"It's okay, Al." Matthew smiled reassuringly at his brother as they walked up to the school. It was the summer and they were on their way to collect their exam results from their first year. The last few weeks they had spent outside as much as possible, playing sports and generally hanging out with their friends. Kiku had gone to visit family back home in Japan, much to Alfred's disappointment and had only arrived back two days earlier. There were butterflies in Alfred's stomach as he thought of seeing his friend again. He had missed him a lot more than he had been willing to admit to Matthew.

"So... basically, we're writing French off now." Matthew continued, good-heartedly nudging his brother, "We'll just forget that exists. Who do you think for the others?"

"I dunno..." Alfred shrugged, "I kind of hope I did okay. I mean, Maths and English and that should be fine, but I'm still not sure about all the others."

"You'll be fine. You're clever if you bother to try." Matthew smiled, "And I will bet you, right now, that when we get to the end of next year you will have at least equalled and probably passed my mark on whatever language you end up deciding to take."

Alfred raised an eyebrow, "Come on, dude. You serious? You're like, EPIC at French. No way I'm going to beat you."

"Equal then." Matthew persisted, "Come on, then. I will... do something for you if you manage to get a better grade than me. Not sure what yet, we'll work it out, eh? But if you don't then... well we'll figure something out. Deal?" He stopped and held out a hand.

Alfred surveyed his hand before turning his gaze to his brother's face, looking him in the eye before relenting, "Okay, deal. I'm totally going to whoop your ass."

"Yeah, right." Matthew replied as he started to walk again, a competitive gleam in his eyes.

"Birdie!" The voice of Gilbert cut through anything they had been about to say to each other as they reached the school gates and the tall German boy strode across from where he had been leaning against the wall to pull Matthew into a tight hug.

"Hi, Gil." Matthew hugged his boyfriend back, pressing his face into his shoulder before pulling away. "Come on, Al and I have exam results to deal with."

"You'll be awesome though." Gilbert shrugged, "Both of you." He added to Alfred. Smiling, he took Matthew's hand and started to lead them into the school and towards the main hall. As they walked, Alfred couldn't help but look around, wanting to catch sight of Kiku's familiar face. By the time they reached the hall, there was still no sign of him. Alfred watched as Gilbert dragged Matthew over to the 'W' table to pick up his own results before turning and going over to the 'J' table. He told the teacher sitting behind the table his name and allowed his eyes and thoughts to wander again as he waited for them to find the envelope.

"Aha, here it is. Alfred Jones." The teacher said, finally finding the right envelope and holding it out to him. He smiled slightly at them and took it, only now realising that his hands were shaking slightly, the only real outward sign of his nerves. He stepped away from the table, his eyes sweeping the room once more for Kiku – with no luck – before he then started to look for Matthew and Gilbert, easily picking the older boy's white hair out of the crowds. Chewing the inside of his mouth slightly, Alfred made his way over to them.

"Hey, Al!" Matthew grinned as he saw his brother approaching. "You ready?" Matthew was holding an almost identical brown envelope to the one that Alfred was holding.

"As I'll ever be." Alfred replied with a shadow of a smile. "After three?"

Matthew nodded, "One."

"Two..." Alfred continued.

"Three!" Gilbert butted it as both other boys hesitated. "Come on, open them!"

Alfred stuck his finger under the flap of the envelope and tore it upwards. Then he hesitated, seeing the exposed white paper underneath and part of him thinking that he really didn't want to know. He didn't want to see the grades that were printed on it. He took a deep breath and exchanged a worried glance with Matthew before getting out the piece of paper, scanning down list quickly. As predicted, he had failed French. But to his surprise he had managed to pass everything else with pretty decent grades, most of them around a C. He found himself smiling. It wasn't nearly as bad as he had feared it would be.

"How did you do?"

A quiet voice from behind him made Alfred turn around, his face splitting into a wide grin, "Kiku!" He exclaimed happily, "Pretty good. Better than I thought I would anyway." He looked down at the envelope in Kiku's hands, "What about you?"

"I have not looked yet." His friend explained, "I have only just received them and saw you over here." He smiled politely at Matthew and Gilbert, "How were your results, Matthew?"

Matthew smiled back, leaning slightly against Gilbert, "They were good, thanks. I mean, there's always room for improvement but I'm happy."

"So what about you then?" Alfred pressed, "Open them!"

Kiku looked back at him and nodded, sliding one finger under the flap and neatly pulling the envelope open. He got out the sheet of paper and scanned it in silence for a moment before smiling again and nodding in satisfaction, "They are good results. I am pleased with them."

"Let me see!" Alfred snatched the paper and looked at it, "These are better than good! That's epic! Like, properly epic! You could get into any college you want!"

"Yes, if I can keep it up." Kiku said, holding a hand out and taking the paper back from Alfred, putting it away into the envelope, "So what are your plans for the rest of the day?"

Alfred exchanged a glance with his brother and pulled a face. Matthew smiled, "I was going to go round Gil's," he said, still happily leaning back against his boyfriend, "So you two do whatever."

"We could go back to mine and play video games?" Alfred offered, "Unless you'd rather do something more outside-y?"

Kiku shook his head, "Video games sound good. It will be nice to catch up with you now that I have returned."

"Epic!" Alfred grinned, "I've missed you. I mean, Matt's too soft and easy to beat at video games. You're more of a challenge."

Kiku laughed softly, "Okay. Then let's go back to your house. We will see you later?" He added to Matthew.

"Probably." Matthew replied with a soft smile, "I'll have to go home and tell Dad and Papa how I did later. Though I've got until they get home from work before I really should be back." He directed his last sentence at Gilbert.

Gilbert laughed, "I'll get you home safe and sound, Birdie. Come on," He took Matthew's hand and pulled him away, leaving him to call a hurried, 'see you later!' over his shoulder at the others.

"Let's get going." Alfred said to Kiku and the pair of them left the hall as well. Stepping out into the bright sunshine, Alfred felt better than he had for weeks. The exam results hadn't been as bad as he had hoped and even better his best friend was now home for the summer. He laughed softly to himself, now if only there was some way of knowing if Kiku was feeling anything more than just friendship towards him then everything could be just about perfect.

Author's note: Yay exam results! This chapter marks roughly the halfway point through this story

Quick edit: In the UK (where this story is set) grades A*-C are counted as good passing grades. C is generally counted as average whereas anything below that (D-G) is still a pass but not generally counted when getting into doing A-Levels. U is a fail grade. Currently Mattie and Al are 15 and doing their GCSE exams. Which I'm not going to try to explain because I'll be here all day! Gilbert is two years older but only one year above them because of reasons that will (may) be explained later!