Chapter 2

The manager stood for a moment, smirking, before she burst out laughing. For a second, Matthew was confused. How would she know him that way? Then, she started to talk again. "That's Gilbert," She said. "We've always known each other. If you couldn't tell by my outburst just a second ago, I was being sarcastic. I don't know if he's different to romantic partners, but he's the most annoying boy I've ever met." She laughed again, and stuck out her hand. "Name's Elizaveta. But, if you're gonna work here, you should just call me Lizzy."

Matthew was still confused about the brunette standing behind the counter. She didn't even know him and she was giving him a job? What about an interview first? Maybe a background check? He could have been a former axe-murderer for all she knew! "W-work here?" He stuttered. "You've only seen my resume!"

"Yeah, well, I've already decided on hiring Gil. He's been pestering me for months. I want you here to keep an eye on him," She responded reasonably, then giggled. "And a few other reasons."

From where he was sitting at a table a few feet away, Gilbert turned around and said, "The awesome me will not stand for being a part of one of your yaoi tapes!" Matthew didn't understand these people, but he decided to laugh anyway. Quietly, but there.

Elizaveta shrugged in response, signifying she didn't really care what Gilbert thought. She turned and walked into the back of the shop, calling out, "I want you both here tomorrow, 8 o'clock sharp. If you're planning on being late, you might as well keep on searching for a job. We'll begin your training as soon as you get here."

"Alright! You can count on the awesome me to be here!" Gilbert practically shouted, drawing the attention of a few of the people drinking coffee. There were confused looks and stares coming from all around the room. Matthew and Gilbert were the focus of all of them. Well, Gilbert mainly, but Matthew felt like slinking behind said man attracting stares.

"Uh... Gilbert?" Matthew asked. "Do you want to like... Get to know each other? We could go for a walk... Or... Something?" Matthew was feeling a little under pressure, due to the people staring at them. He stuttered thanks to this, and he felt extremely awkward.

"Sure! The awesome me would like to get to know you! I mean, if you're my soulmate and all, I can guess you're almost as awesome as me, but I'd like to know for sure!" Gilbert said with a jovial tone, cackling his odd laugh afterwards (Matthew thought it sounded a little like him saying kiss over and over). Matthew inwardly facepalmed, but he kept a polite smile on his face nonetheless. He couldn't help but wonder how he had gotten someone who seemed like a polar opposite to his inwards, solemn, and possibly even shy personality as his soulmate. He, if he had to be completely honest with himself, completely loathed the self-centered, loud, attention-drawing type, and that shone through in his semi-hatred of his 'adopted' brother, Alfred. And his even worse hate for his brother's Danish boyfriend, who, for a early twenty-something had quite a drinking problem.

Matthew nodded after a minute, shaking off the feeling of dread that had settled while he had been thinking, and started to walk slowly to the door, shoving his hands in his hoodie's pockets and clenching his fists. If he really is my soul mate, Matthew thought, I'll have to get used to it. It's no use doubting the color. I've never heard of it being… wrong. I think? I can't remember. There might have been a few cases. I'll have to look it up. As he was about to walk out the door, he remembered. His first color. A new world to him! It would be so beautiful. He almost wanted to jump up and down at the thought of colors other than gray, but he kept his reserved posture.

Gilbert took this moment of hesitation as an opportunity to get the door for Matthew. So he does have some form of chivalry and respect. At least he tries to do these things. Unlike my brother, who has slammed a door in my face countless times. Matthew stepped outside the door and gasped loudly. It was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Cars speeding down the street ranged anywhere from the color of the interior of the starbucks he had just been in, to the beige that was slightly lighter than his pale complexion. The dark gray of the street stayed the same, but the stripes lining it that had appeared white were a bright yellow, close to the color of the sun shining overhead. The sky was clear, showing it's beautiful blues and the oranges and yellows of the sun that he looked at so long his eyes started to hurt. Gilbert seemed to be having the same reaction. He had unconsciously grabbed Matthew's hand as he looked around. Matthew was too taken by his surroundings to care.

After just standing in awe for a couple of minutes, Matthew nudged Gilbert. "Let's get going, eh?" He said. Of course, his Canadian tic had to appear right then. Though his father was French, he had been raised in Canada and had only moved to America in the eighth grade when his mother had… well, died. When they arrived in America they lived in an apartment for a year, his father in a slump. He would often go drinking, having one-night-stands almost every night. That was another reason Matthew didn't have all his college funds saved up. He had resorted to drawing from it to provide food for himself, as his father didn't have a job. But, one day, his father had become happy again. He started going out more, making at least one close friend and having lunch with said friend very often. He seemed to have found his color again, Matthew presumed. After another year of this, and quite a few shouted fights over phones, Matthew's father had announced that he was getting re-married. So, for Matthew's senior year, he had his father back. Two fathers, actually. And a brother. Francis and Arthur were married, Alfred and Matthew became brothers, and Matthew was happy again. After high school, however, Matthew fell into his slump again, with the question of college forever polluting his mind. Then came today.

Matthew fell out of his daze again to Gilbert pulling on his hand to come on. "Mattie- can I call you that? Come on, you promised you'd go walking, you told me to get going, then you suddenly stop and just stand there for a couple minutes! Completely ignoring me! How unawesome of you."

"S-sorry…" Matthew said. He started to walk again, still subconsciously admiring the beautiful colors of the city around him. "I spaced out."

Gilbert laughed obnoxiously. "Alright, well, I'd like to get to know all about you. I guess that's the first thing!"

A/N: Oh my god. I'm SO sorry. I meant to get this up within the week. It's been almost two. I'm so sorry! I'll try to be quicker with the updates. Luckily, today I was having bad writer's block, but finally got out of my slump and wrote over half of the chapter! Also, I'm sorry about the entire explanation about Matthew's family being here. I meant to put it in the next chapter (Well, actually now it would have been two chapters from here) but I just started writing and didn't stop. Sorry if it broke the flow of the chapter -

P.S.- This is only half of the plot I had planned out, but I got to a stopping point and really needed to update, so the rest of the plot will continue in the next chapter! Now tell me, in your opinion, am I writing the characters according to their personalities well? I've never been that good at writing Prussia, so I'd like some outside opinions. So, comment/review with your opinions! (i post this on both Wattpad and so I sorta need to put both oops vnv)