"Arthur… Arthur please! Just hear me out!" Francis backed away from the other, his hands up in front of him to try to defend himself in case the Brit attacked again. He anxiously glanced between Arthur's face, and the object in his hand.
As the ferry landed in Portsmouth, England, Francis was glad to see that, for once, it was a beautiful day in the British Isles. He hailed a taxi, heading for Arthur's house in London. He wanted to see the Brit today, though he didn't know what to do once he got there.
When he was one the phone with him earlier, Arthur actually seemed pleased at the prospect of having him come over, so Francis hadn't really thought about what they should do. 'Oh well, we'll see when I get there.'
He took out his phone, going onto his Facebook and idly scrolling through his newsfeed. Even though their bosses told them not to, most of the nations had made a Facebook to see why so many people had one, and had fallen victim to its stupidly addictive nature. Francis was friends with most of the nations who had internet access, so it was amusing to see what they had to say with their status updates.
He scrolled a little faster when he saw Arthur had shared some creepy things, not needing his cyberphobia to act up in the taxi. He wanted to have a nice car ride, thank you very much. He calmed his breathing, now noticing it had sped up slightly.
'Thank you Arthur…' he thought, rolling his eyes.
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Almost two hours later Francis got out of the taxi, paying the driver and walking towards Arthur's front door. He knocked and waited for a response. After a minute of not receiving one, he knocked again. Still no answer. He reached up and got the spare key off the door frame, unlocking the door and going inside.
"Arthur? Où es-tu?"* He looked around, looking for a sign that the other was even here. He saw a cup of tea sitting on the table, but no Arthur. He looked around a bit more, and noticed an open door. When glancing inside, he realized inside was a staircase, with torches lighting the way. He quirked an eyebrow and started down the stairs.
He reached the bottom and came to another door, tho one closed. He tried to open it when he heard talking inside. "Arthur?" The talking stopped, and footsteps approached the door from the other door opened and he saw Arthur. He smiled a little. "Bonjour! You weren't answering the front door, so I let myself in~"
When he got no response from the other, his smile dropped. "Arthur? Is something wrong?" Arthur remained silent. Francis realized something was off about the Brit, looking into his eyes. His pupil-less eyes. The Frenchman took a step back, feeling uneasy. He turned and ran up the stairs, listening for more footsteps. He ran farther upstairs, hiding in the closet of the guest bedroom.
Francis held his breath when he heard the slow thumping of Arthur coming upstairs, tensing. The sounds carried on past the bedroom door, and he let out a small sigh of relief. He quietly crept out of the room, going downstairs again. He figured Arthur had been messing with his magic again, and did something to himself.
He went down the torch-lit staircase into the room, finding Arthur's spell room. He saw the Brit's book sitting on the floor and went over to it. He looked over what was on the page, but he had no idea which of the spells listed was the one he used.
His head snapped up when he heard a slight movement, looking around frantically. He saw Flying Mint Bunny and hung his head, trying to calm his breathing. She flew over to him, landing in front of the book. "Hi there~!" He smiled a little and pet her head gently. "Salut little one. You haven't told Arthur I can see you, right?" She shook her head. "That's good…" he looked over the pages again. "You wouldn't happen to know what spell he used, would you? I want to know what he did to himself."
She put her paw on the spell Arthur had cast, and Francis looked over it. It took him a second to translate it from Latin, but he got it nonetheless."So the spell makes him kill the person he loves…" He sighed, continuing to read to see if there was a way to break the curse. The curse will lift with their love's kiss. "Why would he cast this curse?" Flying Mint Bunny just shook her head again, not knowing either.
"Poor Amerique… I'll need to warn him that Arthur is trying to kill him, not that I can really say why." he looked up at Flying Mint Bunny. "Arthur will never be cured, Amerique's too oblivious to his affections to even think about returning Arthur's feelings to the point of kissing him." The bunny cocked her head to the side.
Francis closed the spell book, figuring it would be okay for him to go upstairs. Arthur wasn't going to hurt him. He stood and headed for the door, going up to the main room. "Arthur?" he looked around, shrugging and going to sit down on the couch. He sighed and stretched, pulling his phone out. He scrolled through Facebook again.
He looked up when he heard footsteps approaching the couch, smiling again lightly. "Are you going to join moi?" He patted the seat next to him. To his surprise, Arthur sat down next to him, still silent. He was a little annoyed, used to their constant bickering. He looked over at Arthur as the Brit picked up his teacup, glad to see that his eyes seemed a bit more like they normally were. He figured that when he had first gone down to the room, the reason he had heard talking was Arthur casting the spell.
"I'm surprised you are still going to drink that. Isn't it cold by now?" Arthur disregarded the comment, taking a sip of the tea anyway. His eyes did flicker in Francis' direction. He rolled his eyes and waited a few minutes to see if the other would talk to him. When he didn't, Francis growled internally and stood. "If you're not going to talk to me, I'm going to leave." He started for the door. As he grabbed the door handle, he heard Arthur tell him to wait.
He turned to look at him, surprised to see that Arthur had a look of desperation in his eyes. It was gone quickly however, replaced with an indifferent look. "Do you...uhh... Would you like something to eat? Something to drink?" Francis laughed outright at that. "I've been here pour near twenty minutes et you're just now asking me that? Not very gentlemanly of you~" Nevertheless Francis walked back over to the couch. "Shut up frog. Now what do you want?"
"Hmm...how about some alcohol? I know you probably won't have any wine, but I'm sure you have something else." Arthur nodded and went into the kitchen while Francis sat down again. He returned a minute later with two glasses of what looked like Brandy. He handed a glass to Francis, who took it appreciatively. "I haven't had Brandy in a while." He took a few sips, relaxing. He started to feel lethargic, and felt the tensions leave his body. "This tastes a bit different that I'm used to. Did you mix something with it?" He received no response, so he shrugged it off.
Arthur got up again, heading for the kitchen again. "Cher..? Qu'est-ce que tu fais? Où est-ce que tu vas...?" Arthur turned to look at him. "Nothing love, just getting something from the kitchen." With that, he went into the kitchen.
Francis closed his eyes after taking another sip, stretching. He hummed a French tune to himself, listening to the different sounds in the house. He heard Arthur approaching the couch. "So what did you get from the kitchen?" When he felt something cold and metallic press against his throat his eyes shot open, looking into the other's eyes. He glanced down and saw Arthur had grabbed a knife.
He pressed himself back into the couch to try to get away from the blade, trying to lift his hands to grab Arthur's. His hands were unresponsive, and he realized too late that Arthur had drugged him. Despite this, his brain was in overdrive to figure out why Arthur was doing this. 'Did I upset him somehow? I didn't do anything that I can think of! Maybe he wanted me to do something and that's why he's pissed? But why would he be angry enough to hold a knife to me! Wait a second...the curse! But...Arthur can't possibly love me, he loves America!'
He looked the Brit in the eyes, seeing several emotions present: Anger, fear, desperation...but he couldn't see love. Francis bit his lip when he felt Arthur press the blade harder. "Why are you doing this...? You at least owe me an explanation..." he could feel pain starting to build as the blade started breaking skin. He could feel himself starting to panic, but he forced himself to stay calm to hear the answer. His hand twitched as feeling stated to return to it.
"I'm tired of what I've been feeling... So I decided I needed to dispose of the cause of my emotions." Arthur told him coolly. 'I can't believe Arthur feels that way about me. And I'm only finding out when he wants to kill me because of it.'
"Doing it this way will only make it worse! You'll only add to your feelings!" He brought his hands up and gripped Arthur's arm, trying to pull it away from him. He used all his returning strength to move the knife enough to slip out from underneath it and onto the floor. He felt a searing heat in his shoulder as Arthur lunged to slice him. The Frenchman bit back a cry and clambered to his feet as Arthur came around the couch.
"Arthur… Arthur please! Just hear me out!" Francis backed away from the other, his hands up in front of him to try to defend himself in case the Brit attacked again. He anxiously glanced between Arthur's face, and the knife in his hand. "You're only doing this because of a spell! I can help you break it, but you have to stop attacking me!"
"I know it's a spell, it's what helped me finally decide to kill you, and I didn't want to back out like I usually do! I'm surprised you didn't figure out my feelings until now, so-called 'Country of Love'. You can't do anything to break it, you don't love me." With that he lunged for him.
Francis dodged out of the way, but just barely. He was incredibly dizzy, his vision swimming as he faced Arthur again. He ducked as Arthur sliced through the air again with the knife, a few strands of hair fluttering down to the floor. All the rapid movements were making him more dizzy, and he knew he wouldn't be able to do this much longer. The french nation was standing again as Arthur slashed again, catching his arm with the blade. He cried out in pain and watched as blood dripped to the floor from the wound.
Arthur was smirking evilly. "Got you~" He grabbed Francis' shoulder pulled the Frenchman towards himself, thrusting the blade into his stomach to the hilt and slicing up. Francis shut his eyes against the pain as he coughed up blood, using the closer proximity to pull himself close enough to kiss Arthur. He felt the Brit stiffen and release his grip on the knife. Francis fell to his knees, coughing up more blood onto the floor, his vision blurring at the edges.
Francis saw Arthur kneel down, pulling him into his arms. He saw Arthur's lips move, but couldn't hear what the other said. He let his eyes slide shut, feeling Arthur shaking him. 'I love you Arthur...'