AN-

Not really anything bad in this chapter either. Arthur goes to school and talks about how he hates it a lot. I mean, we all hate school, so.

PS, Feliciano may or may not be a badass. I really like having badass Feli.

Their will be OC's in this story eventually. ...Eventually... I'm planning on having two events in each chapter (Unless it's really significant and large, then it will be longer), and maybe around twenty or-so chapters? I don't know, really depends on how long I want to write this. It may be eight, or it may be fifty. Who knows. But it's looking towards being longer, as I don't want to push Arthur into dating Alfred quickly. Or even trusting Alfred until a quarter-way through the story.

And with Alfred dating Gilbert (as in Prussia), trust me, I don't ship them. It's cool if you do, but I just don't. Since it's an uncommon ship, it's supposed to make you feel kind of 'ehh' with their relationship. That's the point. And I'm not going to make Gilbert a douche-face to Arthur, or Alfred. Usually people make the person person A is daiting a douche-face. And Gilbert's awesome, so I'm not making him a complete dick. But you know, Gilbert's canon personality is him being kind of a dick-head, but he won't be a total dick-head.


Chapter Three

I never did go to that concert. I felt bad, of course, once I realised that I missed it I was a little upset. I had completely forgotten, I hadn't seen Alfred in those two days and therefor I forgot. They probably wouldn't miss me though, it was stupid of me to think they would. Alfred would have called me to remind me if he had, he has my phone number. So, after a while of thinking, I didn't feel as bad anymore.

I spent that night watching the Narnia movies which happened to be on TV at the time. I ate ice cream, basking in my sadness over school. I don't want to go. So I sulk in my pain. Nothing bad normally happens in school, I just don't like school. To much social pressure, too many boring lectures. I'm tired. Need sleep. A lot of colors are dashed across the page of dark, swampy greens and a teen sitting at a desk. You can't see his face, you are looking at the back of his head. But you can tell his head is resting in his hands, elbows on the desk. His outline is scratchy, in that swampy green colored pencil.

Toris says dark green is the color of stress. I can understand that as I am very frustrated and stressed at the moment. School sucks. It's irritating stressful. I'm not a teachers pet, and i'm the opposite of a social butterfly. I'm not a geek, I'm not smart, I'm not 'punk'. I'm in the nothing category. I don't fit in. And it's stressful, because I have nothing to call home. No friends to sit with, no class to be relieved i'm going too.

I went downstairs to grab one, last scoop of icecream. I snuck down the hall, quietly padding my way down on my toes, trying not to have the house creak as I tip-toed through. In which my secret-spy-act didn't work because my dad was up, and he caught me in the middle of the hall.

He was sober, thank god. Usually dad doesn't drink when mom's home, which is during the night. It's not like mom doesn't know he drinks, but dad says it's a gentleman's duty not to drink in front of his woman. Which my dad isn't a gentleman at all. Anyways, mom can't change the fact that he drinks. "You should be in bed," Were the first words that came out of his mouth.

"I'm hungry," I said coldly, trying to cover up the fact I was going for a fourth bowl. Dad doesn't like me eating all the icecream, which is understandable. Ice cream is the shit.

I shuffled around him, crossing my arms. My dad and I, ever since the 'incident', our relationship became even more horrid than it was before. Dad's a very cold hearted man, or, in my eyes he is. He takes good care of us money-wise, but doesn't show much compassion to me or my mother. It's not like he hits us or abuses us, I don't think dad's that kind of man, he's just kind of... Feelingless. He has an awful sense of humour, it's rude, and he's rather racist and sexist. It was the environment he grew up in. He's a medium sized man, and he has the same nose as me and the same eye-color, but that's our only relation. He doesn't even have blonde hair, my mom is the one with the blonde hair.

He glared at me briefly, "Arthur, I would like to talk to you."

I huffed quietly, pausing and looking at him, "I would rather talk to mom about it," I avoided his eyes, despite my disrespect for him, he was pretty scary. Or, he could be pretty scary.

"Well your mother is in bed," He said. We sounded awkward, and bulky, like to enemies who are forced to be nice to each other. I huffed again, tapping my foot and staring at him, trying to get a response from him, show him I had something to do. Which I really didn't.

"Im listening?" I said.

My dad snorted, "Well, since this is your last year of school," I raised an eyebrow as he trailed off, "Your mother and I were wondering if you'd actually do things this year."

I grimaced a little, my lips pulling back in a scowl, "What do you mean?"

"Friends, Arthur, we mean get some friends. A girlfriend. A best friend. Play some sports." Here's the thing, my dad doesn't know i'm gay. He's kind of a homophobe, actually, my whole family is. Since most of my family was raised in a very homophobic part of Britain.

In response to this, I got defensive. I can accept the fact that I am a lonely loser who doesn't like parties, but no one else can mention that. "I do things...!" I said, furrowing my brow, "In fact, I have friends!"

My dad actually chuckled, and that caused my frown to intensify. "Yeah, right, okay."

"I do! Alfred and Liz, they have a band or something! Alfred lives down the street and he has a bright red motorcycle. You've seen it!" I wasn't really yelling, I was just speaking loudly. There is a huge difference.

My father bit his lip, seemingly pondering that for a few moments, before nodding. "I have." He took a breath, and a cracked smile formed on his face, "Someone like that is really friends with you?"

"Dad!"

My dad chuckled for a few moments about his own, stupid joke. "You're going to need more friends than that. You're ass is going to get kicked this year." I hate how he talks to me like he's my age. It aggravates me. Plus he thinks I can't stand up for myself, which I most certainly can.

"Dad," I growled again.

He kept going, "Get into a sport, people won't mess with you."

"I don't like sports."

"Well start liking sports." That was more harsh, and I felt a tad unnerved, but anger started to boil around the bubble of unease, hiding my unsureness.

"Well start listening to me. I don't do sports." I said, lowering my voice to something aggressive, as if something was building up. Which nothing was, it was false. I was angry, but unease rested in the pit of my stomach, other things hiding that emotion. I don't like opening up to my parents, I hate it, actually. Something odd prevents me from doing it, I'm sure others have the same problem.

"Arthur, just do something. You're stepped on to much."

"I'm not stepped on," I muttered, "You have no clue what goes on half the time."

"Arthur, just listen to me," My dad said, his voice deepening as mine had previously.

No, dad. Listen to me. Listen to your son. Listen to your confused, scared, and pissed son. "I'm going to get through this year like every other year! Just because it's my last doesn't change anything!" I hissed, before angrily stomping back up stairs. My stomach fluttered and twisted with a fire, my fists clenched. Why did he never understand? Why does he never listen to me? And he even does this on the last day of summer...!

...I hate him. And it's not worth going back downstairs again. Even for ice cream.

X

Ugh, school.

The smell of teenagers who haven't showered in weeks and burnt erasers, the rush of kids running by and that one really slow kid who you somehow always end up walking behind,teachers yelling at students to get into homeroom. You're forced into categories, the jocks, artists, popular girls, slutty popular girls, nice popular girls, white-girls, ghetto-kids, nice kids, punk kids, emo kids, satan worshippers, shy kids, anime lovers, band geeks, tech geeks, hipsters, singers, and thats about it. The only thing being I don't fit in with any of them. I'm in the nothing category. If all the groups got into lines, i'd be awkwardly floating in the middle. No one to sit with at lunch, no one to be paired up with, no one to have fun with in class. I am that kid that if you get paired with, everybody feels bad for you. I am the freak-o of the school. Every school. Any school.

I don't know why, though. I don't have any odd habits, they don't have the faintest clue i'm a cutter, nor that i'm depressed, so why have I automaticly been cast as the schools loser?

I have to act like i'm not totally miserable here. Okay, maybe that's a tad over dramatic, but still, school sucks balls. If I act like normal me and not over-dramatic depressed me, I may find a friend group. I'm not going to stray too far from being myself for I don't want to get stuck with some people I have to pretend to be friends with.

The highschool is a giant, brick building with some peach colored cement surrounding the opening to make it look more friendly. The American flag rests a few meters away from the front doors, and a sidewalk-circle surrounds it. Of course, I wasn't very fond of the size, which meant a lot of walking and getting lost for me. The inside looked warmer than I though, it wasn't that cold, white floor with the cold, white walls. It was nice, brown, tiled floor, half of the walls being wooden and the rest white cement.

"Welcome Freshman!" Was painted on a banner that rested in the front of the school. I snorted at that in annoyance. It should say welcome new students, not just welcome freshman.

I pretend the whole thing was a dream. That in the morning, I would wake up, and it would be ten in the morning and I could have chocolate for breakfast. That kept a positive outlook on things.

None of my teachers were worth mentioning. They all seemed nice, as teachers normally aren't too bad in my opinion. I don't worry about what teachers I'm getting, I worry about what kids will be in the class.

I have all the normal classes, American History, algebra (which i'm dreading), physics, and Wellness. Then I have Study Hall as I didn't want Chorus or Band, and my only two classes I had a say on being Theater Arts and Drawing and Painting.

So I shuffled through the halls like an injured animal, trying to act a little nervous so people felt enough pity to give me directions. I ended up in the Freshman side of the school at one point. All we did was talk about what the class rules were and what we should expect. Half way in and i'm already tired.

In the middle of the day, I limped my way to lunch with the rest of my Physics class. So who you go with at lunch depend on what class you were in. It wasn't like only your class went down, the Junior and Senior Science classes went down. See, this was my main worry, because if I awkwardly stood there wondering where to sit people would know, and they would laugh or think badly of me, and on worst situation some jerks would come over and do something to me and i'd have to one to help me. But I couldn't go to the library cuz I was hungry as hell, and they don't allow food in the library.

I looked for a seat as I lined up for lunch. I just got a salad because the meat here is shit, and then commenced standing awkwardly. I figure i'm just going to the corner of the cafeteria where no one sits and sit there, because I don't even have people i'm familiar with here. I had a small, tiny little hope that I wouldn't be a complete loser this year but nope, that's thought is gone along with my self-esteem.

I headed towards the lonesome table that nobody sat at. That table and I now had a deep connection of loneliness. But as I was heading towards it, two arms grabbed me from behind.

My first reaction was to scream very, very airily. Basically, it was a gasp that came from my lips instead of a scream and an intense sense of fear. I was horrified. But my first thoughts on some demon from hell coming to rape me or something disappeared and turned into maybe some bullies had grabbed me, but once I felt the warm chest pressed lovingly against my back and the person who had grabbed me shout; "Arthur!" I knew exactly who it was.

"Ehh, hey Al..." I murmured. I was happy to see him, overjoyed actually. Someone I actually knew, and Alfred I apparently really liked, because he got me all warm and happy. Something about Alfred's energy made me really happy. But he had scared the shit out of me, so.

"Dude, I'm so happy to see ya!" Alfred said, letting me go. He wore some kind of sleeveless hoodie with a galaxy printing and some band t-shirt. His glasses were also red and a tad wider than the ones he wore when he went over my house.

...Oh, Alfred's a hipster, isn't he? Or at least he dresses like one, like, the vibe i'm getting is complete, utter hipster. He looked good in it nonetheless, just, wow.

"Mh, I'm happy to see you too," I said with a small smile, happy to see someone I knew. Hopefully I can sit with him. I studied him, his white smile peeking behind his lips, his blue eyes being shielded by the glasses that glared an awful lot, and his strong arms that i'm guessing he's purposefully displaying. "Just don't scare me like that."

"Heh, sorry dude," Alfred said. He rubbed the back of his head, some strands of hair moving between his fingers. Alfred had nice hair, it wasn't flowy or anything, certain strands clumped together to form larger ones. We stared at each other shortly, until Alfred powerfully slammed an arm around my shoulders. I gasped again, my body lurching forward a little, and Alfred dragged me through the cafeteria. Maybe he doesn't realise how strong he is, or how fragile I am? Oh well. "You're sitting with us," Alfred chirped.

I furrowed my brow a little, "W-what if I had someone to sit with?"

"I saw you going for the empty table," Alfred said in almost a tease, "Admit it, you had no one to sit with." I frowned, growling a little. But it was true, I was just being defensive.

Alfred walked me to his table, where two males I didn't know sat. No Liz? She must not have science during this time period, which sucks. I like Liz, somewhat. Everybody smiled when we came back, but not at me, of course.

They were all dressed similarly to Alfred, hipster. The blonde one with long hair, who I faintly recognized, probably a member of Alfred's band, was wearing some kind of white jean vest with roses on it. The other, who actually shocked me a little, was albino. Pinkish eyes, white hair. It was a pretty white though, like Ivory. And it shined and was clearly styled. He wore a fedora and had darkened sunglasses.

I looked up to Alfred wearily, and he pushed me forward a little. "Guys this is Arthur, he lives on my street with me." Oh jesus this is weird.

"Yo," The albino guy replied, waving a hand.

"Bonjour!" The other one said happily. French, yuck. The French have always been an enemy to my family. Maybe because we're British.

"And, Arthur, that is Francis, our drummer" Alfred pointed to the French kid, "And that's Gilbert," Alfred then gestured to the albino, "My boyfriend." Alfred said that in a teasing, yet boastful tone, pursing his lips. Well, that's definitely odd. I'm already uncomfortable with their relationship. I swallowed a little.

"Good day," I murmured with a small, respectful nod. Francis began to snicker, and I frowned and glared a little. Of course he's an asshole, he's French. I rolled my eyes to show my annoyance to the childish laughing coming from the Frenchman's lips. Alfred also shot a glare at Francis after I finished mine, which silenced him completely.

Alfred pulled out a chair next to his boyfriend, and they immediately smacked lips for a brief moment. So quick if you blinked you would miss it, but I didn't miss it. It burned a little, made me uncomfortable. I gnawed on my lip nervously as Alfred patted the chair next to him with a huge grin. I liked Alfred a lot, but Francis and Gilbert's glances gave me the strongest 'get away' feeling. They looked at me like I was a normal person, they didn't wear teasing expressions, but yet my stomach tingled in discomfort.

"Sit," Alfred said in his cheery, unfazed tone. His smile kind as ever, but it didn't look welcoming or comforting. I mean, it was nice, but it was like he couldn't collect my discomfort. I sighed a little, plopping my bag on the side closest to Alfred and sat in the chair. My elbows rested against the table, my head in my hands.

A group of two passed us at one point. One, large male and his girlfriend. This guy was even larger than Alfred, green eyes with sharp hair. Big, muscular, wide. He padded, his body moving from side to side as he walked. The girl under his arm skinny and tan. His eyes searched a little, going past Alfred until locking eyes with him. I ducked awkwardly, the strange teen's stare cold, but his stare didn't move from Alfred's eyes.

Alfred smiled his wide, cheery smile. But something was mischievous and teasing about it. Like he heightened his innocence level to annoy this kid. "Hey Connor," Alfred called mockingly. I smacked Alfred's shoulder gently, as I didn't want this kid coming over and giving Alfred a smack down.

"Shut it, Jones," The large teen hissed, before pushing his girlfriend along. I glared at Alfred.

"I got the quarterback position and he didn't," Alfred said with a small smirk, "And he's mad. He's just a big, ol' sour puss." Francis, Gilbert and Alfred all started to giggle. I huffed and rolled my eyes. "No threat to me. Anyhow, he can't run very fast, and I can!"

It was no shock to me Alfred was on the football team. He looked big, but skinny and long enough to be fast. And he was handsome. If not for Alfred's attire, I would probably have mistaken him for a jock. Which he isn't, as i'm more than a million percent sure he is a hipster.

I awkwardly ate my lunch. I didn't like these guys, I liked Alfred, but not them. The whole thing just felt so damn off, maybe because I just met these guys in the worse way possible. Plus romance makes me uncomfortable when it involves people I like, so seeing Alfred kiss Gilbert and hold his hand just made me all sweaty and fidgety. Same way I get when my parent's show affection towards each other.

Then Francis started poking and prodding at me, and I could feel my uncomfort bubble over and boil into a frustration. "You've got nice skin," Francis said with a chuckle, "But you're very quiet. And you've got a lot of freckles."

At the mention of my freckles I immediately hid my cheeks in my hands. I absolutely hated my freckles. They were light, but stuck out clearly in my pale skin. If I didn't look like a vampire and more like a human, they wouldn't be visible unless you were looking. I just looked so girly all the time with my small features and long eyelashes, and then my 'absolutely adoooraable' freckles, goddamnit I hated it.

"Don't talk about my freckles," I murmured, slurred, glaring at Francis. Francis was rather handsome, I must admit, but I would never date him. Perfect, wavy hair with blue eyes. Not Alfred's sky blue eyes, but more of a navy blue. It was a pretty color, nonetheless. He was a bit more pale than Alfred was, and he had some stubble. Handsome, but the opposite from my type. ...Do I even have a type? Ah, whatever.

Francis began chuckling an annoying French laugh and poked my cheek repeatedly, which annoyed me to no end, but I huffed and rolled my eyes and pretended to ignore him. After a while Francis gave up, and Alfred and Gilbert chatted away, and the fed-up and uncomfortable Arthur Kirkland sat in the middle of it all. I was a tad irritated that Alfred wasn't talking to me, like, at all. Those beautiful lips just wouldn't stop chatting away to his boyfriend. Gilbert wasn't even that attractive.

After a while it seemed that Alfred slowly ran out of things to say, and he started to slowly talk like a normal person again. But sadly, not to me. I decided I should maybe migrate, I'd rather be alone then ignored and annoyed.

I pulled gently on Alfred's shoulder, it took him a while, but eventually he noticed me. "Hey Al, Alfred.."

"Hm, yeah?" He sent small glances towards Gilbert despite his attention towards me. It hurt a little, actually. But i'm not friends with Alfred, just like... Partners. We can be friendly towards each other, but we're not friends. Alfred can't care that much about me. And I shouldn't mind but I do. For once I care that someone doesn't like me that much.

"I.. I'm gonna go sit somewhere else," I murmured. Alfred's facial expression immediately dropped, and I felt a little warm like he actually cared about me, but then I thought it over and decided that he's being a little whiny.

"No!" Alfred said in the whiniest, childish voice ever. I huffed a little, as it sounded kind of teasing. "You can't go," Alfred puckered his lips. I sighed, putting my head down on the table.

"Alright..." Alfred smiled, putting a hand on my back, which again made me lurch a little.

"So, I didn't see you at the concert last night?" I started to feel a little warm again, glad that Alfred was talking to me. Maybe he got the idea I didn't enjoy talking to Francis. I looked up at him, his smile soft, his bottom lip puckered slightly to just show the bottoms of his front teeth peeking out.

"No.. I was er..." I swallowed, looking back down, "Busy. I was busy." That wasn't true. It wasn't like I didn't want to go, I actually wanted to... I just, I don't know, I wasn't feeling it. But I was. It's like I feel as though I am trapped in my house (which i'm really not. My parents would love me to get out more.) but I accept that fact. It's an odd feeling.

Alfred glared at me, and I felt panic seize me. Not a 'run away scream and bite people' panic, just a nervousness. "Okay," He said eventually, sighing. I now heard Francis and Gilbert talking, and I couldn't feel Francis's warmth next to me any longer. "Next time, will ya come?"

"Um, sure, Al," I said with a nod, "I'll be there." It was nice that he wanted me at his concerts. Warm and fuzzy, fuzzy and warm.

"Okay," He smiled wide once again, all of his teeth grinning at me. "I'm not sure when we're gonna have another concert again, hopefully one this month," Alfred bit his lip, "Ya know, maybe you wanna be in our little group? Like, not our band, that's just me, Liz, Francis and Carlos, but like, my friend group."

"A clique?" I muttered, looking up at him.

"Yeah," Alfred trailed off, "But nobody says that anymore." I smiled a little. Then I hid my mouth in my arms and smiled a lot. Warm and fuzzy, warm and fuzzy. I could feel my cheeks get all tingly and happy. He's asking me to be friends with him, he's asking to me to be friends with his friends. A friend group, I've never been in a friend group.

After I smiled for a while and got over my happiness, I started to wonder who else was in Alfred's friend group. I really only liked him and Liz, so far. Gilbert made me uncomfortable and Francis was a dick. Alfred mentioned a guy named Carlos, who I'm guessing was the synthesizer guy, since he was part of the band. Was there really anyone else? "Well, um, who is in you, erm, friend group?"

Alfred spoke without thought, "Me, Liz, Gilly, Francy, Carlos, and Feliciano and Lovino." He spoke as if I knew all those people, which I had a brief idea who Carlos was, but no clue who Feliciano and Lovino were. "Um, Carlos is the piano guy, and uh, Feli and Lovi are brothers. They're Italian, we like to call them Mario and Luigi."

I nodded slowly, picking my head up from the table. I heard Francis and Gilbert laughing, and Alfred eyed them quickly before looking back to me. "Yeah, how about you meet me after school? We can go to my house, everybody's going. We won't be there for long, maybe like, two hours."

Meet Alfred, with more than one person? And I actually have to socialize with them? I can't just ignore them? Ehh... I don't know... "Yeah, sure." Damnit, Arthur, stop liking this guy so much.

Alfred smiled, "Ya better meet me this time." He said with a airy chuckle, "How about we meet in front of the flag, eh? I didn't bring my motorcycle, so we're gonna have to walk. But it's not that far. Or we can meet up with Feli and take his Vespa..." Alfred trailed off, his long fingers tapping at the table. I shook my head.

"I can walk."

"Oh, alright." Alfred stopped tapping his fingers. The tips of his fingers looked rough and calloused, i'm guessing from playing the guitar. "So, after school, just meet me, okay?"

"Okay," I said with a nod.

"And don't back out, i'll bug you about it all day tomorrow if you do," Alfred smiled playfully at me, a brow raising in a teasing manner. I rolled my eyes, letting out a single, loftly chuckle. "If you're there first just wait for me, m'kay?"

"Okay," I said quietly.

Eventually the bell rang for us to return to our classes. I was a bit disappointed, I enjoyed talking to Alfred, and school was boring as hell. So I returned to physics, and passed Liz in the hall, and she waved and smiled at me like an idiot. I walked with Alfred halfway to my class, as he had to go a different way to his science class.

Alfred and Gilbert held hands the whole way.

As Alfred parted from Gilbert and me, he waved me goodbye before giving Gilbert another one of those second-long kisses. It hurt, and I could feel a small twinge in the pit of my stomach, where most negative feelings sit. I swallowed and continued to my class without looking back.

It's not that I don't like Gilbert, hell, I hardly know the guy. But, other peoples relationships make me uncomfortable. It's not their fault it does. That's all it is, relationships just make be uncomfortable, that's it.. That's all. That has to be all. I don't love people, I can't love people. I just really like Alfred, that's all. That has to be all.

Yeah, I can't have a relationship. I can't trust people, plus I don't want them to have that burden. But, why am I thinking of that? I only like Alfred as a friend... Only, only as a friend. ...Only as a friend...