I don't own Hetalia or the characters, just Ms. Janey.
Arthur tapped his foot in a slow, steady rhythm as he glanced from his notes to the ticking clock. The sound of the teacher's lecture on the lesson echoed the classroom and occasionally, a student who answered a question. There Arthur sat, slumped leaned back in the chair and bored, waiting to get out of class. He twirled his pen with his fingers, finding a way of entertaining himself for the next few minutes. As usual the last few minutes were always the killers. The despicable yet small length of time that lasted forever, it seemed. Once class ended he didn't have much time to get to his after school job. Only that today, the day, or just seconds themselves, seemed to drag on more than they regularly would.
Yes, just the day he has an important order to carry out; a floral arrangement. It's not exactly a very serious job but it gets him paid. He didn't think much of the job at first but soon found the joy in it and started to like his job. He dismissed any negative thoughts about it replacing them with, "not the best but could have been worse." which, he thought, was a fairly good reason. There's always something worse, and you had to think "would it kill you?" If it doesn't that's good. Arthur was never the best at decisions judging by how he tests it, but he feels that the florist shop was a good choice. It had enough customers to get by and just job itself wasn't bad either, quite simple actually. Arranging beautiful assortments of color and sentiment in a tranquil and normally quiet environment. It was quite delightful, really. There were hardly any complications with customers, in fact, he didn't remember a time there was any sort of complication there. It was good enough for him since Arthur wouldn't be too patient with them. Despite all that, Arthur wasn't ashamed to think that he really liked this job. Many would call it queer or comment on how "gay" it was but Arthur paid no mind to it, it's just a job after all.
Arthur looked back up at the clock, squinting a little to see the small lines that marked minutes on the clock.
3... 2.. 1.
Almost immediately after he counted down the bells rang and people quickly gathered their things and left. One of them being Arthur, in a hurry to get to the shop. He rushed to his locker, took out his bag, and threw in the unnecessary journals and notebooks that he wouldn't need to study and tried to hurry through the hallways crowded with teenagers like himself. Seeing no point rushing he slowed down, walking at the same pace as everyone else. He looked around at his surroundings and the distance to the doorway. According to the situation, he might not make it on time. It would be better if he sent a text to Ms. Janey, the shop owner, to tell her he will be late today because- what? School reasons? Yeah, that sounds right.
To: Ms. Janey
Hi Ms. Janey, I'm afraid I won't be on time today. You see, I have school issues right now that aren't allowing me to make it there at this time; but I will try show up as soon as I can.
Message Sent - 3:32 p.m.
Now all he had to do was wait for approval from her. He looked around again and it seemed he was almost at the exiting doors. As he almost made it out of the giant crowd, someone shoved him with force. Enough force to knock him down and all his things along with him. But to make it worse, he had forgotten to fully zip his bag closed which meant the contents of the bag had spilled out and were now laying all over the floor. Adding even more salt to the cut, teenagers were carelessly stepping on his books and journals
"OH-shit! Dude, I'm so sorry! Here let me help!" A voice said from behind him. Arthur turned around to see who it was and gave the bastard a menacing glare.
"Idiot! Watch were you're going." Arthur said harshly. The guy ignored what Arthur said and came over, dropped to his knees and started picking up some of Arthur's belongings. Arthur did the same, stuffing his things back in his plain brown school bag. As they did this Arthur calmed down a bit, it wasn't like this guy shoved him on purpose. It was clearly just an accident, besides, he was helping pick up his things. That indicates he must've felt bad about it, he'd let it slip this one time. But it wasn't like he wasn't mad for what this guy did though, the guy was careless. When they finished mostly everyone was gone except him and this stranger. He managed to stuff one last book that the guy had handed him towards the end. Arthur stood up and brushed the invisible dust off his plaid uniform pants the stranger did the same soon after. As the guy did that Arthur got a better profile of the him than he did previously. He had light(but slightly tanned) skin and honey colored hair, wearing the same school uniform as every guy at school had. He seemed somewhat lean but built, probably from sports Arthur guessed. He looked like the jock type of guy. When the guy finished dusting himself off he looked up, revealing deep sea blue eyes. Dare Arthur say, he looked rather attractive but he did look like some kind of "prince charming" out of a book or fairytale. But, that was a good thing right? He mentally slapped himself, he had no room in his mind for such thoughts. Arthur cleared his throat and spoke up.
"Um thanks for your help-"
"Alfred. Alfred Jones" Alfred answered sticking out his hand with a prideful grin on his face. Arthur eyed it and looked at Alfred, who seemed to have noted Arthur's hesitance.
"I don't bite."
Still, Arthur shook it hesitantly as a tinge of rosy pink appeared on his pale cheeks.
"Ah- okay. Thanks Alfred for that."
"No problem and sorry about that problem I caused, some friends were messing with me and-!"
Arthur smiled politely at Alfred, who was too busy gibbering about the cause of their encounter. It was charming to Arthur thus distracting him from where he had to go but after a moment too long he realized that he needed to get going. He interrupted abruptly before Alfred could say anything more using a hand gesture to prove his point," It's fine, really, you've done what you could to fix it. That's all that matters, right?"
Alfred stopped and smiled at Arthur, who was chuckling nervously looking ready to dash out of there. "Yeah I guess it does. Hey, you look panicky."
"Oh, no. I'm fine but I really need to get going now."
Alfred looked at him slightly disappointed then laughed to mask it. He may or may not have taken a small liking to Arthur. "So soon?."
Arthur started speed-walking away from him before he had heard his reply, checking the time on his phone to discover he had one new message. Alfred walked at his side going at the same speed trying to peer over to look at Arthur's phone.
"Where ya going?"
Arthur looked back remembering he hadn't even said goodbye and furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance at Alfred's nosiness. "I'm sorry but I said before I have to go. I'd love to chat and all but I've got to run."
"I don't mean to pry, but where?"
"Job." Arthur stopped to look over at Alfred. Why wouldn't this guy leave him alone?
"Oh."
"Yeah, bye."
Arthur scurried off going down the road and out of sight, emptying the space next to Alfred.
Alfred sighed and walked home, going over their conversation in his head trying to make sense of the strange guy he met today. He appeared to be annoyed at Alfred but still smiled at him. It made Alfred more inquisitive each time he thought about it, leaving him wanting to know about this guy. Perhaps meet him? Be friends? Alfred just wanted to get to know him for some unknown reason even though he really knew nothing about this guy. Heck, he didn't even know the guy's name! How he would be able to find him again was to be left a mystery, although the guy did have a different appearance than everyone else. Alfred face palmed at the realization of his own stupidity. Of course he was different, everyone was different! But this guy... maybe it was his eyebrows? Hair? Eyes? If it had to be a feature that stood out it would have to be his eyes but many people had green eyes like his. Just stick with the eyebrows then.
Arthur checked his phone once more opening the new message he had seen pop up earlier. He skimmed it over with his eyes as he ran, clutching his book bag trying to swing it over his back.
From: Ms. Janey
Oh Arthur, did you get into trouble? Are you okay? If you're not feeling well you can skip work today, dear. I can take care of work today, please get some rest.
Message Received - 3:46 p.m.
Arthur felt a smile tug at his lips. Ms. Janey would always be very mother-like with him since she was of old age and but has always wanted children of her own. She's always there to listen and always worries for him. It made him feel like she was his second mother and the lady considered Arthur her "child she never had". Apart from that, he didn't think she knew what he meant by school issues. Arthur sighed and smiled, he would explain it to her once he got there. Janey's Florist Shop.
A/N: Well I certainly didn't expect this... it just came to me. I think the florist idea was funny, I think it'll play a bigger role later in the story. At least this isn't the typical cliche plot(except the school part of course). It's literally 1:15 a.m where I live and I spent all night writing this, so tell me. Did you like it? Would you like to see more? What kind of side pairing(s) would you like this story to have?
[I HAVE UPDATED THIS FOR ATROCIOUS SPELLING AND GRAMMAR REASONS]
I'd like to hear from the readers because it really gives me an idea of what you guys like and stuff. Feel free to correct me on anything wrong about school or the flower shop. I am feeling uncertain about the two.
Please R&R, thanks!
