"Ugh." Alfred shuddered and pushed his plate towards me, grimacing unashamedly.

"It is tofu." He seethed. "I hate tofu."

"Kiku would be quite hurt if he heard you say that." I chided before scraping the white clumps into my plate. It didn't look particularly edible but here they taught you that food was something essential and not always given. I remembered the test given when we had to go as long as we could without eating anything. Whoever lasted the longest got chocolate. Everyone had salivated heavily at the word.

Alfred and I had done the test many times in our years, as the challenge was presented to all years of development. Though the past year they had changed it a bit, you could eat, so long as no one caught you eating. We all took an oath to report who was caught eating and they would be eliminated from the opportunity of receiving any chocolate.

We would eat in secret; we would have to find food in secret. Pantry and Kitchen raids were always carefully planned out, jumps in camera feed were programmed and alliances were formed.

It was war.

Alfred and I had lost quickly when we were younger. I was too frail to not eat and he was just a fat ass who couldn't bare the emotional distress that came from not eating.

Though as the ones with the most experience we were the ones to win the chocolate this past year. Alfred to this day refuses to admit that he cried rather hard when he ate his chocolate with the piquancy overload. I was as equally reticent to reveal my reaction (which had been smiling wider than ever before and subsequently making the corners of my mouth hurt).

Alfred grumbled noncommittally as he watched me eat the tofu without showing how disgusted I was. His eye flickered to the door and I looked at his feet, which were now pointed towards the door. He leaned slightly towards the general direction of the door and looked back at me, his eyebrows rising minimally.

I nodded slightly, enough for him to understand but not others and he left the table with masked hurry, though I could see it.

People often wondered how we always 'knew what each other were thinking', but really it was all a matter of him being overly obvious with in his behaviour and knowing I would pick up on it.

Simple.

I wondered idly what he wanted to leave for; we usually left together in favour of arriving to class together. Then I remembered what today was and I felt myself go rather cold.

Today we would be learning our assignments. We would spend the next month preparing for the assignment, learning everything we needed to know in preparation for what was to come.

This meant that Alfred and I would be separated during the entire next month. We had almost never been separated before, as we had practically grown up together, now we would be separated till one of us were fired, or our client died.

I wondered why he why he wanted to leave so rapidly, it was because he wanted to see my assignment before I could see it. My heart sunk. He was going to be devastated by what he found, I just knew it.

I didn't know what my assignment was, and truthfully I didn't want to know what it was, but I was the top of the top. I was currently the best in the entire building and that meant I was going to be assigned the most deadly of all of the assignments.

I would most likely die unless I was truly lucky which was highly unlikely.

I watched my plate as I pushed around the white cubes of tofu. I was giving Alfred time to read the entire report on what I had to do, I was giving him time to go back to our room and get out the emotion that would have been building up as he read.

I would have liked to have come along with him, to make sure he didn't do anything stupid. Alfred hated to show tears, he found them as weakness in himself but not in others and he only ever cried in front of me. Now he was going to have to learn to deal with it on his own, because I wasn't going to be there for him when I was assigned. I wasn't going to be there for him.

The thought crushed me.

I looked at my posture, my feet were positioned much like Alfred's were before he left and I found myself wanting to go to Alfred, to stop him from reading the damn file and hide him away from the truth he was reading. Alfred really was too fragile.

I steeled myself and twined my fingers together tightly, pointing my feet ahead of me determinedly.

"Please don't tell me you ate what ever the hell is on that plate." The distinctly English voice trailed down, I had known he was there. I knew he was reading everything I had done.

I hated the fact I was so obvious.

"Why didn't you stop him?" He asked softly and I refused to look at him, I just knew the knowing green eyes would now be filled with sympathy.

"He needs to learn what it is to be without me there." I said simply and Arthur sighed, sitting down and pulling the tofu away from me.

"I can not argue with your reasoning Matthew." He said slowly. I could feel his gaze burning into the side of my head and I turned meeting it head on. The green eyes widened in surprise at my bold gaze.

"How bad is his assignment?" I asked and his large eyebrows furrowed as he thought.

"It isn't hardly bad, I could name a few who are worse off." His eyes trailed from my face and I knew he was recalling my assignment.

"That is all I need to know." I said and stood up, meeting Arthur's gaze again.

"You have been a good teacher." I said and he smiled bitterly.

"I am sorry to see you go Matthew."

I kind of feel like I have been neglecting you guys but I am alive! I swear that isn't the case! I am working on a lot of different projects for a lot of different pairings and fandoms, it is all quite overwhelming but I will keep posting chapters, I promise. I will never desert you guys so please keep following my stories!

I really love you guys for being so supportive and amazing in your reviews, in this fanfic and my others He Paints The Color Red, and About These Scars. I will be updating the latter soon, just give me some time, I have a lot on my plate.

Please keep reviewing and favoriting and following, I absolutely adore you guys and you make life more bearable for me. Thanks for everything! -Serenity Ma Sogni