A/N: Bulling is stupid.
"You'd better leave Mattie alone!" Alfred stood in front of his little brother between the three bullies. "He didn't do anything to you!"
"He's a big baby," the leader said. He puffed out his chest and pushed his pointer into Alfred's chest. "He's always ragging on us and we're tired of it!"
Matthew kept his hand over his bloody nose. The pain had mostly subsided; it was just a throb now. "I-I never did that." He hadn't even seen these boys before until the biggest one had come up and hit his nose while he had been playing in the grass.
"Why would you hurt Mattie anyways? Like he said, he's never seen you guys before!" Alfred slapped the finger away and puffed out his own chest.
The leader faltered, caught in his lie. "He's still a baby. He's such a pushover. He even has to have his brother fight his fights for him. Pfft." The two flanking his sides laughed.
"He's not a baby and he's not a pushover!" Alfred shoved the boy in front of him. The laughing stopped and the two boys launched themselves at Alfred before the first could recover.
That was when Ludwig and Berwald came jogging up to the boys. Ludwig grabbed the three boys by their shirts and pulled them off of Alfred and Berwald helped Matthew and Alfred up.
"What is going on here?" The German questioned?
"They hurt Mattie so I was helping him," Alfred defended, showing Ludwig Matthew's bloody nose.
"Berwald, take Matthew to Liz. I'll take care of everything else." He turned his attention back to the three boys who Alfred claimed attacked his brother. "Now tell me exactly what happened."
The boys beat around the bush, not wanting to confess to their crime. Alfred sighed dramatically. "They hit Mattie in the nose for no reason. I was watching him play in the grass and they came up and hit him!"
"Alright." Ludwig silenced them before they could start fighting and led them down to Roma's office.
The Italian man was eating – when wasn't he? – at his desk but sat up when Ludwig walked in. "What's wrong now?" he asked, eyeing the boys.