The Real Reason France Is Broke

By: 246Nakuro

Summary: People always wonder why France isn't all that wealthy, well if they knew the reason behind it they might also realize why and how long it took him to get used to it.

ONE SHOT

Francis lied back on the couch talking while drinking with his sons and England. Arthur of course was growling at them because while drunk he always growled at everyone. When he stood up however he headed towards the kitchen.

"Angleterre be careful!" France called out then shook his head and mumbled taking a sip of his wine. "Oh you'll figure it out."

Alfred raised an eyebrow at him only to hear something crash and then thousands of glasses to break. As Alfred looked towards the sound he heard a groan.

"Bloody frog! You did this on purpose!" They heard Arthur yell and France placed his wineglass down and headed towards the sound.

"Oui." Francis sighed out. "Let's get you cleaned up."

Francis hadn't always been ok with Arthur destroying his stuff even if it was an accident. If fact when they first met he hated it. Having to pay thousands of dollars for the damage that Arthur did every time he came over was bad enough, but what was worse was he made the mess and then blamed France for it. Heck the first few times he even had to bite back his anger.

"Arthur mon ami." Teen France smiled and invited him in for the holiday Alfred had insisted they all be together for. "Come in."

"Bloody frog." It was Arthur's signature greeting. "Where's the bloody git America."

"Probably in the living room, said he had a lot to set up." France responded before he grabbed Arthurs shirt and pinned him to the wall kissing him.

They had been an on again, off again, on again, off again couple for years now and none of their friends had figured it out yet. After Arthur got his breath back and France pulled back panting himself, Arthur took a look at his now messed up hair and began to attempt to smooth it out to look presentable.

Francis chuckled and kissed Arthur quickly before they headed into the living room and Arthur found it shocking when Francis looked shocked. Hadn't he known that Alfred was doing stuff in here?

"Didn't you know Alfred was doing stuff in here?" Arthur couldn't help but grumble at Francis.

"Uh… Oui." Francis replied looking at Arthur. "But I was in the kitchen cooking us dinner I didn't know that he was doing zhis!" That said France turned to face Alfred. "Alfred care to explain to me why there's a fichus in my living room?!"

"It's a Christmas tree dude." Alfred scoff laughed at France. "Relax."

"Non! Do you know how much those things shed?!" Francis grabbed the tree only for Alfred to grab it back and pull it towards him while Francis pulled it towards himself. "Get it out of here!"

Arthur chuckled lightly. He had learned quickly that while Francis wasn't a clean freak, he didn't like his house to not be organized. True his version of organized to others would be cluttered, but as he so often put it. "Organized clutter" was actually clean.

Alfred glared at Francis. "It's just one day dude, just deal with it for one day."

Francis glared back but if there was one thing that he could never do it was deny Alfred or Mathew the chance to do something he didn't know about. That didn't mean he was going to be happy about it. He released the tree and grumbling walking out of the living room and across the house to the kitchen to work on getting dinner prepared.

Francis was pulled from his flashback to the past upon seeing a staggering Angleterre walk out of the house passed him. This wouldn't have been a problem if he was walking straight towards flat ground, but he wasn't.

"Angleterre there's a pool." Francis attempted to warn Arthur but he only turned to growl at him in his drunken state.

"Bloody git! I know that!" Arthur growled and continued walking.

"Oui? Because you walking towards it mon ami." Francis tried one last time.

"Bloody git! Stay out of my business!" Arthur snapped back.

Francis sighed and began to count mentally in his head. It was best he did that now so that he wouldn't yell at Arthur when it did happen.

5) Arthur huffed and continued walking straight towards the pool.

4) He attempted to turn, or what he felt was a turn, all he really did was turn his head to the side.

3) Growled and yelled at Alfred when he tried to stop him.

2) Didn't notice the slight inclined slope of the side of the pool.

1) SPLASH! Fell into the pool and stood up in it only to point a finger at Francis.

"You did this you bloody wanker!" Arthur yelled at Francis who opened his eyes the counting making him calm for the situation ahead. "Get me out of here right now!"

"Oui." Francis stood and walked around to the stairs of the pool and when Arthur tried to turn around to face him, slipped on the bottom of the pool's tiles and began to splash and gag like he couldn't swim, which he couldn't. Francis swam to him quickly and held him close to his chest. "I've got you, I've got you mon cheri."

Arthur clung to France. "Bloody ocean!"

"You're in a pool." France attempted to stay straight faced as he spoke next. "And you can stand on the bottom."

To prove his point he set Arthur down and showed that his shoulders stayed out of the water ever so little. "I knew that." Arthur scoffed and attempted to hide his blush in Francis' now soaked clothes.

Was he blushing because he was drunk, or because he was embarrassed, or both. One may never know. Francis smiled picked up Arthur and carried him out of the pool. By the time he did, Arthur had crashed into dream land. Francis smiled and took him up to the bed helping to get him into dry clothes then into the bed, knowing he'd have a horrible hang over when he woke up.

Francis regretted getting the Britain drunk now. His priceless wine glasses were shatter, thousands of his plates broken on the ground. If he didn't know any better he'd had sworn a fight had broken out in his kitchen while he was getting more wine. How could one man cause this much destruction? His heart hurt as he slowly picked up each piece of broken glass or plate.

Years of memories, of work, of pleasure, or joy. Destroyed and lost forever. He frowned as he recalled how he had reacted when he had heard Arthur break the first wine glass by accident.

Francis ran into the kitchen after hearing a crash and seeing his favorite wine glass in a thousand pieces. "W'at did you do?!" He growled out and Arthur upon hearing this yelled right back.

"I'm right here you bloody frog no need to shout!"

"My wineglass. I loved this wineglass and you shattered it!"

"It's just a stupid wine glass get another."

"It was a memory mon cheri! You know it was!"

"So that memory means more than our memory?! Well if that's the case…" Arthur began to grab every plate and every glass Francis had to throw as hard as he could onto the ground. The pile of broken glass and ceramics grew and grew until Francis was crying for his broken memories. Arthur growled and stomped out of the house.

France POV

It had taken me a long time to accept it over 10 years, but I had. Being with Arthur meant he was a very expensive husband and that was ok with me. I had come to grips with it. In a way he made it so my house wasn't filled with things I didn't need. So it was a good thing disguised as a curse, and I accepted it all.