"Alfred!"

Arthur waves to the incoming blonde, and Mathew smiles and waves too. Alfred, in return, beams back and throws himself into the booth next to Mathew, shoving himself a little too closely against Mathew, and Mathew elbows him to make him shift over, which Alfred does with a fake pout.

"Yo, Mattie! 'Sup Artie!"

Arthur frowns at Alfred's use of a nickname, muttering "Don't call me that." but it's all an act, and Mathew can read the small smile twitching on the corner oof Arthur's mouth and the twinkle in his eyes, and Alfred isn't fooled either.

"Awww, you love me!" He immediately stiffens and throws an anxious glance at Mathew as he clarifies "Not romantically, but like a brother, I mean."

"More like a bother."

Arthur smoothly plays along, and Mathew grins as he decides not to tell either of them that he isn't worried about that sort of thing anymore. It's obvious that Alfred doesn't love Arthur, and though he's still learning to pick out the moments, Mathew knows that it's him Arthur loves, not Alfred. Arthur's eyes play over Mathew just for a minute, and Mathew catches another of those moments, the gentleness in his eyes, and there's a sort of satisfaction in this feeling.

Alfred makes a bad joke and laughs at himself while Arthur scoffs, and Mathew laughs too. Not long ago Mathew would never have agreed to meet up with Alfred, especially if Arthur was there, but that's changed. Mathew remembers Alfred's broken voice making a heartbreaking request.

"Then.. can I have my brother back?"

It had always been Mathew who pushed Alfred away for his own selfish reasons, and it had always been Alfred trying to reach back out to Mathew, even to the end. It had been Alfred who asked to get his brother back, but Matthew's struck with the realization that Alfred wasn't the only one who lost a brother, and Mathew didn't even realize what he was missing until now. For the first time since he was little, he feels like he's got his brother back, and it's both a great feeling and a foreboding feeling of things to come as Alfred reaches for some of Matthew's fries. Mathew slaps Alfred's hand away and Alfred gives him a fake wounded look and takes some fries anyways. Arthur watches with a quirk to his lips as though he's on the edge of a smile, but doesn't say anything.

It's Alfred who brings up the common frenemy for those at the table.

"So, Mattie," Alfred tries to sound casual but doesn't quite succeed, "have you talked to Francis yet?"

Arthur stiffens and looked like he'd like to rechristen Francis as something more unsavory, but since he always looks like that when Francis is mentioned, Mathew ignores it, just like he's ignoring the flopping in his stomach at Alfred's words.

"Sorta."

He doesn't want to tell Alfred about his last altercation with Francis, or admit to being the reason for his black eye. Alfred frowns at him.

"Whattaya mean 'Sorta'? Did ya or not?"

Matthew's tempted to say something a little more than unfair to Alfred, but reminds himself he's only just gotten his brother back. Still, that doesn't stop Mathew from scowling deeply as he confesses.

"I did. A little."

Despite Matthew's short explanation, Alfred nods like he understands, which irritates Mathew. Ever since that day it's been rubbed in his face time and time again how different he and his twin are, and rather than believing Alfred will understand how he feels, Matthew's sure that Alfred has no idea how he feels, and probably has the completely wrong idea. Alfred proves him wrong with his next casual words, slurping his soda in-between words.

"Ah." Slurp. "That why he's got a panda eye?"

Despite himself, Mathew flinches, remembering.

"Désolé. I was scared. I though you wouldn't want to see me. I thought you would be 'appier with Art'ur and Alfred. He had more than I could give you. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I... I am not as capable as I once was. I was poorer, and I wasn't good enough-"

Mathew won't let Francis spout excuses any longer, and each word is stirring the fury in the malicious thing in his chest, an ache that's spent years festering.

"Who gave you the right?"

Matthew's quiet malicious anger is making itself known, and Mathew knows how to hit where it hurts.

"Who are you to decide what makes me happy? Did you ever ask? No, you just decided for yourself. Admit it, Francis, you weren't worried about what made me happy, you were worried about yourself."

His words are cruel and sharp, but Mathew knows they're right by the way Francis brings his hands together, like he's about to pray, the way his shoulders curl in and he stutters over his words. Mathew hasn't spoken to Francis in years, but he's been watching him every chance he gets, and he knows Francis's tells. He delivers the final blow with the pain he feels in his heart when he thinks about it.

"If it was for me, then why didn't you ever talk to me? I'd have given anything to talk to again. So you know how much it hurt, to see you talk to Arthur, to Alfred, but never me? Do you even know?"

At some point Matthew's voice has cracked, but he doesn't care, he's trying not to let his anger push him a step too far, to say something he doesn't mean and break everything beyond fixing. It hurts, to know that Francis tossed him aside and forgot him. It hurt to see how Francis chatted and fought with Arthur, to hear Arthur talk about the advice he'd gotten, or the stupid thing Francis had said. It hurt to see Alfred grab Francis's neck with the crook of his arm and haul him off for a drink, or to see them laugh and talk together across the room.

It hurt when Mathew made his way towards Francis only for the Frenchman to disappear into the crowd when he got close, seemingly not hearing Matthew's voice.

Francis doesn't do anything but shakes his head and repeat his apology.

"I was scared. Désolé, I'm sorry."

Mathew takes after his brother in the fact they're both quick to anger, and he moves before he thinks the action through.

Mathew feels a little guilty at the memory, feeling both childish and mean for his action, and grateful that Alfred hadn't punched him in the face when he apologized, although, Mathew mused, it could have simply been that Alfred had already gotten it out of his system earlier that day. Matthew's always been a quick healer, and his black eye is already a faded Green and yellow, while Alfred's spit lip is still un healed, due, in part, to Alfred's contact re-splitting it with ear-to-ear beams.

Arthur is watching Mathew with a mixture of what Mathew identifies as pride and perhaps awe, and for a moment he worries Arthur is taking notes and planning on doing the same to Francis's other eye, but then Arthur flashes his smile that tells of inside jokes to Mathew, and Mathew forgets his concerns in favour of the fluster of butterflies in his stomach stemming from the knowledge that this smile is meant for him , and no one else.

Alfred makes a gagging noise at the living air the new couple produces. Mathew snorts with laughter before he can stop himself, and surprisingly, Alfred lets the matter about Francis drops. Mathew wonders if his twin is being considerate, or if Alfred somehow knows that, despite Francis's new black eye, things are better than before between them. Mathew thinks thst even arguments and fights are better than the silence before. After all, you can't fight with someone you never see, and you cant disagree with someone you never talk to.

Mathew wonders if his own black eye and bruised knuckles are a sign of a change in his relationships, both with Alfrd and Francis. Somehow, Mathew thinks things will get better with them both.

Arthur is Bickering with Alfred and again, and Alfred is Bickering right back, but their closeness isn't bothering Mathew like it used too. The flirting and love he used to see before is showing clearer now, and Mathew can't see anything other than brothers squabbling across the table. That is until Arthur reaches out a hand to touch Alfred's shoulder, and Mathew stiffened despite his best efforts. He doesn't want to be toxic, Matthew's sick of his previous behaviour, but old habits die hard, and Mathew tries to play off his reaction with an awkward shrug and half smile.

Arthur hesitates, but Alfred doesn't seem to have that word in his dictionary. Mathew knows what's coming as soon as he sees his Brother's shit-eating grin, but at this point it's too late to stop it.

"Aww," Alfred croons in the most condescending way he can muster, scooting really close to Mathew until he's squishing him against the wall of the booth, delighted with his own harassment, "Is Mattie jealous?"

Mathewopens his mouth to respond, though he's not sure if he's going to deny it or confirm it, while Arthur looks mortified on the other side of the table. Alfred is deviously pleased to tease Mathew.

"Mattie is ~jelly~! He's a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! Jelly, jelly, jealous!"

Maybe it's because of Alfred's carefree,yet somehow incredibly annoying teasing, or the uncomfortable way that Arthur adverts his eyes like he's not sure if Mathew really cares enough to be jealous, or maybe, it's just to prove to himself that Arthur cares, thst makes Mathew blurt out his confession despite his flushed face.

"Yeah, I'm jealous, because.. Because Arthur's mine and I.."

Mathew feels too ashamed of his own childishness to finish, and Arthur is turning an interesting shade of red himself, and Alfred, looking back and forth between Mathew and Arthur, smirks even more. Still, Arthur bravely attempts to return the sentiment.

"I.. I'll get jealous too, you know if... If you k...keep juat paying attention to other guys!"

Arthur's stuttered reply is so un-Arthur and also so very Arthur that Mathew wants to laugh and cry and kis Arthur right then and there, but that wouldn't be a good idea, because they're in public, and Alfred's watching, and Matthew's not that shameless - but Mathew almost thinks that Arthur is looking the same way, and Alfred suddenly looks disgusted, leaping to his feet and makeing a half-hearted mumbled excuse that none of them are really listening too, before makeing a beeline to the bathroom.

Mathew switches sides of the booth so he's on Arthur's side now, and it's all over in a minute, but also laughs forever, and Arthur's lips are dryer than he expected, and he's sure he tastes like fries, but somehow their kiss is still more perfect than Matthew's ever imagined.

By the time Alfred returns, suspiciously loudly, as though to make sure they knew he was coming, Matthew's back in his seat, fingers playing of his lips, and both he and Arthur are cheery-red and not meeting each other's eyes, and Alfred gives them both a look of such deep disgust that Mathew bursts out laughing, then Arthur does too, and suddenly, all three are laughing and they don't even know why, but all Mathew knows is that everything suddenly feels better.

Mathew doesn't realize that his inferiority complex towards his twin has completely melted away until Alfred mentions that his is gone first. Francis never mentions his inferiority complex towards Arthur, nor does Arthur mention when he and Francis start getting along better, somehow Bickering less, though he couldn't quite say less. Arthur also doesn't mention how he feels light years away from the insecure and manipulative man he used to be thst hurt everyone around him.

No one notices at all when their inferiority complexes all fade away bit by bit.


*end*