Chapter 4

. . .

The first thing that Matthew heard when he stepped into the house was his brother screaming, "We have to do it, Dad! For Mattie! Think of the children!"

"I am thinking of the nonexistent children when I say no, we are not doing it," he heard Arthur, his dad, reply. "Leave your brother alone." They were talking about him? Huh. Usually they only talked about him when Alfred was trying to frame him for something that he'd done...

"Oui. I think it is marvelous that Matthew is making new friends," Francis agreed. Matthew had a habit of sometimes calling him Papa to distinguish him from Arthur.

Matthew could just imagine Alfred about to start rambling in his defense, so he decided to step into the kitchen. "I'm home," he said curtly, letting his backpack slide from his shoulder down to his hand. He slung it onto his chair before looking at the others. "What's gotten into Al's head now?"

It took a few moments for his family to register that Matthew was standing in front of them. Matthew was used to it though, so he didn't mind too much. Once Alfred seemed to get over the fact that it had not been a ghost that had just carried in a backpack and it was, in fact, his brother, he quickly recomposed himself. Then he grabbed Matthew's shoulders, giving them a rough shake, his blue eyes wild. "Mattie!" he exclaimed. "You're going to be kidnapped, but Dad doesn't care!"

Matthew looked to the side at his father questioningly. "Kidnapped?"

"It's not that I don't care, pet," that was one of Arthur's weird pet names for him, "but I trust that you're mature enough to make a better decision than going off with some stranger."

Name: Matthew Williams
Status: ...as opposed to Alfred.

Name: Arthur Kirkland
Status: As opposed to Alfred.

Name: Francis Bonnefoy
Status: As opposed to Alfred, oui.

Name: Alfred F. Jones
Status: Man, everyone's always ganging up on me. :(

"Of course I'm not going to go off with some stranger," Matthew answered solemnly.

Alfred frowned. "But you got out of that car," he said, voice on the verge of sounding hysterical. "If you missed the bus, you know that I have a car, bro. You should start coming home with me. I don't get why you like the bus so much..."

"Al, Gilbert was just dropping me off." Matthew took his brother's hands from his shoulders and eased them off slowly. "My partner for that project in child development class. You know, the one you suggested I should work with?"

There was a pause. Matthew heard a smack; he presumed it was Arthur doing a face-palm.

"Huh. That's true." Alfred laughed loudly. "Never mind, then! You're good, Mattie!" He flashed his million-watt smile at his two dads. "I have homework. Let me know when dinner's ready!"

"I'm cooking tonight," Arthur announced just as Alfred reached the foot of the stairs.

Another pause.

Matthew's eyes met his brother's. "I'll get the phone, you look up the number for that pizza shop downtown," Matthew said.

"Right." Alfred turned and instead started walking for the computer that they kept in the basement.

"Bloody ungrateful gits," Arthur muttered.

Name: Matthew Williams
Status: I worry for my child.

Matthew hadn't been too sure of the idea of letting Gilbert keep the baby until the next morning. "Don't worry, ve!" Feliciano said merrily as he walked with the blond down the halls towards their next class. "Gilbert can be very responsible when he puts his mind to it." The Italian smiled. "And I can tell that he cares very much for this project, so you don't have to worry."

That last sentence made Matthew stop mid-step. He absently reached up to smooth an errant curl down, only to have it spring back up again. Gilbert...cares? "I want to get a good grade too," Matthew said to Feliciano, resuming his walking.

Feliciano blinked, looking troubled. "I didn't-"

"Hey birdie! The awesome's here!" Gilbert crowed loudly, unexpectedly bursting between the two friends. "And I brought our kid, so you can stop worrying." He grinned toothily, shaking the robot baby in Matthew's face.

Matthew wondered if his worry was really that evident. "Good, all limbs are still intact," he said.

Gilbert feigned hurt. "You wound me with your harsh words," he sighed dramatically, swaying against Feliciano. Then he accidentally dropped the baby for the Matthew-wondered-how-many-times and cursed. "It's okay!" he declared, picking it up.

Why did that seem so endearing? Matthew felt his own cheek subconsciously, wondering if he was blushing.

"After you, princess." Matthew became aware that they'd reached the child development classroom and stopped. Gilbert was holding the door open. Feliciano had already went in, and now the albino smirked at him.

"I liked the other nickname better," Matthew mumbled, ducking his head and hopefully hiding his blush. Though he figured it wasn't the best thing to say, because Gilbert chuckled and said, "So I can keep calling you birdie?"

Matthew didn't get to answer(which would have been a no, by the way); Ms. Braginskaya entered the room with her usual bright smile and all talking hushed. As she started to explain that they would be practicing feeding a baby today, Matthew felt the all-too familiar sensation of a pencil being dragged down his neck.

God damn it.

Weren't he and Gilbert friends already? Or was this how the German("Prussian!") treated everyone?

Matthew shook his head slightly, pushing back a strand of his wavy blond hair, and grimaced when the pencil harassment only continued. He took off the eraser cap for his mechanical pencil - he never liked having to sharpen pencils constantly - and tossed it over his shoulder, hoping to have hit Gilbert.

In reply, a bird-shaped eraser landed on Matthew's desk.

Matthew was contemplating on breaking the eraser in half and throwing it back to show Gilbert what could happen to him if he didn't stop, but Ms. Braginskaya had announced that it was their turn to practice feeding. Matthew had an 'oh-crap-I-wasn't-listening' moment while the teacher handed out small spoons that they'd be using to 'feed' their child. Once they got their spoon, the students got up to find their partner. Eventually Matthew twisted around in his seat to face Gilbert, who had an insufferable smile on his face.

"Stop touching me," Matthew said firstly and pointedly, cheeks taking on a pink hue when he realized how strange his command sounded.

"The pencil is touching you, not me." Leave it to Gilbert to argue. Honestly, Matthew just didn't want to explode in the middle of class and start ranting at the albino. "So, tell me why you and Jones don't have the same last names even though you're brothers." He placed the baby on his desk before pausing to arch an eyebrow at Matthew. "You can't just sit there. Sit over here instead."

"Alfred and I are adopted," Matthew answered. "And there's no room."

"Sit on my lap, then." Gilbert was grinning again and he really wasn't expecting Matthew to take him seriously. However, the Canadian got up and moved to sit in the albino's chair with him, ending up half sitting in Gilbert's lap. Which, strangely, brought an onslaught of joyous feelings from Gilbert.

"Anyway," Matthew continued, as if the circumstances were not as awkward, "Alfred had already been adopted, and I was adopted a little while after. My dads were from a small town, so when they got married, they tried keeping it quiet and kept their own last names."

"That still doesn't explain why you and Alfred have different last names," Gilbert reminded him. He picked up the spoon and inspected it with mild interest.

Matthew passed over the doll. "Feed it," he said. "And the different-last-names thing kind of stuck, so we keep our respective last names." He was a little wary of the fact that Gilbert made no comment about him having two dads, but he said nothing about that. "Sometimes I use Bonnefoy-Kirkland, though."

Name: Gilbert Beilschmidt
Status: Learning things about my interesting new toy

Name: Alfred F. Jones
Status: Hurt Mattie and I'll hack off your balls!

Name: Matthew Williams
Status: As long as I'm not a Barbie, I'm okay.

"Hey." The boy had blond hair like Matthew's, except lighter, and it stuck straight up in the air like some sort of stiff paintbrush. "My partner's not here today, so I'm s'posed to stick with you guys for the rest of class."

"Hi Lars," Matthew greeted, smiling shyly. The change of attitude was so sudden that Gilbert almost pinched himself. "Who's your partner?"

Gilbert decided then that he did not like this Lars person. And no, not just because Matthew was blushing and had scooted away from Gilbert as much as he could in their limited space. Of course not.

"My sister," Lars was answering.

"Sister?" Gilbert cut in. "That's...weird."

Lars laughed. "I know. But I don't know a lot of people in this class, and I saw that you were already Matthew's partner, so I decided to be partners with Laura." He shrugged. "I figured it would help our awkward relationship, even though I don't think it's really working."

Matthew's heart fluttered. Lars had wanted to be his partner? "I'm sure you and your sister will get along again," he offered.

"Me too, kid." Lars then leaned forward curiously. "What's supposed to be happening here?"

"We're feeding our baby," Gilbert and Matthew answered simultaneously and unintentionally. Matthew's cheeks flushed and he turned away.

"You two are hilarious," Lars snickered.

Name: Gilbert Beilschmidt
Status: Matthew's MY partner! HA.

Name: Ludwig Beilschmidt
Status: Bruder, was it really necessary to declare that to the world?

Name: Gilbert Beilschmidt
Status: Yes

Gilbert watched in, yes he admitted it, envy as Matthew laughed at Lars's expression when he figured out that the baby 'pooped.' Gilbert would be willing to bet that Matthew had some sort of crush on the older student(and he would be willing to lose said bet).

Later, after a semi-casual conversation with Alfred about Matthew, Gilbert discovered that the Canadian did have some sort of admiration for Lars.

After ranting(a.k.a.: saying not very nice things about people who should not be named, ahem, Lars) to Gillbird when he got home, Gilbert threw himself on the sofa and threw a brief temper tantrum, glad that Matthew had volunteered to take the doll home for the weekend. The recording device would have probably caught some nasty language on tape if it had been with Gilbert.

Then, the Prussian jolted upwards on the sofa, eyes bright.

And so Gilbert went about on setting his plan in motion, which first required flowers. Lots and lots of flowers.

A/N: At this point I'm still unsure of what do to with the Neth/Can relationship, so you readers can perceive it in anyway you want to for now. Or you can go ahead and overreact like Gil and make some totally crazy plan that will happen in the next chapter 'cause I'm kinda sleepy. :\

I fail at updating in a timely manner, so...I'll see you guys in the next update!

p.s. Laura is Belgium~