AUTHOR: Maybell Lyric

20th of December, 2014

Mathew was lost. Seriously, hopelessly lost.

After he had finished browsing the souvenir shops of central London, he tried to return to his hotel but couldn't find it. He retraced his steps over and over again, but only ended up walking in circles.

Great, it's only my first day in London and I'm already getting lost. I'd better go ask for directions.

It was getting late, and not many people were outside. A couple of tough-looking guys were sitting on the steps to a building and didn't look like they wanted to talk. A group of middle-aged women were too engrossed in conversation to notice him as they walked by. After a while, he spotted a pair of Asians walking ahead of him. He trailed behind them, not wanting to approach them too quickly but not wanting to lose them either. They walked into a building, and he followed them.

It turned out to be a small hotel. For a moment Matthew considered asking the receptionist for directions, but as soon as he stepped inside, a group of people hanging around the counter turned to look at him with stern stares. Wringing his hands, Matthew turned and hurried after the pair of Asians as they swiped in through a door. But they were soon far ahead of him, and he figured it'd be better to give up chasing them and ask the receptionist for help after all.

Matthew made his way back into the reception room. Ignoring the stares he was receiving, he tried to make eye contact with the receptionist alone. "Excuse me," he said weakly.

The man behind the reception desk glanced up at Matthew with piercing green eyes. Swallowing his nervousness, Matthew spoke a little louder. "Excuse me, could you tell me how to get to the…"

"Are you staying here?" the green-eyed man interrupted him.

"Well. no. Actually I'm from a different hotel, and I…"

"If you're not staying here, what were you doing in there? I saw you come out of there." The man indicated the door in the side of the room.

"I was actually trying to…"

"Did you take anything?"

"What? No!"

The green-eyed man had made his way around the reception desk and was now confronting Matthew in a one-on-one battle-like formation while onlookers continued to stare. The man's stance radiated pure hostility. Matthew took an unconscious step back.

"Let me see your identification."

"Uh, okay, here's my passport." Matthew pulled out a passport and nervously handed it to the man, who opened it up and placed it under a scanner.

When he was done, the man handed it back and said, "If anyone reports anything missing, I'll be investigating you. You can't waltz into places where you don't belong. You can't do it in England, and you can't do it in America. In fact, you'd be shot if you did that in America."

That's not true! Or at least I hope it isn't, Matthew thought, and he realized too late that he had given the man Alfred's passport by accident. "I'm sorry," he said, in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Get out and don't come back."

"Eh?"

"Go now, before I call the police."

"Uh, okay."

And Matthew rigidly walked back outside, wandering around dazedly for a while before he finally stumbled upon his hotel.

Alfred's first impulse after hearing what happened was to go back there and give the receptionist a piece of his mind. Matthew spent over two hours trying to talk him out of it.

"It wasn't his fault," said Matthew. "I did something stupid and he was only doing his job."

"He had no right to treat you like that!" Alfred shouted angrily. "You want to just leave it like this? Pretend it never happened and move on?"

"Yes," Matthew said simply.

"Dude, I can't believe we're related."

Then Matthew had an idea. "You know, there is something you can do to make me feel better about myself…"

The next day, Alfred determinedly walked over to the small hotel from before and strolled straight up to the reception desk.

The man behind the desk had ridiculously messy blonde hair and bushy eyebrows. Plus, he was actually shorter than Alfred, which meant that he was shorter than Matthew too. This guy wasn't half as scary as Matthew made him out to be, Alfred thought.

The man looked up to greet his guest, but scowled when he saw whom it was. "You! I told you not to come back," he said.

Alfred's expression was blank as he contemplated what he was about to do. Then, from behind his back, he produced a bouquet of flowers and held it out at arm's length. Breaking into a wide smile, he said, "Hey, I'm sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean to cause any trouble. I was actually trying to ask somebody for directions, but I wasn't really thinking straight when I followed them into your hotel. It was stupid, I know, and you were right to chew me out for it. It won't happen again, so will you forgive me?"

The man stared at the bouquet silently for a second. "Is this some kind of joke?"

"No no! I actually really am sorry."

"I'm not taking your picture out of the records, if that's what you're aiming for."

"That's fine, I wasn't expecting you to."

There was another moment of silence. Slowly, carefully, the man accepted the bouquet. A trace of a smile appeared on his lips. "You're a peculiar sort of fellow. What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"

For a moment Alfred considered saying his brother's name, when he remembered whose passport had been put in the records. "Alfred," he said. "And yours?"

"Arthur."

"How'd it go?" Matthew asked after Alfred got back.

"Pretty good," Alfred said. "Actually, pretty great. You see, one thing led to another, and now I have a date…"

A/N: Partially based on a true story. Everything that happened to Matthew in the beginning happened to me while I was in London. I was slightly traumatized because I wasn't used to this sort of treatment, but putting it in writing and adding some USUK makes me feel a whole lot better.