A/N: BEAT UP THE FRESHMAN! ...I dread those words, especially since I still look like a middle-schooler.
Light streamed in through the spotless white curtains onto Ludwig's pale face, forcing him to open his eyes. He groaned and sat up and could hear the faint sound of a piano coming from down stairs. Roderich is awake, Ludwig realized. Roderich had been taking care of Ludwig for as long as he could remember, and he was well aware that Roderich couldn't be his father. The two didn't have a single trait in common; one having dark brown hair and purple eyes, the other having bleach-blonde hair and pale blue eyes. In addition, there was only one lady he ever spent time with, Elizabeta, and she didn't look a thing like Ludwig either. Besides, he was old enough to be an older brother at most. Ludwig yawned, put on his uniform and headed downstairs.
"Good morning, Ludwig!" Elizabeta exclaimed as soon as Ludwig came downstairs.
"Guten morgen, Elizabeta." Ludwig replied. Though he would never say it, he enjoyed days when Elizabeta was over. Whenever she was here, Roderich was in a better mood, and Ludwig wouldn't have to worry about the only food in the house being cakes.
"I made some breakfast. I think Roderich will join us as soon as he gets off the piano."
"Ja, I know." Ludwig replied as he walked into the kitchen. "What brings you here this morning?"
"It's your first day of high school! I had to show up!" Elizabeta said with a smile. "You look handsome in that uniform, Ludwig."
"You're not my mother." Ludwig stated, taking a sip of coffee.
"I know." Elizabeta sighed. "You're so cold. I think you've been hanging around Rod too much."
"Ja, ja, I know." He silently ate his food, an indifferent expression on his face.
"Ludwig, can you do me a favor?" Elizabeta put her hand on his shoulder. "Try to make some friends, please?"
"I'm going to be late." Ludwig got up and headed for the door, right as Roderich finished his song.
"Ludwig." He said, shutting the lid on his piano. "Have fun at school."
"Ja… danke." Without another word, he left the house shutting the door behind him. What is with them today? It's creepy when they talk to me like that, Ludwig though angrily. They need to realize I prefer to be in solitude. It's not like they're my parents.
"I'm being too harsh." Ludwig muttered to himself. "They probably just pity me." The school was in walking distance of his house, and he spent the rest of his trek thinking about school instead of his home life.
The school was a large, old building made of faded, red brick. Vines lazily made their way up the walls, and the concrete sidewalks were cracked. Granted, it was a great school; it's just that no one ever bothered to fix up the outside. I'm early, Ludwig realized when he had arrived. What should I do now?
"Hey, get back here!" A voice in the distance shouted.
"Don't let him get away! This kid's fast!" Another replied. Curious as to what was going on, Ludwig followed the sound of the voices. Eventually he found himself behind the main campus building, where a group of blonde boys were huddled together.
"Beat up the freshman! Beat up the freshman!" An annoying boy with glasses chanted.
"Stop it!" A voice cried from in the middle of the mob cried.
"Oh, shut it." A blonde kid boy with thick eyebrows said in a English accent. Whoever they were ganging up on began to cry.
"HEY!" Ludwig screamed. "Stop it now!"
"Oh? And what could you possibly do?" A person with long, blonde hair and a French accent replied. Ludwig glared and twisted the boy's arm backward, causing him to scream in pain.
"I can break your arm right now if I wanted to." Ludwig said calmly.
"Who the bloody hell are you?" The boy with the thick eyebrows asked.
"I'M. A. FRESHMAN." Ludwig answered, throwing them a dark look.
"Dude, this guy's totally creepy!" The annoying one with the glasses shouted. "Let's just go!" Ludwig let go of the French boy's arm, and all three of them ran away quickly. In the spot where the gang just stood was a small, whimpering boy, who had his head buried in his knees, sobbing.
"Hey…" Ludwig began, walking towards the boy. "Are you okay?"
"Ve! Don't hurt me!" The boy started sobbing. "I promise I'll do anything!"
"I'm not going to hurt you." Ludwig replied, a bit irritated. "What's your name?"
"Feliciano Va-"He looked up at Ludwig and went silent. His large chocolate eyes glistened with the tears as he stared. "Vargas." He finally finished.
"Feliciano, are you okay?"
"They hit me! It hurts, ve!" Feliciano sobbed.
"It's not that bad." Ludwig said. Feliciano only had a few scrapes on his face and hands, and one cut on his leg. Ludwig grabbed Feliciano's hand and pulled him up. "Here, I'll take you to the infirmary." The sooner he's out of my way, the better.
"Hey, Ludwig?" Feliciano asked, squeezing his hand.
"Ja, what is it?" Ludwig replied. Slapping his hand away.
"Will you carry me? My leg hurts."
"There is no way in hell I will carry you."
"Aww, that's cold!" Feliciano moaned. "I swear I'm light! Please? They hurt my leg!" Ludwig sighed and lifted him up.
"Your leg better be broken, because this is never happening again."
"Ve, I know, I know! Now carry onward! Mush!"
"I'm not your horse!"
Ludwig ran as fast as he could to the infirmary, trying his hardest not to be noticed by anyone. He didn't want everyone's first impression of him to be the weird, German kid that carried the annoying Italian bridal-style around campus. As soon as the nurse began to disinfect Feliciano's scrapes and cuts, Ludwig left. He didn't want to hang around the annoying, air-headed idiot any longer than he had to. He quickly headed to his first class, where he picked a lonely seat in the back where he silently did his work and stared out the window. Despite what others thought, he enjoyed to be in quiet loneliness. As the classes continued the rest of the morning, he didn't say a word to anyone.
The bell finally rang for lunch, and Ludwig sat alone in the corner and ate in silence. He wasn't too worried; the way things were going, high school was going to be just like middle school and elementary school. He'd get astounding grades and spend the year in silent solitude. I don't get what Elizabeta was so fed up about. Nothing interesting is going to happen.
"VE! LUDDY!" Feliciano screamed. Ludwig turned only to find the Italian running towards him at full speed. He jumped onto his lap and hugged him tightly. "Ve! Did you miss me! I wanted to talk to you all day!"
"GET THE HELL OFF OF ME!" Ludwig pushed Feliciano off of him, and he toppled to the ground.
"Ve! You don't have to be so mean! I just wanted to say hi!" He whined.
"Saying hello and tackling me are two very different things!" Ludwig scolded.
"Why are you so mean?"
"I'm not mean, I'm just logical." Ludwig turned away and continued eating. "Don't you have some friends to sit with?"
"Ve… that's the thing! I don't have any friends here because I'm new! Well, there's my brother but he's kinda mean to me, and there's big brother Francis but he's also really weird and everyone wants to beat me up because today's 'beat up a freshman day' and I'm really scared because I'm the weakest so everyone wants to take advantage of me and beat me up and-"
"ALRIGHT!" Ludwig interrupted. "You can sit with me. Mein gott…"
"Yay!" Feliciano plopped down next to him and hugged him again. "Thanks!"
"But there's no hugging, got it?"
"But I like hugging!"
"Most people don't hug this often!"
"What about friends?" Ludwig went silent for a moment and sighed.
"I've never had any friends."
"Luddy…" Feliciano looked serious for the first time all day. "I'll be your friend!"
"I don't really want a friend… I'm fine by myself."
"But that doesn't make any sense! Friendship is everything, ve! How can you be happy all by yourself?"
"You get used to it. I've been this way for as long as I can remember."
"Well I'm going to change that! We'll be bestest buddies, okay?"
"Not going to happen. I refuse to use that term."
"Ve… then what should I call it? Oh! I got it! We'll be an alliance! I'll watch your back, and you'll watch mine! How does that sound?" Ludwig sighed. There was something about this boy, something he couldn't refuse. Maybe it was the way he smiled so childishly or how naïve he acted.
"Ja. It sounds good." Ludwig finally answered.
"Ve! You mean it?" Feliciano beamed.
"Yes, but there's still no hugging, got it?"
"Yes, yes, I got it! Yay! We're going to be best friends forever! We're gonna hang out all the time, and we're gonna eat pizza and pasta together and then we're gonna play football lots and lots and then-"
"I get the point, Feliciano. Aren't you going to eat your lunch?"
"Oh yeah! Today I brought lots of pasta! Do you like pasta? It's my favorite food in the whole, wide world!" Ludwig listened to Feliciano talk the rest of the day, in almost every single class. Normally in this situation, he would yell at Feliciano to shut up so he could mind his own business, but for some reason, he didn't mind Feliciano's mindless rantings. He almost found them entertaining. Something about his high-pitched, cheerful voice made him feel at ease, though he would never admit it.
"I'm home." Ludwig said the moment he opened the door.
"Welcome home, Ludwig!" Elizabeta greeted. "How was it?"
"Fine, I guess." He replied nonchalantly.
"Tell me all about it!" She insisted, dragging him to the kitchen. "Roderich made cakes!"
"That's all he ever makes…" Ludwig mumbled.
"Did you say something about Roderich?" Elizabeta questioned threateningly.
"Nein, nein, of course not." She sat them both down and pulled out some decadent chocolate cakes.
"Did you make any new friends today?"
"…I guess you can say that." Ludwig replied hesitantly.
"See! I knew you could! What's their name?"
"His name is Feliciano." Elizabeta's cheery look suddenly faded and she frowned.
"Was his name Feliciano Vargas?"
"Uh… yeah. Why? Did you know him?"
"Of course I knew him! He's my cute little Feli and he was very good friends with your…" She suddenly stopped. "It's not important. I'm going to see how Roderich is doing." She quickly got up and left, leaving Ludwig alone and confused.
That was odd, he thought. She obviously knows him from somewhere… but it seemed suspicious. He scratched his head. I'm probably over thinking this. It's most likely nothing…
All night, Ludwig reassured himself of that, but something kept eating away at him deep down inside. There was something about Feliciano that got to him, but he couldn't figure out just what. Something's definitely wrong. The way Elizabeta was acting, the way Feliciano stared at me this morning… there's something their hiding from me. But what?
A/N: Yup, I'm back! Long time no see! It's been like... a week. What a shock. Mein gott, I need a life. I know my first fic was RoChu, but GerIta is seriously my OTP. They're just so damn cute together! Also, I promise that this story will get more interesting. This is just an introduction, sorta. Also, I am well-aware all of the ages are messed up. But screw the rules, it's a high school AU! ...Because I'm not creative. Ah well.