WARNING: Very questionable chapter.

~o~o~o~

That evening, after the visit to the Eiffel Tower, Matthew and Abel gladly dropped onto their bed with painful limbs. Next time, they'd think before taking the stairs. Definitely.

"Pffft! I feel like a piece of spaghetti, I'm exhausted!" Abel complained.

Matthew chuckled. "It almost feels like we ran down a bunch of stairs."

The two laughed again. "Yeah. Almost."

"328 steps. Wow. Quite a killer." Matthew had to admit.

"Why do you even remember that?"

"I wanted to know what I got myself into, but I still don't quite know."

"But it was fun."

"Yes, it was." Matthew had to admit.

With a content smile, Abel allowed a short memory flash through his head. He put the thought aside quickly and hopped up. "I'm off for a shower." He immediately went to the bathroom and not even a minute later, Matthew heard the water rush on the other side of the wall.

With a relaxed and satisfied sigh, he folded his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling. He tried closing his eyes for a brief moment to get a little rest from a long day. Just when he thought it was entirely quiet, he heard some noises from the hotel room next to theirs. From Alfred and Arthur's room came some evident laughing and sniggering. While Alfred's laugh was extremely obnoxious, Arthur's laugh was downright funny. But that was just Matthew's personal opinion. He hoped for the other two that their opinions on that were different.

As time went on, the laughs got more and more mixed with other sounds. Matthew instantly wondered what it was, but he immediately regretted listening better.
The things he heard were…disturbing, to say at least. Small giggles, pants, yelps, sighs and other things he didn't exactly want to hear. They were soft, but definitely not his imagination. The worst thing to add up to this already disturbing information was that it was in fact his brother who was partially the source.

Matthew's expression was one of disgust and disbelieve. Was he really hearing what he thought he was hearing?
He wished it wasn't. He knew he was right, but he still wished he wasn't. "Alfred." He whined softly. "There are a few things about you I don't need to know." He pulled his knees up to his chest, and sat on his bed with his ears covered. He wanted to pinch the bridge of his nose, but that would mean removing his hands from his ears and not blocking out the sounds anymore. It wasn't like he could knock on their door and ask them if they could please be a little more quiet. No. Matthew wasn't suicidal enough to do that.

He sat like that for a few minutes until Abel got out of the bathroom. His hair down, still dripping a little and he only wore his pyjama trousers, as usual, a little too low on his slender hips. This was nothing out of the ordinary, but to Matthew it was another unexpected slap to the face.
He immediately looked away again, afraid of his eyes popping out at the sight.

Upon spotting a severely disturbed Matthew, Abel instantly got wondering. "Matt? What's wro- What the fuck am I hearing?" He wondered, though he was starting to figure out the answer.

Matthew looked up, still looking disturbed. "Yes, exactly that."

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Abel replied. "That's disgusting."

"Thanks, Captain State-the-obvious." Matthew said. He kept looking up at Abel, waiting for him to come up with something.

Abel didn't know either. Even he had no idea how to handle a situation like that. Who would be prepared for a situation like this?!

"Okay, now I've got enough of it." Abel decided. He flung the door open, stomped onto the corridor and loudly rammed on Alfred and Arthur's door. "Hey! Keep it down in there, you couple of sluts! I don't want to hear how you two are screwing each other up the ass!"

"Go do what you're good at and mind your own bloody busyness!" Arthur shouted back, not really sounding like he took the warning seriously.

"Would you two perverts just shut up?"

"Go fuck yourself, Abel!" Alfred shouted, severely irritated.

Abel rolled his eyes. Too. Easy. "No thanks, I've got Matthew for that." He shouted back with a sadistic grin.

"Ew! Fuck the hell off! And keep your hands off my bro!" Alfred screamed.

Still as disturbed as before, Abel went back to his room. "Sorry, Matt. It seems like they're not in the mood to listen. They're completely ignoring me."
Abel dropped onto his bed as well. He crossed his arms behind his head and tried to ignore the still on-going, disturbing sounds. "Well, anything they can do, we can do too."

Matthew's eyes grew wide as dinner plates behind his glasses. "Eh? 'scuse me? What?!"

"Huh?" Abel blankly looked at Matthew, repeating the former conversation in his head. Just then he got the tiny miscommunication. He jumped up and gave Matthew a pillow to the face. "I didn't mean that! Yuck!"

Matthew struggled slightly, but that was soon over when Abel repeatedly pinched his waist. Still as ticklish as ever, Matthew yelped.
"Get your mind out of the gutter! Geez Matty!" Abel said, half laughing as well while Matthew was still squirming and yelping on his lap.

When he stopped his playful assault, Matthew took his time to catch his breath again.

"I meant, Matthew." Abel started, trying to stop his chuckle as Matthew giggled as well. "We can just completely ignore them."

Matthew cleared his throat and pointed at the wall behind him. "Uh, ignore? That's my brother on the other side of that wall, and Arthur is moaning like a slut." Matthew was momentarily startled by his own choice of words.

"Pfff. Ahahaha!" Abel snorted, planted a pillow in his face and dropped onto his back, weak with laughter.

Matthew just sat petrified in his sitting position, hugging a pillow. "You get my point?"

"Yeah, I get it." Abel said, muffled by a pillow. "Aaah! That's gross."

"Yes, it is. There are a few things about my brother I don't need to know, and this in one of them." He couldn't remember ever being so talkative. Where was this even coming from?

"Yeah. By the way, how long has he had that major ass crush on Arthur?"

"I don't know. About a year, I guess? Wait. How did you even know that?"

"Open book. With gigantic letters and spoken text for those with severe dyslexia or impaired vision." Abel sighed. He sat up again and flung the pillow to the side. Leaning back on his elbows in a comfortable position, he looked out the window at the bit of sky that could be seen above Paris.

While he tried his very best to ignore the still ongoing obnoxious sounds, Matthew had his mind completely elsewhere. When the muffled noise from the other room eventually faded away and died out, he half-subconsciously constantly looked at Abel, whose chest was on full display. His soft orange pyjama trousers were slouched low on his hips. Low enough to show quite toned abs and bones, but not low enough to show anything inappropriate.

Gorgeous.

He had smoothly outlined muscles and quite broad shoulders. Despite this, he was still quite skinny. Not extremely so, but enough to make every muscle he had quite prominent and his limbs seem long. But maybe that was just because he was rather tall. And above all: He looked very, very handsome from this angle.

When he realised he was staring, Matthew forced his eyes to look the other way. Unfortunately, they found their way back just as easily, and Matthew was once again staring at his tall classmate. His usually serious expression softened a little in the orange sunlight. That, those sideburns and the scar on his forehead somehow made him even more attractive than he already was.

Once again, Matthew averted his eyes, but didn't keep this up for longer than two seconds.

When no word was spoken for a minute, Matthew's mind started wondering off, playing games with the images of his observations and sending quick, split-second long images into his head.

Their fingers slowly intertwining.

His hands in that wild hair.

Matthew gasped inwardly when he realised what he was thinking about. Staring was bad enough, but this was definitely going too far. But his mind had more in store for him.

Those lips pressing a kiss to his cheek.

'Stop.' Matthew told his mind, but it was to no avail. Just seconds later, he imagined how it would feel to have those arms around his waist. Or…

His mental images were abruptly ended by Abel's voice. He had noticed Matthew looking in his direction and grinned teasingly. "Like what you see?" He asked jokingly.

Oops. Matthew's blood suddenly ran cold in his veins and the rosy colour on his cheeks drained away within a second. The one thing Matthew could think of now was fleeing the room. He tried to sound calm and casual, but the sudden feeling of being busted had sent a rush of adrenaline into his veins. "Hm. I…think I'm gonna take a shower." He tried to sound as calm as possible, but his head was racing.

He jumped up, grabbed his stuff and rushed into the bathroom. When he shut the lock, he leaned back against the door and sighed.
That was embarrassing. Matthew decided to take a long shower and not come out until he was sure Abel was asleep. He had to avoid another situation like that.

When he entered the room again nearly an hour later, he found Abel already asleep, only half under the covers. Matthew couldn't blame him; it was really warm, even at night and even with the window wide open.

Matthew admired the peacefully sleeping teenager and smiled. Abel had his back turned towards him. That gorgeous broad back that slimmed in one smooth line into a slim waist.
'No. Stop. Bad Matthew.' He thought to himself. 'You're hanging around with Francis too much.'
He shook his head to get rid of the thoughts.

But he looked so peaceful, and so appealing. Matthew sat down on the side of his bed, his mind hopping back and forth between 'yes' and 'no' on a certain thought.

'Yes' won.

He doubted at first but eventually leaned closer to his classmate than he had ever been. "Good night, Abel." He whispered, stroking his cheek with the back of his fingers. He leaned in and softly kissed his cheek.

He had wanted to do that for so long now. It didn't matter Abel was already asleep and would probably never know about this little moment. He had done it now. Finally.
Kissing him goodnight. It was such a silly little thing, but Matthew had wanted to do it for a long time.

Still a little flustered, Matthew smiled and snuggled into the blankets, blissfully unaware that Abel wasn't asleep at all. That he had kept still all the time since Matthew had come out of the bathroom. That even when the tips Matthew's wet hair dripped small pearls of water onto his neck, even when Matthew's fingers slid over his cheek, and even when he felt the soft lips so tenderly on his cheek, he had kept perfectly still and enjoyed every single second of that short moment.

Smiling, Abel carefully placed his fingertips on the place he had just been kissed. He got his many fluttering thoughts back on the track again and went to sleep as well. This would be a thing for tomorrow. For now, he'd manage to get through the night with just this on his mind.

That Matthew. Such a sweet little thing. It was hard to resist the urge to jump up and cheer with joy.
'No', Abel told himself. Tomorrow would be soon enough for that.

Maybe even more confident and happy than ever, Abel went downstairs the following morning. The thought of telling Matthew he had been awake last night was very tempting, and would most likely give an adorable and hilarious reaction from Matthew, but he kept it to himself. For now.

Abel and Matthew were almost the first ones downstairs. They were right after the teachers and Arthur while the others were having the greatest deal of trouble getting out of bed.

Abel detected a small detail about Arthur's behaviour. He didn't know exactly what it was, but it was certain Arthur wasn't moving in his usual way. He seemed a little more cautious, as though he was trying too hard to pretend nothing unusual had happened. With a mischievous smirk, Abel leaned over to Matthew. "Hey, Matt. Remember what we heard last night?" He whispered.

"Yes, thanks for bringing back this mind-burning memory."

At that very moment, Alfred also entered the room. He didn't seem all to pleased. Irritated even. Matthew guessed that had something to do with the rather unwanted interruption from last night and the conversation he had just overheard.

His presumption was confirmed when Alfred immediately went to the source of said unwanted interruption. "Hey, Abel. Could you please stay out of it next time? You're one hell of a cock-block."

"Not enough, it seems." He deadpanned.

"Yeah true. Just for your information, we weren't 'screwing each other up there'. We only-"
"Al!" Matthew interrupted just in time. "Inappropriate!"

~o~o~o~

Wow. This is exactly why I shouldn't write when my mind is all the way down in the deepest pit of the gutter. x_x
Then you get perverted stuff like this. For your information: Yes, Alfred and Arthur really were doing some…naughty things I cannot describe in detail if I want to keep this fanfiction up here.

To ThatOneGingerKid: THIS. IS. UST! (Sorry, couldn't resist. XD)

To Aphrodi: See? I told you cockblock would occur. *evil grin*