Hi!

This is pretty much based off the novel Seven Days For an Eternity by French novelist Marc Lévy. The basic outline, anyway. Because the characters aren't very similar. At all.

Seven Days

Day one

That morning, Gilbert woke up around nine o'clock, but stayed in bed until eleven. Once he felt hungry, he ordered room service (their pancakes were decent, at best) and turned on the television to watch the news. The journalists complained about the unusually warm weather and various health problems caused by the unrelenting pollution in the air, related the story of a particularly gruesome murder, and announced that there were traffic jams pretty much everywhere. He smirked. What a delightfully dreadful day.

He eventually got dressed, settling on a dark suit that accentuated the pallor of his skin, and spent a little too much time arranging his hair into a carefully neglected style. Looking himself over in the mirror one last time, he decided that he liked what he saw, put on his beloved sunglasses and excited the room, making sure to knock the television over on his way out.

There would probably be a property damage fee, but the credit card he had used to pay for the room wasn't his anyway.

He left the hotel without bothering to check out, and set out in search of a potential vehicle. The one he found, a blood red Ferrari, surely belonged to someone rich and powerful who would make a point of getting revenge on the thief. He casually dropped the credit card he had been using. Its owner would probably have loads of fun explaining himself.

He drove right into the traffic, causing a van to brake brutally and to be crashed into by at least two other cars. Gilbert relished in the pained and angry screams that ensued.

It took him half an hour to get to work, and he prided himself in the fact that he had probably broken every single road law and caused six accidents, two of them major ones. It was definitely a good day.

He was somewhat disappointed to have to get rid of such an awesome car, but he made a point of never using the same vehicle twice, so he abandoned it in the middle of the street.

The building where he worked was a skyscraper, though he had never seen the upper floors. Those belonged to another company. He stepped inside the large, mostly deserted hall and nearly bumped into a quarrelling duo he knew very well.

"I can't believe you dared to make that town's economy collapse! You knew I've been working on that for years, you insufferable git!"

" I was just doing my job, mon cher, it's not my fault we were assigned the same part of the world. Especially since you keep hindering my plans! "

Gilbert slung an arm around the British man's shoulders, ruffling his hair in the process.

" Poor Arty, has Francis been mean to you?"

Aforementioned Francis snickered and greeted him while Arthur freed himself and turned to glare fiercely at his attacker, seething.

" Don't touch me! And don't call me Arty either!"

" Kesesesese! "

He left the other two and walked to the elevator, shouting over his shoulder:

" Tell Antonio we should go wreck havoc together sometimes, I haven't seen him in ages!"

He took the elevator going downward, ignoring the various people who came and went, often carrying documents or boxes filled with deliciously evil things. They were merely minions, and not worthy of his attention.

The lowest level was an awesome place, and he usually would have taken a few minutes to soak in the evil atmosphere, but he had a meeting with The Boss himself. The only detour he allowed himself was to avoid the tall Russian man he had almost met in the hallway. It wasn't that he was afraid of Ivan, of course not, but he had once worked under him and the experience had been rather… unpleasant.

The meeting was short and to the point (The Boss was a busy man, after all): The Boss and That Other Guy had made a bet. They would each select their best agent and make them compete for seven days and the result, determined by the effect (good or bad) they had had on a given area's population, would give the winner the right to, well, rule the world. Permanently.

Now, Gilbert was happy to have been judged the best (though he was just awesome like that, it was hardly surprising), but this was somewhat overwhelming.

But he would think about that kind of things later. Right now, he needed a beer.

On the other side of the city, Matthew woke up at noon, already late for work. It took him five minutes to take a quick shower and get dressed, but he had run outside only to see his bus disappearing down the street. He sighed, and tried to ignore the feeling that something terrible would happen to him that day. His instinct was hardly ever wrong, but he could always hope. He used the time until the other bus arrived to buy a coffee and a makeshift breakfast, and ended up giving all his remaining change to the homeless man who was opening the door to the clients. He would have stayed and talked to him about different options to get a better life, but he couldn't afford to miss another bus.

He apologised profusely to his newfound friend and ran to the stop, making it just in time.

It took him an hour to get to work, and he knew that taking a taxi or his car would have been much faster, but he firmly believed in public transportation. And he had been able to help a couple of tourists find their way in the city. He had also given up his seat to an old lady who had taken a liking to him and had told him much of her life story, and how he looked like her grandson who didn't visit much anymore. He loved to meet new people who needed his help every morning, and to make their day a little better greatly improved his own.

He waited for the green light before he crossed the street, even though there was no car in sight. The building he worked in was a skyscraper, and he had heard that it was as deep as it was high, though he had never visited the lower levels. Walking into the hall, he heard two voices he knew very well.

"Argh! What I'd give just to be able to hit you, bastard!"

" Just give in and join the dark side, Arthur, you could hit me anytime. "

"Don't twist my words, prat! "

"I was just- Ah! Mathieu!"

Mathew approached the others carefully, waiting to see if their fight would erupt once more, but they seemed to be content with ignoring each other at the moment.

" Bonjour Francis. Hello Arthur."

The British man had been his mentor back when he had just been hired, and they got along pretty well, though they had never been particularly close. Francis he knew from before.

He would have stayed to chat with them, but he suddenly remembered that he was terribly late, and left them to their bickering, taking the elevator that went upward.

At the moment he had a desk job, because no one wanted a desk job, so all the agents took turns. He got out at the eight level, greeting all his coworkers in passing. Most of them returned the salutation, but some didn't see him. He didn't let it bother him: that tended to happen a lot. He was about to step into his cubicle when he was stopped by Mr. Edelstein, who he had never really talked to, but knew by sight. He was His secretary, and much higher ranking than he was. As far as he knew, the Austrian man was supposed to be a composed person, so it was startling to see him in a state of disarray. And he was even more surprised when the secretary grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him back to the elevator, lecturing him.

" Mr. Jones! I was searching for you everywhere! You knew you had a meeting with Him today, I made sure of it myself! "

Well, that explained things. But Matthew's last name was Williams. "Mr. Jones" was Alfred. The boisterous, self-proclaimed "hero" who happened to be his brother and to look a lot like him. But then again, people confused them all the time. Or rather thought Matthew was Alfred, never the other way around. He tried to explain it to Mr. Edelstein, but he wouldn't listen.

"But-"

" -Don't you realize how much of an embarrassment you're being? This is an important day! "

"I'm-"

He never had the chance to defend himself, because the elevator had reached the top of the building, and the Austrian was dragging him once again, choking him in the process.

And then he had been in His office. Before Him. And He had frowned and said:

"That is not Alfred Jones, Roderich. "

Despite the rather rough treatment he had just been subjected to, Matthew couldn't help feeling sorry for the other man, who was suddenly terribly flustered.

He turned his attention to Matthew (who now felt awfully self-conscious), brow creasing in concentration.

" Your name is Matthew, isn't it? Well, I guess you'll have to do. We are terribly late already, and wasting any more time could get us disqualified."

And he was far too intimidated to ask what exactly was expected of him, though he had gathered from Roderich's ramblings that it was something of vital importance. The Canadian suddenly felt very afraid.

He was not kept in the dark very long: His superior suddenly launched himself in passionate explanation, and by the time he was finished, Matthew felt like he had the whole world on his shoulders.

Which he kind of did, if only figuratively.

Hope you liked my insane idea x)

Oh, and the character's alignments are pretty random (except for Arthur and Ivan, because those are pretty canon XD). I'm not saying any country is evil, or anything. And please forgive the atrocious portrayals of God and the devil. I'll try to use them as little as possible, even though the original novel made fun of them shamelessly XD (… and now that I think about it, Hetalia did too).So yeah. I just don't want to offend anyone.

… Am I the only one who feels sorry for poor Matthew?

Please, please, please review and let me know what you think?