Disclaimer: I don't own it, I just ship it
Warning: AU, strong language, boy x boy pairings, violence (more so bullying in the beginning), and because this was inspired by the manga Iris Zero, there may be some minor spoilers for it.
I'm glad you guys enjoyed the Homecoming chapter! Just to clear a few things up that a few people mentioned – Yes, Ludwig's costume was basically an adult-sized Holy Roman Empire one. I just wasn't sure how to fit that in the story, since they're not Nations in this. Yes, Kiku is a scary/intense/professional fangirl, (oops, fanboy) when the situation calls for it. He should be mostly back to normal now, though (I hope). And yes, Feliciano still loves Ludwig, even though the guy can't dance to save his own life in this story XD
oOo
Alfred had led nothing short of an eventful life. He had a super-helpful and handy Iris that let him play Hero whenever he wanted. By the time most kids were learning to tie their shoes, he was making executive decisions for various global agencies. He was a hero and a risk-taker. Alfred climbed the tallest trees and read past his bed time. He managed to survive his parents' divorce and helped his twin brother do the same. Alfred was the one who damaged the relationship between Arthur and his other cousins beyond repair, according to some. Instead of letting it get to him, the blonde took the initiative to mend those broken bridges. He had even got them to greet each other last Christmas and participate in the family picture without screaming bloody murder and/or committing actual murder. Huge accomplishment right there! Alfred could do lots of things when he put his mind to it!
So how the hell was he so inadequately equipped to deal with everything that happened in the last ten minutes?
Enter Lovino Vargas. Lovino was a smart and exciting guy who made him happier than he ever recalled feeling before. The feisty Italian could make his heart race and his eyes linger. Alfred was by all definitions he knew, completely smitten with the guy. But…that couldn't be right. Lovino was…well, perfect, but wasn't the word he was looking for.
They were best friends, not lovers. Friendship wasn't something you gamble on love. Alfred had seen it ruin the relationships of countless people around him. Even Arthur and Francis had nearly sworn the other into exile when they broke up for the first time. Ten years of friendship down the drain over some petty thing Alfred couldn't even remember. What if that happened to him and Lovino? But…if his cousin and Francis could beat the odds and overcome that, why couldn't he and Lovino? Then again, that gamble was based on the even crazier gamble that the Italian actually returned his feelings. What if Lovino didn't feel the same way about him?
The more he thought about it, the more complicated everything got. Just when he'd get close to making sense of a single thread of his current state, he'd get tangled up in another. One headache later, Alfred was certain of only three things:
1 – Emotional drama was so not his thing.
2 – Lovino was an extremely confusing individual to be around.
3 – He loved him all the more for it.
Alfred decided to start focusing on something he could actually do. His best friend was lying here on the couch unconscious while he was too caught up in the soap opera in his head. Lovino came first, second, and third. He was the one who needed help right now, not Alfred. The Hero promised himself he'd wait a few minutes longer, then call an ambulance if Lovino didn't wake up. Fortunately, after a minute or two longer, Lovino slowly opened his green eyes.
"Lovi! Thank god!" Alfred hugged him. "You have no idea how worried I was, dude! How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine…" the brunette placed a hand to his head. "Just a little dazed…What the fuck happened?"
"W-What's the last thing you remember?" Alfred's cheeks turned bright red.
"…Riding the horses home, but not much else."
"You don't remember the…" the blonde's voice trailed off, a little disappointed.
"Hm?" Lovino rubbed his eyes.
"The, uh…fall?"
"Nope. Sorry," The Italian picked up on his worried tone and tried to crack a joke. "You didn't push me, did you, bastard?"
"O-Of course not!" Alfred sighed, then smiled, recalling his priorities. "I'm just glad you're okay! Do you want me to call anyone for you?"
"Nah…I'm fine. No reason to worry Feli or Nonno," he sat up more. "Just keep this between us, though. It…It's embarrassing to have fallen off Eclipse like that. I can already hear Nonno making jokes about me finally falling off my high horse…"
"If you say so," The Hero laughed weakly, agreeing. "Do you need anything else – water? Ice? Something to eat?"
"I'm fine, idiot," he waved him off. "You better get your horses home before they run wild in the neighborhood."
"Okay, but call me if you need anything," Alfred nodded. He felt that strange pull again and hugged Lovino instinctively. The guy was like a magnet or something.
"What was that for?"
"Heh, no reason!" Alfred bid his friend farewell and ignored the twisty, strangled feeling in his chest on his way out.
oOo
On Monday morning, Alfred got a text just as he was leaving the house. When he saw who sent it, his heart did a backflip. The Hero quickly opened it to see what Lovino wanted to tell him.
Running late today, so don't wait for me. See you in class, bastard.
His face fell. Alfred still offered to wait for him, but Lovino texted back that it would look bad for the President to be tardy. The blonde was bummed, but went to school with his brother instead. On the way in, they ran into Arthur and Francis. The latter of the two greeted them in French. Alfred was lost, so Matthew responded for both of them and continued the conversation in French because of how happy it made Francis to speak his native tongue. The only non-French speaker of the bunch ignored them, but to be fair he wasn't really listening to whatever his cousin was rambling on about in the Queen's English either.
At several points in the conversation, Francis and Matthew mentioned 'Butin' with great respect and reverence. Despite spacing out the majority of their conversation, that word stood out because of the change in tone. It eventually bugged Alfred enough to ask Arthur (who had mastered conversational French to impress Francis ages ago) what the hell they were talking about.
"Oh-ho! He finally asks," Arthur grinned. "It seems you're ready to take the first steps towards becoming a man."
"Why do you have to make everything so weird? Forget I even asked…" Alfred rolled his eyes.
"Butin is the burning fire at the heart of all manhood!" Francis declared, butting into the conversation.
"W-What?"
"Alfred, there are times to play it cool, but a man who fears his passions is no man at all!" The senior pointed an accusing finger at the American.
"Yes!" Arthur tried not to laugh. "Exactly what I was trying to say!"
"I'm not even sure I know what we're talking about anymore…" sighed the Hero.
"Then you will never know Butin," frowned Francis. "You have to want it, Alfred. You have to need it!"
"…Then teach me about Butin…"
"I can barely even hear you. You have to mean it!" Francis shook his fist to emphasize the importance of the matter.
Alfred took a deep breath.
"TEACH ME ABOUT BUTIN!"
"Whoa! Don't go shouting things like that, bastard!" Lovino yelled from the nearby crosswalk. He had just arrived with his younger brother, who now tried to shush him.
"Don't scold him, fratello! He's just being a healthy teenage boy," Feliciano nodded. "We should be supportive and understanding."
Alfred could only groan as they walked past.
"Don't hate us," his cousin snickered.
"There's no shame in being burned by the fire of manhood," Francis nodded.
"You all suck…"
oOo
Lovino spent the majority of Homeroom staring out the window. He had a lot on his mind this morning. It was that distraction that led him to being cornered by some of his classmates who were less than pleased an Iris Zero was allowed in their school, much less their classroom.
"Fess up, Iris Zero!" the black-haired one slammed a hand onto his desk. "We know it was you who hurt our buddy, Ken!"
"Yeah, he's never messed up a stunt before, but just yesterday he fell off his bike!" the other backed him up. "It was all because you went to the dance and bumped into him on purpose!"
"He had to get stitches yesterday! I hope you're happy with yourself, you freak!"
"Nothing good can ever come from getting involved with an Iris Zero!"
"So, let me get this straight," scoffed the Italian. "You're trying to blame me attending a party on Friday for your friend getting hurt at a completely unrelated event on Sunday?"
The two boys glared at him.
"Well, it's nice to know the voodoo dolls I have of the entire student population are working," Lovino smirked. "And here I was worried I didn't add enough human hair to the Ken doll. You just can't cut corners with this kind of thing."
"You think you're funny?" the bully growled, reaching for the collar of the Italian's shirt. "We'll see how funny you are after I—"
The boy never got to finish his threat. Their homeroom teacher had thrown a piece of chalk at the bully, hitting him square in the forehead like a bullet. It left a nice red mark, as the boy tried to brush off the crumbly remains of the chalk dust.
"You have the nerve to cause a scene in my classroom?" Vash strode over, intervening at once. "Get out of here."
The would-be bullies took off and a confused Lovino thanked him. It was the first time his professor had actually come to his aid for…anything, really. Before this, Vash always turned a blind eye to the bullying that went on just outside (and occasionally inside) his classroom.
"Hmph. I try not to go against my code of conduct and treat all students equally…" he huffed. "So I want to make it clear that I'm not playing favorites…but I did hear about what you did for Lily last week."
Lovino blinked.
"It was…honorable of you to stand up for her…Now get to class!"
oOo
Afterschool was another circus, er, Student Council meeting. They were to go over how well Homecoming week went overall. Alfred had finally received the paperwork Arthur had hidden from almost everyone until Sunday…the budget report. Normally these weren't a big deal…but the amount of money that went into turning the gymnasium into a Hollywood movie set made his eyes almost pop out of his head. It was no wonder Kiku had chosen to sit out during Alfred's pep rally speech last week. The Hero was starting to feel a little sick himself.
Despite his cousin's colossal money mistake and his own relationship drama, Alfred still showed up to make this right. It was his job. If they could figure out a way to make up for all the cash blown on the extravagant homecoming before the Headmaster caught wind of this, they could make it out alive and not expelled. It wasn't like there were any other issues. The party itself was a huge hit! Alfred readjusted his blue Student Council badge, called the meeting to order, and began asking for fundraising ideas.
"Like what?" Ludwig asked.
"Like…uh, washing cars?" shrugged the President.
"So we could pull in less money than a lemonade stand set up in the Australian Outback?" Arthur quickly shot it down. "Brilliant idea, Alfred. Right up there with selling ice cream in the North Pole."
Kiku nodded. He silently agreed that as much as he'd love footage of the others playing in the water shirtless, it wouldn't be very profitable. Most of the students here didn't drive dirty cars. In addition, the entire experience would become very uncomfortable if he had to participate too.
"Then you think of something, since you're the one who blew all the cash," Alfred crossed his arms, glaring at his cousin.
"You were the one who put Elizabeta in charge," the Briton argued. "She went crazy with the decorations!"
"Please calm down, you two," Kiku spoke up. "It made for good memories, didn't it? Our fundraiser should aspire for the same goal."
"Oh, you have an idea, Kiku?" Alfred perked up.
"Let's provide a week-long host club," The Japanese student stood up with a confident smile, several volumes of manga in his hand.
The others stared at him with varying levels of confusion.
"The hell's that?" Lovino asked, not liking where this was going.
"It would be a place for customers to pay to spend time with the host club member or members of their choosing," smiled Kiku. "As its members, we would provide clients with drinks, light-hearted conversation, and possibly karaoke."
"Isn't that…illegal?" Arthur blinked. This sounded more and more like some quasi-prostitution plot his boyfriend would come up with.
"Not at all. The primary objective is to make the customers happy by paying attention to them, flirting, telling a story, performing a magic trick, or some other method of entertainment," Kiku continued explaining the concept. As he finished, the others managed to look more baffled than previously.
"…You want us to open a nightclub?" Ludwig furrowed his brows.
"Cool! Let's do it!" Alfred cheered with a fist pump.
Arthur began to object, but was cut off by his overly-eager cousin.
"Oh, fine. I get it," the taller blonde shrugged. "We'll think of something else…Roderich."
The others immediately and unanimously voted to carry the motion of a host club fundraiser.
Alfred still thought it would be fun. Kiku knew it would be profitable. Despite earlier reluctance, Ludwig could only pray it wouldn't be so bad with Kiku heading it up. Both tsundere students were still against the idea, but didn't want to be compared to Roderich. Pride won out in the end.
oOo
After the meeting was adjourned, Alfred made his way over to Lovino. He felt like he hadn't seen him in forever, despite the Student Council meeting, lunch period, and their shared culinary arts class. To be fair, Alfred was forced to share Lovino in each above-mentioned activity. Even Ms. Mertens spent the entire period lecturing and giving a large group demonstration. The blonde figured he'd feel better if he had some one on one time with his favorite little fireball. He asked Lovino if he wanted to walk home together like usual, but was shot down again.
"Sorry, I have some stuff to take care of," Lovino didn't meet his eyes. "I'll be here late, so go ahead without me…"
"Oh, that's too bad," Alfred scratched his head, traces of disappointment on his face. "I guess I'll catch ya tomorrow, then?"
"Sure thing, bastard."
They waved goodbye half-heartedly and Alfred exited the room. After the meeting room was cleared out, Lovino collapsed back into his chair in exhaustion. He could feel his cheeks burning and touched his lips.
"Dammit…"
It was next to impossible to avoid looking at Alfred and pretending nothing happened last Friday. He absolutely hated lying to his friend about one of the best memories of his entire life, but convinced himself it was for the best. Alfred was an idiot…he was just confused. He couldn't have been thinking clearly and Lovino was sure Alfred didn't mean to kiss someone like him.
It was just Homecoming fever taking over his stupid brain and—and—
Lovino cursed as he felt several hot tears roll down his cheeks. He furiously wiped them away. It didn't matter what he felt. He was doing this for Alfred's sake, dammit!
"Nothing good can ever come from getting involved with an Iris Zero…"
Feliciano poked his head into the meeting room, cheerfully.
"Ciao, fratello! I was waiting for you, but you never came out!" he wandered over to his older brother. "Were you taking a siesta or something?"
Lovino covered his face and changed the subject.
"Don't talk to me, I'm mad at you."
"M-Me?" Feli took a step back. "Why?"
"Your stupidity must be rubbing off on me, I accidently called Alfred 'Alfredo' twice now!" the tsundere complained, successfully taking his brother's mind off what he was doing in here.
"But it's a cute nickname!" Feli protested, pouting a bit. "You can't stay mad at me for that!"
"Wanna bet?"
"Veeee! Lovi! Don't be mad at me!" the crybaby attached himself to Lovino's arm.
"Fine, fine, I forgive you," the older boy stood, shaking him off. "But don't call him that again."
"Right!" Feliciano's crocodile tears instantly dried up and he saluted Lovino. "Because that's your pet name for him! Got it!"
"Say that again!" Lovino throttled him, embarrassed all over again. "I dare you to say that again!"
"V-V-Veee! I-I'm sorrrrry!"
"Not sorry enough!"
"St-Stop choking m-me! I have relatives in R-Rome!"
"We have the same relatives, dumbass!" the tsundere shouted back, but decided that his idiot brother had learned his lesson and stopped shaking him. Lord knows the kid didn't need any more brain damage… "I'm going to get my stuff. You wait here…and no more stupid nicknames!"
Feliciano smiled and watched his forgetful fratello leave the room.
"…But you're the one who actually came up with the nickname."
The younger Vargas recalled a memory from a long time ago. Back before the Iris Zero diagnosis…back when his parents were still alive…back when they were one big, happy family…
Romulus had joined his grandsons for lunch on the patio overlooking the garden. It was a warm, summer day and the breeze felt nice on Feliciano's bare feet. He kicked them back and forth under his cushioned chair, smiling widely. Romulus handed each boy a small cup of iced tea and began grilling his grandsons on any girlfriends they made in preschool. They didn't understand what he was asking, but their mother did.
"Don't start talking like that to the boys!" she chided him.
"You're right, I'm sorry, Carmen..."
"Thank you," She accepted his apology. "I'll go get some more tea…"
Romulus made sure she was inside and out of earshot, before he leaned in to whisper something to the boys.
"You'll have to be sneaky if you want to keep your significant others away from your mother's scrutiny!" he laughed. "Let's come up with codenames for the person you like, so it can be our little secret."
Feli thought the idea sounded fun and immediately shouted out 'Pasta!' Lovino shyly offered up 'Tomato.'
"Those are good…" their Nonno stroked the stubble on his chin. "…But try to think of something less common or we won't know if you're talking about your crush or your dinner."
Feliciano thought for a moment and said 'Treasure' because that person would be his greatest treasure. Romulus approved. Lovino became flustered, feeling their eyes on him. He desperately looked around the table for inspiration, eyes resting on the noodles in front of him.
"A…Alfredo!"
oOo
A/N – The "Butin" part was a Tales of Xillia reference. The actual game used the word "Bazongas" which I think is funnier, but none of the guys have boobs, so I changed it a bit.
I had to include the 'Alfredo' part at the end to give Lovino all the more reason to use that nickname with Alfred. I can't help it. I think it's absolutely adorable whenever Lovi calls him 'Alfredo.'
-Rajikka
Translations
Butin – Booty (Fr.) The Vargas brothers were able to figure it out because it's "bottino" in Italian.
Fratello – Brother (It.)
Tsundere – A type of character seen in anime or manga known for appearing cold or hostile, but having a hidden sweet side. "Tsun Tsun" is the aloof or irritable side, while "Dere Dere" is the lovey dovey side. (Jp.)
Bastardo – Bastard (It.)