Requested by V4804222959
TW: Bullying, abuse, neglect, and some homophobia
Google translate ahead!
Uniform...god, where is that thing? It took a while to find it but soon Alfred had managed to get dressed but it was just as crappy as usual, he never had time to iron or store his uniform properly. Alfred didn't have other clothes really, he had his school uniforms (normal uniform, swim, and gym) and that's it, his parents generally ignored him and didn't get him the things he needed, they were too hyper-focused on their 'perfect child' Alfred's twin brother, Matthew, who was away at a boarding school for gifted children or something. He didn't hate Matt, it wasn't his fault their parents liked him more.
Honestly, the state of his uniforms was something that embarrassed Alfred, he didn't like looking like a slob and his appearance left him open to cruel remarks from other kids. He'd made friends with a few people, his best friends being Gilbert and Matthias who were pretty laid back and crazy, they didn't mind his appearance and Gil didn't even wear his uniform properly. People liked Matthias and Gilbert though, their personalities were gravitating and they made people smile, Alfred was just...quiet and weird. People could describe Alfred as quiet, but his friends would disagree, he just has to open up first and once he does he'll never shut up.
Al got a ride from Gilbert who had gotten his drivers license a few months ago, Matthias had his drivers license too but he gave four other people a ride and Al didn't want to get into that mess. Gil's brother always rode shotgun so Alfred was used to sitting in the back, usually behind Ludwig so he and Gil could share looks through the rearview mirror.
When he heard the familiar honk of Gilbert's familiar Volkswagen, Alfred felt himself grin. He loved the rides to school, it was full of laughter between him and his albino friend. He hurried down the stairs but slowed as he reached the foyer, he looked into the living room to the right of the stairs and noticed his mom typing away at her computer. His stomach knotted for a moment, the sight of her set off his fight or flight sense, he quietly left the house after grabbing his bag and climbed into the car.
"Guten morgan Al!" Gilbert shouted while Al fastened his seat belt, Ludwig had his nose deep in a book about forestry, he was always reading something different when Alfred saw him and none of it made sense.
Alfred grinned at him, watching through the windshield as they left his neighborhood and headed to school, "Morning, Gil!" He shouted back, Ludwig cringed a little at the noise but knew that if he complained nothing would happen.
"Meine awezome selv haz dezided to join zhe zwimming club!" Gil shouted, glancing at the rearview to grin at Al before turning back to the road, "Mein bruder zhinkz it'z a bad idea!" He said and pouted at Ludwig who didn't look up from his book.
"I told jou," Ludwig began, putting a finger under the word he had left off on as he looked at his brother, "Jou zunburn zo eazily I don't zink more expozure to zhe zun vill be gut." He explained before going back to his book.
Al had to admit, he had a point. As long as he's known the German pair, Gilbert seemed to always end up sunburned just by existing, "Jou don't agree vith him, do jou?" Gil asked but seemed to have already read Alfred's mind, "Jou do, don't jou? Traitor!"
Alfred laughed at him but didn't say anything about his thoughts of the matter, he was worried about Gil joining the swim club for a different reason...he was in the swim club. It's one thing to say the bruises on his upper body were from playing with the guys but Gil would know it was a lie, Alfred doesn't like roughhousing for one and the only two he was close enough to play around with would never be that rough with him.
They arrived at school without much more said, Gil parked in his student spot and they got out. Alfred pulled his bag onto his shoulder and Gil put a hand on his shoulder, "Don't let zhem get to jou." He said with a ghost of a smile.
Alfred gave a thumbs-up as he began to feel nervous, his school life wasn't great. Gil and Matthias knew he was bullied, they didn't know about his home life, and they knew the bullying was physical but the school didn't do much about it so his two friends (and their friends) tried to comfort Alfred when they could.
He went inside and left the Beilschmidt brothers, he needed to get to his locker and then hurry off to class. Sometimes he wished he had an ally of some kind near his locker but he didn't which is how somebody got away with carving 'fag' into his metal locker with something, probably a key.
The word had been there for months, when he first saw it he was hurt but it's old news to him now. Alfred was gay but he wasn't exactly out of the closet just yet, he supposed becoming desensitized to the word was good for him in the long run. When he opened his locker he was hit with a smell so disgusting he gagged a little, he found the source pretty quickly. Somebody had slid a small raw fish into the slits of his locker, how gross was that?
Quickly Alfred pulled the fish from his locker but that seemed to be a bad idea as somebody pointed it out to his friend, "Look he keeps fish in his locker what a fucking weirdo."
Soon a few more people had given their piece to the situation but Alfred had learned to tune them out a long time ago, just keep your head low and don't speak and it'll all go away. All the booklets and inspirational speeches about bullying always said to just not react, why did not reacting never work?
Al pulled a loose piece of paper, probably a long-forgotten handed back test, from his bag and wrapped the stinky fish inside it. He figured with it out of sight people would go back to whatever they did in their uneventful lives. He finished his business at his locker and left with some books and supplies, throwing the fish in a hallway trashcan as he passed it.
Alfred arrived at his first-hour class, mythology, and hurriedly took his place to keep attention off of himself. He put his head on the desk and covered it with his hands, waiting for the bell to ring.
"Yo!" He looked up at the familiar booming voice that had entered the class, Matthias, "Sup Al? I got you somethin." Matthias made his way over and slapped something on his desk, a box, "Lunchbox. Made it myself! Don't worry-don't worry, Lukas made sure it was edible."
"Oh..." Alfred knew he'd been forgetting to pack his lunch lately but he didn't realize he'd done it so often it had become noticeable. Matthias probably knew it had to do with his bad home life and took it upon himself to make him lunch, sweet, "Thanks..."
"Welcome! You have to pay me back though," Matthias grinned and slid the box over to Al who could already smell how good it was, "The payment is sitting with me at lunch today. I know it's Gil's day but I already bribed him into sitting with me too so it's fine."
"Sounds good," Alfred said and shook Matthias's hand in a business manner, both boys starting to snicker at their action. Matthias and Gil sort of shared Alfred for lunch since Gilbert sat with his brother and Matthias sat with the four people he drove to school. Matthias lived in a group home since he's been in the foster care system for forever, the others in his home are a small boy named Tino, a boy larger than Matthias named Berwald, and two brothers named Emil and Lukas.
"See you at lunch then min elskede," Alfred didn't understand many other languages, especially not Danish, but he just repeated that he'd see Matthias later and didn't question it. The school Al went to was pretty multicultural so a lot of people were from other countries, Matthew went to a similar school and had taken up French, but Alfred could never get a grasp on other languages. Al was self-taught in ASL but that's it and his parents didn't even count it as a language, calling him a disappointment many times over it.
Class started and Alfred tried to pay attention but he knew each quiet snicker in the classroom was about him, what else would it be about? He hated this school but at the same time school was an escape from home and a time when he could talk to his friends albeit only at certain times.
The rest of the day went on in much the same fashion, Alfred entered a class and kept to himself while kids around him made snide comments about him. Today wasn't a physical day and he was 100% okay with that, the bruises from the night before when he loaded the dishwasher wrong still hurt.
At lunch, he was excited to try Matthias's food and hurried to sit with him and his friends, all of whom were pseudo-brothers besides the real brothers. He took his spot next to Matthias and Gil was sat on the other side of the Danish boy. Gil looked at him and then the box and smiled, "I zee jou didn't vorget lunch again!"
Alfred glanced at him while opening the box, a literal box not a lunchbox, but it was as small as a lunchbox so it's fine, "I um...did forget. Matthias made this for me." He explained while taking a fork from the box, it was dingy but better than nothing. Inside the box were containers with lids, one had rice in it, another had a BLT sandwich, and then a brownie. There was also a bottle of lemonade, "Oh geez thanks Matthias, I haven't looked inside yet it...looks amazing."
Matthias thumped his chest, "I, Matthias, the esteemed cook will en-"
"-Esteemed my ass," Lukas cut in, he was still focusing on cutting his steak with a butter knife but still he had to be the sarcastic person he is.
Alfred grinned to himself as the two started bickering, Matthias being emotional and Lukas replying in a monotone. It was a lively table but he was concerned about Ludwig so he turned to Gil, "Who's sitting with your brother?" He asked.
Gil shrugged, his burrito was already falling apart, "Hiz friend Feliciano und zhen Feliciano's brüder Lovino und Romeo und zhen Lovino'z vriend Antonio und zhen Antonio's vriend Francis." He said and pulled a plate over to collect his now deconstructed burrito. Alfred made a small noise of surprise, seemed Ludwig was popular, that wasn't entirely surprising in itself but Ludwig didn't get along with people well since he had such a brash personality and said things as they are instead of as people want to hear.
Alfred thought of something to talk about as conversation passed through the table until he remembered, "Oh! Have you seen the new episode of Victoria?" He was a huge nerd for historical dramas, his favorites were The Crown and The Tudors but his all-time favorite was Victoria, "I think it's kind of weird that they're showing Alfred and Victoria as having a strained marriage. Sure, they had moments like all marriages, but never to the point that they wondered if they still loved each other." He paused for a moment to see if Gil and Matthias were actually interested but they didn't interrupt him so he just grinned, "I also like that they included Bertie's learning disability, the actor for him is so good."
Alfred continued talking about the British monarchy for a few minutes more before finally taking a breath and sitting back, letting Gilbert change the topic to something else after he and Matthias commented on Victoria themselves. He felt happy at being able to talk about the things he loved but at the same time, he was starting to overthink his talking. He knew he was too loud and proud at times, he should relax and only say a few things, but he couldn't control himself when he got excited.
The bell rung before he could reenter the conversation, he'd been tearing into himself too hard again, stupid. He grabbed the box, now empty, and took it to his locker so he could give the containers back to Matthias later. His locker smelled worse when he approached it and he grew anxious, quickly putting the combination in.
Inside of Alfred's locker was now about nine or ten different rotted raw fish, all the same size as the first. Some fell onto the floor when the locker opened and he covered his mouth to stop from throwing up, "Herranjumala!" Alfred turned to see Tino, "Al do you need help with that?" He asked kindly, coming to stand in the way of anybody who wanted to look.
"Uh...yes th-thank you." He got another paper out and stacked the fish from his locker onto it while Tino got the fish from the floor, "Don't tell Matthias, please? Or Gilbert. They'll get mad..." He knew the two would beat his bullies up which is why he never named names around them.
"Of course..." Tino looked at the fish as Al crumpled the paper to hide them, "Listen, Alfred, we can help you with this." Tino smiled up at him, "Safety in numbers! We could all go to classes together and nobody would bully anybody ever again!"
Alfred shook his head quickly, "Thank you, Tino. But I'm fine, it's just fish." Tino seemed down at his help being shot down so he quickly added, "If I need help I'll go to Matthias and Gilbert, I promise."
Tino brightened up after that and nodded, "Okay! Now hurry to class, don't be late or you'll be in trouble." He almost sounded like a mom but before Alfred could ask what he meant the small boy was gone.
Al got his things in order and again threw the fish out, getting into his AP English class just as the bell rung, he found his seat but not before being tripped halfway down the aisle. He recovered spectacularly much to the offender's displeasure and quickly sat down, getting himself in order.
He got a tardy in English for not being in his seat at the bell but the rest of the day went pretty boringly, it was school. He got at least one spitball to his head and got shoved in the hallway but other than that he was fine.
The end of school was also panic-inducing, Alfred had swim club and now so did Gilbert. He huffed and headed to his coach, he should quit now before Gil saw him shirtless. Quitting the team wasn't hard for Alfred, the other boys on the team were harsh to him and tattled for the littlest things to get him in trouble. He was sure Gil could take his spot and he had already seen Gilbert's name on the team's roster outside the coach's door.
So, he headed home. He made sure to avoid Gilbert at all cost and left quickly, poor Ludwig would have to wait for a ride back home since practice lasted until five. Though, Ludwig would probably be reading the entire time.
The walk home was about thirty minutes, not too bad but he didn't like walking it. When he got inside he could hear the sound of pots and pans in the kitchen, maybe his mom was cooking? He sat his bag in the foyer closet as usual and began trying to slink up the stairs, "Alfred!"
Shit, his mom was calling for him, she probably heard him come in. Preparing for the worse, he headed to the kitchen, "Yes, mom?" He said, barely in the room as his heart jumped into his throat.
"Matthew is coming home tomorrow," His mother said, barely looking at her son, "I want this entire house clean. He'll be home after you finish school so just skip tomorrow to get the place spotless."
She said it so casually but those words crushed Alfred, the school was his happy place even if it was boring as hell. He thought about just complying, but he didn't have a phone or anything to tell his friends about his absence, "But I-"
"-Are you talking back?!" She whirled on him and quickly he shut his mouth, "You ungrateful bitch! You think you can just run this house, don't you?" Alfred thought of something to say and she noticed it, her hand slapped his cheek so hard his glasses ended up on the floor, "Just shut up! Clean the house and that's it! God, I wish Matthew was already here so I could just ship you off to one of your stupid fucking friends for the weekend!"
Al lowered his head and waited for her to finish her tirade when she was done he quickly snatched his glasses and got away from her. First, he changed out of his uniform into one of his one few outfits. His pants stopped at his ankle and his shirt suffocated him but he could live with it, better than getting his uniform dirty at least.
When he was finished changed Alfred ran downstairs and began cleaning up, he loved his brother immensely and would never blame his parents' behavior on him but...god it sucked, why couldn't they love him too? Why wasn't he enough? What did Matthew have that Alfred didn't?
Alfred didn't do anything for the rest of the day besides clean, he wasn't even allowed to eat because that would take time from cleaning. Sure, he was hungry, but he wasn't going to school tomorrow anyway so he'd just get up at midnight and sneak some food. For now, he starved.
The next morning Alfred was woken up by honking, Gilbert. He peeked through his curtains and aw the Volkswagen parked by his house, he should just ignore it and talk to him tomorrow about why he was absent. Gilbert, however, seemed to have other plans.
Alfred felt his stomach drop as Gilbert got out of his car and headed to his door, this was bad. He didn't have pajamas so he always slept in his birthday suit since he also barely had clothes to wear and didn't want to dirty them by sleeping in them. In a panic, he threw on another too small outfit and bolted down the stairs to try and stop Gilbert from knocking but he didn't make it to the door as he'd run into his father's back.
Alfred stumbled back at the impact and felt like things slowed down, for some reason his thoughts weren't on himself but Gilbert and Matthias. His father landed a square punch on his jaw and he hit his head on the banister as he fell. His father didn't say anything, just spat on him as he turned to look at him in shock.
Gross...he used his shirt to get the spit off his glasses but felt dread attack him as knocking sounded from the door. Internally he wanted to shout for Gilbert to run, leave, please. His father, the dumb fuck as always, opened the door with Alfred in full view of the door and on the ground. Gilbert made eye contact with him and those beautiful-no, those normal crimson eyes widened, frantically Alfred shook his head.
His father didn't notice their exchange and glared down at the white-haired boy, "What do you want?" He asked, his voice was about as stereotypical as 'fat dad' voices went.
Gilbert looked up at the older man and stammered for a moment as he collected himself, he decided on a tactic and went with it, "Es tut mir leid, dass ich mich verlaufen habe." He said, putting on a face.
Alfred knew what he was doing, the causal 'I don't know English' trick, worked charms on idiots. Alfred's dad regarded Gilbert for a second, "Shut up." He said and slammed the door without a second thought, "You, get back to cleaning." He ordered.
Alfred was up in a second and did exactly as he was told, his glasses couldn't take another hit to the face and he was positive his parents never tried to avoid hitting them. Last time he broke his glasses he ended up cutting people's lawns to pay for new ones since his parents wouldn't buy him new ones, they were always totally fine with buying Matthew tons of glasses since he broke his a lot playing hockey. It wasn't fair.
Alfred, however impossible it might be, let the fact that Gilbert saw him like that fade from his memory. He didn't want to deal with explaining himself to the other for now and soon, he'd finished cleaning and was allowed to make himself a sandwich.
With perfect timing, the door opened as he took the last bite and in walked his brother, the two looked at each other and grinned, "Alfie!" He shouted and set his suitcases down, running to hug Alfred.
Alfred went to hug him back but before Matthew could make it to him, he was engulfed by their father who had appeared from the living room, "Welcome home my boy!" He shouted.
"Mattie!" Their mother shouted and kissed his entire face, "We cleaned the house just for you! we should go out, just the three of us, somewhere to celebrate you coming home! Sound good? Maybe Denny's since you love their pancakes so much." The exclusion was expected and Alfred let himself fade into the background, turning to clean the knife fro his sandwich.
"Can Alfie come?" Matthew asked innocently, he always tried to force their parents' hand into letting Alfred tag along but it rarely worked, "I haven't gotten to hang with my bro in..." He looked at his hands, "Awhile." He decided.
"Alfie is very busy," He hated when anybody but Matthew used that nickname, "He has schoolwork to catch up on." His mother said and shot a glare at Alfred that read as 'agree with me or else' and he didn't like the or else bit of that.
"Yeah," He set the knife down on the towel by the sink to dry, "A lot of work. Maybe next time, Matt." He smiled sadly at his brother who huffed.
"Let's get ready to leave!" Their mother said to redirect the conversation to Matthew. Matt smiled a bit and glanced at Alfred before agreeing and grabbing his suitcases, "Alfred get in here and help him with his bags."
"Coming," He picked up two of Matthew's bags and Matt carried his hockey bag as well as his polar bear stuffed animal, he could never sleep without it, "So how was school?" He asked as they both trudged upstairs.
Matthew shrugged, he seemed upset, "I miss you." He mumbled, "I never get to talk to you anymore and now I can't hang out either." He looked at Alfred who just nodded, what else could he do? They were separated by their shitty parents.
Just as the two got Matt's bags into his room they heard a siren outside, "Ooooo somebody's in trouble~" Alfred joked and Matt laughed a little, the brothers looked out of Matthew's window to see police cruisers coming down their street but...they stopped in front of the house, "Oh no."
"Oh no is right," Matthew whispered, they went to the top of the stairs but hid as they used to do as children, eavesdropping on the conversation their parents were having with an officer at the door.
"Ma'am please calm down, we know you have two children inside and would just like to see them," The officer was saying, "We have a report of an injured teenager and a video of it too."
Alfred covered his mouth as he realized it must have been Gilbert, fuck. Their mother turned to their father, "What does he mean?" She demanded, "This is your fault I just know it!"
"No it was that damn foreign fuck," He responded and turned up the stairs, "Alfred! Matthew! Come downstairs!" He shouted, the twins got out of their hiding spot and descended the stairs slowly, "These officers want to talk to you." He said, his eyes following Alfred closely.
The officer noticed Alfred first and spoke to him, "Hey there son, where'd you get that gnarly bruise?" He asked.
Alfred touched a hand to his cheek, it had bruised already? His father took his small motion as hesitation and began speaking, "He just had an acci-"
"-I didn't ask you," The officer interrupted. Alfred could feel the icy but nervous glare of his parents and knew that if he spoke now, he and Matthew would have to go into foster care and Matthew would probably have to leave his special school.
As he debated on his answer, Matthew flicked his arm, "Dude it's fine." He whispered, he was always kind of quiet, "Just tell him."
Alfred looked at Matthew who smiled back, nodding his head a little. He turned back to the officer and looked down, "My...my dad punched me after my mom slapped me." He admitted, the slap may have happened last night but whatever, "They don't like me because I'm not perfect like Matt but please don't take Matt away from me."
"No I'd never do that," The officer told him kindly, he turned to Matthew, "Can you tell me what your parents do to the two of you?" He asked. Alfred could hear his parents shouting and screaming as they were taken out front to be put into one of the cruisers.
"They don't do anything to me," Matthew said, "Well, they don't let me talk to Alfred or hang out with him. They hit him and don't buy him clothes or food." He chewed on his lip, "Don't make Alfred stay here."
"How about you two go upstairs and get your essentials, I'll be taking you to a hospital for an examination, okay? Then you'll be going to a special place for kids like you," Alfred and Matthew looked at each other before hurrying upstairs as the officer spoke into his shoulder thing.
"Do you think they'll get charged with anything?" Alfred asked as Matthew helped him pack his few things, "Will we have to move away from here? That would suck." He didn't want to switch schools, it was a selfish thought since Matthew would have to but it was still something he didn't want to do.
"Maybe the examination is to find old injuries," Matthew suggested, "To charge them." They finished putting Alfred's things into his backpack and then hurried to Matthew's room, they just grabbed his unpacked bags from school and his bear before heading downstairs.
The rest of the day was a blur of answering questions for strangers, physical examinations, and more questions. All Alfred really remembered was Matthew's hand, the two never let go of each other and when all was said and done a police officer took them to a house.
"This is where you'll be staying," He said as he walked up to the door. Matthew and Alfred followed with their stuff, the officer knocked on the door and a plump woman opened it.
"Oh! Hello! You must be Matthew and Alfred, come with me come with me," She seemed to be very nice so the twins followed her inside, she leads them to a room with two twin beds, "I'm sorry you two will have to share a room. I try to keep siblings together, saves space."
"It's fine," Matthew said kindly, "It's more than enough, thank you so much." She seemed delighted at Matt's manners and pinched his cheek before leaving, "Ouch." He mumbled making Alfred laugh.
Looking back, Alfred could remember arriving at the house but he didn't remember much of what went on after. He knows he testified at trial against his parents with Matthew and ended up in foster care until he aged out a year later, he also knew his bully situation was handled rather brutally by his friends who had decided he'd had enough...he didn't remember the specifics of that time though. Matthew never spoke of it which was fine, but, sometimes Alfred wondered about how his life would've been if Gilbert hadn't walked up to his door that day and instead had driven off.
"Al?" The voice came from next to him in the apartment he shared with two special people, he turned his head into the darkness but knew who it was from.
"Matthias?" He replied, reaching a hand out to hold onto the other's, "What're you doing awake?" He asked.
"Thas what I'm askin' you," Matthias replied, squeezing his hand. Alfred blushed and interlocked their fingers, "What are you thinking about?"
"Life," Alfred replied, he smiled though Matthias couldn't see it. He really had such a beautiful boyfriend.
"Zounds fucking boring," Gilbert added from his other side. Right, he really had two beautiful boyfriends, "Go zhe fuck to zleep you two." He ordered, his blankets moved as he turned onto his side and wrapped one lazy arm around Alfred.
Matthias scooted over and held the two with his longer and more muscular arms, "You go to sleep first." He said.
Alfred leaned into Matthias's chest and smiled as the other two began bickering about who should sleep first. In the end, it was Alfred who fell asleep first. He could never stay awake long in the arms of one of his beloved, he just felt so safe and it was so easy to fall asleep when one felt safe.