Francis walked into the small dorm-room and dumped his bags onto his bed with a sigh. Another year of boarding school awaited him, and he had some mixed emotions about it. Of course he didn't want to be back at school and have to go to class again, but being at school had its privileges. Mainly, the fact that he would get a chance to be with Arthur again. Sure, he'd had a great summer, but he'd missed his British beau.
The two had officially started dating towards the end of their previous year at school. Francis had finally worked up the courage to ask Arthur out to the school's annual dance to celebrate the end of the year. It had turned out to be a magical evening, something that felt like it could have come out of a made for TV teen movie. They'd kissed by the end of the night, and it had been perfect. Sure they'd kept texting and occasionally video chatting over the summer, but what he wanted more than anything was to have Arthur right there with him. He wanted to hold Arthur in his arms and kiss his soft lips again. Francis sighed happily as he began unpacking his bags. His bliss was interrupted when his phone buzzed.
MON AMOUR3: Hey, I'll be there soon, traffic is being shitty so I'll be a little late. See you soon xx
Francis read the text and smiled. The two little kisses which followed Arthur's sentence filed his heart with joy. His boyfriend was coming soon, and we couldn't wait to see him again. He hoped that Arthur would arrive soon while he continued packing.
Once he had finished packing, he looked around the room one more to check that everything was in order. Content with his room, he left in search of his friends. He found a few of them sitting outside on the grass, taking the chance to relax before they would be forced to attend another boring start of year assembly. Francis took a seat down in the grass between his best friend Gilbert and his still fairly close friend Alfred.
"Francis! How was your summer?" Gilbert asked. His extremely pale skin reflected the Sun's light, making it slightly difficult to look at him for too long.
"Not bad. I stayed with my father in Paris for a while." Francis lay down on the grass.
"I bet you met some beautiful French girls." Gilbert said with a smirk. Francis rolled his eyes.
"No. I didn't look at any girls, Gil."
"Oh yeah, you have a boyfriend now don't you?" Alfred added. "How are things going with Arthur? And where is he?" Alfred looked around, as if Arthur was about to appear from behind a corner all of a sudden.
"It's going great with him. And he's stuck in traffic. He said that he'll be here soon." Francis smiled softly. He closed his eyes and let the Sun warm his face. This moment was bliss, lying in the warm Sun, talking to his great friends, and thinking about the person he loved the most in the world. It was perfect.
"Well, I had a great summer." Gilbert said. "My parents had a business trip, so I spent the whole time staying out and hitting on girls. Sure, the nanny wasn't too happy about me coming home at three in the morning every night, but hey, even she thinks that I'm a little too old to have someone look after me. It's almost like my parents don't trust me."
"I wonder why." Francis said and rolled his eyes.
"Maybe it has something to do with the time they came back from a business trip and you were in the middle of throwing a party." Alfred replied.
"Hey! That wasn't even a good party. They got so pissed at me over such a small party. They don't get it, you know." Gilbert sighed and covered his face with a hand. "And to make things worse, my goody-two-shoes little brother is starting school this year."
"Oh he is? His name's Ludwig, right?" Alfred asked.
"Yeah, kinda stupid name in my opinion. But yeah, he always does what he's told, always gets good grades, and never gets calls home from school. Whatever, hopefully I won't have to see him very much over the year." Gilbert let out another sigh.
"He's starting this year? My twin brother Matt is too." Alfred replied, sitting up and lazily tearing at grass with his hands.
"If he's your twin, how come he didn't start at the same time as you?" Francis asked.
"He has problems with social situations, Mom and Dad were worried about sending him away like me, but now he seems like he'll be able to go."
"And where is he?" Gilbert asked.
"Hell if I know. The library probably. Like I said, he has problems with social situations. I'd be surprised if he spoke to someone other than me in the first week."
"Alfred, you shouldn't say-" Francis began before his phone buzzed. Quickly, he pulled it out of his pocket, hoping that it was a text from Arthur. He let out a sigh and beamed when he read it.
MON AMOUR 3: I'm here. Where are you?
Gilbert looked over at Francis and smirked.
"Ooh I think someone just got a text from their boyfriend." He said, sitting up and leaning over to look at Francis' phone. "What? You changed his contact name to 'mon amour', come on, could you get any cheesier?"
"Really? He has?" Alfred leaned over to see. Francis rolled his eyes and pulled his phone close to his chest, hiding it from their view.
"Come on, guys, really?" He said.
"What, you don't want us to see what sweet nothings you've been sending our Artie?" Alfred joked.
"Or maybe he doesn't want us to see all the dirty things they've been talking about." Gilbert said with a raised eyebrow. Francis rolled his eyes, exasperated. Gilbert laughed, before clearing his throat and doing his best to try and look authoritative, which didn't really work too well with his already crumpled uniform and his dyed white hair. "I'm only saying this because I care about you, Francis. Be careful! Now don't you roll your eyes at me mister, this is important! Make sure that you use protection at least, I'm way too young to be a granddad."
"I know that you're young and you have a lot of emotions and hormones going through you right now, but just remember that we're always here if you want to talk, and yes please for the love of God use protection." Alfred joined in. "Your father and I only want what's best for you."
"Thanks, Mother." Francis replied and stuck out his tongue. The three of them burst into loud laughter, which echoed through the fields and must have reached the ears of anyone else on the field. They lay on their backs once again and looked up at the clouds. Francis sent a text to Arthur.
ME: Out on the field with Gil and Alfred. Come and join us 3
After mulling over it, he sent out another one
ME: I promise, we can have some alone time later ;)
A few minutes later, the three were greeted by a figure who wore the school blazer, paired with skinny jeans that looked uncomfortably tight, a leather jacket, a loosely tied tie and several pieces of jewellery, including multiple piercings. He was a walking dress code violation. If the teachers saw him, Francis thought, he'd probably end up with a month's detention. Once the teen sat down by the in the grass, Francis recognized the dirty blonde hair and the piercingly bright green eyes.
"Arthur?" Francis asked.
"Hey, how was your summer?" Arthur replied casually. As if it was nothing at all that he had come back from the summer break looking like a completely different person, casually.
"Dude, what happened?" Alfred asked with unintentional bluntness.
"What do you mean what happened?"
"Why are you dressed all… why are you dressed all weird?" Alfred asked. It was a fair question. The last time they'd seen Arthur out of uniform, he'd been in a sweater vest, quite different from the kind of clothes he was wearing today.
"I'm not dressed weirdly, Alfred, this is just my new style." Arthur said coldly. "I started listening to some new music over the summer, and well this just fit me so much better, personality-wise."
"And so you decided that being all emo would be cool." Gilbert said. "No problem, I mean, some chicks are into that kind of look. I mean, I wouldn't try it, but to each his own, I guess." Arthur narrowed his eyes. Whether they were just teasing him, or actually being assholes, it was really starting to get on his nerves.
"It's punk, Gil, not emo. There's a difference, and to be honest, I don't really care too much what you think about it." Arthur turned towards Francis. "You like it at least, don't you, Francis?" Francis was taken aback by the sudden question. It wasn't that Arthur's new way of dressing was bad in any way. It was just different. It would take him a little time to get used to the fact that his boyfriend was now covered in piercings.
"It's… a change." Francis said slowly. He watched as Arthur's eyes widened.
"You don't like it, do you?"
"No, it's not that I don't like it, it's just that I wasn't expecting…" Francis trailed off.
"You weren't expecting what?" Arthur asked. He was standing up now. Please don't storm off. Francis hoped.
"Well… I just wasn't expecting you to have changed so much." Francis said, wishing that it would be just the thing Arthur needed to hear to calm him down.
"Well I did! And it's a part of who I am now, Francis, and if you can't accept that, then I don't know if we should even be together anymore." Arthur said and then stormed away angrily, leaving Gilbert, Alfred and Francis sitting on the grass in silence.
"That was unexpected." Gilbert said after a while, breaking the uneasy silence.
"I should go and apologize to him." Francis said.
"Maybe, but why was he being so pissy about it? I mean, we were only joking." Alfred asked.
"I don't know." Francis mused. "He probably got into another fight with his dad or something."
"Well, when you go to apologize," Gilbert said, lying back down on the grass and closing his eyes, "Tell him he needs to lighten up. It's not like we were trying to be mean to him." Francis smiled and nodded. Reluctantly, he pulled himself up from his comfy spot in the Sun and set off to find Arthur
It took a while, but eventually he found his boyfriend sitting at an empty picnic table outside the cafeteria, strumming his guitar. He sat down by him, and handed him a cup of tea he'd bought.
"It's Earl Grey, your favourite." Francis said.
"What, is this supposed to be some kind of apology?" Arthur replied, without looking up from his guitar.
"I guess so." Francis said. "Look, Arthur, I didn't mean to hurt you, and neither did Gil or Alfred. It was just a little unexpected to see you like this, that's all."
"So you aren't going to break up with me?" Arthur asked quietly.
"Of course not! Why would you think that?"
"Because, like you said, I'm different." Arthur looked down at his lap. Francis reached over and took Arthur's hand in his.
"You're still the same Arthur to me. And I'll love you all the same no matter what you wear. Now can you forgive me for being rude earlier on?" Francis said.
"Yes." Arthur said with a small smile. He has the most adorable smile. Francis thought, feeling a smile rising to his lips too. He leaned closer to Arthur and gave him a quick kiss. It was a light, soft peck on the lips, but it still made the both of the smile even more.
"Come on, we should go. Or we'll be late for the opening assembly." Francis said once he had pulled away. He took Arthur's hand and together they ran.