Yumi- Here's a one-shot I made earlier. I will update current fanfictions, I swear! It was just that this was in my folder, but I never uploaded it here, so I though I should...
Bob- *glare*
-x-
Arthur Kirkland always tried to keep himself out of trouble; though, trouble always seemed to find him anyways.
His mother died when he was younger and, until he came of age, his elder brother was named as his legal guardian. His brother could have been worse to him, he gave him that much, but was a pretty bad guardian and could have done more all the same.
When his brother left to join the army, he left his neighbour, and friend, in charge of Arthur's affairs. Francis was the most annoying man that Arthur had ever met. He was an open pervert and a stuck up wuss most of the time and used Arthur's brother's money while he was away to buy whatever the hell he needed. When Arthur needed something, though, he bought it out of his own pocket, not wanting to give the older man the satisfaction of him asking for money off of him.
It generally meant him not having books and other stuff for school, sometimes sot even lunch, but he never ate it much anyways. Eventually, trouble found him again and forced him to leave the school he had been going to, not that he cared much anyway, and enrol in a less high end one on the other side of the town.
His friends were few and widely spaced and most had recently left him to his own devices because, in order to pay for everything yourself in life, you need to get a job which equals very little spare time on top of school work. At his new school, he kept to himself and usually others left it at that, which he was grateful for.
But sometimes, while getting his nose caught in other people's business, trouble still found him.
"You're an asshole, you know that?"
Arthur looked up from the book he was reading to see the girl wrap her fingers around the cuff of the guy's shirt, scowling as she lifted the struggling student off the ground before dropping him back down again.
The boy stuttered for a few moments, looking from the girl standing over him, yet standing at almost a foot shorter, to his presumed brother who was shaking over dramatically and yanking on the girl's arm to stop her.
"Fratello always is mean to me, Amelia! It means nothing to me! It's his way of showing affection!" the brother cried, latching onto her at the elbow and tugging her away from his manically stuttering brother.
"Yeah? Well he's a good for nothing loser then!" she growled and the other shrank away, still stuttering apologies before grabbing his brother off of her and running faster than any person Arthur had ever seen run before.
Arthur stared a while longer, watching the girl, Amelia was it, lingering on for a moment before she walked over to the windowsill beside his and plonked down with a sigh. Arthur fidgeted before noticing he had lost his page, therefore having nothing to lose by attempting to start up a conversation with the girl sitting next to him.
But before he could do that, the boy who had so obviously irritated the girl before came back, this time with a slightly larger friend to back him up and, before the other could even ask what had happened before, Arthur felt it was his duty to stop any impending fights; cut them at the bud, he would say.
Sadly, punching the Spanish foreign exchange student in the mouth didn't earn any heroic credibility with the girl; all it earned was a lengthy yelling match with the principal and a week's suspension.
Although, he did get a post it note stuck to his locker before he left for the week with a simple You're mad, you know that? written on it and signed Amelia Jones, which made everything worth it and also made him realise that he may or may not have a little premature crush on said girl.
-x-
Amelia lived with her uncle and her cousin in a largish house that used to belong to her Grandmother.
Amelia was well aware of the fact that, although her Grandmother had doted on her and her father and her father had done everything to help the elderly woman, something had obviously persuaded her to change her will to leave everything to her uncle, and that something was he uncle himself.
Her uncle had kicked her father out of the house he lived in all his life, told him to get a flat of some sorts and only kept her there because she entertained her cousin, Madeline.
Amelia and Madeline were more like sisters than anything else. They had shared everything from an early age and, having been brought up in the house with both their father's and mother's almost believed that there was a possibility that they were siblings, but anytime it was brought up it was shunned by their fathers as childish belief and slight likeness.
Amelia remembered her uncle being quite nice to her as a child; her mother had died in childbirth and she had been rather spoilt as a child because of it, by her uncle and aunt and her father. But, a couple of years earlier, her uncle's wife had died, leaving him bitter and resentful and lashing out at everyone, particularly his brother; he dealt with his own wife's death so easily compared to him, although it was apparent that her father was just a good actor.
Amelia sighed as the steam from the swimming pool showers settled, stepping out and into a towel. She and Madeline always went to the swimming pool to relax on a Saturday morning, moreso to get out of the house than anything else. The mood between both of them and Madeline's father had been testy at best most of the time.
"You take so long in the shower!" Madeline moaned, somehow already dressed in her mauve cardigan and drying her hair under the hand dryer. Amelia could never understand how she dressed so quickly.
"I take normal time," she retorted, wrapping the towel neatly around herself before sliding into one of the cubicles to her left, "You're just Flash Gordon or something!"
"Don't compare me to your superheroes, Ame," Madeline replied, yelling over the sound of the dryer before pulling out, scowling at how it had frizzed up her hair in the mirror.
"Right right."
The changing room door swung open and Madeline jumped two feet off the ground, squealing in fright when it revealed a out of breath Feliciano behind it, stuttering and stammering and waving his arms wildly.
After recovering, the girl puffed out her cheeks, them heating in embarrassment. "Feliciano, this is the girl's changing rooms! Why are you in here?"
Amelia's head appeared over the door, her having stood on the bench inside. "Oh hey, Feli!" she called, waving at him. Feliciano caught sight of her and waved back, grinning happily. Madeline gestured madly behind his back; something along the lines of 'don't encourage him' but Amelia didn't see.
"Hi Ame!" he called back, only stopping his waving when he remembered what he was there for. "I overheard your uncle on his cell phone!"
Madeline looked at him carefully, cocking her head to one side at the sudden change of tone in his voice. "Listening in on phone calls isn't very nice, Feli," she told him cautiously.
Feliciano looked up at her, a quick look of horror crossing his face at the thought of having done something wrong again before he shook it off. "No no! I didn't mean to! But Ame, he's kicking you out! He is going to make you go to wherever your father is!"
Amelia blinked before ducking behind the door again, coming out not two seconds later fully dressed and wearing a look of disbelief along with her ordinary clothes. "You can't be serious. He said I could live with him! I have no idea where my father went and he doesn't have a clue either!"
Feliciano shuffled away, averting his gaze and being generally tense at the atmosphere he usually couldn't read. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news," he mumbled under his breath, "I really do."
Madeline looked across at her cousin, her face falling when she saw no idea forming in Amelia's eyes. "What are we going to do?" she asked incredulously. Her cousin always had a plan, be it sensible or not.
"I'm going to go and find somewhere to sleep tonight and look for my father later," Amelia replied, her voice heavy as she went back in to retrieve her swimming bag from her cubicle.
Madeline watched before a firm look formed on her face and her resolve hardened. "Then I am going with you!"
The other looked back before forming a hasty response of, "No you're not!"
But, for once, her resolve didn't weaken to her cousin and she stood her ground. "You go, I go with you."
Amelia stared, before smiling lightly. "Someone will recognize the both of us together; you know that."
"Then we'll disguise ourselves."
"What about food?"
"I have most of my father's pocket money given to me at home. We just need to fetch while we get a change of clothes."
"Where will we sleep?"
"We can find hostels no problem!"
Amelia sighed. "Okay, I can think of no more complaints. You can come, alright?"
Madeline smiled sweetly before gathering her stuff and following her sister out the door, leaving Feliciano in their wake.
"Guys? G-guys? I'm coming too you two!"
-x-
"I should dress up as a guy."
Madeline looked incredulously at the other, who was rooting through her closet quickly for spare clothes to throw into the rucksack she was bringing with her. "Why a guy?"
"Because," Amelia stated, "They'll all be looking for two girls-" she took a look at Feliciano who was looking quite disappointed- "And a boy, not two boys and a girl! It'll give us a bit of room to go by, okay? Besides, I've loads of guy clothes."
Madeline stood and made her way forward, reaching and pulling at the back of Amelia's bra while Feliciano earned a shoe to the head for gawping. "What about these?"
"I'll wear baggy clothes! It'll be fine!"
"Alright," Madeline sighed, backing away with her hands up, "You win. We'll have to change our names if anyone asks."
"Okay," Amelia replied, pulling on a baggy sweatshirt that hid any possible cleavage or giveaway figure, "You can call me Alfred!"
"Alright, Alfred," Madeline sighed, clutching a scissors in her shaking hand and closing her eyes- she had no time for regrets- chopped off her two plaits while the other two watched in horror. "I'll be Matilda, I guess."
Amelia stood for a moment, silently morning the loss of her cousins long hair- it had been like that since childhood- before clipping hers up and shoving a hat down over it. "Alright Matilda."
Feliciano shuffled a bit, looking around him in dismay of being forgotten once again. "Do I have to change?" he asked quietly, gaining Amelia's attention.
"Nope, just tell your brother that you're leaving for a bit. They wont suspect that you've come with us," she answered, pulling on some jeans and throwing another shoe at the Italia, just to be on the safe side.
"We'll have to leave soon," Madeline sighed, looking around her in calm distaste, "I wish my father wasn't being like this."
"I wish he wasn't either," Amelia agreed, picking up her bag and slinging it over her shoulder, "Come on, let's rock."
Feliciano put up his hand cautiously, looking at them and waiting for their nod in silent approval of his right to speak. "Uhm, what will we do about school?"
Amelia burst out laughing, actually beating the wall with her fist, but Madeline just looked thoughtful.
"Yeah. What about school?"
-x-
It was Monday, and Arthur Kirkland was already bored stupid. School was his get away from Francis and he actually began to look forward to it, and was really annoyed at the principal for giving him detention for just doing a bit of simple justice.
It was all a joke really, wasn't it? A conspiracy.
So, to kill time, he wandered aimlessly around the town, and when you wander aimlessly, you tend to entertain yourself by listening in on other people's conversations; at least, you do if you're Arthur Kirkland.
Which made him quickly come to the conclusion that Amelia Jones and her cousin had not been seen since Saturday morning and were being searched for all over town. Arthur would have been lying if he had said that he was not worried. Whatever the hell Amelia was to him or not, he would have been worried either way, or at least that was what he told himself.
But that didn't stop him conducting his own little search around the town, just to see if he could find her anywhere. He didn't, and he gave up.
He thought, a well, teenagers run away from home. Give her a day or two and she'll go back home and I'll see her in school come Monday.
-x-
"We're seriously going to make this our base?"
Madeline nodded, dropping her bag to the ground behind the old pillar. "Only dossers come back here behind the stage, and practically no one comes behind the wall back there. It's perfectly safe," she stated, quietly as so not to be heard by any janitor strolling the premises.
"Yeah, but we're in school," Amelia complained again, "There are teachers here!"
"Yeah, but we aren't going to school!" Feliciano tried, but all he earned was a glare.
"Well, come on, I didn't lug all these phone directories here for nothing," Amelia sighed, tossing one at her sister, "We have to call every hotel, every hostel and every landlord to see if my father is staying with them, alright?"
Feliciano looked like he was about to cry. "But there'll be millions!" he wailed, waving his arms around.
"Then it's going to be a long night."
-x-
The next day, when Amelia still hadn't returned to her house by the looks of it and Arthur's worry did not dissipate like he had hoped it would, leaving him with no other moral choice other than to go searching for her again.
His search didn't last to long before he had found himself lost; it was a big enough town, after all, and on the outskirts of a forest he didn't even know existed, which made him presume he had took a wrong turn somewhere.
So he found himself searching the forest for the girl. Surely it was what any gentleman would do to find his maiden, surely? But, after an hour or so in the dense forest, all he found was a humongous tree, an Italian boy and some blonde girl.
The boy was the same one that Amelia was protecting from his brother the day he had first seen her, he noted, so maybe he knew something about her disappearance. But, sadly, when he stepped forward to ask him a question, he began to cry uncontrollably and then he ran away, slinging the small blonde girl over his shoulder while he was at it.
Arthur shrugged. It must have been something to do with him giving the foreign exchange student a split lip that caused that kind of fear, although it was completely unwarranted. So that left him with the big oak tree.
He studied it for a few moments, resisting the urge to mar it with the penknife he kept in his back pocket. Though, after seeing that some people had already marred it before him, he couldn't find a reason not to add to the destruction.
He carved his name onto a branch above the other carvings, carefully scratching out the 'u' and the 'd'.
He stared at it and looked around quickly for any spies before quickly scratching a '+ Amelia Jones' and shoving the knife back into his pocket again, trying to look inconspicuous, with no avail as a mop of silver hair came into view just above him.
"You know, I've been looking for an idiot to annoy, and you sure do look like an idiot," the boy cackled, poking the stuttering Arthur in the forehead before dropping down, ninja style, from the tree he had been watching from.
"There's an idiot in the pond a little way back," Arthur retorted quickly, "If you lean in you might catch a glimpse."
"Don't be stupid. The water is murky and I'd barely see my reflection even."
"Exactly."
The sliver haired boy smirked lightly. "For some sort of mainstream teenager, you are quite amusing," he sneered again and Arthur ignored the mainstream comment.
"I don't think you have a right to be poking your head into my business," Arthur said, shoving his hands in his pockets with a huff.
"Well, I do you see. You see, this is my awesome tree here!"
A raised eyebrow. "Really?"
The boy looked indignant. "Would I lie to you? Actually, don't bother answering that question. Anyways, I've been practically living in this tree since I was knee high to a grasshopper, so don't you come carving on it, you yob!"
"Hey, don't call me that!" Arthur yelled, resisting the urge to hit the other boy across the face. I mean, it wasn't like he could get suspended again.
"I'll call you what I like, Mister Arthur Kirkland," he smirked again, and with that he disappeared back into the tree again, leaving a highly distressed Arthur Kirkland, wishing he could rub out the carvings he was now majorly regretting.
Damnit, why didn't he think of just writing initials?
-x-
"Ame, Ame!"
Amelia looked up from her burger she had bought in the fast food outlet across the road, blinking as she saw Feliciano running in, waving frantically with one hand while trying to keep a girl balanced on his shoulder with the other.
"Feli, where were you today?" Amelia asked, ignoring the girl for the time being.
"I...had work?" the boy tried, to no avail as the two girls already knew he had been hiding, the little work shy.
"Right, sure. Who's the girl?" Madeline asked, waving at the girl who was now hiding behind Feliciano, rubbing her two forefingers together in distress.
"Her names Lily! Isn't she cute?" he cooed, poking the girls cheeks and she squirmed anxiously.
"It's v-very nice to meet you all," she said quietly, shuffling lightly.
Amelia nodded and Madeline sighed. They had not found where Amelia's father had been staying yet and all they had done practically all day was try and set this girl and this guy up. The boy, Toris or something, seemed to be smitten with the girl, Natalie or something, but she wanted nothing to do with him, seemingly more interested in Amelia, or Alfred as she so thought.
Amelia then, to avoid any confusion that was unfair on the two and her, accidentally on purpose dropped her hat, making it obvious that she was indeed a girl and stopping the girl's tracks in the dust, as it appeared she didn't swing that way.
Somehow, the two girl's convinced Natalie or whatever her name was to give Toris a chance and told them about a nice café a far way away from where they were lying low. Toris thanked her profoundly while the girl just glared and the two were on their way.
"Anyways!" Feliciano interrupted Amelia's train of thought, "Who's Arthur Kirkland?"
Amelia raised an eyebrow, wondering when this conversation drifted in the direction of that guy. "He's the kid who punched your brother's boyfriend-" Feliciano flinched at that, looking around in paranoia to make sure that his brother wasn't going to appear out of nowhere again and start yelling-"remember?"
"Uhm yes," Feliciano stuttered, "Well, you's and his's name is carved on the big tree out by the forest."
"Feli, why were you in the forest?"
"I had work!"
Amelia frowned. "Why are our names written there?"
Feliciano smiled, rocking back on his heels while waving his hands around. "Amore! He put them there, so he must have a crush on you!"
Amelia felt her face go scarlet as Madeline tittered from beside her. "Oh that's rich," her cousin chuckled while Feliciano gushed on.
"Isn't that sweet, Ame? He must like you a lot to publically write that! He didn't even use your initials only! Isn't that just precious?"
Amelia stammered some more, before shoving the rest of her burger in her mouth with a scowl. "Shut it you two."
"I-I think it's quite sweet!"
"Who are you again?"
"Feli, why did you drag me here? I don't know who these people are!"
"...I can't remember, Lil!"
-x-
The next day, Amelia Jones had the unfortunate luck to run into a leaflet holding Arthur Kirkland in the centre of town.
Neither had been looking where they were going, Amelia's sunglasses making everything dark and Arthur too busy trying to hold all the leaflets t watch in front of him. When the two collided, all his leaflets went scattered everywhere, Amelia catching a glimpse of her seventh grade yearbook photo on all of them. She blanched and pulled her hat further down over her hair and dropped to the pavement, gathering a few up in her arms to pass back to him once he had gotten the rest.
"Thanks," Arthur said with a half smile and Amelia felt her cheeks go scarlet again when Madeline, who had been watching the entire time, started to titter again.
"Don't mention it," Amelia stammered, shoving the bundle of papers into his arms.
"Oh, by the way, have you see this girl?" he asked, passing her back a paper nonchalantly.
"N-nope, I've never seen her before in my life! Why?" Amelia stuttered hastily, scrunching up the flyer and shoving it in her jeans pocket.
"Well, she's been missing since the weekend," Arthur told her, shifting the papers under one arm, "So I presume her family is very worried about her. Her cousin is missing too, you see." Both Madeline and Amelia shot worried looks at each other, but it was okay for the moment as Arthur seemed oblivious to their identity.
"Well, why do you care so much?" Madeline asked, smiling slightly at her cousin's death glare, "Are you her boyfriend or something?"
Before Amelia could yell at her and blow there cover, Arthur began to stutter violently, turning some deep shade of red and flailing his free arm about. "I-I-I-I-I, of course not! I merely wish to be of service to her obviously distressed family!"
Madeline kept on, smirking lightly at the look of horror crossing Amelia's face. "But, I bet you like her or something, right?"
"Mad- Matilda!"
Arthur looked like he was about to throw a conniption fit, if he wasn't doing that already. "So what if I do, huh? What business is it of yours?"
Madeline smiled lightly, turning away and grabbing her cousin's hand. "Oh nothing, just wondering. Hey, you know, I might just know her? Can you give me a description?"
Arthur looked decidedly more energetic at that statement, passing Madeline another flyer. "Uhm, she's probably taller than she was in that picture. Maybe as high as my heart?"
Madeline couldn't help the choking chortle she let out and Amelia elbowed her in the side. "I think you should get that checked out," Amelia said with a pout, "It can't be healthy to have your heart lodged somewhere near your ear."
Arthur felt his face contort into a glare. "I don't believe I asked you your opinion on my height," he grumbled, yanking down his t-shirt, "Do you know her or not?"
"Nope," Madeline said, grinning ecstatically, "Never seen her before, let's go, Alfred!"
Amelia shot a look in Arthur's direction to find he was already looking around him for another person to ask diligently and felt her face heat up again quickly. She got lost in her thoughts and didn't realise a thing until she walked straight into a rather burly man, he hat coming off in the process.
"Amelia Jones?"
Amelia looked up at him, blanching to find her uncle himself standing over her, a strict look on his face. She gulped, turning around quickly to glance at Arthur's slack jaw a couple of feet behind before looking back up at the man in front of her again. "Yes?"
"I think you have some explaining to do."
-x-
The next Monday morning, Feliciano Vargas was cornered by two angry cousins and asked how the hell he mixed up 'Amelia's father and uncle have made up and he's coming home' with 'Amelia's being kicked out' and he just replied with a stutter that it was an easy mistake to make, which was an obvious lie.
Later on, Amelia yet again walked head first into Arthur Kirkland, who immediately turned scarlet upon seeing her face and stuttered an abundance of apologies, hanging his head in embarrassment at having not even recognized the girl he had liked, for a whole week or not.
"Don't apologise for trying to find me," Amelia grinned, her cheeks lightly flushed, which she preferred to the furious red they had been any other time he was mentioned, "I mean, if I was kidnapped I would have been rather grateful."
Arthur had stammered some more before making some comment about her cousin's now short hair which Amelia interrupted that if he wanted to have a coffee or something later all he had to do was ask, which earned even more flailing and stuttering than had previously.
But still, it earned her a free coffee and a rather nice chat with a still awkward Arthur Kirkland, who no doubt was going to get himself suspended again for drawing on the walls behind the stage that Amelia had practically lived in for almost a week.
If you asked him, he would have said that he looked everywhere possible for Amelia Jones from that Monday to that Friday. And, he wondered, that if he never got suspended and banned from school that week would he have checked the back of the school hall, but then thought that he probably would have never cared about finding her in the first place.
Two weeks later, Amelia pondered to him that if he wore high heels would she then only reach his chest, to which he replied-
"Okay, I get it, I'm short. Drop it."
It may have not been slow and it certainly wasn't steady, but after all, the silver haired boy never did rub off the engravings on the tree in the outskirts of the forest.