A/N: There will be two parts of this story: the First Half and the Second Half. To avoid spoilers, I'll explain why I separated this story into two by the time we reach the end of the First Half. Although I expect that at that time, you'll probably already know why it's divided. Enjoy!

This is UsUK

London, 1995

Arthur walked towards the house just up ahead, the living room lit up, indicating that Francis was most probably still awake. He just prayed that the Frenchman was not feeding, because it's a sight he'd rather not see at the moment, what with his condition and all.

He stopped in front of the front doors and shifted the position of the infant in his arms securely to raise one of his hands and knock. He waited for a few seconds and heard the sound of footsteps against tiled floors from the inside, before the door was unlocked, and was opened, revealing Francis.

Francis' blue eyes widened a little in surprise to see Arthur at his doorstep so late at night, with streaks of dried blood along his chin, and stains of it across the neck of his suit. Then his eyes drifted down to the sleeping infant in his arms, and his eyes widened some more, flickering back up at Arthur with confusion. "What is that in your arms?"

Arthur remained blank in expression, just looking at Francis with empty green eyes. "I'll explain later. Just let me come in first. You're not in the middle of feeding, are you?" His face twisted a little in disgust at that, but it was gone as soon as Francis shook his head.

Francis stepped aside to let Arthur in, and closed and locked the door once he's inside. They both headed towards the living room, and Arthur gently put the infant down on the couch. He straightened up when he'd settled the baby, and turned to Francis. "Can you give me a change of clothing? I feel absolutely filthy. I think I'm going to shower."

The Frenchman looked like he wanted to have an explanation first but he nodded his head and started heading for the stairs to his bedroom. "I'll place a change of clothing in the shower."

"Thanks." Arthur headed for the bathroom and had his shower.

Fifteen minutes later, he came out looking fresh in a white dress shirt with three buttons unbuttoned, revealing a little bit of the pale skin of his chest, paired with black trousers, a towel around his neck. He found Francis seated cross-legged on a single couch adjacent to the one he'd placed the infant on, and was looking at it rather curiously, as if he'd never seen one so closely before. Arthur rolled his eyes and sat on the couch, right beside the infant, glancing at it briefly as he rubbed the towel to his hair.

"So…" Francis started, not taking his eyes off the small sleeping form. "This… what is this?"

"A baby, Francis. What else could it possibly be?" Arthur deadpanned.

Francis pouted at the Brit. "You know what I mean." Then his eyes widened and a smirk came to his lips. "Don't tell me you accidentally got someone pregnant."

Arthur wrinkled his nose. "I'm not like you, Francis."

"Hey!"

Arthur sighed, and looked down at the infant. He raised a hand and gently caressed the baby's cheek. His expression had now gone blank again. "He's Adam's son."

Francis eyes widened again. "Oh." He breathed. "Oh. With… with that human?"

Arthur retracted his hand and went back to rubbing his hair. "Yes. Adam's dead. And so is Martha. So I took him with me so he won't end up with those hunters." He spat out the last word as if just saying it gave his mouth a bitter taste.

"Dead?" Francis repeated, stunned.

The Brit only looked at him, indescribable emotions in his eyes. Francis didn't press for an answer and Arthur's grateful for that.

"But this…" Francis gestured to the infant. "This is a half-blood. Wouldn't it be better to just give him to the hunters after all?"

Arthur shook his head. "No, Francis. He's Adam's child. I can't let those humans have him."

"Do you even know how to raise a child?"

Arthur shrugged. "You'll help me."

"But he's a half-blood!" Francis cried incredulously. "He's part human!"

"We'll just raise him like any other vampire."

Francis sighed and rubbed at his temples. "Ivan's going to kill him if he finds out, you know. He'll punish us too."

Arthur scoffed. "Ivan can't do much damage to the both of us. We're part of the council too. However," he paused in thought. "We have to leave this place. The hunters are here. We have to get away before they find us."

Francis frowned. "And where do you suppose we go?" He lit up. "Perhaps my beautiful la ville d'amour?"

Arthur wrinkled his nose in disgust. "No, I don't want to be surrounded by frogs."

The Frenchman rolled his eyes. "Then where do we go?"

"Somewhere far and safe where the hunters and Ivan won't find us." Arthur thought for a moment before his eyes widened with an idea. "America."

"Amérique?"

"America." Arthur confirmed with a nod. "There's not a lot of vampires there, we don't even have a council representative from that place. There's little chance that we'll meet someone who knows us who would inform Ivan of our movements, so Ivan will only have information on us directly from us. And with no other source of information, the hunters won't find us there too. It's the perfect place."

Francis sighed. "Must we leave?"

"As soon as possible." Arthur replied, looking at the infant.

Francis also looked at the infant and tilted his head to the side. "What is his name? He does have one, oui?"

Arthur also tilted his head in thought, before reaching out to the infant and caressing its cheek again. "Alfred."

Toronto, 2012 Winter

Alfred pulled his signature bomber jacket on, and turned to face Arthur, who was looking at him from head to toe. He grinned when Arthur's gaze returned to his eyes and mock-saluted. "I'm going now, Artie! See you later!"

Arthur made a half-hearted shooing gesture with his hand. "See you later, love."

Alfred hesitated for a second, wondering if he should ask for a kiss on the forehead. It's something that Arthur had always done when he was a child, but it stopped somehow, and Alfred wanted for that habit to return. But he always got too scared to ask and just turns to leave, feeling disappointed. Like now.

He sighed to himself as he walked towards the school, berating himself for being cowardly. It's not like Arthur would be angry at him to ask for such a thing. Maybe. He shrugged and just told himself to ask tomorrow. But that's what he always told himself whenever he failed to get the courage to ask.

He whistled a tune as he continued on his way, shoving his hands inside his pockets. The walk to school took him 10 minutes in human speed, and he was relieved that he wasn't as affected to the cold as the humans were because of his vampire blood. But vampires get their blood from humans… whatever.

When he arrived at school, he went straight to his locker, greeting some friends on the way. He put his jacket inside his locker and took out his books, then went to his first class.

Some of his classmates were already there and he talked to them about the class, what they were going to do, how they were and their friends, the usual. They talked animatedly until the teacher came and opened the room and they went in.

After a few more minutes, the bell rang for first period. The teacher entered the room with a student in tow whom Alfred had never seen before. He had this long blonde hair that reached up to his shoulders and were curly at the ends, unusual pale violet eyes behind eyeglasses, pale white skin and an athletic stature.

Alfred's seatmate, Dylan, elbowed him and whispered, "Hey, is that new student a relative?"

He gave his seatmate a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"He looks just like you!" Dylan whispered-yelled.

Alfred looked at the new student again and tilted his head to the side. "Do I really look like that?"

Dylan rolled his eyes. "Yeah! Except, he looks kind of like the silent-type, while you look like you're really loud."

"Hey!" The whole class turned to look at Alfred.

"Yes, Alfred?" The teacher asked. "Do you want to show Matthew around the school?"

"Uh…" Alfred looked at the new student, who he assumed was named Matthew, and saw the guy was shyly looking down the ground. He cleared his throat then nodded. "Sure, Mrs. Johnson."

Mrs. Johnson smiled. "Excellent. You may take him around during lunch." She turned to Matthew and pointed at an empty seat just a column away from Alfred. "You can sit there, Matthew."

Matthew gave a timid nod and went to his seat, glancing at Alfred on his way.

"See?" Dylan said, making Alfred revert his gaze back to his seatmate. "You two look like twins! Are you sure you're not related?"

"Well, I'm not sure…" Alfred replied. Arthur had told him about his parents but nothing about siblings and the like. He told himself to ask Arthur that once he got home.

Mrs. Johnson called for their attention to start the class. During the whole period, Alfred couldn't take his eyes away from Matthew.

oOo

When the bell rang, Alfred bid goodbye to his friends and went to approach Matthew. Matthew was just zipping his bag closed when Alfred loudly greeted, "Hey!"

Matthew looked up at him briefly before looking down on his bag. "H- Hey."

"I'm Alfred F. Jones." Alfred stuck his hand out. "Nice to meet you, Mattie!"

Matthew looked at his hand cautiously before slowly reaching out to shake it. He quickly withdrew his hand. "N- Nice to meet y- you too. And, M- Mattie?"

Alfred wondered if Matthew thought his hand was dirty to act like so but just shrugged the thought away in a second. "Your name's too long, so I'm calling you Mattie! What class do you have next?"

"O- Oh, um…" Matthew fumbled to get his time table out from a small pocket of his bag, and spread it out. "Um… English."

"Ugh," Alfred groaned. "My worst subject. Let's go, I'm showing you to your classroom."

They exited the classroom and walked down the hallway.

"Um… You don't like English?" Matthew asked, his voice so soft that Alfred could barely heard him through all the noise of the other students along the corridor. Good thing Alfred had really sharp senses thanks to his vampire-ism, so he still heard anyway.

"Well, I guess you could say that." He replied. "Artie teaches me all these stuff about English but I just don't really get them. My best subjects are math and science. They're easy-peasy. And gym too! My favorite!"

They reached a classroom where Alfred made a stop and Matthew looked up at the room number to see that this was his class. "Oh, t- thank you."

Alfred grinned. "No problem! I'll just meet you back here again after so we can go eat lunch then I can show you around the school. Sounds good?"

Matthew nodded.

"Great! I'll see you later, Mattie!" He raised a hand in goodbye and started walking towards his own class.

oOo

When the bell rang for lunch, Alfred bolted right out of the door towards Matthew's classroom. When he reached the room, Matthew was already waiting outside, and he plastered his usual grin on as he went to him. "Hi, Mattie!"

Matthew looked up at him then to the ground. "H- Hello, Alfred."

Alfred ignored Matthew's shyness and gestured for them to start walking, and they did. "Do you have to buy lunch or do you have food with you?"

"I have food with me." Matthew replied, still so softly.

"Hey, you're lucky! I have to buy my lunch every time because Artie sucks at cooking so bad. Does your mom pack your food for you?"

Matthew shook his head. "My guardian does. My mom is… um…"

Alfred looked at Matthew, waiting for a continuation. But it looked like Matthew wasn't going to finish his sentence so he just shrugged. "It doesn't matter, don't worry about it! I don't have my parents anymore so I'm with Artie. He's the one who took care of me since I was a baby. He's kind of like my dad. Well, more like a mom, actually."

Matthew looked up at him, a little taken aback, before he gave a small sad smile. "I'm sorry about your parents. I actually… don't have my parents anymore as well." He went back to looking at the ground.

Alfred smiled, pleased that Matthew was at least responding to him. "Hey, we're the same! How awesome would it be if we're actually long lost brothers?" He laughed. "My friend told me we look just like one another!"

Matthew raised his gaze to him and stared at him, his head tilted a little on the side. "I'm not sure…"

"I know, right? We should go check out a mirror or something."

They arrived in the cafeteria and Alfred led Matthew to a table where three other guys were already sitting. "Hey guys!" He greeted. The three looked up at them. "This is Matthew, he's new! Hey, that rhymes!"

Kiku, a Japanese descent, tilted his head as he looked at Alfred and Matthew. "Is he your brother, Alfred-kun?"

"Whoa, do we really look that much alike?"

"Ve, you look like you're twins! Like, Lovi and me!" Feliciano, an Italian, said.

Alfred and Matthew took a seat with Ludwig, the German, staring at them. "The two of you could be brothers separated at birth."

"That's what I said." Alfred retorted. "But as far as I know, I don't have a brother. Well, I still have to ask Artie about that." He turned to Matthew. "What do you think, Matt? You think we're long lost brothers or something?"

Matthew looked down on the table, embarrassed with all the attention he was getting from the four. "W- Well, my brother is… my brother… with parents…"

Alfred realized what Matthew was trying to say and interrupted. "Oh! Sorry about that, Matt." He turned to the others who looked confused, and changed the subject. "So, what do you guys have for lunch?"

The others went along with him and replied, "Wurst." "Pasta!" "Omelet with fried shrimp and salad."

Kiku pulled out another lunch box from his bag and opened it, revealing a lot of meat inside that made Alfred's mouth water. The Japanese handed it to Alfred with pink dusting his cheeks. "Um… Alfred-san, if you don't mind, I made you some lunch too."

Alfred brightened up and beamed at Kiku. "Oh, shucks, thanks man!" He took the lunch box and stared at the food hungrily. "I've always liked your cooking too, Kiku! Thank god, I don't have to eat cafeteria food today!"

"You're welcome." Kiku murmured, blushing.

They all started eating when Matthew took out his own lunch.

"Ve, Matthew, right?" Feliciano started, swallowing a forkful of pasta. "Where are you from?"

Matthew stopped eating for a moment and just stared at the table. "Oh, um… Vancouver."

"If I may ask, why did you move here?" Kiku asked.

Matthew continued staring at the table, his shoulders tensed. "Um… M- My family had p-problems there so… so we had to move away."

They all sensed that Matthew was uncomfortable with the subject so they dropped it. They told Matthew of the school events instead and compared time tables and told him about the teachers in the school.

When Alfred noticed that Matthew had finished eating, he stood up and announced, "Guys, we're leaving first. I'm gonna show Mattie around the school."

The three nodded and Feliciano waved enthusiastically. "Ve, see you later, Matthew!"

Kiku bowed politely, "It was nice meeting you, Matthew-san."

"You're welcome to eat with us again." Ludwig finished.

Matthew thanked them and the two left the cafeteria for the tour.

oOo

When the last period ended, Alfred saw Matthew by the lockers and he approached the guy cheerfully. "Mattie!"

Matthew looked up at him from the locker. He smiled a little. "Hello, Alfred."

"Are you going home now?" Alfred asked.

The other nodded. "Yes."

"Oh, where do you live?"

Matthew told him the address and Alfred thought for a little to locate the place. "Oh! That's like, thirty minutes away from here, isn't it? You live quiet far. I live only ten minutes away and I always walk from home to school. Anyway, we should hang out sometime! What do you think?"

"Um…" Matthew blushed as he nodded, looking down the ground. "S- Sure."

"Great! I'll see you around, Mattie!"

"Goodbye, Alfred."

Alfred waved as he continued to walk away towards his own locker.

oOo

"Artie!" Alfred loudly called out as soon as he entered the house. He removed his shoes and threw his backpack on the living room couch as he looked around for Arthur.

"In here, love." Arthur called out and Alfred quickly went to the back porch that led to Arthur's well-taken-care-of rose garden.

When Alfred exited the door to the back porch, he found Arthur seated on one of the single couches surrounding a small table that had tea and biscuits on it. The Brit didn't even look up from his embroidery as Alfred heavily sat on a single couch opposite his. "Tea?"

"Nah." Alfred replied, looking at the biscuits. He'd stopped drinking tea when he reached his early teens, as he found that tea did not suit his tastes anymore. "Did you make these biscuits, Artie?"

Arthur rolled his eyes, still focusing on his embroidery. "No. Francis made them." Alfred happily took some biscuits and ate. "How was school?"

"Nnn Nnnggh!" Alfred exclaimed inaudibly, mouth filled with food.

Arthur did look up at him then to frown. "Alfred, don't speak with your mouth full." He chided then went back to his embroidery.

Alfred chewed and swallowed then started, "Yeah, so we had a new student in math today and guess what? He looks just like me!" Arthur's hands froze from their movements and he looked up at Alfred with wide green eyes. "His name is Matthew- I forgot to ask for his last name- and everyone were telling us that we look like twins! I wanted to ask you about that, actually."

"What?" Arthur breathed out, eyes still wide.

Alfred hesitated for a bit, fiddling with his hands. He'd noticed that Arthur didn't like talking about Alfred's family, so he was hesitant to bring it up. He didn't even know the whole story of his parents' death yet because Arthur had always gotten upset when he brought it up. But he had to at least know if he had a brother or any other sibling. He looked up at Arthur's waiting eyes. "Do I have a brother?"

Arthur just stared at him for a second and slowly leaned back to the back of the couch. He looked like he was thinking fast before he replied, "Yes. Yes, you did have a brother."

Alfred's heart swelled with hope. So he still had a remaining family member after all and it could be Matthew.

"But, he died with your parents." Arthur finished firmly, his eyes boring into Alfred's blues that slowly filled with sadness, the hope dying. Arthur looked down to his hands. "I'm sorry, Alfred. I couldn't save him. I couldn't save them." He said, his voice going soft with grief.

They fell silent for a second as Alfred took the new information in. "But, Artie." He spoke up after a little. "A- Are you sure my brother is d- dead? I mean, Mattie really looks like me. My brother could have survived."

"No." Arthur replied, voice firm, denying further questions or arguments. He looked straight into Alfred's eyes. "I am sure, Alfred. I was there. Believe me."

"O- Oh." Alfred slumped down on his seat, eyes downcast.

Arthur stood up from the couch, putting his embroidery on the table, and headed for the door. "And we have to move away quickly. We can't stay here anymore."

"Wait, what?!" Alfred snapped his head up at Arthur, who was entering the house. He shot up to his feet and followed Arthur into the house. "Wait, Artie! Why do we have to move? I didn't do anything! I don't want to move!"

"Hush, Alfred." Arthur said as he moved towards the living room. "I'm sensing danger. We can't stay here. We can't risk it."

"What danger?!" Alfred demanded. When Arthur ignored him and picked up the telephone, he grabbed Arthur's hand that held it and forced the Brit to face him. Through the years, Alfred had grown an inch or two taller than Arthur so with how close they were standing together now, Alfred was looking down at him. "You have to explain to me, Artie!"

Arthur looked at Alfred's hand that held his wrist in a tight hold then glared up at him. "I don't have to explain, Alfred. I'm telling you that we're in danger. We have to move away as soon as possible!" He tugged on his wrist but Alfred refused to let go.

"What danger?" Alfred asked again, worriedly this time. "Did something happen? What's wrong?"

"All I know is that we're in danger and we can't stay here." Arthur glared at him venomously, green eyes almost glowing. "Now let go of me so I can inform Francis and we can decide where to go." He tugged harder this time but Alfred still didn't let go of him.

"No!" Alfred exclaimed, annoyed that Arthur refused to tell him anything. He wasn't a child anymore but Arthur still treated him like one and didn't even bother to ask him of his own opinions. Arthur wanted him to just do whatever he said like in the past, but Alfred had a mind of his own now. He could make decisions too. "I don't want to move! I've finally made friends here and finally settled down after we moved here from New York, I don't wanna go through all that moving process again!"

"Alfred, listen to me-"

"Unless you tell me what's the danger, what's wrong, why we have to move away, I refuse to go! I'm not a child anymore, Arthur! I have my own opinions now too! And I know that I didn't do anything wrong so I don't know what's this danger you're talking about!"

Arthur fell silent and pulled his wrist off Alfred's hold hard. Alfred finally let go of him. "Fine." He hissed. "Fine, we won't move." He slammed the telephone down. "But you have to stay away from Matthew."

"What?!" Alfred cried incredulously. "What's this got to do with Mattie?!"

"If you don't want us to move, then you have to stay away from Matthew." Arthur said and walked back towards the back porch.

Alfred groaned loudly as he followed the Brit. "Why!" He whined. "I want to be friends with him! You can't stop me!"

"Very well, then you can't go over to his house."

"This is getting ridiculous."

"You know how I feel about humans, Alfred." Arthur ground out, obviously holding back his anger. They reached the back porch and he went over to the table and picked up a teacup and the teapot, pouring himself tea. "I never did want you to get close to them."

"I'm half-human though." Alfred reminded.

Arthur slammed the teapot down on the table. "Do not ever call yourself that. You know that I hate it. And you can't go over to his house, and that's final. Don't make me drug you and drag you to someplace else, Alfred. I'd rather not treat you harshly."

Alfred ground his teeth together to stop himself from saying anything that'll get Arthur angrier. He was hurt that Arthur still refused to acknowledge his human part. He always did. Arthur didn't even really want him to know about it. He just accidentally heard about it when Arthur and Francis were talking. For some reasons Alfred didn't know, Arthur hated humans. Francis had told him that most of the purebloods did but that Arthur had a reason more than just him being a pureblood.

"Fine." Alfred said through gritted teeth. "Whatever." He walked out of the back porch and entered the house, snatching his backpack from the living room couch and running up to his bedroom. He slammed the door loudly in anger and threw his backpack on the floor. He just breathed in and out for a few seconds, calming himself down, and when he did, he went to sit on his bed, running a hand through his blond locks, wondering: Just where did everything go wrong?

TBC