Devon: This is a much better update than 25, let me tell you. I wish I could give you all a better reason for such a long wait but its nothing you haven't all heard before. Between traveling and life simply getting in the way I've put my writing on a back burner (which means this isn't the only project that has been ignored this summer but regardless) and I am sorry it happened this way but I'm back and more determined than ever to finally finish this story because I promised you all I would not abandon this piece and I have no intention of breaking that promise.

Warning: This is a bit fast paced in the beginning but it is still much better than chp 25. If I could I would pretend that chapter didn't exist honestly.

Rating: Yes I did change the rating to T. I know some of you will probably be disappointed by this but I've looked at this story from a dozen different angles and I just can't seem to find a way to put any smut or anything smut related in here without it seeming forced. If things change (as things in my writing often do) I will have no problem changing it back to M but until then...

Disclaimer: I think its pretty clear by this point.

Chapter 26
(No new couples)

Arthur woke up to his phone ringing so loudly it seemed like a siren. The call ended before he managed to answer it but the screen stayed lit with the alert of a missed called. Or to be a little more accurate, a dozen or so missed calls, plus some texts. Rubbing sleep out of his eyes, Arthur sat up and tried to make sense of why so many people had been trying to contact him. Glancing to the side he noted the light was blinking rapidly on the base of his landline phone as well. Voicemail full.

Not sure what he should check first, Arthur pushed back his blankets and started to climb out of bed. Before he made it to his feet there was a pounding on the door.

"Bloody hell." Arthur swore, stumbling out of his room to get the door as whoever was there continued to pound against the wood with increased urgency.

"What in God's name-" Arthur couldn't even get his question out as he opened the door and Alfred shoved past him into his flat.

"A-Alfred!" Arthur called after the blond who was yelling something about a television. "Don't just barge into people's homes like that! What is wrong with you?"

Matthew and Kiku both stood in the hallway wearing identical apologetic expressions.

"Well good morning to you both." Arthur greeted stiffly. "Would you like to come in?"

"I-I am so sorry about Alfred, A-Arthur. It's just that-"

"Arthur! Get in here! This is urgent!" Alfred's shout cut off his fiancé. Gritting his teeth, Arthur waved for Matthew and Kiku to come inside and turned to go see what Alfred was shouting about.

"Alfred this needs to-" Arthur's words died in his throat as he processed what was on his television screen. A local news station was reporting on yet another attack that had been directed at Arthur's accounting firm. However the perpetrator had been caught in the act and stopped before yet another building was torched. As a young reporter excitedly accounted exactly what had happened, two police officers led a disgruntled man to the police cruiser parked outside the firm's temporary office building. The man tried to hide his face from the camera but it wasn't hard to recognize him.

The officers were leading Arthur's boss to the cruiser, handcuffed and all.

Arthur stumbled, grabbing onto Alfred's arm for support. "What…What am I looking at?"

Alfred and Matthew both helped Arthur sit on the couch. Alfred sat down next to him, patting Arthur's arm in an attempt to be comforting. Matthew disappeared into the kitchen to make tea while Kiku stood by Alfred's side.

"Apparently your boss had something to do with everything that's been happening to the company. So far they know he wasn't working alone but they don't have any names, or even a motive, but he was caught attempting to start another fire. It was your boss all along." Alfred was talking a mile a minute but even if he hadn't Arthur was fairly certain he would still have trouble understanding what was being said to him. Or what he was witnessing on the television.

Alfred opened his mouth to speak again but Kiku silenced him with a hand on his shoulder. Arthur obviously still needed some time to process what was happening.

After a few minutes Matthew came in and handed Arthur a cup of tea. Arthur sent him a grateful look and took a few small sips.

Thoughts were still flying through his head as he tried to process…everything. Sure Arthur's boss had never liked him but to blatantly target his own firm. It just seemed bizarre to Arthur. Perhaps it would make more sense if he got the whole story but even that seemed like a stretch.

Alfred let Arthur finish his tea before he tried speaking again.

"Did you…have any idea this was going on?"

"That my boss was the one harassing his employees and trying to sabotage his own firm?"

"Well the attacking was probably done by some lackeys. Higher up guys like that don't like to get their hands dirty."

Arthur gave Alfred a dry look. "This isn't a superhero movie or a comic. I'm sure people like him get their hands dirty plenty Alfred."

Alfred started to argue but seemed to decide against it and settled back against the couch as well. Kiku sat down on the other side of Alfred at his insistence and Matthew took the arm chair nearby.

"Now what are you going to do?" Alfred finally asked after a few minutes.

Arthur shook his head. "I have no idea."

When Francis woke up he was surprised to find a blanket draped over him. He had fallen asleep on Antonio's couch the night before and the Spaniard was still asleep next to him in an armchair. Sitting up slowly, Francis grimaced. He knew they had had a little too much to drink the night before but he didn't think it would quite so bad in the morning.

"So you're up."

Turning towards the voice, Francis found Lovino entering the living room from the kitchen, dressed with a travel mug in hand.

"If the bastard wakes up before I'm back I'm going to see Feliciano." Lovino spoke in a curt, angry tone. Francis was used to the cold shoulder from the Italian who seemed to dislike most people. Lovino tossed a white bottle to Francis as he headed for the door. "I stuck breakfast in the oven to keep it warm but the two of you will probably still need to warm it up. Don't make a mess of my kitchen."

Francis looked down at the bottle in his hands, trying not to wince as Lovino slammed the front door shut. Aspirin. Bless that Italian's grumpy little heart.

Refusing to let the shocking news of the morning disrupt his day too much, Arthur took a shower once he had finished his tea. He had tried to get his three surprise visitors to leave, assuring them that he was fine-he had just been surprised. But they had insisted on staying. Matthew asked for permission to use his kitchen and apparently had plans to make them all breakfast. Arthur gave up trying to argue with all of them and got ready for the day. It became obvious to Arthur once he left his shower however, that he should have pushed a little harder for them to leave.

Alfred and…Alfred were locked in an intense game of tug-o-war on Arthur's living room floor with Kiku and Alice watching from the couch.

"Arthur, when did you get a dog?" Alfred asked, clearly enjoying the game. The young dog was not giving up easily, even as Arthur joined them in the living room which normally would have distracted the dog long enough for someone to steal the toy from him.

Matthew left the kitchen and started to speak only to see the puppy and whatever he was going to say turned into a surprised "oh" as he looked to Arthur.

"I'm sorry Arthur I forgot about that." Matthew apologized awkwardly. Arthur waved off the apology as Alfred looked between his brother and cousin from his spot on the floor.

"Does someone want to tell me what's going on?"

"Well since the cat-or rather dog-is now out of the bag I suppose we don't have a choice." Arthur muttered. Moving closer, Arthur picked the puppy up off the ground. Surprised, both Alfreds dropped the rope toy. "Alfred, Kiku, this is your wedding gift."

Alfred stared up at Arthur in complete disbelief.

"I asked Matthew if he thought it would be alright and he thought that it was a good idea I apologize if-"

Finally Alfred scrambled to his feet, cutting Arthur off as he did to take the dog from his arms and pull it closer to him.

"Really? You got us a dog? And such a cute one at that look at this face." Turning on his heel Alfred went to sit on the couch next to Kiku. "Keeks look at this cutie."

Arthur laughed. "I'll take that as you like him."

"What's his name?" Alfred asked, laughing as the puppy attempted to lick Kiku's face much to the man's chagrin. Arthur blushed faintly in embarrassment.

"Well…I've been calling him Alfred."

Matthew and Alfred both looked at him in surprise. "Really?"

Arthur shrugged. "That's what made me think of giving him to you as a gift. He reminded me of you."

Alfred looked to Kiku. "Well Keeks it looks like we've got an Alfred Jr. already. Hope you weren't too set on that being our firstborn's name."

"Alfred,"

"We can call him A.J. for short! That way there's no confusion!" Whatever argument Kiku may have had seemed to melt away at his fiancé's exclamation and Kiku simply smiled.

"A.J.'s perfect."

"You're perfect." Alfred said without a second thought, leaning over to kiss Kiku's cheek.

Blushing, Kiku put a hand to his cheek. "Alfred." He scolded. Alfred rolled his eyes.

"You're lucky it was just your cheek this time, buddy."

Smiling, Matthew shook his head. "And on that note, breakfast is ready."

"Lovi's too good to me." Antonio muttered as he sprawled on the couch after breakfast. Francis had to agree. At least as far as breakfast went, though he and Antonio took so long getting up it was their lunch, it was quite delicious. "I always eat too much when he cooks but it's just so good."

Despite wanting to do something similar to Antonio, Francis knew he needed to get going. Especially considering he left Françoise all alone last night and most of the morning without planning to. And Arthur was back home so no one had fed her breakfast.

"You're leaving now, aren't you?" Antonio said after a moment from the couch. Francis sighed.

"Yes I need to get home." Antonio sighed and sat up.

"I hope Gil is okay."

Francis gave a half-hearted smile. "I hope so too, Toni."

Antonio stood up and gave his friend a hug. "I hope we start getting this relationship thing right one of these days."

Francis laughed, hugging Antonio back and kissing both his cheeks as a goodbye. "I definitely hope so."

Francis was nearing his apartment building when a familiar brown puppy ran towards him and began running circles around his legs, tying Francis up in his leash as he went.

"Nice to see you too, Alfred." Francis greeted, trying his best to untangle himself from the leash. Turning back in the direction Alfred had come from, Francis expected to see Arthur coming towards him. Instead he was surprised to see the actual Alfred and Kiku, both ready to apologize for the puppy's behavior.

"Good afternoon," Francis greeted, handing off the leash to Alfred. "I didn't expect to see the two of you here, especially not with him." Francis sent a pointed look to the dog who wagged his tail happily at the attention.

Alfred laughed. "Yeah well we kind of dropped in unexpectedly on Arthur and he didn't have much of a chance to hide A.J."

"A.J?"

"Well we couldn't really keep calling him Alfred. That'd start to get a little confusing."

Francis smiled softly. "I suppose it would."

"Bonjour, Francis." Francis nearly missed the quiet voice that came from behind Alfred as Matthew finally caught up with his brother and Kiku.

"Ah Mathieu!" Francis exclaimed, pulling the younger man in for a hug despite his half-hearted protests. "It has been too long."

Matthew returned Francis's hug, nodding in agreement to what the Frenchman was saying.

"Why the family trip to visit Arthur today? If you do not mind my asking." Francis asked as he pulled away from the hug. "Especially a surprise trip at that."

Alfred's eyes widened. "We needed to make sure he was okay after the announcement."

Francis's brow furrowed. "What announcement?"

Alfred ran a hand over his face mumbling something about the uninformed masses. "Does no one watch the news anymore? Or read a paper? Or even a few tweets or anything?"

Matthew sent Francis an apologetic look for Alfred's outburst. "The news this morning was about the man who had been targeting Arthur's work."

"What? They caught him? Who was it?"

Matthew and Alfred shared a look. "Well uh, it was Arthur's boss."

Francis's mouth fell open. "Pardon?"

All three of them nodded, grim expressions on their faces. "It was a shock to everyone really. Arthur had started getting some calls from his coworkers so we figured it was probably best to let him be as he figured things out." Alfred explained.

"I see." Francis looked out towards Arthur's building, part of him wishing he could march over there and make sure everything was alright. But there was probably a lot going on now for Arthur and he didn't need even more company while he tried to sort things out. "Well thank you for letting me know, and I'm glad someone checked on him after that." Francis exchanged farewell hugs with the three of them.

"I will see you all on Sunday."

"See you."

Exchanging final good byes with the family, Francis finally made it inside and fed Françoise some lunch.

"Je suis désolé, Françoise. The night got away from us I'm afraid." Francis sat on the floor besides Françoise's food dishes. When she had her fill of food she happily climbed into his lap, already purring in contentment and ready for a nap.

Things were changing and very different from what she was used to but Françoise had a feeling these changes were for the better. For her and for Francis.

Devon: Ameripan will kill me.

Anyhow I would like to get back to replying to reviews here but for now I'm going to have to leave things like this. I'd like to put more focus on getting these chapters done and up that keeping up with the layout/process I had before now.