A/N: As I was browsing through my work, I found this and realized that it was cute. The first part will be in Alfred's point-of-view!
For as long as I remember, being a hero is what I do best.
My twin brother and I were NICU babies. But between the two of us, Mattie was always the weaker one. Whereas I left the NICU in about four weeks, Mattie stayed for almost ten weeks as neonatologists observed his conigental heart condition. At a certain point, Mom and Dad were told that Mattie might not enjoy life like the rest of us.
Because of this, my father told me to take very good care of Matthew.
He was as delicate as a maple leaf, my father would tell me.
So, taking his words to heart, I protected Mattie using every one of my fibers. I gave up a lot for Mattie. He would always get the softest pillow, the plushest blanket, and even the first pick for all of the toys. Seeing him light up makes me all mushy inside, causing me to reinforce my behavior.
"Why am I always the princess?" Mattie complained as he poked his head behind the blanket fort that he and I built just two hours ago.
I frowned as I scoped the area for any possible invaders. The Vargas twins were playing with us, and while Feli is nothing to worry about, Romano was another story. Picking up my wooden sword, I turned to Mattie and whispered, "Because you gots to be protected by me!"
Seeing a hint of fiery red, I screamed, "Arrgh! Die you dragon! Die! Die! Die!" I hit Romano, who was dressed in a red t-shirt and orange shorts. He winced as he covered his face with his right arm. Reaching out with his left arm, he pulled on the pink and purple blanket. "No! Not the castle!"
I ran over and covered Mattie from being hit by the blankets. Picking up the blankets, I glared at Romano, "We'll meet again you bad dragon!"
Romano huffed as he stood up and brushed his arms, "You bastards, I'm going to find Feli and drag him out of here."
I watched Romano walk away and turned to Mattie with a small frown, "Don't worry Mattie! We can build the fort so it's even stronger! That way no one can break it and it'll always pro-tect you!"
Mattie held his knees close to his chest, "Fine, can I be the knight, then?"
I patted Mattie's head affectionately, "Sorry Mattie, but I promised Daddy that I would protects you! So I gots to be the knight in shining armor."
He pushed my hand away and began to march off, "Well I wish I could be the hero for once. I'm not a doll, Al."
It was the first time Mattie was disappointed in me. It was an awkward dinner that night. I was convinced that I was right. Mattie was too weak to play such a strong role. He would hurt himself and then Mom and Dad would get worried. I had to be the good younger brother and protect him at all times.
Besides, it was just a little fight. He would get over it, right?
Wrong, it was three days of sulking between the both of us. Mattie only talked to his stuffed polar bear, whereas I played with my action figures. After becoming extremely bored, I stomped into Mattie's room and told him exactly what he wanted to hear, "Fine, be a knight, Mattie." His violet eyes lit up, and I couldn't help but cross my arms in pride. "But we gots to play by my rules Mattie!"
The innocent little boy nodded his head.
After twenty minutes, and lots and lots of duct tape, Mattie squirmed between the pillows that covered him, "Do I really have to dress like this, Al?"
I nodded my head furiously at the pillow man. If Mattie was going to be a hero, he needed to have his armor where nothing could possibly hurt him. Besides, Mattie couldn't expect me to relinquish my hero status so easily, could he?
He flailed his arms around as he pretended to battle big monsters. Every now and then, he would turn around to look at me with a pleasant expression, "Don't worry Princess Al, I'll protect you."
Scowling, I huffed, "Prince Al, pillow man. If you're going to be the hero, at least get my name right, or I'll protects myself!"
At the end of the day, Mattie became the hero he had always wanted to be. But he quickly realized that he didn't like all of the responsibilities that came with it. Instead of being the damsel in distress, he decided that he would become the hero's sidekick. It was perfect. Mattie could stay by at the sidelines, and I can protect him at the side.
Preschool quickly came afterwards, and with preschool I discovered many more kids our age. Including the Vargas kids, I met Ludwig, Tino, Kiku, Heracles, and so many others. The best part? I was always the hero! No one ever questioned it. I saved the day everyday, and I loved it!
But, being a hero is a great responsibility. Saving the day is no easy task, especially when people expect you to take care of everything dangerous. Now that we were in kindergarten, we needed to learn how to share. We didn't mind sharing with the other kindergartners, but when it came time for recess, we had to share with the big, bad...gulp...first graders.
Now let me tell you, first graders are not nice people. They are big and tall and mean. The playground consisted of three small slides, two medium ones, and a large twisty slide. Along with the slides, there was a jungle gym, merry go rounds, a large spider net, and multiple swings. It was playground heaven.
Or it would've been if the first graders shared.
Most of the older kids hogged all of the fun equipment. At least four first graders sat on the top of the slides, five of them were near the swing set, four of them were sitting on the merry go round, and five of them were on to the spider net. It wouldn't have bothered the kindergartners if the first graders were actually playing. Instead, they just sat near the equipment and socialized.
If any kindergartner came near, their nostrils would flare and they would demand that the "babies" leave them alone.
Heracles stared at the first graders sleepily before rubbing his eyes and grumbling, "You know, if I was born a month earlier, I would've been a first grader, too."
Feliciano hid behind Ludwig as he trembled, "My grandfather tolds me that I should be in first grade because I'm good at art, but I'm glad I'm in kindergarten. Those kids are scary!"
Ludwig turned to me while holding onto Feli's hand protectively, "Al, go and talk to those kids. You are the strongest."
Gulping, my head turned to him. For the past one month, the first graders took over the playground whereas we were forced to play on the blacktop. But after so many hopscotch and hand games, we were bored and tired. We wanted to play on the playground, without the first graders terrorizing us, of course.
"Luddy," I protested. "But you are strong, too!"
Romano scoffed behind me, "Scared bastard? I should've guessed. You're no hero."
It was all I needed to throw the kickball that I was holding. Pulling up my sleeves, I nodded my head as I thought about all of the superheroes that I knew about thus far.
Taking a few steps forward, I observed the five first grade gods. They were the strongest of first graders, and everyone listened to their words without question. There was the bad touch trio, who were the most powerful gods, and then there was Elizabeta and Roderich who were the nicer of the gods. Ludwig knew Roderich and Gil, but in the playground, connections brought you nowhere. Age was the only thing that mattered.
As I took each step, I wondered what I would say. They probably would laugh in my face and make me do silly things like they made Romano do the other day. I don't want to kiss any of them. That's just disgusting.
Gulping, I took a deep breath and puffed my chest out just a little. The superheroes that I grew up to love always did this whenever they encountered the villains. I prepared myself to have the deepest voice possible. Everyone who was powerful had deep voices. But when I saw the first graders up on the spider web, I squeaked out, "We want the playground!"
The blond haired guy turned to me nonchalantly and raised a brow, "What did you say, petit chou?"
The blond haired first grader was Francis Bonnefoy. He was the most stylish in the bad touch trio, always wearing the newest fashion and most expensive designer brands. With long blond hair that fell to his shoulders, he looked like a valiant prince, especially when the wind blew in his hair.
I gulped as I tried to stand up straighter, "We want the playground." It was still in the same, squeaky voice as before.
Francis turned to his albino friend, Gilbert, "Gil, do you know what he's saying?"
Gilbert snorted, "If you want to talk to the awesome me, you have to prove that you are awesome, too. Climb this web."
I glanced at the ropes. This was a structure that I always admired from afar. Climbing this web was the ultimate power status. Only the strongest students were able to climb this web. As I reached for the first rope, I took a deep breath and glanced up at the first graders. I would do it. I would do it for Mattie, Luddy, Feli, Kiku, Heracles, even Romano. As I wobbled on the ropes, I tried to hide my grin. It was hard, but I was doing it. I was already half way up the web until I heard my teacher, Ms. Keane, come out and call, "Recess is over kids!"
Francis grinned as he jumped off the spider web, "Well petit chou it was nice to meet you, but we'll have to talk some other time!" he yelled as he waved back.
The other kids saw it fit to jump off the spider web as well. I held onto the ropes for my life as the spider web waved, but when Antonio and Gilbert both jumped off at the same time, my grip on the ropes loosened, and I tumbled to my doom. I closed my eyes and held my hands protectively over my face. Woodchips pierced through my skin near my legs and some even slipped through my shirt.
Groaning, I glanced up and to my dismay, all of my friends left me.
I was alone…
As I tried to stand slowly, I let out a small cry when I saw red bead pool at my left knee-the first one to hit the ground when I fell.
This never happened before. No one ever hurt me while I was playing hero. I was invincible. Blood was no something that I dealt with. Plopping down to the ground, I choked back a few sobs as the tears rolled down my cheeks. M-my parents weren't there to help me, and Ms. Keane was busy speaking to a few of the others kids.
A shadow fell upon me as I gulped. This was it. The hero fell. Turning around slowly, I saw a first grader in front of me with an unamused expression on his face. He had dark mahogany shorts, navy blue boating shoes, a white dress shirt and a navy blue sweater vest. Wrapped around his neck was a blue and green polka dot bow. As he walked closer slowly, I began to inch away. The villain has trapped me.
Leaning down slowly, the boy reached out and grabbed my knee. His thin fingers ran across my knee, "You're hurt," his accent was crisp and proper. As he glanced up, I could see his dark green eyes. They were the same color as the green in the ribbon he wore.
With a small sigh, the boy reached for the ribbon around his neck and pulled it off. He wrapped the ribbon around my knee and looked up with a broad grin, "Are you alright?"
My eyes were wide for sure. How could they not be? He reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue lollipop. Handing it to him, the boy ruffled his hair, "Don't cry, alright? Heroes are strong no matter what." Standing up, the boy placed his hands into his pocket and began to walk away.
Standing up quickly, I ran to the other boy, "Wait! What's your name?"
The boy glanced back casually, "Kirkland, Arthur Kirkland. Why?"
"So I can give you back your ribbon," I smiled back at him. He wasn't as scary as the other first graders.
Arthur shook his head and patted my shoulder, "It's okay. Keep the ribbon. Think of it as being a gift for being a wonderful hero."
As Arthur walked away that day, I learned two new things. One was that first graders weren't really as terrifying as I had originally thought, and two was that everyone hero had their own hero.
And my hero was Arthur Kirkland.
A/N: Ms. Keane is from PowerPuff Girls. I used her because in my eyes, she'll be the best elementary school teacher ever!
Also, next chapter in Arthur's point-of-view.