AN: *peeks out from behind a rock* Hey guys... I'm back! Sorry I've been no show for a while, inspiration has been nil as of late, but it's back now! I'm also super busy with class and such so my brain is just fried. But, I have started an RP blog on Tumblr! I have created a Hetalia OC based off of Northern Ireland so if you want to come RP with me, follow me at shamrockprincessofsevenwaters (you must be an RP blog). Okay, shameless promo done, read the chappie!
The drive to England's home had been interesting to say the least. Anna wasn't the most talented driver, even on the right side of the road, and it didn't help that Kate was an awestruck fangirl all the way to his house. Seeing the world in an animated light planted the stars in her eyes, and even though Anna would get annoyed when Kate would pull on her left arm in the middle of shifting gears to point something out, she was happy that her friend was enjoying herself.
Hell, she was happy that her friend was here period!
Kate was through the roof with happiness.
As the pulled up to England's home, hearts and stars danced in her eyes as she took in the quaint Victorian era style townhouse located in an isolated location in the Gloucestershire county (Americans, just look it up). It wasn't the largest house she had seen, but it was quite old she could tell. Anna told her that it was first built three years after Queen Victoria was coronated, commissioned by the Queen herself for the living expenses of her Nation. Arthur had given Anna a key, seeing as she liked to visit often for tea, so when they pulled into the driveway Anna unlocked the door and ushered Kate inside.
"Hang on just a moment…!" Kate gasped as she took in the interior. There was just no way-! She quickly ran back outside and stood back a few feet, taking in the exterior. It looked normal enough! She ran back inside and stood slack jawed, Anna merely smirking as she watched. Was this how she reacted when she found out that-
"It's bigger on the inside!" Kaitlyn exclaimed. Anna let out a hearty laugh as she closed the door behind them. Indeed, while on the outside it looked like simple yet elegant town house, on the inside was the equivalent of a grand manor. The halls were lined with dark wood with intricate moldings, brightly lit with antique lamps. The floors were also wood, but covered in old, intricate rugs that looked to be decades old. Kate felt like she had stepped into a Bronte or Austen novel.
"Indeed, Arthur got the idea back in 1963 and he's been adding to it ever since. Took me a little while to get used to finding anything here. And don't get me started when he decides to rearrange everything on a whim, lord help us. I remember when I first arrived I needed France's help to find the kitchen." Anna remarked, leading the astounded Kate through the halls.
"Extraordinary... so, I'm not lost in a dream then, am I?" Kate asked. Anna shook her head.
"Nope. Don't you worry love, the thrill will fade soon enough, and pretty soon you'll feel right at home." she offered her friend a comforting smile. Kate returned the smile and stopped, pulling the redhead into a hug.
"I'm really glad to see you Anna… I missed you so much." she said quietly. Anna was surprised for a second before returning the embrace and smiling.
"I missed you too… isn't it great? Now we're both going to be Personifications!" she exclaimed excitedly. Kate let out a sigh and ran a hand through her hair.
"I wish you wouldn't remind me, I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around this…" she shook her head. Anna nodded sympathetically before she got an idea.
"Hey, I know what will take your mind off of it! Follow me!" she started walking quickly down the halls, Kate struggling to keep up with her friend. She made a note of all the twists and turns they made as to not get lost when all of the sudden the pair stopped in front of a pair of large mahogany double doors with ornate brass handles.
"Anna, what's this?" she asked. Anna merely smirked and pulled the doors open, waving her hand in an over exaggerated show man's style.
"Madam, I present to you…. Britain's Library!" In Kate's view, the entire room was shining and covered in sparkles, no doubt her eyes reflecting the same wonder and enchantment that she felt inside.
"Dio mio…" she exclaimed softly before she started floating, yes floating in chibi form, around the bookshelves, "Austen, Dickens, Bronte… Doyle, even Mark Twain? Hemingway? Hardy! They're all here-!" with that she started twirling around as images of books and authors danced behind her in the background. Anna simply stood there, a sweat drop forming on her brow as the upper part of her face became washed in blue. She let Kate have her moment for a little while longer before she walked up to Kate and stopped her twirling.
"Alright there Belle, calm yourself! There's a reason why I brought you here." she said, laughing as Kate blinked and quickly righted herself, embarrassed that she let herself go so far.
"I'm sorry, I just got a little excited for a moment. What is it?" she asked. Kate watched curiously as Anna disappeared among the bookshelves and returned a moment later with an ancient seeming tome cradled gently in her hands. Her eyes widened as Anna brought it closer, reaching out to gingerly stroke the green leather cover. A faded gold designed adorned it's front and the smell of age wafted into her sinuses. At her silent insistence, Anna handed the book over to her and Kate shook slightly with excitement. Only old books could make her feel this way.
"I found this a couple weeks ago. I was cataloging England's historical texts, which I still need to finish now that I'm talking about it, and I came across this hidden behind a few newer books. The thing is," Anna explained as she opened the book carefully to the first few pages, "I don't know what it says, and I was wondering if you could translate it." Kate saw that this book had been written by hand, each letter calligraphed and drawn to perfection across the parchment. Indeed the script seemed to be in some sort of archaic language, and she took the book to the side as she read a few of the words aloud.
"It looks like a form of Gaelic… perhaps Scots?" she wondered aloud. Anna peeked over her shoulder and frowned.
"Any idea what it says? It just looks like random scratches to me."
"I have a faint idea, I mean there's this line of script here that's pretty simple; Mar cleite ar an ghaoth, rince tríd an aer… But the way this is written is strange, from what I can make out it seems as if there's a bunch of instructions written around it…" as Kate went on, both girls were oblivious when the gold text on the front started to glow and Anna started to mysteriously levitate into the air.
"...but it's a really fascinating book! I mean, based on some of these words and phrases I can make out, they almost seem like instructions for-"
"Magic?!" Anna yelled when she suddenly realized that she was now looking down at Kate rather than slightly up. Kate jumped back in surprise when she saw her friend levitating. What the hell?!
"Anna!? What's going on?" Kate asked, looking down at the book for answer. The text was now glowing and the words hard started to dance on the page. A magic book… of course it's a bloody magic book!
"I don't know, just get me down!" Anna kicked wildly in the air, having bad memories of being carried and tossed around via magic months ago. Plus, she was getting pretty high up from the ground and Britain's library had an extremely tall ceiling. Her fear of heights still hadn't recovered from the plane incident!
"A-Alright, just calm down!" Kate said frantically, quickly scanning the page for a phrase that would cut the spell, how had she managed to cast a spell anyways? A couple of the floating words came together and started to form a sentence when-
"What the bloody hell is going on here?!" the voice of England demanded loudly. Both girls jumped, Kate holding the book instinctively closer to her chest, accidently causing Anna to fly right into a bookshelf.
"OW!" the bookshelf wobbled under the force and started to topple. England reacted instantly, waving his hand and halting the falling bookshelf, books, and Anna, in place as if they were frozen in time as he marched over to Kate and wrenched the book from her hand. Kate watched in awe as his hands glowed gold and with a gentle wave, everything righted itself as if it had never been touched, Anna gently being lowered to the ground as stars flew around her head, her pupils now swirly-eyed from being whacked in the face...again.
Kate was awestruck as she watched England perform magic. He looked so… cool! For lack of a better word. The spell was broken (both the literal and figurative) when he turned to look at her with a questioning glare. She flushed furiously and started to sweat profusely.
"I'm so so sorry, I'm sorry, I don't know what happened I was just reading and she started floating-!" she rambled at an extremely fast pace, oblivious to the way Arthur was looking at her. She was just reading? First off, he had no idea how she had gotten her hands on this book as it was supposed to be concealed by magic, second he had enchanted the words so that only a magic user could even make out the words in the book. To normal folks, the words just looked like random dashes and scratches made on parchment. Could it be-?
"Kate. Kate! Miss Kate!" he interrupted, halting the girl's tirade as she looked up at him with wide eyes. Arthur had to clear his throat, the look in her eyes combined with her slightly flushed face was simply- too adorable… Not that he would ever think nor admit that, god no! He shook his head slightly.
"It's quite alright love, I understand it was an accident. What I don't understand is how this was possible, by my reckoning it shouldn't be possible, unless…" he trailed off, unsure how to continue.
"Unless…?" Kate urged, curious as to where this was going. Anna finally sat up, still slightly swirly-eyed.
"Unless Katie here has got some magic powers or something?" she said with a goofy smirk, only to have another book thrown at her head.
"Don't call me Katie!" Kate yelled, an angry tick on her forehead. Arthur blinked but nodded.
"Um, yes... It's the only explanation I can think of at the moment." he replied. Kate looked up at him wide eyed with disbelief.
"B-But, how could that be? I-I mean, before I never… it's just not possible!"
"Kate," Anna said sitting up, rubbing the new bump on her head and sending her a pissed off glare, "we're in bloody Hetalia for fuck's sake, anything is possible, get used to it."
"What's with the attitude?" Kate asked, earning a deadpan glare from Anna.
"That's three times you've hit me in the head with a book, plus a bloody bookcase! That hurts ya know!" she yelled. Kate merely shrugged.
"Quit acting like such a cheeky twat then."
"Kate, what have I told you about using British slang, it just doesn't work for you."
"Oh, and why are you allowed to use it then?"
"I don't know, maybe because I'm actually British?"
"You're only half British!"
"Yeah, which is more so than you!"
"Touché…"
"Hey, I have an idea. Arthur, why don't you teach Kate here how to use magic?" Anna's sudden question had both people jumping in shock.
"W-What?!" they chorused, causing them to look at each other briefly and then turn away blushing. Anna smirked slightly, it seems fate seemed to be giving her a headstart on her matchmaking scheme. Brilliant!
"Anna, I couldn't-!"
"I've never taken an-" the two started to say at the same time before Anna held up her hands.
"Think of it this way, we can't have an untrained mage going around, right? Next time she could send someone into something dangerous, like a lion's pit or France's house." Anna reasoned, Arthur nodding a little in agreement. If Kate did have powers, there could be complications later on… but could he really teach her?
"And Kate, come on, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity here! Go for it!" Kate flushed a deeper red at Anna's words and looked at England nervously.
"W-Well… I-It would be fun… if, you don't mind of course…" she said quietly. Arthur gave the girl a comforting smile.
"Indeed, perhaps it would be fun. It will be a lot of work, and it requires almost constant vigilance… but, I think that you can do quite well, at least from what Anna has told me. Very well, from now on, I shall be your teacher." he decided, the idea of it sounding less absurd by the moment. Kate blinked in surprise but nodded enthusiastically.
"Oh of course, I'd be honour sir!" she replied.
"Please, just call me Arthur, Miss Kate." Arthur insisted. Kate got an even deeper flush and nodded. She really did look quite cute- enough Arthur!
"A-Arthur… alright, then, you can just call me Kate." she said quietly, smiling up at him. Anna at the meantime was both happy and apprehensive over this new development. Happy because now they had an excuse to spend time together. Apprehensive because… well…
In her time at Hetalia, her personal experiences with magic hadn't been all that pleasant. So far, she had seen it used to hurt her friends, almost kill her beloved, and she was made into a psycho's personal ragdoll. Plus, there was that one incident when she witnessed as Arthur caused a convoy to explode behind them, quite violently in point of fact… the dark look in his eye still made her shiver. As Historia, people who used or practised magic, especially those believed to use the darker variety, usually met with an ill fate...
Don't be fooled dear reader, Anna cares for Arthur very much and she would do anything for him. She is just concerned for his mental well being at times. Perhaps Kate can sort some things out? Anna could only hope so.
"Right, so now that's all sorted, Kate I believe I was going to show you to your room?" Anna said, finally getting herself of the ground and dusting herself off. Kate nodded but was surprised when Arthur linked his arm with hers.
"Actually Anna, I will take the liberty if you wanted to go back to meet with Russia. He's been asking for you." Arthur replied. Kate watched with amusement as Anna flushed lightly and agreed, almost running out of the library as she pulled out her phone to call Ivan. Kate sighed happily at seeing her friend so in love and happy, she really did deserve it after all of the crap she went through.
Then she remembered that she was in a room alone with England.
"Shall we Kate?" Arthur asked politely, acting every bit the gentleman. Kate started but managed to smile and nod.
"Yes please, Arthur." With that, Arthur led her out of the library and up the stairs, showing her to a lovely room that was right next to Anna's old one from when she first arrived. When Arthur opened the door for her, Kate stood amazed as she took in what was essentially her dream room. The walls were painted a soft lilac with darker purple filigree designs painted into it, with various famous quotes and phrases written in black calligraphy dotted around the room. The bed was painted black wood with a canopy, looking both old and new at the same time with it's vintage cream sheets. An entire wall was dedicated to a black bookshelf filled row to row with books, and a window with a reading ledge was adjacent to it. Kate swore that she had truly died and gone to heaven.
"Do you like it?" Arthur asked, even though he knew that his house was meant to suit to his guests preferences, he felt the need to have her confirmation. Kate looked at him with grateful eyes and nodded.
"Yes, it's simply perfect. Thank you, Arthur." He wasn't sure, but for some reason the way she said his name just left him… dumbfounded. So sincere, so open…
So unlike him it made him feel sick to his stomach, though he didn't let it show.
"Ah yes, well, get some rest then love. You've had a trying day." he dismissed, moving to leave.
"Yes, good night! And, thank you for everything. It really means a lot that you did all this- oh wait, your jacket!" Kate ran after him and removed his jacket from her shoulders handing it back to him. She had nearly forgotten about that!
"Oh- thank you. And, goodnight." Arthur gave one last uncertain smile and nodded before he turned and walked away, a little too quickly mind you. If anyone had asked, he couldn't tell you what had gotten into him all of the sudden. He just felt so… unbalanced by the presence of this girl. While with Anna they quickly established a mutual respect for each other and she easily felt like a sibling to him (one that wouldn't try to kill him if given the chance), with Kate, it was different. He didn't know how, and that honestly put him off. Perhaps it was good that they would be a teacher and student come tomorrow, that should settle his thoughts.
Kate stood there for a moment, watching him leave before he turned a corner. She disappeared into her new room and closed the door, leaning against it and sliding down.
"Wow…" was the only thing she could say at the moment. She smiled to herself with a newfound giddiness that she hadn't felt for awhile. Days and weeks spent with Arthur, alone, learning how to do magic? If you had told her this morning that this would be her reality, she would have dialed up the nearest mental institution. Yet, here she was.
She couldn't wait!
AN: Eeey! So much excitement for this story guys! x3 Please favorite and review, keeps me inspired to write more! ;)