A/N: Here I am again! Hope you guys haven't lost interest in the story, with my less-than-frequent updates and all that! (I'm sorry, though, as much as I want to have the time to write I find myself either working for class or wasting time miserably on Tumblr. And I'm determined to finish this story! And Shut Up And Take My Hand as well! Eventually...
Well, enjoy!
CHAPTER ONE: "Choking on your alibis"
He had met him on one of his frequent trips to the library.
He had just gotten out to get a few books, and there he was, sitting on the stairs and smoking a cigarette. He looked like he had just been taken out of the cover of one of Arthur's favorite discs. The only difference being that this boy moved, and it seemed like he was talking to someone.
It took him a whole minute to realize the boy was actually talking to him.
"...my name's Francis" he said, and Arthur would never have thought a name could sound so beautiful.
His, on the other hand, was so common it sounded awful. So, with quick reflexes, and trying hard not to make an ass of himself, he quickly replied:
"Luigi!"
The stranger smiled.
"Well hello Luigi, nice to meet you. And I think your books fell down."
"Wait, I think we fell down" he heard a voice say, seconds after the loud 'thump'.
"You've just realized? TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH, MORON!"
Arthur tried his best to stand up again, but half the stranger's body was still over his. Now there were some good ways to lose all your dignity in a matter of seconds, and this was, in his opinion, at least on the top 10.
Okay, it had been raining and the floor was soaked. And muddy. Top 5.
"Would you do me a favour and move so I can stand up and continue with my life again?" he asked, looking at the sky.
"Wow… a bit grumpy, aren't we?" he heard the stranger say, and a shriek of laughter that sounded suspiciously life Alfred's.
"Listen, as much as I'd love to stay here all day and chatter, I can think of a few more comfortable places than the ground in the middle of the bloody street."
He heard the stranger laugh.
"Fair point. Here, I'll help you."
The stranger stood up first, then he saw a hand take his, and soon he was on two legs again.
"Well, glad to know the Law of Gravity is still working for you, Francis." he heard a voice said.
Francis? Why does that name ring a…?
No. Oh no no no no.
Please. Pleaseplease don't let him…
For the first time since the whole incident, he looked at the stranger, and for a few seconds he felt his heart stop.
He was tall and slim, with just the faintest hint of muscle. His eyes were dark blue, almost like those of...although they now seemed a bit unfocused, probably because of the fall. And, Arthur noted, he had a really pretty smile. All in all, he was pretty attractive, which was one of the things he was not proud of thinking about people he had just met.
But, the most important part was his hair.
His hair, thank God and all that's Holy, was long and blond, gathered on a ponytail.
He was blond. As blond as someone could be.
Blond.
Oh, he could have kissed the stranger right now.
"As you have heard, Francis is the name. And I apologize, both for the fall and for my friend's stupid comment."
"Arthur", he replied.
He saw Francis? visibly relax at that, which was kind of weird, but the relief of him not being who he had thought he could be was simply too overwhelming to care.
"Weeell…" he heard him say, "The fall has been fun and all that, but we were on our way to our car, as I suppose you were, so there is no point in staying here longer."
Arthur just stood there awkwardly, before finally answering:
"I guess. Well, goodbye!"
Francis smirked.
"See you!"
I really, really, reeeeeeeally hope not.
And they started walking away, the Brit waiting patiently until he was sure the others could not hear him. Then, he turned to his friend, who was still smirking (the bastard) and said:
"See? It was not magical. It was not romantic. It was simply a coincidence. Nothing happened. Fate does not exist."
"Nothing happened. Fate does not exist." Arthur said, a week later, as his friend entered the cafeteria and sat beside him.
"Bro, it's the fifteenth time you've told me that."
Okay. So maybe, maaaaaaaybe, he had been thinking about the accident a bit more than he had originally intended to. He cooould have thought about it a few times, and he miiight have voiced his thoughts two or three times.
And by 'two or three times', I mean 'twice a day for a week straight'.
But it was not because of the fact that the stranger had been pretty attractive, nor was it due to the fact that it had been the most exciting thing happening to him that month. And it certainly had nothing to do with him trying to reassure himself, because really, he didn't need any kind of reassuring.
He knew pretty well that love and fate didn't exist, mind you.
He was simply marvelling at his own intellect, and how right he had been the whole time. Because he usually was right at things, but having the chance to rub it in his friend's face made it ten times more precious. It was always nice to remind people he had been right, just in case they forgot.
"That's because it's true. Just because I dared the Universe to make me meet the love of my life on a corner, and because I met somebody on that corner, does not mean that said person is the love of my life, and much less that fate exists. Correlation does not imply causation."
His friend just stared at him, like he had done the last fourteen times, in complete silence for a few seconds, and then sighed and looked away, saying:
"Did you really need all those fancy words just to tell me you were right and everybody else was wrong?"
"...no. But it sounded more mature that way."
The american smiled.
They drank their coffee in silence, Alfred quickly glancing at the clock from time to time.
They had fallen into some kind of routine, the American being on his 30 minute lunch break from work and Arthur taking his own break from the job-hunting. Honestly? There weren't many people that needed an English major, and he had long since stopped looking for something on his field. He had resigned himself to whatever came his way, given it had a decent salary and didn't involve costumes of any kind- that last measure was adopted after some… not-so-good experience in college, involving minimum wage and a dog costume that if he never saw it again in his whole life, it would still be too soon.
Which reminded him…
"I've got an interview today." he mentioned, casually. His friend didn't raise his eyes from the phone screen, just quirking an eyebrow and making a vague 'hmmm' kind of sound that Arthur took as encouraging but actually, with enough imagination, could mean anything.
"Yeah, on the other side of the city though. But it's just office work and, well, seems dull but could be worse."
"D'you have to deal with customers?" Alfred asked, a smirk quickly forming in his face, and the roll of Arthur's eyes was enough of an answer.
"Customer service." he said, and those two words spoke volumes.
Their chatter was interrupted, though, by Alfred's obnoxious ringtone.
"It's Matt." he told Arthur, as if to excuse himself, when he answered the phone.
"Who?" he asked.
"My bro. My real bro. Not a bro that I call bro because it's shorter than their actual name."
Ahhh… yeah. I think I know him.
Meanwhile, he could hear his friend was getting into a pretty heated argument over the phone:
"No, I'm not organizing a… noooo, that's stupid. Why would you…? Can't you do it in your house instead of mine? Are you sure? Hmm… yeah, now that I think about it, you've been living there with that horny bastard you like to call your boyfriend, and I'd rather not touch any flat surface you guys could've gotten at it in. Which kinda covers 80%... WHAT? Duuude, that's too much info. Waaaaay too much information. Like, I'll never look at you the same again. 'Kay, my house then. You owe me. This time for real. Sure. I hate you. Awww… you hate me too, how sweet! 'Kay, bye."
When he hung up, he saw Arthur looking at him expectantly.
"Well, there are good news and bad news."
"I'd rather have the bad news first."
"My brother decided it would be fun having a costume party for some reason I didn't pay attention to because, duh, costume party, not like I actually need a reason for it, and somehow I've ended agreeing to do it in my place, which would be a bitch to clean up. So, long story short, bad news are that I'm dragging you along to the party and you're helping me clean up afterwards."
"I hate you. And what about the good news?"
"Costume party!"
Arthur rolled his eyes at that. Not like they were good news to begin with, but at least they were better than the actual bad news. Now that he thought about it, every time Alfred said there were 'good news and bad news' he actually meant 'bad news and worse news'. And after a whole lifetime of knowing his friend, he didn't really know what he had been expecting.
"Anyway. I suppose showing up in a costume is not optional, is it?"
"Nuh-uh. I'm dying to see you in your princess costume, sweetie."
"Hey, that happened one time. ONE TIME. And I was five years old."
"Yeah, and I told you you'd never hear the end of it. So far, I've kept my promise. Now this raises a new problem, because what would I wear for the party? Man, I've got some internet research to do now."
He took his phone out, but as soon as he saw the time he cursed softly and stood up.
"Gotta go. Break's over."
"Yeah, sure! Drop the bomb and leave me alone here, planning the costume! Great lot of help you are!" he yelled, no actual venom in his words.
Still, there were times in which he could swear his friends did these kind of things just to piss him off.
A week (and much more research than he was willing to admit) later, Arthur arrived at his friend's door, and rang the doorbell.
So, here he was, in his full pirate costume, absolutely not looking forward to hours and hours of pretending to be amused by people he barely knew, including Alfred's brother, his mysterious boyfriend and company. And, to top it off, for some reason he had agreed to help with the clean-up, which meant he had to stay the whole night and part of the next day.
Man, he really hoped there would be booze.
Just as a complete stranger in a nurse outfit opened the door for him, he was met with a room full of costumes with a varying degree of nudity, worn by people with a varying degree of drunkenness (so there was alcohol after all, nice) and music blasting through the loudspeakers he didn't even know his friend possessed.
It promised to be a hell of a night.
And, he realized, 'hell' didn't even begin to cover it when he saw, in the middle of the room, the one person he had never expected to ever see again. The one he thought he had finally got rid of.
The person he had been bragging all week to have avoided.
Francis.
But… how…?
But he didn't have much time to dwell on it, because in that same moment, when he locked eyes with the blonde, something came flying and hit him on the head, effectively making him lose his balance.
When he finally recovered, he saw Francis coming towards him, because out of sheer bad luck, he had managed to fall while the other was still looking at him, managing to catch his attention.
And, when he saw what the mysterious object was, he fucking lost it.
An arrow. A bloody heart-shaped plastic arrow. With little hearts drawn all across it.
This was just rubbing it in.
So, he thought, maybe someone had gotten into the party dressed as Cupid, but he was sure said someone was not getting out of it.
A/N: So, umm... yeah, I've been watching too many episodes of The Office lately. Expect many more office shenanigans from now on. And the 'Luigi' thing comes from that Tumblr post where every time someone panics they have to say Luigi. Arthur geting all stressed because of Francis' awesomeness is a thing from now on.
So, I've been thinking about something lately, and it is that I will finish both this story and SUATMH, but obviously one will update sooner than the other. This one being newer, and having shorter chapters and all that... (and honestly, I'm not nearly as happy with the quality of this story as I am with the other one) I figured I'd ask you guys which one you want updated sooner. I feel like I don't have as much "confidence" writing FrUk as I do with PruCan, but on the other hand, I like the plot of this one... Well, I'm not sure. Let me know what you prefer,
As usual, review if you liked it! :))
