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"I've got a surprise for you lot." Mrs Bennett announced at the end of class.

"Are we going to like this?"

"Yes, you are, Elizabetha. At least, I think you will. We, and the other final year classes, are going ice-skating next week!"

Around the entire class sounded excited whispers and murmurs. That it was unusually cold didn't mean they couldn't enjoy it. In general, everyone seemed to like it.

It was quite funny to see how many people weren't all that confident anymore once on the frozen lake. From some it was to be expected they wouldn't have the slightest clue of what they had gotten themselves into, others were expected to know better.

"Don't hold me like a kid!" Romano snarled at Antonio. "I can stand on my own two feet! I'm not a-Waah! Hold me! Hold me!" The moment he was with both feet on the ice, he slipped and lost his balance. He tried to find some support in Antonio, but he only ended up dragging him along. Both ended up on the ice, much to the amusement of a certain pair of twins.
Judithe and Abel casually skated circles around them backwards.
"Time to cool that fiery temper, Romano." Abel sniggered mockingly."Is it comfortable down there?"

"Is it cold up there, Christmas tree?!" Romano snapped. He tried to crawl up, but his feet kept slipping away and he ended up on his bum at every attempt.

The twins looked at each other, nodded and took care of their two classmates. Judithe took both Romano's hands, planted her skate sideways against the tip of his and pulled him to his feet.
"Now keep your feet straight forward, and find your balance. Good." She instructed him as they went. Once he had stopped wobbling, Judithe started to slowly skate backwards, pulling Romano along with her and instructing him one the way. It went a little shaky at first and he nearly fell all the time, but Judithe was a nice teacher.

Abel did the same thing with Antonio, but a little less subtle. Downright blunt, actually. He chuckled every time his Spanish classmate nearly fell and got on his nerves on purpose.

"Don't wobble, Tonio. Keep your feet straight." Abel sniggered.

"That's difficult. I can't-whoow." Antonio said, while still desperately trying not to fall.

"Oh, right. Nothing's straight about you. Should have known that."

"Look who's talking."

Abel rolled his eyes. "And I think we can go a little quicker now."

"What? No! NO!" The Spaniard protested, but to no avail. Abel stuck out his tongue and picked up the pace, dragging his classmate along, until the inevitable happened: A pit in the ice. The tip of Antonio's skate got stuck in it, and he fell, straight forward, face down onto the ice.

Abel sniggered, tried his best to hold back, but when Antonio looked up, steaming with rage, he couldn't help but laughing. Loudly.
Romano helped his boyfriend back to his feet and went on a swearing-spree at Abel.
"You're the worst fucking bastard I've ever had the misfortune of meeting! Stop laughing like a hyena, you dickhead!"

"Catch me if you can." Abel teased and skated away slowly.

"Get back here, fuckface!" Romano shouted from a short distance and chased after him, forgetting he couldn't skate. He stumbled and was saved from falling on his face by Ludwig.

"Ugh! Let me go, macho potato! I'll kick his face off!"

"You're too short for that!" Abel teased.

By now Romano started kicking and shouting, and Abel got whacked on the head. By Mathias. "Stop it."

"Or what?"

"Or we'll get on with the blackmail." Ludwig threatened after putting Romano back on his feet.

"Like what?"

"You being drunk and acting out your inner stripper?" Mathias suggested.

Abel cringed, and the fact he stopped talking was enough for the others to leave him alone again.

"What was that about?" Matthew asked. He'd only just gotten there after teaching Carlos the basics of ice skating. Luckily, he was a better student than Antonio or Romano.

"What, the blackmail?"

"Your inner stripper?" He inquired.

Abel bit his bottom lip, doubting whether or not it was a good idea to tell Matthew that. On the other hand, he'd get it out of him anyway if he really wanted to. "I may or may not have once given someone a lap-dance, possibly while in a critical state of intoxication, and that person may or may not have been Ludwig?" He finished it off with a very unconvincing smile and an innocent shrug.

Matthew wondered if he should be angrier about that, but he decided laugh at the stupidity of it. "You gave Ludwig a lap-dance when you were drunk?"

"May or may not have."

"You have, haven't you?"

"Yeah." He deadpanned.

Matthew laughed harder than he probably should. "I'll never look at Ludwig the same way again."

"What about me?"

"I can't really take you seriously to begin with."

"Wow. Thanks. Don't worry, he liked it. He wasn't exactly sober anymore either, you know."

"That only would have made it worse. I've got the most traumatising mental image right now." Matthew tried to reject the formed images in his head, but only cringed as they got worse.

"I can give you a reconstruction of what happened, if you like." Abel suggested jokingly. "Though I can't remember it exactly."

Matthew was about to respond to that with a smack to the back of the head when…

"A2 speed skating race!" Gilbert exclaimed over the small lake. The idea got a lot of support, not only from his own class, but also from 4-0 and 5A1. The lake was small, but big enough to be about a kilometre in circumference. In short: Enough to have a good speed skating race.

"Alright then!" Bennett shouted over the group. "Here's the start and finish. Everyone who wants to skate can get over here."

A few people from 6A2 got on the imaginary line. Aleksander, Mathias, Gilbert and Alfred were the first ones to join in. It was a well-known fact that Yong-Soo was a fanatic ice skater, but he let this one slip because he was a short tracker and not one for long distances.
A lot of pleases, hugs and puppy eye-looks later, Matthew got Abel so far that he joined in too. Judithe then also decided to give it a shot, feeling like there had to be at least one girl in the competition.

Mr Knox had the honour of giving the start signal. "And no scarf-pulling!" He warned when he saw Mathias and Gilbert each grabbing an end of Abel's scarf. The two let go immediately, both pouting.
"Shit, he saw it." Mathias complained.

Abel chuckled and smacked the two on the back of the head simultaneously.

"Ready…"

Matthew pushed his skate a little harder into the ice.

"Set…"

Alfred flashed Gilbert a competitive grin.

"Go!"

And off they went. Alfred and Gilbert took the lead at first, but as they went on into the rather tricky corner of the lake, they lost some of their advantage. The others caught up to them, and Aleksander and Mathias passed them. After not too long, Judithe followed their example and she was followed very closely by her younger twin.

Matthew was not the quickest to leave and he didn't feel like showing off or tiring himself out either. It was a bit strange, though, to be skating without all the protectors and the ice hockey stick.
He was the last one now, but with the last corner and the finish in sight but still quite an end away, he thought it was time to stop holding back.

Heading for the finish, the other skaters became a little more fanatic. "Hi, Gil. How's it going?" Abel asked calmly when his white-haired classmate caught up to him, but couldn't pass.

"Awesome, as to be expected from me." He responded.

"Bye, bye!" Alfred called out when passing them both, but he fell behind again not much later.
And the next person that passed everyone was, much to everyone's surprise, Matthew. He went on very quickly, but still seemingly quite relaxed.

"What the fuck?!" Alfred shouted.

"What-? When-? Huh?!" Mathias couldn't quite wrap his mind around it. The class' notorious slowpoke had just skated him out. Great.

Matthew was already over the finish line, and waited patiently for the others. He was being cheered at by his classmates and got a pat on the back from both Francis and Arthur. Well, that was fun.

Aleksander finished right after Judithe and Abel, who passed the line at the exact same time. Gilbert followed right after and Mathias got ahead of Alfred in the last metre. The surprise amongst their classmates was big, and Matthew couldn't remember ever being seen by his classmates as he was now.

"Geez, Matt." Abel panted. "Where the fuck did that come from?"

Matthew just laughed, being perfectly fine and not nearly out of breath.

"What happened to you being a slowpoke?"

"What happened to your endless stamina?"

"Went out the window when you came along and took my breath away." He said sarcastically, sticking out his tongue, knowing how horrible of a pick-up line that was. Matthew snorted and patted him comfortingly on the shoulder. It was not very long after that he received a snow ball to the back, thrown by an enthusiastic Dane who had actually been aiming for his best friend.

"Oops! Sorry, Matt!" Mathias shouted from a distance, right before he got two snow balls to the face, courtesy of Matthew and Aleksander. "Hey, aren't you on my side?!" He asked his boyfriend.

The Norwegian shrugged, but couldn't hide a small grin.

For the remaining few hours, everyone skated around, had gotten into the escalated snow ball-fight, or enjoyed Ivan's figure skating-skills, one way or another. You wouldn't say it at first glance, but the big-boned guy was actually quite elegant. And a good skater.
He and Natalia demonstrated a few moves and tricky looking lifts for fun, and the girls even got Ivan so far to give them the experience of being lifted. Figure skating-style.

He instructed them first like a real coach and then checked if it'd be a good idea to go through with it, even though he one picked the relatively easy and safe ones. He was used to Natalia, who was a very petite girl and quite the acrobat, but he didn't have any trouble with Judithe either. Her experience with acrobatic gymnastics was a big advantage there. Drape lift? No problem. She'd done that before, but never on ice skates.

The class got a good laugh when Yao was picked as a volunteer and held in the air, balancing on just one of Ivan's big hands because he was 'such a light little thing, that wasn't a problem'. He'd made it out alive, though he didn't quite know how. Ivan got, after holding him up on one hand, the funny idea to instead of lowering him carefully, whipping him up in the air and catching him. Bridal style. No problem at all. Yao was a doll compared to Ivan. That didn't take away the fact that the petite Chinese teenager was shaking on his legs after that experience.

Wednesday, January 30th, 2013

School was boring like nothing else, as usual that day. No fun subjects except for French, and a few sick teachers and almost no homework made up for a long day. Matthew and Francis were sitting across each other in the nearly empty auditorium during one of those many free hours. Teachers always said students should use that time to do homework, but in reality, no one ever did. Except for Roderich…sometimes.

"Enough about school already!" Francis exclaimed. "Tell me how you and Abel are doing now!" He leaned forward on the table. Of course a subject like that was inevitable when talking to Francis. He loved talking about relationships, even when the one he was talking to didn't want to. He'd just ramble out a few of the assumptions he had made and provoke the other to either confirm or deny.

He'd used that strategy on Matthew several times without fail. It had taken Matthew ages before Francis was finally convinced he was still a virgin. He couldn't remember ever having been so embarrassed as he was during that conversation. The mental images Francis could make him have were far too much for his brain to handle.
On top of that, he was disappointed in himself for how easily he was tricked into having a conversation riddled with intimate details about his relationship.

"Pretty good, really." Matthew confirmed.

"Let's hope you keep it that way for more than three months this time."

"I was planning to. I mean, he pretty much made up with Al and Arthur, and he promised he'd do his best to keep it that way. We'll see if he can keep it up." Matthew shrugged.

Francis smiled. "If I can take Judithe's word for it, he'd do anything to avoid having you break up with him again."

Matthew nervously shifted in his chair. Such as pinky promising? "Maybe doing that was a bit drastic. I mean…I'm feeling pretty bad about it." He admitted awkwardly.

Francis gave him an indifferent hum in response. "I think it has done your relationship some good, really. I mean, there's no way you'll take each other for granted now. And at least you have proven you can't live without having him there to cuddle you like you are his little rabbit." Francis winked when he spoke that last word.

Matthew tried looking offended by that, but his scowl turned into more of a pout than anything else.

"No need to be ashamed about that." Francis laughed. "Jeanne and I enjoy cuddling more than anything else when we are together. It's a great way to show affection in a perfectly appropriate way."

"You visited her in Paris during Christmas break, didn't you?"

"Yes, from January 2nd to the 5th. Her parents are the nicest people. It doesn't surprise me that their daughter is such an angel. And…you're changing the subject again." Francis accused.

"Was worth a try." Matthew was never really comfortable talking about things he'd rather keep to himself.

"I've got one question, though." Francis leaned forward over the table as though they were discussing top secret information. "What does french kissing a smoker taste like?"

Matthew backed away. "I don't know. You tell me."

Francis slowly dropped his head onto the table with a theatrical moan. "Matthew. You are not telling me you've never kissed in the past months."

"We have! Just not with to-you know." Matthew stuttered out. "And he's quitting too, so I don't think I'll ever find out."

"You are not human." Francis theatrically exclaimed.

"You're the one who asked it! And I think you really could tell me because you've actually kissed a smoker."

"When?" Francis tried to recall the times he's made out with someone, and he couldn't remember anyone in particular to be a smoker. He did know Gilbert smoked, but he couldn't recall ever kissing him. He'd never been that drunk, right?

"Remember that time you snogged Arthur? When we went swimming last year with 4A1 and 4A2?"

"And he kneed me! It was a bet, okay?" Francis mumbled that last bit. The memory was painful, to say at least.

"Why would you agree to such a bet in the first place?!"

"It seemed like fun, but I thought it'd be easier."

"What would be easier?"

"Finding out if he had a tongue piercing, of course! I tried looking, but he wouldn't stick out his tongue or open his mouth wide enough." Francis said this as though there was nothing at all strange about all that.

Matthew slowly hit his head on the table. His friends were so weird sometimes. So weird.

"What? He had his eyebrow pierced twice, his ears five or six times, both his nipples and his bellybutton! Who was to say he didn't have a tongue ring too? Too bad he took them all out."

"He still has the ones in his nipples and bellybutton. And why would you go through that to find out? I wouldn't find it important enough to snog him for it."

"My pride was on the line. I had no choice."

"Like that didn't damage your pride." Matthew rolled his eyes. "I mean, no offence but you kissed a guy."

"Not my cup of tea, so to speak, but at least he's an attractive one." Francis admitted. "I think I would have gotten into a lot more trouble had it been Gilbert."

Matthew cringed at the idea of that. Francis and Gilbert... Good grief, that image would be burned into his mental eye forever. "He'd have castrated you at the spot."

"With his sentiments, probably. Although he pretty much stopped doing that in his second time third year."

"Luckily." Matthew added. "Otherwise your illustrious trio wouldn't have lasted long."

"With Tonio? Probably not, no. I think he's exactly what got Gil to change his mind."

"Oi, Matt." Someone interrupted their conversation. It was Leroy, and it was safe to say he wasn't very pleased. He leaned on his hands on the table and stared straight at Matthew.

"Hey, Leroy. What's-"

"Who's that tall guy with the ugly scar you hang out with?" He sneered.

Matthew was slightly taken aback by his tone. This was not at al how he knew cheerful, hyper, happy Leroy. At all.
"You mean Abel?"

"Who is he?" Leroy urged.

"He's my...classmate and...boyfriend." Matthew awkwardly said, not knowing where exactly to look. He shot a brief look of 'help me' to Francis, but he was still wondering what in the world was going on.

"Why?"

"I can't have a boyfriend?" Matthew asked.
"Maybe, Leroy," Francis interrupted him. "Matthew isn't your property and it is up to him to decide who his boyfriend is and who is not." That appeared to have hit a sore spot.

"Ugh, I hate you!" Leroy shouted and stomped away immediately.

"Oh, god. Wait-" Matthew was already standing up to follow him, but Francis took his hand before he could leave.

"Just let him." Francis said. "He's not your responsibility."

Matthew moaned in dismay.
"Maybe I've got a thing or two to explain."

"No you don't. Matthew. You can't make everyone happy. That kid has to learn he can't always have whatever he wants." Francis put a ponytail in his hair, just on cue of the school bell. Time for French class, and when that darn bell finally announced the end of the day, Matthew was out of the school faster than ever. It was cold outside, snowing even, and he was lucky that there was a spare seat in Elizabetha's mother's car today.

Today was Abel's birthday, and even though he and Judithe celebrated it this Saturday, Matthew wanted to drop by anyway today. Reason? Thanks to their different timetables, they hadn't seen each other that day. It was extremely annoying.
Matthew and Judithe were dropped off at her house and before anything else, they went inside where it wasn't freezing. Judithe rubbed her hands to warm them and kicked off her snow-covered shoes. "Ugh, I so dislike snow, don't you Matt?"

"Not really, but a little warmer would be nice." He admitted. "But anyway. Happy birthday, Judithe." They hugged for a moment before he handed her a small present. It wasn't anything special, just a special edition of a comic she really liked. And judging by the massive hug and big smooch on the cheek he got, she liked it.

"Thanks Matthew, I love it." She said enthusiastically and skipped through the book. "Oh, you can keep your coat on. Abel's probably in the garden, playing with his present." She didn't even look up from the pages. Apparently comics were a real distraction for a comic-addict.

"Huh? What did you get him?" Matthew asked.

Judithe just smiled. "You'll see."

And indeed, Matthew found his boyfriend in the garden, where the rabbit's cage was. He was sort of isolated, busy putting the two rabbits, Vlekje and Snoetje back into the big rabbits' house in the middle of the cage.

"Hello." Matthew drew his attention.

Abel turned around, smiling. "Hey, Matty." And the first thing Matthew noticed was a small fluffy head popping up from Abel's scarf.

"Whaah! What's that?" He shrieked.

"What, this?" Abel picked the grey ball of fluff out of his scarf. "Judithe got me a new one. Isn't she cute?" Abel said, stroking the tiny rabbit between its ears with his finger.

There was something not right here, Matthew thought. Abel, eighteen years old? His arse! He seemed like your average eight-year-old girl now that he was holding, playing with and cuddling a small fluffy rabbit. He talked to the little pet much like women sometimes did to babies, and it was quite hilarious.

"Who's a cute little fluffy little girl? You are. Yes, you are." He said softly to the rabbit and tickled it between the ears, on the back and in the tummy. He even poked his nose against the rabbit's.

Standing beside him, Matthew didn't quite know whether to laugh or face-palm. It was so hilarious and it would be great for blackmail, but his mind was blown to such a degree he forgot to film it.
"Does it have a name?" He managed to ask, thank goodness without laughing out loud.

"Yes." Abel answered, pouting and with big sparkly eyes. "Nijntje."

Now Matthew face-palmed. Nijntje. For real?

Abel put the little grey fluff-ball back into the cage. "Sorry, Nijntje. It's time for my other cuddle."

Matthew tilted his head and put his arms around Abel's waist.
"I hope I'm your other cuddle?"

"Yup. Do you want to be tickled on the head too?"

"No thanks, I'll pass. Happy birthday, sweetie." He said and kissed him. "And I got you a present."

"How sweet! Let's do that inside, okay? My nose is freezing off." Abel sniffed.

"Big baby." Matthew scolded, but they went inside quickly. Abel threw his scarf and coat aside on a chair, but Matthew went for the politer option and hung his coat up where it belonged.

Abel was sitting on the couch, bouncing like a hyper child about to get a present. Matthew rolled his eyes and sat on his lap to keep him down. It didn't stop him from bouncing, though. "Stop jumping like puppy or you won't get your present." Matthew threatened. Surprisingly enough, Abel did as he was told immediately while showing off the best puppy-eye look he had ever managed.

"It's quite bad, really." Matthew admitted about the birthday present he got from his pocket.

"What, you got me coupons to punch Antonio in the face?"

Matthew chuckled. "You wish. Not that bad."

Abel gave him a curious look, and Matthew gave in.
"Here." He handed the small packet over and hoped not to get laughed at for being extremely cheesy in three…two…one…

Abel snorted. "Matty, you're a genius." He laughed. "Cheesy and a complete nerd, but a genius." He pulled out the two silver necklaces and took a second look at the pendants.

"Glad you like it." Matthew really was relieved about that. That he saw what it was in the first place. But then again, biology helped.

"So these are Guanine and Cytosine, right?"

"Yup. Which one of the base pair do you want?"

"I'll take Guanine." Abel decided and hung the Cytosine one around Matthew's neck. While Matthew did the same for him with the Guanine necklace, he had the time to admire how beautiful Matthew actually was. When he smiled, he always had that sweet, caring look his eyes, and his upper lip pulled a little more to the left than the right as though he was uncertain. And there was the innocent look with the eyes darting everywhere except for the person looking at him, like he wasn't sure if he was the one being looked at. Such a sweet guy he was, and he didn't even realise it himself.

For a moment, they laughed, not only at the present itself, but also about how nerdy they actually were for finding a piece of DNA for a necklace pair completely awesome. It was so silly, but it was something they shared.

"Thank you, Matty. I love it." Abel said with a smile from ear to ear and hugged his boyfriend just a little tighter.

~o~o~o~

Don't worry, this is the last you'll see of Leroy. Relieved?

INFO: DNA looks like a ladder, and each of the 'steps' are either Thymine and Adenine or Guanine and Cytosine, connected by a Hydrogenbond.
Hydrogenbonds are extremely strong. Look at how some insects can walk on water, or there's a small bobble on top of your glass if you fill it up just too far with water? Hydrogen bonds!
I'm a nerd! :D

Please review! :D