Arthur stood leaning with his head on his locker, forcing himself to take deep breaths. Deep… calming… breaths. Okay. There's no need to overreact. Just relax… He straightened up again and continued walking down the hallway, trying to keep his head up so he wouldn't give off the impression that something was wrong. I can handle this. Just one day at a time. Don't get overwhelmed.

He'd actually had fun last night over at Ludwig's house. He wasn't quite sure what to make of the blonde's older (twin?) brother, but it was fun nonetheless. Their father was also more welcoming than the first impression Arthur had gotten. Apparently the not-friendly face was a genetic trait passed down through the family. So yes… yesterday had been fun… up until the moment he got home.

Arthur shuddered, remembering his confusion upon seeing another car in the driveway. Initially his first thought had been that his father, Aedan, had someone over from work… but no. It had to be the rest of their family. They just showed up on the porch, no warning, no reason, nothing. They just showed up. Arthur cursed under his breath. Why the bloody hell are they all here anyway? No warning, no phone call? They just decide to move here out of the blue for no reason? He pushed open the student council room and shut the door behind him, sinking to the floor, thankful that the room was empty.

Breathe… I am… calm. Arthur held his head in both hands, feeling a headache coming back. I am… not calm. "Ugh." He forced himself to stand back up and staggered over to the table in the center of the room. "Breathe…" Arthur whispered to himself, "Just… breathe." There's absolutely no reason to overreact. Everything will be fine.

At least that's what Aedan had told him the night before. Arthur hugged himself and glanced around the room in desperation, hoping to find something he could focus on rather than the thoughts in his head. 'We'll be fine. Don't worry. Look at it this way, we can be a family again.' Arthur gritted his teeth. We were a family. I was happy with it being just the two of us. These other people might as well be strangers.

Arthur looked up towards the ceiling, watching the lights flicker periodically. "Calm… calm… I am not calm."

.

.

Second Bell

"Sorry I'm late." Arthur walked into his history class, forcing a smile at the teacher.

"Where were you?" The teacher blinked at him in surprise, "I thought you were absent at first!"

"My apologies." Arthur continued smiling, "I'm afraid I got caught up with paperwork in the student council room and lost track of time."

"Oh, that's alright." The teacher shuffled papers around on her desk and handed a test to Arthur, "Here you are."

"Thank you." Arthur took the test and headed to his seat, noticing Ludwig was giving him a look of concern. I probably don't look the best. He sat down, focusing in the paper in front of him. This would be easier if the words would stop moving. Arthur scowled and filled in his name at the top of the form. At least he could answer that.

"Arthur, are you okay?" Ludwig whispered, keeping his voice low so the teacher wouldn't hear him.

"I'm fine." Arthur responded hastily, "I just didn't sleep well." He looked back to the test, tapping his pencil agitatedly on the paper. Calm. Stay… calm. The lights flickered above them and Arthur cursed under his breath.

"Hm?" The teacher looked up, "That was strange. They're not calling for storms at all."

"Cool! Hey if the power goes out, does that mean we don't have to take the test?"

Ludwig sighed and shook his head, "Of course we still have to take it. There would still be light enough to see by!"

"What Mr. Beilschmidt said." The teacher made a face and turned back to face her class, "There's plenty of daylight outside. I don't understand why the lights are flickering."

Arthur buried his face in his hands, trying to block out the noise from around him. There's only a couple people talking… why does it sound so damn loud in here?

"Uhm…" Ludwig shot another worried glance towards Arthur, noticing the smaller blonde was shaking slightly, "A-are you sure you're okay?"

"Hm? Ludwig, is something wrong?" The teacher whispered, leaning over his desk.

"Uh… not with me." Ludwig looked between the teacher and Arthur.

"Oh?" She lifted her head to look at Arthur, "Uh… Arthur… are you not feeling well?"

"I'm fine!" Arthur spoke up hastily, lifting his head quickly. Too quickly. "Ugh." Arthur leaned over his desk and started coughing.

"AH! Don't get sick in here!" The teacher yelped, "Mr. Beilschmidt, could you please take Arthur down to the nurse's office?"

Ludwig stood up hastily and pulled Arthur from his seat and out into the hallway, "Why did you come to class if you're not feeling well?"

Between coughs, Arthur shot him a half-glare, "I felt fine before I went in there. Ugh." He leaned against the wall, pressing his forehead against the cold metal of one of the locker doors.

Ludwig looked up and down the hallway in a panic, "Sh-should I carry you?"

"I have my pride. I'll walk." Arthur scowled, but leaned on Ludwig as they continued moving down the hallway.

"UGH!"

Arthur winced at the familiar exclamation and looked down the hallway they were passing, where Roderich was glaring into the student council room, "…"

"Is something wrong?" Ludwig called to him.

"This room is a disaster again!" Roderich looked at both of them, appalled, "I just cleaned this up yesterday!"

"Ach…" Ludwig gave him a look of sympathy, "Sorry to hear that…"

"Huh?" Roderich blinked at the two of them, "Wait, Arthur, are you okay?"

"Why does everybody keep asking me that?" Arthur hung his head in dismay.

"Because you're obviously not!" Ludwig exclaimed.

"Well, good grief! Don't stand here talking to me then!" Roderich waved them off with both hands, "Shoo! Get down to the nurse's office!"

"Shouldn't he be in class?" Ludwig whispered.

"He has study hall." Arthur muttered, "I told him he should just take the extra hour to sleep in but…" He paused to cough a few times, "We're behind on the student council paperwork…"

"There's no one else to help you two?" Ludwig asked softly.

"No. It's just the two of us on student council. Nobody else showed an interest in it." Arthur shrugged, "I wasn't all that interested either, I just wanted something to do after school until my father would get home from work." Bad subject. Change the subject or you're going to blow the lights out.

Ludwig glanced upwards as the lights flickered again, "What keeps causing that?"

"Geez! We're going already!"

Ludwig and Arthur stared forward blankly as two males suddenly got shoved out into the hallway, with some teacher yelling after them before the door slammed shut (by the one male kicking it closed in anger).

"Oh shut up!" Lovino snapped at the door.

"…" Arthur glared up at the ceiling, for what reason, Ludwig didn't know.

"… In trouble?" Ludwig asked quietly.

"Huh? Yeah go… huh?" Alfred stared at the two of them, "Hey, what's wrong with Arthur?"

"Nothing." Arthur hissed, "And would everybody quit asking me that!"

Ludwig stared in disbelief as the lights all went out with a series of popping sounds that echoed down the now-dark corridor. "That… was unfortunate timing."

"WHOA!" Alfred's voice could be heard from in front of them, "Hey cool! No power!"

"… wonderful." Lovino didn't sound near as thrilled.

"Oh great." Arthur buried his face in his hands. Now I went and did it.

"Ah!" Ludwig jumped when he felt somebody latch on from behind, "Huh? Who's there?"

"S-sorry. I don't like the dark that much."

Arthur rolled his eyes, hearing Roderich's voice answer the taller blonde. "Right then. I'll just go to the nurse's office by myself, and you all can stay here and have a friendly discussion in the hallway." He pushed himself away from Ludwig and made his way down the hallway, keeping one hand on the wall.

"Would you get back here!" Roderich snapped from behind him.

No. I want away from this spot and away from him. Arthur gritted his teeth and kept walking, pressing himself against the wall. He hoped his footsteps couldn't be heard by Lovino and Alfred. At least let me keep my pride a little.

.

.

Arthur stared up at the ceiling, ignoring the muttering from the person sitting next to him. At least the nap had helped the headache. It didn't do much for anything else now that he was awake though. Arthur glared at Roderich, "Oh don't take it so personally. It wasn't you I was trying to get away from."

Ludwig looked from Roderich to Arthur in confusion, "Me?"

"Not you, either." Arthur said flatly.

Roderich huffed and crossed his arms, still looking rather offended, "Well, who then?"

Arthur bit his lip and looked away from the pair, staring at a spot on the wall. This conversation was really not a comfortable one to be having. Ugh. All those unpleasant memories again.

Ludwig tilted his head, "One of the other two that were in the hallway? Lovino and …the blonde?"

"… Alfred." Arthur stated flatly, "His name is Alfred."

Roderich glanced at Ludwig in confusion, "What's wrong with him? I know he's quite… loud, but other than that, he seems nice enough."

Arthur's face flushed, "He's… nothing's wrong with him."

"Ah." Ludwig's face brightened somewhat, "A crush?"

Arthur didn't know if he should be horrified at the conclusion that Ludwig had come to, or amused at the expression on Roderich's face, which looked somewhere between horror and confusion. "No, Ludwig. Absolutely not. If you must know, the last time I spoke to him was probably fifth grade, and I don't care to speak to him now."

"Did you two not get along?" Ludwig asked, looking confused once more.

Arthur looked down at the blanket covering him and started plucking at it. He could feel his face starting to heat up again and scowled, "We got along… well enough… I suppose."

"This is confusing." Roderich sighed, "If there's nothing wrong with him, then why did you leave so fast earlier?"

"Because I don't want to talk to him!" Arthur snapped, "It's embarrassing alright?! All these years we haven't spoken was because of me."

"Ah." Roderich nodded once, "A fight then."

"Sure. Call it a fight." Arthur gave up and just waved his hand in dismissal, "I don't care what you call it. I'm just not talking to him."

Ludwig looked between Roderich and Arthur again, "I'm… confused. You seem like you care about him still… so why don't you talk to him? He seemed to be worried about you earlier."

"I… can't." Arthur spoke through gritted teeth, "Just let it go."

"I hardly have room to talk on the matters of not speaking to someone, so I'm not going to say anything more." Roderich huffed and leaned back in his chair.

Thank you. Arthur shot him a grateful look, but Ludwig seemed less than willing to let the conversation drop.

"No." Ludwig said flatly, "If you can talk to him and nothing is preventing you from doing so, then talk to him."

Roderich stared at Ludwig in disbelief, "If he said he can't talk to Alfred, then why not just leave it at that?"

"Because I don't understand why he wouldn't!" Ludwig exclaimed, "If I had the chance to talk to someone, I would!"

I guess this is something he feels passionate about? Arthur scowled, "Well, I am not you. I'm not someone who can just walk up to someone and say hello!"

The lights above them started flickering again and Arthur buried his face in his hands, letting out a muffled groan of frustration. Calm down. Calm down.

"Why does that keep happening?" Ludwig looked up at the lights in confusion.

"Something must be short-circuiting somewhere." Roderich sighed.

.

.

Third Bell

Arthur sat at his seat, staring at the board with a glum expression on his face. Ludwig had agreed to drop the conversation, after some pleading from Roderich. Hopefully he doesn't just bring it up again tomorrow. I don't think I could stand to talk about it. Arthur rubbed his forehead, watching the teacher write out an equation on the board. There was never any fight had between him and Alfred… it was just… silence. Ever since the start of middle school, there'd been nothing but silence.

I wonder who changed… was it him? Or… maybe it was me? Arthur looked down at his notebook, frowning at the empty page in front of him. I don't really remember it. Why did we just stop talking to each other anyway? But I don't know if he'd… act normally around me. For that matter, why am I even trying to make friends? I don't want them thinking I'm a freak.

That had been one good thing about the rest of his family mysteriously showing up on their doorstep. At least he didn't feel as alone, but… they can all control it. Arthur scowled and started drawing small scribbles on the page. Why am I the only one who can't control what I'm doing? Sooner or later, Roderich would realize that the person destroying the student council room was none other than Arthur himself. And how would I bloody explain it to him anyway? He's not going to understand!

The blonde sank in his seat, still drawing small scribbles on the paper. And so it remains… halfway through the school year with no friends, because I don't want anyone to find out I'm not 'normal'. He paused in his drawing to stare at the blackened notebook paper. … I guess that answers that. Alfred didn't change. I did. Arthur lifted his head to look back at the board. It must be nice to be able to make friends like he does. Be able to spend time with them and have absolutely nothing to worry about.

…

Must be real nice.