Smokes and Punk Clothes

A USUK fanfic

Warning: Rated M for later chapters and also language, just to be safe. High school AU, lots of characters, delinquent!Arthur and popular new-guy!Alfred. Some characters will be gender-bent. Alfred's POV

"Hallo, Alfred!" an energetic voice called out to me. I turned to my right, distracted from eating my sandwich to see a female albino — pretty noticeable from the red eyes and platinum blonde hair and all — approaching me with her tray of food. She had other people in tow, as well; a girl with pink flower barrettes in her hair, and another girl with glasses and some stubborn piece of hair sticking out.

They all sat at my table. I just looked at them, dumbfounded. Have I met them before? Well, I guess it's no surprise how they know me, since I am pretty well known around here.

"Uhh... Hi?" I grinned a bit at them hesitantly, a few crumbs littering the corner of my mouth. Smooth, Alfred, real smooth.

"Hey there! Ich bin Maria. A senior. Nice to meet ya!" she grinned, clasping my hand and shaking it firmly.

I just took that foreign phrase to mean as "I am Maria." I don't even speak whatever language she just used. God, my school is like the United Nations now, huh.

"Oh, hi, Maria." I smiled back, weakly shaking back. I didn't waste time telling her that my name is Alfred and that I'm a freshman. She already knew that, as expected.

"This is Elizaveta," she pointed to her friend on the right, a charming young lady (I'm sure she's also a senior) who only has a salad on her tray. I raised an eyebrow as I looked at her plate. "Vegetarian." Maria supplied for me, and Elizaveta laughed.

"Call me Liz, or Eliza. It's nice to meet you, Alfred." she smiled at me warmly, gently shaking my hand, as if she knew that Maria wore it out by gripping it too tightly.

"Nice to meet ya, as well. I think I'll call you Liz." I laughed, shaking her hand while biting into my delicious cheese grilled sandwich. Mmm, oh God. This is just... heaven in a snack.

"This is Anneliese." she gestured to the quieter looking girl. She looked pretty classy, and quite fragile as well, like she got sick a lot. She gave me a half-smile. "Hello, it's nice to meet you." she briefly shook my hand before pulling it back. She looked like she didn't really want to be here, and that Maria only forced her to tag along. "I'm from the classical music club." she added.

"Oh, that's cool." I nodded and quickly glanced at her plate. Maria noticed me this time as well.

"She scrimps on lunch and snacks, she doesn't really like spending much buying food in the cafeteria." she chuckled, before adding: "Of course, in contrast to Lizzie's herbivorism, I'm a meat-eater. Like, totally meat. The only vegetable I'll probably eat consciously would be potatoes." she grinned at me, sinking her teeth into her ham and cheese sandwich.

Interesting information. Now, tell me, "What brings you girls here?" I casually asked. I actually wanted to say, "What the heck are you guys doing here?" but that would sound a bit harsh and mean of me so I didn't.

"Nothin', we just wanted to talk to the popular, new kid. You looked interesting and easy to talk to, is all!" she laughed.

Elizaveta thoughtfully added, "You know, you're like, all the talk among the seniors!"

"Just the seniors?" I asked confusedly. Why am I only interesting to a certain group of people. Not that I minded, anyway.

"Not really, it's just that most of the people who're talking about you are from the twelfth grade. You're quite popular around the school in general." Anneliese shrugged, pushing back her tray that held nothing but a single cookie just a while ago.

This really unnerved me. I don't know if this popularity thing is a good thing to live with during high school.

"No need to worry, though. You're all good in everyone's books." Maria smiled at me. "Although, if there's one person you don't want to attract attention from, that's Braginski, that kid from the 11th grade. He scares the living shit outta me." Maria kinda spat out the word 'shit'.

"Oh, yeah, Braginski. Ivan. The tall guy with the scarf. I don't think he's really mean, but he does creep me out a bit." Liz laughed, then abruptly stopped.

"What's wrong?" I asked, puzzled.

She waited a few moments, glancing towards the other table, gulping a bit. I tried to follow her gaze, but something in Maria's expression told me not to. Anneliese looked as passive as usual.

Moments later, Elizaveta breathed out, sounding kinda relieved.

"I think Natalya just heard us."

"Who?" I asked again. This wasn't making any sense, guys. I looked to the table I was trying to look at earlier, and I saw that a girl just vacated it.

"Natalya. She's a freshman, as well. She's popular — not as popular as you, though — but she earned that because of her personality. She tags along with her brother all the time, and her cold stares are like, daggers through your soul." Elizaveta let out a slight shudder.

"Icy daggers through your soul." Maria corrected. "She's like, twice as creepy as her half-brother, Ivan. She looks like she's capable of murder or something! I thought it runs in the family but I guess I'm pretty relieved that their older sister, Yekaterina, is saner than both of them."

"That's not a very nice thing to say about someone..." I found myself rushing to Ivan and Natalya's defense. "I'm sure they're misjudged..."

"I suppose. I wouldn't mess with them if I were you, though." Elizaveta shrugged. "They say Natalya's the only person Ivan's scared of, so I guess that's saying a lot."

"Still, though. Maybe you guys are being hard on them..." I said a bit uncertainly.

"I dunno. Oh well. Shall we get going? We'll accompany you to your locker." Maria offered, grinning at me.

Uh... Haha... No thanks, I'll pass. I don't think I need any more attention by bringing along three female seniors to my locker.

"No, it's okay, I can manage on my own." I replied.

Maria and Elizaveta looked slightly disappointed. "Aww, okay. If you say so. Well, we'll see ya later, okay?" Elizaveta stood up, smiled and clapped me on my shoulder.

"Yeah, see ya around! Danke, by the way." Maria stood up as well, taking her tray with her.

"What?"

"Thanks!" she laughed, repeating it in English for me. "Thanks for your time. You're really an interesting kid." she grinned.

Kid. God, guys, I'm 15, how does that qualify as a kid? Just because you're seniors...

"Oh, you're welcome...?" I wasn't really sure if that was the right reply. "Bye, Maria, Liz, Anneliese." I nodded and waved at them. "It was nice talking to you three as well."

"It was nice talking to you too, Alfred." You say that, but you didn't even talk much. "Well, we'll be going now." Anneliese waved and left with the rest of them.

I watched them leave the cafeteria before I looked into my hand, realizing that my grilled cheese sandwich was gone. Aww, that sucks. I stood up and bought another one to eat between classes later.

'Thanks for sticking up for me and my brother earlier.' a note read. I picked it up from the bottom of my locker. It was written on a piece of torn-out notebook paper, in black ink and neat and tiny handwriting. It wasn't signed or anything and I didn't even recognize the handwriting, but I knew who it was from. Well, at least I'm pretty sure who it was from. Must be from that Natalya kid.

I folded up the piece of paper and slipped it into my wallet before retrieving my books and closing my locker. I saw Arthur again, sitting by the staircase, talking to someone on the phone.

"No, Mother, I honestly don't care. Alastair brought me, Gwyneth and Peter here on his decision and not because I forced him to. You can't tell me it's not fair for you and Caitlin to be left behind in England." I could hear him talking, his patience growing thinner with each word.

I couldn't help myself listening to him. I've never heard his voice until now. He sounds British. He mentioned England. I'm betting a thousand bucks that's where he's from.

"I don't give a bloody rat's arse —" eww, a bloody rat's ass? A rat's already disgusting, but a bloody rat? More so, its ass? What. "— a bloody rat's arse about him. I'm not coming back. Not now, or ever. I'm sick and tired of it all."

How can he talk to his mother like that? He must be really pissed off at her.

"Learn to stand up on your own two feet, Mother. You can't rely on me or Alastair now. If you hate him so much, then leave him and spare me your idiotic whining." he groaned, his bushy, large eyebrows knit together in a frown. I could tell he's at the end of his wits, exasperated, all patience down the drain.

"Don't ever call me again." and with that, he hung up on the caller.

He stood up and I saw him walking towards my direction. I was frozen on the spot. Shit, if he finds out I've been eavesdropping —

He stopped in front of me, glared at me with a scowl. I blinked. Even if he was shorter than me by a few inches, his glare was enough to scare me. Oh God, this is the last place I want to be.

"You heard all of that?" he demanded in a British accent. It took me quite a while to compose myself, and to answer back.

"Well?" he said impatiently.

"Oh... I... Uh... Yeah, sorry, I just happened to pass by and I overheard..." I stammered out. Even if I did overhear, staying to hear more was inexcusable. He didn't look pleased with my answer.

"Don't tell anyone about what you heard." he said, before turning on his heel and walked off. I was confused. Why would I tell anyone? It's not like there was anything to tell. Francis was right about him being really surly, though.

No time to think about that, though. I had to run to my next class because I was running late, AGAIN. You're making a really nice impression, Alfred. Really nice.

I burst inside the classroom, out of breath and panting.

"You must be Mr. Jones! Sit down, you're late." a teacher, somewhat in his early or mid-twenties, wearing a black tie and a red long-sleeved polo shirt, slacks and new shoes, pointed me to my chair. He didn't really look pissed off at my tardiness, the way the other teachers have been. I've never seen him in any of my classes, though. Maybe he's a substitute?

"So, I'm your Math teacher starting today. Your previous Math teacher resigned, so I was hired to fill in. I don't know the details, but I hear he's gotta go back to his home country or something?" he paced around the room.

"The name's Matthias Køhler, pleased to meet you all. Before you ask, yeah, I'm not from this country. I'm Danish." he grinned at us, and I could hear the buzz of the female students. I know what they're fussing about; They think he's really good looking and whatnot. Well, I can't disagree. His blonde hair went up in spikes, and he looks really cheerful.

He started talking about the lessons we'll be covering and stuff, and I found myself not listening. I tried, but I got distracted yet again. Stupid attention deficit whatever.

Arthur's pretty mysterious, huh. Why does he talk back to his mom like that, though? He really is like a typical delinquent. I looked out into the window, and saw the gray clouds hovering up in the sky. It looked like it was going to rain. Great. I didn't even bring an umbrella with me.

Mister Køhler handed out some worksheets for us to do at home, saying something like, "evaluation" and "I'll see how much you guys know". One glance at it and I knew it was pretty easy. Not to brag or anything, but I'm pretty good in Science and Math.

Class ended and we all left. Next period was Spanish class. I chose that as an elective. Spanish is already one of the widely used languages here in the States, so I figured I should learn the basics. Wait, is it Spanish or is it Mexican? Is Mexican even a language? I thought Mexicans spoke Spanish, or did they have a dialect of their own? Whatever.

I sat down on one of the seats near the window in Spanish class just as Mr. Carriedo walked in. He was a fresh college graduate, so he's still pretty young and really tanned, friendly too. He's quite a popular teacher with the girls. Maybe that's why there're a lot of girls taking Spanish this year.

"Alfred! Hey there." Maria called out and sat next to me. I saw Francis sit on the chair in front of me.

"Hey, you two. I didn't know you both took Spanish." I blinked. I never saw them in the previous classes.

"Yeah, but we ditch Spanish sometimes." Francis shrugged. "Toni doesn't seem to mind."

"Toni?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Antonio, Mr. Carriedo's first name. We three have been friends since childhood. He's older than us, though, so he acts like he's our older brother." Maria laughed. Mr. Carriedo cleared his throat, and both of them shut up, sat properly and paid attention.

Since this is basic Spanish, he just made us memorize numbers and basic phrases.

"Buenos dias, buenos tardes, buenos noches. 'Bueno', means 'good', so it's the 'good' in 'Good morning'. Bueno has its similar equivalents in different languages. Like, in Italian and French. They don't all sound the same of course." he pointed to a brown-haired male student who appeared to be frowning in a deep scowl. "Vargas, what's 'good' in Italian?" the teacher asked him. I thought this was Spanish class, not language class?

"Buono." he replied, his face not changing.

"And in French?" he pointed to Francis.

"Bonne." he said, with a flourish of the thick French accent.

"Of course, in German, it's 'Guten', but Toni won't ask that because it doesn't even sound like 'Bueno'." Maria whispered to me and chuckled.

"Is there anything you'd like to share with the class, Miss Beilschmidt?" Mr. Carriedo turned to her, smiling.

"Nein, it's nothing, Herr Carriedo." she snickered. I knew she used German words on purpose to try and tick him off, but it didn't work.

He went back to discussing the similarities of Spanish words to its European neighbors', and Maria went quiet again and stared off into space, pretending like she was paying attention.

"Hm, Jones. Count from one to ten in Spanish." he pointed at me. Why me...?

"Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, deis." I replied, earning a pleased smile from the teacher. "Muy bien, Señor Jones! I guess you were listening, after all!" he laughed.

After class, I saw Maria and Francis headed over to the teacher's desk.

"Haha, sorry 'bout earlier, Toni..."

"...I guess your class isn't that boring after all..."

"...I'm happy that you liked it, si..."

They really were friends with him.

Maria pulled me by the wrist to the front. "Hey—!" I started, but she cut me off.

"Toni, meet Alfred, he's our new friend!" she beamed at him. I somehow felt like one of those kids from kinder schools, being shown to my friend's parents saying they met someone new today.

"Aha, I know who he is." he smiled. "Hola, Alfred. I'm Antonio Carriedo; you may call me that when we're out of classes. Nice to meet you~" he held out a hand and I shook it.

"You lot better get to your next class now, you might be late." he reminded them but they just waved it off. I took this opportunity to leave before either of them stopped me.

"It's you, again." Arthur looked at me with a slight frown on his face. He was leaning against a windowsill, looking outside. The rain was steadily falling and it kinda smelled like ammonia. I ran into him after class on my way down.

"Hi." I waved at him shortly, smiling.

"You're Alfred, right?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. And you're Arthur?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?" he pulled out a pack from his pocket, took out a stick and lit it.

"Francis told me."

"Oh, that frog. You're friends with him?" he looked kinda disgusted.

"Kinda sorta." I said nonchalantly.

He said nothing and turned back to the window. I took this chance to ask him.

"Hey, what was that phone call about, the one from earlier?" I regretted it at once. I could see a twinge of annoyance on his face when I asked. Alfred, the constant meddler is in the house.

"It was nothing." he grunted, flicking the cigarette, causing ashes to fall down out of the window.

"Why shouldn't I tell anyone, though?" I asked again, pressing for an answer now.

"If word gets out, there'll be a huge commotion, especially with my bandmates. News spreads like wild fire around here. Just don't tell anyone and you're safe." he frowned. Was that like an underlying threat? What did I hear? It wasn't much, and if I told on him to anybody, it wasn't really going to have much of an impact based on the scraps of information I got. Still, I decided to keep my mouth shut.

"Okay." I shrugged, not prodding any further. "Wait, did you say bandmates?" I asked interestedly.

"Yeah. Didn't you hear me the first time? Me and three others."

"Cool! Is this like a club or something?" I asked again. This time he laughed for a second, flicking the cigarette.

"No, it's just a band, but we perform during school events and stuff." he smiled at me a bit, looking amused. "Why? If it was a club, would you have asked to join?" he chuckled, and I couldn't help but sputter in denial. I think I even felt my cheeks heat up.

"No, I was just curious, is all!" I huffed indignantly. I admitted to myself that yes, I would have. Joining a band sounds really interesting right now, actually. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing that, though.

"Hm. If you say so." he shrugged. "I do lead vocals and lead guitar. It's like, a punk-rock band, but we mostly do covers." he said nonchalantly, and I couldn't help but look at him in awe.

"My sister does back-up vocals bass guitar, and does the lead when needed."

"That's cool." I managed to breathe out.

"Can you play an instrument?"

"E-guitar, and drums." I grinned, flashing him the peace sign without thinking. He raised his huge eyebrow at me.

"Hm." That's all he said. "Are you part of any club right now?"

"Not really, but I was thinking of joining the photography club." I blinked. I noticed he's suddenly taken an interest.

He nodded, threw the burnt-out cigarette stick away, and turned around to partially face me. I could see the piercings up close and all. He wore different kinds of dog tags and a leather wristband. I don't want to call it a bracelet.

"I know someone from the photography club. The president, actually. He's in the same year as me. Kiku Honda. I'll introduce you, if you want. It's pretty hard to get in the club, because Kiku's expectations are really high. I hear he's shot down almost every club application since he became the president last year. He's pretty talented, though." Arthur shrugged and I could see a half-smile.

"That... That would be cool." I managed to say. Where was this sudden interest and kindness coming from?

Suddenly, a girl yanked the sleeve of Arthur's band shirt. Her voice sounded irritated.

"Arthur! Come on, what are you doing hanging out here, we have practice today! Everyone's waiting and I've been looking all over!" she frowned at him, looking really ticked off. She kinda dressed like Arthur, but a bit milder. Her blonde hair that reached up to the bottom of her shoulder blades had red highlights, and she wore a shirt with leather combat boots and a black pair of pants. Her green eyes looked sharp.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, I forgot." he scratched his head as he apologized, yet he didn't really look sorry. "I'll just take you to the Photography Club tomorrow." he said to me and gave a short wave before walking down the hallway with the girl who didn't even bother saying 'hi'. Who was she? There was a slight resemblance with her and Arthur but I can't really say. Maybe she's his girlfriend from the band or something? I don't know.

I felt really tired so I just ran back home, covering my head with my bag. By the time I reached home, I was sopping wet and my sister wasn't on the couch watching TV like usual. I dragged my cold, tired, wet body upstairs to the bathroom so I could take a shower. It was too late; I had realized when I was inside, because I've already caught a cold. Stupid immune system.

I peeled off my clothes, and placed them near the sink, stepping inside and sighing contentedly as the hot water rained down on me and flowed down my body. I wondered if the cold would go away or if it would worsen. Either way, I didn't really mind.

A/N: HI YOU GUYS. I just finished my first-ever smut fanfic after I finished this chapte ;; Go check it out if you wanna~ I'm sorry if the story's a bit slow-paced... I planned this to be an all-over fanfic, with lots of characters and all with the main character as Alfred and the main pairing as USUK. I apologise if interaction would be quite slow and stuff ;A;

So, in case you guys haven't noticed (you'd have to be pretty slow not to...): Maria Beilschmidt = Fem!Prussia (sorry, Male!Prussia fans! :U), Anneliese (Edelstein) = Fem!Austria.

Romano/Lovino was mentioned earlier during the Spanish class scene but only by last name ;7;/ I was kinda like, debating if I'll gender-bend one of the Italian brothers, but I'm like, NAHHHH.

So, more chapters to come and stuff! I'll try not to get le writer's block again, or lose interest XD;;

UP NEXT: LE RUSKIES. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? IVAN/MOTHER RUSSIAAAA~ Oh, and of course, Belarus/Natalya. I'll most likely put Ukraine/Yekaterina in there as well... But Natalya would probably get the most exposure... Hmm... Still planning it over...

Oh, well... Bye for now... /disappears into the shadows

OH AND THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS, BY THE WAY! ;U;