What Lies Beneath
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia or Breaking Benjamin.
Arthur sighed as he looked at the stack of clothes Francis and Feliciano had picked out for him to try on, they liked this kind of stuff a little too much for Arthur's taste. It seemed more like torture then any kind of fun to him, but that could just be that he was the manikin. The stack on the chair had to have at least ten items in it, as much as the dressing room would allow someone to try on at one time and this was the seventh store they had been in trying clothes on. Well he at least had been trying clothes on, Francis and Feliciano were there because they were apparently fashion experts thanks to their nationalities, whatever that meant. Another sigh. For the past four years he had been told what to wear, when to wear with no questions asked and before that Arthur hadn't cared too much of what he looked like to go clothes shopping.
"Arthur, if you don't come out soon, I'll go in and help you dress yourself." Francis teased, he was waiting just outside the dressing room door while Feliciano was over by the communal mirror of the dressing rooms as if he was going to run out on them or something again. He had learned not to try to escape a mad Frenchman and Italian with clothes at the first store they had gone to today. No wonder Antonio had wished him luck when Francis announce that morning that he and Feliciano were going to take him clothes shopping. They might have sucked at the art of war, but the French and Italian were dangerous when it came to playing Barbie.
"You won't do anything of the sorts!" Arthur shouted, "Bloody Frog!" Frog, the British term for someone French and for Francis the name had seemed to stick for whatever reason with Arthur. He didn't need all these clothes really, but Francis had thought it would be a good thing for Feliciano to get away from the apartment he shared with the idiot Gilbert and his little brother Ludwig who just so happened to be Feliciano's boyfriend.
"Why not? It's not like I haven't seen you-"
"Don't you dare finish that." Arthur interrupted, his face was flushed red and he was glad that the man on the other side of the plastic door couldn't see him. But he certainly didn't need Francis to announce to the whole dressing room that they had had sex either.
"But, Sourcils." Sourcils, Francis's nickname for Arthur in retaliation for Frog, it was a reference to Arthur's humongous eyebrows he had inherited from his mother. All of his siblings had them except Morghan the only girl. "You have to come out of there at some point."
"That doesn't mean you get to watch me change, you foppish twit." Arthur snapped, pulling on a pair of light blue jeans the Frog had picked out for him to try on. They were surprisingly comfortable, not those ridiculous skinny things that people seemed to wear now days. Then he threw on a sweater vest he had picked out himself. It was completely different style from what he had ever worn back in London, but he was a different person now. He had never thought he'd be in the Russian Sunflower as long as he had been there, only an STD or age would make Ivan get rid of you. Arthur knew that there was no way the rich clients who came to the Russian Sunflower would have something so low class as an STD, and he had at least twelve more years before Ivan would probably even consider getting rid of him because of his age.
"After this store we'll go to the food court and get something to eat." Francis said in a sing song voice, Arthur looked back at the stack of clothes on the chair. Only a few more minutes and he could escape from this torture for a little while.
"Good, I want pasta ~ve." Feliciano chimed in with his strange verbal tic; it reminded a lot of the dance teacher at the Russian Sunflower who said aru all the time. Francis laughed and Arthur pulled off the clothes and put them in the keep pile.
"And so then the fire alarms go off and everyone has to evacuate the school and Gilbert's laughing his ass off the whole time despite the fact that we're about to get in trouble for fooling around in the chemistry lab." Francis said as they hung out in the food court, bags of clothes hung off of the four chairs around the little plastic table they sat at. Francis had paid for it all assuring Arthur he was extremely well off and that it wasn't that big of a deal to go on a shopping spree every once in a while. Arthur liked listening to the stories about the Bad Touch Trio, Francis, Antonio, and Gilbert's nick name at the high school they had gone to, and the others.
"They were always in trouble," Feliciano agreed, "Fratello would always complain when Antonio couldn't walk him home because he was serving a detention. The little Italian waved his fork with some kind of corkscrew pasta on it around. Arthur smiled and glanced around the food court, he wasn't sure why, but he felt as if they were being watched for some reason. But nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
"Doesn't surprise me." Arthur said as his eyes laid on familiar platinum blond hair. Natalia Brangski, Ivan's psychotic younger sister and she was looking right at him. He pushed back his chair, his heart beating rapidly. He was ready to put up a fight if Ivan was there too, he wouldn't go back there.
"Arthur, something wrong?" Feliciano asked as Francis looked over at Natalia.
"Who is she, Arthur?" Francis asked calmly also pushing away from the table.
"Ivan's little sister." Arthur whispered, the other two paled as the Russian's name.
"Let's go then. We don't want to cause a scene." Francis said still as calm as before, he and Feliciano grabbed the bags and the trash from their meal while Francis lightly grabbed Arthur's wrist and lead him out of the food court and away from the woman who should have been locked away in an insane asylum a long time ago.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Francis asked after they had dropped Feliciano off at home and they had made it back to the apartment without any sign of Natalia following them. It had been a quiet ride home, no one dare talk for whatever reason. Arthur shook his head; there wasn't anything to talk about. He had let Ivan get to him when he should have been safe from Ivan's clutches. "Alright, I'll be in the bedroom if you want to talk." Arthur snorted; sometimes Francis reminded him of the mother he had always wanted, calm, caring, someone he could tell all his deep dark secrets to.
"Kay," Arthur said, he watched the blond walk down the hall to the bedroom that they had decided to share for the time being. Then Arthur curled up on the couch, arms wrapped around his knees, seeing Natalia at the food court had scared him more then he thought it could have. But she didn't scare him nearly as much as the silver haired man who would undoubtedly find out about the sighting. When he worked at the Russian Sunflower he hadn't even dared to hope that he'd find something better, something more than performing and whoring. But now, now he had found that something better and he would fight his damn hardest to keep it.
"I hate you," he whispered to himself, as if the Russian man would be able to hear it and understand his hatred. Ivan was incapable of understanding emotions though. "I hate you." He said louder, his whole body shaking with the rage he suddenly felt for the man who had stolen four years of his life.
In fact as cliché as it sounded, it had been Ivan who had taken his virginity away, even on the cold streets of London he had managed to keep that, somehow. But his first night at the Russian Sunflower Ivan had taken it, his first customer. Arthur laughed bitterly out loud. He had never been able to forget that night despite how many other people he fucked, or how much he told himself that night didn't matter.
"What- what are you doing in here?" Fourteen year old Arthur asked, he had been changing out of well-loved Sex Pistols t-shirt and into a plain white one when the tall Russian man opened the door to his new room. It wasn't much of a room, but Arthur was revealing in the fact that it was his and he didn't have to share it with anyone else despite the fact that it wasn't that big at all; back in London he had shared a room with two of his older brothers Wolfbric and Brian. Ivan had told him that he wouldn't have to start work until tomorrow whatever work that may be.
"I'm here to show you the ropes of your new job." Ivan explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world, a sick smile was on his face and for the first time Arthur began to regret his decision to take Ivan's job offer till he could find his cousin Alfred Jones.
"Oh, okay, let me change then." Arthur said moving to grab the Sex Pistols t-shirt that had been discarded on the bed just mere minutes before.
"No need, you won't need your clothes." Ivan said sweetly as if he was an old grandmother offering children cookies laced with arsenic. It made Arthur's skin crawl.
"W-what do you mean?" Cold realization washed over him and he tried to back away from the advancing Russian. Ivan had explained that the Russian Sunflower was a brothel of sorts, but Arthur hadn't actually believed that the intimidating man wanted him to whore, wasn't there laws against those kinds of things? "No, no, I don't want to a whore. I didn't realize this is what you meant." Arthur protested finding himself backed into a corner quite literally as well as figuratively.
"This will go so much more smoother if you don't protest." Ivan said with the same sickly sweet voice as before. He grabbed Arthur's hands and forced them above his head leaving Arthur extremely vulnerable. "I don't want to make this any harder for you." Arthur snorted, not believing the man's words for a second. He felt his pants disappear and he tried to cover up, but it was to no avail.
Something warm and wet and extremely slimy ran up and down the bottom part of Arthur's member and he shivered with disgust. "Take notes, young one, this is how you'll pleasure a client tomorrow." Arthur felt like throwing up with just how disgusted he felt at the moment. He knew that there was no way out without some kind of miracle. Everyone thought he was on his way to Detroit to live with his aunt Abigail not in Montreal Canada working as a prostitute at some upscale whore house. Fingers from the hand that wasn't restraining his wrists began to probe around his other hole. Hot tears rolled down his face as he was helpless to do anything about his current situation.
Ring! The sound of the home phone ringing pulled Arthur out of the horrible memory, not that Arthur was too upset about that, there was no need to reawaken old wounds. "Ello?" he said into the white phone that rested in the kitchen.
"Hey is Arthur there?" asked the voice of Alfred, the obnoxious American-born who scarfed down food like there was no tomorrow.
"This is Arthur," Arthur replied slightly irritated, couldn't the idiot distinguish a French Canadian accent and a British one on the phone?
"Oh, you sound different on the phone. Anyway, what's your Mom's name?" Alfred said suddenly jumping to an unexpected topic.
"Elizabeth, Elizabeth Kirkland. Why?"
"My mother's name is Abigail Kirkland, and about four years ago she called my father asking him if we'd seen her sister's youngest son Arthur." Arthur paled, unsure of what to say to Alfred's story. The idiot he had met yesterday was his cousin, the cousin he had been looking for all along. How cruel the world could be sometimes. "He was supposed to be visiting her.
"Alfred-"
"What happened?" Arthur sighed, there was no way Alfred would drop this was there? He sat down on a chair by the table; this would be a long discussion.
"I didn't want to go back to London. Mum, she- I- the others. I came to Canada to find you, to find a better life then what I had. I- I was a thug on the streets, and I finally realized I didn't want that."
"You came to Canada looking for me? Well, you found me. Albeit, a bit too late." Arthur frowned, how could Alfred joke about this?
"Alfred-" Arthur tried to start, but was unsure of what to say. What did one say in a situation like this?
"Arthur," Alfred said he sounded unsure of himself; it was so unlike the boy he had met yesterday. He seemed much more serious today, Arthur wondered if he did that often.
"Yes,"
"We're family," It was a statement, Arthur got the feeling the honey blond would feel the same way even if they weren't blood related. "I don't care if I hate my mom, I don't care what your past is. I'll help you out, not matter what." Arthur found his voice and words escaping him to make any kind of response back.
"I- I- thank you. You don't understand how much that means." Arthur said the words coming out awkwardly as he spoke.
"It's what family does, Artie, we look out for one another." Alfred said nonchalantly. "Hold on a second Matthew I'm talking to Artie. Okay, okay. Sorry Arthur, I've got to go."
"Okay,"
"So, who was that?" Francis said standing in the hallway, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He had a concern look on his face mixed with a hint of jealousy that made Arthur's eyebrows raise.
"Alfred," Arthur said with a shrug placing the phone back on its dock. "He was checking up on me." Arthur watched as Francis's sapphire blue eyes darkened slightly with jealousy, why did Francis care that he was talking Alfred?
Ivan had been mad, angry, furious, there were no words to describe the emotion he had been feeling ever since he'd discovered Arthur's treachery. His pet had run away and that was something Ivan did not forgive. But Ivan knew that one way or another he'd get Arthur back. He was not blind to Felix, the annoying cross dresser that kept visiting Toris, or to the blond man who had visited Monique every other day for a whole month or even that Sadiq and Herakles had started a relationship. He was blind to nothing in the Russian Sunflower. There was no one for Arthur to run to, he would come back to him sooner or later.
"Brother, I have the best news." Ivan's platinum blond sister said walking into his office unannounced much to his annoyance. Natalia helped him run the place, helped him keep order. She loved her older brother, perhaps more than as a sister should love her brother, not that Ivan minded all that much. As long as she understood that he needed his toys and she couldn't harm them. He loved her, she was his sister after all, but that didn't mean she wasn't expendable.
Ivan looked up from the paperwork he had busied himself with. "Hm?" was his only response.
"I've found your runaway toy." His younger sister beamed with pride.
"Good, where?" he clapped his hands together in joy. The sooner Arthur came back the sooner he could play with his favorite toy again. Maybe he should play with the girl just to torment him, tell him if he had been there he could have prevented her pain just as he always did. Arthur always had had a soft spot for the young girl, a soft spot Ivan was only too happy to exploit.
"The mall," Natalia passed him a picture of his pet happily eating with a blond man and another boy with a strange hair curl much like the Italian who had been sold to him the past summer, a relative perhaps, Ivan mused. If Lovino had anything to do with Arthur's escape, he would kill him, painfully. But it seemed as if his pet had made some friends after all, he would just have to force him back to the Russian Sunflower one way or another.
"Get all the info you can find on Francis Bonnefoy and Feliciano Vargas." Ivan said darkly ripping the photo in half.
"With pleasure," Natalia said before walking out of the room.
All in all,
You're no good
You don't cry
Like you should
Let it go
If you could
When love dies in the end
So I'll find what lies beneath
Your sick twisted smile
As I lie beneath
Your cold jaded eyes
Now you turn the tide on me
'Cause you're so unkind
I will always be here
For the rest of my life.
Author's Note (the part of the chapter where the author comes out and writes a silly note): I'm back, I know after a month of no updates I'm back. I really need to get better at organizing my life and my fanfictions. Well good news is that spring break is right around the corner and I should have plenty of time then to write. More good news is that good deals of the later chapters are already written and just need some minor tweaking so that should make updating faster as well. Yay!
I know a lot of you are asking to see Lovino and the Russian Sunflower but the muse fairy said no for this chapter sorry. Please review and remember all flames are sent to my best friend's llama gods. I don't know if this is demanding too much but could you tell me in your reviews if you've seen an improvement in my writing style, stagnation or a decline. All criticism is welcome as long as it's helpful, no more go throw your computer away in a dumpster and burn it please, I do need my laptop for school papers you know. Anyway like Tigger always said ttfn, tata for now!
