AN: oops
…
"I CAN'T DO THIS ANYMORE, KIKU. I HONESTLY CAAAAAN'T!" Feliciano whined, as he sobbed into the shoulder of his best friend.
Kiku slowly patted his back while murmuring words of comfort and sympathy.
"...waaahhh, I-I-I j-just can't b-b-believe I got a B+ i-in ma-a-ath…" Feli complained, frame shaking as his cries racked throughout his body.
Kiku sighed and looked down at the weeping mess in his arms. "Don't worry," he started, "it's not like you were the only one who got a B. Mr. Bater said that only about 25% of the class got an A on this progress report, remember? And you still have time to fix it, it's not the end of the semester yet." He paused, and then slyly added, "And I barely got an A-. I think it might go down… ah, so that means we'll just have to study together a bit more for that solid A+…"
Kuso! That was pretty smooth. He was impressed with himself.
I have an excuse to visit Feli-chan more, he smugly thought as he inwardly grinned, and then I can-
"KIKU! I UNDERSTAND!" Feliciano suddenly shouted, jerking Kiku out of his thoughts.
Eyes wide, and intensely staring up at Kiku, Feli wailed...
"WE ALL HAVE A B IN THAT CLASS BECAUSE OUR B IS FOR BATER!"
…
Kiku and Feliciano then walked to the lunch tables to meet up with the rest of their friends.
Well, it was more like "Feliciano sprinted up to the rest of their friends at the lunch tables in full Italian fleeing power (even though he wasn't fleeing from anything)".
"Whatcha get, ve? Whatcha get? I got a B+, whatcha get-" Feliciano breathlessly pestered the others.
Alfred stood up and threw an arm around Feliciano's shoulders, then said, "Whoaaa, hey, buddy, slow down, would ya?" to cut off the rest of Feli's rambling.
Once Feliciano had calmed down a bit, Alfred asked, "M'kay then, what are you talking about? B in what?"
Feliciano took a deep breath, and then started again, "Ve, I got a B+ in Geometry, what did the rest of you guys get?" He paused, and muttered to himself, "Oh wait, some of you aren't in Geometry, and some of them aren't in Bater…" Looking back up he questioned once again, "Ve, the ones in Bater's Geometry class… what grade did you get on your progress report?!"
Alfred sighed in sympathy and agreement with Feliciano.
"Dude, I have, like, a C- in that class. It's bringing my GPA down… I have A's in my other classes! ...Probably. But still, it's just that one class. I frickin hate Bater."
"Aye," said the rest of the table.
Gilbert patted Feliciano's shoulder in comfort. "Don't worry, kid. I was in Bater last year, and I barely passed Geometry to get into Algebra II. Just try to keep up with the tests, alright? I know they're really hard, and he counts those goddamn 1 question performance tasks as tests, AND that his tests are 80% of your grade… just… just try, 'kay?"
"Oh, but…" Shooting a quick glance and nod to Kiku, he continued, "this kid right here probably got an A++ on his progress report, eh? Fucking smart-ass kid." He winked at him.
Kiku raised an eyebrow at his comment, and then calmly replied, "Actually, I only got an A- on mine. I am hoping to raise that borderline grade though, by studying more with Feli-chan." With that last statement, he shot a pointed glare as a warning to Ludwig, who was sitting and eating quietly while listening to the group's conversation.
Which Ludwig was no longer able to do after Feliciano asked him, "Are you in Bater? If you are, whatcha get?"
Ludwig swallowed his bite, and replied, "No, I'm not in Bater. But I know another friend of mine, Roderich, is in Bater. I think he got a B, too."
Feliciano's expression brightened a little bit at the mention of Roderich. "I know Roderich, too! He used to come over a lot to my house when we were children."
"Ooh, are we talking about Roderich, that old prude? Ohonhon, I almost got my hands on him one time~" Francis sing-songed, leaning in towards Feliciano and Ludwig after hearing their topic while fussing over his nails.
"That's disgusting, you lecher. Stay away from me and Alfred with that filthy talk," said Arthur, who regarded Francis with a grimace on his face.
"Pftt! It's not like you haven't looked at his very fine ass too, bushy brows!" Francis shot back, glaring at his forever-frenemy, Arthur.
Arthur went red at that, though.
"Sh-shut up, frog! I deny doing such a thing!" he stuttered desperately, crossing his arms across his chest and huffing frustratedly. "Come with me, Alfred, we're leaving this table," he started, trying to tug Alfred's arm along with him.
"Get offa me, Artie," Alfred said to him. "You can go, but I want to finish my lunch."
Seeing no room for any more protest, Arthur sighed and sat down again, scowl evident on his face. "I refuse to keep my eyes off of you for even a second," he muttered to himself.
Alfred just rolled his eyes at that.
Kiku regarded them carefully.
What a strange pair, he thought.
…
Riiiiiiing!
The bell sounded like a screeching banshee, signaling to the high schoolers that lunch had ended… and unfortunately, they had to return to their mind-numbingly boring books and listen to their robotic-like teachers drone on and on and on in that generic monotone voice of theirs…
Especially for poor Kiku, because he had to go to Biology with mean, old, crabby Ms. Yetterman. And everybody knew how horrible her lessons were.
The worst part about it was that if she saw you slumping down in your seat just the slightest bit, there was a 99.99% chance she would notice. And once she did, she'd usually call on you to answer the next hardest question she would ask to the class. And if you didn't get that right, she would go on a rant about the subject, or on a rant about how bad the class was, and give everyone a lecture on the importance of listening.
It was pretty much hell, especially since usually, she didn't really teach the lesson well, so the students were left on their own to figure out the homework and concepts, or try to get it from someone from third period (which was her favorite period for some reason, but most people thought it was because she wanted to make a good impression on Ludwig, the new kid).
But unfortunately, even they were unable to get the material 9/10 times because her teaching skills were horrendous in the first place.
Seriously, this woman made her noteslides in class, drank from her Diet Coke bottles after every word (no, more like every breath), and barely answered questions that her students had. One frustrated student had even calculated it all out: she had about 5% chance of answering a student's question.
He sighed as he walked dejectedly towards her classroom.
Ah, lucky little Feliciano. Kiku knew that Feliciano got to go to his Art elective right after lunch.
He turned the last corner in the hallway to push open the door to Ms. Yetterman's Biology class.
Opening the door, he was met with the rigid silence of the students that Ms. Yetterman demanded on a daily basis. Without a sound, he stepped around the desks and slid into his own seat stationed at the long, black lab tables.
Back up straight, he looked straight and head on towards the board she used to teach her (horrible/nonexistent) lessons.
Hey, he was just trying to get on her good side! Unlike that one guy in the back… who usually slept in this class…
Kiku had even overheard from the person next to him gossip to their friend that the guy was probably going to have to retake 9th grade because of his inability to stay awake in ANY of his classes!
Pulling his attention back to the teacher, Kiku quietly and discreetly stifled a yawn that was about to escape his lips at that moment because of the utter MIND-NUMBING BORINGNESS of this class.
He dared not to make one bad move in front of the teacher in this class, even if she wasn't necessarily looking at him (and was instead looking at her computer, fat fingers slowly typing the probable lesson of the day that would never happen).
Oh boy, this was going to be a long fifth period, wasn't it?
…
"It's okay, Kiku!" Feliciano brightly said in attempt to cheer up the said person.
"Iie, Feli-chan, Iieeeeeeee!" was Kiku's turbulent reply.
Feliciano rubbed Kiku's shoulders up and down, back and forth, and tried (to no avail, unfortunately) to soothe his best friend after Kiku came out of his fifth period shaken up and shuddering, with some tears starting to leak out of his wide, frightened eyes.
It turned out that Ms. Yetterman had taken Kiku's normal expression of nonchalance and his half-lidded eyes for a look of boredom and quiet defiance. She even had the guts to call him out in front of the entire class for "looking like he was squinting at her while teaching the lesson"! She threatened to lower his participation grade, which was actually a huge part of the students' grades for that class, as only she, with her distorted way of thinking, would actually weight the grading scale so that participation points were worth more than test grades…
Of course, this had frightened Kiku greatly, as he was determined to not let his perfect score of 100% in that class waver! He had worked damn hard to assure that he got maximum points on his tests, and for the occasional times that he did not get the full 100%, he made it up by doing extra credit opportunities (which consisted mostly of turning in projects and homework early).
Meanwhile, in the background, everyone else who is forced to take her class because of the 9th grade requirements of high school is dying with an A- (which was Feliciano's case), or much, much lower…
He was so glad that he didn't take the AP class for this… which was also taught by Ms. Yetterman…
…
"Ve, what a long day!"
Feliciano walked out of his last class and met Kiku at the bus stop for the final embark of the week. Leaning on Kiku for support, he sighed in exasperation from the mundane routine of school.
"I don't want to do ANOTHER DBQ for History… and I was looking forward to studying math with you! Well, not studying, because no one likes studying, but spending time with you, ve!" Feliciano whined.
Kiku pondered this for a quick moment, and then placated his friend with, "Well, we can still work on the DBQ together. You can come over whenever."
"Yeeeaaaah, but I don't want to write five paragraphs… didn't we do that last week?!"
Smirking, Kiku replied, "Iie, Feli-chan, we did it last month."
Feliciano's eyes popped open and his eyebrows raised in surprise. "Ve, what?! Wow, time passes by so fast! But whatever! That's still too much homework for the weekend- wait… is that Ludwig?"
Looking to the right of them, Feliciano gestured to the tall, bulky figure with blond hair that was indeed Kiku's worst enemy… Ludwig Beilschmidt.
Feliciano perked up immediately and gasped in excitement.
"Wooooow, ve, Im'a go over and talk with him! He looks so cool and macho just standing there!" he said, taking his resting chin off of Kiku's shoulder, and energetically bouncing towards their friend (or rather, Feli's friend, and Kiku's current archenemy).
"Luddy! Luddyluddyluddyluddyluddyciaociaociaociaociaociao!" Feliciano sang out… and accidentally (or was it?) bumping into the blonde-haired boy.
But Ludwig was too late in noticing the speeding Italian boy coming towards him at full speed to fully prepare himself for the impact.
"Oof!" he grunted. "Gah, Feliciano, get off of me," he said as he pried the cuddly boy off of him.
"Veveve, I didn't know you ride the bus too Luddy! I've never ever ever seen you around! I thought you walked home or something!" Feliciano brightly asked, clearly happy to see his friend again.
Ludwig rolled his eyes, but if you looked close enough, you could find just the barest hint of tiny smile turning up at the edges of his lips at Feliciano's antics.
"Well… today I am riding the bus because I must go to stay over at one of my relative's place today, as my parents are currently taking care of my sickly grandmother right now."
Feliciano nodded slowly in understanding. "Ve, hope your grandma gets better! Wait, what about Gilbert?" Cocking his head slightly in questioning, he looked earnestly up at Ludwig.
Ludwig raised an eyebrow.
"Haven't you been friends with him for… how many years now? Don't you know that he always goes over to Francis's after school by now?"
"Yeah, but he only goes on Monday's, because he has football practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and he usually goes home on Friday's to help your parents."
Ludwig shrugged. "Well, he's going to Francis's today…"
"And you're going to some relative? Silly Ludwig! You could've asked to stay at my house! We're friends!" Feliciano grinned at him and nuzzled up against him.
At this point in their conversation, Kiku decided to make himself and his thoughts known after clearing his throat and interjecting, "Yes, of course Ludwig-san, and I will be there as well."
It was then that Ludwig noticed that something wasn't quite right in Kiku and Feliciano's relationship. He had suspected it before, but Kiku's statement confirmed it now.
Yes, Kiku Honda was most certainly in love with his one and only best friend, Feliciano Vargas. Quite a bit possessive over him, too.
And poor Feli didn't have a single clue.
Ludwig wasn't really sure at the time, but something - maybe the tone, the look in Kiku's eyes as he said it, the hand possessively resting on Feliciano's little shoulder - something in that attitude of Kiku's as he said that interjection just made him tick past the point of no return.
"Well, my relative isn't going to actually be in the house for some time... and she definitely won't mind if I stay at a friend's for the time being, so I guess I could stay with you, Feliciano… if you are sure you don't mind?"
Feliciano smiled and clapped with glee.
Kiku quietly seethed from behind him.
Oh, that night was going to be a fun night.
…
AN - :')