By the time lunch was nearing its end, Lovino hadn't said a single word relating the situation. He had however, eaten his lunch and begun to talk about other things.

Gilbert was quite accepting of that, and didn't mind the silence that they shared that lunch time. Matthew had come over halfway through and sat down beside Lovino. The Italian could see the two other males blushing slightly, and he knew that the two of them really needed to talk about their feelings because it was frustrating to listen to their pining when he knew that they both liked each other.

"Then the unawesome jerk got me out right at the very end! And what's worse, he rubbed it in my face afterwards, saying 'you should have become one with me, da?'"

"You know, Ivan's not a bad guy if you get to know him Gil," came Matthew's reply, a soft blush on his face as he placed a hand on the white winged male's shoulder.

This action caused Gilbert to blush, and he looked away, but didn't pull away from the contact. "Whatever, you have fun with Ivan then," he said, his wings fluffing up a little. It was kind of obvious that he was jealous, but Lovino didn't say anything about it, and nor did Matthew.

"Geez," the Italian murmured, fixing up his hair a little. "You two, my house, four," he said, standing up and stretching before he started to walk off. When he was speaking that way, it wasn't because he was intending to be rude, he was just not in the best mood. Although he had improved from earlier, things were still so confusing at the moment.

Matthew and Gilbert didn't mind, turning to each other with a blush once he had left. After a (very awkward) goodbye, they too headed off in seperate directions to get to their locker quickly.

After he went to his locker, Lovino headed to his next few classes that included chemistry (with Gilbert and Francis), physics (alone) and German (with Matthew; Gilbert was learning french). The day blurred away, and by the end of it he'd lost most, if not all the bitterness that he'd previously held.

—

By the time he'd trudged home in the heat, he was rather tired, but at least he'd managed to avoid the Spaniard for the rest of the day. Well, avoid talking to him, that is. He couldn't lie that he'd noticed the other staring at him in the hallway, looking like he wanted to say something. He didn't though, maybe Gilbert had asked him not to... either way, he wasn't sure about how that had made him feel.

Roughly two minutes after getting home, there was a knock on the door, followed by voices. Lovino opened it, greeted with the blushing faces of his two friends. They didn't need to be asked to come in, but Lovino did anyway, mumbling a greeting and closing the door behind them.

The house was empty aside from the three of them, with his grandfather out and Feliciano presumably at Ludwig's. He knew that the younger German really wasn't a bad guy, but he was still slightly bitter about the fact that he was always with Feliciano. Partially because he wasn't as fond of Ludwig, and partially because he was jealous of how good of a relationship the pair had. He doubted that anyone would ever look at him the way they looked at each other, not when he had such a crappy personality.

"Come on," he said with a sigh, walking up to his room and taking off his sweater. His wings had gotten sore from being folded all day, so it was nice to stretch them and relieve the pain. Wings weren't meant to be folded up all day, they were meant for flying. Most people only ever folded them for convenience sake, and they would only ever do that for couple of hours a day at the most. Lovino was different, he kept them folded for at least six hours every day, most days more. It wasn't very good for his wings, but at this point he didn't really care.

His friends, however, seemed to think that his wings were a very important thing.

"Lovino! Gott, when was the last time you took care of your wings?" came the somewhat startled voice of Gilbert, who was looking at the crumpled feathers. Lovino hadn't preened them in a few weeks, not seeing the need to worry about them. It wasn't like anyone but them would be seeing his wings anyway, they were his best kept secret... apart from all the other well kept secrets about his past, some of which not even Gilbert or Matthew knew about.

The latter had seen his wings on accident one time, which was actually the beginning of their friendship. Lovino had hung around Matthew for a while to see if he could trust him not to blab his secret, and then just never left. There was no point hiding his wings from the Canadian when he already knew about them. And then Gilbert... it was a long story, but Lovino had willingly showed them to the albino after a couple of months of a friendship that was bound to last.

A sigh escaped his lips, he should have known that at least one of the two of them would mention the state of his wings. "A couple of weeks, at least, but it's no big deal," said Lovino, moving and sitting on the bed.

"That is a massive deal! You know we hate it when you don't look after your wings."

"Gilbert's right, even if you don't like your wings now, you never know what the future holds. You just might find someone that changes your mind about them, then you'll be glad," Matthew said softly, sitting down across from Lovino and patting the navy covers as an indication for Gilbert to sit down as well. "So, what is it that you wanted to talk about? I saw something happen in English, but I couldn't tell what it was from where I was sitting. And turn around."

Lovino sighed, waiting for Gilbert to be seated before he did as asked and turned. The other two began taking care of the mess of feathers that he called his wings. While this was usually something very personal that only significant other's or family would ever do for someone else, Lovino was a different case. He felt like Gilbert and Matthew were more of his family than many of his blood relatives, and often trusted them more with secrets than he did his grandfather and Feliciano. Lovino began to talk, knowing that they wouldn't let him get away without some sort of an explanation. Not after how he was acting earlier.

"It was just the tomato bastard being annoying again," he said, fiddling with the hem of his red shirt, looking down. It was a lame answer and they all knew it, but he wasn't sure if he was ready to talk about everything yet.

Matthew's voice was concerned and gentle, almost a little pleading. "Vino, it was more than that, and we both know it. Did he say something that upset you?"

"He didn't upset me, not really. Well, he did, but it wasn't his fault, it was just me being stupid. I was rude to him after he asked me if I had a good first lesson, but then he was kind in return! And he's like that all the time, no matter what I do, he still seems to find something good to say about me."

"And that's a bad thing? Isn't it good that you have someone else that wants to be your friend?" Gilbert was the one who spoke up this time, tilting his head as he continued removing the crumpled feathers from Lovino's right wing. A focused look was on his face as he did his best to preen the brightly coloured feathers.

Lovino shook his head, glancing over his shoulder at them for a brief moment. "That's part of the problem, that bastard shouldn't want to be friends with me. I'm a load of emotional shit, I curse like a sailor and haven't said anything nice to him the whole time I've known him."

Gilbert sighed, thinking for a moment and smoothing out some of the other's feathers. "I haven't known him for long, but that's just how Antonio is. He's willing to see past the surface, no matter how crude. And sure, you have baggage, but you know very well that I do too."

"But every time, every single time I feel like I'm starting to not mind his company, he goes off and talks to someone else. It's just so fucking confusing, and it drives me crazy."

"It almost sounds like you're jealous, if I didn't know any better," said Matthew thoughtfully, already about half way through the process of preening. Gilbert turned to Matthew and gave him a look about what the Canadian had just said, silently questioning why he had said that.

"Fuck no, why would I be jealous? I have no reason to be, it's not like we're friends."

"Capital B and lower case a indeed."

"Shut up, Gil, I'm being serious here. There's no way in hell that I would ever get jealous over that bastard."

"If you say so~"

"Oh? What about you, getting all jealous because of Ivan earlier today."

"That was one time! Besides, it was perfectly understandable, I don't want him to steal my Birdie away."

"He isn't yours until you ask him out and he says yes, Gil. It's not hard, and I'm sure that he'll say yes."

"Guys..." Matthew said softly, looking down away from Gilbert. Even if they were only teasing each other a little, there were still things that they needed to discuss, and the way that the pale skinned make beside him was talking about some mystery guy (mystery guy being 'Birdie' and therefore Matthew) was making him jealous himself. "Aren't we meant to be talking about Lovino and Antonio?"

"As much as the bastard annoys me, it's not like I'm going to spend my whole afternoon talking about him." Lovino shook his head at Matthew, sighing. Could he be jealous of Antonio? He didn't want to believe it, not when he'd only known the other male for a week.

Seeing that his friend was not likely to elaborate any more on the situation, and that he probably needed some time to think things through, Matthew nodded in understanding. "Okay, Lovino," he said quietly, stopping the preening to pull out his phone.

The Canadian smiled (in reality it was more like a smirk) and picked out a particular song, starting to play it. Lovino groaned, but didn't put in any other complaints, while Gilbert just tilted his head in confusion.

"Work, work, Angelica~"

"Dammit, Matthew," he muttered, beginning to sing himself, though less enthusiastically than Matthew. "Work, work, Eliza."

"And Peggy!" the Canadian chimed in with a smile, beginning to preen once more.

The pair continued to sing the song, not missing a single lyric, and it almost seemed like an inside joke. It left the albino in the room in much confusion, but he didn't dare interrupt their song, they seemed to be enjoying it. Besides, he'd not gotten to hear Matthew sing like this before, and it was an opportunity too good to miss.

Once the song was over, Matthew fell into a fit of laughter, something he rarely did unless around people that he was really comfortable with. He was usually self conscious about his laugh and voice, but not around the other two. Gilbert was his crush, yes, but the 'Prussian' was his friend too and he was happy to be around him.

"You, uh, have a nice laugh." Gilbert said, interrupting his fit of laughter and causing the Canadian to blush. The room fell silent as Gilbert looked away, already regretting saying something since it seemed to have ruined the mood.

Matthew took it slightly differently, though. Time seemed to stop for the other male as he comprehended that his crush had actually just said that. It both boosted his self confidence to hear that but also made him confused as to why the other would have said that. He spoke up after a moment, his hand unconsciously sliding a little closer to Gilbert's. "Thank you, Gil. You know, yours is pretty awesome too, it's unique."

The pale skinned teen's cheeks flushed a soft pink after hearing that, and he tried to hide it with no results. Even so, he put on a genuine grin and replied back to him. "You know it, but it's nowhere nearly as awesome as yours Mattie! Kesesese~"

Gilbert thought that his laugh was weird, but Matthew didn't seem to mind it and seemed to like it. Upon hearing Gilbert laugh, the other male had smiled softly and chuckled quietly, seeming to brighten up.

None of their interactions went unnoticed by Lovino, but the Italian stayed silent so as not to interrupt their moment. He could already tell that the pair of them really liked each other, he would go so far as to call it love. It was only a matter of time before they got together, and it made him feel more lonely than before.

A part of him yearned for a relationship, to have someone that would love him for him even through his flaws, to have someone that would look at him the way that the two of them looked at each other. He already felt that way when he saw Feliciano and Ludwig, but seeing his two best friends that happy too? Of course he wanted them to be happy, but he couldn't help but feel longing when he saw them together.

But it was more than that too, seeing the pair of them in front of him made him wonder what would happen when they did get together. He didn't have any doubts that they would, some way or another, so it was just a matter of when. When they did get together, what would happen to him? They were the people he most hung out with, and if they were ever going out on dates he didn't want to third wheel.

He was broken from his thoughts when he heard Gilbert speak again, and felt their hands begin to preen his wings again.

"What even was that song?"

"It's from a musical, 'Bert. I'd advise not to get involved, or this guy will probably force you to sing it." Lovino told him quietly, his voice seeming a little more empty than before. It went unnoticed though, which he didn't know whether to be thankful or sad about.

"Musicals? I've never actually listened to a musical before." Gilbert admitted, turning to Matthew with another smile.

Said Canadian looked over to him at the same time and returned the smile, his tone clearly showing that he was in a good mood. "You've missed out, I'll have to introduce you one day."

"Sure! How about tomorrow afternoon at my place?"

"Really? I finally get to meet the new puppy?"

Gilbert nodded in response, his voice becoming excited as he talked about the new puppy that he'd gotten the previous week. Lovino hadn't met the pup either, but Gilbert had promised to let him meet him on the weekend.

"Ja, of course! You're welcome too, Vino." Gilbert turned to his other friend, tilting his head. The other seemed to have reverted to his mood from earlier in the day, which was reason to worry a little. The Prussian didn't know what had happened, and thought back on the conversation to try and figure out what they could have done wrong. All that came to his mind was blank thoughts, and Matthew shook his head when he turned to silently ask about it.

"I think I'm going to pass. I'm pretty sure I could recite every Hamilton lyric with the amount of times I've heard it." Lovino sighed once he'd finished speaking and looked down, pulling out his phone and scrolling through the web.

"It wasn't that many times, V," Matthew said softly, wondering if that was what it was all about. It didn't make sense, though, he knew that his friend loved hanging out and singing along like that every now and then. There was something up, and he had not a clue what it could be.

The Italian looked over his shoulder and shook his head, running a hand through his hair (away from that stray curl). "We've listened to it twenty seven times. And those are the times that I've counted, leaving out the others."

"At least it's not that crappy pop music that people think is good nowadays, eh?"

Lovino nodded slightly and rolled his eyes. "That stuff doesn't deserve to be called music, Matthew. Just like ballet isn't a real sport."

"Try telling that to eight year old Francis! Gott, it was hilarious, but he used to love ballet. It wasn't so much that he liked ballet, but the fact that he would wear a tutu instead of the normal costumes." Gilbert said with a chuckle, nudging Matthew who nodded. He was trying to cheer up the Italian but it didn't seem to have much of an effect as he'd hoped it would.

"Oh, I still have pictures! I'm saving them for his 21st, though, it'll be perfect to embarrass my cousin with. Anyway, I'm done now, Vino." Matthew had picked up on this as well, but even the mention of the Frenchman doing something ridiculous with photo evidence available didn't do anything.

"Ja, I'm finished too," the white winged male said, moving the pile of old, crumpled feathers into the bin that was near the bed.

Lovino stretched his wings, and stretched himself, turning around to face the other two males. This way it was a lot more obvious that something was wrong, but nobody brought it up just yet, they knew better.

"Thanks, you guys," he said, sealing the plastic bag from the bin and standing up. "I'm going to chuck these out before someone finds my feathers, you're welcome to grab a snack from the kitchen. Or watch a movie or something, I don't care. I won't be long."

With that, Lovino left the room, chucking the black, non see through garbage bag into an indoor trash can (which they only had for chucking out stuff like used dental floss and rubbish that wasn't recyclable or food related). He didn't know what he was feeling, or what he should do with the emotions he felt.

—

(A/N)

The challenge for guessing what 'upper case B' and 'lower case a' means is still on. I put in some more clues in this chapter.