The destination happened to be one of the many, many kitchen stations in the culinary arts section of the Art Center. That area happened to be on top of the hill with everything else that wasn't a classroom, dorm, or the cafeteria.
Although, hill was a bit of an understatement. It definitely was not a mountain, no, it was too small for that, but it was steep, really steep. A staircase running up it's length made it look even more daunting.
"We are not seriously going up that, are we?" Alfred asked no one in particular. The Italian with the single curl laughed.
"Fuck no," he pointed towards a building standing on the slope. "That's the library. We're taking the goddamn elevator." He looked around. "Why the fuck are there so many people. All I needed was eyebrows here."
Matthew was surprised at how the Italian guy had not yet said a sentence in his presence without cursing. He was more then surprised. He was somewhat impressed.
"Okay, I know who all these assholes are, but who are you?" he said looking straight at Matthew. His head tilted to the side a bit. No one there could deny it was anything short of adorable. "You were in the office earlier today."
Matthew was introduced to Lovino and he quickly learned that the boy had a quick temper. "Does he always cuss this much?" he asked Antonio in a hushed voice as they went up the elevator. "Nah, only when he's pissed off. Which is kind of often though. So yeah, actually." He said with a shrug. Matthew could imagine he was mad a lot.
"So the eye brows guy is your rommie?" Alfred asked him. They were walking out the door on the second floor of the library. Matthew was surprised there were any people in there other then them. It was past midnight. "Yeah, his name's Arthur."
Alfred pouted at him. "Yeah, I know that. Lovi's my roomie. He's a riot, man." Matthew was relieved Alfred seemed to like his new roommate. He was glad he and his brother were assigned separate dorms but that wouldn't have mattered if Alfred didn't like his roommate.
Alfred sensed his brothers relief. "Wow, Mattie, I feel so appreciated." He continued to pout. The elevator door opened. "What? I didn't even say anything," Matthew said in his defense with a small smile.
When they saw what was on top of the hill the twins were astounded. It was huge. "Yeah go ahead and gawk now. It's pretty fucking big," Lovino said. They began explaining to Matt and Al all the buildings, fields, and courts.
There were huge buildings with half a dozen different courts and at least five pools. There was even a range for horse riding, archery, and shooting. There were two tracks and three fields.. There were rooms with walls lined with mirrors made for the dancers and ones with mats covering the floor for wrestlers and other fighters. There was an entire gym specific for gymnastics and cheerleading. And much to Matthew's delight there were two indoor ice rinks. There was everything up there.
They stopped at one of the central buildings. All of the central buildings were painted red. They stood out against the flawless white walls of the other buildings and lush green sporting fields. "All the red buildings are art buildings. Performing arts, Culinary, or anything artsy really, they happen in one of these. The big one has the kitchens and student lounge. The curvy place on the side in the auditorium we use for plays and assemblies," Gilbert explained.
Matthew listened with awe. Alfred whistled. "I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life," he said facing the direction of the distant football field surrounded by a rubber track.
"It's impressive, even in the night," Francis commented. Everyone agreed. "Okay, enough of this bullshit. Arthur, you are in deep shit. Do you remember your scones from earlier?" Lovino said grabbing onto his wrist and dragging him inside. Everyone else followed
"He's so cute when he's angry." Antonio gushed. "I can't say he isn't," Alfred agrees.
Matthew wondered how they were even able to get inside. Alfred beat him to asking though.
"Are the buildings always unlocked in the middle of the night?" Alfred asked. "Usually, everything but the cafeteria. During school there tends to be a lot of students trying to projects and stuff done. Sometimes they just really want to practice. So they kind of gave up trying to lock up." Antonio answered.
They followed the sound of bickering into one of the many kitchen spaces. Arthur had caught their shared cooking space on fire again. Alfred laughed. "What do you mean again? School hasn't even started yet." Lovino lifted his hands and waved them in front of Arthur and the burnt mess of the kitchen as if he were advertising them.
They continued to bicker while Antonio, Francis, and Gilbert served as a peanut gallery, making a series if pointless comments. No one made an attempt to clean up the burnt mess.
"Matt," Alfred whined. "Maaaattt," he said tugging on the hem of Matthew's hoodie to get his attention. "What do you want. This argument is golden and you are missing all of it." Matthew said, refusing to look at his brother.
"I'm hungry," Matthew sighed at that. "When are you not?" he asked rhetorically. They had a mini staring contest and Matthew slumped in defeat. An unspoken agreement was made and they retreated to retrieve the most nutritious of meals from the iconic franchise known as McDonalds.
"Hey, where are you guys heading?" Gil called out after them. "Micky D's, wanna come?" Alfred invited.
"Hell yeah!" Everyone ended up tagging along. Even Arthur joined in reluctantly, unwilling to clean up his mess.
The group of seven made their way through the library to the parking lot. "Are we going to fit in a car?" Antonio questioned. "Yeah, we'll take our truck." Alfred beamed with pride when they walked up to it.
It was an old and battered red truck from sometime in the sixties. But both of the twins loved it to bits. It may not have been the prettiest in the lot but it had functioning AC and still ran well enough.
They quickly situated themselves. Alfred drove with Arthur at shotgun. The rest of them gathered in the open back. Gilbert and Matthew sat with their backs propped up against the window separating them form the driver.
It took three tries to get it running. Matthew and Alfred were all smiles because that was considerably less then usual. "Gott, this thing is piece of shit," Gilbert whispered over to Matthew. He didn't want to shout over the wind.
"What are you talking about? It freaking purrs. Al and I fixed it up ourselves last summer," he said with a proud smile. Gilbert couldn't help but smile back.
It was all pointless banter, laughter, and loud wind from there. When they pulled up to the golden arc Alfred let out a squeal of delight. "You are such a child," Arthur groaned.
Matthew looked at him, mouth wide open, exasperated, "You're telling me," They went through the drive thru and ordered more food then what seemed like seven people could consume.
"Um, why is there so much food?" Lovino asked, holding two of the nine bags. "Yeah, there's no way we're eating all of this," Antonio added as they pulled away from the restaurant.
"Don't underestimate me!" Alfred declared from his seat inside the truck. He was easily heard despite the wind.
Since the cafeteria was closed and no one had a particular desire to retire to their dorms they scaled the escape ladder of the cafeteria and ate on the roof.
It was cold up there. The wind was still blowing, all be it softer then when they were riding against it in the truck. They opened all the bags, making a pile in the middle of their small circle.
Matthew leaned against the edge with Gilbert and Francis on either side of him. He picked out the soggiest fries from the large pile they made and Gilbert slung a lazy arm around his shoulders.
"Are you okay?" he asked. Matthew looked up from his soggy fries confused. "Huh? Yeah, I'm good. Why?" Francis leaned in really close with an odd expression on his face. Antonio moved closer to.
"Because it's a long fall from heaven," Gilbert finished with the biggest shit eating grin. He, Francis, and Antonio bust into laughter. Each of them had strange sounding laughs. Matthew liked the crinkles around Gilbert's eyes when he laughed.
The three high-fived each other. Arthur and Lovino looked unamused. "Of all the ones you could have used and you chose that one?" said Arthur.
Lovino looked at Matthew right in the eye and said, "I am so sorry," with a serious expression that quickly deteriorated into a playful grin when Antonio nudged him in the shoulder.
"It's the one I used on you wasn't it, Lovi?" Antonio cooed. "And I used that one on you to, hmm cher?" Francis said teasingly to Arthur.
"Well congrats, none of you are original!" Alfred said. They laughed. Everyone's odd laughs mixing together in a comfortable sound.
"Hey, there's an assembly tomorrow, huh?" Lovino speculated out loud. "Mhm," Alfred said with his mouth full. "What time's it going down?" he said. It sounded more like incoherent mumbles. They could barely understand him.
"It's at two," Arthur informed everyone. "What's it even for, though?" Alfred asked, this time coherently.
Arthur shrugged. "Just a before school pep rally, maybe? I don't know." He accepted that answer.
"Oi!," someone called from the ground. Gilbert leaned off the edge to call back. Matthew was genuinely worried he would fall. "What up?"
"There's booze in the 200 dorms. Open invite!" they called up before dashing away not waiting for a response.
It was late, really late, almost late enough to be considered early morning. "I'm gunna pass," Matthew said, being the first to brush himself off and get up. "G'night guys," he said making his way down the ladder.
Arthur followed him down. Once in their dorm he had gone straight to sleep, leaving Matthew to contemplate lively ruby red eyes in the dark.
They woke up around the same time the next morning. If you could call it that. It was past noon. Neither of them were early risers. After slipping into publicly acceptable clothing they made their way to the cafeteria for lunch.
Alfred and Lovino were already there. They were sitting near the center of the lunch room with two other students Matthew didn't recognize. It was a boy and a girl.
The two slid up next to their neighbors with their lunch trays. "Wow, I can't believe your up and it's not even two!" Alfred said in mock surprise. Matthew just laughed and nudged him.
"Wow, are you to, like, twins? Do you guys have the same size dick?" the girl asked. She had a strangely deep voice. The brown haired boy next to her blushed a little and chastised her, "Feliks, you can't just ask things like that!"
Matthew was shocked. So it wasn't a girl. He just happened to be wearing a skirt. "Ugh, you are, like, zero fun, Liet. But, yeah, you're right, I guess." Feliks sighed. "Anyways we were just talking to these two about theatre. You should consider joining." He said to Matthew. His attention drifted before Matthew could answer. He stood up quickly , dragging Toris up with him. "Feli!" he called before dragging his friend without a word.
"That guy makes a pretty hot chick," Alfred said to break the silence. Matthew hummed in agreement. "So are we joining theatre for elective?" he asked his brother. They always chose the same after school activities for the sake of only having to drive home once. Old habits die hard.
"I think I wanna. Is the program any good?" he turned to Lovi to ask. It was Arthur that answered. "Absolutely. Best in state, in fact." He beamed with pride. Lovino scoffed at that.
"He's only saying that because he wrote this years play," Lovino said. "But, you guys should actually join. Me and Arthur are in. So are those three idiots from last night. It's fun when it's not being a pain in the ass."
Alfred didn't wait for Matthew's input. "Its settled then, we're joining theatre." He announced much too loud for Matthew's liking. He blushed when a few people looked their way.
They ate in silence for a moment. "So do twins actually have the same size dick?" Arthur asked. Alfred laughed and Lovino smacked him upside the head.
Arthur rubbed his injury. "I guess I had that one coming. But, it's not fair. Everyone else here has a twin so I'm the only one out of the loop." He whined.
"You are as much of a child as that hamburger bastard." Lovi said. "You have a twin?" Matthew asked. Lovino nodded, "He was just here to. The kid Feliks went to harass."
After they finished they made their way up the hill. "Do people actually use those stairs?" Matthew asked as the walked passed them in favor of the library elevator. They looked daunting. "Only for detention and sometimes coaches use it to condition players and what not." Arthur answered. Damn, that meant they'd use it during practice.
It was almost time to start by the time they got into the auditorium. It was crowded in there without much order. There was loud blaring music and it was essentially a party. It was good music playing, though.
As soon as Matthew squeeze through the front doors he had to carefully navigate to get around. There was a lot of shoulder bumping. His eyes scanned through the thick crowd for Gilbert's pale hair. He was an albino, how hard could have been to find?
The assembly started before he could find him. The four of them scrambled to find seats when the principle came out. All that was left were the seats furthest to the back. He looked a lot like Lovino. Matthew briefly wondered if they were related. His appearance silenced the student body quickly.
"Welcome students of Hetalia High!" he greeted with a ditzy smile. He spoke with a heavy Italian accent. Matthew was sure they were related now. "Instead of me going on and on about school spirit and what not we made a video for you!" he said excitedly.
He said no more as a video began to project onto the un-drawn curtains of the stage. It was blank for a moment before music started to play. Matthew gasped in horror as he recognized the first note.
Despite the music playing it was so quiet you could here a pin drop. General shock took place. Then the familiar odd cackling rand through the auditorium. It was Gilbert, Francis, and Antonio laughing to hard it was infectious.
Oh, we're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I.
He could see the principle loosing it backstage. Soon everyone was cracking up, even him. The chorus came.
Never gunna give you up. Never gunna let you down.
The entire student body had just been rick rolled. It took quite a while for everyone to settle down. It took the longest for the principle who was laughing so hard he was wiping tears away.
"In all seriousness," he started, out of breath, "don't forget the bonfire tonight and to have school spirit and all that jazz. Dismissed." He walked off the stage.
Being seated so close to the back, they were one of the first to leave. He was glad for that fact. The four of them met up with the other three.
"Why do you look so happy," Matthew asked as he approached them. "Antonio? He's always like that. Don't worry. You get used to it. Wait no you don't. Damn, Toni, that's hella creepy," Gilbert said jokingly.
"Not what he meant asshole," Lovino commented. He was trailing right behind Matthew. Alfred just laughed. "Seriously though, why are you three all smiley?"
"Because tonight," Francis paused for dramatic effect, "is the bonfire and that means," he trailed off. "The Smokey Gathering!" he exclaimed throwing his arms in the air.
Antonio explained. "Every year instead of going to the bonfire we go to the Smoke Hole in the woods for a smaller version. It's a lot better. No teachers and there's always booze. I'm excited. It's out last chance to go this year, though, so that's kind of bumming me out," It didn't look like it. His smile was still ever present. "You guys have it so good. You still have next year!"
He kept on rambling. No one was really listening but no one really had the heart to tell him to stop.
"So you've gone before?" Matthew asked the self proclaimed Prussian. Matthew was observing Lovino. He and Arthur were having a side conversation as they feigned they were listening to Antonio. "Yeah, pretty much every year." Gilbert said.
They were standing close together. Matthew could feel the back of his hand brush Gilbert's. Neither of them moved apart. But neither of them moved closer either. Matt would be lying if he said he wished that wasn't the case.
"So, it's worth going then?" he said looking up into Gilbert's eyes. His eyelashes were almost invisible. "Hell yes, it is. You and your brother are going, right? Wait, don't answer that. You don't have a choice. You're definitely going."
Matthew laughed. "And if I decide I don't want to?" he said teasingly.
Gilbert craned his neck to whisper in his ear. "Then I'll persuade you," he breathed into Matthew's ear.
Matthew shivered and blushed. Gilbert was wearing the most satisfied grin. Alfred, who had seen the whole exchange, wanted to smack it off his face.
