Waiting once more outside Antonio's office, the door opened, and like every time, Romano stormed out, yelling in Italian, the Spaniard leaned against the doorframe with a sigh, then looked over and smirked.

"It's bad enough that's all I hear at home... Now I have to hear it at work too." He moved to the side, walking in, I shook my head, then turned to him as he closed the door, as Toni walked back over to his desk, he gave me a puzzled look. "What is it amigo?"

"I can't believe I just heard you complain about Romano." Laughing, he shook his head as I sat down and dropped my bag onto the floor beside the chair, seeing him lean back in his seat, he ran a hand through his hair with a sigh.

"Don't get me wrong, he's muy cute! Just, his cursing gets old after a while..." I didn't know Romano well, but, he didn't like me, but, he didn't like anyone, he always told people he hated them, and called them bastards a lot. After a while, I avoided going over to Feliciano's because I didn't want to hear his brother yelling at me all the damn time. "Anyway, so I've heard it hasn't been a very good week for you and your friends... What's going on at school?" Aw hell, and I had just started feeling better again.

"Some assholes have been targeting Feliciano and Kiku, so I've been doing my best to protect them, but the teachers keep getting me in trouble for it, and when I explain why, they tell me to pick better friends. Ones who are straighter." He furrowed his brow, writing quickly, then shook his head seeming rather upset himself, I guess Feli didn't tell him all of this, but I do know he's gone home crying for the past two days.

"How have you gotten in trouble? As in, what are your punishments, and what are the punishments for the boys doing this?" I crossed my arms angrily, letting out a deep sigh, he watched me for a second as I tried to cool down, just thinking about all of this really pissed me off.

"I have a Friday night school, and they just got a warning. When all I did was tell them to back off, and they have literally attacked Feli and Kiku three times now. Arthur was going to try and find ways to get them to stop, by messing with the football budgets, but they have him scared to death." He tapped his pencil on the desk, then wrote slowly, shaking his head, when he looked up again, he sighed, keeping quiet still for a few moments.

"Have they been doing anything to you?" I nodded, then opened my bag, pulling out a few pages of notebook papers, ones I had found taped to my locker at various times during school, I handed them to him when he looked at me confused.

"These have been put on my locker, the two that say 'fag' are the first two I found, the letter was there at the end of the day today. Arthur told me that exactly how things started for him and the others, only the letters they got weren't so, threatening." He read over the letter, his eyes growing wide, I don't even think he finished it before looking up at me, his jaw slack.

"Have you gone to authorities about this?! Bullying is one thing, threatening someone's life is something completely different!" I shook my head, and he sighed. "You really need to, I'm not so sure these boys are playing around anymore from what I've heard from Feliciano and now you. If you don't want to do it, let me. Please." Hesitating for a moment, I nodded, and he sighed, then shook his head. "And the school isn't doing anything about this?" I shook my head again.

"No, I went to the principle, and, he told me it was our fault. I'm to scared to talk to Elizaveta about it, because after the first attack, she yelled at me for coming out at school, and told me to leave the others to fend for themselves." He closed his eyes, then rubbed his temples, Antonio was a very fun loving guy, and he loved to help people, which is why he became a therapist, but when it came down to someone hurting his friends, you'd better watch your back. He acted like an idiot, but he really knew how to fuck someone up.

"Okay," He sighed, then rubbed his eyes. "let's switch topics for a while... Have, you heard from Gilbert at all?" Shaking my head, he wrote something on the paper, then glanced up. "Has he gotten out of the hospital yet?"

"Yeah, but Roderich told me that he's not supposed to be doing anything, so Ivan's probably over there all the time and Gil's probably drunk off his ass..." When it sounded as if he stopped writing, I looked over at him, and he was giving me a strange look, did I say something wrong?

"I've never heard you like that towards him... What happened?" Damn, I was hoping to stay off this topic, at least for a few more visits, his eyes shifted up to the clock, and he sighed, I looked up as well then grinned. "Just because you got out of it today doesn't mean you will next time. I'll remember." Picking my bag up, I slid it over my shoulder, then looked over at him with a smirk.

"Who says I won't dodge it?" He rolled his eyes as I walked out of the room, getting into the lobby, I smiled seeing Arthur sitting on one of the couches, he looked up and climbed to his feet. "Have you been waiting long?" He shook his head with a smile, leaving the building, I looked over, and noticed something odd, pushing the hair off his forehead, he swatted my hand away and sped up, walking ahead of me. Grabbing his arm, I pulled him back, the pushed his hair away, finding a bruise hidden under the mess of blonde hair, he sighed, turning his head away. "What happened?"

"It's nothing, don't worry about it." As he started to walk off again, I kept ahold of his arm, not moving, he sighed and turned to me sternly. "Ludwig, I promise, it's nothing to worry about. I hit my head when I dropped something is all." Sighing, I gave up, sliding my hand down his arm, planning on holding his hand, I was startled when he winced, and I noticed something else odd, even for him. It was hot out, yet he was wearing a long sleeved shirt, he almost always wore short sleeves, this time he didn't fight when I carefully slid his sleeve up, he only turned his head away from me. Turning his arm over, I was speechless when there were dozens of cuts going across his arm, thankfully non were around his wrist, but it still horrified me, without saying anything, I wrapped my arms around him.

"Why would you do something like that...?" Pulling away from the Brit, he hesitated, then rolled up the other sleeve, showing even more cuts on that arm before looking up at me with tears in his emerald eyes.

"I've done it for years... Just, never on my arms..." He put his sleeves back down, then fidgeting with the bottom of his shirt, staring down, and taking a shaky breath before speaking again. "I didn't think anyone would notice..." Brushing hair out of his eyes, I lifted his chin, making him look up at me again.

"Why wouldn't I notice?" Leaning forward, I lightly pressed my lips against his, being careful when I placed my forehead against his. "Please, don't do this to yourself anymore..." He smiled a little bit, then nodded, briefly kissing me back.

"Fine, but only because you asked... Don't tell Alfred I said this, but you are way more of a hero than he is." I chuckled, then slid and arm around his waist as he moved back, starting to walk toward his house again, though this time I moved with him.

"I don't have to wear a cape now do I?" He looked up as we walked, thinking, then laughed and shook his head, leaning against me, and glancing up with a grin.

"No, but, don't give me any ideas..." Rolling my eyes, I shoved him a bit, he laughed and pushed me back then ran down the block his house was on, chasing after him, I caught up as he reached his door. Putting my arms around him, he laughed as I lifted him off the ground, when I started walking down the sidewalk past his house, he struggled around, still laughing, but he couldn't get away.

"Nope, you're coming home with me." As he struggled more, I pretended like I was going to drop him, he yelped a bit, setting him down, I started laughing, he turned and pushed me again, pouting.

"That wasn't fair! You tricked me!" Laughing more, he sighed then grabbed my hand, pulling me with him back to his house. "Your punishment? You're not allowed to leave till I say so!" Smirking, I let him lead me into his house, he glanced into a few of the rooms then shrugged, pulling me up to his bedroom, as he closed the door I grinned.

"You know, this seems less like a punishment, and more like a reward." He dropped his bag on the floor, then glanced over his shoulder to look at me before turning with a teasing smirk and stepping closer to me, letting my bag drop to the ground, he smiled and blushed a little.

"When did I say it was going to be a punishment you wouldn't like? Hm?" As he stepped closer to me again, I moved quickly, his eyes got wide when I trapped him against the wall, and a dark red settled on his cheeks as I leaned forward, capturing his lips with mine. It was only a brief second before he wrapped his arms around my neck and started to kiss back, moving my hands to his hips, my cheeks burned as he parted his lips. Doing the same, his tongue slid into my mouth, it only took a few seconds for me to end up dominating the kiss, but, he didn't seem to mind. Sliding my hands up his shirt a little, I broke the kiss and lightly trailed my lips over his jaw, kissing random spots, as I kissed under his ear he grabbed onto my shirt, gasping a bit. Smirking, I planted my lips in the same spot again, this time he pressed his hips against mine, moaning softly. He let go of my shirt but I felt him tug on it, pulling it up slightly, then looked up at me, his eyes pleading silently. Leaning back, I pulled my shirt over my head and let it fall to the floor, he smirked, carefully running his hands up my chest till they came to a stop on my shoulders. He pushed me back till I was sitting on his bed, wrapping my arm around his waist, I brought him with me, but he moved to straddle my legs, and with a smirk, his lips crashed against mine again. Pulling away with a sigh as there was a knock on his door, he glared over then got up annoyed and walked over to the door, opening it only a little.

"Bloody hell Alfred! You always have the worst timing!" Rolling my eyes, I ran my hand through my hair as the taller blonde pushed the door open all the way, looking at me then shrinking back a bit.

"Dude, I don't even want to know what I interrupted... Um, but Artie, mom want just the three of us to go out for once tonight, and she say's we're leaving when we get home, which will be anytime now... So... Yeah..." He backed up a bit, then laughed nervously. "I'm gonna go..." He turned and hurried down the stairs, Arthur sighed then turned to me, grabbing my shirt, I pulled it back on, then climbed up off the bed.

"Sorry love..." I smirked and picked up my bag, then pulled him over to me, kissing his forehead, his cheeks went even darker red, and he smiled.

"It's alright, there are always other times..." He stood up on his toes, lightly pressing his lips to mine, pulling away and walking out of the room ahead of me, heading down the stairs after him, Alfred looked over at us and rolled his eyes. "See you tomorrow." Arthur nodded with a smile, and I glanced over. "See ya Al." He waved without looking, shaking my head I walked down the front steps, staring for home.

God you're so disgusting!

My shoulders dropped as I sighed, and I pounded my palm on the side of my head.

Like that's going to get rid of me!

"Just shut up already..." Glancing back to make sure Arthur hadn't seen me do that, I hurried on, before he did.

He's just as fucked up as you, I don't see why you're worried about what he thinks. Oh yeah, cause everyone should hate you!

Can't you just leave him alone for once?

Sighing again, rubbed my temples, great, now they're going to argue again...

No! He's a fucking fag! He shouldn't even have a chance to live! He's disgusting.

Well...

I stopped in my tracks, realizing both of the voices were now against me. There goes the last bit of my confidence...

Authors Note:

I almost wanted to ignore my plan on writing this and let Alfred just not interrupt, but that would have screwed me up. *sadness* Anyway, I hope you liked it, cause that's probably the closest to anything happening for a while. Please, let me know what you think. Also, on my profile there is a link to some fanart on deviantart, it's not just this story, but my Saw one as well! So totally check those out! Thanks for reading! I hopefully update soon!