Warnings: AU, Shounen-ai, Unbeta'd.
Author's Notes: Just tryin' to spread the England/Japan love with my first Hetalia fanfic~ x3 Hope it's not too bad since my English is not the best. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Hetalia is not mine.
Arthur Kirkland had never been one for books. Sure, he enjoyed the occasional peaceful read and had no problem taking in the printed words in his mind to process their information when whatever school project he had been assigned on needed it, but even though the Briton had nothing against it, he had a lot more things to do than sitting down in a comfortable leather chair and read. Being the ever-busy guy he is, Arthur never went inside a library unless completely necessary.
That was why he found himself fairly confused when he unconsciously stepped in to his school's library on a chilly Monday while he escaped from the gentle fall of the rain that was soon becoming a heavier and stronger, impeding his arrival to his next class. Not that he strongly objected to the idea of not attending; after all, fifty minutes without Francis and Alfred was a blessing from heaven.
Shrugging off his lightly soaked school blazer and gently passing a hand through his blond locks to check that they were not severely wet, Arthur made his way to a random seat and sat down, letting a relieved sigh escape his lips when for the first time he felt the warming temperature of the place's calefaction heating his previously cold skin from the small drips of the almost freezing water sliding down his face and neck.
Green eyes lazily took in his surroundings as he supported his chin on his right palm. The library was just as he remembered: exaggeratingly big, exceptionally clean and expectantly empty. The clock on the wall that marked 2:56 made him blink, only to sigh once more when realization kicked in. He was trapped in a nearly isolated place from going to a class in which his teacher would probably punish him for not showing up to regardless of his excuse with nothing better to do than read. Not that he had anything against reading, mind you; it's just not his thing. But hey, he's got nothing to lose, right?
The Briton cringed slightly when his chair scraped the wooden floor as soon as he stood up, causing an irritating screeching noise to resound in the spacious place. He smiled awkwardly at the few people that turned their heads at him in slight anger for disrupting the peace before he began walking to the fiction section to escape the glares. Arthur's brief embarrassment was suddenly replaced with annoyance when his green eyes stumbled by books about fairies and magical creatures. Those types of things should be in non-fiction! They were obviously real! Grumbling something unintelligible under his breath, he picked a random book and stomped to his previous seat, this time ignoring the warning glances thrown his way.
Arthur finally looked down at the writing in his hands only to discover that it wasn't anything he had hoped for. Instead of a documental of different types of supernatural beings, it was a comic book with a cover of a weird, big-headed baby with a black fedora that had an orange strip, a green animal that appeared to be a chameleon and a gun in his small chubby hand (1). He blinked before sighing; he stood up again to leave it in the bookshelf and actually pick something of his interest when he suddenly stopped his tracks back to where he found it as he realized that what he had in hand was supposed to be on the comics section. With an irritated scowl mentally sent to the people who ordered the books where they belonged, the teen turned fully around to go to said division.
The British male sighed in an aggravated manner as he became aware that he now had to find where to place the comic he had. As stated before, his school's library was tremendously ample, which was to be expected of the only information center apart from the computers in the prestigious Hetalia Academy, of course. Still, though, you would've thought that it would be easy to accommodate its books…
After what seemed like hours (which he dismissed as an exaggeration, seeing as it was now only three o'clock), the teen slumped his shoulders in defeat.
"Ano," A soft voice behind him said. "I was wondering if you were finished reading that."
Arthur jumped in surprise. He hadn't realized someone was near!
He turned around only to see a guy shorter than him by a few inches with short, smooth-looking black hair that was cut perfectly so it could cup his face, not a single strand out of place. His white skin seemed even paler in comparison with his hair, only a hint of pink that was barely noticeable in his cheeks. Small but full and rosy lips were set in a firm line. What caught the Briton's attention was not the way he stood so still and tense, or how he appeared to be so skinny even under the male's blue school uniform, but his eyes: an intense shade of dark chocolate that seemed to have no shine what-so-ever in them, no emotions being shown in those brown orbs.
It took Arthur a few seconds to register what he had been asked.
"Ah, yes, of course," The taller one answered feeling somewhat foolish as he handed the comic in his hand, assuming that was what the boy had been referring to. "Here."
A small hand brushed against his as the black-haired male took the object.
"Thank you." A small quirk oh his lips as their eyes met appeared briefly, disappearing almost immediately after it happened. Brown eyes suddenly didn't look so lifeless anymore. Soon after he bowed, making Arthur flustered in embarrassment, not used to the action, and then walk away elegantly, not a hesitation or pause in his almost-silent step with his chin raised high and shoulders back.
Arthur couldn't help but watch.
Making his blond hair move slightly with the movements of his now-shaking head in hopes of erasing what had just happened, he once more went to the fiction section and carefully picked a book of his interest to go back to his seat and spend the next minutes of what was rest of his class reading.
Unfortunately, his plans were interrupted when he saw the nearest person, who sat a couple of tables in front of the one he was sitting at, facing him.
It was the guy from earlier, holding the comic he had asked for and reading it fiercely, seeming as if he didn't notice anything surrounding him by the way his previously soulless eyes were piercing the comic so intensely, looking as if they could burn a hole through it anytime soon. His rosy lips were occasionally making perfectly shaped 'o's and eyebrows narrowed slightly at times, non-verbally expressing his feelings. The small male's expression was not compared by his eyes, though, which seemed to have lightened up immensely, different emotions dancing here and there now and then depending on what he was reading at the time, only to show disappointment when he finished reading before his whole face brightened up when he remembered the next parts of it were in the library too. As soon as he closed the comic silently and went back to the appropriate bookshelf section, the shine in his eyes seemed to disappear in an instant, leaving no traces behind of the expression only a child would wear in Christmas.
Arthur was strangely fascinated by it.
The slowing down of the drops of water hitting the window softly, a great contrast of its previous harshness, went unnoticed by the green-eyed teen, who, as if hypnotized, watched the cycle (smile, frown, gasp, giggle, snort) repeat itself as the boy read his comics, a cycle that was interrupted by the annoyingly loud ring of the bell. Arthur unconsciously cursed as the boy showed brief disappointed before schooling his face to an expressionless mask once more and, after expertly leaving his previous reading material in the place it belonged, he left, opening the doors of the huge library without wincing thanks for the bright sunlight.
But Arthur paid no attention to the way the rain had stopped, or how the air warmed and the sun shined again, or how the now-clear clouds separated from each other to show a rainbow. The only thing in his mind was that he didn't care that he was probably going to get teased by Francis and Alfred for coming late to class or that his teacher would give him an earful, but that he wanted to come back again at three o'clock, if only to see that shine in the black-haired boy's eyes once more.
"Ve, Kiku~"
"Yes, Feliciano-kun?"
"Did you finally get to talk to that guy you like?"
Smile. "Perhaps."
(1)- If you guess what manga this is, I'll write a sequel for this story. C'mon, it's not that hard xD
…talking about that manga, I need to go back to my neglected fanfics…
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