That Time

By HamburgerWithTea

Oneshot

They had been only eight years old at that time when Alfred had found a human tooth in the sand of the local football area. Or so he claimed back then, as he now knew it was nothing like a human tooth. Instead it was just a random, small, white rock which, with a bit of imagination, slightly resembled a human tooth. But never mind that, it'd still been a wonderful discovery back then.

Back then, the nine year old Arthur Kirkland had only moved in his neighbourhood recently, all the way from England. At first he hadn't come outside much, but when Alfred and Arthur's mums ended up chatting (the awfully long talks about anything and everything, like mums seemed to do a lot), they had been forced to play together.

Arthur hadn't been very in for it and refused Alfred's suggestions to play 'soccer', but Alfred wasn't one to give up and eventually he nagged Arthur enough to have him join the game. After a bit of silly kicking to the ball, they had picked up the pace and ended up enjoying themselves more than they had expected.

A few days later was when Alfred had found the tooth. Arthur would later state he'd always known it was not a real human tooth, but only pretended it was to keep Alfred happy, but the American boy did not believe him, not even after all these years.

Time passed and soon several months had come and gone. By then both boys had become the each other's best friends, who enjoyed sharing a lot of things.

"What's your favourite colour, Artie?" Alfred asked the Brit. Despite Arthur's stubbornness on certain things, he already figured he couldn't stop Alfred from calling him 'Artie' and thus had made an agreement with the American to only call him that in private. That way Arthur wouldn't feel embarrassed, yet Alfred wouldn't get too whiney either.

"Uhm…" Arthur had said hesitantly.

"C'mon, tell me! Tell me! I want to know!" Alfred urged the other on. He had wanted to know so before the other's first-birthday-since-they-became-friends would be around, as that was an important date and Alfred would make sure to get Arthur the best present!

"Don't laugh." Arthur suddenly looked at him sternly. Alfred didn't really know what that meant, after all there was no way Arthur wouldn't like some awesome colour like blue and green!

"Promise." Alfred nodded eagerly, awaiting the reply.

"Uhm, I-I'm quite fond of, uhm," Arthur started, "Well, uhm, pink." By now Arthur looked away, as if trying to hide his face, which in itself was slowly turning a wonderful shade of pink.

Despite Alfred's promise, he found it hard not to laugh. It wasn't like the shy but tough Arthur at allto like pink, Alfred had been so certain the Brit would at least be a huge fan of red, white and blue, the colours of his homeland's flag. For a moment Alfred thought it had to be a joke, but he caught himself just in time to see Arthur's serious body language. It took a few seconds more, but eventually Alfred realised it really wasArthur's favourite colour, which would made it terribly hard to find the other a cool, heroic present!

"What's yours?" Arthur suddenly spoke up, still a bit pink on the cheeks, but trying to switch from subject now that it seemed Alfred would not actually burst out laughing.

"Green!" Alfred immediately responded. Of course he also loved the usual red, white and blue, but green was such a wonderful colour! It reminded him of grass in summer, Arthur's eyes, his wonderful birthday cake he got when he turned eight…

In the end they had continued on with the conversation, whilst Alfred was thinking about what to get Arthur that was pink, but awesome. In the end he'd settled on something, but Alfred couldn't recall what, though he was quite sure it was a photo frame he'd painted and decorated himself, to suit Arthur's tastes. The picture in it had been the two of them, sitting in the grass of the football field, both grinning sheepishly at the camera. It was Alfred's favourite photo of the two of them and he'd asked his mum to get the photo printed double.

Time continued to pass and that soon found them at the summer holidays, which were both bliss and boredom. Some days it was too warm to even do anything else than sitting in front of a fan, trying to get even slightly cool, yet other moments it was pouring rain, with thunder and lightning. It was the usual summer weather, but it was a bother.

Arthur had ended up eating a lot of tangerines that summer. Apparently he'd had found a new love for the fruit, and he'd eat more and more and more. Whenever Alfred would ask the other why he eat so many of them, the British blond would simply reply that they were 'cheap and juicy'. Arthur and Alfred's mothers would often joke about it together, with Alfred's mum wishing her son would start eating more fruit and less hamburgers. Sadly, her wishes would not come true until the day hamburgers would not exist anymore.

By that time, Alfred and Arthur had walked towards the first floor, where Alfred's room was, as the American boy was lucky enough to have his own fan in his room. They both sat in front of it to catch its cooling breeze, as Alfred showed Arthur how to get his 'awesome alien voice' by talking towards the direction of the fan. The green-eyed blond would giggle a bit about it and eventually tried it himself. Which resulted in a lot of laughing for the both of them.

At some point the game, as with all games, had gotten boring, which had left them on the ground. Alfred was laying down, staring to the ceiling, whereas Arthur was, once again, eating a tangerine.

"Say, Artie?" Alfred wondered out loud. He got a vaguely interested hum from the other blond in return, "Have you ever kissed someone, as in like, kissed kissed, like a girl or something?" Alfred was curious. Arthur was older than him by a few months more than a year and now that the Brit was ten years old, Alfred kind of felt like he was the more experienced one of the two, like an older brother.

"I have done no such thing, no." Arthur said, "Not yet." And he stuck a slice of tangerine in his mouth, slowly chewing on it.

"What about we practise, like, nothing weird," Alfred figured, "You see, if we kiss anywhere but the mouth it doesn't count as a real kiss but we will get experience, I bet all girls would love us!" Alfred was quite pleased with his plan. There wasn't anyone he trusted more than Arthur, so who this was the best thing he could think of.

Arthur looked at him from his sitting position.

"T-that's absolutely out of question!" He said quickly, looking away as his cheeks got that admirable pink shade again.

"Aw, c'mon Artie," Alfred whined, as he rolled over to bump his head against Arthur's knee. " 's nothing weird, you're just stuck up and afraid and inexperienced is all, but this will help us both!" Alfred sat up to make it look extra convincing and not just like a random idea. "And it'll not even be on the lips," the American finished his whining, waiting for an answer in anticipation.

Arthur still wouldn't look at him, but Alfred could see his eyes start to stare at a particular place on the ground. It wouldn't take long before the other would come to the 'conclusion it'd not hurt to try'.

And that's how they ended up kissing each others arms, legs, cheeks, ears, forehead… it was never anything erotic, more like an exciting boys' adventure to discover a new, more mature life.

So a few years passed and they found themselves at the fun but scary age of twelve and thirteen. It were ages at which a lot of things changed and the time to do fun stuff would slowly but surely become less.

Yet, as they found themselves in middle school, Arthur seemed to also have found himself a new interest for literature, especially Shakespeare's plays. Alfred would constantly mock him about his nose being stuck in a book like 'a nerd' (because labels like that mattered at that age) and would recite the backs of cereal boxes as if they were a play as well.

It didn't do much for Arthur's mood, though, as it seemed to annoy the Brit more than anything else. They'd even gotten in a minor fight about it, which resulted in a weeklong silence between the two. Alfred had felt awfully guilty, but Arthur's mean glares didn't make it easy for him to walk up to the other and apologise. Instead they had avoided each other, until the fateful day they had found their pigeon 'Earl Grey' (as Arthur had obviously named him, after Alfred refused a name from on of Shakespeare's characters).

Their new pigeon friend hadn't lived much longer though. The poor animal had broken its wing, which was the reason Alfred had found it and was able to catch it. He'd immediately ringed Arthur's doorbell because this was definitely a case of emergency!

The British blond himself opened the door and started off with a glare, until Alfred showed him the pigeon and explained the problem. Sadly neither of the boys had been allowed to take the pigeon inside, and thus it had to stay out in the evening.

They'd both promised to keep watch and switch doing so each hour or two in order to not lose sleep, yet at some point both had eventually drift off into dreamland only to wake up the next morning. Arthur was the first to wake and was shocked by the sight of a cat holding the pigeon in its beak. The pigeon didn't seem to live anymore, but he still decided to get Alfred for help to try save the bird.

Arthur had been right about the pigeon being long dead. In reality it was quite a gruesome sight they had found when they had been able to shoo away the cat. There was very visible blood and some bits of the pigeon had been chewed on, which had the both of them stare for a while in horror.

Nether of them had had the energy nor willpower to blame the other for not keeping the watch well but falling asleep instead, and in the end they both decided to give the pigeon a proper funeral. They'd gotten out an old shoebox and had planned to lay the pigeon in there, only to end discussing who would be the one to actually lift the pigeon and burry it.

"Yeah, but you saw it first," Alfred said.

"But you found it on the streets when it was still alive," Arthur replied, trying not to see the poor, dead pigeon in front of them.

"True, but that's why you should be the one to put him in the box, I already carried him once,"

"That's right, but you're the hero right? Why don't you do it?" In the end Arthur won as Alfred was unable to reply to that. Alfred could still remember how he'd almost gotten sick of the whole act, seeing the pigeon lying there, all cut up. As they had found a nice spot under the shadow of a tree on the playground, they had laid the box in the hole, put the sand back on top and placed a stone on the grave in order to find it back. Both of the blonds had shed a few tears, though they'd later refuse to admit it. But in the end, the good thing was they got to become best friends once again, if not more than ever.

These childish times had passed too quickly and soon they found themselves at the ages of seventeen and eighteen. Troublesome ages for the both of them, as careers were near and college was to be chosen.

Obviously Arthur had gotten good enough grades to get into basically any college he wanted, whereas Alfred was just really good at science and history and was allowed to finish a year early. It was difficult to decide, as neither really wanted to leave nor did they know what to do with their lives.

They were no longer the aspiring kids from all these years ago. By now they had both kissed several girls, experienced several confrontations with reality and were no longer as innocent as they once were.

"What college are you planning on," Arthur had asked, lighting a cigarette and handing another one over to Alfred. This time the Brit seemed to have bought Camels. Alfred liked to keep these small things in mind, as Arthur had a slight change every once in a while.

He used to smoke only Parliaments, until a girl he'd met at a party had recommended him Marlboro's, only to then discover Camels at yet another party. They wouldn't go to parties all that often, but it was fun every once in a while to just let go and drink and smoke to their heart's content. It was like an escape from reality.

"Hm, not sure yet," Alfred replied, taking the Camels cigarette and lighting it with ease. This was not the first cigarette. A quick inhale made him get used to the silly way of inhaling and he soon found himself getting all used to it again. "Maybe something near the west where it's nice and warm and where all stars live like California or something, I don't know." He mumbled, but he knew that was too expensive for him to afford. Instead he knew he better go to the east instead, near New York, but he didn't want to go there to the cold weather. Then again, Arthur would probably go somewhere near that area too…

After graduation and choosing a college, both of their colleges being quite close together so they would be able to meet up over the weekends and holidays, they indulged themselves in the luxury of temporary freedom, lots of parties and almost free alcohol.

It was one of those nights that they had been drunk, honest and awfully happy that they had found each other. Of course they had known each other for many, many years now, but this was different.

As the time passed and the night slowly changed into early morning, they found themselves more and more honest, both with words and actions, until they had ended up together in Alfred's newly bought double bed where they fiddled, kissed and touched around all evening until both passed out from intoxication and fatigue. They hadn't gone far, but it had been and exciting experience and neither could deny they had enjoyed it. In the end they realised it felt right; it felt like the one thing they'd missed for a long time.

All summer they would end up messing around and neither knew when, but at some point they found themselves in a relationship they had never thought they would end up in, yet neither were bothered by it; if this was how love was, then so it be.

At the end of the summer, though, they both ended up broke. They had already borrowed money from one and the other every time, even borrowed from some other friends, but in the end it didn't work out. They would have to wait before being able to spend again, as all money left was saved up for college. Which had gotten Alfred to get a job at the McDonald's near his college for the next three years whereas Arthur had taken on a small side job in the university library.

It'd been a few years since then and Alfred could honestly say he'd enjoyed himself a lot over time. College seemed to be hard work, but rather enjoyable work for him, although it stressed him out, and Arthur and he were still together.

They were both doing well at school, grades ranging from average to good to sometimes even top score and in general enjoying themselves. The fact they were now almost official adults and were almost both able to buy alcohol legally in the USA (Alfred had to wait just four months more) had changed a lot in their lives. It had also become easy to get a fake ID, although a bit of an expensive investment, and they'd found themselves sometimes go much further than just alcohol.

The intoxicating substance had been fun, but they had longed for a new, refreshing state of absence from the world. The awfully fast and socially strict world full of its judgement and high expectations and standards. College wasn't the most difficult place to come by things and every once in a while they would try themselves some drugs.

On those days they lived in a haze. Nothing would seem real to them, their mind was able to take off and everything around them seemed to change. It was like a whole new, relaxed world, a world they so longed for in their busy, busy lives. The one world they would never reach close enough.

It was one of those days filled with greed for freedom, that Arthur had ended up with an over doses. He'd just suddenly fallen down, spasming and ended up not responding to Alfred, who was in the living room with him in Arthur's apartment. It first came as a surprise to Alfred, but since he was still rather down to earth, he had been able to get help and all had gone well. They had both gotten a very firm warning by the doctor and Arthur had had to stay in the hospital for two weeks to recover and be checked several times to make sure all was still okay.

Afterwards they agreed to use less drugs and be more cautious about it all. It had worried Alfred a lot to see his boyfriend in such a state, but Arthur promised he'd be okay. After all, he was smart enough and strong enough to deal with it, he said, and Alfred let it pass, trusting him.

Months passed and nothing much happened, as they continued focussing more on college and less on the fun life. Tests went well, grades stayed stable, everything was great.

Alfred decided to call Arthur to ask if he could come over tonight to hang out. The American had just been fired from his job as his age made him too expensive and he felt quite shite about it. It wasn't like he liked the job a lot, but he did need it in order to pay college and rent and the current world crisis on money didn't make things easier on him. He dialled Arthur's number and it took a bit, but eventually Arthur picked up.

"Hmm, what is it, Al?" the Brit at the other end of the phone answered.

"Hey Artie, is it OK if I come over later?" he said, trying to sound more joyful than he actually felt. Arthur seemed to realise something was wrong, as he was silent for a bit longer than normally, yet he apparently decided not to mention any difference.

"Sure," he said, "You can come by around nine?"

"Alright then, see you at nine!" Alfred said, hanging up again. This gave him a bit of time to buy himself a nice, new comic or the like, to read something else than his brainkiller schoolbooks.

Around nine he stood in front of Arthur's apartment door and opened it with the spare key he owned.

"Arthur?" he called, "I'm here!"

He got no response.

"Arthur?" He tried again, this time a response came from the living room couch, where Arthur lay sprawled over, not at all down to earth. Alfred was okay with it though, as he didn't plan on staying down to earth either. With a quick look at the coffee table he found the package of what Arthur had taken and checked it. It seemed to look decent and with a quick movement he took one pill and waited for the effects to kick in.

It didn't take long and he soon found all stress relieve his body. He could see all sorts of colours and it felt as if his body moved on its own without his consistent. It felt like he was on a ship, yet it felt like he was flying, though the other moment he felt like a heavy, heavy rock. There started to appear colourful flowers on the wall, making him blink his eyes several times before falling down back on the couch.

The ceiling slowly turned into a nice, blue sky full of wonderful, puffy clouds, until it changed again and the clouds started to transform in his favourite superheroes. They sky would turn green, pretty emerald green alike Arthur's eyes and Alfred felt the urge to reach out for the other, yet his arms felt so heavy. So, so heavy. Thus, instead, he decided to turn his head to the side, looking at where Arthur was lying on the couch, also staring off at the ceiling as weirdly coloured flowers appeared around him and Alfred could've sworn he saw Arthur glow like an angel whilst lying in a relaxed pose.

But instead he seemed to be all but in a relaxed pose. Now that Alfred tried to focus more, it seemed like Arthur was not his normal self, he almost seemed sick?

Alfred squinted his eyes to try to look at Arthur without the annoying, brightly coloured flowers all around, and tried to remember how many pills had been taken from the package. He couldn't remember well, so he decided to check, only to find it hard to move properly. In the end he got to grab the package and realised at least 4 pills were missing, and since he'd only taken one, Arthur had had to have used up the other three.

The American looked back at Arthur, squinting again as the flowers were now changing into clouds again, fogging up his vision. Was it happening again? Was Arthur over dosed? It was hard to think rationally for Alfred, and he didn't know how long it took before he started to move again.

"Fuck," he mumbled, trying to dial 911, yet the numbers went dancing around before his eyes and refused to just fucking stick to the screen.

Eventually he found himself pressing the call button, hoping he'd typed in right. He soon heard someone pick up and a monotone voice asked him whether he required the fire department, police department or the ambulance. Alfred pressed number three, as he vaguely seemed to register that was the number for the ambulance.

After that he got connected with the nearest hospital and tried to explain what happened as well as possible in his current, high state. He was glad he knew Arthur's address by heart, so it wasn't hard to direct them to the location.

Alfred had no idea how much time had passed by the time he heard persistent knocking on the door. He had, by now, fallen back to the ground, looking up at the ceiling, and it took effort to haul himself back up again, yet something told him he had to do it because this was something important.

He opened the door and quickly people in medical clothing went inside and before Alfred could understand what was going on they put Arthur on a stretcher and carried him out. The American blond followed him by autopilot.

On the trip to the hospital he could feel his mind wander off even further and he could only vaguely remember how the medics had told him to wait at the waiting room. At the moment he was just sitting there, nodding his head in a nervous movement whilst his brain started imagining things.

He imagined how he and Arthur were kids again, how they used to dislike each other, how they used to exchange interests, how they had once buried that pigeon, how they had kissed each other, how disappointed he had been about the first real kiss he'd gotten from his first girlfriend, how Arthur and he had both discussed their stress and how they had decided this life wouldn't hurt, this freedom wouldn't hurt, how these moments off the earth would only make them feel better in the end.

The thoughts slowly changed from memories to now, this moment. He started imagining he could read Arthur's mind, what would be going on with him now, how would he feel, would he live, would he die? He tried to think of what Arthur would reply.

All he could think of was the stress. The stress that had slowly pushed them in a corner where they had felt the only escape was intoxicating things. It had been so innocent, he and Arthur agreed in Alfred's head, when they had just smoked cigarettes. Alcohol had been a bit more daring but not half as addicting. It was only since college, since busy, busy college they had somehow lost control. How could it have happened that they lost control? They hadn't realised, Arthur hadn't realised, Alfred hadn't realised. What would be going on now, what would become of them?

Alfred asked Arthur many, many questions in his head and with each answer more questions would rise.

The more he thought about it, the creepier his thoughts became. He was slowly starting to get less high and the hallucinations became less and less intense, but they were still here, slowly transforming into all sorts of things, ranging from happy things to sad things. Mad things to innocent things. Familiar things to unfamiliar things. It was a mess. Everything was a mess. Their whole life was a mess.

Alfred's brain was still a mess when a doctor in a white coat came walking towards him, probably to tell him the news,

The news on Arthur.

Yeahhhhhh ONESHOT ollé.

I couldn't decide on letting Arthur live or not so idk open ending because that is a huge pain? :D

Also I'm still working hard on longer stories and chapters, but damn I'm hella busy and college isn't going easy on me.

As for this story, it's based on Regina Spektor's "That Time" which is a song I love a lot and I've had this idea for a long, long while. I know I changed some things and all but yeah it's already too close to a copy for my liking.

I'm not fond with the final part, the last part, but I don't know how to make it better, and im fully aware how I switch from "had" to "has" and whatever. I hope it's still okay enough to read?

Last but not least, it's basically a fic on how stress and life and responsibilities and expectations and whatever can drive you mad despite being just a normal person from a normal upbringing.

I have never done drugs (im only familiar with alcohol and smoking cigarettes) so derp on that one and no I did not research overdose symptoms because it's 3am here and I'm tired.

For now I'll work on school and I'll sleep and I'll be on tumblr (url HambugerWithTea) and yeah I'll be THINKING of fanfiction but hardly finding any time to write? D:

Sorry!

I hope you've all been well and please review/comment if you have anything to say about this piece of shit, and uhm yeah idk I'm not dead but I'm slow so please bear with me?

Stay awesome!

I do not own Hetalia or the characters, those belong to their rightful (awesome) creator, Hidekaz Himaruya

(03/07/14)

Yeey 19 in 3 days. No thanks :I