Chapter Twenty-Four

Gabby's POV

If anything had been up with Francis the night of the party, it had passed by now: at breakfast the following morning, he was his usual self, tweaking my ear before sitting down and proceeding to keep the table updated on rumors of who had started dating who. He probably had just had a sudden stomachache, or got a phone call he needed to take outside; all the scenarios by subconscious mind provided were ludicrous. Like, one of them was that he'd been jealous. Ha! Francis Bonnefoy (his name is just a riot to say. Bon-fwah. I'd always thought it was bon-eh-foy, until he told Alfred off for pronouncing it that way), jealous of a guy for having a moment with plain old me! One sentence whispered from his lips or wink of his eye and a girl's ovaries would explode; the only boyfriend I'd managed to get had been a gay drunkard. Francis could get literally anyone he wanted.

…How strange. Thinking about Francis in such an awestruck way made me feel a little guilty. Almost as if I was already in a relationship….. But I was long single. I could swoon over any guy, anytime. I guess the only reason a yield sign popped up in my head when imagining Francis's hair blowing in the wind, blowing a kiss while sparkles and flower petals danced in the background, was because he was one of my best friends. Come to think of it, maybe that's why he looked so pissed at seeing Alfred and I sing karaoke together… The two guys didn't seem to be on the best of terms. I know that if one of my friends was chill with someone I despised, I'd be pretty pissed too.

Anyway.

Magic Club was already turning out to be pretty fun. Vasilica (I just call him Vasil) was a real pleasant guy; slightly twisted sense of humor and always smiling. At this point, the seat beside Arthur in homeroom had basically become my permanent one, so we got a good deal closer. In fact, when we gathered around to discuss Harry Potter at our next meeting, Arthur sat with me. Not Caliegh. I mean, yes, he did thank her for the idea of posting a schedule outside the door with this big beamish smile, but I didn't care anymore. He'd aimed that same smile at me when I told him I loved One Direction as a whole, not just for an individual member.

One morning during homeroom, he was looking kinda down. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't uncommon to find Arthur looking grumpy: unwanted emails from his siblings, a bitter end to a book series he'd finished the night before, or countless things Alfred had done to get on his nerves were all usual sources of his unhappiness. This time, however, he looked exceptionally sad.

"Hey, Artie… What's wrong?" I asked in a sympathetic tone someone would use for a kitten that had fallen into a puddle. With a heavy sigh, Arthur turned his gaze toward me, his head resting in the palm of his hand.

"Vasilica's gone back to Romania for a week or two," he grumbled.

I recalled Vasil saying he'd eventually miss a meeting in the near future; now it made sense as to why. "Aw, that's not good… Look on the bright side! You still have me," I reassured him, grinning. Okay, so I've never been good at comforting people.

Arthur just sighed again, closing his eyes morosely. "Yes, well… Lunchtime is going to be lonely."

Oh, I forgot. The only person that sat with Arthur was Vasil…. "Well you can sit with me until he gets back!" The offer left my lips before I gave it any thought. This was a bad idea. I mean, Arthur harbored strong negative feelings toward both Francis and Alfred, and sitting with me would mean sitting with them as well.

"Oh, no, you don't need to do that…" Despite his polite turn-down, I could detect the slightest bit of interest flickering in those green eyes of his.

"Come on, just for until Vasil gets back!" I admit, I probably should have left it at that instead of pressing on. But I didn't want to quit while I was ahead. "Sitting with a bunch of idiots is probably better than sitting alone."

A teensy smile twitched onto Arthur's face. "Well, I suppose so… Alright. I accept. But just until Vasilica gets back."

I nodded, grinning brightly. "Just till then. That is, if you don't leave sooner."

Even though I meant that comment lightly, Arthur's face immediately darkened a good deal. "With the lot you sit with, I can foresee that happening."

I already knew the reasoning behind Arthur's dislike of Alfred: he saw him as a boisterous, idiotic pig that kept him up at night with his noisy video games. Even though Al is my best friend ever, I can't exactly disagree with any of that. Still, if I was a hot-headed yet usually collected gentleman like Arthur, I'd probably want to strangle him too.

However, I didn't quite understand why Arthur hated Francis so, so much. Yes, I can easily see how his flamboyant, flirtatious personality could be irritating, but was that really reason enough to want to slip cyanide into his croissants?

When Arthur met me at the cafeteria, I learned the origin of that passionate hatred. And let me tell you, "shocked" doesn't even begin to describe how I felt.

"Arthur Kirkland." The moment Arthur sat down between Caliegh and me, keeping his eyes glued to the floor, Francis greeted him in a slow smooth tone that a really successful former jock would use to greet a loser whom he'd used to give wedgies some 20 years ago. Francis was smirking, but you could just feel the aura around Arthur just start to boil. The overall atmosphere seemed to melt into a dark cloud, too.

"…Frog," Arthur muttered in acknowledgement, taking a bite out of his crumpet. He appeared to flinch when Francis sat directly across from him, linking his fingers and resting his chin atop the back of his hands with his elbows propped on the table.

"So how did you two meet?" I questioned, looking back and forth between them. Caliegh shot me this look, but I shrugged it off. Not my fault I was curious. Besides, my tone made it evident that I was basically joking and not really expecting an answer.

Nonetheless, Alfred answered me. He leaned over my sister and poked me in the shoulder. "Oh, they go WAY back," he told me, grinning with raised eyebrows. From the excitement on his face, I could just tell that Arthur and Francis's story was pretty damn juicy to hear.

"We've known each other since we were tiny little things," Francis sighed happily, staring up at the ceiling as if reminiscing. Arthur shot him a glare so powerful that I expected Francis to burst into flames.

"It was hate at first sight," the Brit snapped. Francis simply smirked, unfazed by Arthur's anger.

"It is not my fault you were so jealous of me," he practically sang, winking at Arthur.

A light pink swept across his cheeks. "I was not jealous of you. Just because you were so bloody full of yourself…" He shook his head in disgust, turning to me. "We fought over everything. We literally didn't see eye to eye on any subject."

"That would be because you were so much shorter than me," came Francis's voice. From his flinch, I could tell Arthur had kicked him under the table. He quickly recovered, though. "Still, we hang out all the time… Almost as if we relied on our 'hatred' of each other. Or perhaps because we longed for that hatred to disappear; for friendship."

I had to choke back an "aww." That certainly wouldn't have gone down well. "As much as I hate to admit it, with how often we were together, we did become what would be considered 'friends,'" Arthur continued. His thick eyebrows were furrowed together in irritation. "We actually started to agree with each other sometimes- mind you, that didn't prevent us from fighting both physically and verbally. Then…" He coughed awkwardly. "Let's just say we had a…. falling out."

As Arthur took a long sip of his tea, blushing gently, I could just feel the disappointment on my face. I turned my attention to Francis when he began talking. "It was one of our usual arguments, you see." Arthur's eyes bulged, and he shot him a warning look. Nevertheless, Francis continued. And I admit, I wanted him to. "But then, well… The planets must have aligned, because a realization dawned on us." He chuckled slightly. "Long story short… We were in love."

My jaw dropped, Caliegh covered her mouth with her hands, and Alfred spit out his soda (obviously, he hadn't been told that part of the story). The surrounding din of the cafeteria seemed to be muted; silence rang around our group, pulsing like a sound wave. Everything was tense and frozen until Alfred broke the silence with a sing-songy yet slightly choked: "Plot twist!"

I let out a nervous laugh, though it was short lived: Arthur had stood up, his face crimson and a vein pulsing in his temple. "Were. I don't know what that wanker's excuse was, but I was a desperate 14 year old that had no idea what I was doing. I used to think we fought like a married couple, but no, we fought like enemies. Which we are." With that, he abandoned his tray and stormed out of the lunchroom, a few pairs of eyes trailing after him.

"…How long were you guys together…?" I addressed Francis softly. His usual confident stature was still present, though I could see the hurt and sadness in his eyes.

"About a year," he answered. With a smirk, he glanced back and forth between his roommates. "Long enough for me to learn dear Artie is a screamer." I heard Caliegh make a choked squeak sort of sound, while the members of the Bad Touch Trio snickered bemusedly. My mind was briefly flooded with images of Francis and Arthur, naked in bed with Francis straddling the latter and making him cry out in painful pleasure, but I managed to shoot them down with a blush.

"He lies, you know. We are not enemies, we are frenemies," Francis added. He gazed toward the door Arthur had recently rushed out of, and realized with a pang that he really, truly had loved that Englishman.

Yeah, it was a bad idea inviting him to sit with us.

~Author's Note~

I'm terribly sorry, but i just NEEDED to include some FrUk in this story. It's my third favorite pairing, after Spamano and DenNor x3 And to that thing about the pronunciation of Bonnefoy... I found a post on tumblr about it being "bon-fwah," and realized that they were right! Being a student of French I, I'm disappointed that I didn't realize my pronunciation mistake earlier... Oh well, I fixed it now. :3

-67OtakuGirl24X3