I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
When the city sleeps
And I'm the only one and I walk alone

"Allistor! Unhand me!"

"I'm not touching you, Artie."

"How is this not touching!"

"I'm not touching you~."

"Allistor, stop messing with Arthur."

The scuffle occurring in the middle of the somewhat empty living room of the brand new Kirkland household ceased, two pairs of emerald green eyes rising up to meet their brothers.

Allistor frowned from his position of sitting on his younger brother's back, pushing his face into the carpet with one hand and gripping both of his wrists together in the other, holding them firmly enough so that Arthur was unable to shake himself from Allistor's hold and fight back.

"Quit being a spoilsport, Steffan." The eldest of the Kirkland boys ordered, rolling his eyes in annoyance. Despite his words, he released Arthur's wrists reluctantly and lifting himself off the smaller boy, stepping back and watching his little brother collect himself, his massive eyebrows furrowed in anger.

It took all of Arthur's self control to keep himself from attacking Allistor in hope for retaliation. Half of his mind was urging him on, but the other half—which was more sensible, while the other was currently fueled by rage—was completely against it. He sighed deeply in defeat, knowing that the most that could come out of attacking Allistor was a few prominent bruises from his brother's unforgiving fists/elbows/knees/other various body parts.

He stood up shakily, a light blush dusting his cheeks, embarrassed he'd been taken down so easily and had to let himself be rescued by Steffan. He smoothed out the wrinkles on his sweater vest, making sure he got every last one. He didn't want to look like a ruffian on his first day at his new school, after all.

Allistor ruffled Arthur's hair in a way that could be considered affection to the outside eye, but was most likely annoyance disguised into something more beautiful. Allistor's overly long nails dug into Arthur's scalp in a way that was far too forceful to be comforting in any way. Arthur winced and ducked out from under Allistor's hand, while said teenager smiled at his favorite (not that he'd ever admit it) brother.

"See, Steffan? We get along great, don't we Artie?"

Steffan rolled his eyes in disbelief, "Yeah right." His gaze flickered to the silver watch resting upon his wrist, "We should get going if we want to get there on time." His eyes darted over to Arthur, and commanded him to go fetch the rest of their family.

Arthur reluctantly complied, heading to the staircase leading to the bedrooms upstairs, where the rest of the Kirkland's resided. His father was most likely still sleeping, his bedroom on the opposite end of the hallway then everyone else's, the only room in that direction when looking from the top of the staircase.

He didn't bother going to wake up his father for work, because no matter how he tried to rouse him it would probably prove fruitless in the end. He decided to knock on the second room to the right first, more reluctant to go to the door at the very end of the hallway, not sure of what would come of it.

A light rap of his knuckles on a wooden door later revealed none other than Peter Kirkland, in full sailor garb.

Arthur could feel the tell tale signs of a headache coming on, and he closed his eyes and massaged his temples in an attempt to quell it. "Peter," he began wearily, "what do you think you're wearing?"

He answered quite bluntly, "Clothes, you British twit."

Arthur's massaging seemed to do nothing against the slight throbbing in the back of his head, this helping his irritation level rise considerably.

"How can you call me a 'British twit', when you yourself are from England?" he questioned, never being able to understand his youngest brother's logic.

Peter rolled his eyes, well aware that rolling of the eyes was a big pet peeve for Arthur, the simple motion driving him up the wall on the inside, though he appeared just slightly ticked to others.

"I'm from a barge in the English Channel," Arthur was about to voice his confusion, as he had remembered when Peter was born, at a hospital in London, but chose against it, hoping to spare himself from the migraine his brother's explanations would most likely lead to, "not from that polluted city you call home."

Arthur just shook his head, not even bothering to demand Peter change his impractical clothing. He spun on his heel and banged his fist into the first door when exiting the hallway, calling out as he walked past.

"We're going to leave you."

At these words, Arthur heard the unmistakable sound of a door slamming open. He glanced over his shoulder to see a pair of heads leaning out the door watching him with narrowed eyes.

One of them spoke, "Careful, Artie. If you had put a dent in our door, we'd be forced to put two dents in your face for compensation." Sean nodded at his older brother's (by about thirty seconds), Niall's, words.

Arthur sighed, wondering what he had done to deserve this.

All of his brothers (excluding Steffan it seemed, though he only recently stopped the fighting from getting too physical) seemed to hate his entire being, acting like Arthur was just a waste of space and air. Usually the only words they bothered to exchange were ones of malice, or they would choose just to ignore the boy, which was obviously not the case today.

After their mother passed, it had gotten much worse. Misdirected anger, as Steffan had told Arthur once, but Arthur ha really thought it was just hate.

Back in London, during that period between his mother's death and the move here, Arthur had never felt more alone in his entire life. Arthur was a complete mother's boy, and he had felt as if he lost his best and only friend when she died, leaving him completely alone in the world. At times he would just lie on his bed, staring hard at the picture of them on his nightstand.

It had been taken on an utterly normal day. They had all gone shopping together as a family, because Alice Kirkland had insisted on having family bonding time over picking up groceries. Alice had been looking at tomatoes with Arthur, holding two in her hands and trying to pick which one was better. Her face had been scrunched up with concentration, as she was determined in picking only the best for her large family. Arthur's father had thought she looked so amusing, he had quietly slipped his phone out of his pocket and was about to snap a quick picture to show her later when he was unfortunately caught.

Alice had noticed his small movements, and right before he had taken the picture she had dropped the tomatoes, pulling Arthur close to her and smiling for the camera. The picture had captured everything, Alice's glee at basically trolling her husband, and Arthur's immense surprise at the sudden physical contact from his mother. Her head had been resting on his shoulder, one arm wrapped around his waist and the other held up in a peace sign.

He wasn't sure how to cope with her passing. He didn't know if he should be crying and screaming like Peter, in denial like the twins had been, happy for her because she was in a better place like Steffan, or in complete shock like Allistor.

Now, Arthur had guessed numb would be the best was to describe himself during that time.

During the entire walk to school, sound had been oh so graciously provided by the twins, Peter having already run ahead, Steffan walking beside them in silence, and Allistor trailing behind by himself, not giving a shit on whether he was late or not.

Niall and Sean had been singing old Irish songs as a means of entertainment during the walk to school, as there was only one bus, which was for the students who lived such a distance away that walking would be cruel to ask of them.

They began crossing the bridge over the river, thankful that the trek was almost over with. If Arthur had owned a bicycle, he would most defiantly have been riding it to school, but he didn't own one, so he couldn't.

The late February air had chilled Arthur's skin, sending shivers down his spine every once and awhile. The others on the bridge didn't seem to be affected by the weather at all. Two girls were walking and laughing together, both wearing short sleeves and skirts, acting as if it were summer and not winter.

It appeared there was actually only a single person who had decided to wear a jacket. He was sitting on the low concrete wall that was for keeping people from carelessly falling off the edge, watching the water slowly go past below over his shoulder.

Arthur had far since grown tired of the twins off tune singing, and finally snapped at them, "Will you both just shut the hell up? You sing like a dying Frenchman."

He suddenly found himself in the middle of a twin sandwich, both of them throwing an arm around Arthur's shoulders and pulling him uncomfortable close. They basically started dragging him along with them.

The brunettes lowered their heads closer to Arthur, being forced to hunch over slightly to do so.

"You've been quite mouthy lately, Artie." Niall stated, glancing at his twin with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"Yeah Artie, what's gotten into you?" Sean agreed with his brother, shaking his head in mock confusion.

Now Arthur was unsure of whether his shivers were from the cold air, or from the identical smirks his brothers wore.

Niall, always the more vicious of the two, put the (what they most likely thought was some type of prank, not taking into consideration the danger at all) plan in motion. "You're so hot headed; you should really take some time off to cool down!" And with those words, they both roughly shoved Arthur into the concrete wall, his legs bending and tipping over the edge. A flash of brown caught his eye before all he could see was the morning sky above him, the pink from the sunrise morphing into blue.

Now, Arthur was a good enough swimmer to be confident that he'd be fine, and the water appeared to be deep enough that he wouldn't be injured by hitting the ground, but that didn't stop him from being frightened and shouting out as he began to fall.

Before he went completely over the edge, however, strong arms wrapped around him and pulled him back from his tipped over stance, making sure he was completely steady before releasing him.

Arthur's heart was pounding in his ears, blood and adrenaline shooting through his veins. In the distance, he could hear the twins disappointed comments and Steffan's extreme scolding as they continued on to school, not even bothering to pause and question if he was okay.

The teenager who had been sitting on the concrete wall had been the one who had saved him, and there was light worry laced into his words as he spoke to Arthur, "Dude, are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you for your assistance, but I really must be on my way—" Arthur glanced up from checking himself over, still in shock and checking that every body part was unscathed, his speech stopping when his eyes met with impossibly blue ones.

They seemed to draw Arthur in, giving him a sense of comfort and security. They were the exact same shade of his grandmother's, causing him to miss her terribly, as they had left her behind when they moved from London. They were lighter then the sky was, and confusion danced through them. There was something else in his facial expression, but Arthur found he couldn't place the emotions it reflected.

His skin was slightly tanned, which was strange, as it was hard to get a tan during winter, and his blonde hair was sun bleached, one strand sticking up rebelliously from its peers. He had high cheek bones, giving his cheeks a bit of pudge, causing them to look soft and squishable. Arthur had to use ever once of his will power to keep himself from acting on his impulse to pinch the boy's face.

This was when Arthur realized that he had been gaping for god knows how long at this boy, which was probably the cause of his look of confusion. Arthur tried to form words, but found it hard, as it felt like his heart was in his throat, preventing any words from exiting.

A ring of the warning bell echoed over the town, and Arthur had begun to fear being late.

He was able to stutter out another "T-Thank you." before spinning around and dashing the rest of the way to his new school, leaving behind an American with a strange look on his face in his wake.

I'm walking down the line
That divides me somewhere in my mind
On the border line
Of the edge and where I walk alone

Read between the lines
What's fucked up when everything's alright
Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk alone
I walk a...

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone up there will find me
'til then I walk alone

-Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Green Day

And that's the boring, uneventful first chapter.

Character Key:

Allistor: Scotland

Steffan: Wales

Ireland: Niall

N. Ireland: Sean

I really shouldn't have to tell you about Sealand and England.

I gave Arthur's mom his genderbent name, because it was the first thing that came into my head.

Happy Birthday Liechtenstein!~

I've noticed I ramble in these things, so I apologize if you're one of the few who actually read A/N and you're just like, "What the hell is she smoking?" because of my abrupt change in subjects. Like right now.

I'm going to Ancient City Con next week. It was kinda sudden, but I'm going. It'll be my little sister's and my Dad's first convention, so I can't wait to see how they react to the whole happy, lively atmosphere at a convention.

BTW. I don't own Green Day or Hetalia.

I really hate this chapter, but it's kinda necessary for the story, you know? Introductions suck.

Thank you all for the wonderful reviews~ I love you all. And thank you to all you sneaky favoriters and story alereters who didn't leave reviews~ but that's okay, I don't hold grudges over something like that, I just want feedback from everybody!

I don't think I'll be able to find enough songs to go with the story and stuff, so don't expect a song every chapter.

Also, I have a question for you guys. Would you rather have shorter chapters and faster updates ( like, each chapter 2k - 4k long and updating maybe twice a week) or long chapters and spaced out updates (like 5k - 11k chapters updating once a month. It takes me a long time to write, okay?)

I'm fine with either I guess.

Sorry for any mistakes in this chapter, I had editing and I have no beta. Let me know if you see any so I can go back and fix them.

~Ayai

I do love reviews, they're my crack and motivation~