A/N: Hello, everyone! And so we begin the promised Round and Round! :D Hoorah! Now, just for the necessary reminders. This is a gen!flipped AU story, gen!flipped characters include Prussia and both Italies. This isn't a romance-focused fic, but there will be hints at lots of different pairings. And as a quick note about rating; this story is more of an OT (older teen) story, than anything else. Unfortunately, we don't have that rating, so I'll keep it as T unless I feel the need to heighten it. However, even if I do raise the rating, there will be no smut. So, enjoy :)

Round and Round

Part 1

She had always loved the colour yellow.

Yellow was such a happy colour, after all. It reminded her of the sunshine and her little pet Gilbird. And it reminded her of the bright yellow daffodils that her vati would hide all over the house on her mutti's birthday; the yellow daffodils that she and her mutti would spend the entire morning searching for, giggling as they ran around, looking everywhere they could possibly think of...

Yellow had always been equated with happiness in her mind.

She supposed that it made her current actions semi-ironic.

But even a stupid school building needed a bit of happiness, right? Especially during the middle of one of the most unawesome, unhappy homecoming dances ever.

Right?

Gillian Beilschmidt took a step back and she gazed up at the newly graffitied wall. She'd used lots of yellow paint, most of it going into an absolutely enormous painting of a chick. And then underneath, she'd used her black and white paint to create a quick rendition of the Prussian flag—since Prussia was the most awesome kingdom that had ever existed ever; Uncle Fritz had told her that and he knew everything. Plus, she'd signed it at the bottom, so everyone would know that the awesomeness had created this totally awesome piece of art.

She'd probably end up getting detention for the rest of the year for it, but she really didn't care.

"Shut up!"

The shout was loud enough to carry to where she was hiding, just out of sight of anyone who might come out of the gymnasium—which had been rather pathetically converted to a dance floor—for a breath of fresh air. It was loud enough that she was pretty sure that everyone inside the gymnasium could hear it, even over the deafening rap music currently being played by the DJ.

"Aww, little Lovi's crying now. How sad~"

"She just upset that she's not Antonio's favourite slut anymore."

Gillian scowled in the direction of the voices, shaking her spray can a little harder than necessary before spraying a stream of red paint under her name. Ugh. Why couldn't those bitches leave Lovina alone?

"I don't care about that bastard!" Lovina's voice sounded shaky, like she was simultaneously furious and trying not to cry. "And I'm not a slut, unlike you fucking bitches!"

"Ah, right. You were always too ugly for him. I bet the only reason that he hung out with your as a kid was because no one else liked you." Gillian glared at the wall in front of her, squeezing the spray can so tightly that she could feel her fingers going numb. She shouldn't go over and punch that bitch in the face. She'd promised Ludwig that she'd stop starting fights after she'd broken her arm last year...

And suddenly she heard the sharp sound of a smack.

...Fuck not getting involved. A broken arm was worth punching those bitches in their smug little mugs.

She dropped the spray can onto the ground and hurried around the building, where she saw a semi-expected scene. Lovina was standing alone, the front of her dark green dress stained with some liquid—Gill would bet any amount of money that that hadn't been an accident. Her hands were tightly clenched at her sides. Three much taller girls were standing across from her; one holding her hand against her reddening cheek, a shocked expression apparent on her face.

Gill felt a twinge of pride that apparently Lovina had been the one to strike first.

The girl just continued to stare at her in shock for a few more minutes. And then her expression twisted into something barely human, "You bitch! I'm going to fucking kill you!"

Well, Ludwig wasn't going to be happy about this...

Not that she cared.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." She walked forward, sliding her hands down into her jean pockets and resting most of her weight onto one leg. Pulling out her infamous 'Ain't I so cute as I stand here, about to kick your ass?' smirk as well.

For a moment, none of the girls responded. Lovina looked a little surprised, but that was all until the girl who'd been smacked—Gill couldn't remember her name, but did remember that she'd once left a fake toad in her gym locker as an April Fools' prank—suddenly smirked back.

"Oh, look, it's the albino freak. I'm surprised that you even bothered to show up, Beilschmidt." Her lips twisted up into an exaggerated grimace as she wrinkled her nose. "You too poor to afford a dress or something?"

Mm, breaking her nose would be incredibly enjoyable, really.

And she stepped forward to do just that, the two girls that had been flanking her—much bigger girls, although it wasn't anything that the awesome Gillian Beilschmidt couldn't handle—moving to meet her.

Oh yes, this would be fun.

Or it would have been, if it weren't for the sudden voice coming from the door to the gymnasium, just barely audible over the music pounding inside. "What's going on out here, mes amis? We're not getting into trouble, are we?"

Francis.

She immediately froze, gaze automatically flickering over to where the boy was leaning against the doorframe, gazing over at the girls with his usual patented 'charm smirk'. Staring at them, completely ignoring herself and Lovina.

And the girls immediately responded to said smirk by starting play with their hair and bite at their lips and pull their dresses lower. Gillian scowled and then stuck her tongue out at their backs when they turned toward him. Idiots.

Francis just smiled even wider at the attention. "Arthur, Antoine, and I were about to go back to my humble home, if you lovely ladies would like to join us?" He punctuated the invitation with a wink and Gillian could have sworn that she heard one of the bimbos actually give an audible sigh, like a girl would right before she swooned in one of those God-awful romance movies.

Okay, she was two seconds away from punching them all in the faces. At least then, Francis might actually say something to her. It'd been almost an entire year since the last time he'd acknowledged her presence in any sort of public situation. And almost three months since the last time he'd spoken to her in any sort of private situation either.

...And the worst part of that was that she had no idea why he'd suddenly decided to pretend that she didn't exist.

Except that Arthur must have something to do with it.

"Francis~?" And suddenly Antonio moved into sight as well. And Gillian automatically glanced over at Lovina. Who was now standing completely still, entire body tense...

He stood there, swaying on his feet in a way that definitely told that he wasn't entirely sober—somebody must have snuck alcohol in, probably Arthur—right arm wrapped around a girl who was giggling obnoxiously as if she found something hilarious about the entire situation.

"Franny~ I thought we were going. Arthur's getting impatient~" And now he giggled, the sound making Gillian feel sick to her stomach. Especially when her gaze flickered back to Lovina and she noticed how the girl was trembling, either from keeping her anger under control or to keep herself from bursting into tears. Maybe both.

"Oui." Francis held a hand out toward the girls. The leader—AKA: the one whose nose should currently be dripping blood all over the sidewalk—jumped forward to grab it, immediately clinging to his arm like a leech. "Let us go, mon ami."

Antonio nodded in response, and then suddenly glanced over toward Lovina.

And Gillian could see a tiny glimmer of—something—pass through his eyes. And through Lovi's.

Before he turned around, arm moving up slightly on the girl's waist as he called back, "You have a spot on your dress, Lovina."

And walked away.

...

...That was it.

That was it.

For a moment, Gillian watched as Lovina just stood there, gaze fixated on the now-empty doorway, fists clenched tightly at her sides. The only sound was the pounding of the music and the laughter that managed to trickle through. Talking, laughing...

And then suddenly she spun around, Gillian catching just a glimpse of tear-streaked cheeks before she ran straight toward the parking lot, straight to her car. Straight to pulling her door open before throwing herself inside and slamming it shut again. And then the sound of an engine being started and she backed up too fast, just narrowly missing smashing into another car before shooting forward.

And all she could really do was watch as Lovina raced away, down the road toward her home, just barely managing to miss the cars travelling in the opposite direction.

Damn it.

Damn it.

She fisted her hands in her pockets and then hurried around to where she'd dropped the cans, reaching down to scoop them into her arms.

Why the hell were things happening like this? Why were Francis and Tonio acting like this? The old Tonio would never say something like that. Never say anything to hurt Lovi.

She hated this.

She could feel one of the cans slipping from her grip and she let it fall, turning and running toward the road that she knew would lead her back to Big Mike's house—where she'd gotten the paint earlier. Big Mike would let her stay at her house for the night. She'd make her hot chocolate and listen as she told her all about her former best friends.

Big Mike would help her figure out what to do. Because she was sick of this. A whole year of them ignoring her... Almost a full two years since they'd started to grow distant, stopped coming over to her house and hanging out and instead decided to hang out with sluts like those girls.

She ran along the sidewalk, completely ignoring her surroundings as she instead just ran. She just needed to get away. Get away from them...

And suddenly she was startled by a sudden cacophony of sound. Sudden honking, a screeching sound... And two bright lights, growing brighter and closer and...

She was suddenly yanked backwards. Falling back onto something solid and the lights—the car—passed, honking furiously. But she was okay. She hadn't gotten hit.

"Ow~"

And that was why. Somebody had grabbed her and pulled her out of the way. Someone who she was currently half-laying on and who was making groaning noises. And now suddenly pushed at her, attempting to move her away.

Gill slowly lifted her head, panting, her heart beating probably a million times faster than was healthy. And she was now staring down into a pair of rather wide blue eyes. Blue eyes, light brown or maybe dirty blond hair, male, probably in his early-twenties...

And she was suddenly shoved away and those eyes turned toward her, now narrowed with a mixture of irritation and worry as he sat up and glared at her. "What was that? You don't just run out into the middle of a street like that! You're lucky that I happened to be walking by!"

She could barely hear him over the sound of her own heart. Thumping in her chest like it was attempting to escape and run away.

"I—" And she couldn't even get her mouth to work, like it was connected to her messed up heart.

Which the guy seemed to notice, since his voice lowered to a calmer pitch as he moved closer to get a look at her. "Are you okay? You want me to call someone or—"

To which she hurriedly shook her head, now rising to her feet. "No, Awesome is fine. I can get back. I—" She shook her head once. Stupid unawesome heart was being distracting...

He blinked once. "...Awesome?"

She had already turned, though, quickly flashing him a grin to assure him that Awesome was completely fine. And she only stumbled a teeny-tiny bit as she did, though. "Thanks. I won't do it again. Awesome should really be going now, though!" And, before he could say anything else, she hurriedly took off. Hoping against hope that no one else had seen her because she didn't even want to imagine the lecture that she'd get from Luddy if he found out that she ran out in front of a car.

No, there was no way she was ever letting Ludwig find out about this. Because it wouldn't be awesome at all for awesomeness to be lectured at by her little brother.

A/N: And that's your first chapter. Hope you liked it :) It took me quite a long time to write.

There are a few things I'm doing differently in this fic. I pointed most out in my opening AN, so I won't reiterate. Some things I will say, though.

1) This is a darker fic. It does have a happy ending, but it deals with a lot of darker themes. (But don't worry, there's still plenty of humour and fluff and all those sorts of things too).

And 2) the thing that is most different... (and I might get some flack for, although I hope that you trust me by this point) is that there will be a major, plot important original character in this fic.

I could go into a lot of stuff about the consideration, planning, etc. for this. But I won't. Just know that this story has been very very very very carefully planned out, much consideration has been put into all characters and development, etc. I'm honestly super excited to finally get to write what I've been planning since May ;D

And on that note, I dedicate this story to my lovely muse-chan, Kale Henderson, who has been helping me plan this story and the other gen!flipped ones for months and months and months. None of these would exist without her. And also to my darling Prussia-chan who has been also helping me plan this all out for the past few months. I love both of you guys :)

If you have any questions for me, I'll point out my formspring account that is on my profile :) I answer very quickly and will answer all questions to the best of my ability. (Unless it gives away too much of the plot...then I'll just be vague).