If he had skipped breakfast this morning, he would have only been ten minutes late.

If he hadn't had argued with his brother about even coming to school in the first place, he'd only be five minutes late.

If he had let Antonio drive him, he wouldn't be late at all.

However, Feliciano hadn't skipped breakfast. He'd argued with his brother and stormed out of the house before Antonio could pick up his keys.

And now here he was, rushing through the halls, desperately trying to get to his first class before they started any actual work. Luckily, his first class was physics, and the teacher was infamous for babbling on about nothing for at least twenty minutes before he actually started the lesson.

He had, however, missed sign in and had to get a late mark from the office.

He wished he'd stayed in bed that morning. His chest was aching and he could barely breathe, but still. He had a class to get to.

Checking the time on his phone, he sped up, noticing that he was now almost twenty minutes late for class.

He tucked his phone back into his pocket as he rounded a corner, only to bump into something and send himself flying backwards, landing on his back.

He hissed, pulling himself into a sitting position, tears gathering in his eyes.

"A-Are you alright?" he heard a worried voice ask.

He looked up to see a student he'd never met before (which was strange, since he knew almost everyone in this school). The 'new' student had clear, blue eyes which were now widened with concern. His blond hair was neatly combed back and kept out of the way. He wasn't wearing the Sixth Form uniform, which meant he was obviously younger than seventeen. Feliciano assumed he was either in his year or the year above him, which made it even stranger that he hadn't seen him before.

"I'm fine." he answered, wincing slightly as he pulled himself up off the floor.

The other regarded him for a moment, before giving a curt nod. "Oh, um..." he pulled a small book from his school bag. Feliciano recognised it to be the school's organiser. "C-Could you please tell me where Mr. Martin's physics class is?" he asked.

Feliciano gave a bright smile. "Si," he practically sang. "I'm going there myself. Follow me." he grabbed the other by the wrist, pulling him along. "My name is Feliciano, by the way."

"O-Oh, mine is Ludwig." replied the new student.

"Ludwig~" Feliciano sang, literally. He continued to drag the new student, Ludwig through the halls until the reached the physics class on the bottom floor of the science department.

All eyes were on them as soon as they burst through the door.

Ludwig was sure they'd get into trouble. He may get off lightly, since he is new, after all. However, Feliciano would probably get yelled at.

"I'm so sorry." Feliciano apologised before the teacher said anything.

Mr. Martin was a balding, overweight man who looked to be in his mid to late forties. He wore tiny wired glasses on his forehead and had three pens in the breast pocket of his shirt. He didn't look to be a kind man, but Ludwig was always told to never judge a book by it's cover.

"Don't worry about it, Feliciano." Mr. Martin scratched his head with the end of his pen. "Just take your seat. Kiku," he turned to a short Asian boy—from the name, Ludwig would have guessed Japanese. "Could you please explain the work to Feliciano and help him catch up?"

The boy nodded, sending a small smile over to Feliciano. He had jet black hair which, judging by how glossy it seemed, was obviously well looked after. His eyes were dark brown and didn't portray much emotion, despite the smile on his face.

Feliciano went and sat next to Kiku, smiling widely as he greeted his friend with a hug.

Kiku looked a little uncomfortable, but allowed the Italian to hug him anyway.

"I take it you're Ludwig Beilschmidt, right?"

Ludwig turned his attention to Mr. Martin. "Yes, sir." he replied.

The teacher gave him a stern look. "Is there a particular reason that you are," he trailed off, looking at his watch. "almost half an hour late to my lesson?"

"It's my first day." Ludwig replied. "I got lost. Feliciano showed me the way."

Mr. Martin gave him a doubtful look, but nodded. "Okay. I'll let you off. But next time you're this late, I will not let you into this classroom, understood?"

Ludwig nodded. Although, he couldn't help but wonder why the teacher thought nothing of Feliciano turning up so late.

"You can sit on the end bench next to Feliciano for now, until I arrange the new seating plan."

At those words, a red-headed girl in the front row turned to the boy beside her and started giggling. "Oh, Ceri, watch out." she whispered. "There's a new seating plan."

The boy beside her joined her giggling.

"Kassia. Ceri. Get on with the work, please." chided Mr. Martin.

The two started writing again, still quietly snickering to one another.

Ludwig was handed a new workbook from Mr. Martin and sent to sit with Feliciano, being told that Kiku would explain what to do.

"Ludwig~" Once again, Feliciano sang the new student's name.

Kiku looked up, giving the new student a polite smile. "Hello," he greeted. "I am Kiku."

Ludwig smiled back. "I'm Ludwig." He set his bag down, seating himself in the empty chair beside Feliciano. He wrote his name on the front of his book and opened it to the first page, listening intently as Kiku explained today's task.

When the bell rang for the end of lesson, Feliciano insisted that Ludwig spend his break with him and Kiku.

Ludwig accepted, and was now following after his classmates. They lead him to what they called their 'usual spot'. It was a small bench on a small patch of grass behind the R.E. Department (which was a two-classroom port-a-cabin).

The bench was just about big enough for the three of them. They weren't squashed together, but they were still a little too close for Kiku's comfort.

"Can I see your time-table?" asked Feliciano, holding his hand out.

Ludwig blinked, dipping his hand into his bag to retrieve the slip of paper with his schedule printed on. He unfolded it before handing it to the Italian.

Feliciano thanked him, reading over his classes and teachers. He was delighted to find that they had a lot of classes together.

"What options did you pick, Ludwig?" asked Kiku, reading the schedule over Feliciano's shoulder.

"Engineering, I.T. and world history."

Feliciano gave a dramatic gasp. "I took world history!" he announced.

"Hai, me too." Kiku added.

Ludwig didn't know people were able to smile as brightly as Feliciano was at the moment.

"You know what this means, don't you?" Feliciano asked, dropping Ludwig's time-table into his lap and grabbing both the boys' hands. "We have to be the best of friends!"

Kiku, having long since grown used to such antics from the Italian, eased his hand out of Feliciano's grasp. He picked up Ludwig's time-table and continued reading. "Oh, dear..."

"What?"

With a sigh, Kiku handed Ludwig's schedule back to him. "You have Ms. Samuel for maths."

Ludwig refolded his time-table and tucked it away in his organiser. "Is she bad?"

Kiku nodded. "She doesn't even go easy on Feliciano."

Doesn't go easy on Feliciano? Why should she? Come to think of it, Mr. Martin seemed to be incredibly lenient with the Italian.

Ludwig opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by Feliciano, who suddenly jumped to his feet, slinging his rucksack over his shoulder. "I'm going to be late for drama." he said, hurrying away.

"But there's five minutes of break left." Ludwig called after him.

Kiku gave a quiet sigh, knowing he'd crossed a line. "I'm sorry." he muttered, but Feliciano was already too far away to hear him.

With a raised eyebrow, Ludwig turned back to Kiku. "What was that about?" he asked.

"I said something I shouldn't have." Kiku replied.

The two sat in silence until the bell rang. Kiku collected his bags and said goodbye.

"Wait a minute." Ludwig stopped him before he could turn away. "Why should any of the teachers go easy on Feliciano?"

Kiku sighed. "I'm sorry, Ludwig. It really isn't my place to say." he replied, turning and walking away before Ludwig could ask any more awkward questions.

"Ludwig!"

The German turned at the sound of his name being called, just in time to be tackled into a hug.

"Hello, Feliciano." he greeted, trying to pry the clingy one off him.

Feliciano had certainly brightened up in the past two hours. He grabbed hold of Ludwig's wrist, pulling him over to a table in the corner of the hall. "This is our table." he said.

Kiku was already sat at the table, eating quietly. "Feliciano," he put his chopsticks down. "I'm sorry for—"

"It doesn't matter." Feliciano cut him off, sitting down in his usual seat across from the Japanese boy.

Not knowing what else to do, Ludwig sat next to Feliciano.

"Hey, Ludwig. We have history next lesson!" Feliciano chirped, excitedly, getting his lunch box out of his bag.

Kiku, who had gone back to eating, looked up. "That's right. Maybe we can catch you up on what we've learnt so far."

"Oh, alright then. Thank you."

Over lunch, they discussed the topics they'd covered in world history so far, which didn't really take long, since they weren't that far into the school year.

Kiku explained that they were now looking at World War Two, specifically the Axis Powers.

"Hey, wait a minute." Feliciano cried, louder than necessary. "The Axis was Germany, Italy and Japan, right?"

"Hai."

"Like us!" Feliciano smiled. "We're German, Italian and Japanese. We're like the Axis!"

"You're right." Ludwig smiled.

The three spent a brief moment chuckling at the realisation before the bell for fourth lesson rang and they had to walk to their history class. Luckily, the class was close to the lunch hall, so they didn't have to hurry.

Feliciano and Kiku sat in their usual seats, with Ludwig sitting at the empty desk behind them.

On the board were the words "WORLD HISTORY WITH MISS JENKINS; AXIS vs. ALLIES" in bold, red letters. The teacher of this class was leaning against the board with folded arms, a smirk on her face.

"Okay," miss Jenkins flicked her shiny brunette fringe out of her face. "We've done a lot of work on the Axis. Enter: Allies." She pushed herself away from the board, twirling her marker between her fingers. "Who can name a member of the Allies?"

Almost as soon as she'd finished her sentence, a loud, excitable voice yelled "America!"

Miss Jenkins smiled, pulling herself up to sit in her desk. "Very well done, Jones." she said in a slightly patronising tone. "But you didn't need to jump to your feet to answer that."

The class shared a laugh as the slightly blushing student sat back down, only to to slapped upside the head by the student next to him.

The rest of the class went on in a similar manner, until a beeper went off.

"Oh," miss Jenkins turned, pressing a button to stop the beeping. "Feli, it's 1:30, love."

Feliciano nodded, getting to his feet. "Kiku, if I'm not back in time—"

"I'll bring your things to P.E." Kiku said.

With a nod, Feliciano left the room.

Ludwig watched him walk away with a raised eyebrow. Again, something strange had happened.

There was something about Feliciano that didn't sit right. He seemed like a nice enough boy, but he had teachers treating him like royalty, letting him get up and leave in the middle of a class.

Maybe his family was part of the Mafia.

No. Not only was that a negative stereotype, but Feliciano was far too sweet for something like that. Then again, book. Cover.

No, no, no! Ludwig shook that stupid thought from his head instantly. But he would like to know what was going on with the kid.

He didn't see Feliciano again until twenty minutes into P.E.

He turned up, rubbing his eyes and looking like he just woke up, collected his bag from Kiku, and went to sit on the benches. The P.E. teacher didn't even ask why he wasn't taking part.

For the rest of the lesson, Feliciano just watched the other boys playing football, sketching happily in his art book.

When the final bell rang, signalling the end of school, Feliciano packed his things away and jogged over to Ludwig, who had just emerged from the boys' changing rooms.

"Where do you live, Ludwig?" he asked.

"Genesis Terrace, why?"

Feliciano smiled. "You live close enough for my brother-in-law to give you a ride home." he explained. "Kiku lives in the other direction."

Speaking of Kiku, where was he? Ludwig didn't see him at all in the changing rooms.

"If we have P.E. last, Kiku goes home without changing out of his kit." explained Feliciano and he dragged Ludwig towards the main gates.

A red 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454 was parked across the road, a man with dark brown curls sat on the bonnet playing with his phone.

"Antonio!" Feliciano called, pulling Ludwig over to the car.

The man on the bonnet looked up with a bright smile. "Hola, Feli." he greeted, tucking his phone back in his pocket. "Ready to go?"

Feliciano nodded. "Could you give my friend a ride, please? He only lives on Genesis."

Antonio regarded Ludwig with a smile. "Si, of course." he replied. He slid off the bonnet, opening the driver's side door and climbed in. "Let's get going, before Lovi calls."

With his usual, bright smile, Feliciano opened the passenger's door, pushing the seat forward so he could climb into the back. He pulled the passenger's seat back into place and told Ludwig to get in."

Ludwig slid into the passenger's seat, admiring the interior of Antonio's car.

Antonio gave him a look of 'I know, right?' and started the engine, driving away from the school.

"So, how was school today?" asked Antonio after a brief silence.

"It was alright." replied Feliciano, who was now lying down across the backseat.

"Did you ta—"

"Yes!" Feliciano snapped.

Antonio winced. "I'm just looking out for you, Feliciano." he muttered.

A soft sigh was heard. "Well, don't. I'm fine."

Ludwig turned his head to see Feliciano's jacket pulled over his head. He couldn't help but feel a little awkward. You know that feeling when you're with a friend and they're getting told off, so you're left awkwardly stood or sat there, unable to really do anything. That's exactly how he felt.

It didn't take long for them to pull up outside Ludwig's house. All of a sudden, Feliciano's happy-go-lucky attitude reappeared.

The Italian sprung up, coiling his arms around Ludwig's shoulders. "I'll see you tomorrow, si?" he asked.

With a smile, Ludwig prying Feliciano off him for the second time that day. "Ja, I'll see you tomorrow, Feliciano." he said, grabbing his bag and opening the car door. "Thank you for driving me home."

Antonio smiled. "You're perfectly welcome."

Saying one last goodbye, Ludwig climbed out of the car and closed the door, waiting for them to drive off before walking up his front steps.

What a day.

End Note: Have you guys already figured out where this is going?
Honestly? I have no idea where this idea came from. It just turned up and tapped me in the chest with a spatula (get the reference?). Either way, I hope you guys enjoy it!
Also, Kassia and Ceri are me and a friend of mine. SHAMELESS SELF-INSERT! The seating plan is an inside joke. Mr. Martin(an actual physics teacher of mine) used to change the seating plan almost every month, and once spent an entire lesson explaining his new seating plan and why he chose those seats for us. Me and Ceri always ended up sitting together, though. Ms. Samuel is a real teacher, too. She was such a b-word.
Look up the 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454, by the way. Seriously guys, what a sweet car!
Anyway, that's enough from me. I hope you enjoy this new fic and I'll see you for chapter two (not all of the chapters are going to be this long, btw).
~Lolly xXx