So. Um. I wanted to do NaNo this year…not really happening. There's no way I'll finish in time.
So I'll write oneshots instead. The format for the title and all that will be different, though…
Title:Dolphins
Dedications:Stormageddon. I think you know what this is.
Summary:"Did you know dolphins can commit suicide?"
Begin.
"And so, um, oil! Yes! Oil is bad for dolphins because it, um…it does bad things to their skin! Or whatever it is dolphins have…And then they can't swim, and then they die! Isn't it horrible?" The little girl giving the speech for the activists trembled, and a few people sighed. Just because her brother was Vash Zwingli…
Suddenly, a bell rang, signifying Lilli's turn was over. She walked off the stage and sat down in the front row next to her brother, who whispered, "You did great, Lilli. Iwould donate money to your cause." She smiled shakily.
A tall man swaggered up to the microphone and grabbed it casually. "Hey everyone. I'm Alfred."
"Hello, Alfred…" chorused the crowd.
"I'm here today to talk to you about dolphins, as you all know. Lots of people have given presentations about how oil and pollution and hunting is decreasing our dolphin populations. That's all fine and dandy, but I want to touch upon something a little more…heavy."
He took a deep breath. "Did you know dolphins can commit suicide?"
The crowd was silent, aside from a few coughs and whispers wondering about Alfred's seriousness or sanity.
"It's true! It really is. When a dolphin is depressed, they decide to stop breathing. See, dolphins, unlike humans, do not have automatic breathing mechanisms. They have to concentrate on it, and if they want to, they can just…stop. And that's how they commit suicide."
Someone heaved a heavy sigh from the middle of the crowd. Alfred glanced at who it was, but there were too many people for him to properly see them. "Excuse me, sir?"
The person who had sighed so loudly stood up, and Alfred's breath caught in his throat. Whatishe…ohgod,whatishegoingtodotomypresentation?
The person's name was Arthur Kirkland. Arthur had actually been dating Alfred until not too long ago, until he found out about Alfred's obsession for suicidal dolphins that he wouldn't explain, and when he tried to help him Alfred got angry and their relationship just sort of stopped working. He decided that it was time to quit their relationship, leaving Alfred to use half his savings in ice cream and bad chick flicks for several days after the fact.
Alfred knew if Arthur was allowed up onto the stage Arthur would debate him into the ground, leaving his ideas to die slowly along with his reputation in the dolphin-saving community.
Arthur's voice echoed across the auditorium. "May I ask why a dolphin would commit suicide?"
Alfred swallowed. "Well, you know…maybe its grandma who always made it dolphin-cookies just died, or maybe it found out that the bully dolphin from middle school had been sleeping with its wife, or maybe it was Japanese and it got a D on a test, or—"
"Alfred, while these are all humanreasons to try to kill yourself, they are not dolphin reasons." Arthur stared him down. "Have you done any research on why a dolphin might become sad and attempt to end its own life?"
"Um. Well. I—"
"My point exactly!" cried Arthur. He slid past the other people in his row and started to head toward the stage. "Also, how do you suppose you will give aid to these dolphins?"
"Er. That is, I, sort of…um…"
Arthur sighed and reached the stage. "You're asking these people for money with no idea how you'll spend it?" He headed up the steps.
"Well, when you put it that way—"
"Didn't I teach you better than this?"
"Whoa, you're suddenly up here and I don't need to use the microphone anymore."
"Idiot!" Arthur smacked Alfred upside the head, making the crowd gasp. "What have you been doing for the past three months? Sitting on your ass?"
"Um." Alfred blushed. "There was a lot of ice cream and sitting involved, yes…"
"Ice cream?"
"That's what you do when someone you really like breaks up with you for no reason!" he cried, causing Arthur's face to redden.
"You lazy dolt. You could've at least triedto win them back, couldn't you?" muttered Arthur. "I mean, if it was for no reason, you might have tried askingwhat the reason was?"
"Fine," Arthur replied. "What was the reason? Why did you break up with me out of the blue, Arthur?"
The crowd gasped again. A Korean activist named Yong Soo was glad he'd started filming from his phone. He could turn this into a soap opera back in the home country! (Well, maybe not. There were only two characters so far, unless someone had already committed suicide. In that case, it was perfect material for a drama!)
"I don't see why that's important right now! We're talking about your stupid suicidal dolphins and—"
"Hey! Suicide is notstupid! It is a serious issue and the fact that dolphins practice it shows how intelligent they are!" Alfred protested. He turned to the crowd. "How many of you know someone who has attempted or succeeded in committing suicide? How many of you have tried it yourselves?" He looked over the many raised hands. "That's what I thought."
He turned back to Arthur. "What about you, Arthur? Do you know someone who's tried to or succeeded in suicide?"
Arthur stared at him for a few seconds, then answered, "No."
Alfred narrowed his eyes. "Yes you do."
"What? But—"
"My plan is notstupid, and I will find a way to help those poor dolphins who don't think life is worth living anymore," hissed Alfred. "Just you wait and see." He turned around and marched off the stage, leaving Arthur alone in front of the crowd.
"Alfred, why are we doing this? I really don't want to wave around signs for your stupid thing about the dolphins that kill themselves…"
"Mattie!" gasped Alfred. "My own flesh and blood! Saying such things about the poor dolphins! How could you?"
Matthew sighed. "I mean, yeah, it's sad and all, but it's not…it's not a problem you can fix,you know? It's just…there. I mean, it's like saying you want to stop all suicides, but you just can't, Alfie. It's not possible. There's just too many people that do it." He gazed into his brother's eyes. "Alfred, I think I know what this is about."
"Oh yeah? What?" Alfred crossed his arms.
"Alfred, I'm sorry that Kiku did what he did, but—"
"What? No!This isn'tabout him at all!This is about the dolphins,Mattie, the dolphins.Don't you care about them?"
Matthew frowned. "Yes. Fine. Let's just go do this."
Alfred smiled. "Thanks, Mattie. I knew I could count on you."
"…meanwhile, two activists are trying to break into the mayor's office to… well, we don't know what it is they want, exactly. Let's go to our field reporter, Gilbert Beilschmidt, to see if he can get answers out of these two," said the pretty brunette anchorwoman. "Gilbert?"
The screen divided to show an albino where the curly-haired anchorman had just been. There was a slight pause, and then he said, "Hey Liz! I'm here with this kid named Mattie. He and his brother Al are trying to talk to the mayor, but so far, no luck! Mattie, what is it you want to talk to Mayor Wang about?" He pushed his microphone into the face of a flustered blond boy with a picket sign. Matthew cleared his throat.
"Um. Well, my brother and me just want to tell the mayor about the dangers of, um… dolphin suicide." He murmured the last two words so quietly that some people didn't hear him.
"Could you repeat that last part a little louder, Mattie?" Gilbert grinned.
"…We want to tell the mayor about the dangers of dolphin suicide."
Arthur, who had previously been watching the newscast, turned off his television and left his house.
"That bloody idiot…thinks he can do whatever the hell he wants for his dolphins…I'll knock some sense into him…"
Arthur was on his way.
When Arthur arrived downtown, Gilbert was still talking with Matthew and getting increasingly handsy in areas the camera couldn't see. Arthur walked up to them, grabbed Matthew by his collar, and dragged him away.
"A-Arthur! Choking!"
"Huh?" Arthur let go of his collar. Matthew panted several times. "Oh, sorry. Where's your brother?"
Matthew frowned. "He texted me a few minutes ago and said he made it to the mayor's office, but that there were guards—"
"He's going to get himself bloody killed!" Arthur shouted. "Which way is it?"
"Um…follow me." Matthew trotted off down a random hallway.
Arthur followed him.
Meanwhile, Alfred was facing off in front of the guards that were trying to keep him from getting into the mayor's office.
In truth, he was trying not to get tazed.
"Hey! Easy where you stick that thing! These jeans cost me like, forty bucks! I do notwant burn marks because you think it's fun to play with electricity!" he yelled while dodging crazy tazer jabs. The guards were having a hard time believing he'd avoided them for so long. Well, that was video games for you…
"I mean, I just want to talk to him about dolphins that commit suicide! Is that so wrong?"
One of the guards dropped his tazer. "Dolphins commit suicide?" he blubbered. Alfred's face went blank.
"Um, yeah?"
"That's…That's so sad!" he cried. Tears streamed down his large face.
The other guard put his hand around his shoulders. "There, there, buddy. It'll be okay."
"You know…if I can get in there and give my pitch to the mayor…we can raise funding to keep dolphins from killing themselves…" said Alfred enticingly.
"Go on in!" sobbed the crying guard. Alfred grinned and slipped past them into the mayor's office.
When Alfred was a boy, he went to camp every year. It would be football camp one year, swimming camp the next, art camp the next…and so on.
When Alfred was nine years old, about to turn ten, he decided he wanted to go to space camp.
His parents, who were getting tired of all of Alfred's expensive desires, were about to say no, when their younger son, Matthew, said, "I want to go to space camp too. I never get to go to camp."
That was when they realized that, while they had been spending all of their money on fun things for Alfred, they had neglected to spend money on Matthew. To this day they're still not sure what he used to do over the summer while Alfred was away.
Anyway, when they heard that tiny, pitiful voice telling them it wanted to go off to space camp, while Alfred proudly pretended to fly a spaceship around the room, they decided to pay for Alfred's last camp, on the condition that he would watch out for his little baby brother while he was there.
At space camp, the boys were luckily put in the same cabin, though there were four other boys living there as well. There was a pair of Italian twins, a scary Russian boy who never took off his scarf, and a little Japanese boy turned out to be older than all of the others in the cabin.
Alfred, being Alfred, immediately took the top bunk next to the window, above where the Japanese boy had already established himself. (Since the twins bunked together, this left a very disappointed Matthew spending many sleepless nights under the heavy Russian boy who he was afraid was going to break his bunk and crush him to death.) Every morning, he would greet the Japanese boy who was always awake before him, and every night he would sleepily tell him not to let the bedbugs bite, and the Japanese boy (whose name was Kiku) would return him a sleepy "Oyasumi."
Alfred thought this was incredibly nice of Kiku and decided to take their friendship to the next level—the "sitting-next-to-the-potential-friend-at-lunch" stage. He got two points for his success because Kiku usually sat with his family.
(Matthew, of course, after being abandoned by his brother, ended up eating with the scary Russian kid who he was afraid was going to eat him.)
After this landmark success, he started spending all of his time with Kiku. When he'd wake up, he wouldn't just tell him it was going to be a great morning, he would walk with him all the way to the mess hall, to their activities, to lunch, to more activities, dinner, bed, everything. All the while talking about random stuff he could think up. Kiku usually just smiled politely and nodded along with Alfred.
(Matthew was left to spend his time with the scary Russian kid, who, once he actually tried talking to him, was actually quite a nice guy—once you got past the fact that he liked making stress balls shaped like hearts fall out of his coat at random points during meals, with ketchup all over them and everything.)
By the end of the summer, Alfred didn't think he could ever have a better friend than Kiku. They traded phone numbers and promised to call each other every day.
Alfred's parents were glad that their son had a new best friend, though they doubted it would last.
Oh, how wrong they were.
"Who is it, aru? Is it you, Stephan?" asked someone from within the mayor's office when Alfred slowly pushed open the door. "Is that annoying brat gone yet?"
"Um…no. No I'm not." Alfred stepped into the office and took a good look at the mayor, a man who he wanted lots of money from but didn't know the identity of.
Alfred had some very mixed up priorities.
"…Yao?"
The mayor looked up from his papers. When his gaze fell on Alfred, his face hardened. "What are you doing here?"
"I…I'm here to ask for some, um, dolphin saving—"
"I'm not paying you to sit around and do nothing with dolphins, aru. Now get out."
"But, if you'll just listen to my pitch—"
"I don't care about the dolphins and the city's budget is tight enough as it is. Besides," he said, staring coldly into Alfred's eyes, "why would I ever want to see you again, aru? After what you did?"
"I didn't do anything!" Alfred protested desperately. "I didn't mean…I didn't want anything to happen! It wasn't my fault!"
"I refuse to accept such…such…bullshit from you." Yao looked down. "If you leave my office now I will not call security, aru."
"Please listen."
"No."
"But—"
"Alfred, you dumbass, what the hell do you think you're doing?" shouted someone from outside the mayor's office. They also grunted and muttered something about hurrying up, after which came a tiny-voiced reply about how they were trying but there were two really burly guys on the ground crying or something—
"Artie?"
By high school, Alfred and Kiku were nearly inseparable. Kiku's family was like a second family to Alfred, and Alfred's to Kiku. They shared every secret.
Er, almost every secret.
"Oh my gosh, Kiku, is this your diary? I didn't know you had one of these!"
"N-No! Alfred, please put that down! It's personal, I really don't want you looking at it-"
"Oh my gosh it's illustrated! It's like a comic book!"
"…But it's written in Japanese!"
"Yeah, but I can still tell what's going on—is that…is that Ludwig and Feliciano? Kiku, that looks like a photograph—"
"W-Well, that's because it is." Kiku had blushed. Alfred had gaped and held the diary at several angles to try to understand what he was seeing.
"But how do they…how does it all fit? That kid is tiny,and you can't even see any protrusions, but you can really see he's in pain—"
"Alfred!" Kiku was sweating now. "Please just give it back to me."
"Nah, I wanna see what kind of other weird shit you've glued in here…hey, it's me!"
"Alfred, give me back my journal!" Kiku shouted. "Now!"
"But it's me—"
"Some things are meant to be kept to the self, Alfred, now give it back!"
"Jeez, okay, fine—" Alfred slammed the book shut, "—but you're really good at drawing, Kiku. You should try comics sometime." He grinned.
Kiku, if possible, turned redder. "Well, sometimes, I do little side projects with Elisa…you know, just for fun."
Alfred beamed. "Can I see some of them? I bet they're really good!"
"No, I…I don't think you would be very interested in the comics I draw. It's better if you don't look at them…"
"Why? It's not like they're super gay pornos or something, right?" Alfred laughed and Kiku burned silently on the other side of the room.
"Damn it, when will you stop with this? I see you on the news—well, I don't seeyou, but they say there's this crazy activist storming the mayor's office, and who the hell else could it be?—and I rush down here and you left poor Matthew to fend off that lecherous field reporter while you reduce some huge men to tears with your little 'speech', and—Yao?"
"How many people that I don't like am I going to be forced to see today?" Yao buried his face in his hands.
"What, you know Alfred?"
"Yes, he's the reason my brother is—"
"Now, let's all just calm down," Matthew started to say, but he was quickly cut off.
"Wait, which brother? You have, what, seven?"
Yao glared at Arthur. "Four. I have four. Five, if you want to count Lee, you son of a—"
"I'm sure we don't have to call each other names—"
"Artie, come on, I was just going to give my pitch!"
"Well, I guess it would be only four now, even counting Lee, thanks to that little shit who got in here just before you, aru."
"What? What do you mean?"
"You mean you don't know about what he and Kiku—?"
"We don't really need to talk about that, do we? Alfred's been through so much therapy—"
"Hey, so did you know dolphins can—"
"No one's listening to me," Matthew muttered to himself. He pulled out his cell phone. "I think it's time for me to make a call."
"Hey Kiku, you wanna play some—" Alfred yelled while he let himself into Kiku's house.
"Kiku isn't here right now!" someone shouted from the kitchen. "Didn't he tell you? He has a meeting with Elisa!"
"Huh?" Alfred walked to the kitchen, where he found Kiku's brother Yao cooking something. "He didn't tell me anything about that. I wonder why."
"Ah, he probably just forgot, aru. No need to worry." He waved a hand. "He said he would be back at around 3:30, so you can just go wait in his room if you like."
"Thanks." Alfred made his way up the stairs, passing a blonde kid with big eyebrows fixing his collar on the way down the stairs, then slipped into Kiku's room.
It was clean, as everything was about Kiku. He couldn't stand dust or dirt or disorder. His motto was, "If it looks clean then it is clean," or something like that. Alfred sat down on the perfectly folded bed after setting his backpack on the ground and stared at Kiku's hamster which was happily sleeping across the room. What was its name again? Hamtaro or something?
Alfred quickly glanced around the room to see if anything was different from when he'd left late the night before. No, not really…hey, what was that book?
Alfred got up and walked over to Kiku's table. It was his diary! The one he didn't want Alfred to look at! The one with all of Kiku's personal secrets in it!
But…they were best friends, weren't they? They were supposed to tell each other their secrets, weren't they? Alfred knew he'd told Kiku all of his…so it wouldn't matter if he looked because he probably knew everything about Kiku already!
He opened the diary and flipped to a page with the drawing of himself that he'd seen the last time he'd come over, then started reading all of the comics that came afterwards.
Not very many of them had Alfred in them. Some of them were of his family, or Elisa with weird glinting eyes, and there was even one of that kid with the big eyebrows he'd met coming down the stairs! Where was all the awesome?
He slammed the book shut and put it back on the table. If Kiku didn't want to tell his diary about him, he'd just have to snoop through Kiku's other stuff!
Ten minutes later, after ransacking his best friend's room, he found a pile of comics hidden in the corner of the closet.
The first one had a picture of Ludwig and Feli on it—one eerily similar to the one that was still pasted into Kiku's diary. The title said "ラドーフェリドキドキ"*. Alfred tossed it to the side.
The second had his brother and the Russian kid on it. He threw it across the room and had to tell himself it was just a comic a few times.
The third had just a picture of Kiku himself on it. The title was, "愛してる*." Alfred decided to take a look inside.
He opened the cover…
"What did you do to my room?" someone screeched from the doorway. Alfred whirled around. It was Kiku!
"I was just looking for something…" he muttered sheepishly, trying to hide the comic behind his back.
Kiku's eyes fell on him, and then they fell on the badly hidden comic. "Drop that. Drop that now."
"But it looks really cool—"
"It is not. Give it to me. Do not read it."
"But I just wanted—"
"Give it to me!" yelled Kiku. "It is mine and I did not give you permission to read it!"
"But…Kiku…"
"Now."
Alfred got up and walked over to Kiku. He pressed the comic into Kiku's waiting hands. "Sorry. I'll just leave now." He picked up his bag and walked out of the room.
Kiku sighed and sat down on his bed. He opened the comic and began to read.
Matthew quickly dialed a number he knew by heart. The person on the other end of the line picked up after the first ring. "Hey! It's me. Listen…I need a favor." A pause. "Oh, you saw it on TV, huh…? Yeah, that's what it's about…" A pause. "So I was wondering if you come over and help me out with this…No, not the activist thing, calming down everyone else here and making sure Yao doesn't kill Arthur and Alfred, or something like that…" A pause. "Well, um…now? Would that be possible?" Another pause. "Thanks! I'll see you soon!" He hung up and shoved the phone back into his pocket.
Several seconds later, large, booming footsteps were heard coming down the hall to the mayor's office. Everyone inside stopped yelling and turned toward the door.
A large man walked into the room and put his hands on Matthew's shoulders. "Hello everyone! I hope we are all getting along! Friends need to get along, da?" He smiled happily.
"I-Ivan…? M-Mattie…why did you call this…"
"This what?" asked Matthew.
"This…scary-ass motherfucker you spend all of your time with!"
"Ah. I do not think "motherfucker" would be the right word," announced Ivan. "I believe "brotherfucker" would be more appropriate."
Matthew blushed and Alfred fainted.
Alfred knew he had to get that comic while Kiku wasn't around. But how? Since that day, Kiku had been spending all of his time with Elisa. There was no way Kiku would let him into his house, and he'd probably told his family all about what had happened, so they wouldn't let him in either…
He spent most of his time thinking about his predicament, including while he was walking home. It left his brain occupied, making it easy to bump into him.
"Oi! Watch where you're going!"
Alfred looked up. It was that guy with the big eyebrows he'd seen at Kiku's house. "Oh. Sorry."
"You should be." The guy sniffed. "Wait, haven't I seen you before?" He looked Alfred over. "At Mei's house?"
"Yeah!" It was at Kiku's house, which meant… "Hey, are you going there any time soon?"
"I was on my way there right now. Why?" The guy with the giant eyebrows looked at him suspiciously.
"I, um, left something there. Do you think you could get it for me?"
"Why can't you get it yourself?"
"Me and Kiku…had a fight." Alfred looked at the ground shamefully. "It's in his room, in the back of the closet, I think."
The guy with the giant eyebrows sighed. "Just tell me what it is."
"It's this book, and it has a picture of Kiku on the cover with some Japanese writing above him. Do you think you can get it?"
The guy with the eyebrows nodded. "Sure. But you'll owe me one, um…"
"Oh! I'm Alfred." He stuck out his hand for the eyebrows guy to shake.
"Arthur." Arthur shook Alfred's hand firmly. "I'll hopefully be able to give it to you tomorrow."
"Thanks!"
"I-Ivan! You made my brother faint! Why did you have to go and say that?"
"It is true, da? Then why should I not say it?" Ivan looked genuinely confused. Matthew shook his head.
"Never mind. Just…can you pick him up or something? Arthur, can you call an ambulance?"
"Why does he need an ambulance? All he did was faint from shock. He'll probably wake up in a few minutes."
"Then I do not need to pick him up?"
"Pick him up anyway and put him on the couch!"
Meanwhile, Alfred dreamed.
"Here it is." Alfred looked up from his lunch and saw Arthur standing before him, holding the comic he'd found at Kiku's house. "I got it for you, just like you asked."
"Did you look inside?"
"No. Was I supposed to?"
Alfred shook his head. "No, it's fine. Thanks for getting it for me."
Arthur nodded. "You owe me one now, got that?"
"Yeah, yeah…"
Arthur narrowed his eyes, but said nothing and walked away.
Alfred opened the comic book.
It was all written in Japanese, just like the title, but he could tell what the pictures were. Most of them were either Kiku or some random facial feature, but those facial features looked weirdly familiar…
On one of the last pages the picture was of an entire person, smiling happily and making a peace sign. With a jolt, Alfred realized it was him.
The next page was completely black except for some white Japanese writing, but the page after it was of Alfred again, this time hugging Kiku tightly and saying in English, "I love you too."
Alfred felt his heart stop, then start to race.
Kiku…why would he…this was so wrong,they were friends,and Alfred knew he had neverfelt that way about him, ever!So why would he…how could someone write this about their best friend? It was just so…
Alfred didn't know what to do. How could he pretend he didn't know about this? How could he just fakenot knowing that his best friend in the whole world for so long felt that way about him? It was weird!
"Ano…what is that you have, Alfred?"
Alfred jumped. "K-Kiku! This? Oh, it-it's nothing, you don't need to worry about it—"
Kiku gazed at him sadly. It seemed his eyes were going through Alfred's entire being, raking his soul for information on what he had done. "So you have seen it."
"S-Seen what?"
"Do not play dumb with me, Alfred. I can see it in your hand. May I have it back?"
"…Yes," Alfred muttered, giving Kiku back the comic. Kiku slipped it into his back pocket.
"Thank you."
"I, um…I didn't really read it, because I can't read Japanese, but…the last page…"
"Yes. It was in English, because that is what you speak."
"Um, Kiku, I don't really, um, like you in that way. Just so you know." Alfred looked at his sandwich.
"I am now aware of this. Thank you for telling me." Kiku's voice cracked on the last word and Alfred looked over at him.
"K-Kiku? Are you crying?"
"Ano…I-I am not crying! I do not cry!" protested Kiku. "Why would you say that I am if I am not?"
"Kiku, I'm really sorry! Please don't cry!" Alfred tried to wrap his arms around Kiku to hug him and calm him down, but he was pushed away.
"Do not touch me!" Kiku shouted. "I will go now, as I wish to be alone!" He got up and ran out.
"I…"
"What have you done?" screeched someone with a feminine voice. Alfred turned.
"Elisa?"
She opened her backpack and pulled out a large frying pan.
"Whoa, Elisa, what are you going to do with tha—" SMACK!
"That is for breaking my best friend's heart," sniffed Elisa. "How could you do that? Do you know how much Kiku lovesyou? He's just so…" She paused. "I have to go find him and make sure he doesn't do something stupid." She ran off.
Through the pain in his unusually hard head, Alfred registered her words and could only think, Something stupid? Like what?
Alfred dreamed.
He was at a crossroads. There was some kind of weathervane at about his height at the corner, but it was shaped like a dolphin and it was pointing straight ahead, though there was no wind. On the road to the left was a giant, red letter "K". When Alfred looked closer, he could see Kiku sitting on top of it, smiling at him. On the right was a giant, green "A" that Arthur was sitting on top of.
"Pick one."
Alfred glanced back and forth between the two. There was Kiku, smiling as though nothing had happened, as if he…
And then there was Arthur, who was scowling at him, and looking impatient. "Hurry up!" he shouted.
Kiku pulled something out of his pocket and threw it at Alfred. At the same time, Arthur did the same. He managed to catch one in each hand.
Kiku had thrown a branch from a sakura tree, but when Alfred caught it, it withered and died. Kiku laughed.
Arthur had thrown a single blue flower, and when Alfred caught it, it burst into hundreds of colorful flowers of all different types. They gently tickled Alfred's cheeks. Alfred looked up at Arthur, who he could see was smiling.
He glanced back at Kiku, who had sprouted black wings. Kiku smiled at him again, then flew off into the sky. The K crumbled and the entire path disappeared.
Arthur hopped off of the giant A and landed softly. He extended a hand to Alfred. "Are you coming or what?"
Alfred headed off down Arthur's road.
Elisa found Kiku on the edge of the roof, leaning over the bar. "Kiku! No! Stop! You don't have to do this!" she shouted, running toward him.
"Do what?" Kiku asked tiredly.
"You don't have to end it."
"What, you thought I was going to—oh, no." Kiku turned around. "I wouldn't do that, Elisa." He smiled. "I was just thinking of how to proceed from here, since I just lost my best friend due to a mysterious appearance of that stupid doujin…"
"It's not stupid, Kiku. It was beautiful. Alfred's just too much of an idiot to realize it."
"Even if he does think it is beautiful, that does not mean he agrees with its message," Kiku sighed and looked back out over the railing. "I have lost one of my greatest hopes. What do I do with my life now?"
Elisa stared at him. "You could…you could tell your mother."
Kiku whirled around. "Tell her? But she would…" His eyes grew as he realized what Elisa was trying to say. "Oh, you are very clever, Elisa. Cleverer than you give yourself credit for." Elisa blushed. "Telling Mother…what an interesting idea."
"I mean, you could start over again in Japan. You could join their space program or something, I know you could do it, Kiku." Elisa smiled. "And you know Yao, he'd tell everyone you 'committed suicide' or something. Family suicide, though he'd probably forget to tell people that."
"That would be just like him, wouldn't it?"
"You might as well leave now, if you really want to do it," said Elisa. "I'll miss you, Kiku. You'll have to email me any new doujin you write, okay?"
Kiku smiled softly at her. "Of course. Now, let's go." He walked over to her, and together, they left the roof, and Kiku left his old life behind.
"…fred! Alfred, wake up!"
Alfred slowly opened his eyes. Matthew, Arthur, and Ivan were all hovering above him. "Wuz goin' on?"
"Alfred! You're awake!" said Matthew. "I was worried about you!"
"Iz the commie's fault…" murmured Alfred.
"I do wish you would not call me that."
"You idiot. You shouldn't go and faint like that," sniffed Arthur. "You hit your head on the floor."
Alfred grinned. "Sorry, Artie…my head does hurt a little bit…you wanna kiss it and make it better?"
"I—what—how can you say that—it's…" Arthur spluttered, going red.
"Just kidding~" Alfred sang. He sat up. "How long was I out?"
"Only about twenty minutes. Yao has a really nice clock in here, don't you?"
"Now that he's awake, could you all leave? I have an important meeting in a few minutes, aru!" shouted Yao from the desk.
"It can't be that important." Arthur rolled his eyes. "But we'll leave. Come on, Alfred." He helped Alfred up off the couch. "We should get you some better rest after fainting like that."
"Can I sleep in your bed?" Alfred asked teasingly. Arthur just glared and turned around.
"N-No."
"Aw, but it's so comfortable…" Ivan and Matthew started walking out of Yao's office and down the hallway. Alfred and Arthur followed close behind.
"Also, how will he rest properly with all of the noise Matthew will soon be making?"
"Ivan! Not in front of my brother!"
"But is true, no? So why should I not say it?"
"Artie, I think I'm gonna have to sleep over at your place…I can't stand this talk anymore…" Alfred whispered to Arthur.
"Well, it is the reason you fainted in the first place…I suppose it would be alright."
"Thanks, man. Hey, um, you never actually told me why—ah!" Alfred had bumped into someone. "Oh, sorry, man, I wasn't looking where I was going, and…"
"Oh, no, I apologize. My mind was elsewhere as well." The man, who was a little shorter than Alfred and seemed to be Asian, bowed. "I am sorry for the trouble, Alfred-san." He walked away towards Yao's office.
Alfred started off after his brother and Ivan again, but then stopped. "How did he know my name?" he asked Arthur.
"Dunno. Come on, let's just get you to my place."
"Okay." Alfred grinned.
"Yao-san? May I come in?"
"Kiku!" Yao smiled. "Of course, aru."
"Ano, there are some muscular men crying on the floor outside your office…"
"Don't mind them."
"Also, I saw Alfred-san with Arthur-san…when I was coming here."
Yao grimaced. "Yes, Alfred apparently wants to save the dolphins…from committing suicide, apparently."
Kiku chuckled. "I am glad to see that he is happy, though. Perhaps I shall pay him a visit some time, now that I am back in America for the time being."
"Actually, aru…" Yao's face took on a very awkward expression. "Due to some, ah…miscommunication…everyone here thinks you're dead, including Alfred."
Kiku blinked. "I had assumed that would happen."
"What? But—"
"It is fine. Thank you for being such a good brother, Yao-san." Kiku smiled.
"…I think he's moved on now. It seems he and Arthur…"
"Yes, I had noticed that, and I am happy for him."
"That's good. So, tell me about what you've been doing with yourself lately…"
"Oh, yes, it's all quite interesting…"
And though their story may have been sad, let it be said that they all got their happy ending.
Translations:
Doujin 1: "Luddy Feli Doki Doki"
Doujin 2: I love you
AN: …
I meant to end that about, what, six thousand words ago?
It's earlier than I expected. Man, it took me about a week to write this…I thought I'd start around Thanksgiving, but I guess that didn't happen…
But it was fun! Thanks for the idea, Stormageddon.
(Speaking of stress balls shaped like anatomically correct hearts, I have one of those. It's freaking awesome. I got it at my AP Bio lab.)
Thanks for reading!
EDIT: Anyone else been having trouble with fanfiction not putting spaces between italicized words? I just had to go through this and put them all back in...FIX IT, FANFICTION.