"Hey Mattie! Me and Artie are heading into town for dinner tonight, you wanna come?"
Matthew jumped in surprise, sending a faint pencil line across the still life he'd been tirelessly working on, and turned to frown at his brother, who shrank back a little, and murmured a quick 'sorry'. "Okay. Is football practice done already?"
"Yep! Coach is really impressed with how we've been working. He says we'll be ready to take on those chumps at Fenston Academy pretty soon."
"Good for you. Lemmie just get my stuff together here, and I'll be out to the car in a minute."
"S'okay. Come on, let the hero carry your stuff!"
He frowned again at how eagerly his brother was trying to be nice. "What did you break?" He asked slowly.
"Nothing, I swear! Can't I just be nice to my favourite little bro?"
"I'm your only little brother."
"Exactly! I need to treasure you."
"Seriously Al. What did you do?"
"…I might've told the guys that you still sleep with a teddy bear…"
"You did what?"
"Come on it was an accident! I'm really sorry, but come on, you love me right? Dinner's on me, promise! I'll even drive."
He rolled his eyes, and sighed. "Okay. It's okay. Just don't do anything stupid like that anymore."
"Promise!" He cheered, running out towards the car, which was one of the few in the parking lot. Why Alfred insisted on driving when it was only a five-minute walk from the apartments -seeing as they were still on campus- would forever remain a mystery to the Canadian.
As he climbed into the car beside his brother, he checked his bag, and realized something was missing. "Hang on Al, I forgot my math notebook. I'll be right back."
"Ok…" Alfred's attention wavered and vanished as his phone began to cheerfully sing the Superman theme. "Hey Natalya! Yeah, sure, I can talk!" He covered the mouthpiece with the hand that held the phone, and waved his brother away with the other, mouthing, "Take your time," as he did so.
Rolling his eyes in amusement, Matthew nodded, and shut the side door, turning to jog back to the school. Knowing his brother, he'd be on the phone with Natalya for half an hour at least, so he'd have to find some other way to pass the time until then lest he incur his wrath.
Matthew's locker was in the arts building, in the eastern end of the campus, which was usually the only one even slightly active at this time of night. Musical theatre was in full swing of rehearsal by October, so the entire basement was filled with activity. The upper levels were still lit from people running around the building on errands, but at the moment, he was alone.
The still-brightly lit hallways echoed his soft footsteps as the blond made his way up to his locker. One of the janitors walked by while he was looking for his book, but silently continued, just like they normally did. Once he was ready to go, he took the longer way around to buy his brother a few more minutes on the phone. It was an extensive building anyway, so he should've had plenty of time.
The hallways always seemed kind of lonely after all of the meetings were over for the night. Even though they kept the lights on for quite some time, it was always a surprise to see them empty. At least, that's what Matthew had always thought. He doubted anyone else really cared enough to notice things like that about the school.
That was when he heard it. A soft melody floating through the halls from the third floor music room. It was a violin, from what he could tell. Curious, Matthew followed the sound to the door, which was slightly ajar, and peered inside.
Lovino stood on the small riser in the middle of the room, playing on the bright, well-polished instrument with his eyes closed. There wasn't a single other person in the room except for himself, but Feliciano's art bag was sitting on a nearby chair. Carefully, so as not to get the Italian's attention, he slipped into the room, and sat on the piano bench by the door to listen.
What came as a surprise to him wasn't the fact that Lovino was playing beautifully –everyone in the school knew that, and he was almost always featured in the concerts as a soloist alongside Roderich, even though they didn't get along – no what surprised him was the calm expression on his face. Normally he looked either annoyed or furious, or some combination of the two. At the moment, he looked completely at ease, almost happy. Matthew found himself suddenly unable to tear his gaze away from the violinist.
Just as the piece seemed to be about to end, Lovino opened his eyes slowly, only to lose his grip on the bow in surprise at seeing Matthew, sending it clattering to the floor. "Merda! When the hell did you get here?"
The Canadian leapt to his feet, holding his hands up in surrender. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to intrude! It's just that I was getting my math book, and I heard you playing and…"
"It's alright." Lovino sighed, bending over to pick up his bow. "But you didn't have to sneak around like a criminal, idiot."
"Sorry." He murmured again. "But you do play well."
The Italian turned away, face appearing to be a bit red, though Matthew figured he could attribute it to the change of light. "Grazie."
"Why don't you ever look happy when you perform during the concerts?" He inquired softly.
"Obviously because I'm on stage with that prick Edelstein. Anyone would be in a foul mood when forced through that."
"I see, of course."
"I'm back Fratello! Sorry that took so long, Mr. Johnstone was a bit more talkative than usual."
Lovino stared incredulously at his brother, not bothering to point out the fact that Mr. Johnstone never spoke a word outside of his lessons, and it was Feliciano who was the chatty one. "Okay, let me pack up, and we'll get home."
As the older twin knelt to put away his violin, Feliciano's eye caught the blond, who was already attempting to sneak out unnoticed. "Ve~! Mateo! I didn't see you there! Did Lovi play for you? That's so nice of you Fratello!"
"Um… not really, I just…"
"Come on Feliciano, let's go." Lovino muttered. "And don't call me Lovi."
"Sorry!" He said with a pout, though he didn't really sound terribly sorry. "See you on Monday Mateo!"
"Sure, bye." He hesitated for only an instant before hurrying from the room. Alfred was probably ready to go by now.
{}}{{}
Elizaveta stood outside of the twins' dorm building when they arrived, looking very annoyed. "What are you here for, you perverted bitch?" Lovino growled, re-shouldering his violin case.
"Hello to you too." The brunette snapped back without missing a beat. "Unfortunately, I didn't come here for your most charming company, I'm here to see Feli. Alone."
"Fine, have fun." Lovino gave a dismissal wave, and hurried up the stairs to the main door. "Just don't lock yourself out again."
"I know Fratello!" He turned back to the Hungarian, who was looking at him with deep disappointment. "Wh-what did I do?"
"I got a phone call from Kiku just a little while ago Feli. I think you'd just love to hear what he told me."
He shrank back a little, already visibly trembling. "What did I do?" He asked again.
She held out her phone, which had a picture on it, looking like it had been taken from the ceiling of the music room. "Tell me what you see in this."
"Um… Lovi is practicing, and Mateo is peeking in through the door."
"Good. Now how about this one."
"Mateo is sitting down, and watching Fratello play."
"Tell me, what sort of expression do you see on our darling Matthew's face?"
He paused to think about it. "Interest?"
"Close."
"Intrigue?"
"Warmer…"
"Wonder?"
"Adoration!" She shouted suddenly, and then turned around to make sure the older twin wasn't hanging around, and continued more quietly. "Already he's got a lot of respect for Lovino. We can use respect to our advantage. This is a great step, and what happened after was a massive leap until you walked in! Kiku told me that they were talking, and your brother, was actually blushing! Oh if only I'd been there to stop you!"
"Fratello always blushes. He gets embarrassed really easily." Feliciano pointed out. "Antonio calls him a tomato because of it, remember?"
"Not after someone as seemingly insignificant to him as Matthew compliments him!" Elizaveta insisted. "We're close Feli! I can feel it! That moment they were together, and Lovi was embarrassed that he'd been caught was so cute! I just knew they'd work together! Now Feli." Suddenly she was very serious again. "I need you to keep an eye on them, and try to force them into more scenes like this." She held up her phone again for reference. "Invite him over while you know Lovi will be practicing, Plan to have a bunch of friends go out somewhere, and then have everyone but those two cancel! You can do it, I know you can!"
"Elizaveta, I'd love to help with this, you know I would. But I'm not really friends with him. I can't just invite him over, I barely know him. It would be weird."
"Feli… nothing's too weird when it's you. Being overly friendly is kind of your thing."
"It's not Fratello's."
"Come on! Be his friend! We're all counting on you Feli!"
"But we know someone who's also a good friend of Mateo's, or were your file thingies lying?"
Her eyes clouded over, and she shook her head rapidly. "No way. I'm not calling him for a favour like this."
"He's the only one who's a close friend of Mateo's, and ours."
"Don't make me call Gilbert!" She whined. "He'll just make fun of me again!"
"But he'll do it."
Elizaveta bit her lip, and sighed. "I know, I know… you know what? Fine. I'll call him. We need another member to meet the minimum by Friday as it is before they shut us down anyway. Okay. You go ahead Feli. I'll see you tomorrow."
"Okay!"
As the Italian scampered off to his apartment, Elizaveta turned her phone back to face her again. "I don't wanna call him…" She whimpered under her breath, but dialled the ever-familiar number anyway.
"Hello! How can the awesomeness grace you this fine evening?"
"Gilbert Beilschmidt. I have a favour to ask you…" Suddenly her whole mouth felt very dry, and the words had to be forced out. She could almost see the damned albino's eyebrow lift in curiosity.
"Oh really? The high and mighty Elizaveta, asking me for help? Well of course, who wouldn't want my help to make everything they do half as awesome as I am…?"
"Gilbert, kuss! This is important!"
"Important for me, or important for you? Clean that mouth of yours, by the way."
"Important for Lovino Vargas and Matthew Williams."
There was a long pause before the albino replied. "You have piqued my interest Lizzie. Talk to me."
And she did.
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Thanks for reading~!
So…um, my birthday's in six days. Reviews would be… awesome… Prussia awesome.
Translations:
Merda – shit (Italian)
Grazie – Thank you (Italian)
Kuss – shut up (Hungarian)
