's been saved by Energy, it's all over Facebook and shit," Alfred smirked. "You gotta tell me, since I know you swing that way."
"Uh-huh…" Matthew rolled his eyes. "So you want to impress a bunch of girls by confirming that Energy is hot? Don't you think that sends the wrong kind of message?"
"Well, I'll word it differently or something," Alfred shrugged. "Please, dude?"
"When you can actually tell a girl to her face that Energy's hot, I'll be sure to tell you where he lands on a scale of 1 to 10," Matthew laughed, picking up his food and a fork, and went over to the couch to watch some cartoons.
"Rewind that part again."
"What did you see?"
"Look at Energy's face, the way he's looking at the boy he just saved from the gun."
"Are you saying he cares for that boy?"
"It could be a possibility. That boy, look up some information on him. It's obvious that Energy knows him by the way he recognized him when he first came in. We need to find out who that kid knows and where he could have met Energy."
"Running a scan for his face now."
"That boy has a school uniform, I'll run a search for it as well."
"No need, I went to that school not too long ago. It's an academy for the children of the rich and privileged."
"So my theory on Energy having a smart phone wasn't too farfetched, huh?"
"Match. Matthew Williams. As far as our information tells us, he's human."
"Judging by the look on his face, he doesn't know who Energy is. It won't do any good to interrogate him at this point. We'll have to see how this plays out. And find out any places he could know Energy. I'll admit , this was a good plan, despite Matthew almost getting shot."
"Our boss knows what he's doing, I'll give him that."
I love writing Poland, I don't get enough chances to do it and I needed Matthew to have a really good reason for being at that store and he needs a job anyway. While Alfred figures out if he wants to work at McDonalds or Burger King. And Energy manages to save the day once again! How exciting. In other news, I finally watched the dub of Beautiful World, though I have already seen it all subbed, and my life is officially complete and happy. Best two hours of my life spent watching it and the bloopers (if you haven't seen the outtakes yet, do it. Canada's got himself a potty mouth).
Anyway, I'm done rambling, please review! It's totally nice and awesome and things!