Beyond Our Sight
By Ryukansen
Chapter Three: Hindrances
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Author's Notes: This story really is difficult to write. Sorry for the delay. As always, please read & review if you have the time.
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The golden sun was soaking up the whole sky with it's vibrant colors of orange and red. A small hint of sapphire blue was peaking out from the amethyst, silver-lined clouds and tracing out the outlines of the emerald green copse nearby. Creamy sidewalks were becoming visible along with cobalt nightlights, as the sun began to take the center stage in the clouds; snuggled between two huge, white nimbuses.
Suddenly the color of the whole scenery was signifying a glorious, beautiful morning.
With a cooled down weather of temperatures barely exceeding 18 degrees Celsius, Arthur didn't know what to think when opening his blinds to see a perfect day ready to be ruined. He let out a frustrated sigh while running his hand through his sandy mane; grinding his teeth together as he thought about how more foolish he would look carrying an umbrella in the middle of a sun shining afternoon.
"Aw, what's wrong?" A voice suddenly piped up and Arthur twirled to find the source of his woes.
Alfred had come out from the bottom of the floor; flying around with a mocking grin as he got ready to travel with the young Briton. His large wad of energy could easily be noticed as he continued to make motions with his whole body; fluttering around almost everywhere which was giving Arthur a headache.
"You're the problem, that's what's wrong." The Briton grumbled while massaging his temples. He let out a defeated sigh as he gazed back outside his window; lifting his blinds carefully with the tips of his index fingers. Alfred remained in his position; pouting as he traveled across the room, solidifying while carrying the umbrella with his ghostly hands.
"Come on, come on! You promised to take me out!" Whined the American as he opened the umbrella inside the apartment and started twirling with it around like a child hopping around nonsensically. "Hurry up!!!" His voice chimed in the highest pitch he could muster; making the Briton cringe at the awful screeching noise, and giving in as he whipped around to glare at the supernatural being.
"Don't DO that!" Arthur jabbed at the opened umbrella in the American's hands. His eyes widened in a saucer shape as his mouth draped into a perfect "o" as if Alfred had done something dreadfully wrong. "You know how much bad luck you have caused me already?" He replied, voice rising as he snatched the item away and shut it down as quickly as possible.
The ghost just stared at him dumbfounded.
At first Alfred frowned as he stared at the Briton with complete confusion. But after a while of realization hitting his dense mind, a smirk slowly started forming from each corner of his lips.
"You don't actually believe in those things, right?" His obnoxious face peered down to level his sight with Arthur's green eyes. Smirk still hanging on his peachy face, the Briton only flustered further as he threatened to throw the umbrella away and not have the American ghost follow him.
"I-If you had my abilities, you would understand how dangerous these curses can be! And furthermore you're already dead, how worse can it get?" He scoffed, crossing his arms while glaring at the smug American in front of him. Alfred only shrugged while whistling a tune and twirling his index finger pointedly at his ear to point out the lunatic in front of him. Arthur grimaced and turned away; getting irritated further. "If you won't quit your childish plays I won't let you out!" He finally replied, closing his eyes tightly while he heard the ghost gasp with agony and surprise.
The whole room suddenly got silenced, and at first, the Briton thought he had gotten the American to finally shut up. But upon turning around, he found the room quite empty and his heart started to batter in quick intervals.
"A-Alfred?" He murmured with a chocked tone as he stared bewildered at the empty space in front of him. He searched throughout the dining room, hoping to find one piece of the ghost's body lying somewhere, but failed in the end.
As minutes passed his heart started to sink. Realizing he may have made the ghost run away from him due to a stupid outburst. "That stupid git! He better not have run off!" He grumbled to himself while looking around his apartment and flipping multiple items around to try and find his ghost companion. His heart was severely aching, too frightened to have made the poor American flee from him.
"A-Alfred?!" His voice grew frantic as he traveled through a small hallway that led to his kitchen from the dining room. It was the last place to search. His heart stopped as he realized that the ghost was not there. "A-Alfred, please? Come on! I'm sorry! Come out, will you?" The Briton pleaded as he punched his wall with frustration.
The stupid American. Always dramatizing things and making his life more hectic! He knew he shouldn't have allowed that stray ghost into his house! He just knew it!
Slumping down in the corner of his kitchen he let out a sniff. He wasn't that bad of a person was he? Or was he so awful that he could make even a supernatural being run away in tears? His heart sunk just after thinking so pessimistically.
"What's wrong, Arthur?" A voice replied solemnly and a new zodiac took form of a bull.
Arthur lifted his head to find Vrsabha in front of him, staring gently into his green eyes like a mother would to her child. The Briton stopped sniffing as he quickly brushed his forming tears away with the edge of his sleeve. The zodiac continued to stare at him with his lazy stare, but a penetrating sense of seriousness was somewhere in the dull shades of his eyes.
Vrsabha was a calm zodiac. He was a mutable Earth Sign, so that was why it explained his natural laid-back mood. The Bull Zodiac was a kind creature who took time to understand everything despite the lack of time there even was. He was one of the only zodiacs that Arthur confided his feelings too other than Makara of course.
"I-I can't find him!" The Briton grumbled in defeat while moving his choppy bangs away from his emerald eyes. A small drop of tears were still at the corner of his eyes as he quivered his lips like a child losing his toy. The bull just stared at him quizzically while turning around and walking away; probably hearing something in the distance. "Don't bother, he probably ran somewhere underneath or something. Away from me at least!" The Briton cried miserably; however, the Bull continued to ignore him.
"If you just become patient enough, I'm sure you would have easily found him." Replied Vrsabha with a composed voice. He was back in the living room, standing in front of the place Alfred had last been seen. "It's all like a circle. If you get angry, you'll only lose your way." He whispered while smiling and softly and gently disappearing from Arthur's view.
Vrsabha always liked doing that. Appearing after something bad happened and disappearing after doing something good. Arthur remembered quite well that when he was a child and he had just been bullied by either Antonio or Francis, Vrsabha would be the first one to come to him in his aid to relax him after a fit.
The Zodiac always helped him in the end, and he could only silently thank him in fear of the public's view.
After the zodiac disappeared Arthur could hear a soft sniffling in the same place where Alfred had left. It took Arthur quite a while to remember Alfred's sudden invisibility ability, and he quickly found rage re-entering his heart.
"You stupid, bloody fool!" He shouted while pointing at the entrance where Alfred supposedly laid. "Why do you have to do that?" Exclaimed the Briton as he got on his knees and crawled towards the area where he had heard the sniffling.
Alfred was there, he could hear the small whining coming from the man's pouting lips. He didn't understand why he couldn't see the ghost despite his invisibility skill, and found it quite annoying to not see a supernatural thing for once.
"You're so mean!" The American whined childishly while reappearing with his blue eyes brimmed with decorative tears. His face had flushed a pale pink due to his translucent color and he was crossing his arms and huddling his knees together in an old fashion. "All I wanted was for you to have fun." He grumbled and looked away while muttering more rude remarks about the Briton.
As if he could have fun around. Especially with this town.
"Alright, Alright." The Briton grumbled as he heaved the solidified ghost upwards and pulled him to his feet. It was pretty easy carrying a ghost he mused once Alfred wiped his own tears away and jerked his attention towards something else to make him stop crying whenever he saw Arthur.
"Fine, let's go out now, alright?" Arthur asked bemused as he noticed the American's sudden quietness.
"You'll have to treat me, though." The ghost grumbled as he opened the door with a feigned smile to let Arthur out first.
These words seemed to baffle the Briton as he opened the umbrella to let the ghost outside with him. Treat him? How? His thoughts wandered as he eyed the American's back, gazing at the jacket he wore that had an embedded "50" on it in silvery tracing.
As they traveled down towards the stairs, he was glad to have found that no one had come out yet despite it being noon. His heart almost raced once he heard a click of a door opening, and he was about to shut his umbrella until realizing that Alfred needed the umbrella for his existence.
Bleeding git.
Turning around a corner and reaching the local street, he found much eyes peering at him as if he had reached a new level of insanity. Of course, it was strange for him to be carrying an umbrella in the middle of a perfectly good day that barely reached 18 degrees Celsius, but that didn't mean all those scorn looks coming his way was uncomfortable.
"Are you alright there, Artie?" The voice of Alfred snapped him into realization as he stopped in front of a traffic light that signified when pedestrians could walk or not in an intersection. "You seem out of it." The ghost replied looking a tad bit concerned as he touched his cold palm against the Briton's heating face.
Alfred's touch wasn't warm at all. In fact it was like ice that made his spine shrivel up in discomfiture. He hadn't expected for a ghost to feel so cool, but he never actually thought of touching one at all, before.
"Y-Yes, I'm perfectly fine." He whispered through gritting teeth as new pair of eyes gazed at him with a mocking stare.
Alfred could sense his alertness and turned his head around to find the cause of the Briton's anxiety. He saw almost all the people they passed staring at Arthur with immense amusement, and he could fully understand why the Briton was always so cynical and introverted. It made his heart wallow in despair noticing all those eyes gazing at Arthur with no signs of sympathy or compassion.
"Hey, it's okay." Alfred replied softly as he stared at the man beside him who was trying his best to compose his calm nature, but his figure was shaking nevertheless. His shaking was either from anger or sadness, Alfred couldn't tell though.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Kirkland." A voice laughed. It was a sharp, penetrating voice that caused Arthur's confident mantra to whither as he turned slightly around to find a white-haired man with crimson pools gazing at him with a smirk.
"If it isn't Gilbert Weillschmidt." The Briton replied with a strong sarcasm all the while rolling his eyes.
The green light suddenly came on, and he (along with Alfred) silently began to walk across the street with quiet irritation surrounding the both of them. However, their escape was not really beneficial as they met up with a smug Gilbert who was tailgating them.
"Oh come on! Arthur, why do you have to so cruel?" The Albino grumbled as he slung his arm around the Briton's neck in an all too friendly manner.
This made Alfred startled, but Arthur continued walking with impatience as he tried to shrug the git's hands off of him.
"Will you please keep your hands to yourself!" The Briton muttered while adjusting his umbrella to a straight angle and keeping mind that Alfred was still next to him. He had almost allowed a sliver of light to flow Alfred's way, but thanks to his quick realization he had managed to not harm the American who was quivering with profound fear.
It would have amused Arthur to no ends if it were not for Gilbert who was also trying to catch his attention through the same whining antiques as the ghost.
"Why do you have to carry an umbrella? You know how weird you are?" The white-haired man asked as he continued to walk alongside Arthur with enjoyment. "I mean, you're already more pale than me, what else do you want to accomplish?" The Prussian asked as he let out a familiar pout very much similar to Alfred's.
Arthur couldn't help but ask himself if those two idiots were even related.
Gilbert Weillschmidt was not one of Arthur's enemies, thank god. He was more of an annoying neighbor who always wanted to hang out with the outcasts, much to Arthur's chagrin.
The said Prussian loved involving himself in things he shouldn't be in. For example, during their kindergarten years the Prussian loved to hang around with the "lunatic" Arthur just to gain fame, and honestly believed they were friends throughout their lifetime. And today was no different from the other days where Gilbert wanted to nose into his life in unexpected moments.
"So, what's with the umbrella anyways?" The idiot asked as he played around with the sturdy fabric of the black holder. Arthur had to scold him while whacking his hand away from the thing.
"I need it to be perfectly straight, thank you very much!" Snapped the Briton as he peered at the American who continued to gaze at him uneasily. Gilbert was on the other side complaining while bantering how awfully "stupid it was to hide yourself under an umbrella during the middle of summer," but Arthur ignored him anyways.
Alfred was unusually silent today.
"You alright?" Replied the Briton who stared worriedly at the American who's face was pale and very much frightened than before.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine." Alfred managed to choke out as he held onto the umbrella with his own solidifying power; and all the more ignoring the Prussian who was complaining at Arthur, asking him "why do you always have to ignore me?"
The three than halted in front of Arthur's favorite tea shop, and the Briton was ready to open the door until a fit of complaints ensued.
And it did not belong to the bleeding Prussian.
It was Alfred.
Honestly, even if Alfred was naturally loud; Arthur preferred the more silent American like he was previous seconds ago. He just couldn't stand the American's whines, and he just wanted to punch the bleeding ghost right in front of everyone.
But what would that do, then?
He'd look like a fool that's what would have happened.
So there he was, standing in front of the tea store (his only peace) while staring angrily at an American who was stomping his feet like a brat who didn't get the toy he wanted, and looking insanely stupid to the Prussian who gazed at him nervously.
"What's the glaring for?" Gilbert muttered nervously as he stared at Arthur's piercing emerald eyes.
"What do you want Alfred?" Arthur ignored Gilbert, basically pushing him to the side while staring at the American with intense green eyes.
Umbrella hovering over both of them he stared at the empty space; which was (in only his eyes) occupied by Alfred. Gilbert just stared unfazed as if it was another of those days.
"I said you had to treat me." The American solidified while holding his umbrella with great force. "And I don't like tea." He spat while dragging the Briton across the street towards the god awful Coffee Shop.