Here it is- Chapter 2. Are you ready?


As Arthur entered his room he slammed the door closed and flung his backpack across the room. Seamus wasn't back from from his lacrosse practice yet, so the room was still quiet. In fact, all of his roommates were in sports; Arthur was the only one who wasn't. Arthur's three roommates were his brothers Dylan, Allistor and Seamus. Arthur was the youngest of the four. He had skipped a year of schooling due to his advanced skill and knowledge, and was actually a lot younger than most of his classmates.

Arthur had always been the brains in his relationship with Alfred. It wasn't to say that Alfred was dumb, he just wasn't the know-it-all that Arthur was. But Alfred would always be the funny one, the kindest one. 'I wonder what he's doing now?' Arthur's heart clenched up.

'If I'm honest with myself, I know I should have been more careful. I should have seen the signs that Alfred was different. I should have known that he was dating someone. How can I call myself his best friend? I didn't even suspect...'

His head was starting to hurt. Things like this just weren't his special. Arthur understood things like literature, mathematics, science and history. The answers to problems and puzzles came to him easily. But when it came to people he was next to clueless. How was he supposed to know how they felt? He wasn't them, he wasn't in their heads. He just couldn't tell.

Arthur took off his jacket and hung it off the back of a chair. It seemed impossibly hot for April. Was it hot in here? Maybe he was just imagining it... "Wow... I sure hope the summer's not this hot... I'll go mental..." Arthur muttered to himself.

"Boy you said it! Practice was a real pain in the arse today."

Arthur jumped and spun around, "Allistor?! What are you doing back from practice so soon?" He wasn't normally back for another twenty minutes, at least.

"What's wrong? Not happy to see me?" Allistor laughed, "You always did have a stick up your arse."

Arthur huffed angrily and turned back around to look out the window. Allistor and Dylan's room was just the next room over. The two rooms were connected by a tight fitting bathroom that both rooms shared. Two boys in a room, four boys in a section. The entire was composed of several sections, and a common room. The girl's dormitory looked a little bit smaller, but Arthur had never been there. Allistor rarely came over unless he wanted something. He generally wanted some money for alcohol or junk food.

"Do you need something? This isn't even your room, it belongs to Seamus and I. Your room is next door, in case you've forgotten." Arthur asked, mostly just wanting to be left alone.

Allistor flopped down on the lower bunk bed, which was luckily Seamus', for Arthur was already touchy as it was. "What? Can't I visit my little brother whenever I please? Besides, there's nothing else to do. That Gilbert kid got 'is jaw smashed up in football and our practice got cancelled early." Allistor said.

"Don't you only play football with your feet? You can't even touch the ball." Arthur said.

Allistor sighed, "You really don't know anything about football, do you? It's 'cause you stay inside all the time. You just can't use your hands. You can use your head, too. And besides, that's not what happened."

"Then what happened?" Arthur asked impatiently.

"Well I don't know for sure, 'cause I was across the field, but it was that Ivan kid. You know the really tall one. He's just been showing up for practice lately and watching a few matches. Well I don't know what Gilbert said but he really did get it. Just one punch and the kid was floored. It was flipping fantastic! I wish Seamus and Dylan could've seen it, but they wanted to play lacrosse and all..."

Allistor went on with all of the gory details, but Arthur wasn't listening. 'Ivan was at football practice? Alfred is on the football team but Ivan doesn't seem like the supportive, "cheerleading' type. No, if anything he's the complete opposite. What's he up to?!'

"Are you listening?" Allistor suddenly cut in, "I said, you know Matthew Williams right?"

"Oh- yeah a little bit." Arthur scratched the back of his neck, trying to shake the awful thoughts from his head.

"Well I was saying isn't he pretty into that Gilbert kid? I'm pretty sure he is. And Matthew is Alfred's brother."

"Where are you going with this?"

"Well there's got to be some serious drama goin' on there. I mean, one bothers boyfriend flippin' knocked the other brother's boyfriend out. I don't normally care for stuff like this, drama and the like, but I swear to fucking god I'd be the happiest man if that Matthew kid knocked Alfred off his block. Aw, man, I really hope he does."

Arthur shot Allistor a dirty look. "Oh, I know he's your friend but you gotta admit the kid's flipping annoying as hell. Getting the shit beat out off 'im just once might actually be a good thing!"

"You know, maybe you're right." Arthur chuckled bitterly.

"Of course I'm right! I'm always right!" Allistor sat up, "Hey, you wanna go get something to eat? I'm starving."

Arthur thought about it for a moment. He didn't feel hungry, just sick. "No, I think I'll stay here and study a bit more."

"Well suit yourself." Allistor had his hand on the doorknob but he stopped. "Hey Arthur... don't overthink things."

"What do you mean?" Arthur mumbled, still looking out the window and no looking at his brother.

"I mean, with people. With your friend and all- Look, I know you're not good with people. But you don't need to think so much on it. Just do what feels right, got it? If you spend your whole life thinking about what to do, you'll miss your chance to do it. Are you listening? You only got one shot, so don't fuck it up!"

And with that, the other was gone. Arthur sighed. His brother was an idiot, but there was truth in his words. He needed to call Kiku.


Kiku took a sip of his tea and grimaced: it was sweetened. He couldn't stand the tasted of sweetened tea; he preferred his tea to be bitter. There was no good way to get the taste off his tongue, and the line wasn't worth standing in to correct the mistake. How long had he been sitting there? He checked the time on his phone. It had been about thirteen minutes. What was taking him so long?

Arthur had texted Kiku yesterday afternoon, asking the other to meet him at a local cafe. Arthur had said that there should be very few people around and they could talk there in peace. What they hadn't known was that a semi-famous author was visiting the neighboring bookstore, and several visitors were overflowing into the cafe. People who wouldn't even normally be in the area were visiting. Kiku just hoped that the event would be over soon, and that things would start to clear out.

He was just starting to think that it might be time to throw in the towel when someone pulled out the chair next to him. "Sorry I'm late." Arthur said, holding what looked to be a cup of tea and a scone, "The line was a lot longer than I thought it would be. If I had known, I wouldn't have tried to get something."

Kiku smiled, relieved that this trip wouldn't become a wasted effort. "It's okay. I don't have a lot going on right now." Kiku said, shifting a bit as the other sat down.

There was an awkward silence between the two, neither was sure of how to start. "So, um... about this plan of yours..." Arthur began slowly, "What do you have in mind exactly?"

"That's just it. I have several things in mind. I truly believe that if we want this plan to work, we have to try several different things at once. First off, we need more information..." Kiku said.

"Information? Information for what?"

"Well, we should probably find out why the two got together in the first place. If we find out the reason why, we can have an easier time eliminating that reason. For all we know, this could just be a spur of the moment thing."

"Or blackmail."

"It could be that, but we would then have to find out why Ivan would want to blackmail Alfred. I find it hard to ever see a reason why the two would get together like that. Did you notice anything different about Alfred the before the two got together?"

Arthur shook his head, "Not at all. I was shocked when I first heard the news. But actually, I did hear something from my older brother yesterday afternoon that might help."

As Arthur explained what happened, Kiku took on a grim expression. "Ah, I see that he is as violent as ever. Ivan is extremely strong, and extremely violent. The two things together... could be dangerous. Especially for what I have planned next."

"Just what exactly do you have planned next?" Arthur asked, sounding more than a little concerned.

"My intentions...are not good ones. I was planning to... do some reconnaissance."

"Reconnaissance? So basically, you intend for us to spy on them."

"You could put it that way. But if it's in a public place, can it really be called spying?"

"Are you only going to follow them in public places?"

"No, if we only follow them in public places, they might put up a façade and we might never truly understand them."

"So that means you are going to spy on them." Arthur concluded, crossing his arms.

"Uh- well..." Kiku stuttered, embarrassed.

"Alright then. I'm in." Arthur said with a grin, "I just wanted you to admit that your going to spy on someone else."

Kiku let out a sigh of relief, "Arthur-san... that was a little cruel of you. I thought you were going to report me to the headmaster..."

"No way. I'm not going to report anyone to the headmaster. Except maybe Ivan..." Arthur said.

"Well, I figured that since nothing is certain yet, we should stop there with the planning. After all, the two might break up on their own without any work from us."

"Yeah, that would be nice, wouldn't it?" Arthur said, "Say... where do you think we should investigate first?"

"Hm... perhaps we should go and investigate on of Alfred's soccer games first. This way we can start off small, and we can give the excuse that we simply wanted to watch the match." Kiku suggested.

"Soccer game? Oh, you mean football. I suppose you're like Alfred in that sense. For Alfred football is 'soccer' and American football is just 'football'. Do you say it that way because of Alfred?" Arthur asked.

"I suppose I do. Games like that are not really widely played where I come from. Games like baseball are much more popular. I still remember the first time I watched 'American football'. It seemed rather barbaric. That was one of the first times me and Alfred did something together."

"Yes... well hopefully if everything goes according to plan we can spend even more time with Alfred. I shudder to think what would happen if we failed." Arthur took a sip of the tea he had been neglecting to pay attention to.

He made a face of disgust. "What's wrong? Is it sweetened?" Kiku asked, having set his own tea to the side.

"Not at all! It's unsweetened!" Arthur retched.

"Well, if it would make you feel better, you can have mine. They accidentally gave me sweetened tea." Kiku pushed the offensive cup towards the blonde.

"You don't like your tea sweet? But it tastes so bitter otherwise..."

"Having it be bitter is what makes it good."

"Well then, you'll be glad to know that mine is sufficiently bitter." Arthur pushed his tea towards Kiku.

Kiku contemplated rejecting the drink, seeing as Arthur had already put his mouth against the cup, but decided if he didn't it would be rude. Instead, all he said was "Thank you".