A/N: I apologise for the long wait. I'm sorry if you've started to lose interest in this. It's not like I've been busy at all; I've been off school all week due to sickness. Since I've been roleplaying a lot lately, my mood to write has come back up and I feel like I'm finally back where I belong.

If I don't update within the next nine days (holyshitomg), then I'd just like to add that it's my birthday soon. In nine days. As I write this it's Friday, though, so if you read this now then it'll be ten days. AHH I'M TOO OLD FOR THIS

This chapter will consist of mostly Gilbert and his sort of point of view, since I've mostly been focusing on Matthew. But that's alright, because I know you love the awesome Prussia!

DISCLAIMER: Unless Hidekaz suddenly passed me the rights to Hetalia, then I don't own the characters or basis. The plot line, however cliché it may be, is owned by me. NOW FOR THE SILLINESS: If I did own Hetalia, then England would be the most semest seme in the history of semes.

Chapter Six – Will We Make It?

A week passed.

Matthew had gotten used to the whole concept of having a friend. He didn't feel alone anymore and for once in his life he could sleep easy. He had somewhere to go at lunch where he felt accepted.

Two weeks passed.

Matthew had excuses to get out of the house more. He was constantly at Gilbert's house and he started to become a little less awkward around him. His sexual, perverted jokes didn't seem to bother Matthew. Even when Francis cracked a few, he didn't mind. He even laughed at some of them.

Three weeks passed.

Matthew always woke up feeling eager to go through another day of living. He almost always woke up with a smile and a cheerier attitude. Not even Alfred could bring him down. Alfred had started to ignore him a bit more, which Matthew was actually glad about. Although he'd spent his whole life trying to get somebody's attention, he didn't feel like he needed Alfred's. He had Gilbert's attention, and that's all that mattered to him nowadays.

Alfred wasn't worth what Gilbert was worth, if Matthew was honest.

And then, a month had passed.

Where had the time gone?

Matthew felt his phone vibrate in his bag against his leg. The whole class was dead silent and it was pretty noticeable. A few kids near Matthew heard it and looked at him, embarrassing him enough to make a blush form across his cheeks. The teacher, thankfully, didn't hear and carried on with his lesson.

He was pretty sure that he had just received a text from Gilbert. He had no idea what he wanted or what he was doing on his phone in the middle of a lesson, but something inside of him started to make him feel nauseous. What if it was really urgent? The paranoia was too much and eventually consumed him, compelling him to opening his bag and taking his phone out.

As he slid it out of the bag, he kept a watchful eye on the teacher, making sure not to get caught. Gilbert taught him how to do that and he'd certainly picked up on a few useful tips. He made sure absolutely nobody was looking and, once he was affirmative nobody was interested, he hid his phone in his lap, lifting the screen up so it would turn on.

The teacher was rambling on about something Matthew couldn't care less about. It took him a lot of balls to admit that; he usually always listened in lessons and even took notes. Now, his notebook remained, unopened, on the desk and his pen was rolling around on the edge, close to falling off.

Matthew glanced down at the screen. Sure enough, a notification popped up clarifying that he had a new text message from Gilbert. Looking up at the teacher, he opened it, being very careful with what he was doing. The teacher had his back faced to the board as he continued to write and babble on.

Yawn...how boring.

Yo, Mattie! This test is so un-awesome, dude. I want you to come entertain me! What are you doing?

Of course, the text was a lot less sophisticated than that, and most words were either abbreviated or misspelled. It took a while for Matthew to work out and try to comprehend it before his brain finally processed Gilbert's message.

I want you to come entertain me? Matthew's new found perversion made that sound incredibly inappropriate, making him blush more. He looked around again, his anxiety getting the best of him, just so no one thought he was reading a dirty text or anything. Of course, no one was looking at him. They all strangely had their eyes fixated on the board.

Test? Gilbert never mentioned a test.

Oh, wait, that's right. Matthew suddenly remembered that Gilbert had a whole series of tests that day; Alfred mentioned it at dinner a few nights ago if he wasn't mistaken. All of his grade was doing a few mock exams in order to boost their grades and hopefully get them into college, which was still a few years away but still.

Matthew was even sure he'd seen Alfred study for them, which was incredibly rare. This proved to Matthew that the tests were incredibly important and held a lot of significance to their future education, thus he refrained from texting back. He would just let Gilbert know that he got the text and tell the truth about how he didn't want Gilbert to get thrown out of the exam, or he could just improvise a lie.

But Matthew wasn't like that. He wasn't like that all. Especially to Gilbert – he never wanted to lie to Gilbert.

Never.

So, Matthew simply put his phone back in his bag and opened his note book in order to make it seem like he was paying heed to the lesson. Which, of course, he definitely wasn't.

After he had finished copying pretty much all that was on the board – he was a fast writer, he had learnt recently – the bell rang for lunch, meaning Matthew was finally able to see Gilbert again.

He actually couldn't wait to. It felt unnatural not having his presence near him. It was starting to feel foreign to Matthew whenever Gilbert wasn't there by his side. It was like they were destined to be together.

Matthew's thoughts wandered. He didn't mean that in a romantic way!

...Or did he? Matthew wasn't entirely sure anymore what his feelings were. They were always subject to change.

Gilbert literally strutted out of the exam hall, bursting through the doors. He was oozing with confidence and arrogance as he walked with Francis and Antonio beside him in their usual positions.

Francis turned to Gilbert as they walked and smiled, "So, mon ami. How was the test in your opinion?"

Gilbert scoffed, a conceited smirk on his face (although it was almost always there anyway) as he examined his bitten-to-the-cuticle nails.

"Pshh, easiest shit ever," Gilbert lied, trying to make it sound like he was better than his friends, like he was on a higher pedestal than them. Or maybe he was trying to be the king and they were merely a group of peasants.

Antonio looked at them both with the usual lively glimmer in his emerald eyes. With a bright, cheerful smile he announced, "I totally failed it!"

Francis leaned across Gilbert to give Antonio an enthusiastic high five, although failing a test that was meant to be involved in deciding their entire future including university wasn't exactly something to be proud of.

Suddenly, Antonio disbanded himself from the group upon seeing Lovino in the corner talk to – or rather, flirt with – some girl he didn't recognise. Without saying his farewells, Antonio started to run up to Lovino, his arms flailing about whilst screaming after him. Francis and Gilbert didn't see much after that, but Lovino appeared to be terrified and running for his dear life.

Any sane human would do the same thing as Lovino, though.

Gilbert scoffed again.

"He just left us," he said bluntly, stating the obvious. A little bit of disappointment was certainly present in his voice. "Didn't say goodbye or anything. Bastard."

Francis nodded, although he disliked bitching about Antonio since they'd been best friends since forever, even before Gilbert came along and decided he wanted to be cool as well.

"Oui, but he's been doing that a lot," Francis nodded in agreement. For once, his tone was a lot more serious than usual and mirrored the same type of disappointment Gilbert had shown.

"He's always leaving us to be with him," Gilbert scowled, sounding genuinely angry about the situation with Antonio. When he said 'him', he said it like it was an item of absolutely no value; like it was nothing more than the dirt off of someone's shoe. "Lovino's not as awesome as we are! What's he got that we don't?"

Francis shrugged, not wanting to start a fight or get Gilbert so worked up he would start ranting about it all day. "Though, I could say the same about you."

Gilbert raised an eyebrow at this. What could Francis possibly mean by that?

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Gilbert yelled, either forgetting or simply not caring about the other students and maybe the odd teachers passing by. His voice was dripping with venom by now; he was extremely irate and Francis was starting to feel pretty intimidated. Gilbert was not a pretty sight when he was intoxicated with pure anger.

Francis tried to protest, "Nothing, nothing!" He even threw his arms up in surrender, which probably wasn't doing all the French jokes any justice.

Gilbert glared at him, snarling a little. He honestly had no idea what Francis had meant by his comment but in his mind he found it to be completely uncalled for.

Was he trying to say that he was becoming like Antonio was with Lovino? Only...he was spending too much time with Gilbert?

He really wanted to add, 'Well, excuse me for trying to help the poor kid!'

But something held him back and he refrained from doing so.

Maybe he valued his and Francis' companionship.

Who knew?

Because Gilbert certainly didn't.

It was nearing the end of lunch and Gilbert had completely forgotten to eat.

He didn't care all too much, though. Francis had left long ago to go to the lunch hall, where he was probably sat grooming Matthew. The thought of it made Gilbert want to be sick and just burst into the lunch hall to protect him.

To avoid causing too much of a scene and creating too much worthless drama he knew Matthew wouldn't be able to handle, Gilbert decided to calm himself down by going on a short walk around the school.

Big mistake.

Once he turned the corner to go down into another corridor, the art corridor to be precise, the first thing his eyes saw was the familiar trade mark bomber jacket of someone he knew all too well.

The 'fifty' on the back of it stood out like a sore thumb, and that silly cowlick Gilbert could still see even with the owner's back turned was visible, too.

Gilbert started to detest Alfred more and more the more he hung out with Matthew, getting to know his side of the story. He really wasn't in the mood to be dealing with it all.

Everything about Alfred was starting to annoy Gilbert, even if they ironically shared a lot of traits. They were both obnoxious, self-centred people who found it hard to sympathise with others or just simply chose not to.

Maybe that's why they clashed so much.

Gilbert leaned against the wall with his arms folded across the chest as he glowered at Alfred, watching him intently as he spoke to an art teacher about something.

Something Gilbert totally did not care about.

Gilbert waited around until Alfred was done talking to her and maliciously stared at him some more, hoping he'd get noticed by him.

Sure enough, he did, and Alfred caught sight of him pretty quickly, too. Being his usual cheery self, Alfred stopped in front of Gilbert and gave him a friendly smile, waving.

Gilbert waved back, mimicking his smile before suddenly using the hand he was waving to make it into an obscene gesture. Yep, he stuck his middle finger up at him.

Alfred looked at it for a moment, trying to grasp what was going on. He was dumb, but not dumb enough to know that Gilbert had some sort of problem with him, even if he had no idea what said problem was.

"Hey, dude, what's that for?" Alfred asked, pouting a little. "That's not very nice!"

"Don't care," Gilbert muttered, giving him some attitude. He folded his arms again and shot Alfred a disapproving look. "I want to know why."

Alfred raised an eyebrow. He was feeling ever so confused – why did this kid have beef with him?

"Why what?" Alfred questioned, his voice wavering a little. He was also nervously giggling. Gilbert looked vicious with that glare, especially with those red eyes of his. They were almost starting to frighten Alfred. Almost.

It wasn't like Alfred couldn't take on people half his size because, well, to put it simply, he could, and it would be a doddle.

"For being a burden in your brother's life," Gilbert replied in the most serious tone he could possibly muster.

Alfred had no idea what a burden was, but it sounded like a bad thing and not a type of food.

"...What about my brother?" Alfred scratched his head in confusion. Had he done something wrong to Matthew? He tried to remember the latest thing he did to Matthew. Well, he did kind of eat Matthew's cookie the previous night but Matthew did forgive him and he did promise to buy Matthew another one, though he knew he never would.

Gilbert, driven by anger, took this the wrong way and thought Alfred was being his usual oblivious self – which was half true. He lunged himself towards him, causing Alfred to subsequently stumble a bit. Gilbert clenched his fists, preparing to punch him square in the jaw.

Or, better yet, where the sun didn't shine, because that hurt a lot more.

Gilbert had thought Alfred didn't remember who his brother was as usual, so he drew his fist back a little, grabbing hold of Alfred's shirt. Alfred squirmed underneath him, almost setting himself free.

He soon gave up when he realised how strong Gilbert was when he was like this, so he closed one eye, expecting the worst and hoping for the best. Just when he thought the fist was going to collide with his face any moment then, he heard a soft voice that resembled his own.

"Don't hurt my brother, Gilbert."

Alfred opened his eye to see Matthew holding back Gilbert's arm. He breathed a sigh of relief as Gilbert loosened his grip on his shirt enough for him to be able to escape – which he did as soon as he was free – and winked at his younger brother.

Once Alfred had left, Gilbert let Matthew drop his arm back into its normal position and he turned to him.

Upon seeing how serene Matthew was despite saying the words so seriously, Gilbert instantly calmed down. He let out a deep sigh, feeling ashamed of himself. God...everything was pissing him off so much today. Maybe he was having a man-period or something.

Though that wasn't possible, so that wasn't a likely excuse at all.

"What were you doing?" Matthew asked, his voice sounding as if he was pleading. Sure, he disliked Alfred sometimes too, but only when he did something wrong. It was that sort of relationship where, if someone tried to touch either one's brother in a way that would cause them harm, then they would be the first person to protect them.

Gilbert couldn't think of a reasonable way to defend himself so he stammered, "I w-wanted to show him who's boss."

Matthew tilted his head in confusion.

"But he didn't do anything wrong."

Gilbert chuckled, not obnoxiously but very quietly under his breath as he pulled Matthew into a hug. Matthew let himself be wrapped in Gilbert's arms, which he admitted was such a nice, secure place to be that offered him a lot of protection he needed, and didn't feel any rage at all.

Gilbert didn't either. It was almost as if Matthew had completely pacified him.

"I was being too hasty," Gilbert confessed. "Long day, is all. Did you get my text?"

Matthew looked up at Gilbert, his violet eyes suddenly beginning to sparkle. He nodded, "I did, but I didn't want to get you into trouble so I didn't text back."

"Oh," came Gilbert's reply. Gilbert understood, although he really wouldn't have cared if it would have gotten in trouble or even kicked out of the test. If it meant Matthew would talk to him, then he really, really wouldn't have minded.

"Yeah," Matthew sighed, his eyes diverting to the ground. He bit on his lip, chewing it and moving it around in circular motions as he began to feel very awkward indeed.

"I'm sorry," Gilbert suddenly apologised, pulling Matthew closer to him. Matthew relaxed, although feeling startled at the sudden gesture of affection, letting Gilbert take him into his arms.

As Matthew listened to the sound of Gilbert's heartbeat, which was like music to his ears, he whispered, "Don't be. Just try not to let your anger get the best of you."

Gilbert separated from Matthew a little, not pulling apart the hug completely but just enough to give them both space to breathe, leaning down a little so that their lips were close enough to touch each other were they to pucker up and push them out.

Matthew took a deep breath, feeling uncomfortable with the proximity yet strangely content with it. All kinds of emotions ran through him – he was feeling awkward yet happy simultaneously.

Gilbert started to stroke Matthew's wavy hair, tangling his fingers in them carefully so that he wouldn't get them too tangled that it would hurt to remove them.

"Matthew..." Gilbert whispered. Well, sort of whispered. Gilbert was a naturally loud person, so even his whisper was a few decibels short of a normal person shouting. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but he still whispered pretty loud, compared to Matthew anyway.

"Yes, Gilbert?" Matthew replied, his whole body flushing and feeling extremely weak all of a sudden. His cheeks were tainted a light shade of pink as Gilbert said his name. He always loved it when Gilbert said his name, even though he'd been saying it for a total of four weeks now. It was always nice to be remembered.

Gilbert closed his eyes, took in some air before exhaling it, and moved his lips closer to Matthew's.

Haha cliff-hanger lol –gets eggs thrown at her-

Yay character development and we're getting to the good stuff woo

I wish I could have written this better, I really wish . I wanted to upload something though to sustain my reader's interest ahh. Also the temptation to update was niggling me so much that I just had to write this.

TL;DR: Basically, everyone's angry with each other. Francis and Gilbert are angry at Antonio whilst Gilbert's angry at Francis who's getting angry at Gilbert who's also pretty angry at Alfred.

Well, a great man once did say: "LET'S GET ANGRY TOGETHER." /lol shot/

See you next chapter! Hope you didn't abandon this! Thanks for all your feedback. I love you. We should marry.

Hasta la Pasta~!