Arthur suddenly woke up on a beach. The strange thing was that he had expected to have lost at least some of his memories, but he could recall everything that had happened that day. Yes, he was watching Alfred and Kiku play a game of beach volleyball when he suddenly stepped on a sharp rock and lost his balance, soon falling into the ocean. He was soaked, but other than that didn't seem to be harmed.
"Hey, you okay?" A familiar female voice asked, almost seeming to bounce off the waves.
"Yeah, I believe I'm fine." Arthur slowly stood up and turned his head to the source of the voice, which was almost directly across from him. Sitting on a smooth rock in the shallow sea water was Michelle. "Can you tell me what happened?"
"I was watching you guys play volleyball when you suddenly lost your balance and slipped. I rushed over and gently laid you down in the wet sand near the water. That way you wouldn't drown!" The Seychellian girl explained with a smile. She was currently wearing a heavy white sundress that tied around the neck that bathed in the glowing sunset behind her. "Oh, the sun's going down..."
"Well, there's no purpose in trying to go home now. Could I maybe stay at your house tonight? I could call my friends and let them know I'm doing alright, then spend the night here?" Arthur asked. He figured she would agree, after all, he did have a hand in raising her, did he not? Would she really say no to family?
"Alright! But don't eat too much, alright? Food is so expensive nowadays!" She complained, standing up. "By the way, did you have fun today at my island?" He nodded and she gracefully jumped off her rock into the water below.
"You're going to ruin your dress if you do that!" Arthur rushed into the water after her and pulled her out by her arm, laying her out on the beach.
"You're still strict as always, aren't you?" Michelle said with a tone of bitterness in her voice. It soon vanished when she said her next sentence. "Come on, if we don't hurry we'll be stuck out here in the dark! Trust me, there's nothing fun about dark beaches!" She held her hand out to him and he took it, to both of their surprises. She merrily walked along with him, humming a little as they went. Arthur was surprised that she was so happy about being around him. He figured she would eventually get over it, but this quickly? Something else had to be going on.
Soon they had reached Michelle's house and she pushed against the wooden door with all of her might, having it swing open. "Sorry that my door gets stuck sometimes." She ran inside and Arthur was surprised by how small her house was. It wasn't exactly what he'd call primitive, he had power and water and everything, but it wasn't the grand mansion he was expecting either. Of course, he was too polite to point it out.
"Your house seems very...traditional." He thought that was the right word.
"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Michelle asked from somewhere in her bedroom.
"It's old-fashioned to me. It actually reminds me of my early youth, when many people still lived in small houses like this. They usually only had one room though." Arthur explained, looking around. The living room and kitchen were connected by a half-wall, similar to something you'd see in an American or even British house. The walls were painted a sunny yellow, and the windows were large enough to let in the bright sunshine. Some rugs hung on the walls, but Arthur wasn't sure if Michelle herself made them or if she bought them somewhere. He could tell that they were hand-embroidered though, a hobby he had but would never admit to. Michelle soon ran in, having taken off her dress and shoes and instead replacing them. The new dress was a light blue off-shoulder top that had a white flower print, and the skirt was a light yellow knee-long skirt with the same pattern. The top was short enough to expose her midriff, and she had sacrificed her shoes to go around her wooden floors barefoot.
"I hope you don't mind? I changed out of that wet dress into something dry and cool. If you don't like exposed skin though I can change-" She got cut off by Arthur.
"No, it's fine. I like it." He smiled, and she smiled back.
"So, you want something to eat? You're probably starving after running around all day!" She walked into the kitchen and started taking out pots and pans in a very noisy way. "Wait, I can't cook very well on my own. Could you help me?" She looked back at Arthur with a slight puppy-dog look. He sighed and followed her in.
"Luckily for you, I'm great at cooking! I'm sure that together we could make something great!" He smiled slightly.
"Great! I was thinking of making a tropical fruit salad with the native fruits that are grown here?" Michelle started reaching into her fridge.
"Pretty much just coconuts grow here though, in terms of fruit." Arthur noted. "But you could try making a tropical fruit salad, with things such as coconuts, pineapples, and mangoes? They're all from island nations such as yourself."
"That sounds like fun too! I actually got some from Alfred earlier, he brought over a whole bag of fruit for me! I also got strawberries, but I'm saving those for later because they're not tropical." Michelle put the strawberries back in the fridge and closed it with her hip, having her arms full of fruit. She piled it all on her counter and took out a knife.
"I can cut the fruit, and you can arrange it in a bowl, alright?" Arthur directed, taking the knife from her and slicing through a mango. Michelle glared at him slightly and took out a huge green bowl that was shaped like a hollowed-out watermelon.
"Just let me know when everything is cut! And try not to make a mess, okay? Those counters were so expensive!" She leaned on the counter and watched Arthur's sloppy cutting, starting to hum again. Soon the cutting was finished, and both the counter-top and knife were splashed with an array of greens, oranges, reds, whites, and yellows.
"Time to arrange it!" Michelle smiled and started arranging it in a way that made it so the biggest pieces were on the edges and the smallest were in the center. She managed to make a flower, or maybe a sun, out of the pieces, so Arthur's sloppy cutting had turned into something pretty after all. She carefully carried the masterpiece over to the couch where Arthur currently was and sat down with him. He handed her a spoon and started eating himself.
"Why don't you have a dining table?" He asked rather bluntly.
"Why would I need one? Besides, they cost too much, and take up too much space in my already-small house! I don't mind this too much though, I can watch TV while I eat!" Michelle grinned and Arthur couldn't help but smile back at her bubbly personalty. "Speaking of which, why don't we see what's on? I have a bunch of your channels here, so you'll feel right at home! Or we could watch some of Francis' channels." She shoved the spoon into her mouth and started channel-surfing, going slow enough so Arthur could pick a channel.
"Why don't we watch the news from your country? We do have them, right?" Arthur asked.
She nodded and changed the channel, then took the spoon out of her mouth. "Wow, this fruit salad is really good!" She started eating it really fast, spilling fruit juice and fruit chunks all over her face, chest, and top. After all her fruit was gone, she tipped the bowl so she could drink the juice from the bottom. Arthur stared at her sloppy eating with a mixture of disbelief and disgust on his face. He had raised her better than this, hadn't he? She put her empty bowl on the floor and brought her knees up to her chest and continued watching TV.
"It is really good. I guess the two of us making a good cooking team!" Arthur laughed. Michelle just glared slightly and went back to watching TV. Soon Arthur was done and he volunteered to wash the dishes. Michelle rejected.
"It's too late for work right now, why don't we just go to bed!" She asked happily.
"Too late? It's ten! You're just being lazy." He scolded, but either Michelle didn't hear him or didn't care.
"I don't have a guest room, but you can sleep on my couch. Or you can sleep in my bed, I don't mind that." Michelle got uncomfortably close to Arthur as she said these words, practically gazing into his eyes. Arthur leaned back a bit.
"I think I'm fine with the couch. What, do you have a crush on me or something?" Arthur asked.
"It's rude to just ask that." Michelle giggled, walking around him in a circle. "Alright, I'll admit it then. I'm in love with you. You might even say I'm...madly in love with you."
"Was that a reference to something?" Arthur tried to rack his brain for something that sounded close to it.
"Maybe. Anyway, it turns out you and Francis rubbed off on me in ways you don't even know about." She giggled.
"What ways are those?" Arthur asked, struggling to not show his terror.
"I have an unusual way of showing it too." She whispered in his ear with a grin. "Now, go to bed! I promise I'll call your friends and let them know where you are so they can come and get you tomorrow!" Michelle said, then ran into her bedroom. She quietly shut her door, sending a shiver down Arthur's spine. Then again, what was he worried about? She focused all of her strength into swimming and nature, how bad could she possibly be? He laid down on her surprisingly soft couch and was asleep within minutes.
^^^^^^^^
He woke up to the smell of strawberries and found the smell moving his body towards the kitchen. There was Michelle, humming as she cooked breakfast, although her inexperience was shown trough the super messy kitchen and sloppily-put together pancakes. Her dress today was a low-cut black minidress with lace around the chest. This time she wore matching black heeled sandals with it, giving the impression of a party girl. At Arthur's footsteps, she looked back and smiled happily.
"Ah, you're awake! I made breakfast! Eat up, it's expensive!" She thrust a plate into his hands and starting serving herself, her heels clicking loudly on the floor.
"What exactly did you mean by you had unusual ways of showing your love?" Arthur put bluntly. "I will not eat until I know this answer!" Michelle dropped her spatula on the floor.
"I'm going to keep you here for a week! Can you imagine that, a week all alone with the lovely me!" She twirled around, her hair spinning with her. Arthur dropped the plate in returned shock, the loud crash not fazing him.
"What? You can't just do that! That's bloody illegal! I can call someone, you know!" He yelled, abandoning the polite gentlemen attitude he arrived at her place with. "Speaking of that, where are my friends? Did you even call them?"
"I called them. I said you weren't feeling well, so I was going to keep an eye on you for a few days!" Michelle grinned.
"You are just like Francis. This is what scares me, Michelle." Arthur commented. "Now let me go home!"
"I might let you go home early...if you make me happy enough." She teased, then grabbed a broom from a nearby closet and started to sweep up the broken plate. Arthur stumbled and took a seat on the couch to think over exactly what was going on. Michelle threw the broken plate in the trash and stared at the pancake mess on the floor, thinking about how to clean it up. Arthur stood up.
"Look, let me call my friends and let me tell them that I'm fine. They probably want to speak with me anyway!" He darted from the room before Michelle could even look up. He locked himself in the bathroom and started dialing Alfred's number, but cursed at the answering machine picking up instead. "I knew he'd be busy with something else. I bet that git forgot to take his phone with him too!" He put his phone back into his pocket and went back into the living room.
"You can have my pancakes if you want, I'm not that hungry!" Michelle suddenly said, sitting on the couch. Arthur sat down next to her.
"I'm not that hungry either." They both stared up at the ceiling for a while before Arthur finally got the courage to talk again. "Why is taking me hostage your method of showing your love to me?"
"That's a secret!" She got up. "Although with all the reading that you do, you should figure it out pretty quickly." She pushed open one of her large windows and took a deep breath. "Ah, smell that salty sea air! It'd be a perfect day to go swimming, don't you think?"
"I suppose so, if I could swim."
"It doesn't matter if you can or not! We could just wade around, or maybe play in the sand..." She trailed off. "Well, it was a nice thought anyway." She leaned on the windowsill. "Believe it or not, I often get bored of living by the ocean sometimes. It's always the same here; warm, tropical, nice. I want to experience other types of weather too, you know?"
"Well, don't come to my place. You'll get so sick of water you'll probably never drink it again!" Arthur laughed.
"I meant, I want to experience things such as snow! I hear that in the eastern part of Europe, they get a bunch of snow! It's ridiculous! I bet they have so much fun together, playing in it." Arthur got up and stood behind her.
"I'm sure they get sick of it sometimes too and wish for a tropical beach outside their house too." He wrapped his arms around her and she leaned into his touch. They stood like that for a while until Arthur's cell phone rang, causing Michelle to cry out loudly and ruining their moment. He let go of her and answered it. "Hello? Who is this?"
"It's me, Alfred! I saw you tried to call me earlier! What's up?" He cheerfully answered.
"Where were you earlier?"
"I was out. Does it matter where I was?"
"I guess not. Anyway, I'm in a bit of a predicament here."
"I'm great with those! Tell me, what is it?"
"I'm in a hostage situation, my daughter has somehow turned crazy and plans to keep me at her house for a week!" Arthur blurted out loudly, causing Michelle to look over at him. "Just hurry and get your arse over here!" He hung up before Alfred could answer and turned to face Michelle again. "So, want to watch some TV?"
^^^^^^^^^
The next morning, Arthur woke up to a surprisingly silent house. He assumed that Michelle was probably still asleep, so he quietly got up himself and started heading for the front door. Before he turned the knob, however, he took notice of his messy appearance. "I guess it couldn't hurt to take a shower or something quickly before I leave." He walked down the hallway to the bathroom, but found the door locked when he tried to open it. "Why won't this door open?" He knocked on it. "Hello, who's in there?"
"It's me!" Michelle answered back. "Hold on, I'm coming out." True to her words, in about anther minute, she came out, this time in another dress. This one was a knee-long white skirt with an all-white blouse with frilly sleeves. A white sunhat was on top of her head that was adorned with flowers. Her shoes were strappy heeled sandals with blue gems on them.
"What is that, a wedding dress?" Arthur asked.
"No. Although, it could be if you want it." Michelle smiled and Arthur backed up slightly.
"Okay, I've been here for three days already. Will you just let me go already?"
"You have four more days, Arthur! Don't try to cheat your way out of this!" Michelle pouted, then walked away. Arthur just stared after him.
"You could've at least brought my clothes over!"
"Hey, wanna visit the beach today? You don't even have to get in, you can just watch me swim or something." Michelle suggested. Arthur shrugged.
"If that's what makes you happy, then I suppose I'll go with you."
"Yay!" She grabbed his arm and tugged him all the way down to the shore, stopping near where the tide comes in. "I think it would be fun if we built a sand castle first!"
"I suppose that would be fun. I happen to know quite a lot about castles because of my history and all." He boasted. Michelle jokingly tossed sand at him.
"Oh no! We didn't bring out any buckets or anything." She noticed sadly.
"I'll go get some, you stay here and draw in the sand or something." Arthur ran back into the house. He opened all the doors in her pantry, expecting to very quickly find a bucket, only to come up short. He looked in the bathroom, then finally her bedroom. In there he found a basket labeled 'Beach Supplies' and carried the whole basket outside without checking its contents. "There's most likely a bucket in there somewhere!" He came back outside and dumped the basket out into the sand, revealing all sorts of summer toys, including colorful sand buckets of various sizes.
"Now come on, let's build!" She grabbed a light blue pail with a wave pattern and scooped it into wet sand near the water. She placed the bucket upside-down in the sand and tapped it gently, then lifted it up to reveal a perfect mold.
"Wow, you're amazing at this." Arthur commented without realizing it.
"I know, I've been doing this for years!" She did it for two other smaller buckets, forming a castle keep. "Ever since I was a little girl, I've practiced this. Although for most of my life, I was nowhere near a beach."
"Oh yeah, you lived with me! I remember that gown you wore while you were in my manor. It was that heavenly white dress with all the pink bows on it. Actually everyone in my manor were finely-dressed, it was amazing." Arthur laid down on the sand.
"Yes, I suppose it was for you. I remember how your ally Ivan would always visit you with a nation that he owned. His manor sounded better, everyone wore what they wanted and were all pretty rich..." She started working on the castle's walls.
"I'm sure even Ivan's manor had problems. Every empire has problems. Every nation has problems, even today. Have you looked at him recently?" Michelle giggled slightly. "I think your wall needs a gate." He nodded at the wall.
"This is depressing. Let's talk about something happier!" Michelle suddenly perked up. She started carving out the shape of the gate with her finger, gasping softly when Arthur suddenly took it and helped her.
"Your castle is looking really nice. Imagine if someone lived in it."
"Like who?"
"A fairy? Maybe it's a fairy castle! It's small enough!" He laughed while Seychelles stared at him strangely.
"I feel like it's missing something."
"How about a moat? Walls aren't the only thing you can use for defense." He scooped a bit of sea water into his hands and poured it around the walls into a lake-bed Michelle carved out.
"And windows!" She carved those out, along with a door.
"What about a flag? That way everyone will know who the castle belongs to."
"But whose flag?" She asked, but Arthur had already put a seaweed leaf onto the biggest tower.
"It looks really nice! You're a very good castle-builder, Michelle." She looked over in surprise to find Arthur smiling at her.
"That's the first time in a long time you've said my name in that way..." She slowly crawled over to him, soon staring into his eyes that sparkled like a rich emerald.
"What exactly are you planning? You can't exactly do that on a public beach-" He got cut off by Michelle throwing her arms around his neck, causing them both to tumble over into the warm sand.
"I love you so much, Arthur. No matter what you did or will do to me...I just can't control feelings like that..." She trailed off and started kissing him passionately on the lips. She was pleasantly surprised when she felt him kiss back, amazed that his kissing wasn't as awkward as she had expected. The two laid there together for a while until the tide came in, dousing them both in cold sea water. Michelle pulled away in laughter and fell off Arthur.
"Wait, why is the sand warm but the water cold?" He asked in curiosity. "It doesn't seem that logical or realistic at all."
"I don't know. Maybe the sea itself disapproves of this. Of us." She ran over to their sand castle and moaned. "Oh no, the tide destroyed it! It's not pretty anymore!" Arthur ran over to her.
"I still think it's nice. Some pretty things can never be destroyed." He kissed her again.
"You just got that from a book!" She laughed.
"Maybe I did." She dragged him back inside the house.
"Come on, if the tide is coming in we don't want to be close to the water." She shut the door. "I guess that means no swimming today."
"That's okay, I just hope these clothes can dry. They are the only clothes I have with me, you know." Arthur glared at her slightly, but she just giggled.
"Sorry about that. I guess I just wasn't thinking this through."
"No, no you weren't."
^^^^^^^^
"Hey, you've been here for six days! You're making progress!" Michelle laughed from her position in the water. She was currently wading through knee-deep ocean waters in a white/blue striped bikini.
"You know, you make a terrible prison-keeper. I mean, you're not really threatening me with anything, and you let me repeatedly call my friends, although they never actually do anything either. You anticipated that, didn't you?"
She laughed again. "I can't imagine actually hurting you! It was a spur-of-the-moment thing I guess. I thought that making you think you were my prisoner would make you stay here with me." Arthur jumped up.
"You trickster! Wait until I get my hands on you!"
"Hey, you technically could've left at any time, but you never did. You must have some kind of love for me then." Arthur ran into the water and started chasing her.
"You're not funny! Come back here, you little prankster!" As they were running, Alfred showed up in surprisingly causal clothes.
"Hey, what's going on here?" Arthur stopped running at the sound of his voice.
"You're three days late! I thought you said you would come right away!"
"I did, but Michelle sent me away, saying you were still sick. I love you, but I love my health even more." Alfred shrugged. Arthur stepped out of the water with a sigh. "What were you doing, swimming?"
"No, I was chasing Michelle."
"Why?"
"Because-" Arthur looked back at Michelle, who looked concerned that Arthur was going to reveal everything that had happened between the two in the past six days. He knew that would be rude, and it wasn't something a gentleman should ever do to a lady. "Because we were playing a game." He looked away in slight irritation.
"Oh, okay. Can I play?" Alfred asked excitedly.
"No, you have to take me home!" Arthur responded in annoyance. "Not everything is about fun and games, you know!" Michelle giggled. Arthur looked back at her and giggled back.
"Are you two sharing a secret or something?" Alfred asked in confusion.
"I suppose you could say that. A lot can happen in only six days, you know." Arthur said. He grabbed Alfred's arm and started walking away. "Now come on, I desperately need a change of clothes." He looked back at Michelle briefly and found her popping her head out of the water, probably after a dive. "Hey Michelle!" He called back.
"What?" She answered.
"Is that water cold or warm?"
"It's still cold, but I feel like it's warming up now!" She grinned at him, and Arthur grinned back, wondering if she was even talking about the water at all.