Warning: Rated for Yaoi, swearing/slang, shipping, USUK and many others.

Posting this fifteen minutes before I have to leave for camping during the weekend, GOD WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?

So, yeah, that's my excuse for if this is worse than usual; it's still great in my eyes, though, otherwise I wouldn't be posting at all.


In My Mind's Eye

Chapter 4: A Surprising Trend

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Awww!" I moaned as I heard my alarm clock ring annoyingly into my ear, while the pitter-patter of rain clanging melodically against my windows only further lured me back into sleep. I felt Arthur stirring in his sleep, knowing he was probably about to wake up anyway, so I sat up, rubbing my eyes, and shaking his body awake. "C'mon, it's Monday." Arthur blinked and sat up.

"Monday?" I sighed and hopped out of bed and walked slowly to my drawer, picking out an outfit.

"Monday," I said sleepily, "is the beginning of the school week. It's the day the weekend goes to die and everyone has to make it through school and work for five whole days before we can get to the weekend again. Monday…Tuesday…Wednesday…Thursday…Friday." I banged my head against the window.

"Is it really that bad?" Arthur asked worriedly, changing into his normal clothes.

"Mmhm." Arthur suddenly dropped a little, looking just as depressed as I was suddenly.

"Five days?" He asked weakly, which made me laugh a little, knowing we were both upset and sharing it with each other.

"Yeah, but it's okay," I said, grabbing his hand, "at the very least, I now have a friend." We both shared a smile and walked out into the kitchen, enjoying a breakfast of Cocoa Puffs and milk. I walked slowly to the door, putting on my blue rain jacket and boots. But when I reached for my umbrella, I saw that it was all torn up.

"Aw!" I threw it on the ground and banged my head on the door, groaning. "Why does this always happen?" Arthur picked up my umbrella, looking at me with a smile as I glared back at the umbrella.

"Why don't you ask me to fix it?" I stepped back from the door and looked at him, confused, but then nodded.

"O-Okay," I said, "fix my umbrella for me…and make it awesome while you're at it." Arthur beamed and squeezed the umbrella in his hands, making the whole thing glow with a green light, and when it had gone away, Arthur passed the umbrella to me. When I took it into my hands and opened it, I saw that it was blue and had my Super Alfred symbol on it.

"Wow!" I held it tight and laughed, running outside and jumping in the puddles, Arthur joining me. "Hey!" I shouted. "Put on your rain gear!" Arthur stopped and nodded, a pair of red boots and a rain jacket that matched. We both laughed and ran down the sidewalk as we headed for school, though we didn't really make it that far because we were too busy saving innocent citizens. On our path, however, we did finally manage to get to get to the house where I was never able to pass without learning a new Polish swear word.

Out of the noisy Polish house came the always well-dressed Feliks Lukasiewicz, though I never did learn how to spell his name, much less pronounce it. Feliks was born here, but his entire family had migrated to the United States because his parents were going to go alone, and the family wanted to make sure Feliks had a family to fall back on in case something might happen because they apparently didn't know that in the US, we have a thing called life insurance, but I guess having your family close by with you really is more comforting than being with a foster family of people you don't even know.

"Like, hey, Alfred," Feliks walked beside me and waved a peace sign. In an attempt to sound and seem like a normal American, Feliks took cues from the two hours of television he was allowed to watch at home to try and speak like the rest of us, but he ended up sounding like some strange mixture of Polish and "valley girl". I never really thought his voice was that bad, and in my opinion, anyone could be American so long as you loved America and was a part of the mixing bowl by sharing your culture. I didn't think his covering up was needed, and he and his family were just as American as they were Poles.

"Hello, Feliks," I nodded back at him, and with a proud air I took Arthur's hand and Feliks, joining them together in a handshake as a I introduced, "Feliks, this is Arthur, Arthur, this is Feliks." Feliks' eyes were wide as he looked up at Arthur, and he was about to shy away like he always did when he met someone new, but something about Arthur's kind gaze caught him and made him stick to the handshake and actually brighten up.

"Like, totes crazy!" Feliks smiled and looked up at Arthur with the same wonder I had when I first met him. "Like, who are you?"

"Arthur Kirkland," Arthur laughed, "but if you're wondering just who I am to Alfred, I am his big brother." Feliks raised an eyebrow.

"Big brother?" Feliks asked slowly, at the same time losing his accent a little, trying to comprehend Arthur's words. "I didn't know you had a big brother, Alfred."

"I didn't," I said, hugging Arthur, "not until I made him, that is." Feliks eyes remained wide and confused at my words, maybe even more than before, so Arthur spoke for me.

"Alfred made me, his big brother, with this," Arthur said as he pointed to my forehead, "and you could make a big brother, too, with yours," Arthur pointed to Feliks' mind as his eyes widened.

"Wait, like, totes really?" Feliks jumped and clenched his fists together, and then relaxed. "But," he began looking up at Arthur sadly, "I already like have so many big brothers that I like didn't make, and I like don't want to hurt them because I like totes made my own. A-And what if they like totes hate me because they think I like think I don't need them when I like totes do!" Feliks gripped his face with two worried hands, and Arthur calmed him down by patting his blonde hair down and laughing sweetly.

"You don't have to have a big brother, Feliks," he began as he stopped us and squatted down to me and Feliks' size, holding both of the Pole's hands and looking into his eyes, "you could always have a best friend, too. They're much more understanding to when you will need them, and when you will not need them."

"So," Feliks said, his worry faded away and his poker face of valley girl happiness coming back, "if I like don't need him, he can like go, but when I totes do need him, he'll like, come to my aid like a prince?"

"Exactly," Arthur nodded, "just like a prince or a knight in shining armor. And all you have to do is close your eyes and ask for him." Feliks nodded, and he clenched his fists together, closing his eyes shut.

"Okay," he began, determination in his eyes, "I like totes want a best friend!" I saw a great glow of green flash before Arthur and me and behind Feliks. When the Pole opened his eyes in excitement, he looked around and didn't see his friend until Arthur pointed behind Feliks to the man there with long brown locks of hair and pale blue eyes. Feliks nearly screamed with delight as he jumped into the man's arms, which was a really strange sight since Feliks never usually did that with someone he had never known before unless they were his family.

"Hello," the man said quietly, laughing a little as he and Feliks held each other's hands and shared a simple yet sweet gaze into their eyes, "I'm Toris Laurinaitis."

"Like, hey, Toris!" It was the happiest I had ever seen Feliks with anyone, let alone a stranger, as he hugged his new friend. Finally, we all began to walk again, finally covering some ground as the rain continued to lighten and then pour, lighten and pour as it always did around here when the storms were passing by, never really sticking to the same pattern.

"Feliciano!" We all jumped as we heard an angry Italian hurl the curse words of his language mixed with mostly English sentences, the sight of second grader Feliciano Vargas running towards us with tears in his eyes, dressed in his ladybug rain gear and crying in fear. I understood Feliciano's pain somewhat, as anyone who had to have a big brother like Lovino was obviously going to cry a lot.

"ALFRED!" I heard Feliciano scream just before he kicked into overdrive and jumped into me with no bars held back, almost knocking the both of us to the ground had Arthur not suddenly caught me and balanced us. Feliciano then jumped back as quickly as he jumped on and began to wave his arms around everywhere as he spoke quickly.

"Alfred," he began, teary eyed, "I'm so sorry for what my fratello did to you, well, he didn't exactly hurt you as much as that scary Russian guy from the third grade, but he did sick that guy onto you like a dog, so I needed to apologize because when I asked my brother to he said he wouldn't, so I made us walk slow this morning to hopefully have you catch up and I could apologize for him and tell you that the reason why Ludwig and Kiku ran away is because I told them to if Lovino ever tried going after you because I know how big of a bully he is to everyone else younger and even older than him, like when our grandfather on my father's came over from—" Suddenly, Lovino caught him from behind, and then commenced the greatest wimpy wrestling match I had ever seen, Feliciano trying to bat his brother away with weak punches and Lovino failing at trying to strangle his brother. It didn't stop until Arthur, the good natured big brother that he was, stepped in and separated the two, which made them immediately stop and look up at him with wide eyes, Lovino's more accusingly and Feliciano's with pure worry.

"Hey, what the hell do you think you are doing, you bastard?" Lovino screamed as he pushed Arthur away, causing me to stand between Lovino and Arthur with a brave stance, glaring into the Italian's eyes. Meanwhile, Feliciano was kneeling on the ground, begging for mercy.

"Oh, please, signor!" Feliciano was about to start up his word rampage again, so I went over and picked him up. After all, I would rather the two Italian brothers see my great big brother in a much more positive light than as a fight breaker.

"Feliciano, Lovino," I began, holding Arthur's legs, "this is Arthur, and he's my big brother who I made yesterday. Arthur, these are the Vargas brothers, Lovino and Feliciano."

"Hello, I'm Arthur Kirkland" Arthur said while reaching out to shake their hands, though Feliciano was the only one who did shake a hand.

"Y-You're British?" Feliciano said with a small smile, wiping away a tear from his eye. "That's wonderful~! My grandfather is Roman, but he lives in Brighton, though he visits every once in a while. Last year, he brought over a friend too that he said was really close to him and had lived in Brighton for a really long time even though he was really from Germany, and one time, my fratello and I sneaked into their room to see what they were doing every night that made so much noise because it was keeping us both up, and—" Arthur put a hand over Feliciano's mouth at that point, his face bright red. He had turned pink when Feliciano mentioned that his grandfather was living in Brighton, and my big brother's face only seemed to grow even more flushed as the Italian went into detail of his grandfather's personal life like he always did. Though I didn't really understand why. Wasn't Brighton a part of Boston? Then I remembered Arthur telling me on Sunday as we were working on my geography homework that a lot of the town and city names that I knew from around here were actually names of towns in England originally, so I decided to ask as Arthur began to walk back to me.

"Was he talking about Brighton, England?" I whispered, and Arthur nodded a little in response. "Cool," I said again, hugging him, "maybe you could take me there someday." Arthur's face began to heat up again, though, like before, I didn't understand why. If it wasn't that he was afraid that I would be confused about names, what on Earth could he be so embarrassed about? I let go of Arthur, but then saw Lovino scowling at Toris for no good reason at all, so I grabbed his hand and forced him to shake hands with Feliks' best friend. "Lovino, this is Toris, Feliks' new best friend, and Toris, this is fourth grader Lovino. He's nothing to worry about." Feliks smiled and pat my back while Lovino seemed really set on just glaring at everyone and everything like it was all nonsense.

"This is all just a piece of merda!" Lovino yelled, shaking his head and stomping in the puddles beneath him. "You didn't 'make' these two guys, they're just saying that and trying to make you believe it!"

"Yeah, we did!" I punched Lovino's shoulder, causing him to trip a little since I was much stronger than him. I was sick of him being a little weakling and pushing us all around. "And I know they're real because Arthur fixed my umbrella," and as it wasn't raining heavily at that point, I spun my umbrella around a little at them to show how great Arthur's design was, "and I even saw Feliks make Toris with his mind!"

"Can we make a big brother, Lovino?" Feliciano grabbed his brother's arm, looking excited at the idea that he could have someone less mean for a big brother. Lovino glared at Feliciano, turning as red as a tomato.

"Fine!" Lovino shouted, shutting his eyes tight as he began his rant. "Then he has to be the most annoying, stupid, and weirdest big brother ever!" I will never forget the way Lovino's eyes opened wider than dinner plates as two tan arms wrapped around his waist and a smiling, ditzy looking face kissed him on the cheek.

"Hola, bonitito," the man said with a smile, playing with Lovino's hair curl a little, causing the Italian to turn redder than I had ever seen him before, and that was saying something.

"J-Just who the hell are you?" Lovino turned around and screamed, pushing the man away as Feliciano ran over to hug the man.

"Soy Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, tu mayor hermano," the man said, though I didn't understand what exactly. I did know a little Spanish, as they started to teach us it when we were in kindergarten. I think he said, "I am Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, your big brother," because that is what it sounded like and would most make sense. In any case, both Lovino and Feliciano seemed to understand, because Lovino's face became red again and Feliciano was jumping for joy.

"Ah, yay~ we have a fratello maggiore to tuck us in at bedtime and tell us stories and make us pasta and help us with homework and protect us from people who want to hurt us and make sure the mostri don't get us at night and make us midnight snacks and take us to school and play games with and make us second breakfast and third lunch and fourth desserts and—" Lovino stopped Feliciano this time by shouting to interrupt him.

"SHUT UP!" Lovino screamed, breathing heavily and sighing. "A-Alright," he finally said, taking Feliciano from Antonio and standing between his younger brother and older brother, reluctantly taking his hand, "let's just get to school." At that point, everyone was nodding and we joined the crowd of students walking to the playground behind the school, where we all enjoyed our time on the swings and going up and down the jungle gym, Arthur behind me always.

I decided for the rest of the day that I wasn't going to introduce Arthur to anyone new, just point at people for him. I was tired of all that had happened, and it wasn't even eight o'clock! I needed a rest from all the introductions, so Arthur was content with just pushing me on the swings.

"It looks like I really won't be the only big brother here after all," Arthur said quietly, as I looked back at him with confusion, that is, until he pointed and showed me Feliks and Toris breaking up a fight, Toris saying something really kind and intelligent to the fighters, and encouraging the two boys to make their own big brother or best friend. I noticed the same with Lovino and Feliciano with their big brother Antonio, only Antonio ended up catching the attention of girls and telling them how cute they were. Soon, I realized, Arthur really wasn't one of the only big brother on the school yard. Everyone had gone and shown off their big brother to someone else and eventually, the whole school had one! Not the teachers, though, for some reason, the pre-school monitors didn't seem to see them, just like my parents.

"Now no one will know I made you first," I sad sadly. Arthur wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on the top of my head.

"No," he said sweetly, "but that doesn't really matter, so long as I'm your big brother, right?" I looked up at him and smiled. Who knew, maybe Arthur would get a lot of friends now that he wasn't the only one. Maybe this was a really good thing. I hoped it was, because I cared for Arthur, and wanted only the best for my big brother, and if that meant he needed a friend besides me, I was all for it. I just hoped that he didn't make any enemies.


Spanish:

Hola, bonitito = Hello, little cutie

Italian:

Signor: sir

Fratello (maggiore) = (older) brother

Merda = shit

Mostri = monsters

All Spanish words I should really know, but I definitely Googled the Italian, so if it's wrong, please tell me so!

I guess these big brothers are kinda like the fairy godmother from Cinderella in a way, especially with how Alfred and Arthur meet. (ANOTHER INSPIRATION :D)

Please review, it makes my life worth living!