Chapter Text
Feliciano woke up to the feeling of warm sunlight hitting his face. Immediately, he threw the covers aside and sprung from his bed. "Ve~ Good morning world!" he cheered, loud enough to wake the entire house. Which is exactly what happened, unfortunately. "SHUT UP, YOU STUPID BASTARD!" Feliciano turned around, only to see an incredibly fearsome sight. It was his older brother Lovino, who looked angry and tired. "Some of us were trying to sleep!" yelled Lovino, crossing his arms across his chest. Feliciano patted his big brother on the shoulder.
"Sorry, fratello! I'll be more quiet next time!" he promised, his cheery voice never faltering in the slightest. Lovino grumbled something under his breath and trudged off, never once removing the scowl from his face. "Big brother is so angry all the time. Maybe he should eat more pasta, that always makes me happy!" Feliciano said to himself. He glanced at the small clock on the wall and cried out in panic. "OH NO! IT'S ALREADY 8:00! I'M GONNA BE LAAAAATE!" Feliciano got dressed in a hurry and rushed downstairs. He was greeted by his grandpa, who seemed to be flirting with a lady on the phone. The moment he saw his grandson, Rome put down the phone and grinned happily.
"Feliciano, you're awake!" he exclaimed, his voice booming through the kitchen. He gestured to the plate of pasta on the countertop. "Why don't you have breakfast?" Feliciano stared at the pasta in admiration. It looked delicious, too delicious to resist… His gaze shifted to Grandpa Rome's watch, and was instantly reminded of his situation. Despite his stomach's growls of anguish, Feliciano pushed the pasta away.
"Sorry, Grandpa, I'm already about to miss the bus!" he cried before grabbing his bag. In the midst of his frenzy, the Italian noticed a small white flag laying on the couch. Feliciano picked up the flag and shoved it in his backpack. Maybe people won't bully me if I wave this around really fast!
The bus ride was far from pleasant. The road was bumpy, the weather was hot, and the sounds of highschoolers yelling echoed through the vehicle. Feliciano cradled his head in his hands and frowned. Meanwhile, his brother was yelling at the junior sitting in the seat in front of him.
"Come on, Lovi! You should relax one in a while!" insisted Antonio. Lovino glared daggers at the Spaniard and continued to mutter obscenities. "Honestly, mon cheri, I'm not sure what you see in him." commented Francis with an exaggerated sigh. The Prussian sitting next to him nodded.
"Yeah! He's un-awesomely grouchy all the time!" Gilbert added, his scratchy voice piercing through Feliciano's skull. Antonio merely smiled and turned his attention back to the Italians.
So, are you excited for your Sophmore year?" he asked enthusiastically.
"Oh, totally! I just hope the teachers don't yell at me and make me openly weep out of fear." Feliciano replied, with an equal amount of enthusiasm.
"No. It's gonna be another boring, stupid, year." predicted Lovino. Antonio grinned and patted the older Italian on the head.
"Don't worry, Lovi! We can give you some advice!" Feliciano doubted the credibility of Antonio, Francis, and Gilbert's advice. They were upperclassmen, but they weren't exactly the brightest students at World Academy. Francis was more preoccupied with girls, and Gilbert was just there to have fun. Antonio, on the other hand, had different motives. Specifically, a person. That person being Lovino Vargas.
"Tch. I don't care about your stupid advice, so you should just give up." rejected Lovino with a scoff. Ignoring Lovino's look of disdain, Francis gazed at the ceiling and smiled wistfully.
"Ah, I remember my Sophomore year. 10 different girls asked me out to the homecoming dance, it was wonderful!" mused the Frenchman. "Kesesese! You never ended up going with any of them though!" reminded Gilbert with a loud laugh. Francis stared at the person sitting a few feet away in admiration. He had messy blonde hair, green eyes, and strange eyebrows. "Of course. The ladies were all gorgeous~ but not as gorgeous as my little Angleterre!" Francis blew a kiss at the Brit, who rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"Shut it, frogface! The only reason I accepted your stupid invitation is that I felt sorry for you, that's all!" lied Arthur, his cheeks dusted with pink. Feliciano watched in awe. How could Arthur be so adamant about denying his true feelings? Back in Italy, it was practically considered a crime to not express your true love. Feliciano's eyes darted to Lovino, who looked like he wanted to slap and make out with Antonio at the same time. Well, maybe he's an exception.
Feliciano felt a sharp peck on the top of his head. "Ouchie! That really hurt!" he cried out, rubbing his head tenderly. Much to his surprise, the peck was from a puffin! He looks kind of scary! I hope he doesn't kill me!
"Mr. Puffin! Get back here!" The Italian noticed the voice sounded Scandinavian, but it was kind of difficult to distinguish exactly which country it was from. Ignoring the "don't get up from your seat" sign plastered to the wall, a blonde boy hurried over to Feliciano's seat and grabbed the puffin by his wing.
"Little brother, you should not have brought that bird to school with you." said another voice, this one sounding distinctly Norwegian. The other boy frowned and sat back down. "Mr. Puffin would have gotten really mad at me if I left him alone at home for 8 hours straight, Lukas," he insisted, a slightly annoyed expression on his face. Lukas ruffled the boy's hair in an affectionate way, causing the boy to pout.
"I told you to call me big brother." Determined to ignore Lukas, the boy looked for something else to pay attention to.
"Hey, you. The one with the curl." Both of the Italian brothers turned around. Once he realized the boy probably wasn't talking to him, Lovino faced the back of the seat in front of him again.
"Ciao, friend! I'm Feliciano, what's your name?"
"My name's Emil. That's my big broth-" Emil cut himself off. "Lukas. That's Lukas."
"Oh, cool! So, what country are you from?" asked Feliciano, genuinely curious to know.
"Iceland. And no, it's not just a giant iceberg. That's Greenland." Feliciano nodded and heard a loud noise from the back of the bus. Frightened, he began muttering his own will under his breath. Emil sighed in irritation, looking like he was about to facepalm.
"Don't worry about that guy over there, he's just an idiot."
Feliciano craned his neck to see which person the Icelandic boy was referring to. The so-called idiot had gravity-defying hair and a very outgoing personality. Currently, he was trying to arm wrestle with another boy, who looked tall and intimidating.
"Hahaha! You're probably just scared of losing to the King of Scandinavia!" The taller boy glowered, not opening his mouth. He looks really scary! Feliciano cowered at the sight, which did not go unnoticed by a certain Finnish junior sitting nearby.
"Hey, there! I just wanted to let you know that Berwald isn't actually that scary, he just looks kind of like he's about to murder you!" he assured cheerfully as if he had explained the same thing multiple times before. His name is Berwald. Nice, I already know the names of two new people!
"Oh, okay!" Feliciano said, still secretly intimidated by Berwald's appearance. "So, who are you?"
The boy grinned. "I'm Tino. It's very nice to meet you!" Feliciano noticed the similarities in their appearances. "Are you guys brothers or something?"
Tino shook his head and laughed nervously. "Not really. Well, Lukas and Emil are siblings, but not the rest of us. Since we're all from Nordic countries, we look kind of alike." He pointed to the obnoxious-sounding boy with spiky hair. "That guy is Mattias. He's from Denmark, and Berwald's from Sweden."
"Thanks for introducing them to me! My name's Feliciano, I hope we can be friends!" Tino nodded, smiled, and started talking to another boy. This one wore glasses and looked very distressed. Feliciano didn't mean to eavesdrop, but he caught pieces of their conversation over the ambient noises of the bus.
"Please, can I join your group? Maybe if I was part of your gang, Ivan would stop terrorizing me!" he pleaded desperately.
Tino furrowed his eyebrows and frowned. "Are you sure that's a good idea? Wouldn't Tolys and Raivis get upset at you for abandoning them?" The glasses-wearing-boy started biting his fingernails anxiously.
"Maybe, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind that much! Their group will be just fine with two members."
"Eduard, I don't really know about that. You three have been friends for so long, you can't just leave them now!" replied Tino, obviously reluctant to let his friend make hasty decisions.
"Yeah, but Ivan is terrifying! I'm scared he's gonna hack into my blog again!"
Feliciano cringed at the mention of Ivan. He had the displeasure of meeting the Russian before, and needless to say, Eduard was right. But Ivan was more than just intimidating like Berwald, he was downright scary. He always had that cheerful grin on his face, yet every word that came out of his mouth was anything but.
"I heard somebody was doing the talkings about me."
Eduard and Tino glanced back at the sound of the voice, and the Estonian nearly fainted out of fear. Feliciano shrank back in his seat, as did Lovino. The entire bus was silent, not a single person daring to interrupt the tense moment.
"U-uh, Ivan! I d-didn't know you were there!" said Eduard with an anxious chuckle. The tall Russian's smile didn't quite meet his eyes.
"Am I really that terrifying to you, comrade?"
Eduard gulped, his hands clamming up. "Of course not! Hehe…" Ivan bent over and picked something up from the ground.
"Okay, then! So this was all a big misunderstanding. In that case, I'm sure you wouldn't mind if we settled this differently, da?" He held up a large metal pipe. The Estonian let out a frightened yelp and scooted as far away from Ivan as he could get. Tino watched the scene play out in front of him with a look of concern on his face.
"Don't worry, dude! The hero will save you from this evil commie!" Feliciano recognized the voice. It was from Alfred F. Jones, the self-proclaimed hero.
"Ah, Alfred. I see you have decided to actually care about other people for once," remarked Ivan with a cold smirk. The American clenched his fist.
"What was that, commie? You wanna fight?"
"I would be more than happy to. After all, I have my magical pipe to help me." A boy who looked almost exactly like Alfred stood up to mediate.
"Guys! Please don't fight, it's only the first day of school!" begged Matthew, his voice unusually loud. Alfred glanced back at the Canadian, possibly rethinking his decisions.
"C'mon, Matt! I'm the hero, it's totally my job!" reminded Alfred. "Plus, this nerd was gonna get pummeled if I didn't step in to save him," he added, pointing to Eduard. Matthew pulled Alfred back into his seat.
"Yeah, and you would have gotten pummeled if I hadn't stepped in. What were you thinking, Ivan's crazy strong!" Alfred ignored the comment with a wave of his hand. "Nah, I can take him any day of the week."
"Burger-eating moron. Doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut," grumbled Lovino, just loud enough for Feliciano to hear. "Hey, that kind of reminds me of someone else I know!" replied the younger Italian. Lovino glared at Feliciano and punched him in the shoulder. Naturally, it didn't hurt at all. Lovino was an "all bark no bite" kind of guy and was actually pathetically weak just like Feliciano.
I wonder if the cafeteria serves pasta. I didn't get to eat breakfast today, so I'm really hungry! But if they don't make pasta, I'm sure I could just teach them how. Hopefully, they have garlic, because that's super important when making pasta. Feliciano's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the bus doors opening.
"Merde. We're already here." cursed Francis.
Gilbert groaned loudly. "Aww, come on! Things were just getting exciting!"
Feliciano, on the other hand, was eager to leave the bus. Watching fights between high school boys didn't sound like a very appealing way to spend his first day of school.