Chapter 2: The Mechanic

Arthur's car had sat unused in the garage for many days. He'd been too concerned with work to have it fixed so he had either been using public transportation or accepting rides from Antonio and Francis (He hated it). He'd been looking into car shops that specialized in the body work of cars but had yet to find any that he liked. He decided to go to a shop a particularly long way away from his flat owned by a trustworthy German man, which Antonio suggested.

"Yeah amigo! It's better than my cousin's shop. He charges way too much and makes your car worse. I suggest this German man. My Lovino's brother is lovey dovey with him that reminds me, don't forget to knock on his door before entering. I can give you a ride if you want."

"I'd rather walk"

"You sure? It's a long walk for your skinny chicken legs."

"You blast Spanish music in your car! I have been listening to it for five days straight! It's either French or Spanish, and I just want good ole bloody English."

"Whatever amigo!" Spain then took off in his police car.

The walk to the shop was absolutely horrific. The cars were especially noisy and had managed to drive into every puddle of water that was near Arthur. He was splashed numerous times, and when the shop was in view he was already drenched. He made a beeline towards it, avoiding any cars or those treacherous puddles. He walked into the open garage in one the worst moods he's ever been in. Before he could even think he saw a man looking at the engine of a car, his white shirt was soaked in his own sweat and stained in car oil revealing the outline of his perfectly chiseled abs. He had a healthy glow unlike the usual English sickly appearance, and had a handsome face with a defined jaw line, captivating blue eyes, and his golden hair stuck to his sweaty forehead. 'Oh my God!' England thought as his ability to process any proper thoughts melted away. 'This must be a gift God sent me after these weeks of torture!' He couldn't bring himself to stop staring and stood awkwardly in the middle of the garage.

"Can I help you?" The God asked, wiping his brow with a rag. Arthur was so mesmerized by his body that couldn't formulate any sentences. In turn this made the situation incredibly uncomfortable for the mechanic.

"Vat do you vant!" yelled a very intimidating German man. Arthur was quickly pulled back into reality.

"I-I was w-wondering if-f you c-could fix my car sir." he stuttered frightened of the barbaric German man.

"Vell I guess so. Vere is it?"

"Well a "friend" of mine borrowed it and used up all my gas, ran over a curb, and the bumper fell off, also a few weeks ago the rearview mirror was taken off. It won't turn on when I turn the key in the ignition."

"Vell I guess Alfred can take you zere in ze tow-truck." nudging his head towards the God.

"Sure" said Alfred wearing a huge grin.

"N-no arguments here!" stated Arthur.

Alfred set the rag on the hood of the car and walked past Arthur, when Arthur didn't move he shook his shoulder, "The truck is this way, dude. You zoning out?" Arthur turned bright red. They climbed into the car and took off down the road while Alfred drove and Arthur navigated. Every time Arthur was caught staring at Alfred, he'd quickly moved his head forward.

"Is there something on my face?" Alfred asked oblivious of Arthur's stares.

"No...ah I was just looking if you were going in the right direction,"

"You're weird you know that?"

"Oh, thanks...wait a moment, that accent... are you from the States?"

"Yeah I'm from Florida. You're probably from here, right? Mister..."

"Arthur, Arthur Kirkland"

"I'm Alfred but I guess you already know that. So...what do you do for a living, if you don't mind me asking, just making small talk."

"I oversee the events for the Queen. Like what she wears, the food she'll eat, the number of guests, and the decorations things like that"

"Wow that's cool! So you work with the Queen as in the Queen Queen?"

"Yes," he mumbled quietly.

"What's she like? I've never met her - what's her name again? Victoria? Elizabeth I? Oh yeah Queen Lizzy!"

"Queen Elizabeth II" Arthur laughed "She very stiff and can be frightening at times but she means well. She's nobility after all."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. That German guy back there, Ludwig, he's my boss. He's pretty terrifying when you piss him off but he's a good man. Sometimes his boyfriend comes to the shop and brings really good Italian food and hey it's free food..." It wasn't long before they arrived at Arthur's apartment complex and parked in front of his garage. Arthur brought out his remote and clicked the button that opened the garage door. Once the door the door was up, Alfred began looking at the car.

"Wow! What the hell happened to your car? Did you drive it off a cliff or something?" Alfred commented, circling the car.

"No, I already informed your boss that my friend borrowed it and unfortunately he returned it worse than the original state it was in." Arthur responded bitterly .

"He even went out of his way to tear off your rearview mirror. I'm impressed."

"Fortunately for him. It was some tosser on a motorbike from America."

"I see..."

"Not that America's a bad place or anything, I didn't mean it that way."

"Sure" Alfred said with a fake reassuring smile. "We'll have your car fixed as soon as possible. I forgot the paperwork you have to fill out and I can't tow your car without it. So do you want me to pick it up tomorrow and you can come back to the shop with me and fill it out?"

"Of course"

"How about 2?"

"Sure. I should be off work by then." Arthur replied as Alfred got inside his car a drove off.

'He probably thinks I'm one of those condescending Englishman who think Americans are stupid fat tourists. He hates me!'Arthur concluded as he trudged up the steps to the lobby.

Arthur had been waiting for 30 minutes for the American man to pick him up. He wasn't exactly looking forward to spending several minutes in a car with a man who probably wanted to throw him in front of a moving train for that comment he made. It was the usual cloudy weather that was on the verge of raining, he paced in front of the lobby doors waiting for the tow truck to show up in front. The silence was suddenly broken when some noisy music was heard from only a few yards away.

'Who the bloody hell is playing that god forsaken music?' Arthur thought with disdain plastered on his face. He opened up the lobby door and looked down the street, catching sight of a truck not too far off. The closer it came the more Arthur could recognize it as the car that dropped him off yesterday, when the car was parked fully in front of his flat he could see Alfred's beaming face. His head shaking to the obnoxious music and a hamburger stuffed in his mouth. Arthur could smell the overbearing odor of McDonald's.

'What a gentleman.' Arthur thought sarcastically. The anger melted off when Alfred climbed out of the car and opened up the passenger side for Arthur, beaming at him.

Arthur walked the rest of the distance to the door, "Thank you Alfred...I want to apologize for what I said the other day-"

"Oh don't worry, it's forgotten and forgiven!" Alfred interrupted. Arthur nodded and got inside the car. Alfred walked to the other side and sat in the drivers seat.

"Buckle-up!" Alfred instructed gleefully. Alfred towed Arthur's damaged vehicle and headed towards the mechanics'. They pulled up in front of the garage and stepped out of the car. Walking in he saw a bubbly, bouncing, Italian man serving food to Ludwig and Alfred's coworkers.

"Feliciano ve have to vork!"

"Ve~ Ludwig you need to eat food to stay nice and healthy!" Feliciano said giving Ludwig a peck on the cheek thus making Ludwig blush.

"Hey can I have some? What did you bring this time Feli? Pizza, pasta, lasagna?" Alfred asked.

"Didn't you just eat 3 burgers from McDonald's?" Arthur asked picking up the discarded wrappers of the cheeseburgers.

"There's always room for more!" Alfred picked up a plate and piled everything on it. "Come have some food Arthur! It's delicious!" Alfred motioned Arthur while shoving pasta into his mouth.

"No...I shouldn't. I had lunch a little while ago, I don't want to intrude." Arthur lied.

"Alfred, vy don't you give ze constumer ze the forms to fill out." instructed the Ludwig.

"Sure thing boss!"

Alfred got up from sitting on a tire stack to a small work space in the corner of the garage. He set his plate down and got out a stack of paper. He stuck a spoon full of spaghetti in his mouth while digging through the drawers for some sort of writing utensil. Arthur was handed the stack of papers and a pen when they were all located and saw a splatter of spaghetti sauce on a corner of the paper.

"This is where you sign." Alfred pointed at the last page on the very end.

"How much will this cost?"

"Around 1,000₤"

"Oh." Arthur muttered as he began filling out the papers. 'Francis would be paying half of the cost so it couldn't be too much. No. Francis would be paying three quarters of it since he did most of the damage, all I need to pay is for a new rearview mirror.' He finished signing the paperwork and handed it to the American.

"It should be fixed in no time" Alfred assured, as he grabbed the papers back from Arthur and handed them to Ludwig. "Boss, do you want me to leave these with you or put them in your office?"

"In my office."

"Oki-doki!" Alfred obeyed carelessly dropping them on Ludwig's desk. "Would you like me to drive you back home?"

"No I'll just call a friend."

"No I insist!"

"S-sure" Arthur responded as Alfred scarfed down the rest of his food. They went into the car and drove off back towards Arthur's flat. Barely colliding into another car Alfred thought it wise to fix his interior rearview mirror only to catch glimpse of Arthur's green eyes. He hadn't seen such illuminating green eyes before.

"You have nice eyes you know that?" Alfred pointed out.
"W-what?"
"Your eyes they're very... captivating."
"No one has ever said that to me before" Arthur said, completely flattered.
"Really? Thats a surprise, they're a nice shade of green."
"Oh thank you"
"No problem," Alfred replied. They continued driving until they reached Arthur's flat.
"Thanks for the lift"
"Yeah. No worries" Alfred said giving Arthur a wave and drove off. Arthur began to smile, he was incredibly happy and couldn't understand why all he could decipher was that Alfred was truly a gentleman at heart.

While driving back to the shop, Alfred thought back to Arthur Kirkland. He wasn't like the students at his school, he was more polite. Sure Arthur was a little peculiar and had inadvertently insulted Alfred but he was sure that Arthur hadn't meant it. He arrived back at the shop just as they were cleaning up the food and getting back to work. Feliciano spotted him and ran up to the car door before Alfred could even get out.
"Was that your friend? He was very polite, but he should have eaten with us. There was plenty to go around, ve~," Feliciano paused, as if searching for the right thing to say, "Oh! Next time you could bring him to my restaurant and use this coupon." Feliciano chimed as he gave Alfred the coupon and skipped towards Ludwig's office, "Ludwig~ Ludwig where are you hiding? ve~ I found you."
'A friend?' Alfred pondered.