A/N: Thank you for continuing reading, following, favoriting and reviewing! I was about to upload this way earlier but it somehow got deleted...and I had quite a difficult time re-typing this. I hope you all enjoy this!

*Katyusha is Ukraine.

Chapter 2

"Good evening, Francis!" Francis looked behind him to see the person who had called him.

"Bon soirée, Katyusha!" He replied back with a smile, as he saw the woman. "Don't you have work tomorrow?"

"Yeah, I do," said the woman, her voice with a Ukrainian-accent. The woman had short, ashy grey hair, her bangs held back by a yellow ribbon. She was wearing the same uniform that Francis was wearing, but there were slight changes: instead of a black tie with her white collared shirt, she had a black bow on and a black skirt. "As always, I'm only helping out here until more workers come. But, it seems like it's not going to be busy tonight."

Francis glanced around the bar for a moment. Katyusha was right. It was quite rare for the bar to be this empty. The bar was quite popular for their specialty of vodka, and many people come there just for the hell of it. Usually music would be playing, and some may even dance to it.

"Mhm, you're right," Francis said, returning his look at Katyusha. He felt like he had to tell her something…but what was it?

"Oh!" he said, suddenly remembering the good news he was about to share. "I almost forgot! How foolish of me. You know that Academy you work at?"

"Uh-huh," Katyusha said, as if she was expecting something grand.

"Both my sons have been accepted to attend," Francis said proudly, smiling. "You should expect them to be in one of your classes!"

"That's great, Francis!" Katyusha said happily; glad to see her friend being so proud. "Although, I don't think either of them might end up in my class. If they decide to take Ukrainian, Russian, or any of the Family and Social Sciences classes as their eight subjects, then they'd be expecting it. Other than that, I'm pretty sure I'd encounter them in the hallways."

"Ah, right! You don't really teach out of those three subjects, do you?"

"They're what I do best. Unless they decide to take Parenting in grade 11."

"I remember you took that subject when we were in grade 11! It was such a pain in the ass…"

"Yeah, it was," Katyusha said, smirking at the remembrance of another detail. "Not only was that annoying, but Arthur would complain and yell at us to shut it up!" Katyusha immediately realised mentioning Francis' ex, and felt like slapping herself (she did so mentally). However, there was no change of expression from Francis, and he still was smiling.

"It was quite a nuisance, the both of them," Francis said, but he only seemed to be joking. "How is Arthur doing, anyway? You see him every day at your work, right?"

Katyusha stood frozen, biting the bottom of her lip nervously. She had an internal conflict with herself, trying to decide whether she should really respond to that question.

"He's…alright." Francis didn't seem to take note of how her voice sounded uncertain, and continued to wash the glasses.

"Still over-working himself?"

"Yes…" Suddenly Katyusha felt uncomfortable at the conversation. She sighed in relief when a customer called over a bartender. Francis turned away from her and made his way towards the man who called him.

She watched Francis, with a hint of sadness in her eyes, as he was happily took the customer's order. He was still smiling, and he seemed to have ignored about who they were speaking of. Someone else called for a bartender, and Katyusha was forced to tear her gaze away from the French-man and turn her back to him.

Francis went to fill out a cup of German beer for the man who had called him, and took out a bottle from a cupboard. As he filled in the glass, he paused and set the bottle down. He looked down, smiling sadly. He placed a hand into his pocket, and felt a small, cold metal against his fingertips. He took the object off and realised it was a golden ring- his wedding ring.

So, he thought. Arthur's doing fine with me, huh? He allowed a few tears to slip, before brushing them away quickly with his sleeves.

"What's this?" Arthur muttered to himself, as he picked up a small, blue velvet box that was on the floor in his closet. He brought it up close to his face, turning the small box a few times for examination.

Originally, that night was supposed to be spent correcting tests and grading assignments for Arthur. However, during the middle of his work, he felt the need to procrastinate, and decided to busy himself by cleaning his bedroom. He wouldn't have done much work anyway if he had decided to sit on the dining table, since both Matthew and Alfred had decided to play video games in the living room. Arthur can hear them clearly from his room, even though he told them not to yell since it was already so late into the night.

"Head-shot! Ha ha! Did you see that, Mattie?" Alfred yelled proudly. He was most likely playing the game and Matthew was just the observer.

"Behind you!" Said the soft voice of his brother, Matthew.

"Wha-? Oh fuck! No fair, brah! I didn't see that!"

"Alfred!" Arthur yelled sternly through the door. "No swearing."

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry Dad. Oh, shit!"

"Alfred!"

"I told you, 'yeah, yeah'! Geez, Dad. Cut me some slack."

Arthur just rolled his eyes at his younger son's behaviour, and drew his attention back towards the box in his hand. Carefully, he opened the box. An unusual feeling built up inside of Arthur as he stared at the two rings that sat inside the velvet box.

There was one ring of silver colour and another ring of gold colour. Both represented something different for Arthur; at the same time, both reminded him of the same thing. Arthur was about to close the box and toss it back in the closet, but instead, he decided against it.

"…I wonder if they would fit," he said to himself, taking out one ring at a time.

He slipped on the silver one first through his finger. The silver one seemed simple, but expensive; it had four, small diamonds that adorned it. It was able to go through Arthur's finger with some ease, but it took Arthur a while to take it off and place it back into the box. He then tried the gold one on. There were small, pretty designs carved into the gold, and one, small diamond in the middle. Arthur had tried to tell the one who gave it to him that it was just a wedding ring, and there was no need to do anything special to it. Nevertheless, the one who got it still bought it for his one and only Arthur, despite what he said.

As soon as Arthur put on the golden ring, he felt a soft, warm glow inside of him. The feeling of the ring made him feel…nice and warm on the inside. Realising that he was smiling the entire time, he quickly wiped off the smile and replaced it with a scowl. He looked at the ring, seeming like he was about to take it off. But, instead, he left it there for a while.

Huffing, Arthur laid on the bare floor on his back. He started to twirl the ring around a bit.

Why do I feel like this? He thought glumly. It's been nearly four years since we separated. I thought I'm over him…No, wait! I am over him! What are you talking about, Arthur? Of course you're over Francis! Arthur intake a sharp breath when he realised that he was thinking about his ex.

The mere thought of the name Francis sickens him more than saddens him. He dislikes that Frenchman with a burning passion. After what he did to Arthur -after what he's been doing behind his back after so many years-, Arthur would never, ever talk of him, or even think to him.

Arthur suddenly felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He completely forgot about the ring, and he fished out his phone. He smiled when he saw the Caller ID.

"Hullo?" Arthur asked the caller, knowing full well who it is.

"Hello? Arthur?" Said a masculine voice over the other line.

"Yes?"

"O-Oh. Hi, Arthur. This is Percy. U-Um, from the museum..."

"Oh, hi, Percy! Why do you call?"

"U-Um, I was just wondering if you're free tomorrow during the afternoon, that's all…"

"Hm, hold on one minute," Arthur faked, secretly pumping his hand in the air. "…Yes, I'm free tomorrow. Why?"

"Oh, I was just wondering…um…if you, you know…want to go out to lunch with me?"

"Oh, uh, well, sure. What time?"

"E-eleven, if that's alright with you."

"I'm alright with that," Arthur said with a smile.

"Okay then…Um, I'll see you tomorrow then. Have a good night."

"You too." Once Arthur ended the call, he smiled idiotically and threw a fist in the air. Yes! Recently, Arthur had met a man of the name Percy at a museum. He was really cute in Arthur's opinion, and he shared a similar interest in mythical creatures. After his separation with his ex-husband, Arthur needed to find someone new. And Percy is the perfect guy to fill in the role.

Arthur glanced down at his golden ring. He suddenly felt a pang of guilt, but shrugged it off and placed the ring inside the velvet box. He looked at the box once more, before he tossed it inside the last drawer of his dresser.

He is not going to be held back. It was high time that he moved on.