Emil was in the process of picking domino's off the daycare floor when he overheard one of the kids giving Alfred the first degree.

"What's your name?"

"Alfred."

"How old are you?"

"19."

"Oh, well my big brother is 20. He's older than you."

"Yup."

"What's your favorite color?"

"Red white and blue."

"You have to pick one."

"Why?"

"Cus you just do."

That was the point when Emil decided to jump in and save the poor man. He knew this drill. Kids could keep going like this for hours if no one stopped them.

"He can have three favorite colors if he wants to Aurel."

"Fine..." the little boy pouted,before turning back to Alfred, "so what's your favorite number?"

"50."

"Favorite animal?"

"Banana slugs."

Aurel continued to grill Alfred for a good 8 minutes, despite Emil's best efforts. By the time he was done both men were ready to tape the child's mouth shut, but of course they weren't allowed to do that.

"Ugh," Alfred sighed once Aurel had finally finished his questioning and left, "That's the third kid to do that to me today."

"Don't worry," Emil said, "They'll stop after about two weeks."

Alfred laughed, "Oh man, I don't think I can make it that long."

"Go play with the five year olds then," Emil countered, "They won't ask questions, they just want you to pick them up."

"Like for a hug?"

"Nah," Emil chuckled, "not hugs. I'll show you what I mean."

He scanned the room for a minute before deciding on a kid to play with and calling them over.

"Hey Feliciano," he said, "do you want to get picked up?"

The little boy squealed in delight and nodded his head before running over and latching onto Emil's arm.

Emil laughed before proceeding to lift the little boy up into the air like he was doing reps. Feliciano giggled in delight just like all the other kids did at this age.

Emil would have kept lifting the kid, but of course it only took about two and a half reps for Alfred to but in and comment on the situation.

"Do you even lift bruh?"

Emil almost dropped Feliciano on the ground from embarrassment.

"Excuse you?"

"Sorry," Alfred chuckled, "It's just kind of funny watching a tiny person like you try to pick up a kid like that. I guess I wasn't expecting it."

Emil set Feliciano back on the ground before turning to the blond with a huff.

"I'm not tiny."

"Yeah sure," Alfred scoffed, "and I'm a heterosexual."

"Children are tiny!" Emil argued, "I'm medium height!"

"Is that why you work at a daycare then?" Alfred questioned,"Because being around kids makes you feel tall?"

"No…" Emil grumbled, "Or I mean, at least that's not the only reason. I enjoy working with kids too."

Alfred burst out laughing right then and there.

"Oh my god, I can't believe you! I was making a joke. That's funny as all hell!"

"Yeah, yeah. Make fun of me if you want to, but at least I'm not absolutely giant like you are."

"Hey, don't knock it till you try it," Alfred said with a wink, "Living on an isolated mountain top and eating wayward humans is a lot more fun than people make it out to be."

Later that evening, after the kids had all gone home and they were cleaning up for the day, Emil found himself cleaning up the barbies alongside Alfred.

"Who knew a bunch of dolls could need so many shoes," Alfred commented as he dug yet another pinky sized stiletto heel out of the fringe carpeting, "I mean seriously, this is ridiculous."

"Yeah well, you get used to it," Emil replied, not taking much interest in the conversation.

"Yeah, well I bet I could get used to you too," Alfred smirked.

Emil stopped in the middle of attaching a barbie head to its designated body and looked up at the man across from him with wide eyes. Was… was Alfred hitting on him? He thought, because if he was then goddamn was that smooth.

Emil himself however, had never been especially great at flirting. So instead of trying to reply with something equally smooth, he instead opted for croaking out the first stupid thing that came to mind.

"What?"

Alfred's smirk turned into a soft, nervous smile.

"Uh, okay, maybe the normal flirty stuff doesn't work for you. Let me think… um, Emil I really like you and I was wondering if you wanted to go out for coffee or dinner or something sometime."

Despite Alfred's obvious come on just a few seconds ago Emil was still quite taken aback by the man's request and it showed in his sputtering response.

"Like-like a date? But Alfred we've on known each other for a week."

"I know," Alfred said, "But listen Emil, I have a lot of fun talking to you here at work, and I had even more fun a few nights ago when we ran into each other at the Ben and Jerry's, and I really want to get to know you better outside the context of work. So how about it? Why don't you let me take you on a date and if you don't like it then we never have to go out again. I just want a change to get to know you."

Emil sat quietly for a moment, fiddling with a barbie doll head and considering his options.

Finally after a few minutes of awkward silence he spoke.

"Okay," he said, "one date. But you better make it a good one, you hear me?"

Note: Aurel is a human name for Moldova

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