Today he was going to do a better job. Today would be the real beginning. Today would start it all.

Alfred walked confidently towards his first period class with a bit of a smug smile on his face. He had spent a good part of the night before working on a devious plan to figure out just what the heck was up with that new British kid. And just this morning, he'd met with Kiku early to share it with him. Of course, his friend had made some improvements to it, but he'd still agreed that it was awesome.

Alfred's curiosity had always been one of his weakest, though perhaps also strongest, points of his character. And this new kid was bugging the heck out of him. He was this big mystery, and Alfred was itching to figure out more about him. But it wasn't like he was interested in him as a friend or anything. Psh, the Brit was too big a jerk for that. He just wanted to get rid of this nagging sensation that there was some really interesting story behind the guy. Yeah, that was it. Plus, if it turned out that he was hiding some really big evil secret, then Alfred could totally be the hero and save everyone. Oh yeah, that'd be tight. Girls digged the hero types.

His thoughts traveled back to the super-duper plan that he had thought up. Kiku would probably be starting it right about now. Even though it sucked for the most part, their widely differing class schedules were actually coming in handy right now, because it gave them more time throughout the day to enact the Master Plan. Basically, the idea was to force the new kid to talk to them, get him to loosen up a little. Then they could start drilling him for information later on. Alfred would be doing all the interrogation business, so Kiku's only job was really just to act like his normal polite self to the Brit. The plan was pretty simple, actually. Most of Alfred's "planning" the night before had just been him imagining all the stuff that the kid could be hiding.

Alfred came to his Spanish classroom and sat down next to his friend Antonio, who was already bugging Lovino. "Lovi~! You are coming over to my house after school today, right?"

The Italian in question blushed furiously. "Jerk, you don't have to announce it to everybody!"

"Aw, what's wrong Lovi? I just wanted to make sure you're still coming!"

Alfred snickered. "What're you two meeting for?" he asked.

Antonio beamed at the American. "We're going to pick tomatoes in my garden! Lovi loves tomatoes!"

Lovino looked positively murderous. Though for him, that was pretty normal, especially in reference to the Spaniard. "Shut up already! Geez!"

"Aw, Lovi, you look just like a tomato yourself right now! Ahaha~!" Alfred always had been amazed at how easily the Spaniard angered Lovino. It was probably lucky for Antonio's life that the school rumors of the real relationship between those two apparently hadn't reached the Italian's ears yet.

Though really, the two of them made for a good first period class. He wondered how Kiku was doing right now.

Kiku was feeling nervous, to be honest. He was often nervous in general, but today he was especially so. He tried to always be quiet and polite, as he had adopted from his Japanese upbringing, but being friends with such a loud and brash character as Alfred F. Jones often made the latter difficult, since the boy often just plain needed some harsh words to keep him from destroying the school. But now his friend had requested his help in other one of his "plans." Kiku enjoyed being friends with the boy, since he was always interesting and was certainly loyal, but when it came to his spontaneous ideas, Kiku often preferred to stay out of them for the sake of his own personal record. Alfred may not have taken school very seriously, but Kiku was determined to stay out of trouble.

This new plan of his, however, certainly appeared to be benign enough. It seemed that Kiku's words from the day before actually had affected the American. Alfred said now that he simply wanted to find out more about the new British student, Arthur Kirkland, though Kiku doubted that his friend did not have other hidden intentions behind this. However, he was curious about Arthur as well, which was strange for him, seeing as he often tried to avoid meeting new people. But because of this curiosity, he had agreed to assist Alfred in this plan. Surely even the American could not have anything too bad in store for the boy. He hoped.

Kiku's first class of the day was Biology, and he happened to have been assigned Arthur as a lab partner. The teacher, Mr. Jolapu, had informed the class that today would be somewhat of a class bonding day, and so everybody had to work with their partners to complete a series of tasks given to them.

Alright, he decided, preparing himself to actually talk to somebody today. He turned to Arthur, who sat right next to him. "A-ah, hello," he stammered. "H-how are you doing today?" How did Alfred handle things like this all of the time? He already felt like a ball of frizzed nerves! That was the expression, was it not? Oh dear.

But despite Kiku's inner demons of confusion, the Brit reacted smoothly. "I am doing well, thank you. And you?"

Kiku blinked in surprise. The boy's personality appeared to be completely different from the day before. "I am doing well, too," he replied politely.

"Well then, shouldn't we get on this worksheet? We don't want to waste too much time."

"Y-yes, of course." Well, it seemed that it would be easier to be of assistance to Alfred after all, if the new student was going to be as sociable as this now. Arthur seemed to have had a complete personality makeover from the day before. It was a relief to him, personally. Trying to reach out to people was not his forte. He preferred to quietly follow what others were doing.

And Arthur seemed perfectly willing to take the leader position, of sorts. "It looks like we've got a bit of a pop quiz here." He frowned. "Do you know anything about Eukaryotic cells? I did know, but it seems to have completely escaped me at the moment."

Kiku looked at the question on his own worksheet. "Ah, I believe the answer is that they have organelles, while Prokaryotic cells do not." Oh dear. He felt like he had said that in the wrong manner. Should he have instead pretended to puzzle it out as well? Or was simply stating the answer the right thing to do after all?

"Oh, is that it? I remember now, that makes sense."

The Japanese boy sighed inwardly in relief. This talking to people business really was stressful, especially when his goal was to make a new friend. It was not just for Alfred that he was doing this for, either – he sincerely wished to get to know this new student better. But because he was very inexperienced, he was very afraid of doing or saying the wrong thing.

Arthur was mumbling something down at the paper as he tapped his pencil against the desk. "Ah, sorry, could you please speak up? I am afraid I did not hear you," Kiku asked. He was worried that he was being too forward by asking this, but if Arthur was asking him a question, he did not want to look like he was ignoring the boy.

The boy looked up and stopped tapping his pencil. "Oh, it's nothing really. I was just talking to myself. Or, well… Some of these problems are a review from Chemistry, and I, er, never took that class. In my, er, old school, the cycle of science classes was a little different."

Kiku was surprised. He had been under the impression that most schools operated under the same rotation – Physics, then Chemistry, then Biology. How far away had Arthur come from? "I see," he said, cautiously. He was curious, but he did not want to nose into the boy's business. However, this was a good chance to learn more about him, and Alfred had strongly suggested to him many times that learning about other people was a good way to make friends. Alright, he was going to take this chance. "Please pardon me for asking, but where did you go to school before? I have not heard of any schools in this area that offered a different rotation of science classes."

"Er, that is…" The boy seemed flustered.

Oh no, had he gone too far? "E-excuse me, that was inappropriate for me to ask. Please forget I asked," Kiku said quickly.

"No, no, it's fine. I, er, I lived in England before." For some reason, the boy seemed embarrassed by this fact, and he looked away quickly.

Thank goodness, it seemed that Arthur did not hate him for being too forward. Kiku relaxed slightly, comforted by the fact that he seemed to be doing well so far. "England? That is very far away. What made your family decide to move to America?"

That was a poor decision. Arthur instantly tensed up. "Er, I'd prefer to not discuss that at the moment, if that's fine with you." His words sounded more forced than they had before, as if Kiku had bridged on a touchy subject. "Shall we get back to the task at hand? We ought to try and get as much of this worksheet done as we can."

Kiku's eyes widened. "I apologize for my rude behavior," he said, somehow managing to bow deeply while still sitting at his desk. "Please pardon me, I went too far."

Arthur's gaze softened. "No, it's fine, really. I just would rather not talk about it for the time being."

"I understand," Kiku replied, though his behavior remained like that of a whipped dog. He should not have followed Alfred's advice so far. Now the boy whom he had hoped to make friends with most likely hated him. And things had been so much nicer seeming between the two of them than yesterday, too.

For the rest of the period, Kiku and Arthur worked together on the long worksheet. They did continue with light conversation, but both of them firmly made sure that the topic did not again stray into either of their personal lives.

To borrow one of Alfred's phrases, I would say that that was a bust, Kiku thought as the bell rang to signal the end of the period. But as he finished gathering his papers and started to leave for his next period, he heard Arthur call out behind him: "Wait!"

Kiku waited at the doorway, and he saw Arthur hurrying to pack his bag. He was rather astonished that the boy would call out for him after going through such an awkward moment, but he did not let the emotion show plainly on his face.

Arthur finished packing his own papers and went to catch up to the Japanese boy. "Er, well, we have the same class next period, don't we? We might as well walk over together. Have a bit of company and all that." Though his voice stayed level, he face flushed slightly, and in a flash of insight, Kiku understood that the British boy was feeling every bit as awkward as himself.

Kiku simply nodded, pleased that he had not done so badly at attempting to make a new friend as he had thought.

"Kikuuuuu!"

The person in question was suddenly attacked from behind.

"A-Alfred-san! Please, control yourself!" Kiku exclaimed as he tried to disentangle himself from the American's grasp.

"Aw, c'mon, I was just having fun! We're friends, right? Friends do that kind of thing all the time!"

"Regardless, I ask of you to refrain from doing that to me!" Kiku's face was fully flustered. "With a cousin like mine, I can only handle so much!"

"Cousin? Oh, you mean that Yong Soo guy?" Finally realizing his friend's discomfort, Alfred released him from his hold. "Sorry dude, I wasn't thinking, I guess." Yeah, no wonder Kiku'd reacted weirdly just now. You would too if you had a cousin who grabbed at your chest every chance he got, even if he knew very well that you were a boy. That guy was just weird.

Kiku was still looking kind of freaked out, but he calmed down quickly. "Yes, that is who I meant. But I apologize, I did not mean to yell at you. That was impolite of me."

"Kiku, dude, it's cool. You should loosen up more! You don't need to apologize so much. Anyways," he said, his voice lowering to a dull roar as he sat down at a nearby table, "so how did your super secret ninja mission go?"

The Japanese boy sat down across from him and looked up with a blank stare that all too plainly said What?

"You know, my plan! From this morning!" Even with Kiku lacking in his enthusiasm, Alfred was undaunted.

Comprehension filled Kiku's eyes. "Ah, well, I am not sure how to answer that question. I did not feel comfortable asking Arthur-san about his personal life, but we did get along well. He appears to be in a much better mood today than yesterday"

"That's cool and all, but…" Alfred pouted. "Didn't you learn anything? Like, anything that'd prove that he's actually some really evil guy who's trying the brainwash the student body by pouring mind-control juice into the cafeteria food or something?"

Kiku immediately shook his head in protest. "No, nothing like that. He appears to be perfectly normal, Alfred-san."

"Aw, that sucks. So what did he talk about?"

"We were busy with the class assignment, so we did not get a chance to talk much," Kiku said carefully. "But he did mention a couple of things. There was nothing of much importance, however."

"Hey, for spies, all information is good information! Spill what you collected, agent Honda! …tell me what he said!" he added, seeing his friend's eyes cloud over with confusion again.

"He said that he was raised in England, but then he moved to America, most likely not too long ago. I learned this because his science background was different from ours; the rotation of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology was different for him over there," Kiku explained.

Alfred looked slightly crestfallen. He had expected something more, at least. He didn't know what he'd been expecting exactly, but something interesting, in any case. "Is that all you guys talked about?" he asked. "Seems like a pretty boring conversation."

"I did not want to continue it after that, because I made the foolish mistake of asking Arthur-san why his family had moved, and he grew uncomfortable and asked to stop."

The American leaned forward. Now this was something interesting! So the Brit was hiding something about his family, was he? "Awesome!" he yelled out, his face breaking out into a grin.

At a nearby table, an affronted self-proclaimed Prussian's face twisted. "Oi, Alfred! That's my word, you can't use its awesomeness so lightly!" Gilbert called. Next to him, his brother applied his hand to his forehead in a motion that seemed far too well practiced.

Alfred turned his giant grin at the two of them, then turned back to Kiku. "Alright, I can definitely get something more out of him, just watch me!" he said confidently, his voice settling back down to what amounted to a normal speaking voice for the American.

"Alfred-san, please excuse me, but I don't think that's such a good—"

"Don't worry, Kiku! It's my responsibility to protect the school, since I'm the hero and all, so I've gotta look into this guy, right? There's no way he isn't hiding some big secret, the way he's acting!"

"Yes, but that does not mean we should pry—"

"But he could be a spy or something! We've gotta check him out!"

Kiku sighed to himself. Sometimes, there was just no use talking to Alfred. Not when he was in his "hero mode," anyways. When he got interested in something, he got downright obsessed with it. He really should not have agreed to assist the American, in retrospect. Though they had barely met, Arthur seemed to be a fairly nice person, and Kiku did not want Alfred to damage the boy's chances of continuing to bud out.

Alfred chose to take his friends silence as affirmation that he was right. "See? Ok, so here's the plan for the rest of the day. I'll try and—"

He suddenly broke off and started making frantic hand signals to Kiku, who watched, confused. Before he could figure out what the American was doing, he was tackled from behind for the second time that morning.

"Cousin!"

Talk about speaking of the devil. It was like the Korean had some sensor for his name popping up in conversation, even if they had long since moved on from the topic of him.

"Y-Yong Soo! Please get off of me!" Kiku pleaded faintly.

"But cousin! Our next class is together! We should walk with each other! Cousins should stick together, da ze!" He sounded innocent enough, but Yong Soo's hands were quickly approaching a not-altogether-appropriate place on Kiku, as they too often did. "And your breasts belong to me, so the rest of you should come with me too, da ze!"

Kiku looked beseechingly at Alfred as his Korean relative dragged him off. Alfred couldn't really do anything, though. He wasn't crazy enough to get mixed up with that weirdo and get his "breasts" seized as well. Instead, he flashed his friend an apologetic look as he grabbed his bag and headed over to his next class, since the bell was about to ring anyways. "Sorry, Kiku! Meet me here after school, 'kay? I'll share the results of my awesome plan of awesomeness with you then!" he called.

Alfred heard Gilbert groan in mock protest again, but he just chose to ignore him.

Arthur spent his break period a little differently. He didn't really have anyone to talk to, of course, but even if he had, he had a bit of an issue at the moment that took greater priority. He had done well hiding it during his classes, but it needed to be confronted before anything could happen. As soon as his English class ended and break began, he quickly went for the most secluded area he could find, in this case being behind a bunch of bushes next to the gym. It was a fairly good hiding spot, actually. There was a bit of a hollow in the middle of the shrubbery, like a cave of sorts. He made a note of the exact location in case he needed to use it again later.

But back to the matter at hand. He turned to face the figure he'd known had been following him all day so far. "Mint," he hissed in a low voice. "Just what do you mean by coming here?"

Mint was obviously not surprised to have been caught. She immediately put her hands on her hips and pouted. "But it'd be so boring to just stay around home all day, every day! Watching you at school sounds so much more interesting!"

"Mint, I don't care, you really can't be here! People will see you!"

The sprite made an exasperated sound. "Arthur, you know you're practically the only human who actually pays attention to the Fay anymore. And like I said before, there aren't many of us who ever actually come to this world in the first place, so I doubt that many people even believe in us here, much less be able to see me. It's fine."

"But I see you! And you're bloody distracting!"

"W-what? How so? I was even trying to stay out of your way so you wouldn't notice me!"

"You've been constantly flitting around the classroom like a manic, making comments on practically every other thing anybody said, and I've been constantly worried that you'd bump into something or make some other kind of huge mess. Did you honestly think I wouldn't notice you at all?"

"…"

They both knew that there wasn't really anything Mint could say to that. It was hard to deny something that was so blatantly the truth.

…but the awkward silence was starting to get to them.

Arthur sighed. "Look, I'm fine with you being out of the house during the day, since there really isn't much I can do about that anyways, and it would be unfair to keep you cooped up. But please, stop going so crazy. Couldn't you at least go in some other classrooms?"

"But it's more fun to watch you," Mint stated plainly.

"Mint…"

"I'll be super quiet from now on! You won't even notice I'm there! I promise!"

That was a big fat lie and they both knew it. But Arthur supposed that he could just ignore her like he had been before. His spy work in the past was really coming in handy for being able to constantly play it cool. And hopefully she would calm down a little, at least, since she knew he'd be watching her.

"Fine. But be quiet, alright?"

"Woo!" The sprite flew in loops around the enclosed space in celebration.

"Mint, that is exactly what you just said you would not do."

"Oh come on, this isn't the classroom! Nobody can see us in here, and it's not like I'm distracting you from anything."

Arthur heard the school bell ringing in the distance. "Well, now I am going to be in a classroom, so you might as well calm down now!" he said, picking up his bag and quickly crawling out from the hideaway. Once out, he stood up and dusted himself off, not that he'd really gotten dirty. He looked back at Mint, who was lingering next to the bushes still. "Well, come on. Or do you not want to come anymore? I'm still perfectly willing to change my mind."

"No, no, I'm coming!" Mint replied hastily. She flew up and sat on his shoulder, and Arthur hurried to his next class.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Gaaaaaah.

Gah.

It was only Alfred's second day of having English with the creepy Russian kid, Ivan, but it was seriously creeping him out. Somehow, the psycho managed to sit behind him that day.

Do. Not. Want.

He was seriously starting to consider requesting a schedule change. If only the office would accept "I don't want to be in the same room as a crazy psychopathic Russian for an hour every day" as a good reason to change classes. Because in his mind, it was certainly a very good and logical reason.

At least it was lunch time! And today he'd brought hamburgers! Oh frabjous day!

…shut up. Jabberwocky was an awesome poem. It beat the pants out of any of those dusty old poems by other English authors that he had to read for his Literature class last year. Speaking of English...wasn't that the British kid over there? Aha, a chance! Alfred hadn't known that the boy had the same lunch as him. He'd been trying to figure out how to talk to the guy during their classes together, but this would be much easier!

Alfred started to walk over to the Brit, but stopped when he noticed something odd. Was the guy seriously talking to himself? Yeah, the guy obviously didn't have any friends yet, but still, this was weird. He was alone at his table, and he was all hunched over like he didn't want anyone to see what he was doing. That alone was pretty weird, because it seemed like the guy had the best posture Alfred had ever seen.

Time to do some super secret spy work!

Alfred tried to be all ninja and sneak up on the Brit. Of course, he couldn't really approach from this angle, since he was right in the guy's line of sight, so he had to first sneak around the long way so he would be in the Brit's blind spot. He…may have stumbled over one or two chairs on his way and emitted a few swears and sharp cries of pain, but he was sure his target wouldn't notice. He was too ninja for that.

But when he finally made his way around and was "sneaking" up on the Brit, he was disappointed to find that the boy had already finished up with whatever it was he was trying to hide, and was back to sitting up straight.

Oh well, he could still talk to him. And besides that, he was getting hungry. He might as well sit next to him and eat already. The hamburger was calling him! It looked like the Brit still hadn't noticed him, so he smoothly walked up behind him and, taking the seat next to him, sat down.

The boy looked up, and his face morphed through a series of emotions – surprised, confused, annoyed – and settled on a scowl. He scowled a lot, Alfred noticed. "What do you want?" he asked.

"Well, I'm hungry, and nobody else is at this table. It's kinda rude to hog this table all to yourself, you know," Alfred said cheerfully, a grin plastered on his face.

"But there are plenty of other tables. Surely you could find somebody else to sit with." The scowl deepened.

"Um… What, do you want to sit alone? I was just trying to be nice to the new kid," Alfred shot back defensively. That was a total lie though. He wasn't doing this to be nice, exactly. He just wanted to pump the kid for information so he could save the school from evil! Hero to the rescue!

"Maybe I do," the Brit said simply.

"Too late, I'm hungry. I'm eating." With that, he pulled his lunch from his bag and started chowing down. He noticed the pained look that appeared on the Brit's face. "What, you don't like hamburgers?" he asked, astounded.

"Why would I like such disgusting food as that? I don't understand how you can stomach that garbage."

Alfred felt offended. "It's not like they have better food in England. I bet your taste buds are just ruined from eating that awful food all the time."

"My food is miles above anything you could make. At least I actually have a sense of cuisine."

"Jeez, stop being so defensive. I was just joking around. But seriously, there is no better food than hamburgers."

"You eating that way is not going to convince me. Your dining habits are simply atrocious."

Alfred wiped off the ketchup that was dribbling down his chin and threatening to fall on his clothing. "I just have a healthy appetite is all. Besides, not all of us were raised with English manners."

The Brit's eyes narrowed. "Who told you I was from Britain, anyways?"

Whoops. "Oh, um… My friend Kiku told me," Alfred said. "Plus your accent is kinda obvious."

"Oh." He turned back to his lunch and went back to eating.

Darn it. The conversation'd been going fine, but now it looked like he wasn't going to get anything out of this guy. Alfred took another bite of his delicious hamburger. That kid was crazy for not liking these. It proved that there was something fishy about him.

Stupid Alfred. Apparently he wasn't any better at spying in this world. He'd been extremely obvious, the way he kept banging around. And he was walking in plain sight, for goodness sakes! Not bothering to hide at all!

And then he'd had the gall to insult his cooking. Well, he hadn't insulted his cooking, he'd insulted English cooking in general, but he was England. Maybe not in this world, but he felt insulted just the same.

At least he hadn't seen him talking to Mint. That would have been hard to explain. Even though the American probably wouldn't have been able to see her, he would have seen him talking to her. He figured that even though his world was somewhat different from his own, people probably didn't talk to themselves on a regular basis here, and that's how he would have appeared.

But why was Alfred acting all buddy-buddy with him now? It was strange. Not bad, or anything, just…different. Maybe even nice. He hadn't been able to talk like this with his Alfred for years. But it would've been nicer if the American actually used some politeness and tact once in a while.

The conversation had turned to an awkward silence. Oh well, it's not like I really wanted to talk to him, anyways. What does he mean by just coming up and sitting next to me like that, anyways? Silence was better. He would rather eat in peace than be annoyed by the American.

"So… Why'd you come to America from England, anyways?"

Arthur sighed. Well, it had been nice while it had lasted. "I would rather not talk about it."

"But why not?" Alfred whined.

"Because I said so, you bloody git. Why do you care so much, anyways?"

"Oh…um…" he trailed off.

"…yes?"

"W-why should I tell you?"

Arthur barely resisted the urge to connect his palm to his forehead. "You're the one who's prying into my life story."

Alfred looked flustered. As Arthur had thought, the American was just too much of a busybody to resist barging into other people's business. He probably just sat next to me so he could ask me personal questions, he thought.

"Look, my life is my own business, so just keep yourself out of it, got it?" Arthur snapped.

"Geez, I was just curious! You don't have to freak out so much," Alfred retorted.

Arthur froze. As much as he didn't want to admit it, since it would mean the American had a point, he was over-reacting. He just didn't want anybody to find out about his secret… But was that paranoia making him seem even more suspicious?

"Sorry, what was that?" Alfred asked. Arthur had muttered something under his breath.

The Brit glared at him. "I said, sorry," he said louder, annoyance clear in each syllable.

Alfred looked surprised. Arthur sighed. "Look, I just don't like talking about my life, alright?" he said.

"Alright, alright, I get it," the American grumbled. But Arthur had the feeling that he hadn't heard the last of this.

Aaaaah. I'm so sorry for the late update, everyone! I had a big term project for English and I couldn't write at all for a good week. So yeah... I'm probably not going to have this done for NaNoWriMo, at this point. Oh well, my personal goal was 30,000 words, anyways, so I'm cool with it.

In this chapter, I actually have more dialogue! I feel like I haven't had enough actual speaking going on. Sorry about that. This is the longest in a story I've ever written, so... I'm trying to not fill it up with long paragraphs of angst, but for some reason, it's harder than it looks!

I feel sorry for Kiku. But that scene with Yong Soo came in a flash of random inspiration, and I couldn't resist using it. Is it wrong that I enjoy doing things like this to the characters?

Aaaand the mind control juice. Does anybody get that reference? I applaud you if you do. It's from an awesome series.

I'm not sure how long until the next chapter will be out, but I'll try and have it done within a week! Sorry again that this update was so late! *bows repeatedly*