Poke.

Poke. Poke.

Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Po—

"ACK!"

Arthur jolted up on what appears to be a couch, and as he looked around, he sees a child with short dark hair and forest green eyes staring at him. Apparently, the child was the one who kept on poking at his face this whole time.

"W-Where am I? And who are you?", he asked the child, but the child didn't answer. He just kept staring at Arthur with curious but indifferent eyes, and the sound of someone twisting a doorknob could be heard as the door opened. It was Elizaveta.

"M-Ms. Hedervary?"

A feeling of relief washed over him as he saw the brunette in front of him. At least I didn't end up in a stranger's house., he thought.

Arthur sat up, covering his body with the warm blanket as Elizaveta placed the tea set on the end table. "Umm. So.. I am curious as to how you found me..", Arthur muttered to himself, but still audible for Elizaveta to hear.

Elizaveta looked at him, an indifferent expression on her face. "It's because you were lying on the streets like a dead dog that I almost tripped." A suspicious look loomed over her eyes as she looked at Arthur. "And how come you knew where we were? Out of all houses, you even chose to fall unconscious in front of Mathias' house."

A flustered Arthur tried to explain his situation. "W-Well, I didn't really know that you were there or it was your friend's house or what.. I was just lured in by the music since I recognize the song. A song by Coldplay, right?"

Elizaveta looked away, pouring the two tea cups beside her with Earl Gray tea. "Coldplay's 'In My Place', am I right?", Arthur asked, still feeling uncomfortable by Elizaveta's silent treatment. Elizaveta gave the tea cup to Arthur, and the Brit accepted it with a sheepish smile on his face.

"If you're mad about how I stalked you earlier, then I'm sorry, honey but—"

Arthur covered his mouth with his hands. The term of endearment* just slipped right out without him thinking, and Elizaveta froze on the spot while she was about to drink her cup of tea. He didn't mean it, since he usually called other people the same way. But he felt as if pissing Elizaveta off at this moment would be a wrong idea.

Arthur felt someone tugging the cuff of his right sleeve.

"You.. You're abla's* boyfriend?", Arthur heard the child ask him.

The question shocked Arthur. "W-W-What?! N-No! I'm not her boyfriend!", he exclaimed as his cheeks started to blush to a deep shade of red. The child looked at him with wide, curious eyes as he asked again, "Then why did you call her 'honey'?"

Arthur looked at the child in disbelief. "It's not what you think, it's just that I'm British and as a Brit, we do refer to people that way. We're not in that sort of relationship—"

The child suddenly muttered, "—unfortunately?"

Someone crashed the door down all of sudden, which woke Elizaveta from her trance. "Elizaveta's boyfriend, you say?!", the man with a white mask voiced out as he looked up to see Elizaveta sighing, a shocked Arthur, and his indifferent son staring at him. He looked at Arthur, his eyes full of suspicion as he exclaimed, "My dear kız brought home her boyfriend?!"

Elizaveta sighed as she stood up. "Baba. He's not my boyfriend."

The Turkish man looked at her daughter with relief, when the child suddenly spoke.

"Mr. Eyebrows called abla 'honey'."

Arthur glared at the kid. You're not helping here.. and who did you just call Mr. Eyebrows?!

The mask dropped all of a sudden, revealing the Turkish man's teary, crystal brown eyes. He didn't even bother to pick the mask up, he just stood there, looking at both Elizaveta and Arthur with eyes brimming with tears.

The man then lunged towards his daughter, exclaiming, "You don't have to hide it, Eliza—" But he was stopped immediately when Elizaveta hit his face with a frying pan.

Despite the throbbing feeling on his face, he looked up, still smiling as the tears began to fall from his eyes. "My daughter.. My daughter's all grown up now..", he muttered to himself, and Elizaveta sighed as she tried to explain. "Baba, he's not my boyfriend. Geez, when will you realize that not every man that comes here are my boyfriends?"

Her father sat back up as he wiped the tears from his eyes. "B-But.. Roderich used to visit us all the time—"

"BABA!"

The Turkish man looked up at his daughter, as he realized that he wasn't supposed to mention "his" name. Elizaveta trembled in anger as her hands clenched into knuckles until it turned white, and she bit her lower lip as she tried to stop herself from screaming in front of her father. Arthur looked at them with a confused expression on his face. "Are you okay—?", and as he was about to put a hand over Elizaveta's shoulder, she muttered through gritted teeth.

"Don't touch me."

She stormed out of the room, leaving her father and Arthur in a confused state. The child just looked at them with indifferent eyes as he spoke. "Baba, you weren't supposed to mention abi's*name in front of abla."

The Turk sighed. "Evet, evet*, I know. It's just that Elizaveta seemed so happy these days that I thought that she had already forgotten all about Roderich—"

"Umm. Who is this 'Roderich' you speak of?", Arthur suddenly asked, his curiosity getting the better of him. He was wondering why would Elizaveta just storm out like that, just by a mere mention of a name. The Turk looked at him with sincere eyes as the memories flashed in his mind..

"..that man, Roderich. That bastard broke my daughter's heart."

Notes:

*abla - Turkish word for "older sister"

*kiz - Turkish word for "daughter"

*baba - Turkish word for "father"

*abi - Turkish word for "older brother"

*evet, evet - Turkish phrase for "Yes, yes."