Chapter 6

This took a really long time to finish after getting really bad writer's block, and I apologize in advance to anyone who speaks and/or knows someone who speaks/has to speak sign language.

Have fun with this one! And I will do my best to keep updating! So, uhm you know the drill with reviews and stuff.

Also, thanks a ton for your lovely comments~

It's fairly surreal to wake up and find your arm slung around the sleeping form of the person you love. I mean, his face is like three centimeters away from my own. If that doesn't startle you when you wake up then you're weird. Particularly when a huge pair of green eyes are staring back at you. I mean, come on I did not need to be startled this early in the morning.

"Mph, what time is it?"

"I don't know." I stare at him, can he not look at me like that, he's looking at me as though I'm the most interesting thing he has ever seen and it's really starting to freak me out. Just holy shit way too close, my personal space has been invaded by a really attractive British guy and it's making me uncomfortable.

"How long have you been here?"

"All night apparently, and whisper Francis and Matthew are still sleeping."

I sit up, and look about my room, which has evidence of last night all over the place, over towards my dark red (Mattie picked it out) bean bag chair is a big mess of army men that was supposed to be a big battle something like the Revolutionary War except it was France and Canada against England and America. Truly a battle of epic proportions. Especially because Francis got frustrated and this happened:

Mattie: "Francis, keep your shirt on!"

Francis: "Non!"

Fucking hilarious. He only got frustrated because the English and Americans won like badasses. Which we are. Any ways, a few feet from there, near the closet Mattie and Francis are pretty much draped over each other.

"Bleck, they're all over each other."

"It's gross I know."

In the middle is the Candy Land game, the cards spread out all over the place, army men in really weird places (one is sticking out of Mattie's shoe, and there are four more in one of my socks) and generally a discombobulated disaster. I finally find my clock, and it's...

"Why in hell are we awake at four-thirty in the morning?" I hiss at Arthur, gently but confused.

"I don't know. I woke up about ten minutes ago and have been laying here staring at you."

I look back at him and frown mumbling, "That explains why I woke up. I can't sleep when people stare at me."

"Really?"

"Yes really, I went to summer camp once, it was the worst experience of my life. The counselor in our cabin was an insomniac, and I didn't sleep at all for a week and a half. When I finally got home I slept for three days straight and when I woke up Mattie said he was convinced that I had died." I sigh and look up at the ceiling, that really was just absolutely horrifying, the counselor guy would randomly be signing stuff and at first I could have sworn he was having an arm seizure. But, then again, all sign language looks like an arm seizure in progress to me.

"Oh. I, er, I won't do it again."

I look down from the ceiling at Arthur, if he were any paler he would pretty much shine in the darkness. Which is sort of creepy, ugh, now I have goosebumps. Go away go away go away. Stupid brain, creeping me out like that.

Any way, have Arthur's eyes always been this big? I don't think so. Maybe it's the lighting. Yeah, definitely the lighting. At some point, some one must have gotten up and turned off the light because if it weren't for the moon (BAD MOON MOON) it would be pitch black in here.

Is he... shivering?

"Hey Arthur..." being really quiet is sort of difficult and everything that comes out is just mumbling.

"Yes, love?"

"Are you cold? I mean, you're shivering, and my blanket-"

"Duvet."

"Whatever. My blanket is big enough for two people." I try to put on my best kicked-puppy face because I'm kind of cold myself and would rather not lay on this uncomfortable floor without at least having a blanket and a pillow or two. Or ten. I really like pillows okay? Especially those awesome little decorative ones, it's just excellent to lay back on your bed and bam! You are surrounded by the awesomeness that makes up the modern pillow. They also make great ear muffs for you and your brother when you're six years old and your parents are screaming at each other downstairs. As you can see, they have many practical uses.

Any who, Arthur looks sort of confused at first then as though a sudden realization had come, finally noticing that he's been trembling like he has the heebie jeebies.

"Oh, why yes that would be nice."

I push myself up, nearly falling down because at some point the entirety of my left leg fell asleep. Go figure. There's a bit of a loud clunk! As my (ridiculously huge) cell phone hits the floor, Mom insisted upon getting us smartphones which is really silly because we barely use the damn things in the first place, I mean for the most part the only time they are used is to ask what the other is interested in eating. The sad thing is, is that I'm not lying.

I throw the blanketduvetwhateverthefuckyouwannacallit up into the air and onto Arthur, who sputters and scowls at me. Okay now, (insert Mission Impossible theme here) let's creep over to the closet, quietly open the door, carefully dig through all the shit that's in here, and aha here's the ugly beige blanket they first provided me with, no seriously it's the color of vomit absolutely disgusting, now carefee carefee shut the closet door, drape the blanket over the two of them, and zip back over to Arthur and the wonderfulness that makes up cuddling and a warm blanket. It doesn't take very long to get comfortable, well after the awkward-spooning? Or just face to face? Or... I don't even know-period of time, it's just comfortable and nice and warm, but most of all it's quiet. All still and calm like.

I love it.

Exams were a lot more stressful than I thought they would be. You only have three days to take them-Tuesday through Thursday-and each one is so ridiculously long just holy hell. Particularly Calculus II. Fucking terrifying. Pages upon pages of all these freaky equations. It's not that they were terribly difficult, no not at all, they were really easy after Mattie had pounded all the formulas and cosigns and so on into the inner workings of my subconscious. I forced myself to listen because he was holding a hockey stick and when a wild Mattie wielding a hockey stick appears you do one of two things: a)book it in the opposite direction; or b)do everything he says without question. If you haven't seen him play hockey you need to. It's fucking startling because he goes from sweet, quiet Mattie to holy fuck bitch get out of his way or you're gonna get fuuuuucked uuuup. If I remember right we (Mom and I, I forget where Dad had gone off to) were at one of Mattie's games and I stood up on my chair and was yelling that. I mean really, it must have been a bit disconcerting for the people around us, some ten year old boy standing on his seat screaming at the top of his lungs. Y'know, no big deal. Actually at the time it was a huge deal, particularly because Mattie's team won. We were freaking out in the parking lot, jumping up and down, yelling, laughing being kids. I think that was the first game they had won all season, Mattie said I must have sent out some freaky good vibes with all of my screaming and yelling and general goofiness.

Any who, being Arthur's boyfriend is sort of... Not necessarily frustrating, more strange. For the most part it's how we were before all of this dating business, except he sits next to me in all of our classes now (which is totally awesome because he seems really quite impressed at my drafting skills), although occasionally we'll be walking together and out of nowhere it's like 'oh hey we're making out now'. Confusing but nice. Particularly when he drags me off to an unexpected picnic and we spend the entire time making out. Mattie and Francis seem to be doing okay, probably better than they seem. I mean, they go on dates a lot, and by that I'm talking about going out to lunch almost every day. Like fancy restaurant out to lunch. I think if this keeps up Mattie will die from romanticism, or well, maybe find himself getting married at a very young age, what an interesting argument that'll be. You see, our Dad is kind of... Really really homophobic. And, uhm, we're not allowed to see one of our uncles anymore. He was such an awesome dude too.

Back to the present, it's awfully strange to see everyone leaving the school. People are signing annuals, and exchanging phone numbers, talking to their parents in different languages, getting in fancy cars, bickering with siblings, it goes on and on. Over in a corner, not too far from the tree I'm hanging out in, is Mattie and Francis the Fuckface (although, he is kind of a nice person) talking. If I remember right Francis is either staying somewhere in the depths of the city, going out to the country side or flying his way back to France for the summer. I can't really hear what they're saying but it looks like French so I wouldn't understand it any ways. Mattie looks kind of sad, wearing his I-will-get-what-I-want-whether-you-like-it-or-not- pouting look. Most of the time it works, even on me, I tried to say "No!" to that face several times and it never worked out for me. Or anyone else. I feel a little bad though, Arthur's staying here with us, while Francis is going away, but from the looks of it he's promised something along the lines of visiting at some point or another. Which will be good, because knowing Mattie he'll get awful lonely, and he left Mr. Kumajirou back home in the States. Thinking about it, we'll be here for the 4th of July. Shit. I wonder... Can you get fireworks here? I mean, back home we always have had this huge party, with tons of fireworks and food and people. Most of the time Mattie and I were the youngest people there, and the rest were all adults that Mom and Dad knew from business, even with that though we had a great time. Every year it was my self-appointed duty to blow something up, a lot of firecrackers were involved and one time we blew a hole in the road! It was crazy awesome, there was shrapnel everywhere! We had cuts on our faces, and at first were sort of scared and confused, but then wound up laughing, brushing all the chunks of pavement off of our coats.

"What are you doing up there?"

"What? Oh, shit!" Hanging upside down in the tree, sort of stuck actually, I can see Arthur staring at me. "Why hello there good sir, I'm kind of stuck now."

"You didn't answer my question, Alfred."

I stop trying to untangle myself from all these damn tree branches, and focus more on Arthur and you know keeping my shirt from falling off which is a lot more difficult than it sounds. I feel like Seborga from Hetalia in the episode of Hetalia The Beautiful World where he goes to meet Wy after she first becomes a micronation. Well, minus the ketchup. I am stuck though.

"Well you see, I got kind of bored inside and decided to come outside since it's all nice out today. I was wandering around the campus when I found this tree that looked perfect for climbing, so I clambered up into it, and was sitting watching everyone leave. I had looked over and was so totally not creepily staring over at Mattie and Francis. Then, you came along, scared me and now I'm stuck in this tree." He sort of just stares up at me blankly, I don't see how he isn't hot, he's standing out here in nice tan colored slacks, an off-white dress shirt, and a bluey-green sweater vest. I really do need to raid his closet and toss some street-type clothes in there. Maybe some awesome punk rocker type stuff.

"Do you need any help?"

"I, well, I hadn't of thought about that. Maybe. It depends on how stuck I am, these pants aren't really the best for tree climbing." Which is true, this is not the first time I've gotten stuck in a tree while wearing these pants. Actually, this entire outfit, the last time I got stuck Mattie had to cut me out of the tree. Stupid pants. "I feel like Seborga from Hetalia."

"What in hell are you talking about?"

"Oh! Hetalia, it's this really really funny anime. And, in the last episode a new character showed up! Well, two actually. His name is Seborga, and he was in the same position as me right now. Except, with ketchup, and Italian."

Arthur looks so confused that it would be funny if I wasn't getting really really dizzy. "I don't know what you're going on about but alright."

"I should probably get down, I'm really dizzy and wow were you always this fuzzy before?" Did I lose my glasses? I don't think so, after I get down it may or not be a good idea to seek some medical attention. I dunno, hey, I wonder if I move my right leg a little backwards if my leg will free up just a little bit-"Holy shit!"

Can I just say that concrete is not a very pleasant thing to land on? I mean, it feels like my back has been broken into a million pieces.

"Hey, uhm, what just happened?"

"You fell out a bloody tree! God so help me, what is wrong with you!"

"Well, a lot of things actually."

Arthur sighs, and shakes his head while looking down at me. I give a brave smile, doing my best to sit up, which isn't really working out. I pull off my glasses to rub my eyes, and on a bit of a closer inspection the left lens has a long crack in it. Did I bring any spare pairs of glasses? I doubt it, maybe Mattie has a pair that I can use. Either way, my glasses are busted.

After about five minutes of bickering and pulling, we're finally headed to the student lounge and laughing about the whole thing. Which is good, because I mean, I don't know. With the crack in my glasses, the left side of Arthur looks sort of funny, like part of him is sliding off of the other.

"You look funny."

"How so?"

"The crack in my glasses makes the left side of you all wonky looking."

"Wonky is not a word."

"Yes it is."

"No, Alfred. I am afraid it is not."

"Pssshhh, it's totally a word, you British dudes just haven't accepted the awesomeness of American English yet."

"Don't get me started on American English versus the Queen's English."

I can't help but laugh at him, thinking about it American English is pretty much Queen's English's teenaged son/daughter/languagebeing. Seriously, you. You wonderful gorgeous person reading these words. Think about it. It makes so much sense. I mean, as an American I can totally vouch for us being twisted rebellious little fuckers, and so of course we've kinda gone all "fuck you! and your metric system! oh, and fuck your language!" Like this one post war I saw on my favorite website once. It was an argument about eggplant versus aubergine. It wound up being a four country thing, England, America, France, and Canada. Absolutely hysterical.

"Hey Arthur..."

"What?"

"Did you know that this one time I slapped Mattie in the face, sat up, and had a religious conversion in my sleep?"

"Wait, what?"

It's true, it happened. Another thing that makes me laugh like an idiot. Even though I fell out of a tree, I can already tell that this is going to be a fantastic day.

We ate pancakes for a week straight. WE ATE PANCAKES FOR EVERY MEAL FOR AN ENTIRE SEVEN DAYS. YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH I HATE PANCAKES RIGHT NOW. I fucking HATE fucking PANCAKES. I can't STAND THEM. Never ever EVER again. No more.

"Mattie, please, something else anything else, no more pancakes. Let's go to the store or even better McDonald's. Please Mattie you don't understand." Okay, I get it, I'm whining like a little bitch but, you try the pancake business. Any more and I will go insane. So many pancakes...

"How much money do you have?"

"Uhm... Let me check my wallet.." I sort of fall out of my chair and onto the floor trying to wrestle my pants into giving up my wallet, "Ah, a coupla ones, a ten, a twenty, and two fifties. I haven't gone out and bought anything all year." Which is true, I never really needed anything to be honest. I have my laptop, vending machines spread out all over campus, and internet connection. In all honesty, I could totally live this way. Indefinitely.

"Are they in pounds or dollars?"

"How the hell should I know?"

"Do they look funny?"

I look at them better, ah that's right we had to switch our monies at the airport when we first got here which was a hassle. "Yeah, they do."

"Then you have about one hundred thirty five pounds."

"Woah. Mattie, how did you know I have exactly five ones?"

"I didn't."

"Are you psychic?"

"No."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Alfred."

"No seriously! Are you? You have to be. Were you abducted by aliens and-"

"STOP ASKING ME QUESTIONS."

Oh, uhm, this happens sometimes, I kind of... Get carried away with my question asking. If you couldn't tell already, my thoughts have a sort of broken directional compass. One minute I'll be completely focused on the situation, and 3.67 seconds later I'll be thinking about say, Aliens for example. I can talk about aliens for hours upon hours and never get bored. Just, the thought of something equally or more intelligent than ourselves that's just barely out of our reach is absolutely fascinating to me. Any way, this school has separate dorms for students staying over the summer. FUCKING THREE BEDROOM APARTMENTS. That's where we're going to be hanging out this summer. Oh! And there's a garden in the back, well, the space where a garden should be. With a little care, and some love the back yard-type place can potentially be gorgeous. Like my garden back home, speaking of which... I wonder if the maid lady who cleans our house has been taking care of it? I left Mom month-by-month instructions for caring for it. I mean, there's stuff you have to do all year long to keep it nice and healthy. Turning over the flower beds in the fall, cultivating all the dirt, and setting up the planters and beds in February before spring comes, then helping all the seeds germinate in the greenhouse in March and April, then planting the seedlings around mid-May, and the rest of the summer simply taking care of them. I really like gardening okay? It gives me something to do.

"Hey, Mattie, can we go get-"

"Yes we can go get seeds for your flowers, if you put on shoes we'll leave right now."

"Really!? Fuck yeah!"

So, if I may say one thing, I would like to say that London confuses the everliving fuck out of me. We have been wandering around trying to find a feed store for about two hours now and keep getting more confused I mean, I have seen the same four stores at least six times.

"We need a Londonder."

"What in hell does that mean?"

"It means we need someone who lives in Britain, preferably London, who can help us."

"Arthur." We look at each other and say in unison. Mattie glances at the phone in my hand, and sort of mumbles, "Do you have his number?"

"I... Oh, well, somewhere..." Do I? I honestly can't remember, I mean our schedules were exactly the same so, I never really ever had to text him. Okay now. please contacts... Please don't fail me now...

"Oi." Hello big scary gruff German accent! (cue inner screaming)

I look up into the pale face of Ludwig Beilschmidt. I don't know him too well, and the only times I've ever really made conversation with him was just for Student Council stuff.
"Oh, well, hello," I gulp, what am I supposed to say? "Fancy seeing you here." What the hell? Since when am I a Brit? I don't use that word, well, only when talking about, back on topic! Focus!

"Ja, älterer Bruder and I went out to get some groceries and to pay bills."

"Oh, fun stuff. We're just looking for a feed store." Ludwig looks at me confusedly, so I kind of have to elaborate, "A farmer's supply store."

I look down at the pavement, and back up to those freaky flat colored ice-blue eyes and I swear they're trying to burn a hole through my soul! There's a bunch of loud footsteps headed our way with a: "Luuuuudwig!~ I, your älterer Bruder got the phone bill paid. That makes two down, three to go."

Oh good God.

Gilbert.

As in Gilbert Beilschmidt of the Bad Touch Trio.

Shit. Every time I see him a funny feeling bubbles up in the pit of my stomach. I just-

"Ow! For fuck's sake!" Mattie elbows my side very viciously, which fucking hurts! And hisses in my ear, "His wrist! Look at Gilbert's wrist!"

I let my eyes flick over to Gilbert's right wrist which is... Littered... With scars and little red marks...

Oh. My. GOD. It honestly takes everything I have not to run over to him and grab his wrist yelling, "why!?" I never would have thought... yet, the more closely I look at him the signs are everywhere. Just... Oh my God. Does Francis know? Does Antonio know? Does Ludwig know? Does anyone know? I'm bursting with a mixture of excitement, over having had found someone like me who would understand, guilt, and being really fucking sad. I mean, is this because of the friendship he lost when the Bad Touch Trio disbanded? Or... Was it going on even before then? If you look really, quite closely, after that first time of him raising the receipt over his head and waving at us, he has his right arm pressed very closely to his side. Which is very normal, because I mean, wearing a short-sleeved shirt makes it a little more difficult to hide the scars and whatnot. And, he just has a very guarded stance, arms crossed, feet close together, and so on and so forth.

This is crazy surreal, I feel like I'm in an episode of The Twilight Zone minus the bad music. But anyways, after I kind of stand there clutching the strap of my messenger bag and gaping at Gilbert with my mouth open looking like a cross between a fish and a dead octopus, Mattie asks for directions. And, surprisingly Gilbert is overjoyed to help and grins at Mattie the whole way there, even looking sort of sad when they leave us at the store. Does Gilbert have a crush on Mattie? I can see why he would, and thinking about it, I guess Mattie would be his type. Well, maybe. I don't know. Does Gilbert even have a type?

The feed store that they left us at is small and cute, it only has a few aisles and near the door are some big buckets filled with different types of baby birds. Chickens, ducklings, turkeys and geese. We had geese once, they chased us around the yard and it was just really quite unpleasant. Anyway, we pick out some vegetables, lots of flowers, particularly sunflowers and sugar peas. After we pay and leave we get lost again, to the point where we called Arthur and had him come help us find a supermarket, then finally back to the school's summer dorms. Which are apartments. The school has an entire apartment complex as it's summer dormitories. It's really sort of awesome. The three of us have our own little three bedroom"flat" as Arthur calls it, we picked the one on the ground floor which has a sliding glass door at the back and a little back yard/garden space. It's really quite "splendid" or whatever.

If Francis were here, we really would be a little family, and the more I dwell on it the more and more I like the thought of that.

Days turn to weeks and our garden is finally looking nice, I have carefully watched over them, from seedlings to little plantlets. I don't know exactly what is in the fertilizer Arthur bought but, whatever it is has made the sunflowers grow like crazy. It's really pretty, all the purples, blues and pinks. We have rows of plants, collared greens, lettuce, sugar snap peas, a very tall Russian guy waving a faucet pipe at me-

I drop everything I'm holding to scream like a little bitch.

There is a very tall Russian guy, walking towards me carrying sunflowers and a faucet pipe smiling this scary little kid smile.

And I can't stop the ungodly screaming as he comes closer and closer to me.

Is my life some sort of sick horror movie to you people?

Hetalia within Hetalia! Alfred breaks the fourth wall! Scary Russian guy shows up! Freaky cliffhanger!

I will try and see you soon my lovelies~