Ludwig was unable to move. His brother had excitedly told him about the group of good looking boys that had walked out of the principal's office and out the school doors during a passing period yesterday when Ludwig had been in one of the different buildings and therefore not seen them, but he hadn't much cared. His brother had mused out loud if they were going to attend the school and kept exclaiming that he had never seen such large eyebrows before. But none of it had really interested Ludwig much. His thoughts had still been on the encounter he had had with the Italian wolves the day before.
But now his brother's words held more meaning as he stared into his American History class that morning and found someone sitting in his desk. A young man with the same auburn brown hair as the more bouncy Italian wolf. He was talking quite animatedly with wildly gesturing hands to the girl that sat in front of Ludwig normally. While it wasn't really assigned seating, Ludwig did still feel a tinge of annoyance that the new student hadn't bothered to ask if the seat was usually occupied. Or more probable was that he hadn't cared. That was the type of kids that usually moved into the area for about a year before their parents couldn't stand it and ended up moving again.
"Excuse me." Ludwig cleared his throat, walking up to the talking pair and nodding at the boy, "You're in my seat."
"Oh come on Ludwig it's not assigned seating." The girl groaned and looked at him with a butt out expression.
But the stranger instantly snapped his attention to Ludwig and gasped.
"It's you."
Ludwig blinked but the boy quickly stood and shook his head rubbing his hands together nervously.
"I mean...I've been told about you. But um...what's your name? Oh and sorry for stealing your seat! I asked but nobody told me!"
Ludwig blinked at the young man who's voice was a little more high pitched than most guys. And it clearly was used to laughing, chatting, and apologizing. He seemed to be a cheerful person. He was the type of person that would easily fit in with his brother's group. But as Ludwig looked him over more closely, several things began to stand out to him. Things that made him think of the mesmerizing Italian wolf. First, the young man's hair sported a curl on the left side that defied gravity. Second, his eyes were the same color as his hair just like the wolf's. And third, he had a bandage wrapped around his wrist, the same side that the wolf had limped away on two days ago. All of this had to be coincidence but it was still rather disconcerting to be confronted with such a person so soon after that encounter. Not to mention that as he caught the boy's eyes and held them for a bit, he got the same sensation that the wolves eyes staring out of the trees had given him. The sensation that his world was about to flipped upside down and he might actually like it.
"Um excuse me..." the girl snapped suddenly, "Weren't you talking to me Feliciano?"
The strange young man snapped his attention from Ludwig and turned back the girl with a cheerful apologetic smile.
"I was but I need to move seats first. Is the one next to yours taken, um...sorry but you just kinda looked at me without telling me your name. Mine is Feliciano Vargas by the way. I'm new here. My cousin just bought the Victorian on the hill." He turned back to Ludwig with an apologetic smile and shrug.
"No way!" the girl exclaimed, "You're living in the haunted Hathoway House?!"
"Is that its name?" Feliciano grinned, "I wondered if it had a name. Most old manors like that one usually do."
"Did you not hear me?" the girl asked in slight annoyance, "I said haunted."
Feliciano smiled, "It's not haunted."
"How can you be so sure? You've only been living there for like three days right? The spirits are probably just waiting for you to get comfortable and start to feel safe and then they'll strike!"
"Trust me. I would know if it was haunted. And if it was my family would still be fine." Feliciano didn't lose his smile.
Ludwig blinked at him in confusion and curiosity but the girl still looked skeptical and folded her arms.
"Well I don't care how hot you are, I'm not stepping a foot in that manor." She muttered under her breath as she got up and went over to the doorway where some more girls had just entered.
Ludwig wondered if Feliciano had heard her but the young man was still just smiling and looking at him.
"I'm still waiting for a name and your answer." he said cheerfully.
Ludwig blinked and blushed slightly at being so rude.
"It's Ludwig. Ludwig Beilschmidt. And no that seat is always empty."
"Great then!" Feliciano grinned and moved one seat over, "I'll sit next to you Ludwig."
Ludwig just blinked for a bit before he nodded and sat down. Feliciano had been completely sure when he had said that the Hathoway Manor wasn't haunted. And even more sure when he had said that his family would still have been able to handle it if it had been. It sparked Ludwig's curiosity and made him want to ask more questions and actually get to know the hyper new boy.
"So Feliciano, you said that your cousin bought the manor. How old is he, and who all is living with you."
"Arthur is 21 and there are eight of us."
Ludwig's brain ignored how young the owner of the house was and immediately began snapping connections. Eight new people in the Hathoway Manor, right on the heels of a pack of eight wolves showing up around the town. More coincidences his logical side reasoned. Crazy coincidences!
Feliciano was just smiling at him, probably waiting for his response and maybe more questions.
"Um...so besides your oldest cousin, are you all teenagers and attending this school?"
"No Yao is 21 as well, but he's related to Kiku only."
Ludwig's brain went double time in complete confusion. So was it like a fraternity in the house where not everyone is related to each other. He had assumed that it was probably all members of Arthur's family but now he wasn't so sure.
Feliciano laughed and patted his shoulder.
"Sorry, I know it's probably a bit confusing but I don't want to go into all the family dynamics right now. I'll just tell you everyone's names. There's me and my twin brother Lovino, Arthur, Kiku, Yao, Matthew, Felix, and Tino."
Why did Feliciano keep saying things that were too uncannily close to the wolf pack?! This time it was the information that he had a twin brother, just like the two brother Italian wolves! Ludwig was getting a headache from listening to Feliciano and he was grateful when class finally started up and his mind could be occupied with history.
~*Musouka*~
Ludwig wasn't the only one that experienced some shocks that day. Berwald walked into wood working a little later than usual that day because he was making up a test for another class during lunch and ended up having to stay longer to finish it. He was surprised to find Tino, the boy that had visited the carving shop, at his usual work station talking to Lukas and being talked at by Mathias.
"Hey Bernie!" Mathias called out, "You're late buddy!"
Berwald hating that nickname almost as much as Lukas hated the annoying wild haired boy calling him Luka. He ignored Mathias and walked over to the teacher with his pass to make sure he was marked as there instead absent or tardy. But as he walked back over towards the bench he found it hard to keep his eyes off of Tino. The young man had turned in his direction and was also looking at him with surprise but also an uncertain smile on his face.
"Um hi again." Tino said a bit quietly as Berwald approached the table.
Berwald continued to just stare at him which seemed to make Tino fidget a bit under his gaze. He nodded and managed an "mm" at the boy before sitting across from him beside Lukas.
"Whoa you two know each other already?!" Mathias exclaimed, looking between the two, "When and how did that happen?!"
Tino waited for Berwald to explain but when the man just continued to stare at him and not say anything he finally broke down and replied.
"I visited his father's carving shop a few days ago and we talked a bit since he was working behind the counter."
"Whoa you actually got Berwald to talk to you?!" Mathias grinned, "That's a feet!"
"Just because he doesn't want to talk to you doesn't mean that he won't talk to normal people Mathias." Lukas spoke up calmly before going back to whittling.
"Oh come on Luka don't be like that." Mathias grinned and then yelped as the knife came down just inches from his fingers.
"Don't call me Luka." Lukas still spoke calmly with hardly any expression on his face but he uncurled his fingers from the knife and just left it in the table, probably as a warning for the future.
"Hey are you boys getting up to trouble again?" the teacher called warningly from the other side of the room.
"No sir." Lukas called out and picked up a different knife to continue whittling.
And that was pretty much how the rest of the period went, and Berwald just went about his work but kept looking at Tino across the table...and never said a word.
And in his Advanced Biology class, Toris had been surprised to find the young blond man that he had seen walking through the halls with the large group the day before. The boy was wearing a slightly large white sweater and colored scarf and appeared to be sucking on a lollipop. A matching colored hat was sitting on top of the desk. What's more, he was in the seat right in front of Toris's, where Ivan usually sat. That was a problem. He had to warn the boy before his a bit disconcerting, and very misunderstood, friend arrived.
"Um hey, you're new here right?" Toris sat down behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.
The boy turned around and fixed Toris with his bright green eyes removing the candy from his mouth with a loud smack.
"Yep, like names Felix. You're Toris right? I saw you in the halls yesterday and heard that kid with glasses call your name."
Toris blinked at the casual uncaring attitude the boy seemed to have.
"Yeah I am. Hey listen, you're in Ivan's seat. And if I were you...I would move immediately. You don't want to mess with Ivan."
"Like who's that?" Felix licked the candy.
"Well, you remember the tall guy with the scarf that I was standing with yesterday?"
"Yep."
"That's Ivan."
"Oh...why's he got white hair?"
Toris blinked at him in surprised confusion.
"I honestly don't know. It's not pure white but then again..."
"I've got a cousin with very light blond hair that it almost seems white. His name's Tino. Hey you work at the Pony Ranch right? Could I come hang out and see them or ride sometime?"
Toris blinked yet again and tried to process all of the information and questions. One thing was completely confusing.
"How did you know about the Pony Ranch?"
"Oh someone in one of my previous classes was talking about you and the ranch." Felix waved his hand dismissively.
Toris's face heated up at the hope that it was a particular girl who had mentioned it. Ivan's younger sister Natalia was a new Freshman but since Toris and Ivan had been friends since the beginning of high school, he had actually been around her a lot before now and had developed his crush about a year ago. If Natalia was talking to other people about him then that was a good sign right?
"Hey, are you like spacing out? You didn't answer my other question yet."
"Huh?" Toris shook his head to try and clear it from thoughts of Natalia, "Oh about coming to the ranch? We do have mostly ponies but there are two horses that you could ride. You have experience?"
"Yep." Felix grinned, "I love ponies better but you can't ride them after a certain size so I learned how to horseback ride when that happened."
Toris was about to ask more when a soft voice spoke up from beside them.
"Excuse me, you are in my seat da?"
Toris stopped dead and looked over at Ivan. Crap! He had been so preoccupied with just talking to Felix that he hadn't realized that the new boy had yet to vacate the seat. He waited for Ivan's foreboding aura to make Felix start trembling and move immediately, and probably never talk to him again just from association with the frightening boy, but the blond just stared at Ivan with the lollipop back in his mouth and unperturbed green eyes.
"Can't you just sit somewhere else? I'm like enjoying talking to Toris."
Toris caught his breath and didn't dare to look at Ivan. Oh god he just wanted to become invisible at that moment. If Ivan thought that he was part of this than the creepy aura was going to be turned up ten fold when he next talked to Toris alone. He wouldn't do anything violent but the phrase "if looks could kill" was not a false statement in the least!
Ivan kept staring at Felix but his smile had stretched wider and he closed his eyes.
"I could. But you see, Toris is a friend of mine so I enjoy talking with him as well."
And with that statement Toris was completely pulled into the middle of this confrontation. And he had absolutely nothing to do with it and no control over either of them.
"Then like kick someone else out of one of the seats on either side of Toris." Felix waved an uncaring hand and turned back to Toris, "So how many ponies does the ranch have? Does your family own it? That's like totally cool!"
Toris knew that Ivan was not used to being brushed off so easily like that and he dared to dart his eyes over to see the tall teen's eyes twitch in slight annoyance even as his smile remained exactly the same. This was most certainly not good. Felix had no idea what he had just started, and worse it looked like Toris was going to continue to be stuck in the middle. He should just refuse the crazy boy's askings to come to the ranch and maybe that would make him get annoyed and leave him alone after that. He had this nagging doubt in the back of his mind that that wouldn't be the case though so he finally forced himself to answer the new comer.
"Yeah my family owns the ranch. Just let me know when you want to come over and we can head there together after school sometime. Or I guess a weekend would be fine too."
"Sweet." Felix grinned, "Tomorrow then. We own Hathoway Manor so like meet me in front of there at noon and we'll head back to your place."
The teacher entered at that point and Ivan took the seat beside Toris, making Antonio have to move to a different seat without even making a scene. Toris barely had time to register what Felix had said before the teacher began that day's lesson but when he did his mind was in a panic.
Wait, what?! Tomorrow?! Hathoway Manor?! The heck is up with this guy?!