"Ugh, I am so bored!" Francis complained for the umpteenth time that day. He and Antonio had been running the stand for four hours, and while there had been lots of business, Francis very easily lost interest in things.
"It's not so bad, besides, I bet Gil and Matthew are having fun." Antonio said cheerily.
Francis remembered that they were doing this to help out Gilbert, so he accepted his work without complaint. He was good at his job; charming old ladies with his accent and flirty ways, although his cheeks were rather sore from the constant pinching.
Francis worked for five minutes more, before he came up with an escape plan.
"Hey, 'Tonio, would you like to work with Lovino while I go and get more brownies from Ludwig? I'll only be ten minutes." He said while grinning innocently, he knew that Antonio wouldn't pass on a chance to spend time with his "Lovi".
Antonio's face lit up.
"Seriously! You'd let me work with Lovi?" he said excitedly. He was too busy thinking about all the fun they would have that he didn't notice that Francis was laughing at him quietly, muffling his giggles behind his hand.
"But of course, I'll go and get him"
He returned a couple minutes later with a very grumpy Lovino. He had his arms crossed and was giving Antonio a look of complete disgust.
"Fine, I'll help you with your stupid stand huh? But I'm not gonna like it!"
He said while turning up his nose at Antonio. Francis didn't bother to tell Antonio that Lovino had had no objection to helping him when Francis asked.
Antonio, meanwhile, was in a whole other world to Lovino; he was practically jumping for joy, much to the chagrin of Lovino.
"Quit acting like an idiot, eh!" He yelled at him, batting him away with flailing hands. Antonio ducked his weak offensive attack and countered by wrapping him in a huge bear hug. Lovino screeched like a distressed cat and tried pushing Antonio's face away when he tried to plant quick kisses to his cheeks.
Francis watched this spectacle for a few minutes and left when a crowd of cooing adults had started to gather around the boys. With a slight grin he began walking back to his house.
He didn't know why he and Antonio had agreed to Gilbert's harebrained scheme with the lemonade stand, but Francis never could say no to a friend in need, especially when it came to l'amour , unlike his best frenemy Arthur who would've just laughed in Gilbert's face.
Arthur was a grumpy English boy that Francis and his gang knew, and even though they were sworn enemies, they still managed to have some fun together. Francis then knew how he could get out of his promise.
He could ask Arthur to take his shift with Alfred later on today! Francis knew that even though Arthur would be one hundred percent against helping him, he owed him several favors and would keep to his side of the deal.
He took out his cell phone and dialed Arthur's number.
Arthur huffily biked his way over to Gilbert's house. Francis had called in one of the favors that he owed and he had to spend his afternoon running Gilbert's lemonade stand with some random kid.
He pulled up in front Gilbert's where he saw Francis waving him over.
"The stand is over there, you're going to work with Matthew's older brother Alfred today, try to remember his name, and he gets touchy about it if you forget." Francis said remembering the swift punch he had received from Alfred when he accidentally called him 'Allan'.
"Yes, yes, I've got it. I'm only working until four though; I have to baby sit Peter today."
Peter was Arthur's neighbor's kid that he looked after sometimes, and although he couldn't stand the brat, the fifteen dollars an hour he made everything worth it.
"I'll see you later then!" Francis called over his shoulder as he walked away.
"Later." Arthur replied nonchalantly as he began to wheel his bike over to the stand.
He shook his head to clear his bangs out of his face, and tried to smile politely at the boy behind the stand when they made eye contact.
The boy behind the stand's face paled at first, and then burst out into a fiery crimson. He fumbled around, floundering about under Arthur's gaze. Arthur supposed that it was due to him being older than the boy that he was intimidating.
He carelessly left his bike on the grass of the younger boy's lawn and walked over to him with an air of superiority and confidence, his arm extended in a friendly gesture.
"My name's Arthur, pleased to meet you."
The kid, who Arthur presumed was Alfred, wiped his hand on his trousers before he grabbed Arthur's hand too hard and held it there awkwardly. Arthur could feel how clammy he was, and tried not to show the disgust in his face as he shook the hand up and down briefly before retracting his hand, careful to wipe it off when Alfred wasn't looking.
Alfred ushered him over to the stand and began explaining how they ran it, barely sounding coherent as he stumbled over his words. Arthur was polite enough to act as though he didn't notice this. After a fifteen explanation in which Arthur really didn't learn anything, it was time for them to start selling.
As soon as Alfred had spilt half of a pitcher all over some poor lady because his hands were too shaky, Arthur knew that he was in for a long day.