Fairytale
Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.
Note: Words in normal font are in another language, words that are in italics are in English.
"I got us tickets to see Sharon's show." Tino said at the breakfast table holding up six tickets to the Performing Arts Center where an English Shakespearean theatre troop were going to be performing Shakespeare's Hamlet.
"Sharon? As in your sister?" Arthur asked, spreading lingonberries jam onto his toast. He had never met Tino's older sister though he had heard a great deal about her. She looked a lot like Tino from what he had been told with his blond hair and light purple eyes, she worked as a stage actress in England where she met her fiancé David, they were getting married later this year.
"Yeah, she's playing Ophelia. She was telling me that the one actually playing Hamlet though isn't the one in the posters. I guess the original actor was in an accident and broke his leg a few days before the tour." Tino said taking a swig of his orange juice before carrying on with his sister's gossip. "The new actor's name is Francis, he lives in Paris and commutes to London to work. I told her that you had a thing for Frenchmen, Arthur, but she said she didn't know much about his personal life other then he seems very sad when he thinks no one is watching him." Tino babbled happily while Arthur mulled over the Finnish man's words. There must have been a thousand of Frenchmen named Francis, there was no way that this could be the Francis that held the answers to his past. But Arthur couldn't help but hope, ever since he had learned that the mysterious blond was a man named Francis that was all he could think about. He wanted to find Francis and find out what he had done to the man to make him so agonized. The man's haunting words from his dream a few weeks ago played in his head again How could you do this to me?
"Sounds like fun." Mattias agreed.
"Your English is terrible; you'd be bored half way through it." Lukkas commented not even looking at the spikey haired Dane.
"Nah, people die, even if I don't understand what they're saying, I'll understand what's going on." Mattias protested, "Besides your English isn't any better than mine."
"Yes, but I have class, you act like a child a social events." Lukkas responded, Mattias stuck his tongue out at the Nord. "Point proven." Erik let out a snort of amusement from where he sat on the other side of his brother.
"I wouldn't mind going to see it." Arthur said ignoring the verbal sparring that had commenced between Lukkas and Mattias, the Dane would be leaving soon to go to work anyway.
"Yeah, be nice to hear something in your mother tongue again, right?" Mattias asked, bumping elbows with the Brit.
"I guess," Arthur shrugged, "I've been hearing Danish for so long though…." He trailed off. He'd woken up, three years ago, understanding English and hardly any Danish. The first few weeks of living with the young intern, who had been there when he woke up, and his roommates had been awkward as he tried to pick up more Danish so that he would be able to communicate with them better. Berwald had acted as a translator most of the time, and Arthur had picked up Danish as fast as he could. Still those first months had been lonely even though he had been surrounded by people, not only had he been dealing with losing nineteen years' worth of memories, but he couldn't communicate with hardly anybody either. And finally after six months he was able to hold simple conversations with Mattias and Lukkas, it wasn't much, but it was a start. Now, Arthur wasn't sure he could discern English from Danish anymore; he very rarely used his mother tongue.
"Berwald told me that the one thing you can't truly forget is the language you were born with. Something about being a child and developing the language in your brain." Tino said trying to make Arthur feel better.
"Wow, that's cool. How did Berwald get so smart?" Mattias asked his light blue eyes lighting up with a childlike wonder only the Dane could pull off.
"Well Koehler, he paid attention in school unlike you who goofed around all the time." Lukkas replied.
"Well if we are going to this play I'm going to need a suit." Arthur said standing up from the breakfast table. In his three years of living with the Nords he had never had an occasion where he would have needed one. Trying to get a job at a local café certainly didn't require such a thing, and he was only in his second semester of the online college, no need to worry about job interviews yet.
"When is the play?" Lukkas asked, his head cocked to the side slightly, the small curl that came out from the back of his head was askew. The curl reminded Arthur of somebody… another mystery that would never be solved. If he knew where he had come from before Copenhagen he would go there, if only to find out who he had been.
"Tonight." Tino squeaked, his face going red in embarrassment. "I kept forgetting to ask you because something kept coming up."
"Well then, it's a good thing I have this afternoon off." Arthur said, "I'm looking for a suit."
"Ooo, I know a few good places." Tino said with a smile. "I'll help you." Arthur nodded; he would take any help he could get. Fashion and clothes were not his forte, why couldn't people just got to social events in jeans and sweater vests or khakis and a sweater vests, or a nice button up shirt?
His shift at the café went by slowly as his friend Mai wasn't there to talk constantly and make the time go by faster. Mai was from Tiwan and she was here in Copenhagen on a student visa studying medicine, from what Arthur had gleaned, Copenhagen had some of the best schools for medicine in the world, and some of the best up to date facilities too. Her boyfriend Leon lived in Hong Kong still doing something in the world of business like Mattias. But his shift ended eventually and Tino was there waiting for him right outside, "Hey," Tino chirped waving at Arthur to catch his attention as he walked outside the café.
"Okay, so where are we going?" Arthur asked as they set off down the street towards the downtown area of Copenhagen. Tall buildings, nearly skyscrapers, surrounded them as they walked but the tall buildings no longer made Arthur feel claustrophobic any more as they once did, now they reminded him of how they felt like home. Home. Arthur hadn't felt like he had a home in a long time, maybe he had never felt like he'd had a home before. It seemed like a strange concept… to not have a home, but it was one of those feelings that Arthur had that he didn't know how he knew he just did. Berwald said it was a good sign.
"A store," Tino said with an impish smile. The tiny Finn did remind Arthur of a sprite or an elf of some sort in ways that he wasn't quite sure. It was the light purple eyes probably, mixed with the light blond hair; it suited the Finn too. Arthur crossed his arms and let out a huff but didn't protest and allowed the Finn to drag him to whatever store he wanted to. It wasn't as if Tino wasn't bad company or anything.
The little men's dress store Tino dragged him into was more expensive then Arthur ever cared to spend on clothes. All the famous name brand Italian, French, American and Swedish designers were in this place. Arthur was a little afraid to touch the clothing as if like some expensive breakable item it would shatter if he was not careful with it. What would he do with an Armani suit after tonight? When would he ever use it again, it certainly wasn't the sort of suit you could go to a job interview, well maybe unless you were applying for a CEO position or something of the sort. "Well go on, try one on." Tino encouraged with one of his smiles that were hard to resist.
"Tino, really, what would I do with a suit like this?" Arthur asked holding up a black pinstripe Armani suit. "Wear it for one night and then hang it up and let it gather dust in the back of my closet?"
"You never know, you could always wear it on one of your dates." Tino said teasingly, "Don't worry about the future; you never know what the future has in store for you. Besides Berwald and I are paying."
Arthur raised his hand up to object, he couldn't allow Berwald or any of them for that matter to pay for an expensive suit for him, especially one he probably would never use again in his life. "No, no," But the look on Tino's face told him this was not an argument he was going to win. For such a little imp, he really was quite stubborn. "Fine," Arthur sighed glad that none of the sales people were rushing up to them and asking if they needed help, quite annoying that was.
"You're going to look handsome." Tino said clapping his hands at Arthur's choice of suits. With a roll of the eyes and a small grumble about going shopping with certain people, he made his way to a dressing room to know if the pinstriped Armani suit fitted him or would he need a rush fitting for it. Absentmindedly he wondered why exactly Tino knew about this place, it wasn't like Berwald was one for social events, especially not ones where Armani suits were involved. The giant, as gentle as he was, was socially awkward in his own ways and Arthur knew that Tino found that very enduring about the Swede.
The suit fit him for the most part. It could do with some hemming around the ankles and wrists but Arthur didn't have the patience to wait for such things to be done. And as Tino paid for the suit, the short man began to talk about an after party. "I hope you don't mind, Arthur, I was only trying to help but Sharon helped me set you up on a blind date with another one of the actors." Shock rolled through Arthur, Tino had set him up on a blind date? When had the Finn started to play Cupid? Arthur expected this kind of behavior from Mattias, not from the quite, pixie man in front of him.
"Why?" Was the only thing Arthur said. He wasn't angry; at least he didn't think he was angry. He just wasn't sure what exactly he was supposed to feel, Tino was only trying to help and it was no secret that Arthur kept fucking up his own love life. Maybe it was better if someone else intervened, obviously he needed help.
"Sharon says he doesn't date often and he's very nice." Tino said, "I think you'll like him." Arthur sighed; liking a date and not screwing it up were two very different things. Two very different things indeed.
"I'll give it a shot, but I don't know what will come of it, he more than likely lives in London." But there already was a smile on Tino's face telling Arthur the Finn hadn't heard the last part of his sentence and he saw no use in repeating himself, he would just have to see where tonight at the after party took him.
"How did you manage to get such good seats?" Mattias asked as they made their way to the center of the second row of seats in the Fine Arts Center where the Shakespearean Theater Company was performing. Around them the auditorium was filling up with Copenhagen's well to do. Arthur wondered if the company performed here often since this seemed to be a high society event.
"Sharon." Was Berwald response before he sat down in between Tino and Lukkas, Arthur was on the other side of Tino and Mattias sat on the other side of Lukkas. Only Eric hadn't come tonight, he had some excuse about studying and meeting up with his boyfriend. Arthur flipped open the program, his eyes scrolling through the list of actors and actresses trying to determine which one he had been set up on a blind date with tonight at the after party. And then the name jumped out at him like blaring red lights Francis Bonnefoy, him, the blond man. Arthur felt his breath hitch as he tried to figure out how to handle the situation, his past love (so he supposed) was here, he was an actor in this Shakespearean company and Arthur was here watching it and what was the odds of that? After three years of wondering and waiting, just as his memories were beginning to return he would start running into them. Whoever them were.
"Arthur, are you okay?" Tino asked as the house lights began to go dim and someone over the loud speaker asked them to please turn off their cellphones, that flash photography was forbidden and that they not get up and leave unless it was an emergency until intermission. Arthur nodded; it wasn't worth getting any of them worked into a tizzy.
Two men were already on stage, one peered at the other as if he couldn't see him very well. One of them called out to the other and they began to hold a conversation as if they were friends. And then two more men walked on stage and a short while later one of the first men walked off stage leaving the other three men on to converse. Then from one of the wings appeared the ghost of Hamlet's father and the three men coward in fear, Arthur would have found it funny, three men cowering in fear of a man dressed in all black and his face covered in white makeup, if he hadn't been so enamored by trying to figure out who Francis Bonnefoy was playing. The three guards of such pushed each other around as if to decide who would talk to said ghost.
And then the ghost left almost as fast as it had appeared, the ghost that would set the whole ball rolling for the play. The three men talked for a while on whether or not who they had seen really was the king. And then ghost reappeared and the men didn't act as frightened this time. But the ghost was gone faster than it had prior and the men continued to talk about ghost. And when the conversation seemed over the lights went out so there was only a dark blue so the stage hands could see where they were placing the set. Seven actors walked out on stage, Arthur couldn't make out face or anything during the blue out but six of them stood towards the center and one stood a few a feet from the other as if he was sulking. The man in the middle wore a majestic navy blue doublet and fencing sword at his hip and a golden crown on top of his head that reminded Arthur of the crown he'd seen in photographs of the king of Denmark wearing.
"Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death The memory of green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe, Yet so far hath discretion fought our nature That we with wisest sorrow think on him," The man the king, Hamlet's uncle Claudius said, and the others save for the one on the outskirts whom Arthur could not see well, the light did not shine too much on him, listened with intent as if drinking in every word the man said. As if they believe that he was truly sorry for his brother's death. "Together with remeberance of ourselves. Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen," He gestured to the woman beside him, she looked kind but that wasn't Tino's sister. Who had he said his sister was playing again? Arthur couldn't remember now. The king droned on and Arthur half listened and half wondered who Francis was playing and if he would look like how Arthur remembered him.
And then the King had stopped speaking and two men were. "In that and all things will we show our duty." One of the actors let out a loud snort but none of the others seem to pay it any mind.
"We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell." The King said and the two who had just spoken in snycrinsation with one another left the stage, the King turned to another man. "And now, Laertes, what's the news with you? You told us of some suit; what's it Laertes? You cannot speak of reason to the Dane, And loose your voice: what wouldst thou beg, Laertes, That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?" The King sounded angry as he spoke to the young man. "The head is more native to the heart, the hand more instrumental to the mouth, Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father. What wouldst thou have, Laertes?"
"My dread lord, Your leave and favor to return to France; From whence though willingly I came to Denmark, To show my duty in your coronation, Yet now, I must confess, that duty done, My thoughts and wishes bend again towards France And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon." The young man whom the king was raising his voice towards spoke and with a calmness that the king had not portrayed.
"Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?" The King asked turning to another man on stage. The man off to the side watched the conversations with mild interest but Arthur couldn't glean much more.
"He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave By laborsome petition, and at last Upon his will I seal'd my hard consent: I do beseech you, to him leave to go." The older man said putting his hand on the younger man's shoulder.
"Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, And thy best graces spend it at thy will!" The King turned to the man off to the side now. "But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son-" The spot light shone finally on the young man off to the side and Arthur could finally see him properly. Medium length blond hair rolled in waves off of his head to behind his back. A green doublet brought out more of the blue in his eyes. He had not shaved the stubble off of his prominent chin and Arthur felt himself grow faint as if his eyes could see him. This was Francis Bonnefoy the man from Arthur's memories.
"A little more than kin, and less than kind." Francis seemed to mutter to himself and Arthur realized that unlike most of the other actors Francis would be on stage almost the whole time and he would be there glaring at Arthur in the face. This was no mere man on stage this was an angel, he was Arthur's angel.
Every day we started fighting,
Every night we fell in love,
No one else could make me sadder,
But no one else could lift me high above.
I don't know what I was doing,
When suddenly we fell apart.
Nowadays, I cannot find her,
But when I do we'll get a brand new start.
I'm in love with a fairytale,
Even though it hurts,
'Cause I don't care if I lose my mind,
I'm already cursed.
Author's Note (The part of the story where the author comes out and writes a silly note): Tino set Arthur up on a blind date and suddenly Francis reappears in his life. Oh no! (The author now doges rotten tomatoes thrown at her because she's being too over dramatic)