Chapter 2 is now edited~!
NOT Amebel. Nor RusAme. Some OOCness. I rewrote the summary.
The end of tenth grade signifies a turning point in a high schooler's life as it is the midway point of all of high school. For Alfred it's a time where he won the presidency of the Astronomy Club for the next year and was allowed to start conditioning for cross country later basketball. Yep. Alfred was going to change for the better. No more nerdy Jones! No more geek Jones! No more Fanboy dweeb Jones! NO MORE! He was going to be successful Jones. Cool Jones. Kickass Jones in fact. Yes, he would be the most popular and best student in World Academy W. Step aside Matthias Kohler and the Nordic 5. See ya later Gilbert. Hasta la vista Antonio. Ohonhon to you Francis. Here comes the hero: Alfred F. Jones!
Alfred already knew what to do, but what a better way to do than with the girl of his dreams, what a better way to strode into first period of eleventh grade with the beautiful Natalia Arlovskaya. Alfred had been getting along with her in an okay manner, she was accompanying Ivan Braginski, her older brother in the Astronomy Club with them and that's how he met her. Ivan and Alfred had a relationship that could be described as competitive. Highly competitive. The tall, big boned Russian and the tall, lanky American had great ideas that often clashed. Alfred had grown rather fond of her and now planned to ask her out. In the hallway in back of the Astronomy Club room he asked her to meet him for some "work". Natalia was writing a list of things Alfred asked her. Raking his tongue against his teeth he took a deep breath.
"Ah- Hey Nat?"
"Hm?" She acknowledged him absentmindedly.
"What exactly do you uh-...think of me?"
"You're an overly cheerful idiot and I'm kind of pissed off you took my brother's presidency spot in the Astronomy Club." She said with absolutely no hesitation. Ouch. "But, you are rather kind and smart. You try you're best which is good."
Alfred felt his heart beating faster. Now all he had to do was say the one question he had been dying to ask for two years now.
"You know Alfred, I think I…" What? What?! You love me with the undying passion I feel? "I think of you as a brother."
Huh.
Brother. Brother. Brother. Brother. Brother. Brother. BROther. bRothER. BrOtHeR. BROTHER. broTHER.
Not even friendzoned. Alfred had been downright BROTHERzoned. He felt his heart crack. Alfred coughed as if he had been choking on pieces of his heart. "O-oh. Gee Nat, I think of you as a sister too. What a coincidence. Hey umm… I forgot to tell my mom I was staying after school and left my phone. I should um… go home before she gets mad at me. Uhh… thanks for the help. Text you later." He quickly took everything he brought and left home.
Summer never felt so cold in his heart.
Soon time flew and it was school time once more, this time it was eleventh grade and surprises sprung up. Some surprises….. well…..
Heroes are tough. Heroes are brave. Heroes are most definitely not afraid of a website that sells supposedly haunted items. Yep. Alfred F. Jones resident hero, was definitely, absolutely, positively, not afraid so the previously mentioned website. Alfred quickly made scrolled through the items as he hoped to not read something that would terrify him. Mirrors, paintings, vases, photographs, shrunken heads, cursed tiki dolls, monkey hands, and of course dolls, the Ailateh* website welcomed him friendly with a simple:
Welcome to AILATEH haunted items!
[Start to shop now!]
Alfred had clicked on the shopping button and a friendly: Welcome to my shop :)
welcomed him, the owner of the website named Ayuramih** seemed like a nice enough fellow. He thought it wasn't going to frighten him but the objects terrified him. As he scrolled he briefly wondered why he had gone on this website and then he remembered. Alfred was a friendly character that everyone got along with, now even more as he was being cooler…. Well that is except for Ivan and occasionally his younger sister Natalia. Ivan and Alfred had been rivals because they both wanted to be president of the astronomy club. A fierce competition begun once again and they constantly fought over how the club should be run even after Alfred won the presidency. What made everything worst was that Alfred had a crush on his sister Natalia*** but Natalia should no interest whatsoever towards him and even seemed to dislike him for being Ivan's rival. That and he was still BROTHERzoned. Anywho, Ivan had found out that Alfred had a rather big fear of the supernatural and got the idea of knocking down the American boy down by a few pegs. Ivan challenged him with a bravery contest and Alfred took it with no hesitation…. one of the challenges however was to bring a haunted item with them. Alfred nearly got out of the challenge by saying he had no idea where to get a haunted item. Unfortunately his friend Kiku Honda overheard and gave Alfred the name of the website in front of Ivan.
So now that brings us to where we are now. It was nearly midnight and Alfred just wanted to get through with this challenge. The boy had an ego that wouldn't be deflated by Ivan. Taking a deep he closed his eyes and scrolled quickly, he then double clicked on a random item. Without looking at what he ordered, he ordered the item. At last the deed had been done and he let out a shaky breath. He hoped he didn't order anything he would regret. He would return the item without opening as soon as he showed it in school, then he would go back to a carefree life. Yes it was perfect! He closed the window and turned his computer off. He wouldn't need to worry about this anytime soon.
He was wrong.
The next morning, Alfred got up like any other day. His parents had already gone to work and his brother was gone earlier for hockey practice. Alfred went to the kitchen but he tripped over a large box in front of the door to his room.
"What the-? Did Mattie plan this?" Alfred grumbled as he got up. He got closed and checked the box. He froze. The box was addressed to him from the AILATEH website. No! NO! It's not real, Mattie is trolling me! Revenge for putting maple on mom's dress and blaming on him. Yeah! He is just getting back at me. With this in mind Alfred let out a shaky laugh and slowly opened up the box. Inside was a beautifully crafted old chest, a skeleton key, and an envelope. Alfred opened the envelope but found that if was empty… he glanced at the box and felt suspicious…. why was there an empty envelope? Was the box empty as well? It must be… it was just a prank…right? Nerves were eating away Alfred's calm mood and inflating his ever-growing curiosity. He slipped in the old skeleton key into the lock that sealed whatever maybe inside and held his breath once it was unlocked. Shaking hands lifted the top to open the chest. Nothing had popped out to kill him or curse him so he peered inside.
"A…A doll?" He honestly wasn't sure if he should be terrified or not. The doll was lying in the chest in a fetal position, so calm and unmoving that it looked like a small child resting. Alfred quickly ran in his room to get a pencil to poke the toy to make sure it wasn't actually alive. After poking in rather harshly and quickly, the doll made no movement and Alfred considered it safe to get. He put the pencil aside and reached in for the doll. It was about 40 inches and had golden blonde hair that was rather messy, pale porcelain for skin, and it had its eyes closed so Alfred had no way of knowing what color its eyes were with large eyebrows on it. Judging by the clothes, it was a boy doll. A small purple had adorned his messy soft hair and he was dressed in a violet coat, a blue vest, it had a large white ribbon tied to the collar shirt, white gloves, and brown trousers.**** It was an excellent piece of craftsmanship and had exceptional detail in it. "Must be expensive.." Alfred muttered to himself. There was a hole in his back. It appeared to be a keyhole and looking back in the chest he found a small key that Alfred assumed was used to wind up the doll. Alfred got the key and wound up the doll in a rather careless manner, he wound and wound until an audible CLUNK was heard. Alfred half hope it broke. "Let's see what it does…" He mumbled. Three seconds passed and it slowly opened its eyes. A glassy vibrant green stared at him and Alfred would have to admit that perhaps he was just being completely paranoid. A full five seconds passed with this thought when all of a sudden the doll spoke.
"Where-?" The doll was not allowed to say more as Alfred threw it on the floor and shrieked in a "manly" manner. "Holy-! IT'S ALIVE!" Alfred scrambled onto backwards as he tried to create as much space between him and the thing. The doll sat up with an annoyed look on its face. "Good God man! Why are you panicking in such a manner?"
Alfred looked at it incredulous. "A frickin' possessed doll is talking to me! How is that not going to cause panic?!"
"What do—oh…. right." The doll muttered to itself as if it had remembered something. It stood up shakily and made awkward steps towards Alfred. "Listen, you mustn't panic and let me expl-" Before the doll could continue, Alfred fainted on top of it. The doll huffed annoyed. "This is going to be more difficult than I originally believed…."
Alfred woke up a few minutes later. Why had he passed out? Oh yes! There was a frickin' possessed doll in his room….. under him actually! He bolted straight up alarmed. The doll on the other hand stared at him in a calculating manner before it opened it's mouth.. "Are you going to panic once more?"
"I'm talking to a doll…."
"Well yes, now let me-"
"And the doll is talking to me back!"
"We've established that already! No need to be redundant and go back to the matter and keep your mouth shut, understand?" Alfred nodded mutely. "Good. First and foremost my name is Arthur. Arthur Kirkland. I would say it's a pleasure to meet you but so far it's been anything but. Second of all this place is filthy, have you not heard of the concept of housework? Now you are probably thinking among the lines of possession and whatnot in order to explain why it is I'm speaking to you. That is wrong. I am not a possessed child's toy. I am in fact a human being…. or at least I was before I was…." The doll, Arthur paused for a second trying to find the right word. "...cursed."
"You… You're a person….?"
"Yes…"
"Then how did you get to be like that?" Alfred didn't know why but he felt that the doll was honest.
"I don't feel like talking about it at the moment…. however I'm telling the truth."
"I believe you…."
"Of course you wouldn't you daf- you….. do?"
"Yes. I'm not sure why… but you seem…. to be telling the truth. I'm Alfred F. Jones by the way." He reluctantly held out his hand where Arthur could shake it.
"I am. I suppose… now it's a pleasure to meet you…. Alfred." Arthur put his small cold porcelain hand on Alfred's large warm callous ones. Arthur then pulled back. "Alfred, you wound me, correct?"
"Yeah, obviously." Arthur nodded as Alfred said that.
"Because you wound me, we are now bonded together. I cannot go away from your life and you can't just abandon me wherever you please. I will always come back until someone else winds me once the clockwork in me stops. You may wind me how ever many times you want or not at all after this first wind."
"So I can't send you back?"
"No…."
"I see…." It was a simple meeting, yes, but Alfred and Arthur established their first connection. They took their first step into a friendship that would have to face a long road of hardships and happiness if moved the right way.
A.N.:
This is definitely inspired by Rozen Maiden in case you can't tell, but it isn't a crossover. That'd be rather difficult to write as I haven't seen in in like a year now.
*Hetalia spelled backwards.
**Himaruya spelled backwards. All rise our dark lord.
***I hate AmeBel. So it won't be a ship here, though lovely Belarus will come out a lot. Same goes to RusAme, I don't ship it but our friend Russia has an important part. Ivan and Nat are GOOD guys.
****Cardverse England outfit.
This story will follow Alfred within the next two years in high school and stop when he graduates, by then he will be the Alfred we all know and love.
