Chapter Text
“Oh come on, Ludwig! You’re going to be late!” Gilbert yelled at his brother, who had slept in late. Gilbert Beilschmidt and his brother, Ludwig, were new to their neighborhood. They were originally from Berlin, Germany until Ludwig had to move to a different place for his job. Ludwig was blonde haired and had blue eyes; he worked at a business where they had to change places a lot. Gilbert, on the other hand, didn’t have a job. Well, he did had a job until he got fired for fighting with an employee. Gilbert had red eyes and white skin, his skin pale which cause people to mistake him for an albino.
The new neighborhood they moved to was San Diego, California just last Spring and they were just getting use to the place. Ludwig decided to rent an apartment for Gilbert until he could find a job. The view from his apartment was beautiful. It gave an amazing view of the ocean beside it, the boats coming towards the dock and people setting things up.
Today is the day Ludwig started his job and he was late. The younger German got up immediately and started to look through his one story house for his clothing and papers.
“Gilbert, what are you doing here? How did you even get in?!” Ludwig asked as he was searching around the house for a tie.
The older boy laughed as he watched the other look around the house like a chicken with his head cut off. “Bruder, you know I will always be here in the morning!” He looked at the front door beside him. “I…um….might have picked the lock.”
Ludwig sighed in annoyance and walked back into the room with a black tie around his white, button down shirt. “You’re such an idiot.”
“An awesome idiot!” Gilbert smiled, looking through the cabinets for cereal. He pulled a Trix box out and grabbed a bowl from another cabinet. “So, bruder. You nervous?” He asked, getting milk out of the refrigerator.
“Nein.” Ludwig replied, with an unsure voice. He looked over at Gilbert, who was giving him the ‘yea right’ look. “Maybe a little. It’s a new city, bruder. I don’t know exactly how the people here are.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine.” Gilbert said, eating the cereal before him. “Besides, you have an awesome bruder who will support you the whole way through!”
Ludwig couldn’t help but smile. The two had grew very close when they were in Germany. They had to take care of each other when their adopted father passed away from lung cancer. Gilbert was 18 years older at the time while Ludwig was 14 years old.
“What are you going to be doing while I’m out? Make a mess out of my house like you did last time?” Ludwig asked, grabbing his suitcase and getting the important documents he had together.
“Ja! Nein, bruder. I’m going to be out looking for a job.” Gilbert said, putting his bowl in the sink and cleaning up his mess. “I’m tired of being a lazy-ass guy. I saw this tattoo shop a few blocks away and thought I’d go check that out first. They are looking for new tattoo artists.”
Ludwig gave a surprised look at Gilbert, which he noticed was in jeans, white Nike shoes, a plain white t-shirt, and a red black jacket that had the Prussian eagle on the back. “Wow, bruder. I’m shocked that you are actually doing something with your life.”
Gilbert threw a small towel at Ludwig, who was now laughing. “Fich dich!” He said, trying to hide the grin that was appearing on his face. “Don’t forget that I had a host job before we moved here!”
“And you kicked some guy’s ass and got fired.” Ludwig replied, walking towards the door. Before he left the house, he turned back to his brother. “Just remember, Gil. Don’t mess this up. As far I know from people around here, Americans are the last people you want to mess them.”
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Gilbert walked down the streets towards the tattoo shop. On his way, he took in the site before him. People were outside performing on the streets, people in bathing suits were walking towards the beach that was nearby, there was sellers on the street with their new products, and cars were crowding the street.
The weather outside was horrible. It was extremely hot and Gilbert felt ridiculous for wearing a jacket. He took off his jacket and tied the sleeves around his waist.
The tattoo shop was rising before him. It was a normal building, just like the others around it. It was small and you can peek through the glass and see what is going on. Once he was in front of the shop, he looked at the paper before him that read ‘HELP WANTED.’
The ‘HELP WANTED’ sign had everything that Gilbert had. He had experience in tattooing from a side job in Germany, he had people tell him he was an amazing artist, and he was over 18 years old.
Gilbert opened the door and walked into the building. The sounds around him were of hard rock music and the noises of the tattoo needles going to work. The floor was red with black designs on it and the walls contained of different people that came into the building and got their tattoos done.
He walked towards the counter and asked for an application. Once he got the people of paper and grabbed a pen that was on the counter, he walked towards the chair section and worked on it.
“Hey! Matthew! Where the hell are the colors? I ran out of blue over here!”
“They should be over there near Francis’s station, Miguel.”
“Oi, gracias amigo!”
Gilbert’s head started to hurt and he looked up at the two people talking. The ‘Miguel’, he assumed, was a dark skinned man with a Cuban accent. He had a tattoo of a tiger going down his arm and some type of detail on his neck he couldn’t see. The Cuban had a Hawaiian shirt on and was wearing white capris. He was heading towards a different room to get the color he was looking for.
“Hey Lovino, do I have any more clients?”
“No, bastard. I don’t think you have any more clients. I think you are done for today.”
Gilbert looked up towards the counter and he was in awe at what he saw. Standing in front of the counter was a boy with wavy, blonde hair and blue eyes. The mysterious boy was wearing glasses, had on black jeans with a hockey jersey on him. But, that wasn’t was distracted Gilbert.
If anyone were to look at this boy, which he decided was the Matthew everyone was talking to, they would have never guessed he was a tattoo artist. Matthew’s arm was covered in designs that arranged from barbed wire on his left arm and the right arm had a maple leaf and a hockey mascot on it.
Gilbert felt drawn to him for some reason. Something about this boy got his attention and it wasn’t the tattoos. He felt…attracted to him.
‘I need this job.’ He thought, quickly working on his application and turning it back to the Italian behind the front desk.