This is Gilbert's theme song from now on (German, btw): /watch?v=w9F65atreVM
I had it on repeat when writing.
Sorry, Gil! I love you!
Also: Brace yourself! Here come the parents! *hides in a bunker*
WARNING: Bad words are used in this chapter. Very bad words.
~o~o~o~
More comfortable than ever, Matthew woke up in the morning. He shifted and wiggled a little to stretch as an arm around his waist quite limited his ability move. Abel was still peacefully asleep and Matthew sure didn't want to wake him up just yet. He had the most adorable, softest snore. He was such a cute thing…in a way.
And maybe it was time to wake him up.
Matthew softly ran his fingertip up and down through one of Abel's sideburns, triggering only a minimal reaction at first. Abel groaned softly, shifted a little, but eventually opened one eye.
"Good morning, Abel." Matthew said between sniggers, stroking the stubbles on his boyfriend's cheek with the back of his finger.
"Morning, Matty." Abel said, mildly annoyed because of the wakeup-tickle.
Matthew reflected on the position he was in. "Telling you to stop calling me Matty really isn't going to work anymore now, is it?"
"Nope." Abel assured him.
"Great." Matthew snuggled back against Abel's chest and hummed. He was glad Abel had actually agreed to wear a shirt last night, otherwise this would have been a little too close for comfort. But this was perfect. He was so warm and the physical contact was very comfortable.
Abel picked his phone from the nightstand and checked the time. "Ugh, too early." He said and hurled it onto the chair in the corner of the room. "Almost an hour to go before breakfast. What to do in the meantime?"
"Maybe you could start by giving me back my glasses."
"Do I have to?"
"Yes. I'm practically blind right now."
"But then I have to let go of you." He whined.
"I'm your boyfriend, dear, not your personal teddy bear."
"No, I am yours, remember?" Abel said with a smirk, reminding Matthew of the results his unceremoniously rough sleeping had had throughout the week.
Matthew scoffed lightly at that before Abel reluctantly let him go and handed him back his glasses. They both sat up straight, completely silent.
"By the way, Matty. Did I mention I was awake the other night?" Abel asked in a casual tone.
It took Matthew a few seconds to grasp what he meant. The other night…Oh, yeah. His secret goodnight kiss. Wait a sec…Oh, god no! "What?!" Matthew's mouth fell open even wider than his eyes in surprise. No way! No way he was awake!
Abel laughed at his reaction like he'd never stop. "You were so sweeeet." He teased before receiving a pillow to the head from a blushing Matthew.
"You're a nightmare!" He shouted. "You could've told me you were awake when I did it!"
"But you were being so sweeeet." Abel laughed, shielding his head from the pillow again and laughing with the greatest amusement. He was laughing too hard to protest against being tackled onto his back and hit with a pillow.
Until he saw a chance.
"Oh, no. I know that look." Matthew backed away, but it was too late. "No-eyeeeh!" Within a split second, Abel had yanked him onto his lap. Yes, he was aware that his man-ego shrank significantly with that high-pitched yelp. A messy round of laughing, cuddling and hitting each other with pillows later, it really was time to get dressed.
And in Abel's case: shave. He was called porcupine often enough and he didn't feel like giving his classmates yet another reason to do so.
They ran into Trouillefou on their way downstairs, greeted the grumpy teacher with a little too much enthusiasm and laughed about the man's confused expression later.
Upon entering the dining room downstairs, Abel spotted a few of his friends, in a row, staring straight in front of them. "Hey, Mathias. What are you staring a-" He gasped quietly and joined the others in the line.
Matthew stared at them, wondering what in the world they were doing. It was kind of a weird sight, Abel, Mathias, Yong-Soo, Jett and Billie, all in a line with their mouth wide open. He waved a hand in front of Abel's eyes. "Hello? Anyone home?"
He didn't respond.
Mathias did. "The rumours…They are true!" He whispered.
Matthew didn't quite get what he meant, so a strange look seemed to be the only appropriate reaction. He followed their gaze and they were looking at…Gilbert? The guy was wasted, alright. He looked as though he hadn't slept in years; he had bags under his eyes, he didn't walk straight up and it looked as though he could trip over his own feet and fall asleep on the floor any moment.
But that wasn't at all surprising. The next thing Matthew's eyes were drawn to was Gilbert's t-shirt. Bright red, with neon-yellow letters that probably glowed in the dark, and a text: FÜNF METER, followed by an arrow pointing down. "Oh, god. That's…" He pinched the bridge of his nose, sighed and shook his head. "Are you kidding? That means five metres, doesn't it?" He repeated the words in his head. Five metres.
"Uhuh."
"I was afraid it did."
"Shouldn't we add 'zenti' to that unit of length?" Abel asked, pointing at Gilbert's shirt.
Jett snorted. "Yeah, we should. Do you have a marker?"
"I do!" Yong-Soo said and stuck a black permanent marker pen in the air.
And thus began the chase for Gilbert.
Before Trouillefou took the class to the Metro for the last time that week, he had the group gather in front of the hotel. While the bus driver was loading their suitcases into the bus, Trouilefou had a little scolding to do. "This message is not for everyone, but the ones it is for know it damn well. Before we left Brussels, I heard each and every one of your parents promise that you were responsible teenagers. You are, right?"
There were a few mumbles from the group.
"Then would you care to explain why at least four of you are standing here, barely awake, with a major hangover?!" He shouted, and four students cringed and moaned in pain. They were out in the full sunlight, it was still relatively early and Trouillefou was barking at them like a guard dog. Those were the ingredients for a perfect my-everything-is-killing-me-OUCH-cocktail.
Matthew felt a little sorry for Francis, who was standing a bit wobbly on his legs and rubbing his temples to ease the turning, throbbing and the nausea. It didn't work. He finally resorted to leaning on Antonio for extra balance in his spinning world.
Neither of the Vargas brothers were feeling any better. Romano had his sunglasses on to hide the bags under his eyes and to block out the massive load of light. He nearly invisibly leaned on Antonio to avoid falling over.
Feliciano was hiding his face in Ludwig's chest to block out the light, but he got little sympathy from his boyfriend. It was his own stupid action to drink too much to begin with, so pity wasn't something he deserved.
And Gilbert, possibly the most wasted of them all wanted nothing more but to hide under a thick duvet in a dark bedroom without any sound in the world. The chase, in which he had tripped over his own feet and many other things several times hadn't done him any good. But he had avoided the little devils. He didn't know how, but he had.
This was the last place they would visit in Paris before returning home to Brussels. The group was talking on the way as usual, but when they arrived at the monument, they all fell silent.
"This," Trouillefou said. "Is the Arc de Triomphe." He looked up at the tall arch and the students followed his gaze. "Napoleon gave the order to build it. Written here are all French military victories from history."
"They must have used quite big letters then to cover all this space with so little material." Arthur joked, triggering chuckles and sniggers from everywhere.
"Oh, very funny, Kirkland." Trouillefou sneered, and chose to ignore the 'try-me'-smirk he got in response.
Francis was about to send a few nasty comments into Arthur's direction as well, but he refrained from doing so when yet another wave of pain show through his brain. He hated hangovers. He hated them so much.
Since Trouillefou was in a sadistic mood, they were not allowed to go up the Arc by elevator. Instead he forced them to use the stairs. A few believed they would keep walking in circles after walking the winding stairs for so long. For those who were perfectly sober, there was hardly a problem aside from slightly numb legs.
For those who had found out what their limit with alcohol was the hard way the night before, it was a little more than just that. Feliciano, Romano and Francis could hardly get all the way to the top in the first place. Having to walk up a seemingly endless winding staircase was all but amusing when feeling like your brain was about to throb out of your head and your stomach was doing an entire gymnastics routine.
And it was even more irritating when your tomato-hugger boyfriend was all cheerful and hyper.
"Antonio! Shut the fuck up. I can't go any quicker than this."
The energetic Spaniard was a few steps up ahead of his boyfriend already and waited for him there. "Come on, Roma. The sun is shining outside!"
"Ugh. I don't want to go out in the sunlight, you bastard. My head is killing me already and you're only making it worse!" Romano shouted back.
"Romano." Feliciano whined. "Please don't be so loud. My head hurts."
"That's your stupid fault, idiot!" Romano shouted back, making his younger brother cringe.
The sight of it was rather amusing, Matthew had to admit. The scene made the way upstairs a little less of a drag. Still, it was a big relief to finally be at the top.
From there, that central point in the city, it was like being on top of the world. The entire city was around this point like a spider web. So awesome.
The class stayed there to enjoy the view over the city from that central point and dreaded the moment they'd have to go back into the bus again.
Kiku took pictures of everyone and everything, just as he had done throughout the week. He did snap quite a few nice images. For the school website, of course.
The chase for Gilbert continued even on the Arc. It was mainly Gilbert running loudly screaming through the groups of people and avoiding being caught by his classmates. It did work to some extend. He managed to slip away many times. It was only when he passed Ivan that he was suddenly taken into a tight grip by the sweetly smiling Russian as he ran by. Ivan had one arm hooked under Gilbert's, holding him like a bunny, and left him to the mercy of Mathias and Yong-Soo. The latter grabbed both his legs, making the whole situation look even more awkward, and left the writing to Mathias.
The Dane made movements like he was working on a masterpiece painting while he was actually drawing ZENTI in big fat black letters.
Now that his shirt said five centimetres, Gilbert regretted he hadn't put on his sweater.
And the entire process plus the result were saved in pictures on Kiku's camera.
And now that their mission to slap some truth into Gilbert was done, Mathias went on with something else he found necessary: Annoying the shit out of someone.
In this case, his target couldn't be any easier, because what was an easier target than a newly-formed couple?
"Yo, Abel!" He shouted, slinging his arm around his shoulder and yanking him away from Matthew.
"Ey, Mathias. What's up?"
"Finally scored, have you, Mr. Hopeless?" He teased, glancing at Matthew and sniggering.
"Shut it, Køhler."
"Took you guys long enough. So which one of you made the first move? Knowing you it was Matts."
"I'll leave that to your imagination." Abel deadpanned, broke himself out of Mathias' hold and took him in a neck-lock instead. Despite the protests and begs, Abel knuckled the spiky-haired Dane on the head.
"Ouchie-ouchie-ouchie! My imagination is saying some juicy things about you two last night that would make Liz faint of blood loss." Mathias teased from his chanceless position.
Abel and Matthew glanced at each other with a look of disgust, 'no way in hell' and 'what the fuck?!' all mixed together.
"Leave your sick sexual fantasies to yourself. And don't give me the 'I'll tell you what I did last night too' either because I'll turn it into a remake of I know what you did last summer."
Mathias stopped struggling and looked around desperately. "Dude, that's cruel. An ice-pick is no way to go." He whined.
Abel smirked, looked at Matthew's I-want-to-facepalm-so-hard-right-now-expression and back at Mathias. "Hey, Aleksander." He called out when the Norwegian and his brother passed.
"Hm?"
"Could you take this off my hands please?" He turned to face him directly, but still held Mathias in his awkward position. "It's sort of noisy and its dirty mind is getting a bit out of hand."
Aleksander looked not amused as usual. "Can I throw it over the edge?" He deadpanned, looking at his boyfriend being hopeless.
"Nah, that'd give such a mess."
Aleksander sighed and dragged Mathias out of his terrible position by the ear, yanking him even closer to the ground. Mathias nearly tripped, struggled, begged and tried everything he could, and Aleksander eventually let him go. He pouted at his boyfriend for the rough treatment. "Make up hug?" He asked, but Aleksander stopped him dead in his tracks by letting his boyfriend's face collide with the palm of his hand before anything else.
"Ouch, my nose!" Mathias complained, and Aleksander didn't give two shits as usual.
Matthew watched it for a few seconds, trying his very best not to snigger. "How does he put up with that?"
"Don't worry too much. It's mostly playing, and Mathias is a tough guy."
"So is Aleks, by the looks of it."
"He usually kisses it better afterwards anyway."
"He does?" Wait, Aleksander? The guy people liked to call Ice Queen? Where they talking about the same guy here?
"He does, he really does. When he thinks no one can see."
"Is that based on observations or on Mathias' bragging, because in that case I wouldn't believe a word of it."
"Unfortunately, based on my own observations." He shivered. "Word of advice: never hit the clubs with them. Never. After a night of Mathias possessing over Aleks for getting looked at and flirted with all the time, he's got a lot to kiss better."
"Too. Much. Info." Matthew smacked him against the shoulder. "And no way." He killed the idea of picking up the habit dead immediately.
Abel wanted to whine about it, but got distracted by a few of his classmates, those being Antonio and Gilbert, having a random mood and sticking their heads through the vertical safety bars, pretending to be stuck. Also that was photographed by Kiku.
Unfortunately, time disappeared into thin air when having fun, and all too soon they were in the bus back home again.
Trouillefou grabbed the microphone before they left. "Is everyone there?" He asked.
"Yes." Everyone mumbled.
"Herakles too?" He emphasized.
"Huh? Whu-Oh, yes, sir." He answered after being elbowed by Kiku, and then stared out of the window again.
"So, have you enjoyed the week here in Paris?"
Abel sniggered. "Some people more than he probably thinks." He whispered, nudging at Alfred and Arthur.
"Doh, shut it." Matthew lightly elbowed him, but sniggered as well.
When the man was done talking, they left Paris. After crossing the border hours later, it started to sink in that they were only one more hour away from home. The teachers, all sitting in the front of the buss, talked about how satisfied they were with how the trip had gone. There hadn't been any fights, aside from that little incident with Abel and Arthur who didn't have as much patience with each other as they had initially thought.
Mr. Touillefou leaned back, smiling with satisfaction. "Bennett, your class is every teacher's dream when they want to." He contently looked over his shoulder at the bus full of students.
His expression suddenly lost its glee when his eyes fell onto Antonio and Romano. The two were leaning against each other, playing with each other's fingers and sharing quick kisses any now and then.
Mr. Trouillefou's breath hitched a little in his throat at the sight and the realisation he had put those two together in one room, and that that might not have been the best decision.
The shock of his life arrived seconds later when he looked further and noticed also various other, which he now realised were, couples showing quite a bit affection to one another. Some were only asleep, but the fact they were leaning against each other was quite a dead giveaway.
He turned back into his seat with an expression that shouted 'Oh, shit!'. His naturally tanned skin was turning whiter every second. "I'm taking back what I said. Dear colleagues," He stammered. "I think you should have a look over your shoulder."
"Why, Trouille? You look like you've seen a ghost. And-oh." Also Mrs. Bennet now wore the same expression as Mr. Trouillefou. "Oh, bugger."
In the meantime, the other teachers also found out about the tiny little mistake they had made in pairing up people for the rooms. "Group-discussion!" Trouillefou exclaimed, and the teachers retreated into a small circle.
"What are we supposed to do? We've put every couple in one room except for Roderich and Elizabetha, and Toris and Felicja!" Mr. Trouillefou said in horror.
"How didn't we see that? And how are we going to explain this to their parents?!" Mr. Anderson asked.
"Oh, wow. I hadn't thought about that yet." Trouillefou admitted, entirely puzzled. "Who is good at making up excuses?"
"At least there's one positive thing:" Mr. Knox hesitantly spoke up. "Even if we go by the worst-case scenario, none of them could have possibly gotten pregnant?" The youngest teacher received a smack on the back of the head by Trouillefou.
"Hey, what?" Knox asked.
"It's often best to keep thoughts inside your head, Martin. Especially when the Trouillinator is around." Mrs. Bennett giggled.
"Be glad I never hit women, Mira." Trouillefou deadpanned.
"You did just hit Knoxie, though." She said, for which she received a smack to the back of the head by said 'Knoxie'.
Once the bus stopped, everyone got out, talking about the past week. Down below were their parents and siblings waiting for them to give them a welcome back. Matthew hadn't spotted his own parents yet, but he did find Abel's father in the crowd. How could he not? The guy towered far above everyone.
"Matty." Abel said. "My mum's there too. Wanna bring them the bombshell?"
"Sure." Matthew answered, but he was a bit uncertain. He knew that Abel's father was fine with pretty much anything, but he didn't know if the same went for his mother. And he really didn't want to think about his own parents.
"Come on, Matty. You've met her many times before." Abel said, taking his shy boyfriend by the hand. "She won't bite, I promise." He said jokingly. "Hey, mum."
"Abel, come here." The woman immediately hugged her son, yanking him down to her height and with that forcing him to let go of Matthew's hand. "How was your week?"
The teenager made a nearly choking sound in the grip of his mother. "Fun. León didn't blow up my room in the meantime, did he?"
The boy up ahead with the shoulder-length blond hair responded with an innocent pout and a long drawn-out 'noooo?'.
"Anyway." Abel broke himself out of his mother's hug. "There's been a little change in situation concerning Matthew." He started, giving him a gentle push in the back. Abel took a deep breath in before he continued. "He's my boyfriend now."
"Ah, that's nice to know." Chloé said, apparently taking the news lightly and then raised an eyebrow at her son. "And I asked if there was something you needed to tell me. 'No, mum.' you said. 'Nothing at all.' Sure."
"Mum, not now!" Abel said annoyed, as his father and Judithe were sniggering and laughing at him and his situation. His mother saw this, grabbed her husband by the arm and yanked him forward. "Willem, stop laughing. You should have seen yourself when you first took me home."
He abruptly stopped laughing and cringed. Apparently, that hadn't been a pretty moment. "Let's just...not talk about that."
Judithe wiped a tear off her cheek from laughing so hard. "How did you even get him so far?"
Abel huffed and narrowed his eyes. "Hey, at least I have a boyfriend."
Judithe abruptly stopped laughing and glared back at her twin. "Oh! Shut up! You're such an ass!"
"Oh, come on. You had it coming when you started dating the fa-bu-looous Italian." He sang that in the campest way he could manage, which was very, very camp.
While the twins were teasing each other as usual, Matthew tried reasoning with own twin. The youngest was the one of the rash actions, and he probably wouldn't think twice about breaking the good news to their mother. Luckily, Alfred was still right behind him and hadn't ran off yet. "Al. I think we should be a little careful when we tell mom about-"
But Alfred, as usual, didn't listen. He was too excited. He dragged Arthur along by his hand to his mother. "Hey mom! Look at this! I got a boyfriend, isn't that awesome?!"
Arthur protested, but even he couldn't seem to calm the weirdo down.
Matthew slapped his forehead. His brother could be so stupid it was painful. Really stupid. "Abel?"
"Hm?"
"Can you please go with me? I might have to use some of your intimidation skills on my mother after this."
Abel sniggered. "Sure."
"What?!" Matthew could hear his mother exploding from there. Oh, boy this wasn't good. Not at all.
"And we shared a room in Paris, too. Cool, right?" Alfred continued to bounce up and down like an excited puppy.
"Oh, that's nice to hear." Their father said calmly. He pushed his glasses back on his nose and smiled warmly. He was completely calm, quite the opposite of his wife. She was on the verge of exploding. "You have a what?!" The woman shouted again.
Maybe this wasn't the right moment to get over to his mother and tell her that he was now dating a tall, intimidating, possibly insane young man. On the other hand, it wasn't a good idea to let Alfred get the entire shitload of scolding. That wouldn't be fair.
"Well, there we go." He squeezed Abel's hand a little tighter and followed the noise. And just in time, it seemed. Just before Alfred could indeed get the shitload of scolding over his head, Ellen spotted Matthew.
"What, you too?!" She shouted.
"Eh...Yeah. To sum it up, Abel is my boyfriend." He said, trying his very best to look confident, but on the inside shaking and trembling.
The woman's mouth dropped wide open and she fell completely silent. "Wha-bu-how-and-What the hell?! What's wrong with you?! You never told me you were-Where is that teacher of yours?" She then went straight to the first teacher she saw: Trouillefou. She went on a shouting, yelling and swearing spree that made some students snigger and their parents place their hands in front of their younger children's ears.
"What were you thinking when you put Al and Matt in one room with a couple of faggots?! Do you even know what happened in one week?! Both my kids are now just as queer as those two pansies!"
From just a few metres distance, the five – Abel, Matthew, Alfred, Arthur and the twins' father – and watched the woman completely flip out against the poor teacher. Each and every one of them had a blank stare on their face, of which father dear wore the blankest. Thanks to having lived with his wife for a while already, he was pretty much used to her over reactive and attention-drawing nature.
"Aaand, thank you very much." Abel said at the billionth insult that was dropped.
"O-kay then." Matthew's father broke the very awkward staring moment. "Who wants to go out for dinner tonight? My treat."
"Of course." Arthur said, still staring.
"Sure." Abel said.
They stared like that for five more minutes, but the shouting spree still wasn't over.
"Then how the hell do you explain that?!" She pointed back at both Alfred and Matthew.
Trouillefou looked like he wanted to disappear into thin air. The left corner of his mouth twitched into an uneasy and very forced smile, and he leaned back as far as he possibly could while trying to remember the excuse the teachers had made up in the bus. "Eh-Paris gives you a life-changing experience?"
~o~o~o~
o_o Rest in peace, Trouillefou. You're a dead man.
Billie = New Zealand. I haven't thought of a permanent name yet, but I think I will stick to this.
I have done my very best to make the parents good characters. I hope you guys can live with them so far. You'll see more of them.
[NOTE]: Zentimeter = Centimetre, 5 cm = 1,97 In ^_^
Please leave a review. Please?