Let's do this like a Spanish paper! ¿Listos? ¡Vamos! multicultureiskey posee... Una calculadora [X] Un bolígrafo [X] "Pink Floyd" [ ] Una paella [X] "Hetalia" [ ] Un cuaderno [X]

The effect was instantaneous.

Lukas paled; Emil's violet eyes widened. Matthias froze, staring at the shorter man.

"Go on," Emil prompted cautiously.

"I'll tell you in a sec. Get in the car - people will recognise you out here, Lukas."

Lukas nodded nervously, and they did as advised.

"Now will you tell us?"

The Englishman sighed. "Yes, sorry. You see, it's not really something the public are going to understand, but if the full story leaks out, it's not going to have a positive effect.

"In short, I've been told to tell you that you've been unofficially disowned. He also told me a lot of other things, but I'm not really fluent in that amount of Norwegian curses, so..."

"We get the idea," Lukas nodded, swallowing and trying his best to keep his emotions controlled. "I-I can't say I wasn't expecting it, but... Still... It... Kind of hurts to know he broken my mother's promise to such extents... How did he contact you, by the way?"

Starting up his car, Arthur replied in a harassed tone. "He called the house... I guess he looked us up, but I was out when he called, so he left a message... It was quite a shock, I must say... I haven't quite got the full story, though. Why exactly is it that he's so annoyed with the pair of you?"

"Take a guess."

The Briton glanced at the three. "I'm going to guess that he didn't react well to your relationship with Matthias. But how does that affect Emil?"

"They're not the only ones in a relationship," the Icelander mumbled, embarrassed.

"Oh, really? Congratulations, Emil. But didn't your father think about the fact that Denmark was one of the first places to legalise gay marriage before he took his homophobic arse over there?"

"You think he would know that? Anyway, let's move on from the topic of our father. Or, should I say, ex-father. The bastard. What have I missed?"

Arthur shrugged, eyes on the road before him. In the back seat, Emil began to slowly fall asleep again. "Not much, really. Oh, Patrick moved out, by the way. That would have been a positive thing, except that with his absence came Peter. Thankfully, I managed to find a couple who are willing to look after him... After school finished, I've spent most of my time writing, you see... Nice couple, actually. Bit strange, but you'll no doubt meet them and see what I mean.

"Oh, but I'm being extremely rude... With everything, I have failed to properly introduce myself, Matthias... Arthur Kirkland, enchanted to meet you - I'd shake your hand, but I'm not confident enough with these strange Norwegian roads, I'm afraid."

"Great to meet you, too! Matthias Kohler, Lukas has told me some stuff about you, and I've heard you guys' music - you're an awesome singer, man!" Matthias enthused, as Lukas muttered something in defence of his country's roads, and something derogatory towards the UK.

"Thanks," the punk replied, ignoring his friend. "How did you hear our music, though?"

Lukas answered for his boyfriend. "I was wearing our t-shirt, and he decided to look it up."

Arthur threw the two an amused glance. "You know, I seem to recall someone owing me an explanation."

"Oh, yes, I did say that, didn't I? Well... I suppose I should start with when I first arrived at the new school - did I tell you that my idiot of an ex-father placed me in an international school? There was a sports academy right down the road...

"Anyway, when I first arrived, I didn't know where I was meant to be going, and this idiot took it upon himself to show me around."

"Actually," Matthias cut in, "I was asked to do so, but I'd have done it anyway, Lukas, 'cos you're just that gorgeous~!"

The platinum blonde gave him an elbow in the rib. "In any case, I ended up with Matthias as my guide, basically. He also happened to be in a lot of my classes, and we somehow ended up becoming friends. Unfortunately."

"Then I confessed to him, and he kind of freaked out, so I went to his place to see if he was okay, and we've been together since then!" Matthias finished.

"Right... And how did your father find out?"

"His bitch walked in on us kissing," Lukas said bluntly. "I've lived with Matthias since."

Arthur shook his head in slight disbelief. "Half of me wants to say how out of character this was, but the other half says I really should have expected it..."

"Says the one who dated our teacher."

Blushing furiously, Arthur spluttered and shook his head, eyes still fixed on the road. "That's - we weren't - ugh - no! Irrelevant, Lukas. Irrelevant."

"Whatever you say, Arthur."

"Heeeey, Lukas... Are we nearly there yet?"

Lukas sighed. Not this again. "No, Matthias. We are not there yet. We have about an hour to go."

"You know, Matthias... You are going to get on so well with Alfred..."

Lukas smirked. "That's what Matthew and I said. Birds of a feather, no? What idiots we are dating, Arthur..."

"Indeed, Lukas. Indeed. Speaking of, I told Al and Vlad of your return - let's just say they anticipate seeing you again with great happiness..."

The Norwegian smiled. He had missed Norway - sure, he met a lot of new people in Denmark, 'found love', to put it in a romantic's terms, but he had missed his old friends; the quirky, introverted British punk, his insane, obnoxious PE teacher and the more-than-a-little-eccentric Romanian.

Of course, it would all be perfect if he could only drag Gilbert and Matthew over. Ah, well. It was as Matthew said - the Canadian had to visit his brother at some point.

.:.

"Emil. Emil. Brother, wake up." The Icelandic teenager was clearly a deep sleeper.

As they entered Lukas' hometown, he and Matthias tried to wake his younger brother, with little success. Arthur gave them amused glances at their efforts, knowing from experience with the brothers that Emil did not like to be woken. "You can try all you like, but the lad is not going to be roused. Not much short of a stampede will wake a sleeping sixteen-year-old, as we both know from experience, Lukas."

"Ugh, I wish you wouldn't mention that, Arthur. Honestly, I'd had a competition the day before, what did you expect?"

"Lukas, it took Vlad and I half an hour to wake you. And that was after we'd resorted to using less... Peaceful methods."

The Norwegian groaned. "I remember waking up to the sound of some disgustingly out-of-tune bass guitar and snow down my back..."

Matthias smirked. "Sounds like a pretty wild party, Luke."

He groaned again. "It wasn't, I swear... It was hardly what you'd call a party - just Arthur, Vlad, Jones and a lot of jamming. And by that, I mean improvising. Musically. Get your mind out of the gutter, idiot."

"It was to celebrate Lukas' success - he'd been training for months for that event. I think it was meant to be a pretty big deal, which is why he trained so hard. Naturally, he won, and naturally, we had to celebrate. Alfred had a class the next day, though, so after a while he left, and it was just the three of us and my older brother. He was upstairs, though. We were in the garage - soundproofed for our benefit. I think we went to sleep at around five the next morning - jamming is addictive. Very much so."

"...how did you guys even meet?" Matthias asked, slightly overwhelmed with all the new information.

"Arthur moved over here from London when he was what, thirteen? Fourteen? Something like that. For some reason, though, he still learnt to drive back in the UK last summer. Idiot. He was a loner, I was a loner, you get the picture."

"We met Vlad when we were browsing the mythology section of the local library and he just kind of refused to go away," Arthur continued, ignoring his friend's criticism, "then Alfred moved in a few houses away from me and decided to come round and poke his nose in. Then he started teaching at our school. And Lukas was his star pupil."

"It just kind of went from there. Arthur and Alfred started this kinky student-teacher relationship about a term before I was dragged to Denmark and Arthur finished his second-to-last year."

"Yes, I - unlike Lukas - actually wanted a proper education," Arthur said smugly.

"Shut it, Kirkland. At least I have a career," Lukas shot back. "In any case, this is not helping me wake up my brother. And we're about three metres away from our destination. Any ideas?"

"I have one," Arthur said, pulling into his driveway. "One good thing about this car is its wonderful sound quality when playing music from a phone. What do you say we sing along?"

The platinum blonde smirked. "Such a good idea. Plug in thine phone, old friend."

Arthur did so, and soon Pink Floyd was playing. He turned up the volume so that it almost sounded as if it was being played live and within around three metres of the four, and started to sing along.

Lukas leaned in close to his brother and joined in with Arthur. "We don't need no education..."

"We don't need no thought control."

"No dark sarcasm in the classroom."

"Teacher, leave them kids alone."

It sounded slightly strange, with Lukas' accented English, but it worked nonetheless. And they could see Emil stirring slightly, as well.

"Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone!"

"All in all, it's just another brick in the wall. All in all, you're just another brick in the wall."

Now Matthias had joined in, his accent much thicker than Lukas'. The three looked at each other and began singing again, much more loudly.

"WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION.

WE DON'T NEED NO THOUGHT CONTROL.

NO DARK SARCASM IN THE CLASSROOM.

TEACHERS, LEAVE THEM KIDS ALONE.

"HEY! TEACHER! LEAVE THOSE KIDS ALONE!

ALL IN ALL, YOU'RE JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL.

ALL IN ALL, YOU'RE JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL."

So busy airguitaring, the three barely noticed that Emil had woken up until he reached over to unplug the phone with a glare.

"I hate you three. I loathe you. You are the bane of my existence," Emil said tiredly.

Lukas ruffled his hair, smirking. "You love us really, little brother."

"Don't call me that! And get out of the car, idiot. I want to go back to sleep."

Lukas obeyed, Arthur and Matthias following suit. "Thank you so much for letting us stay, Arthur - I don't know what we would have done otherwise. It'll only be a short while, I promise; just until I can find my own place."

"It's fine, Lukas. We've missed you, anyway..." The latter was said with a blush, making the Norwegian smile at his friend's sheer British-ness.

"I've missed you, too, Arthur..."

"Yes, yes, very nice, very sweet, so sentimental, but I want to go inside, so hurry up," Emil cut in bluntly, rolling his eyes.

Again, they obeyed and before long, the kitchen of the large Kirkland house was filled with their luggage. Arthur waved a hand towards the staircase and said, "Lukas knows where to go - you've got Patrick's old room, Emil, and Lukas and Matthias, you have the two guest rooms, but you can share if you'd prefer."

Lukas nodded his thanks and grabbed his and Emil's bags, moving them to the respective rooms. Matthias beamed and thanked the Brit, then followed his boyfriend. Emil just blinked at the two, murmured something to Arthur and curled up, catlike, on the sofa in the living room. The aforementioned Englishman bit back a laugh and left to find his laptop.

He couldn't wait to see Alfred and Vlad's reactions to their friend's return - he was anticipating a very loud reunion.

A/N

This is the second-to-last chapter. There will also be an epilogue, but that may be a week late - my French exchange student is coming over here in a fortnight! So excited~!

But I hope it's okay - I'm not ending it too fast, am I? :/ I'm sorry for any inaccuracies... Oh, and a desperate plea: I have a grand total of nine followers on tumblr. NINE :'( And I know three of them personally! You know you want to make me happy, right...? I'm the same on tumblr as I am on here - multicultureiskey. Please? :)

xylla: Thank you for the review! I must say, I'm rather jealous... Even with a British passport, it takes ages to go through security for me! Gatwick lines are so long at peak times... I apologise for my inaccuracy, and thank you for pointing it out! Should I change it...?