Had someone told him a week prior that Lovino Vargas would be sitting in their restaurant, awaiting the arrival of Gilbert Beilschmidt, he would have called them many crude names and deemed them crazy. But, as it was, this was exactly how the Italian had spent the entirety of his morning, leaning his full weight against the back of the seat cushion and sipping absentmindedly at a cup of coffee. He had taken his place in a booth before the shop opened, and had spent the last hour or so waiting for the potato freak's brother to come into work that day to discuss very important matters regarding what their breaking-and-entering plans would be, and how precisely they would execute them. Leave it to Gilbert, being the idiotic potato that he was, to absolutely blow it off and leave his partner in crime waiting for an excessive amount of time. As it was a Sunday, the restaurant would open a bit later that morning- therefore, the only living beings in within the room's premises were Lovino himself and a little gnat that Lovino had attempted (and failed tenfold) to smack with a fly swatter- in the end, he had basically said "to hell with it" and left it to buzz about his head, earning a prompt swat every now and then as the Italian downed his fifth cup of coffee.

Of course, Antonio was usually the first one to arrive, with Feliciano halfway across the world, and the Spaniard had yet to arrive as well- this likely indicated that he and that idiot Gilbert had probably gotten drunk the night before and were now curled in the corner of some room with a horrible hangover, ultimately unable to go to work. It seemed as though, even without the presence of Francis, those two could always manage to outdo anyone in the matter of partying like the careless idiots they all were.

So, naturally, when both Gilbert and Antonio came in simultaneously, deep in conversation about God-knows-what, Lovino felt compelled to chew the both of them out- Gilbert for taking so damned long to arrive, and Antonio for… well, just being idiotic.

"Oi, potato freak!" he snarled, slamming his mug upon the table and approaching Gilbert with a kindled flame raging in his hazel eyes. "What the hell took you so long? You plan out this entire thing, for us to… you know, and then you show up an hour and a fuckin' half late?"

"Look, don't get your panties in a bunch!" Gilbert retorted, shrugging the smaller boy off with a wide smirk spread across his face. "We were just-"

"Enough out of you, dammit!" With that, Lovino snatched him roughly by the collar and dragged him over to the booth, forcing him to sit on the opposite side. Antonio grinned, waving a hand at his companions.

"Have fun, you two!" he called, before hanging his jacket upon the hook beside the door and proceeding behind the counter and into the kitchen for preparations.

"Alright, now that we're rid of him," Lovino began as Gilbert withdrew a large pad of paper from the inside flap of his coat, "we can get on with this. You're the one who forced my idiotic brother into this in the first place, so fill me in on what we already know."

Gilbert nodded, taking out a blue ballpoint pen and beginning to scribble all over the paper, mapping out what appeared to be a very crappy drawing of the main building upon the white surface and jabbing at Lovino with the tip. "Alright, pay attention! The main entrance is here," he placed the pen upon the bottom of the paper, writing "entrance" below the lowermost wall of the picture. "Now, we've tried getting in before, but it's guarded by both a normal key lock and a password lock. We've managed to get a key, but we have no idea what the password is. So, first we'll-"

"Charlotte."

"What was that?"

"Charlotte," Lovino repeated, arms crossed rather nonchalantly across his chest. "It's probably the password that they would have used. My grandfather, Roma- the bartender at Vinem Voro, remember? Well, he works under the headmaster, from what I've been told. At one point in time, he was in the security business, so assuming this is a high-tech lock system, the school board would have assigned him to set it up. He was also probably the one who placed the password into the system, and would have been likely to name it after something that only he and those very close to him would know about. At the time this place was constructed, and for the few months afterwards, he had been dating a girl named Charlotte."

"But… you really think he would've named it after some bit-"

"Churros?" Antonio's body appeared towering over them in an instant, offering forth a steaming platter of the Spanish pastries. Rolling his eyes, Lovino grabbed a handful for himself and watched Gilbert do the same. Antonio grinned wider, snatching a churro from the bunch for himself before clambering back into the kitchen, whistling to himself all the while.

"Trust me," Lovino said, smirking a bit at his accomplishment- evidently, Feliciano had failed to mention such an idea to the potato bastard. Score one for Lovino Vargas! "My grandfather cares about two main things- fist fights and women. Considering there isn't a whole lot to say about the first option, I'd say the woman is our best bet. That is, unless they've changed the password recently."

"I wouldn't see why they would. Who the hell would come up with "Charlotte"?" Gilbert shook his head, munching on a churro as his thought process continued. "Anyway, once we get inside, there are two wings, as well as the main office in the very front of the building. To the west is where the other offices are; you know, where all of the typical school stuff goes on- attendance offices, counselors, that sort of thing. To the east, however-" The pen slid down the right side of the paper, drawing in an arrow. "-is where everything else is. The east wing is where the files for each student are stored, and a lot of staff meetings take place in these rooms. Now, because they don't want students who have come in for counseling to stick their noses where they shouldn't, there is another locked door- this time just a combination lock- blocking the way to all of the important stuff."

"Lemme guess," Lovino interrupted, snatching the pen forcefully from the Prussian's hand. "All of this crap that you want is behind that door, right?" Gilbert nodded, allowing Lovino to continue with an impatient snort. "A combination lock, huh? I think I can help you. Couldn't we just use the old tension trick?"

"Tension…?"

Lovino rolled his eyes, proper scowl gracing his lips. "You've been going through this with this little amount of experience? No wonder you haven't broken in yet! Picking a combination lock isn't that hard."

Gilbert blinked once, twice, before snickering into his churro, nearly choking on it as he laughed incessantly. "Where the hell did you learn how to pick a lock? Or break into a building? You're making it sound so professional! The way you're going about this, you'd think you were in the mafia or something!"

Lovino cocked an eyebrow, eyes boring an acute hole into Gilbert's face. The Prussian felt his mocking laugh dissipating a bit. "W-Wait, you're not serious? You were really…?"

"Not the mafia, exactly, but a gang, to a certain degree. Not that that's any of your damned business! Focus more on the task at hand!" Lovino brought the pen down and circled the place on the drawing, where the lock was supposedly located. "Okay, so let's say I pick the lock. There are probably a lot doors down these hallways, so which one are we targeting?"

"Well, Feli and I have checked out all of the doors that open up to this hallway," he said, taking the pen back and crossing out a lengthy row of doors. "And we never found anything worth our while. I figured today we could check out these rooms and-"

"Wait, you mean we may do this more than just tonight?" Lovino rose from his spot, nearly knocking the churros to the ground in the process. "I never agreed to that!"

"Too bad. So, tonight we'll scope out this hallway, and if we don't find anything we can try the next hallway tomorrow night. Are we clear on what we're doing?" Gilbert's scarlet gaze met Lovino's hazel, daring the Italian to challenge their previous plans.

"This had better work, potato bastard." Lovino scooted out from his spot in the booth, bringing a single uneaten churro with him as he trudged towards the kitchen. "Meet tonight around eleven-thirty. And you'd better show up on time, dammit!"

Gilbert grunted, scowling a bit as a group of students approached the front doors of the restaurant, likely looking for something to eat. This was it, was it not?

Tonight, he and the Italian would infiltrate the main building.

~w~w~w~

"About time you got here!" Lovino hissed, brushing the twigs and leaves from his clothes off with a quick swipe of his hands. "I've been waiting in that damned bush for almost ten minutes!"

Both Prussian and Italian stood beneath the moonlight, standing directly in front of the main doors to the grand office building. At last, the time had come for the two to enter the building, and, all the while, they would continue to bicker, still unable to fully comprehend the purpose of this "partnership".

"Oh, get over it! And why are you covered in leaves?"

"Because I was hiding in the bushes, you idiot! You think I want people seeing me out here? It's freakin' suspicious!" Lovino shook his head in exasperation, averting his attention to rest solely on the double-locked doors. "You have the key, right?"

"Only if you remember that chick's name." Gilbert took a step nearer the door, reaching into his pocket and fingering around for the object in question. He grinned a cocky grin and withdrew a little bag, revealing the key within its cloth folds. Cautiously stepping around his accomplice, he jabbed the key into the lock, twisting it to the side and opening the first lock on the door. "You're up, Mafioso."

"Shut up." Lovino approached the keypad, effortlessly typing in the name "Charlotte" and stepping back. Well, luckily, an alarm didn't go off after he had entered in the name- to give it an experimental tug, Gilbert latched onto the handle with his gloved hands and yanked, almost shocked at the sudden ease with which it opened, revealing the front of the inside of the building.

"Yeah!" Gilbert hissed in excitement, turning sharply to the right and towards the east wing. "Okay, we'll come upon the locked door in a minute. You'd better have what you need to pick the lock."

"Che! Only idiots need actual objects to pick locks. Step back." The two came upon the locked door, and Lovino instantaneously stepped forward, taking the lock into his hands and gazing at it in curiosity. Cracking his knuckles a bit, Lovino turned the lock directly to the right thrice, placing it on the zero and readying himself. Gilbert watched intently, a rare curiosity overwhelming his actions, as Lovino worked his magic on the lock, turning it and gently tugging down on it every now and then. Whatever the hell he was doing, it seemed to be working, as he soon found that the lock gave a surrendering click as it relinquished its hold on the door. "Told you I could get it off."

"Yeah, whatever. Let's go." Gilbert and Lovino advanced onward, passing down the hall in which Gilbert sand Feliciano had searched a few weeks prior. "Okay, right here! You look through this room, I'll look in this one. Let me know if you find anything of interest."

"And what the hell is of interest?" Lovino inquired back, though turned and entered one of the rooms regardless. He scanned the various papers upon the desk, all of which seemed to regard the students who had attended the interviews that week. Pushing past those, the Southern Italian pulled open a drawer of a file cabinet, glancing through its many contents before all but shoving it aside. As he continued rummaging through the various résumés, personal information, and paperwork, his eyes fell upon a single scrap, with a large crimson "classified" stamped across the folder in which it was contained. Whoever had been clueless enough to leave this underneath a wastebasket was, quite possibly, more stupid than his own brother, but he force those thoughts aside as he opened the folder and looked directly at the piece of paper.

This is-! Oh my God… As he continued reading down the paper, he hissed Gilbert's name, beckoning the platinum blonde to join his side. Gilbert soon took his place beside Lovino, reading curiously over the Italian's shoulder. You mean this entire time, the point of all of this has…? And the headmaster- the head of the school board!

"What?" Gilbert shouted, snatching the paper from an astonished Lovino's hands. "You mean, all of this that they've set up for us…" A hand found its way upon Gilbert's shoulder. "Lovino, what the hell, get your hand off of me. 'Tonio'd be real upset if he found out you'd-"

"You idiot!" Lovino exclaimed, flinching backwards as he turned around and caught sight of who exactly had placed his hand onto Gilbert's shoulder.

"You two are in serious trouble," stated the newcomer, and the door shut behind them.

~w~w~w~

A/N: We're so close to the end-! Entirely Lovino and Gilbert in this chapter, though, hope nobody minded. The next chapter's big, though, so stay tuned~!

Please, drop a review by! I'd love to get to 150 at least before the end of this story, and since there are only a few more chapters left… well, I'd like to get there, please. Even if it is unlikely.

Nun ... Wir sind in Schwierigkeiten- German for "Well… we're in trouble."

R&R~!