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.

Still not operating at my original updating speed, so apologies for that. It jumps around quite a bit, so let me know if something doesn't quite make sense. Thanks again for being so patient! :)

oOo

Why did it have to be his name…?

"Hey, Vargas! I heard a funny story about you!"

I don't want to see his name…I don't want to see his face…I don't want to see him.

"They say you're a liar now! That you don't really have an Iris!"

Anyone but him…He ruined everything!

"You're nothing but bad luck!"

"Bad luck, bad luck, you're nothing but bad luck~!"

I'll make him pay for that…I'll teach him to mess with my family…

oOo

The Student Council was warmly welcomed back to World Academy. Word of their legendary presentation at the retreat had reached faculty ears and Headmaster Shinawatra saw to it they came back with a suitable welcome. Of course, his working definition of 'suitable welcome' involved multicolored streamers, tables of food, and several sections of the school's band and orchestra blaring the school's anthem.

The music! The neon! The smells! Lovino could feel his eye twitch. Sure, this sort of thing was right up Alfred's alley, but what about the people at the President's side? Why should they have to endure this seizure-inducing torture? The least Shinawatra could have done was give him a pair of sunglasses and noise-cancelling headphones. Lovino quickly grabbed the back of his boyfriend's shirt collar. Like hell he was letting Alfred run off like they were at a carnival. The worst carnival ever – a carnival without funnel cake.

"I gotta admit, I wasn't expecting this," Lovino said quietly to Alfred.

"How did the great Commissioner envision our triumphant return?" the blond grinned, waving to the group of students near the dancing dog show, but keeping his eyes on Lovino.

"Mostly I figured World Academy would be a giant crater in the ground."

"Haha, then it's a good thing your Police Force was more trustworthy than we thought," the President frowned, as if his words turned sour in his mouth. "At least as far as looking after the school goes…"

"Actually, Antonio told me the all ditched school on Friday to set up the forest."

"They did all that in a day?!" Alfred was shocked. "I thought they had been setting it up for weeks!"

"They're surprisingly efficient when the situation calls for anything outlandish or dumb."

"So who was filling in for us while they were gone?"

The duo pushed open the doors of the Student Council room and received their answer – Roderich poised elegantly on Alfred's throne, as if he owned the place.

"Wh-What are you all doing back so soon?" he tripped over his words, caught off guard. "Gilbert said you wouldn't be back until Wednesday at the earliest!"

"Kesesese! I just wanted to watch them drag your corrupt ass off the president's chair!" the albino snickered.

"Hmph, there's no need," the Austrian rose and stormed past them all in the most aristocratic way he could manage. "It was a childish, idiotic chair to begin with!"

"His royal bottom barely left it while you were away," Gilbert grinned.

"I heard he nearly broke his 0-Tardy streak when he got too comfortable," nodded Francis.

"I'm just glad we don't have to find him a crown big enough to fit his head," Antonio laughed.

"Far be it from me to stop a Roderich-bashing session, but don't you three have a job to do?" Alfred laughed.

A look to their Commissioner confirmed that yes, they had a job and no, they didn't catch a break on their first day back, but yes, the Italian would be more than happy to throw chairs at them if they needed the motivation to begin. Non-verbal communication was a wonder!

oOo

"Bad luck, bad luck~! You're nothing but bad luck~!"

"Are you sure?"

"Huh?" the bullies stopped short. This was the first response they'd gotten from the young boy.

"Maybe you should check that out with Ludwig Beilschmidt," Feliciano's amber eyes grew cold. "His Iris can see through any lie…no matter how good."

"Just 'cause he saw through your brother, doesn't mean he can see everything!"

"I bet you can't fool him…"

"Can too!"

"Yeah, and we'll prove it to you, bad luck Feli!" the group of bullies took off towards the playground to try to trick the resident lie-detector with their best fibs.

"Please do…"

oOo

It quickly spread throughout the school that Ludwig and Feliciano were together. The circumstances it happened in was what kept people guessing. To be fair, it didn't really help that Gilbert intentionally invented stories about how it happened, ranging from botched mob meetings to an epic adventure on a runaway train. What really killed Ludwig was the fact that all of Gilbert's exaggerations still sounded more realistic than the truth. The few times Ludwig had tried to tell others how it all went down, he was outright laughed at and accused of making the whole thing up.

Since the Bad Touch Trio played an important part in getting the new couple together, they already knew some of the relationship details, but it wasn't enough for Francis. The wavy-haired senior lived for watching true love unfold. Unfortunately, this meant his boundary lines were practically non-existent and no question was deemed 'too personal' to him. Knowing he'd get nothing from the German, Francis tried to squeeze info out of Feliciano instead.

"So do you prefer the top or the bottom?" he wagged his eyebrows.

"Ve?" Feli blinked. "I don't have a bunk bed…"

"What about bases? Surely you can tell me that…"

"Ve?" the confused Italian repeated. "Like baseball?"

Around that time, Ludwig stepped in and gave Francis an icy look. As determined as the Frenchman was to get fact over gossip, he knew when to back down…or at least how to tactfully retreat until the frost from Ludwig's glare melted.

The German watched him take his leave while the Italian happily chatted on about the special lunch he made (spoiler alert: pasta was involved). He fumbled a bit trying to take Feliciano's hand; nearly giving up on it, when the Italian seemed to read his mind and looped their hands together without missing a beat. The blond felt a small smile form. Yes, Ludwig was glad he confessed to Feliciano, but the awful prank leading up to it was a perfect example of why the BTT and Elizabeta should never plan anything together.

Why couldn't they just sneak us tickets to a movie theater or take us to a fancy restaurant where the staff was all of our friends for the evening like in those cheesy sitcoms bruder is secretly so fond of watching?

It would be a long time before he completely forgave Gilbert and his idiot friends.

oOo

As lunchtime arrived, Feliciano decided to check in with his brother to see how he really felt about him dating Ludwig. He would have sooner, but the brothers had slept straight through Sunday after the events of their camping trip.

"Are you…are you sure you're really okay with this, Lovi?"

"It's not up to me," Lovino scoffed at his little brother. "But if you want my opinion…"

Feli was all ears, scooting closer.

"Your confession was boring."

"B-Boring?!"

"It didn't involve any creepy notes or psychopaths…not counting Elizabeta and the brain-dead trio," Lovino went on. "Where was the action? The excitement? Shit, I was nearly pushed to my death the day after I started dating Alfred."

Feliciano chuckled at this.

"I'm fine with my 'boring' confession, thanks."

He smiled at his big brother, glad to see Lovino was able to make jokes about the Joe Brown situation. Talking to Alfred must have really helped him come to terms with a lot of things keeping him up at night. Just as things seemed to be going smoothly, Lovino started listing off all the ways he'd inflict pain upon Ludwig, should he ever make Feli cry.

"Or I could make him listen to Arthur and Francis having an argument, or beat him to death with a stick of wurst, or—"

"Fratello…" the younger Vargas chided, even if his heart wasn't truly into it.

Maybe things are finally getting back to normal…

oOo

Tiny Feliciano ran down the long hallway in his grandfather's home. Family portraits lining the halls glared down at him disapprovingly, blurring together like warped carnival mirror. He stumbled into the bathroom and closed the door. As he looked at his reflection in the mirror, tears ran down his face.

"Ludwig Beilschmidt…"

Feli wished he could see his fratello's name again, just as Lovino could see his name…or at least he could if he had an Iris. People left them alone when each brother wore the other's name. Life was peaceful when Feliciano still saw 'Lovino Vargas' floating around in that fancy script whenever he looked into a mirror. He used to be able to see it and smile…until suddenly, the letters spelled Ludwig's name instead.

Feliciano wiped his eyes. He wanted his fratello's name back; he wanted their normal lives back…

The youngest Vargas had been so upset; he had done a terrible thing. Acting on his anger, he convinced other students to intentionally lie to Ludwig to 'test' the accuracy of his Iris. At first, he believed the German boy had gotten what he deserved, but now... Now he could see how his interference caused Ludwig pain.

Torn, Feliciano refused to say something to stop it. However, this made his heart hurt even worse. He didn't like being mean, but he couldn't let Ludwig get away with what he did to his fratello. Feli started crying himself to sleep, refusing to eat, and had to be dragged to school every morning. He then started staying awake all night, wracked with guilt and uncertainty. How could he make this better? Why couldn't he take back all of the terrible things he did? Were the bullies going to pick on him again tomorrow or would they bother Lovino and Ludwig instead? It got to be too much and his Nonno had them transferred to a new school.

"I promise I'll do all I can to give you back normal lives," Romulus hugged his grandsons on their first day at the new school.

Feli tried to take comfort in his words.

"It hurts now, but pain can't stick around forever. One has to forgive and forget," Romulus continued. "One day you'll look back on all this and see how much stronger it's made you."

Lovino and Ludwig eventually chose to forgive. Everyone assumed Feliciano chose to forget. In reality, he held onto more memories than they ever did.

oOo

The next day found Alfred stealthily playing a game on his phone while pretending to pay attention to his Business teacher. It wasn't his fault his teacher was a thousand years old and droned on with all the excitement of a slug. He wasn't even the only one goofing off. Yong Soo was barely shielding his Nintendo DS with an Algebra textbook. Then again, one doesn't have to try very hard when they can see test marks with their Iris. Alfred recalled complaining about that to Lovino, who told him to 'quit his bitching' and that Yong Soo 'was screwed once he got to the real world where success isn't measured by test scores.' The American half-expected Kiku to stand up for his cousin, but the Japanese boy simply nodded politely. Alfred had a hunch that Kiku had a bit of a rivalry with Yong Soo.

"Excuse me," the intercom in the classroom crackled to life. Everyone looked towards it, hoping the secretary would call their name and save them from the last twenty minutes of Foreign Business Policies in the 1900s. "Please send Alfred Jones to the main office. Thank you."

Alfred barely managed to disguise his glee as disappointment, as he gathered his things. Other students shot him jealous looks. He knew for certain a few of them would probably break a window or two if it meant joining the blond in the office and escaping the rest of the lecture. There was a distinct spring in his step while he made his way down the hallway.

Did the Headmaster need some kind of report on the Student Council retreat? Or maybe Roderich flubbed something up while they were away? He hoped it wasn't anything serious like Mattie getting sick…

Nah, he's only been sick once or twice his entire life. Alfred comforted himself, swinging open the office door. Shinawatra probably just needs me to sign some papers and—

"Good afternoon, Alfred," came a stiff greeting from a woman in a dark grey business suit.

Oh. Agency work.

"How's it going?" he responded, trying not to let his disappointment show. Any excuse to get out of Professor Geezer's class was a good one, but knowing the Agency, he wouldn't finish his task before the end of the day. That meant he wouldn't get to see Lovino after school.

"I'm here to take you to your appointment," the woman replied, reopening the door for him. She had already spoken to the elderly secretary in charge of attendance to excuse him and saw no further reason to waste time here. "Let's be off."

"Sure," Alfred smiled, more so for the older lady's benefit. She had been casting a worried look between him and the stern woman in a suit. "I'm in good hands with you guys."

With a final wave to the secretary, he followed his escort to the dark van. Normally, he tried to chat with the agents picking him up, but over time he learned to tell which ones were talkative and which ones had all the conversation skills of a brick. This woman seemed like a brick wall.

I wonder what kind of job I'll have today…?

oOo

Lovino found it strange that Alfred didn't meet him at his locker after school. The few days the blond had to skip out on their daily ritual, he always texted or called. The Italian checked his phone again for the 78th time in the last ten minutes – nothing. Not even a 'begging for forgiveness puppy' or a 'crying face' emoji. He shut his locker door with slightly more force than necessary and began walking towards Alfred's locker.

Idiot probably got stuck by crowds of adoring fans again…

The brunet was mildly surprised to find nothing there either. Furrowing his brows, he started off towards the Student Council room. There was a good chance Alfred had to fix some paperwork if Roderich was left in charge for any amount of time. This sounded plausible and he relaxed a bit. Pushing open the doors, Lovino saw Arthur and Kiku playing chess, but no Alfred.

Lacking the people skills to ask where Alfred was and maintaining his habit of running silly phrases through his head to counter Kiku's mind-reading Iris, Lovino was stuck listening to Arthur proudly tell him about the revenge cake he was planning on baking the Bad Touch Trio. The brunet was about to remind him how Kiku was also involved with the prank from hell, but decided against it – Arthur was weirdly loyal to the few who had earned his trust. It was easier to listen to ideas on how to get back at the No Brains Trio than to argue with another tsundere.

"But the joke's on them – I'm adding eggs and flour to the cake!" Arthur roared with laughter.

"You're supposed to add eggs and flour to cakes!" Lovino exclaimed in disbelief.

"O-Oh. I knew that, wanker!" The Brit stammered for a moment. "I meant milk and butter!"

"It would be interesting to see what kind of cake you make when trying to poison someone," Kiku chuckled. "Maybe it would actually be edible…"

"I'm not willing to risk gastrointestinal Armageddon to find out," Lovino rolled his eyes. He didn't have time for this and left. Taking advantage of the view outside the school's large windows, the Italian spotted Alfred's new car standing out even in a sea of other high-end vehicles.

Bastard must still be here then…

Lovino decided to continue his search in the Police Force office, where he could check attendance records on his computer…mostly legally. It was also far enough away from the kitchens, that he stood a fighting chance at survival if Arthur decided to make good on his threat to bake something. Plus, the odds of the rest of the police force actually working for a change was slim to none.

"Afternoon, Lovi!" his cousin greeted him brightly.

So much for slim to none.

"Afternoon," he replied without making eye contact. Instead, Lovino set his bag on the Police Commissioner desk and dug out his phone. "I see the assassins have failed."

The three seniors grimaced slightly. One could never tell if the Italian was joking or serious.

"Aren't you a ray of sunshine today?" Gilbert tried to laugh it off.

"Yeah, I'm sunshine, unicorns, and fucking rainbows," the tsundere rolled his eyes. "If you have a point, then make it."

Initially, Lovino hadn't been on speaking terms with the BTT after that stunt they pulled in the woods, but after a day or so, he realized he couldn't insult his police force if he wasn't talking to them.

That, and he was fairly certain half the heart attack-inducing stunts that made up the camping trip disaster were a result of Gilbert and Elizabeta trying to constantly one-up each other in the category of Crazy Asshole Ideas. He'd let it go for now, but he'd remember how long they walked in the cold and how tightly a fearful Feli had clung to his poncho for a later day, when the morons least expected it.

For that reason, he decided to 'forgive' them when Antonio begged on their behalf…for now.

"Gracias, Lovi~!"

"Drop dead."

"Aww, Commissioner Vargas does still love us!" grinned the albino.

"Enough to pay the assassins extra to cut off your—Dammit, Antonio, let go!" their boss suddenly found himself struggling to escape a reverse bear hug…also known as a hug from Antonio.

"All joking aside—" Francis began.

"—Who said I was joking?"

"Something seems to be troubling you," the blond continued, putting his tsundere training to good use. "More than usual, that is."

"I bet it's Alfred! Kesesesese!" Gilbert cackled. "Birdie told me he hasn't seen him since lunch."

The three others in the room stared at him. Gilbert lost his smile.

"Don't look so shocked!" he snarled. "I can have good ideas too!"

"We know, mon ami, it's just…"

"…They're so rare, we don't know how to react when you have them," Lovino added. "Like seeing a comet that comes around once every hundred years."

"So you do admit it's Alfred!"

"Holy shit, call the press, Potato Bastard Number 2 just had back to back breakthroughs!"

"You both lack the finesse to change topics properly," Francis ran a hand through his wavy hair.

"What happened?" Antonio asked, his big brother side showing. "Did he do something to make you upset? Did he hurt you somehow?"

"How can you ask that, when you assholes were the ones who tried to give us all heart attacks last weekend?!"

"Is it bedroom problems?" Francis wagged his eyebrows.

"I bet he's just worried about him, since he hasn't seen him in awhile," Gilbert shrugged, more interested in the game on his phone than the actual conversation.

The others stared at him again in awe.

"You're on fire today, amigo!"

"You do not get to say that, you airheaded Spaniard!" Gilbert complained. "I have good ideas, guys! Lots of them!"

"So many, we couldn't list them if we tried," Francis said with enough legitimacy to make his Prussian friend end his hissy fit to think over whether he had been complimented or insulted.

"Let us help you, Lovi!"

"No."

"Pleeeeease?"

"How can someone so annoying be related to me?" he groaned.

Finally, after enough convincing, Lovino admitted that he might be just a little worried about Alfred, since he never showed up after school, never texted about it, and wasn't currently answering his phone. Eager to regain some of the tsundere's trust (and slack off on their actual police duties), the Bad Touch Trio insisted on helping look for the lost American and dragged Lovino out of their office before he had a chance to argue.

oOo

Alfred arrived at the Agency's current base sometime in the late afternoon. The journey in the Spy Car had been a long one, since he was riding with Agent Resting Bitch Face and a mute driver. Normally, the blond tried to stay awake, but nine times out of ten, Alfred fell sound asleep on the ride to whichever site the Agency was using. He didn't even know they arrived until Jett was shaking him awake.

"Wake up, Blondie!" the Australian's loud voice boomed in his ear. "The boss is already mad as a meat axe over this job!"

"Yeah, yeah, keep your emu on…" Alfred rubbed his eyes, using his limited knowledge of Australian animals.

"Emus are no joke, Yank," Jett's cheerful face darkened, as if remembering a war story. Definitely one that didn't end well.

"I thought they were just birds," gulped the boy, taken aback by the captain's new behavior.

"Have you ever seen one in real life?"

"No, but I'm getting the feeling it's not all kangaroos and koala bears…" the American laughed nervously.

"Well, you fall asleep on the job again and I'll be sure to introduce you to one."

Alfred nodded and shot out of the car. He was fairly certain the brunet was kidding, but figured it was better to be safe than sorry. Jett was a huge guy, whose muscles had muscles. If he was afraid of some overgrown chicken, then there was probably a very good reason.

The high schooler didn't have much time to ponder killer birds. Before he could ask Captain Wilson another question about them, a young man with white-blond hair hurried over to them. Jett introduced the new guy as Chernenko, the agent who was present to confirm Alfred's ability to keep the assignment a secret via some kind of undisclosed Iris.

"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

"Uh…yes?" blinked Alfred. "I'll keep today under wraps if that's what you're asking."

"Someone has been teaching him English with daytime television and old movies," the stern woman cast an angry look towards the Australian.

"Hey, it worked for me!" Jett defended himself. "My mum left me in front of the TV all the time when I was a kid and look where it got me!"

Chernenko nodded and fiddled with the buttons on his sleeve nervously, but Alfred was uncertain if that meant he was approved for the assignment or if the Aussie's English lessons truly left a lot to be desired. The new guy continued to stare at him uncertainly. "…You pass. I can see that you will keep this assignment a secret."

The Ukrainian understood that Alfred was incredibly loyal and honest, demonstrated by his Iris confirming it with a silvery halo floating over the blond's head. What he couldn't wrap his brain around was why the Agency was starting so young with their assets (which seemed to be an unsettling new trend). Captain Wilson had been assigned Alfred's case years ago, as part of a plan to push the boy's Iris to its maximum potential. They discovered already how the less information Alfred knew, the less accurate his Iris became (a little side note they kept from the American to fool him into believing he had an infallible Iris to keep his morale high). From their testing, the Agency found out Alfred needed to know the minimum information about a question to be accurate. Any discrepancies Alfred wrote off as not asking his Iris the proper questions. Typically, he needed to know the mission name, map of the location it was or would occur in, the people involved, and what type of conflict it was. If he had that, he didn't need to know the names or abilities of other people he was examining, as long as they were physically present for him to see the X or O. This made him ideal for preventing anyone's cover from being blown.

"Excellent, then let's move right along!" grinned Jett, leading the others down a hallway.

Alfred used to feel uncomfortable by how blindingly white and sterile the rest of this building felt once leaving the relaxing lobby. Most of the sites he visited were fronts for the Agency, whose disguise ended where the ID card locked doors began. He wasn't sure when he started growing accustomed to it. Maybe his seventh or eighth assignment in this site? It also helped that Jett's conversations took his mind off of the Agency's base.

"So Blondie, how are you liking the new car?" the tan man grinned. "A real beaut, right?"

"Holy crap, Jett, it's awesome!" the blond was about to go into more detail when another thought struck him. "Crud, I'll have to go back to school after this to pick it up."

"Nah, I already called someone to drive it back for you."

"Long assignment today?"

"Possibly," Jett shrugged. "You should probably text your buddy how you forgot about your appointment."

"Boring, then?" Alfred took out his phone and began texting.

"Aren't they always?" Jett smiled to conceal the fact that it was another high-stakes mission. He had a lot of experience working with Agency assets and the vast majority of them performed better when they didn't feel like they were under any stress. "Another Pick the Right Person for the Job, So We Can All Go Home for Dinner deal."

Alfred was led into a small observing room overlooking a training facility. He had been here a few times before. Not long after they entered, another government crony handed him a redacted folder. As to be expected of the Agency, most of the documents looked like a toddler took a permanent marker and covered up the entire thing. It took the American a few moments to find the stuff he needed. It looked like this mission was going to be taking place in southern Europe. Apparently, some human trafficking was causing conflicts in several small towns who weren't fond of the cartel taking their children to shut them up. Even the initial agents looking into the bad guys had stopped reporting completely. The mission was appropriately called Operation: SILENCE.

Closing the folder, Alfred handed it back to Agent Chernenko. He eagerly looked out the window at the group of six agents training below. Each was wearing a large number on their shirts to give Alfred a way of identifying them without learning their names. He got to work right away. This case sounded terrible and he wanted to find the hero who would rescue those villages and bring their kids back ASAP. Jett handed Alfred another packet of papers containing guided questions to ask his Iris. The blond had a lot of practice with this and whizzed through the papers with ease, writing the number of each agent who best qualified for each question. He was about three-quarters of the way done, when he noticed Number 4 looking up at the observatory room. Somehow, the twenty-something man with curly brown hair managed to catch his eye through the two-way mirror. Nobody else had done that before, as one could never tell when someone was behind it. The look that agent gave him made it seem like he knew they were there. Curiosity got the better of Alfred and he mentally asked his Iris who was the weakest intelligence link in the room.

"Hey, Chernenko, do any of these dudes have an Iris that tells them when others are watching them?"

Before Jett could stop him, the Ukrainian answered him.

"Yes, both Agents Greene and Espada's Irises alert them to—"

"—That's irrelevant to the case," Captain Wilson interrupted, arms crossed. "Why the sudden interest?"

"Eh, no reason!" smiled Alfred. "I was just wondering what kind of an Iris suits agents best."

"I suggest you focus on your own task," the stern woman from school replied. "It's in your best interest to get this done quickly and efficiently."

"Right-o," nodded the blond, pretending to focus on the packet of papers again. In reality, he was using his Iris to figure out if the mysterious man qualified to be either of the agents Chernenko had let slip. It turned out that tall, dark, and angry ended up being 'Agent Espada' as well as the right man for the job.

When he finished reporting the scores for each agent, Chernenko took the results and exited the room. Jett congratulated him on another job well done and led him back into the long hallway. This time two other agents were present with a canister of coffee and an armful of snacks. Both had worked with Alfred before and he had grown fond of them both over the years. Unlike the Ice Queen who had picked him up today, whenever those two got him, they listened to him talk about his day and let him pick the radio station.

"We heard that our favorite asset was here~!" chirped the bright-eyed woman.

"And we just happened to come across all these snacks," laughed the spikey-haired man. "Since you're done with your job, you can join us, right?"

"Are those scotcheroos?" Alfred felt his mouth water at the sight of the chocolate/peanut butter rice krispie confection. He hadn't eaten since lunch and was practically starving. "I freaking love scotcheroos!"

"So have some!" his snack saviors agreed, shoving a plateful into the boys hands.

"He needs that like a third armpit," Jett grumbled, feeling his cranky co-worker's stern gaze on them. "Back to work, the lot of ya!"

oOo

Not having any luck in the Athletics wing of the school, the four decided to swing by the Culinary Arts department. Perhaps Alfred was getting extra credit to make up for all the food projects he caused to explode? More realistically, Ms. Mertens would be teaching Alfred more cooking techniques that he would then use to try to impress Lovino. They poked their heads into her classroom. She was either in the back area or wisely evacuated the premises, because Arthur was standing in front of an oven with a smile on his face.

"What's he doing in Bella's room?" Antonio narrowed his eyes.

"Holy shit, is he summoning Satan?" Gilbert gestured to the weird hand motions the Brit was making in front of the open oven.

"Maybe he's just warming his hands up?" Francis felt the need to defend his boyfriend.

"No, he's British and he's in a kitchen," their Commissioner pointed out. "He's definitely summoning Satan."

They quickly got the hell out of there.

Back in the main lobby of the academy, their search was nearing the hour long mark and the boys were no closer to finding the Student Council President.

"C'mon, I see celebrating in my future, so obviously we're gonna find him," Gilbert gestured to his shadow, forgetting that only he could see it dancing and drinking at some point later that night.

Suddenly, Lovino's phone buzzed to life with a text message. A look at the sender identified him as the missing boyfriend with some explaining to do.

"It's Alfred..."

"Nailed it!"

The text was simple. Alfred wrote he forgot to mention a last-minute appointment he had earlier. He apologized for it and promised to make it up to Lovino with dinner and a movie sometime. The three seniors cheered about another case closed and how this called for a celebration (even if they didn't actually do anything to solve the case). Not having any interest in thinly veiled excuses to raid the liquor cabinet at Francis's house, Lovino bailed before he was stuck spending the rest of the day with his idiot minions.

By the time he got home, the nagging feeling that began the moment Alfred never showed up at his locker lingered enough to make him fire up his computer. Using an administrator's password that he definitely didn't learn by watching Kiku hack the school website, Lovino double-checked school-wide attendance for the day. Green eyes skimmed down the list of names until he found Alfred's. According to the secretary's entry, Alfred left shortly after lunch to go to an appointment.

Lovino tried to not let it bother him, but the uneasy feeling never left.

oOo

The next day, Alfred returned to school like nothing was any different, just as he'd done for years now. It wasn't like his secret side job effected his personal life that much. He continued to ramble on about the next line of movies Marvel should add to their lineup and why.

"That's nice, Alfred," nodded Matthew, barely managing to sound fake polite.

"Why do I bother talking to you guys?" Alfred gave a frustrated sigh. Why didn't anyone understand his pain about the direction Marvel was going with Civil War? Just think of the Mutants!

"If it makes you feel better, we rarely listen," Lovino added coolly. The Italian had been trying to figure out how to nonchalantly ask about Alfred's appointment all morning, but had been unsuccessful so far. Instead, he fell back on his usual charm and sarcasm.

"Hey, you'd be hanging off my every word if you guys actually read the comics!" the American crossed his arms.

"I'll pass."

"Me too."

"I can't believe you two!"

"Well, once you grow up, I wanted to ask you about—" Lovino was cut off by all three of their phones going off.

"Why do you have the Star Wars Imperial Theme as your notification, Lovi?"

"It means Elizabeta is texting me."

"H-How'd she get my number?" Matthew seemed alarmed.

"I thought you liked attention," his twin stuck his tongue out at him.

"Tell me you didn't give her my number to get back at me…"

"He didn't have to," Lovino glared at his phone, irritated at the interruption. "Elizabeta has her ways…"

The three boys began reading the group message – Hi guys! Elizabeta, Kiku, and Gilbert here! We need you all to report to the Student Council Room to go over details for a Multimedia class project the three of us are doing.

"Why would she think we'd help out after all they put us through?" Alfred asked.

Another message came through – You'll do it because Gilbert built this for the presentation ;) – along with a picture to download. As soon as the image loaded, their eyes widened.

"We'll do it!" Alfred exclaimed.

"Godammit…" Lovino grumbled.

oOo

A/N – At least this is a slightly less creepy cliffhanger? Thank you again for putting up with the long wait time! I've been looking forward to writing the next chapter for awhile now, so hopefully it will be out soon :)

-Rajikka

Translations

Fratello – Brother (It.)

Bastardo – Bastard (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.)

Mon ami – My friend (Fr.)

Chernenko – One of the surnames Himaruya was considering for Ukraine. The Chernenko here is the male version of Ukraine.