Alfred stood in the empty hallway, leaning back against one of the lockers as he waited for the rest of the class to arrive. They were meant to be taking a trip to the local university, leaving in the morning and not returning until sixth period. He, for one, was extremely excited – not only did they get to work with equipment that they'd never even seen before, but the time overlapped with his lunch period, meaning that they'd be eating at the college's buffet table of a cafeteria.

He was sure that if Arthur knew that the main reason he wanted to go on this trip was the food he'd smack him upside the head with a comment about 'properly appreciating science', but unfortunately his boyfriend of over a month had fallen sick and couldn't make it to school that day. Alfred had almost laughed when he found out, teasing him for the fact that he seemed to catch a cold every other week (Arthur had blamed it on the 'harsh American weather', whatever that was supposed to mean). Of course, regardless of all his mockery, he was still upset that the boy couldn't be there. He had been looking forward to this trip since the teacher had mentioned it at the beginning of the year, and the fact that he'd be experiencing it alone put a bit of a damper on his usually cheery attitude.

He sighed, drawing one foot up underneath him and leaning his head back against the locker. He wasn't usually the first person to own up to his feelings, but at this point it was obvious even to him – he had fallen for Arthur pretty hard. It was a strange feeling, especially considering his previous relationship experience (i.e. none). At first, of course, he had been utterly infatuated with the boy. Even just the sight of his eyes would set his heart aflutter, his smiles making his face erupt in flames. But over the short amount of time they had been together, those feelings had softened, turning into a warm glow that seemed to bury itself in his chest whenever the other boy was near. He had thought that he'd loved him before, he knew now that he had been so wrong – it was nothing compared to what he felt now.

He was still lost in thought when he felt a hand being placed upon his shoulder, and he jerked around to find Francis staring at him with a bemused smile. Alfred huffed, crossing his arms and slamming himself back against the locker.

"Don't scare me like that, dude," He stated with a out on his face, "It's seriously not cool."

Francis chuckled, facing Alfred before leaning back against the lockers himself. "Apologies, cher," he said, a smirk playing on his lips, "But I could not help but notice that you seemed to be very…out of sorts, shall we say? What is the matter?"

He ignored him in favor of pulling out his phone and opening it, checking to see if he had received any messages. Francis laughed at that, and Alfred turned to look at him with as much of a glare as he could muster.

"What?" He asked irritably, shoving his phone back into his pocket.

"He is not going on the trip, is he?" He asked, a knowing smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, "And you miss him."

Alfred eyed him warily. "How the hell do you know that? A-and why is it any of your business anyway?"

Francis waved his hand at him dismissively. "I could read it in your eyes. You're an open book, cher." He stated, voice echoing through the empty hall, "And regardless of what Arthur may say, we have been very close for most of our lives. He is like a little brother to me. I have every right to be protective."

"But you dated," Alfred pointed out, one eyebrow raised, "That's not exactly a normal sibling relationship."

"Which is exactly why it didn't work. Now, the point that I was trying to make was," His voice got quieter as he leaned toward Alfred with an almost predatorial look on his face, "He is my brother. And if I ever find that you did anything to hurt him, you will have to answer to me. After, of course, he pummels you into the ground."

Alfred visibly gulped at the sudden change in the French boy's attitude. It was intimidating to say the least, but he was determined not to let it get to him. "Y-yeah, well that's good then!" He exclaimed, "Because a hero like me would never hurt Artie!"

"Oh?" Francis questioned, not backing off, "And why should I believe that? You could just be lying to me."

"I'm not!" Alfred exclaimed, exasperated, "I'd never lie when it comes to him!"

"And why is that?" He asked, a challenging look in his eye.

Alfred gritted his teeth, hissing out, "Because I love him you asshole!"

Francis pulled back, the menacing look replaced by a knowing smirk. "Perfect," He stated, "That was all I had wanted to know."

With that he turned, walking down the hallway to greet Katyusha as she rounded the corner. It was only when Francis reached the end of the hallway that Alfred's heart seemed to drop into his stomach. Of course, he would never lie to Arthur – but he already had. He had taken the other boy's notebook, read it, and returned it without breathing a word that he had done so. Not only was it an extreme breach of his privacy, but he had lied about the fact that he had done so. What kind of boyfriend was he?

Alfred squared his shoulders. He couldn't let Arthur ever find out about that. It shouldn't be too hard, considering he was the only one in the classroom at the time and he didn't leave any incriminating evidence inside the book itself. That didn't matter, however – regardless of how easy it seemed to be, he couldn't let his guard down for a second. His relationship with Arthur was one of the best things that had ever happened to him, and he couldn't let it end just because he had made a stupid mistake.

His musing was interrupted by a tap on his shoulder, and he turned to tell Francis off once more when he saw that it was Lili standing there, a yellow sundress on her tiny form. "Alfred?" she asked, looking at him almost warily, "Everyone is waiting in the bus."

"Oh, right!" He exclaimed, gathering up what little things he was bringing with him and shoving them into his jacket pocket, "Yeah, sorry, I just zoned out a bit. I'll be right there."

Lili nodded, giving him a shy smile before she walked out the door, Alfred in tow. The bus was different than what he was used to, but then again he should have expected it – nobody would give a class of eight people an entire bus. Instead, they had an old, dilapidated thing, about the size of a car. It was painted white, and the inside looked as if it had seen better days. He jumped up the stairs, giving everyone a sheepish look before making his way to the very last seat. Surprisingly, it hadn't been taken yet. Usually the back was the most popular seating option.

He flopped down into the seat, looking around him cautiously before pulling out his phone. He unlocked it before opening his messages and going straight to the contact labeled 'Babe' with three hearts next to it. There was another few moments of hesitation as he looked around in caution before quickly texting, Hey, Artie, how's bein sick going?

Only a few seconds later his phone buzzed, and he picked it up to read, Aren't you supposed to be on a chemistry trip right now?

Aren't you? He returned, smirking at his own joke. He'd known that Arthur would put up a little fight considering his attitude towards following the rules, but he also knew that he'd give up in the end – he was powerless against Alfred's whims. The pause was longer this time, and he could almost see his boyfriend trying to ignore his text.

Eventually, his phone vibrated once more. You think you're very clever, don't you? You still shouldn't text at school, even if you're not technically there.

Aw, but babe, how am I supposed to survive chemistry without talking to you? He texted back, a sly smile on his face. Right about now, Arthur would be blushing – or pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. It was occasionally hard to tell whether his boyfriend would find something he did to be cute or stupid (mostly because he usually found him to be both).

By actually paying attention to the material at hand, git, He returned. Alfred couldn't help the grin that made its way onto his face. The reply wasn't nearly as scalding as it could have been, which meant that he must have been blushing up a storm.

He smiled conspiratorially as he texted back, You're cute when you blush, complete with a winky face at the end.

Arthur's reply came only a few seconds later, his phone receiving the text before he could even exit out of the app. Im not blushing!

You missed an apostrophe, Mr. Grammar Police, He replied, Which means that you're totally blushing.

His phone buzzed again, but before he could read it the bus pulled into the parking lot of the local university. He slid it into his jacket pocket, regretful that he had to leave the conversation they'd been having in order to listen to college professors drone on about a subject they wouldn't even be studying. He wasn't entirely sure why they were coming to the college, in fact, other than the fact that it would give them an idea of how higher level chemistry classes worked.

He stepped off of the bus, following behind the rest of his class as they shuffled into the building. When they got inside, he breathed a sigh of relief, slipping the jacket off of his shoulders as he basked in the warm air, so contrary to the cold of outside. They all stood there for a few moments, appreciating the change in temperature, before a young woman came in, introducing herself as the professor that would be instructing them that day. She took off down the hallway, the class following her through various corridors and up a few flights of stairs before they came to the college's own lab.

"Now, before we get too far into the room, I'd suggest that you leave anything metal, credit cards, or cell phones in this little cubby here," She stated, pointing towards a few wooden squares by the door, "We have a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer in the corner which, while very cool, is still a very powerful magnet. It's better to be safe than sorry!"

Alfred nudged his phone a little further into his jacket pocket before throwing it into one of the little squares, looking at it mournfully before turning back towards the professor. He supposed that he'd have to wait to talk with Arthur until the entire lab was over.

The three hours he spent alone were some of the slowest he could ever remember experiencing. While all of the instruments were pretty neat, spending so long doing nothing but learning about them had nearly put him to sleep. Once they had finally finished going over the purposes of about half of the instruments, they made their way to the university's dining hall. Alfred gratefully piled his plate high with various foods, sitting down at one of the tables before hurriedly typing off a text.

Hey! We're done with the lab finally! I missed you! He sent, sending a little heart emoticon to follow his message.

He had gotten through half a slice of pizza when his phone buzzed once again. You've been gone for all of three hours, you could not possibly have missed me in that time.

Alfred pouted at that, not having gotten the reply he'd been hoping for. Dude, I totally did. Everything is so boring here without you! Anyway, I'd miss you even if you were gone for, like, five minutes. Plus, you can't tell me that you didn't miss me too!

He crossed his fingers, hoping that Arthur would reply in kind. He really had missed the other boy in the short amount of time they'd been apart. He'd gotten so used to his snarky comments and sarcastic quips that to be without them was almost torture.

A few seconds later, his phone vibrated. Alright, I'll admit I did miss you just a little bit, He had replied, complete with his own little heart emoticon at the end. Alfred smiled, feeling a sharp tug in his chest as he received the message. Regardless of how he teased the other boy, he really did love him – and even the smallest reminder that those feelings were reciprocated filled him with the kind of joy that he'd rarely felt before.

The NMR spectrometer is really, really cool. Literally and metaphorically. It uses liquid nitrogen to keep liquid helium cold. We're talking like 4K here. Wow, is that cold.

I don't really have much to say about this chapter, other than wow has this thing gotten long. I think it's around 50k now. It's kind of amazing that you guys have stuck around this long, and thank you for doing that! Seriously, all of you are the coolest people on the planet. You're cooler than absolute zero.

~Alix Marie