Considering what he knew of the 'English' (he'd been born in England to English parents but Gilbert knew him from outside of England, where he'd also spent most of his formative years, which rather brought everything into question) boy, both from their personal history and their history lesson, Gilbert thought it was pretty un-Awesome that Arthur had somehow ended up sitting alone during lunch. As much as he was frustrated by Arthur's superior attitude and still a little annoyed from their fight earlier it just didn't seem quite right. He was not the only one to notice.
"It looks like le petit Anglais is having trouble settling in; perhaps we should assist him.…"
Francis smirked suggestively and, without waiting for agreement from either Gilbert (who would not have given it) or Antonio (who didn't even seem to be listening), walked over to the table where the English boy lurked and wrapped his arms around Arthur from behind.
Arthur promptly jerked his elbows backward and sent Francis sprawling across the floor.
Gilbert smirked. Clearly Arthur still had something of his eleven year old self left in him. It was always funny watching other people getting one-upped, even if he wasn't entirely sure if he was supposed to be cheering for his ally or his ex-ally. But regardless, Francis was not one to be dissuaded.
"Mon cher! You act in mistake. I am Francis Bonnefoy! The man of whom you've been undoubtedly dreaming off-"
Arthur twisted slightly, punched him in the stomach, and continued reading the thick black book that was open on the table. Francis gasped – staggering backwards. It could have been dramatics, but then again, Gilbert knew first hand that Arthur had a respectable strength to his punches, a short temper which it wasn't particularly unsurprising he'd clung onto and he also seemed to remember Arthur having a general grudge against the French.
Several people were now looking over at Arthur and Francis with curiosity but Francis just grinned, straightening back up, and waved them off.
"Do not be alarmed my beautiful classmates for my stunning facial features are still intact!"
Laughter broke out at Francis' rather absurd statement and people relaxed back to normal as the French boy returned to their regular table, leaving Arthur to return to his solitude and his book.
"He's is a…challenging one. You say you have a history with him Gilbert?"
Gilbert nodded, secretly thinking that if Francis found anybody who didn't give into him immediately a challenge then the French teen mightn't be such a skilled romantic as he liked to claim – hard work was necessary in that sort of thing, even Gilbert knew. "We went to school together way back in elementary, but he moved away and so I moved onto awesomer things."
"So you cannot help me charm him?" Francis sighed, "Oh but I cannot have a caterpillar faced Englishman ruin my reputation for charm. I shall find a way."
Gilbert frowned a little. It was quite obvious that he was taking a jab Arthur's eyebrows which was rather unfairly mean, although prominent they weren't caterpillars, a little shocking at first, but although they couldn't be said to suite him they did draw attention to his eyes.
"He's not as cute as Lovi."
Antonio was ignored. That, Gilbert pondered, happened a lot – especially when he was making random statements about Lovino 'Romano' Vargas. He couldn't always remember why the Spanish boy was even a part of their group – he contributed only around one eightieth of the time. Not that Gilbert really cared. He was awesome enough to pull off hanging out with even the most un-awesome of allies and, really, Antonio could be awesome sometimes (at least when there was no possible way in which anything could possibly be related to Lovino – the Italian cause Antonio to transform into a bumbling, grinning buffoon) – Gilbert just had better things to do than keep track.
He glanced over at Arthur, just to be nosey, but the blond was still reading his book. Gilbert turned back to Francis, and then glanced back over at Arthur. He had a sudden illogical urge to drag the blond over to his table and behave in ways he thought he'd outgrown after ten years old.
Arthur might have been able to kick Francis' ass, but Gilbert was going to kick Arthur's ass if the blond didn't get out of his brain soon.
Because of this, when he spotted Arthur in his maths class that afternoon Gilbert was beginning to think that his situation was getting silly. He wanted to ignore Arthur. He wasn't nostalgic and he took no interest in some ex-frie-ally. Fortunately this time he wasn't sat particularly near the blond but despite that, every time he tried to daydream or just stare into space, he kept finding both his mind and thoughts drawn to the Englishman. To say the least, it was infuriating. If Arthur had been moderately cool like Francis or Antonio or even cute like Feliciano he might have been willing to endure the thoughts but, as it was Arthur who was wearing a sweater vest, a tie (to school of all places!) and a scowl, he did not want to endure them.
The problem was that his most prominent instincts were contradicting each other. One half of him wanted to do the obvious and just carry on with his life like Arthur had stayed in England, but another part of him was nosey and wanted to know what exactly the boy who had once been his most trusted ally had been over the last five years and why exactly he'd come back now.
By the time his 45 minutes into the lesson Gilbert had come to a conclusion: he would not be satisfied until his curiosity was sated so he would just have to find out what he wanted to know.
Yes. That was all he had to do. Ludwig would probably have a fancy phrase like 'immersion therapy' or 'acceptance' or some other rubbish but either way getting what he wanted from Arthur was obviously the fastest fix to the situation. If he had any luck he might have his next class with the blond and be able to catch him after school.
A/N - Last of the currently pre-written chapters. There probably aren't going to be any updates for the next two weeks because I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to get a computer (let alone internet) while I'm on holiday.
Thanks for your awesome reviews and if anybody wants to help with this story I could really do with some better ideas than my own for the sort of classes the characters might take.