Why? Why? WHY?! Why is it always me? Why is it always him? Why is there no escape?! Is my luck really this bloody awful that he had to follow me HERE to bother me? Huh? Did you, you wanker?! OF COURSE NOT! GO AWAY YOU BASTARD!

All eyes were on Arthur moments after the door had revealed Francis on the other side. Alfred only took his eyes off Francis long enough to see Arthur descend into a pit of chaotic emotions before whirling his head back at Francis, no longer surprised, but defensive. Arthur had been his friend for far too long for him to allow Francis to come over to make a scene.

Not in MY house you're not! Alfred glared at Francis.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

It was clear even when not with Arthur, Alfred had little to almost no positive feelings toward Francis, most of his negative feelings however did stem from how terrible Francis has treated his best friend. He always felt it was his duty to protect those he cared for, and these situations demanded he step in. But above all else; this was his damn house, and this was not the place for this!

"Oh~ what am I doing here you ask? Hmm~ well, I heard the Jones' household was having a movie party and I thought to myself 'that sounds delightful, I would simply LOVE to join them' and so I came over. Does that satisfy your question? Or do you want to know the real reason I'm here, hmm?"

It went more like; as he was heading home after his discussion with Gil he passed by Kiku who had just gotten done with the first student council meeting of the year. He asked him where he was going and got 'Ah, well. I was just invited to the Jones' residence. They're doing homework and watching a movie'. He just assumed that if Kiku was going then 'someone else' would be there too. So he ran home long enough to change his jeans, throw his school stuff around the house, and as he ran back popped-off, not unbuttoned, the top half of his shirt buttons, in his crazy attempt to remove the tie from around his neck.

From his own point of view he was a mess, he was embarrassed to look the way he did in front of Arthur. The only thing he could say looked nice was his jeans, and of course his hair, which was perfect as always even when slightly messy. If anything it made him look rugged and sexy, like he had just rolled out of bed from a nights worth of "playing" with someone exotic.

From an outsider's point of view however it looked as though Francis could have taken at least 20-30 minutes preparing that look. He looked too good for it to have just 'fallen into place'. If someone would have known that his shirt was now ruined and his hair messy due to running and undressing quickly, they'd probably laugh and say, "oh Francis you're too funny, as if you could go out in public looking a mess and not be freaking out! You're such a riot!"

OOO

At this point though Francis had already rushed head first into this chaos, there was no turning back now. How he looked was the last thing on his mind when he stood face-to-face with Alfred, and behind him, looking even more terrifying was his whole reason for not being frightened that he just might get punched in his beautiful face by the strongest guy in school! Now that he was here and staring down hero boy his thoughts remained, Eye on the prize Francis. Eye on the prize!

"May I come in? It's quite chilly here in the hallway," Francis inquired.

What? Oh god no! Tell him to leave NOW Alfred, tell him to go away! Arthur thoughts were racing, probably as fast as his heart was now.

"NO!"

The sudden outburst from Matthew startled everyone, they had all been watching dead silent from their positions as the scene at the door continued, now they stared amazed at Matthew. Unlike Alfred who had turned his attention to Francis only having given Arthur one quick glance, Matthew assessed everyone's reactions. Though he watched off and on the small eye battle between Alfred and Francis, he was more focused on Arthur's array of expressions.

From the time the door opened Arthur's face had displayed: shock, anger, confusion, anger again, and finally, to Matthew's surprise, deep sadness. In the whole three minutes that this had been happening Arthur's thoughts were going crazy, he had no idea what to do. He wanted to run away most of all, but not from Francis, but from everyone else. He didn't want to reveal anything about his relationship with Francis in front of everyone, and he felt that if this continued Francis and his bold ways would say something that would reveal too much at this time.

Besides, Arthur hated having Francis ruin everything; he was such a know-it-all for the gossip of everyone's lives. Arthur knew that best about Francis, it was one of his hobbies to go up to people and say 'Did you hear? What! No? Tsk tsk, shall I fill you in then?' though Arthur had some confidence that since this was Francis' life, he would have some restraint.

But seeing as he gave Alfred the challenge "or do you want to know the real reason I am here, hmm?" he thought otherwise.

I better end this now before things start to really go downhill. Arthur made a small sigh at the thought.

But Matthew continued where he left off, his concern was exactly where Arthur's was.

"I'm really sorry Francis, I know you came all the way here, and on another night we would be happy to have another guest, but well…erm…you see-"

"We have already finished watching the movie, therefore there is no longer any 'movie party' happening. Perhaps arriving earlier next time will guarantee you the night you were hoping for."

A night of shocks this was, not only had Matthew made an unexpected shout and continued to defend their night but now even Kiku was stepping in to help! A man who least desires confrontation was now showing his own support.

What? Why's everyone defending me? Do they know about me and Francis? O-of course not, they couldn't…then; why?

As if to say "don't worry" Matthew gave a soft, from the heart smile and Kiku gave a quick nod. And just like that Arthur felt lighter than air.

These…these guys are-helping me? Because…because they're my friends…of course…of course they are! My…my friends…

OOO

Alfred let out a heavy yet happy sigh from the doorway that half sounded like a laugh and like that he was no longer angry. Instead everyone else's reaction gave him the ability to try and give Francis the final shove off.

"That's right, we already watched the movie, maybe if you actually, oh you know, called to see when we were watching it, you wouldn't have missed it." He gave a smug smile.

Francis was a lone man in the middle of a dark ocean now. He hadn't expected everyone to gang up on him. First of all he figured Matthew would be kind and invite him in, they would then ask Kiku if he minded and he would give an "Oh, I do not mind, please join us" response and due to Alfred's crush on Kiku he would give in and abandon Arthur. These turn of events however had Francis trying to think of a way to leave with his pride in as much of its original state as possible.

"O-oh, I see…how unfortunate, it's just…I figured since you're making popcorn, as it's still popping in the microwave, and from here it looks like your DVD is still at the start screen, from what I can also see, there are some full glasses of beverages, and well, Arthur there is holding an unopened Snapple? So unless he's taking one for the road, I made it JUST in time for the movie."

Arthur could not help but think that whole deduction was very Sherlock Holmes-like, any other day he'd probably be impressed. But of course Francis would take in the scene. Seeing as everyone just seemed so desperate no one took into account their surroundings.

We're trapped, Matthew thought.

I was careless, if only I had waited to put the movie in after the popcorn was made! I'm such an idiot. And with that Alfred mentally smacked himself.

Wasteful, I could have easily snuck quietly and quickly to grab the remote to turn the TV off at any point, but I did not think this situation would have occurred, foolishness. Now even Kiku blamed himself for un-thought-of actions.

Everyone at some point COULD have done something to lead Francis off course but, now it was useless to think about. So now it was Arthur's turn to end this.

"Actually, they're all lying, the truth is they're going to watch the movie now and afterwards do homework. I on the other hand am exhausted, and I feel slightly sick from something I ate earlier, I think it was the school breakfast burrito, never eat those ok? I actually think I might die tonight from some kind of poisoning! Anyway, I'm going home."

OOO

There was no other option; honestly half of what Arthur said was the truth. He was tired, bloody exhausted to be accurate, and he did feel sick, though not physically, but emotionally, his heart was about to drop to his feet.

"Oh….uh well, may I walk you home then?" Francis asked innocently

All eyes on Arthur now, after a quick and shocked response from Matthew and Alfred and a curious eyebrow lift from Kiku.

"No thank you. And before you start looking crushed you fool I am saying no because it's late, and you live in the opposite direction! I'm grateful for the offer but don't put yourself out for my sake, sheesh."

Silence.

"Weeeellll~ alright. But, next time, I WILL walk you home, no matter what you say, that's a promise!" Francis said with very determined eyes.

"Urg, uh, fine, whatever, do what you want!" Arthur forced out as he went to grab his stuff.

As he walked past Matthew he got a whispered "sorry…" to which he just whispered back "no, I'm ok, thank you though" to which Matthew just gave a weak smile. As Arthur continued around the room he met eyes with Kiku who only gave a slight bow of the head. It took Arthur a second to register the action; he returned it with a nod, and a small tilted smile.

Having gathered all his stuff, including putting the Snapple in his bag, Arthur now had to do the hardest part, which was not getting past Francis; but walking past Alfred without looking guilty. It failed though, right as he was about to say goodbye and leave quickly, Alfred looked up with an expression that screamed, Please forgive me…I failed to protect you…

It made Arthur want to cry out, and he failed to hide his flinch from Alfred's hurt expression. It startled him, and he wanted to respond, Please, please don't look like that! Alfred, you…you know I always need you to protect me, so please, go back to your hero act, I hate to see you sad!

This unspoken scene between the two infuriated Francis, but he acted as put together as possible. He knew that deep in his heart, Arthur didn't love Alfred, not like Francis loved Arthur anyway, and he knew even before Arthur did that Alfred liked Kiku. So no matter what, there was, is and never will be anything between them. They had family bonds if anything, they were brothers.

"I'll see you all tomorrow, have fun tonight. Goodbye." Arthur gave a small wave as he left.

Alfred slowly closed the door behind him.

Francis watched as Arthur walked down the hall and out of sight down the stairs.

"See you tomorrow, mon amour… Goodnight," Francis whispered under his breath.

A deep expression in his eyes.

X

OOO

"Finally! We're here, pay up, it's time to get down to business," Gil said with a smirk.

"Ay…a…mmm," Antonio attempted some response. After what had happened earlier he was drained of all will to live.

Gil and Antonio had left the Vargas' household and they were sitting in Gil's living room. Ludwig left some time after them, because he actually stayed for dinner, unlike these two who bailed right after talking privately for a few minutes. Ludwig marched right past them into his room, and as far as they thought, he went to sleep. In reality they were so loud he was left with no choice but to listen to them.

The conversation at Feliciano and Lovino's house had been cut short as Antonio knew this particular talk would take more than the 20 minute time limit they had been given. So after the phone call from Francis and the "go" from Gil, Antonio decided to put the whole thing on hold. It was so that he could give as much time as possible to this situation. To go into it with little time may leave things unanswered, and right now that was the last thing anyone needed.

"Ay, I'll answer, I'll answer, calm down, I've got all the answers. Let's start from the beginning, ok, and then we'll go from there."

"Hmph; fine, go."

"Wait! Wait! Are you sure you want to do this here? First, we don't have a lot of time, and second this might get hairy so we should probably take this conversation to one of our own houses mi amigo."

"Hmm, you're probably right, I asked to be somewhere private but with only…what, less than fifteen minutes to dinner, I can't wait that long! We can't stay! We'll go to my house and talk!"

"Eeehhh! NO, I wanted to spend more time with Lovino! And I already said I'd have dinner here, it would be rude to leave now before I eat, we'll continue in a bit."

"NO, no, no, no! if you stay for dinner you'll stay for dessert, if you stay for dessert you'll stay to relax, if you relax you'll get sleepy, if you get sleepy you'll stay here and sleep in Lovino's room, and if you stay here tonight you won't come until late tomorrow! I REFUSE to wait until then, so we'll leave NOW, I'll buy you some dinner. Besides, those guys won't care seeing as they want more for themselves anyway! So shut up and let's go."

"You're so rude! How can you exist in such a selfish world that revolves around you! It must be so stuffy in your head from all the ego occupying it! I refuse to be bullied by you. Lastly, why would I give up DELICIOUS homemade food for store bought crap from some convenient store on the way to your house, I would be CRAZY to pass this chance up! CRAZY I TELL YOU!"

Gilbert smiled wickedly.

"Alright, then I'll just go and tell Lovino some 'dirty little secrets' about you."

"W… W… What 'dirty little secrets!'' Antonio gasped. ''You wouldn't, GILBERT! N.. No, please, fine! Fine I'll…I'll,'' The Spainiard chocked a sob, ''I'll leave now…with…you" Antonio pretended to cry. "YOU MONSTER, I HATE YOU! Waaaaaaah."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Shut up and tell those kids we're leaving."

"NO, I refuse; you're being the bully, so YOU tell them! Go, GO!"

Gilbert grumped.

Antonio and Gil left the piano room and re-entered the dining room where Lovino, Feliciano and Ludwig were sitting at the table and looking like they were ready to eat. All three of them looked over to them when they entered, but before Feliciano, or Lovino who also wanted to chime in with a jab to Antonio, could say anything Gil abruptly cut them off with

"Dumb brother one, we're not staying to eat your dinner, so enjoy getting sick from eating Antonio and my share. Dumb brother two, I'm taking your boyfriend, whatever plans you had are hereby cancelled. If you have any complaints or comments leave them with Ludwig, he'll deliver them to me later, but if not, see you bastards tomorrow. Oh, Lud, don't stay over too late, we have important stuff to do tomorrow. Peace."

"What the fuck did you just say you bastard?!" Obviously Lovino would be angry.

"Wah, you're both not going to stay for dinner…well, oh well. More for us, right brother?" Obviously Feliciano wouldn't care.

"Hmm, alright" and obviously Ludwig doesn't care either.

"What! Well I guess, yeah…fine, see you tomorrow jerk…maybe" Romano directed the jab at Antonio.

So not only was Antonio hit with how rude Gil had addressed his beloved "Dumb brother two" but now he was being verbally abused with a 'maybe' from his boyfriend!

"W-why? Why must you be so cruel to me Lovi~ huh my love? I-it's not my fault! Gil is…kidnapping me!"

Gil and Lovino responded simultaneously, "Shut up!"

"Ah~ my life…how cruel…" Antonio whimpered.

Gil forcefully picked up whatever broken pieces of Antonio he could grab and stormed out of the Vargas house. Without stopping he marched right back home, like he had marched to Antonio's house not too long ago.

OOO

"OK, come on, come on, come on, go! Go! Go!" For some reason Gil was excited to hear what was happening, unlike before where he was Mr. Serious and a little scared.

"Yeah, yeah, let's go. To start, I DO trust you Gil. You are one of two of my dearest and most precious friends, your opinion matters, just as much as Francis'.''

As for why I didn't tell you right away, it had nothing to do with me telling Francis first…to be honest; I thought I made it kind of…well, obvious. So when I decided to finally get the ok to go public with my relationship with Lovino I thought it wouldn't surprise anyone. It had nothing to do with me actually verbally saying anything to Francis over you.

Maybe I should have said something though, then maybe that would have kept this situation from happening…well on my part anyway, seeing as you are having issues with Francis. But we'll continue that after we cover our issue here."

Gilbert paused.

"From your silence Gil I'm guessing I can continue?"

Gil only nodded in agreement. I'll wait until he's done to respond to him, I want to hear everything.

"Alright. Another thing you asked was, I think 'why did I have to hear from Francis' well, because you know as well as I do he likes to stir things up, he was toying with you. He would be absolutely delighted to hear this is how you reacted to that situation."

Ugh. Gil felt a bit irked by that one.

"As for your final statement concerning us was, let me quote, 'did you think I wasn't supportive? What did I do to make you think that way?' well, I think you can be pretty self-centered more often than not, but I know even more how little you care for other people's love affairs….especially seeing with your own complicated—uh, oh sorry, let's bypass that for now. Well anyway the point was it's not that I didn't think you were supportive, it's that I know what concerns you and what doesn't. This particular situation was one I knew you would care less about."

"Now Gilbert, on to more serious matters. It's one thing to question how things unfolded the way they did, but, you seem to be more suspicious of Francis than of me mi amigo, and honestly I believe you two have a bigger issue than you and I do. What did you mean by 'I need to know that you and I will stay friends no matter what! I don't want to be put up against you if something happens'? Because to me it sounds like things are so bad that a fight might break out. Or does this paranoia have anything to do with…Diebe?"

Bingo, right on the head, of course he's gonna connect my issues with things happening with those guys…good grief, I don't want to say it out loud but….I think my personal issues with my other life are starting to affect my normal one…oh man, if that's the case…I might be the one at fault here…shit!

With great difficulty Gil finally decided to finally respond.

OOO

"First I'd like to say, I'm glad we cleared the air here between us…though, now I'm feeling a little guilty…um…maybe I…uh, well…jumped to conclusions…but, how could I not? I don't know what's ever going on anymore…ok maybe some of that is my own fault for having other things to take up my time, but! How would I know some of this stuff unless someone told me? It's not ALL on me!"

"You're entirely right Gil, I couldn't agree more, but at least you realize you're at fault too. So far you made it seem like you were entirely blameless, so finally we can start to talk about Francis. As you may have gotten earlier from the call I got from Francis, and I heard you were with him when he walked in on Arthur's little scene with Erland, you know that within today alone Francis has gone to see Arthur twice, right?"

"Erm…well yeah, we did see that silly hallway fight with Er, and I heard your phone conversation, but what does that have to do with anything?"

He sighed heavily.

"Gil, Gil, Gil, how can you be so blind to other people's feelings? The whole reason you came over here was because you didn't notice anything between Lovi and I. You don't see what's happening with Francis and Arthur, even though we BOTH know what happened there, don't you remember what happened over summer? You're so blind that you don't even notice what's happening in your own family! Do you even know what's going on with your brother and Feliciano? Well, do you?"

Gilbert stared blankly.

"Eh?"

"SAINT TERESA! Are you serious? oh my god Gil…geez, well I'm not going to explain it all to you tonight, it'll take too long and we have school tomorrow, so instead I'll give you what you came here for, the answer to what's happening to Francis. I won't dance around it anymore; I'm going to be frank with you.

Francis still loves Arthur! Since summer Francis has been beating himself up over how he broke Arthur's heart and trust. He wants to make amends and be with him again! He loves him, he wants him back, but he knows Arthur's still hurting, so it's hard for Francis to look like a good guy, especially seeing as everyone around Arthur wants to protect him from Francis. It's making it hard for him to get close and apologize with all his heart. Francis is on a mission to retrieve what he foolishly threw away. He said he won't be stupid again and take advantage of that love he once had. He's dead serious about him now!"

I-had no idea…how come I never connect anything when it comes to this stuff, my brother? Antonio? Even Francis! Am I so closed minded to this kind of thing…am I becoming dead towards feelings of love? Is that why I can't tell when I'm with my friends…my brother, my own flesh and blood! And yet here Antonio is fully aware of everything! That, that can't be…can it?

"Gil?"

"Huh! Oh…sorry, just went into my head for a sec there…I…understand now…thank you Antonio, you took the time out of your night, even allowed me to kidnap you from your plans and even more, from your…well, Lovino, all to make me feel at ease. I don't know why I felt so paranoid, you're…one of my best friends, I should trust you, and from now on I will trust you, I have no reason not to. So, please forgive me."

"No, no, mi amigo it was nothing, I'm just glad to help, always know you can count on me! Any time, well, not ANY time, please leave me some time to be with my love, alright? Well, I think it's time I said goodnight to you, I'll see you tomorrow at school alright."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Wait, are you just gonna walk home all by yourself at this hour? I'd feel better if you just stayed over, you can use the couch in here if you want to?"

"No, no, I'll be fine, besides it's not that late, I can walk home with plenty of time for sleep for school tomorrow. It's a-ok so I'll say goodbye now, and leave you to your thoughts, we'll talk more about everything tomorrow, or another day possibly."

"Erm I just don't feel alright about it but, if you insist then…well, goodnight, and yeah, we'll talk later, see ya."

Antonio left Gilbert's house, as he walked home his mind was working through everything that had happened, his heart felt uneasy. Not just for Francis and his tough mission ahead, but for Gil, whose heart seemed to be closing itself from others ever so slowly.

There should be a limit to not noticing things, but Gil seemed to be completely immune to affection displayed by the people around him. Antonio walked with a heavy heart knowing the year ahead would be one of many mountains to overcome.

OOO

Antonio reached his home after walking quite a bit. Gil's house wasn't necessarily close to his, so right as he got through the door he started removing clothes. Shirt, shoes, pants, so that by the time he reached his bed, he was only in his boxers.

On an ordinary night he would've fallen asleep on impact, but not this night, he laid face down in his pillow, his thoughts only broken by the sound of his phone vibrating from inside his pants pocket. He rolled over and fell to the floor, crawling towards it. Sliding the screen to see who it was from, suddenly his worried thoughts and emotions disappear, wonderfully vanishing without a trace.

Display screen: one new message from Lovino Vargas

He clicked open and began reading.

Th-thump.

"Ci vediamo. Buonanotte. Ti amo, sogni d'oro."

Silence.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Clack.

Display screen: 1 message sent!

"Gracias. Buenas Noches."

X

A/N: for some reason this was the best chapter to write! I loved it, even as I was writing it I was like "oh I love this" and "oh how sad" and I even laughed. . . I can tell I'm getting more and more into this, sorry it's late though, I had an exam and it freaked me out! College can be so scary sometimes, but thank you for your patience!

I do NOT own Hetalia nor did I create any of the characters that credit goes to Himaruya.

Italian phrase in the end:

Ci vediamo. Buonanotte. Ti amo, sogni d'oro – See you. Goodnight. I love you, sweet dreams.

Differentiation of speech, thought, flashback and action:
Speech is anything in "parentheses", hopefully it's clear who's speaking
Thought is in Italics
Flashback will be in bold

Should multiple characters be doing something different I shall give explanation. But, hopefully nothing will be too complicated.

Thanks for reading!