Eheh...my only excuse for our lateness is that uni/college is a bitch. ;;Orz sorry! Hopefully this chapter will be a decent make up?
The second rehearsal was called, with a few still feeling apprehensive after the disaster last time. Matthew sighed, holding the hat and nudging the Prussian to call everyone to attention
"Huh?" Gilbert blinked, yawning hard as he looked up from the bench. That was going to be the last night he was going to stay up until 3am proofreading Matthew's script because he promise to finish it.
"Get everyone to look this way so we can do the hat thing"
"Oh!" He was back on his feet in seconds, bounding over to the microphone and grabbing it: "Oi! Idiots! My awesome presence is over 'ere"
The others sighed and turned to face the noisy albino, wondering what would happen this week.
"Okay!" Gilbert grinned as he noticed everyone's eyes back on him: "So! Who wants a part?"
"You're doing auditions again?" Arthur called up from the crowd
"No. Idiot" he frowned, "Get up here, Arthur. You're gonna be my demonstration"
"What?" he asked, shaking his head "Why me?"
"Because you're there. Up!" he yelled, indicating the stage next to him. They'd planned this before they'd even started.
Arthur grumbled to himself, but walked round up to stand next to the Prussian on the stage "What?"
"Right!" Gilbert grinned, holding out the bag: "Stick your hand in there."
"Why?"
"Aww, come on. Just do it." he smirked, shaking it.
He sighed and put his hand in, feeling the slips of paper "I just take one out?"
"Ja!" Gilbert smiled, nodding at him: "And don't open it. Alright?"
He sighed and took one out "Now what? What is the point to all this?"
"Just keep hold of it." the German boy informed him, scrambling off the stage and offering the bag to the boy next to him: "And all you lot do the same!"
After a fair amount of shuffling and confused murmuring, everyone had a piece of paper in their hands. Gilbert smirked as he scrambled back onto the stage, signalling Matthew to take his turn, throwing the microphone at him.
"Umm, ok..." Matthew cleared his throat into the microphone "You've got your part for the pantomime in your hands. You can open your papers now"
The reaction was more than Gilbert could have hoped for, mutters of surprise, laugher, horror and a yell of shock from somewhere in the room, probably from whoever now knew they were gonna be forced into a dress for the next eight weeks of their life.
Yao spluttered in rage "No! No way aru, I refuse! I am never doing that!"
Feliks was beside Yao, and turned on his heel the moment he heard the outcry, smiling happily as he almost pounced at the other: "but like...you'd look gorgeous in a dress! Come on!"
"No! Leave me alone aru, I'm not doing it!"
"Aww! Come on ho-" Feliks suddenly found himself interrupted by a grinning American boy wrapping am arm over Yao's shoulder with a grin "Oh! So you're my wife, huh dude?"
"What?" Yao yelled, before seeing the slip of paper in Alfred's hand "Ahhhh, no way aru!"
Alfred just feel about laughing, holding the other a little closer "You what, dude?"
Yao blushed "Of all the people to be paired with aru..." he groaned as across the room, an English boy frowned at his slip "Could be worse..." he mused
What Yao had noticed was the arms sneaking their way around Arthur Kirkland's waist, and the grin plastered across the owners face "Zis seems as if we'll be working together, oui?"
"Bloody hell, get off!" Arthur yelled, shoving the French boy away harshly "What do you mean git?"
The blonde did nothing but hold up the scrap of paper, smirking. Arthur groaned as he read it "T-that doesn't necessarily mean we're working together!"
"We shall see mon chere~" Francis purred, winking at his cousin before vanishing back into the crowd.
No sooner had Francis moved than Antonio had appeared beside Arthur, prodding him in the side "Eyebr-Arthur. They" he indicated two Italians on the other side of the room, both were smiling for once "Told me to ask you. What does this mean?"
"Eh?" Arthur blinked, surprised by how civil the Spaniard was being. He looked at the paper and had to quickly suppress a laugh "You're Widow Twanky?"
"Uh...so it doesn't say wank-y"
"No..." Arthur cleared his throat, getting ready to run "It means you're the dame"
"Dame?" Antonio couldn't have looked any more confused than if you'd just paid him to look confused.
"Umm..." He tried to think of the best way to explain it "It's Aladdin's mother"
"But...but I'm a man..."
"We all are, Antonio..."
"Oh!" finally, it seemed to have dawned on him: "I'm cross-dressing?"
"Exactly." he sighed, had none of the foreign students been to a pantomime in all the years they'd lived here?
"I'm..." Antonio scowled, straightening up "Gilbert!" The albino had been waiting for this, and grabbed the microphone from Matthew's hands, not really wanting a confrontation with Antonio or the rather angry looking Yao right now: "So! Everyone. These parts are final. Get it?"
"No way!" Yao yelled, escaping the American's grasp "You can't force us into these roles if we don't want to do them aru!"
Gilbert wasn't listening, carrying on speaking despite the others annoyance "Scripts are over here! And we're doing the first scene tomorrow. Either be there or suffer my awesome wrath. Okay?
Despite grumbles, Matthew smiled as he watched the scripts get taken by the various cast members, Sadiq grinned at the Canadian, approaching him for the first time in years. Matthew shied away, unsure of the other. The Turkish boy didn't exactly have the best reputation in the school.
"Hey, Matthew!"
"Yeah?" The blonde took yet another step backwards as the other approached, stopping a few meters away from him.
"Are you gonna be making me sing?" Gilbert's method had obviously gone to plan, the slip of paper read Abanazar (If Gilbert had had his way, it would probably have said evil guy in an awesome hat, because of course, that hadn't been a factor in choosing him for the part).
"I think so…." Matthew picked up on of the scripts, flicking though it and desperately trying to avoid eye contact with the other. Where was the albino when he actually needed him? Shaking a little, the Canadian stopped on the right page, holding it out to the other: "Y-yes….it's just this part, that one and this part too…"
Sadiq nodded, taking the script and smiling at Matthew, it almost looked as if he was about to say something else, when luckily Feliks appeared, tugging at the Canadians arm and starting to rant about something. Glad of the distraction, Matthew allowed himself to be lead away.
The second director was bored, sprawling out on the stage and looking up at the celling, starting to count the lights still rigged up there from the last time. Yawning, he stuck both hands behind his head, about to close his eyes when someone's footsteps approached him. Kiku looked down at Gilbert, who scowled a little at the interruption, sitting up again and looking up into the others eyes. "Do I need to come next time? I'm not an actor..."
"Uh..." Gilbert paused, thinking for a moment, his mind was still groggy with attempted sleep "Just what are you doing?"
"Lighting"
"Oh! Uh, i don't think so..." the German turned, waving at Matthew who looked like he was having his ear chewed off by a very hyper Pole.
"So you only need the actors?" Kiku persisted as Matthew tried to make sense of what Feliks was saying,
"Seriously Feliks, slow down. I can't make out a word that you're saying!"
"Yeah! I guess so." Gilbert grinned as Kiku's 'best friend' appeared behind him, leaning forward to take his hand and pull him away, muttering something about getting it before class. Watching them leave he felt a strange lurch of jealousy in his stomach he only usually got when listening to his brother and his little boyfriend. Surely he couldn't be...no! It's not awesome to...Gilbert couldn't be quite this desperate for a relationship...he sighed, and turned back only to find the Pole with his arms locked around Matthew's waist and kissing his cheek happily~
Matthew smiled back at the Pole, carefully pulling away as he said something to Feliks that Gilbert didn't hear, a nervous looking brunette tapping Feliks on the shoulder
At which Feliks squealed in delight, throwing himself into the others waiting arms and lip locking him as Matthew managed to escape him, reappearing beside Gilbert who turned away too quickly to see where Feliks now was and what he was attempting to do.
"Well, that could've gone a lot worse, eh?"
"What? Oh! The thing..." Gilbert seemed distracted, looking away from Matthew, almost ashamed.
"What's wrong?" he asked, confused at the albino's behaviour "One of the others threaten you to change their part?"
"Nah!" he grinned, but it didn't quite reach his eyes: "I'm awesome, and we'd better get to class."
"I guess..." Matthew mumbled, confused as they wandered out of the hall.
"Matthew. Are you...you know, going out with Feliks?" the German boy asked as they walked down the silent corridors "I mean, because, you're obviously gay. Not that we don't all already know you but even if you didn't, nobody could y'know...be quite as lacking in any confidence as you are and still claim to be straight..."
Matthew blushed hard, nearly stopping in the middle of the corridor from shock "Wh-what? Of course I'm not with Feliks! Why do people keep thinking that?"
"You act like it." Gilbert pointed out almost passively "And I don't honestly care, you can fuck whoever's ass you like behind closed doors, Matthew, so long as we're still okay to work together." Gilbert hated it when he got like this. The instant his feelings even started to appear he became defensive. Antonio had once told him it was like taking to a fire, it did nothing but burn and just didn't stop coming...
Matthew groaned "Feliks acts like that with all his friends, he's got a boyfriend for Pete's sake! Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?"
The other stopped dead, folding his arms as he glared up at Matthew, currently hating their height difference: "Alfred told me what you were up to that night at yours."
"Eh?" Matthew asked, confused as to what Alfred had said or why Gilbert would even believe him "I wasn't up to anything!"
"Really Matthew?" Gilbert frowned, touching his fingers to the base of his neck for a moment, not breaking eye contact with the other "Then explain this."
Matthew's eyes widened at the hickey on Gilbert's neck "I never did that! I don't know how you got it, but it wasn't me!"
The German said nothing, the slight part of him that had been secretly hoping that Matthew had done it burnt a little in fury, suddenly realising where it must have come from, again. Why did Francis keep doing this! Before every date he went on, and now in front of Matthew. Great. Somehow, he managed to keep his mouth shut, turning away and storming up the corridor, not wanting Matthew to know he'd just got it wrong.
Matthew watched him leave in confusion, slowly continuing to class, sitting across from Francis.
Francis looked up from reading the script and not taking any notice of his maths lesson to glace around the room. Where was Gilbert? And what was Matthew doing in his seat? Frowning a little, he gazed at his cousin, trying to get his attention.
Matthew felt the stare prickle the back of his neck. Glancing up, he mouthed "What?" at his cousin
"Where's Gilbo?" the French boy hissed, gazing at Matthew's eyes. There was obviously something wrong. His eyes hadn't looked that dull in weeks, not since he'd started working on this pantomime: "Did you two have a lover's row?"
"What?" Matthew frowned "He took my place for some reason. And we did not have a lover's row!" You actually have to be lovers for that, he thought
"Chere, he's not here!" Francis pointed out, pouting: "and he doesn't usually miss this class..." he cocked his head, examining the other still: "You did have an argument didn't you?"
"He blamed me for a hickey he found..." Matthew mumbled, looking down at his work
"He finally found that?" Francis chuckled, glancing down as the teacher walked past.
Matthew stared across the table at him "It was you?"
"Oui! Of course it was!" the blonde was still smiling as he started to think "Aww! But he thought it was you? Chere! He wanted it to be you~"
"What?" Matthew asked, staring at Francis across the table "How does that make sense?"
Francis sighed, pretending to be annoyed with the maths in front of him as he grinned at his daft little cousin "Gilbert fancies you. He wants to get in your pants, mon petit~"
"I thought Gilbert was straight? He stares at the girl's across the road often enough..." Matthew murmured, staring blankly at the formulas in front of him.
"Gilbo's too dense to realise he needs his back doors smashed in, just like Arthur cher~"
Matthew blushed violently, keeping his head down "Francis!"
Francis smiled, looking down and starting to write. He probably should get on with his work. And what was wrong with leaving Matthew with that nice mental image?
Aww, Francis, you give the best advice. Sometimes. And yes, I told you there would be AmeChu so here~ watch it grow!
Damn I need to find more decent AmeChu. Or some decent FrUK that I haven't already read Orz. And I apologise if Turkey seems off! Never written him before!
Much much love to BirdieBunny (formerly known as RubyxKurosaki) for writing this with me and to Samstar1990 and Popsimgirl for beta-ing it!