Okay so I got a review saying I had one of my spanish translations wrong (thank you by the way!) and I would like to point out that I'm using Google Translate which is probably not the most reliable of sources so if I get any more wrong, which I will, please point them out and I will fix it. Chapter Two and no, I checked and Hetalia doesn't belong to me…...sigh….Okay so the lunch room part is actually what would happen to me in my old school, you couldn't leave until they let you so..I understand Mattie's pain.
Stepping into the lunchroom that day had been a big mistake. Although he liked confined spaces (His brother had often found him curled up inside boxes that could barely fit him) knowing that he could not get out of said confined space (he watched several teachers close the various doors and swore he could hear them lock over the buzz of high school students.)-until someone allowed him out was enough to make him want to hide in the air ducts. (He checked, he could fit.)
So he walked silently next to two students, Kiku and Heracles who were having an in depth conversation about cats, which made him feel a little awkward, trying to calm his nerves and not scratch at the doors like he wanted to.
"Hey Mattie!" A voice with a thick German accent called over the hum of the crowd. "Over here!" The albino waved him to the table at the back of the room.
Carefully Matthew made his way back and sat next to the Prussian.
"Bonjour." He said softly inclining, his head in greeting which seemed to excite a long haired boy to the right of Gilbert.
"Vous savez français? C'est ma langue maternelle, où avez-vous appris?" (You know French? That's my native language, where did you learn?) The boy said very rapidly.
"Je suis du Canada et ma grand-mère parlé autour de la maison." (I'm from Canada and my grandmother spoke it around the house) Matthew answered smiling a bit.
"Slow down mi amigos." A tanned Spaniard said from the other side of the long haired boy "Speak a language we can all understand." He laughed.
Matthew chuckled softly and switched to english. "Hello." He greeted. "Nice to see you again, I have a pretty 'awesome' bruise thanks to you by the way." He told Gilbert.
Gilbert laughed and was about to respond when Francis cut in;
"Honhonhon and what were you two doing mon ami?" He questioned raising an eyebrow.
Gilbert smacked him in the back of the head. "Shut it you pervert."
Francis still chuckling reached over the albino and shook Matthew's hand "I'm Francis."
"Matthew."
"Nice to meet you Mathieu."
"Hola!" The Spaniard greeted next. "I'm Antonio."
"Bonjour." Matthew said again.
Gilbert and his friends started talking while Matthew unwrapped his lunch (pancakes, a years supply of maple syrup and tuna.)
"Kesesese got enough syrup there Mattie?" Gilbert asked quirking a silver eyebrow.
"No." Matthew answered shortly and proceeded to pour all of it on his pancakes.
They all burst out laughing and then Gilbert noticed something else.
"Is zat RAW tuna?" He asked picking up the fillet that the Canadian had packed.
"Maple." Matthew cursed, he had anticipated eating alone or with his brother, his tail twitched nervously.
"You can't eat this Mattie, you'll get sick!" Gilbert moved to get up and throw it away.
"Give it back!" Matthew screeched and before he could stop himself a hiss escaped his lips.
The three boys stared, incredulous and a bit frightened.
"Okay, okay, mein gott you didn't have to yell." Gilbert said throwing his hands up in surrender and tossing back the tuna.
While the Canadian happily feasted on his fish the three others quietly whispered about what they had just witnessed.
"I've heard of sushi before but an entire tuna fillet?" Antonio questioned, his green eyes wide.
"Oui, it is strange and he hissed? Are we sure he's human?" While most people would mean this in a teasing way or as harassment, Francis was being completely serious.
"I don't know. He smells different zan humans." Gilbert answered, shrugging as if this was a normal thing to say.
"Hold on, you can SMELL human?" Toni asked.
Gilbert rolled his eyes. "Vampire." He mouthed so there was no possibility of anyone hearing.
"Right…" The Spaniard blushed, embarrassed. "What do I smell like?" He whispered curiously.
Gilbert bit his lip and inhaled, gripping the table as hard as he could. "Churros." He decided. "Churros and tomatoes and well just human."
"Fosososo, cool." Antonio whisper laughed.
Matthew's ears twitched, he knew they were talking about him. Why had he lost his temper? It was just a piece of fish! If he messed up again they'd find out for sure. He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't notice that the bell rang and the teachers had unlocked the doors.
"Er Mattie?" Gilbert questioned, tapping him lightly on the shoulder. "we have next period together, vanna valk with me?"
Matthew nodded and got up, silently throwing his trash away and fidgeted nervously as they walked, and although he knew that the others couldn't see his ears were pinned, not out of anger but out of shame.
"We'll leave you two alone." Francis said with a perverted gleam in eye. "Come along Toni." He draped an arm around the Spaniard and they both started walking the other direction.
"Sorry about earlier, I got a little crazy eh?" Matthew offered, not meeting the albino's eye.
"Ja, you did, but zats okay." The Prussian laughed.
The Canadian smiled a bit and thought back to his little outburst, then he remembered something he hadn't thought of before.
"Maple! I was so rude!" But he wasn't talking about his psychotic incident. "You didn't have lunch, I should've offered you some pancakes, I'm sorry Gil...Can I call you that?"
Gilbert shifted uncomfortably. "Nah, I vasn't hungry." Well actually that wasn't entirely true, he was starving, he suspected that the only reason he hadn't attacked anyone yet was that Matthew was in every class with him and his scent was so overpowering it helped block the smell of human blood, but that didn't change the fact that he would have to hunt tonight, he was an idiot to think he could've lasted a few days in school without. "And, ja I don't mind you calling me Gil."
Matthew smiled, his ears finally perked up again and his tail twitched (which still felt extremely strange against his leg.) He was about to say something else when Gilbert bumped into someone.
"Sorry." Another German accent said, the voice belonged to a tall boy with slicked back blond hair and steely blue eyes who had been holding hands with the little Italian boy that Matthew had met in class.
"Ciao, Gil!" Feliciano waved cheerfully, but the blonde boy looked terrified and a bit angry?
"Hello Feli" Gilbert hesitated a moment before adding a shy "Hello West."
Gilberts brother inclined his head in greeting and then walked off without saying a word, Feliciano in tow. After they had gone the Prussian sighed sadly and picked up the textbook he had dropped.
"Who was that?" Matthew whispered. The residual tension in the air made him seriously reconsider not climbing into that air duct.
"My bruder, Ludvig." Gilbert sighed sadly
"Why'd you call him West?" Matthew asked trying to skirt around the question he really wanted to ask.
"Family joke." He answered, smiling a little at the memory.
"And..if y-you don't mind me asking..why did he refuse to speak to you? I mean he kinda looked..scared."
Gilbert's expression darkened once more 'because I'm a vampire and he's terrified of me and I want him to speak to me because I love him, but I can't because I tore the family apart dammit' He thought but instead he said.
"We, umm..had a fight last summer and he hasn't spoken to me since."
"Maple…" Matthew said in awe. "I can't imagine not speaking to my brother, god he's like my best friend."
"It sucks." Gilbert said simply and they walked in gloomy silence the rest of the way.
Finally, finally, the day was done. Matthew and Alfred raced home, Matthew whooping in joy when he won.
"Hopping rooftops is cheating!" Alfred yelled at his brother.
Matthew stuck his tongue out his tail twitching (relishing its newfound freedom probably, Matthew had holes cut into all his pants, only visible if he pulled up his shirt, a lot because thank god for baggy shirts. But he still either had to keep his tail pinned against his leg at school or against his back and it naturally drooped a little so against his leg was much more comfortable.)
"You're just too slow." He said teasingly.
"And you could be in league with Spiderman, or any superhero you want, I think you'd even give Batman a run for his money." Alfred said unlocking the front door.
"But isn't my brother the hero?" Matthew asked teasingly, quirking an eyebrow.
"That's right, I almost forgot." The older of the two facepalmed then assumed a heroic stance "I'm the hero!"
Matthew rolled his eyes "I'm taking a nap!" He announced bounding up the stairs.
"Wake up before midnight!" Alfred called after him.
"Not on your life!" Matthew called back softly.
But when his head hit the pillow he didn't fall into peaceful oblivion, he fell into his worst nightmare.
A man forced him to kneel on the damp, slimy pavement. Judging by the stench they were probably in the sewer, that suspicion was confirmed when the blindfold they had tied around his head was ripped off.
"Please let me go!" He rasped. "I didn't do anything!" He struggled with his bonds his tail thrashing wildly, one of the men surrounding him grabbed his one of his ears, ripping it in the process, Matthew howled in pain.
A tall boy about his age with a black hoodie stepped forward, twirling a pistol in his hand. He laughed, a deep, cold, chuckle.
"Now that's not true and you know it, you are an abomination, a monster. A freak of nature, da?" He tilted his head as if it were a question.
Matthew shook his head, well as much as the people standing on either side of him would allow.
"Th-at's n-not true!" he whispered tears running down his face. "Please." He looked up at his captor with big violet eyes, silently pleading.
"Now." The boy continued, his eyes, just a shade lighter than Matthew's glinting from under his hood. "It's my job to wipe out freaks of nature, well, not job, more like my civic duty." He calmly cocked the gun and placed it against Matthew's temple.
"Please.." He said, he had stopped struggling as soon as he had felt the cool metal on his skin.
"Kolkolkol, you really think that's going to work, da?" He chortled. "Not with me kitty."
And then he pulled the trigger. And yet Matthew had awoken hours later with not a scratch on him, besides a notch in one of his caramel colored ears and that already looked like it had been healing for months. He never discussed it with anyone besides Alfred but had a suspicion that that incident had been the reason they had moved.
Matthew awoke with a gasp, an icepick headache in his temple. He wiped the tears from his eyes and fumbled for his glasses. The clock read 11:55 and despite the residue horror from his dream he smirked and ran to Alfred's room to gloat how he did, in fact, wake before midnight. And perhaps to get a hug from his big brother as those always chased away nightmares.
But before he even knocked on the door he heard Alfred pleading into his phone, and the annoyed voice on the other end.
"Please tutor me Lovi!"
"Hell no, Burger B******! Why the f*** do you even want to take Italian anyways?
"Spanish is boring and I seem to have an inability to learn French and those are the only three languages this school seems to offer!"
"Ask my f****** fratello b******!"
"Look, I would but he's WAYY to perky and….his boyfriend scares me. So that leaves you. Pwease! With a tomato on top?"
The other end was silent for a few moments and then sighed,
"Fine but you better not be f****** lying about those tomatoes b******!"
They went on to talk about other things and Matthew, not wanting to interrupt left, opting instead for some fresh air. He opened his window and swung himself on to the roof enjoying the crisp, clear night, with thousands of stars twinkling above.
That is, until he heard the scream.
Gilbert on the other hand was hunting on the (mostly) deserted alleyways of the streets. Sticking to the most shadowy places until he found suitable prey.
'Why couldn't suitable prey be a frickin cheeseburger? Or some wurst..' The Prussian thought to himself. He hadn't had wurst in months.
Suitable prey happened to come in the form of a tall blonde woman dressed in an oversized sweatsuit, smoking a cigarette. She looked to be about twenty, if that. Sighing, Gilbert pulled up the hood of his blue jacket and let his predatory instincts take over, it would be easier that way, if he simply lost himself in the hunt and didn't lose himself in guilt about taking anothers life.
The woman was unaware of the person stalking her in the shadows until he pounced upon her. She fell with a gasp of surprise.
"Sorry." Gilbert muttered before biting into the woman's neck. Her piercing scream was cut off with a gurgle as the vampire drank more deeply, casting aside the corpse and wiping the blood off his lips once he was done. He made to go back to his room and try in vain to sleep before a quiet; "Gil?" Made him jump ten feet in the air. And there perched on a dumpster was;
"Mattie?!"