A/N: here is the second chapter of How Did We Get Here. I forgot to say this last time, but I don't own the characters, they belong to Himaruya.
Arthur walked coolly down the hallway, dragging his suitcase behind him. Taller students walked by, he was in the wrong hallway. Freshmen, he thought with a shudder. They both terrified and annoyed him. Especially that trio of idiots, especially especially Francis Bonnefoy.
"Bonjour, Mon ami. What are you doing in this hallway? I have heard you are staying with a little seventh grader." Speak of the devil.
"What do you want, you git?" He snapped, whirling on the taller kid and furrowing his thick eyebrows at the French boy who flaunted his shoulder length hair.
Francis laughed his weird French laugh that always grated on Arthur's ears. "Hononon~ Now, now, you should not look at me that way. It spoils what little looks you have got! Run along to your new little roommate! Au revoir!" And he marched away.
Arthur sighed. The stupid frog was right. He had to get to his room and unpack his stuff before dinner. Who was his roommate again? Oh, yes, it was a seventh grader named Alfred F Jones. Now to find his room.
He walked up and down the halls, until he finally found the correct room and walked in, surprised to see two kids sitting on bean bag chairs in front of the tv. "Ah, pardon me, is an Alfred F Jones here? I am supposed to be his roommate," Arthur asked. He just barely got the words out when he was smothered by one of the boys who was grabbing his shoulders so tightly that he could hardly breath. "Wha- get the hell off me you wanker!"
"I'm Alfred! Nice to meet you! I know we'll be best friends! Hey, wanna watch some Attack On Tittan with me and my friend, Kiku! He is my friend from where I live! He has been getting me into anime lately! It is so awesome!" Sang the boy hugging him, and Arthur looked over the boys shoulder to see a Japanese boy, Kiku, he guessed, who was even smaller than him, watching them both in amusement.
Alfred finally let go of him and Arthur unconsciously giving him a once over. He was a couple inches taller than Arthur, with golden blond hair that had one strand sticking up in the front, and shockingly large and innocent sky blue eyes behind a pair of glasses. He was cute, he thought, but then mentally slapped himself. Bad Arthur. Boys aren't cute. That would be weird. He was not Francis.
Arthur awkwardly held out his hand to Alfred, who resembled an excited puppy. "Hello, I am Arthur Kirkland, and I guess I am your new roommate."
Alfred took his hand and shook it enthusiastically, "Nice to meet you! Cool British accent, dude! So, want to watch Attack On Titan? Eren just turned into a titan and now he is fighting!"
"Er, no thank you, I should probably set up my stuff."
Alfred wrapped his arm around Arthur's shoulders and dragged him into the room. "Sure, no prob, I took that area, so you might want to set up in the other half, okay?"
Arthur shouted, "get the hell away from me, you git! Leave me alone!" And he ran out of the room as fast as he could, continuing to use profanity to yell at Alfred.
"Okay, dude, sorry! I won't touch you! Come on! Trust me, by the end of the year you'll love me!" And Arthur walked back in grumpily, and began setting out his stuff.
He turned around to see Kiku staring at him with a half smile. "What?"
Kiku just said, "so, you're a tsundere, correct?" Then he looked nervously back at the tv, looking suddenly shy.
"Um, excuse me?" What the hell did that mean?
However, Kiku just continued to watch the tv, where it looked like someone was being bitten in half. Weird.
Arthur continued working on setting things up, and he had just barely finished putting away his books and hanging up his Beatles posters when it was dinner time. Alfred hopped up, and grabbed Arthur's arm, talking about how he hoped the food would be good, and would there maybe be hamburgers, and if there were would they taste good.
Arthur just let himself be pulled along by the crazy American, and the Japanese boy trailed after them, as they marched down the hall. "I can't wait for you to meet my cousin!" Alfred sang, and Arthur's heart dropped at the idea of there being two Alfred F Jones's at this school. But, Alfred looked so excited, his sky blue eyes twinkling, that he couldn't help smiling slightly at the taller seventh grader.
"I'm looking forward to meeting him," he responded. And he found that he actually was sort of happy, because this year he would actually have someone to sit with for meals, and maybe, just maybe, if he didn't kill him first, Arthur could be friends with Alfred, even if he was a clueless wanker.
Just as these thoughts went through his head, Alfred made all thoughts of possible friendship disappear when he somehow tripped on the smooth floor, and he and Arthur went crashing on top of each other, while Kiku stopped and calmly took photos with his camera. Then Arthur chased Alfred down the hall, screaming at him, and Alfred ran away yelling "Sorry! Sorry!" To the angry British person behind him. So much for not killing him, Arthur thought.
Ludwig walked quietly down the halls, not having to swerve past the other students because many of them, he noted dryly, swerved away from him, probably intimidated by the tall and strong blond boy. He was looking for his room, feeling a bit lonely since Gilbert, his "Prussian" (he thought it sounded awesomer than German) brother had abandoned him awhile ago. He finally got to his room and marched in, clenching his suitcase in his strong hands.
There he saw, sitting on one of the beds, was a boy singing softly to himself and drawing, everything of his already set up, but still messy. There was a wall full of pictures of what Ludwig guessed was italy, his bed spread was an Italian flag, and his shelves were filled of cute animal models and art supplies and pasta boxes (?). Then he looked more closely at the boy. He looked cute and young and innocent, almost like a girl, and strangely familiar, he looked like someone Ludwig might've known as a kid. He had large, adorable brown eyes that sparkled, and he had auburn hair with one large curl sticking out of the side. The boy finally looked up, and broke into a huge smile, hopping up and hugging Ludwig tightly around his chest, because he was a good three inches shorter than the German. "Ve~ I'm Feliciano Vargas, but you can call me feli, if you want! You must be my new roommate, Ludwig! I am so glad to meet you! I have presents for you, and I hope we can stay friends forever~!" The boy, Feliciano, sang in an Italian accent. It startled Ludwig, to find someone so openly friendly to him, and he didn't even look very intimidated by him.
Feliciano ran over to a bag next to his bed, and brought out three neatly wrapped packages, then ran back to Ludwig and grinning ear to ear. "Here~. I got you three presents and I hope you like them! It is a homemade pasta for you, a painting that I made, and a camera, so you can take pictures of us together!" And while he explained what they were, Ludwig opened them, surprised at how beautiful the painting was, a picture of a hill and a road that looked vaguely familiar, and done in oil paint. The pasta, he carefully set aside, and the camera, he picked up and studied it, noting that it was a pretty nice camera, though it was decorated with stickers, which Ludwig assumed the Italian had added.
He looked up to thank Feliciano, when he realized that the smaller boy was staring at him in shock, like he had suddenly recognised him from somewhere. "Uhh... vhat is it?" He asked, as it seemed for a moment that Feliciano would start crying, for a reason he didn't understand.
"Y-y-you look like someone, but it can't be, so never mind~! Do you like the presents?" He asked, and the cloudiness on his face disappeared, replaced by a bright smile.
Ludwig held up the camera and said, "thank you, I love zhem. Vould you maybe like to take a picture, Feliciano? I vould like to have a picture of me with my first friend." And he blushed deeply as the boy leaped at him and hugged the breath out of him, clinging desperately. He didn't know why he had said that, it had just popped out of his mouth, but it was too late to back out, so he got out the camera and turned out on, then held it out and took a picture of him a Feliciano arm in arm, Ludwig blushing and with a nervous smile, and Feliciano smiling hugely.
"Ve~, it looks so good, Ludwig! But you shouldn't call me Feliciano, you should call me feli, and I will call you Luddy in return, sí? We will both have special nicknames! Now, hurry and unpack your stuff so we can eat dinner, I'm starving!" Feliciano sang, letting go of Ludwig and skipping over to his bed and laying down, immediately getting out a sketch pad and drawing, leaving the other to unpack his luggage.
Ludwig liked being organised, so he was able to work steadily for just a few minutes to get out the few belongings he had brought. Then, Feliciano put down his sketch pad and slid it under his bed, and had led him to the cafeteria, chattering on about everything and anything, until they finally reached the large room where the students ate. Students ate in two shifts, the first group to to were the seventh through ninth grade, and the second was tenth through twelfth, which, Ludwig assumed, was to both protect younger students from bullying and to prevent over crowded and loud areas. Smart.
"Hey, look, it is my brother, Lovino! Hey fratello~ can we sit with you?" Feliciano suddenly shouted and ran up to a boy that looked like him, but with brown instead of auburn hair, and his eyes were hazel, not brown, and he had an similar hair curl, just on the opposite side of his head. Sitting next to Feliciano's brother was a boy that Ludwig recognized as Antonio, his brothers close friend, and next to him was Francis, and next to him was Ludwig's brother wearing his hood up and sunglasses on, probably to freak out the new people, Gilbert, and then four boys that he didn't recognize, though he had a vague suspicion he had seen one wearing a bomber jacket running through the halls, dragging the one who looked very similar (he looked like he wasn't as active and smaller and spent less time outside, and had longer hair with a curl falling into his face, and a polar bear for some reason, but otherwise they could have been the same) after him.
Lovino (Feliciano had talked about his family) scowled and answered, "dammit bastard, why does it matter what I say? You'd sit here anyways, so why the hell not?" And, with that less than friendly invitation, Feliciano dragged Ludwig next to him at the large round table. As he sat down, Ludwig felt a weird deja vu feeling as he looked around at the other countr- no, kids, all talking and fighting and laughing.
After they had all left and got their food and came back, they decided to introduce themselves. The crazy boy with bright blue eyes volunteered and stood, shouting, "I'm Alfred F Jones, the most amazing hero ever! I am American, if you can't tell by my accent, and will one day save the world! I love comics and anime and sports and science, though just the exciting stuff, like archeology, and am in seventh grade!" Then he smiled and sat down, grinning hugely and looking at all of them through his glasses.
Then the boy next to him, a smaller boy with ridiculously thick eyebrows and glaring emerald eyes, stood up and said, calmly, "I am Arthur Kirkland, an eighth grader here, and I am from England. My favorite things are harry potter, the Beatles, fantasy in general, and reading and writing." Then he coolly sat down where Alfred wrapped his arm around his shoulder and started laughing and chattering.
Next Francis, "bonjour, I am Francis Bonnefoy, and I come from Paris. I believe deeply in l'amour, and that is all." And he smiled flirtatiously at Arthur, who scowled at the Frenchman, furrowing his oversized eyebrows. Then he sat down, and gestured at the boy with the polar bear to tell him to go.
"A-ah, I a-am Matthew Williams, a-and I'm in seventh grade and Alfred is my cousin, who I have lived with for the past four years, (and Ludwig could hardly hear him at this point) s-s-since my p-parents d-d-died." He fell silent for a moment, gave a small sigh, then continued, "oh, and I'm from Canada, and this is kunakiro, my polar bear." He held up the polar bear stuffed animal. Then he sat down.
Alfred laughed and said, "ha, Mattie, you forgot his name again. God, can't you remember, it's Kumajiro, how do you always forget that?"
While Matthew apologized repeatedly, and held Kumajiro all the closer, Gilbert stood up and said, "I'm Gilbert Beilschmidt, the awesome Prussian (Ludwig rolled his eyes while everyone else but Francis and Antonio looked confused), and I am a freshman, and West over there is my little bro, and I have a pet bird that I named gilibird after me. And..." and he whipped off his sunglasses and hood, "I am so awesome, I am albino!" And half the group jumped in surprise at the glittering red eyes, super pale skin, and shocking white hair. Then Gilbert started laughing at all of their expressions.