I See Emeralds

Chapter Thirty-Three (Antonio's POV)

I walk to school with Gilbert, his little brother Ludwig, and his brother's boyfriend Feliciano with a light and cheerful feeling floating throughout me. Ludwig and Feliciano are chattering amongst themselves, walking a little bit behind us on the sidewalk as usual. I overhear bits and pieces about the dance. I knew they would be going together! Cuties!

Whenever Feliciano isn't walking with us in the mornings, he's with Lovino. Lovino. That's right, he agreed to go to the dance with me! And not only that, but he even agreed to...eeeeee! I can't even manage to finish the thought without internally squealing. Lovino's finally my boyfriend! It's about time.

Gilbert has gotten used to my frequent pauses during today's trip to school. "Yo Toni, don't you wanna get there as soon as possible so you can actually, you know, see him?" he reminds me with a laugh. I know he still hasn't asked Matthew to the dance. That's tonight. I doubt there will be any time for that now. Poor Gil.

"Right!" I reply, snapping out of my daze. I feel filled with determination. Gil steps to the side and pulls out his phone. He presses it to his ear and does a "shh" signal at me. I step to the side next to him so Feli and Ludwig don't end up bumping into us. They seem to be in their own little world.

"Morning Mattie! What did you say? I can't hear you over that background noise on your end," Gilbert says. I begin to get excited. Please, please, please, ask him to the dance! I don't care who asks who, just do it!

"Toni, Feli, and Luddy. The latter two are just doing their thing, only Toni is actually paying any attention to me," he continues and sort of frowns at me. I remain where I am. I want to hear the rest of this call, or at least Gil's end of it.

"Oh wow, they're all there? Of course Alfred would say that. I bet Arty got all mad. Why did Alfy want you to call me? Oh. Ohh! Haha, of course! I was meaning to bring that up myself actually, but I couldn't find a good opportunity. Wow, I didn't think...cool, cool. Okay, yeah. See you in a few minutes!" He hangs up and resumes walking, a huge grin on his face.

After a few moments, I can't resist my curiosity any longer. "So you're not gonna tell me what that was about?" He looks at me, a bit of a confused glimmer in his eyes. Did he forget I was here?

"You'll see." He pauses and lowers his voice. "At the dance!" He winks and speeds off to catch up to his brother and Feli. I smile. Good for him. It's about time.

It's a beautiful day out. The sun is shining and the sky is clear. It's going to start feeling like spring soon. I hope tomorrow is as good as today, because tomorrow is my birthday! I nearly forgot that in all my excitement.

***********
"Hey Lovi! Good morning" I exclaim as I sit down. He buries his face in his sleeves the moment he hears my voice. He does that a lot around me. It's a habit he's had ever since we met.

"I completely forgot until I reread the texts from earlier..." he grumbles. "Hey."

"Thanks for saying yes. To both my requests," I say, positively beaming. He gazes up at me with his honey colored eyes.

"Don't mention it. You took a weight off my shoulders. I was worrying about asking you ever since I found out about the dance," he tells me. Really? He's liked me for a while now? I guess the odd comments he made when I touched his curl that one time should have been a sign. He was just showering me in compliments.

He looks over at the door. Francis and Arthur are coming in. They're holding hands, but they immediately shift apart once they enter the building. I guess everything worked out for them too.

They slide in across from us and Lovino looks relieved. I know he's always a bit anxious when he's with just me. I guess it's because he's always liked me and I never knew.
"Bonjour. How are you two doing?" Francis asks joyfully. He sounds elated. Arthur seems busy with staring at random signs on the cafeteria walls and tuning us out. He and Lovino can be alike.

"Good. Are you going to be at the dance tonight?" I ask, even though I've already predicted his answer.

"Yes," Arthur answers first.

"Definitely!" Francis adds. "It's interesting that it's on the day before your birthday. If only it was actually on it!"

I giggle and nod. "Yeah, that would be neat." Lovino widens his eyes for a brief second and sighs. I think he forgot how soon my birthday is. Oh well, I wasn't exactly expecting much anyways. It's never been a big deal to me.

A few minutes later, Kiku walks in with Alfred and some other boy I don't know. Him and Kiku are exchanging glares while Alfred lingers awkwardly behind them. They all sit down with us. "Leon, you need to stop staying out so late. You're going to worry your parents," Kiku scolds. Why do I recognize that name?

"For your info Keeks, I'm off doing stuff that will, like, benefit humanity," Leon says with an eye roll. He sounds bored. "Besides, if Emil is right, we should be done by tonight. If the dance works out."

"I wish you would actually give me some specifics on this work. Is it the same plan Tino was informed of? He hasn't said a lot about it." Tino?

"Yeah. Mathias and I are doing stuff for Lukas and Emil. Tino is, like, giving us some info and such," Leon explains. "I wish you'd stop being so overprotective." Right, those are the guys Tino has mentioned!

"I'm your brother. I have a right to know," Kiku insists. They're brothers? I thought Kiku was an only child.

"Only biologically. Heck, we didn't even know until, like, a year ago. Getting adopted by different parents does that." Oh, that makes more sense. Kiku did mention once that he has two dads, so I figured he was adopted.

"That doesn't matter. I'm just telling you to warn your parents when you decide to run off with your little boyfriend for hours," Kiku says. He crosses his arms and finally looks at the rest of us. "Hello. This is my technical brother, Leon."

"What are you doing here, Leon?" Tino asks as he sits down. Berwald follows.

"Hey Tino! Kiku has been nagging me," Leon complains. "He's not grasping how important our work is."

"You'll be thanking him soon. Maybe tonight if things work out," Tino tells Kiku.

"Don't encourage him," Kiku huffs. Tino shrugs.

"We just figured that you wanted to see colors again."