When Arthur finally woke up again, he felt fairly normal, it not still a little stuffed up. He looked around the room and found it mostly empty, except for Alfred, who was sitting on the bed next to him, watching the television.
"Where did everyone else go?" Arthur mumbled, slowly sitting upright.
"You're awake," Alfred looked back at him.
"Yes, I can see that," Arthur nodded, sniffling slightly. "Now please tell me where everyone else has gone off to."
"There's a café nearby, they went there," Alfred stated and Arthur felt his stomach growl. Come to think of it…he hadn't eaten at all since yesterday. Maybe he should have stolen some food from that cottage…
"We should follow them, then," Arthur sighed, moving to stand up. He felt a little light-headed, but he could deal with it.
"You sure you're ready to move?" Alfred stood up with him, turning off the television.
"Yes, I believe I am fine," Arthur stated. "Why did you stay here with me? I assume Matthew probably wanted you to go with them to eat."
"I don't feel hungry," Alfred shrugged. "And I knew you would, so you would bring me to get food."
"Alright, then," Arthur sighed and started for the door of the hotel room. "So I take it that your protective emotions are becoming permanent?"
"I think so," Alfred nodded, following him out, into the hallway.
"Lovely," Arthur sighed. Last thing he needed was Alfred to start carrying him everywhere every time he got a scrape. Ivan would probably use it to his advantage as well, and that was not likely to end well at all. "Are my brothers still here?"
"They're the ones paying for lunch," Alfred stated as they came up to the elevator. Arthur pressed the button, sniffling once again. "They said they wanted to give us something, but they hadn't decided on it yet."
"How long was I asleep?" Arthur asked.
"Just three hours," Alfred shrugged.
"Just…" Arthur sighed, shaking his head. The elevator came up to their floor and opened, but there were other people inside, so the two of them moved out of the way. Out of it came three people that Arthur knew he remembered from somewhere, but he couldn't quite place it. One of them was carrying a rather large trunk. Arthur looked after them as they walked down the hallway.
"Arthur," Alfred brought his attention back to him and he found that he was already standing in the elevator. Arthur nodded and walked into the elevator just before the doors closed.
"Did those three look familiar to you?" Arthur asked.
"What three?" Alfred blinked.
"You are not helpful at all," Arthur sniffled, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Are you still sick?" Alfred asked.
"Not very," Arthur shrugged. "It probably won't last for long."
"Why do you think Ivan made you sick?" Alfred asked.
"Who knows," Arthur muttered. "Maybe just to see what would happen or to make me even more vulnerable to my brothers."
"Do you like your brothers?" Alfred asked.
"Since when are you this curious?" Arthur asked.
"Since now," Alfred stated.
"I have to say I liked you a little better without your emotions," Arthur sighed. "And my relationship with my brothers is complicated. I can't say I love them, like I should love my family. But I can't say I hate them."
"In Francis' story, your brothers loved you a lot," Alfred noted as the elevator door finally opened on the bottom floor and the two stepped out.
"Perhaps they did," Arthur muttered and walked towards the front door. "You will have to guide me to this café."
"It's right across the street," Alfred stated and started walking towards the street.
"Alfred," Arthur sighed, following him closely behind. "You do know you can't just walk into the middle of a street, right?"
"I won't get hurt," Alfred shrugged.
"You may not feel the hurt, but you will be injured," Arthur sighed, grabbing onto Alfred's wrist and pulling him back, away from the street. "We will find an intersection and then we will cross to get to them."
"Fine," Alfred shrugged and Arthur started walking to the right, where he could see an intersection with a crosswalk. It was odd, though. He had touched Alfred, but he didn't get a vision.
They walked in silence as the other people rushed by to get about their day and Arthur sighed. There was no way to know when Ivan would try to go after them again. He figured his brothers were one of Ivan's "challenges" for him to go through. Looking up at the sky, Arthur could see that the sun was setting, so that meant he must have slept in later than he thought earlier today.
Once they got to the intersection, Arthur had to hold Alfred's hand to ensure that he didn't try just simply walking across the crosswalk before the light turned. Eventually, the light did turn and Arthur and Alfred walked across with several other people, still holding hands. Arthur was sure Alfred didn't notice it in the slightest, but Arthur found that he rather liked it. Now that he wasn't getting a vision, he was actually able to notice what was going on. He smiled slightly. Maybe that stupid fairytale was right, maybe he was in love with Alfred, even though he had no emotions.
"Oh, so you two are holding hands now?" Francis' voice snickered and Arthur immediately blushed, snatching his hand back and pulling it close to him. He hadn't noticed until then, but they were at the café, which had a gated, outdoor area.
"Sod off, cheesy monkey," Arthur snapped at him. He found that they were all sitting at a round table, crowding chairs to fit all at once. There were even two empty chairs there, probably for Arthur and Alfred.
"I see you're still as cheery as ever," Ian laughed and Arthur noticed their empty plates.
"We would have ordered you something," Matthew offered.
"But we weren't sure if ya weren't gonna be too busy making out with yer boyfriend to eat," Scott smirked.
"Oh, shut up," Arthur rolled his eyes and entered through the gate of the gated area to sit with them. His blush, though, was getting rather hard to hide.
"Boyfriend?" Alfred asked behind him.
"Don't you even start thinking about it," Arthur glared at him before sitting down next to Matthew in a huff. The two empty seats were in-between Matthew and Scott and Arthur sure as hell wasn't sitting next to Scott.
This was quickly proved wrong as Scott wrapped his arm around Arthur's shoulders and yanked him into the other seat.
"Oh, no ye don't," Scott laughed, hugging Arthur close to him and giving him a noogie. "You've been gone for a long time and I've got some catchin' up to do, right?"
"Would you quit that?!" Arthur tried to move his hand away, but that only wound up with him being forced into a headlock that he tried furiously to get out of.
"One of us would be sitting next to you, too," Connor shrugged. "But we figured you'd want to sit with your boyfriend."
"Would you quit calling him that?" Arthur sighed, giving up. It was then, though, that he remembered he did have some magic. So, with a smirk, he focused on heating up his hand and pressed it onto Scott's arm.
"Bloody hell!" Scott yelled, releasing his grip to nurse his new burn.
"This may work out better than I expected," Arthur smiled, flexing his hand and righting himself in the seat.
"Arthur," Matthew looked to him. "If you want, I could go get you something to eat."
"I could go get it myself," Arthur shook his head and moved to stand up, but Scott yanked him back down into his seat.
"Not so fast," Scott smirked, over his burn rather quickly. "I never said ye could leave."
"I'll go with Mattie," Alfred stood up.
"You called me Mattie…" Matthew smiled and stood up as well.
"Let them have their brother time!" Ian smiled and got up to walk behind Arthur. "We need ours!"
"Plus Francis," Arthur rolled his eyes.
"Since you like fire so much," Scott said, pulling out a cigarette from a box in his pocket, "how about you give me a light."
Arthur simply flicked a small flame onto his head. "Smoking will kill you," Arthur sighed.
"No quicker than you will," Connor laughed as Scott tried to pat his hair out.
"It seems that you are getting used to using magic now," Francis snickered.
"Practice makes perfect, I guess," Arthur muttered.
"What else can you do?" Ian asked excitedly. "Can you make flowers or pull rabbits out of hats?"
"I don't know," Arthur sighed. "I've only been using magic for about a day."
"And most of it has been life-or-death situations," Francis said, examining his nails.
"You say it so calmly," Arthur rolled his eyes.
"Well, what else have you been able to do?" Connor asked.
"I was able to turn a few lights on," Arthur shrugged. "And there was the time in the cottage, but I have no idea what I did there."
"And he turned our car into a carriage," Scott stated.
"I do hope mum and dad can get you a new one sometime soon," Arthur smirked.
"We are getting off topic," Francis chimed in before Scott could retort. "You were saying something about gifts?"
"Gifts?" Arthur looked to his brother, an amused smirk on his face. Scott was never one to give gifts to people, even on special occasions like birthdays and Christmas. "You?"
"Aye, me," Scott glared at him. "I would give you one, too, but you keep lightin' my hair on fire!"
"It matches the color," Arthur shrugged.
"Here's food," Matthew chimed happily and Arthur remembered just how hungry he was. Matthew put a plate that had some sort of sandwich on it, but Arthur couldn't really care less what it was as he started eating.
"Jeez, do they feed you?" Connor asked.
"We hadn't really eaten since yesterday," Matthew shrugged. "Morning."
Alfred sat down next to Arthur, with practically the same thing and started eating, quite a lot slower than Arthur was.
"You were saying about these gifts?" Francis asked.
"Right!" Ian chimed, sitting back down. "For taking care of our little brother, we wanna give you three a gift!"
"It can be anything you want, the Kirkland family is pretty rich," Connor shrugged.
"And you're not giving me anything?" Arthur rolled his eyes.
"We've been paying for everything you've been doing away," Scott shrugged, finally pulling out a lighter and lighting his cigarette.
"You've been paying?" Arthur asked and looked to Francis. "You told me that it was your family."
"My family is only moderately wealthy," Francis shrugged.
"So you've been lying to me as well as spying on me for my brothers?" Arthur asked, starting to feel anger well up inside him.
"Hey, we didn't chose this frog," Connor shrugged.
"We had someone else spying on you," Ian stated.
"When he saw you make a friend, though, we decided to use him," Scott stated, flicking his ashes onto Arthur's head.
"And you've paid him the whole time," Arthur stated and turned to Francis. "So travelling with me was just a job for you?"
"I admit, touring the world was rather fun, too," Francis shrugged.
"You little…" Arthur glared at him and next to him, Scott yelled out in pain.
"Look where you're aiming that fire," Scott sighed, "you burnt through my entire cigarette."
"Good," Arthur grumbled and sat back in his chair, shoving the plate away from him. He wasn't hungry any more.
"Anyway…" Ian sighed. "What would you guys want?"
"I've never really been asked what I want before…" Matthew muttered.
"I could do with a nice car after all this is over," Francis said happily and Arthur rolled his eyes. Of course he'd only think about something stupid like that.
The three oldest Kirkland brothers looked to each other, almost like they were discussing with their eyes.
"Alright," Scott sighed. "That'll take a bit, but you'll get it eventually."
"Wow, really?" Matthew mused.
"Of course," Arthur muttered. "Why the hell not?"
"Could I ask for a hockey stick?" Matthew asked.
"Just a hockey stick?" Connor asked. Matthew nodded.
"Nothing else?" Ian asked. Matthew nodded again.
"Hockey stick it is," Scott nodded, apparently happy with the idea of not spending much after Francis. "What about you, then?" he nodded to Alfred.
"What do I want?" Alfred asked himself and looked to Arthur, who was still sulking. "I want…an apology."
"What?" Scott asked and Arthur looked up at him with a confused look.
"Yeah," Alfred nodded slowly. "I want you to apologize to Arthur."
"Um, why?" Ian asked.
"Did you not see the way he reacted to you paying Francis?" Alfred asked.
"I thought Arthur was just normally like that," Connor shrugged.
"Well, that one I can give right now!" Scott yelled proudly, pulling Arthur into another side hug.
"Get the hell off of me!" Arthur demanded.
"Aw, ye know I was just bein' protective," Scott laughed.
"Family hug!" Ian chimed and Arthur felt another person hug him from behind.
"Dear God, you all have gotten fat," Arthur retorted as Connor joined the hug as well.
"Oi!" Scott lightly smacked him on the head. "Maybe I deserve this apology."
"Apology my arse," Arthur rolled his eyes, but he couldn't help but smile. This was probably the nicest his brothers have ever been to him his whole life, since Scott found him on the street.
"Aw, you know you love it," Connor laughed.
"I would probably enjoy it more if my internal organs were not being crushed," Arthur noted and the weight on him did lift off.
"Ye forgive us now, right?" Scott asked, the only one who had yet to let go.
"Yes, I do," Arthur smiled and Scott cheered, pulling away to pull out another cigarette.
"And, Arthur," Francis stated as Arthur flicked a small flame to light the cigarette just as Scott reached to get his lighter. "I want you to know that I was your friend before I was paid."
"Thank you, then," Arthur nodded to him.
"First wish granted!" Ian cheered. "Only two more to go!"
Arthur moved to start eating his sandwich again and actually got rather far as the table around him continued to talk about random things. The happy air, however, was cut jaggedly by a knife as someone screamed. The group immediately stood up and turned to the street, where the scream was heard. Several more people started screaming and Arthur could barely see people run by under the quickly falling sun.
"What is going on?" Arthur muttered and looked down the street, the direction where people were running from. He saw a vague shape making its way quickly towards them and Arthur could only see that it was the wolf from the forest right before it came down their street and he stumbled backwards, into Scott who was just behind him.
"What the hell is that?" Ian gaped.
"The wolf," Arthur muttered.
"That is what it looked like?" Francis marveled.
"It got bigger," Alfred noted.
"Everyone else can see it now?" Arthur asked, looking back at the group.
"It was terrifying," Matthew nodded.
"I don't think that's a good sign," Arthur muttered and immediately went to the gate to go after it.
"I would not simply charge into action, if I were you," Ivan's voice sighed. Arthur looked around for where he was, but found nothing. When he looked straight ahead, however, Ivan was standing right there.
"Watch out," Alfred warned and pulled Arthur back.
"Aren't you happy I got rid of those pesky images?" Ivan smirked.
"What were you saying, Ivan?" Arthur asked.
"That's Ivan?" Scott whispered behind them.
"That'd be a scary sight to run into in an ally," Ian shrugged.
"There is someone who is waiting for you," Ivan smiled. "He's hoping you could be his hero."
"Who?" Arthur asked.
"Just know someone you know has been kidnapped," Ivan sighed, sounding disinterested. "And he will not last as long as this wolf will."
"You would kill him?" Arthur asked, trying to run through his head who this could be.
"If you do not get there fast enough," Ivan shrugged and turned around, in the direction the wolf went. "He says you will rescue him. He lived as a liar, he might as well die as one."
"Peter?" Arthur felt himself freeze.
"You kidnapped Peter?" Matthew gasped.
"He offered, da?" Ivan chimed, glancing behind him as he started walking. "But he is not you, Arthur. So I have to qualm with killing him."
"You bastard," Arthur growled at him and, without his control, a burst of fire shot right towards Ivan.
"You are getting better," Ivan noted, easily catching the fire in his hand and moving it through his fingers. "Not good enough, however. Good luck."
With that, he disappeared into the night.
What is this? I'm updating early? This is what happens when I'm out of school. I have nothing better to do than write. Even while I'm in Florida. The beach has never really been my favorite place… So, while I'm ignoring my burnt feet, I've decided to update this! Most of this chapter was meant to be filler and comic relief, but then I had to put a little bit of suspense there at the end or no one would be interested, right?
What will happen to Peter? Will the wolf kill the entire town? You'll only find out when I update next and who knows when that'll be! It'll definitely be within a week, I swear!
Please review!