050. Breaking the Rules
Characters: Ensemble Cast
Genre: Friendship
Rating: T
Time Period: February 2010, a year after R&R


Truth or Dare?: Part 1

Ludwig had known from the moment Gill entered his room three hours ago that he was about to be subjected to a unique brand of torture, one that should have violated all of the conditions of the Geneva Convention. His sister had been grinning as she skipped into his room—without knocking, of course—and had immediately proceeded to jump at where he was sitting at his desk and wrap her arms around his neck. "Luddy, you need to come with me! We're having a party to celebrate Franny coming back home from Europe and it's going to be the most awesome party ever so you need to come!"

He'd refused. He definitely remembered refusing. He'd also attempted to escape from her grip, but she'd just clung harder and whined. "Luddy! You have to come! Feli's going to be there! Don't you want to see Feli?"

Which was playing dirty. Gill knew he couldn't refuse when she mentioned Feli. Because it would be unforgivable to allow someone like Feliciana attend a party that she and her two best friends were hosting without having anyone there to keep an eye on her. It wasn't that Gill would ever purposely do anything to hurt Feli, but she just didn't understand when to stop sometimes.

So he'd agreed to come. He'd driven his sister to Francis's home where they were greeted by the boy in question and then were taken into a rather cozy little room that had obviously been set up in advance for the party. There was music playing, a TV screen taking up most of one of the walls that was currently showing the pause screen of some military-based video game, bookshelves lining another wall, a large amount of comfortable seats set up around the room, a table against one wall that was filled with a variety of different snacks and drinks, both alcoholic and not. Ludwig had actually been a bit surprised; he'd always heard that Francis's parties were wild; dark with music so loud you couldn't hear yourself think and alcohol flowing like water. This seemed comfortable.

Then again, perhaps the difference was that there were only a handful of people here. As he walked in the room, he'd been greeted by a body slamming into him at high speeds and a "Ve~ Ludwig, you came!"

"Hello, Feliciana."

But then he'd heard an irritated voice coming from farther in the room. "Ugh, what is the potato bastard doing here?"

If he'd known Lovina was going to be here, he wouldn't have come.

She was sitting on one of the couches, Antonio seated beside her, glaring at him as he stood in the doorway with her little sister wrapped around him. Gill had rushed ahead already, going over to Antonio and plopping down on the side opposite Lovina. Which just seemed to irritate her more. Besides them, he could also see Kiku sketching something from a chair in the corner and Arthur slumped over a table near him with three beer bottles in front of him. Ludwig assumed they were probably empty judging from the glazed look in his eyes. Francis immediately headed towards him and was greeted with incomprehensible cursing.

Ludwig wanted to go home, but he knew that wasn't an option. So he decided to give in, went over to the drink table and got a beer, then found a book—he was a bit surprised to find a book on military tactics on one of the shelves, but perhaps it had belonged to Francis's father—and settled into an empty seat. Gill called Feli over to play the game with her and Antonio, and Ludwig started reading, prepared for a long wait. Eventually Gill would want to go home, once she'd had enough fun. He just had to wait it out.

Unfortunately, Gill wasn't going to be content with just having fun with her friends.

It didn't take long, although he was actually able to get a dozen pages or so into his book, before Gill's shout brought him back to reality. "Hey! So we're celebrating Francis's return from Europe tonight and to celebrate, we've obviously gotta play super awesome games! And we're gonna start on one of the most awesome games ever created right now... Truth or dare!"

Of course.

Ludwig had been wondering when his sister would demand to play some sort of party game that revolved entirely around embarrassing everyone in the room. He stared down at his book, hoping she'd forgotten that he existed.

"Luddy! You gotta sit here at the table next to Feli!"

But of course not.

She ran over to him and yanked the book out of his hand, then grabbed his sleeve and tried to pull him out of the chair. "Luddy!"

Her attempts at moving him weren't particularly effective, but he knew that any attempts at delaying the inevitable would be futile, so he sighed and stood. "Fine."

She laughed and released him to go help Francis and Antonio, who were setting up a small circular table. It was low to the ground and large enough that the seven of them could easily sit around it. Feli sat down as soon as it was in place and began bouncing excitedly in place.

"Ve~ I've never played truth or dare!"

Gill flopped down beside her. "The rules are easy, Feli! We sit in a circle and whoever starts spins a bottle and then they have to ask whoever the bottle lands on 'truth or dare' and if they pick truth, you gotta ask them a question and they gotta answer it truthfully and if they pick dare, you gotta dare them to do something and they've gotta do it!" She clapped her hands and looked over the members of the group. "And it's gonna be awesome!"

Ludwig wondered if Feli had even been able to understand Gill's words. They had rushed out all in once. And awesome for who? He imagined that the only people who would be particularly interested in this type of game were Gill and her two best friends. Perhaps Arthur as well,

"That's stupid." Lovi was, of course, the one who spoke up. "Who the fuck would want to play truth or dare with you idiots?"

And while Ludwig had no particular desire to agree with Lovina about anything, he couldn't really disagree. No one in their right mind would want to play truth or dare with his sister. There was no way it could end well for anyone, except maybe her.

Of course Gill completely ignored her. "Come on! Everybody's gonna play except for Kiku 'cause he's gonna be our cameraman! So sit down so we can start!"

"Ve~ Ludwig, come sit next to me!"

Had Gill invited Feliciana solely so he would be unable to say no? He really wouldn't put it past her. He wanted to say no, because the only way this could end was with complete mortification. But Feli was staring at him with wide, pleading eyes and he found himself moving to her side and slowly lowering himself onto the carpet.

She squealed and immediately latched onto his arm. "Yay!"

"Potato bastard, get away from my sister!"

Maybe Gill had also only invited him so Lovi would play. She jumped up from her seat as soon as Feliciana grabbed his arm and practically threw herself onto the floor beside her sister, grabbing her opposite arm and dragging her away from Ludwig. Feli seemed confused for a moment, but then turned her attention to her sister and hugged her tightly. "Ve~ You're gonna play too, Lovi?"

Gill snorted. "Of course she is. Everybody plays except Kiku. Okay, so I'm gonna start as soon as everybody else sits down." She sent a look of dissatisfaction toward Arthur who immediately responded by flipping her off from his seat at the other table.

Francis was still standing by him, though, and dragged him out of his seat without another word. "Come along, cher. You're playing too." He surprisingly didn't fight back much, although he did curse angrily at the other boy. He allowed himself to be dragged to the table, though, and collapsed onto the carpet as Francis sat beside him. Antonio sat next to Lovi, of course, while Kiku was allowed to remain in his seat... Probably because Gill found it less amusing to torture him.

"Okay! The awesome me gets to spin first!"

She was using an empty beer bottle as the spinner. She reached forward and spun, harder than necessary. For a moment he thought it was actually going to fling off the table, but somehow it managed to remain at least close to the center of the table.

Please let it not be me. Please let it not be me.

It spun around and around, searching for its next victim. And then it began to slow, the narrow end seeming as menacing as the barrel of a rifle. Ludwig sighed in relief as it passed by him on its final rotation and then slowed to a complete stop.

While pointing directly at Antonio.

"Awesome!" Gill turned her head to grin at the boy, who seemed much less concerned about this than he should be. "Tonio, you're first! What'll it be? Truth or dare?"

Everyone was staring at him. And Ludwig was struck by how absolutely ridiculous this was; the fact that it almost felt like the wrong answer had the potential for leading to Antonio's death. He was just smiling, apparently not feeling any unreasonable pressure.

"I'm first? Hmm... How about dare?"

Gill's smile was evil, as if she'd known that he'd choose that. Ludwig felt a twinge of fear for Antonio's safety. "All right," she said oh-so-casually. "Tonio, I dare you to give Lovi a big smooch right now! And it better be a real kiss or you'll get a penalty dare!"

Somehow Ludwig wasn't surprised; he'd honestly been expecting a dare along those lines. He'd often been unwillingly subjected to his sister's complaints about how Antonio never did anything even though it was super obvious that he liked Lovi.

Ludwig couldn't really blame him, though, because who knew how Lovina would respond? Even if she did like him back—which she did, everyone knew that—she would probably be too embarrassed to respond like a normal person.

The sound that Lovina made in response to Gill's dare made Ludwig immediately think of a rodent of some kind. Her face immediately turned bright red and she yelped out a "What?!"

"You gotta do it, Tonio! You picked dare!" Gill bounced excitedly in place, completely ignoring the horror apparent on Lovina's face.

Antonio wasn't moving to complete his dare, though.

Out of all of Gill's friends, Ludwig honestly found himself wondering about Antonio the most. He seemed, at first glance, to be a rather simplistic person. He liked to nap, eat tomatoes, and garden. He absolutely adored Lovina for some reason that Ludwig didn't understand. Antonio was normally extremely friendly and nobody really considered him to be particularly bright.

And yet...

There was something about him that always struck Ludwig as being a little off. Everyone had heard rumors about how Antonio responded to people who threatened Lovina or any of his other friends. And while Ludwig disliked listening to rumors, he knew for a fact that there was at least some truth behind them. He'd never actually seen Antonio do anything, but... He'd seen the look that passed through Antonio's eyes when those bigger boys at the park had started making fun of Gill's appearance when they were little.

Ludwig didn't think Antonio was dangerous—at least not to Lovi, Feli, Gill, or any of his other friends—but he was pretty sure that there was a lot more going on inside his head than people gave him credit for. And right now—even as he continued to smile in a semi-dopey fashion, while Lovina screeched at Gill in rage—Ludwig knew that the oblivious expression was hiding actual thoughts.

Lovina seemed to not even be paying any attention to the boy, although whether that was just because she was too distracted by Gill or whether it was a conscious choice, Ludwig wasn't sure. She'd jumped up and was screaming at his sister, obscenities flying out of her mouth like a horde of moths. While Gill just laughed.

The shouting stopped, however, when Antonio spoke. "I can't do that one, Gill. Can you give me a different dare? Or I can pick truth instead!"

"What? You don't wanna kiss Lovi?"

Lovina was facing away from Antonio right now, her back facing him. So he couldn't see how her face suddenly lost almost all colour at those words. Her hands were clenched into fists against her sides. Feli was clinging to Ludwig's arm, but staring over at her sister who was sitting on the opposite side of Gillian.

Lovina almost looked scared... Ludwig was pretty sure he could see her hands trembling slightly, although he had no doubt that she was doing her best to hide it from everyone else. Francis and Arthur were sitting on the opposite side of the table, completely ignoring the proceedings. Probably purposely, at least in Francis's case, as he'd twisted his body to almost completely face away from the others.

"That's not it, Gilly! But that'd be Lovi's first kiss! She shouldn't have her first kiss just because of a silly game! That would make her real first kiss less special!"

And for a moment, the room was silent. Ludwig found himself watching Lovi with interest as she seemed to take this comment in. Her eyes widened slightly, her fists tightened until Ludwig could visibly see the white-knuckled tension. And then her face turned bright red again and she whirled around to face her...whatever Antonio was to her. "Who said that'd be my first kiss? Idiot!"

Antonio blinked. "It wouldn't be?"

Of course it would be, even Ludwig knew that. Mainly because Feliciana kept him overly-informed on everything involving her sister. And he was pretty sure that Feli was about to comment, as he felt her sit up straighter and then she opened her mouth.

But Lovina didn't give her the chance. "Of course I've had my first kiss! You don't think I'm that pathetic? It's not that big of a deal!" And Ludwig was pretty sure she wasn't thinking straight at that point, as she immediately spun around, bent over, and grabbed Antonio's collar. Then she yanked him upwards and smashed their mouths into each other.

...That honestly just looked painful. It was pretty clear that she hadn't thought any farther than 'mouths together' as she immediately froze. Ludwig couldn't see her expression, but he could see the back of her neck reddening. Antonio wasn't even moving.

Then he heard the click of a camera and noticed that Kiku had moved from his seat to a better picture-taking position. And that's when Lovina snapped out of her trance and pushed Antonio away. He fell back against the ground, just barely managing to catch himself before he knocked the table over.

"Wait, Lov—"

But she was already out of the room. They could hear her running and then the slam of a door somewhere down the hall.

"Bathroom," Francis remarked as he leaned back on his elbows and stretched in a way that Ludwig thought was unnecessarily-sensual. "It might be a while before she comes out. Anyone want more snacks or drinks while we wait or should we just continue with one less player?"

Gill snickered. "Kesekesekese! That was awesome! Awesome'll be nice and count that even though Lovi's the one who kissed you, Antonio. Now it's your turn to spin the bottle and pick the next victim!"

Antonio seemed a little shell-shocked, since he hadn't even moved yet from where he'd fallen.

Ludwig sighed and stood up. "Feliciana, do you want a drink?"

She didn't seem entirely sure of how to respond to what had just happened either. She looked up at him, her eyes wide in obvious conclusion. "Ve~?"

"She'll come out soon enough. It'll be best to just wait for her." Let her get over her obvious mortification.

He really should just leave now. Just grab Feli and run, because there was no way this wasn't going to end terribly for everyone.

"Ah, l'amour~" Francis was grinning. "Who would have thought cher Lovina would be so passionate?"


A/N: And here begins our Truth or Dare series! So there will obviously be more chapters of this, possibly not all consecutively, since I have no idea how many parts it'll be and it might be more fun to spread them out. Also, I'm pretty sure this contradicts part of 'And It's Supposed to be the Day of Love' but since that story's already been retconned like crazy, eh... Whatever. XD

WE HAVE REACHED THE HALFWAY POINT IN THIS STORY. WOOOT.

How it goes with the prompt... Ummm... xD A later part actually goes along with it better. Let's just say that this is the introduction to much rule breaking that is about to occur due to truth or dare shenanigans. Because how could it not?

Next prompt is SPORT.