Sorry for lateness! This was rushed because I was on camp for seven days. It was awesome but I won't bother with stories.
Thanks for the reviews again! Yumi-chan-likes-chainsaws, atramentaceous, ZemyxDexion, Mya3dan, Priestess Kitty Neko, Mudkiprox and Tomoji-kun.
I love you guys!
Arthur was now completely uncomfortable with the idea of going to the American's house. The corner of his lips had tingled for over an hour after Al had left and made it impossible to relax or think about anything else. He rang the doorbell and politely waited with a box of lindt chocolate in his hand. He hadn't chanced cooking since his food had an acquired taste that took a sophisticated palate… and stomach made of iron.
A tall and glamorous woman in her early forties greeted him with a dazzling smile. She wore a tight green dress that was knee length and smelt of Chanel five. She had straight, cinnamon coloured hair which was tied up and fell past her shoulders as well as the all too familiar cerulean blue eyes that so famously belonged to Alfred. "Hello, Mrs Jones," he exaggerated his accent knowing that it would help win her over. "I'm Arthur Kirkland, Alfred's friend." He hesitated before adding that they were friends, as per usual.
"I'm Diana, but just Dia to you love." She stepped aside, "come in, please. Alfie! Your friend is here!" She called up the stairs. In the light Arthur could see the large but unremarkable cream coloured house that was a modern style. It had large and intrusive windows which allowed people outside to see the colourful interior. Most of the rooms had a feature wall and in the dinning room an American flag had been painted on the plaster. Arthur was impressed by the rich decorations and tan leather furniture that littered the house. It was not what he'd expected to say the least.
Thumping could be heard as the eager teen rushed down the stairs which were relatively close to the door. As soon as his eyes met green one's he grinned. "Hey Arthur!" He hugged the teen who returned the affection just for show since Diana was watching. Of course he wouldn't have done it otherwise. Right? When they pulled away he ducked his head to avoid any accidents… again. "You're early." Alfred commented.
"I thought you said twelve."
"Chyeh, but I didn't expect you to be on time." He laughed and Arthur frowned seeing nothing wrong with being punctual. "But that's cool; my room is just kind of a mess." That was to be expected.
"What are you boys up to today?"
"Yes, Alfred, what are we up to today?" He asked in a mocking tone.
"Just seeing a movie whenever Toni and Francis get here." He smiled at Arthur again. "Do you wanna see my room?"
"Alright, thank you for having me Dia." He gave her his best attempt at a kind smile but he just looked relieved.
"It's not a problem, have fun today." And with that she left them alone; heading back into the kitchen. Alfred smiled down at his friend who sighed and returned the gesture until he grabbed his arm and pulled him up the stairs by force.
"Not so fast! You git! Do you want me to trip?" He snapped, keeping his voice low so that Diana couldn't hear him them quarrel from the next room. Really, how such a pleasant woman could give birth to Alfred was a miracle. And not the good kind.
"Hurry up then!" The blonde boy flashed another thousand watt smile. Arthur found that it was impossible not to envy the cheerful way that Al carried himself with. It was as if he was completely unaffected by anything life threw his way. He was free. Alfred slammed his bedroom door shut and tugged on his friend's green sleeve, drawing him towards the double bed with a worn military uniform on it. "It's from the revolution, cool, huh?"
The piece had been beautifully preserved, as though it belonged in a museum and not on the American's bed surrounded by anarchy. The sash was bleached white along with the pants and shirt; all of which had been pressed perfectly. The blue and red jacket accentuated the rich history contained within the uniform. As he was a admirer of history; Arthur was speechless. "It's incredible."
"Yep, impressive. You know what I was thinking last night? How cool would it have been if our ancestors fought each other?" Arthur's head shot up for the first time in minutes and their eyes met. He imagined a man, similar to Alfred but older, he was holding a musket and had a look that was so passionate that despite it being in his imagination it caught the teen off guard.
"I suppose that could have been possible." He reached out and ran his fingers along the perfectly preserved fabric.
"I've gotta put it away now before Toni and Francis get here." He said with an apologetic voice and Arthur shrugged pretending to be indifferent. After it was stored, hanging in a plastic slip in the back of the American's closet the two sat and chatted civilly.
When Antonio arrived Alfred made a big show of kissing him on the cheek and, despite the repercussions of this action, he even gave Francis a quick one. "Aren't we affectionate?" Toni laughed off the awkward air. It was blatantly obvious to the Brit that this was an attempt to make last night seem as if it was no big deal; and despite the unconvincing way he went about it, he was falling for the ploy.
Francis just gave a lecherous smile to the American and laughed, clearly not as confused as Toni. "Now, now, mon ami, you will make Matilda jealous."
"Shut it Francis." He snapped turning red. It was a bad idea. He was still unable to understand what had prompted him to make a move last night. It wasn't a big deal. It was on the cheek, but still, he rarely did that with his 'guy' friends. Maybe Arthur had forgotten, or didn't notice, or didn't care. Damn it.
"Shall we head off then?" Arthur asked wanting to spend as little time in the younger teen's house as possible.
"Hell yeah," Alfred pumped his fist in the air twice then ushered the small group out of the house.
"I take it, zen Matilda will not be joining us?"
"Nah, she's hanging out with her girlfriends today."
"Is Matt having a home day?" Toni asked placing his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
"Yeah, dude's been acting weird lately and won't talk to be about it." Alfred admitted. "He's always been pretty quiet but I'm worried, you know?" Arthur cast a glance from beside Toni towards the American. The subject seemed to be of concern to him and left the Brit feeling guilty.
He quickly changed the subject, more out of a feeling of discomfort as opposed to being genuinely caring. "Alfred, what movie are we going to see?"
Immediately the blonde boy perked up. "Zombies from Hell, it looks awesome!"
"NO!" Antonio and Francis said quickly and unanimously. "I will not baby you again when you jump into my lap and start crying. Zut alors*."
"I won't!"
"You will too, and the last time you spilt coke all down my front. Sorry mi amigo, this time you can go by yourself." Antonio crossed his arms and gave a disapproving look.
"Guuuuuuyyyysssss."
"Oh, belt up. I'll see it with you." The thought of seeing the legendary 'hero' cower at a silly horror movie quite appealed to the Brit. That, and the fact they'd be in a dark cinema… alone.
"Ahhh, you are a brave man Arthur." Francis waggled his eyebrows knowingly.
"I won't stop you, but you're going to regret this." Toni gave a sympathetic look to the Brit.
"I'll be quite alright."
"Yeah! You rock man!"
The cinema was large and sat on the top floor of the nearest mall. During the bus ride over they had talked mainly about the two movies. Alfred explained that the cast was 'freaking awesome' then fought with Francis over who was more attractive: Catherine Zeta Jones or Anne Hathaway. The debate ended in a draw.
Arthur detested the smell of popcorn which was covered predominantly in grease and oil. He bought a bottle of lemonade and skittles and rolled his eyes when he saw Alfred slip a fifty out of his wallet. He didn't even want to know what he'd bought. They parted shortly after the other two had decided on a movie and sat down in the theatre which had large seats. Alfred managed to convince the English teen to sit in the love seats* because he wanted to put his legs up. The thought alone was extremely uncomfortable. Alfred talked throughout the advertisements about how annoying Francis was and Arthur had to fight to resist pointing out the irony in the accusation. He only shut up when the movie started playing.
It was worse than Arthur could have imagined. The boy had thrown his popcorn in the air within the first fifteen minutes and screamed multiple times. He grabbed onto his friend who squawked in protest. "Get the bloody hell off me!"
"I can't! I'm scared! I'm scared! I'm scared! I'm scared!" Were those tears? Arthur sighed almost wishing that he'd taken his friend's advice and took the boy's hand.
"I'm right here Al."
Alfred looked at him; the movie momentarily forgotten. He had called him by his nickname and was smiling at him. His eyes were so green, even in the dark theatre and his skin was so soft. A feeling of betrayal knotted in his stomach as thoughts of his girlfriend came to mind. This was wrong and he knew it. Friends didn't act like this. Arthur was no friend.
He jerked his head back towards the screen before he did something he would regret and started screaming once more but didn't grab at Arthur or jump into his lap again. However; they held hands the entire movie. "You have really sweaty palms, you know." He remarked as they left and the Brit flushed.
"I believe it was because you were sweating in terror actually."
"Please, I wasn't that scared."
"We almost got kicked out and you jumped on me four times." He frowned. "Why didn't you just leave when I suggested it?"
"That's easy, because I'm a hero!"
"Right, that doesn't answer my question in the least." He rolled his eyes and pouted as they waited for Francis and Toni's movie to end. "And please let go of my arm." Alfred's hand was quite literally cutting off his blood circulation.
He gave his usual obnoxious laugh and stepped away quickly. "Sorry dude, guess I'm a bit shaken, huh?"
"A tad." He agreed with a small smile.
"I'll text those two to meet us at mine."
"I don't mind waiting."
"Well I'm bored."
"Sorry I couldn't be better company." The blonde scoffed taking offence. "I'll call my brother to pick me up when we go back to yours." They headed towards the lift*.
"Oh, hey, I just realised something random." A sudden thought came to mind. "Your stuff was at your house, like, before you were, how is that?"
"Well, we spared no cost on shipping and sent it early, my bike was-."
"WAIT!" He shouted earning looks from people around them. "You can't leave me alone tonight!" Alfred looked terrified and Arthur wondered how he had only just realised that he had spoken of his brother collecting him. "I'll be alone and scared and defenceless! Please!" He had his hands on both of the Brit's shoulders and was shaking him.
"Bloody hell! Get off me! I will not! Ask Toni or Francis if you need a sitter!"
"You would make me spend the night with Francis?" Tears welled up in his eyes. "Toni's got a guitar lesson and Matt won't sleep with me!" That pout would be the death of poor Arthur. The day that Alfred discovered he could make the blonde do anything by giving him that look was the day that he would have to kill himself. Or, you know, move away.
"Oh, alright! You are such a child!" He marched ahead of the American with a blush plastered on his features.
"Wait! I don't care if it's day light! Don't leave me alone!"
Toni responded moments later informing the two that he would have to leave soon and it would be a nuisance to travel to his house only to leave half an hour later. Francis called and apologised claiming that he had work to do and that he wouldn't want to interfere with their day. Of course the way he said it implied he had something completely different to do. Not that either member would question the excuse.
On the way out they spotted a familiar face that Arthur pointed out. A girl wearing a knee length, spaghetti strap dress was standing in a well lit accessory store. "Isn't that Vash's sister?"
Alfred sighed holding no particular hatred for the girl. "Yep."
"Well, she just pocketed a ring."
"What?"
"I saw her do it."
Alfred struggled with his conscience as to whether it was worth confronting the young girl about it. She looked frightened and had her head hung low as she left the store. Arthur walked towards the store, fully intending to face the girl and demand she return it when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"It's not our problem. The shop's not going to miss one little ring and I don't want to get involved with her." He said in an aggressive voice.
"How unheroic." Arthur scoffed shrugging the hand from his shoulder and heading once more to talk to the girl. She had left the store and was moving towards the exit. "Hey!" He shouted and without looking back the girl bolted. "Stop!"
"Arthur!"
"Get off me!"
"It's not your business!"
"Let go!"
"It's Vash's problem!"
"What the hell are you so afraid of?" He snapped and they both stopped struggling. Alfred removed his hands front the Brit's jacket and gave him a pained look.
"It's complicated."
He sighed, deciding to let this slip just once. "I guess even heroes get scared, don't they?"
"Yeah, well, except for Batman."
"Touché." They didn't speak about the incident again but it nagged Arthur to no end. Why was Alfred so afraid of Ivan and his group?
*Zutalors: French for 'damn'.
*Love seats: the seats with no arm rest between them meant for making out.
*Lift: an elevator… I can never remember who calls which what.
Okay, so, bad news. I'm going back to school soon and will be unable to update as much as I have been (which is a little sad since I'm pretty poor at updating).
Also I realised I'm a b**** and didn't tell you guys the pairings. I didn't bother in the synopsis because it would have taken the entire word limit but I'll tell you here.
AmericaxOC
AmericaxEngland
FrancexJean
SpainxRomano
GermanyxItaly
GreecexJapan
TurkeyxGreece
ChinaxJapan
RussiaxChina
RussiaxLichtenstein
AustriaxHungary
PrussiaxHungary
AustriaxSwitzerland
PrussiaxSwitzerland
Some of these are in the maybe list because they may not work out. There are more but I don't want to spoil it... if you want me to reveal all ask in a review or PM me. Until then.
