Ludwig sat in his seat in first period, going through a few drawings and notes Feliciano had left on his English spiral. Distracted, he almost didn't notice someone sit in the usually empty seat next to him.
"Hi," Ludwig looked up from his notebook and at the unfamiliar face. He had black hair, very dark brown eyes, definitely Japanese, and his expression was almost blank. Not used to being talked to be strangers, Ludwig was confused; he didn't know how to reply.
"Hello," he said shyly, trying to not pull a confused expression.
"I'm Kiku Honda, nice to meet you," the dark-haired boy said, not changing his empty expression.
"I'm Ludwig," Ludwig replied. "Are you new here?"
"Yes," Kiku stated. "I have a hard time making friends, I apologize. I'm very shy, I hope you don't mind."
"I see," Ludwig remarked, scratching his chin. "It's fine."
The two spoke all class period, about school, family, siblings and more. After warming up to each other, Kiku walked with Ludwig to his locker after class.
"The lockers are so much dirtier here than back home," Kiku remarked, scoffing a little.
"Yeah, perhaps," Ludwig laughed.
"Luddy!" Ludwig turned around and saw Feliciano making his way over to him. He gave him a big hug and kissed his cheek. "Did you see the drawings I left in your spiral?"
"Yes I did, they were very nice," Ludwig smiled warmly.
"Grazie," he looked over beside Ludwig. "Who's that?" Ludwig looked over at Kiku, almost forgetting he was still standing there.
"Oh! This is Kiku, he's new. Me and him tal-" Feliciano grabbed his face and kissed him.
"Luddy, I'm so proud of you!" Feliciano looked over at Kiku, smiling. "Nice to meet you, I'm Feliciano."
He nodded. "Ludwig has spoken of you; it's very nice to meet you,"
"Ah! I'll have to talk to you guys later; I have to get to class early." Feliciano kisses Ludwig on the cheek once more and runs off.
"Bye Feli!" Ludwig yelled after him before turning back to Kiku, who had a confused look on his face. "Uh, what's wrong?"
"Is that your lover?" Kiku asked.
"Uhh… Yeah, that's my boyfriend," Ludwig realized he never really spoke those words. It had been a couple weeks since him and Feliciano had gone steady. They didn't announce it to anyone, though the only people who have caught on at this point were some of Feliciano's friends, who kind have assumed there was something going on for a while. They had decided against telling Lovino about their relationship to avoid problems.
"Oh, that's nice. You know, you really light up when he's around,"
"Is that so?"
"Yes, now where are you going next?" Kiku asked, straightforwardly.
"Oh, uh, biology," Ludwig points to the room across the hall from them. Kiku looks down at his schedule.
"I have art," Kiku looks up from his paper. "Where is that?"
"Here, I'll show you,"
"No, we use forks," Feliciano pointed at the plastic fork on Kiku's tray, Kiku only looked at it with a questioning expression.
"So you're telling me there's absolutely no chop sticks available?" he asked, picking it up.
"No, but forks are very easy to use!"
"But I'll be stabbing my food," Kiku whined.
"Now that you put it that way, yeah," Ludwig intervened, taking a bite of his chicken. "Just eat your food already,"
"Luddy, don't be harsh,"
"Sorry Feli,"
"Hey, Feliciano!" all three of them looked up to see a blond-haired American with huge, blue eyes. "I need to see your Algebra homework,"
"Not now, Alfred, we're busy," Ludwig snapped. Alfred comes to their table almost every day and copies down any homework he didn't do from Feliciano. Feliciano didn't mind, of course, but Ludwig found him annoying.
"Of course you can!" Feliciano started to dig through his bag.
Alfred gives Ludwig a sharp grin; he turns and looks at Kiku. "Hey, you're new. My name is Alfred Jones."
"Hi, I'm Kiku, nice to meet you," Kiku gives him a bow.
"Wow, so what classes do you have?" Alfred sits down at the table.
"Oh here," Kiku hands over his schedule; Alfred takes it and looks over it.
"We have communication together," Alfred exclaimed. "We should sit together,"
"That sounds fun, Ludwig and Feliciano has that class, too. I'll be looking forward to that." Kiku murmured, Feliciano smiles and hands Alfred his homework.
Oh joy, Ludwig thinks to himself.
"Alfred, there you are," Arthur Kirkland sits down by Alfred. "I accidently took your book,"
"Oh there it is!" Alfred laughs, almost sounding nervous. "Thanks bud,"
"No problem," he stands up and walks off. Alfred sighs, the whole table went quiet.
"Who was that?" Kiku asked, breaking the silence.
"That was Arthur, my step-brother, sorta. You see, I'm adopted," Alfred began. "He's the birth son of my adoptive parents and they took me in about two years ago, and then my other brother just months ago."
"He didn't ask for your life stor-" Feliciano's hand went over Ludwig's mouth. Looking at Feliciano, he noticed something was wrong. Alfred had the same look in his eyes.
"Are you not close to him?" Kiku asked.
"No, not at all. Arthur always has something he needs to do, places he needs to be. I really look up to him, and I really want to get to know him, but he doesn't feel the same way." Alfred stopped writing and stared down at paper.
"I know how that is. He'll realize he should invest time into getting to know you some day, you'll see," Ludwig said, actually feeling a little sorry for him.
Alfred looked up at Ludwig and smiled. "Thanks man,"
"I have an older brother," Kiku muttered. "He lives in China."
"I have a brother, too!" Feliciano said.
"And sadly he lives here," Ludwig added.
"Luddy! That's mean!" Feliciano shook his arm.
"So is he!" Alfred and Kiku snickered.
"So, can you open your eyes all the way?" It was 7th period communications, Alfred had met Kiku a couple hours ago, and he decides to ask stupid, offensive questions.
"Can you close your mouth all the way?" Kiku responded sarcastically before Ludwig could butt in. The girls sitting nearby giggled, causing Kiku to blush. Alfred elbowed him, grinning.
"How was your first day here?" Feliciano asked him.
"Good so far, happy I made friends on the first day," Kiku replied.
"Friends are great," Feliciano chirped.
"Yo! We should show you around town sometime!" Alfred shouted.
"That sounds fun, you want to, Ludwig?" Feliciano asked, smiling up at Ludwig.
"Yeah sure, that sounds pretty fun," Ludwig responded, giving him a smile back. Feliciano hugged onto his arm.
"I'm glad," he said.
The next weekend, they planned to meet up in the plaza. Ludwig and Feliciano were the first ones there. They sat at the fountain, looking at the fish as they swam by. Ludwig began to daze a little.
"Ludwig," Ludwig looked up from the water. "I'm so happy." He leans over and kisses Feliciano's cheek.
"I am, too, Feli." Feliciano reached over and took hold of Ludwig's hand, making his cheeks flush.
"You're so amazing, Luddy, I don't think I can begin to explain it," Feliciano looked down at his legs. "I might just be left behind someday," Ludwig jolted his head up.
"Excuse me?" he looked at Feliciano. "There's no way I'll leave you behind, Feliciano, don't think like that,"
Feliciano looked up at him, smiling. "Do you really mean that?"
"Of course I do, what makes you think I'll-"
"Hey! You two are in public!" they turned around and saw Alfred and Kiku headed towards them.
"We were only holding hands, chill out," Ludwig snapped, getting up from the fountain. He noticed someone else was behind Alfred. "Who is…?"
"Oh this is Matthew, my younger brother. He didn't want to stay home alone so I brought him." Matthew shyly peered out from behind his brother.
"Hi,"
"Hello Matthew!" Feliciano greeted warmly. Ludwig reached a hand out and helped Feliciano up, hugging him tightly afterwards.
"So where to first?" Alfred asked, making a gagging sound at the couple.
"Wait," Kiku said, everyone else looked at him, confused.
"Wait on what?" Feliciano asked.
"Hey Arthur, over here," Kiku called, the blond-headed boy turned around and began to walk towards the four, I mean five, of them.
"Shit, Kiku, you invited Arthur? Why? How?!" Alfred grabbed Kiku's shoulders and shook him.
"I have art with him," Kiku explained. "He let me borrow a pencil, so I invited him."
"Shit shit shit shit," Alfred's cheeks went red.
"Alfred, what's the big deal?" Matthew asked, grabbing his brother's arm.
"Hello Kiku, friends, Matthew, Alfred, I didn't know you were going to be here," Arthur noted.
"I didn't know you were going to be here either," Alfred muttered.
"He invited me, we have art together,"
"Yeah," Alfred said, almost coldly.
"Let's go check out Main Street first," Feliciano interrupted.
"I was going to suggest that," Matthew chirped.
"Awesome! Let's go!" Feliciano pulls on Ludwig's arm and they head towards Main Street. As they walked, Ludwig felt Feliciano tilt his head onto his shoulder. He smiled and gave his head a small kiss. He then felt another head rest on his shoulder. He turned to see it was poor, distressed Alfred.
"I'm not giving you a kiss, get off me," Ludwig groaned.
AN: Thanks for reading! Sorry I was a little late with this one, I just haven't found good hours or motivation to write but I'm sure I'll write the next chapter up soon. This was a rather boring chapter to write, but it's important to the plot line. Sorry for the slight USUK insert, I swear I won't add too much of them. The next chapters after this would be more GerIta fluff, I promise, bear with me here.