Mattie's POV

"I thought you guys were going to come next week." Gilbert said.

"Change in plans since our landlord wanted us out already." Francis explained.

"God, I hated that man." Toni groaned.

"It was mutual hate, Toni." Gilbert chuckled. "I hope that snob is suffering." The look on his face grew almost murderous. It scared me. The smile made it even more unsettling.

"Oh, Matthew." Dad suddenly caught my attention from his special chair. "Where is Alfred?"

"Not sure." I answered.

"God, that kid is going to kill me."  Dad groaned. 

"Bet." I muttered. Next thing I knew, Gilbert was laughing way too loud right next to me. I swear he blew my cover. 

"What the hell?" 

"D-don't wo-r-ry ahboow it." I hurriedly said accidentally stuttering and letting my accent seep into my voice. Dammit. 

"I have never heard him laugh like that...well, except when he was drunk but that's about it." Toni eyed me suspiciously. "What did you say?" 

"Nothing!" I raised my hands defensively. 

"He really didn't say anything important, I swear." Gilbert finally rasped out, wiping what I think was tears from his face. Did my one word really make him laugh that hard? That's so weird. 

"Then why did you laugh so goddamn loud?" I let slip out. They all looked at me with surprise. 

"It was still funny."

"Not really." I looked down at my fidgeting hands. 

"Are you doubting my sense of humor?"

"No!" I whipped my head up to him. "It's just there's funnier things out there." 

"What the hell did you even say?" Dad asked. 

I looked at him, "One singular word." 

"Which was?"

"Not saying, you'll yell at me."

"Matthew, come on, you're not five." 

"Yes, but I still fear adults." I am making a complete fool of myself. Lucky for me, my phone pinged. I pulled it out  and found a text from Al. 

Tell dad I'm staying over Kiku's house. 

"Oh shit." I said much too loudly. 

"What is it?"

"Al's staying at his friend's house." 

"Tell him too bad, he needs to get home now." Dad frowned harder. I did as told and Al responded quickly with a 'whatever too late' and a picture of anime on a TV. 

"Yeah, he's not coming." 

"Fine then." Dad finally said, sinking into his chair defeated. 

"Your brother really sucks." Gilbert butt in. 

"Not really," I looked back to him. "I mean, he's a disorganized piece of shit but he has his ways of staying on the right path." 

"Sounds like your defending his irresponsible actions." 

"I'm not!"

"You are."

"What the hell do you even know about responsibility?" I frowned. He looked ready to protest but clearly couldn't come up with anything. 

"Fair point." 

"You two are actually adorable!" Toni interrupted. 

"What?" Gilbert's voice cracked spiking up an octave. 

"I absolutely object to that statement." Dad frowned hard. 

"This isn't court Arthur." Francis commented. 

"I don't care, that's my son."

"What a lovely mother you have, Matthew." Gilbert rolled his eyes with a smirk. 

"Don't disrespect me in my house." Gilbert simply laughed.

"You haven't changed."

"Neither have you." 

"No one's changed, what a morale!" Toni groaned obviously annoyed. "Guys, this isn't an episode of a kid's show. Arthur, you're an adult, Gilbert, you're almost there. Matthew is being much more mature than you two."

"Excuse me, but I could literally call Lovino here and you'll convert to a three year old in seconds." Gilbert chuckled. 

"We're all immature, what's new?" Francis stood up from his position on the couch near the window. "The only way to solve this problem is to eat because food makes everything better." 

"French as ever." Gilbert muttered with a grin. 

Just watching them has me wonder what kind of underlying history there is between the four of them. Maybe I'm just looking too deep into dad's attitude. I don't know but there's something here that's amiss. 

It makes me wish Al was here so I could have some sense of familiarity with something. I'm a complete stranger to this. 

~

I ended upstairs in my room while everyone else stayed downstairs to talk. I could have been doing homework or at least something productive. I think three straight hours of solitaire is far more important. 

I was just drained from the mess that those four are. It's making me feel younger than I really am. I'm the same age as Gilbert and it feels like he's about four years older. Maybe it's the level of maturity but I'm much more mature than Gilbert. It feels weird not having some history with them to join the conversation. At most it's some with Gilbert and dad but that's not quite enough to be comfortable. 

It's making me anxious to think about. Thus, the solitaire really calms me down. I was originally going to blast music but I kind of wanted to listen in on the conversation downstairs in case I was needed or they left. 

Neither of which really happened. Solitaire was really starting to tire me out too.

Suddenly, a familiar screech of a ringtone rang from my phone. It was Lovi. I picked up immediately knowing that he could save me from boredom. 

"Hey." I said. 

"Guess what!" Dare I say, he actually sounded excited.

"What?" 

"I want to die!"

"Why?" 

"Feli's having the loudest sex in existence." He groaned. 

"I am so sorry that you have to go through that." 

"That's all I called you for, really. I need a distraction." 

"Well, would you look at that, I needed one too." 

"What's your deal?"

"Francis, Toni, Gilbert, and my dad are having a big reunion."

"They got here?"

"Yep."

"That's rough buddy." 

"It's all just weird bickering." 

"That's usually how it is." 

"Why are they like that?" 

"Don't know. My best guest is that their all stupid." 

"Yeah, you're probably right on that." 

Suddenly, there was knock on my door.

"I have to go, I'll call you back."

"Alright." I hung up and went to open the door. Another knock came about before I could open the door. Once, I did, I found Gilbert standing there looking slightly nervous. 

"Oh, hey." I casually said in effort to calm his frantic looking expression. 

"Hey, I just came to tell you that I'm leaving."

"Oh." 

"Yeah," He nervously laughed. 

"Honestly, at the rate you guys were talking, I was sure you'd never leave." 

He chuckled (much more naturally), "Me too but I remembered that my brother is sick at home." 

"That sucks."

"Yeah, I know." 

"I hope he feels better." I gave the softest smile I could muster. 

"I don't" 

"That's horrific, Gilbert." 

"I have a reason."

"What could possibly be that reason?"

"So he doesn't ignore me anymore."

"Okay, that's fair." 

"Yeah, so I really came up to tell you bye, I told them I was going to the bathroom so I should go before they think I'm taking a big dump." I laughed at that.

"Alright I'll see you Monday, I think." 

"Yeah, and also, you can call me Gil, if you want. I don't really like when people use my full name."

"Alright fish gills, you can call me Matt if you want to." 

"Cool." 

"Go before they ask me to check on you."

"Okay, okay." He grinned and half ran to get to the stairs. I couldn't help but smile to myself. 

I need to find as many gill related puns as possible now. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm confirming this now and I'm not gonna say when it's gonna happen but there will be some explicit smut in an upcoming chapter...I say this bc I accidentally couldn't help writing it lmao

Also, chapters are only gonna get longer and longer I swear. I might also restart Cracked to just overall make it make more sense and to actually finish it. I'm still thinking about it. 

also if y'all ever make fanart know that I would kill everyone in the room then myself for you bc it motivates me to update

(looking at u @RogueNeko ;0)

yeah that's all I'm gonna go back to suffering