Just to clarify, Michelle is Seychelles, and Belle is Belgium. They are cousins, along with Francis. Sorry about the confusion... And one more thing, this is set more around the nineties/early 2000's. So yeah, that's what's with the lack of technology and the kids in the neighborhood actually knowing each other...
Anyway, enjoy this chapter!
I don't own Hetalia! end /AN/
Arthur was surprised, when he woke up, to discover that Hong was already up. Or he was out of bed, in any case, which did not necessarily constitute being 'up'. He slipped off his own covers, sliding off the bed and onto his feet. He had better find Hong and make sure he didn't get into anything.
As he headed down the stairs, he swore he could hear an unidentifiable sound. It was wet, and stopped and started several times, but it was nothing like dripping water or somebody peeing... which was definitely good. He wouldn't put peeing on something past Hong. Entering the living room, he could see a pair of feet just in view of the doorway to the kitchen.
He moved on to discover they belonged to Hong, but that was not what left him speechless. The eight-year-old appeared to be nursing a bottle of ranch, and there was an empty jelly jar sitting next to him. Arthur was astonished. Then he was angry. "Hong! You can't just eat that right out of the bottle! That's disgusting!"
Hong narrowed his eyes at him, taking another gulp from the bottle. That incensed Arthur further, making him step forward and snatch the plastic bottle away, barely refraining from hitting Hong as well. "You brat! My mom didn't buy this food so you could gorge on it like this!"
Whining, Hong kicked the jelly jar to the side, seeming to ignore Arthur in favor of his displeasure at having his early morning snack taken away. Arthur felt his anger build up to his eyeballs, and he threw the bottle of ranch onto the counter. "Listen to me, darnit! You're not supposed to do this! This is bad! "
But Hong was up and taking the ranch bottle off of the counter, and Arthur's anger boiled over. "You stupid idiot!" When his open hand hit Hong's cheek, a rather startled, wide-eyed look took over Hong's face, and he stared incredulously for a moment. Then, however, he began to scream, falling back and away from Arthur against the cabinets.
Arthur was reminded, not only of how hitting was a major no-no, but how his mom was sleeping, and would probably be rather unpleasantly surprised to be woken up by screaming. He immediately tried to hush Hong, insistently shushing and saying, "Stop it, I didn't hit you that hard!"
However, soon there was the telltale creak over head, and Arthur's heart dropped. His mom was up, and undoubtedly not pleased. "Hong, come on, stop it, I'll give you candy, just stop screaming!"
Bribery did nothing, it seemed, as Hong's back pressed against the cabinets and his hands pressed against the spot Arthur had struck. The stairs creaked as Arthur's mom came down them, calling out, "What's going on? Is someone hurt?"
Arthur had to make a decision. Was he going to lie, and try and cover up what he'd done, or was he going to tell the truth, and minimise his actions? As his mom entered, he made that decision. "Mom, you see, Hong was eating right out of the ranch bottle, and I took it away, and kind of tapped him on the cheek... not very hard! It didn't really hurt him!"
His mom, however, was immediately next to Hong, gently pulling his hands away from his, which revealed a red handprint. Arthur gulped as his mom looked at him with a you're-in-so-much-trouble kind of look. "Then why did it leave a mark, Arthur? Honey," she sighed, picking up Hong despite his squirming and setting him on the counter, "we've talked about your temper. If you don't get it under control, we're going to have to see someone, or get you in a program."
"I have been good with my temper!" Arthur protested, feeling a flare of panic. He did not want to be in a program or see a counselor! That was for kids with problems, like Alfred! He wasn't like Alfred, who had woken up crying on some occasions, despite being five years old. If anyone here needed couselling or anything of that sort, it was Hong!
Arthur's mom tsked at him, putting an ice pack on Hong's cheek. "Arthur, don't give me that bullcrap. You go and stand with your nose in the corner now. And don't you ever go even thinking about hurting the people around you again!"
Rather reluctantly, Arthur shuffled over to a corner in the dining room, and pressed his face as far as it could go into it. He felt, immediately, a wave of remorse for hitting Hong. Why didn't he just drag him up to his mom's room or something? That would have been handling the situation much better.
Not that he really had a temper problem. Everyone got angry sometimes, and so did he. It was normal, perfectly fine. And hey, it wasn't as though he had killed anybody, or maimed them for life. His mom was totally overreacting about his temper, as she tended to do. He loved her, it was true, but sometimes she magnified things he did.
Arthur heard a grunt from the next room, followed by the sound of someone's feet hitting the floor hard. His mom was trying to convince Hong to stay and leave the ice pack on, but apparently it was doing no good, because off Hong went to do whatever he wanted.
Hong was the one with the problem, not Arthur.
"So, like, he's just hiding up in his room right now?" It was Belle who asked the question, hair fanned out on the grass. She, and Francis and Michelle, had all come over to Arthur's house to hang out, as they frequently did after school. Homework could wait til the evening, after all. Except for Francis, of course, who was hunched over a book about World History. He was a high school student, so he needed all the time he could get for homework.
"Yeah. He wouldn't come outside, even though my mom said he could come out while you guys were here," Arthur replied, tearing up grass absently. In the safety of his yard, he felt better talking about Hong, just so long as he didn't tell them all about the strange habits and tendencies of his foster brother.
"Maybe he used to live in the city, and he's not used to having a yard," Michelle suggested, brown body perched on the stump that used to be an apple tree. They used to get such a thrill climbing it when they were little, because it was a fairly tall stump, with a long branch sticking out the side. Arthur considered what she said, throwing away a shredded pile of grass.
"I guess so. Where ever he comes from, I hope he goes back soon. He keeps getting me in trouble." It was said without much conviction, partly due to the finally warm weather. It would be none too long before school was let out, only about a month more or so.
"I thought you said he was 'really cool'," Francis said, smirking as he looked up from his book. Arthur felt an embarassed flush on his face, saying quickly, "Well, he was cool at first, but now he's just kind of annoying!"
"You are totally lying," Belle tittered, sitting up to grin at him. Arthur looked away, scowling and trying to ignore them, even as the blonde cousins were laughing at him. Michelle, however, was completely serious, saying, "You know, we're not going to laugh at you just because you have a weird family."
"Well, you're laughing at me now," Arthur grumbled, viciously tearing up another handful of grass. Belle and Francis continued to giggle and chuckle, respectively, but Michelle gave him a disappointed look, pointing out, "I'm not laughing."
And then Arthur felt weird, a chilly flash going through him before turning back to normal, and he spat out, "Well, shut up Francis! Don't laugh at me!"
"I can't help it when you're such a bad liar..." Francis grinned, scribbling some notes on an open notebook. Belle giggled a little more, then suddenly gasped, "Oh, is that him again, staring at us through the window?"
And Arthur looked up, and it was indeed Hong, just standing there at his bedroom window and staring like a statue. Arthur groaned, suddenly feeling a rise of annoyance in his chest. Why did he always just stare, like a soulless animal? It frustrated Arthur to no end.
"Yeah, that's him." All three of his friends were staring back at Hong, though their stares weren't nearly so intense. After a few moments, Belle got up and advanced towards the house. She looked back at them, saying, "I'm going to go ask him if he wants to come outside, okay?"
"Good luck with that, Belle." Arthur just shook his head. There was no way that antisocial little creep would come out, no matter who asked him. But of course, it could be expected from Belle, the resident humanitarian. She seemed to like the little kids in the neighborhood, allowing them to stay around where the rest of them would drive them off.
The screen door slammed, and it was just the three of them. Francis broke the silence first, though his eyes were studiously glued to his textbook. "Do you guys want to bike around the neighborhood when I'm done with this chapter? That is, if Belle-Belle doesn't get her way with her little charity case."
"She won't, so sure." Arthur could agree with Francis on occasion, so long as it was nothing serious. And a good bike ride sounded nice right now. They could head down to the park and dominate the tire swing for the next hour or so, until they were so sick of spinning that they left.
"You never know, Arthur," Michelle pointed out, shrugging from her perch, "he could act differently than you'd expect."
Arthur just snorted. "Yeah, right, and he's going to bring out a cake and balloons and we'll have a party!"
There was the creak of the screen door, so Arthur looked over, and what he saw made him stop in shock. There was Hong, hanging onto Belle's hand and following her out. Also, he was not wearing the same blank navy t-shirt and jean shorts he had been wearing before; no, he was wearing Arthur's favorite Sonic the Hedgehog shirt and his father's plaid boxers, held up with one of Arthur's belts.
Francis began to laugh rather loudly, and Arthur couldn't help but notice both Michelle and Belle were tittering along. He felt heat begin to build up in his brain suddenly. How dare Hong wear his clothes! How dare he embarass him in front of his friends! How dare he even exist, in his extreme stupidity!
Arthur rushed towards the door, straight for Hong. "Go back inside! Go back inside!"
His shouting and physical confrontation startled Hong badly, and the younger child promptly fell backwards, quickly flipping over like a dog to scramble through the doorway into the house. Arthur didn't follow him in, just yelling after him, "Get out of my clothes, and take my dad's underwear off, you little maggot!"
His friends were in stitches when he turned around, and he glared at Belle. It took several moments for her to get serious enough to even respond. "What?" she asked, whole tone a barely held back laugh.
"That's not funny, putting him up to something like that!" He had an almost reluctant anger, sounding as though he'd much rather not be angry at all, now that the object of his anger was gone. Belle just looked back at him, eyes wide and serious. "I didn't tell him to do that, honest. I just asked him if he wanted to come out, and he said he had to get changed first! I had no idea he was going to wear that..."
Arthur was quiet a moment, then stalked back over to his spot next to Michelle's tree. "He's such a weirdo!" he fumed, throwing himself down crossly. Francis shrugged, a small smirk on his face. "He's definitely unique, not unlike his older brother. You used to dress in that bunny suit all the time, remember?"
Flushing, Arthur gave him a venomous look. "It is not the same thing, I was only four! Stop bringing that up, darnit!"
Michelle nudged him with her foot, giving him a meaningful look. "You should probably go in and apologize before your mom notices. Y'know, so you don't get into trouble again."
"No way I'm apologizing to him! He's the one who started it all!" Arthur pushed off from the ground, striding towards the garage. "Hey, you guys want to go ride bikes or what?"
Belle immediately ran to where the rest of them had dropped their bikes in the yard, and Frances followed suit, throwing his books in his bag. Michelle sighed, but she got out of her tree and loped towards her bike as well. Arthur ignored her shaking her head, and he definitely ignored Hong's face in the window as he rode by, those blank, solemn eyes following him until he got out of sight.
He wasn't guilty.
/AN/ I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I am sorry that it took longer to write than I expected. I have been fairly busy with life, cause, you know, I have one. Or at least I've been working on one.