Chapter Nineteen – Let's hope the fighting's over for now.

Arthur had quickly escaped back to Alfred's dorm, as it was closest to the hall. He threw the unlocked door open, issuing for Alfred, who was bright red and still sniffing slightly, to go in before him. Soon the door was shut and locked, and Arthur stood, staring at Alfred, who'd buried his face in his palms, and had his knees up close to his body, acting like some sort of shield.

"You're completely mortified, aren't you…?" Arthur sighed, tone a lot softer than he expected.

Alfred nodded sadly.

"You… You let my brothers do all this to you – let yourself be embarrassed by this – upset yourself like this… to prove a point to me?"

Alfred nodded again.

"Jesus Christ you don't half make me look like a complete dick…"

When Alfred didn't reply, Arthur realised that he was taking the wrong approach towards this. So, with a deep breath he shook himself, and sat on the bed next to Alfred, gently placing a hand on the American's wrist.

"Look… I'm no good at this. You know me well enough to know that I'm shit at admitting to being wrong, or expressing what I… feel," Arthur nearly spat out the word 'feel', already disliking how emotional and sentimental he sounded, "In fact, I think anyone knows that about me. I don't exactly hide my cold exterior. So I'll give it a go… The… apologising. But don't blame me if I do it wrong."

Arthur took a deep breath, trying to control his breathing, as he could feel his eyes tingling a bit. He was not going to cry, for fuck's sake.

"Alfred… I… I know I've treated you badly. I know I do things that are 'out-of-order', as such, and I do regret that. I find it hard to seem… amorous towards you – I don't know – my brain's just weird. Admitting love… I know it's a lovely, wonderful thing, but I just see it as… Pitiful. No wait that sounds wrong. I mean, whenever I say something like that, it's like I'm admitting to having emotions. I don't like to admit to emotions, I much like to keep to myself. Damn I'm getting off the point. What I'm trying to say is… Alfred… you don't know how much you mean to me – now, I know you're thinking 'oh of course I do, Arthur's just being bashful – but no, you don't. And I'll tell you how I know that – it's because I don't even realise how much I fucking adore you, and how much of you has become a massive part of my own personality. I was frosty, mean and generally not a nice person the whole time we were fighting – more so than usual, and that's because I fucking love you, Alfred Jones. I overreacted at what you said – I should've realised that you really didn't know that you'd hurt me – I should've explained it better, and just accepted your apology, because then we could've just gotten this whole thing over with and you wouldn't be sitting here in that fucking dress.

"That's another thing that makes me feel like such a dick. You did all this for me. You humiliated yourself, just for me. Now I know Alastair's put me in drag before, but that was different. I suppose… as you say, I'm more feminine than you – I didn't enjoy it, but I could… wave it away, if you like. You though, this seriously petrifies you, doesn't it? And you went through that fear and pain to say you were sorry. Jesus I do not deserve you. Hell even the first time I laid eyes on you, I was a judgemental, frosty bastard. It was only until you decided to become my friend did I start opening up. You made me who I am now – I'm not exaggerating when I'm saying you picked me up made me one thousand times better than who I originally was. I don't appreciate you enough. And… for that I hope you can forgive me."

Alfred was no longer sobbing. In fact, he was gazing at Arthur with interest. Of course, Arthur didn't know this – he was staring at the floor, his face beet red with humiliation for admitting such things to Alfred. But Alfred still continued to gaze at him, in more than interest. Both in awe and pity. Awe because he knew Arthur struggled with things like this, as the fact he was admitting it all now was incredibly impressive. Pity, well, because Arthur found it hard to do so. Like it was a sign of weakness.

"Arthur, look at me," Alfred said kindly. Arthur met Alfred's gaze hesitantly, like he was about to break eye-contact at any moment. Alfred wasn't having any of that. He carefully reached his hand up to cup Arthur's wet cheek, forcing Arthur to keep their gazes unbroken.

"Arthur – thank you." Alfred said simply, "That is all I ever wanted from you. We both know what I did wrong, and I regret that greatly, but now, don't you see? We're both on the same level. We both did wrong, we were both idiots, we both realised what we did wrong, and now finally we're both apologising. What's more, we're both still in love."

There was a pause, until Arthur broke it by saying, "Well I think I'm a little bit above you, seeing as you're still in that fucking dress."

Alfred laughed, sniffing a bit, looking down at the hideous shade of pink, "God yeah, nearly forgot about that. I'd better get changed." He clambered up, walking over to the wardrobe and stripping the dress carefully off as he went. He would've quite liked to have ripped it off, but decided that wouldn't be fair to poor Owain, who'd given up precious revision time to make it. Who knew, maybe in the future he'd be glad he kept it 'for the memories'.

Alfred felt a little down that such a sweet moment had been broken between he and Arthur, but the bubble of happiness soon erased his negativity. He and Arthur were together again, sharing moments, and mucking them up when Arthur said something cute or funny. Yes, this was how he liked it, Alfred thought. This was a good routine to be in.

Just as he took the dress off, Alfred heard a little noise from behind him. In normal circumstances, the noise would be completely inaudible. However, as there was literally silence surrounding them Alfred could've picked any sound up, whether it be a feather floating to the ground or an elephant attempting to jump.

It didn't take the brains of an archbishop to work out what'd made the sound. Arthur's red face was evidence enough.

Alfred grinned, raising an eyebrow cockily.

"It's… It's been a long time since I've seen…" Arthur issued to Alfred's bare chest.

"Oh you like it, then?" Alfred grinned, liking the attention.

Arthur nodded, avoiding Alfred's gaze.

"Y'know I'm slightly disappointed that you're not paying any attention to more… lower regions, Arthur. I am in my underpants, after all…" Alfred said, slowly getting closer to Arthur, forgetting completely about the wardrobe. He was incredibly glad he'd managed to talk Owain out of making him wear female lingerie 'to complete the look', as he had a feeling, if Owain had gotten his own way, then this scene would be playing out very differently. Probably with Arthur in fits of giggles. Unless he was into all that stuff.

That was a thought. What were Arthur's fetishes?

Meanwhile, Arthur was more worried about his pretty much naked sort-of boyfriend standing above him looking more like a God than Arthur had ever seen. This worried Arthur slightly however – yeah he and Alfred had been naked around each other… but it'd never been quite so… sexual as this. It'd been like, just getting out of the shower naked. Not let me seduce you with my body naked. They hadn't really ventured far in the sexual realms of their relationship. They had jerked off to the thoughts of one another, sure, but that was hardly a claim to fame – Alfred had once before now jerked off to a picture of a remotely sexualised Pokémon.

Alfred sat down on the bed next to Arthur, "Say Artie?"

Arthur simply nodded, too flustered to properly reply.

Alfred leaned in close to Arthur's neck, breath making Arthur's neck shiver pleasantly. Then, barely audibly, Alfred whispered, "Am I turning you on?"

Arthur couldn't stop the little squeak of alarm escaping his lips, "I – I – no!"

Silence for a moment as Alfred waited confidently.

"Yes," Arthur said, his voice cracking a little mid-speech.

Alfred needn't say anymore. He tilted Arthur' chin towards his own, claiming the first kiss they'd shared in a while. Arthur responded very positively.

It wasn't long before Arthur shared Alfred's naked status.

"So…" Arthur began, stammering and blushing wildly.

Alfred too had lost his confidence. Both he and Arthur were now two naked teenagers who thought they knew what they were doing.

"I don't want… sex," Arthur admitted. "But I do feel that I'm ready to do pretty much anything… up till then."

Alfred smiled bashfully; confidence restored a little, "That's exactly how I feel."

"Can I just…" Arthur trailed off, bringing his shaking hand up to Alfred's face, gently cupping his cheek, and then swiftly removing his glasses, and folded them up and placed them on the floor.

"Thank you," Alfred said, leaning down for a kiss.

The rest of the day flew past in a rush of kisses, moans, even a few screams. Well on into the night the pair continued, their adrenaline extinguishing any exhaustion as they tried out things on each other that they'd only ever dreamed of previously.

Alastair sat outside the dorm, playing Tetris on his phone. There wasn't a peep out of the pair for at least half an hour. Just as Alastair was thinking of leaving, he was made to stay by little noise, only just audible through the door. He frowned, wondering if they'd begun fighting over all. He stood up, pressing his ear against the door. A few seconds later, another muffled noise came through the door. A grunt? Were they fist fighting?

Alastair prepared himself to run in like a Scottish Hero; he may or may not have ruffled up his hair and stroked his eyebrows into place. He was ready to burst in before…

"Alfred…!"

A moan followed the name.

The colour drained out of Alastair's face. Holy shit, holy shit. He just realised what was going on in that room. Nope, nope, nope, nope. He was not listening to his little brother shout sexual things!

He hastily grabbed his coat and bag and ran off down the corridor, deciding to wait in his own room to tell Owain that there was no worries about Arthur and Alfred breaking up.

Well at least their pointless argument was fixed now.

On the way back down the corridor, he saw three people he never had expected to see all together at once.

Kiku was standing in between Mr Karpusi and a shady looking guy with spikey up, blonde hair.

Lars?

Ahh this was the dreaded meeting of the three. Alastair had heard a lot about Kiku's confusion in regards to his feelings towards Heracles. Lars must've found something out.

Alastair didn't really want to butt in, so he quickly skipped past, vowing he'd found out what happened from Gilbert later. Gilbert always knew these things.

Meanwhile back in the corridor with Kiku, things were getting pretty heated, in a way Kiku didn't like.

It'd all been a misunderstanding in the worst way possible.

Kiku had decided to confess to Lars about what he'd done with Heracles. It was the only way to set things right. If Lars wanted to break up with him after that, then Kiku wouldn't blame him.

It'd all been going quite smoothly too. Well, as smoothly as things could possibly get.

Kiku had waited outside for Lars, and they'd walked into the school together, casually talking about your average meaningless stuff. Then they'd reached inside. Lars had wanted to know what Kiku had called him all the way up to the school for.

"Well, um…" Kiku looked at the floor, ashamed. "There is no way to put this nicely, Lars. I went on a date with Heracles the other night whenever I said I wanted to see the fireworks with you. I lied to you, and I was out with him. And, before I went to go and find you on my way back… He kissed my forehead. Before you say anything, I want you to know that I regret what I did, and completely understand if you feel I've wrecked this relationship."

Lars had sighed at this point, running his hand through his hair and then down his face exasperatedly, "I know, Kiku."

"You, you what?"

"I saw the kiss."

"… Oh."

There was silence for a moment, and Lars leaned against the corridor wall, "I started smoking again."

Kiku stared at the floor, realising what Lars was telling him indirectly.

"And the stuff I'm smoking isn't exactly legal."

"… Oh," Kiku said, too shocked at both himself and Lars to say anything else.

He'd done this. This was his fault that Lars was inhaling dangerous substances into his body, not only risking illness, but also legal issues. Maybe Kiku didn't get him into drugs, but he wasn't helping Lars stop them either.

Then Kiku realised the crushing fatality of his situation, and began to tear up.

"I'm sorry," Kiku said through his tears, "I don't even have the right to be crying here! I – I just I never even thought…"

"I know why you're crying," Lars shrugged, "You're crying because you're scared for me. Yeah, you went on a date with Heracles. It doesn't mean that everything you do from now on is cruel and twisted. Kiku, you haven't changed, it's our relationship that's changed."

Kiku nodded, "But if I hadn't gone on that date with Heracles, then none of this would've happened! We could've sat and watched the fireworks and it'd have been so nice and, and, and," Kiku couldn't get his words out any more. He just ended up stuttering.

Lars sighed, pulling Kiku into a hug, "I understand, I do. It happened to a friend of mine."

"But this is wrong even now! You're meant to be upset, not me! I'm meant to be comforting you! Now I've managed to turn all the attention on myself… I didn't want to do this…" Kiku sobbed helplessly.

"Kiku, Kiku, just calm, yeah? If it helps, I'm not going to break up with you."

Kiku's sobbing increased. Lars sighed helplessly, apparently that just added to Kiku's guilt. He decided that he just needed to carry on regardless of Kiku's crying. "Look, I won't break up with you. I understand it wasn't a date to make me mad; it was a date to satisfy the Greek's raging hormones that he should be able to control. You didn't do it to upset me, I get that. Yeah I'm hurt by what you did… but if I'm honest, right now I'm in a dark place, and you're my only light. Even if you burn me a bit, I'm not going to let go of you and just wonder around blind."

Kiku's sobbing increased, "I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry Lars. There – There has to be something I can do to make it up to you?"

"Well, obviously promising you won't do that again… But also, this isn't just for my good, it's for everyone's good in this situation… You need to give Heracles a talking to. Tell him that you can't do anything remotely romantic with him until you're out of school. If, by that time we're still together, but you want to leave me for him, then yeah, I might put up a fight, but I'll let you go to him."

"Lars! No, you need to stand up for what you want!"

"Kiku, I just don't care anymore, that's my point."

Kiku was about to say something before he saw a person that he really didn't want to see walk down the corridor. Only bloody Heracles himself.

"Kiku, is everything okay?" Heracles asked.

"Yes, everything is fine. Go away," Lars answered flatly.

"Excuse me?" Heracles frowned, meeting Lars' cold glare with an equally icy reply.

Kiku was about to butt in to ask them to please stop with the fighting, until he realised that not only did he not really have the right to butt in, but if he did, then he'd probably only make things worse.

"So what did you threaten Kiku with to get him to go on a date with you, Karpusi?" Lars asked coldly.

"Don't know what you're talking about, it is Lars, I can presume?" Heracles very nearly sneered, though he gave Kiku alarmed eyes of 'you told him!?'

It was at this point that Alastair had walked past, head ducked and looking guilty. The three waited for him to go past, not particularly wanting their discussion turning into gossip already.

As soon as he'd gone though, Heracles spoke again.

"My date with Kiku was a simple deal, Lars. I said that if he enjoyed the date and wanted to do it again, then so be it. However if Kiku didn't enjoy it, then fine; it'd be over. I promised I wouldn't harass him anymore. A fair chance to give myself a chance to prove to him I was the right one to love."

"And what was his answer after the date?"

There was silence for a moment as both Heracles and Kiku realise Kiku didn't really give an answer.

"Very good question. Kiku, what was your answer?"

Kiku froze, suddenly realising that the outcome of this situation now rested on his shoulders.

He knew what to say. Rather he knew what he should say. This was the part where he broke up with Heracles, saying that it could never work because of their student/teacher relationship and that he was in love with Lars. He did want to say that, too. Though the words didn't want to come out of his mouth.

No, Kiku told himself. Even if you don't want to, this is what Lars wants. You have to do everything you can to make it better for him now.

"Look, Heracles-san…" Kiku started, looking at the floor, "I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy our date. Though I simply can't date you. Not only is it pretty much illegal, but it's hurting Lars. Perhaps, I don't know, we might be together in a few years. But no, not now. I'm… I'm sorry."

Silence again.

"Kiku, do you really mean that, or are you just saying it because you want to do what I asked you to do?" Lars said calmly.

Kiku took a deep breath. No lies here. "At first, if I'm honest, I thought I was simply doing what you wanted me to. But I realise right now that actually, this is what I want. By doing this, not only am I being with the person that I'm in love with, but it's stopping you, Heracles, from getting into trouble with work, and it's definitely helping you, Lars, a little bit with… well… addictions. This is my final answer; Heracles, I do not want to have any form of romantic contact with you for at least four years until I graduate. I will miss you, but that is what is for the best for me and for the situation."

More silence. Kiku found it rather off-putting.

"I understand," Heracles said considerately. He took a step away from Lars. He realised this was a situation where he had to act his age. "Thank you, Kiku, Lars. I'm sorry for what I've put you through. But just remember, if it's four years you're letting me wait, then you'd better watch out until then. I'll make sure I'm the most attractive Greek man you've ever seen. There's no way you won't be able to fall for me, Kiku."

Lars nodded at Heracles, "Thank you for… cooperating."

"One of us has to be the adult. Don't forget your English homework, Honda."

A few days later, everything seemed to have calmed down. No one was randomly crying in a corridor, nor was anyone skipping class. Exams were on the horizon and that was the main worry for the moment. Things had patched themselves up for the most part.

But then there were the 'Lonely Trio' as people had taken to calling them. The three that, no matter what they did, they managed to fuck up relationships.

First on the list, emboldened and underlined many times was of course Alastair. Close by was Gilbert, and finally Matthew. These three had now gained their infamous reputation. Alastair and Gilbert could deal with it. They didn't care that they were fucked up lonely bisexuals that occasionally fucked each other just for the fun of it.

Matthew however wasn't fond of the status.

He'd tried to get out of the situation by letting the Old Matthew flourish; the part of him that everyone remembered from before he fucked up big time with his relationship with Gilbert, cheating affair with Francis and odd kiss here and there with Owain and Alfred.

However no matter what he did, he remained a proud part of the trio.

Until one day, however. Matthew decided that not only did he not want to be like this anymore, he actually missed someone very, very important to him.

Gilbert.

In the relationship, Matthew had taken the German for granted in such a way that should be illegal. He knew that it was truly horrible what he did. He'd never really apologised for what he did.

He could change that.

After a few days of planning on how to fix things, Matthew finally decided that he should just go and talk to Gilbert.

So go to talk to Gilbert he did indeed.

He knocked on the door, waiting for Gilbert to poke out his head like usual. Sure enough, there was that silvery hair and those bright red eyes.

"Mattie?" Gilbert said, shocked. He wasn't sure whether it was a pleasant surprise or a very unpleasant surprise for Gilbert. Probably the latter.

"Look Gilbert…" Matthew said, "I'm not going to beat around the bush. I was a dick when I dated you. I'm sorry for how I treated you. I just feel I didn't really leave the slate clean, and I feel terrible about that. I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry. Partly to get it off my conscience, I admit."

"Umm…" Gilbert said, "O-oh okay. Um, do you want to come inside?"

"I don't really mind, I just wanted to apologise for being a dick really."

"That's it? No sudden 'please take me back I love you my awesome God Gilbert'?"

"Umm… No not really, sorry if you were expecting that. I just wanted to make it as good as it could be between us. No bad feeling, if you get me."

"Matt, I'm not one to hold grudges, but if I was, a simple 'sorry' wouldn't really have helped that."

Matthew sighed, looking at the floor, "I know, I know… I just… I didn't know what to do…"

"How about we start over? From the very beginning. Look see?" Gilbert smiled, closing his door on Matthew.

Matthew stood in confusion, staring at the door. Had Gilbert just done the real life equivalent of hanging up on him?

Apparently not, Matthew realised as Gilbert opened the door again.

"Wow stranger who are you and why are you on my doorstep?" Gilbert narrowed his eyes.

"What? Gilbert I don't know what you're doing…"

"How the holy hell do you know my name? You some sort of stalker?"

Matthew soon caught on to what Gilbert was doing. He tried a few times to get Gilbert to stop with his charade. However Gilbert would not stop.

Soon however, Matthew lapsed into the conversation.

"Cool, so you go to school here too? And you're Canadian. Wow man I thought you were American, I'm sure you get that a lot," Gilbert said.

"I do. It's not particularly fun."

"You look pretty down in the dumps, man," Gilbert said, a little concern showing in his voice.

"Well if I'm honest, I am. I fucked things up, Gilbert. A guy I really, really liked. He was lovely, and I went and fucked with him."

"Did you love that guy?" Gilbert asked ionnocently.

"I wouldn't say love, but he was a very, very dear friend to me." Matthew admitted, "Though I'd take him back at any chance I could. He's way too good for me."

"Hey, Matthew, why don't you come in? I was just going to order some pizza?" Gilbert grinned.

"Sure thing, as long as there's ice cream," Matthew smiled, and the two walked inside Gilbert's room for the first time of their second try.

This could well be the way to a fixed friendship, Matthew thought happily to himself. Hell he didn't deserve it, but at least he could ensure he didn't fuck up again this time. Friendship #2; the one where nothing goes wrong, hopefully.

A/N

Ahaaaaaaaaaaa. Yeah. I'm back. You all hate me don't you? ;u; don't worry I'd hate me too.
BUT I UPDATED! YAY!
I owe you all an explanation, and if I'm honest I don't really have one. But I'm sorry for where I left it ;u;
Though I'd say there's about a chapter left? ;u; sorry.
I kinda started to hate this fic; it's really annoying me. I've realised that the characters are really bdly potrayed and DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE PLOTHOLES UGH.
But yes, I have plans to write another Highschool AU pretty soon. That one will be planned. It'll be a USUK, and yes it'll probably be quite similar to this u.u for that, I apologise, I just really like the idea at the minute.
You can think of it as a rewritten version of this, if you like.

But yes, as always, thank you for your kind, kind reviews! Even as I was on my horrible unintended hiatus, they still came through! Thank you, guys!