With the necessary supplies finally purchased, the friends met up and decided to go out for lunch at a nearby all you can eat buffet close to the mall.

"Damn! This place is awesome!" Alfred cheered, stuffing his face with food, which he consumed in less than a minute. He then proceeded to fill up his umpteenth plate with more food, resulting in many more stares from the neighboring customers inside the restaurant.
"A-Al! Don't speak with your mouth full! It's rude!" Matthew cried, lightly smacking Alfred on the arm as he did so – which in turn, had no affect on the other.

"All you can eat, for less than five dollars?" He practically yelled, "Mattie, you need to load up on food before we leave!"

Arthur face palmed, "…And here I thought Matthew was enough of a handful…" he mumbled to himself, "…My life just became much more complicated."

A light chuckle echoed beside him, and he turned his head to glare fiercely at the man it came from, "…Just what do you think is so funny?"

"Cher, your life became complicated the moment your interest was piqued by us at that store."

"I suppose you're right." He managed to say through his teeth, "…but at least they're getting along."
They took a moment to watch the other pair amusingly make a scene.

"Mattie! Maaattie! Say 'Ahh'!" He scooped a bit of vanilla ice cream from a bowl he had just received, and held it out in front of the smaller male, who blushed and embarrassingly leant forward to eat.

"So? How is it?" Alfred beamed.

Matthew sweat dropped, still slightly embarrassed, "I-it's good…!"

"I wish we had these places opened up back in my day!" Alfred stuffed more food into his mouth, with minimal chewing, swallowing hard, "I'd be in complete heaven!"

Beside him, Arthur grumbled – mostly to himself, "…kids, these days…" blatantly unaware of the fact that he was of the same age – still technically "older", he would argue; even if the number was concealed by a few mere months. Mostly stemming from a forced maturity, a robbed childhood; he almost felt like a parent doting on a child.

"Matthew, Alfred." Arthur started, "Finish up the food so that I can pay the bill. We need to get home early to organize the supplies we bought."

Upon arriving at the house, the group set the mountain of shopping bags by the stairway and slumped together; or, at least tried to – on the sofa.

"There's not enough room!" Alfred complained, "…I wanted to sit next to Mattie!"

"Oh please." Arthur rolled his eyes, "First come, first served. Now shove that in a juice box, and suck it up like a man."

Alfred huffed angrily, sending obvious death glares towards Arthur.

Panicking, Matthew hurriedly sat up from the couch without much success, "I-it's a loveseat, Al! The most it can fit is two people!"

Feigning hurt, Alfred sighed over dramatically, "Oh! I see how it is! There's no 'love' for me on this piece of furniture! I'll just go upstairs, and sulk in a dark corner, like a peasant!"

And, with a fake sob for added dramatic effect, Alfred fled rapidly upstairs into their shared room, and shut the door loud enough for everyone to hear.

This gave time for the awkward silence to sink in.

"…Has he always been lik-"
"Yes." Francis answered instantaneously; closing his eyes, rubbing his head in annoyance, "He just needs some attention, that is all."

The trio stayed quiet for a moment, and, when the unusual silence persisted, Matthew began to worry.

"…I-is he o-o-okay? Maybe h-he's mad at me!" Matthew flailed around, knocking down a lamp and several other inanimate objects in his way.

"…Just hurry up and comfort him, then! We don't need any more incidents involving him raging around the house later on today." Arthur added, knowing Matthew was already well on his way upstairs, "AND PICK THOSE THINGS UP. I DON'T WANT THE NEIGHBOURS TO THINK I BLEW THE HOUSE UP AGAIN AND DIDN'T BOTHER TO FIX THE AFTERMATH."

"A-Al?..." Matthew whispered, opening the door slightly to peer inside; there, he found him laying face down on their shared bunk, mumbling nonsense into a pillow. Automatically, Matthew found himself washed over with guilt, and, walking cautiously up to Alfred, he tapped him gently on the shoulder, "A-Al…? I-I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean to…hic…"

Alerted, Alfred shot up worriedly, only to have Matthew sob harder, and cry more into his shirt sleeve.

"W-well!" Alfred nervously laughed, "I was only joking! You don't need to cry!" he pat Matthew on the head consolingly, which had only helped a bit, as he wiped the last of his tears away with his sleeve, "…R-really?"

"Yes, really."

Relieved, Matthew relaxed, and yawned heavily and leaned forward to rest his forehead on Alfred's shoulder, "…I-I'm sleepy now…"

Every time he cried, he ended up so tired he just couldn't help it. Some might call it, a hard habit to break.

"C'mere." Alfred laughed, his arms spread wide; Matthew sighed, and tackled him gently into a hug as they both fell back on the bed; Matthew using Alfred's chest as a pillow.

Half asleep, Matthew felt the room fall into a comfortable silence, every so often, however, Matthew would feel his head move to a consistent rhythm, up, and down.

He's never had anyone, save for maybe Arthur.

This "doll collection" was simply a hobby; something to fill the void that their parents had left behind.

Up, and down again.

Matthew knew for a fact that this was different; and although he knew very little about his doll, he did know this much: he wasn't going to be alone anymore.

Up, down.

For someone to simply "breathe" life into an inanimate object; almost miraculously, it seemed like a dream. He chuckled inwardly to himself, "if only kuma could do that…"

He cuddled closer to Alfred, smiling as he took note of the evident heartbeat beneath his clothing.

Yes, this was real.

Perhaps his doll collection would now and forever consist of only him.

Back downstairs, Arthur flipped through random channels on the television, hoping that the blaring noise of any channel would block out the loud tapping of keys as Francis used his laptop.

"…This is very impressive! To think, our world has evolved in such technology!" Francis continued typing, mesmerized by the small screen.

"…It's just like a compute-" Oh… Arthur mentally slapped himself; they never had high-tech gadgets in those days…

"…Never mind." He switched the television off, and dragged himself to sit beside Francis on the couch, "…What are you doing?"

"Just some research, that is all." Francis scrolled down, the never ending sea of text flooding the screen without a seeming end. Arthur felt his eye twitch, "…that's a lot of information."

"…yes…" Francis kept his eyes fixed on the screen, "…here." He seemed much more intrigued, he pulled him closer and pointed towards a cluster of paragraphs, "Arthur, here."

"…What?" Arthur stood confused, "here what? SPEAK ENGLISH."

"…I may have possibly found the location of the first ring."