Authors Note: Hi everyone! Thanks for viewing this fanfic, I really appreciate it! This is my first one so please go easy one me, although I really would appreciate pleasant criticisms to point me in the right direction ^_^. This will be a full USAxUK fanfic with 20+ chapters? (I'm really not sure yet). I've got the beginning planned out and I think I've got an idea for the ending, too! So I think that's good, right? I will also try to keep each chapter with 2,000+ words. I was going to start this about a week ago, but since Christmas holidays are coming up and only two more days in school, I thought I'd start it now so I would have more time to work on it in the holiday =)
Human names will be used. Is rated T but will be moved up during later chapters.
Okay, enough of my rambles, lets get this story started!
Chapter 1 : Beyond The Misty Moon.
Arthur sighed as he silently observed the multiple raindrops dripping on the Taxi glass windows, demanding entrance. He paid no attention to his younger brother's 'Ha's and 'Argh's of the game console he was currently playing, completely hypnotised with concentration. He was playing some sort of fighting game, which made sense of all the sounds coming from it. At least something can keep him quiet from time to time. He and Peter had arrived in America at around eleven at night along with some terrible jet lag. He didn't know how his younger brother did it, staying awake that is. When Arthur had dozed off on the plane for hours on end, Peter had been chatting away with the poor gentleman who was forced to sit next to him, even though the man was supposed to sit next to the window, Peter had demanded the seat, leaving Arthur in his end seat all alone and nothing to do. By the time the flight had ended, Arthur had to apologize to the man for Peter's annoying personality, earning a gruff from the man and fleeing from the plane as fast as he could.
He could definitely taste the difference in air compared to England. Although England had the faint smell of rain and fresh grass, America's had more warmth and other faint smells which Arthur could not identify just yet. Thinking off a whim, he noticed that it would be past six in the morning in England now, and Arthur seriously needed some shut eye soon but the street lights illuminated the dark roads, demanding him to stay awake. That was another thing too, driving on the wrong side of the road was something he needed to get used to. Arthur almost screamed at the poor man in the front part of the car for driving on the wrong side, but quickly realised that Americans do that. He mentally punched himself for forgetting... Just the jet lag!
Pulling Arthur from his thoughts, he quickly noticed Peter tugging on his coat sleeve, asking for his attention. "Arthur, I need to go!" Furrowing his thick brows in confusion, Arthur met his brother's deep-blue eyes with emerald-greens.
"Go where? Peter you know we have to get to the apartment as fast as we can..." Groaning in annoyance, Peter frowned at his older brother.
"No, I mean I need to go!" Blinking in acknowledgement, Arthur sighed and grunted to himself. He was going to answer until a voice came from the front of the car.
"Yeah... I hope you don't mind but I also need to stop for a bit, too. The gas is running low you see." The driver seemed to think for a few seconds until he decided on something else. "And of course I won't charge extra fee for it." Arthur sighed yet again, it was kind of his hobby the driver noticed. True, his legs were numb for quite a bit for sitting down for hours on end, including the plane.
"Fine, but try and make it as fast as you can, please. The same goes for you, Peter" His brother grinned that grin of his and saluted as if he was a soldier whereas the driver simply nodded in silence. It took a few minutes to find a petrol station before the taxi pulled up for the fuel. Arthur told Peter to ask the man inside the shop to use his bathroom politely. His only reaction was, 'but I'm scared!'
"Peter! Your bloody twelve years old for Christ's sake, you can go to a bathroom by yourself!" But Peter just did those eyes of his. Those eyes. The ones where they were too innocent to resist. Groaning in annoyance, Arthur explained to the driver he would only be a few minutes and left the money he owed up to now with the driver. '$54.72! That's a complete rip off! How much would that be in pounds again?' Arthur pondered to himself whilst walking towards the shop with Peter by his side.
Once they had entered, he noticed that they were not alone in the shop. A women, probably a late night worker, was buying something at the checkout until she vanished out. Approaching the worker carefully, he and Peter stood there until the man finally looked up from the magazine he was reading and raised a brow at the two customers. "Yeah?"
Without giving Arthur a chance to speak, Peter had raised his hand enthusiastically with a worried expression. "Y-Yeah! I need to go to the bathroom, mister!" Arthur could tell that the man was a bit surprised as his azure eyes widened a little, probably because of Peter's accent. Fixing the glasses on his face, the man grinned cheekily.
"Sure little man! It's in the back of here and then to the left." Without any other reasoning, Peter had sped-walked past the counter and behind the door which supposedly led to the back. Chuckling a little from his reaction, the man turned back to Arthur.
Arthur could see that the man in front of him was quite young, maybe in his late teenage years? Or even in his twenties, he wasn't so sure. Besides, he picked up from somewhere that Americans looked older than they actually were. Whether this was true or not he didn't know. He noticed that the lad was taller than him by a bit which hurt Arthur's pride a little as he was clearly older than him.
Realising that he had cleared the last cigarette he had at the airport, he grunted as he placed his hands in his long coat pocket to check. Tilting his head in confusion, the blonde man stared at Arthur and asked what was wrong. "What's up?"
Sighing again, Arthur glanced back up, placing some money in front of him. "Give us some cigarettes will you? I ran out earlier." Nodding his head a little, he turned to grab some for the man.
"You know, savaging your lungs at your age is a bad idea." He placed the box in front of him in exchange for the money. Grunting, again, Arthur almost snatched the box before putting the precious items (to him) in the coat pocket.
As if just now acknowledging what the man said, he lift his eyes to meet deep blue orbs which seemed to engulf him. "My age? Listen..." Pausing for a second realising he didn't know what the lads name was, he brought his eyes to the name tag he wore. "Listen Alfred, I've been smoking for years knowing what the consequences are, I can smoke if I want to smoke, got it?"
Laughing like he had just told the worlds funniest joke, Alfred bowled over holding his stomach, trying to suppress the painful laughter that was escaping his mouth. Not really knowing what he was laughing at, Alfred turned his back to his customer and placed his head on the wall, small tears now fleeing from his eyes, the laughter didn't escape until some sort of yelp escaped from the man behind him. Spinning around with laughter dissolved away, like it wasn't even there, Alfred almost got the fright of his life from the scene which he was now witnessing.
The short, blonde man which seemed to be very stubborn and aggressive was now held close to a stranger dressed in black. But that wasn't the thing that caught Alfred's eye, it was the fact that a knife was held up to the man's throat, threatening to slice it open with a swift move. Just what the fuck was going on here? A robbery? Glancing at the short man which seemed so full of dignity before now had his emerald eyes hidden beneath eyelids, but still had the frown on his face, as if he was silently cursing the man from his mind.
The sound of a door shutting behind him brought his senses back to the present, he noticed the boy from earlier standing in shock, his eyes reflecting the scene in front of him. "A-Arthur!" As Peter was about to take a step to reach his brother he was stopped-
"Don't move, Peter!" Arthur had shouted, even making the man behind him jump a little as the knife was brought closer to his flesh. Arthur glared at the man. "Just what the hell do you want?"
The man simply gawked at Alfred through the slits of the cloth that hung on around his head and stepped closer, bringing Arthur with him. "Lets just make this simple, shall we? Give me all the money which this shop owns and I'll be on my way. Or, this nice innocent friend of yours will never live to see another day." He tilt his head for emphasis. "You got that?"
A few minutes of silence enveloped the room before uncontrollable giggles filled the walls as Alfred tried to keep the laughter in, his lips still joined but sounds still coming out. "W-What's so funny! Are you retarded or something?"
His hands on hips and casually walking over to the currently-not-so-successful-thief, still giggling, he halted, along with his laughter as he stood practically back to back with the thief. "Ha ha, I'm sorry. I just wanted to finish off my fun mood before you ruined it" With the last few words of slight aggression, his hand went flying towards the thief's neck and collided with the pressure point which Alfred knew all too well. The thief fell backwards and collapsed on the floor silently, a few seconds later Arthur joined him but fell on his knees.
Peter ran to his brother and knelt down to find his small frame shaking, his hand was placed on his neck where the knife was and his eyes were wide, his breath panicky from the event which had just occurred. Not knowing what to do, Peter moved back to give Arthur some room and glanced up at Alfred. "P-Please, mister..." Alfred noted that Peter's eyes were wide with fear as he pointed at his blonde brother. "A-Arthur's bleeding!" His eyes wide, he looked down at the shaking man's back and aimlessly made his way in front of the man and knelt down. Looking down at Arthur's hand area he noticed a small amount of blood trickle down below his hand and making its way to his coat. Gulping, Alfred reached out to move the shaking hand but as soon as he was about to make contact, Arthur snapped and stood up immediately, knocking Alfred to the ground. Surprised at how much strength the small man possessed, he noted to try not to get into a fight with him.
"Ow, Dude! What the hell was with that! I'm trying to help-" His words disappearing and silent, he took in how bad Arthur looked, not in looks ways, but how exhausted his appearance was. Blonde strands of hair stuck out in places as his hands covered his ears protectively. Tired bags hung below his eyes and his posture dragged. "Arthur, right?" He made his way back up onto his feet slowly. "I'm not going to hurt you, you know that right?" Man, he seemed like he was taming a rabbit right now... "I'm here to help." Taking a step closer, Arthur flinched and Peter ran in front of Alfred.
"Please sir, Arthur has been through a lot and I think he would like to go home now. He said before that we had to get to the apartment fast. So... so..." Almost looking like Peter himself was about to cry, Alfred wondered what the hell these two had been through as Peter just informed. Both were just like normal people until someone tried to rob the shop, now they were both emotional wrecks, just great.
"Well, where's your apartment?"
Peter explained that this was their first day in America and was about to head to their apartment which was in a certain town. Alfred noted that it was quite a ways away from here. The young blonde also explained that the cab outside was still waiting for them and had all their luggage in. Alfred had stepped out of the shop and explained the situation to the driver. Apparently, he saw everything through the windows and called the police, 'they should be here soon' he had announced, and not long later, they had arrived and questioned everyone who was current. Alfred's co-worker, Feliks, had stepped in the shop from upstairs with a room full of people. A couple of police were talking to the boss which he had to come from home to see what was happening in his shop, and a man dressed in black decorated the floor along with a man with blonde hair shaking a little with a younger look-alike trying to calm him down.
"Like, what happened here, guys?" As soon as Feliks had announced his presence, police literally jumped on him with questions which he didn't know the answers to. The remaining policemen had explained to Alfred that they would have to take his 'friend' in for the night as his apartment was too far away from here. Apparently, they had misunderstood that Arthur and him had been long friends, not knowing the fact that they had only met around half an hour ago. Alfred didn't complain though as he knew he would be getting a few days off work for this. Alfred glanced around the room to find Arthur placed on a chair along with a thin blanket around him which he didn't know where come from. Noticing that he wasn't shaking any more and he was alone, Alfred went for the plunge to ask him a few questions of his own.
As he approached the man cautiously, he remembered not to act too fast. Arthur didn't seem to notice his presence as his gaze remained on the floor. "Um.. hey there.." Nothing. "Arthur?" Still no reaction. Sighing, Alfred carelessly put a hand on his shoulder, but retreated it immediately as the man jumped.
Shooting his head up at the sudden contact, Arthur quickly glanced up at Alfred before relaxing. "Oh...Alfred?" The man in front of him grinned. 'That's me!' he had exclaimed enthusiastically, earning a grunt from Arthur. "I'm sorry about before, I tend to get a little... shaky when I see blood." Lifting his hand for Alfred to reach out and shake it, he introduced himself. "I'm Arthur, by the way." Alfred got the picture and grinned as he accepted the hand, but his smile faded when Arthur still flinched a little when his skin reached his pale hands. Shaking the hand cautiously, Alfred returned the smile onto his face. "The name's Alfred F. Jones, nice to meet'cha!"
Arthur looked back to the ground, exhausted. "Urgh... I just wanted to go home tonight and go to bed before sorting the apartment out..." He shut his eyes for a few minutes of peace, a few seconds remained until footsteps retreated, followed by voices in which Arthur was too tired to hear. Sleeping but awake at the same time, Arthur took in the sounds around him. Mumbled questions, worried voices and quiet snoring from his own mouth. He wanted to sleep, just for a few minutes. He felt like he only needed a few minutes before waking up again full of energy.
Aggressive voices echoed through his head but he couldn't understand them, only blackness was in his vision. Nothing but gibberish voices sounding through his mind and out the ears.
Startled at something tapping his shoulder, Arthur jumped yet again that night and looked up. A police man now occupied his sight and attention. "Excuse me, sir. But your friend has offered to put you and your brother up for the night until tomorrow. I'm sure it would be much more appealing to you than sleeping in a police station for the night, right?" Not really understanding his words, Arthur simply nodded dumbly before being guided towards the entrance by the policeman. As soon as the cold air hit his pale skin, it hit like home. It reminded him of England's air, even for just a second. Even though he wanted to return to his home county, he by far didn't want to return to home...
But wait... what? He was going to that Alfred's place for the night? But Arthur hardly knew the lad! Sure, he seemed quite kind-hearted but he could be hiding anything from him. Like... If he was a druggie or something. No... he didn't seem like the person to do those sorts of things. As Arthur opened his lips to decline the offer, he had already found himself in the front of a car which he wasn't familiar with. The seats were quite comfortable, as if they were sucking him up. He noticed that Peter was in the back of the car, strangely staying silent at the matter. He felt the car jolt as something was placed in the back of the car, most probably all of his and Peter's luggage. It wasn't all that much since he had sent the rest of his things to the apartment a few days ago when he was in England. As a final 'bang' of the boot was slammed shut, Arthur recognised the car to be quite clean and modern. Although he didn't get a chance to look at the outside of the car, he could tell it was reasonably expensive.
A few steps echoed to the left of him before the door opposite him had been opened, revealing the blonde man with glasses entering the car. As he got in, he asked Arthur if he was okay.
"How the bloody hell do you reckon that I'm okay you dimwit? My life was just about to end just as soon as I had gotten away from everything. And now I'm being taken to a place only God knows where!" Arthur pointed a finger at Alfred, which made him look quite amused with his whole outburst. "And I hardly know you! The only thing I know about you is your name, how the bloody hell do you think I'm just going to go along with your little plan with my brother coming along?" With that, Alfred let out a clear bold laugh which he couldn't help. Angered by this motion, Arthur grunted and looked away from him, ready to get out of the car. "Peter!" At his name being mentioned, Peter quickly shot up, only now just realising that his brother had been shouting. "Were going home, even if we have to walk!" As quick of a motion as he could manage, Arthur had gotten out of the car and ready to drag his brother out.
Alfred on the other hand had ceased his laugh and gotten out of the car himself, serious about the matter. "Oh, come on, man! I'm only trying to be a good guy here! You seriously have some trust problems, Arthur." He made his way to the other side of his car which Arthur and Peter were going to retreat to the back of the car to get their things before Alfred had put a hand on Arthur's shoulder which made him immediately freeze. His tone of voice more quite this time, he spoke. "You don't even know where to go to get to your home right now, am I correct?" Alfred spared a glance at Peter whose expression was neutral. "And think of your brother, he needs to sleep sometime tonight" He could see that Arthur was hesitating underneath his hand, but he wasn't going to give up just yet. "Right?" Arthur was reconsidering when his gazed landed on Peter, whose eyes were obviously exhausted just as his were.
"Arthur... We're both tired now, and Alfred doesn't look like a bad guy at all. You need to start trusting people again, even if it was just this once, okay?" Surprised at how mature Peter's words had been, Arthur's brows had come together. Just when was his brother this serious? His heart and mind were out of control at the moment. His brain telling him not to trust a stranger, it was the most basic rule, he thought. However, his heart was telling him to think of his brother's health and well-being. Peter knew himself that he was not to talk or trust strangers, so why was he acting this way?
Is he really that tired? His mind suddenly realising, he called back on the plane. He had heard from the unfortunate man that Peter hadn't left him alone once, so does that mean he didn't sleep for all those hours? In both England's and America's airports, too. Not once did he sleep. The only question in his head was repeating over and over again. 'But why?'
Arthur's head dragged down to the floor as his hair covered his eyes. Lifting the hand off his shoulder and letting it fall back to Alfred's side, he nodded warily. Peter's grin couldn't have got any wider as he just now realised that he had been played. Lifting his head up in realisation, Peter had already gotten into the car, already turning his portable game console back on as if nothing had happened. "Wha-? Peter!"
Chuckling to himself, Alfred literally dragged the smaller man back into the car as he got in the other side. Noticing that Arthur was mumbling to himself out of aggression, he started the engine. "Don't worry. It's not like I'm some drug dealer or anything, do I look like that sort of person to you?" Arthur's eyes widened a little as Alfred's lit up with sarcasm. "Whaaaat? You actually thought that I was a drug dealer? Man, that's so not nice!"
Arthur looked out of the window out of embarrassment, stuttering to himself. "W-Well who knows what you Yankee's are like? You people could be hiding anything." He stated before the car was now running down the road stably. He mentally thanked God for this man to be a reasonable driver, even though he didn't look it.
"Wait... Don't you think that's a little harsh? American's aren't any different to British people, you know." As if now just realising what Arthur had just said, he flinched at his own words. Spinning around to face him, his eyes were full of worry.
"Y-Your right! I'm sorry... I was out of line there..." Mentally slapping himself for his words, he looked back down to the car floor.
A few seconds of silence passed before Alfred's laugh returned once again. Oh, how that laugh was annoying. "Don't worry about it. I was only joking myself." As if ending his sentence too early, he realised that this man reminded him of a chick in some ways. Man, his mood changes every damn second! One minute he's normal, then angry, then sad, then angry again. Just what the hell was with him?
The journey to Alfred's house seemed quite long to Arthur as his struggles to stay awake became more intense. He didn't even notice the small houses change to bigger ones. Small chatter filled the car, but as time went on it got more silent until Alfred could hear snores next to him. Glancing around he noticed that Arthur had finally fell asleep. He had noticed his struggles to keep his eyes awake, and he even thought he could do it at some points, but he was sound asleep, just like his brother. Peter was in the most awkward of positions in which Alfred couldn't even begin to understand how he'd gotten in. Arthur however, was leaning slightly on the car door as his blonde strands of hair were a mess where his head rest silently on the window. Alfred took notice to how peaceful and content Arthur looked. As if being stripped of his aggressive personality, he resembled that of an angel.
Laughing mentally at how stupid he was thinking, Alfred turned the last corner to his house before stopping in the driveway. Waiting for a moment to take in Arthur's appearance, he readied himself to feel the wrath of Arthur just waking up. He just seemed like one of those people to wake up in bad moods. Nudging the man slightly he announced that they were finally there. "Hey Arthur, Peter. We're here, y'know?" Nothing. Just great. Grumbling to himself he reached out to Arthur to try again, but noticed his pale cheeks. 'They're obviously going to be pale, idiot because he used to live in England!'.Without even realising it, he was stroking his cold cheek gently, as if he was fascinated at how pale it was. His eyes wide and snapping out of it, he slapped Arthur's face a couple of times just enough to wake him up, earning a shocked tone come from the man.
"We're here, Arthur!" He announced yet a second time as he watched Arthur nod and climb out the car to get his stuff in the back. "Just what the hell was that?..." He mumbled to himself before getting out of the car, making his way to the back to wake Peter up. In case he did something weird again, he just undid Peter's seatbelt and lift the lad up into his arms. As soon as Arthur noticed he was shouting at Alfred.
"Just what the bloody hell do you think you are doing? Let go of him, he can walk on his own you know!" Ignoring his shouts and screams, Alfred just made his way to the building with Arthur dragging the suitcases behind him. Arthur suddenly shut up as he noticed the building in front of him, just who the hell was this kid? "Alfred?"
Turning around with Peter still in his arms, he answered. "Yeah?"
"Just...What the hell IS this?"
Ahh, the sweet power of cliff-hangers. But I bet all of you know what's surprising Arthur so much, huh? But OMG! I'm so shocked at how much I have written! I just did a word count and there's a total of 4,360 words! I really have written too much for the first chapter. I know that beginnings are supposed to be short but I kind of got carried away, I guess! ;_; I can't help myself when I write, I just write _;; My teacher says that I need to think at how the length needs to be but I always end up doing novels for the task of 'A short story'. I really need to cut these things down a bit, huh? Anyway, although I know that quality is better than quantity, I hope you guys have liked the first chapter and I hope that you will love the next one, too :) Hopefully it won't take too long.
Please review, guys! I would really appreciate the criticisms, too :) Well, see you next time! And have a GREAT CHRISTMAS! xx