A/N: AAhhhhh! This really shouldn't have taken this long...I'm so sorry! School has been so mean to me, with all of it's work (especially with AP Physics B kicking my ass...). At least it's almost over...But then I start college next semester...crap... Oh well. On a higher note: I finally went to my first MomoCon! It was so awesome! Anyway, enough about me.
Onward with the story! Enjoy!
Chapter 4
A fully clothed Matthew gazed at his softly snoring brother who was still dead to the world. He shook his brother, trying to wake him. He didn't budge. He called his name a few times. "Alfred. Alfred...Alfred! Get up!"
Alfred tiredly batted his hand in the direction of Matthew's voice. "Ten more minutes," he groaned.
"You need to get up! We have to be at Holly Hill in a little more than an hour and fifteen minutes. And depending on traffic, it takes about thirty to forty-five minutes to get there!"
Alfred burrowed further under the covers.
Fine. If Alfred wouldn't get up now, maybe the smell of food would wake him. If not, Alfred would wake himself up in about ten minutes. Matthew padded into the kitchen and began mixing the batter for pancakes and put the bacon and the eggs in the pan to start cooking. Within minutes the smell of bacon and pancakes were wafting through the apartment as well as the sound of the eggs sizzling on a hot pan. A muffled thud was heard from Alfred's room.
"Ow...Why didn't you wake me up, Mattie?" Alfred whined while gingerly walking into the kitchen and setting down on a stool by the counter with a silent wince.
Matthew flipped the pancakes and smirked. "I did, but you insisted on more time for sleeping. Since that didn't work, I decided to wake you by way of food, but it seems that you rolled out of bed and hit the ground, again." He glanced at the blond while trying and failing to contain a small fit of laughter. "Was it your face or your ass this time?"
"Not funny," the other whined while rubbing his bottom to try to soothe the slight pain from the fall.
Matthew plated the food and place one of the plates in front of Alfred. "What do you want to drink?"
A childish grin spread across the other's face despite the pain from the earlier fall. "Milk, like always!"
Matthew went over to the fridge and grabbed a carton of milk and a carton of orange juice. He poured a glass of each. He set the milk in font of the other and sat beside him at the counter with his orange juice.
Alfred tilted his head to the side. "Why don't you ever drink milk?"
"I could've sworn that we have already been over this." He picked up the bottle of maple syrup. "I just don't like the taste." He poured a fair amount on his pancakes and handed the glass bottle to the other.
"Well, I know that you're not la...lactate...no, that's not the word..."
"Lactose intolerant?" Matthew offered dryly.
"Yeah, that! I know that you're not lactose intolerant because you can eat ice cream like a boss."
Matthew sighed. "That only happened twice." The first time was when they were younger and it was someone's, i.e Alfred's, bright idea to have an eating contest with ice cream, but Matthew had won which the Canadian was very proud of much to Alfred's disdain. The second was when he had dumped his first boyfriend just before sophomore year in college. He didn't want to, but he knew he needed to. He hadn't had any relationships since.
"I'm glad you dumped that bastard," there was a slight coldness in his voice.
Sometimes it was like Alfred could read his mind. It was odd that Matthew had just thought of his ex. Maybe it was a twin thing… "I am not having this conversation with you again! Finish your food and get dressed! We need to leave soon," he said that last statement much calmer.
After they had finished eating and Alfred had gotten dressed, they headed for their garage. Today was sunny so they would take the motorcycle. Matthew picked up the helmet laying on the nearby counter and hopped onto the front seat of the bike. He would be driving today; he had been to Holly Hill numerous occasions, not for himself but to visit someone else. Though they had installed a two-way radio in the helmets so they could hear each other over the roaring of the wind, they were silent during the whole drive to their destination.
Once he had parked the bike, they headed for the door. On their way to it Alfred broke the silence. "Um...I'm sorry about earlier. I wasn't thinking. I—"
"No, it's fine," Matthew cut off his brother. "I shouldn't have reacted the way I did." The automatic doors opened and they stepped into the facility. He wasn't expecting a running Tino to glomp him, which made him drop his helmet in the process. Luckily Alfred caught the helmet before it hit the ground.
"Aahh! It's been so long since I've seen you!" The smaller blond was bounding up and down on his toes with utter elation. "When I saw that you were going to be here...I...I just...! I'm so happy to see you!"
Matthew glared halfheartedly at an amused Alfred as he tried to extract himself from his excited friend. "I thought you were supposed to be in Finland until the end of next year. What happened?"
"I graduated early and came back. Now I work here at the front desk. At least it pays a hell of a lot better than my old job did and it's less demeaning," Tino added the last part as if it were an after thought.
"Who is he?" Alfred finally spoke after being silent for a while, amusement still clearly displayed on his face.
Matthew had met Tino during the second half of high school. He had seen him sitting alone outside during lunch and wanted to ask him if he wanted to sit with Miguel, Lovino, and himself during lunch. Sadly Matthew was still very shy around new people. Luckily, Miguel noticed that Matthew wanted to ask the lone blond and asked for him. Tino had aggreed to sit with them and they had been friends ever since.
"Oh, Al, this is Tino. Tino, this is my brother, Al."
"Nice to meet finally you," said Tino. "I can take those if you want." He pointed at the helmets in Alfred's hands.
"Thanks." Alfred gave the helmets over to the smaller blond.
"By the way, there is a little information session all visitors have to go through."
"What? There wasn't an info session when I came here to visit," said Matthew.
"Sorry, Mattie, but rules are rules. I'm the one who's giving the session. The roster says that there will be six of you and two people are already in the other room waiting." Tino pointed to the door to the left; both blonds looked at the door. "I don't want to give the session twice so I'll wait for the other two to arrive."
Alfred glanced back at Tino. "Which two are in there?"
Tino walked over to the counter and glanced a the clipboard. "Roderich Edelstein and Vash Zwingli."
Matthew wasn't completely amused. "The Italians would be the last to get here. They will be happy to see you back so early."
"They're not late yet. I start the session at 10:15. They still have," Tino glanced at the wall clock, "about fifteen minutes. I'm excited to see them again too!"
He still wanted to give Prussia a piece of his mind for hurting Antonio the other day, but Prussia had been keeping a low profile for the past day. Francis knew that France had spoken with the other, but he did not know what was said between the two. Hopefully, that would keep Prussia off of Antonio's back.
Francis sighed. He couldn't believe that he had let Gilbert talk him into doing it. He knew that he could hold his own in a fight if he had to, but Gilbert had insisted that it was a sparing match and that he wouldn't go "all out" on the Frenchman. That was a lie. At least he won two of the matches...out of five.
You never cease to amuse me. France murmured.
He really didn't want to deal with his other half, but nonetheless they shared a body, so it couldn't be helped. Why must you rub it in my face?
I'm not. I just find you amusing at times.
At times? Francis arrived at his room, stepped in, closed the door, and shed his clothes. He proceeded into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and stepped in. Ah, that felt soothing. He thought back to what France had told him the night before.
After making sure Antonio would be alright, Francis left the room in search of Prussia. That bâtard would pay for making Antonio feel down, and that was a very hard task to accomplish. That Spaniard was always so cheerful. Spain was another story altogether. He stopped walking. He could feel the lingering prescience of France. You know where Prussia is, don't you.
I do. France responded coolly.
Are you going to tell me? There was no answer from his other half. "Sometimes you are utterly useless!" Francis murmured aloud accidentally.
"Who is useless?" came a voice from behind him.
The blond turned around slowly to come face to face with one of the people who was attacked by Spain nearly two days ago, Ivan Braginski. Blue eyes widened in shock and a light shade of pink dusted the Frenchman's face. "Oh, bonjour, Ivan! I was just thinking out loud. The statement was directed to no one in particular."
"Okay Francis, have a good rest of the day." The tall Russian began walking away but stopped, tilting his head slightly to the side as if in thought. "You will have visitors tomorrow, da?"
Crap. Francis had forgotten all about that, what with all that had happened with Antonio and all. "Oui, I do."
"In that case, be good!" And with that the tall Russian walked off.
That's the doctor, France's voice full of venom came suddenly.
Who, Ivan? I didn't know he was a doctor. He doesn't have "Dr." in front of his name.
He doesn't have to. He only is referred to as "doctor" when he's doing tests on his patients. That's why Spain attacked Ivan. He was pissed that Ivan was doing those "examining or tests," or what ever the hell one calls them, to him.
Do they do these "examinings" on us as well?
Oui.
What do these examinings or tests entail?
France seemed to be a little unsettled about what happened during "examinings." I'm not at liberty to say.
Francis shut off the water once he had finished cleaning himself. He stepped out of the shower, grabbed a towel, and began to dry himself. Why would Ivan be called "doctor" at night but not during the day?
He wants to keep his reputation, said France. But for what I know not.
He walked out of the bathroom heading for his closet of clothes that Holly Hill had given him. They really needed to buy more stylish apparel or at least let him leave and get better clothes. They weren't completely dreadful, but they could at least put some effort in it. Francis stopped rummaging through his closet when he heard a sound at the door. He turned around to find a blond male in the doorway. His blond hair was wavy and he had violet eyes with a slight tint of blue in them. What an intriguing color. Blue-violet eyes locked with blue, then traveled downward and back up. His eyes widened, blushed a deep shade of red and began to sputter random words which seemed to be in French. The male quickly disappeared and closed the door behind him.
That was odd. Why would the other act like—? Francis glanced down at himself. Oh. Right. He was nude. That could have been the reason for that adorable reaction. It wasn't like being seen nude was anything new to him. He sighed and continued getting dressed. He could hear voices outside his door.
"There you are! I was looking all over for you! Wait, why are you sitting in front of a door and why is your face red?" asked a voice.
"I-I can never un-see that," came a much softer, yet by no means calmer, voice that was apparently seated in front of his door.
"What do ya mean?" asked the first voice.
There was no answer.
"Is this the room we're supposed to be in? It's room 714, right?"
Still no answer.
There was a shuffling outside of the door, then a knock. By this time Francis was fully dressed. "Come in." Francis turned around to face the door. In walked two blonds.
"Hi, I'm Alfred and this is Mattie." Alfred pointed his thumb at the male beside him who was still blushing from earlier. Alfred had short, straight golden blond hair with a stray strand of hair that stuck up at the front of his head, and blue eyes that almost matched the sky. After getting a better look at the other blond, Mattie, Francis could see that he was actually a blond with a slight wheat or honey color to it and had a curled strand of hair that stuck up in the middle of his head.
"It's Matthew actually," the other blond murmured softly, his blush now mostly faded.
"So, you two must be the people from the University that's going to interview me. Well, I'm the fabulous Francis Bonnefoy!" he said while flipping his hair back. The other two glanced at each other. "Please, have a seat." Once they were seated on the chairs that had been added that morning by the facility's staff, Francis continued. "How is this interview going to go?" He thought of something else before the other two could answer. "But before we start, I would like know a little about you two. It only seems fair, oui? Plus you are the first people who I've talked to, who are from outside this facility, in quite some time."
Alfred glanced at Matthew who gave a slight shrug. Alfred began talking but Francis was only halfway paying attention. Most of his attention was focussed on the violet-eyed male. What was it that was so intriguing about the other? He couldn't figure it out.
It felt like an hour, or maybe it was two, before the American stopped talking, but in all honesty it was a little less than ten minutes. What he had gotten out of halfway listening to Alfred was: He was an American, very good at sports, could put away food like no other, usually left the cooking for his twin brother, loved playing video games, and their parents were divorced. There were plenty of other things the blond had said, but Francis didn't really care.
Francis wanted to hear about Matthew, but today that didn't seem possible. There was a knock on the door. "Come in," said Francis. The door opened and a nurse walked in. She had dark skin, long black hair tied in two ponytails, and brown eyes. "Bonne journée, Mademoiselle Michelle. How may I help you?
"Hello Mr. Bonnefoy. It is time for your weekly checkup." Brown eyes surveyed the room and landed on the two seated blonds. "Oh, you have guests! Umm I'm sorry but you two will have to leave."
"Weekly?" The twins said at the same time.
"We're here to interview him on Fridays," said Matthew.
Michelle thought for a moment. "I will see if I can change his day, but he still has to come with me. I'm sorry but you both must leave."
Francis sighed and stood. "It was lovely meeting you, Alfred, Mathieu. I will see you next week?"
Alfred nodded slowly and Matthew murmured a small "yes" along with a smile.
The twins stood and walked out the door.
A/N:
Translations: The French translations are brought to you by Xou!
bâtard - bastard
Bonne journée - good day
Thanks for reading!
