"Alfred, enough! We don't have the money and you know that! Now help me find the phone book."
"No!"
"Quit acting like a bloody child, Alfred. We can't afford to take in two children, but there are others who can! We have to think about what's best for them."
"We're best for them! Peter wants to stay with us and I bet Lily does too! If we send them away, they probably won't be able to stay with each other. They're not really related, so no one would care."
"We could fib for them."
"Yeah, but..."
"Alfred! Fine, forget it. I'll find it myself!"
Peter sat on the floor of the bedroom, his head pressed to the ugly wooden door. His knees were up to his chest and he clutched his legs tightly as though they were the only things holding him to this earth. He had since brushed all the tears away and refused to cry any more, but the dried tears that lingered made his face feel cracked.
Alfred and Arthur had been arguing for the past half hour. Peter could tell that Alfred wanted to help them badly, but Arthur wouldn't have it. That jerk. It's all his fault. That probably wasn't true, but who else was there to blame?
All Peter wanted was a safe place for himself and Lily. Alfred saved them and seemed so nice. It wasn't fair that they couldn't stay with him! And Arthur might not be so bad if they got a chance to know him.
But that wasn't going to happen. Arthur obviously didn't care about them. There was nothing they could do to make the adults let them stay. There were going to be separated and that was it. They'd never see each other again and Peter wouldn't be able to protect Lily from all the bad things. He was her big brother, but separated they were just two kids living in the same world.
"You obviously don't care about them!"
"Alfred stop it! Just stop it! Stop it right now! How dare you say I don't care! How dare you! Of course I care. I... I want to help them. I want to keep them and call them our children, but we can't. We just can't, Alfred. We don't have the money."
Peter perked up. This was not something he had expected to hear especially not from that jerk Arthur. He leaned closer to the door to catch every word even when the voices grew soft. It wasn't a hard thing to do. The apartment was small and the walls were as far from sound proof as possible.
On the other side of the door, Alfred blinked a few times and walked over to Arthur. The Brit looked up before looked away, his face red as tears formed in his eyes. Alfred noticed immediately and frowned.
"Artie, I'm sorry," he sighed. "I just... I really wanna help 'em! I mean, don't they deserve a home? We'd be great parents, I know it!" Arthur sighed and ran a shaky hand through his hair, trying to calm himself down. Alfred pulled him into a hug, breaking down his barrier as tears started to flow down the Brit's cheeks.
"I want to help them too, Al," Arthur murmured. "But we don't have the money. They deserve a home, but they deserve a good home. One that can provide for them. They deserve better than us."
Alfred looked at him helplessly. Arthur was right, there was no way the children could stay with them. They had to give them up and get back to the way things were before.
Alfred loved his life. He loved Arthur and the love they had between them. Sure, he didn't love his job or their living situation, but he was willing to try for Arthur. Still, things got boring when Arthur had to go to school and Alfred had to go to the worst job ever. This had been their little break, their moment of pure joy. Seeing the two children start to grow comfortable around people had been beautiful to watch and Alfred wished he could help them grow up even more. Arthur wanted the same thing, but it was simply impossible.
"You're right, Arthur," Alfred finally sighed, squeezing the smaller male closer to him. "It's just… I-I… I want to… To…"
"Shh," Arthur said softly, placing a finger to Alfred's lips. The American looked down at him, his eyes showing a mixture of confusion, hurt, and sadness. Arthur hated seeing Alfred like this. It happened so rarely, he couldn't remember the last time Alfred had been this upset. "I know. I want to keep the too, but this is the way things are. Think of it this way, love; we're helping them. They'll go to a home with parents who can help them and care for them. They'll have a chance of going to a good school, having nice things, and getting into a good college."
Alfred simply nodded. He wanted to mention the possibility that they would be separated, that they would go to a home with mean parents who would do nothing but abuse them, that they would be unloved and have no shot at a good life. Sure, Alfred and Arthur couldn't buy them nice things, but they could provide them with the love they deserve and the opportunity to stay together.
"We can call the foster home tomorrow," Alfred sighed, not meeting Arthur's gaze. The Brit frowned and nodded, pulling out of the hug and going to look for the phone book. Peter started to sob again.
Two days later, the four stood in the lobby of Northside Home for Children. The woman seemed nice enough and the other kids seemed fine. Alfred and Arthur were left with a few more minutes to say goodbye to the children before they stepped off this path in their life. Peter was scowling and pouting, not looking either of them in the eye and arguing everything the two adults had been saying. Lily clutched Peter's hand, frightened at the largeness of the building and terrified to go into a new home. Seeing the children hurt, confused, and scared made Alfred and Arthur regret having to do this. Still, it had to be done.
"I guess we better get going," Alfred said with a sigh, glancing at the clock nervously. Arthur looked at him and nodded. "Hey, we'll be seeing you guys around, right? I bet in ten years, you'll be working at my law firm, right buddy?" He looked at Peter with a smile, but the boy simply turned away without saying anything.
"Why can't we stay with you?" Lily asked, speaking for the first time that day. Alfred and Arthur looked at each other and frowned. Arthur knelt down to Lily's eye level.
"Because, dear, we don't have the money to take care of two children," the Brit explained. "I told you before that we would love to have you stay with us, but we simply can't afford it at the moment."
"B-but what if we're separated?"
"We told the nice lady that you two are siblings, so that will give you a greater chance of staying together." Lily's lip quivered and she threw her arms around Arthur, crying. Arthur blinked at the sudden sign of affection and sadness, but awkwardly wrapped his arms around the crying child. He rubbed her back gently as she cried into his shoulder, saying "I don't wanna go!"
Arthur had made it his responsibility to take care of Lily while she recovered. She got better rather quickly and latched onto him. Arthur tried not to grow attached to her, knowing he would just have to leave her, but he couldn't help but show compassion towards the girl. He had even grown closer to Peter. Alfred has as well. For a whole day, they got to pretend they were a family. They had all three meals together and played games in the living room. That night, they put on a movie and the children fell asleep watching it.
Lily soon calmed down and wiped her eyes, grabbing Peter's hand once again. Arthur stood up and Alfred took his hand. "See ya," Alfred said sadly.
"Goodbye. Be good, alright?" With that, the two turned away from the children and left. They didn't see nor hear, but once they were out of sight, Peter burst into tears, Lily following. They finally had a shot at getting a home, but somehow, they had blown it.
*This was origionally going to end with Alfred and Arthur keeping the children right then, but I figured they really wouldn't. They can't. Remeber, they're broke. And with me, never just assume the story is going to go one way ;3
* My lovely, wonderful, amazing, great, awesome RP partner is going to be helping me out with this as well ;3; Seriously, I love you
* Uh... Oh, and just as a side note, Lily isn't completely fully recovered from her cold. But she's recovered enough to be moved.
* The next chapter might seem rushed, but there is a 1 week time skip at the start of the next chapter
Please review! PLEASE ;3; I love reviews. I'm such a review whore. Oh, and the poll is still going on. It will be for a while x3 Anyway, please review~