Gil's POV (A week later...)

It was already another Friday. This time it hit me with a much more fragile breaking of glass on my head about an hour too early. I couldn't really go back to sleep and I thought about the week so far.

On Monday, Toni disappeared for the entire day and came back in the middle of the night with a mysterious bottle of wine. On Tuesday, Matt wasn't at school leaving me bored. On Wednesday, Toni got really drunk and almost broke my ears with his yelling. Thursday was just an overall shit day.

I could only hope that today would be better than the rest of the week. I was just so sick of this hellish week. I could practically feel my face melting off from exhaustion. Even though I've been sleeping a lot this week. I would sleep for days if life would let me. Damn school. Damn Toni. Damn that bottle of wine. I almost wish I'd downed the rest of it just so I could at least go numb for awhile. Damn the American drinking age.

God, I sound like an alcoholic.

I grabbed my phone before my thoughts could go any further and have me going downstairs downing the rest of the aforementioned bottle of wine. A text distracted me thankfully.

Canadia: what's winning the darkness or the light

Me: sounds like you need to calm down

Canadia: c'mon it's a simple question

Me: yeah it's just like asking the secret to lightening

Me: science still can't answer

Canadia: I see you're as sleep deprived as I am

Me: it's just too early in the morning ok

Canadia: ahhahahaha I haven't slept for entire 24 hours

Me: there's no saving you

Canadia: caffeine and maybe meds but I'm no psycho... yet

Me: I'm concerned

That brought a bit of a smile to my face. Matt's existence is a hell of a blessing. That's an oxymoron. I am really damn tired.

Suddenly, I heard a crash from downstairs. Without a second though, I was out of bed and running downstairs. The kitchen lights were on and as I approached I heard something crinkling and I saw the dogs peaking in. I peaked in with them and all I saw was Toni at the fridge with a bag of shredded cheese stuffing his face full of it.

"Toni, what the hell?" I asked walked in. He froze and looked me like a scared animal. It took him a moment to swallow down all the cheese in his mouth.

"I'm hungry."

"So you're eating the cheese?" He nodded. "My god, you're going to kill me." I rubbed with my hands on my face trying to get the tired feeling off my face. It only helped in making my face feel light and odd. Great start. What a life of luxury I'm living.

~

I laid in the library's couch with my eyes closed. The exhaustion was finally catching up to me and I was on the verge of sleep. The some hit my stomach hard.

"Fuck!" I yelled curling up into myself.

"Shush, you're in a library." I looked up and found Lovino looking down on me with a smirk.

"And you wonder why you have no friend." I spat.

"And that's why I hit you with a book." He grinned. "Hard covers make great alarms, don't you think?"

I chuckled. "It felt like a pillow hitting me." It would surely leave a bruise that I'm going to have fun poking.

"I'll give it another go if you want." His grin twitched down to a frown. "Just to wipe that shit eating grin off your face."

"Go ahead, you wouldn't be the first with that reason."

"You're just the absolute worst person."

"Yet, you're the one to hit me with a book so who's the asshole in that regard?"

"I hate you."

"Witty."

"I loathe you."

"Now, we're getting somewhere." I closed my eyes again trying get back in my previous half asleep state.

"Gilbert."

"Hm?" I was getting comfortable in my position of spreading on the couch witch my arms behind my head. I was so close to sleep that I barely heard him.

The sleep was gone the moment I felt something soft on my lips. My eyes flicked open at lightening speed. I found Lovino's face incredibly close to mind. His eyes were closed. He was kissing me.

He pulled away sometime later. Maybe it was seconds but I was too frozen to really have a sense of reality. He stood up straight when he didn't. There was something strange and unreadable about his expression. I didn't linger too long as I was internally freaking the fuck out. With a second though I was up and out of the library. I didn't know where I was going, I was just going.

~

I got to math early so I sat there watching the wall with the occasional student coming into view. I touch two finger to my lips thinking about Lovino's expression. There some kind of sorrow to it. It was a lingering feeling on my lips and a lingering image. It was almost haunting.

How the hell am I even supposed to feel about it? One minute I'm half asleep and the next I'm being kissed. There's no proper way to really process that chain of events.

"You okay?" I was snapped out of my head but a particularly small voice. I near slapped myself trying to move my hand away from my face.

"I think so." I awkwardly grinned. Way to play it cool.

"Wow, you're even more out of it than I am and I'm sleep deprived."

"I'm just deprived."

"Of course, that explains everything."

"I'm being personally attacked."

"You weakling."

"That's it, no pictures of my dogs for a whole week." I saw pure fear on his face.

"No-please!" He grabbed my shoulders shaking me a bit. "I'll do anything for give me please!"

"Then..." I barely had time to think but I remembered that he never really got to meet the boys last week. So I'm a split second decision- "You'll get to meet them today if you never insult my life style again." He seemed to freeze for the longest time. His grip on my shoulders tightening. A big smile spread on his face.

"That's a deal I just can't refuse!"

"Alright then."

And like that any thought of my worries disappeared and were replaced with new ones. Mainly that I didn't think things through enough.

I'm complete and utterly fucked.

~

The walk home gave me flashbacks to last week when we tried going to my house. That same excitement on his face as I told him about the dogs.

It was as he started rambling about a story of a dog he met at a park, I realized that we had almost kissed that day. We almost kissed in the rain. I found myself looking at the sky only to find a clear blue sky with a few scattered clouds. No rain means things will go as "planned" this time. Not that I didn't like running in the rain enjoying my time with him. It's just that I really want to see how he would react to the dogs.

"And so the dog hit Al as it landed from off the roof and that's the story of how we became town heroes for a week."

"As a dog owner, that makes me quite proud to know you."

"Thank you!" He gave the sweetest and warmest smile that I think my heart stopped for a few seconds. That smile is not something he should be flashing so effortlessly to people. It's too precious.

"Well," I stopped in my tracks. He followed. "We're here." I pointed to my kind of small fading blue house.

"I might piss myself from excitement." He joked as we walked up to the the door.

"Can't let you in if you're not house trained." I pulled out my key opening the door. I moved aside, gesturing for him to go in. "After you." The moment his foot stepped into the house the dogs came barking and howling at full speed to the door. I swear I saw his face brighten to the light of the sun when he saw them.

I don't I've ever seen someone be so happy to have three large dogs knock them over but it was sight to behold.

~

"Behold, my prized possession." I geastured to the box sitting next to the TV on its own seperate table.

"What is it?" Matthew asked from the couch with the three dogs laying around him.

"A record player." I opened the box to show off the whole usual record player set up of the needle and the turner and all that nonsense.

"That cool!" I checked to see what record I had out next to it.

"Care for some Chopin?"

"Do I looked like some kind of degenerate that would say no to classical music?"

"Alright then." I pulled the record out of the it's folder and carefully placed it on the turner. Just as carefully I placed the needle onto it and turned it on. After a few seconds the piano started.

"It's not often that someone actually listens to classical music on a record player."

"You're really struggling not to make fun of my lifestyle, huh?" I turned around to look at him.

"No, I'm being serious."

"Alright then."

"That's the second time you've said that."

"Fine then, I'll say something completely unexpected." I walked closer to him and held out my hand. "Care to dance like it's the 1800s?"

"I don't see why not." He took my hand and I pulled him up from the couch. "How do you know to dance like they did back then?"

"It's quite simple really." I put on a shitty British accent. "It's just the most classic of dances; the waltz."

He giggled. "Of course, you're right." He too put on a shitty British accent. "I'm just a complete idiot!"

"I'm more of an idiot, honestly. Chopin is Polish! I'm a disgrace!" He straight up snorted and it was the cutest sound in the world.

"So," He dropped the accent. "Are you we going to start dancing or are we going to stand here like actual idiots?" He laid one hand on my back and the other in my hand.

"Right, of course." I'll be honest, I was growing nervous. I still managed to slip my own hand onto his back and tighten the grip on his hand albeit shift the position of our hands a bit.

And like that, we were dancing like idiots to Chopin in my living room. It was somehow the most fun thing I've ever done.

~

I managed to get him to sleep over. It was an easy to fight actually. Once we grew tired of dancing, he noticed how late it was so to make life easier, he texted Arthur that he was going to stay over instead. So, like a couple of five years old, we made a makeshift bed on the floor. Neither of us were really sleeping though. I was starting get really sweaty from the amount of blankets.

I sat up from the makeshift bed really just being a pile of blankets. I fiddled with my sleeve for a long moment. I knew he was looking at me, the curiosity of my sudden movements boring into my back. I breathed in, pushing all my nerves down. I mustered anger in myself to quit being a coward. Slowly, I slipped off my shirt. I heard the tiniest gasp from him. He didn't say anything though. All I heard beside the gasp was a shifting in the blankets.

Suddenly, I felt a finger on my back. The finger moved slowly tracing the scars on my back. Until it found the largest one. The finger was gone once it found the insane looking scar. Then I felt a small peck of lips in the same spot. I sucked in a breath. The small kisses moved up the scar. After tracing the full thing, they went to the back of my neck and stopped there. I felt Matt lay his head there, his breath tickling my neck. His glasses felt kind of cold against my skin.

He stayed silent for the longest time. The seemingly distant sound of the TV somewhere in the background. It was oddly smoothing.
Matt's arms eventually wrapped around my waist pulling me closer to him.

"It's like reading a book."

"What?" My voice was small making him much louder than me.

"This shows the important parts." He rested his chin on my shoulder his arm draping around my other shoulder. "It's a beautiful mess of a story."

"I wouldn't describe it like that." I looked down at the blanket below.

"Well, I would." He gave my shoulder a slight kiss. "Because that mess of a journey made you who you are. And who you are makes an amazing main character."

"I'm starting to think you've gone insane."

"Your fault."

"Fair enough."

"Yeah?" He giggled.

"Do you have any scars?"

"Yeah." His tone was somber. "They're all on my legs though."

"Can I see them?" With a little bit of hesitation, he nodded. Slowly, he slipped off my shoulders. He shifted back as I turned around. I saw shame and nerves in his eyes. He sighed, hooking his hands into the band of his pants. With a bit of a struggle he slipped them off. I felt my breath stop. A slightly fading burn scar painted his shin. That wasn't the only spectacle though. His thighs were filled with jagged fading lines. Scars seemingly made in haste and inexperience yet intentional.

I leaned down to his shin, holding his leg in place. I kissed the bottom of the scar gently. Then went up pecking  at the expanse of the scar. Down to the very centimeter that it reached. I made my way up, kissing here and there. I got to his thighs and looked at them for second. There was clearly a story written here. I didn't waste another second to kiss every last one of them. I felt him shiver and shake beneath me. I found myself at his hip. I gave it a small kiss  Suddenly, grabbed my head and pulled me up into a sloppy starting kiss turned feverish.

"You're going to drive me insane." He  said in between breaths after pulling away. He was flushed, eyes half-lidded, his lips worn and bitten into. I think my breath stopped. Such a sight could kill anyone and it might just kill me.

"You might kill me before I can." I licked my lips as they were suddenly dry.

"It's a race then."

"More like a declaration of war."

"In that case," His legs wrapped around my hips and he grabbed at my hair. "it's on." For a split second, my brain short-circuited with the idea 'this is really happening'. Holy shit. It melted away when he pulled me in for another desperate kiss.

His legs tightened around my waist. Experimentally, he thrusted his hips up. My mind went completely blank right then. The kiss broke with us gasping for air. He didn't even hesitate to continue down to my jaw. His lips were mind numbing when they got my neck.

We were like desperate wolves but I didn't care. I don't think he did either. That only made each thrust into eachother, each sloppy kiss, every little movement all the better.