Alfred bit back a smirk when Matthew gave him a subtle nod. It wouldn't do any good to be suspicious right off the bat. Fighting down the anticipation, he schooled his face to seem serious.

Okay, so long lost twin route. What was his angle?... He'd need a believable backstory, not one that's too dramatic or he'd crack a telling smile too early. Maybe the hospital stuffed up when he was born? Or maybe whatever went down with his parents was really bad and his mum stole his twin and disappeared into the night and left his dad heartbroken and that's why he never talks about her.

He'll just figure it out as he goes. However his story is received he'll take it from there.

"Lovi! Feli!" Alfred leaned over the table and slammed his fists down. Lovi cast his signature dirty look at being interrupted mid-sentence, but Alfred was sure he'd get over it. He could talk about pizza or pasta or whatever anytime.

At least he had Feli's whole attention, his friend was unknowingly matching all the energy Alfred was putting down.

"I can't believe I forgot to tell you!" he continued frantically.

"And what would that be?" Lovino snapped, yet taking the bait.

Alfred swung an arm around Matthew and cashed him into a side hug. He felt a little bit bad about how he tensed up and being pulled into the spotlight but that was going to happen anyways.

"This is my long lost brother, Mattie!"

Alfred heard a snigger to the side. Zach had a hand over his mouth and his eyes were crinkling with amusement. Ugh he should've thought ahead. Would his friends play along with it? Bloody Zach. Alfred kicked him under the table. He doubted he would ruin it for him on purpose because this would be entertaining for him, but Alfred couldn't risk him making it suspicious.

"Really!?" Feliciano gawked, completely sold while Lovino scoffed.

"Coming from you Alfred, I don't believe you. And you look completely different."

"Should'a gone tah specsavers mate," a new voice cut in from behind him and someone leaned on his chair. "It's probably the hair or the lighting in here but I was shocked when I saw the forms at tha office."

Alfred bit down a smirk. Steve was notorious for messing with people, of course he would be down for helping him out. Plus with a chaperone on his side, it would add some credibility to his story.

Which he better think of now so Steve was on board with the lies.

"Dad finally told me about his dramatic and sad backstory with mum. Turns out that I was a twin so they decided to take one of us each cus they didn't want to draw out the divorce and just wanted to get away from each other already. But then dad felt bad and told me the truth and sent me and Mattie to the same camp so we could finally bond after like fourteen years."

Feliks was giving him a raised eyebrow, so Alfred kicked him under the table too. Which would just confirm Feliks' suspicions but at least he'd stay quiet.

"Yeah right, if that was true that would've been the first thing you said to us when you got here." Carlos pointed out with complete confidence.

Dammit, why is that a fair point?

"I know, that's what everyone would expect. So that's why I suggested they take the cheeky route," Steve came to his rescue. "Pretend they had no clue what was going on then reveal it later. It's a lot more dramatic that way, right?"

Brilliant. Now everyone was questioning the truth, not just Lovi and Feli. Carlos looked less sure of himself too.

"Wow, this totally reminds me of the plot from that third minion movie though," Feliks voiced.

Alfred internally groaned. It totally did. Shut it Feliks.

"Movies can be based on things that happen in real life, duh. Plus its not impossible, right?"

"Nah, it's completely different anyway," Steve dismissed. "You see, the movie is completely fictional, and so it everything me and Al just said. You've been pranked by the prank patrol."

Alfred was abruptly cut from his high as everyone's faces fell flat with the exposed lie. At least he could tell that some of them had half believed it and were mostly internally annoyed at themselves. It wasn't very clear who was at that end of the spectrum, but the most externally annoyed was Lovino by a long shot.

Hopefully that was because he almost bought it.

"Dude, why'd you blow it?" Alfred frowned when Steve ruffled his hair.

"Gotta get out why you're ahead. Imagine keeping up with it all summer."

Fair, he'd probably change the story five times to make it more dramatic and forget what the original even was.

"Pfft, I could! It's Mattie who'd blow our cover!" Alfred elbowed his new friend. Feeling he was a little too rigid he gave him a proper look. Instead of playing along and having a good time Matthew just sat there, kinda hunched and awkward. Oops. Now Alfred felt kinda weird. He hoped that it would bring him out of his shell but now he might've made it worse.

"I'm joking. Good call. I'd be the one to ruin it. My own hubris and all that." Alfred laughed it off, receiving a distracted pat on the head from Steve as he was suddenly called away.

"You dumbass." Lovino sneered and rolled his eyes. Alfred just gave him a big grin.

"You know we're way too smart to fall for that, right?" Feliks returned a kick under the table.

"No one's going to believe you again now," Toris pointed out, almost sympathetic that Alfred had used up his one chance to trick them all.

Not that it would stop him. He was already scheming some other ways to mess with them. They probably couldn't tell the difference in the dark...

"And you're a terrible liar anyways."

"Shut up Carlos," Alfred kicked him under the table. Carlos glared and kicked back. There was no way he was about to let this go so Alfred leaned back in his seat and swung his legs wildly. Carlos sunk in his seat and did the same. How mature.

The piercing feedback of a microphone rang around the room, sending a jolt of shock that had them straightening in their seats and their hearts pounding.

"Hello hello, ah good it's on." At the front of the room, Head Chaperone Augustus was preparing to make the whole welcome to camp heres the rules but the most important rule is to have fun speech that he knew off by heart by now. He glanced around the table, well aware that everyone else had it memorised too and was just going to block it out like him.

Except Matthew, who was sitting right next to him and Alfred had forgotten he was new. Guess he blended in with the group really well.

"So," Alfred pestered. "Was it funny?"

"Slightly amusing," Matthew whispered back, his gaze flickering between Alfred and Augustus.

"Only slightly?"

Matthew shrugged.

Alfred paused to see if he had anything else to say, but it seemed the conversation was over. Oh well, he just turned to the rest of the table.

"So what should we talk about?"

"How about you give us the truth." Lovino, in typical Lovino fashion, didn't see it fit to whisper despite his own grandfather giving a speech.

"I have never met this man in my life. Only just today. I didn't even realise we looked so similar until you guys pointed it out." The last part was unnecessary but he just had to add it.

"That's the only believable part, you're such a du-"

A shhh! interrupted him. The shhh in question belonged to Elizabeta, making it very effective.

For a minute, at least.

"So, how was everyone's year?" Feli chirped, also completely oblivious to his volume. Toris eyed Elizabeta, who luckily hadn't noticed, and held a finger to his lips to warn everyone to be quiet.

"You'd know if you were around earlier," Alfred spoke in hushed tones hoping that his dumb friends would pick up on it. If Elizabeta had to silence them twice they'd be in for it. "Where have you been all day?"

"Hiding. Nonno wanted us to perform like a pair of poster kids." Despite Lovino's voice being full of anger, it was thankfully at an acceptable volume.

"It could've been fun," Feliciano chimed in, ever the optimist. "But then Lovi would've been all alone-"

"And you ruined it." Lovino huffed, though everyone and their mother didn't need to know him that well to know he wasn't serious about it.

"Okay, but then I would've been all alone!"

"And we can't have that now, can we?" Alfred joked. "You guys could've joined up with us!"

"We're stuck with each other for the next eight weeks," Lovino stated.

"That's totally true," Feliks beamed, "but, you're really saying it like it's bad?

"That's the spirit Feliks!" Alfred praised.

Carlos rolled his eyes. "It is bad when we're stuck with you."

Cue round two of kicking under the table; electric boogaloo.

An amplified chuckle had them abruptly stop.

"Ah, table at the back, 'have fun' only starts when my speech finishes. Play footsies later." Having Augustus's attention on them quickly ended their 'footsies' match and feeling slightly embarrassed.

Elizabeta moved over to their table, staring them down as she crossed her arms. Alfred slumped in his seat, defeated. The table seemed to pause as they waited for the speech to be over.

A couple of minutes -that dragged on forever!- later the speech was finally wrapped up with promises of dinner soon and the obligatory clapping and cheers filled the room. Augustus passed over the mic to another chaperone for even more blah blah speeches and disappeared off the 'stage'. With one last warning look, Elizabeta walked off.

"Okay, now we can have fun," Alfred grumbled, leaning forward so Elizabeta wouldn't hear and come back. "And we were not playing footsies!"

Feliks raised an eyebrow at him that said 'yeah, right' and Alfred did not kick him under the table, because he didn't play footsies. Instead, he just made a universal hand gesture that meant the same thing all over the world... probably. When Feliks mimicked it back he added his other hand for double effiency, which was copied as well. It seems they were at a draw. He sneered and ignored however Feliks responded.

"So Mattie, did that clear up everything for you?"

Matthew nodded and his eyes flickered over him. Alfred turned his head just in time to see Yao's club floating behind him.

"Alfred!" Yao rested his arms on his shoulders from behind and placed his chin on the top of his friend's head. "I see you've met your backup."

Alfred laughed as fake as he could.

"Mattie, I bet you're wondering who this comedian is."

Matthew seemed to shrink back. The big group around them was probably intimidating him. Alfred shrugged to push Yao off and give them space.

As the bridge friend between the two, he figured he owed at least Matthew a proper introduction.

"So that's Yao, he's in our cabin. Lucky us. And Im, Mei, and Leon. Everyone else is younger than us so we won't see much of them. You might as well just call them Yao backups."

"Aiya, so rude," Yao huffed.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, really," Im repeated as he sat around the table, leading the others to do the same. Alfred scooted over into Matthew as the squeeze became more noticeable and his original seat was stolen. The whole table grumbled as they were forced to scoot over in a domino effect. The price of friendship, apparently.

Alfred must've zoned out for a bit because suddenly the delicious smell that was before an undertone was now assaulting his starved senses. Tea had been announced and tables were being called up.

He flipped around in his seat and strained to see but the closest table was blocking his view.

"Like you don't already know what it is," Yao giggled.

"So by feast they really meant feast?" Matthew mumbled beside him.

"They have a big opening feast every year. Today's the best day to have an appetite." Toris explained, somehow he had heard Matthew's comment over the resounding excitement threatening to drown out their conversation.

"Some of it would be lunch leftovers." Lovi tsked, apparently not as excited as everyone else.

"Well lunch was good so I don't mind!" Added Feli, aways the ying to Lovi's yang. Always pissing Lovi off more.

"Yeah Lovi. Okay, and? Waste not want not or whatever my dad says..." Alfred challenged, though his focus was elsewhere. Augustus was pointing to which table would go next, with no rhyme or reason making the surprised campers cheer and bolt up. Each year he'd have a different way of organising the dinner and every year he made it fun.

Alfred was going to be ready. With his fingers crossed under the table, he watched and waited.