"Hey," Elizabeta called to Francis and Antonio when both she and Arthur found them in the canteen later on that day during lunch. "What happened to Gilbert? He looked really depressed when he left the principal's office, he didn't even say anything to us."
Turning their attention away from the hushed conversation they were having they looked at her then swapped a concerned look.
"We were hoping you could tell us," Francis answered with a sigh, "he came back to class and refused to talk. He just paid attention to the teachers since then."
"Sí, he didn't even laugh when I tripped Francis," Antonio added.
"Really?" Elizabeta gasped in shock, that was very strange for Gilbert but it only brought more attention to what else was amiss, "Where is he now?"
Francis and Antonio shrugged and cast their gazes over the canteen. Normally Gilbert would be easy to pick out; along with his snow white hair and insanely loud personality he was very hard to miss in a crowd.
"Yet another thing we were hoping you could answer," Francis said quietly.
"All we know is that he got into a fight with the principal and then just left after..." Elizabeta mumbled.
"We?" Antonio cocked an eyebrow at the word and shifted to see Arthur standing awkwardly behind Elizabeta. "You're that guy from earlier! What are you doing with Liz?"
Francis immediately stared at Arthur, keeping eye contact he stood up and sauntered over to the Omega.
"Oh yeah," Elizabeta perked up, "Arthur here is in my Omega classes, he's not that bad when you actually talk to him."
"Really now? So that's why he smelt off," Antonio commented thoughtfully.
"I do not smell off!" Arthur snapped and took a step forward, fully intending to start a fight if he had to.
"Ah but mon ami, you wear so much cologne it masks your natural scent," Francis purred dangerously. Standing up he sauntered over to the Omega and sniffed at his hair. Arthur froze in his spot unable to react to the Alpha.
"Th-that's the point and back off frog!" he screeched and pushed Francis back, causing the Frenchman to tumble backwards into Antonio.
Francis chuckled at his reaction but it didn't stop him winking at the Omega who bristled under the attention. Slowly backing away from Francis Arthur shot Elizabeta a concerned look but was appalled to see the girl giggle at him.
"Relax Arthur he'll flirt with anything with legs," she explained, a smirk still playing on her lips.
"How dare you Elizabeta! I will not," Francis countered and feigned offence but the grin that be barely concealed gave him away.
"Really now?" she challenged and crossed her arms.
"Oui, I will not flirt with anyone too young, anyone who is already involved with one of my friends or anyone else," he explained with an air of dignity only he could attain when talking about anything on that subject.
"Right, so the time you flirted with that girl who loves fish. That doesn't count, does it?" Elizabeta challenged and took a step closer to tower over the Alpha.
"I was not flirting with Chelle," Francis argued and stood up to glare at her, "she is my cousin and I was just chasing away some Alphas who were annoying her."
Elizabeta froze and stared up at the Frenchman.
"You have a cousin?" she asked in complete shock, she could see Antonio nodding his head and smiling like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Oui and thanks to me she's not being bullied anymore," Francis sighed and turned away from them. After taking a few steps away he stopped and looked over his shoulder, "So shall we get food today or starve to death? I don't think Gil is going to meet up with us."
"Yeah... sorry about that Francis," Elizabeta mumbled and slowly followed him along with Antonio and Arthur.
"It's okay," he smiled back at her, "but next time think about who you are talking to. After all it's Antonio who chases Omegas who are too young." He shot his friend an evil smirk and was quickly met with a heavy bag to the back of his head and a lot of swearing in Spanish. Chuckling under his breath and rubbing the back of his head, he quickened his pace to match the Spaniard.
"That was... interesting," Arthur commented to Elizabeta when they fell into step a short distance behind the Alphas.
"Yeah, well that's how they normally are," Elizabeta replied and smiled at her new friend.
"So umm... what did he mean when he said that about that Antonio fellow?"
"Oh, it's nothing. Antonio is just good friends with an Omega a few years younger than us. Francis likes to make fun of him for it, but I doubt anything will happen," Elizabeta said after a few seconds of consideration.
"Why not?" Arthur quirked an eyebrow at her.
"Because Lovino is kind of a jackass and is always insulting Antonio," Elizabeta laughed, "It's really funny to watch. Antonio just chats him up and all he receives are tomatoes to his face or anything else sitting around combined with a string of insults."
"Antonio sounds like a masochist," Arthur thought aloud and was amazed when Elizabeta agreed.
~o~o~o~o~o~
When they made it to the cafeteria and bought their food they stood near the door trying to find a place to sit when they noticed a head of white hair sitting at their normal table. Grinning to each other they quickly made their way through the tables and took their respective seats, Arthur choosing to sit beside Elizabeta despite Francis's insistence he sit next to him.
"I was wondering where you guys where," Gilbert commented with a grin when they finally settled.
"We could have said the same about you mon ami," Francis replied and started picking apart his food, he was not satisfied with the cafeteria's quiche, the only thing he was glad of was the fact that his school's food was better than most.
"Sí, we were worried about you, you weren't yourself in class," Antonio added.
"I... just..." Gilbert was struggling to find his words when he spotted Arthur beside Elizabeta. "Hey how'd the rest of class go Arthur? Was it hard putting up with Liz?" he quickly changed the subject and smiled widely at the Brit.
"It was..." Arthur was cut off by a yelp from Gilbert when Elizabeta slapped him across the head.
"Hey what was that for?" Gilbert snapped and glared angrily at her.
"What happened in that meeting?" she demanded and stared straight back at him, her anger palpable.
"I got shouted at for getting into trouble, that's all," Gilbert retorted and started shoveling his food into his mouth.
"No there's more," Antonio spoke up and fixed the albino with a stare, "tell us what happened."
Gilbert gulped audibly, it was rare when Antonio got serious about something and the last time he did Gilbert ended up with a broken leg.
"Fine," he sighed, "Gramps is gonna take away my title as next in line after father if I don't start behaving. I messed up badly last week and now everything might have been ruined," he ran off exasperated that his friends had forced it out of him.
"Gil..." Elizabeta started but was stopped by Gilbert.
"No, I don't want to hear anything I'm going to fix this and I don't need help," at this he stood up, gathered his tray and left.
That was the last they saw of him for that lunch. Deciding against trying to find the hot headed Alpha they spent the time asking Arthur about himself and trying to include the Brit into their normal life. After lunch they broke off to go to their own classes, Elizabeta and Arthur going to their Omega classes and the other two going to their Alpha classes.
~o~o~o~o~o~
When Antonio got to their class they found Gilbert with his nose buried in a book and making a point of ignoring them. Sharing a knowing look they took their seats on either side of him.
Antonio was the first to try and break the heavy atmosphere that fell over the three of them by poking Gilbert with a pencil. The German ignored him. Taking his turn, Francis drew a picture of Gilbert kissing Francis' and Antonio's shoes and placed it in front of his friend. Still nothing. Glancing around they noticed the teacher still hadn't showed up to class and there was still another five minutes before he would show up. Grinning mischievously at each other, they got up and Antonio stood behind Gilbert while Francis stood in front. At this Gilbert shifted his attention to them briefly before turning it back to the book. Without warning Francis pulled the book from Gilbert's hands and Antonio got him in a full nelson. Gilbert shouted and struggled against his friend but it was no good, the Spanish Alpha had him held tight.
"What do you want?" he finally gritted out when he found no other choice.
"We want to know exactly what happened mon ami, you know bottling things up is not good," Francis told him and leant down on the table in front of him.
"I told you what happened," Gilbert shot back but Antonio tightened his grip causing Gilbert to growl in pain.
"Non, you did not," Francis answered calmly and looked Gilbert dead in the eye, "What started this? You have been acting strange since last week. We weren't going to do anything but now we're worried."
Gilbert remained silent but Antonio pulled him to the side, twisting him in a way that caused him to shout in agony.
"FINE! Fine I'll tell you!" he cried when he finally couldn't take anymore.
"Good, now if you lie we'll do a lot worse," Francis grinned but an evil glint in his eyes gave away his true intentions.
"Okay, but can you let me go first?" Gilbert tried to bargain and get his friends to back off, the hold was starting to really strain his neck.
"No," Antonio answered simply.
"... okay then and ja this started last week when I..." he was cut off by a shout from the teacher for everyone to get back to their seats.
Sighing Antonio reluctantly let Gilbert go and sat down while Francis took his seat as well.
"You're telling us after school," Francis warned Gilbert with a look that told him death would be easier to escape. Once again Gilbert gulped but nodded and accepted his fate.
~o~o~o~o~o~
After school they walked Elizabeta home after waving Arthur farewell when he got a car home. The walk back was silent aside from a few comments about the day, mostly Francis inquiring about Arthur. When they dropped Elizabeta off at her home the atmosphere instantly became icy and hostile. Gilbert was dreading when they got to his house. He knew he couldn't get rid of the boys until he came clean or face the consequences.
At his house they quickly found their way to Gilbert's room and Gilbert locked the door after him. Turning around he saw Francis sprawling out on his bed and Antonio playing with Gilbird on the windowsill. Both had their attention on Gilbert making the albino feel like he was a freak of nature.
"Want to start telling us what happened?" Antonio offered and giggled when Gilbird tugged slightly on his hair before flying off to rest on Gilbert's shoulder.
Gilbert ignored the bird and stared at the deep blue carpet.
"Okay," he started, "well... I might or might not be unawesome enough to already have an arranged marriage." His friends instantly perked up and stared at him in shock.
"Who with?" Francis asked before he could stop himself.
"Liz." The name hung in the air like a thick fog as both Antonio and Francis tried to absorb the information. Sighing at how his friends were unable to even react, Gilbert continued to explain everything that had happened. When he was finished Francis and Antonio stared at him in a state of shock. A few minutes passed before either were brave enough to speak.
"So... does Elizabeta know? Antonio coughed, his cheeks red in either embarrassment or shame.
"No and I don't want her to find out until everything is sorted, even her parents want to finalise things first because they know she'll run away if she even thinks I'm trying to..." his voice trailed off when he recalled his last conversation with her parents. He had promised to try and convince Elizabeta to try and behave like a normal Omega.
"Mon ami, you can't do that. If you do then she will not be the Elizabeta we all know and I am guessing you love," Francis piped up.
Gilbert turned a bright shade of red at the mention of love, "I'm too awesome to love her and I was hoping to try and trick her parents into thinking she changed. I don't want her to change," he shot at him.
"Then why are you trying so hard?" Francis asked.
The simple question hit Gilbert like a bullet and he let his eyes fall to the carpet again.
"Sí, if you don't love her then why are you so worried about this?" Antonio added.
"I don't know," Gilbert mumbled then scrunched his hands into his hair, "I just don't know, I'm too awesome for all of this."
Francis and Antonio shared a look before getting up to pull their friend into a group hug.
"Gilbert, if you like her it's okay," Francis said in a quiet voice when he noticed Gilbert trembling slightly.
"Sí... and well we kind of already knew. You're not very good at hiding it," Antonio said with a small smile.
It was then Gilbert finally let the tears he never realised were forming flow and wrapped his arms around his friends shoulders. They remained there until Gilbert had finally calmed down and pulled away to throw himself face down onto his bed.
"This is so unawesome, I've just ruined everything," he mumbled into his pillow.
"Non, if anything you made it so much easier," Francis smiled softly and sat on the side of the bed.
"How? What if she doesn't like me? What if I can't convince her to like me? What if I'm not awesome enough for her?" Gilbert asked his voice raising in volume the more panicked he became.
"It will be alright because we're here for you," Antonio soothed and sat on the other side of the bed.
Gilbert looked between his friends in shock and confusion.
"So you don't think she'll reject me?"
"She might, but we'll just have to make sure she won't," Antonio smiled at him and Francis nodded in confirmation.
"Yeah... of course she won't I'm too awesome to reject," Gilbert said regaining some of his confidence and starting to smile. But the smile was quickly wiped away by Francis.
"First we need to change a few things about you," he interjected and stared at the albino, his eyes hard and unforgiving.
"Like what? I'm already awesome," Gilbert said.
"Oui but not in the eyes of a certain Omega, now first we need to get you new clothes," Francis told him and cast an eye over Gilbert's clothes. He was wearing an old pair of worn jeans, a t shirt with a hole in one of the sleeves from an earlier fight and his jacket was missing a few outer buttons and the zip just barely stayed on. To say he looked scruffy was an understatement.
"What's wrong with my clothes?" Gilbert asked and pulled at his t shirt to examine it a bit.
"You look like a hobo," Antonio answered with a laugh, he had waited years to tell Gilbert that.
"I don't, I just like my clothes!" Gilbert snapped.
"Oui of course you do, okay first thing tomorrow we are taking you shopping," Francis teased and stood up, his face lighting up at the thought of making Gilbert go shopping.
Gilbert paled at the thought of spending his Saturday trudging through shops, we wanted to practice guitar and play Playstation.
"No excuses," Francis added and made his way to the door unlocking it and leaving with a small wave.
"Sí, we'll be here at ten sharp so you better be ready or we'll throw water on you to wake you up," Antonio said and quickly left after Francis. Gilbert remained on his bed with his jaw hanging open in complete shock. He did not want to go shopping with them, Antonio wasn't that bad but Francis was like an Omega and took hours going through every shop, comparing everything. To Gilbert it was a type of hell.