So most reviewers agreed that Matthew and Cruz should have a better chapter after that last one. I will do my best, I'm not promising anything. XD Sorry for delay in update, had a family member pass away.

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Matthew squinted hazily at the ceiling above him. The tablet succeeded in making him more sleepy, however…the actual asleep part he did not get. Much to his dismay. Matthew rolled over on his side and closed his eyes once more. This really was not a good day.

You don't have many of those anyhow. Do you even have one good day?

I have one…I'm sure I had one. At some time or another. Yesterday wasn't that bad. Matthew shook his head.

Yeah…it wasn't that bad. Just emotional therapy classes and not being able to sleep. That wasn't bad at all!

Matthew whimpered and buried himself under the blankets.

"Are you STILL awake?" The nurse peered in.

"Still…" Matthew admitted softly. Oh now there you go. Finally admitting something.

"That's it. I'm calling someone. Who do I call, Lovino, Arthur, or your parents?" The nurse grabbed the phone, it must have been sitting nearby, and reappeared.

"Eh…" Matthew rolled over onto his back. Asking for more time to try and fall asleep was definitely out of the question. Yeah, because you are obviously not going to get any sleep. "Parents are at work…"

"So that leaves Lovino or Arthur." The nurse said firmly. She was definitely not budging on this.

Matthew sighed. Nothing against either of them. He just… If you wanted to talk to HIM, you should have done that when you were still in school. Okay, that voice was annoying. Matthew shook his head, "Arthur…I guess…" Arthur was close to his brother after all, at least Alfred always said so.

"Let me go find out what room he's in." The nurse vanished again.

Matthew pressed the pillow to his face. That annoying voice in his head was really not helping with this. But the last thing he needed was to be locked up in some insane asylum for talking to a voice that was in his head.

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Cruz sat in class, patiently, or maybe not so patiently, waiting for the bell to ring. The teacher had finished the lecture about ten minutes early, so now they were all just waiting for the class to be officially over.

Most classmates were talking to other people, Cruz, however, sat by himself at the back of the room. He took out his phone and half-glared at it. While wishing for a text message, the only person who had his number, other than annoying Maria, was Matthew, and ghosts do not text message. Nor is there such a thing as ghosts. Should really try and make more friends. Cruz scratched the back of his head, thinking over the possibility. Most friendship cliques were already formed by this point in the year, and even attempting to befriend someone would probably go south, as they would think he was about to punch them in the face or something.

Cruz sighed and scanned through the messages that Matthew had sent him that, for some reason, he had left on his phone. He glanced over the abbreviated words that appeared on the quickview of the message and put the phone away. No point in reminding himself. Does the phone company really know the person they're selling the device to? Why else would they make a phone that censors out words? That was just a dumb invention.

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Matthew tossed and turned in the bed while waiting for the nurse to get Arthur. Maybe he should sneak a couple more sleeping tablets. Matthew sat up and pulled the curtain back a bit. No one in the station but him. He could see the bottle from where he was sitting. To risk or not to risk…if someone did catch him, they could add potential suicide-attempt to his list of reasons why he was here.

One more thing for Cruz to yell at you about when you do get out of here. If you get out of here.

Matthew sighed heavily. Not to risk. He laid back down on the bed, hugging the pillow to his chest once more. Maybe if he thought about happier memories that would help. Hearing someone speak with a German accent made him sit up again however. Gilbert?

No. Some blonde person. A …guy with long…blonde…hair. Well then. That was different. He'd be the spitting image of Ludwig if he cut his hair. The only reason Matthew knew Ludwig was because Alfred challenged him now and then to a sports competition. Matthew leaned forward, only slightly attempting to eavesdrop.

"…ran out of the room."

"I can give you Gilbert's room number. That's probably where he went." The counselor he was talking to tilted her head slightly.

"Ah, that would be helpful, dan…er thank you."

"No problem at all. Let me see here…"

Matthew listened to the conversation go back and forth before tilting his head slightly. He felt like he should warn Gilbert that whoever this person was, was coming, but…he didn't have Gilbert's cell phone number. Should have asked for it. Now that he thought about it, he didn't have Lovino's or even Arthur's. Maybe when Arthur came down here he could ask for it. At least then he'd be able to talk to someone.

"Thank you." The blonde male walked back in the direction he had come, while the counselor headed in the opposite direction. Well. Gilbert was definitely about to get a visitor, and apparently one he already tried to avoid once. Poor Gilbert. Oh. He looks like Ludwig. Maybe they really are relatives. That would explain why someone the spitting image of Ludwig had shown up here.

"Hello." Arthur wandered into the room not five minutes later. The nurse didn't come with him for whatever reason.

"Hey…" Matthew gave a weak wave from the bed.

"Can't sleep, huh?" Arthur sat down on the edge of the bed.

"This…sucks." Matthew cursed his frustrations out into the pillow again.

"Yes, well I quite agree. Believe me, the class you just pulled me out of was most certainly the most awful one I have sat in yet. And thank you for calling me out of it, by the way." Arthur added.

"Eh? What happened?" Matthew blinked at him curiously.

"They were showing a video of the principal reading off our letters." Arthur said flatly, "Unfortunately the teacher wanted us to comment on the letters, and of course she wouldn't leave me out of it."

"She didn't know your name, eh?" Matthew smiled softly.

"No. I don't think she knew anyone's name." Arthur made a face, "Fortunately the nurse came by and asked for your friend to come out, so I said my name as I was leaving and gave her a rather nasty glare."

Matthew laughed, "It's hard to comment on a letter you wrote."

"Quite. I have no comments on mine, I could have written a page or two on the other three that were read, but not mine." Arthur shook his head, "Oh, and some of the comments they were making were absolutely the most ridiculous things they could have come up with!"

Matthew raised both eyebrows, "Eh? Why?"

"They were calling me a lonely person!" Arthur huffed.

"How are you lonely with Alfred constantly bugging you?" Matthew laughed.

"Completely impossible." Arthur waved a hand around, "And worse yet, they went on to comment how I mentioned in the letter as if a stranger would be the one to find it instead of a friend, and so they made the decision that I must not have any friends, or if I do, it's only one or two. It was completely rude to listen to!"

"I can imagine. But…I've only ever seen you talking with Roderich or Alfred." Matthew winced as he said it.

"Yes. I know." Arthur sighed heavily, "Unfortunately, as ridiculous as it was, it was also correct."

"Ehhh…" Matthew reached up and patted the other on the shoulder, feeling sorry for him.

"Their so-called solutions need to be thrown into the nearest trashcan. Really. Suggest a family night to parents, try talking to the one person I mentioned in the letter, now honestly, if I could have done that, I would have already!" Arthur snapped.

Matthew burst out laughing at Arthur's rant, "Family night? How is that supposed to help?"

"I have no idea what their thinking behind any of that rubbish was, and by the way, what did you call me for here anyway?" Arthur suddenly looked at him confused, "Why not Gilbert or Lovino?"

"Eh? Gilbert was in a conference room…emphasis on was. He's not there now, and Lovino. . .I don't really know him. You're friends with Alfred so I figured it would be easier to talk to you." Matthew reddened a bit.

"Since when am I friends with Alfred?" Arthur just stared at him.

"Eh? But you're always helping him study…and he talks about you a lot…how he likes being your…friend..and…" Matthew's voice trailed off at the look the Englishman was giving him. Apparently Alfred only voiced this to him.

"Remind me to kill him." Arthur smiled cheerfully.

"Eh? Did I say something wrong?" Matthew panicked, though he really couldn't understand what he had said.

"Nothing. Anything he said was probably making fun of me anyhow." Arthur shook his head.

Eh…I think I upset him. Matthew buried himself under the covers a bit. "…sorry…but…I don't think Alfred was making fun of you. He always talked about you so cheerfully…he just loved being around you."

THAT comment was a mistake to make. Arthur's face went bright red. Matthew looked at Arthur, biting his lip. Was that from embarrassment or anger? With Arthur it was hard to tell.

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Cruz wandered into his next class and stared at the room. What the heck happened here? It looked like someone went wild with decorating. Cruz carefully walked to his seat, ducking under the center line of duct tape so he wouldn't get stuck on it. This clearly was the work of someone with nothing better to do. He continued looking around the room, noting with some amusement that there were test papers stuck to the duct tape that went around the room.

He glanced behind him and realized Alfred was sitting in his seat, he hadn't even noticed the blonde walk by his desk. Cruz turned to face the front of the room. He really should try and make amends with Alfred…but…that meant a painful reminder of a slightly shorter blonde that was no longer present. Besides, the teacher came in. Cruz watched as the teacher looked at the board quizzically.

"Okay. What happened here?" He asked flatly. The gaze turned to look at the white papers that were duct-taped around the room, "Well. I see someone didn't like the idea of taking a test today."

Cruz smiled a bit. That was good news for him. He had completely forgotten to study the night before.

The teacher turned to look at the black writing that went across the duct-tape-silver black-board, "Class dismissed, hm? Someone had the time to duct tape the entire black board. The entire room…my desk. The filing cabinet. And attach every single test paper, including the answer key to the tape. Someone clearly must have the free time to spend in detention as well."

Ouch. Cruz winced, hopefully he wouldn't be the scapegoat for this.

"So. Who did this?" The teacher leaned on his taped desk, and looked at the classroom. "I know one of you did. It wasn't like this when I was in here at the start of last class."

Now who was honestly going to admit to this? Cruz blinked and then turned in his seat to look back at Alfred. The blonde was looking around the room with an all-too-happy expression on his face. Alfred blinked and waved at him with a …bandaged hand. What the hell did he do to his hand?

"Anyone want to stand up and admit that this is their handywork?" The teacher looked around the room.

Cruz just shook his head and faced front again. No one in their right mind would admit this was them.

"Who would admit to this…" It was a whisper that came from somewhere in the room. Somewhere behind Cruz.

"Oh I don't know. Someone who doesn't want their classmates to be stuck in detention because of them…" The teacher yanked on one of the pieces of duct tape.

However, the duct tape that made the x in the center of the room had been stuck together. When the teacher yanked harder, the entire thing fell down on the class. Cruz saw what was about to happen and quickly moved his chair so the duct tape didn't fall on his head. That was close.

"Oh for…" The teacher moved around his desk, but found while he was leaning with one hand on his desk, he had inadvertently put his hand next to the bottle that Alfred had knocked over. He raised his hand and found it was covered in ink.

Cruz raised both eyebrows at the sight. Someone actually keeps a bottle of ink on their desk? For what?

"Oh real good. Ruin everything on my desk by spilling ink." The teacher commented, waving his hand around and sending ink droplets everywhere.

Cruz chuckled at the ink drops splattering the carpet. That was going to be hard to get off after it dried there.

Growling in annoyance, the teacher went to try and clean off his hand with the other one but now found he couldn't let go of the fistful of duct tape he had. He waved both hands around angrily, trying to get the duct tape to let go.

"This…is…going too far!" The teacher waved the ink-covered hand across his desk and knocked the bottle across the room, sending ink spraying all across the desks and floor.

Cruz blinked as a couple ink splatters splashed across his desk. He watched as the bottle rolled across the floor, and only came to a stop when it hit a desk that was nearby. He couldn't help the slight laugh that escaped him, watching as the scene slowly became worse just from the teacher trying to fix what someone else had done.

The teacher finally grabbed a hold of the duct tape that was stuck in his one hand with the other and yanked it out of his grip, though now found the tape stuck in the hand that was also covered in ink. "Who did this?"

No matter how many times he asks, no one is going to admit to this.

The teacher yanked in the giant web of duct tape, crushing it into a ball, along with the test papers that were stuck fast, and hurled it angrily at the wall, after he had finally gotten it off his hand.

"Whoever did this can march themselves to the office right now, this is outrageous." The teacher snapped at the class who was still laughing. He continued to try and peel the duct tape off the board, but to no avail.

Alfred's voice spoke up from behind Cruz, "Yeah guys. This is totally outrageous. Now who would disrupt class like this?"

A ripple of laughter went through the room at Alfred's obvious sarcasm. Oh no. There was no way that blonde did this. Cruz turned back in his seat and looked at Alfred in disbelief. Alfred grinned. Cruz covered his mouth and tried hard to suppress the laughter that was now shaking him. Oh yes he did. First Roderich, now Alfred, this clearly was a day for the school record books.

"Some people just have no consideration for learning." Alfred continued on, "Honestly."

The teacher turned around and glared at the class, "Whoever duct-taped this board can damn well get it off the board!"

"Well if no one else is going to offer to help. I guess I will." Alfred stood up and wandered to the front of the room, grinning slightly as a couple laughs came from his classmates. Cruz watched as Alfred wandered to the other side of the board and took hold of the strip that was on the bottom of the board.

Whistling innocently, he walked from one side of the board to the other, peeling it off in a long train. Alfred grinned and handed it to the teacher before going back from where he started from.

"Someone has manners at least." The teacher huffed.

"Yup. I totally have manners." Alfred grinned while peeling off another strip of duct tape.

"Someone in this classroom decided to duct tape in here, and no one is leaving until I know who!" The teacher snapped, turning so his back was facing Alfred.

Cruz smirked, watching the scene fold out from behind the teacher. Alfred held up the second strip of duct tape and very lightly tapped it on the teacher's shoulder. He turned and peeled the third strip off the board, tapping it on the teacher's other shoulder before going for the fourth one. Alfred peeked over his shoulder, more than likely to see if the teacher had caught on yet, but he was too busy glaring at the class while waiting for an answer. Alfred grinned and peeled off the fourth strip, tapping it horizontally across both shoulders. Cruz shook his head slightly, one hand covering his mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

"Okay last one!" Alfred commented loudly as he peeled off the top strip of duct tape and crumbled it up into a ball.

"Oh, thank you Alfred." The teacher turned back to look at him.

"No problem." Alfred grinned, tossing the ball of duct tape up and down in his good hand.

"Hm? What did you do with the others?" The teacher looked around confused.

Alfred shrugged and continued tossing the ball of duct tape in the air. Really. The teacher is that dense?

The teacher arched an eyebrow at him but turned back to the class. Alfred couldn't resist. He balanced the ball of duct tape on the top of the teacher's head and quickly retreated to his seat.

"Thank you. Alfred." The teacher reached up and detached the ball of duct tape from his hair, "Was that necessary?"

"It was." Alfred smiled, "It matched."

Oh he definitely asked for it now. Cruz laughed.

"Matched what?" The teacher looked at Alfred in confusion.

"Your tail." Alfred pointed, grinning.

The teacher looked over his shoulder confused and promptly reddened at finding where the other strips of tape had gone, "ALFRED!"

"Yo!" Alfred waved, "Present!"

"Did you duct tape this room?" The teacher glared at him. Boy some teachers really got red in the face when a student acted out. Or maybe it was out of embarrassment.

"Me? Now how would I do that?" Alfred held up one broken hand, "Don't you need two hands for that?"

The teacher faltered a bit and made a face.

"Yeah the answer is no. You really don't need two hands." Alfred shrugged. He took out a roll of duct tape and slipped it over his cast so it was hanging off his wrist, "Works just as well like this!" Alfred grinned at the teacher's reddening face.

"Alfred…" The teacher started in a you-better-run-if-you-know-what's-good-for-you voice.

"I know, I know. To the office. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200." Alfred picked up his backpack, "Farewell! You all have been a wonderful audience~!" Alfred waved the hand that was in a cast to his classmates before running out the door.

Cruz shook his head as the class erupted in laughter after the door swung shut. He did feel slightly bad for the teacher who had been the source of most of the amusement, and watched as the teacher struggled to get the duct tape off his back.

"Ugh…I am not being the nice person here." Cruz slapped a hand to his forehead, but no one else was moving to help.

Cruz sighed heavily as another few minutes passed and the teacher still couldn't reach where Alfred had placed the tape across his shoulders. Damn damn damn damn damn damn damn damn. Right. Well Roderich obviously pulled a Gilbert, Alfred pulled a Gilbert…that means Cruz should pull a…Matthew right? Matthew would help. But Cruz was not Matthew.

Cruz let out an annoyed growl and stood up, stalking to the front of the room and yanking the tape off the teacher, who looked at him in shock. Of course now almost the entire class was staring at him in shock. Cruz crumpled up the duct tape in his hand and slammed it down onto the –still taped- desk before returning to his seat.

"That was nice of you." The student behind him whispered.

"That was completely un-like me in other words." Cruz grumbled.

"Well now." The teacher sighed, glaring at his desk, "Obviously the lesson plan is out for the day, and since most of you all find great amusement in laughing at others, you all can do it elsewhere. Class is over, get out." The teacher motioned to the door and started trying to cut the tape that was on his desk.

Cruz watched as the classmates around him glanced at each other before hurrying out the door. Cruz, however, stayed in his seat. He glanced over at the filing cabinet, also taped. Might as well help. He dragged himself out of the chair and started pulling at the tape that was around the cabinet.

The teacher looked at him gratefully before continuing to try and unwind his desk. Damn it, this was not going to be a permanent thing! He did not go out of his way to help people on a regular basis!

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So Matthew still didn't get sleep, and Cruz has a slightly better class, but ends up feeling bad for the teacher anyway. :) If someone had duct-taped a classroom like that in one of my classes, I would have helped the teacher, sorry. XD Leave me a review~