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Younger brothers could be such a pain in the ass.

That was what Wang Yao thought as he pushed away his youngest sibling off his lap. Yong Soo whined as his bottom made contact with the floor, but Yao brushed the boy off and entered the kitchen.

"Hyung~!"

The Korean was clingy, whiny, and wholesomely obnoxious.

"Hyung, pleeeeeaase?"

Especially with those damned puppy eyes.

"No, aru. " The Chinaman was sick of being groped like no other, and Yong Soo should have learned that when they had become a family eight years ago. At least Yong Soo was a little adorable (still a pain in the ass, but an adorable pain in the ass) when he had been eight years old. Now, the Korean boy was sixteen and Yao was eighteen. He was graduating high school in less than two months!

Damn. He did not just feel old right now.

"Yong Soo, where is Kiku aru? She should be home by now." Yao changed the subject.

"With her Nam-chin, Mr. Kickass Eyebrows da ze." Yong Soo's face darkened at that.

"Aiyah, Kirkland?" Yao dismissed the opportunity to chastise Yong Soo's slang and opted to sigh instead. Neither brother had really appreciated their sister's boyfriend.

"If it weren't for that bastard, Kiku wouldn't have cut her hair da ze!"

...Even if Yong Soo hated the Brit for an absurd reason.

Still, Yao halfway agreed with his brother. Kiku had been gorgeous with long hair. Of course, the short haircut she had suited her well just the same. She looked quite sophisticated, albeit maybe boyish.

(No wonder Yao looked like the most feminine out of the siblings.

…Was that why Yong Soo groped him the most?

Maybe he should get a haircut after all.)

"So when is she coming back, aru?" Better be before dinnertime.

Or a certain Brit was going to deal with an angry Chinaman and Korean.

Yong Soo was about to reply when a smashing sound erupted from the front door. Both Asians looked at the general direction of the hall with looks of recognition on their faces. Yao didn't move; the door was going to be a lost cause by the time he reached the hallway.

The door crashed down as an American hurtled into the house.

Yao groaned and covered his face with a sleeve.

"Yong Soo! I can't believe this! I just can't believe this!" Alyssa stormed into the living room, leaving the unhinged door behind her.

"What da ze?" Yong Soo was unfazed. Alyssa destroying the front door and barging into the Asian residence was perfectly normal, much to the chagrin of Yao.

"Kiku's been brainwashed by the evil alien! And Artie too!" Alyssa was shouting, and Yao wanted to reprimand the girl (not like she listened anyways) if it wasn't for how upset she looked.

The girl looked like she was on the verge of tears.

Yong Soo seemed to notice her distress. He held her shoulders and looked into her eyes. With a tone that amazed Yao every time he heard it, Yong Soo asked, "Aly, where is Kiku da ze?"

"…School, I think. She should…come soon." She seemed to have calmed down a bit.

"Is Matthew home?"

"He should be by now."

Yao watched the two, marveling at how two rowdy individuals could calm each other down. Maybe it was the magic of being best friends. Yao had never learned of such magic. His whole life had been about survival, fighting for a place in the world, looking after his two siblings. Protecting them.

And utterly failing to do so.

"Hyung, I'll be over at Aly's house, da ze. You can have dinner without me if you're hungry!"

Yong Soo interrupted Yao's moody thought process with a call over his shoulder. Alyssa, who had apparently been set aflame with some sort of determination, was dragging the Korean out of the house through the demolished doorway (Yao was not too worried about the cost; he was getting discounts thanks to frequent purchases of doors now). Yao watched the pair disappear and voices fade away.

With a heavy sigh, Yao made his way toward the stove. As he reached to turn the thing on, he felt a buzz from his pocket.

[I will be late for dinner. Gomennasai. Did Alyssa go there?]

It was a text from Kiku. Not bothering to reply, Yao pocketed the Shinatty phone and turned the stove on. He cooked in silence.

Nabe. Kimchi Jjigae. Jiaozi.

Japanese. Korean. Chinese.

He had learned to cook them all. Say them all. Write them all. All for the sake of his beautiful sister and (although annoying) sweet brother. He had fought for them, lived for them, laughed and cried for them.

But both sister and brother had ended up screaming and crying and bleeding. Yao couldn't stop it. He couldn't do anything. He didn't save his siblings.

The American girl did.

And now that girl was best friends with both of Yao's siblings and the center of their lives. That girl was (probably, since Kiku had not shared details) why that stupid Englishman had stepped into Kiku's life and took her, his beloved sister, away from Yao.

(But no, Kiku had not belonged to Yao. She had already left him, hadn't she?)

Yao wrapped most of the food and set them on the kitchen counter for his siblings to eat later. He set his own meal on the dining table and seated himself.

His meimei. His didi. His family he had loved, cherished, treasured. The two people he loved the most.

The two he had lost.

Lost to an American and Brit whom had whisked them away from Yao, who now ate dinner by himself so often that he was used to it by now.

Yao suddenly felt very lonely.

Gilbert was never lonely.

He was simply too awesome to be lonely. Everybody wanted to be with him at all times, so of course he was never lonely. Even when Tonio was busy wagging his tail at the grumpy Italian and Francis was occupied with wooing every girl (and guy) in the near vicinity and Ludwig just didn't want to have anything to do with his older brother. Gilbert's awesomeness was so awesome that it accompanied him wherever he went, so of course he wasn't lonely!

Okay, he could be a bit of a loner sometimes. But that just made him more awesome!

Right?

"Now someone looks lonely~!"

A certain Hungarian snickered with a hint of malice.

Gilbert's eyebrow twitched.

"What, you've been looking at the mirror? I'm sure no man in his right mind wants to be with the frying-pan-wielding-devil that you are. You're hardly a woman!"

It was Elizaveta's turn to twitch.

"Unlike you, I'm not a teacher's nightmare or the entire school's most infamous badass-wannabe who can't even land himself in a decent relationship!"

In fact, she was every boy's nightmare and the entire town's most infamous yaoi fangirl who had managed to land in a relationship suspected of domestic violence with the gayest pansy in the entire school.

But Gilbert saved this opinion for himself for safety reasons.

"Oh yeah? And you think you're so much better than my awesomeness? You date Roderich for fuck's sake! Man, he must be some serious masochist to hang out with you. How can he stand you?" Gilbert stuck his tongue out in a very manly way.

"Maybe because he could endure your very poisonous presence for over five years?" Elizaveta shot back.

"Well duh, since I'm the most awesome man he's ever met! He should be honored to know me!"

"From when did the definition of 'awesome' become 'intellectually lacking, socially retarded, and appallingly obnoxious', I wonder?" The venom in the devil-woman's voice was pure acid.

"You really need to learn what awesome means. Christ, I can't believe Roddy actually likes you."

Elizaveta bristled.

Without warning, Gilbert found himself sprawled on the floor a few feet away from where he had originally been standing. His head was thrumming with a familiar type of pain. He groaned and glared at the devil with her favorite weapon in hand, looking at him like he was scum or something.

Had she just pulled that frying pan from under skirt?

Gilbert really didn't want to know.

"Elizaveta."

The gayest pansy of the school (dubbed by Gilbert) made his appearance. Roderich glanced at Gilbert and pushed his glasses up with obvious disdain.

How gay was that?

"Ignore the idiot. Let's go." The Austrian brushed by Gilbert and offered his arm to the Hungarian. She happily took it (where the hell did the frying pan go?) and walked off with him. Gilbert stared after the couple.

They were going to pay.

(And Gilbert had just not sniffled. He was too manly and awesome to sniffle.)

Gilbert had his plans. Even darn Roddy had been unable to deter his awesome plans. It was perfect.

Everyone had stared at Gilbert in awe of his awesomeness and his awesome plan. The gun maniac Swiss kid had snorted. Francis stopped his…whatever he was doing to Tonio, who looked up at Gilbert with sparkly eyes and a smile shining with adoration (even West had admitted that for a split second Tonio had looked like he was watching God) that matched the gaze the Spaniard often directed to the older Vargas twin.

That was pretty big.

Roddy was absolutely speechless. West looked horrified, for some obscure reason. Feli had clapped her hands together gleefully with a sweet smile and a shout of "Ve, Gilbert is awesome!"

Seriously, he should get West and the girl together. Right after he landed Tonio with the Lovino kid.

Then the priceless reaction had come from the last three. The Anglo-Japanese couple and the American bitch. Artie and Jones had been pretty much expected. Furry eyebrows nearly furrowing into his hairline, Artie had plain gaped at the essence of awesome. It was so funny—Gilbert had never seen the Brit so damn dumbstruck before even in the worst circumstances—that Gilbert could have awarded the expression an awesome award or something.

Same went for Jones. She pretty much flipped out. She had yelled about how it was illegal for aliens (the hell? Was alien another term for awesome these days?) to run for student council and all that bullshit. Gilbert wished he could have videotaped the entire thing.

During the American's raving, two very interesting things had happened.

The first one was when Vash Zwingli calmly asked a question that had everyone, except for that damn loud American, stop and stare at Gilbert in pure curiosity.

"Do you meet all the requirements? Your grades and teacher recommendations, you know."

Jones didn't even pause in her rant as Gilbert answered with a smug face.

"In fact, yes. I pass the grade requirements and got both recommendations."

He didn't add the fact that he barely passed the grade requirements and that the recommendations had been practically ripped off from his Opa (History teacher) and the principal himself (who happened to be the grandfather of the Vargas twins, how convenient).

Now poor Roddy looked like he had been slapped. West looked immediately suspicious and amazed at the same time. Artie looked like he was going to start foaming at the mouth and faint. Francis and Tonio both looked mightily impressed.

Was the fact that Gilbert could make passing grades that incredible?

Don't answer that.

Anyways, the second interesting event was the one that shut Jones up. And even the composed Vash had looked like he had missed a step down the stairs and had crashed to the bottom.

Kiku had grabbed Artie's sleeve and murmured, loudly enough for everyone to hear, one sentence.

"I think we should help out."

Six words. Spoken in two seconds. Eliciting a full minute of silence and staring. Jones looked like she'd been knocked out with a roundhouse kick and then told that Gilbert was her father. It was awesome.

It was fucking brilliant.

Gilbert had called along Honda because she was friends with West and Feli. But he hadn't really expected such immediate cooperation. Damn, West had some awesome girlfriends.

Not that Honda was dating West.

Well, she was dating someone else. Someone useful and could potentially help Gilbert with his scheme.

Someone who was utterly under Honda's thumb and at her mercy.

Arthur Kirkland could never really say no to his girlfriend.

Kiku was truly a lovely girl, and she deserved so much. More than Arthur could possibly give her. So when she had actually boldly stated her wish to support the daft idiot's choice, he couldn't help but agree.

Even though Alyssa's betrayed look had made the guilt trip a heavy one.

Of course, Arthur didn't like the idea of helping Gilbert. He abhorred the idea of being any kind of aid, indirect or direct, to the damned albino. Gilbert had been the very opposite of helpful those fateful years ago, and Arthur had his own share of downright depressing memories regarding those arrogant ruby eyes.

And Gilbert was partly why Kiku had gotten hurt; a portion of the reason why Kiku still had that scar stretching across her back.

Sometimes, Arthur still wanted to kill that son of a bitch and rip him into shreds.

But Kiku didn't want that. She wanted to actually help Gilbert. Help the bastard become the fucking president of student council. Help the egomaniac ex-hoodlum obtain the position as the absolute dictator of the entire school.

For the first time in his life, Arthur had briefly questioned his girlfriend's sanity.

Maybe it had to do with the pathetic excuse Gilbert had come up with as to why he was going to become the ruler of the high school. Kiku was friends with Feliciana after all.

"That's right, the awesome me has called for the lot of you!"

"What the hell for?" Arthur had asked without bothering to hide his annoyance.

"Because," Gilbert paused for dramatic effect, "we need to take some desperate measures and get our Tonio together with Lovino!"

A sharp yelp was heard as Francis was knocked off from Antonio. The Spaniard had obviously not known of Gilbert's intentions.

"Gil, really? Lovi and I can be together? You're helping?"

Antonio looked like a puppy that had a bone dangling in front of him. Arthur grimaced. What had become of the merciless owner of the alleyways? Lovino had tamed quite the beast.

"Yep! As long as you guys help me out, then you earn three dates with him!"

Three dates were far from actually going into a relationship. But this was Lovino they were talking about; even one date would be quite an accomplishment. If Antonio actually made it out alive, that was.

"Bruder, what are we helping you with exactly?" Ludwig managed to ask over Feliciana's squealing and hugging that was distributed evenly between Kiku and Ludwig.

(Meanwhile, Arthur noticed, Kiku suddenly looked abruptly attentive, as if something had caught her attention and she was extremely interested.)

"I made a bet with him!" If possible, Gilbert's grin grew even wider.

"What bet?"

Arthur thanked the heavens that Ludwig was such a responsible brother. Even if the responsibility had been lacking at a crucial time several years ago.

"Nothing big," which was a worrisome statement coming from Gilbert.

"What exactly," pressed Ludwig.

Gilbert shrugged. "He said he'd go on three dates with Tonio if I could legally obtain the school funds under my family name and change the school lunch diet so that tomatoes came out for every meal and gave a speech to the whole school about West with potatoes so that West becomes a laughingstock."

Everyone literally stared. Arthur felt sorry for Ludwig.

"So, I can do all that stuff if I rule the school—oh hey, it rhymes! Isn't that awesome?—legally." Gilbert seemed proud of his achievement.

"There's no actual legal way to accomplish such nonsense." Roderich pointed out.

Gilbert smirked.

"Not if I actually do get to own the school, at least metaphorically."

Enthusiastic, Feliciana chirped. "Ve, we're helping Gilbert own the school?"

Gilbert had barked a laugh and proceeded to yell. "Yep, We are now taking over this school!"

Arthur threw a binder at the blasted idiot.

And that was when Alyssa came in.

Of all times when she had to come in! Arthur groaned at the very memory. The girl had such horrendous timing. Getting hit by a binder was one thing, but witnessing your best friend actually take side with whom you deemed as an "evil alien" was simply…Arthur couldn't even describe it.

He and the entire group had watched Alyssa try to formulate words, come up with some sort of argument. The shock, however, had frozen her already minimal sense of logical thinking, and the girl had dashed off. Since Alyssa was prone to overreacting, the others didn't seem to think much of the incident. Gilbert had actually doubled over and laughed.

But Arthur recognized when Alyssa felt hurt. He recognized the expression on her face.

And it didn't help that he knew it took strong blows to bring the American to tears.

Kiku also knew, so when her hand started trembling, Arthur had excused themselves and took her to his home. Alyssa was most likely on a rampage, and the only other people she would go to in such circumstances were Matthew or Yong Soo. It was better not to take chances and let Kiku calm down before sending her home.

"Hey! Jerk Arthur! Why are you so late?"

Peter, Arthur's little brother, greeted them with his usual attitude. Arthur waved back with a hand. The boy stuck his tongue out at Arthur, and then smiled when he saw Kiku.

"It's Kiku! Hi Kiku!"

Kiku smiled weakly. "Hello, Peter-kun."

Arthur ushered Kiku in as Peter tried to cling to her. In the living room, Kiku answered the boy's questions and remarks while Arthur started to get some tea ready. He glanced over at his girlfriend. She seemed a little more at peace, thanks to the diversion Peter was creating. Thank God for pesky little brothers.

"Are you fine, Kiku?" Arthur asked after he managed to shoo Peter out and into the boy's room.

"Yes, please don't worry about me. I just hope Aly-chan is not too disappointed." She murmured.

But the fingers that had sent a text message to her eldest brother minutes ago were still shaking. Arthur covered them with his own hand and lowered his head so that their eye levels were equal.

"Love, look at me."

The pet name was a rarely used one, so the effect was immediate. Dark chocolate eyes looked into emerald green ones, and the trembling died down.

"It's Alyssa. She'll be fine. Matthew and Yong Soo can help her out." God help them all if they couldn't. "You make your own choices. Alyssa can't dictate your every move. I'm with you all the way."

I'll never let anyone hurt you again.

He had promised. And he was going to keep that promise.

"Arigatou gozaimasu…"Kiku breathed out as she leant her forehead against his.

Arthur leaned forward, causing Kiku to tilt her head back and scoot a little to make room on the sofa. Their lips made contact, and Arthur smiled into the kiss. Beautiful, wonderful, lovely Honda Kiku.

His Kiku.

"Hey, jerk! Arthur! Can I come out now?"

They pulled apart as Arthur groaned in frustration.

Younger brothers were such a pain in the ass.

/ BFF Kimchiburger and fluffy ArthurKiku is totally win, in my opinion XD And any guesses as to why Kiku is suddenly so supportive of Gilbert?

So there's a lot of angsty past issues, eh? Not much details yet, but let's just say... These dudes were empires/pirates/conquerors after all. I'm not letting that slide.

Hyung = Korean for "Older Brother" (or older boys in general; only males use this)

Nam-chin = Korean slang for "boyfriend"

Gommennasai = Japanese for "I'm sorry"

Yosenabe = Japanese broth with various ingredients

Kimchi Jjigae = Korean stew made with mainly kimchi

Jiaozi = Chinese dumplings

Meimei = Chinese for "younger sister"

Didi = Chinese for "younger brother"

Bruder = German for "brother"

Arigatou gozaimasu = Japanese for "Thank you"

If you've seen my author's notes on the bottom of chapter 2, I'm still taking suggestions! Reviews really make my day on spur me on, so please give me feedback. It really helps a lot.