Chapter Two

It took three whole weeks for Matthew to stop stressing over their close encounter with the soccer team. Despite having Feliciano's word on the matter, the Canadian hadn't been convinced Lovino would let the matter drop so easily. After three weeks of not even hearing the tiniest whisper of a rumour about him and Gilbert, Matthew finally relaxed and things went back to normal.

After a while Ludwig started to forget about the incident entirely, too preoccupied with other things. Like making sure Kiku was still faring well enough that Ludwig didn't need to have any 'words' with Heracles. Being the school's resident Goth had its perks, especially if very few people knew one wasn't too likely to carry out the full extent of the very violent threats they made. So far, though, it seemed Heracles had been treating the quiet Asian boy adequately so Ludwig had no reason to step in.

The two of them were eating lunch together in one of the comfortable silences which had been present throughout the majority of the time they had been friends. Lately Heracles had been comfortable enough to let Kiku spend some time with just Ludwig around. Although he didn't mention it, Ludwig figured it might have something to do with a very animated, if hushed, argument he witnessed between Heracles and Sadik the other week. It was nice just to be able to sit in silence without people around him filling it up with as much noise as they could.

At any rate it was just generally nice to go back to normality: no forced mundane chatter, just a companionable atmosphere that Ludwig had sorely missed.

Just as he was drinking the last of his water Kiku made an awkward throat-clearing noise which instantly gained Ludwig's undivided attention. "Pardon ... it is probably nothing." Ludwig had long ago stopped getting irritated by his friend's habit of apologising when he spoke so he just waited for Kiku to continue. "Is it normal for your brother to associate with the soccer team?"

It really wasn't. In fact it was well-known that the only person on the team Gilbert had any good relations with was the captain. Considering there wasn't a loud ruckus, it was safe to assume nothing untoward was taking place. Just to be sure, though, Ludwig followed Kiku's gaze to see Feliciano standing in front of where Gilbert was sitting. They were too far away to tell what was being said but Ludwig excused himself quickly, striding over to see what was going on. Feliciano hadn't made any contact with them since that day so despite himself Ludwig couldn't help but be suspicious of the athlete's intent.

His New Rocks clacked against the hard flooring as he strode quickly over. Gilbert, of course, was the first to notice his approach. He grinned lazily and stretched his legs. "Great timing, West. The kid, here, was just asking where he could find ya!" Ludwig frowned, he wasn't exactly a hard person to miss.

Feliciano looked up at him with an eye-hurtingly bright smile. "Hey! This is great, I was starting to think I wouldn't run into you before lunch was over!" Even his voice was far too bright, just how much sun did this guy absorb every day?

"You almost didn't." Gilbert sniggered, standing up without any thought to how much his chair scraped against the floor. "Bell's gonna ring any minute!" With a backwards wave Gilbert and his three friends left the hall, Francis laughing in such a way that made Ludwig bristle and grind his teeth.

With a sigh, Ludwig roughly ran a hand over his slicked back hair and glared down at Feliciano. "Well what is it?"

Feliciano's cheery demeanour slipped almost as soon as Ludwig asked him. "See I'd heard from Tony that you were really good at chemistry ... and there's an assignment I'm really struggling with in my class! I don't know anyone else that can help me, so I was hoping maybe you'd help me out with it?" He looked up at Ludwig pleadingly just as the bell rang to warn everyone to start heading back to class.

That Ludwig hadn't been expecting. "No. I have my own work to concentrate on - I don't have time to do your work for you on top of it all." For a split second Feliciano looked crestfallen, before determination flashed over his face.

"You wouldn't be! Come on, I really need to get this or I won't have time for the team any more and I can't let them down like that!"

Ludwig sighed exasperatedly and started walking away. "That's your problem, not mine." He didn't get very far before a surprisingly strong grip wrapped around his bicep, slipping ever so slightly on the leather of the trenchcoat before taking a proper hold.

"You owe me!" Feliciano's voice was low enough that nobody would catch on to the conversation. "If it wasn't for me both your brother and his boyfriend would be going through Hell right now, the least you can do is help me with this!" Ludwig growled angrily at the unspoken threat against his brother. He didn't really think Feliciano would do anything to actually reveal Gilbert and Matthew's relationship but he wasn't willing to take that risk.

Wrenching his arm out of Feliciano's grasp he gave a sharp nod to show he was reluctantly going along with this. "Fine. Come to my house after practise, and make sure to bring everything you need. This is your assignment so don't expect me to do the majority of the work, understood?" Immediately that impossibly cheery smile was back and Feliciano nodded enthusiastically.

"Of course! I'll see you this evening, Ludwig! Tony knows your address, right? I'm sure he does, I'll just ask him later."

As Ludwig made his way to class he pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned heavily. He knew he had just gotten himself into something he was going to regret, but what way could he have refused? He was already being scrutinised over the incident with Kiku and Heracles, he didn't need a suspension for beating up another student on top of that. Ludwig was going to have a little talk with Gilbert later, before Feliciano arrived. It was his fault after all, he and Matthew needed to be a lot more careful.

Ludwig had cautioned his brother many times on the importance of discretion but the words had never sunk in, not even after the close call they'd had with the soccer team. One could never be too careful, but Gilbert just didn't understand his brother's concerns; shrugging them off as if he were just an over-protective nurse maid.

Damn it, he's going to give me a lot of grief for this. I'm going to need counselling ... or at least boxing lessons with father to relieve this stress.

A/N: I know this is shorter than the other chapters so far but I always planned for this to be one of the shorter ones, so it's actually a bit longer than I expected it to be. So I think that turned out okay!

Yes, I know, the whole one partner helping another with a specific class is seriously cliche. To be honest, though, this is one time I don't mind too much with sticking to a cliche. This was always the way Ludwig and Feliciano were going to be forced into proper interaction while I was planning this story out and I didn't want to spend months thinking up something else before getting this chapter out just so things could go a little differently.

And if Feli seems just a little out of character, well that was sort of deliberate. In this AU he's a very spoiled rich boy and being told 'no' never goes down well with either him or his brother. I actually think that in this setting he would be like this and even in the show/manga he's shown to be quite persistent when he wants to be, this is just a different way of showing it. Plus if I stick too closely with the show version of Feliciano I don't think it would work out too well here, so I'll be taking a little bit of artistic license here and there. It won't be so much that you don't recognise the character, though so don't worry too much.

Before I start rambling on I'll just go ahead and thank you for reading this chapter! Please let me know what you thought and I hope you'll return for chapter three :)