Hey guys! :D

This is a birthday FF for a dear friend of mine and I thought I might upload it here, too~ :3 It's not beta-ed so I excuse myself for any mistakes, feel free to point them out. Since I haven't properly written anything on my own for a while now I'm sorry for any rusty/clumsy style that may occur x'D

Anyway I do hope you like it! :D

Hetalia and it's characters do not belong to me, but the idea for this FF does~

Prologue

Running through the corridors as fast as his feet would carry him Arthur tried to escape his followers, not even turning around to check on them. He couldn't actually hear them right behind him anymore, but he didn't trust those boys, maybe it was a trap and they only wanted him to believe that he was save already.

So he kept dashing through the damn school's hallways hectically looking around to finally find the exit. He didn't stop there, though. He continued to run until he knew he was far away from his new school and therefore save from his equally new bullies.

Breath coming in irregular puffs he began to walk into the direction of the day-care centre he had to stay in after school, because his mother had to work till in the evening. It was hard for them to finance it, but Arthur had insisted that there was no free day-care in his new school just because he didn't want to stay with his classmates any longer than he had to.

Sue he felt bad for lying to her, but he was certain that the current place he had to stay in all the afternoons was clearly a lot cheaper than the expected doctor visits he was sure would have followed with attending the same day-care as his bullies in school. He might have been only thirteen, but he wasn't stupid.

He sighed as his breath's rate slowly became normal again.

After his last birthday they had moved here a few months ago, because his mother had thought it would be the best for them to forget their turbulent past and begin a new life. She hadn't explicitly said so, however, Arthur knew that she wanted to get away from the place they had lost his Dad.

Arthur wasn't happy about moving, he had friends there, but he hadn't said anything against it and had obliged as he saw how miserable his mother was with staying there. She truly believed things only could get better and life would welcome them with open arms at the new place.

Arthur soon noticed that she had been terribly wrong.

Life only got worse with every day after they had settled in. Although his mother found a job rather quickly it was a job which she greatly disliked, though she couldn't effort to lose the job, they needed the money badly. Her chef was far from friendly and Arthur sometimes asked himself if the bruises really were from just being clumsy like she told him. But she never complaint about it and smiled at him warmly while reassuring him that everything was fine and he shouldn't worry too much.

He truly respected her for that strength and decided to not tell her about his problems in school either. She had enough problems on her own so he didn't want to bother her with his silly ones.

Instead of complaining how awful school was - well he was actually really good, but he assumed that was the exact reason why people started to pick on him – he told her about his adventures in the day-care.

In the short time they discussed his daily experiences they both seemed to be happy and relieved from the stress of their work.

Day-care was like he just was taken out of his normal life and put into a completely different one. He really liked this place, although the guys in his school always made fun of him, because he was such a baby for having to stay there. He didn't mind, especially because people there were really nice and open-minded, showing him their sympathy and consolation. Plus there were kids his age as well, so he had someone to talk to and exchange stories.

And there was Alfred.

The pace of his steps increased and smiled a bit at the thought of the blond American and remembered his very first expression of the lively blonde boy. At the first day he had met him he couldn't stand him at all. He was far too noisy and obnoxious for his liking and always sticking his nose into things even if they didn't have anything to do with him.

He always tried to convince Arthur that it would be 'awesomely heroic if they became friends' like he used to say. He turned him down every time he asked. Alfred only laughed it off and they continued with whatever they had been busy before.

Alfred stopped asking eventually after a few weeks, since they both knew that they had become friends already. And best ones at that.

Alfred sure knew how to lift Arthur's mood after the strenuous school days and was always able to make him laugh. He really enjoyed Alfred's company, but he would never tell him that, Alfred's ego was big enough; he hadn't had to push it any further. Though, the American seemed to know that his presence was appreciated since he stuck around him all the time.

He didn't know very much about Alfred, although the boy knew everything about his circumstances. It was somehow surprising since Alfred never seemed to shut up and talked about nearly everything his mind could come up with – and that was quite a lot. Arthur only knew that Alfred was the same ages as him, but was attending a school in the other district, with his brother Matthew whom he had also met a few times.

Obviously Alfred and Matthew weren't born Brits, since they didn't know proper English, at least in Arthur's opinion. Once Arthur had asked Alfred about it he had just said that they had moved to England one or two years ago and would probably be moving back to the United States after he finished Secondary School.

It seemed like Alfred didn't even know what those words meant, but Arthur sure did: Their friendship would certainly have an end there.

He told himself that he would make the best out of the remaining years, but from then on Arthur dreaded his graduation.