~*~

Chapter Seven: Three Different Cups

~*~

Ever since Arthur and his discussion of Kiku Honda, Matthew often watched over the Japanese man when he came in. At one instance, Feliciano noticed that Matthew was looking up from washing to look at the lonely man in the corner. Upon asking about it, Feliciano and Matthew vowed to be the Japanese man's guardian angels… while he was at the Café, at least.

About a day after 'swearing in' as 'guardian angels,' Feliciano glanced up to check on the haggard-looking Asian… and tripped over a mop that had been left across the entrance to behind the counter. The Japanese man looked up from his daydream and caught the Italian boy by the upper arm.

"Careful…"

Matthew heard the crash and was over in a second, "Feli~ Are you okay?"

"Just fine… thank goodness this man was here to catch me. My hero~" Feliciano replied, beaming idiotically, as usual.

Matthew grinned, "Thank you… uhhh… Kiku Honda, right?"

"Yes… and it's only fair if you tell me your names since you know mine…" Kiku replied good-naturedly.

"Feliciano Vargas and Matthew!" Feliciano replied, pointing to the wrong person as he did so.

Matthew laughed. "No, no, Feliciano… I'm Matthew, and he's Feliciano…"

"Right… that's what I said… are you deaf, Mattie?" Feliciano asked, genuinely concerned.

Matthew couldn't help but laugh, "I can hear fine, Feli… anyway… it's nice to meet you, Kiku…"

"Nice to meet you as well… You must see me a lot around here… word would get around about my name…" Kiku said.

Matthew smiled, "Well… yeah. But why are you always here in the afternoons?"

"Well… I work hard down at Poppy Crafts… and I want to have a cup of good tea and a bagel…" the Asian man stated.

Matthew knew there was something else: Ludwig had just walked out of the kitchens and Kiku was staring. Ludwig found what he was looking for: Feliciano, and barked at him to get back to work. Matthew shook his head, "Just a minute, you big jerk! We're talking up paying customers!"

Ludwig rolled his eyes and went back into the kitchens. Matthew looked expectantly over at Kiku, who was hiding a blush under his scarf. "Just for a good cup of tea and a bagel, huh?"

"Okay… you caught me. Ludwig came in to the store a few weeks ago and I… I had an immediate attraction to him," Kiku mumbled the last bit, but Matthew heard it just fine.

Matthew touched his arm, "Hey… let's get together sometime this weekend to talk some more… you, Feli and I. It'll be good for you…"

"O-Okay," Kiku replied, glancing up at the French-Canadian.

"When are you free, Kiku?" Feliciano asked.

"Afternoons… though Friday I get off at one…"

"Perfect… I've got a date at five, but I can fit you in and still have time to get to the five o' clock…" Matthew replied cheerfully.

"And we get off midday anyway, don't we?" Feliciano asked.

"Oui," Matthew replied, saying the word differently so it was literally like 'yeah' is to 'yes' in American English.

"Well then, it's settled. The beginnings of our own little Trio…" Feliciano replied, grinning happily from ear to ear.

"Though we'll have to choose something other than the Bad Touch Trio…" Kiku replied, snorting slightly as he glanced over at the corner table where two of the aforementioned Trio was sitting, sans Francis, who was still waiting tables for the next… thirty seconds.

"We'll discuss names on Friday… for now… I think Feli and I need to help clean up or Ludwig will have a conniption…" Matthew said.

"Go Hitler on us…" Feliciano replied, nodding.

"Throw us into a concentration camp," Matthew continued.

"Though this place is kind of all ready our concentration camp."

"Sans the death and gas and creepy dead bodies everywhere…"

"And I don't think anyone of us are Jews… who work here, I mean."

"But we don't have women and children, which is kind of sad."

Kiku was amazed at the wit batted back and forth between the Italian and the French-Canadian.

"You two watch too much Gilmore Girls…" Kiku finally said.

Matthew and Feliciano shrugged, "It's a good show…"

Kiku smiled, "Don't I know it. Hey, can I be Lane in that case? If you're Lorelei and Rory?"

"Called Rory!" Feliciano yelled, "I got three boys after me in the second season…"

"Fine. I'll go run the inn with a disgruntled French guy…" Matthew replied, grabbing the mop that had started the new Trio, "Come on, Rory, this inn isn't going to clean itself."

"Fine, but I'm going to rant incessantly about how cute my boyfriend is~!" the Italian quipped, grabbing a dish-rag.

Lovino walked passed and rolled his eyes at that moment, "Getcherself a boyfriend first, lover boy…" he growled, before kissing Matthew quickly on the cheek and then putting the dishes he had in his hands into the sink and turning the water on them.

Feliciano simply blushed and scampered into the kitchen to see if Alfred and Ludwig needed any help.

~*~

"Okay… so Kiku said that he was just past Poppy Crafts on the left side of the street called…." Feliciano was reading the map upside down.

Matthew grabbed the map from him and turned it right-side-up to take a good look at it, "Oriental Drive… now that's just uncanny…"

"And a bit racist of the guy… do you think Im Soo and Yao live here too?" Feliciano asked.

Matthew elbowed him, "First Arthur and now you. Did I really live among a bunch of assholes?"

"Well… if you did then you led a really sheltered life from us all then. Whatever or whoever gave you amnesia did us a favor… though it might have been painful…"

Matthew turned on to Oriental Drive and found Kiku on his step blowing into his hands for warmth. Stopping the car, they parked and hopped out of the car.

"You… you waited for us outside in the cold? Nyaw," Matthew said, as Kiku stood.

"I figured you would place Feliciano as the navigator… not saying you're not a wonderful person, Feli," Kiku replied.

Feliciano blinked, "What?"

"Don't… don't say anything more…" Matthew replied, "May we come in, or are we going to have a freeze fest…"

"I don't know… I think my mom still doesn't trust you…" Kiku replied.

It took both Matthew and Feliciano a moment to get the reference, but Feliciano suddenly grinned and replied, "But she likes me, right? I'm the perfect daughter—er, son, and since she—he raised me, I think she should let up on my mom—dad…"

"And I think we're calling ourselves the Gilmore Boys… if anyone asks," Matthew said.

Kiku and Feliciano's eyes widened as well as their smiles. Kiku took Matthew's arm and led them both inside his house. Once in the kitchen, Kiku put the kettle on and went to what looked like his tea cabinet.

"Wow… stocking up for a nuclear war?" Matthew asked, sitting on a stool near the counter.

Kiku suddenly turned to the French-Canadian and stuck his tongue out at him. Matthew couldn't help but turn to Feliciano to first giggle like fangirls and then laugh like real men.

"I'll have Apple-Cinnamon if you have it… but looking at that stock I think I'll get my wish…" Feliciano said, giggling slightly.

"Black tea for me… God… I sound like Arthur…" Matthew said, holding his stomach.

Kiku glanced at him and smiled, "You don't say, Matthew?"

Matthew rolled his eyes, "Hush up, you…"

Feliciano giggled from his spot at the counter, and Matthew couldn't help but glare at him. Feli yipped almost like a Chihuahua and averted his eyes, still smiling widely at his friend. The Asian man joined them on a third stool around the island counter. He paused before sitting.

"Do you guys want to sit under the kotatsu?" he asked.

Feliciano and Matthew looked first at each other and then at Kiku again.

"Quoi?" Matthew asked.

"Yeah, what?" Feliciano asked, a stupid look on his face.

"My mom sent it from Japan last winter… it's like an electronic blanket, but you put over the low tables we have over there… Dad gave me a little table, and Mom sent the kotatsu… it keeps your legs and feet warm…" Kiku added, a little whine in his voice suggesting that he was trying to get them under the kotatsu. In a way, it sounded dirty to Matthew.

"Sure~" Feliciano replied cheerfully.

And Matthew couldn't help but follow his two friends into the dining room, where, low and behold, there was the short table and the electronic blanket Kiku had been talking about.

~*~

Matthew wrapped his hands around the cup he was given and blew on the steam that rose to his nose. His companions did much the same. Talk had been limited until the kettle whistle had gone off, so Matthew relished the distraction. The tea was too hot to drink right that second, but it was good to have something else to do than twiddle his thumbs.

"So… Ludwig, huh?" Feliciano finally asked.

Kiku blushed and nodded, placing the cup delicately on the table as he shifted on the floor.

"It's not bad, Kiki…" Feliciano replied, giving the Japanese man a nickname.

Feli is Rory to Kiku's Lane in our reality… Matthew thought quickly.

"It's just… he's hard to get along with, and he scares me sometimes… maybe because he's my boss and all… but he…" Feliciano didn't want to offend Kiku.

"You'd look cute together," Matthew piped in, saving Feliciano from a potential head explosion.

"We would?" Kiku asked, his body straightening.

"Yeah… You both value cleanliness… and the fact that your tiny compared to Ludwig is really… kind of adorable," Matthew replied, shrugging.

Kiku blushed deeper and blew on his tea for a minute, "I like him because he seems lonely. He had that look when I saw him in the store and I was… attracted to it… Even though he came with his brother he still had that look that he was lonely and wanted… well… he wanted different company, at least…"

Feliciano gasped lightly as Matthew giggled. Gilbert definitely was a handful… and Ludwig needed someone quiet to hang out with…

"Why don't you go for it?" Feliciano asked, "I don't think he's seeing anyone right now… though you never know with how he's easily swayed by Francis…"

"But who could resist the man, Feli? Especially a young Italian named… oh! It's you!" Matthew teased.

It was Feliciano's turn to blush, "Sh-Shut up, Matthew…"

"You like Francis?" Kiku asked, wide-eyed.

Feliciano wouldn't speak to either of them. Matthew nodded at Kiku, "Yup. Head-over-heals in loooove with him…"

"Oh, like you don't like him either?" Feliciano nearly growled.

Matthew glanced at him, "He likes me because I speak French… But… you're cuter than me, so… don't lose hope…" the intuitive young man told his friend.

The grin returned to Feliciano's face, and the feeling of the conversation returned.

"And Matthew's seeing Lovino!" Feliciano told Kiku.

Kiku smiled at Matthew, "Are you? Are you happy together?"

Matthew nodded, "Very."

"But… he asked you out. If it went differently… who would you want to ask out?" Feliciano asked.

Matthew blanched. He was happy with Lovino! But… the question made him think. Lovino had simply been the first to ask Matthew out since the French-Canadian had contracted amnesia… if he had waited… who would he be pining for?

He checked the clock on the wall behind Kiku quite obviously. "Shoot! I've got to get you home before my date with Lovi, Feli…" he said, downing his tea and standing up.

Kiku and Feli stared at him for brief moment before Kiku said, "I'll take Feliciano home."

And Feli smirked and said, "Tell us who you'd pick other than Lovino to date, Mattie~"

Matthew's suddenly pale face turned a dark red in the course of a minute. He thought back to Alfred and Arthur and…

"Alfred…?"

And then he left, leaving Feliciano and Kiku looking at where he had been just moments before, mouth agape and wheels working rapidly in their heads.

~*~

THIS IS THE LONGEST CHAPTER I HAVE EVER WRITTEN EVER. Just wanted to point that out. Anyway.

What is my deal with having Kiku, Feliciano and Matthew as the main friend triangle? Oh... and the Gilmore Boys. Blame my mother. She's the one who pointed out that my stepfather would be male!Lane and thus making me make 'Kiki' male!Lane. And not just because Lane and Kiku are both Asian (total racist non-comment about them, sorry. It just worked in my head!canon).

Also... Matthew thought of Alfred first... it doesn't mean that Matthew actually pines for Alfred. It's vice versa. (But you never know... Matthew could secretly pine for Alfred... there was that kiss...)

Please review this monstrosity. Thank you.

Ciao~

~Anastasie~