Alfred and Arthur walked towards their room in silence. All of the teen's shared rooms were scattered on the first and second floor of the mansion, and as nobody else's room seemed to lie in the two boy's direction, there was no one there to battle the awkward silence with them. Alfred had to admit that he felt quite excited over sharing a room with the British boy though. He couldn't explain why but a strange and tickle-ish feeling filled his stomach at the thought. But judging by Arthur's facial expression, he didn't feel the same way.
'Try to think positive! At least it's not the Frog.' Arthur casually glanced over at the American only to be met by a pair of curious blue eyes. The Briton wanted to spit something like: it's impolite to stare, you know! But instead he just quickly averted his gaze to glue them at a seemingly interesting spot of the dim lit hallway, terrified by the uncomfortably hot feeling on his cheeks. 'Oh, bloody hell.'
Alfred couldn't help but smile at the colour that now painted the other's face. He was just so – for the lack of a better word, Alfred told himself – adorable! He was still busy admiring the blush on the now uncomfortable Brit when the other came to a halt.
"This must be it, right?" Arthur looked up to examine the wooden door in front of him. The boys were standing on the second floor in a hallway that leapt from the west to the east side of the mansion. They were supposed to be right in the middle, but the size of the hall made it almost impossible to tell.
"Oh yeah, looks like it." Alfred swiftly flicked his gaze between the map and the hallway to confirm his response before reaching for the doorknob. He turned the knob and pushed, but immediately started pulling instead, as the door didn't move. "What's wrong with this-" He stopped his vain attempts to open the door at the sound of a throat being cleared. He turned around to face the Briton but flinched back as a metal object was shoved into his face.
"We were given keys for a reason, you know." Arthur furrowed his eyebrows as the American let out a realising 'oh'.
"Ha-ha, dude, I'd totally forgot 'bout that," Alfred replied, quickly snatching the key from the Britons hand to put it into the keyhole placed just above the doorknob (why hadn't he seen that before?). After fumbling a bit with the lock the door finally opened with a complaining creek, and the taller boy curiously peeked inside. The room was, however, too dark, as there weren't any windows to fill the room with the now clouded moonlight. Alfred let his luggage drop to the floor in order to search for a light switch while the other patiently waited behind him. He found the switch, but as he turned on the light he instantly flinched back when something bright flashed from the ceiling. A 'wow' escaped his mouth as he turned his gaze up to stare in amazement.
"Oi, are you going to enter or what?" Arthur gently pushed on Alfred's back with his non-occupied hand, but the other stood glued in the doorway.
"Hey, dude, you totally gotta see this!" The Briton's frown instantly turned into a surprised expression as the other grabbed around his wrist and dragged him inside the room. Arthur felt the urge to yell at him, but stopped himself and turned his gaze to the ceiling which the American was now pointing at.
"What the bleedin– What is that?"
"Dunno, but it's totally awesome!" Both mesmerised, the two boys stared at the ceiling with their jaws dropped. There was a huge screen – but without borders (it seemed to simply blur out at the edges), they noted – covering the larger space of the ceiling. Displayed on it was a night sky, the moon and stars slightly faded by some passing clouds. Passing clouds. The image was moving. "Gotta be some new high-tech stuff, huh." Alfred noted after a while.
"Indeed, but it seems a bit out of place, don't you think? I thought this place was supposed to be recently discovered and who'd go through the trouble of setting that thing up?" The American just nodded, too consumed in other thoughts to actually hear the other. "Anyway, aren't there any other lights? That thing doesn't really help much." Arthur walked over to the wall from where Alfred had turned on the screen. Besides one switch that was turned up there were three other ones – identical to the first one – next to it.
"Uh... Oh, yeah, there were-" Alfred turned around to the other in sync with three wall lamps flickering on. It was first now that the American realised how little light the screen actually had given, so he sent Arthur an appreciative smile. The other simply gave him a weird look before inspecting the room.
Green and red along with a dark wooden colour clearly dominated the room. A dark green wallpaper with a flourish pattern ran across the walls, hidden by two wardrobes and couple of paintings of landscapes. Incredibly enough, there were two king-size beds placed by the right-side wall. It was first when noticing this that Arthur realised how big the room actually was, but considering the size of the mansion, he guessed it was pretty normal. Two wooden bureaus were placed in between the beds with almost no space left to separate them, one of the wall lamps sticking out just above. Facing the door was a study desk along with a couple of bookshelves and a scarlet armchair in the left corner. The two wardrobes were placed on the left side of the room, framing a door that Arthur guessed led to a bathroom.
While Arthur had been busy going around and examining the room, Alfred had grabbed his luggage from outside the door, brought it inside, and dumped it in front of one of the beds before collapsing on it's the blood-red bedspread. The Briton turned towards the beds as loud snores filled the room. Sighing, he grabbed his own bags and placed them in front of the other bed. He quickly found and changed into a pair of pyjamas pants and a worn-out t-shirt before heading to the bathroom to brush his teeth. Once he was done he decided to turn off the lights, leaving the screen on, however, as he wouldn't be able to see anything in complete darkness. He lay down in the other bed but couldn't help but let out an exasperated sigh at Alfred who was – still fully dressed with his shoes and all – laying on the other bed and snoring rather loudly. 'How the bloody hell am I supposed to get some sleep?' He shuddered. 'Well, he's still not the Frog.' Those were Arthur's last thoughts before drifting off to a long desired sleep.
The Italian man and his colleague were about to leave the room when a voice desperately called out.
"Wait, Mr. Rome!" The two men turned around and found that Elizaveta had risen from her armchair. "Sorry, sir, but where are we supposed to sleep?" Nods were given from the small gathering around the table. Mr. Rome only stared at first before once again bursting out in laughter.
"Ha-ha, my apologies, my apologies... I seem to be a bit out of it." He started to search through a bag that he'd been carrying while walking back towards the fireplace. "You will sleep in rooms on the first and second floor... You'll be rooming two and two, I'm sorry if you siblings wanted to stay together, but for better results I wanted to split you up..." A weird silence filled the room and quizzical glances were shared. What exactly was the project about...? And what kind of results? The Hungarian girl was, however, quick in breaking the silence again.
"But, Mr. Rome... I'm the only girl here. Will I also be rooming with one of the guys?"
A lost expression painted the Italian's face as his gaze wandered over the teens. He finally settled on Yao and raised his index finger hesitantly as he flicked his eyes between the Chinese and the Hungarian.
"Oh, I simply assumed..." More flicking. "Ah... I'm so terribly sorry! I've never been good with Asian names so when Germania showed me your photo I thought that you were..." He immediately fell silent when he saw Yao glaring daggers at him, a horrified and clearly insulted expression on his face. "Well, I'm not so sure of what to do now..."
"I'm gay, if th't 'elps." Everyone turned to stare at the tall Swede who had spoken up. Most jaws were dropped, but not in disgust or repulsion. Some actually stared in what could be taken as admiration. Elizaveta was now beaming, an expression of utter glee on her face, and those close to her heard something that sounded suspiciously lot like a squeal.
"Oh, shit, man! You are? Mein Gott, did you guys here that!" The laughing albino fell silent as both disgusted and slightly shocked glares were sent his way. "He-he, not that it's bad or something, right?" The German tried, hoping for approval. A heavy silence now hung over the group and the albino twisted uncomfortably on his seat, deeply regretting the words that out of habit simply had slipped out of his mouth. But judging by the bluntness of the Swede, he should have guessed it wasn't one of those kind of groups. One of those groups which included the people he usually hung out with. Gilbert finally looked up from the floor – which he had turned to for the lack of better option since he seemed to be met by hard glares from everywhere else – and turned to look at his brother. Ludwig was not looking back at him. The taller German simply stared out over the table, an unreadable expression on his stern face.
Mr. Rome was – luckily for Gilbert – noticing the albinos discomfort and was quick in saving him, cutting through the awkward silence with clearing his throat. "If that makes it better for you, Miss Héderváry?"
"Wha- Oh, yes. It does!" She gave Berwald an appreciative smile and gained a small nod in return.
"Alright then, I'll just make some small changes." The auburn-haired man fiddled with some papers he'd pulled out from his bag before announcing the roommates and handing out maps to the rooms.
"GAHHHHHH! DAMN IT, MY EYES!" That was what Arthur woke up to the following morning. But luckily he was still sleepy and safely hid underneath an ivory duvet from whatever caused the ruckus. "WHAT THE FUCK IS THA-...?" A pause. "Artie? Did you do something to it?" Aggravated now not only by the other's use of language but also by his choice to address him, Arthur quickly sat up and pulled off his cover in a fluid motion, a nasty insult on the way of leaving his lips when a sharp light hit him. He winced and shut his eyes, blindly searching for the fabric of his duvet, but soon coming to the conclusion that it must've fallen on the floor.
"Oh, bugger."
"Hey-hey, Artie, are ya okay?" Still having his eyes clenched shut, Arthur immediately flinched back as an unknown touch brushed against his shoulder. Letting out a manly yelp – no, he would not admit that it might have been an octave too high to consider manly – the Briton fell over the edge of the bed and landed hard on the wooden floor. He felt like not only his bum, but his pride as well, took a hit when he heard the other's chuckling from above him and heat rapidly rushed to his face. Now opening his eyes, he glared daggers at the grinning face watching him.
"You... you bloody git! What are you looking at?" This however, only worsened the American's laughter and he desperately clutched his stomach and collapsed on Arthur's bed. "W-what?"
"Oh, man, you're way too good! I never thought you'd actually say that!" Arthur turned an even deeper shade of red and flew up on his feet. He grabbed the remaining milky sheets and gave a hard pull. He watched with a smirk as the American let out a cry of surprise and rolled onto the floor on the other side of the bed, landing with a rather loud 'thud'. The laughter instantly died and was replaced with a row of whimpers.
Now somewhat satisfied, the Briton finally managed to calm down and turned to look for the source of the bright light. He was not surprised to see that the screen was to blame.
Instead of an illuminated night sky, the screen was now showing the blue sky of a bright new day, with only the sun and not a single cloud showing.
"Well, would you look at that." Arthur had to squint in order to examine the screen, but seeing how there really was no reason for it, he headed over to the light switches, determined to turn the irritating thing off. He did forget that the screen was the only thing lightening the room though, and as he switched it off, the room became pitch black. He heard his roommate yelp and silently cursed that he'd let his hand leave the switch. He started lifting his hand again in order to search for the switches when something warm brushed against his bare arm. A shiver ran up the Briton's spine as the gentle touch started to wander up his arm. Snapping out of the momentarily trance, he harshly swung his arm around, attempting to slap the unwanted touch away and rapidly searched for the switch with his other.
"The bloody hell are you doing?" Arthur connected his back with the wall as his hand finally came across the switches and flicked them all on. Both he and the American immediately covered their eyes as the hard light struck again. After adjusting to the brightness, the Brit prepared himself to scold the American, falling silent however, as he saw the other boy still on the floor in between the two beds. "W-wha- Have you been over there this whole time?"
"Duh, of course I have, dude. It's kinda hard to move in the dark, ya know."
"Oh, yes, of course. How stupid of me..." Dumbfounded, Arthur now stood glued to the wall, eyes big and staring at Alfred in confusion.
"Eh, right... So should we head downstairs and look for breakfast? Cause I'm kinda starvin' here."
After Arthur made his rather messy bed (Alfred offered to help, but the Briton insisted that he'd do just fine by himself), the two boys got dressed and ready for heading downstairs. Once down in the lobby they went over to one of the doors placed on the left side of the fireplace. They entered a kitchen which was empty at the moment; the still warm hotplates gave away the earlier activity of the room, before walking through yet another door which led to the dining hall.
The room was very elongated and spacious, the walls and floor of grey bricks while the ceiling had a most peculiar pattern of roses and thorns. One huge crystal chandelier hung over an elongated table on the right side of the room (as seen from the two boy's view), the floor level a little higher there as it was separated by two barely noticeable steps from the left side. An identical table was also placed on the left half, this part of the room lit with the help of a few wall lamps placed along the walls. On the left side's table there were multiple kinds of food and liquids lined up, obviously meant as a kind of breakfast buffet. Alfred happily skipped over to this while Arthur turned his gaze up to the other half of the room. A few of the teens already sat and ate, some enthusiastically conversing while others remained silent, nodding a couple of times as if to show they were listening. He joined the American by the serving and grabbed an easy breakfast (unlike Alfred whose plate practically flooded over with food), before they both set off towards the others. The huge windows from that side of the room gave a warm and inviting light which gave the scenery an almost movie-like and welcoming appearance.
"Buenos días!" Arthur recognized the Spanish brunet who was sitting on the corner of the table, seated next to Roderich. "You two slept well?"
Taking a chair next to the silent Norwegian, who he greeted with a small 'hello' (which was replied with a nod), Arthur was just about to answer when his roommate slammed his plate down onto the table (and surprisingly didn't break) before exclaiming a loud "Pretty awesome actually! How 'bout you?"
"Good!" Feliciano and Timo answered in unison, both breaking out in laughter soon after which the others joined in on; the slight awkwardness from the day before momentarily forgotten.
"Excuse me, but do you two perhaps have a screen as well?" The Japanese boy (who also was Timo's roommate) asked after they'd quieted down.
"Oh, yeah, there's this huge thing in ceiling! It's just so weird! Frickin' blinded me this mornin'." Arthur let out a sigh of exasperation; Alfred had once again spoken before the Briton even had a chance to open his mouth. "D'ya know what it is?"
"Well, I haven't seen it before, but it seems like it's adjusting after the time. Ours was dark last night and...uhm... light this morning."
"Yes; so it seems. Ours was as well." Arthur quickly blurted out, determined to speak up before his roommate. He sent Alfred a discrete glare, but the American was too busy devouring his food to notice.
"I dunno what you're talkin' about. The awesome me and four eyes here don't have one of those."
"Idiot, that is because our room's got windows." Roderich said in a surprisingly monotone voice. It seemed as if he'd already grown used to being insulted by his rude, German roommate.
That was how the conversation continued between the present ten boys for approximately fifteen minutes – the rest of the teens joined in two by two soon after. Questions about the screens, the buffet, but mostly the project became being subjects that kept popping up.
Mr. Rome and Germania entered the dining hall at last and announced for everyone to meet them outside in the courtyard in half an hour, but as curious as they all were it only took them fifteen minutes to do so.
It was a beautiful day; the sky was a bright blue with only a couple of white clouds hovering around the horizon, the wind was still (perhaps from the cover of the trees) and the air slightly damp. The only thing taking away from the perfect scenery was the quietness of it all. No sound at all – not even birdsong – was heard.
"Okay, youngsters, please follow me!" Mr. Rome met them alone in front of the stone fountain. He didn't say anything more than that, so the teens simply followed him as he turned to walk along the east side of the mansion.
"Hvad tror du vi vil gøre?"
"English."
"Aww, c'mon! Please?"
"No." The Dane pouted at his Norwegian roommate. Even though he was paired up with someone who'd understand his native tongue the other still didn't want him to speak it. "And no idea."
"Well, I hope it'll be something cool! Y'know, this place is pretty weird, so we're bound to do somethin' cool or different, right?" He turned to look at Lukas again, expecting a reply but was to be disappointed when the other simply nodded. The fact that the other didn't acknowledge him started to get on Mathias' nerves. He'd tried to get the Norwegian's attention the whole evening, practically showering him with praises and signs of affection, anything to make him show some emotion. Perhaps he even went a bit too far a couple of times. Giving your roommate a goodnight kiss on the cheek wasn't exactly what would be considered normal, but Lukas was driving him insane! Why was he so damn cold? It just didn't make sense to the Dane. Through his entire childhood he'd never met anyone who he couldn't befriend. That was why he was determined to be the Norwegian's best friend by the time that the project was over. His bestest-of-best-friends-of-all-time. He'd make sure of it.
"WOAH, look at that!" Mathias grabbed Lukas around the shoulder and pulled him closer while pointing with his other hand towards a large building. They'd just rounded the corner of the mansion and ahead of them lay a big glass dome. Plants and trees of different kinds were placed along the inside of its walls, making it look like a giant greenhouse. A couple of gasps and sounds of surprise were heard from the wandering group. Whoever lived there before sure had been wealthy.
Mathias watched intently for any change in his roommate's expression – he was surprised that the other hadn't shied away considering how close their faces now were. A huge grin broke out on his face and he almost felt like shouting out of joy; Lukas' eyes had widened and his jaw slightly dropped. For someone who hadn't been paying attention, the change was barely noticeable, but Mathias clearly saw an expression of astonishment – and perhaps even excitement – that slowly crept onto the other's face. "Looks awesome, doesn't it?"
"Ja." The reply was weak and strangled, but it thrilled the Dane just the same. Lukas quickened his pace and Mathias happily followed. The slight sign of emotion exited the Dane more than he'd admit.
Arthur had been very thrilled over the sight of the greenhouse. His roommate looked quite excited too, but Arthur was pretty sure it was for a different reason. There was no way the American was the same as him, right? No, that wasn't very likely. Most of the teens looked at the building in amazement, so there wasn't anything special about Alfred. For some reason he couldn't help but hope though. The thought of having someone to talk with about the matter was very tempting to Arthur, but he doubted he'd ever find such a person.
Once in front of the glass dome, Mr. Rome stopped to look for his keys in the bag he always seemed to be carrying, before proceeding to open one of the glass doors. Arthur watched with disappointment as most of the – to everyone else – invisible creatures ran away to hide as the group entered. A couple of curious pixies peeked at the teens from behind a few orchids, but that was as close as they went. Arthur could also see a small troll hurriedly run down the stone walk before diving into a bush as the gathering got closer. They walked to the middle of the dome where a stone circle free from greenery was, stopping in front of a small fountain with a statue resembling a mermaid. Benches of stone were placed along the edges of the circle and that was where the teens were informed to sit.
"Okay, everyone, welcome to the Floral Dome of the Atlantic Mansion! It's beautiful, don't you think? It is said to be a magical place to which the owner of the mansion would come in order to escape from the outside world. Not that I get why he needed do that, this place already seem pretty shielded from the rest of the world, no? Anyway, the reason why we are here is so that you can use it for inspiration! Germania will be here shortly with canvas and pencils-"
"Hold up, old man! Are you saying that we're gonna paint? Fucking paint? The awesome me will not be doing that!" Everyone watched with fear for the Italian's reaction – that albino just couldn't seem to keep his mouth shut. But to their surprise; Rome broke out in laughter. It was evident that no one had expected that. Gilbert looked really uncomfortable where he sat, almost crawling up into a ball and hiding behind his tall brother. The older man soon calmed down however, as his colleague made his way into the building, two cloth bags dangling from his hands.
"Okay, okay" the Italian said, accepting the bags of canvas from Germania. "So, yes, you will be painting. But you will not be painting of anything. You will simply use this dome, or the space outside, for a setting. I want you all to paint something that either means a lot to you or something that simply pops up your mind. It can either interact with the setting you've chosen or have nothing to do with it at all. You will have two hours, an hour's lunch break, and another hour to finish. Okay, any questions? No?"
"Yes! Is there a reason why we're doing this?" Yao had spoken up, a dark eyebrow raised and arms crossed in slight suspicion.
"Oh, we will hang them in one of the hallways later. It's all part of the project, but it's rather complicated so I'll tell you all about it later at dinner. Any more questions?" The building remained silent. "Well, off you go then!"
Everyone was given a canvas and a set of colours and pencils before they split up. Most stuck together with their roommates, which irritated Arthur greatly. He hadn't asked the damn American to follow him! Why couldn't he just bugger off and go look for his unfortunate twin? Yes, Matthew was very unfortunate. Arthur had stuck along long enough yesterday to hear that the boy had been paired up with the Frog. Poor, poor boy. Arthur felt relieved that he didn't spy any of two and guessed that they must have gone outside. The garden around the mansion was quite lovely after all. But who'd bothered to keep this place in shape? It sure didn't look like it had been uninhabited for long.
The Briton hadn't bothered to go anywhere and had simply sat down on one of the benches – Alfred hadn't sat with him from the beginning but came over after grabbing his canvas. There were spiral staircases of metal circling up the sides of the dome with a small platform at the top. He'd seen that Dane drag his roommate up there and thought Antonio and Lovino went there as well. It was hard to see who the four silhouettes belonged to through the metal floor.
"So, what are ya gonna draw?" Arthur turned back to look at Alfred who was now staring at him with big, expectant blue eyes. He realised that the American had leaned in closer and that their faces now were a little too close for the Briton's comfort.
"N-never you mind." He replied while moving away as discretely as possible. He actually had no idea of what do draw. At first he'd thought about painting a fairy or unicorn, but if he did that he'd probably get questioned about it later. That stupid American obviously wouldn't be open minded and would-
Arthur's train of thoughts was cut off as a loud shriek echoed through the glass building. He turned his gaze up in sync with all the others remaining on the ground floor of the dome.
"LUKAS!"
A boy was falling.
A/N
Wow, I actually thought I'd get longer with this chapter, but I guess not xD I really didn't think it'd be this long before I finished either, but homework and mep parts got in the way ._. Sorry about that. I've considered making the chapters shorter and upload more often but there wouldn't be much progress in them then. And I'm still not sure if all chapters will be of this length but since I'm not very good at writing short things they probably will be for now xD
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS AND ALERTS! I really didn't think I'd get any at all so you have no idea how happy I was when I saw them (especially 'logged out lolol Pendulums'' and animewatcherfreakmal's)! w I'd really love to hear what you think about this and if you have any ideas (I'm quite open for suggestions). The reviews were pretty much what encouraged me to keep on writing, so please keep them coming! Also, please tell me if someone's completely OOC or if you're wondering about anything. I'm not used to write for all of these characters so there probably are some mistakes. As for pairings; I still won't reveal any, but you did get a little bit of DenNor in this. More pairings will appear in the upcoming chapters (and that was of course not the last DenNor) though USUK will, obviously, still be centered.
I know there haven't been much horror in this yet, but believe me, I've got plenty planned out.
Well, English is still not my first language and this is un-beta'd so some constructive criticism would be lovely!
Also, I am aware that 'bestest' is not an actual word xD