Arthur spent the rest of the day avoiding Alfred. He realised that he would eventually have to befriend the cretin; he just couldn't bear to be around him any more; not until he composed himself somewhat. Everything about Alfred just irritated him, and he knew if he hung around him much longer he would snap and do something he would regret. Fate seemed to mock him; however, as that night when he retired to his dorm he was met with none other than Alfred Jones.

Alfred was busy unpacking some clothes and various comics from the large trunk at the bottom of his bed. He glanced up upon hearing the door open; gave Arthur a rather lopsided grin and carried on unpacking. He inwardly cursed, of course he would have to share a room with that arrogant Yank. His thoughts were interrupted; however, when he felt someone practically jump onto his back, nearly toppling him over.

"Oh, a new person, ve~!"

Arthur stood up and brushed himself off; he glared at the new person who had entered the room, his other roommate, Feliciano Vargas.

"Pleased to meet you, I'm Feliciano," he greeted Alfred rather enthusiastically. Alfred looked at the newcomer with mild bewilderment before he managed a wide grin.

"Alfred F. Jones, pleased to meet you too. So are you my roommate?"

"Ve~!" Arthur assumed that meant yes.

He made an irritated noise and wandered over to his bed. It had been noisy enough when he had to share the room with just Feliciano, but now he had two loud idiots to deal with.

He changed into his nightclothes and glanced over at the two foreigners. They were rapidly talking to each other; Arthur felt it was hard to follow what they were saying, though he did hear the odd word such as pasta and hamburgers. He assumed they were discussing their favourite foods.

He usually tended to avoid Feliciano, it wasn't that he hated the Italian; he was just too energetic for his liking. Besides, he usually hung around with his own group of friends.

Though that's not to say he didn't bother to not find out anything about his roommate. Feliciano's grandfather was a famous painter, who had produced many great art before his untimely death. It seemed his grandson had inherited his talent. Even Arthur was amazed by any artwork that Feliciano made.

He climbed into his bed and curled up. He heard Alfred and Feliciano change and get into their own beds.

"And tomorrow you can meet my friends, Ludwig and Kiku. Oh, and of course, my big brother, Lovino!"

"I know Kiku, we're friends already."

"That's great, ve~. Tomorrow, have lunch with us; you can try some of my pasta dishes. Do you want to join us, Arthur?"

Arthur looked over in Feliciano's direction, who was smiling cheerfully at him. He opened his mouth, ready to tell Feliciano he was busy when he stopped himself. If Alfred was tagging along, then it made sense to also hang around with Feliciano's friends. Despite how he felt about them; he was here mainly to make connections for his father.

"Of course, Its high time we started to spend some time together."

Feliciano beamed at him while Alfred raised a sceptical eyebrow, Arthur pretended not to notice; instead he bid his two roommates goodnight and rolled over, falling asleep minutes later.

Alfred didn't know what Arthur was up to, even he could sense the other boy didn't like him much. Not that Alfred cared, he didn't think much of the stuck up Brit, himself.

He found that he did like Feliciano and Kiku, however. Feliciano was bubbly and friendly even if he was a bit absent-minded. Kiku also seemed genuinely nice, though Alfred found him too shy and formal at times.

At lunch, Feliciano eagerly introduced him to his "best friend in the whole wide world, Ludwig". Alfred was a bit surprised upon meeting Ludwig; he was the polar opposite to Feliciano. While Feliciano was small and skinny, Ludwig was tall and well built for his age. He also seemed very serious; he only greeted Alfred with a curt nod. Alfred soon found out more about Ludwig. He was born and raised in Germany, he also had an older half brother who attends the school. (And apparently, was quite notorious.) This was all Alfred could coax out of him until Feliciano mentioned that he loves baking sweets, especially cakes. This caused Ludwig's face to redden and he started shouting at Feliciano to know when to keep his mouth shut.

"They're always like this," someone muttered into his ear.

He turned to the side and noticed Arthur had taken a seat next to him. He had forgotten that Arthur was invited to sit with them at lunch.

Kiku watched over his two friends rather uncomfortably, while Arthur looked quite irritated. Alfred quite happily watched them argue; it didn't seem serious anyway.

It remained quite noisy throughout lunch; Feliciano and Alfred did most of the talking. Alfred noticed that, like yesterday, Arthur didn't really talk to anyone, the possible exception was Kiku, who leant over every now and then and engaged him in conversation.

After everybody finished, they decided to wander around the school grounds until lunch was over. Feliciano suggested showing Alfred the flower beds located in the gardens. Alfred never had much interest in flowers but agreed anyway.

Not seconds after they stepped outside, the group heard a commotion just around the corner from where they were standing. They rushed towards the ruckus and saw a large crowd surrounding two boys, one; a rather pug faced, aggressive looking boy, pushing a rather scared looking boy in the chest nearly sending him sprawling to the ground.

Alfred glanced at the crowd, most of them were cheering while a few looked nervous, as if not quite sure if they should step in to help or not.

Without thinking twice about it Alfred rushed forward, tackling the aggressive looking boy to the ground. The crowd stilled, not expecting anyone else to jump in.

"What the-!" the lad cried. He turned his head to look at his attacker, there was an intense look of hatred on his face. He swung his arm back, nearly hitting Alfred in the side of his head, but Alfred managed to move out the way in time. His knuckles barely brushed the side of his face. "Oh, you're in for it now. I'll teach you to mind your own business." The pug faced boy lunged at Alfred, his fists raised ready to unleash a series of blows upon his victim.

Alfred waited until the last possible moment before ducking, narrowly avoiding the fist. His attacker stumbled slightly and Alfred saw his chance. He delivered a swift uppercut to the boy's jaw. The other boy yelped in pain staggering back, nursing his jaw.

Alfred almost whooped in triumph. Although he had trained in a few fighting techniques, mainly boxing, he had never been in a proper fight before now. However he knew he was quite strong for his size so that gave him an advantage. He guessed that the other male would suffer from at least a swollen jaw for the next few days. At least he would think twice before bullying someone again.

As he got ready for the next attack he heard a loud thud behind him. He spun round and noticed another boy sprawled on the ground. With Ludwig standing over him.

"Thought I would even the odds," he simply told Alfred. He guessed that the boy on the ground was about to attack him from behind and Ludwig didn't think that was very sporting. Well, he attacked his opponent from behind as well, but he was fighting for the right reasons so he forgave himself.

"What is going on here!"

Alfred turned to the sound of the voice, noticing his stern looking form teacher Mr. Edelstein marching towards them.

"Mr. Hills, are you fighting again? Come on, you're going to the headmaster's office. As for you, Mr. Jones," he said turning on Alfred, "you may be new, but fighting is not tolerated in this school; consider this your first and final warning." He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and then turned to the crowd.

"Well, why is everyone standing around? Class will begin in a few minutes; go on, off with you all."

The crowd soon scattered. Mr. Edelstein began to head back into the building; a rather sullen looking Hills was in tow.

Alfred barely suppressed a sigh of relief. When he saw the teacher coming over he was sure that he would be in a lot of would never hear the end of it from his father, if he had gotten in trouble for doing what was right.

The nervous looking boy uttered his thanks upon Alfred before collecting his fallen bag and running off towards the school.

"You were lucky; most people would have at least got a detention. Must be nice to be the new student," came Arthur's snide voice.

Alfred wasn't quite sure if Arthur was being sarcastic or not, but he guessed he was. Rather then rise to his subtle taunts he chose to completely ignore Arthur, something the Brit didn't seem to appreciate.

"Thanks for the backup," he told Ludwig.

Ludwig nodded curtly in response. "I don't believe in unfair fights," he said.

After saying that he turned to Feliciano, muttered something to him and promptly walked away. Feliciano seemed to falter slightly, as if unsure if he should follow or not. He turned to Alfred eventually, with a small smile on his face. "That was cool. You're really strong, Alfred. But me and Ludwig need to go meet some friends, so I'll see you later, ve~!"

With that Alfred found himself alone with Arthur and Kiku.

"Why did you just jump into that fight," Arthur suddenly asked. Alfred turned to face him expecting to see Arthur sporting a derisive expression on his face. Instead he was shocked to find his expression was more curious then anything.

"Well, it was the right thing to do," he announced proudly.

Arthur regarded him for a moment, looking like he was itching to say more, but in the end, simply shrugged and started to walk away. "The bell will ring in a few minutes; you almost got in trouble for fighting, the last thing you need is to get in trouble for being late." With that he left his two companions.

Alfred and Kiku stood in silence till Arthur completely disappeared from their sights.

"He's kinda weird, isn't he?" he asked, breaking the silence.

Kiku glanced over at him, before averting his eyes to the spot where Arthur had disappeared from. "I cannot say that I know him enough to make a judgment. However, I believe Kirkland-san is simply very proud; as is most of his people. So he can sometimes come across as-"

"Bigheaded?" Alfred finished the sentence for him.

"I-I guess." Kiku flinched at Alfred's conclusion. "However, you will find everyone here is strange at times. I am sure many people find my ways strange," He stopped himself before adding that everyone would find the Alfred strange; it would have been unnecessarily rude.

"Yeah. Like the way you keep calling people San, or that you're super polite." He then burst out in raucous laughter.

Kiku suddenly looked downtrodden. It seemed that while he refrained from insulting people, Alfred had no qualms about doing so. Though he surmised the American didn't say it to be mean; the boy spoke without thinking beforehand.

Their conversation was interrupted by the bell, signalling that lunch was over. Alfred bid Kiku goodbye and headed off towards one of the side buildings, which he was sure held all the science labs.

He wondered what science class was like in England. He had overheard some older kids talking about setting part of the text books on fire using Bunsen burners earlier. He had never used a Bunsen burner before; he couldn't wait, it sounded awesome. He guessed it probably wouldn't do him any good to get in trouble for setting stuff on fire this early on in his school life.

Oh, well, if anyone says anything I'll just say it was an accident, he thought to himself.

Arthur was listening to everything his teacher said with rapt attention. Which was more then could be said for the other students. Several (mainly the ones sitting in the back) were quietly chatting away. A few others were doodling in their books, and the rest varied from looking like they were trying to stay awake and listen to the teacher (they were failing miserably), and others who had seemed to have just fallen asleep.

Arthur resisted the urge to scoff at the rest of the class. He didn't understand it; here they were in one of the most prestigious schools in England, with some of the best teachers from around the world, a school many parents would kill to get their own children into, and they were taking it all for granted. Arthur told himself time and again not to care; it was their own future that they were putting in jeopardy. Though if many students failed, it would look bad for his uncle. Although he wasn't particularly close to his uncle, he still respected him.

He was torn from his musings when the door swung open; he glanced over to the doorway, and inwardly flinched when he saw who it was.

Alfred Jones stood there, in the doorway, with a rather stupid, lopsided grin on his face.

"Sorry I'm late!" he announced much more loudly then was necessary., "I couldn't find the classroom."

The teacher regarded him for a moment.

"It's no trouble Mr…. who are you now?"

Alfred marched over to the teacher's desk. "Alfred Jones. It said I was in this class." He waved his timetable in front of the teacher's face.

The aging teacher stared down at the class register, squinting slightly.

"Ah, so you are, so you are. Let's see, who to sit you next to." The teacher glanced around the class, eyeing each empty seat. Arthur glanced at the seat next to him, and noticed it was empty. He crossed both fingers underneath his desk, hoping that Alfred wouldn't be seated next to him.

"Ah, take the seat next to Mr. Kirkland there."

Arthur felt like slamming his head on the desk, it took every ounce of will that he had not to; it just wouldn't be proper. He glanced up and noticed Alfred trudging his way over; a rather disappointed look was on his face. This only irked Arthur all the more. The Stupid Yank could have, at least, tried to hide his annoyance like he did.

Alfred dumped his bag underneath the desk and stared determinedly at the teacher, who began droning on about photosynthesis. Arthur was only half listening; he was too busy watching Alfred, who, apparently, became too bored and began drawing cartoon faces in his textbook; the cartoons were rather badly drawn ones at that.

He couldn't believe it; he hadn't even been in the class for five minutes and, already, he was getting distracted. He shook his head in disgust and turned back to the teacher.

The lesson dragged on for what seemed like hours until, finally, the bell reverberated throughout the classroom, jolting several students to awareness.

"Hey, what class have you got next?" Alfred asked, turning in his seat to face Arthur.

"English," he answered brusquely, packing his books into his bag, not even looking at Alfred.

Alfred regarded him a moment as if he was deep in thought. "Me too, can you show me where it is.?" he asked with as much politeness as he could muster. Despite how he felt about the English boy, he was supposed to become friends with him; he only wished he had to befriend someone less snobbish.

Arthur looked up at Alfred as if studying him intently before he smiled a rather forced looking smile.

"Of course," he said, his voice too friendly to be genuine. "Are you with Mrs. Williams as well?"

Alfred nodded, he followed Arthur out of the class and down various corridors.

As they walked in a rather tense silence, he glanced at his companion. Alfred seemed absorbed in his surroundings, looking around with interest.

"How are you settling in?" he asked breaking the silence. Alfred blinked a few times and looked over at Arthur as if he didn't even realise he was there.

"It's ok, some people here are pretty friendly. Though what is there to do around here? I mean, at the weekends and that."

"Well, a lot of students go home for the weekend, though some, particularly the foreign students can't, so we have various activity rooms, and some of the older students can go out for the day since it's only a twenty minute bus journey to the city."

"Cool, I haven't had chance to go to London, yet."

"We won't be able to go out without adult supervision until year ten."

At this Alfred's face fell, he really looked disappointed. Arthur inwardly cringed at the sight; Alfred looked like a kicked puppy, it made him feel bad just watching that expression.

"Well, I go home every weekend, teachers can't do much when you're at home, and as long as your parents give permission, you can come visit my home, we will be able to visit the city then," he explained quickly; he'd do anything to get rid of that forlorn look on Alfred's face.

At this Alfred immediately changed back to his dopey, cheerful look. "Sure, that'll be great, there's loads of places I wanted to see, like Big Ben, and that thing that my dad told me about once, Some tower or something?"

"Oh, the Tower of London? I think you will enjoy that, very well I'll speak to my father, we will most likely get chance to visit the city in a couple of weeks."

Alfred nodded fervently and began taking excitedly to Arthur about all the places he had heard of and wanted to visit.

As they spoke Arthur couldn't help think of Alfred as a big child. The way he got excited over small things, and the way he clearly shown his sadness. It was very innocent and a part of Arthur couldn't help but admire Alfred for being true to himself, even though he was very annoying most of the time. Still, that childlike innocence about him, strangely enough, he found he didn't hate it.

A/N: Phew finally managed to upload the chapter. This chapter was Beta'd by the lovely ChrisouMiri. Ummm not really much else to add so thanks for reading hope to see you again next time!