Matthew hasn't seen his father in eleven years.
But now Arthur wants him to babysit his younger brother while he goes off to London with his new husband.
He doesn't know who this kid is and has never babysat before.
But one thing is clear about t...
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Sorry guys! The chapter didn't post this morning!
"Jou okay?" Gilbert came down to the living room a half hour after Matthew did. The Canadian was curled up on the couch with the blanket he left for the Prussian pulled over his head. He still felt nauseous but didn't know why. "Mnh." He groaned, sitting up to face the music. "Where's Peter?" "He built a race track out of old stuff und put Charlie in a truck to race it." That was totally something Al would do. Matthew nodded, pulling the blanket around his shoulders. Gilbert sat beside him, reaching his hand out to rub his host's back. "Vanna talk about it?" "Not really." "Zhat's fine. But jou should talk to somebody if it starts to get bad." Matthew suddenly started crying at this. He didn't know why. Tears just fell from his eyes without his consent. He dropped his face into his hands and just let it all out. Gilbert continued rubbing his back softly. "Ve can start vork on zhe illustrations if jou vant to get jour mind off zhings." Gilbert offered. "How does zhat sound?" "Mhm." Matthew nodded, trying to collect himself. "Okay." Gilbert pulled a sketchbook and a handful of pencils, the hardest of which was an HB. "I started on a few last night. Jou wanted one illustration per chapter, right?" "Yeah." Matthew nodded. "I sketched out some ideas for chapters one und two but I zhink jou need to approve zhe character designs first." "Can I see them?" "Ja." Gilbert got out another sketchbook and placed it on Matthew's lap. He opened it to the first page and was instantly walked through the Prussian's entire work process. The first character was the main character. He was short and round just like Matthew wanted him to be and paper-clipped to the corner was the character profile that he had probably been sent by the publishers. (When you get a book published you get a page describing every character based on what you mentioned in the story. It helps writers know what their readers will get out of the story and what they need to describe better in rewrites.) "You're really thorough." Matthew complemented. "Jou vant to know vhat else is zhorough?" "The dildo jokes are getting old." "I vas talking about zhe research Scott Westerfeld did for zhe Levizhan books...but zhat vas a good answer too." "Ugh." "What are you guys doing?" Peter hopped down he stairs excitedly. He must have been all played out. Or hungry. He was wearing an old sun hat and carrying a large plastic flower. "We're working." Matthew answered, flipping the page to reveal the story's villain. "Can I help?" "Sure." Matthew shrugged. "Also, can I keep this stuff?" "I guess so..." "Cool!" Peter sat up on the couch. "Who's that guy?" "He's the main villain." Matthew answered. "Does his hair have to be like that?" "What do you mean?" "Does it have to be black?" "Why don't you want it to be black?" "So many villains have black hair these days. White haired people are way more evil." "HEY!" Gilbert gasped. "It's true!" "Name one person whose evil with white hair..." "Pappa's other son won't share his licorice with me." "Emil?" Matthew hasn't heard from his stepbrother in ages. The boy had moved to Iceland to stay with his biological mother shortly after Lukas married Arthur. "Yeah." "Okay. Who else is evil?" "There's this kid in my class who yells at us a lot and is always doing art. His name is Alexis which is weird because it's a girl's name." "It doesn't have to be a girls name." "Well, it is." "Whatever you say kid." "So, white hair or no?" Matthew scanned he list of character traits. "It doesn't say anything aboot hair colour on the profile." "Zhen I can change it." "Thanks uncle Gil!" Peter chirped. "You're the best." Wait... Uncle Gil?
