Chapter 18 – Going up in the world

Matthias popped the toast from the toaster and picked it out with a knife. Then, he put it into the toast rack and placed it onto the kitchen island beside the jars of jam and honey that he'd gotten out already and slid into the empty stool opposite his sister.

"You shouldn't stick a knife in the toaster you know," Christina said as she took a slice of toast and drizzled honey across it from the pot.

It was Sunday morning, and Christina had come to visit Matthias for breakfast and a catch up, and to talk with him about her application for fashion design school. The two siblings were like peas in a pod, Christina the eldest of the two. They were sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen balanced on the tall stools, the radio playing softly in the background and Matthias's old yellow Labrador, Penny, lay under their feet waiting for either of them to drop a tidbit.

"Well I've been doing it since I was old enough to make my own toast and I'm not dead yet." He retorted with a grin, pouring a glass of apple juice from the pitcher in the middle of the table.

Matthias lived in a small two bedroom house that used to be his grandmother's. It had been left to his parents, but they already had a house of their own by the time his grandmother passed away, and so they'd given it to Christina and Matthias. Christina preferred to live in the city centre in her studio apartment though that she also used as a makeshift design studio, and so she let Matthias make the house his own. She still made the effort to visit her brother whenever she could however, making sure he'd taken his meds and that he had enough food in the fridge on particularly bad days.

Though it could get a little lonely sometimes, Matthias was fine living alone, and rather enjoyed it to a certain extent. He had Penny for company and enjoyed putting his own stamp on the house. He'd installed a huge greenhouse in the back yard, and raised beds full of vegetables that he grew himself. Plus, he could sing from the top of his lungs as he did the house work or have his friends over whenever he liked. But although he didn't mind living alone, it would be nice to eventually find someone to share his life with. As much as he adored his sister, he couldn't rely on her to be there for him all the time.

"So," Matthias began, swallowing a mouthful of toast then washing it down with some apple juice, "how's the prep going? Did Francis agree to look over some of your designs?"

Christina put her half eaten toast down on her plate and brushed the crumbs from her fingers before leaning on the table,

"Yeah he did, but y'know what the weirdest thing was? He gave me a letter that came from the school addressed to my old name."

Matthias blinked, "What, addressed to you as Jens?"

"Mm-hmm," Christina hummed into her coffee as she raised her mug to her lips and took a sip, "but I called them and they updated it for me. Apparently they still had my record on file from when I applied previously and my address still matched. They were happy to change it, but I was still a little shocked." She shrugged.

"Well, try not to worry about it, sis. Worry about the fact that you might be one of the next top fashion designers!" Matthias said enthusiastically, picking up the folder that Christina had brought with her.

"oh I'm not fussed about it, it was just strange seeing it written on the envelope," Christina shook her head a little then smiled at her brother, taking the folder from him and opening it up. "and I wouldn't go as far as to say top fashion designer, but I'd be happy with just designer."

She flipped through the pages, and Matthias leaned over the table to look over the designs as she went through them one by one. The sketches were light and breezy, a whole collection of high fashion outfits, some masculine, some feminine and some androgynous.

As Christina talked Matthias through the designs, his gaze flickered to her face for a moment, watching how she spoke so passionately. Although he was pleased for her, if she were successful and did end up going overseas Matthias would miss her so much. His sister was his best friend. He couldn't help but feel a selfish desire to tell her not to go and hated himself for it, but he drew his attention back to the designs when she stopped talking for a minute and stopped on a particular page.

She pointed at the sketch then met his eye, "Would you model this one for me at the showcase? The design was inspired by you, so…"

Matthias beamed, "Of course I will!"

Deep down, Matthias knew that Christina was bound to find success as a designer. She was confident, talented, and people gravitated toward her. He was proud of her. No matter how sad it made him to think that soon she might be half way around the world, he would help her to get wherever she wanted to go.

After breakfast, Christina played fetch with Penny in the yard while Matthias cleared away and washed the dishes. He was just drying the last bowl when his phone vibrated in his pocket. Putting the dish towel down, he took it out and looked at the notification.

'10:42am Facebook - Tino Väinämöinen liked your profile picture.'

Confused, Matthias tapped the notification and opened up facebook, an old photo of him from 2017 loading onto the screen. Sure enough, whoever this person was had liked the photo, their name sitting underneath the picture within the list of people who'd liked it.

Turning to lean the small of his back against the kitchen counter, Matthias tapped on their name to bring up their profile and looked at their profile photos. His confusion grew as he swiped through the first couple, not recognising the person in them at all until he reached a group photo of some people sat around a table. As he studied the faces, a grin spread across his face. Next to the guy whose profile it was, sat Lukas.

"What are you grinning at?" Christina asked as she came back into the kitchen, slightly out of breath from chasing Penny around with muddy paw prints on her jeans.

Matthias looked up from his phone, grin getting wider still,

"Remember the guy I met for a drink on Thursday?"

Christina laughed and rolled her eyes, "Yes, how could I forget after you called me at 1am, drunk, to gush about how handsome and wonderful he is?"

"Well he doesn't have facebook, but his friend must be stalking my page 'cause he's just accidentally liked an old pic."

Moving to stand beside Matthias, Christina peered at his phone,

"Oh my god no way, which one is he? The one you went on a date with?"

Matthias opened the photo fully and pinched his fingers on the screen, zooming in on Lukas and Tino.

"That one, the one with the longer hair on the right." He said proudly, and pointed to Lukas.

"Hang on a minute…" Christina said as she peered closer at the photo.

"What? Do you know him?" Matthias gasped.

"Er, no I don't know him, but I know his friend. He works with me."

Matthias watched Christina for a moment as she looked at the photo, her expression a little crestfallen before she straightened up again and her smile returned.

"You did good, lil' bro! He's gorgeous." She said, patting Matthias on the shoulder.

He locked his phone and slid it back into his pocket, pushing himself off the counter and followed Christina as she wandered over to the couch.

"I know, right? He's kinda funny too, and he's real smart. What a small world that you work with his friend too!" Matthias laughed, picking up the TV remote from the couch. Pretty much as soon as he sank into the cushions on the three seater, Penny jumped up onto the couch and laid her head on his lap as he stroked her head. Christina sat on the smaller two seater opposite and pulled her legs up, taking out her own phone.

"We've texted every day since Thursday, and I wanna ask him on another date. Is it too soon d'ya think?" Matthias rambled on as he scrolled through the Netflix menu while he waited for Christina to reply. When she didn't he tossed a cushion at her.

"What?" she snapped, looking up from her phone,

"I'm trying to get advice from my older sister, but you're too busy to listen to me." He whined, sticking out his bottom lip playfully.

She pushed her hair behind her ear and put her phone down,

"Sorry, I'm listening now…" she smiled, giving Matthias her full attention as he rambled on about asking Lukas on a next date.

"Shit, Lukas I didn't mean to, my hand slipped!" Tino flapped as he stared at his phone, "Should I unlike it? Or is that weirder? He'll have already got the notification now anyway…"

He was sat in the middle of his sofa bed surrounded by his duvet and pillows in nothing but his boxers, his hair a tangled mess. He'd been awake for an hour or so, but his bed was warm and it was a Sunday so he hadn't bothered to move.

"What does it matter? It's only a photo. I don't get it." Lukas said as he handed Tino a mug of coffee and sat at the end of the bed, bringing his legs up and crossing them beneath him.

"Because I look like a creep! That photo was from 3 years ago!" Tino sighed as he took a sip of his coffee, tossing his phone onto the middle of the bed.

Lukas's caught Tino's eye and fiddled with the sleeve of his dressing gown,

"Tell me what you think…" he probed, his voice soft.

"Oh, right. Sorry Lu," Tino remembered why exactly he's been stalking Matthias's profile pictures, "He seems really nice. He's not bad looking either. I'm happy for you." He smiled, watching as a small blush crept over Lukas's cheeks.

Between Lukas not waking up until late on Friday and missing Tino before he went to work, and then Tino dashing off to Berwald's, the two hadn't really had the chance to discuss Lukas's date until last night at dinner after Berwald dropped him off home.

Tino was nothing short of elated that his best friend was coming to terms with his sexuality. For the majority of the time he'd known Lukas he'd been single apart from the couple of months at the start of college when he'd been dating a girl from his home town long distanced, but it hadn't lasted long. He could see a noticeable difference in Lukas, he seemed happier, and Tino would catch him smiling down at his phone now that he knew to look for it.

His phone chimed on the bed as a text notification came through, and Tino put his coffee down on the windowsill behind him and picked it up.

'SMS from Christina: wtf why didn't you tell me that your best friend is dating my brother'

Tino read the message twice, then his head snapped up and his eyes followed Lukas as he got up and went back into the kitchen, taking some cereal down from the cupboard.

He looked back at the screen and his fingers flew over the keyboard,

'SMS to Christina: what? I didnt know that! Matthias is your brother? x'

Hugging the duvet a little closer to his chest, Tino watched as Christina typed her reply,

'SMS from Christina: yeah… I pretended to Matt that I dont know who Lukas is. Why were you stalking his pics lol?'

'SMS to Christina: omg I wasnt stalking him! Lu just wanted to show me a pic of him and I accidentally liked it. He's kinda smitten with him yknow xx'

'SMS from Christina: Same on this end… Its been Lukas Lukas Lukas all weekend. You need to spill more deets tomorrow x'

As Christina had done, Tino decided it was best not to tell Lukas that Matthias was Christina's brother. Surely they would figure it out themselves eventually, and he didn't want to make it awkward for Lukas who also knew Christina.

He locked his phone and slid out of bed, bundling up his duvet and pillows and putting them away in the chest in the corner. Then, just as he was folding the bed away and putting the couch cushions back, Emil walked through into the living room.

"Mornin' Tino." He mumbled, and Tino turned to look over his shoulder at him,

"Morning, Em!" he said with a smile, then turned back to fluff the couch cushions up.

Emil watched as Lukas came through from the kitchen, a bowl of cereal in his hand, eating it as he walked across the room, and then stared at Tino who took his mug of coffee from the windowsill and finished it off and huffed as he put his coat on.

"Well it's alright for you two isn't it, still lounging around undressed at 11am. I was up until 3am studying and now I gotta go to work." Emil snapped as he disappeared into the hall to put his shoes on, and Tino glanced at Lukas who just shrugged.

"You guys just don't get it!" he carried on, his voice carrying through from the hall. "Right, I'm going. Have a nice day doing nothing!"

Lukas and Tino blinked at each other as the front door slammed closed.

"What the fuck?" Tino gaped, stunned at the outburst, and suppressed a laugh as he shook his head slowly.

Lukas just hummed, scraping his spoon against the bottom of his cereal bowl.

"Teenagers."

As Emil stepped off the subway and made his way up the steps and onto the street, he started to feel bad for snapping at Lukas and Tino for no good reason, but he just felt stressed. Despite studying all night he didn't feel like any of it had sunk in.

The start of his final exams were only a few weeks away and he would be graduating in just less than two months. Though he was pleased with his job at Venus, Emil couldn't help but wonder if he'd made a bad decision by not going to college. He had an example at home of someone who had been to college, Tino, and someone who hadn't Lukas, and both of them were successful in their own respects. But with all of his friends now talking about which colleges they'd been accepted into, Emil couldn't help but regret his decision not to at least apply like Leon had suggested.

He sighed as he neared Venus, taking his earbuds out and closing Spotify. It was 11:30, and he'd arrived just on time for his shift. The bell above the door chimed as he walked in, and he headed straight for the back room and hung his coat and bag up. He heard Caoimhe and Isak laughing about something at the back of the store room as he tied his apron.

"It's not my fault you didn't listen to me. That dealer is dodgy! Let me hook you up next time, okay?" he heard Caoimhe say as she teased Isak about something.

There was something about Caoimhe that Emil was unsure about. She seemed like a nice enough girl, but she was quick witted and seemed to have an answer for everything. Emil listened at their voices grew nearer and focused all of his attention on tying his apron so as to appear distracted when they stepped out from the aisle where the extra stock of tins of olives and dolma were stored, piled high.

"Oh, hiya! I didn't hear you come in, how are ya?" Caoimhe said as she came over to him, grinning wildly.

"So, you made it official. Welcome to club Venus! Finally I'm not the youngest anymore."

Emil caught her eye as she laughed and patted him on the shoulder. She was about a head shorter than he was, but Emil couldn't help but feel a little inferior next to her.

Then, Sadık stuck his head in through the door and called to Isak and Caoimhe, complaining that they shouldn't both be in the back at the same time while there were customers to serve. They both scurried out, ducking under Sadık's arm as he held the door open, and he laughed and fully entered the room.

"If you ever see them both back here together, just know that they aren't meant to be. I don't want you learning bad habits from them." He said to Emil, though there was no anger in his voice and his expression was just as relaxed as it always was.

"So, Sunday shifts are nice and easy. There's no delivery, so today you'll just be on re-fills today…"

Sadık showed Emil around the back room and explained that whenever he was bringing stock out to refill the shop floor, always pick from the front of the shelf so the items with the closest expiry date went out for customers to buy instead of sitting in the back and passing the date. Then he went over how to use the pricing machine, and set him to work.

"I need to go to the mosque for zuhr, but I won't be long. Iakovos is in charge until I get back, so if you need anything, just ask him okay? Start with these jars here, but they're expensive so make sure you price them right." Sadık said, tapping a box on the shelf before as he turned and headed for the door.

"Sure, will do." Emil nodded, and Sadık gave him a thumbs up before the door slammed closed behind him.

Emil been in the back room for about half an hour, and had just finished pricing the jars of black olives as he was asked. The second part of the task was to re-stock the shelves, and so carefully he took the box from the shelf and carried it to the door. There were so many jars in the box and it was heavy, so as he went to open the door Emil balanced his weight on one leg and lifted the other up so his knee was supporting the underside of the box as he reached for the door. Before he could grab the handle though, the door swung open and knocked the box of olive jars out of his hands.

He jumped back as it crashed to the floor, the jars of olives smashing as they hit the concrete, sending brine splashing up the wall and Emil's legs and glass to shatter across the room.

"Oh my god, Egil, I'm so sorry I didn't know you were behind the door." She said from beneath her hands that she'd clamped over her mouth. She tiptoed into the room and picked her way through the broken glass, and Emil stood frozen to the spot as brine soaked through his socks and his jeans.

Exhaling sharply, he glared at the back of Caoimhe's head as she reached for the mop and bucket in the corner.

"It's Emil, and of course you didn't." he said bitterly, watching as Caoimhe wheeled the mop bucket over to the sink in the corner of the store room and began to run warm water into it.

"Emil, got it, sorry. Look, I'll help you clean this up, wanna grab the broom from the utility cupboard and start sweeping the glass up?"

As a complete contrast from her usual careless attitude, she sounded genuinely apologetic as she scraped her frizzy red hair back into a ponytail and away from her face. Stepping over the spilt olives that covered the floor, Emil went over to the cupboard and retrieved the broom.

"Those jars were £14 a jar, and I'm sure there were 20 in the box." Emil fretted, his face pale as he thought about how much money he'd lost Sadık by dropping them. He cringed as he started to sweep them up, dust and dirt from the floor sticking to the ridiculously expensive olives as they rolled across the floor beneath the broom.

"Don't worry about it, just hurry before Sadık comes back." Caoimhe said as she started to mop the floor. The room smelt heavily of the brine, and no matter how much Emil scrubbed the wall with a damp cloth when he'd finished sweeping up, the stains that had splashed up it weren't shifting. If anything wiping it had made it worse.

Just as he'd pulled himself up off the floor, the door to the back room opened and Sadık walked in.

"What's going on? There's a huge line of customers out there and Iakovos said he's been calling you both! Why are you both in here when I told you-"

"Sorry, it's my fault. I dropped something and Emil came to check if I was alright. It's not his fault." Caoimhe interrupted him, and Emil scrambled to his feet like a deer caught in headlights.

Sadık raised an eyebrow,

"Is that true, Emil?"

Not wanting to get in trouble on his first real day on the job, Emil wrung his hands a little and nodded, "Yeah, I-uh, heard a crash and I came to check what happened."

Sadık sighed, running his hands through his hair as he looked at the pile of olives and glass swept neatly into a pile and then back to Emil and Caoimhe.

"Alright, well, at least you're alright, Caoimhe. It's only stock. Both of you get cleaned up and back on the shop floor as quickly as you can." He said, then left the room.

Emil released a breath he hadn't realised he was holding as Caoimhe turned to him.

"Why did you say that? Why did you take the blame?" he asked her as she pulled her hair free from her ponytail, her green eyes sparkling as she grinned at him.

"Sadık doesn't have the heart to get rid of me. I've messed up so many times, and I know I'm a handful, but he never seems to discipline me. We'll, not anything more than a quick 'don't do it again' anyway." She said, deepening her voice as she mimicked Sadık.

"Besides, it's your first day on the job, I couldn't let ya embarrass yourself like that. I've been there and it's not fun."

Emil stared at her as she stood in front of him, and felt himself warming to her. She was loud, a little obnoxious and way too boisterous, but she was kind, and Emil felt bad for judging her the way he did.

"Thank you. I appreciate it." He said, wiping his forearm across his brow, giving her a small smile.

"Don't worry about it. Just have my back in return if I ever need it, yeah?" she said, and Emil nodded.

"I'm not making any promises, it depends what you do." He said with a smirk, and she smacked him lightly on the arm.

"Hey, you can't make half arsed promises! But I'll let you off this time."

The pair of them cleaned up quickly, Emil gathered the olives and broken pieces of the glass jars and tipped them into the cardboard box they'd fallen from. He tossed the whole thing into the trash can by the delivery shutters while Caoimhe filled in the stock loss form.

"Well, you've cost us a £280 loss on your first day, nice one." She teased as she scribbled her name across the bottom of the form.

"I wouldn't have dropped them if you didn't come barging through the door!" he cried, defensive, but she just laughed.

"I'm joking, I'm joking, calm down." She held her hands up in front of her in feigned innocence.

"Come on, we need to get onto the shop floor." Emil muttered as he stormed past her and over to the door, pulling it open and holding it for Caoimhe as she followed behind him as they left the stockroom.

Notes:

ahhh I'm not sure on this chapter, its kinda dialogue heavy, I'm sorry. I hope it flows well between each characters POV too. I also feel like the last two chapters have been boring cause I've toned it down on the drama lol but don't worry, there's some on the horizon.

A quick clear up, Iakovos is Cyprus, and Caoimhe is my lil' oc for Northern Ireland in case you're wondering.

Also, Christina is trans, mtf, but I wanted y'all to see her for the woman that she is, and not let the fact that she's trans become the first thing you know about her which is usually how trans people are written.

When writing, you don't need your characters to 'pass'. If you write a character using she/her pronouns, then the reader will already see them as a woman. I guess I wanted to highlight the fact that if someone says they're a woman and uses she/her pronouns, then you should just see them as a woman regardless of if they pass or not. The same goes for all trans people with whatever pronouns they use. I didn't want to make a big song and dance about it, which is why it was revealed the way that it was, and I hope it came across in the way that I wanted it to.

But anyway, THANK YOU for over 2000 views on this! Like, wow, I'm blown away!

I'm overwhelmed with everyone's kindness and waking up to new follows and reviews honestly is the best part of my day. I just wanna be a good writer and I crave validation ;w;

Also, we're getting close to 100k words on this fic, and I'm wondering how I'm going to start wrapping it up and if I can do it before 100k. I still have two things that are yet to happen for a couple characters, but once I've written those ideas out I'll start to think about an ending. I'm painfully aware that we're at chapter 18 already :')

But yeah, thanks so much for reading! See you next chapter!

-lumassen x