Work Text:
Wake Up To Love!
A week before Arthur arrived ….
You don't have to be mad to work here but it helps!
Kiku Honda could not help but agree with the amusing poster stuck up on the wall in the Art Department, especially in regards to The Hetalia Advertising Agency! Everybody had some kind of eccentricity or quirk that set them apart from everyone else. His boss, Feliks Lukasiewicz, had some weird pony fetish and every other week, he would come up with some reason to have ponies in the building and they nearly always got loose and it was left to Raivis Galante and his soul mate, Peter Oxenstierna, to round up the four-hoofed Houdinis. Kiku remembered when he first started work at the agency, he was almost trampled by them but now he was immune to the sight, it was such a regular occurrence.
Kiku's co-worker was Alfred F Jones, a young blonde, blue-eyed American who's cheerful, energetic personality hid a tragic circumstance. Alfred had found and lost his soulmate when he was three years old and the poor man had no idea where or who his soulmate was. Kiku prayed that, one day, Alfred's ancestors would lead his soulmate back to him, just as Kiku prayed that his ancestors would, one day, help him find his own soulmate. Alfred had a obsession with superheroes and, on more than one occasion, tried to insert them into the ad campaigns they created. It had taken Kiku a long time to prevent Alfred from creating such a campaign for a funeral company.
But the weirdest person at the Hetalia Advertising Agency had to be Hercules Kapusi, someone he had seen often but never spoken to because every time Kiku had seen him, he was asleep, like he was now! He was a dark haired man with a couple of weird strands of hair that stuck up in the middle and to the back of his head and curled round in two directions. Kiku had no idea what colour Hercules's eyes were as he had never seen them open and he always had a cat on his head. Right now, said cat was asleep, rather like his owner who was snoozing away. Propped up against the wall!
How Hercules managed that was a complete mystery and people began making bets on how long he would stay asleep. Kiku inched his way round the sleeping Greek to collect the rough draft of the poster that he and Alfred had created for a quit smoking campaign.
"How long has he been asleep?" he asked Simon, the man who handed him his poster. Simon looked at the upright sleeper.
"Two hours," he replied. "Another hour and I win the bet!"
"I wish you luck!" Kiku replied. Taking the poster, he inched round Hercules again and left the room. Just as he was out of sight, Hercules opened his green eyes and his cat also woke with a stretch and a meow.
"Hello, Hercules!" his co-worker said. "Back with us! You just missed Kiku Honda again, he came for his poster. I swear, half of the people who work here have never seen you awake!" Hercules gave a yawn.
"I can't help it!" he said drowsily, pushing himself away from the wall. "Narcolepsy is such an inconvenience!"
"You're lucky Feliks is understanding about that," Simon replied. "Some bosses wouldn't want someone working for them who can fall asleep at any time. It helps that your artwork is off the chart! Speaking of, there's some work on your desk at this moment!" Hercules went to his work desk and began drawing while his cat (Larry?) jumped off his head and curled up on his lap. Hercules want to make some decent headway before he fell asleep again and he was not lying when he said he found his sleeping disorder problematic! Apart from all the usual disruption to his day to day life, he, like everyone else, wanted to find his soulmate but how could he do that when he could not stay awake long enough.
"Great, dude!" Alfred dove over to look at the poster when Kiku arrived back in their office. "You got it! Hey, was that Hercules guy down there?"
"Hai!" Kiku replied, laying the poster down on the desk.
"Was he still asleep against the wall?"
"Hai!" Alfred looked at his watch.
"He's been asleep for two hours now," he commented. "If he wakes up soon..." Alfred's phone rang and he answered.
"Hi, dude!" he said down his phone. "Great, man! Thanks! Bye!" he ended the call.
"That Hercules dude just woke up," he said. "I win this time!"
"You bet on how long he would sleep?" Kiku did not know that the betting came up as far as their floor and he wondered if the poor man realised that his sleeping habits were a part of the betting pool that goes on between employees.
"Yeah," Alfred replied. "Dude has some kind of sleeping problem! Neko …., Necro …..!"
"Narcolepsy?" Kiku supplied. "That must be most inconvenient for the poor man. I do not think I have ever seen him awake!"
"Dude could win gold at the Olympics for sleeping," Alfred agreed. "Still, the guy's good at his job and Feliks likes people with quirks!" Kiku personally found everyone quirky in Hetalia Advertising. Feliks and his ponies, Toris chasing around after his Polish soulmate, trying to keep him out of trouble and generally just worrying about him, Raivis and Peter, well, Kiku was not sure what their jobs were, apart from chasing around after Feliks's ponies, Alfred's missing soulmate, although that was more tragic than quirky. And, of course, the narcoleptic down in Art.
Kiku wondered where he fit into all this. He did not think he was quirky. Did the others think he was quirky? No, Kiku was sure he was quite normal. Sure, he was protective of his personal space and Manga and Anime were big with him, especially Yaoi, and he liked reading the mood and refraining from speaking but did all that make him quirky? Kiku shook his head. No!
They examine the rough draft of the poster, discussing what was good and what could be improved and they spent the afternoon making corrections and alterations. Kiku would take it back down to the Art Department in the morning.
Hercules arrived at work after a good night sleep but it did not feel like it. He was already feeling drowsy again as he sat at his desk, Larry on his shoulder, ready to get on with his work. He managed to finish what he had been working on the day before and put it to one side, ready to start on his next project.
"Hello, Kiku!" he heard one of his co-workers say. "Got the improved copy for us to put together?"
"Hai!" Hercules heard a quiet, polite voice say. He was about to turn to look at the owner of the voice when he was hit by a wave of fatigue and the lure of sleep became too much. He put his head down on to his desk and he went out like a light while Larry settled down beside his head and had his own snooze.
Kiku handed the corrected poster over to Simon who turned round toward Hercules's desk, about to call to him, only to find Hercules with his head on his desk, his cat curled up by his head.
"He's out again," Kiku looked at the sleeping man closely. He had olive skin and hair the colour of chocolate, eyes …. still unknown. But he was attractive!
"I'll get Hercules on this when he wakes up," Simon promised and Kiku nodded. With one last look at the sleeping Greek, Kiku left to go get some lunch with Alfred.
Hercules's finally woke, feeling a little more refreshed and he was given the corrected poster to work on. He worked on it for a few hours before getting some lunch for him and Larry. When he returned, he had another narcoleptic episode but managed to get some more work done before he clocked off to go home. He fed Larry and made himself some dinner before relaxing in front of the TV for a couple of hours before retiring to bed early.
The next day while Alfred and Kiku were sipping coffee (from a local café, not the vending machine) and discussing the campaign they were working on when Feliks wandering into their office.
"Hey, Alfred!" he said. "I, like, need a favour! We, like, have a new guy coming from Britain. I, totes, need someone to meet him at the airport, like, on Monday and take him to his hotel. You game!" Alfred shrugged.
"Sure," he replied. "Yeah! I'll meet the guy!"
"Righteous!" Feliks replied. "His name's Kirkland and we were, like, lucky to get him! He's, totes, fabulous at his job!" Kiku looked forward to meeting another quirky employee that Feliks was adding to his collection. Kiku wondered what Kirkland's quirk would be. Only time would tell!
It had taken Hercules a few days, between other projects and narcoleptic episodes, to finish the anti-smoking campaign poster and by the time he had, it was Friday. On the poster was a family enjoying some television while the father figure smoked and, as the smoke lifted into the air, it took on the image of the Grim Reaper with his scythe looming over the father. A caption on the poster said 'When you smoke, can you feel a presence in the room?'. Simple but it got the message across!
A message was sent up to Production and Alfred and Kiku came down to collect it as it would be presented to the client the next day but when they got down to the Art Department, Hercules was asleep again. Kiku had asked Feliks once why he employed so many people with unusual traits and Feliks shrugged and said, "Quirky people are, like, creative people!"
The poster met with Kiku's approval and it particularly freaked Alfred out who was a chronic phasmophobic and the image of the Grim Reaper was very ghost-like to him. He reasoned that if it scared him, maybe it could scared people out of smoking! Kiku smiled at Alfred's naivety but he like the poster. He looked at Hercules who was sat in in chair with his head back, the ever present Larry on his lap as he snoozed. It was funny that whenever Kiku saw Hercules when he was asleep (which was every time he saw him), his cat was asleep too.
"How long has he been out this time?" Alfred asked, looking at the snoozing Greek. Simon looked at his watch.
"About twenty minutes!" he replied. "Good thing he got all his work finished!"
"Well, I have twenty bucks on him sleeping for another hour," Alfred replied. Kiku was not sure he approved of this betting on someone's sleeping issues so he never joined in himself.
"Gotcha!" Simon replied and went in search of anyone else wanting to make a bet. Kiku sighed and, with one last look at Hercules, followed Alfred as they left the Department.
The ad campaign was well-received and Hetalia Advertising had another happy client. Feliks heaped praise and congratulations on both Alfred and Kiku on a job well done and Alfred managed to persuade Kiku to go for a celebratory drink. As they sat sipping at their drinks, Alfred mused about what their next project would be.
"We'll find out on Monday," Kiku replied. "And you have to pick up the new man, don't you?"
"Yeah!" Alfred replied, sipping his beer. "He gets in about four so I probably won't be back at work till the next day after that. I just wished I wasn't picking him up at JFK! I hate that airport!" Kiku nodded, a little sadly, knowing that was where Alfred had met, and lost, his soulmate when he was three. It had given Alfred a dislike for the airport ever since he was told and Kiku decided to change the subject.
"I wonder if Hercules has found his soulmate," he pondered. He had to admit that he found the Greek physical attractive but he knew nothing about Hercules. He had never spoken to him because he was always asleep when Kiku saw him.
"Not sure the dude's been awake long enough," Alfred replied. "How he gets so much work done is beyond me! I think I've only seen him awake maybe twice since I've worked here!"
"Really!" Kiku exclaimed. "I haven't seen him awake at all! What colour are his eyes?"
"They're green," Alfred replied. "Guy seems like a bit of an airhead but I've been told that if he starts talking philosophy, he can go for hours, not even his Narcolepsy can stop him apparently!" Kiku wondered if he would ever see Hercules's eyes or hear him speak. It was kind of like the Scottish Loch Ness Monster, other people saw it but not him!
They left the bar and walked home, parting company near Alfred's apartment and Kiku made his way back to his own place and he thought about the sleepy Greek. He was now burning with curiosity to see the man's eyes but he always seemed to be around Hercules when he was in the middle of a sleeping episode.
As Kiku lay down to sleep, he wondered if he would ever see the Greek man's eyes.
Monday arrived and a new project landed on Alfred and Kiku's desk. A project that involved an ad campaign for renewable fuels and recycling for The World Environment Agency. Alfred was ecstatic.
"Yay!" he cheered. "Saving the world from Global Warming! We could totally do a superhero on this, dude! Green Fuels Man! Yeah! That could totally work! What do you think, Kiku?" Kiku smiled. Alfred would always suggest superheroes and direct opposition to the idea did not work with Alfred so Kiku always acted indirectly.
"It's an idea to consider," he replied, already formulating ways to steer Alfred in other directions. Alfred did good work but he was obsessed with superheroes. "But we should consider other things as well. We'll keep that idea in mind, though.” Alfred nodded, enthusiastically while Kiku smiled again. Westerners were so easy!
They ran over other ideas for the campaign, putting some in the 'Yes' pile and discarding others until Alfred looked at his watch.
"Damn!" he swore. "It's half four! I should have picked that Kirkland dude up half an hour ago!" He dove to his desk, picking up his car keys and a sign with Kirkland on it and ran out the door, shouting a 'see you later!' to Kiku as he disappeared. Kiku looked over the ideas that they had come up with so far, even the superhero idea. He wondered if, perhaps this once, to let it pass through this time. But how to pull it off?
Kiku sighed. Apart from looking over the ideas, which he had done twice, there was nothing else to do until tomorrow when he and Alfred decided what they were going to do and set the ball rolling so he decided to wander down to the Art Department to see what they were currently working on. Perhaps it would inspire some ideas.
The Art Department was buzzing like usual, Simon was wandering around collecting work and putting new projects down and everybody was hard at work with the exception of Hercules, who was once again asleep, propped up against a column with Larry curled up on his head while everyone milled around him.
"Hello, Kiku!" Simon greeted. "Got some new work for us?"
"Not yet," Kiku replied. "But we have a new project so we might have something for you later. Anti Global Warming campaign." Simon grinned.
"Alfred suggested superheroes yet?" he winked and Kiku smiled at him.
"You know Alfred-san so well," he replied.
"LOOK OUT!" Everyone turned to see Raivis chasing an errant pony who had got into the Art Department and was trotting toward them. The pony raced past them but caught the sleeping Hercules and sent him falling to the floor, Larry leaping off his head with a yowl as Hercules tumbled. Directly on top of Kiku who was standing near him.
Hercules awoke when the pony chased into him and found himself falling to the ground but instead of hitting the hard floor, he landed on something soft and looked down to see what it was.
Kiku hit the floor and then Hercules's weight came down on top of him and he looked up at the Greek. Soft brown eyes gazed up into grassy green orbs.
Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump!
Neither of them moved, caught up in each other's eyes and the feeling of their newly beating hearts as Hercules stared down at the small Japanese man under him, with black hair and the brownest eyes he had ever seen, making his heart thump in a way that Hercules never thought it ever could. So this is my soulmate! Hercules thought. Fate has been kind!
Kiku finally saw the eyes that he wanted to see and they had changed his world as he felt his heart pound in his chest and sped up. They were the colour of fresh grass or summer leaves, reminding Kiku of the season. They also look slightly drowsy, not surprising as Hercules had just been rudely awakened by a wayward pony. All the time he had been working in the same building, every time he had seen him, he had no idea he had been looking at his soulmate. Hercules gave a gentle smile as he finally got up and gave his hand to Kiku and pulled him from the floor.
"Hercules Kapusi!" he said.
"Kiku Honda!" Kiku replied, without realising that he had not let go of Hercules's hand as he stared up at his taller soulmate. "I am very pleased to meet you!" And he smiled back at Hercules.
Everybody stopped to stare at the couple. Some were perplexed at what was going on and others guessed what had happened and they began to applaud the new couple, making Kiku and Hercules blush while Raivis was still trying to catch the pony.
"What do we do now?" Kiku asked. Hercules pulled Kiku over to the elevator.
"See Feliks!" Hercules replied.
"Of course you can have some time off!" Feliks exclaimed as Hercules made the request. Feliks, a closet romantic, would never stand in the way of these two getting to know each other. "You should, like, totally have some time to yourselves! You should, totes, go somewhere alone and, like, enjoy yourselves! In fact, go now! Take two weeks, now shoo!"
"But Feliks-san!" Kiku said. "What about Alfred-san? We were to begin a new project, I can't just leave him like that!"
"Don't worry about that!" Feliks insisted, waving it off. "I'll, like, put the new guy with him! It'll be, totes, okay now go!" Before Kiku could say any more, he was pulled out of Feliks's office by Hercules.
"We have the time off we need," he said. "Don't question it! Let's just go!" And he lead Kiku out of the building.
Hercules stayed awake long enough to book a getaway at the Island of Nantucket and they flew there at the nearest opportunity. They spend time talking about each other, doing things that they found they had in common and building their relationship. Nights eventually lead to passion as the they inevitably fell in love with the one chosen for them by Fate.
One night, as they sat in front of the TV after a day of sailing, the news was showing and one news item caught Kiku's attention.
"Today, a video uploaded to YouTube almost caused the site to crash with the amount of views it received in a single hour," the female newsreader announced. "The video, which shows the meeting of two soulmates who met and parted when they were three years of age with no knowledge of who each other were, has attracted world-wide interest with over a million hits within the first fifteen minutes alone." Kiku sat up. That sounded like Alfred's story!The newsreader gave a laughing smile.
"Those with sentimental dispositions," she said. "Have your handkerchiefs ready!"
The picture cut to a shot, clearly phone footage, of the back of, what Kiku recognised as the back of Alfred's head, running around the Art Department of Hetalia Advertising and making his way to the elevator and waiting. The elevator opened and out stepped a man with messy blond hair and eyes a lighter green than Hercules's, topped with the biggest eyebrows Kiku had ever seen. The man's lip shook.
“YOU'RE MY SOULMATE!” the two said together.
"Alfie!" he said with a British tone in his voice.
"Artie!" Kiku heard Alfred's voice say. The British man flew into Alfred's embrace and they held each other. Tears filled Kiku's eyes at the poignant sight as 'Artie' sobbed about finding Alfred and Alfred soundly kissed his found-again soul mate before they explained to each other how they had realised that they were soulmates.
"I'm never letting you out of my sight again," Arthur cried when the kiss ended. "Do you hear me?"
"Loud and clear!" And Alfred gave a salute. "I'll stay so close to you, you'll be sick of the sight of me!"
"Never happen!" Arthur replied. The picture cut back to the newsreader who had a misty look in her eye.
" The Soulmates!" she commented, coining the name that Alfred and Arthur would become known as. "Wonderful!" Kiku shut the TV off.
"My friend found his soulmate!" he said, a little stunned. "I do not recognise the man, he must be Kirkland! I missed my friend finding his soulmate again!" Hercules wrapped his arm around Kiku.
"Look at it this way," he comforted his soulmate. "If we had not found each other, you would still be working with Alfred and Artie would have been sent to work with someone else and they might never have found each other again. Everything happens for a reason!" Kiku thought about what Hercules had said and realised that what he said was true and smiled. His good fortune had lead to his friend's good fortune. What a philosophical way to look at it!
Kiku pulled himself out of his self-reflection to speak to Hercules, only to find that his soulmate had fallen asleep again. He smiled and lay his head on Hercules's shoulder and joined him. Life was good!