Some people's eyes sprang open when they woke up. Some people sit up, eager for the day ahead of them. They leap out of bed, fully rested from the long night's sleep behind them, and begin their day full of piss and vinegar.
Feliciano was not one of these people. He wasn't one of these people on a good day. Feliciano knew, as consciousness slowly returned to him, that he had to apologize to the poor soul who had woken him—God knows how long they had tried. Feliciano tried one last time to return to sleep before groggily opening his eyes.
"I fell asleep," Feliciano said through a yawn. "Is Berlitz okay?"
Ludwig stood over him, looking exhausted and sweaty. He ran a hand threw his hair and shrugged. "Well, he drank some water. Gilbert's going to watch him today."
Feliciano sat up on the couch and yawned again, rubbing his eyes. "I can come and visit him, right? Maybe not tonight, because of the meeting, you know, but maybe Saturday if you're not busy. Hey, Ludwig, why are you so sweaty? Oh, thank you for the coffee; I didn't even see you holding it!" He took a sip, letting out an approving hum.
"I was training at ROTC," Ludwig explained, taking a couple of steps back from the couch and standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, between the sleeping Gilbert and Berlitz.
"Oh, that's the military thing, huh? I've seen them sometimes, running around and doing pushups. Alfred's in it, right? I hear him in the mornings-" Feliciano froze, staring down into his coffee. Alfred usually woke him up on Fridays.
"Ludwig, what time is it?"
Ludwig checked his watch.
"It's just past ten-thirty—"
"Oh, no!" Feliciano stood up, frantically looking around for the door.
"Oh, I missed Biology and I have English in—Ah, I have to take a shower and get ready and get the notes for Bio oh, I hope Yao doesn't mind sharing!"
Ludwig looked shocked, eyebrows coming together and mouth stretching into a funny shape.
"You have morning classes?" His cheeks reddened slightly. "I'm sorry, I should have woken you up—Well, Gilbert should have woken you up. I should have made him wake you up. I'm sorry."
Feliciano rushed to Ludwig and pressed the coffee mug into his hand. He stepped over Berlitz and Gilbert and rushed for the door. He waved behind him as he pulled open the door. "Bye, Ludwig! See you tonight!"
Feliciano practically tumbled down the stairs in his haste to leave. He skidded to a stop on the dorm's doorstep. Feliciano's feet kept twitching forward and back, as if deciding where Feliciano should go. Left or right? It was too early for Feliciano's tired mind. He finally turned right and continued to run as fast as he could, dodging wandering students. This run hadn't seemed so long last night.
Feliciano was finally nearing his dorm, only to stop abruptly. He was probably going to be late for English, but that thought was at the back of Feliciano's mind.
Lovino was exiting their dorm, and walking toward one of the campus gardeners. He was stopping and talking to the gardener, shaking his head and smiling. Feliciano had the urge to cross himself; it was the Gardener.
Feliciano continued to hurry forward, waving his hand over his head in greeting. "Lovino!" He called, approaching.
Lovino turned, smile still half on his face, before he froze and blanched. As Feliciano reached them, he bent over, resting his hands on his knees as he breathed deeply, hoping the stitches in his side would dissipate soon.
"You're supposed to be at class," said Lovino, almost to himself.
Feliciano couched, took a deep breath, and straightened, grinning at the pair in front of him. He looked between Lovino and the Gardener, waiting for one of them to speak. When neither did, Feliciano pressed on.
"Lovino, who's your friend?"
"Ah, excuse me!" The Gardener laughed, sticking out his hand.
"I'm Antonio—"
"No, stop it," Lovino said angrily in the background.
"And you must be Feliciano. Lovino's told me about you. The artist in Law, hm?" Antonio shook Feliciano's hand warmly.
Antonio wasn't what Feliciano had expected. Over the course of a few weeks, the Gardener had transformed from a random conversation into a gorgeous, muscled, mysterious man, someone who was known by all, but seen by few. Feliciano had imagined dark hair, piercing eyes, and maybe a superior, witty intelligence. In more recent thoughts, the Gardener had obtained a hawk that perched on his shoulder menacingly, but sexily.
Antonio was none of these things. He was actually kind of plain, and not at all the muscled beast Feliciano had conjured. Brown hair that fell into his green eyes, a matching green campus-worker outfit, and a slight lisp. Feliciano found himself instantly liking this man, and continued to shake Antonio's hand.
"Oh, Lovino hasn't told me much about you!" Feliciano laughed, and looked over at his brother disapprovingly. "You should have brought him to meet me. Because now you're awkward."
Lovino hid his face in his hands.
"Please stop shaking hands."
Feliciano looked down, chuckled, and released Antonio's hand.
"I'm sorry. So, you and my brother are friends, huh? That's pretty funny, because you seem really nice and usually Lovino's friends have to be really, like, thick-skinned or scary. Like that Berwald-guy, huh, Lovino?"
Antonio opened his mouth to respond, but Lovino cut him off.
"Feli, isn't there somewhere you have to be?"
Feliciano's smile slid off his face. He slapped his hand to his head, groaning. "Oh, I'm going to be late for English. The Professor is going to kill me." He looked at Antonio, "But you can come to my Model UN tonight in the library, if you want. I'm sure you don't have to be a student to attend clubs. I baked a stra—"
"Jesus-fucking-Christ, Feliciano!" Lovino's voice rose a decibel, and his face started to get heated. "Go!"
Feliciano held up his hands, rolling his eyes. "Okay, okay, you don't have to get angry. Bye, Antonio! Hope to see you at the meeting!"
As a matter of fact, it was the hope that Antonio would come to the UN meeting that helped Feliciano through his day. Even when he stood in front of his English professor and tried to explain the morning without including Ludwig's dog—stuttering and fidgeting—the anticipation didn't die.
(The Vargas family refuses to admit that they're curious to the point of ridiculousness. Grandpa Julius wanted to know everything in his grandson's lives, Feliciano wanted to know everything about Lovino's life, and Lovino pretended not to care when his family didn't tell him something.)
When Feliciano finally arrived at the library later that day, brandishing cake, he was very disappointed not to see anyone but Alfred eating the pizza he had brought down. Feliciano gently placed the strawberry cake down on the food table, before throwing the remaining placards on the table. He grabbed his placard and sat down toward the middle of the table, across from Alfred.
"You should get here faster, because this place is legit haunted when no one is around," Alfred said after swallowing a mouthful of pizza. He pointed toward the upper level that wrapped around the library, and Feliciano followed his finger. "I swear to god that someone was walking around up there."
Feliciano laughed and shook his head. "Alfred, no one is here on a Friday night."
Alfred began to respond, but froze when the distant sound of footsteps echoed through the old, wooden library. Feliciano looked around, trying to find the source of the noise, while Alfred sat rigidly in his chair.
It sounded as though the footsteps came closer, but they slowly became quieter, until neither of the students could hear them. Feliciano looked at Alfred, eyes then focusing in on the figure slowly approaching from behind the blond.
BANG.
Alfred screamed and toppled out of his chair, glaring to his left from the ground. Arthur stood with a bemused expression on his face, hand lingering on the heavy textbook he had dropped on the table. Arthur cleared his throat, ignoring Alfred when he stood.
"Sorry about that," the Englishman said, "I came here early and thought I might as well get the book I need for this weekend. Sorry to have," he coughed, grinning, "frightened some of you,"
"Yeah, well, you shouldn't sneak up on people," Alfred snapped, voice a little deeper than it was normally.
Arthur grunted. "Also, I… Brought someone here. For the meeting, but…" He adjusted his tie for a moment before pulling it down and allowing himself to breath. Why Arthur felt the need to wear a suit to the UN meetings was beyond Feliciano. "Well, Francis is a bit—"
"Arthur! There you are! I have been looking all over for you," called the French-est voice Feliciano had ever heard.
Once, Feliciano had helped with the scenery for a play that took place in France. He had sat through quite a number of rehearsals. Most of the performers couldn't do a French accent to save their lives. They either sounded vaguely cockney or French to the extreme. The man who came waltzing up next to Arthur was one of the latter.
Arthur rebuked Francis when he attempted to wrap an arm around him. When the new arrival spoke, Feliciano almost had to giggle. Every 'the' turned to 'ze' and h's disappeared willy-nilly. The long hair carefully drawn back and styled, the tight pants, the waves of cologne practically oozed the word "Francophile."
Francis turned to Feliciano and gave him the most charming smile he had ever seen. "Hello, I am Francis Bonnefoy. You must be Alfred, no?"
Feliciano laughed and shook his head, motioning towards Alfred. "No, I'm Feliciano. I run this club. Thank you for coming! I was worried no new people were going to come. Alfred's my friend. He's the one who screamed a second ago. Hey, Arthur, how do you know Francis?"
Francis turned his dazzling smile to Arthur, but Arthur ignored Francis and took his seat to the left of Alfred. Arthur fussed with the book, glancing briefly up at Feliciano. "Oh, well, we took French together. But I eventually had to drop out because his voice made my ear drums bleed."
Feliciano nodded. "Good, good. Francis, there are drinks and the little cards we use over there. Grab whichever nation you want, and you can have pizza or cake. It's strawberry. I think that—oh, hold on, that's my brother. I'll be right back!" Feliciano hopped out of his seat.
Lovino crossed his arms and looked like a toddler who had been forced to go out with his mother, shopping. He and Antonio stood by the snack table, Antonio looking over the placards. Feliciano walked over, and Lovino glowered at him.
"Hey, where's Italy?" Lovino asked in Italian.
"What? Oh, I represent Italy," Feliciano stuck out his tongue. "Should have come to the first meeting, and maybe you could have grabbed it before me."
Antonio looked at the two brothers, smiling contentedly. "Hey, what're you guys saying?"
Lovino ignored him and continued to speak in Italian. "I want to be Italy."
"Well, you can't be. I'm Italy. There are a whole bunch of other nations that you can be." Feliciano switched to English and looked at Antonio. "Sorry! Lovino is just being difficult. Which nation did you pick?"
"Spain. My parents are from there, and I traveled there a lot as a kid to see my Grandparents. Hey, uh, I won't have to know a whole bunch about the, uh…" Antonio struggled to find the right word, "Economy, will I?"
Feliciano shook his head, letting out a light laugh. "No, it's not that hard. There shouldn't be that many people here, so you should be able to get a few words in."
Antonio smiled, relief crashing over his face like a wave. "Oh, that's great! Lovino was worried about that— Roderich?"
Feliciano turned around to see Ludwig and Roderich approaching. He looked between Antonio and Roderich, pleased that they knew each other. "Oh, good! That means even less introductions for everyone! How—"
"I didn't think they would allow you in here," Roderich sniffed, crossing his arms.
Antonio glanced at Lovino before shrugging. "This didn't seem like your type of 'society,' Roderich. Thought I'd be safe."
"I see you are still 'dating' the angry little boy," Roderich sneered, eyes flicking for a moment to Lovino.
Antonio looked about ready to rip off Roderich's head off. He took a step forward when Feliciano popped up in between them, putting his hands on their chest. He laughed, perhaps a bit desperately.
"Hey, hey, no need for that! We're all friends here. Look, we'll just set you up on the very opposite sides of the table, as far away from one another as you can get! Alright? Alright. Ludwig?" Feliciano tilted his head toward Roderich.
"Ah, right. Roderich…?" Ludwig opened and closed his mouth a few times, unsure of what to say.
"Cake?" Feliciano prompted.
"Cake sounds good," Roderich said, marching past Antonio.
Feliciano grabbed Antonio and Lovino's arms, leading them away from the snack table. He looked over to Lovino, who looked just as confused as Feliciano felt. His older brother reached behind Feliciano and pinched Antonio, muttering under his breath.
"Who the hell was that?" Surprisingly, it was in Spanish. Both Lovino and Feliciano had taken Spanish, but Feliciano had dropped it his senior year. He only remembered the very basics, and though that Lovino would, too, but the words certainly sprung to his lips.
Antonio responded in rapid fire Spanish, too quick and too different a dialect for Feliciano to understand. Lovino looked irritable, but didn't respond back. Feliciano sat Antonio and Lovino down by Francis before back down at his seat.
Feliciano waited until everyone was settled before smiling around. Four new people! "Alright, everyone, welcome to the second meeting of the Model UN."
Beta'd by the FABULOUS kheelwithit. She's my bae.
I'm sorry to cut the chapter, but it was getting long. In other news, we have officially reached the point where there is no left over written content from April.
Anyways, thanks to all the new Followers and Favorites! Also, thanks sangelk, SymmetricalPasta, Fruitstogether, SylverRavyn, and Sentariana for your reviews! Your support makes me so happy. :D
As always, comments, thoughts, and critiques are always welcome!