A/N: Hey, this is my first fic that I have ever published (I have written other stories but I've never put them online). I hope you all like it! Here goes…

Alvaro sat himself across from the Belarusian woman named Rashel, watching her intently. He knew that she was hiding something from him. There was no doubt about that. A few days prior he had found her laptop unlocked revealing a pending message from someone whom he'd failed to recognize. All the auburn-haired male knew was that the message was in a Slovak language. It was either from one of her relatives, or from their enemy, the Volkov Family. The blue-eyed male hoped that it was the former. Either way he had to be careful.

Rashel was in her usual attire for combat, a white and blue striped dress, blue leggings, lace-up combat boots, and a blue hair-bow tied in her hair. She had once told him that she would wear anything that allowed her optimal movement. Most couldn't or wouldn't fight in a dress, but somehow she did. She was the best of the best. If she was given the word to kill someone, it would be done. She could kill with anything, even her own bare hands, but at a glance most wouldn't think such. She had long pale blond hair, crystal blue eyes, a limber body, and her chest...well, she was better endowed than quite a few women. He honestly had no idea of how women fought while having those things. He figured that they'd only got in the way.

He surveyed the room just in case he had to defend himself, though he wouldn't have much of a chance if she was intent on killing him. They were in the kitchen. Great. Plenty of utensils for her to use. He needed to find something just in case. There were frying pans, knives, a crème brûlée torch—

The mobile phone vibrated on the table. Rashel glanced down at it for a moment, her face turning grave. The blond sighed, "It seems that we will not be comrades any more," her thick Belarusian accent incredibly prevalent. She hadn't been speaking English for very long, so it took Alvaro a few moments to understand her.

"Are we splitting up?"

Her crystal blue eyes glanced his way. "In a way."

This wasn't sounding too good for him. "What do you mean?"

She stood up to her full height of about five foot three inches. "You see, you weren't supposed to survive last mission, but you did mostly because of your…" She paused as if searching for the right words. "Your unfortunate luck. Means I have to kill you, though I do not really want to."

Shit. This really wasn't looking good for him. "Why kill me? You don't have to kill me. You could always let me go." He knew he couldn't talk his way out of the situation, but it didn't hurt to try…maybe his luck would help him again.

"You see that was from Volkov." She motioned to the mobile on the table. "I cannot turn down order from family. My real name is Nathalie Volkov."

No such luck. "What do you mean you can't say no? Wait, you're a Volkov?"

"Da, I am. Brother was one who issued order; I cannot defy him. So in end, you must die. Come here so I won't have to chase you. I will make sure to make your death quick."

Like hell he would come quietly. He glanced at the door; there was no way that he'd make it there before being caught by Rashel. He edged around the table in the same direction that she was slowly creeping towards him. Once he was close enough to the crème brûlée torch, he shoved the table at the blonde, and dashed toward the torch, hoping that it had propane in the mini-tank. Frantically, he began trying to turn the thing on, but something told him to glance up before completing his task. In the reflection of one of the hanging stainless steel pans he saw a wooden chair looming above her head.

Ducking down, he got the torch to ignite, slid underneath her legs burning one of them. She screamed in pain.

The window above the sink was much closer than the door. He hopped onto the counter beside the sink and leaped for the window. His leg was grabbed and all he saw was a whirl of colors as he was tossed across the room, hitting the wall, hard. Wincing as he heard a crack, he hoped that it wasn't anything inside him.

Walking with a slight limp towards the auburn-haired male, Rashel grabbed a cleaver.

"Mattie!"

Matthew sighed, closed his blue-violet eyes and silently counted to ten. When he opened them he was met with a smiling face that was his twin brother. "Al, if I lose that train of thought, I'll get Vash to dispose of you," he threatened the other blond, though with no malaise, but a threat nonetheless.

Alfred brushed the threat off. "Come on, class is about to start." He held out his hand to help Matthew up from his seated position.

Matthew could never stay mad at his brother, no matter how annoying and obnoxious he could be at times. The wavy blond allowed himself to be pulled up by the other. Bending back down, he grabbed his backpack and notebook off the ground.

Alfred began shifting his weight from foot to foot. "Come on, ya slowpoke!"

Matthew huffed at his younger twin, stood up, and began walking not waiting for the overly eager blond.

"What's the story about this time?" he asked after catching up. "I hope it's not one of those romance stories that you're so prone to writing."

"No, it's actually action packed. I got the idea from you earlier this morning."

Alfred stopped in his tracks. "I gave you an idea?"

They arrived to their writing class with a few minutes to spare, taking their seats in the middle row by the door. Matthew pulled out the notebook that he'd been writing in earlier and began to look over his work. Before he could do anything with it, Lovino sauntered into the classroom. The auburn-hared male stopped in front of their desk. Matthew narrowed his eyes. "Where's your brother?"

"Bastard stayed up all night, doing god knows what. He's sleeping now." His amber eyes glanced down at what Matthew was holding. "Another story?"

"Yeah, you got a problem wi—Wait...We're not changing the subject! Why did you leave without waking Feliciano up?"

The amber-eyed male crossed his arms. "My twin needs to learn that I won't be there all the time, so he needs to become more self-sufficient and get his own ass up in the morning. And no, I don't have a problem with you writing. You have your books, your stories, and maple syrup. Al has his video games, sports, and hamburgers. Feli has his pasta and his art. I have my pasta and all of the sexy ladies in this school." "What?" "Vash has his weapons, crazy bastard, and Roderich has his piano, violin, and cake; at least he's more bearable when he has those things."

Alfred and Matthew smirked.

"He's right behind me, isn't he?"

The blonds nodded in unison.

Lovino turned around and found a fuming Roderich behind him. "Ciao princess!" The Italian was smacked with a textbook, though it was one of the thinner ones, it was still a solid textbook. "Ow...What the hell was that for?"

"For being your annoying and ignorant self!" Roderich huffed and strode off to his seat by Vash which was in the front row near the window on the other side of the room.

A short blonde with a purple ribbon tied in her hair walked past Lovino. He rubbed the side of his head but followed the girl with his amber eyes.

Matthew shook his head. "Don't even think about it."

"What? You already courting her?" The brunette arched an eyebrow.

"No, but someone else is," he glanced over at Vash.

He followed Matthew's gaze, "Well who would've thought..." Lovino glanced at Alfred. "What has you so down? Usually we can't get you to shut up, unless there's food involved." There was no concern in his voice, only amusement.

It dawned on Matthew why Al was acting the way he was acting earlier and now. The T. A. wasn't here. He leaned towards the blond. "You have a crush on the T. A.," he whispered loud enough for only Alfred and Lovino to hear.

"That is not true!" he answered defensively sporting a faint blush.

Lovino began laughing. "Even if you grew a pair and asked him, he'd only turn you down. He's going to be like this—" Lovino noticed that the blonds' widened eyes and shocked faces. He turned around and was met with their teacher, Ms. Blair Berlin, glaring at him. "I'm heading for my seat right now!" He hurried off to his seat in the back row on the same side of the room as the door.

When the sound of the bell signaled for class to begin, Feliciano zoomed through the door and into his seat. It was a wonder he had actually gotten to class on time. Matthew remembered that the younger Italian twin, Feliciano, was always a heavy sleeper ever since he had met him during high school. Even now during college, it was no different.

Ms. Berlin was a pleasant woman, at least to Matthew and many of other students at the university, but for some odd reason Ms. Berlin and Lovino didn't get along too well. This was odd, though Lovino didn't get along with many of the male population at the school, except for the few that he was friends with and his brother, he was usually quite the "lady's man" as Lovino would put it. The elder Italian was such a sucker for the pretty ladies. Ms. Berlin could be considered as such. She had forest green eyes, brown hair that stopped just above the nape of her neck. She was very tall for a female and had a slight southern American accent. Matthew remembered when he had first met Ms. Berlin during his freshman year. She used to have such a southern accent, which Alfred had never noticed, he had lived in America for a good portion of his life; now in his junior year her accent was less prevalent. He figured that it was because she was acquiring a Canadian accent, which he considered normal; they were in Canada after all, which he had lived in for most of his life.

He was originally born in America like his younger twin was, but their parents had divorced. Matthew had went with his mother to Canada, while his brother stayed in America with their father. The twins had visited each other as often as they could, so they were still very close.

"Today you will be picking your partner and your topic for the project that I explained to y'all last week," said Ms. Berlin. Every once and a while her southern vocabulary would slip into her speech.

Alfred and Matthew glanced at each other and nodded. It was already decided, they were going to be partners. When it came to grades, Alfred always pulled his own weight whenever they were partners.

"How much will this grade weigh?" Roderich inquired.

Their instructor smirked. "Seventy-five percent of your Final, and it's due one month before the end of next semester."

There were quite a few choice words mumbled by some of his classmates. There were a few groans as well.

"Here's the sheet." She sat it down at Roderich's table.

Roderich and Vash glanced at the paper. "Umm…These aren't topics, these are people." Matthew heard plenty of confusion in Vash's voice.

"Yes, they are. Remember I told you that this year the topics would be different from what my students have done in the past. This year every pair will be completing a biography, whether it be written or video format, on someone on the list. Some are regular people, some are managers or CEO's of companies, and others have had issues so they are either in jail, mental institute, or in a rehabilitation center. You won't know what situation your person is in until you pick your person and I give you some information on how to contact your interviewee."

"Is this even legal?" asked Lovino.

Ms. Berlin's expression darkened hearing Lovino. "Yes, it is. Now, please choose your interviewee in a timely fashion and pass the sheet around."

It took about fifteen minutes for the page to reach them. When it arrived at their table. The twins eyed the page. There were various names, but one name caught Matthew's eye: Gilbert Belschmidt. This man had the same last name as Ludwig. He would have to ask Ludwig about this Belschmidt person. Matthew wasn't even sure that Ludwig even had any siblings. Matthew couldn't choose Belschmidt as their topic because Roderich and Vash had already chosen him.

Alfred nudged his brother. "Hey you can choose someone. I don't see anyone that I want to pick."

"You sure?"

Alfred nodded.

Matthew scribbled their names down on the name below Belschmidt.

The Frenchman glanced up from his book when he heard voices on the other side of the door. One caught his ear. It seemed like he was going to be visited by one of the doctors. When the door opened in walked a brunette, his hair just above the base of his neck. He had forest green eyes and was slightly shorter than average height. He had on a white lab coat and a clipboard in hand. The male stopped at the door seeming to be slightly nervous. The Frenchman smirked to himself. The brunette was probably trying to figure who was seated on the bed: was it Francis Bonnefoy or was it France. He decided to show the brunette who was present.

"Bonjour mon ami!"

The brunette sighed, taking a few steps inside the room and closing the door behind him. "H-hello, Francis."

"So, how may I help you this fine," he glanced at the wall clock, "afternoon, Toris?"

Toris shifted his weight. "Um...earlier we got a call from the University." Francis raised a blond eyebrow, waiting for the other to continue. "Someone wishes to interview you for their school project."

"Am I the only one to be graced with this lovely opportunity?"

The brunette shook his head. "No, Antonio and Gilbert are being asked to participate as well."

Francis chuckled when he heard the names of his two best friends. "May I have the name of my interviewer?"

"You will find out when they arrive sometime later this week."

Blue eyes locked with green. "'They'?"

Toris nodded his head. "They are twins."

"It's been a while since I've had contact with the outside world." To be honest he was beginning to forget what the outside world was like. This might be interesting. "I will do it," he began slowly. "Will I be able to leave the facility for short excursions any time soon?"

"That depends on how you behave with people outside of HHR&RC."

Hmm...this might actually go well if his other half behaved himself. "Now, if you would please leave, I need to get my beauty rest." The blond gave a shooing motion with his hand that wasn't holding the book.

Once Toris had left, Francis sat the book on the night stand beside the bed, and reclined onto the bed staring up at the ceiling. He wondered what his interviewers would be like. Would they be similar or different, male or female, outgoing or—

He heard a faint chuckling in his head. Francis didn't mind his other half, but sometimes he just wanted to think in peace.

Am I allowed to have a little fun with them? France asked.

"They're in college; let them be."

He wanted to get out of this so-called 'Research and Rehab' center. He had to admit that the center did treat their patients with respect, as far as he could tell, but he couldn't help to suspect that something more was going on. He knew that they were doing something to France. France had never told him but Francis knew. Sometimes when he woke up in the morning, he would find foreign marks and bruises that weren't present when he had gone to sleep the night before.

He had never tried to escape, though there were quite a few instances where he could have. He couldn't leave. Not with knowing Antonio's condition. Well, Antonio was fine for now, but piss him off, stress him out, or remind him of his sisters Spain would emerge with the vengeance. The only thing seeming to keep Antonio's other half somewhat at bay was the fact that Francis and Gilbert were still with the Spaniard.

Francis was surprised that Holly Hill Research and Rehabilitation Center was letting Antonio get interviewed. At least Gilbert's other half, Prussia, knew when to lay low. Both he and Francis had the best chance of being released. The sly voice of his other half ripped him from his inner thoughts.

Oh, and you're going to leave them alone? You know we share the same body and mind, right? So I know the dirty thoughts that were going through your mind before you thought about Spain. There was so much mocking amusement in France's mental voice.

Francis couldn't take it anymore. "Fermé! Partez!" He sensed France's presence retreat and he was finally left alone to think in peace.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review if you have time. Let me know what you think. Just for clarification, the first section is what Matthew writing his story in his notebook...

Translations:
Da - Yes
Ciao - Hi
Bonjour mon ami! - Hello my friend!
Fermé! Partez! - Shut up! Go away!