Thank you, dear readers for all the new reviews, favourites and alerts! I will try my very best to improve and keep this story interesting. I hope this turned out acceptable.

~o~o~

After leaving the gardens, Trouillefou took the class for a sightseeing trip around the city. They passed a bridge full of padlocks, the Pont de l'Alma and the flame of Liberty, and numerous old and impressive buildings until dinner, and then went back to the hotel.

Thanks to such a perfectly relaxed day, Abel woke up contently the following morning. There had been no incidents such as stolen covers, annoying roommates or unexpected cuddling that night, and also no other events that could have disturbed his night rest.
Lovely. Just lovely.
When he contently stretched his shoulders and looked to his right, expecting to see a still peacefully sleeping Matthew, he was hit in the face by an awkward surprise. Instead of his friend, he saw the nightstand with Matthew's glasses on it. A questioning expression crawled onto his face when one question floated to the surface of his mind: 'Wasn't I on the other side of this bed when we went to sleep?'
"Wow!" When the message finally computed, he sat up quickly, startled by his own thoughts. He slapped his forehead and gritted his teeth. Well, things couldn't get any more awkward now.

Soon enough, Matthew woke up as well. He stretched out and moaned very softly. "Good morn-" It also took him a while to notice he was on the wrong side of the bed. A few scenarios of what could have happened formed in his mind, which made up for a slightly uneasy feeling as well. Had they…how had this happened? He didn't even want to know. He just hoped he had been sleepwalking, even though it was very unlikely. It had to be sleepwalking! "Ow. This is a bit…disturbing."

"Let's…keep this to ourselves, shall we?" Abel tried.

"Good idea." Matthew agreed, still awkward. It was completely silent for a few seconds. "Abel? Could you give me my glasses, please?"

"Oh, sure." Abel picked up the frame, and after a moment of hesitating decided this would be a good moment to 'see the world through Matthews's eyes', so to say. That, and joking around would break the awkwardness a little. Hopefully. "Hm. Let me see what you're seeing right now." He said and put the glasses on. It took him a while to adjust, but it still was horrible. Everything he saw was blurred and double. "Man, I'm seeing double. Wow, Matty, you're freaking cross-eyed!" Abel said, blinking and squinting. He hadn't expected Matthew's eyes to be that bad. Near-blindness seemed appropriate to describe the quality of his vision.

Matthew, having only blurry sight and a reduced depth perception without his glasses, pouted. "Hey! Only slightly!" He was grateful his eyesight was rubbish, otherwise he would have seen how good Abel looked with glasses even more clearly than he already had. 'Focus', he told himself. 'Don't think about how adorably dorky he looks right now.'

"Ah, dang it." Abel complained, taking off the glasses and rubbing his eyes. "You're blind as a bat."

Matthew tried to steal his glasses back from Abel's grip, but the latter snatched them away just in time.

"Hey! Give that back." Matthew reached for his glasses, but Abel kept them perfectly out of range. Abel sniggered teasingly, finding Matthew's struggling rather…amusing. And perhaps even a tiny bit cute. He had his doubts about that last thought, but who even cared? As long as he didn't speak his thoughts, there was no problem.

Matthew sat up on his knees to reach further, but Abel just moved his hand away a bit further.

"Hey! Not fair!" Matthew complained. After quite a bit of struggling, he ended up straddling Abel's leg, resting one hand against the wall and using the other to grab Abel's wrist. The result: a very awkward position in which Abel had a first-rank view on Matthew's neck and collarbone.

"Okay, you win." The taller one admitted and handed Matthew his glasses.

"Thank you." Matthew placed the frame where it belonged, leaning back again. He and Abel meekly looked each other in the eyes for a brief moment.

Okay, so the plan to break the awkward tension had ultimately failed and only made it worse. Just great.

Innocently, Mathew observed the green eyes in front of him. A small shimmer ran through them as a warning right before Abel pinched Matthew's waist, making him yelp like a little girl. He pouted and blew the always sticking-up strand of hair out of his face. "Not funny."

"It was a nice way of saying: 'Would you please get all that weight off my leg?'" Abel said with a friendly smile.

"What do you mean, 'all that weight'?" Matthew asked, and hopped up and down a few times before moving over. "I'm not that heavy."

"Oh, really?" Abel asked, and shamelessly poked Matthew's waist again. Another yelp escaped the shorter one.

"Hey, that was actually kind of soft." Abel grinned mischievously and stuck out his tongue.

"Then what have you got there, eh?" Matthew asked, pinching Abel. He tried to aim for his waist and he would have reached his target if Abel hadn't tried to avoid the hand. Instead, Matthew pinched something rather hard, on the side of his classmate's body. Matthew pulled a weird expression. "Ehhh. What was that?"

Abel rolled his eyes. "That was my hip. There's a bone there, just so you know." He knocked on the side of his hip that was clearly visible.

"I knew that, but why does it stick out?" Matthew asked, really not used to this body type. He had never actually noticed Abel's bones being that visible. But that wasn't the main thing he was looking at right now. The softly outlined abs formed a great source of distraction which seemed to automatically attract all his attention, until he reminded himself to look away.

Abel looked jokingly unamused. "That's because I'm not a little pudgy-pudge like you."

"Hey!"

"I mean…just…" Abel looked away as if he was trying his best to suppress a blush. He took a quick glance at Matthew. He actually was kind of…cute wasn't the right word. Beautiful, perhaps? "Eh, nothing. Never mind."

"Oh."

Another awkward silence fell, making both teenagers feel uneasy.

"You're just…squishy."

"What, squishy?!"

"Have you ever poked yourself?" He poked Matthew's cheek.

Matthew pouted. Just when he was about to say something again, Trouillefou knocked their door. "Guys. Time to wake up!"

"Sure. We'll be right there." Abel said, surely more than just a little annoyed.

They quickly got dressed and yet another day in Paris was about to start. And this day would certainly have a cheerful start!

Not.

Visiting a graveyard wasn't exactly most people's idea of a nice trip, but Trouillefou assured them Père Lachaise was well worth it. It wasn't just any graveyard after all. It was the biggest one in Paris and a lot of things had happened there throughout history.

The class divided into four smaller groups that all went their own way on the graveyard. This way, they wouldn't be so noisy and it was a lot easier to move through the sometimes narrow paths. The place was surprisingly calm. It wasn't as gloomy as some feared it would be. Despite of all the tombstones, tombs and skulls, it wasn't at all spooky to walk there. It was more like a small village, but then for dead people.

It was sort of calming even. It was quiet, there was a lot of green, and most graves were beautifully decorated.

The place brought some interesting facts about people to the surface. Things no one would ever have guessed. It was to be expected that Roderich would take a moment to admire the grave of Frédéric Chopin, but that Felicja of all people would join him in that was a complete surprise. Even her friends didn't even try to hide their surprise and sort of forced her into admitting she liked to listen to Chopin's nocturnes whenever she needed to get herself together or think.

Since Matthew had more important things on his mind than dead people, he caught up to Francis."Hey, Francis."

"Ah, Matthew."

They followed the rest of the group through the green, moist paths. There wasn't anyone else in their group who spoke French, not even Mr. Knox, so this was the perfect moment to have a little more private conversation. "Francis, what do you think is up with Al?"

"What do you mean?"

"He's ignoring me more than usual. It's annoying. He has been texting Arthur since we were divided in groups."

Francis chuckled, trying to find the words. "Well, in short: he has a boyfriend."

"Yeah, I know." Matthew looked straight ahead of him and took a deep breath. Francis put a hand on his shoulder and tried to make eye contact. "Are you jealous, Mathieu?"

"What, no!"

"Really? Are you sure there isn't someone in this class you'd really want to watch a wonderful sunset with?" Francis nudged.

"Francis, didn't you have a girlfriend?"

"Yes, why?"

"Then why are you flirting with…well…anything that moves?"

Francis laughed at that. This was the first time anyone actually noticed he was subtly flirting with them. Maybe Matthew was more observant than he thought. "I like to make other people, especially the shy ones, such as yourself, feel wanted and loved." He smiled warmly and tilted his head lightly.

Matthew looked away and back nervously. "Uhm, could you then please stop doing that around me? I mean, I really appreciate the intention, but it is sort of…really awkward."

"Okay, sure." Francis' tone immediately changed back to a normal one. He also removed his hand from Matthew's shoulder and made the distance between them a little more appropriate. "Now tell me what's going on in your head."

Matthew sighed and put his hands in his pockets. "I was just…wondering about something. How can you see the difference between flirting and just normal…being friendly?" He paused. "Purely hypothetical of course!"

Francis smiled visibly at that. Immediately that rare mature, caring smile lay all over his features again. "Ah, that. There are many different ways to see that in many different people. You can look at how much eye contact they make, the way they smile and intentionally avoid and capture your eyes, but with someone as antisocial as Abel, you can assume that any form of physical contact that isn't a punch in the face is flirting."

"How did you even know-" Matthew panicked more than just a little.

Francis however, laughed. "I think you need new glasses, my friend." He flicked Matthew's nose, still laughing.

"Okay, so what do you think Abel thinks about me?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"Eh, no."

"He's got it bad for you, alright. Have you met him?" He stopped chuckling when he noticed Matthew wasn't joking as much as he thought and looked away a bit questioning. "What did he do to make you ask this anyway?"

Matthew was slightly hesitant to share the memory, but decided to say it anyway. It was a bit more embarrassing when putting it into words than at the moment itself. It was as though he just now realised what had happened. But he could trust Francis, right? "He just sort of…tickles me. When we're alone in the hotel. A lot. And it's pretty nice."

Suddenly, Francis had his signature smirk again. "You like having his hands all over you, don't you?" He asked in a sly tone.

Matthew was lost at words again. He was very, very glad that no one near them understood a word of what they were talking about, but it somehow felt like everyone had gotten what Francis had said last. "No! Not that! It's just fun to-ehm." He interrupted himself.

"To what?" Francis asked, a little smug knowing that he had just cornered Matthew with his own words.

"To, ehm. Nothing. You know what I mean."

"Oh, come on. You can't fool me, Mathieu. You know you enjoy it."

Francis was getting too blunt now to Matthew's liking. When he put it like that, it sounded so perverted, and then enjoying being tickled suddenly lost the innocent meaning it had always had in Matthew's mind. Oh, great.

But what to do now? How would he let this little secret see daylight? Suddenly, a hundred ideas of how to tell Abel he liked him flashed into his mind, but all of them were dismissed just as quickly. It wasn't as though they were in some Hollywood chick-flick. Things just weren't that easy in real life. That, and he knew for sure his natural shyness wouldn't help much either. Being socially awkward was never an advantage. He would certainly need to cross a few of his own borders if he wanted- What did he even want? Did he want Abel to be his boyfriend? The thought of having Abel as his boyfriend was both scary and exciting. It seemed so surreal on the one hand, but on the other, the door was open.

…If Francis was right in the first place. Everyone knew he liked to use his classmates as his personal chess-pieces when he was bored.

On a completely different part of the graveyard, there was a group led by Mr Trouillefou wondering around the paths. Abel didn't really care about the dead people there. He didn't know most of them, except for Morrison. He knew that one, thanks to his father. The Doors, good music but the rest of the family didn't appreciate it.

Right next to him, someone sighed. It took him a few seconds of wondering to get the idea that he might have had to look down to see the source. It appeared to be Tino. "Hey, Tino. What's up?"

"I was just trying to find Berwald, but he's been avoiding me."

"Reason?"

"I rambled about how scary he is and he was right behind me."

"Ouch."

"Yup. He switched rooms with Aleksander immediately after it happened. I really have to apologise now, but I think he either wants to do me a favour and stay far out of my way, or he's plotting something to kill me with Ivan."

"Nah, don't think so. Something really weird has to happen before Berwald wants anyone who isn't Mathias dead. Especially you."

"What do you mean, especially me?"

"He's had a major crush on you since third year. You didn't know?" Abel answered as casually as ever.

"What?! No! How was I supposed to know that?! He shows as much emotion as Kristen Steward!"
Abel snorted. "Ah. Figures. It's fairly obvious, though. I'll try to catch him for you if I see him."

"Thanks." Tino said.

"You've never seen him dead drunk, have you?"

"Have you?"

"Yeah. He's basically…the same. But he talks. Who knows, if you catch him, get him dead drunk and talk it out. Just don't give him so much he has forgotten the entire conversation the morning after. Waking up in bed with him probably isn't going to help you either."

"Geez, thanks. That's really going to help." Tino whined.

Abel took a long drag from his cigarette and blew out a thin string of smoke for five constructive seconds. He patted Tino on the shoulder so hard he almost knocked his classmate over. "Cheer up. I'm just joking around."

Tino sighed in defeat. "You're lucky, you know. With Matthew."

Abel nearly choked on the last drag of his cigarette and his eyes grew the size of saucers. "Whu-what? You're kidding, right? How exactly have I got Matthew?"

Tino seemed quite surprised at that. "Are you sure? You two seemed so close!"

"You must've seen it wrong."

"I don't think so. All the girls, including Judithe, are talking about it."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. You two seemed pretty close this morning."

Abel seemed to have lost his words for the first time in his life. What exactly was it they were apparently all talking about? Could it possibly be that Mathias or Judithe had been telling it around the class? They were the only people he had ever told, but he knew they would never tell anyone. Was he that obvious?

As though he as given a cue, Mathias dropped into the conversation. "Ey, guys. What's with that depression-cloud above your heads?"

"What do you think?" Tino answered.

"If it's still about that stuff with Berwald: I just found him. Aleksander is keeping him in a chat right over there, so I'd hurry if I were you. He's not much of a talker."

Tino's eyes instantly shot wide open and he darted off, shouting a quick 'thanks' to Mathias.

The Dane chuckled and shook his head before focussing on Abel again. "So, that's the standard depression with extra hopelessness deluxe for you today, too uh?"

"Yeah."

"Figures. Sucks."

"Yeah."

"I've been there, man." Mathias said with quite a dose of pity in his voice.

"Really? How'd that end?"

Mathias smiled awkwardly. "Eh, heh…Let's not talk about that right now."

Wow. Just fucking great.

And this was where Mathias thought it was time to change the subject. "Hey, speaking of queens," He started, earning a glare for this clumsy association to introduce a new subject. "Do you know which one is older, Sonja or Paola?"

"What? Why do you need to know that?"

"I may or may not have sort of made a bet with Aleksander."

Abel sighed. Mathias was an idiot, and he'd probably lose. "Queen Sonja is older. By about two months."

"Shit!" Mathias shouted. "That just cost me ten Euros!"

Abel sniggered. "I don't even want to know how that bet even started. Still, Liz is older by far." This little comment earned him an elbow in the ribs. Not by Mathias, but by Arthur. The shorter Brit was right beside him and looked, as usual, not amused. "Do not ever call her Liz again." He sneered.

"Hello to you too, Arth. And why wouldn't I?"

"You don't call Queen Beatrix Bea either, do you?"

Abel chuckled. "Actually, I do." He paused so he wouldn't laugh about Arthur's irritated expression. "Or Trix." He added with a wide grin, knowing the reaction he would get.

Arthur visibly twitched at this, which was exactly the reaction Abel and Mathias liked to see. Especially Abel. Joking around with Arthur always managed to cheer him up whenever he needed it. Or didn't need it, but just couldn't resist the temptation of annoying Arthur to no end. It was so easy. One comment about either Queen Elizabeth, or Scotland being a more awesome country than England, and Arthur's blood would boil.
It was just too easy.

~o~o~

ATTENTION: I think I'll have to explain who Felicja is. Basically…she's Feliks. I have a reason to do this and NO, it's NOT randomly genderbending. I have got a few interesting head-canons, which includes me seeing Feliks as a transgender girl (Male to Female). I don't know why, but it seemed to fit the character.
[POLL on my profile page] I may or may not write another School AU with Feliks (later Felicja) as the main character.

Please leave a review for me.

PS.: Yes, we really call her Bea. ^_^