Matthew and Alfred had just sat down in the living room for a Batman the Animated Series marathon, when a familiar, obnoxious rhythm started being tapped out on the front door. Alfred didn't leap to answer it like he normally would, and just swung his head around to look at his brother, face blank. "He's your friend, dude."
Matthew rolled his eyes as he got to his feet. "Yeah, yeah." He swung the door open, and glared at the teen on the other side. "What do you want Gilbert? It's too late for this!"
The albino just grinned and slung an arm lazily across the Canadian's shoulders. "It's never too late for a little awesome in your life! 'Sides, I'm just here to see if you want to have dinner with me and the Vargas twins tomorrow."
"Alfred-dinner, or dinner-dinner?" Alfred-dinner comprised of either a trip to McDonald's or Burger King, followed by dessert at DQ, while dinner-dinner meant an actual restaurant.
"Dinner-dinner." Gilbert replied, shooting Alfred a smug grin from under Matthew's arm, which was propping the blond up against the doorframe. "Lovi just wants some more sane people around to help him deal with Feli's antics."
"Oh so Feliciano's the one with antics now?"
"Of course! I've moved on to shenanigans." He declared with a grin.
"Your parents must be so proud of you."
"That's what they tell me. So you in?"
Despite, or maybe because of the fact that he could almost feel his brother shaking his head vigorously behind him, Matthew grinned, and nodded. "Sounds fun. What time?"
Gilbert hemmed and hawed for a moment before answering, "let's call it six-thirty. I'll be driving us all into town, and Feli says he found this nifty little restaurant that makes awesome pasta."
"Any pasta's awesome to him, as long as they don't serve it out of a box."
"Jeez Matt, you've known the kid for what? Two weeks now? And you can already read him like a book."
"To be fair, he doesn't try to make it that difficult to figure him out."
"Okay, okay. Point there. I'll see you tomorrow kid. Enjoy your cartoons!"
"Batman is way too cool to be considered a cartoon! It's even more awesome than you think you are!" Alfred nearly shrieked from the living room. The plastic remote was already beginning to crack in his hand when Matthew hurried to calm him down.
"Relax Al, nothing is as awesome as Gilbert thinks he is, remember?"
"But you agree that it's way better than he really is, right?"
"Sure, okay. Just calm down Al, and we'll watch the show. I'll see you tomorrow Gil!"
"Have fun!"
When Gilbert had left, and Matthew was sitting on the couch again, Alfred started the show, and then swung his head around to face his brother. "So… am I invited to this dinner shindig too?"
"No."
"But-"
"Hell no."
"You're a douche bro."
"Love you too."
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Matthew really hoped he wasn't the only one who saw how awkward this evening could very well turn out to be. He really hoped so. There was on other way of looking at it, he was the odd-one-out here. Sure he knew Gilbert, but as for the twins, he barely remembered which one was which sometimes, even though they were quite different. And yet, Gilbert knew both reasonably well. It could very quickly devolve into a three-sided conversation, with Matthew left out.
Not that he wasn't used to it, he just didn't like admitting that he knew it was bound to happen.
Little did he know that Gilbert actually hid a semblance of intelligence underneath the excessive arrogance he wore like cheap perfume. The older teen had it all planned out, with some assistance from Elizaveta.
Gilbert drove all of them into town, and followed Feliciano's hyper pointing and babbling of directions until they arrived in front of a small restaurant, nestled nicely between a mini-mall, and an empty building, which looked only recently vacated.
"You sure this is the place?"
"Sí! They have a really good menu."
"Well, okay then. Little back-alley Swiss-Italian restaurant it is then."
The restaurant was fairly empty, but the few people who were eating at other tables looked happy enough being there. And that was a good enough sign for them, so they took a booth near a window, and waited for the waiter to come take their orders.
"So, Feli, you're the only one who knows this place really well. What do you recommend?" Gilbert asked, flipping out his menu over-dramatically to peruse.
"Umm… The ravioli's really good! But... so it the spaghetti… and the lasagne, oh, and the Parmesan chicken! And… it's all really good!"
"Geez how many times have you eaten here to know that it's all that good?" Matthew asked with a chuckle. As it turns out, he didn't have to answer, as the waitress showed up, and lit up in a bright smile when she saw the Italian. "Hey Feli! It's good to see you again!"
"You too Genevieve! This is my brother, Lovi, and our friends Gilbert, and Mateo!" He ignored his twin's muttered 'don't call me that, idiota!'
"Nice to meet you! Can I get you guys something to drink?"
They all ordered light beers, and Genevieve nodded, and turned back to the kitchen. "I think she likes you Feli." Gilbert grinned.
"Think so? Well, she's really nice, but she's in University already…"
"Ooh! Chasing the older girls! 'Atta boy Feli!"
Feliciano blushed, and laughed as the German ruffled his hair. "Knock it off! Mateo, tell him to stop teasing me… Mateo?"
But Matthew was a little preoccupied watching something on the other side of the restaurant. "You guys see that?"
They turned to where the blond was pointing, to the other side of the restaurant, where two people sat, holding newspapers up over their faces. Every once in awhile, they'd reach over to the table between them, and pick up their coffee cups, take a sip, and put them down, almost entirely in sync.
"Well that is kinda creepy." Lovino said, voice low as if they'd hear him. "You think they're spying on someone here?"
"And be that cliché about it? No way." Matthew replied, shoving the Italian lightly with a grin. "You're thinking too much about pasta to function normally."
"Bastardo. No one attempts that stupid cliché for no reason. They must be just stupid, that's all." He shoved back, a little harder.
"Ve… but they're just reading newspapers. What's so strange about that?"
Both Matthew and Lovino stopped, and stared at Feli, who was blinking in confusion at them. "Wow Feli. Just… wow."
As they attempted to explain the newspaper thing from all the movies, Gilbert pulled out his phone, and quickly texted Antonio, WTF man? Newspapers? Really?
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Antonio stared at the text sheepishly before pocketing his phone. "I think we've been caught."
"Gee, you think?" Mei muttered sarcastically. "I told you, 'we'll take a more secluded booth, and watch them from there.' As long as we didn't draw attention to ourselves, there would've been nothing to worry about! But nope. You just had to try a newspaper trick of all things."
"Now, now. It's not like they know it's us."
The brunette sighed, and dared another peak around her pages. The four seemed to have lost interest in them, as the waitress returned with drinks. "Well, at least we know what not to do for next time."
"I still think that it was a good idea."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night. Come on, there's a bench outside their window. Kiku scouted the place earlier and said there's a weak spot in the insulation, so we can hear them from there."
"Why don't you want to stay in here?"
"I'm tired of looking suspicious."
The Spaniard chuckled lightly at that. "Señorita. Everything about this hobby of yours is suspicious."
"Oh hush. Just pay the bill."
"You don't want to go Dutch?" He asked innocently.
"Just pay it. I'm going to the bench so I can keep tabs on where the relationship's heading. You know, like we're supposed to be doing."
"You shouldn't call it a relationship just yet Mei. I believe that's what they call 'counting your chickens before they're hatched.'"
"You know what I mean, I just can't think of the word."
"Of course."
Mei refused to talk to Antonio for the rest of the night, out of sheer stubbornness.
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It was about the time when the food showed up, and Lovino could see the two outside the window practically staring at them as they talked, that the Italian figured everyone else with him must either be blind, or just plain stupid. He recognized Antonio as one of Gilbert's cronies, and the girl seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place a name to her face.
But more importantly, he was trying to give a name to the face of he blond right in front of him who was attempting to make polite conversation over their meals. He'd always been particularly bad with names, especially with girls. Maybe it was because of how feminine the other teen looked that his name had gone in one ear and out the other.
Gilbert and Feli had somehow gotten into their own isolated battle of wits, (or lack thereof) leaving just the two to talk until someone finally came to their rescue.
"So… you're an artist?" He asked, hoping he didn't sound as awkward as he felt.
"I like to think so. Hopefully it'll take me somewhere."
"But you've got your parents to fall back on, of course."
To Lovino's surprise, he shook his head. "They've pretty much decided that my brother and I have to figure out how to fend for ourselves, even if that means sucking up our pride and asking dad for a job in the company."
"That still sounds like they'd be helping you."
"I guess…How about you? Will you go into performing as a career?"
"Probably. It's all I'm really good at."
"I'm sure that isn't true."
"Well it is." He snapped curtly. He knew that the blond only meant well by being nice, but you know what they say about the road to Hell.
Genevieve returned shortly after with the bill, winking to Feli as she did so, and they split it according to Gilbert's shoddy math skills before heading back out to the car.
"Thanks for letting me tag along Gil. It was pretty fun." Matthew murmured when the car got too quiet.
"Pretty awesome, you mean."
"Sure, sure. Pretty awesome."
"You shouldn't encourage him, stupido. Then we'll never hear the end of it." Lovino snapped.
"Fratello, don't be mean."
"Shut up, would you?"
With a fluttering sigh, the Canadian slumped back into his seat, deciding that shutting up was indeed the best thing to do around someone like Lovino. Or most people, for that matter.
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Thanks for reading~!
Also, Batman TAS is the greatest thing to ever be animated ever, and that person who uploaded all the episodes and the movies to torrent for me to then download will forever be my hero. That is all.
