pro-tip: work on fanfiction at work and it's like you're paid to write fanfiction!
also friendly reminder Elizabeta = Hungary & Vladimir = Romania
and i only know so much about football so please don't kill me
Thanksgiving was uneventful. Lukas and Emil had a nice dinner alone, the two making homemade pizza. It was a tradition since neither had the cooking skills to make a turkey, but pizza was pretty easy. It would take skill to fuck that up when the directions are on the package of pizza dough.
"What are you thankful for this year little brother?" Lukas asked.
"Acceptance." Emil said, his brother rolled his eyes.
"To gay brothers." Lukas said raising his glass of wine. Emil did the same with his, being a holiday he was allowed a glass of alcohol, and they tapped them together. The rest of the night was quiet and much like any other night. Holidays were no special occasion for the two.
Unfortunately Mathias had to return early to Minnesota. An impending snow storm for saturday had potential to cancel his flight so he had to catch one on friday, not wanting to miss his game on sunday. So once more Lukas found himself on Arthur's couch Sunday afternoon as the trio watched the Vikings game on tv, the snow blowing as heavily outside as it was on the tv.
"What's worse, midwest winter or new england winter?" Alfred asked.
"I wouldn't know, I haven't ventured much out of New England," Arthur replied. "Nor has Lukas."
"I"ll ask Matt if he knows." Alfred grabbed his phone to send a text.
"What about Canadian winters? Doesn't your brother live in Ottawa?" Lukas asked.
"That's true too. We're gonna have to have a winter-bro-off between Canada, Minnesota, and here."
"Whatever you say dear." Arthur said, waving his hand.
"We're gonna fly to Antarctica, stand dead ass naked and the first one to freeze a nipple off loses." Alfred said, laughing so hard he started coughing.
"You're forgetting that it's tradition when one becomes a Canadian citizen, they cut off your nipples already, therefore your contest won't work." Lukas said with a soft chuckle. Alfred let out another loud laugh.
"I forget how funny you can be sometimes dude. You really need to let that humor show."
"I don't know how long this snow will last, but we're going to have to shovel eventually before it turns to ice." Arthur was looking out the window. Living in a duplex, they had to take care of half the yard and half the driveway.
"We'll do it later, the game is on." Alfred pulled the other on his lap and turned back to the tv. The game was currently tied, the vikings with the ball. There were 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter and it was a third down on the 20 yard line.
"-the ball is flying in the air and it is caught by number 47 Køhler! He's running, look at that man go! That's his soccer skills coming into play Bob. He's passing the ten yard line! Nobody is even close to him!"
"Go Matt GO!" Alfred yelled, jumping up. Even Lukas was sitting up now.
"And TOUCHDOWN FOR THE VIKINGS!" The camera panned over to where Mathias had jumped into the crowd behind the endzone, everyone grabbing onto him, just trying to touch the athlete. His smile showed from behind his helmet, his pride shining, knowing he's just won them the game.
"That's your man Lukas." Alfred said. The norwegian rolled his eyes and slumped back onto the couch. The tv went back to the announcers who were talking about what a spectacular game Bob, I haven't seen a play like that since Brett Favre in…
The next few weeks were pretty bland, despite leading up to Christmas. Lukas went to work, went home, then spent Sunday afternoons at Arthur and Alfred's.
"Thank you for calling First Star Dental, my name is Lukas how can I help you today?" Lukas said into the headset one morning at work.
"Hello I need to make an appointment for m'fiance. He broke his tooth." said a man on the other line, his voice deep.
"Is he an existing patient?" Lukas replied.
"No. His name is Tino Vainamoinen." Lukas recognized the name as Mathias' cousin.
"Can you spell that?" Berwald spelled it for him and Lukas put it down along with the other information he gave him such as birth date and how to care for the tooth.
"We'll see you in here at 3." Lukas said, then hung up. He hadn't heard Berwald talk before, but his voice was about what you expected, minus the heavy swedish accent.
However what Lukas didn't expect was around three for Mathias to come walking in with a clearly upset Tino. The taller man's face lit up when he saw Lukas though.
"Oh man of all the dentist in the city you work at this one!" Mathias said, clearly excited.
"Hello Mathias." Lukas said, trying to remain professional. "I'll need you to fill out some paperwork and the dentist will be with you shortly."
He handed over a clipboard and pen to Tino and the two sat down. Mathias kept looking over while the other filled out the paperwork and Lukas tried not to let it distract him from his work. When Tino was done, Mathias brought the clipboard back up himself.
"So… did you see that game I won last month?" He asked Lukas, who answered with a simple mhm.
"Tino." The dental assistant called out and the man walked back with her leaving Lukas and Mathias the only two in the lobby.
"So… this looks like a boring job." Mathias said.
"It's not bad."
"It's pretty dead in here. What do you do to keep yourself entertained?" Mathias peered over the desk at the computer, trying to see what he was doing. Lukas turned it away from him.
"There's plenty to do. I have both digital and physical files to organize, and usually we are a lot more busy but being so close to Christmas, not many people want dental work done."
"Do you get sick of the talk shows?" Mathias asked, referring to the tv across from the desk.
"I hardly pay attention to it. It's the music that gets me." The phone rang. "Thank you for calling First Star Dental, my name is Lukas how can I help you?"
Lukas listened to the other person while Mathias played with the pens on the desk… then with the stapler on the desk… then with the paperclips… until Lukas smacked his hand away.
"No sir we are closed on Christmas Eve. Yes and Christmas day. Yes. Okay… okay.. Goodbye." He hung up the phone.
"No appointment?" Mathias asked.
"They wanted to know if we were going to be open during Christmas in case their wife's cooking made their teeth fall out."
"A bit early to be drinking." This made Lukas let out a soft laugh.
"So how exactly did Tino break his tooth? Berwald didn't explain too clearly." Lukas asked.
"Oh man… he was trying to open a can of maraschino cherries and got very frustrated because he couldn't. Apparently he has a short temper. So he tried to use his teeth to open the jar, I don't know how. It wasn't the brightest thing he's done, and Berwald blames himself for not being there to open it."
"Well it looked like an easy fix, he'll be fine." Lukas watched Mathias absentmindedly play with the pens again, his blue eyes looking up to meet the others.
"Say Lukas, wanna grab dinner tonight?" he asked. Lukas' eyebrows shot up.
"I...what? Uhm.. sure." He stuttered out.
"Awesome. I'll text Alfred and see if they wanna come too." Lukas felt his heart drop. Of course he wasn't asking him on a date, why would he? Mathias picked up his phone and started typing away and Lukas turned back to his work.
"So I'm feeling chinese, does that work for you?" Mathias asked. Lukas nodded, not turning away from his computer. He really had to type out these requests. Mathias listed a few places from off his phone and Lukas half listened, but he couldn't shake the disappointment.
Tino then came out and Lukas set up a follow up appointment plus a routine cleaning since it had been awhile since he had one. Before leaving Mathias wrote down the place and time they were supposed to meet, along with his phone number. After he left one of the dental assistants, Elizabeta, came up.
"What a nice looking man." She said. "You're lucky, he seemed into you."
"He's a friend of mine." Lukas replied.
"Friend or not, he was interested in you." She leaned on the desk. "You're into him?"
"I'm not." He replied.
"You are. You're a bad liar Lukas and you know it. What was on the note?"
"We're getting dinner, with our two other friends." he said, adding emphasis on the second part.
"Double date." she said with a laugh. Lukas sighed.
"You have an appointment in thirteen minutes for a filling, better get ready."
"Shit. You should ask him out though. He's obviously into you." Elizabeta said, walking away towards the rooms. There was no way she was right. If Mathias liked Lukas then he wouldn't have asked Alfred and Arthur to join them tonight for dinner. Elizabeta had been wrong before. She said Lukas and their old receptionist Vladimir would be a good couple, but that man was stuck in a twilight phase that wouldn't go away.
No, once again Elizabeta was wrong. Mathias definitely didn't like Lukas.