Whoopie! This got updated much faster than last time!

Also, due to website not allowing to use certain symbols in the story, I had to change up my Text message indicator again. The Text message will now use :[text]: while dialogues from over the phone will be [text]. Past chapters had already been updated with this new symbol. If I missed any, please notify me.

Enjoy the new chapter!

I do not own Hetalia

Chapter 9

Matthew was still in the middle of his shift when he felt a vibration from his pants pocket. He could tell from the type of vibration it was a text message. Alfred was probably texting him nonsense as usual. He'll just check it later.

At first, Matthew ignored his phone, but it was after the tenth vibration that Matthew was starting to get curious. Normally, his older brother would send a few texts of his silly deeds at work, but never this many. Matthew wanted to check if his brother was okay, so he asked Kristy to take over the counter before walking into the kitchen for some privacy. When he looked at his phone, Matthew's eyes grew wide in surprise. There were more than a dozen text messages and they were all from his brother.

:[MATTIE! IT WAS TERRIBLE!]:

Huh?

:[I GOT YELLED AT BY MY BOSS AND IT WASN'T EVEN MY FAULT!]:

Oh, he got in Al.

:[TODAY WAS BBQ ANGUS BURGER DAY AND A STUPID RUSSIAN RUINED IT!]:

:[BBQ ANGUS BURGER MATTIE! BBQ ANGUS!]:

:[DAMN STUPID RUSSIAN!]:

:[HE WAS SO FUCKING CREEPY TOO]:

:[EVEN DANNA WAS SCARED OF HIM]:

:[HE KEPT THREATENING ME AND INSULTING ME]:

:[BASTARD COMMIE]:

:[HE SHOULD GO SUCK A GOAT'S DICK]:

:[HE WAS A MONSTER BUT I WASN'T SCARED AT ALL]:

:[I WANTED TO PUNCH THE SHIT OUT OF HIM SO BAD]:

As Matthew scrolled down, he would find more cussing and angry texts, something about beating this 'Russian' next time Alfred saw him and Matthew prayed that his brother wasn't planning to beat up this man again. His brother's language got more 'colorful' and passionate as Matthew read on. Even at this point, his phone was still vibrating from new messages Alfred was sending.

Concerned, the Canadian called his brother.

Beep… Click!

[MATTIE! HOLY SHIT I'M SO FUCKING PISSED RIGHT NOW!]

Alfred shouted furiously into the phone, causing Matthew to pull his phone away from his poor damaged eardrums.

"You don't say, eh?" Mattie responded sarcastically while keeping the phone three inches away from him.

[A STUPID COMMIE CAME TO THE MUSEUM AND HE WAS THREATENING ME AND INSULTING ME LIKE HE HAD A PERSONAL GRUDGE! HE EVEN INSULT THE MUSEUM AND SAID THAT HIS STUPID RUSSIAN MUSEUM ARE BETTER! IF HE DIDN'T LIKE AMERICAN MUSEUM THEN WHY THE FUCK WAS HE THERE?!…]

"Al, calm down. You just encountered a bad guest. Take a deep breath and let it out slowly," advised Matthew.

Over the phone, he could hear his brother taking a huge breath and blowing it out loudly.

"Have you calmed down yet? Do you need to count to ten, too?"

[I'm… I'm good. I'm still pissed though.] Alfred grumbled.

"I know." Matthew knew Al's temper well. "I know you want to vent right now, but I have work. How about this? After work, we can eat out for dinner. Your choice. Then you can vent to me as much as you want. Sound good, eh?"

[Yeah… Alright… Maybe I should stay away from other people today. I feel like I might blow up if someone looks at me strange.]

"Do that and stay away from any historical artifacts and antiques. You might break them," Matthew added. When Alfred was mad, he had a hard time controlling his strength and tend to break stuff within arm's length.

[Alright, mother hen. I'll stay out of trouble. I'll make sure to keep my ears clean and shirt tucked in too.] Alfred joked. There was a soft chuckle at the end, which meant that Al's mood was getting better.

"Now get to work, young man, or no desserts after dinner for you," Matthew played along and snorted at his bad attempt to make a 'mother's voice.'

There was a loud choking sound from the phone. Most likely, Alfred was trying to hold his laughter.

[Not the dessert! Anything but THAT!] Alfred cried in feigned horror. [Hey, Mattie… Thanks man. You're a great bro to have."

"Always happy to help. Hope the rest of the day goes well for you."

They bid each other farewells and Matthew hung up his phone. He hoped that nothing else will go bad for his brother and wondered what Al will pick for dinner. He prayed it wasn't another burger or pizza place again. If not his brother, then Matthew was going to be the one to get health problems.

By the time Matthew was done with work, Alfred was already waiting for him in front of the cafe.

"You're here early," stated Matthew.

"Yeeeaaahhh… about that…," Alfred looked away nervously.

Matthew knew that look.

"Al, what happened?" Matthew demanded in a calm yet accusing tone.

Alfred didn't look like he wanted to tell him, but after a good half a minute of Matthew staring at him in awkward silence, Alfred caved in.

"I got… suspended from work…," grumbled Alfred, guiltily.

"… You wHAT!?" Matthew cried in shock.

"… For five days…"

"What did you do!?… Does this have anything to do with what happened earlier?"

"Uh huh," confirmed Alfred. "Can we start walking? I already picked a place, so I'll tell you on the way, okay?"

Matthew stared at his brother in disapproval before he gave an exhausting sigh. He swore that his older brother was going to give him an ulcer from all the stress he had put Matthew through.

As the two brothers were walking down the streets, Alfred told Matthew about his incident with the Russian. He recounted how he came upon Danna's predicament with dealing with the creepy foreigner to how he ended up challenging the man to an arm wrestling match, which lead to how he got caught by his boss. His boss was super pissed at what he did, but luckily, Danna stepped in to help explain what happened. She told him about the threats, insults, and provocation that the Russian pulled that caused Alfred's temper to flare up. Though his boss was still mad at Alfred's idiotic stunt and that he should have more self-control, he didn't fire him. He was merciful enough to just suspend him for the next five days. After the lecture, his boss sent him home, but Alfred decided to come to the cafe to wait for his brother instead. Rather than wait inside, he stayed outside because he wanted some time to himself to let his terrible mood to calm down.

Matthew couldn't help but feel both pity and annoyed at his brother. He felt pity for Al because it wasn't him that started the fight and he was clearly provoked by the other person, but that didn't mean Matthew approved of Al's behavior. Alfred should've been more mature about handling the situation and not give in to his temper. He should've been more professional since he was dealing with guests.

Of course, Matthew didn't say this out right to his brother, because he could tell that Alfred already got a good earful from his boss and Matthew didn't want to add to Al's broken pride.

After Alfred was done with telling him of his horrible day, Matthew asked, "So what do you feel today, eh? Where did you pick?"

"I feel like doing something out of the norm so I thought maybe some Asian food or Mexican," thought Alfred. "What do you think?"

"Not sure… Chinese?" suggested Matthew. Thank god it wasn't fast food again.

"Alrighty! I think I remember seeing a few of them in town. I think there was one down here somewhere," Alfred started to look around the street to find a Chinese restaurant.

It wasn't very long until they came upon one down the street. It wasn't one of those fancy and expensive places since there was no way they could afford it, but it was a casual and normal looking restaurant where the menu was catered towards Americans. In other words, a Chinese American fusion restaurant, or not-authentic-Chinese food. The sign above the door said "Panda Love" and had a cute cartoony panda on the side, holding onto a pink heart in its front paws.

"Panda Love? Really?" Matthew stared at the sign suspiciously.

"Yep!" Alfred confirmed. "Heard that this place is pretty good. Especially those duck dumplings and fried noodles."

Matthew still stared at the Panda in disapproval and mumbled under his breath, "Polar bears are much better than pandas."

"You say something?"

"Nothing."

They both walked into the restaurant and got a table booth beside the wall. There were Chinese paintings hanging on the walls and potted bamboos placed in corners of the room. A pair of small lion statues guarding the entrance with a small water fountain between them. There was also a small shrine placed beside the cashier counter with burnt incense sticks sticking out of the ash pot. That would explain the slight smoky smell in the air.

After a waitress took their order, Alfred began chatting with Matthew about what he should do during his suspension period. He was thinking about going to the arcade and movies with Matthew, but the younger brother had to remind him that he still had work. So Alfred had to ponder whether to go spend his five days on his own or just stay home watching rented movies all day.

Just as Alfred was still planning on how to waste time not doing anything productive, a large group of people entered the restaurant. It was a pretty large group and consisted of Asians. Their hair ranged from black to dark brown and some of them had skin tones that were darker than others. Even a few of their clothes had some distinguishable features from one another.

The large number caught the attention of some of the other customers for a few seconds before going back to minding their own business. Even the two brothers took a glance at them curiously.

"Wow, how many are there in that group? Ten? Twenty?" wondered Alfred.

"Maybe they're celebrating something?" guessed Matthew. "Could be a family or friend thing."

At the front of the group, a man with long dark brown hair tied back in a ponytail told a waiter the number of their group. The surprise look on the waiter's face when told the exact number nearly made Alfred spit out his water. The waiter had to get a few of his coworkers to quickly help set up some tables together to accommodate the large group. Fortunately, the place wasn't crowded, so they had enough tables for them. As the group began to sit down, Matthew noticed a familiar figure among them.

"Isn't that Kiku?" Matthew asked.

"Where?" Alfred began to search for the Japanese among the Asians. "Oh hey! You're right! YO KIKU!"

Upon hearing his name being called so loudly, Kiku jolted in surprise and turned to whoever was calling him. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one who turned to look as well.

Matthew wanted to hide under the table when all eyes turned to his brother, who was waving excitedly at the Japanese man. He hoped that his zero presence ability was kicking in right now, because Matthew really didn't want people associating him with this walking megaphone.

"Kiku, you know that man?" the man next to Kiku asked.

"Hai, he's an acquaintance," Kiku answered.

"Who strange white man, aru?" demanded the Asian with the pony tail. "He very loud."

"Excusu me," Kiku got up and walked towards the brothers' table.

"Good to see you, Kiku," greeted Alfred. "You eating with your family or something?"

"Goodu evening, Jones-san. It's nice to meet you too," Kiku greeted back. "And yes, I am with my famiree. What about you? Are you with your brotheru?"

"I'm right here," Matthew called out.

"Ah! I am very sorry! I didn' see you there," Kiku apologized quickly, feeling embarrassed.

"It's alright. It happens a lot with me so I'm used to it," Matthew assured him.

"It's nice to see you again, Williams-san," Kiku bowed politely.

"You can just call me Matthew," The Canadian brother told the Japanese.

"And you can call Alfred or Al, for short," added Alfred. "And dang, Kiku, you have a large family! Must be pretty crowded over there."

"It isu. My famiree can get particuraree loud during our gatherings," admitted Kiku.

"You're not all Japanese, right?" asked Matthew, noticing the slight difference in clothing within the group. "I believe some of them are wearing some kind of Chinese clothes while others seem more south east Asian."

"Hai, I am the onree Japanese," confirmed the man. "My famiree consists of many nationarities around Asia."

"I see," Matthew nodded in understanding.

"Ni hao! Nice to meet you! Are you Kiku's friends, aru?" The Asian with the pony tail popped out from behind Japan without any of them noticing. Like Kiku, This man also had a distinct accent in his speech, but it sounded different from Kiku's Japanese accent.

"Yao-san!" Kiku jumped in surprise.

"Hi! I'm Alfred! Alfred F. Jones at your service," Alfred introduced himself with a friendly wave.

"Good evening. I'm Matthew Williams," Matthew gave the newcomer a friendly smile. "We met Kiku a few times, that's all."

"Wang Yao. His o'der brother," The man patted Kiku's shoulder as indication.

"So you're his brother," stated Matthew. "So you're also Japanese then."

"No no, not Japanese. I am from China," corrected Wang.

This caused the two blonds to stare at each other. Siblings of different nationality? That would explain the different accent. Though not unheard of, but it was still rare to find siblings with different lineage. Not like they can say much since they also both claimed different nationalities among themselves as well. But they were different. They honestly didn't know where they were born since they were too young to remember before Nuna adopted them, but they were sure it was somewhere in North America. They each picked their own country they felt more close to, not where they were born.

"Wait, so Kiku is Japanese and you're Chinese?" Alfred spoke to Wang, confused. "How'd that work?"

"We're not rerated by brood," answered Kiku, calmly. It was as if this wasn't the first time he had to answer this type of question.

That would explain a lot, thought the two blonds.

"Yes and everyone at tab'e…," Wang waved at the other Asians at their table, "… are a'so famee'y not re'ated by b'ood. We are one big famee'y, aru."

"… No kidding," Alfred stared at Wang's and Kiku's family members. "Are they Japanese and Chinese too, eh?"

"… No, we all come from different countries," explained Kiku. "There are Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailando, Macao, Maraysia, Indonesia, and many otheru Asian country."

Both Alfred and Matthew stared at the two Asians in front of them, stumped at the number of nationalities the Japanese listed.

Okay, now this was getting outrageous. How the hell did a family have family members coming from so many different countries?! And consisting of Asians at that! Their family must nuts for diversity to have this many people from so many different Asian nations!

"You have a very… assorted family," Matthew commented.

"More like crazy," Alfred mumbled, which Matthew heard and stomped on his brother's foot under the table, causing Alfred to squeak in pain.

Fortunately, the two Asians didn't hear the last comment, because one of their family members was calling them.

"Kiku! Wang! We will order now so what you want?" asked an Asian man.

"Hold on! 'et me see menu, aru!" called Wang before turning to bow to the two blonds. "Eet nice to meet you, but I must go now. Kiku, hurry back to table, aru."

"Hai, Yao san," Kiku nodded to his Chinese brother before also turning to Alfred and Matthew. "I must go now. It was nice meeting you two again."

"It was nice meeting you and your brother," replied Matthew.

"Yeah, like what my brother here said," agreed Alfred.

So the Japanese man bowed to them before returning to his table. It was not long after that the food that Alfred and Matthew ordered arrived. But before either of them could take a bite, there was aloud angry outburst coming from Kiku's table.

"You call thees CHINESE FOOD?!" Wang yelled in an offended voice. "Very poor EEMEETATION! DEESGRACE!"

The whole restaurant turned and stared at the angry Chinese man, including Alfred and Matthew.

"Ca'm down. You making scene," a man with choppy dark brown hair and an expressionless face next to the Chinese advised with a deadpan tone.

"Of cour'e, he wou'd know best when it come to good or bad 'imitation'," a girl with long brown hair tied in a loose ponytail grumbled to the man next to her.

"Don' mind him, ana. Dhat's how he is," the man replied with a smile. This guy had spiky brown hair and wore a pair of glasses.

"Why do you have kimchee weeth you?" asked another man with a neatly combed black hair and also wore a pair of glasses. He had been watching another man, a short black hair with a flyaway curl, pull out a very large container of kimchi out of nowhere and scooped a large amount of its content with his chopsticks onto his plate.

"Because kimchi is awesome, da-ze!" was all he replied before scooping out a few more large amount of the red pickled cabbage.

"Where you even… never mind," the other man decided to give up asking.

"HOW DARE YOU USE 'PANDA' IN YOUR RESTAURANT NAME WHEN YOU DON'T MAKE PROPER FOOD FROM NATION IT CAME FROM! SHAME ON YOU! SHAME ON YOUR FAMEE'Y! SHAME ON YOUR DOG! SHAME ON YOUR CAT! SHAME ON YOUR CHICKEN!…" Wang kept on shaming loudly while Kiku tried desperately to calm him down and apologized to the waiter and the other customers nearby.

This spectacle caused quite the dilemma for the restaurant's staffs and made the customers nervous. Matthew started to wonder if he could still pretend that he didn't know them. Alfred on the other hand…

"Damn! Let me correct what I said before. They're not crazy, they're insane!"

"Shhh! Don't let them hear you," Matthew hushed his brother.

"I want to join them!"

"ALFRED FRANKLIN JONES, DON'T YOU DARE!"

For the next twenty or thirty minutes, Matthew was able to keep Alfred at the table and finish their food. While Alfred finished up his orange chicken and fried noodle, his eyes kept darting towards the same loud crowd of Asians and he wasn't the only one.

Even after they got their food, Kiku's family was still loud and lively afterwards. Wang was still fuming about the authenticity of the dishes and about disrespecting pandas. Kiku was busy taking pictures of the food with his phone. There was a girl, who had three white flowers placed on the left side of her long wavy dark brown hair, chatting loudly and laughing hysterically at her own jokes. Two men started 'politely' arguing over the last piece of barbecue pork. No, they weren't fighting over it, but they were trying to let the other person have it and being stubbornly considerate about it while keeping a polite smile on their faces. The man, that Alfred dubbed 'The Kimchi guy', was already more than half way down his kimchi jar, but a second jar was already brought out from who-knows-where in case he finished his first one.

While Matthew went to pay for their meal at the cashier, Alfred slipped away and snuck to talk to Kiku.

"Hey, Kiku!" Alfred called from behind the Japanese man.

The said Japanese turned around and gave the American a curious look.

"So me and Mattie are done and leaving now so I came to say good bye," told Alfred. "I also have something I wanna ask you too."

"Hai? What isu it, Jones-san?" asked Kiku.

"Do you know any Russian guy name Ivan Bragy-something?" whispered Alfred.

"Ivan Braginsky?"

"Yeah! You know him? Is he your colleague too? Like does he work in the same field as you and the other guys?"

"Hai…," the Japanese nodded slowly in confirmation.

"God damn it! So he really was telling the truth," Alfred cursed under his breath.

"Did you… meet him?" Kiku suddenly turned slightly pale and sounded concern.

"Yeah. He came to the museum I work at," Alfred explained, not noticing the nervous look the Japanese was showing. "He wanted to join the tour, but he was being kinda… suspicious so I tried to decline but the guy wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. He said he knew you guys too so I just wanna make sure he wasn't anyone—well, suspicious."

"Did he do anything to you?" Kiku inquired worriedly.

"Uh… he kinda threatened me and insulted my workplace, but nothing really physical." There was that arm wrestling, but Alfred didn't feel like telling him that. He didn't want the Japanese man to think he was immature and unprofessional. Not to mention, he was still sore about being suspended by his boss.

"So he didn't harm you? That's good," Kiku sighed in relief.

Wait… was he implying that the Russian was normally violent? Alfred stared at the Japanese in disbelief.

"Did you… agree to his demands?" Kiku asked, sounding both concern and nervous.

"No…not yet," Alfred answered with uncertainty. "I just wanted to make sure he wasn't anyone dangerous and he is what he said he is before I agree to let him join. So you cool with him joining?"

"I… ret me talk with the others first and we will ret you know," told Kiku.

"Okay, that's fine," agreed Alfred.

Over at the cashier, Matthew just finished paying and went to get his brother. But on the way, one of the Asians with the expressionless face walked passed him and went to the cashier, asking to pay half the bill for his table.

Just as Matthew bid the Japanese farewell and grabbed his brother, Wang asked for the tab. The next thing the two brothers knew, almost the whole table started fighting over the tab. It was both a baffling and amusing moment for the two blonds. Wang claimed that he should pay the bill since he was the oldest, but others kept trying to either steal the receipt or shove their money or credit card into the waiter's hand, ordering him to quickly take the money and pay the bill. The poor waiter looked dumbfounded, not sure if there was a proper procedure for this kind of situation.

"Man! I wished we had someone aggressively fighting to pay our bills like that," Alfred thought with envy.

Matthew quickly dragged his brother out of the restaurant as fast as possible, away from the crazy group of Asians.

"That was like the funniest dinner I ever had! Those guys were freaking hilarious!" Alfred cackled, nearly choking himself.

"It was definitely… out of the ordinary, eh?" agreed Matthew.

The two brothers were walking down the quiet street towards their apartment. It was already dark and most people were already indoors. There were lights from lamp posts and store signs illuminating their path so they were able to see where they were going.

"I wonder if I should invite Kiku's whole family to the tour too. It would make the tour a whole lot more fun," thought Alfred.

Matthew stared at his brother and wondered what kind of a mayhem was his brother planning now. It was even more worrisome when he caused chaos without meaning too. His definition of fun can be questionable.

"That does remind me though… I still haven't really decided on what to do for the next five days?" wondered Alfred.

"Rent some movies or videogames," suggested Matthew. "Or maybe walk around town and just explore?"

"I already explored the town a few times, so I know enough about what stores are where," stated the American. "But I don't want to be stuck at home the whole time so maybe I'll switch around my activities. Might as well work out a little more at the park. I feel like I've been slacking off lately."

"Yes, you do need those exercises," Matthew agreed completely. "You need to burn all the calories from all that junk food you consumed on a regular basis. I'm still surprised you haven't gotten a heart attack or at least become obese, especially with that ridiculous amount you tend to eat."

"Hey! I eat healthy too!" Alfred retorted, offended. "I have lettuce and tomatoes in my burgers and a few vegetable toppings on my pizzas too."

"That's not enough," argued the Canadian. "You need more vegetables like salad and less greasy and fattening stuff like fast food."

"Are you trying to starve me, bro?!" Alfred stared at Matthew as if he just suggested something sacrilege.

Before Matthew could reply to his brother's childish accusation, he heard the faint sound of footsteps. He thought there were only him and his brother that were still out on the streets. Seemed like there were still people wandering about at this time. He turned around out of instinct, trying to find where that sound was coming from. But when he turned, he saw nobody in sight. Not even a shadow of a figure. The sound of footsteps had already stopped so Matthew couldn't pinpoint where it came from anymore.

Was he just imagining it?

"Hey, you alright, man?" asked Alfred, noticing his little brother's behavior.

"Uh… no, I'm fine," assured Matthew. "Just thought I heard something."

Hearing this, Alfred started to look around. But when he saw no one, he turned pale and asked nervously, "You sure? It not a ghost right? This street better not be haunted."

"Al, seriously?" Matthew gave his brother a deadpanned look. "It was probably someone walking nearby and I just missed them. Besides, I never heard of any haunted streets in this town. You're just scaring yourself with your own imagination."

Alfred wasn't convinced and still looked around nervously as if expecting something to jump out and ambush them. He had the strength that surpassed any human was capable of, but he was terrified of ghosts. Alfred would just argue that he could punch anything that was solid enough, but ghost wasn't one of them. Yet, this idiot loved watching horror movies for some reason.

"Let's just get home, eh?" Matthew sighed, not wanting to deal with anymore… 'excitement.'

"… Okay," Alfred agreed, though still looking around warily. Suddenly, he grabbed Matthew's arm.

"Al?"

"If something happens, I can protect you."

"Protect me?" Matthew stared at his brother, dumbfounded. That's when he felt Alfred's hand shaking and realized his brother's true intention. This cocky loudmouth had scared himself with his wild idea of a haunted street and was seeking comfort from his only companion, his younger brother. "Alright. Whatever makes you feel better, eh."

With the older sticking close to his younger brother, the two immortals walked down their path. Matthew swore he should ban any horror movies until Alfred grew back his backbone again. Sometimes, Matthew wondered who was the older one now.

Thank you for reading and please leave a feedback or comment.

Thanks to rainsonata for proofreading

Can anyone guess which Asian is which nation? I tried my best to use their appearance, personality, and accent as hints.

Being a Thai American with a Thai Chinese family that used to live in Thailand for 6 years, I have a good idea of certain Asian stereotypes. The most commonly known, the adults or host are the ones that pay for the meal during family gatherings. But in Thailand, it gets more... dramatic. Lots of times during my family gatherings, the adults will fight over the bill, even if they aren't the host or oldest one. Anyone with money and a paying job will try to claim the bill, even if it means shoving money into the waiter's hand or sneaking to the cashier, claiming to go to the bathroom. Sometimes, it even gets into a small argument. I started to make it into a game and bet who's gonna get the bill every time my family has a family gathering. Heck! It doesn't even have to be a family gathering. It even happens during hang out with friends. My mom invited a friend for lunch and she was going to pay for it, but then her friend took out her credit card before my mom could and paid for the whole meal. My mom felt so bad because she ordered a lot of stuff while her friend ordered just one noodle bowl, so she ordered her friend that she(my mom) was paying next meal.

My proofreader, rainsonata is Vietnamese American, so she gave me some interesting info on vietnamese people. She told me that some Vietnamese still hold a grudge against China for messing up their culture when they took over their country. One of the reason why their language consists of European letters and not Chinese like other Chinese conquered nation was due to them wanting to have nothing to do with China (and to spite them, according to my sources). Don't know how accurate this is, but if it's coming from a Vietnamese so it has to have some credibility. (Lots of Thai people also don't like China Chinese tourists too due to their terrible behavior in Thailand. Even my mom despise them. She has so many stories she would tell me of terrible Chinese tourists.)