It was around 11:00 and Feliciano was pacing the sidewalk outside the local McDonalds. He had thought that he had his runaway all figured out, but it wasn't going as well as he thought it would. Soon after getting out of the area, he had decided that the best way to get far away was by taking a train. The only problem was the nearest train station was nearly twenty miles away, and he didn't have a driver's license yet so he couldn't drive himself there. Feliciano sighed.

"Hey dude wazzup?"

"Wa-" Feliciano squealed falling to his knees and covering his head with his hands. "P-please don't eat me! I'm too young and beautiful to die! I didn't get to try all the pasta in the world yet! Ahhh, just please don't kill m-me! I- I whaaaahhhhh! I KNOW YOUR MOM!"

"Dude, dude just calm down. I uh... Feliciano?" Feliciano peeked up from his spot on the ground and into the face of none other than Alfred Jones. Alfred was Feliciano's locker neighbor at school, and was also in every single one of his classes.

"Alfred!" Feliciano exclaimed rising to his feet. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, my shift at Mc-D's just ended. I was gunna start headin' home. What about you? Why are you out here so late? It's like eleven."

"Oh, uh, I just, I was just going over to my Grandparent's house." Feliciano lied.

"At eleven at night?" Alfred asked incredulous.

"Well, you see my mom and my brother are fighting and when that happens I really just want to get out of the house."

"Man dude, I totally know your pain! So you're walking to your grandparent's? Where do they live?"

"Where do they live? Oh, um, just like twenty miles from here." Feliciano mumbled, averting his eyes and rubbing his neck.

"Twenty miles!"

"Yea."

"And you were planning to walk the whole way there in the dark?" Alfred exclaimed.

"Well yea, it's what I always do." Feliciano responded trying to sound convincing.

"Dude, tell you what, I got off of work a bit early today so I'll drive you to your grandparent's place! Just tell me where I need to go!" Alfred offered with his almost constant cheerful disposition.

"Really! You'd do that!" Feliciano felt like cheering. Maybe he wasn't as bad a liar as he had first thought!

"Yea dude! I'm not gunna let my little buddy get like mugged or raped or something just cause he needed to go over to his grandparent's house! That would be like so un-cool man!"

"Yay! Grazie for helping me Alfred! Ve~!"

"No problem! It's the least I could do for you especially after what happened in gym class the other day. Sorry 'bout that."

"Ah! Please don't talk about that Alfred! I don't want to hear anything about it ever again!"

"Oh come on! We didn't know you were naked when we pulled the fire alarm! And it wasn't our fault that you couldn't find your clothes."

"Just, just shut up." Feliciano buried his face in his hands.

"Fine, fine sorry. Jeesh! Come on we should probably get going anyways." Alfred led Feliciano to his little red sports car and opened the door to allow him to step in. Unfortunately for Feliciano he still wasn't able to sit down because the passenger seat was crammed full of sports equipment and old burger wrappers.

"Sorry 'bout that. Alfred apologized, "I'll move it quick." With that Alfred swept his arm across the seat causing all of its contents to overflow the chair and land in a messy heap in-between the driver and passenger seats.

"Uh… thanks." Feliciano coughed, wrinkling his nose at the stench of sweat and B.O. that was being emitted by the sports equipment in the back of the car.

"Again, sorry. I was meanin' to clean in here but I never really got the chance. I know it stinks." Alfred said, sticking the keys into the admission and twisting to start the car. The engine sputtered to life and Alfred twisted in his seat so he could back out of the parking space and into the parking lot. Switching the car from reverse and into drive Alfred sped from the parking lot and out onto the main road.

"Alright dude, which way?"

"Right." Feliciano replied pointing in the direction he wanted to go.

"Right it is then!" Alfred turned the car and then asked, "where now?" as they reached the stoplight.

"Keep going straight until you reach the on ramp for the highway."

"Dude, you were gunna walk on the highway at night?" Alfred looked at him like he was crazy.

"No, I was…" Oh crap! What was he supposed to say now? "I was going to walk the back roads."

"Oh, well that's still a long way to walk dude." Alfred pointed out. Nonetheless Alfred turned onto the highway and switched over to the middle lane.

"Hey Feliciano, you know how to get there this way since you usually take the back roads?"

"Uh, yea." Feliciano really had to rethink what he was doing here. Alfred was driving him to his grandparent's house. His grandparents that lived back in Italy. Alfred was probably expecting to drop him off at someone's actual house. He'd just have to pick a random house and pretend to go inside. Wait, what if Alfred waited to make sure he got inside before he drove off? This wasn't going to work. They drove in silence for a while, Feliciano looking out the window while Alfred made sure they didn't get hit by a truck.

DING! DING! DING!

"Oh butt-nuggets! Hey, Feliciano I think I'm gunna need to stop for gas. I think there's a station like three, four miles from here.

"Okay." Feliciano mumbled. Wait! This could be he chance! He was close enough that he could probably even walk the rest of the way to the train station! He would just tell Alfred that he was going to walk to his grandparent's house since they were so close.

"Hey, Alfred?"

"Yea?"

"When you stop, is it okay if I walk the rest of the way to my grandparent's place. It's only a few miles from there, and I can take a cab if I need to."

"Well, if it's only a few miles can't I just drive you?" Alfred asked suspiciously.

"Uh, well you see, you've already done so much for me already. I don't want you to have to go through anymore trouble." Feliciano rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Certainly Alfred wouldn't buy it, it sounded ridiculous.

"Well… okay. You just be careful buddy. I don't want you gettin' hurt. Huh, you think they got burgers at that gas station cause I'm starving."

Feliciano chuckled slightly.

"For your sake, Alfred, I sure hope they do." He then turned to look back out the window. Cars and trucks were all around them, and the lights from both the vehicles and the approaching city were starting to hurt Feliciano's head. Oh Dio he was tired! Obviously the nap he took earlier wasn't enough. Feliciano rubbed at his tired eyes to clear his blurred vision. Soon Alfred pulled into the parking lot of the gas station. He pulled up to a pump and shut off the car. Then he unlocked the doors and both he and Feliciano clamored out.

"Thanks for the ride Alfred! I really appreciate it."

"No problem! Like I said, it's the least I could do!" Alfred clapped him on the back. "Hey, before you go, you want something to eat? I'll buy it for you."

"No thanks, but thanks for offering!" Feliciano said smiling.

"Alright then, see you later Feliciano!" Alfred waved.

"Later Alfred!" Feliciano then started jogging toward the road and then hid behind a fence. He watched as Alfred filled up his car and then drove out of the parking lot and back the way they had come from. Feliciano waited until he felt that Alfred was far away enough that he would not see him when he started looking for a taxi. Once the cost was clear Feliciano walked toward the curb to flag down a taxi.

"Hey, over here!" Feliciano waved his arm, but the taxi did not stop. He spotted another taxi and tried again to flag it down, but only to come up with the same result. Becoming frustrated, Feliciano dashed over to the other side of the street and spotted yet another taxi. This time he wanted to make sure he got his point across and ran out into the street right in front of the oncoming vehicle. The driver slammed on his breaks and stopped only millimeters from hitting Feliciano. The driver leaned his head out the window of the taxi and started yelling.

"Hey kid, watch where you're going! Your family could have sued me for hittin' you! Just think of all the damage you'd cause me! I'd have to pay for your medical bills and probably the new front end of a taxi! Quit standin' there like a deer caught in headlights! Get lost you little son of a bitch!"

The driver honked his horn, then backed up and sped around Feliciano. And poor Feliciano, he just stood there looking like a kicked puppy. He hadn't expected the driver to yell at him!

"So much for getting a taxi!" Feliciano sighed as he began to walk again. He decided that the best coarse of action was to find somewhere that they had maps so that he could find where the train station was. He searched for a while before coming upon a small guest center and the middle of a plaza. Feliciano walked up to the rack of brochures and searched for one that included a map of the city. Eventually he found one and flipped through it until he came to the page with the map.

"Okay, looks like about two miles from here. Straight up Reniean Road. Now where's Reniean Road?" Feliciano mumbled to himself looking around the plaza. He soon spotted a street sign that had Reniean Road printed on it in neat white letters.

"Alright, just follow the road and you'll be on a train in no time!" Feliciano cheered to himself. As he was walking though, his thoughts began to drift back to home… and Ludwig. A sudden wave of nervousness washed over him when he thought about the imagined reactions of his friends and his family when they discovered he was gone. Even Alfred, whom had aided him in his escape, would eventually come to realize what had happened. Was this really the best idea?

"No turning back now!" Feliciano whispered to himself as he heard the bustling of people and the roaring of the trains as they rocketed down the tracks, "There's no turning back now."