Chapter Three

Scarlett

When Ludwig returned home that night, he couldn't find it in him to strike up a conversation with his family. Instead, he retired upstairs to his room, where he placed his shoes neatly side by side under his desk. Hanging his jacket up on a hanger, Ludwig then proceeded to collapse onto his bed. How were they supposed to raise one thousand pounds by April? It would be unlikely for any other club, but due to the disrespect for the newspaper club by most students at their school, his chances neared zero.

Ludwig let out a stressed sigh, running a hand through his blonde hair. He couldn't say no to the chance Kirkland had presented, he knew that his perfectionism wouldn't allow him to. As a perfectionist, Ludwig wouldn't allow himself to fail – It was just how he was.

He stayed staring at the ceiling for what seemed like decades. Just staring, trying to come up with a strategy that could help. Surely he could earn as much as he could in the time limit– and possibly he could get Kirkland to give them a longer length of time for the amount he'd requested.

After a few hours his silence was disturbed by a knock on his door. The knock was loud – just like the person Ludwig knew was knocking on it – and before there was a chance to reply to it, Ludwig's bedroom door swung open so quickly that the German was shocked that it hadn't flown right off of its hinges.

Ludwig wasn't surprised to see his brother enter the room - it was a regular occurrence whenever Gilbert was bored - but he wasn't in the mood to humour his brother. Without looking up at his brother, Ludwig stayed still on his bed, contemplating whether he should just pretend he was sleeping or not. 'No,' he decided after a while, 'Gil will just end up trying to wake me up anyway...'

It seemed that his moment of deciding whether he would pretend to be asleep or not had taken all of Gilbert's patience away from him. Within the time he blinked, the younger sibling had to deal with an Albino who'd climbed onto the bed to stare at him. Ludwig pushed his brother away, though he let out a small chuckle as he did so. Gott his brother was an idiot.

As soon as Ludwig pushed his brother off of him, Gilbert decided that he would play on the theatrics and throw himself onto the floor as if his younger brother had thrown him away. However, the look the albino sent his brother afterwards claimed that he'd hurt himself from the action. Ludwig sighed as his brother rubbed the back of his head where he'd hit it on the floor.

"That hurt," Gilbert exclaimed, his tone melting into a whine as he pronounced the second word. However, just to contradict himself, the older Beilschmidt let out a grin. Ludwig stared at him blankly, trying to analyse why his brother had decided to interrupt his 'moping time'. (That was what Gilbert had dubbed it the first time, years ago when Ludwig did such a thing).

"What do you want Gil?" Ludwig finally asked his older brother, not even bothering to call him by his nickname. Gilbert sighed slightly, before grinning again, as if trying to lift his younger brother's spirits.

"Want to watch some Disney films? I was talking with someone in class who'd never seen any, and it kind of made me a little sad. Now I want to be brightened up by watching Disney films - and you're going to watch them with me. You will right?"

Ludwig let out a sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. Wearily, he shrugged, watching his brother for any signs of mockery or silliness that might ruin his already downbeat mood. Standing up from his bed, he watched absent mindedly as Gilbert jumped up, straightening one of the books on Ludwig's bookshelf, before rushing out of the room. The faint sound of crashing on the staircase made Ludwig chuckled slightly when he realised his brother had tripped down the stairs.

Padding across the floor and to the stairs, Ludwig wasn't surprised to see his brother sprawled across the floor at the bottom of the stairs. It was, after all, a common occurrence due to the countless amount of energy the albino displayed at any given time.

Walking down the stairs with a slower speed than his brother, Ludwig rolled his eyes at Gilbert, who twitched slightly on the floor. "You're not supposed to fall down the stairs bruder," he smirked, waiting at the bottom step for Gilbert to move. "Now, I thought that we had some Disney movies that you wanted to watch?"

When Gilbert moved, he did so with a groan. "Mein head hurts..." He whined. However, compared to when he'd been complaining earlier, Gilbert didn't smile in spite of himself, instead, he held his head in his hands as if trying to hold it together.

"Gil..." Ludwig moved closer to his brother, even though he was half convinced that his brother was faking the pain. "Take your hand away from your head."

When Gilbert finally did - which was around two minutes later - Ludwig watched two small droplets of blood make their way down his brother's forehead. Zoning out, Ludwig didn't realise his brother waving a hand in front of his face as he tried to gather his attention.

Instead of noticing his brother's hand in front of him, Ludwig wondered why he felt as if he were the one bleeding.

The next day in school, Ludwig was not surprised that Gilbert had not come to classes. He had required two stitches on his head, and had suffered from a concussion. In fact, Ludwig's father had given Gilbert the 'all clear' meaning the albino wouldn't be expected to attend school for at least the end of the week (which wasn't actually that long - only two days).

Unlike Ludwig however, Gilbert's two best friends Antonio and Francis were surprised when Gilbert did not attend classes. When the clock struck twelve forty five and the students were let out to lunch, the two international students made their way over to where Ludwig was sat in the school courtyard. Feliciano was skipping bubbly up behind them making his own way up to the German.

"Ludwig! Ah Ludwig!" Francis was the one to open the conversation, though he made sure to wink at a passing girl first. "Where is you're brother today, mon cher?"

Ludwig looked up from where he was sat on a bench, closing the book he was reading after placing a bookmark into the page he was on. For a moment he looked up with a frown, as if he couldn't quite remember what was wrong with Gilbert, but then he remembered the previous night. Ludwig cursed his memory for a few moments, before cleaning any dirt that could be on his glasses.

"Gil's not in today." He explained as he cleaned each lens. "He's got a concussion."

Ludwig wasn't expecting Francis and Antonio to sit down at the table, but he didn't show any of his surprise as they did. Feliciano sat down next to Ludwig as well, smiling in the seemingly bubbly way he always seemed to. Ludwig allowed himself to show the small amount of surprise he felt when Feliciano chirped 'Hey Luddy! Ve~"

Like the day before, Ludwig spluttered in response to Feliciano's actions. Completely ignoring Francis' and Antonio's raised eyebrows at the nickname (Francis was already snickering), Ludwig turned red as Feliciano latched himself on the German's arm.

Again.

"...Luddy?!" He finally exclaimed, ears burning red at such a nickname. Feliciano grinned, nodding eagerly. However, when the Italian turned to look at the two older students, his brow furrowed slightly.

"Why're you laughing big brother Francis?" Feliciano asked, causing Ludwig to splutter again. Big brother? Was Francis into things like that? Was Feliciano? Feeling awkward about the situation, Ludwig tried to pry Feliciano off of his arm. However, the more he tried to get rid of the Italian, the more the brunette tightened his hold on Ludwig's arm. And even though Feliciano looked weak, that grip was almost like a death grip.

"N-non, it is nothing mon petit Feliciano." Francis replied, trying to calm his laughter. Dramatically he pretended to wipe away tears, using Antonio to lean on. Antonio didn't react to this, but Ludwig didn't think the Spaniard was actually dense enough to have not noticed it.

...Maybe he was that dense...

"I'm just overjoyed that is all." Francis continued after a while, a smile on his face. Ludwig knew now to trust that smile, having learnt over many years to be suspicious of all things. Living with Gilbert after all had caused him to develop a radar of sorts to anything mischievous, and now he just knew Francis was going to do something...

"Overjoyed?" Feliciano asked, cocking his head to the right in confusion. Ludwig wanted to tell the Italian that he should have just stayed quiet, because Francis was obviously trying to antagonise them. However, he was too late to stop Feliciano and Francis smirked at them both.

"Overjoyed to see such l'amour!" Francis smirked, causing both Feliciano and Ludwig to adopt looks of horror on their faces. Then both of them blushed as they spluttered, trying to process the French student's words. Shaking their heads quickly, Ludwig tried to make sense of what Francis was suggesting.

"We aren't together!" Ludwig spluttered finally, as Feliciano gasped out, "Luddy and I aren't in a relationship!"

Ludwig hadn't even known Feliciano any longer than two days - a relationship involving romance had not crossed his mind at all. What was Francis trying to suggest? Pushing his glasses up on his face, Ludwig placed two fingers on his head, trying to sort through the blur of thoughts that were whirling around his head. Why were things not making any sense now? Internally groaning, Ludwig knew he was going to have to deal with a headache by the end of lunch.

Finally calm, Ludwig explained, "We're both in the newspaper club together. That's all."

Feliciano nodded eagerly, looking at the two older teens with a smile once again. His blush seemed to disappear - as did Ludwig's - but the Italian still kept his arms wrapped around Ludwig's arm. Francis rolled his eyes slightly, as if he thought there was more, but otherwise he stood up.

"Well, lets leave these two love birds to deny their relationship Antoine." Francis turned to Antonio with a smile. "Ludwig, you'll tell Gilbert we'll see him when he's better, oui?"

Ludwig nodded, slightly surprised when Feliciano jumped up from his seat over to the two students.

"Big brother's Francis and Antonio!" Feliciano cried out quickly as they turned to walk away. "We need your help actually!"

Francis was the first to stop walking, but Antonio was the first of the two turn around.

"What is it about Feli?" Antonio asked, smiling slightly as the Italian bounded over to them. Feliciano's eyes looked up at the two boys with what Ludwig assumed was innocence.

"Arthur Kirkland's being mean to us at the newspaper club! Ve~ We have seven months to earn one thousand pounds! How are we going to do that? Can you please help us?" Feliciano asked, his eyes wide as he gripped on the other teens' arms.

Francis sighed, shaking his head slightly. Antonio looked seemingly hopeless as he shrugged.

"I can't help you Feliciano." Francis sighed, "Arthur would make our lives worse in this school - you know that as the school council president he can ruin your reputation."

Antonio nodded in agreement to this. "He could ruin you amigo. If he wants that newspaper club gone, he'll manage it. Even if he has to ruin your reputations first."

Feliciano shivered. Ludwig paled slightly.

"So... so you won't help us...?" Feliciano cried slightly, his eyes filling slowly with tears. "...But we can't earn that much on our own!"

Antonio ran a hand through his hair, "that's exactly the point. Kirkland's a bastard like that. God - I hate him. Sorry Feli, we just can't help."

The two walked away from Feliciano and Ludwig without as much as another word. The Italian turned around to the German as he cried slightly, rushing over to hug Ludwig. Ludwig didn't quite know how to comfort the Italian, too focused on the fact that Arthur Kirkland wanted to ruin the newspaper club.

It was only after Feliciano stopped crying - Ludwig promised that after they'd finished with their respected clubs, he'd take Feliciano out for Gelato - that Ludwig noticed the newest word on Feliciano's hand. It was written in Feliciano's messy scrawl but Ludwig could read the word easily. Trust.

"We're going to get that money for the newspaper club, aren't we Ludwig?" Feliciano asked timidly as they made their way to their respected registration periods - apparently they were in the same section of the building.

Ludwig nodded, "Yes. If we work hard enough."

"Even if our reputations are ruined?" Feliciano added, when they reached the hallway of their tutorials. Ludwig took a deep breath at the look he received from Feliciano. However, once again he nodded.

"Yes, even if our reputations are ruined."

Feliciano smiled happily, quickly hugging Ludwig before rushing into the classroom. He waved slightly at Ludwig, who watched with a soft smile as he lifted his hand up. Turning to continue to his own registration period, thoughts echoing through his head, Ludwig didn't notice Arthur Kirkland as the Brit scowled at him.

Additional notes:

Lets just say that my average chapter length will be 2,500 words. Anyway, this took less time to write this time (three weeks is better than five, yes?) because I'm slowly getting into the overall plot of things. I love writing this story already, and I'm only on chapter three! Thanks to everyone who's gone and pressed the favourite/follow buttons, I'm happy that you all like it! As for those of you who've reviewed this - thank you so, so much!

Watch out for the next chapter Trust:

"No you listen to me Ludwig." Serious eyes focused onto the German, and Ludwig couldn't help but shiver at the severity of the glare. "You don't understand what this means. Kirkland wants to break you down. He wants to ruin you, and Feliciano, and Kiku. You've got to choose - your precious newspaper club? or the football team?"

Reviews are loved as much as Italy loves pasta! I'll see you all in the next chapter!

Ciao, Mint~