Emerald Roses

So… yeah I wanted to make this a one shot and then got to writing and the point when I hit 1000 words and had no thief mentioned at all I knew this was going to be a chapter story…. Oh well! It just means more FrUK! And a load of others… AmeCan, Spamano, SuFin, GerIta, LuxFar(OC's), DenNor, HongIce, RoChu. Also I am sorry to any people that like Cuba… I don't really, he is just kind of a filler character and I just figured…. No malice meant!

BTW… I love the idea of Matt, Yao and Rae(OC) being best friends so Yao is in university and Kiku is older. Britain angel got him.

Arthur stared down the paper sitting on his desk. He was torn between buckling down and finishing it or simply crushing it and chucking it at the sorry excuse of a son that sat across from him. Said son glanced up briefly from the DS in his hands and flashed a cheeky grin, his blue eyes sparkling behind his glasses and his perpetual cowlick sticking up as if to show his defiance. The paper in front of him stated that his son was to have an in-school suspension for the next five days. The annoying part was that he couldn't punish the boy for doing something wrong as he himself would have probably have done the same thing.

Alfred had come to his work; well Arthur had had to come pick him up from the school, with bruised knuckles and a letter stating he was suspended. Arthur had been livid. How could a son of his be suspended? He was a god dammed detective and lord knew Alfred was forever going on about how he was going to be a hero. Of course, that lead them right back around to him not being able to blame him. Arthur had given him thirty seconds to explain and Alfred had taken every one of them and then some.

It wasn't news that Alfred was gay; the fact was well stated, mostly by the male himself. So Arthur had assumed that someone had decided to pick on him for it and forgot to calculate in the fact that Alfred was A; Quarterback and B; could bench press about three times his own weight, as impractical as it was. Suffice to say that Arthur was probably going to be paying a hefty fee for the boy's hospital stay.

But no, not even close. Arthur had to be proud of the fact of what Alfred did what he did. Calling him a hero would be farfetched but saying that he did… decent was not. Apparently, an under classman had been being picked on by an upper classman and the upper classman had been intent on torturing the poor boy. Alfred had told him that it had been going on for a while but this is the only time that he had actually seen it. Alfred had just acted on instinct, so the annoyed Britain was told, when the smaller male had tried to run. The upper classman, some Cuban ass that had been giving others grief for years, had gone to hit the younger under classman when Alfred had socked him.

So there they sat. Arthur had actual work to do, actually paperwork to be filling out and actual better things he could be doing. Alfred sure didn't look worried about the situation in the slightest.

"Does this not bother you?" Arthur ground out, breaking the silence that, previously, had only been broken by the sounds of screeching tires and cartoon voices from Alfred's game.

"Not really. The guy deserved it." He grinned up at his father, leveling his gaze with his father's normal glare. "Plus I got to be the hero of the cutest guy in school."

Arthur snorted in amusement, dry as it might have been. "So he called you his hero?"

"Well no…" The smile momentarily fell from Alfred's face before quickly bouncing back. "But he did say thanks and introduced himself." Arthur stared at his son over the glasses perched on his nose. Alfred, usually, couldn't care less about other people so hearing him so excited over learning a simple name set off alarms in his head.

"So being in an in-school for a week was worth meeting your crush?" Arthur deadpanned and Alfred flushed, suddenly busy with the game in his hands. After several moments of silence Arthur let out a sigh that really could have passed for a growl. "The question wasn't rhetorical."

"Uh… yeah." Alfred looked up, his face still sprinkled with pink. "He's Canadian and the... uh… captain of the hockey team."

"Then why can't he take care of himself, last I recalled hockey was not a gentle sport."

"He's… very… quiet. He is shy."

"Then how is he captain of the hockey team?"

"He just doesn't like violence!"

"Then why does he play hockey?"

"He's passive aggressive!"

Arthur sat back in his chair, watching his now red faced and annoyed son. He couldn't recall a time when Alfred had fought for someone so vigorously. It was rather amusing to say the least but also a little disconcerting.

The two lapsed into silence as Alfred went back to his game, his shoulders relaxing as he calmed down. Arthur dove into the paperwork, scratching his signature on the paper. He had been half way through the date when the silence was broken by a loud; "The red and white flag, keep it high, keep it visual. People say Canada and get stereotypical, think we fini-" Alfred dove for his phone, which his father had confiscated and set on the desk. Flipping it open he broke into a huge grin, fingers flying over the keyboard of his phone.

"Really?" Arthur scowled at his son, searching for whiteout as the loud disruption had caused him to jump and run the pen over the page.

"It fits." Alfred mumbled not looking up from his phone. The boy's phone went off again and he jumped to his feet, rushing to the door and throwing it open with a, "See ya later at home, dad!" He pretty much ran over the blonde beyond the doorway. Said blonde scowled and moved out of the others way. Sighing Arthur bid the almost trampled blonde in.

Ludwig was a quiet fellow; with slicked back blond hair and piercing blue eyes, Arthur had always preferred to have him with him in an interrogation as just the German man's presence could scare the truth out of them.

Today the German looked particularly ticked off. Usually Arthur would assume that his Italian boyfriend had made him late or something of the sort; the idiot could hardly tie his shoes, he really couldn't fathom how the two ever ended up together. But looking at the German he knew it was much more serious then the little quarks between him and his boyfriend.

"We have another one." Ludwig muttered, placing a folder in Arthur's hand.

"Another?" Arthur grumbled, shifting open the folder and staring at the pictures within in annoyance. There was practically nothing in the folder besides a few pictures and the test run on the single rose that was left at every crime scene. This was the fifth case in two weeks of a robbery at high end jewelers, wine or couture clothing stores. The current thievery however was different as something was left behind, as the store suffered several hundred thousand dollars worth of jewelry that was taken. Previously this thief had stolen from one of the most well-to-do alcohol stores in the whole of the country and there sitting in their crime scene was one of the most expensive bottles of Scotch in the world.

"Is he toying with us?" Ludwig asked staring down at the pictures of the bottle, uncorked and the infamous red rose floating in the liquid.

"It bloody well looks it." Arthur hissed, leafing through the pictures of the spotless crime scene. It bothered him that there was not a thing out of place. Not one fingerprint or piece of hair or any piece of physical evidence, it was… frustrating. To say the least.

"Berwald and Kiku have a board set up in the conference room with all our information so far. They are just waiting for you." Ludwig sighed and ran a hand over his face. Arthur couldn't really blame him. This case had been one of the hardest yet and it was only on its second week. Whoever was doing this must be one greedy bastard.

Sighing himself, Arthur pushed to his feet, grabbing the folder and Alfred's suspension letter. Ludwig preceded him out of his office and into the conference room. Berwald nodded as did Kiku but the latter took note of the letter in Arthur's hand and raised an eyebrow.

Arthur sighed again. "Alfred got himself a week long in-school suspension."

"Ah yes. Im Yong Soo told me that Alfred punched someone bullying Matthew." Kiku nodded. "It knocked the boy unconscious." Arthur sighed, he wasn't really surprised.

"I can't really punish him for it… but…" Arthur scowled at the wall behind Kiku. "Uh…"

Kiku let his thin lips slip into a ghost of a smile. "He used violence for a good deed which is bad but good. Matthew finds it good though." When Arthur sent the smaller Japanese man a confused frown Kiku explained. "Yao and Matthew have been good friends for years. Yao told me to thank you." He bowed slightly before straightening and letting his face fall back into its usually expressionless façade.

Arthur nodded back before turning to the board; pictures were tapped to the white board in separate sections, the board itself left untouched by markers so far, and waiting for him. He didn't bother to ask about physical evidence as he knew there wouldn't be any. This thief, as annoying as it was to admit to himself, was far smarter than leaving a fingerprint around for them to find. They needed something to work with. He sighed, eyes drifting to the latest robbery. Why change now?

Sighing to himself he grabbed the dry erase marker and drew a sharp line from the last one to the one before it, labeling the line; "Scotch", before changing colours and connecting all the other robberies by date. Labeling and dating each crime scene he stepped back looking back to the other three men in the room. Berwald was staring at the insurance claims of the stores, Kiku was staring transfixed at the board as if the board was going to start talking to him and give him all his answers. Turning to Ludwig he found the other blond talking to their newest member of their team.

Lukas looked up, expressionless eyes meeting with Arthur's before nodding and making his way over. Lukas had transferred to the police force three months ago. His lover was possibly the most annoying person in the world. The undercover cop never shut up and could be found drunk six out of seven days of the week. Arthur could never understand how the dark blond haired muscle head managed to be tolerated by the petite platinum blond Norwegian.

"He left us something." Arthur blinked, Ludwig and Lukas now standing before him with a new analysis and photos.

"On purpose?" Arthur asked, a little weary of the answer.

"Yes." Lidwig nodded as the smaller male spoke.

Arthur took the folder and squinted at the pictures, mouth falling open slightly at the evidence before him. Looking up and blinked at the two serious males before. Neither was known for joking and he doubted that they would want to try to pull some kind of joke off. Letting out a growl of frustration he took the pictures from the folder, and with a little more force than necessary, tapped them to the board. There on the stem of the bottle was a perfect lip impression. It was as if the thief had pressed a kiss to the bottle to cause the small almost invisible mark.

"Is he trying to get caught?" Arthur flipped through the analysis. There was viable DNA on the lip impression. "First he makes sure that we know that not only are all these connected but that he is proud that he stole from these stores and now he is ballsy enough to give us DNA?"

"Maybe he knows that we will not be able to match the DNA to anything?" Kiku mumbled.

"M'be he w'nts 'ur 'ttent'on." Berwald spoke up for the first time.

The whole of the room turned to stare at him and he looked back down at papers in front of him. It made sense. Why else would he change up his pattern? He knew that they were now paying full attention to what he was doing and this was a taunt, to see if they were really getting anywhere on the case. Or if they could get anywhere with the case.

The Britain grinned, the buzz from his team fading in the background as he took in the pictures on the board. Well, if it was a game then Arthur guessed that it was time he started to learn the rules.

CHAPTER ONE END

Dude! This took me forever!