To be perfectly honest, I didn't sleep well that night. Snippets of ABBA lyrics bounced around in my brain while I tossed and turned. Apparently I fell asleep in the night, and when I woke up at 5:00 AM I decided to get up for the day.

Feeling more productive than yesterday, I decided I would take a quick jog around the campus before any of my classes started. Putting on sweats and a jacket, I quietly tiptoed through the small dorm, my miniscule steps almost sounding like stomps. I finally made it to the living room, where Toris was sprawled out on the couch, sleeping. His bowl of melted ice cream still sat upon his lap, apparently forgotten.

After dumping the remnants of Toris' precious vanilla ice cream, I grabbed my key and headed towards the corridor. No one was in sight, but you could hear a faint conversation coming from one of the dorms. Since it was so quiet, I couldn't tell if it was a TV, or actual people.

Making my way downstairs, I could already tell that some people were getting ready for their day. Many people were already inside the restaurants getting their food ready, and few students sat at tables, accompanied with a thick school book and a Venti cup of coffee, studying most likely. A soft, soothing piano tune echoed throughout the cafeteria.

A classy, sepia colored poster adorned the message board in the cafeteria. Upon it were the words,

Come and see the timeless tale, Pride and Prejudice, put on by the students of Hetalia University! Tickets on sale now!

Oh, so there was a play coming soon? I made a mental note to look into getting tickets.

I slipped out the door and began jogging. I won't go into much detail here, for I bet it would be pretty boring if I wrote, "I jogged, jogged some more, took a sip from the water fountain, then jogged some more." After circling the entire campus a few times, I decided that I should get started for the day, and returned to the dorm building.

Tiredly stumbling up the stairs, I realized that the hallway was completely different from the hallway that I had seen this morning. At first I thought I had fallen down a rabbit hole and had landed in Wonderland, for the scene in front of me could've been found in a crazy, alternate universe. Posters covered almost every inch of the corridor, excluding the patterned green carpet and the low ceiling. Even the doors were covered by them! My mouth dropped as I stared around the room, and walked to get a closer look at the posters, which were the same 'Pride and Prejudice' posters I had seen this morning. I couldn't spend any more time ogling the bizarre sight, for a high, irritated voice rang out.

"Aw, hell naw!" An irate Feliks cried as he stared in horror at the sight. "Which bastard covered up my bedazzled door?!" In a fury, he began ripping off the posters with strength and a speed I didn't even know was possible for him. Wanting not to be blamed for the deed, I quietly opened my door and soundlessly entered while his back was turned to me. Toris was off of the couch, and was probably taking a shower at the moment. After taking my own shower, I gathered up my books and completed homework, walked out the door, and began my school day.

"Got 'ny ideas yet?"

I suddenly looked up towards the voice over my right shoulder and smiled sheepishly. "No…not yet."

Berwald nodded once and said nothing. I stayed silent, so the atmosphere was pretty awkward. He looked like he wanted to say something, but strode away with long steps. I stared after him for a moment or so, but then looked back to my empty desk. The tiny room was uncommonly quiet this afternoon, only an occasional sigh or the hum of a machine broke the silence. Mathias and Emil had both started on their projects; Mathias had several parts of the snowman's body already cut and laid out, while Emil seemed to be carving away, little by little into a somewhat small piece of wood. At the moment, his sculpture was unidentifiable. Lukas, on the other hand, gazed at a block of wood, as if expecting that it would suddenly contort into a bench or something like that.

I shut my eyes and scrambled my brain, trying to think of something I could create. A table? No, too common. A chair? No, too challenging. A model of the city of Gondor from Lord of the Rings? Too…weird. Opening my eyes and pulling my mouth into a frown, I gazed across the room once more, trying to get any ideas. My eyes landed on Berwald, who was currently sanding a birdhouse he had created in just over two weeks. Before I knew it, I had gotten up out of my chair and was currently walking towards him.

Berwald looked just as surprised as I felt when I came up beside him. "Your birdhouse looks so professional-looking!" I whisper-shouted to him, as I pointed to his oeuvre, not really knowing what else to say.

He ducked his head in bashfulness, but wasn't fast enough for me to catch the sight of his light blush. "Thanks." He returned to sanding the roof of the birdhouse.

"H-Hey, Lukas! Look!" We turned to find Mathias balancing two of the three wooden spheres on his head, with the largest one being around the size of a soccer ball. "Dontcha think I could make it in the circus, Luke? Huh?" He asked excitedly as he looked around the room.

"Ah, yes. You would be perfect in the circus, Mat," Lukas said, not looking away from his block of wood.

"Really?! You think so?!"

"Of course. You have every characteristic of a typical, simpleminded, grotesque clown. Personally, I don't know why your parents didn't name you Ronald McDonald."

For a split second, an extreme look of hurt appeared on Mathias' face, which was so unlike his carefree, happy smile that I almost did a double take. I don't believe anyone but I saw the abnormal sight, for Emil and Berwald were busy on their projects, and Lukas hadn't looked up from the beginning. It was quickly replaced with his normal, laughing smile. "Come on, man! Of course they wouldn't name me something like that!" He paused, taking the spheres off of his head and flexing his arms. "I'll have you know that 'Mathias' literally means, 'Gift of God!'"

"Sure, whatever you say."

"No, really!"

Turning around, I began to again watch Berwald sand his birdhouse. With a tiny smile, I realized that he was humming, 'Voulez Vous'.

"So, what color are you thinking of painting it?" I asked with interest.

He stopped his quiet humming and pursed his lips. "…'M thinkin' of a royal blue 'nd a light blue—"

Suddenly, a piercing cry of, "Oh, lort!" and a clatter of noises broke through our conversation. Confused and even a bit frightened, I took a startled step back from Berwald and his project, eyes going wide. This proved to be my downfall. Literally, my downfall. As my foot came down, I happened to step on something behind me, and the next thing I knew, I had the wind knocked out of me, and had fallen on my back.

With Berwald on top of me.

My gasp could've been taken as a sign of lack of oxygen, but this wasn't the case. I quickly realized that we were pressed together in almost every single way possible. Our legs were helplessly tangled together, and we were practically nose-to-nose. But the thing that took my breath away was the fact that Berwald was staring right at me, with his beautiful, Caribbean blue eyes. I breathed out, all at once, which fogged up his glasses.

"Oh my gosh, are you guys alright?!"

Mathias' voice shook us both out of our stupor, and Berwald began to stand him. He planted both hands on the floor beside my chest, and got to his feet. He held out a hand, which I gratefully accepted. "We're alright," I answered when I had stood up. "What exactly happened?"

It was at this time that Lukas spoke for Mathias. "Mathias was just telling me about his name when he dropped one of the parts of his snowman." He nodded at said one, which lay a few feet away from where we had been laying a moment ago. "Tino, you stepped on it, and when you began falling, Berwald tried to stop you by grabbing your arm, but you pulled him down with you."

At those words, my face broke out in an embarrassed, scarlet blush. "I…I don't even remember how I ended up on the ground!" I looked up to a stoic-faced Berwald. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for you to fall as well!"

"'s fine. I'm s'rry I couldn't catch ya in time."

"Mathias should be the one apologizing. He's the klutz who started this whole ordeal," Lukas stated dryly as he stared at Mathias." Suddenly, the clock rang four times, signifying the end of the hour.

"Well, this has been very nice, but I need to be leaving," announced Emil, as he packed up his supplies, leaving his unfinished carving on the work desk.

"Where are you going?" Lukas' big brother instincts once more made an appearance as he got up from his seat.

"I'm meeting up with a friend."

"And would that friend happen to be this Leon who I haven't met?"

"So what if it is? And that's your own fault; you've never asked to meet him!"

"Well, may I meet him now?"

"Um…no." And with that short answer, Emil dashed out of the room.

Lukas turned back to Mathias. "You need to help me follow him."

"What? There's no way! I have my 'bobbing for apples' tournament later tonight!" he responded enthusiastically. "I can't miss it! And you told me you would help me!"

Lukas narrowed his eyes. "When did I ever say that?"

"Last night you told me that you would do something for me if I left you alone while you did your homework! And I definitely need help with this!"

Lukas heavy sighed and rubbed his temples. "You know what? Fine. I'll help with your idiotic competition." He retrieved his backpack and stood back up. "Is there anything you need me to pick up?"

"No, I should have everything!"

"Do you have the apples?"

"Oh…I must've forgotten about those."

"What about buckets?"

"It's a good thing I've got you around, Luke!"

He once more rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. "Alright, here's the plan. I will go and buy buckets, you will go and buy apples. Okay?"

Mathias nodded. "Apples…got it!" He rushed out the door with Lukas on his heels.

All throughout this, I had stayed silent, as had Berwald. I hummed thoughtfully. "They're an odd pair, don't you think?"

"Hm." He agreed.

Boom, boom, boom!

A loud pounding on the door broke me from my concentration as Toris came running from his room with a confused look on his face. "Who could that be?" he wondered aloud.

"I'm not exactly sure," I responded as I got up out of my chair. "It probably could be anybody," I added, as I walked over to the door. Pulling it open, I discovered that the person at my door could truly be anyone.

If I had to guess, I would have to say that the student was around six feet tall. His pale, ashen blonde hair was slightly wavy, and had accenting violet eyes with a very prominent and distinctive nose. A calm, gentle smile rested on his soft features; however, that didn't make me feel calm at all.

"Freshman meeting in the hall in two minutes," he said with a strong Russian accent. "No exceptions whatsoever, da?" he added, shooting a smiling glance over my shoulder, mostly likely to Toris.

A yelp sounded behind me, and the student at the door moved to the right, preferably to notify Berwald in the next dorm. Leaving the door open, I turned around to witness Toris, who looked as if he'd seen a ghost. "Toris, are you…are you alright?"

He jumped at my voice, with his eyes going wide. "Yes, I'm alright!" he squeaked, pulling on shoes by the door, still shaking a bit. Before walking out of the door, he turned around to me. "I'll leave right now, I want to see if I can find Felix…" he added, his voice growing softer near the end of his sentence.

I nodded and smiled, laughing a bit. "Of course! Go on ahead!"

He gave me another smile, then exited into the hall, which was rapidly growing noisier and nosier by the minute. Figuring that it would be better to go out now and not later, I also slipped on my blue Converse shoes and shut the door behind me.

The still poster-covered hallway was already swarming with people. Most people paid no attention to the peculiar sight (probably because they already knew about it), while others looked around in shock, confusion, and even a miniscule hint of awe. Most students were talking, but one blonde male in a green jacket and a peculiar white beret seemed to be frantically looking for something (or someone). Toris was across and down the hall, talking to what seemed like an irate Feliks. Six girls, who were extremely different from each other, burst into the room, with one calling out, "The fuuuuun has arrived!" One of the girls was a short blonde, with a purple ribbon in her hair, and once she stepped into the hall, she was bear-hugged by the student in the green jacket from before.

The burly Russian student had apparently delivered his message to all of the freshman, for he disappeared into a room down the hall. Berwald suddenly stepped out of his room, right beside me.

"Oh, hello!" I looked up at him, smiling.

"Evenin'," he responded, with a small smile of his own. "Do ya know what's goin' on?"

"I don't," I said, shaking my head. "It must be important though, since the entire freshmen class on campus are supposed to meet. I wonder if there is a party being planned!"

"Even the st'dents from the c'ttages 're here…must be 'mportant," Berwald mumbled, squinting his eyes and gazing around the room.

"All right, everyone against the wall." The Russian's voice echoed throughout the hall. The corridor suddenly got very quiet and still.

"The fuck?" Lovino, a little ways to my left cursed loudly in confusion. "What the hell do you mean, 'against the wall?!"

"Yeah! That sounds like a line from a bad porno!" A distinctively German, grating voice rang out, which resulted in a few laughs.

"Listen, I don't want to be doing this either," the massive student responded with a sigh, with his head drooped a little. "But if you don't do as I say, I'm going to have to make you do as I say." His head popped back up as the words came out of his mouth. His childish smile was still in place, but his eyes were full of malevolence.

Many students near him cowered away in fear, and Lovino even hid behind a student with slightly curly brown hair, who was currently eating a tomato. Students hesitantly stepped back until their backs hit the wall. Berwald looked as if he didn't want to please the fearsome student, for he had locked his eyes with him and was the last one to obey his command.

A moment later, the Russian student was back to 'normal', and he giggled. "Now, everyone's ready? Good. Let's begin the meeting."

And then, to my utter surprise, even he stood against the wall, as if someone else was running the meeting. Someone coughed, and all was still.

A person, clad in a Captain America jacket stepped out of the same door the Russian student had gone in just a few minutes before. A cowlick stuck out of his dirty blonde hair, and his glasses reflected the bright lights of the hallway. I realized that it was the student who had been on his way to McDonalds I had seen a few weeks earlier.

"First of all, I must thank my classmate Ivan, for calling everyone here together. It must've been hard." He nodded in thanks to the burly student, who smiled and nodded back to him. He then continued, "My fellow freshmen, as many of you know, my name is Alfred F. Jones." He began walking down the corridor, and continued, "I have called this meeting of the freshmen here today because of something tragic that occurred on this very day!" His voice rose at the end of his sentence, and then he took a long sip from his large McDonalds cup. "Such a deed is prohibited by the school, and the culprit could and should be kicked out of the school!"

Gasps echoed throughout the room, and my eyes widened. I stood on my tiptoes and whispered to Berwald, "What do you think they did?!"

Before he could answer, however, Alfred continued. "I brought this deed to the attention of the Principle, and now it is my job to find out who did this and why they did this! For once, I will be the hero and bring justice to all!" To emphasize his point, he slammed his cup into the palm of his glove-covered hand, and looked around the room. He was then silent, and stared up and down the room, staring hard at each, individual person.

A girl clad in a light blue dress and long, dark pigtails cried out, "Well, tell us what they did!"

Alfred whipped himself around. "I will tell you what they did!" he shouted dramatically.

"Did they murder someone?!"

"Did they steal something?"

"Oh my god sOMEONE ATE FELICIANO'S PASTA—"

Apparently the pressure was just too much for some people, and once a guess rang out, many absurd ones followed. The peace and quiet was quickly restored however, when Ivan once more stepped into the hallway. Alfred continued.

"This crime the culprit has committed is the worst—"

Gasps.

"—possible thing—"

Nervous looks shot around.

"—ever—"

People shook in their boots.

"—to clean up!"

Wait. What?

"The person who covered this entire hallway with Pride and Prejudice posters may have the tenacity of a bulldog and the will of a warrior, but covering the entire freshmen dorm hall is way out of line!"

You could literally hear a pin drop in the hallway. People's mouths were even opened; nobody even moved.

"Are you…bloody serious?" 'Artie' stammered out. "You brought everybody out here, just to tell them the blatant obvious?!"

"But this is a crime! It's prohibited to cover up doorways with any sort of item! But trust me, Arthur, I will find this madman and bring him to justice! Do we have a confession, people?!"

People looked as if they were just about to leave when a very loud voice shouted, "Almost there, Luke! Do you think I should've bought green apples? Will they be fine with red ones?" Mathias and Lukas walked into the corridor and looked around.

"Oh, look! They're all lined up waiting for my 'bobbing for apples' contest! I told you they were looking forward to this, Lukas!"

"Actually, that's not the case." Alfred turned around and walked towards Mathias. "I'm actually conducting an investigation at the moment, which requires all of the freshmen here, so you might need to move your tournament."

"Uh, that's not what the weekly schedule says!" Mathias dropped his bags of apples onto the dark carpet and pointed at the schedule hanging on his door. The current day read, "BOBBIN' FOR ALL DA APPLES TOURNAMENT!" In smaller words, read, "PS make sure to buy lots of apples."

"We don't need to listen to this schedule. That's yours, not all of ours. And besides, this investigation is waaay more important that your competition, dude." Alfred crossed his arms and took another sip of his drink.

Mathias, in short, looked pissed. "You…you can't do this! I reserved this night for MY tournament!"

Alfred turned around and began walking to the other side of the hall. "Listen, I'm real sorry for the coincidence, but this is just more important than your—ow!"

At the exclamation, I leaned my torso outwards to see what had happened. A shiny red apple lay beside Alfred, who was currently rubbing the back of his head. I moved my gaze to where Mathias and Lukas stood, and found myself staring at an uncanny sight. An absolutely livid Lukas stood next to a bag of opened apples and was breathing heavily. He picked up another few apples and began walking towards the hero-wannabe.

"I did not spend…five hours with this idiot…buying apples and buckets…to come back and hear…that we can't put on this stupid tournament…!" Every couple seconds, he would chuck another apple at Alfred who tried his best to dodge them. Unfortunately for him, Lukas had near-perfect aim.

Mathias had woken from his stupor and had also begun to pick up apples and throw them at Mathias. Tried to throw them, at least. The first one sailed over his head and hit a boy with a long, dark ponytail, and the second swerved to the right and hit a student's head who's shirt said, 'I love cats' who had apparently fallen asleep with his head leaning on the wall. He didn't wake up. The one with the ponytail screeched and glared daggers at Mathias.

I should've seen it coming. I should've realized that the students were tired and angry, and should've run back into my dorm, and warned the others, but I was too late, for the biggest food fight of my life broke out at that very moment. People left the wall as though it was fire, and began grabbing apples from the end of the hall and chucking them at whoever was unfortunately in aim. People ran back into their dorms and returned with armfuls of food and drinks and began throwing them at random people.

A humungous piece of broccoli suddenly came into my view, and I realized that it was coming straight at my head. I dove before it could it me, and I was thrown into confusion. People were yelling, screaming even, and I didn't dare stand back up in fear of being hit with who knows what. I tried to look for my door, but they all seemed practically identical with the posters covering them.

A hand clamped over my wrist, and I was pulled to my feet and was just about dragged to a door. "Hey—!" I began to shout.

I looked up to find Berwald, the person who I would consider to be my savior at the moment. "Let's get 'utta here!" He yelled over the commotion, and opened the door closest to us. I almost shouted, "Are you stupid?! It won't open unless you have a key to the room!" However, the door swung open easily, and after pushing me in, he followed then shut the door behind us, leaving us in darkness.

"Hey! What are you two doing here? This is our hiding spot!"

"Oh, our hiding spot. I like that, mon cheri."

"If you don't stop calling me that, I will—"

"Wait, who's there? Where are we?" I asked blindly.

The first voice answered, and responded, "We're in the janitor's closet. I'm Lucille and this pervert next to me is Francis."

"You hurt me with your words, Lucy…"

"It's true though! You couldn't have 'accidentally' groped me twice in here already.

Like Lukas and Emil, they began bickering, and I blocked them out. I looked around the room, trying to adjust my eyes to the darkness. "Um…T'no?" Berwald's voice murmured.

"Yeah?"

"Do ya want to move?"

I tilted my head in confusion, and then realized that I was once again pressed right against Berwald. Our chests were pressed together, and my feet were in danger of stepping on his. One of his hands still rested on my wrist, and the other had somehow found its way to my waist.

"There's…there's not that much space to begin with…" I managed to get out, and tentatively tried to step further into the closet, only to step on what felt like another foot.

"Ow! That's my foot!"

"S-Sorry!" I silently cursed, realizing that there literally was no room to move. "Berwald, I can't move," I murmured quietly.

"Its fine. J'st hope this 'rdeal is 'bout over." He pressed his ear to the thick door and listened for anymore commotion, eyes shutting as well.

In my quest to move, my t-shirt had apparently ridden up on the side, and Berwald's hand was now touching my bare skin. I inwardly shivered and sucked in a breath as a shock of excitement ran up my arms and down my legs. Berwald must've not noticed, for he didn't remove his hand and continued to listen.

Suddenly he removed his head and opened the door. "Must've ended," he mumbled. Sure enough, as he opened the door, the food fight was apparently over. Food splatters covered the once sepia posters and the carpet was no longer the dark green color, but a rainbow of colors. He stepped out and almost to my disappointment removed his hand. I immediately pulled down my shirt and stepped out behind him, Lucille and Francis following me. Seeing them both in the light, I almost did a double take. "Wait, are you two the ones on the poster?!"

Francis nodded with a prideful smile upon his face. "Oui, I am playing Mr. Darcy, and this lovely lady beside me is playing the delectable Elizabeth Bennet."

Lucille had a deadpan expression. "I actually have to 'believably' fall in love with him. It sickens me." And with that, she walked down the corridor, and out of the door. She must've been staying at a cottage, rather than a dorm. Francis sighed sadly and made his way to his own room.

"I…guess we should go back to our own rooms," I said quietly, still a bit out of breath from before.

He hummed and nodded, trying to figure out which door was his.

"Thank you for saving me back there," I scratched the back of my head awkwardly, laughing a little. "Thanks to you, I got away unscathed!"

One of the corners of his mouth lifted a tiny bit, resulting in a half smile. "No pr'blem. Wouldn't want ya gettin' hurt, Tino."

I looked at the ground, hiding my smile as well as my blush. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Berwald."

He got out his key from his jean pocket and hummed another time. Before he could swing open his door, however, two different thoughts popped into my mind. "Oh, Berwald!"

He immediately turned around with a questioning look on his face. "Ya?"

"Who's your roommate?"

"S'meone named Vash Zwingli. He was the 'ne in the green j'cket and wh'te barret."

"Ah," I responded, nodding lightly. "I remember seeing him tonight." I paused for a moment, then asked the second thing on my mind. "And…I'll try to think of something to create in woodshop soon. I promise."

Satisfied with my promise he smiled again and nodded, once more pulling open his door. "I'll see ya tomorrow, Tino."

"Goodnight, Berwald." And with that, we parted ways into our separate rooms. Like the nights before, I leaned against my door, my blush growing deeper and even more scarlet as my mind thought of the crazy events today. I sighed, my eyes closing.

I was definitely in trouble. I had been pressed against Berwald for two times in one day. And I had really, really enjoyed it.

Damn it.

*Rises from the grave* I LIIIIIIIIIVE

Hey all you lovely people! I am so sorry I haven't gotten the chance to upload more of this story, school and graduation literally ate up my life these past couple months. Don't worry, this summer I will be updating much more! Soon, I am thinking of starting my next Hetalia multichapter story, either a Dennor one, or a FraMon (France x Monaco) one...what are your thoughts?

Oh! And by the way, Aph Monaco doesn't have a canon name, so in my stories, if you see the name 'Lucille', that's Monaco. Just clarifying! :)

Once again, thank you so much for reading!

Continued in the next chapter..