Alfred awoke groggily to the sun shining through the window and he groaned, pulling the blanket over his head. For a minute he almost thought he was back home with Francis and when he opened his eyes he'd see Mat in the bed next to his and hear Francis calling the boys down for breakfast. In the back of his mind something whispered that the past few days had been nothing more than bad dream but of course that wasn't the case. "Mattie," He whispered hoarsely, pushing the blanket off his head and opened his eyes. "Mattie?" He sat up slowly and rubbed his eyes, looking around the foreign room.

"Oh, you're up." Al looked to the door where his brother came in, a small smile on his face. "I thought you'd never wake up."

"What time is it?" Alfred muttered, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and stood up with a stretch.

"Um, I think about nine 'o clock, but I'm not sure. Come on, Gilbert's cooking breakfast." Mathew waited for Alfred to grab his glasses and join him before they both walked out the room in time to hear a shrill alarm go through the apartment.

"Ah! What the fuck is that?" Alfred said, covering his ears.

"Sounds like a smoke detector." Mathew replied before it went off.

"The Hell..." Alfred muttered before watching Antonio and an extremely angry Lovino come from their room. The twins looked at each before following them. Apparently the alarm had woken everyone else up and they were all gathered in the kitchen, most glaring murderously at the albino with a pan in his hand.

"Alright, who let Gilbert cook?"Antonio said, looking around the gathered group of boys. Gilbert looked around then pointed to Ludwig who in turned pointed Yao, the Chinese boy pointing to Kiku, the Japanese boy pointing to Ivan who pointed back to Gilbert. "Cute," The Spaniard muttered unamused before his Italian companion face palmed and started muttering curses under his breath. "Alright, Gilbert out the kitchen! Since you burned the last of our eggs-"

"How the fuck do you burn eggs?" Lovino cut in, glaring at the albino.

"You have to go and get breakfast." Toni finished. He then sighed and turned to the newest additions of his group. "Sorry about that. Gilbert knows he shouldn't be cooking-"

"Fuck you!" Gilbert called from his room.

"But apparently he doesn't listen to us. So anyways, you guys sleep well?" Everyone dispersed from the kitchen, returning to their respective rooms to get dressed and prepare for the day. Toni lead the twins to the small table outside the kitchen and sat down, Lovino joining them.

"Yeah, I guess." Alfred mumbled. It was actually the best sleep he'd had in days with all things considering.

"Good," Antonio smiled and Alfred was beginning to get the feeling he did that a lot.

"This is a very...um...diverse group of people you have here." Mat said quietly, looking down to the stuffed bear in his arms.

"Yeah. You'd think I'd sailed all around the world to get these guys but some how they all just...sort of showed up." Toni shrugged and placed his hands on the table. "Except for Lovi, I found him." He said, smiling fondly at the Italian who looked less than amused. "But for the most part they're all good guys."

"Hey, could you tell one of your ninja's I want my gun back? I paid good money for that." Al told him, folding his arms over his chest.

"I'll look into it. Actually, I'm pretty sure Yao wouldn't like you calling him a ninja all the time."

"Which one was that? They both look a like." If Toni didn't know any better he'd say Alfred was being deliberately offensive to his gang. Funny...

"Yao is the one with the brown hair and Kiku has black hair."

"Alright, and who are the two Nazi's?" Lovino then rolled his eyes and muttered something that Alfred was pretty sure he didn't want to understand.

"You shouldn't call them that-at least when they're around. Ludwig-that's the younger one, blond-he may ignore you but Gilbert-the guy that burnt our breakfast-he might just punch you in the face." Antonio explained and Alfred nodded.

"Yeah, he seems like the 'I'll punch you in the face if you fuck with me' kind of guy." Alfred commented. "And your commie?"

"Alfred!" Mathew groaned, looking at this older twin. "I've told you time and time again that they're not commies anymore."

"That's only what they want you to think. That way they can lure us into a false sense of security then bam!" He slammed his hands on the table dramatically. "TAA."

"TAA?" Antonio questioned, cocking his head to the side.

"Total American Annihilation." Mathew elaborated and Alfred nodded once more.

"I assure you we don't want to blow you up, only enslave you." Alfred screeched as he heard a voice in his ear and turned to look at Ivan who was smiling at him-creepily so at that.

"I...you...the fu..." Alfred then closed his mouth and watched the Russian saunter into the kitchen. He then turned to look at Antonio. "Please tell me he was joking."

"You know...sometimes I don't know." Toni admited, ever so seriously before breaking out in a grin. Al couldn't tell if he was joking either. "But anyways, that's Ivan. He sleeps on the couch because all the other rooms are taken. So if you see a half naked fifteen year old Russian getting dressed in the living room just walk away."

"Fifteen? And he's that tall?" The twins looked at each other, eyes wide.

"That must have been some growth spurt," Mathew muttered.

"No, he's always been that fucking tall." Lovino piped in, sending a glare to the kitchen. "He's just going to keep getting taller until his head smashing into the damn ceiling." Toni chuckled lightly and attempted to wrap his arms around the Italian but was fended off with a sharp shove.

"Don't mind, Lovi. He doesn't really like Ivan," The Spaniard said.

"That's an understatement." Lovino stated, getting up from the table, going back into his and Toni's room. Antonio laughed again, leaning back in his chair.

"And that's my Lovino. He's actually really nice...you know on the inside," He defended him, glancing to Yao who had come back out. "Deep on the inside,"

"You've must have cut him open, aru." Yao quipped, brushing his long hair into a pony tail with a black rubber band. "He has yet to say or do anything nice for anyone around here. Including you, aru."

"That you know of," Antonio purred with a sly smile. Yao give him a disgusted look before putting his brush into his back pocket, something silver flashing when he lifted his shirt up.

"Hey!" Alfred suddenly said, making the people at the table jump at the sudden shout. He pointed to Yao, his brows furrowed. "You! Yao! I want my gun back! I paid good for money that. Too much for it be stolen." he growled at him. The Chinese boy rolled his eyes, giving the younger boy a patronizing look.

"You don't have to shout, aru." He told him, turning around. "Fine, I'll give it back." he muttered, going back into the hallway.

"Only because he doesn't know how to fire a gun. Trust me, I've seen him. I'm pretty sure you're a better shot than he is." Toni said with a smile on his lips. "Where'd a little guy like you get a gun anyways? I'm pretty sure you don't have a permit to carry one."

"I'm pretty sure you don't have a permit to go around ordering your goonies to steal from people but you do it anyways," Alfred said, folding his arms over his chest with a challenging look. Toro smiled pleasently at him and laughed.

"Touché," He said. " But a guy's gotta make a living somehow. This is how I make mine." He shrugged, case close. Dog eat dog world as the saying goes. "So, you're not telling me?" he insisted.

"I'm bought it...from a guy...with my allowance." Alfred finally said, looking to the side. The older boy laughed again, louder than before. "Hey, that's not funny!" Al said, his cheeks flaring up.

"Lo siento, amigo. I'm sorry. It's just...you bought that with your allowance? Most kids get candy or video games, you bought a gun. Did you grow up in the ghettos?"

"No!" Alfred answered immediatly, Mathew paling at the thought. "Our adoptive dad just knew some shoddy people and I didn't trust them. So I bought it in case one of them decided to try something on me or Mattie. S'not like he even knew, he never bothered to check to see what we were getting. For all he knew I was doing drugs." The blue eyed boy snorted and rolled his eyes. "He was such a ditz." Among a few other things but Al wasn't going to say anything Toni or his group didn't need to know.

"Sounds like it. Probably better than my father." Toni replied, shaking his head. "My dad was a real burro."

"A what?" Alfred said, cocking his head to the side.

"An asshole," Antonio reiterated.

"Trust me, ours was most likely worse." Alfred said, feeling Mathew grab his hand underneath the table. He glanced to his younger siblings, seeing the look in his eyes-he didn't want to hear anymore about it. "Anyways!" Alfred then said, loudly, giving the boy's hand a squeeze before letting it go. "I got a question." he stated.

"Que?" Toni said, seeming to not even notice the change in subject.

"How old are you? You seem kind of young to be running your own gang here. And how old is everyone else?"

"Seventeen, oldest one here." Toni said, grinning happily. "Ivan, Lovi, and Yao are all fifteen. Gilbert is fourteen and Ludwig and Kiku are only thirteen. How old are you guys?" he returned the question.

"Thirteen. We turn fourteen in July," Mathew answered quietly, happy to be off the subject of their father, his bottom beginning to ache at the thought.

"Pretty young to be on your own. I gotta hand it to you, you said...three days right?" Antonio said.

"Yeah,"

"That's pretty good for someone your age. You guys are smart, y'know? Scamed that lady out of her food, stole her purse, dyed your hair. A lot smarter than I was when I ran away," The Spaniard smiled sheepishly, putting his hand behind his head. "Nearly got killed on a few accounts. But then again New York isn't like Madrid."

"Madrid, Spain?" Mathew asked, eyes wide. "How'd you get all the way from there to here? That's thousand's of miles away over the ocean."

"Oh, it was fun." There was a michevious sparkle in the boy's eyes as he began to talk. "I ran away when I was fourteen. Like I said my padre was a real burro. Used to beat me so hard I nearly passed out. I couldn't take it anymore so I ran out at night. All I had with me was a bag of clothes, some bread, a few Euros, and a knife. I travled for two days, hitch hiking rides and walking on foot. I actully stole this guys bike once, that's how I got this scar." He pointed to an old scar on the inside of his arm. "I won the knife fight and took off, biking the rest of the way to Seville. That was probably my most dangerous night. When I went to sleep that night I woke up maybe a few hours later with a drunk going through my bag, probably looking for some money. I tried to scare him off but he wasn't having it. Let's say he was more experienced with a knife and I nearly lost an ear that night." He bent his head and folded his ear, showing a scar that went all around the back. "He got a few good cuts in-I don't think I got any-before I was finally rescued by a shipman. He chased the guy off and patched my ear up for me. He asked me what I was doing out at that time of the night and I couldn't bring myself to lie to him. He had just saved me from possibly dying, the least I could do was tell him what I had been up to. So I told him I ran away from home and was hoping to get a rid to America.

"He laughed at me and told me I had some balls for running away. He said and I qoute 'I like you, kid. I'll take you with me to America...for a price.' He should have known a run away like me wouldn't have much money but I gave him all I had and he took me to New York, New York. I didn't have any immagration papers or a passport so as soon as we hit shore I ran for it. I didn't know a lick of English and that first night was the hardest. I couldn't talk to anyone, couldn't read the signs, and everyone stared at me as though they knew I was an illegal. I kept waiting for the police to come and deport me back. Everytime I heard a siren I ran for the closest thing that could hide me."

"So how'd you learn English then? If it wasn't for your accent I'd say English was your native language." Mathew asked.

"I hid around New York for about three days, dodging the police everywhere I could, stealing from people and sleeping in ally ways. Finally I found a neighborhood full of Hispanics and it felt like I was almost back in Spain. I made a few friends-some of them more illegal than me if you get my drift-and they taught me English. I joined my first gang and learned the ways of the streets-how to steal, who to steal from, the best place to hide from the police, and the best and worse places to sell."

"Sell?" Alfred cocked his head to the side. "You mean...like drugs?"

"Exactly. We made it a business to sell drugs, mainly weed but some of the older boys sold other stuff like coke or herion. It was a good way to make money, 'cept when you got addicted to it." He sighed and shook his head, as though he had seen that scenario too many times. "'Course, I can't talk. You sell the product you want to try it yourself, y'know?"

"You don't look like a druggie." Alfred commented, but then again he didn't actually know what a druggie looked like except what he's seen on TV or heard about from other people-or from Dave Chapple. He made a good drug addict.

"I don't do the hard stuff, only weed. Good for relaxing." Antonio nodded. "But that's beyond the point. I only stayed with them for about...a year. Word got out that the police were going to do a raid so I bounced. Not even a week later I heard about some of my friends getting busted and going to jail. I had learned everything I needed to by then, even if my English wasn't the best. I decided to leave the big city and head for somewhere else, somewhere a little smaller where I wasn't very well known. That's how I came here. I started this gang when I was about fifteen and a half and it's just kept growing." The green eyed boy smiled proudly at his words, looking almost like a father talking about his children.

"So how'd everyone else get mixed up in this?" Alfred asked as Yao finally came back, putting the gun on the table.

"We have a rule, aru. Don't ask anyone where they came from and why they ran away unless they're willing to tell." He explained, as Alfred popped the clip out to check how many bullets were in. The Chinese boy rolled his eyes but didn't say anything.

"So you're all run aways?" Mathew asked, pushing his glases up his nose.

"Yep," Toni replied, nodding. "Every single one of us. All for something different. If we had a gang name we'd most likely be The Runaways. But of course-"

"That would be plagerism." Mathew smiled gently at the little joke and Toni looked surprised for a moment before he joined in the smiling.

"How'd you know I was going to say that?" He asked.

"I have a thing for the classics." Mathew replied, messing with a stray curl on his head. Alfred looked confused for a moment, glancing back and forth between his twin and Antonio. If he didn't know any better he'd say Mattie was...flirting. But of course that was impossible. Mathew was too shy to flirt with anyone, especially right in front of him. It must have been something else. He opened his mouth to say something before Gilbert burst through the door, a few bags in his hand.

"Who's hungry?" The albino called, throwing the bags on the table. "We got fried rice, we got dumplings, sweet and sour chicken, teryiaki, egg rolls, and of course fortune cookies!" He immetated ringing a dinner bell, throwing his coat off. "Come and get it!"

"Ooh, you got all the major food groups." Lovino said with a scowl, walking back in. "Crappy, greasy, shit, and fortune cookie." he grumbled, catching the tomato that was thrown in his direction.

"Hey, be lucky I got you that. I was seriously considering not even bothering but I knew you'd bitch at me if I didn't." It was then Mathew noticed that Gilbert was visibly sweating, his face even a little red. He knew it was pretty warm but Gilbert wasn't gone for very long and this definetly was not sweating weather.

"Hey...Gilbert right?" He said quietly. "You're albino, right?"

"Yeah, so what?" He said, reaching into the bag and pulled out a box of fried rice.

"Well...if I remember, albino's are sensitive to the sun aren't they? How can you go outside?" Mattie asked, hoping he wasn't being rude.

"I shouldn't be going outside, but 'almighty Toro'," Here he made qoutes with his fingers. "Think's its a sutiable punishment to make me go outside for a while and get food when I 'act up'." He shot a glare at his leader who returned it with one of his smiles. "Arschloch," he mumbled. "If I get burned to a crisp, I'm blaming you."

"If you get burned to a crisp I'll feel terrible remorse." Antonio feigned fainting, placing his hand on the back of his head.

"If my brother gets burned to a crisp, I'm going to gag then torture you." Ludwig pipped in, grabbing a few containers.

"Oh Ludwig, I didn't know you were that kinky." Toni smiled slowly at the young blond who's cheeks were painted a fierce red at the comment. "If that happens you're going to happen to fight Lovino, though, you know that. Lovi doesn't like to share."

"I-you-shut-" Ludwig stuttered before turning away, face turning even redder. He heard his older brother laugh and he glared at him. "Bruder, it's not funny!" he growled.

"Kesese, yes it is. You should see your face! It's redder than that tomato over there!" Gilbert laughed. Ludwig growled lowly to himself before his fist came out, colliding with his older brother's jaw before he walked away. Gilbert didn't even seem phased by the attack and continued to laugh. "Gott, I swear there is nothing better than messing with my brother and the fact that he loves some of the weirdest shit."

"You mean you weren't joking?" Mathew's violet eyes were wide with horror.

"Oh, yeah. Ludwig loves that kinky shit or at least she likes looking at it. Kid's still virgin." Gilbert explianed, going into the kitchen to grab some silverwear.

"Oh," Mathew muttered, looking to Alfred. "That's..."

"Wierd," Alfred finished, patting Mathew's leg gently. Mattie was just too innocent for his own good but dear Lord that blush on his cheeks just made him look adorabe! "And kinky," he added, smiling at Mathew, hoping to lighten his mood a bit. It didn't work. Time for another change of subject-lucky thing for Alfred, he was very good at those. "So, Toni. If no one here is allowed to ask why someone ran away, how do you guys know you can trust each other? For all you know one of you guys could be a mass murderer." he asked.

"Oh, we all know everyones reasons. Well, that is besides Kiku's and Ivans. Those are the only two who haven't bothered to tell anyone yet. We don't push it. Until then, that's the part about being in a gang. It's a dangerous thing but you have to trust the people in your gang not to kill you or rat on you. We trust them," Lovi snorted unhappily and Toni rolled his eyes. "Okay, everyone but Lovi trust them. But then again, Lovi doesn't trust anyone. Sometimes I'm afraid he doesn't trust me." He smiled at his boyfriend who didn't return it.

"Sometimes I don't know if I should trust you. Your constant smiling freaks me the fuck out," Lovino told him, sitting down next to Toni.

"It just freaks you out because you barley smile." Toni said, bending over to lick a bit of juice off Lovi's lips. "Mm, Lovi. You taste good." he said, licking his own lips.

"Children in the room, children in the room." Gilbert called, rolling his eyes. "And no one wants to see that."

"I'm pretty sure Alfred and Mathew don't mind. Do you boys?" Toni gave them a wry smile and Alfred internally gasped. He couldn't know could he? No, he couldn't! That was impossible! He glanced to Mathew and could see his own distress mirrored in twin's eyes. They were both thinking the same thing. 'Toni couldn't know,' Antonio then laughed when Lovino smacked him upside the head.

"If you wanted some just say so, bastard. Don't go licking my lips!" Lovino growled, wipping his lips off. "I don't know where your tongue has been."

"I think you do," Toni sang, smirking at the Italian who proceeded to get even redder-if that was possible.

"B-bastard," Lovino stuttered, finishing off his tomato as Gilbert began to laugh again. "Shut up you damn, potato bastard!" he shouted, only seeming to make him laugh even more.

"Lovi, you're so cute when you're mad!" Antonio cooed, bringing the boy into a tight hug.

"Let me go! Chigi!" Lovino struggled, pushing against the Spaniard. Lovino let him go, chuckling lowly. "Damn it," Lovino growled, getting up and exited to the kitchen, muttering to himself in Italian.

"I love that boy," Antonio said then smiled at the twins. "So boys, I know it's early but I want to know. Are you guys planning on staying here?" he asked pleasently.

"Well...it's not like we have anywhere else to go." Alfred muttered, glancing to Mathew. It had been settled last night but if Mathew had changed his mind Alfred was ready to leave at a moments notice. Apparently, though, Mathew was still set on staying. Whether Antonio knew about the two acting a little more than unbrotherly had bothered him but the young boy knew there was no other place for the twins and this was most likely the safest place for them. "So yeah, I guess we're staying." Antonio smiled widely and Alfred could see why it bothered Lovino so much. Did he do anything other than smile?

"Bueno! I'm glad you've decided to stay." Toro said happily. "Welcome to the group! Since you two are staying you're permantly moved into Gilbert's room."

"Hey!" Gilbert complained, mouth agape.

"No questions, Gilbert. We're running out of room and you know that. You're staying with your brother and that's final." Antonio said, voice laced with finality.

"Fine," The albino growled with a frown. He set the food on the table and stalked off, most likely to gather his stuff.

"He'll get over it soon." Antonio said with a shrug. "So, now that you two are offically part of my gang there's a little something I need you to do." He smiled once again but his eyes narrowed, giving Alfred the impression of an evil smile.

"Like what?" He asked warrily, the evil grin only growing.

"Well, every gang has an indoctrine program. Here, every one different indoctrine. I have something special planned for you two."

A/N: Oh God! This took me too long and I'm terribly sorry for the wait and the crappiness of this chapter! I tried, I really did! But I've been so busy and my muse has been so low for this story! It seemed like my mind wanted to give me muse for everything but this story! I'm so sorry! orz Anyways, yeah, not much going on in this chapter. I mainly made it for a bit of comic relife and to give some insight onto Toro. Next chapter you're really gonna like though, I promise! If there are any spelling mistakes in this I'm so sorry! I made most of this at my grandma's and she doesn't have spell check! So, like always. Comments are appreciated and loved. Seriously! Oh and yes, they live in New York but I kept the city vauge because I'm not too sure where they live. That's all for now. ~Ciao! Love Stripes!