Raising Azure Fire

Chapter 3, Growl

Bright, blue eyes stared into Francis's darker ones as he inspected the small child. From the way Arthur had acted the other day he had partially expected the young Alfred to have gone into a fit similar to that of demonic possession by now. However, that simply was not the case. No, instead the little boy sat quietly on the green grass of the school courtyard as he stared intently at his temporary babysitter; Arthur merely yards away with Matthew by his side. Francis had no idea what to make of this. There was always the possibility of Arthur overreacting, as per usual. The boy was rather uptight, so maybe he just was easily overrun by youthful energy. Then there was the possibility that Arthur had merely been trying to intimidate him, which he did quite well considering the prevalent dark bags under Francis's eyes, and this whole thing was a sham. The third option was the one Francis was dreading, and that was the demon merely had not had enough time to awaken yet. He knew Alfred was a dragon, but look at Matthew. They were both sweet little children, but surely there was some sane reason why Arthur always had Alfred in reaching distance? That once more brought up the question of why Francis was even allowed near the child in the first place. Arthur had made it quite clear what he felt about others trying to parent his dragon early on, especially him, and refused to count on anyone but himself to look after Alfred. It was not like he had many options in childcare anyway, but Arthur took it to the extreme it seemed. He had refused to allow the child any independence even, so they were always together. In conclusion, this whole scenario just did not make sense to Francis, who was still only half believing that it was actually happening.

Suddenly, Alfred spoke, "Why is Artie watching you, watching me?"

Francis sighed before letting a small smile grace his lips. Of course Alfred was as confused as he; this was completely new to him, too. Francis suddenly felt a little ridiculous for worrying in the first place. He had said it himself last night, Alfred was only one little boy. Arthur was just crazy, and the evidence was that he was observing him from "afar." Francis's smile turned into a slight smirk as he leaned down to the small child's ear. If Arthur wanted to play it that way, then he could play, too.

"Let me tell you a little secret, Alfred," the man whispered, pretending to give Arthur a nervous glance, "'e is afraid. You see, little one, Arthur is slowly turning you into 'im!"

Alfred blinked in surprise, "But Artie says humans do not have magic."

"You are right," the man agreed, still speaking into his ear, "But a 'uman does not have to have magic to find it. The food, Alfred! 'is scones, fish and chips, anything 'e makes you 'as been made using enchanted ingredients. In all 'onesty, it is a curse the man's family fell under to make them grumpy and stubborn. Now 'e intends to pass it on to you."

Alfred gasped at this. Was that really why Arthur acted like an old man, a curse? It sounded rather plausible to the hatchling.

Francis grinned at the sound and took it as a signal to continue, catching a curious look from the observing Arthur, "And 'e is afraid because I 'ave the antidote, I put it into my cooking, which is why it is the best. I cook with liberty and freedom after all."

Alfred nodded shakily, tears welling in his eyes, "I do not want to turn into a grumpy old man—but we have to save Artie! You have to give me the antidote."

Francis's grin widened further, this was going even better than expected, "Alas, I can make the antidote, but 'e will not eat it. You see it is also a part of the curse. Only a true 'ero can cure him. Alfred, I think you are that 'ero. All you 'ave to do is ask for my cooking, and whatever you do, do not eat 'is. I know you can do it."

Suddenly Alfred's tears dried up and his gaze turned solemn, "I swear I will cure Artie if it is the last thing I do!"

Whether it was Alfred's seriousness, or simply his utter success, Francis had no clue, but he could not control himself any longer. He quickly covered his mouth and sunk to the ground as chuckles ripped through his body. Apparently that had been the final straw before Arthur's curiosity pushed him to check on the temporary sitter.

"What has happened to you?" he hissed, "It has not even been ten minutes yet and you are already cracking up?"

Francis shook his head desperately, a new wave of chuckles forming at the thought of being driven to insanity by the child, "Arthur, you are crazy, and you were far before Alfred came into your life. The boy is 'armless."

Arthur quirked an eyebrow at this, "I never said he was dangerous."

Francis could not help but scoff at this, "You were threatening me last night! 'Do not let him out of your sight, or you will regret it.' You said. He has not taken his eyes off of me, Arthur!"

Arthur was about to launch a retort at the man when he felt a weak, though firm tug on his pant leg. Looking down he realized that he had forgotten all about watching Matthew, who was trying to get his attention. He felt guilt bubble in his stomach, but was quick to hide it.

"What is it, Matthew?" he asked softly.

"Where did Alfred go?" the young hatchling asked, looking around as if to prove his point.

Both Arthur and Francis immediately paled at this, snapping their own heads about in attempts to catch sight of the boy no longer visible in the grassy courtyard. When neither was successful Arthur started to tremble. This was bad, very bad, and Francis knew it. The sheer panic in Arthur's eyes told Francis he could not feel the child's location. In all honesty, that could simply be blocked by Arthur's own panic, but it could also mean much worse. Taking a quick step back, Francis raised his hands submissively and hopefully soothingly.

"Arthur," he began, "I will look for Alfred. Calm down and watch Matthew. Alfred is my responsibility for the 'our."

If looks could kill Francis would have dropped dead before Arthur's blazing green eyes could even land on him, "Your responsibility? He is my dragon, my child! He was never once your responsibility, which was why I was watching you."

Francis shivered at the coldness of his voice, but recognized the truth in every word, "Fine, blame yourself, but I am looking for Alfred and you are watching Matthew. You 'ave even upset him now. Both of you calm down, since I doubt you could 'elp find him like this anyway. I will bring 'im to your dorm room when I find him."

With that and a soft smile for a sniffling Matthew, Francis took off to the far corners of the courtyard to look for the hatching. He had not even spared a second glance to see if Arthur followed his orders. His main priority right now as finding the little devil that had managed to disappear in seconds' time. If that was not magic, Francis did not know what was. The thought stopped Francis dead in his tracks. Was that what Arthur had been warning him about, Alfred's little disappearing habit? It would make sense since he would regret it if he looked away and then Arthur would definitely have to keep him close. The pieces fit so well together that Francis somewhat wanted to slap himself, but he was jumping to conclusions a lot lately. Maybe this was hardly normal behavior; after all, Arthur was pretty distraught. In a quick fit of desperation he physically shook all of these thoughts from his head. This was not the time to be contemplating life's mysteries, he needed to be looking for Alfred!

"Are you sure about this, Alfred?" began an exasperated voice.

"Of course, Lovi." the child answered with a wide smile.

Said Lovi rolled his chocolate eyes, taking in the sight of all the greenery around them. Despite never being in a forest previously in their lives, it felt quite homey in the one just a distance from school grounds to the both of them. That was probably why Lovi was not getting as temperamental as usual.

"Fine, and call me by my name: Lovino!" the child growled half-heartedly.

Alfred could not help but chuckle, "Thanks. I mean, you had to trick Antonio and everything."

Lovino snorted at the mention of his raiser, "No problem, he could use a good lesson, too."

Alfred nodded fiercely. It seemed that all the raisers needed a lesson for one reason or another. If anything, Alfred wanted everyone to know how magic really worked. Of course, he was simply settling for Arthur at the moment. In all actuality, due to his recent discovery of Arthur's curse it had only motivated him further. If Arthur learned how to use magic properly, then maybe he could break his curse all on his own. Alfred would still be Arthur's hero, but he would not have to bruise Arthur's pride by insulting his cooking then. He really wanted to avoid upsetting him if at all possible, because, cursed or not, Arthur was still Arthur and Alfred cared about him.

"This worked out better than I planned…" mumbled Alfred, casually plodding over to one of the many trees and inspecting it, "I mean Matthew did not even have to be a distraction… Then you had some free time… There was no trouble getting through the school and to the forest… It just seems too easy."

Lovino paused to think about this. Alfred was right, especially since they all seemed to always have the worst of luck. This was way too easy for his liking, even on his part. He had just gotten into a little squabble with Antonio and happened to run into Alfred the moment he hit the hallway. He did not even hesitate to come with Alfred and listen to his little scheme. In all honesty, he had no idea what to make of Alfred's magic spiel and did not really care at the moment, but if it would freak out his raiser he was all for it. That was why those words were starting to make him nervous. Were they missing something or was something bad just going to happen? Lovino really hoped neither, because, as much as he did not like to admit it, there were some things that really scared him out there.

"We just have to be careful, I guess…" he muttered, "So what are you going to do anyway, what kind of magic?"

Alfred finally looked away from the base of the tree he had been face to face with and shrugged at Lovino, whom promptly rolled his eyes in response. Of course Alfred did not know yet. He could scheme flawlessly, yet leave out crucial details like that as if it were no big deal. Admittedly, it seems they had not been yet, but Lovino did not want to be there the one day they were. With that he sighed and started to pay a little more attention to Alfred, who was actually being quiet.

"What is up with the tree?" he asked, taking a step towards it, but his head tilting up to stare into the dense canopy that towered above the both of them, "It looks like all the others around here."

To this Alfred shrugged again, "It is, but there are not many trees on the school grounds. I tried to climb one once, but Artie caught me before I could even make it halfway, and those trees were much smaller than these. Hey, Lovi, I know we came here to plan and stuff, but just for a second I want to get to the top of this thing."

Lovino hesitated at this. He knew whatever he said Alfred was going to climb that tree, but that would not make him feel any better when Alfred hurt himself—or when he had to explain to Arthur that Alfred hurt himself. So, the little dragon had to muster up some courage for his slight nod, which sent the other dragon shimmying up the tree like he had done it all his life. Alfred had not been kidding when he had said just a second, he scaled the plant with ease and before Lovino could blink he was in the top branches.

"Hey, this is awesome!" he yelled down from his perch, "The sky is so blue today. We could not see it down there, but up here—Hey, I can see the entire school from here! I wonder what everybody is doing. Do you think we could play with Kiku, Emil, Ivan, and Ludwig after this?"

"Focus, Al!" Lovino responded, a little unnerved by just how high Alfred really was, "You might as well come down if this is not helping you think."

With a sigh, Alfred was about to do just that before something in the sky caught his attention. He raised a small hand to his forehead, to block out the sun, and strained to distinguish the details of said figure. From what little he could tell, it was pretty high up and coming his way. It had to be moving pretty fast, too, because the details were starting to become visible rapidly.

"It's a dragon." he mouthed, his azure eyes widening with both awe and curiosity.

If Alfred had been anyone else, he might have wanted to go back down the tree as quick as possible with a dragon getting closer, but that was not Alfred. He actually climbed higher, trying to get to the very tip top of the tree. Everything else was forgotten as he clambered to see more of the figure. Both of his previous emotions melted away as now burned a crippling envy in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to fly just like the soaring dragon that was so close to him now. He wanted to feel the air all around him, the sweeping currents, to have the sky as his domain, to be free. He felt it all burning in his stomach as one massive desire, which distracted him to the point of not noticing the dragon's faltering above him. Admittedly, this dragon was hardly graceful, so it had to be one of the newly independent creatures just getting used to its true form. That meant that this creature no longer depended on a raiser, and not necessarily because it did not want, or even need, to, which could spell out some very dangerous things for a young dragon, especially one so conspicuously perched above the forest canopy.

Lovino had no idea what was even going on, why Alfred had been ignoring him or why he had climbed higher until he heard the cry or shock he emitted, followed by a growl. Lovino glimpsed the claws that picked up Alfred as they did their deed and pulled him into the sky with his captor and, all at once, he cried out himself. He screamed and yelled for the beast to drop his friend, that he was one of his own kind, but to no avail. He was reduced to begging by the time he saw that the beast was out of earshot through the cracks of light in the forest canopy. That was when Lovino did the only thing he could think of, the one thing that he knew he was really good at, he ran.