Chapter 10

Arthur woke up to a door opening he shot up and looked around, then saw Al standing at the doorway. Arthur gave a few slow blinks processing on what it going on. Then he tilted his head a bit.

"Where am I?" Arthur asked slowly rubbing his eyes.

"You're at my house and in my bed," Al said walking up to Arthur with a small bowl of Cheerios; Al gave him the Cheerios and sat on the edge of the bed looking at Arthur. Arthur looked around and spotted his glasses on the nightstand; he picked them up and put them back where they belong on his face.

"Huh?" Arthur said confusingly, he doesn't remember anything after his mother came home last night; everything was such a blur for him. "What… exactly happened?"

Al breathed, "to be honest… I don't know…" he explained, "I just assumed it was… your mom because you came here at crying at 1 o'clock in the morning, I thought she done something horrible to you," Al turned away from Arthur unable to control his anger, "did she do anything,"

Arthur furrowed his eyebrows and gave it a hard thought, "I… I don't remember," Arthur said quietly.

Al sighed quietly and stood up and turned to Arthur, "come on we have only half an hour for you to get ready," Al said as Arthur gave him to bowl, Al took it and walked out the room, "I found your uniform in your bag, it's on my dresser," Al called behind him and walked to the kitchen. As Al went in he found Matt sitting on one of the chairs in the kitchen, Al gave a confused look and walked to the sink.

"I thought you were with grandma and granddad hunting poachers for a week, it's only been three days," Al said and turned slightly to look at Matt.

Matt gave a bored look under his sunglasses, "don't know I just wanted to come back home, plus the old man is sick so grandma got me a airplane ticket home and called mom and dad that I will be at home so no need to pick me up when the get back to the airport.

Al nodded, then Arthur came down all clean wearing his uniform, then he spotted Matt on the chair, Arthur felt his cheeks heat up a little from embarrassment, "sorry if I woke you last night…" Arthur apologized.

Matt rose his eyebrows and looked at Al with a cheeky grin, "you didn't wake me, I wasn't even here till now… and what does he mean by waken me up last night Al?" Matt said with a smirk.

Al rubbed his forehead and gave a dramatic sigh, he looked at Arthur then Matt, then he saw Arthur nod his head telling him to go ahead and tell his brother, what had happened.

"Arthur came here crying last night," Al said, Al saw Matt's smirk fading and looked at Arthur. "I don't know what had happen to him, he would give me a direct answer, he just kept asking me things that weren't true about him and he can't remember what happened last night." Al breathed.

Matt gave a thought, "I don't know man…" Matt sighed and got up and walked to his room, "wait for me let me get dress real fast," he called and went in and came out a few minutes later and walked to the door and put on his shoes and went out and saw Arthur and Al on sitting on the small stoop. They duo stood and walked down the steps and started to walk to school, Arthur smiled as he saw the school, but it slowly turned into a frown as he saw Feliciano there with a menacing look and staring at Arthur with a glare that can burn a hole through him, Arthur quickly looked away, then he slowly looked up at Al and Al looked down and gave a half smile and half smirk. Arthur suppressed a laugh and shook his head and looked at Al.

"Don't smile like that," Arthur whispered.

Al gave a confused look, "why?" he asked.

"Because you looked ridiculous when you smile like that, it doesn't suit you," Arthur explained.

Arthur had walked a little faster to get to his locker, Al followed, a lot of people were staring at him and Arthur since they had been hanging out more now. Al rested on the cold lockers as he waited for Arthur to get finished putting stuff in his backpack. Arthur closed his locker and put the over his shoulders and walked with Al to his first class. As the classes went by Arthur couldn't even pay attention, his mind was always on the tanned American, Arthur would sometimes slam his head on the desk trying to get rid of the thoughts, but the teachers would always question if he was alright or does he want to go home, Arthur quickly answered that he was fine.

As lunch hit Arthur quickly went to the bathroom, since gym was outside and the teacher won't let anyone inside because many kids tried to ditch this class. So he went in the bathroom by the cafeteria. He had breathed in relief as he was doing his business and he had zipped up his pants and walked to the sink to wash his hands. Then he heard the bathroom door open and he turned his head slightly to get a glance at the person who just entered, his eyes widened as he was Feliciano came in with a evil smirk on his face, with his purple eyes on Arthur.

"So you didn't take my threat seriously, hm?" Feliciano asked in a dark voice.

Arthur looked around trying to find a way out of the bathroom, but nothing, Feliciano had smirked.

"Aaah~ you want to leave, hm," he said playfully. As Feliciano had stepped forward, Arthur stepped back until he hit the wall, then he was Feliciano running at him in full speed, with his fist ready to punch him. Arthur quickly ducked and as Feliciano had thrown the punch he hit the wall he hissed quietly and shook it and looked behind him seeing Arthur grabbing his backpack and ran out of the bathroom in pure terror.

Arthur speed walk to the table where his friends and sat down between Matt and Al. Matt looked at Arthur and gave a curious face, "what up Arthur," Matt poked his cheek, "you look like you saw a ghost," Matt chuckled.

Arthur looked at Matt, "it felt like it," he mumbled and pulled out his lunch that Al had made for him when he was asleep. Al pulled out his lunch just plain noodles and some juice. Matt and the others got the school lunch. They had ate in silence and when they were done they had sat down and talked that is until Al pulled the sleeve of Arthur's shirt, Arthur gave a curious glance then Al went forward to whisper in Arthur's ear.

"Can we talk alone?" he asked and pulled back.

Arthur slowly nodded and got up and put his backpack over his shoulders and followed Al.

"We'll catch up later!" Al called back, and then walked outside to a secluded area. Al stopped and went and sat on the small brick wall, Arthur placed down his backpack and copied what Al had done, as a comfortable silence had passed Arthur breathed.

"So… what do you want to talk about?" Arthur asked and looked at Al slightly.

Al looked Arthur, "we need to talk… because… to be honest, I can't have you crying or being all depressed when me or the others aren't around, and I know that women was the cause of it," Al said.

Arthur sighed and rubbed his arms and looked down to his dangling feet, "it didn't start with my mother… it was Feliciano that made me… like this… in 6th grade…"

"The day you got beat up…" Al placed a his hand on Arthur's cheek, Arthur looked up shyly, "I'm so sorry… we thought you went coming and you went home… if we checked the school we would've gotten to you before this… everything had happened and you wouldn't be all alone for such a long time,"

Arthur grabbed Al's hand that was on his cheek and gave it a light squeeze, "to be honest I think that this was the best because…" Arthur blush a little, "even though I was be sad, it made me think how much more I appreciate friendship and… I'm glad I get a second chance…"

Al shook his head a chuckled with a huge grin, "you just made no sense,"

Arthur pouted, but Al quickly talked, "but I know where you're going at though," Al winked and it suddenly it went quiet, Arthur still had a hold of the Americans, Arthur looked down and pulled away, but Al quickly grabbed his hand. Arthur looked at Al with confused look. Then Al had gone forward, Arthur's eyes widened as Al had given him a hug. Arthur eyes closed slowly and he wrapped his arms around Al's neck to get as much contact as possible. Al pulled away, and coughs awkwardly. Arthur looked down and had a small smile on his face. Al noticed and gave smirk and ruffled the Brit's hair and jumped off the wall and turned to see Arthur jumped off, but not as gracefully as Al had done and grabbed his bag and followed Al inside the school.

As they entered the school the bell rang and Arthur and Al had went to Al's locker to get his backpack, as they walked away from Al's locker they were walking to their next class then Arthur thought of something.

"Al…" Arthur said.

"Yeah?" Al asked as he looked down at Arthur.

"Can we talk about something after school privately…" he said, Arthur needed to tell someone.

Al gave a concerned look, "sure" then they came up to Arthur's class, Al and Arthur said see you later and walked apart.

As the last bell rang they had walked out of their class room and went to their lockers to grab any necessary materials to work with for homework. As Arthur exited the building he waited for Al to come out, when he saw Al he was about called out, but a hand was put over mouth and was pulled away. When the people let him go he was at the back of the school, he looked over to see Feliciano.

"Don't think you can run from me," he said with an evil grin.

Arthur took a step back as he hit the wall he looked around and noticed that two of Feliciano' puppets were standing blocking him off.

"No running, I'm going to end you Kirkland," Feliciano said in a dark voice, "I'm going to make sure that no one will hear you."

Al waited then he realized that this seemed like deja vu, he pulled out his phone and notice that it's been five minutes since he started waiting and Arthur is usually waiting out here for him since the start of this week and Arthur was going to tell him something, then Al's eyes widened. He sprinted down around the school he pulled out his phone and he called Matt.

As Matt answered, he was at home playing some video game he paused it. "y'ello," he answered.

Al panted, "Matt I might need back up,"

Matt sat up a little, "what? What do you mean by back up?"

"Just hurry back to the school, get the others too while you're at," Al yelled and hanged up and shoved the phone back into his pocket and he had ran across campus until he saw a similar figure.

He stopped and shouted, "Hey Ludwig!"

The large figure turned and stared at Al, "what the hell are you doing here?!" He yelled.

The German just started at the American, and turned back then Al heard a laugh, an evil laugh. It actually send shivers down his spin. He quietly moved to see Arthur back against the wall with Feliciano with a small pocket knife. Al stared at them wide eyed then he think fast throwing a strong punch towards Ludwig, before he could make contact, a gloved hand grabbed Al, Al looked to his side and saw Honda there, with his usual dull red eyes, now taking life.

Al saw Honda quickly took a strong stick that could be used for a weapon and swung it at Al like a sword, Al dodged it and kicked Honda in the stomach, Honda let go of Al's arm and backed up a few steps. Feliciano turned to look at all the commotion and saw Al standing breathing looking at Honda with Ludwig ready to punch the American.

"Ludwig," Feliciano said coolly, the German looked towards the Italian, "leave the Jersey boy alone and let Honda have fun this'll be entertaining," he said with an amused smirk.

Arthur stared wide eyed at Al, "Al go!" Arthur yelled and he was suddenly having his mouth covered by a hand.

"Sshh, pet, be quiet and let's see how long Jones will live," he said, Arthur.

Al dodged all of Honda's attacks not as gracefully, but he knew if he got hit it would be the end of him, he moved back as the stick was only a few centimeters away from his face. Al had tripped on a big crack on the ground and fell as he had looked up and saw Honda about to strike, Al rolled and Honda barely missed him. Al breathed, as he saw the stick coming towards him he had looked as saw something coming out of the corner of his eye. As the stick was about to hit him a hand stopped it Honda looked at the hand and came up to very angry Yao, Honda looked at Yao as he pulled the stick.

Yao cracked his knuckles, "oh you would not believe how long I wanted to beat something up," Al saw Yao launched forward gracefully dodged the stick as he slide on the concrete and kicked Honda's legs and wrapped his legs around them and knocked Honda off his feet and fell to the ground knocking the stick of out his hand, Yao sitting firmly on his back and pinning him with his arms restraint Yao kicked the stick with his feet and it slid towards Al. Al quickly grabbed it and stood, Ludwig was coming at Al. Al got ready and swung the stick like a baseball bat, and hit Ludwig square in the face. Ludwig took a couple of steps back and looked down as tried to focus, but then he felt another strong whack on the head, not strong enough to kill him, but enough to knock him out. Ludwig had fell on the ground with a loud thug, Feliciano had clicked his town as Al was walking towards him with a silent deadly glare.

Feliciano had turned and let go of Arthur, Arthur ran toward Al and looked back at Feliciano as he was about to make an escape, but he was cut off, by Francis and Ivan. Feliciano had pulled out his knife.

"Get back!" Feliciano had yelled, "I'll cut both of you!"

Francis went for his pocket, "I don't think so," he said coolly. Then he pulled out a small pistol.

Ivan, Yao, Arthur, and Al were surprised at what the Frenchman has in his hand.

"What the hell are you doing with that thing?!" Al hissed

Francis gave a confused look, "what this is mine, I also have a registration for it," he pulled a card out proving his point. "Plus I use for self defense so this is a good reason,"

Al sighed, but saw Feliciano dropped the knife and put his hand up, Francis walks up to the Italian and put the gun back where it belongs and kicked the knife back to Ivan who picked it up. Arthur stared Al with wide eyes, Al dropped the stick and breathed, and turned and grabbed Arthur's hand and pulled Arthur with him, and nodded his head to just leave the three. Then he stopped and turned to look at Feliciano.

"If I ever see you trying something like that again, I might use you as my personal punching bag," Al glared hard at the Italian. Then they saw Lovino ran past them with Antonio following behind him, and Matt came into view.

"Sorry I was late, I didn't know where you were and I saw Lovino and he asked what was going on then we heard Feliciano…" he took breathed and put his hands on his knees, "my god…" then they heard some ranting from a Italian.

"I told to just leave it, but no you had to go and do something stupid," with that the blonde Italian slapped him upside the head. "Never do that again!" he finished.

Antonio was helping with Ludwig and turned to see his boyfriend, ranting on with brother, he gave a small smile, now loving the usual Italian happy, but now with a angry expression.

Arthur turned back and walked forward towards the gates of the school; Al caught up and looked at Arthur with a smirk. Arthur smiled and gave a shock look as he felt something in his hand he looked down and saw Al's hand intertwined with his, Arthur looked up to Al's face with his face heated. Al gave a low chuckle at Arthur's face heating up. Al walked and pulled Arthur a little.

Yao sighed and looked at them and called out, "About time!" he yelled.

Arthur looked back and saw his other friend giving him thumbs up and looked back and Al with his face heated and sighed in content, and they started walking mindlessly around town and they stopped at their old elementary school. Arthur sighed.

Al looked down and laid his head on Arthur's head, "so…"

Arthur leaned into Al, "I think I like this…" Arthur said slowly and looked at Al with careful blue eyes.

Al nodded, "you won't believe how long I've wanted to do this," he said in a quiet voice. Arthur hummed then pulled away.

"Yeah… I think I have too…" Arthur whispered, and then he brightened up, "let's go to the ice cream parlor,"

Al chuckled, "sure," he said and started to walk, "I think things are starting to look up now,"

"Yeah…" Arthur replied, but only bit his lip for a few seconds, but of course right now.

It's only the beginning.

OH MY!

HEY GUYS sorry for the suuuupppper slow updates, my school is giving me a hard time with homework, but thank goodness Christmas break is coming up and I'll be typing away on this break!

NOW for my other stories….

-The Lost Empire- won't be updated and the first chapter will be updated (since it was a test drive and now I got the criticism to make it better!) when I get done with this story.

- The 100 themes challenges- will be updated, but not weekly (I WILL GET TO 100!)

ONE MORE THING

I have a Deviantart that I use to draw and planning to write my own stories on there check it out please! (Mochi-Bounce . Deviantart . com) Thanks guys!

Thanks for putting up with me and my slow updates, everything will go back on track

Love ya poppets~