When Arthur arrived home, the phone was ringing.

"Bloody hell," he muttered under his breath. "Can't I have one moment of peace?" He picked up the ringing nuisance. "Hello?"

"Hola Arthur! Como estas?"

Arthur sighed.

"Hello Antonio. I'm fine. How are-?"

"Don't lie to me, mi amigo. I know that you're upset."

"I'm not upset!"

"Si. You are. If you weren't upset you wouldn't have kicked Francis out."

'Damn that Spainard! He knew everything!'

"But you're not the only one that's upset. Francis is miserable."

"Yeah yeah. I bet he told you to say that."

"No. Francis is out right now."

"Picking up women?" Arthur asked scathingly.

"No."

"Well where is he then?"

"He's missing. He said he was going to drown his sorrows, but I couldn't find him at any bar."

Arthur was surprised.

Whenever Francis was upset he would go get drunk with his friends.

And what Arthur had done would definitely have upset him.

"Really?"

"Si. I have no idea where he is."

"How upset was he? Compare to…you know."

"Worse," Antonio said simply.

"Worse?"

"Si. I've never seen him this down before. It's like no matter what I do, it doesn't make a dent." Antonio stopped and Arthur knew what was coming and dreaded it. "You need to talk to him."

"Why do I need to?"

"Because Francis loves you. If it doesn't come from you, nothing will work."

"But I don't know where to find him! Nor do I want to see him! Do you know what he did?"

"Si. And I also know what he DIDN'T do."

Arthur was confused.

"What do you mean?"

"I know that he never slept with that woman."

Arthur was silent.

"Mi amigo? You still there?"

Arthur swallowed.

"Y-Yeah. I'm still here. How do you know that he didn't sleep with her?"

"Because Francis was only talking to her. She had something he wanted and was trying to get it. All he did was take her to lunch to discuss some stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

"Business. For France."

"Why do you know this?"

"Francis told me himself. I know that women too. I was the one who introduced her to Francis."

Arthur was still.

"Y-You introduced them?"

"Si. I knew she had what he was looking for."

"Are you sure?"

"Si."

"Then why was he out until three in the morning?"

"Ah." Antonio sounded uncomfortable. "That would be Gilbert's and my fault. We were getting drinks and got rather drunk. We thought it would be funny if we ditched him on the side of the road and he would have to walk home."

Arthur was shocked.

"Y-You ditched him? And the reason he took so long to get home was because he had to walk?"

"Si."

"Why didn't he call me to pick him up?"

"Well…" Antonio sounded even more uncomfortable. "We had his phone. It was in Gilbert's pocket when we dumped him."

"You could have gotten him killed you bloody idiot! Why would you do that?"

"I told you that we were drunk!"

Something suddenly struck Arthur.

"Wait a moment. You said that he was worse than before, right?"

"Si. He just moped around the house all day after he got back from the school."

"And you said that he 'was going to drown his sorrows', correct?"

"Si. I don't see what you're getting at though."

"When did you last see him?"

"About an hour ago."

"Can you watch Alfred and Matthew for me? I need to find Francis before he does something stupid!"

"Sure. I will be there soon. Adiós!"

Arthur threw the phone down and ran upstairs.

"Alfred! Matthew!" he called desperately.

They appeared at once.

"What is it Daddy? What's wrong?"

Arthur kneeled down to look into the boys' faces.

"I have to go. Antonio is coming over to watch you. Wait in your room until he gets here. Don't open the door for anyone else! Do you understand?"

They nodded.

"Yes Daddy," they said in unison.

"Good boys," Arthur said as he hugged them. "Antonio will use his secret knock so you know it's him. Be good while I'm gone."

They hugged him back.

"We will Daddy."

"I have to go now. I don't know when I'll be back, but Antonio will take good care of you until I'm home."

"Where are you going?" Matthew asked.

"I'm going to find your Papa."

"So you're not mad at him anymore?"

"No Matthew. I'm furious with him. He's going to do something foolish and I need to stop him before he does. He keeps saying that I don't know the whole story so I'm going to find it out."

He stood up.

"Goodbye boys."

"Bye Daddy!"

Arthur made sure his passport was in his pocket before he left the house.

Arthur hurried to the ticket counter.

"I need a ticket for the next flight to Paris!"

"Well there's only one seat left for a flight that leaves in an hour," the woman behind the counter said.

"An hour? I can't wait that long! If I don't get to Paris immediately, I'm going to lose my children's parent!"

The woman looked sympathetic.

"I'm sorry, but I that's the best I can do."

"Isn't there any way you can bend a rule? I'm an important dignitary!"

"You are? Do you have any form of Identification?"

Arthur pulled out a card and gave it to the woman.

Her eyebrows rose in amazement as she turned to look back at him.

"I believe there is something I can do Mr. Kirkland."

"There is? What is it?"

The woman winked.

"I can get you a private jet."

Arthur stared at her.

"R-Really?"

She nodded.

"H-How much will it cost?"

"Seventeen hundred pounds."

Arthur paled.

That would be a big cut to his wallet, but he would be able to manage.

He pulled out a credit card and handed it to the woman.

"Have a good flight. You should be in Paris in about an hour."

"Thank you."

Arthur retrieved his credit card and ran to security.

Arthur dashed out of the airport in Paris and climbed into a cab.

"Me prendre à Pont des Arts aussi rapidement que vous le pouvez!" he shouted at the driver.

The driver jumped and sped into the road.

Arthur tried to peer out the window as they drove, but the pouring rain impeded his view.

"STOP!" he yelled as he saw a figure standing on the bridge.

The driver skidded to a stop.

"FRANCIS!" Arthur screamed as he jumped out of the cab.

The figure slowly turned to him.

"Oh," he said in a monotone voice. "Allo Arthur. Fancy seeing you here."

"Don't talk to me like that! Are you seriously going to kill yourself over two little boys?"

"Non."

"Then why are you up there?"

"Because of you."

Arthur took a shocked step back.

"M-Me? What about me?"

Francis sighed.

"You don't believe how much I love you. Nor do you love me anymore." He turned back to the bridge.

"Don't do this Francis! If you die, millions of Frenchman will die! Don't you care about them at all? These are your people! You can't just wipe France off the map like that!"

"You don't get it Arthur! You've never known how much you meant to me! Joan was nozing compared to you! Nozing!"

Arthur stared at him.

"R-Really?"

"Oui! You were my whole world! And you ruined it in minutes because you wouldn't listen!" He stepped to the edge of the bridge. "Goodbye Arthur. Tell Alfred and Matthew zat I love zem."

And with that he stepped off the bridge.

"FRANCIS!"

AN: FRANCIS! NOOOO!

Ah mah gosh! Francis jumped off the bridge! He killed himself because Arthur wouldn't love him anymore!

Nuuu!

But you can look up the French yourself, as usual. Sorry about that but I think it's easier to have two tabs open and just flip back and forth rather than scroll to the bottom and back up. You see the ending before you get there and it just spoils it. Like how I accidentally read the last page of the last Harry Potter trying to figure out how many pages it was. *tears*

Anyway! I'm gonna take a nap, (because I didn't sleep last night writing this for you!), do some hamework, then type up the next chapter which I wrote in class today.

See ya soon!