Ten years ago, I didn't know a word of English. Or any other human language, for that matter. I didn't know that I would end up in the care of one Arthur Kirkland. I didn't know that I would become the adopted son of Francis Bonnefoy. I didn't know that I would have a friend so close to me he might as well have been my twin brother. Had I known, I probably wouldn't have changed a thing. I miss life before, yes, but what I really loved about that life was Kuma, not the forest life I lived. I asked Alfred to write my story from his perspective. I wanted to see it through his eyes. God bless him, he wanted to tell me in person. That sounds just like him. He loves to talk. But I asked him to write it because the written word lasts longer than that spoken. I take his stories with me wherever I go and read them when I get bored. I can't thank him enough for writing them. With that said, and with his (and Arthur's) permission, I have decided to share our stories with the world.

-Matthew Williams

1 July

I decided to take the boys into the forest today. I brought Katyusha as an extra chaperone because I knew Alfred would get in trouble. …He still managed to wander off. But I'm glad he did, for once. He did something productive today. Or rather, he found something today. It was incredible! Alfred found a young boy, 9 years old, long, blonde hair, violet-blue eyes. What was most astounding, however, was that the boy was with a bear! A polar bear, no less! The bear seems to be his companion. He doesn't speak English, and Katyusha figured he doesn't speak Russian or Ukrainian. I'll call in a few friends tomorrow and see if we can't find a language he does speak. The only thing he says is "Kumajiro", and I think that's what he named his bear. I tried to take him in, but he didn't want to be separated from the bear. In the end, I left him alone. I think I'll come back with a wildlife expert and try again tomorrow. A boy his age shouldn't be out here alone. Though, I imagine he may have been here for a while. He wasn't dressed, and if he doesn't speak any language…but I can't imagine how he would have ended up here. I hated leaving him in the forest again, but I didn't dare try to take on the bear. It was a bear, for goodness' sake! Alfred seemed to take to him. By the time I found him, he had already made friends with the mysterious bear-boy. According to Alfred, though, the bear wasn't present at the time he found the boy. I'm not sure I believe him, but I have no way of knowing at this time. Of course, Alfred asked me if he could stay in the forest for the night. I swear, that boy will be the death of me.

-A.K.

Mattie asked me to write his story through my eyes, so I guess I'll do it. I'd do anything for him, when it comes down to it. We're practically brothers, after all. I'll start before I met him, though, since he wants to know what life was like before he "turned it upside down", as Arthur put it.

Before Mattie, the orphanage was just that, an orphanage. For boys. It was run by Arthur and sometimes Francis showed up and helped. Arthur didn't like Francis, though, so he didn't show up very often. I'm not quite sure what, exactly, Francis had to do with the orphanage besides torturing Arthur, but apparently they had some sort of past partnership or something. Arthur's really good at dodging the topic whenever it comes up. I think Mattie asked Francis once, but I never heard Francis' answer.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Katyusha and Natalia were two sisters from somewhere close to Russia. I'm not sure exactly where, but they both speak Russian and Ukrainian. They worked at the orphanage as caretakers of the boys. I remember Arthur saying he liked having them around because he felt children should have a 'woman's influence' in their lives.

I was, to say the least, the troublemaker. Arthur took me in off the streets when I was six, so I had only been living with him for three years when I met Mattie. I still hadn't quite grasped the whole idea of a 'home life', which was probably why I never got adopted and why Mattie and I got along so well. Arthur never managed to take the jungle out of either of us. Well, in my case, the city, and in Mattie's case, the forest. Or the bear.

Ten years ago, I didn't know that a boy named Matthew Williams existed, let alone that I would one day be his best friend, brother, whatever you want to call it. I called him John Doe for a while, there, too. I was nine years old when I met him. Arthur had taken us out to the park at the edge of the forest. I loved it there. It was easy to just run off and hide from Arthur. I was a little worried when he brought Katyusha, but as it turns out, she's easy to get away from, too. It took no time at all for me to sneak away into the forest.

I wandered around, looking for the tall climbing tree I had found the last time I had been there. Before I knew it, I had wandered further than I had before. But that was hardly nerve wracking for me. I liked adventure, so I just kept going. Finally, I ran into a boy. He was naked, and had long blonde hair and blue eyes. This happened ten years ago, so I can't quite remember the details, but I remember I said something along the lines of, "hey, dude. What happened to your clothes?"

The boy cocked his head at me. Again, the details get fuzzy in there, but I vividly remember getting knocked over by a bear. I was terrified for the first time in a long time. After living on the streets at such a young age, not much scares me anymore. I was on my back, staring up at the polar bear, afraid for my life, but the boy suddenly jumped in front of me and held out his arms.

"Kuma!" he called. The bear seemed to calm down. It approached the boy and gently patted him. The boy hugged the bear, running his fingers through the thick, white fur.

Apparently, that had been some sort of initiation, because then, the bear walked over to me and sniffed at me before giving what I can only call a shrug and walking away into the trees. The boy glanced at me, then turned to follow the bear. After a few steps, he stopped and looked at me again. Somehow, I understood that he wanted me to follow. He led me through the forest and to a little hole in the roots of a large tree. The bear ducked into the hole and the boy followed, so I did the same. The hole opened into a little burrow that just barely fit the three of us in it. I had to crawl to fit in it. I have no idea how the bear fit.

The bear was lying down on one side and easily took up half the burrow itself. The boy crawled to the far end of the burrow and scooped up some berries from a big pile. He returned to me and sat down in front of me. I did the same and he put the berries between us. He looked at me and cocked his head, then back down at the berries. He ate some, then looked at me and pushed them over closer to me with a gentle hum.

I blinked, then reached out and took some berries, popping them into my mouth. They were assorted berries. I don't remember exactly what kinds there were, but they were very sweet and the tastes blended well. I smiled at the taste and the boy smiled back, apparently pleased that I liked it. We ate berries for a few more minutes, then the bear suddenly let out a low rumble and lifted its head, its ears perking up.

The boy glanced over and hummed again in a way that sounded like a question.

The bear let out another low rumble and the boy cocked his head as if listening. Then I heard it.

Off in the distance, I could hear Arthur's voice calling my name.

"Oh, shoot!" I exclaimed, drawing the attention of both the boy and the bear. I crawled to the entrance of the burrow and scrambled out. I was in big trouble now. I had been gone for longer than I'd meant.

"Alfred!" Arthur's voice called again, closer this time.

"Over here!" I called in the direction his voice had come from. A moment later, I heard his steps in the brush and he appeared from around a tree.

"Oh, Alfred!" he exclaimed, rushing toward me. He looked me over, checking for injury, talking all the while, "where have you been? Do you have any idea how worried I was? Have you been eating something? Nothing poisonous, I hope?"

"I was eating berries with my friend," I answered.

"What friend?" Arthur asked, "Alfred, I swear, if you ruined your appetite, I'll-" He stopped. His eyes focused on something behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see the boy peeking out of his little burrow. Arthur slowly walked over to him. He ducked down slightly lower. Arthur softly began speaking to him, "it's alright. I won't hurt you. What are you doing out here? Where are your parents?"

Slowly, the boy stepped out of the hole, but continued backing away from Arthur.

"Where are your clothes?" Arthur asked, "how long have you been out here? Your parents must be worried sick."

The boy backed himself against a tree and waited, watching Arthur get closer.

Arthur knelt down in front of him and held out a hand, "do you want me to help you get home?"

"K-Kumajiro," the boy said softly.

"What was that?" Arthur asked.

"Kumajiro!" the boy exclaimed loudly.

I glanced over at the hole and, sure enough, the bear came out. It looked around for a minute, then its eyes settled on Arthur, who hadn't noticed, and it growled. And then Arthur noticed. He immediately turned and his eyes widened.

"What the- Alfred! Get back!" Arthur commanded. He slowly began to stand and move around the bear. He glanced back at the boy for a moment, and opened his mouth to say something, but the boy was gone.

I'm not sure where the boy went, but I heard him yell, "Kumajiro!" from a ways away. The bear growled at Arthur once more, then ran off into the trees.

Arthur stood in shocked silence for a moment more, then grabbed my hand and headed back the direction he had come, "let's go, Alfred."

Surprisingly enough, I didn't get scolded that day for wandering off. I did, however, get scolded the day after. I read Arthur's journal entry (which I'm not supposed to do) about this day, though, and he said that I apparently wanted to spend the night in the forest, but I have no memory of that.

I guess that's the first day I met Mattie. I'm not sure why he wanted me to write this, especially considering my account isn't the most reliable because I was so young when a lot of it happened, but I'll do my best anyway. I remember that first day fairly vividly, at least, compared to many of my first memories involving Mattie. A lot of them are pretty vague, but that day is stuck in my memory forever.

Hello!

So, um…this is a thing. I'm not quite sure where this idea came from, but I think it had something to do with watching Bravefor the first time last night.

I don't have much to say about this other than it will be updated completely randomly; like, whenever I feel like it. It will be written mostly in Alfred's POV, but most if not all of the chapters will have Arthur's journal entry in it and a few will have a note from Matthew, too. This doesn't really have an actual storyline to it. It's mostly going to be about Alfred and Matthew growing up. It's also not really a comedy, though there will be funny parts. It's just, sort of, I don't know. A family story, maybe? Also, I'm not writing this with any particular pairings in mind, so you can read into it as much as you want, but you don't have to.

I think that's about it. I hope you enjoyed this! Sorry it's so short, but I'll very likely be uploading one if not two more chapters today alone. The rest won't come as quickly, but it'll happen. :)

~Maya