"So...what should I know before I meet your siblings?" Emil asked as he and Alfred walked into a cozy, out of the way, coffee shop.
"Oh, I don't know," Alfred shrugged, sitting down at a table and taking off his coat and scarf, "I guess Mathew is pretty shy, so it might take him a while to warm up to you. But don't worry Michelle is super extroverted, and she likes everyone, so she'll keep the conversation going."
"Well that's good I guess."
"Oh, and Michelle is bringing Mei with her," Alfred said, grimacing at the thought of it, "Apparently you made quite an impression when you met her on the bus. She wanted to see you again."
"mmmm."
"You want anything?" Alfred asked, pulling out his wallet as he changed the subject, "I was just gonna a get some plain coffee, but I'll buy you one of your frufru sugar drinks if you want."
"They're not frufru!" Emil cried indignantly, a blush spreading across his face, "I just don't see the point in buying plain coffee when I could make it at home. And anyway, they taste good."
"Whatever you say, babe," Alfred chuckled, " So do you want something?"
"Yeah fine. If they have caffè macchiato's I'll have one"
"How fancy."
"It is not!"
Alfred laughed and went to go place their orders.
A few minutes later the two men had settled into their seats and were both slowly sipping away at their drinks. They had just gotten into a very interesting conversation about airplane mechanics when the bell to the coffee shop rang and Mei came rushing in, followed by two other people that Emil didn't know.
The strangers were made up of a tall blond man and a small curly haired woman. The man, looked shockingly similar to Alfred, with the only obvious difference being a perpetual slouch. The woman beside him, on the other hand, looked almost nothing like Alfred, with the one exception being her bright, impenetrable smile. Emil figured that pair must be Alfred's siblings.
"Hi, Emil!" Mei exclaimed, bouncing up to him and wrapping her arms around his shoulders in an uninvited side hug, "It's so nice to see you again!"
"Uh, hi Mei," Emil replied as he tried to wiggle his way out of her arms, "it's nice to see you too."
"Why don't you let go of him hon, he doesn't look like he's enjoying that hug very much," said a bubbly voice.
Mei let go and Emil looked around to see what kind person had saved him from the unwanted affection. It was the girl with the big smile.
"Emil, this is my sister Michelle," said Alfred, pointing to her with a grin," and this," he continued, redirecting everyone's attention to his look-a-like "Is my twin, Matthew."
The three of them went through a quick round of "Nice to meet you's". Then Michelle and Mei left to go get coffee and Matthew sat down.
The atmosphere at the table quickly became awkward and silent as Emil and Matthew both fidgeted and tried to come up with conversation.
"So uh...I heard you met my brother at work…" Mathew started.
"Yeah, sure did," Emil replied, unintentional letting the conversation fade out. Then, realizing his mistake he added, "so...you and Alfred are twins,". Matthew just nodded and the table went silent.
After a solid minute of this Alfred finally lost it.
"Oh for fuck sake!" he cried, "You're both terrible at this. How do y'all even have friends?"
The two northerners just stared at the frustrated man between them quietly, neither of them wanting to embarrass themselves by responding, but both of them were a little offended. Who was Alfred to judge their conversation skills anyways?
"Alright fine," Alfred huffed, "You both like hockey, why don't you talk about that?"
Emil nodded slightly before trying to talk again.
"So, uh who's your favorite team?"
"The Montreal Canadiens."
"Oh"
"And you?"
"Skautafélag Akureyrar."
"Bless you."
"No, I wasn't sneezing, that's the name of the team. They're Icelandic."
"Oh, uh, sorry."
And then, once again there was silence.
Alfred gave a sigh of defeat before guzzling down the rest of his coffee and resting his head in his hands.
"God," he said, "Where's Michelle when you need her. I can't watch this."
It was at just that moment that Michelle and Mei finally re-appeared, both holding large, pink drinks, that appeared to be frappuccino knockoffs.
"Speak of the devil" Alfred quipped.
"You know," said Mei in a scolding, motherly tone, "It's not nice to call your sister and me devils."
Alfred only rolled his eyes, "Would you buzz off Mei?"
"Alfred be nice!" Michelle quipped.
"But she started it!"
"I don't care. You two are always mean to each other. Would you please just try to get along today?"
"Fine," the two said in unison, although neither of them sounded particularly sincere about it.
"Thank you," Michelle huffed. She sat down to enjoy her drink, adjusting her skirt around her before reaching up to fiddle with her pigtails and turning her attention to her brother's boyfriend.
"Sorry about that Emil, they don't get along very well."
"So I've noticed," Emil smirked.
"I'm sure you have. So anyways tell me, Emil, how did you meet Alfred? I know you work together, but there must be more than that."
"Oh, uh, not really. We met at work, and then later that day I saw him at Ben and Jerry's and we ended up talking. He asked me out a few weeks later."
"Aww, that's cute!"
"thanks?"
"And you're cute. Damn, Alfred said you were a looker, but he never mentioned your unusual hair color, or that you had purple eyes! What a catch!"
"I'm...literally just albino," Emil said, shifting in his seat uncomfortably. Was this a normal way to talk to your sibling's partner? He had never said anything like this to Mathias.
"We'll, albino or not, you're very attractive."
Emil was just about to try and respond when Alfred beat him to the punch. "Hey Michelle," he interjected, "could you stop hitting on Emil please?"
"Oh, what's wrong," Michelle laughed, "Do you feel threatened?"
"Nah, Em is gay," he replied nonchalantly, "It's just a little weird to watch my sister flirt with my boyfriend."
"I guess that's fair. Fine, I'll do my best, but no promises. You know I get my flirtatious nature from papa," she said with a wink.
"Yeah," Alfred sighed, "I know."
"But anyway," Michelle said, turning her attention back to Emil, "what sort of things do you like to do? I know Al took you to the aquarium, do you like sea life? I know I do, my favorite fish is the striped marlin! They just look so cool!"
"Oh, um neat," Emil stuttered, not totally sure what to say, "I uh...I guess I like sea life. I'm mostly just a fan of seabirds though."
"Oh! Me too!" Mei exclaimed, "You know, I'm a big fan of Short-tailed albatross'. Very ugly birds. Truly the Creelys of the bird world."
"Creelys?" Emil asked.
"Croc Heelys," Alfred explained, "come on Em, get with the times."
"Oh god, those sound awful."
"They are," Michelle confirmed.
"I don't know, I'd wear them," Alfred admitted, earning a look of disgust from the rest of the table.
"Emil,"Mei inquired,"how can you be with the type of monster that would wear Creelys? No sex is that good."
"Well as revolted as I am Mei," Emil chuckled,"I don't really think that's the sort of thing that should make or break a relationship."
"Well if I were you I would break up with him for his crimes of fashion."
"If it were you-you wouldn't be dating Alfred in the first place," Michelle reminded her.
"You right." Mei conceded, "but getting back on topic, seabirds. Whaddya think?"
The little group continued their conversation for several more hours, buying themselves several more drinks in the process. It was a long, and enjoyable evening, and at the end the day, when the coffee cups had all been composted and he and Alfred were back out in the cold winter air Emil had to admit: Mei and Alfred's siblings were pretty fun people, and he hoped he would get to see them again.
AN: Hey all, it's been a hot minute since I updated this (by which I mean almost 3 months I am so sorry). I know this isn't my best work, but I've been really busy, so I hope you enjoy it anyways! The quarter ends in a few weeks and I've only got about 2 chapters left, so hopefully, I will finish this story soon and can move onto different stuff.
Thanks for reading!
Reviews are always appreciated!