Hey guys, here's the first chapter of the prequel/sequel to my other story, Alternate Universe! If you haven't read it then that's okay you don't have to. It's basically just a universe where everybody is humans instead of countries, and it focuses on the Jones-Braginski family. Ivan and Alfred are married and Arthur is their adopted child. A little weird, but give it a chance!
Enjoy!
Adopting a kid:
Alfred F. Jones-Braginski had been married to Ivan Braginski for six months. They lived in a nice two story house in New York with three bedrooms and a good sized backyard in the residential part of the city. Ivan worked for Laggart Transcontinental Inc. and Alfred worked online, editing and designing a website. They were pretty wealthy for a just married couple, but it was proving to be nice. Alfred could buy anything he wanted. Well actually they had pretty much everything. Except for one thing, that is.
"Alfred, I'm home!" Ivan called, stepping inside the house and setting aside his briefcase. It had been a long and stressful day at his company. Being vice president was certainly hard work, but it paid off since he had weekends off and had a good salary.
"Hey babe, I'm so glad your back! I missed you!" Alfred greeted him. Ivan wrapped his arms around Alfred's waist and they shared a romantic kiss, like they always did whenever Ivan returned from work.
"Did you make dinner?" Ivan asked when they were done. "I am very hungry."
"I cooked up some hamburgers, come on let's go eat!" Alfred said excitedly. Ivan rolled his eyes but followed. His husband always made hamburgers, but they were actually pretty good when he made them at home.
Dinner was quiet but comfortable. For once Alfred wasn't chattering away about random things, which got Ivan a little concerned. Alfred usually always talked unless he was sick or upset.
"Sunflower, is something wrong?" He eventually asked when he couldn't take it anymore.
"Ivan, I wanna have a kid" Alfred said bluntly. Ivan, who had been in the middle of drinking his lemon water, erupted into a coughing fit.
"A kid?" He finally asked.
"Yes, a kid." Alfred repeated, his face serious for once. "I really want one."
"You mean by adoption?" Ivan asked, just to be sure.
"No duh! What other possible way could there be?" Alfred replied. It was silent for a moment, Ivan lost in thought and Alfred staring at him awaiting a reply.
"I didn't know you felt that way...I mean, we haven't even been married for that long. Your not even twenty until next month. Taking care of a child is a big responsibility." Ivan said slowly. Seeing Alfred's crestfallen face he quickly added, "But I wouldn't mind having a kid either."
"Awesome!" Alfred said, giving his usual bright smile again.
The days passed, but not much action was taken. Ivan and Alfred mostly talked about what kind of kid they wanted. The couple agreed that a boy would be better because they were males themselves and would be able to relate to the child better. Ivan wanted a smart and obedient kid, Alfred wanted a fun and wild kid. So there were debates and differences, but not yet had they actually met with any kids.
A few weeks later Ivan had to go to London for a business trip. Naturally Alfred came along, as he usually did whenever Ivan had to go out of state or country. They would be staying there for two weeks, at a nice fancy hotel. Alfred loved hotels. They always seemed to get him into the mood. He and Ivan would have a lot of fun there.
About four days into their trip, Ivan and Alfred were sightseeing around London. Alfred had never been before and thought that it was so cool! As they were walking down a street though, something caught the American's eye.
"Ivan look, an adoption center!" He cried out, pointing to a building across the street.
"What about it?" Ivan asked.
"We want to adopt a kid, right? Well now's the perfect time to go looking!" Alfred told him excitedly.
"Darling, we are here for my work, not to find a child. Why not wait till we get back to America and look there?" Ivan suggested.
"But Ivaaaaan" Alfred whined. "I want to at least look! Please babe?"
"Ugh...fine" Ivan finally agreed, knowing that there was no way he could persuade his lover otherwise. They walked across the street and up to the front door of the building. It was pretty large, but looked neat and proper. They walked through the front doors and into a lobby type of room that had a desk. Nobody was sitting there though.
"Where are all the kids?" Alfred asked sadly upon seeing the empty room.
"Probably in a different room" Ivan answered. "Now listen my sunflower, we are just going to look, and that is all. So no going after the first little kid you see, understand?"
"Sure Ivan, whatever." Alfred said. "Now let's go find them!"
"I really think we should wait for an adult." Ivan said, but it was too late since Alfred had already crossed the room to another set of doors.
"I hear voices inside!" Alfred yelled. "Come on, let's go in!"
They opened the door and went inside. It was a large room filled with children indeed. Toys were scattered about the place, and children of all ages were chattering and playing.
"Wow. Look at all of them." Alfred said, staring wide eyed. Even Ivan found himself lost for words. For a few minutes they just stared, before suddenly Alfred grinned and pointed. "Awww, Ivan, look at that one!" He squealed, pointing over to a little boy playing with a stuffed rabbit. He had very messy blonde hair, and large innocent green eyes.
"He's so adorable!" Ivan said, observing the little boy. For a moment they both just kept staring. The child seemed to be talking to himself, petting the stuffed animal as if it were real. There couldn't have been a more cuter sight.
"That red haired boy looks kinda cute too" Alfred said, pointing to a different child. The couple still felt their gazes drawn to the little blonde boy playing quietly with his rabbit.
"Oh hello. I didn't see you two come in. Were you looking to adopt a child?" A voice asked from behind them. It was a lady who looked kind. Her brown hair was drawn up into a messy bun, and she wore a loose fitting dress.
"Er...yes, we've been thinking of adopting." Ivan found himself answering.
"How wonderful!" The lady replied. "Well, all of these children are very sweet. You can feel free to talk to any of them if you'd like."
She barely even finished her sentence before Ivan and Alfred took off in the direction of the blonde boy. They then stopped in front of him, not quite sure what to say. The boy looked up thankfully, and gave a shy smile.
"Hello, I'm Arthur." He said meekly, clutching his rabbit to his chest. That single sentence won both of the men's hearts.
"Awww let's adopt him Alfred!" Ivan said excitedly, completely forgetting what he had told Alfred in the first place.
"Yeah!" Alfred shouted, bending over and picking up Arthur. "We'll take this one!" He called briefly to the lady before proceeding to walk out of the building.
"Wait, hold on a moment, you can't just take him!" The lady called to him.
"What? Why not?" Alfred asked sadly, holding the shocked child tighter to his chest.
"Well, to start with there's a lot of paperwork! There's a long process to adoption." She tried to explain, spluttering over her words.
"Damn it" Alfred sighed. "But I want him now!"
"Don't worry my sweet, I'll make sure we get him as soon as possible." Ivan assured him.
"Okay" Alfred said, sighing again before reluctantly putting Arthur back down. "Don't worry kiddo, we'll get you out of here as soon as we can! Don't talk to any other couples trying to adopt." He said.
"Er...okay." Arthur replied. "I can't wait to live with you."
Ivan and Alfred 'awwed' one more time before following the lady out of the room to talk about the process of adoption. It turns out that the child's full name was Arthur Kirkland who was almost 6, and he had just recently been put here after living with a few other foster families. Before that his brothers had been taking care of him. Apparently his mother was a druggie and died of OD. Not much was known about his real father, who had left before he was born. Arthur was neglected a lot as a baby since his brothers weren't much older than he was. Ivan and Alfred felt absolutely horrible, and wanted to adopt Arthur as fast as they could.
Two months later, they had successfully adopted Arthur. His new name was now Arthur Jones-Braginski.
...^J^...
The new changes with having a kid:
It was a lot different having a child, Alfred decided to himself. There were a lot more responsibilities for one. For instance, Ivan and Alfred both tried to refrain from swearing so much to set a good example. Arthur was a pretty intelligent child, and he observed things a lot. At first he had been quiet, but after warming up more to his new dads he talked a lot more. It was decided that Alfred was now known as "daddy" and Ivan was "father".
Another thing was that Alfred and Ivan had to be a lot more careful with their sex life. They had found that out the hard way. Arthur had been living with them for about a week, and things were starting to get a lot more comfortable. After putting Arthur to bed (this included reading a night time story and being tucked in) Ivan and Alfred then decided that it was time for a long rewarding round of sex.
Right in the middle of it, a timid knocking sounded at the door.
"Dammit" Alfred muttered to himself, knowing that there was only one other person in the house. "Quick Ivan, get the covers! We can't let him see us naked!"
They proceeded to break apart and pull the covers up before Ivan called for Arthur to come in. The door creaked open and Arthur stood there clad in his power ranger pajamas, (courtesy of Alfred) sniffling and rubbing his eyes.
"What is wrong, little one?" Ivan asked him.
"I h-heard a m-monster" Arthur said, hiccuping. "It kept moaning a-and making funny noises. It sounded like it was trying to eat you."
Alfred and Ivan both froze, looking at each other in horror. Oh god...
"It's okay Artie. Go back to your room and I'll be there in a second to tuck you back in, okay bud?" Alfred finally said.
"O-okay" Arthur said, slowly walking back down the hall to his room.
"Maybe we should learn to be a little more quieter" Ivan spoke up.
"Yeah, either that or get soundproof walls" Alfred said as he pulled on his boxers and a shirt. "I'll be right back."
He sprinted down the hall to their son's room and found Arthur waiting back in bed. Alfred sat down and began tucking the covers back over the six year old. "Now listen Artie, that wasn't a monster you heard. It was just me and your father playing a noisy game." He said, not really sure how to explain it. He sure as hell wasn't going to give a six year old the sex talk!
"A game? Can I play too?" Arthur asked, perking up a bit.
"NO!" Alfred instantly shouted, feeling bad when he saw Arthur wince. "Er, I mean, no. This game is for grown ups only. You'll learn about it someday when your way way waaayyy older."
"Okay" Arthur said, giving a little yawn.
"Go back to sleep, okay kiddo?" Alfred said, giving the boy a kiss on the forehead.
"Yeah." Arthur replied, instantly rolling over and closing his eyes. Alfred left the room with a sigh of relief.
They were going to have to be more careful.
But it was worth it.
...^J^...
Protective parents:
Arthur liked his new life in America very much. Living with his mummy and brothers had never been that fun. He had always wished for a dad, and now he had two of them! What more could a child ask for? He even had his own room, and a big bed with soft pillows and brand new fuzzy stuffed animals. Both his daddy and father were very nice. This morning he had even gotten to choose what was for breakfast, plus he got to watch whatever he wanted as long as it wasn't a grown up show.
Right now Arthur was in the backyard playing. Alfred, who still hadn't been used to having a child and viewed Arthur as a fragile little angel, kept peering outside every few minutes to make sure that Arthur was okay. Arthur was absolutely fine though, running around the average sized yard and garden. The soft grass felt good against his bare feet. His game of exploring lasted only a little bit longer. He walked to a pile of wood near the house, climbing on top of it to get a higher view. As he took another step, Arthur felt a sudden sharp pain in his left foot. He quickly jerked his foot from the piece of wood and was alarmed to see that his foot was covered in blood. He had accidentally stepped on a nail!
The first thing that went through Arthur's mind was fear. When his brothers had taken care of him, they had always gotten very mad and shouted at him whenever he got hurt. He didn't want his new parents to get mad at him. Perhaps he could take care of his foot by himself without getting caught. Luckily for Arthur, Alfred hadn't seen what had happened since he had gone upstairs to get something from his bedroom, and Ivan was in the kitchen eating.
Arthur limped quietly through the house without being seen, unknowingly tracking blood on the floors from the nasty puncture wound in his foot. The only difficult part of his journey through the house was making it to the bathroom since Alfred and Ivan's room was directly across from it and Alfred happened to be in there. Arthur wasn't seen though, and made it into the bathroom. He ended up just running water over it and wrapping a bunch of toilet paper around his foot. The first aid kit (Boo-boo box as Alfred called it) was located high atop a shelf that he couldn't reach, so there was no other choice of band aids. After that Arthur felt fine, and went to his bedroom to read a book.
Alfred on the other hand, had been heading back downstairs. He heard Arthur's bedroom door close and shrugged, figuring that Arthur had come back inside. It was a little funny since the kid usually kept his door open, but Alfred supposed that all kids were entitled to their privacy. He walked back downstairs, but when he reached the living room he stopped, peering down at the floor.
"Huh? What are all those red droplets on the floor?" He muttered to himself. He dipped a finger in the red substance, sniffing it. Then he tentatively tasted it. Right when his tongue touched it, Alfred's face instantly screwed up and he spit it out. Disgusting, it tasted like...blood. Blood. Blood!
"IVAN! Oh my god! Babe, are you okay? Have you been shot?" Alfred asked, screaming wildly as he ran into the kitchen. Ivan, who had frozen with his sandwich halfway to his mouth, narrowed his eyes and gave his husband an odd look.
"What are you talking about sunflower? I'm perfectly fine." He said.
"But...but the blood on the floor..." Alfred told him. Then suddenly his eyes widened with realization. Only one other person lived in the house.
"Arthur!" Both Ivan and Alfred said. Both parents raced upstairs as fast as they could to Arthur's room. Without thinking, Alfred lifted his foot and kicked down the door. They saw Arthur laying on his stomach on the bed, a picture book in his hands.
"Arthur! Artie baby are you okay? It's okay, father and daddy are here! Did you get shot? Let me see!" Alfred said frantically, lifting Arthur into his lap and seeing his toilet paper wrapped foot.
"Why does he always assume it's a gun wound?" Ivan muttered quietly to himself before joining the other members of his family. "Arthur, what happened to your foot?"
"Nothing" Arthur said quickly, squirming to get out of Alfred's lap. "It's all better now. I stepped on a nail but I fixed it."
"A nail? From outside? Oh my god!" Alfred screamed, holding Arthur tighter. "Ivan, call 911! Call a doctor! Call Uncle Mattie! Call anybody! Well, anybody except Mattie's Cuban friend!"
"Alfred, calm down" Ivan instructed sternly before kneeling down and taking Arthur's small leg into his big hands. "Now Arthur, I'm just going to take a look to see how bad it is."
"But it's not bad! I promise!" Arthur protested, trying to draw his foot back as tears came to his eyes.
"It's alright Arthur, I'm just going to take a peek." Ivan said calmly. In reality his heart was thudding with panic. How bad was the wound? What if it got infected? Thankfully it said on Arthur's adoption papers that his tetanus shot was up to date, but it was still scary. Arthur had his face buried into Alfred's neck, and Alfred murmured to him reassuringly as Ivan carefully unwound the foot. Once that was done, he looked at it, giving a hiss. It looked like it hurt. It wasn't bleeding that much anymore, but there was a deep hole in his foot. Luckily the nail wasn't still there. He could hear Alfred whimper as he looked down to their child's foot as well.
"Alright now, it doesn't look too serious. Alfred is going to call the pediatrician to make sure we don't need to go to the hospital, and I'm going to take you to the bathroom and wash your foot off better, okay?" He told Arthur softly.
"O-okay" Arthur answered, reaching his arms out for Ivan to lift him up. Alfred pulled out his cell and called the pediatrician (He had memorized the number by heart).
Thankfully the doctor said not to be too alarmed, and just gave instructions on how to care for the wound. If it showed any signs of infection a few days from now then they were to bring him to the doctors. They washed all the dirt and rust particles from the foot before drying it off. Ivan then dabbed some antibiotic cream on it before wrapping Arthur's foot with bandages. Alfred, who had been panicking even more than Arthur, had finally calmed down as well.
"Gosh Artie, you were so brave!" He said. "How about we go get come ice cream?"
"Yeah!" Arthur agreed. "I want chocolate!"
"Of course. Anything you want since you were so brave." Ivan told him.
The whole rest of the day Arthur was treated like a prince. When the evening came, they had set up Arthur on the couch with a movie to watch. While this happened, Ivan and Alfred spent two hours in the backyard, disposing of every single dangerous metal nail or screw, as well as any other dangerous things.
They had developed into pretty protective parents.
(Coming up next: The rest of the family (Uncle Mattie, Auntie Katyusha, and Auntie Natalia) meet Arthur!)
a/n: Er, so how was that? Basically this is just going to be a bunch of chapters containing moments of Ivan, Alfred, and Arthur's life in this weird alternate universe thingy. It's basically a prequel, but also maybe a sequel since the later chapters will contain stories from after the events that occurred in Alternate Universe. I just hope that people actually like it.
Tell me what you think, you know, whether it's worth reading or not...lol.
Anyway, have a good day!