The bus groaned under the weight of the many students as it began the journey to the "unchartered, wild lands" that Mr Vargas had deemed fit for a school trip. Elizaveta watched as Feliciano and Ludwig talked, and Kiku leaned over.
"It is their anniversary. Ludwig is planning to take Feliciano out to dinner when we return from this trip."
"This is seriously all you guys do in this club when you aren't planning creepy stalker meetings?" Gilbert's face popped in between Elizaveta and Kiku, startling them as he leaned forward from his seat behind them. He looked doubly freaky today, because he was wearing some sort headscarf with a slogan of some old-fashioned heavy metal band blazoned across it.
"This club lacks the finesse required in setting people up."
Elizaveta turned and scowled at Francis, "Nobody asked you, idiot."
"I think the club is very good at what it does." said Matthew, who was getting acquainted with the window of the bus after Gilbert and Francis decided that a row could seat three people.
"Matthew! When did you get here?!" Elizaveta put a hand on her heart and Matthew rolled his eyes.
"I have been here for a while."
"Mein Gott, Lizzy. You'd be able to notice Mattie if you weren't blinded by Roddy's beauty on a daily basis."
Elizaveta's smile became maniacal and Gilbert coughed nervously, "What did you say to me? Because if you continue with those suggestive comments, I might have to resort to desperate measures," she pulled out her trusty frying pan with deadly grace and hefted it professionally in one hand, "And we don't want to come to that, now do we?"
Gilbert grinned and put an arm around Matthew's shoulders, "Mattie will keep me safe!"
Matthew jumped at the sudden affection, but then relaxed, blushing ever so slightly. "Eh? Aha... You'll have to go through me first Elizaveta!"
Elizaveta waved her frying pan one last time, "I will not hesitate to use this."
Matthew gulped, but stayed firm. "But perhaps its time for you to put it away now?"
Elizaveta reluctantly complied, and Gilbert leant over and murmured in Matthew's ear; "Well someone can't take a joke!" Mattie laughed. "At least I've got you Birdie," said Gilbert, pulling Matthew closer and rubbing him affectionately on the head with his knuckles, Matthew protesting feebly between laughter.
"Gil! Geroffmeeeee-GAH!" Without warning, Mattie was dragged bodily onto Gilbert and Francis's laps, yelling in surprise and gripping Gilbert's headscarf, which came off in his hands, revealing what was underneath.
"Whoa man, not the awesome hair!" Gilbert protested, gently removing Mattie's hands. "I spent ages on that!"
Matthew and Francis looked up to see what Gilbert was so worried about, and promptly burst out laughing.
"What? What's wrong with it?" Demanded Gilbert, crossing his arms protectively.
"Oh mon ami," Francis choked out between manly giggles, "You look like you stuck your infamous five metres in an electric socket."
This description was in fact, disturbingly accurate. Gilbert's hair was sticking straight up in clumps at odd angles all over his head. He looked a lot like a punk rocking evil albino hedgehog who had just been told he was disqualified from battle of the bands for being too awesome.
Matthew couldn't stop laughing. He just looked too ridiculous. And dare he say it... Attractive? But he stopped when a thought suddenly struck him, making him look up at Gilbert, violet meeting dark red.
"Gil... How did you do your hair like that?"
Gilbert smirked and winked craftily at the little Canadian. "Trade secret Birdie."
Mattie rolled his eyes. "No, seriously. Does it, by any chance, have anything to do with that tube I found on the bathroom floor this morning? The one with the handwritten label?"
"Maybe~"
"Gil! It was completely empty!"
"Why does that bother you?" Gilbert tugged at a vertical clump of hair, making faces at himself in the window. "Did you want to use some hair gel too? I could've made your hair totally awesome!"
Matthew winced at the thought of Gilbert being in charge of his hair. The concept was to terrifying to think about.
"No!" He said hurriedly, waving his hands. "No what I meant was-"
"What he meant was mfflehruffflemwaaa-"
Mattie tried again, one hand now clenched over Francis's mouth. "Did you even read that label on the tube?"
"No!" Laughed Gilbert. "The awesome me doesn't read labels. Load of mainstream commercial rubbish. You are all sheep, reading labels! You are sheep being controlled by a higher power! No offence dude," he said, leaning backwards and addressing the blonde kid sitting behind him. The youth's nieghbour, an outlandish looking type with a plaster stuck across his nose, burst into raucous laughter at his friend's expense, but stopped when the other nation raised their bushy eyebrow, fiddling the large curl above their ear.
"You really should've read that label..." fretted Matthew anxiously, but Gilbert was no longer paying attention. He had just stolen Matthew's glasses and shoved them on Francis's nose, cracking up when Francis posed like 'A sassy gay librarian.'
Further down the bus, Lovino shifted uncomfortably where he sat next to Antonio, trying to avoid his bright green gaze. Slowly, the tension built up more and more, until Lovino could stand it no longer.
"So uh... Did you get home alright last night bastard?" he asked gruffly, toying with the hem of his shirt.
"Si," said Antonio. "But Vash was angry at me for being away for so long," he shivered, remembering. "You are lucky you don't have such a scary roommate who keeps his guns hanging up on the wall."
"He didn't shoot you, did he?" Lovino asked, voice full of anger and concern. Dammit, if that Swiss bastard had scared Antonio...
"No Lovi, don't be so worried!" Antonio put one arm around Lovino, hugging him close and laughing. "If I was shot, I wouldn't be here!"
Duh Lovino. Lovino rolled his eyes at himself. Lo- FEELINGS made him so stupid sometimes. However, he struggled to get out of Antonio's one armed hug, swearing as he did so, and attracting the attention of the five boys sitting behind them, on the back row of the bus. Lovino just shot a few insults at them and turned back to his previous position.
"Oi bozo, take that back!"
A loud, harsh cawing suddenly filled Lovino's ear. He jerked his head to the side and glared at the comical looking puffin who was perched on his shoulder, digging his claws in.
"What did you say, bird brain?" said Lovino, brushing the puffin off his shoulder. It fluttered indignantly around his shoulder, squawking insults into his ear. However, Lovino was used to his classmates strange pets. For God's sake, his roommate's best friend was a fucking alien called Tony! Thankfully, after an argument that lasted for many hours and involved very little variety of dialogue, Tony had retreated to the lounge area where he dominated a couch playing video games and snickering at things on Alfred's laptop. These 'familiars', as Arthur Kirkland called them, are just as insane as their owners.
As if he had called him up with his imagination, a small, moody looking teen lent over the back of Lovino's seat and caught the offending Puffin with ease. He flipped his silver bangs out of his eyes and spoke softly to the struggling bird.
"Mr Puffin, I left you at home for a reason,"
"Get off me ya punk! Don't mess with my adorableness, everyone wants a piece of the puffin!" shouted the obnoxious bird.
"No, you're annoying. Shut up."
"Hey amigos, you're a puffin? I thought you were a penguin!" exclaimed Antonio, twisting around to address them. Mr Puffin glared at him accusingly.
"Why, am I cute enough to be one? Penguins can't fly, you dimwit! Puffins are way too awesome."
"You haven't been talking to Mathias have you?" asked the boy, rolling his eyes. Along the row of seats, another boy poked his head out and yelled; "What's that Icey?!"
He was poked in the side by another boy with a silver hair clip in his fringe. "Shut up, idiot Dane. No one asked your opinion."
The first boy, who Lovino now remembered was called Emil, caught sight of Mathias's head and his eyes widened in shock. "Mathias, what-"
Attention captured, Lovino followed Emil AKA Icey's gaze, and promptly started snickering. Mathias's hair, normally defying the laws of gravity (and reason) was now hanging limply in choppy strands at varying lengths on his neck and face. It was not a good look.
Mathias lifted a finger at his friends, glaring. "Not a word, got that? Especially not from you, Ice punk." The finger roved around to rest on a intimidating looking Swede, who was holding hands with a beaming blonde boy called Tino. "Or you, Ber."
"I assume this has something to do with Lukas?" asked Ice, trying hard to hold in his giggles. Next to him, aforesaid Lukas sighed.
"I thought you promised you would call me dear brother from now on." he said, hurriedly changing the subject.
Ice shrank back, looking annoyed, "That was only after the test came back."
"I am still your dear brother."
"I'm a teenager! I'm not going to call you dear brother!" Ice crossed his arms and huffed, putting his feet up on the back of Lovino's seat. He wore high white leather boots, laced up to his calves.
Lukas smiled wickedly, "You will call me dear brother. Mr Puffin agrees."
"You guys! I thought you sorted that out ages ago!" called Mathias from his seat between Lukas and Berwald. "We're like a family anyway, so what's the big deal?"
"If we are a family, then who am I?" asked Tino, butting in from his seat by the window. Berwald put an arm around him.
"M' wife," he said, and Tino giggled.
"Hold up, have I missed something here?" Demanded Mathias, looking from one to the other. "I swear, no one tells me anything! First Norge and Icey are having brother issues, and now you two? Oh, and my hair gel went missing last night."
At that, Lukas had an impromptu coughing fit that successfully allowed him to avoid looking at everyones faces. Mathias patted him enthusiastically on the back, while Ice just rolled his eyes and started playing on his phone, ignoring everyone. Berwald and Tino went back to silently enjoying each others company, leaning against each other and holding hands. Lovino turned to Antonio, who shrugged.
"I know Mathias through Gilly," Antonio whispered to Lovino. "And apparently there is a lot of UST between him and Lukas,"
"UST? What's that, bastard?" asked Lovino, feeling very confused. Antonio looked at him sideways and winked, tongue running over his top row of teeth, making Lovino blush and turn away.
"Unresolved sexual tension," he purred, enjoying Lovino turn bright red. "Its amazing the things you pick up when you hang around Francis. Anyway, Emil discovered he was Lukas's biological brother by a DNA test a few months ago. They had thought Emil was adopted, but apparently not. And he had trouble accepting that his oldest friend was in fact, his blood brother."
"Huh. That must've been tough," Lovi thought aloud, reflecting that, although he found Feli annoying sometimes, at least they had grown up knowing they were related. He watched the little gang of Scandinavian students bicker amongst themselves for a while, curious. Then it struck him, that despite his defensive attitude, he did have a family of friends, of sorts, just like them. Feli and Ludwig, Gilbert and Francis, even Alfred, but especially Antonio. Looking at him now, in all his entirety, Lovino realised how much Antonio mattered to him, in more ways than just one or two. He felt the connection between him and his Spaniard so strongly, he just wanted to take him in his arms then and there, but before he could even open his mouth, the bus grinded to a halt, and the clamour to leave the vehicle began.
A/N: THIS IS WHERE THIS A/N STARTS, RIGHT? Hello! As you may have noticed, Stars basically made this chapter PruCan central (as is the next. I wonder what happened to our deal. Everything is PruCan. Sorry... You can have your PruAus later! [Later, she says. Which means NEVER]Mr Puffin is terrifying, ohmygod. The character songs are hilarious and then BOOM! Puffin. The character songs are actually where I get most of my characterisation from. Does anybody watch Supernatural? It's fantastic. She has been text bombing me about for the last month, which has been kinda awkward because I haven't seen it yet :'( THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS I CAN'T SAY. Poor Alpha... SIRIUSLY. SO MANY SPOILERS.
Once again, apologies for lack of Spamano in this chapter. Stupid cockblocking bus. There is going to be loads more, I promise. Loads more of the cockblocking bus... Totes bro. The cockblocking bus is fabulous. However I am encountering problems such as my beloved laptop crashing, and me deciding that chapter 12 is extremely crap, so you might have to wait a while. However, holidays are coming up, so will do loads of writing then! Yay!
Also we slipped in a cameo appearance of our country, New Zealand! We live in hope that they put NZ in more. They haven't even confirmed their gender, and we are keeping it that way. Sorry for the confusion.
Until next week then! Ciao~