A/N, This is chapter 2. I have got the vague story in my head, and this is going to be slowly written over the weeks. I am so happy that people have reviewed for my work, but please, people, reviews sooth the writers soul.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, NOTHING!

Warning: Gilbert's potty mouth, drunken revelry, and the life of students galore!

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"What?" Ludwig glared at his brother.

"Fresher's Night!" Gilbert was disgustingly cheerful for 11pm. "Time to mingle little bro!"

"No." Ludwig said and was about to lam the door when Gilbert out his foot as a barricade. Ludwig glowered at his brother in irritation.

"I am not going anywhere."

"And yet," Gilbert sauntered into the rooms, glancing around and looking at the dogs, who had looked up to see their owners annoying brother in their new special space, "I am taking you there."

"And where is there?" Ludwig recognised the futility of trying to stop his brother doing anything without his consent. He followed his brother into his bedroom, and leaned against the wall, making sure that brother didn't do anything in his room that would constitute as something wrong.

"Friends."

"Obviously." Ludwig muttered. Gilbert had by that point managed to get into Ludwig's drawers and was rooting through, trying to find something that would accent his brothers masculinity whilst making him eye candy for the people in the building. Maybe is his brother got laid tonight, he could be able to get the stick removed from his arse and fit in more.

"And exactly what are you doing?" Ludwig asked, confusion colouring his voice.

"Where is your muscle shirt, the black one?" Gilbert held up a shirt he though was it, but he pulled a face and threw it into the growing pile of clothes on the floor.

Ludwig raised his eyebrows at his brothers apparently new found fashion sense. When at home, his brother just threw on whatever was nearest. But now…

"Ahh ha! Found it!" Gilbert exclaimed and held up the aforementioned muscle shirt, looking at it with a critical eye. On the floor at his feet sat a green military jacket, pilfered from their fathers wardrobe and worn by his grandfather, or so the Beilschmidt boys had been told.

"I am not going anywhere."

"Oh yes you are."

"No."

"Yes."

"NO!"

"YES!"

"Gilbert, is he ready yet?" Antonio poked his head through the door, eyeing the two brothers squaring off against each other.

"No." Gilbert pouted.

"Hurry him up, we're going to miss the start and the beer."

"Nooooo, we cannot miss the beer!" Gilbert exclaimed. He started moving even faster, throwing the clothes that he had chosen at his brother, and grabbing the tube of gel, running into the bathroom and pulling Ludwig with him.

"Bruder, stop it!" Ludwig protested strongly, pulling on his arm. But for all that Gilbert was skinny as a rail, he had a wiry strength in his arms that told a different story, one of many hours fighting with others, both officially and not so.

"Get in there, and change. We are going out, and you are coming with us!" And with that, Gilbert pulled his brother into the bathroom, and shut the door.

What happened next was a whirlwind of activity, which involved much pulling on clothing, hands in hair, the squeezing to death of a tube of hair gel, and the ruin of a pair of pyjama pants. When all had finished, Gilbert exited the room with a triumphant grin on his face. Ludwig followed so afterwards, blushing to the roots of his hair. Francis, who had followed into the room after Antonio and Lovino, whistled.

"Your brother cleans up very well." He said, leering slightly towards Ludwig. Ludwig reared back, looking slightly shocked.

"Ja, always had done." Gilbert slung an arm around Ludwig's shoulder.

"Alright, Fresher's Night, here we go!" Antonio punched the air with his fist. The group traipsed out of the door, with Ludwig last out of the door. He shut of the lights and locked his door, making certain to clip his key to the loop of his trousers. He wasn't taking any risks.

They made their way slowly down the stairs, each one of them all thinking about the coming night, although only one of them was dreading it. Ludwig kept glancing behind him, all the time expecting an opportune moment to appear where he could sneak off back to his room and resume sleeping.

They exited the building, and Ludwig could see other lights on in the distance, where other buildings full of students were gearing up for Fresher's night. Despite himself, Ludwig started to feel excited.

"Right bro, we are going into the Watering Hole."

"Watering hole?"

"Local bar." Francis filled in. "Sadiq Adnan managed to rent it out for the night, specifically for the International Building." Ludwig looked sideways at his brother, who grinned at Ludwig.

"PhD student, is currently writing a thesis on how the Ottoman Empire rose and fell."

"It sounds a bit imperialist." Ludwig frowned.

Gilbert snorted and muttered. "You have no right to talk." Ludwig whipped around to glare at his brother, but Gilbert had already streaked ahead. The others ran up to catch him.

Soon, lights in the distance told them that they were getting close to the aforementioned Watering Hole. There were shouting and the heavy sound of music, the bass making Ludwig's bones rattle.

"Wait." Gilbert grabbed Ludwig's and swung him around to face the group.

"There are some vital rules to Fresher's Night here." Ludwig was about to laugh it off (as much as he did laugh) when he caught sight of the rest of the groups faces. They all looked deadly serious.

"Rule one: Party hard, or go home." Ludwig looked at Gilbert in astonishment.

"Rule two: drink like a man, and keep it down." Francis cut in. He leered once again Ludwig, who stood his ground this time, and glared at the Frenchman. Francis grinned and leaned back.

"And the most important rule of all," Gilbert leaned in close to his brother, making sure that the importance of his words got through to the taller man, "Do not let Raivis, Tino, Arthur and Ivan near the liquor and spirit table until after 2am. We will not be responsible for the consequences of what happens if they consume hard alcohol before that time."

"What?" Once again, Ludwig was tempted to laugh it off, but he saw the slightly nauseous expressions of the others, and decided not to know.

"Let's just say that the last time Arthur and Raivis drank hard liquor together, it involved three sheep, half a dozen geese, the university Libraries Special Collections, the computer room in the Homer building and two pairs of pants belonging to the Dean." Antonio said in a low voice, almost like he was passing on confidential information.

"Facebook was never the same again." There was a collective shudder and silence, whilst Ludwig tried to get his head around what such a scenario would have been like to witness. Gilbert suddenly perked up and slapped Ludwig across the shoulder.

"Time to get going little brother!" And with that, Gilbert raced into the building, followed by Francis and Antonio, who tried to drag a very reluctant Lovino with him. Lovino pulled his arm out of the grip and let his overly enthusiastic race inside. Ludwig was left with the grumpiest Italian that side of the Equator, and no topic of concersation.

Just as he was about to open his mouth to try and make conversation, or at least do something to break the oppressive silence, Lovino beat him to it.

"I've got my eye on you."

"I haven't done anything!"

"You stupid potato bastard, you are always thinking something." Lovino seemed to have a an unrivalled hatred of him, something that Ludwig felt had had done absolutely nothing to warrant.

"Fine." Ludwig refused to admit to this day that he huffed, but he did, and there was a witness to that.

"Fine." Lovino gave him an even harder glare, and was about to same something else of a scathing context, when Antonio ran back out of the Watering Hole, and ran back inside, this time dragging his extremely reluctant boyfriend with him.

Ludwig looked at the building where he felt could be the making or breaking of his time at University. He heaved a sigh and made his way inside, loosening his green jacket and breathing deeply.

What was going to happen was going to happen, and he may as well be drunk when it occurred.

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The bass was even louder now he was inside the building. He could feel his eyes vibrating in his skull, and knew that the music was only going to get more annoying as the night went on.

Beer. He needed beer.

He made his way to a group of people, where he assumed the drinks tables were. He could see the back of Berwald's head. The man towered over everyone, so he was the first person Ludwig made for outside of his own family.

"No, T'no. No vodka yet."

"But I want some!" Tino whined. He was being pulled away by his arm, and despite Berwald's obvious strength, Tino was deceptively strong for his size. Ludwig squeezed alongside and grabbed a bottle of beer.

"'lo Ludwig." Berwald grumbled. He tried to haul Tino away again, despite loud protests from not only Tino, but the growing crowd.

"C'mon Berwald, let him have a vodka!" The American, Alfred, yelled, a grin on his face and a large hamburger in his hand. Ludwig raised an eyebrow at the unhealthy snack, but didn't comment. If Alfred wanted to pump his arteries full of fat, then by all means, he should be allowed to do so.

"Then you let Arthur near the whiskey, and we'll see how that turns out." Bjorn muttered into his cup. His brother, Emil, was sitting in a corner, already conversing with Jia Long. The quiet man was already leaning heavily on the other man.

Alfred shuddered. "Nope, nope I think I will leave the festivities till later." The American winked and sauntered off to find his boyfriend, whom Ludwig could see was already eyeing his red headed sister and her blond French suitor with utter distaste.

Ludwig shook his head at the chaos and made his way to the nearest corner and booth not occupied by another person. He felt swamped by all of the new people, something that had never happened previously. Usually he was alone when it came to having fun. He enjoyed a good workout, and reading military journals.

And baking cakes.

He sighed, not for the first time feeling lonely in a crowd, and went to sit down at a booth.

"Ve! I'm sorry!"

Ludwig jumped like he had had a live wire attached to his nerves. He whirled around, spilling half of his beer, and peered into the darkened booth.

A man was sitting in the booth, clutching a glass of wine and a plate of pasta. He was small, with auburn hair leaning more towards brown, and a curl on the right side of his head. He also had bright brown eyes, a small but lush mouth, and was currently wearing an expression of absolute terror.

"Waaaaaahh!" he yelled, nearly flinging the pasta at Ludwig. "Don't hurt me!"

"Hurt you?" Ludwig was confused. He had done absolutely nothing to frighten this man.

"Face…scary!" The man pointed a finger at Ludwig's face, all the while clutching at his glass of wine.

"I have done nothing to hurt you!" Now Ludwig was starting to feel a little bit freaked out. "Who are you?"

"My name?" The man stopped acting like a frightened rabbit and was now tilting his head to the side. "My name is-"

"FELI!" Both of the men looked to the side. Elizaveta was charging up the carpet, trying to get to 'Feli' before anyone else could commandeer him.

"Liz!" The man finally abandoned his glass of wine and flung himself at Elizaveta, who hooked her arms around the brown-headed boy and was now spinning around, channelling a helicopter and its wings. Ludwig looked over the spinning couple and could now see his own cousin making his way slowly towards him. Ludwig raised his eyebrows. His cousins cravat was missing. He glanced towards Elizaveta, who had stopped spinning, and he saw where the cravat had gone. It was being used as a headband.

"Elizaveta, stop using Feliciano as a deterrent for other people to move past."

"Oh stop Roderich." Elizaveta grinned over he shoulder at her boyfriend. "I was just greeting him."

"I know. Hello Feliciano." Roderich greeted Feliciano, who grinned happily.

"Hi Roderich!" Ludwig didn't think it was possible for a person to inject so much joy into their voice, but apparently he was wrong. "How are you? Are you still playing the piano? I went to a lovely concert this summer with Nonno and Lovi, and then I had lovely pasta! I was so nice, I almost didn't want to eat it, but I was so hungry that I had to, and it was so delicious, and I nearly at all of the pasta on the table, and then we- "

Ludwig looked at the small man, who was talking a mile a minute. The man was so happy, and so full of life. He was the complete opposite of Ludwig, in just about every way.

"Feli!" Ludwig turned to find his brother striding towards him, a maniac grin on his face. Under his slung arm was the quite man from earlier, the man that Gilbert had called 'Mattie'.

"Gilbert!" Feliciano whirled around, but instead on flinging himself at Gilbert like he had done, he focused all of his attention on Gilbird, who had tangled his feet comfortably in Gilbert's mop and was not letting go any time soon.

"Feli, my favourite little Italian!" Gilbert was by this time very drunk, as Ludiwg could now see. Mattie also had a rosy on his face, and his normally placid visage now supported a very large smile.

"Where have you been all day?"

"Art Hall." Feliciano didn't even glance down at Gilbert's face, so focused as he was on the bird.

"Hey," Gilbert dragged Feliciano over to where Ludwig was standing, frozen. "have you met my brother?"

"Brother?" Now Feliciano focused his attention of the tall German who was standing there, clutching his beer and not having taken a sip. Feliciano peered closely at Ludwig, for once his face not showing any joy.

Ludwig had never believed in fate. Those were words that he had spoken to his father, before he had come to this place. He had always made sure that he knew what to do should the unexpected happened. A back up plan, a back up plan to that back up plan, and one still in reserve. He had always made sure that nothing was left out of his control, and that he knew exactly what was going to happen.

But now.

As Feliciano peered at him, Ludwig felt his cheeks heat up. His heart sped up, and he was sure that the pupils in his eyes had dilated.

"Are you okay?" Feliciano asked, now peering closer to Ludwig. He was now leaning so close to Ludwig that he could feel the other man's breath on his face. Ludwig swallowed, and felt himself about to say something, when another voice cut through the oddly thick silence.

"WANT TO FIGHT ME, DA?" Everyone turned, to find a man, one of the tallest men that Ludwig had ever seen, standing on the table that had held the liquor, waving what looked like a water pipe in the air. He had a manic smile on his face, and was glaring down at Alfred, who was simultaneously shaking his fist at Ivan (for that was who it was) and allowing a now very drunk Arthur to use him as a prop so that he could stand.

"I WILL FIGHT YOU!" Mathias was walking, or rather weaving, back into the room, dragging an axe after him. Bjorn had long since abandoned him, to try and find a place to sleep and hopefully keep an eye on his brother. Not that this was needed, Emil having long since passed out and was now lying in Jia Long's lap.

"Nooooo, I want to fight!" Tino was leaning heavily in Berwald's arms, who himself was leaning heavily against a wall.

"What?" Ludwig gasped. Gilbert whooped and ran forward to join the melee of people now gathering around the table, with Mattie following. Elizaveta and Roderich had left, and now Ludwig was standing in the corner with an empty bottle of beer and an Italian that he didn't know what to do with.

"Ludwig, Ludwig, will they really fight?" Feliciano tugged at Ludwig's sleeve.

"I don't know."

"I hope that they don't." Feliciano wrapped his arms around himself, looking worriedly at the crowd, which was now growing bigger. Ludwig glanced down at Feliciano as he shivered. Without thinking, he took off his jacket and draped it around Feliciano's shoulders.

"Ve?"

"You looked cold."

"Oh." And now it was Feliciano's turn to blush slightly. "Thank you." He glanced shyly up at Ludwig through his eyelashes. Ludwig himself cleared his throat and glanced away. He shook himself. What was he doing? He had only just met that man and he was offering him his prize military jacket?

"What are you studying?"

"War Studies." Pause. "And you?"

"Oh, Art. I love painting. And pasta. But there isn't a course in pasta, so I chose painting."

Ludwig smiled. He didn't know why, but something about this man just called to him. He was just so alive.

Right. Ludwig shook himself. If he was going to feel like that, so soon after staring his new life at University, then he was going to start it nice a drunk.

"Alright, MOVE IT!" And using the bulk and strength that the gods had blessed him with, he shouldered his way to the table.

And more specifically, to the beer.

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Ludwig didn't want to wake up. There was a brass band playing inside his skull, his mouth felt like something had died in it, and the person in his bed was stealing all of the covers.

Wait, person?

Ludwig shot up, straight as an arrow, and, ignoring the pounding inside his head, whipped the covers off of the person.

"Hey." The person said blearily. He too sat up, and was also running a hand through his hair, which was standing on end.

"Oh, hello." It was Gilbert's boyfriend. "Mattie."

"Matthew. Matthew Williams." Matthew Williams squinted in the general direction of Ludwig, waving his hand around to try and find his glasses. Ludwig, without turning his head, reached behind himself and took them from his bedside.

"Here."

"Thanks." Matthew put on his glasses and then took a good look at his bed mate. Ludwig knew that after a night of heavy drinking he did not look his best, but he thought that it did not warrant the squeak and shift backwards that Matthew did.

"Um…did we?"

"Oh God, no."

"Oh, thanks." After a quick glance down the bed, he stood up and stretched. Picking up his clothes, Matthew moved to the door. Just before he reached the door, he turned and looked at Ludwig.

"You know that the Dean is going to speak to us in 15 minutes, right?" And with that, he exited the room to find Gilbert.

"SCHISSE!" Ludwig had never moved so quickly in his life. He threw on his clothes, brushed his teeth so quickly he still felt the fuzz, and sprinted out of his door, after promising his dogs that he would walk them later.

He tore through the forum of the building, running as fast as he could towards the main University building. People from the other campus buildings looked askance at the rumpled German sprinting through the courts.

He tore into the building, frantically looking for the room where the introduction was taking place. He found the room, and, pleading to whoever was up there that he was not embarrassingly late, opened the door.

He was perhaps the best dressed person there. Everyone else in the room was slumped in their seats. Ludwig could see that Gilbert, the man called Ivan, Arthur, Alfred, Murron and Mathias were all supporting visible signs of having fought the previous evening. Francis was leaning back in his chair, a face mask over his eyes and he was snoring slightly. Patrick and Lawrence were each slumped on the stairs, with Lawrence having his arm slung around a blond haired man with a whirl to the side, who was drooling on Lawrence's jacket. Antonio and Lovino were lying across their chairs, each holding a hand. Abel, Lili, a blonde haired women that Ludwig assumed was Bella and Vash were all glaring at each other, every one of them with red eyes and black circles under them. The Baltics and Feliks were all passed out in their chairs, drooling on the desk in front of them. An older man with short brown hair and a smaller man wearing a white keffiyeh were sitting up an looking at the front, both of them blinking rapidly. And behind them, Kiku and Herucles were regularly nodding off and waking themselves up. Around the room, people were either asleep, hung over or desperately trying to keep themselves awake.

"Ludwig, over here!" Admits the sea of sleepy people, a hand was waving frantically. Ludwig blinked and made his way over to Feliciano, who was the only person looking at all awake this morning.

"Guten Morgan Feliciano." Ludwig muttered. The Italian man chirped and bounced in his seat. Ludwig groaned and hung his head in his hands. This was too early in the morning.

"I am so excited!"

"Why?" Ludwig looked sideways in confusion.

"The new Dean, I know him!"

Ludwig sat up, looking more interested. "Who is it?"

Feliciano opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted when a door on the stage opened and a man came through. He was tall, with tanned skin and bright brown eyes. His brown hair, which was cut short had two curls on his head, one on his right, like Feliciano, and the other on the top, like Lovino.

"Good morning!" 'This man is far too chirpy for the morning.' Thought Ludwig as he slumped back into his seat.

"My name is Romulus Vagras, and I am honoured to welcome you all to a new year at the International University." Because Ludwig had his head resting on the desk and his eyes closed, he did not see the man who entered the room after Romulus.

Which was why his head shot upwards and his mouth dropped when he heard that the Dean said next.

"And I would like to introduce my new Vice Principle, Aldrich Beilschmidt."

Oh Mein Gott.