Hi guys I updated, just thought you all should know, just in case someone out there actually cares. Seriously, sometimes I wonder why I bother with this one at all. R & R people and maybe I'll change my mind about this fic.

Chapter 8: Daffodil

Olivia stumbled back the way she came, tears streaming down her face. She was familiar with the term 'heartbreak' and knew better than anyone else that it could be a physical symptom, a pain unlike any other in the chest.

But this was worse, in the hundreds, thousands, of years she had loved Jean she had never experienced this sort of pain to this magnitude.

And Arthurine…

Olivia sniffed, this wasn't Arthurine's fault, she had stuck up for Olivia, been on her side even, she'd looked shocked, even upset when Jean had kissed her and she hadn't kissed him back.

Truly Arthurine wasn't at fault here, she hadn't even done anything that might make Jean fall in love with her, she'd treated him exactly the same way she treated Olivia. And he'd fallen in love with her anyway. In a few short months she'd managed what Olivia hadn't in thousands of years.
Yeah, Arthurine was pretty blameless, so why did Olivia feel like she'd had a knife stabbed in her back as well as her heart?

Blinded by tears Olivia couldn't see where she was going very well and smacked into someone.

She tumbled backwards and would have fallen if the person she hit hadn't caught her.

"Hey careful, you're gonna hurt yourself," he figure said, it was a male with an American accent. Not Francis then.

Olivia wiped her pale eyes and looked up at the male. Blue eyes behind slender lenses stared back at her in an innocent face with honey blond hair that had a huge cowlick sticking up at the front.

Aside from the colouring and innocent expression this person could have been her James. That meant he was…

Actually Olivia honest-to-God had no idea what his human name was and, though far be it from her to be rude, didn't really care what it was right now.

She sniffed and wiped her streaming eyes again. Man, the pain in her chest just didn't let up.

"Oh hi, you must be this America," She said, "you're probably looking for you're England. Well she's back there," Olivia gestured, then her voice cracked, "but I wouldn't go back there right now. She's busy." She burst into tears again.

Arthurine could actually have slapped Jean across the face and bolted, she could be anywhere right now if she had.

But Olivia had no idea what she had and had not done; she hadn't exactly stayed to watch.
So to the best of her knowledge Arthurine was still back on the garden bench. With Olivia's France. And Arthurine's America really didn't need to know that.

"Hey," America caught her arms, "what's wrong, why are you crying?" America might not be the world's most sensitive person but he wasn't blind, even he could see the tears flowing down Olivia's cheeks.

"No-nothing, I'm not crying," Olivia lied, terribly, wiping her cheeks for a third time.

Her damn eyes just wouldn't stop filling. Very few things in this world, or her own could truly upset Olivia Kirkland.

Unfortunately Jean Bonnefoy was one of them.

"Hey, c'mon, even I can tell that's not true." America guided Olivia over to the nearby stone ledge and sat down with her.

He actually had come here looking for his England, he needed her signature on a few papers but this was more important. If there was one thing Alfred. F. Jones couldn't stand; it was seeing a woman cry. Especially if that woman was damn-near identical to the most important woman in his life.

"Hey, Ophelia, right? Tell me what's wrong, I'm a hero, I'm not sure if I'll be able help but I'll do my best!" Said Alfred with a contagious smile that Olivia tried to return.

"Thank you but no thank you. I don't think there's anything you can do to help. And I'm Olivia actually, what was you're name again?" The pinkette replied. This America was certainly very different to hers. Jake would have taken one look at her face, grabbed her by the shoulders and shaken her until she confessed what had made her cry. Then he would have run of and beat the holy Hell out of Arthurine and Jean, whether they were blameless or not. She appreciated this America's thoughtfulness.

America looked awkward, "oh, I'm Alfred, sorry Olivia, I'm terrible with names!" He gave an embarrassed laugh and scratched the back of his head. "And you won't know if I can help unless you tell me!"

Olivia hesitated, the words 'I don't want to talk about it,' trembling on her lips.

But the truth was, she did want to talk about it. She wanted someone to understand the pain that was still tearing through her as thousands of years of unrequited love and admiration were rejected as though they were nothing.

This wasn't exactly something she could take to Jean or Arthurine, she didn't want to talk over the phone so Yue was out and there was no way she was telling Francis.

He was in love with Arthurine just as surely as Olivia was in love with Jean and it would greatly upset him at the very least.

So this kind stranger was pretty much her only option, but still Olivia hesitated.

As she had noticed before, her America would have already beaten the living daylights out of someone by now, and while that meant this America was less likely to, Olivia was incredibly wary of telling any America anything.

But wait, if Jake is in love with me (Olivia wasn't stupid, she knew). And I'm in love with J…my France, oh God, it hurt to even think his name, and Francis is in love with Arthurine, that means Arthurine is in love with this guy, which means he has no romantic feelings for her! So I'm completely safe!

She almost smiled, pleased with her logic, "well," she grew gloomy again, "you remember my France? The guy I came here with?"

Alfred nodded, he seemed to be hanging off her every word.

"Well I like him, like as like, like in as in love, love as in have been in love with ever since I first laid eyes on him when I was a child.

Alfred whistled, "wow, that was a really long time ago."

Olivia glared, Alfred, realising his mistake, backpedalled frantically, "not that you're old or anything! No, you're not old! And even if you were old you don't look old! I mean, you're still young and pretty so…" He trailed off, "I'll shut up now."

Olivia giggled, oh wow, is this what Arthurine has to live with all the time? No wonder she's always grouchy.

She decided to let the boy be, "it's alright Alfred, yes, I've loved him for a very, very long time. But he," her hands shook, she folded them in her lap. "I've known that whole time that he never loved me back but I always lived in hope that he would. Now I don't have that hope anymore." Her voice began to crack again as her tears flowed once more. "He loves someone else."

Alfred winced and scrunched up his nose, "wow. Tough luck. That sucks." His voice held sympathy and concern, even pity. But there was no real empathy, how could there be? He had never been in love with someone who didn't love him back.

He rubbed Olivia's shoulder, "wow, you're in an even worse situation than Blondie, Arthurine, I should say. She's in love with some guy too but at least he's not in love with someone else."

Olivia looked at him through her tears incredulously, "you don't know who she's in love with?"

"Nope," he shook his head, "wait, you do?! Who is it?"

Olivia laughed, but it wasn't her usual bubby giggle, it was harsh and humourless, "Alfred, if you don't know by now then it's not my place to tell you."

Just because Arthurine had indirectly ruined Olivia's life didn't mean the pinkette was going to return the favour. It wasn't Arthurine's fault after all.

"Ok, if you say so. But do you know who your France is in love with?" Alfred asked.

Olivia's throat felt tight. "Yeah. I do: Arthurine."

Alfred looked stunned, however he quickly recovered and, to Olivia's amazement, he laughed. "What? No! Why would he fall in love with blondie? He's only known her for a couple of months!"

Olivia nodded, crying freely now, "and he's known me for thousands of years and yet he still likes her better than me. He kissed her you know, just before, in the rose garden."

"WHAT?!" Alfred leapt up, hands balling into fists, "nobody kisses blondie and gets away with it!"
He seemed to struggle with himself for a minute then, with a great deal of effort, he sat back down and ran a hand through his hair, "geez, I sound like Scotland," he muttered, then immediately turned his attention back to Olivia.

"There there!" He patted her shoulder enthusiastically, putting his arm around her "so he has a little crush on blondie? So what!? At the end, he'll go back to your world with you and she'll stay here with me. Problem solved!"

But how much will that change things? Olivia wondered.

Pulling away from Arthurine, Jean searched her face for a moment, then sighed, "Forgive me, I shouldn't have done that." He said.

Arthurine was at a loss for what to say, I don't believe this, she thought.

Was Jean for real? If he was, fate certainly had a sick sense of humour. Oh Olivia's going to be devastated when she finds out.

She stood, "I'm sorry Jean, but I imagine by now you know the feeling of not returning someone's feelings far better than I do."

She grasped her skirt in her hands, fingers twisting the material nervously, pulling it up over her feet so she wouldn't trip on it. "Please excuse me; I think I need some time alone."

Arthurine bolted.

Jean leaned back on the bench and sighed, well he'd royally screwed that up, and he felt ridiculously guilty.

He knew he couldn't be blamed for not returning Olivia's feelings; it wasn't like he'd chosen not to, but for some reason he still felt completely at fault, he sighed again, "sorry Liv."

Arthurine ran until she was at the apple fields at the end of her huge backyard away from her rose bushes and everything around them.

She stood, panting, though she was not tired, hands trembling on her skirt. She couldn't have been there for more than a few seconds when she heard a voice call out to her.

"Angleterra!"

She turned, Francis jogged up to her.

Out of the three people she was staying with he was probably the one she'd least hate to see right now but she scowled at him anyway, telling him that if he'd come here to annoy her, now was not a good time.

"What Frog?" She asked, not rudely, but a long way from being civil too.

If France noticed, he gave no sign of it, "I've been looking for you for a while now, Alfred is here and he's looking for you too."

Arthurine growled under her breath, she so didn't need this right now. "Oh get lost you bloody Frog!" She snapped, "If America's looking for me he can come find me himself! You don't need to run around like everyone's little lapdog!" England knew she was way out of control but she just couldn't stop herself. "I have no idea why your acting so nice but we both know it's just that, an act. So stop this bloody bullshit this instant and just bugger off!" Her last two words were a shout. Arthurine ran off again as the look in France's eyes changed from shock to hurt.

This time Arthurine jumped her back fence and made it into the woods beside her house. Here she was alone, only Scotland knew how to find her here; he'd done it enough times.

France and the others would just get hopelessly lost if they came looking for her, not that they would after that.

England cringed guiltily and dropped to her knees, heedless of her white skirt and tucked her legs under her.

She didn't have any reason to be upset. Olivia did, or would once she found out what happened and Arthurine did intend to come clean.

Jean did as Arthurine rejected him in almost the exact same way he'd been rejecting Olivia her whole life (and it really did hurt).

And Francis definitely did after the way she'd torn into him just because he'd tried to make her life a little easier by being nice to her.

Arthurine was just stressed and shocked and dismayed and now thoroughly appalled by her behaviour. But that didn't excuse her actions.

I'll make things right later, she drew her legs up and rested her chin on her knees, wrapping her arms around them. "Sorry Francis."

Ok guys, hope someone enjoyed. I named this chapter 'Daffodil' because it means 'Respect, regard, unrequited love, you're the only one & the sun is always shining when I'm with you.' Which I thought was pretty perfect for Olivia and Jean. Anyway, I'm off to write Prince and Prince(ss) because apparently that's far more interesting. Please R & R guys! Later!