a/n: ahhhh, hey! asdfghlkl 8 reviews, 11 faves and 17 follows? What is this sorcery? This is waay overdue. I've been busy with school and stuff. Well, I finally wrote it though ;v; It's severely unedited, so please overlook the mistakes. I didn't have the time to proofread it /cri- I hope you enjoy this!

THE ART OF FALLING APART

"Nothing is so tangled that it cannot be smoothed out."

– Unknown

Chapter I: And thus, it began

Berwald Oxenstierna was having a wonderful morning.

He'd woken up to see the sun shining outside the little window of his apartment, a welcome relief in the middle of a very, very cold winter. And when he walked down to his little café, he's been greeted with the very adorable face of one of his very dear employees, Timo, waving at him through the window pane fixed to the door. His three other co-workers – an Estonian man named Eduard, a Latvian named Raivis and a Lithuanian woman, Tori – shuffled in soon afterwards, punctual as always (well, there was that one other employee who was supposed to start today but Berwald staunchly refused to acknowledge his absence; the idiot had probably forgotten he started today, thank the lords). Nothing was out of place and as he surveyed everyone ritualistically prepping for the day – baking the breads, preparing the cakes, setting the chairs back to the floor and the like – he couldn't help but feel that it was one of those days that nothing could go wrong.

Of course, that was exactly when the door slammed open and a very unwelcome visitor barged in.

"Hej, hej! Waldo, I'm here! Sorry for bein' late and shit, ya see I saw this really cute – "

Berwald zoned out as he took in the disheveled appearance of the intruder. His red shirt had been buttoned in all wrong, his hair had been pulled up in that ridiculous gravity-defying style which made him look as if he had just rolled out of bed in the morning which did not look cool in any way contrary to what some people believed and what the hell, that seriously couldn't be the way you were supposed to wear a tie. Berwald bristled, all his hopes of having a perfect day going down the drain.

Matthias fucking Kohler, the bane of his existence, the most irritatingly cheerful, self-obsessed, rowdy man to walk this earth, who also happened to his step-brother – the step being the key word here.

There he was, prattling on about some insignificant cat he'd found along the way and gesturing, always gesturing, with his stupid hands about the stupid cat and the stupid cat's stupid sleepy owner and how he thought said stupid cat was lost but it was not and –

– and Berwald really done with his bullshit.

He wanted to say something like: Shut up. I couldn't care less about your little escapades. Just get inside and Timo'll show you the reins.

It came out more like a grunt and him awkwardly grabbing the Dane's tie and pulling him towards Timo who was watching their interaction from where he was setting down chairs with a kind of horrific fascination. Berwald wasn't the best at communicating with people. Really not.

"Woah – bro, bro, I know you're excited but this is over – ack! – kill! You know, I kinda can't bre-e-eathe," Matthias let out, stumbling to halt in front of Timo who squeaked a short 'um, hi!' Berwald just pulled on his tie harder and looked at his Finnish friend.

"S'rry, but could ya show him 'round? His n'metag's on the counter. Give it ta him. An' m'ke sure he does no' blow anythin' up."

"A-ah?" Timo tore his eyes away from the Matthias' face (which was turning purple at an alarmingly worrying rate) to look at Berwald, "Oh, yes! Yes," he nodded vigorously.

Berwald smiled (or at least Timo assumed that the glower was a smile; he'd gotten quite good at reading the Swede's near non-existent facial expression) and hummed. He let go of his step-brother, who promptly dropped to the floor on his knees taking in deep breaths, his face slowly restoring its usual colour.

"N-not cool, Waldo. Not cool."

"It's B'rwald. Now g'do some work if ya want yer pay." And with that said, Berwald left to the kitchens, leaving Timo to help Matthias up. He couldn't help heaving a huge sigh as he walked in, making his three other employees jump.

"I'm gettin' too old fer this shit."

(he was twenty three)

"So, when can I work in the kitchens?"

Timo sighed heavily as he cleaned a table, trying really hard to ignore the large man hovering behind him. He's been dealing with Matthias since over two hours. The morning rush hour was in and he was busy, but Matthias didn't seem to realise that there were tables to serve and things to do which did not include bothering the shit out of Timo.

"I don't think Berwald's going to allow that, Matthias."

"But I can bake! Come on!"

"Matthias, please move out of the way before I gut you."

Matthias squeaked at the overly friendly smile that spread across Timo's face. His eyes glinted in a way that made Matthias think that he was not kidding about the whole gutting thing. He slid out of the way and Timo nodded appreciatively. He moved from the table he had been cleaning and started to move towards the front counter (Matthias followed, much to his displeasure), but stopped short as the bells to the café's door jingled pleasantly signaling the arrival of a customer. His face broke into a warm smile when he recognised the slight figure of a regular, easily recognisable by the silver cross pin pinning his pale blond hair back and the blue satchel slung over his shoulder.

"Morning, Lukas!"

Lukas regarded him with a blank face and a short nod, and slunk off to his usual table at the far end of the café. Timo's smile dropped. While he was used to the abrupt and cold nature of the Norwegian, he really did worry for him. They had been friends – or at least, marginally friendly – until his brother got sick and he distanced himself from everyone. They'd offered him a job at the café but it seemed that the man was adamant on not interacting with people he knew. Timo sighed slightly while continuing on his way but suddenly paused noticing the absence of footsteps following him between the buzz of the customers.

"Matthias?"

He turned around to see the Dane looking at Lukas with a bemused expression on his face.

"Matthias, it's rude to stare," Timo admonished and grabbed him by his collar pulling him towards the counter. Matthias broke out of his trance and followed, but continued to look slightly dazed. Timo smiled at Tori who was manning the counter and relieved her off her position earning a gratified look. As she walked off to take orders, Matthias regained his hovering and asked:

"Hey, who was that?"

"Hm, who?" Timo asked distractedly as a patron walked up to him.

"You know who! That little guy who completely ignored you."

Timo frowned as he expertly manned the ancient coffee machine. "Don't be hard on Lukas, Matthias. He has it tough."

"Yeah, yeah," Matthias leaned forward from where he rested against the wall. "Lukas. What's his deal? He seems..." Matthias trailed off, a frown marring his face.

Timo sighed as he handed the coffee cup to the patron with a 'have a nice day!' and said, "Why don't I give you his usual and then you can actually find the answer out by yourself?"

Matthias grinned. "Sounds cool to me!"

And so, Matthias found himself with a steaming hot cup of black coffee (Matthias wrinkled his nose at that; how the guy could drink that bitter thing was beyond him), picking his way through the floor carefully toward the pale blond head.

Timo watched him go suddenly feeling immensely sorry for what Lukas was going to have to deal with.

Lukas was feeling like shit.

Well, he supposed sleeping in a terribly awkward position on a severely uncomfortable chair in a place that smells like death would do that to one. He let out a sigh and rubbed his aching eyes. These last four months had been positively torturous. He couldn't remember the last time he slept in a bed – and he probably wasn't going to in the near future. Emil's condition, though stable, was still fragile and oh god he was so so so worried over the bills, over his brother, over his fraying sanity, over everything –

"Rough night?"

Lukas snapped up, startled.

"Woah, sorry for that," the intruder – a new employee, he presumed scathingly if he didn't know better than to approach him – laughed and set a cup of steaming coffee on his table, while continuing on sheepishly, "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare ya."

Lukas looked stared at the cup for a second (with such intensity that one might think that he was examining a particularly interesting supernatural being that had suddenly sprung into existence) before looking back at the man in front of him.

The first thing that struck him was the hair. A wild, seemingly untamable blonde mane sticking out in every direction (Lukas suspected that this was supposed to be stylish or something equally horrific; people's minds, he decided, worked strangely – too strange for him to comprehend). And then followed bright, bright blue eyes set on a rather handsome face (or was the right word cute, Lukas wondered, what with that open genuine smile). The nametag pinned on his shirt reading 'Matthias Kohler' in bold black letters was upside down. Then there was the…the…the…what was up with that tie?

" – and I'm going to take that a yes, yeah?"

Lukas blinked as the man took the chair in front of him and slumped into the seat with a kind of practiced gracelessness. Why did he do that again? Perhaps he'd blanked out. Well, that habit of his was certainly becoming problematic if it encouraged some particular idiots to have one-sided conversations with him.

"What," Lukas bit out, cutting through the man's – Matthias', he reminded himself – rant (about..cats?), "are you doing here? I don't recall ordering an annoying human-brat."

Matthias paused abruptly and looked at him for a moment before he burst out laughing.

"I don't think I'm that hilarious," Lukas said drily as he took a sip of his coffee (black, he thought appreciatively, perfect).

If anything, Matthias laughed harder. Lukas bristled.

"Go away," he said, hoping the sheer venom in his voice would throw the blond teddy bear off.

It didn't.

"Hey," Matthias said between giggles (yes, giggles),"I'm sorry. Lemme introduce myself properly because you seem like a proper dude," he grinned widely at Lukas, "I'm Matthias Kohler. Nice to meet ya."

Lukas eyed the hand the man was offering with distaste.

"I'm afraid the feeling isn't mutual," he said.

Matthias lowered his hand but his grin didn't falter.

"So, your name's Lukas, right? What's your last name?"

"I'm getting some serious stalker vibes here," Lukas deadpanned, "and shouldn't you be working?"

"Aw, don't be like that Lukie," Matthias leaned back in his chair, the front legs lifting off the floor, "I was there when Timo greeted ya. And you're more interesting than polishing tables."

Matthias winked at him. Lukas suddenly felt the urge to strangle him with his stupid tie.

"Lukas," he said, taking another sip of his coffee to distract himself from his bloodlust."It's Lukas. And let me reassure you that I'm nothing interesting. You're just wasting your time here."

"No, no, no." Matthias let the front legs of the chair crash to the ground with a sudden thud and leaned forward with an earnest face. "Don't worry Lukie, you seem very weird – "

"Well, that's reassuring," Lukas muttered.

" – and," Matthias pressed on, ignoring his interruption, "you look very sad. I want to change that."

Lukas almost choked on his coffee.

"I," he said with an air of finality, "do not look sad." And he didn't. He didn't look like anything. His face was blank, empty, bereft of anything. He wasn't sad. Why was this man so infuriating?

"Mhm, sure," Matthias didn't sound like he believed him. Lukas suddenly wanted to dump his coffee on the man's face (but that would be a waste; coffee was precious, and Timo's was the best so he digressed) . Why didn't Berwald realise that this employee wasn't working?

(But he had a sneaking suspicion that Berwald knew that his idiot employee was slacking but chose to ignore it for obvious reasons, the most obvious being his annoying presence.

Back in the kitchen, Berwald sneezed and wondered if Matthias had cursed him with the bug, the idiot).

"Lukie, you okay?"

Lukas' eyes snapped to the man waving his hand in front of him, looking unnaturally worried. Drat his blanking out. God, he wanted to sleep. He glanced at his wristwatch. Twenty minutes to his shift at the bar. Thank goodness his shift was at a time far from the rush hour. Maybe he'd get some peace of mind there.

"I'm fine. Perfect. And I have to go." Lukas stood up abruptly, rummaging through his satchel for some money. The bar was quite close but he didn't want to stay a second more with this man.

Matthias peered into his abandoned coffee cup.

"Hey, you didn't finish you coffee."

"Your fault," Lukas said monotonously (oh, how he regretted the waste of such a delectable beverage), and slammed the money on the table, earning surprised yelp from Matthias.

"Give this to Berwald."

With that said, he hiked his satchel on his shoulder and walked off, not sparing a glance at the stunned man he left sitting behind. He was annoyed, frustrated, tired (oh, so tired) –

– and the man who seemed to see right through him scared him so, so, so much.

(All he was good at was running from what deterred him, so that's exactly what he did)

Matthias didn't move from where he was sitting even as the bells hung on the door jingled, signaling Lukas' departure. Instead, he just looked at the lone half-filled coffee cup sitting in front of him for a long time before he felt someone come up behind him and slide into the spot which Lukas had previously filled.

"So," Timo said, "how did that go?"

Matthias just shook his head and leaned forward resting his elbows on the table.

"Matthias," Timo said warningly, "don't get any ideas. Leave Lukas alone, okay?"

Slowly, Matthias smiled, which was enough to let warning bells ring in Timo's head but what he said next made them cut off abruptly –

"That man," the blond said, "needs some happy in his life! How could I leave him alone?"

Timo felt something tug at his chest at Matthias' huge warm smile and couldn't help but let a soft smile of his own slip on his face. He sighed, defeated.

"Maybe you're right for once, Matthias. But tread carefully. Don't rush him."

Matthias hummed in agreement. Grabbing hold of the surprisingly half-filled coffee cup, Timo stood up.

"We should get going now. We don't want Berwald to think we're slacking off, do we?"

"Ja!"

And as Timo greeted another customer, he couldn't help but repeat Matthias' words in his head.

"That man needs some happy in his life! How could I leave him alone?"

You know what, he mused, I actually think you can pull this off, Matthias. Don't screw it up.

useless author's useless a/n:

reply to guest review:
Meimei152: Ahh, yes, TFiOS. It made my cry rivers of tears. I'm glad you liked this, though. I hope this chapter was also to your liking :)

Holy mother of marshmallows, I'm sorry for all the blatant mistakes. Please don't hesitate to burn me at the stake.
Nor is such an interesting character. And so is Denny. And I hate it when their personalities are butchered. Which I've probably done rn. /cries
Please review, because I'm still a review whore. I'll always be one. Heh. Meet you in the next chapter if you decide that this is worth your time! ;v;
- Whiskey -