Warning: Rated for Yaoi, swearing/slang, shipping, USUK and many others.
FJAUHNANEOJRFOIBARUIQPJIGNAJ!
Done. DONE WITH CAMP! Four weeks working with a buncha little kids...so much fun, but sooooooo long. I don't know how the real counselors stay the whole summer.
But hey! Plenty of foriegn counselors to get inspiration from! Three from England, one from Spain, and two from Colombia.
So enjoy! I hope it was worth the wait~!
In My Mind's Eye
Chapter 9: Undoubtedly Magic
Winter dragged on despite my dreams, but when spring came along, the rest of the school year went by much faster until finally, summer, my favorite season, came around. On the first day of my summer vacation, I grabbed Arthur's hand and dragged him outside, my clock flashing five AM on it. When we finally got outside, Arthur slunk back against the wall, sitting on the ground and closing his eyes. I grabbed his shoulders and began to shake him back and forth.
"Wake up!" I exclaimed, his eyes opening up with surprise. "Summer is here. We need to make the absolute most of our days before it all goes away!"
"It's just the beginning," my big brother said as he rubbed his eyes, looking up at me with a clearly annoyed expression. "Why do we need to be out here so early? Isn't this waking up early business best saved for at least the last month?"
"No way!" I stepped back in disbelief. Why was my big brother arguing with e? And why had he just fallen back asleep, leaving me alone? He laid there with a still expression on his face, eyes closed and a little slumped over. I huffed and shook my head, yelling back, "Fine! Stay asleep, I can play on my own like I always used to!"
I ran into the backyard, leaving him in sight against the back wall of my house. I dived head first into my tire swing and flew away in my own mind, turning into an astronaut in space, exploring the final frontier. I looked around, stars above and Earth hanging below, where my big brother laid asleep, not seeing what a feat I was accomplishing. I sailed past the moon, passed over Mars, and flew through all of the gas planets until I was out of the solar system, my spaceship still full of fuel. I put my ship into warp speed five and was quickly at the edge of the next solar system, where a green and blue planet stood just close enough from the sun. I set my course for it and landed in a forest with tall, green trees, stone walls down by the bushes, and a tire swing.
I blinked, then groaned as I fell back onto the grass below me, my mission fading away. I flipped onto my stomach, using my hands as goggles and spied the driveway from my spot. I smirked and ran over to the front yard, stopping inside of my house to get my pail of chalk. I ran onto the pavement as my mind was flowing with images to put down. I drew myself my own little safari with lions, tigers, bears, oh how jealous Arthur would be!
"There!" I exclaimed after putting the finishing touches on one of my animals, the rainbow colored dust all over my face and body. "Now you can't fade away from me." I breathed heavily, still trying to catch my breath from my fast work. I looked down at the animals, all of their faces the same, with mirroring smiles, eyes, and the same blank look. I sighed a little in disappointment and sat on the ground, looking at them with anger in my heart now. "Why can't you be real like Arthur?"
"Imaginary things can be as real as you would like them to be, Alfred," Arthur said as he sat behind me, wrapping his arms and legs around my body, curling me into his hold. I couldn't help myself from smiling, as I was so happy he was finally back with me.
"But they're not," I said, shrugging my shoulders. He smiled softly, looking a bit hurt as he brushed the chalk off of my face.
"They're real to you," he replied, "or they can be at the very least. Some people may not believe they are, but so long as they are real to you, aren't they as real as they would need to be?"
I thought for a moment, not truly understanding at first what he meant, but as I watched all of the animals come to life from the pavement, the lion looking ferocious, the tiger looking strong, and the bear looking brave, I finally got it. Anything I thought was real was just that if I believed it was. It didn't matter if they could be seen or touched by everyone, so long as I could touch them, feel them, talk to them, they were real. The things in my mind were real.
"Arthur," I turned around, batting away his hand that was brushing off the chalk dust from me. I hugged him, covering him in dust as well, the dust growing and surrounding us, covering us in our own rainbow. "Arthur, I'm sorry that I woke you up early. I just wanted to play with you since this is the first time we'll be able to play with almost no interruption for a long time." Arthur held me tight and kissed my cheek, the chalk spreading. We smiled at each other and soon we were playing in our safari, where the animals were amusing us with their silly antics.
Eventually, the evening began to set in, though it was still sunny. I complained at dinner time about how pretty everything was outside, and yet I had to stay in because it was late. Luckily for me, that was also when I learned I would be going for a week to day camp with my troop at Camp Split Rock.
"AH!" I jumped on my bed in my pajamas, giggling as Arthur dragged me down and began to tickle me all over. "I'm so excited for camp!" I told him, wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing my body close against his. "We'll be able to make s'mores, make crafts, go swimming every day and have tons of fun!"
"It sounds like it," he said with a smile. He kissed my cheek, and soon we fell fast asleep. The week went on with play every single hour and minute until the night camp eventually came around.
"Wow," I said as I looked around, the forest scenery around Arthur and me very beautiful. "I wonder what will happen this week?"
When I got to the unit where my troop would have its meeting point, I jumped on a bed and pat the seat next to me for Arthur, but another kid sat there instead.
"Hey!" I shouted in surprise at the other kid, who had blonde hair and powerful green eyes. "That seat is reserved for my big brother!"
"Then where is he?" The other boy asked, working quickly and absentmindedly on a craft he was making with his hands, staring at me. I tried to make Arthur touch him, but the other boy didn't react. In fact, I was pretty sure he didn't notice Arthur at all, especially when he asked, "What are you doing?" I sighed and sat back on the bed.
"Nothing," I rested my head on the mattress, grabbing Arthur's hand and dragging him onto the other seat next to me. The boy lifted himself up and looked at me intensely.
"What's your name?" He asked, his expression remaining the same.
"Alfred F. Jones," I replied, shrugging, looking at him as I tried to give back his stare.
"Mine is Vash Zwingli," he replied, getting up from his seat and going outside. I stared at Arthur and we followed.
"I wonder if he's new to the troop," I whispered, not sure if I had noticed him in my troop before. I didn't really see him much the rest of the week.
The rest of the week that followed was nothing really special. I had fun at all the games, but at times, it felt like Arthur was ever able to participate at all. Luckily, there were some other members of my troop who were able to see Arthur and played with Arthur and me, and even a couple who made their own. However, by the end of the week, I was ready to go home and not return.
"Arthur," I said as I was sitting on the mat beds alone in the unit house, "this week wasn't really great. I liked all the activities, but it was so hard to work with everyone and still have time to play with you."
"Well, you didn't need to play with me that much," Arthur said with a sheepish blush. I smiled and hugged him.
"I know," I said, "I'm just glad I finally get to go home for good. We'll have tons of fun!" Before we left, though, the blonde haired kid came up to me and gave me the craft he had been working on at the beginning of the week, which was a red colored god's eye with a white cross in it.
"Take this," Vash said, "to enjoy some culture." I didn't see him much after that, and he was never in my troop again. I wondered if I had maybe imagined him for a while.
We were not home for long after I came back. The next week was the Fourth of July, both the birthday of my country and of myself. I was bouncing off the walls as I learned we were going to leave early for my birthday and head into Boston and celebrate it on the Esplanade with the Boston Pops Fourth of July spectacular!
"Have you ever seen fireworks before, Arthur?" I asked in our hotel room, where I sat with Arthur two days before the dawn we were going to the show. We were playing a game of Splat, and I was totally kicking his butt.
"Only in November," Arthur shrugged, flipping a card down, which was quickly met by my draw of two more cards.
"What's in November?" I asked, tilting my head.
"Remember Remember the Fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and plot," he said slowly, "do they not celebrate it here?"
"No," I said, confused, "we celebrate fireworks in July for the Fourth."
"Oh!" Arthur exclaimed. "That's right, isn't it? I'll explain to you about Guy Fawkes day, then." Arthur then went on to tell me all about the holiday, and how there was once a guy who tried to overthrow the British government with a group, but then he was caught and so everyone celebrated the fact that he failed. I began to chuckle a little bit, causing Arthur to ask, "What's so funny, Alfred?"
"Oh, nothing," I said, looking at him with a beaming smile, "it's just that I think it's funny how we have fireworks for succeeding in overthrowing a tyrant while your country has fireworks because someone failed to. I just think it's kinda funny and a little ironic is all, and I think it says a lot about our countries." At that, Arthur frowned a little, but I leaned up and kissed his nose while taking the smaller pile, making him give up the fight and laugh with me.
The day of the fireworks, we woke up early in the morning, before the sun had even risen, and with our picnic basket full of food for the day, we set off to find a seat my dad's friends had reserved for us. We sat down and enjoyed our seats that were really close to the dome. All day we played games, ate awesome food that my dad had barbequed on the spot with his portable grill. When twilight was finally setting in, one of my dad's friends had gone out and brought back a chocolate cake for me! It even had a couple of mini American flags on it that I got to save for the entire night. We cheered and sang along with every performance played, watching in awe at the glorious fireworks exploding in the sky. I pointed at some of my favorites, including the ones that seemed to go forever.
"Arthur," I said to him while leaning on his arm, "do you like these fireworks more than the ones you know of?"
"I think I do," Arthur said as he wrapped an arm around me, "because it's like they're exploding all for you." I smiled up at Arthur, feeling warmed by the love he showed me in that one little sentence. At long last, the evening was over, and I could barely keep my head up. Arthur walked beside me and when we got to the hotel, he held me in his arms as we slept in the bed. My eyes shut quickly, and in my dream I saw only Arthur and me surrounded by the fireworks, exploding as we ran for each other, only pure bliss in our smiles. The next day I woke up with the sun flowing around Arthur's body, lighting up his blonde hair. I smirked and rubbed my face against his, and then kissed his nose.
"Good morning, big brother!" I whispered, knowing my parents were still sleeping in the other bed.
"Good morning," Arthur replied, holding me and rubbing his nose in my hair. "Did you sleep well, love?"
"Yeah," I said, keeping myself close to him. "It feels great to be eight!"
Time seemed to repeat itself after that moment. We couldn't tear ourselves apart if we wanted to, and together I thought we would take the world by storm, and maybe everyone would finally be able to see Arthur. However, I never expected that people would be watching me as closely as they had, and when I first met the stiff Dr. Edelstein a month after my thirteenth birthday, it became apparent that the world seemed to be ready to completely separate me and Arthur for good.
I don't care if the Fourth of July was forever ago, this was semi written during it, so whatever!
Had a British counselor who didn't know why we celebrated the Fourth of July. She just thought it was cool we had fireworks in July and not in November.
I have elements planted for the future, MWAHAHAHAHA!
Dr. Roderich Edelstein, the new Freud. Both are Austria...n.
So yeah, review if you like. I'm tired. See you Wednesday!
OH! And happy Olympics~!
