A/N: Thank you for reading, I have so many reviews now! I'm so happy!

Chapter Thirty-five.

We stared after Lovino for a few moments. I think we were both only just starting to have the revelation of what Lovino had done sink in. He thought we deserved them. In fairness, I didn't completely disagree; there was some unbalance in what he had to deal with compared to us. Okay, not some, a lot. I was pretty sure that he was receiving more than just some rude notes in his locker.

"What's his problem?" Alfred broke the stunned silence.

"I would have assumed that would be obvious." I peeked around the door frame but Lovino was long gone.

There was another pause; we didn't know what to say. For once, it was I who spoke up,

"Look, I didn't want your help; I didn't need any help, but Lovino... We have to help that boy." I looked over to Alfred, expecting an expression of wholehearted agreement. But for some reason, I couldn't see it.

"I don't know, Artie..." he looked apprehensive, "The kid looked like he was in some deep shit."

I looked at him, not quite sure if I actually just heard what Alfred had said, "What do you mean?"

He smiled uneasily, "See, I'm not sure that we should be getting involved..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I had understood right, "Lovino can't go on like that. Didn't you hear him? He's almost deranged."

"But we hardly know the guy!"

"And? I thought you were the Hero..."

"Yeah, but I don't wanna get in anything to deep, I-"

"You were all for doing it for me!"I felt almost offended by his attitude.

"You're different! You're special!"

"I didn't even want any blood help from you! Now the opportunity to do something good is right there, take it, you mug!" I was shouting now.

He moved closer to me, "I don't care so much about Lovino though!"

All the passion and heat of the moment seemed to just drop out of me at his words. I felt like I had been smacked in the face. My shock slowly turned into a stone cold glare, I pushed him away,

"You, sir, are a fake. If you think you're heroic then that's total crap. I'm going to the library to brainstorm ways to help a friend of mine."

I turned away and stormed off down the corridor, I got to the double doors that lead back to the main body of the school before I suddenly felt the blow of sadness. I felt cheated; this wasn't the Alfred I knew. I turned back, he wasn't following me. Perhaps he didn't care enough about me either.

It was a short but painful walk to the library. I kept on looking back and hoping that he had decided to follow. This was the first time during our relationship that I had felt truly repelled by Alfred. But I couldn't deny that I wished that he would come after me.

These were my thoughts as I found an empty table in a secluded corner of the library. I could get some peace here. I could clear my head as well as think of ways to help Lovino, two birds with one stone.

Though it wasn't long before I was interrupted. The stink of cheap cologne filled my nostrils as another person pulled out a chair beside me,

"Trouble in paradise?" Francis leaned right into my personal space. I batted him with the notebook I had pulled out of my bag.

"What?" I glowered, in the most aggressive way possible.

"You know." He seemed wholly unaffected.

"Get lost; it's none of your business! And we're fine thank you."

"Oh, non non, I can tell when a fair lady like yourself has problems with... amour~"

"You did not just call me a bloody lady."

"You're Alfred's lady. Or should I ask... Are you still?"

He was most definitely the most repulsive being in existence.

"Go away, Francis I'm in no mood for this."

"If you're feeling a little bit lonely... You know where to find me~"

I could feel his breath on my face. It was the last straw, I stood up abruptly, fully ready to hurt him when I noticed that Alfred was stood at the table. I lowered my fist.

Francis slinked away, but I knew he wasn't leaving. He'd be watching us, from somewhere.

"Yes?" I asked and sat back down.

"Can I take a seat?" He seemed less confident as he approached the other chair.

"I'm using it for my bag." I replied bluntly, not looking him in the eye.

"B-But it's empty..." He sounded like he was hoping that I was joking. I lifted my bag and put it on the chair.

"No it isn't."

He sighed, it sounded shaky, "I'm sorry, Artie, I'm a real jerk."

"Nice to know that you've found yourself." I said sarcastically. But somehow, some part of me objected to my own words.

"You're right. I'm a phoney and a coward. Lovino does need help and we need to give it to him."

"I'm doing just fine on my own."

"The thing is... Artie I'm terrified, I say I'm a hero but I chicken out at serious situations."

"I don't need you here."

"But you're different, I feel powerful when I'm helping you!"

"Go away."

"I love you. And I really don't deserve you... But I'm sorry that you had to date a coward."

"So am I." I was staring at my paper, if I looked at him I knew that I'd forgive him. I loved him too. But right now, I didn't want to.

"You got any ideas?" He tried to peer over my shoulder, I hid my paper.

"Lots." I lied, all I had was, 'tell teacher' but it was crossed out since I knew Lovino wouldn't like that.

"Can I help?" He sounded hopeful again.

"No, you're repugnant."

"Am I though? Do you really think so?"

"Yes..." This time I wasn't so sure.

"Look at me. Look at me and say it again and I'll walk away, no questions asked."

I slowly relented and met his eyes.

I didn't want him to leave.

"Well?" He nervously waited for me to speak.

"No. You're not." I stood up again throwing my arms around him, "But you're such a bastard."

He was laughing happily, I could hear the immense relief, "Granted. But I know that I messed up this time. And I didn't mean it how it sounded, honest. Let's just help Lovino out, yeah?"

"I'm glad you came around."

"Me too~ I felt like an ass the moment you left... Guess I was just kinda shocked and mad... It wasn't right for him to do that to you, Artie!."

"I know, but I can get angry later. I'll give you the benefit of believing that was the case... Sit down you fool." I pushed my bag off of the chair freeing it once again for Alfred.

"Alrighty, what have ya got?" He pulled over the sheet that I was using and looked at me confused, I cringed at my lack of ideas, "Artie, I thought you had a lot...?"

"Well I obviously don't!" I snatched the sheet back, "I've never done this 'helping' business before..."

He took a moment to think, before coming up with his own idea, "Why don't we just go talk to him?"

I shook my head, "I doubt he's interested in the likes of us right now... He'd hate that wouldn't he?"

"Well..." Alfred shrugged, "Yeah. But if we did this in a completely painless way for us all we aint really gonna fix much. We're not hurting him and we'd convince him to tell the principle and stuff~"

"We might just make it worse..."

"Nah, not if we're careful."

"We don't even know where he lives."

"Oh... Right..." There was another pause, "But we know where Gilbert's little bro lives~!"

I gave him an odd look, "He's not the issue..."

"Ludwig studies with Lovino brother! We can find out where he lives!"

It all came together, I smiled slowly, "For a yank, you're awfully clever, Alfred."

"And I wouldn't change for the world, baby~" He winked, sitting back in his seat, clearly quite proud of himself. He took my hand under the table and gave it a squeeze.

"Come on." I stood up suddenly, "We have history next, so we may as well be on our way..."

He stood up to bounding over to me as I left, "Cool, but we'll meet to go to Gil's right?"

"We always meet one another."

For some reason he put on a big grin and grabbed me to place a big smooch on my cheek, laughing happily.

"What was that for?!" I wiped off the kiss, embarrassed.

He didn't answer but instead grabbed my hand and pulled me off to our class, the bell ringing behind us.

.oO0Oo.

We looked up at the house before us. Alfred wore an excited smile whereas I had decided to squint up at the house, trying to remember if this was the right place.

"Are you sure this is Gilbert's house?" Sure the immaculacy was there as was the size... But this place was too gorgeous, Gilbert Beilschmidt couldn't possible live here...

"Sure it is!" Alfred was already headed for the doorstep, "Don't you remember it?"

"It was almost dark then..." I answered feebly, "And was it really this big?"

"Trust me." He only smiled before knocking on the door.

Almost to my surprise it was Gilbert that opened the door.

"What the hell are you guys doing in my awesome place?" Was the first question he had. I was quite taken aback with his manners. Not even a 'hello'.

"Gil'!" Alfred was clearly unaffected by the German's choice of greeting, "Is Ludwig home? We gotta ask him some stuff?"

"Ludwig?" Gilbert's brow crinkled in confusion, "Why?"

Alfred flashed him a toothy grin, "Heroic stuff, top secret!"

Gilbert shrugged, "Whatever... Hey loser!" He shouted into the house.

There was a long silence before we could finally hear stomping footsteps that came down the stairs to reveal Ludwig, looking as sharp as ever, and for some reason in a school uniform.

"Gilbert, stop calling me that!" He snapped as he came closer, "And I'm doing homework!"

"But don't you get it?! Guys, get it?! Loooodwig is like loooooooser!" He laughed loudly at his own joke.

"Jeeze, Gil', your brother goes to a private school?" Alfred was looking at the blazer that Ludwig wore in as much bemusement as me.

"Yeah, duh, I was gonna go too~!" Gilbert patted his brother hard on the back, "I didn't pass the entrance exam!" He was grinning like this was something to be proud of.

"You fell asleep! You didn't even try!" Ludwig shoved his elder sibling, forcing him away, "I'm sorry but could you two please tell me why I am here?"

I decided to speak, obviously Alfred and Gilbert were going to go off on their own tangent,

"You know where the Vargas brothers live." I stated.

"I know where one of them lives." Ludwig replied with as little nonsense as me.

I started to worry, "Only one...?" I frowned, "Don't they live together?"

Ludwig gave a long sigh, "Yes. They do. Please don't remind me."

I sighed in relief, "Good... Now how do we get there?"

Ludwig eyed me dubiously, "Why do you want to know?"

"Well... I can't really tell you... But Lovino is in a bit of trouble and we thought we'd help him out."

He nodded slowly "I see... Ja, okay you can have the address. They reside in the smaller houses down that path." He pointed, "In number 15. They have many dandelions and other assorted items in their front yard."

I listened closely as Ludwig and nodded, "Thank you for your time." I took Alfred's arm, interrupting his conversation with Gilbert about tigers, "Let's go, we have the address."

"Really? But I didn't even get to ask..."

"I did, you were too busy wasting time. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to head off."

He pouted, "Okay... Bye, Gil'!" He waved back to his friend as we started down the garden path.

"You two! Wait a second!" Ludwig came after us.

"What's up, buddy?" Alfred asked.

Ludwig fixed a grim expression on both of us, "if you're dealing with Lovino Vargas... I wish you both good luck."

Alfred gave Ludwig a salute, "Thanks, we'll remember that!"

Ludwig nodded slowly, before turning away and making his way back inside.

We made our way to the Vargas household. It turned out that Lovino lived barely two minutes away from Gilbert and Ludwig and the house he stayed did indeed have the grass swamped in dandelions and other strange things. There were lawn chairs, bath toys, a wooden table and for some reason, uncooked spaghetti. It was the opposite end of the spectrum from Gilbert and Ludwig's house. The very fact that The Beilschmidt palace and the Vargas den were in anything less than a ten mile radius from one another was quite alarming.

It was Alfred who took the brave steps, up past a rusting bright yellow three wheeled car and used the brass knocker to knock on the cream coloured door. I kept close to him.

It took a while for us to hear any signs of life coming from within the house, we were seconds from deciding that there was no one in before there were some quick footsteps and suddenly the door was flung open.

There stood a boy who looked remarkably similar to Lovino. We could almost think he was Lovino if Lovino was drunk. Though although the character we faced had similar features to Lovino, he had a totally different air about him.

He was smiling. That was the first big difference. And he was wearing the same uniform as Ludwig, though while Ludwig looked formal, pristine and professional, the boy before us had another take on his schools dress code. His shirt was crumpled and untucked from his trousers. It had smears of blue and yellow paint on the white material as well as a dandelion in the button hole, from the garden. His trousers were rolled up at the bottom revealing his slender ankles in green canvas shoes (that I doubted were school appropriate) without socks. His black blazer was taken off and tided around his waist and his red, white and black tie hung loose and limp around his half folded down collar.

"Ciao~!" We were greeted with a friendly trusting smile, "Are you friends with Ludwig? Or are you guys here to see Grandpa?"

We both looked at each other, hoping the other would take on the burden of explaining our situation. It was Alfred who spoke up in the end,

"Actually, we were kinda hoping to talk to your brother... We go to his school~"

The boy frowned in confusion before his eyes growing wide in panic, "What?! We were never told about any parent teacher conferences! He's trying his best, I promise!"

"No, no! See, we aint teachers!" Alfred shot me a look. It would seem that this boy was a bit dim even by his standards.

"Oh..." He sniffed... Was he about to cry!? "I did think you were young."

"Yeah..." Alfred attempted a jaunty laugh, "We're his friends!"

He squinted his eyes at us, "You guys aren't Antonio..."

"We're other friends..." Alfred explained patiently.

"Really?! Perbacco! I didn't know he had those!" He laughed, "Lovi, I'm so happy!" He was bouncing around.

"This guy is a fruitcake..." Alfred muttered into my ear.

"This way! I can show you where your dear friend Lovino is!" He suddenly scampered off, expecting us to follow.

We did.

We were lead up three steps and along some oddly built hallways before we reached a door,

"This is where his is... He's been sad so be nice, va bene? But I'm sure seeing his friends will cheer him up! When I'm sad I like to sing, or paint but that doesn't work for Lovi... So work hard to make him happy!"

He skipped off.

Alfred simply shrugged and without as much as a knock, he entered, pulling me in behind.

The room was really quite pretty. There was a good colour scheme of light colour and the room smelled like fabric conditioner and cut grass, despite summer being long off. Sea shells and dried starfish lined the shelves and the windowsill and there was a wind chime hanging from the ceiling. There were teddy bears placed artfully around the room. The only contrast to the softness of the decorating was the red, scowling Italian in the middle of it.

"How the fuck did you two get here?" He had his arms around one of the larger bears that seemed to be a shield.

"We asked for your address... We need to talk to you." I advanced with some trepidation.

"Bullshit, you don't need anything! You're the goddamn 'Golden Couple' you get anything you guys want!"

"No one calls us that..." Alfred was trying to reason.

"Of course they do!" Lovino didn't want to be argued with.

"Look." I intervened before any arguments could break, "We're here because if you're your nasty letters into my locker for no apparent reason, you my dear boy, need a hand."

"I only put them where they belonged! You need to get hurt too! It can't only be me!"

"Neither of us deserves it!" I snapped back, "You shouldn't be driven to think you do, or that anyone else does."

Lovino only glared.

Alfred spoke up, "Have you told Antonio about any of this?"

He shook his head, "No."

"Why not?"

"Because I can deal with it just fine!"

"You can't!"

Suddenly Lovino exploded, "Shut up! Shut up! Just... Shut up! I don't want to hear it! I didn't ask to be a fucking faggot and look at me! I'm treated just like one!"

I was foolishly brave and put both hands on his shoulders, "I didn't as to be one either... But as I found out, I'm attracted to Alfred. And you are to Antonio... That's going to stay with you, enjoy it."

My words obviously had effect because suddenly Lovino started to cry, I don't think he had done much of that lately, because the tears came out like a pan over boiling.

"I hate it..." He sniffed.

Alfred kneeled down beside him, "Think about how you feel... Does anyone really deserve that?"

"I've hated it for so long, it isn't fair! I can't take it!" He punched his pillow.

"Then you gotta stop it... Not by trying to pin it on someone else." Alfred was looking secretly pleased with his progress.

"What would you two know? It's all been peaches and sunshine for the both of you.

"Well then, doesn't that just show that you can love a guy and have a good life?"

"But I'm a catholic..."

"And? God or whatever can't blame you~! He knows you can't help it!"

"It's still a sin."

"Look, this is who you are and it can't change... Make the best for yourself!"

I nodded, Alfred was calm and his voice controlled. I was glad he came with me.

"I'll tell the principle. But don't say anything to Antonio!"

"We won't! That's great!" Alfred sprung up, "Hear that Artie?"

"Don't make a big deal out of it!" Lovino threw a teddy bear at Alfred.

"You'll be able to show Antonio off to anyone in no time!"

He rolled his eyes, "You jackasses can do that mushy stuff. It's gross."

Alfred only laughed, he was ecstatic, "But you could!"

Lovino and I both knew that someone like Lovino was never going to have that, not here at least. It was a feat that only Alfred could pull off. But neither of us was going to say that. Not while Alfred was this happy.

"Will you get out of my house now?" Lovino opened the door. I took Alfred's hand and pulled him out.

We were shown the front door and pushed outside it. Alfred was still off in his own little world but before the door could be slammed in my face I leaned in to have another quick word with Lovino,

"I don't want to sound intrusive, but you don't hate yourself or anything, do you? For being..."

"A Gaylord?" He looked like he was about to get angry before sighing and shaking his head, "Nah, Antonio covered that part of my self-loathing. I know everyone calls 'Tonio dumb, and he kinda is, but he's still one of the smartest people I've ever met... He just gets me, y'know?"

I looked over to Alfred, who was introducing himself to a caterpillar at that moment and smiled, "Yes. I know exactly what you mean."

"I'm sorta sorry for the whole letter thing. I just couldn't take it anymore."

"I understand... Just give us a ring when you need a hand again."

Lovino only nodded before getting on with his door slamming.

"Come on you silly thing." I called Alfred over like he was my pet, "That's enough for today."

He bounded over, "Can you believe that we did it~" He grabbed my hand, swinging our arms between us as we headed home.

"I knew that we could... And to think you didn't want to..."

"Yeah, thanks a lot for calling me out on my dick move... I can be a real hero now~!"

"You always were to me. Even though you did behave like a bit of a twat."

He smiled wide, "You're too kind~"

"Well you are the one that's saving me."

"From what?" He stopped suddenly, "Artie... You aint suicidal are you?"

"No!" Where the hell did he get that idea? "You're keeping me safe."

"Is the Mafia after your ass?"

I put a hand to my hand to my forehead; he came up with the strangest things.

"From all the hatred Lovino gets! I'd be just like that if I didn't have you."

... "What do you mean?"

"Everyone likes you so they won't be mean to you, and that means staying away from me."

He appeared amused, "You think that's why you're okay?"

"It is... You're the reason, aren't you?"

"Aw man, Artie you come up with the strangest things...~"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He looked at me affectionately, "It's not me that's keeping you from all that."

"Are you sure? Everyone seems to idolise you..."

He laughed, "Nice of you to say that... But there are people who don't like me. I'm a pretty annoying guy when you get down to it~"

"That's true; I thought so at first when we met... But then what is it that makes us different then?"

He came right up close; our noses were touching as he cupped my face and whispered,

"You~"

He drew back grinning and I shook my head, flustered,

"That can't be right! I'm a grumpy git, remember?"

"Yeah! But here in America it's not grumpy it's not grumpy, it's sassy or spunky~"

I couldn't resist a laugh as he made the words sound so exotic,

"Is Lovino not sassy then?"

"Nah, he's just plain angry."

I erupted into giggles. I couldn't figure out why but I just found the whole thing hilarious.

"In England we didn't have any of that. I'm just a bit rotten over there..."

"Well this is the U.S.A, babe! You can be as foul as you like and it'll still be classy!"

I shook my head, "You're talking nonsense. I can't be that well liked. It's you who's keeping the wankers away."

"Fine! But ask anyone and they'll tell ya, you're the coolest kid on the block!"

"Doubt it." I gave him and gave him a playful push, "Your not the one seen frequently wearing a skirt."

"We're an accepting school!"

"This is your street, I've had quite enough of you for one day, off you trot!"

We laughed some more and sealed the day with a kiss and went our separate ways. As I walked down towards my own street I couldn't help the inkling of self confidence my little conversation with Alfred had given me. God, I loved him.