AN: You guys don't know how excited I am to write this chapter. I literally dress men for a living, this is the shit I live for.
Matthew knew there was no way to get out of his shopping trip with Francis and Elizaveta. They had already gone through his clothing the night before and donated anything they thought was beyond salvage to charity and he really did not have much left. He managed to save a couple of sweatshirts for sentimental reasons, a pair of well fitting jeans, and two pairs of shorts but other than that he, might as well be naked. He stopped them before they got to his underwear drawer but they insisted that they would be buying him some new pairs as well. Matthew felt like he was on that old TLC show What Not To Wear and was somehow less than enthusiastic.
"Alright, first stop is the hair salon." Francis announced and the stepped into the cab to take them to the city. They weren't too far upstate but the cab ride was still relatively long and uncomfortable.
"What's wrong with my hair?" Matthew grabbed his blonde locks instinctively.
"Do you cut it yourself?" Elizaveta asked.
"No, my mom does." She always offered to take him to the barber shop but he insisted that she did a good enough job.
"Yeah well she could try using something other than a rusty butter knife."
"Well excuse me for not having a pair of diamond crusted whatevers just lying around the house."
"Scissors. The word you are looking for is scissors."
Francis nodded in agreement. "Oui, obviously we need to stop by my mother's store but there are a couple other places I want to stop."
"I really like the menswear selection at Bergdorfs but I saw this Ralph Lauren pullover at Bloomingdales that I think would really suit Matthew." Elizaveta pulled out a list she had made on her phone.
"Speaking of suits we should really get him one. I know he borrowed one last Saturday to go out with Gilbert but he clearly needs a slim fit jacket and that three button look has been out for quite a while."
"Should we get him a grey or a black one?"
"I would think he needs both! Besides you never know when you're going to need a nicely tailored suit and there are so many ways to dress it down if need be."
"Well if we are going to get him some suits we're going to need to get him a couple of ties as well. Bow ties are making a comeback but if he doesn't have at least a couple of long ties in his wardrobe there really isn't any point."
"We need some nice pocket squares for sure. I will stand by them until the day I die."
"No one is arguing with you on that front Francis. What do you think Matthew?"
They both stared at him. If we was being 100 percent honest he had no idea what the past twenty minutes of conversation had even been about. He was still worried about what they were going to do to his hair. "I think all of that sounds really expensive. You don't need to spend all that money on me, really."
"This is a crisis Matthew, I am willing to spare no expense." Elizaveta looked more serious than Matthew had ever seen her and it frightened him a little bit. It appeared there was no getting out of it.
The appointment at the hair salon went better than Matthew expected. They cut off the dead bits and did a nice conditioning treatment but the stylist liked his natural color and he was able to get out of anything too extreme. As they sat in the mens' section of Bergdorfs looking at the different options, he sat and absentmindedly stroked his now silky blonde hair.
"What do you think of these pants Matthew." Elizaveta brought out a light khaki pair of pants that looked a lot like the ones that she had previously grabbed and put away.
"No, these ones are better." Francis showed him an identical pair of pants. Seriously Matthew could not tell the difference, nor did he really care.
"I think like the ones on the left." After about an hour he had learned that it was better to give a definitive response even if he didn't know what he was talking about than leaving it up to them to argue about.
"And what about these jeans. They're Armani." Francis brought out a pair of jeans that looked a lot like a pair they had thrown away.
"That sounds great." Whatever the hell "Armani" was.
"Let's get you a room to try all of this on." Elizaveta flagged down a salesperson to prepare a dressing room.
"I know by now this is sort of a moot point but I was talking to Arthur and he said-" Matthew started but was promptly cut off.
"Oh don't listen Arthur, he knows nothing about fashion." Despite what Francis said, Matthew was sure that he had seen Arthur wearing a sweater vest that was almost identical to one that they had just bought at the previous store.
"Come off it Francis, you just don't like Arthur because he refuses to sleep with you." Elizaveta responded to a question nobody had asked.
"That's completely unfair, there are plenty of people who won't sleep with me whom I get along with just fine. You won't sleep with me but we're great friends."
"We hate each other"
"You may be onto something there, Hedervary."
Listening to the conversation Matthew wondered if the fact that Francis hadn't tried to get him to sleep with him meant anything. Little did he know that Francis had brought it up on a number of occasions only to be shot down by the sheer fact that Matthew had no idea what he was talking about. Still when the shop assistant had the fitting room all prepared he gladly left the other two to bicker amongst themselves.
"They are taking so long, when are they gonna be back." Gilbert lamented as he sat in the music building lounge. Gilbert and Elizaveta had invited all of their friends there for the big reveal of Matthew's new look.
"They already said that they were on there way so it shouldn't be that much longer." Emma had received a text not five minutes ago saying that the three would be back at camp soon.
"This is so fucking dumb I don't see why we even have to do this." Despite Lovino's harsh words, he would have been even angrier if they had neglected to invite him in the first place. Luckily this week Antonio was not in charge of social invitations, although he was hanging around Lovino like a lovesick puppy.
"Because, my sweet little tomato, it is what friends do." Bad pet names aside, despite Lovino's harsh words Antonio could not get enough of the small Italian man.
"He's not my friend!" Lovino shouted. "I don't even know who this kid is"
"Lovi, if you keep it up with your cutting words you won't have any friends at all." Feliciano replied sweetly. It was unclear whether he was trying to be harsh or just didn't see how his words could be taken as such but it got a chuckle out of the people in the room.
"That was stone cold, Feli. Stone cold."
"Liz says they just go to camp." Chelles reported, waving her cell phone in the air as if it were a flag.
"It's about fucking time." Realistically, Gilbert was just upset that he had been left home for the night.
"Wow you're really impatient." Natalia responded to Gilbert's latest complaint. "Can I get you a Xanax so you can calm the fuck down."
"Can I get you a ladder so you can get off my back." Gilbert countered. Before Natalia could respond they heard a noise from outside.
"Why did you invited everyone. This is so embarrassing I'm not going in."
"Come on Matt, everyone is here to see you."
"Don't treat him like a kindergartener. Matthieu, Liz and I spent a lot of money making you look extra good so throw me a bone now will you."
"No comment."
"I appreciate the innuendo but that's not what I meant."
"That's it, if you aren't going in then I'm pushing you in"
"Wait stop-"
Matthew tumbled through the door. Everyone was silenced looking at the transformation. He wore a grey cardigan with a white v-neck underneath with a pair of dark tan trousers and loafers. This in comparison to the ill fitting jeans and sweatshirt he had previously been wearing was quite a difference. He was also red all the way to the tips of his ears.
"Holy hell Francis you did a good job!" Antonio was the first one to speak.
"Wow Matthew, you look hot." Chelles added, causing him to blush even more if that was possible.
"It was a team effort." Elizaveta did not want her contribution to go unnoticed. She may not have been raised by a fashion designer but she knew her way around a department store.
"Well, he looks good!" Feliciano chirped, turning to the tall blonde man beside him. "Don't you agree Ludwig."
"Yeah I guess." Ludwig, who despite being Gilbert's brother, was far less concerned about clothing and parties and the such than the average trust fund baby.
They all began to chatter at once. Everyone except for Gilbert. For once in his life he was at a loss for words. Certainly he thought that Matthew looked good. A lot better actually, you could actually see his face through his hair and he actually had a pretty good looking face. His thin body was very visible under his form fitting clothing. He wasn't used to all the attention but everyone seemed to be really interested in him.
And it made Gilbert unjustifiably angry.
He didn't exactly understand why. Perhaps because Matthew was his new thing to play with and he didn't like people messing with that. Even so, he had never been overly territorial. Just a week ago he wasn't even too fond of him but he didn't have much claim. He didn't even have a monopoly on Matthew's time, why was he so upset about watching all of his friends hang all over him. Something was clearly wrong.
