Francis scrubbed his knuckles, being very gentle of the bleeding scrapes. While the lavender soap was refreshing, he was so distraught he was still shaking a little. He had ignored Arthur all the way back to the mansion, then quickly made his way to his room. After locking himself in, he had cried quietly for nearly an hour. This was not something that Francis was proud of, but between the attempted assault from the drunkard and all the stress of being around so many people, his internal strength went to pieces.

An hour of getting emotions out later, Francis started to clean himself up, deciding he was done feeling sorry for himself. He got the dirt off of his clothes and face and gently washed the cut on his knuckles. There wasn't much he could do for the bruises on his neck or back. As he felt the sting of the soap on his knuckles, Francis thought of everything that had happened that day. The more he thought, the worse he felt.

What the hell was I thinking talking to Arthur like that? He did so much and I end up yelling at him for helping me…

Francis set the washcloth down and stared off into space. There was a very uncomfortable coldness in his stomach. He heaved a heavy sigh.

Oh god I'm a horrible person. Merde why does he even keep me around?

He looked in the mirror. The cut on his face was more of a bruise than anything, but it had been bleeding a little bit earlier. It was no bigger than a thumbprint on his cheekbone and was now turning a dark brown. It did not look good.

I deserve it, after the shit I pulled today.

Down the hallway, the grandfather clock chimed three. Knowing the time did not help Francis feel any better.

You have three days, you can't afford this.

Weirdly enough, that wasn't the thing that made him upset.

You probably hurt his feelings by being a piece of shit.

That realization made him feel awful. Correction: he felt like he wanted to throw up.

It was then that he knew what he needed to do.

I just hope he accepts it.

Francis gathered up what little courage he had and quietly walked out of his room. First things first, he had to find Arthur. He walked silently through the mansion, trying to find a sign of life. It was odd, for as many servants as there were in the mansion, they seemed to disappear at a moment's notice. Weird.

Then he heard it; music. It was very faint, but he knew he heard it and followed it. It led him to a set of double doors, one of which was cracked open slightly. The music was definitely coming from there. It was soft, string-filled music; merpeople had similar instruments, although they did sound a little different. A squeak of a boot on the floor told Francis that someone was in there. He looked inside the room and saw something that he was not expecting.

There, in the middle of the very large empty room, was Arthur, and he was…

Is that how humans dance?

Sure enough, it seemed that Arthur was dancing to the music. It looked like ballroom dancing, as it was somewhat familiar to Francis. He thought back to the Yule season when the merpeople would sort of dance to the music, although he was pretty sure that humans wouldn't call it dancing. Looking at Arthur now, moving to the music with grace that seemed slightly awkward since he didn't have a partner. He simply held out his arms like he was dancing with a ghost and it was obvious he was struggling a bit.

The music ended and Arthur gave an anti-climactic finish; it would have been better if he had a partner. Francis could hear him take a deep breath after finishing, but he didn't do anything. The quiet was overwhelming, so much so that neither of them risked breathing too heavily. Then, at the worst possible moment, Francis' foot slipped, creating a sound that completely shattered the silence.

Shit shit shit.

Francis looked up and his stomach dropped as he saw that Arthur had whipped around to stare at him. Although no noise actually escaped his throat, Francis could have sworn that he squeaked upon seeing the green eyes of Arthur. Neither said anything for a few moments, merely staring at each other.

"Francis?" Arthur finally broke the silence.

Just do it, you owe it to him.

After mustering up what little bravery he had, Francis stepped fully into the room.

'I apologize,' he signed after a second of hesitation. 'I had no right to yell at you like that, especially since you did so much for me. I'm sorry and hope you will forgive me.'

For what felt like forever, Arthur simply looked at Francis with those beautiful green eyes. Then he just looked away.

"You were angry, and I did leave you; it's fine," he said as he turned to turn the record on the gramophone back on.

Francis couldn't control himself. He ran up to Arthur and grabbed his shoulder.

'You took me into your home, gave me clothes, taught me how to talk when I can't, and I repay you by being nothing but a burden and then yelling at you for something that wasn't your fault. You shouldn't even want me here, I shouldn't even be here. Don't brush off what I did like it's no big deal!'

Arthur took a moment to comprehend what Francis was telling him, as his guest was signing so fast he could barely even see Francis' hands.

"Francis," he started, then stopped himself and rethought whatever it was he was going to say. "Y'know what? I don't know what you want me to say. I try telling you that it doesn't matter, that you were upset by what happened to you and you're not letting me forgive you."

'You're supposed to be angry at me,' Francis threw his hands. 'You're not supposed to just forget it, you're supposed to want to kick me out and tell me to know my place because you're going to be a goddamned prince and I'm the last thing you should be worrying about and-'

"Francis!"

Francis stopped. Arthur looked somewhere in between angry at himself and sad at the world. He sighed heavily.

"Francis, it wasn't your best moment, but given what was happening, I'm not surprised you acted that way. I can't expect you to be perfect any more than I can expect myself to be perfect to you; that's why I'm not letting it bother me. If it will make you feel better, then I accept your apology and forgive you. And as such, I apologize for contributing to putting you in that kind of situation. That work for you?"

For a moment, Francis didn't know what to do. The words that Arthur said, did he really mean them? He must have; there didn't seem to be a trace of dishonesty in those beautiful green eyes.

He shouldn't want to do this, but he seems so genuine?

'Alright, that works.'

"Good," Arthur breathed. Then he smiled a little bit. "Hey, and don't worry about being a burden; I'm the prince of the kingdom, the only thing that can burden me is bullshit politics.

Besides," he continued as he made his way to the gramophone. "I actually really like having you around."

You do?

Francis would have signed it, but Arthur's back was to him. Regardless, to hear Arthur tell him that he liked having him around felt… amazing. Little did he know that Arthur was sweating bullets from saying that. He had been wanting to say that for a while, and was nervous that Francis wouldn't like him saying that, but a side glance revealed that his guest was smiling and blushing a little. He quickly looked away, trying to hide his own blush.

Once he flipped the record over, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

'What exactly are you doing?' Francis signed.

"Oh, well that party the day after tomorrow is going to have some ballroom dancing and I needed to brush up on it."

He continued to set up the gramophone. Francis watched, then thought of Arthur dancing by himself. Clearly he was meant to have a partner.

No, Francis, he wouldn't do that… although he did say he liked having me around and this is just practice…

Arthur had finished by now and turned around to see Francis standing not three feet away from him.

'Do you want help?'

Arthur blinked.

"What?"

Francis squirmed, then signed: 'You need a partner to dance and you looked like you were struggling before. If you want, I can help you practice…'

Now neither of them knew what to say. Francis was terrified that he had overstepped his boundaries and Arthur was trying not to burst into flames from the amount of heat in his face.

"You-You really wouldn't mind?" Arthur finally got out.

Francis nodded sheepishly, then signed: 'I mean I don't know any real amount, but I'm willing to learn.'

"Well, that would actually help, if you don't mind," Arthur replied with a small nervous smile.

Francis reciprocated as an answer. With that, Arthur turned on the record and led Francis out to the middle of the room.

"It's gonna be a little awkward since you'll be doing the girl's part, but it means you really just have to follow my lead."

The music began with a soft crescendo of strings. In response, Arthur bowed and Francis (remembering how women greeted men of status) gave an odd curtsy with his tunic, laughing internally at himself. Arthur then stepped close to Francis and, with an almost scared expression on his face, took Francis' hand in his.

"So the girls put their left hand here," he guided Francis' hand to his shoulder. "And the men are supposed to…"

Very, very awkwardly, Arthur put his hand on Francis' waist. They both blushed at the absurdity of what they were doing, but went with it, somehow. The music continued to progress and Arthur began to guide Francis into the dance.

"So, take your left foot to the side and turn a little," he directed, mirroring Francis' hesitant step.

They kept going. Francis had no idea what he was doing, so he was mostly looking at his feet, trying to follow Arthur's steps. His brain was doing double time with wild thoughts.

Oh my god what the hell is going on? Am I dreaming? I must be, he wouldn't actually do this. And yet...

It was so surreal, being that close to Arthur, to be able to feel his nervous breath, to be in such an intimate situation. There was a small part of him that knew that there was something very wrong about this, given that they were both males. He was aware that it was very taboo for two men to be together like that, and even amongst merpeople it was given the blind eye. So to be this close, it felt like they were breaking some forbidden law. Then why did it feel so good?

"You're pretty good at this," Arthur commented, prompting Francis to look up at him.

Being unable to sign, Francis only responded with a smile, but it was genuine. However, now that he was looking at Arthur, he couldn't tear his eyes off of Arthur's beautiful green eyes. He was utterly entranced by them, by Arthur's face, even by the eyebrows that seemed so odd yet would be sorely missed if they were gone.

Mon dieu he's hot, Francis thought, internally reprimanding himself for thinking such thoughts. Okay but he does look really… really… beautiful.

He half hated that he had fallen so deeply into whatever spell Arthur had put him under; they had only known each other for a few days after all. And yet there they were, dancing together, eating together, helping out with each other's problems, and even fighting like a couple. Now if only they were an actual couple and not whatever it was they were now. He was sure that Arthur still felt that they were just friends… although maybe very good friends.

If only he knew that Arthur was thinking the same thing, wondering what they were to each other.

They kept dancing, the music shifting from one stringed melody to another. It wasn't long before Francis was comfortable with the dance and was no longer hesitant in his steps. The dance went on gracefully, slowly becoming more and more natural as they kept going. It was amazing.

Except there was one thing that was beginning to bother Francis.

It was a small, at first barely noticeable sting in his feet. He mentally noted that he had done a lot of walking that day in town, so it made sense. But as they kept going, the pain only got worse. As much as he wanted to focus on being lost in Arthur's eyes, each and every bit of pressure on the cuts made them burn like fire.

Oh god why? I'm already cursed with not having a voice, why do I also have to have this much pain?

Francis began to seethe with anger at Madoline, the sea witch. She had taken his voice and then gave him legs that were perpetually injured. Then, if he didn't get Arthur to love him within a few days, he was going to die by turning into sea foam. What the hell kind of contract was that? If only he had read it before he signed it, then maybe he wouldn't have been in this situation.

As all of this was going through his head, his body went into autopilot, still moving in time with Arthur. The pain started to get worse, yet he kept going. Francis was biting his tongue at each step, using everything in his power to not let his face portray his pain. It wasn't just his feet, now, it was like his whole leg was surging with lightning. He didn't show any of this; he did not hesitate and kept in step with Arthur, despite how much he wanted to stop.

Please let the pain stop, he prayed to whatever deity was listening.

But it didn't, it kept getting worse. Half of him was begging for the dance to end to stop the agony in his legs, while the other half didn't want to because he wanted to stay with Arthur. Either way, he kept going. While he was crumbling inside with agony, whatever spell he was under with Arthur kept him going. It was bliss and hell all at the same time.

Finally, the song ended. The two slowly stopped dancing, still holding each other and looking into each other's eyes. It was amazing.

Then the pain got to Francis.

Without the music to distract him and Arthur's spell getting weaker, he felt the full force of the burning feeling in his feet. He stumbled. Arthur caught and steadied him.

"Oi, what's wrong?" he asked, concern evident in his voice.

Francis didn't respond; he was trying to just stay on his feet. It hurt so badly that he felt tears well up in his eyes.

"Francis?"

The voice was so gentle that he had to look up.

Arthur could see the pain immediately in Francis' face. It caught him off guard. He could see the tears in his guest's eyes, which surprised Arthur, since he had never actually seen Francis cry. Unconsciously, he brushed away one of the tears, being mindful of the bruise on Francis' face.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

Francis, breathing heavily to keep from crying, was only able to sign a few words.

'Feet hurt.'

It took Arthur a few seconds to understand what Francis was talking about.

"Oh god I forgot about that," he admitted, then he got confused. "They still hurting that bad?"

A nod from Francis. Arthur gave a soft but confused hum.

"They shouldn't be that bad still," he muttered.

He got an idea, then gently took Francis' hand.

"C'mon, let's get you cleaned up."

Gently, he led Francis out of the room. Francis didn't know where exactly they were going, but really, he couldn't focus through the pain. Within a minute, he was led into a room which he realized was his room.

"Here, sit down," Arthur directed.

Unsure of what exactly Arthur was planning, Francis complied and sat on the edge of his bed.

"I'll be right back," he heard Arthur call. When he looked up, Arthur was out of the room.

While he was gone, Francis bit his tongue. Getting off of his feet did help, but the pain still lingered.

Oh god why does it hurt so bad? I walked all day today and I barely even noticed anything, then as soon as I have a moment with Arthur it suddenly gets so bad that I cry like a little girl.

He took a deep breath, then had the bright idea that he might feel better if he took his boots off. So he did just that. However, as soon as he shifted the boot, his foot screamed in pain. Francis sharply inhaled, but made himself keep going. It was torture to continue, but after a few pain-filled moments, he got his boot off.

Merde…

His sock was completely soaked in blood. It was next to dripping.

Wait.

Francis looked into his boot with trepidation and the inside was slick.

No… this is the one pair of boots I have and Arthur just spent so much on clothes already.

Just then Arthur came back in.

"Oh christ," Francis heard him say.

Before he could even look up, Arthur was next to Francis. He set down a small box on the floor as he knelt down to get a better look, then started to root through the contents of the box. Francis continued to peel off his sock and the bandages, but hissed as he removed the first layer.

"Here, stop; get the other one off first," Arthur intervened.

At this point, Francis was in enough pain that would have jumped off a cliff if Arthur told him that it would help. So with some help, he got his other boot and sock off, and that foot was just as bad as the other one.

"Jesus," Arthur muttered. "Why are they so bad still?"

Francis thought back to the contract he'd signed. Perpetual cuts; just another roadblock to getting to Arthur's heart. He just hoped that no one got suspicious.

"Alright, let's get these off," continued Arthur.

They got the dripping bandages off. There was a lot more blood than there should have been. Arthur gingerly wiped away the bloody cuts with a soft, damp cloth. There were so many on each foot and they were very deep, much to Arthur's surprise.

'What about the doctor?' Francis asked, biting his tongue as the cuts stung from the pressure.

"He had to go back into town. He only comes around when we call for him."

This answer still didn't quite cover Francis' real question.

'Why are you doing this? You're almost a prince; the maids could do this just as well as anyone. Why are you helping me so much?'

Arthur looked up at him as he wrung out the washcloth into the bowl and re-moistened it with fresh water.

Because I want to help you, because I really like you, because I don't have friends and you seem to like me… Was what Arthur wanted to say, but deep down knew he couldn't.

"Because you need it," he settled on, then got Francis' other foot washed off.

Francis didn't ask more questions, he just went between washing his cuts and gritting his teeth as Arthur gingerly applied a salve. It burned like hell, but did seem to help overall. Once they were covered in the salve, Arthur wrapped Francis' feet with fresh bandages, layering up a bit more than normal for a bit of a cushion.

"There, that should do it."

'Thank you,' Francis signed, then unconsciously looked into his ruined boots as Arthur put away the supplies. This did not go unnoticed.

"Don't worry about those," Arthur commented. "Some warm vinegar will get most of it out."

'You sound like you speak from experience,' Francis joked.

Arthur chuckled, then replied: "You'd be surprised what you learn in the military."

This comment struck Francis as odd.

'You were in the military?'

"... yeah... "

The way Arthur said this was… odd. Not quite like he didn't like talking about it, but more like he simply didn't know how to talk about it. Francis decided not to push the subject, so neither said anything for a while. A low rumbling sound made them look out the window. The sky was filled with dark gray clouds.

"Rain two nights in a row?" Arthur mumbled. "Weird."

'You think it's going to be a bad one?'

"I don't know, probably not."

Arthur stood with the box of supplies and noticed that Francis was rubbing the bruise on his face.

"You okay?"

Francis nodded and gave a weak smile. Although he wasn't convinced, Arthur nodded back and set the box on the dresser. When he looked back he saw Francis was gently massaging the soles of his feet. He still looked in pain. Arthur didn't like it.

He got an idea, one that he normally wouldn't allow himself to think, as he looked down at his hand.

I still remember the words for it… but if I did that he would know and would have to not say anything. Although… he is mute and doesn't seem like he'd try to tell people. I do hate seeing him like this. Oh sod it.

With these thoughts, he looked out of the door and into the hallway. No one was out there, so he quietly closed the door. Then he made his way over to Francis.

"They still hurt don't they?" he asked, referring to Francis still rubbing his feet.

Francis shrugged, as if to say 'Yeah but it's fine'.

Arthur sighed a little, knowing if he was going to do this, he was just going to have to spit it out.

'What's wrong?' Francis signed, noticing the odd look on his friend's face.

After hesitating for a moment, Arthur sighed again, then replied.

"I think there's a way that I can maybe help with the pain," he said slowly. "But it's not a… normal method."

Francis cocked his head questioningly.

"If you want, I can try it out, but if I do, you have to promise that you won't say a word about it to anyone, and I mean it not a single soul not even the servants or anyone."

Now this was very strange to Francis, given that Arthur was a prince, so it seemed odd that he could have a secret so well kept that even his servants didn't know about it. He had also noticed him look in the hallway before closing the door. But his curiosity got the better of him.

'What is it?'

Arthur squirmed slightly.

"Well, it's kinda hard to explain. I know it sounds sketchy, but it really is just better if I show you and explain afterward."

He seems genuine… I don't think he wants to hurt me…

'Okay,' Francis signed.

Arthur nodded, then replied: "But you have to swear that you won't say anything to anyone no matter what. I'm serious you can't tell other people."

'I promise I won't say anything.'

"Alright then," Arthur sighed a little. "This is going to look, and feel, a bit weird but just… go with it, alright?"

Francis once again nodded, still sort of surprise how secretive about this he was.

"Okay…"

Francis watched as Arthur knelt in front of him, put his head down, and gently took Francis' hand in his own. After a moment, he heard a soft muttering noise, then realized that it was coming from Arthur. Upon listening closer, he could make out that they were words, but they weren't words that he knew. They sounded ancient, like they were from a time before him. After a moment, he noticed something.

Is his hand getting warmer?

Indeed, he felt Arthur's hand getting warmer in his own. How was that even possible? Then Arthur looked up at him. Francis was startled to see that Arthur's eyes had gone an unnaturally bright shade of green, like they were glowing.

What the hell- what is going on? How is he doing that with his eyes and why the hell are his hands warm?

Although his instincts wanted him to run, Francis was once again entranced by those green eyes. It was like fire; beautiful but deadly.

Then, Arthur very slowly brought his other hand up to Francis' face, right up to the bruise. Francis felt him brush his hand up against the bruise, very gently running his thumb over it. It twinged at first, but somehow it began to hurt less and less. All the while, Arthur was still muttering those ancient words and looking into Francis' pretty blue eyes.

Then, after a few more minutes of this, Arthur brought back his hand and trailed off his words. His eyes stopped shining and went back to their normal color. He heaved a heavy sighed and let go of Francis completely. Francis was about to ask if he was okay as he watched Arthur take a few deep breaths, but Arthur beat him to talking.

"You… you okay now?" he said as he looked up. He looked tired and a little pale.

Francis was about to ask what he was talking about, when he unconsciously brought his hand to his face. It didn't hurt, it wasn't swollen. There was no pain.

What in the name of-

He looked at the mirror and, without thinking, ran up to it, not even noticing the oddly proportioned padding on his feet. He stared at his reflection.

The bruise was gone.

There was no trace of it. No cut, no purple, not even a yellow splotch. It was like it had never been there before.

Mon dieu…

He whipped around to face Arthur, who was still on his knees, catching his breath.

'How… how did you…?' Francis tried to sign, but his hands were shaking from shock.

Arthur gave a weak smile.

"It's magic."

Francis blanked.

What.

Thankfully, Arthur could understand.

"I know, it sounds completely looney, but it's true."

Francis didn't know the sign for 'magic', so all he could get out was: 'What… how?'

"It runs in the family," Arthur explained, standing up. "Or so I've been told. The story goes my mum was a pretty spectacular witch, and so was her family. I was born with it too, so my mum trained me pretty much as soon as I could use it."

He then held up his hand and his eyes flashed the strange green again. Francis watched as a soft green glow emanated from his palm.

"Like I said, it runs in the family. But that was the family secret, so you understand why you can't say anything to anyone else."

Humans can have magic? Francis thought. I thought merpeople were the only species that could use magic. How could I not have known about this? I've only seen my father and Madoline being able to use it… christ how did I not know that humans can have magic?

'You have it too?' he found himself signing before he could stop himself.

Now Arthur was confused. He pulled his hand away and the bright green in his eyes were gone.

"Too? What do you mean?"

Shit.

Francis realized too late what he had said. He also realized that he could not say anything about his father without revealing that he was a merman.

'There's a… rumor in my family that some of us have magic,' Francis fibbed, not knowing what else to do.

"Really?" Arthur seemed curious. "You… don't think I'm crazy for this? You have magic?"

'No no, I don't have magic, it's just a rumor; I don't know where it started, but my family believed it so no I don't think you're crazy.'

Arthur seemed surprised, but ultimately accepted this.

"Did your family tell you what kind of magic by any chance?"

There are different kinds? Francis had to ask himself.

'No, they just said it was magic; don't even know what they could do with it.'

Francis convinced himself that it was only a half lie since although he knew some of the things his father could do, he didn't know the extent or limitations of it. It was just something that his father had never bothered to tell him about, so he just accepted that his father had magic and didn't question it.

Arthur nodded slowly, neither of them knowing quite what to say.

'Why don't you want anyone to know?' Francis questioned after a short while.

This made Arthur shuffle a little.

"Well, you probably wouldn't know since you grew up so isolated, but magic and witchcraft is pretty taboo. Some places it's illegal and magic users still get tortured. This area's pretty split on it, but just in case we kept it a very tight secret. Now that I'm going to be the prince, I can't risk them knowing that I have such a controversial power, so it'll still be a secret until I can do something about it."

'Makes sense,' Francis commented. 'What about your parents? If it's the family secret then I'm kinda surprised they would let you be prince.'

Arthur went quiet, then looked away.

Putain I said something I shouldn't have.

Before he could apologize, Arthur answered.

"They uh… they're dead so they don't mind I guess."

That was infinitely worse than anything Francis was expecting. He really had messed up now, hadn't he? Holy shit what could he do to rectify this?

'I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to-'

"No, it's okay, you didn't know," Arthur stopped him. "But uhh, yeah they were pretty private people because of the magic, but that didn't sit well with me."

Francis cocked his head. Did Arthur not like having magic? Very, very carefully, he asked as much. Arthur seemed surprised by the question.

"Oh, not that's not it. It just… well, because they were so private, I didn't really have any friends and that kinda wore me thin. I mean, I was always stuck with them and I wasn't allowed to go out and meet other people since they couldn't trust me to not say anything about the magic. Then mum died and it was just me and dad, which was a pretty shitty situation. He was a lot more strict about me going out than mum was, so he basically locked me in the house even though I knew not to say anything.

So, when I was fifteen, they were asking for soldiers for the war and I was angry at my dad for isolating me so much. Dad didn't want me to leave, obviously, but I was sick and tired of pop and went anyway. I spent three years in the military, got stabbed in the arm and was discharged, so I had to go back home. I came back expecting to see my dad waiting for me but… well, turns out he died about a year after I left from a heart attack."

Silence.

Francis was taking all of this in at an incredible rate. He thought about Arthur growing up alone, being forced to stay within the confines of his house with only his parents and servants, and then eventually just his father. He imagined a teenage Arthur fighting with his father, then running off to a battlefield, being in a uniform, getting hurt out there, then coming home only to find his father dead.

Oh god… it's so sad… losing his mother like that when he was so young, god I know how that feels.

'I'm… I'm sorry, Arthur,' he signed gently, somewhat unsure of how to respond to all of this.

Arthur simply nodded, a little sadly, but not too distraught. There was something that Francis wanted to know, but he knew it was a touchy subject and was a little wary of asking. Still, he figured if he worded it right, Arthur wouldn't be too offended.

'Can I ask what happened to your mother?'

Thankfully, Arthur didn't seem too upset by this. It was more of a faraway sadness that he had been able to reconcile with long ago.

"She died when I was little. She got sick, that's all I know. Dad never talked about it because it made him too upset I guess. Kinda pathetic that I didn't even get to know the person who gave me my magic, yeah?"

That hit very close to home to Francis. It surprised him just how similar it was to how his own mother died. And then to hear Arthur say that he was pathetic…

'Don't say that,' Francis intervened, walking over to him. 'I understand. I lost my mother when I was little as well.'

"Yeah?"

Francis nodded.

'I don't really remember how she died. All I know is that she was bedridden for a few months and then died.'

"Oh… god I'm sorry, Francis," Arthur said sadly. After a moment, he continued: "I hope your father was there for you at least."

Francis shrugged.

'He was never the same, but I know deep down he still cares.'

Arthur thought for a moment, a strange look on his face.

"... Is he still on that island?"

Francis didn't even have to think about that his father was not actually on an island; it was just second nature to him now. He nodded. Arthur didn't say anything at first because he knew what Francis had said about not wanting to go back home. Arthur now understood that, much like himself, Francis had left his home and his father to do what was important to him.

"I guess we both had issues with our dads, and our moms, eh?"

Arthur was trying to force a smile, but it wasn't really working. There was deep seated pain in both of them and they could see it. It killed Francis to see Arthur like that; so, without a word, he enveloped Arthur in a hug. He could feel Arthur tense, but soon that tension left and he reciprocated.

It was a little awkward, but at the same time, it felt so nice. What neither of them had realized was that, despite being people of high status, there was one thing that they wanted and couldn't have: someone to talk to. They needed someone to cry to, to yell at then make up just an hour later, someone they share their secrets with, to let go of grievances, to… love, even.

Francis heard Arthur sniff and gave him a small squeeze to ask if he was alright.

"I'm alright, just haven't told anyone about my parents really," he answered.

They continued hugging for a while longer. Arthur seemed to melt into it, clearly lacking any real physical interaction and Francis was more than happy to accept him, as he was lacking as well. Neither of them thought about what would have happened if someone saw them, they didn't think about how wrong it could have been, they ignored the fact that they were edging ever closer to the point of no return.

They just stayed there, in pure bliss.

Author's Note:

Hey there guys! Oh my god guys we have reached 500+ views and it's so exciting; thank you all so much for reading!

I'm sorry this chapter was so late, but I've been busy (I know you've heard this a billion times from other authors but whatever), plus I hated writing the most recent chapter and this one needed a lot of editing, so yeah... Anyway, I got it up. Also, I finally got a cover for this story! It's just some fanart of France that I did a while back, but I felt like it fit, so why not?

I hope you guys are still liking the story! This chapter was something that I really wanted Francis and Arthur to do together for whatever reason, then my brain was like "hey why not get some backstory out of Arthur as well?" So that's what I did. Also, MAGIC! I told you guys I would it would come up again; sorry it's just a little part of the story for now, but I hope it's still interesting. Also, I'm just going to say that I initially did not intend to have both Arthur's and Francis' backstories to be so similar, but then when I wrote it out, I didn't know what else to do for Arthur's past... so yeah they're pretty similar. Whoops :/

Something I want to bring up is that I'm thinking about changing the rating for this story to M, mostly out of paranoia, but for a few other reasons. Mostly it's going to be language, because I find myself editing out swear words that fit so well but make me worried that FanFiction will think it's too much. Also there may or may not be some more... idk slightly more mature content coming ahead. Nothing explicit, but I don't know if it crosses into the M category (it's a romance, what did you expect?). But in all seriousness, I'm curious if you guys would mind if I changed the rating to M.

One last thing I want to mention is that I have a lot going on right now and will be super busy in the next 2-3 weeks (I'm in a virtual play for those that are curious). On top of that, my brain said: "hey, let's write another story that has absolutely nothing to do with this story and is not similar in any way!" so I'm lightly writing that on the side. AND THEN I'm also about to enter a writing competition that's due in like 2 weeks and have literally no idea what to do for it since it's such a niche type of story they want (yippee :\). However, I'm half tempted to make it some kind of super-disconnected fanfic (like the only thing they have in common is ethnicity and name), but that probs won't happen. In any case, I just wanted to let you guys know that I might not upload as frequently in the coming month so you guys won't think I just died one day and will leave this forever unfinished.

Alright, that's enough of my rambling. My third cat Jack is running around screaming at me because he's weird. I hope you guys stick around and see you next time!