Disclaimer: I don't own it, I just ship it

Warning: AU, strong language, boy x boy pairings, violence (more so bullying in the beginning), and because this was inspired by the manga Iris Zero, there may be some minor spoilers for it.

Thanks again for all of the feedback from last chapter! This one focuses on a single character a bit more to give you some insight into their world. I'll have a couple of these sprinkled throughout the story to help develop the other characters more. Since I'm a biased little fangirl, Lovino is still going to be the main focus of the fic, these are just brief outlets for some of the other characters to get a turn in the spotlight.

I also included a special side-story at the end of this chapter for all of my awesome consulting detective readers XD

oOo

Sunlight drifted through the large windows that made up the library entrance. The sun was beginning to set in the sky, casting an orange glow over everything. Kiku and Arthur made their way back from the library after another long day of studying. It had been a rough week already (even by their standards) and they still had three more tests to go. Kiku had been complaining about Yong Soo using his Iris that allowed him to see test answers, which was a-okay in the eyes of his family.

"They'll stand behind Yong Soo being lazy and using his Iris to ace all his tests, but threaten to disown me if I get anything lower than a 90%..." he sighed.

"I know the feeling…" Arthur chuckled humorlessly. He was all too familiar with being held to crazy standards by his own family. Living up to his big brothers was no easy task, either.

"Here, this is for you," Kiku placed something round and smooth into his friend's hand. "A charm for your upcoming tests."

"Hmm…a rabbit," the blonde looked at the small white stone resting in the palm of his hand. It had black paint to outline the rabbit's ears, face, and tail.

"Yes, to bring you good luck."

"Whoever said rabbits were lucky?"

"Eh?"

"It's nothing," Arthur smiled, waving it off. "Thank you for the charm, good luck to you too."

The two waved farewell and parted at the school gates. Arthur took the charm out of his pocket, turning it over with his fingers. His eyes darkened slightly, as he repeated himself.

"Whoever said rabbits were lucky…?"

oOo

As a boy, he was free. His brothers were next in line to inherit the family business, leaving Arthur, the fourth child free to be a kid. He often spent his days reading fairy tales in the family library or exploring the small forest that grew just beyond his backyard.

One day, he found an injured rabbit in the meadow where the most beautiful flowers grew. At first he thought it was a white rabbit with black spots, but as he got closer, he realized the "spots" were actually black butterflies.

"H-Hold on! I'll help you!" the five year old exclaimed, pulling out his handkerchief to wrap the rabbit's injured side in.

Blood continued to spill from the rabbit's wound, seeping through both Arthur's handkerchief and his fingers. The animal began breathing slower and slower, causing the boy's eyes to well up with tears. With each raspy breath the rabbit took, the more black butterflies seemed to flock to it. Arthur tried to bat them away, but it was no use. Eventually, the rabbit was covered in them.

"Get back!" Arthur shouted at the black butterflies. "Go away!"

Still more butterflies swarmed to the spot on the grass where the rabbit lay. The blonde swung at them wildly, not understanding why they remained. He'd chased butterflies before and they always flew away. Were these ones cursed? Maybe they somehow hurt the rabbit he was struggling to save.

In an instant, the butterflies took off, flying in every direction, far away from the rabbit. Arthur was initially happy they left, but saddened when he pressed his hands to the rabbit…it was cold. The rabbit had died.

Not caring that he was getting rabbit blood all over his pants, Arthur tucked his knees under his chin, buried his face in his arms, and began to cry. He wasn't sure how much time had passed until he was joined by another person in the meadow.

"What's wrong?" a pretty girl asked him in a heavily accented voice.

Arthur looked up at her, recognizing her accent as French. She was wearing a white dress trimmed with soft lace and a small white parasol. Her blue eyes were filled with worry and framed by her shoulder-length golden hair.

"It…It died…" Arthur blubbered, trying to explain. "I tried to save it, but the butterflies…they killed it…"

"You see butterflies?" the girl asked, wonder replacing the worry in her eyes. "Are you a fairy too?"

Arthur shakily stood up and wiped his eyes on his clean sleeve. Did he hear her right? Was this girl actually a fairy? She was certainly pretty enough to be one… The shorter of the two was convinced that she was after helping him bury the rabbit, find some flowers for it, and then praying for its soul to fly to Bunny Heaven peacefully. Once Arthur had calmed down a bit (he trusted the girl enough to cry his heart out for the rabbit, completely unashamed), she led him to a stream she found and helped him clean up.

Even though he could tell she didn't like getting herself dirty, she never once complained when the water splashed her expensive looking shoes and the mud clung to her dainty white socks. Arthur apologized and she told him it was fine, she was just worried about him. Arthur had never had someone his own age to play with or care about him. It was a nice feeling. His heart beat faster and a rosy glow clung to his cheeks.

From that day on, the two were inseparable all summer long. They met in the meadow each morning and played together until they had to go home. For Arthur, that meant his mansion. For his fairy friend, that meant her summer home with the King and Queen of the fairies. One day, she promised she would introduce him to her parents, but upon seeing his anxiety about meeting the King and Queen of all Fairies and Wildlings, she added when he felt ready to. Arthur's spirits were uncrushably high as he spent every day singing and dancing with his best friend.

It was a blissful summer until late August when the fairy family had to go visit their other kingdom. Arthur had been inconsolable for an entire week after she left; finally coming out of it when his mother assured him they would surely meet again. Truer words were never spoken, as the following summer reunited Arthur and his Fairy Princess.

That was the summer his heart was broken.

Shattered, really. Arthur could feel it breaking slowly into a thousand pieces cutting him on the inside like the shards of broken dreams. It was the first day of summer and the morning his Fairy Princess returned to him. As "she" started running towards him in the meadow, Arthur realized something was not quite right about his fairy friend.

For starters, the fairy was now sporting a decidedly boyish pair of britches and a pair of boots. Flowing white dresses had been replaced with polo shirts. And the princess's voice…ah, that was perhaps the greatest tragedy of all. What once had been music to his ears, now uttered every sound with a deeper and not at all girl-like tone. Arthur was too shocked to move as "she" ran over and hugged him. He was certain he was going into shock.

"Arthur! How have you been? I've missed you so much!"

"Y-You…"

"Mm?"

"You're a b-b-boy?!"

"Well, of course I am, silly!" the fairy in front of him laughed. "I always have been!"

And the rain came down like a shower of bullets.

To this day, Arthur couldn't comprehend Francis's strange family. He knew they were French and all, but seriously! What kind of parents let their child run around firmly believing that they were a fairy princess (especially when said child was male). Even years later, when Francis explained to him that he grew up thinking he was a fairy because he was so pretty and often described as one, Arthur still fought the urge to bash his head into a brick wall. He couldn't believe he had ever fallen for that…

oOo

The following day at school, Arthur passed Francis (and the other two wankers he hung out with) in the hallway. As per reoccurring theme, Francis greeted him over-affectionately, Arthur shoved him off…politely, so that he could properly begin fighting with Antonio as Gilbert poured gasoline on the fire. To most, this was a familiar sight. The Englishman and Spaniard couldn't be in the same room with each other before they began fighting. Arthur, because of a long-standing grudge he wasn't about to let go of. Antonio, because Arthur started the grudge by making someone important to him cry.

"You're lucky, cabron…" Antonio let Gilbert pull him away. "I'm feeling very dangerous today…"

"You don't scare me," sneered Arthur, as he watched Gilbert drag off Antonio towards the cafeteria to get churros, while Francis stayed with him.

"What am I going to do with you, mon cher?" the blonde hugged his tsundere. "Must you and Antoine always fight? I know I'm incredibly good-looking, but really now, you mustn't argue over me all the time…"

"Get off, git," Arthur complained, but leaned into the other boy's arms.

"Is that any way to speak to your loving boyfriend?"

"Feh. 'Loving,' my ass."

"Why, Arthur…If you insist…" Francis wagged his eyebrows and inched closer.

"That wasn't a request, you wanker!" the bushy-browed boy shoved him off. "I hate you, frog!"

"You wound me, rosbif…" the other laughed, feigning hurt.

"Hmph…" Arthur leaned back against Francis, whose arms somehow found themselves wrapped around him again.

"And I don't even need my Iris to know all you can think about is me…" the smiling blonde gestured to the seemingly empty air above their heads where Francis could see two arrows pointing to each other.

Their little moment was interrupted by a pair of passing students discussing their trip to the hospital to see their little brother after he got his appendix out. It was a seemingly harmless conversation, but Arthur felt himself tense up. He felt Francis's arms squeeze him reassuringly, both knowing how much he hates even the mention of hospitals.

oOo

Arthur's mind's eye flashed to his mother in the hospital with several black butterflies perched around her, some even resting on the wires and IV drip attached to her arms. The window outside had been left open, so he desperately closed it to keep the butterflies away. It was a useless effort and only locked in the awful scent of sterile chemicals and sickness, but he didn't care. He had to save her, no matter what. Another black butterfly appeared and landed on his mother's head. Ten-year-old Arthur had to be forcefully removed from the room when he had a panic attack about her dying. The two had always been close, so he would've known something was wrong, even without his Iris. Others just said he was crazy. She had a minor injury and would be fine.

When the doctor's results came back, it was revealed that she had cancer.

His beautiful, brave, and strong-willed mother lived for another two years, but Arthur had to watch the butterflies nearly consume her as they did the rabbit in his childhood. The power to see when a person drew near death was a curse Arthur shared with no one. Everyone turned their back on his warnings before, but his brothers were especially stubborn and came to even hate him once he inherited the family business.

Their mother had always ran the show; their father was clueless about business. The battle to be the heir had gotten so bad, ten-year-old Alfred was asked to decide.

Through a series of several dozen questions (Who is best to inherit the business? Who is calm and reliable in a crisis? Who manages resources efficiently?) Arthur scored the most points. Despite his brothers previously agreeing to the outcome (hell, asking Alfred was Dylan's idea), they were furious with the result. They claimed Alfred was wrong and started to dislike him too, but all-out hated Arthur. The Brit's feeble father tried to pacify everyone, but barely kept the peace at home. Arthur now had the difficult job of balancing a multi-million dollar company and school life.

And people wondered why he was so stressed out all of the time.

oOo

Back in reality, Arthur found himself eating lunch with Alfred. He managed to convince the wild child to let him go over proper Student Council President behavior, politics, and ideals. Arthur knew his cousin had gotten incredibly lucky when Lovino managed to come to his aid earlier in the week during the Bad Touch Trio incident. Somehow the cranky little Italian managed to guess Gilbert's Iris correctly and saved Alfred a lot of paperwork and himself a lot of threats directed at his boyfriend and the other two gits. Surprisingly enough, Alfred seemed to learn from the situation and was a lot more open to the opinions of his fellow Student Council members since.

Maybe there's some hope for the whiny little wanker, after all…

Arthur watched his younger (but freakishly taller) cousin devour another handful of candy.

…Or not.

"Don't you eat anything that wasn't made in a factory?" Arthur cringed in a disgusted tone.

"Whut?" Alfred asked with a mouthful of gummy bears.

Arthur sighed. It was hard to believe this was the same kid who inspired him to keep going after the whole My Entire Family Hates Me debacle.

oOo

Arthur's mind flashed back to a crying Alfred after the inheritance meeting. The tsundere was feeling glum himself, but figured he should take some of the responsibility and comfort the kid.

"I-I'm sorry, Artie!" Alfred tried to apologize for tearing his family apart.

"It's not your fault," the older boy patted his head. "You just did what you thought was right…"

"That's not true…" Alfred sniffed.

Arthur felt his hand freeze and eyes widen. His fears increased – did Alfred throw the meeting just because they were friends? He voiced his thoughts to his cousin, who shook his head.

"I would never do that…" insisted the boy. "Heroes are supposed to be honest and noble!"

Arthur sighed, but still wasn't sold on Alfred's version of the truth. Surprisingly, he felt a tiny hand on his back to support him.

"I don't just think I'm right, I know I'm right!" he puffed out his cheeks. "My Iris told me you're the one most qualified to run the family business!"

The older boy sat there, stunned.

"Think about it, Artie!" Alfred shook his arm. "You're smart, strong, reliable, and remorseful!"

"I think you mean 'resourceful…'"

"Yeah, that's what I said!"

Both broke into laughter. It was the first time Arthur could remember laughing in a long time. There wasn't much for him to smile about ever since his mother's diagnosis and the chaos at home. Arthur hugged his younger cousin gratefully.

In the end, it was Alfred who comforted him.

oOo

Back in real time, Alfred noticed the glazed-over look on the bushy-browed boy's face.

"Are you cruising around memory lane or something?" he asked, slurping some soda through a colorful crazy straw that spiraled around in several directions…because only Alfred would bring one of those to school.

"It's no business of yours!" Arthur snapped. Why couldn't he be more like the sweet little boy he was seven years ago? Whatever happened to that Alfred? Obviously, this oaf in front of him was living proof that Faeries are real, kidnapped his true cousin, and swapped him out with this wild, tactless changeling. It was the only explanation.

"Tell me the story about the fairy girl again…" Alfred grinned, right on cue. There were few secrets between the two of them.

Arthur could only recall how it ended with him picking flowers for his princess, all ready to propose and follow her to the realm of the Fae, until his dreams were cruelly dashed in front of him and he was greeted by a frog prince instead.

"…I really don't want to."

oOo

(BONUS SIDE STORY…In which Kiku and Elizabeta are tasked with finding the perfect trenchcoat for Lovino.)

"…Why are we doing this again?" Lovino asked from atop some kind of platform where two members from the school Fashion Club were taking his measurements and writing them down.

Most people tried to avoid touching him, so to have Feliks and his crony buzz around him like bees with tape measures and grabby hands was…uncomfortable. The whole experience was more than a little embarrassing and not helping the Italian keep his "Low Exposure" motto. He was barely holding back his temper as it was.

"Because Alfred asked me to adjust your school uniform to reflect your current status as World Academy's first Police Commissioner," Kiku replied absently as he flitted from rack to rack of coats, inspecting the material and durability. "Hmm…this one seems good."

"Ooh, I agree!" Elizabeta examined the beige trenchcoat in Kiku's arms.

"And why is she here…?" Lovino growled. It wasn't like the Hungarian was on the Student Council.

"Because Elizabeta has an eye for these things," the dark-haired boy smiled.

"That's right!" she grinned, handing the coat over to Lovino. "Now try this on and say 'I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition.'"

"W-What? Why?" Lovino spat as he was all but manhandled into the jacket.

"Just say it!"

"No way, assbutt!"

Lovino was more than a little put off by the way she burst into giggles and frolicked around the various racks in search of another coat. The only positive that came from it was that Feliks let him take the trenchcoat off…only to have it immediately replaced by a brown coat that was a little shorter than the rest, ending just above his knees.

"Now, I realize the full effect won't be achieved without suspenders and a holster, but I want you to try this one on anyway," the fangirl told him seriously. "Turn around, so I can see the back too."

Lovino sighed, but complied, stomping around in a quick circle. Maybe it would get him out of whatever hell he wandered into faster.

"Perfect!" she beamed. "Now tell me 'I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you!'"

"No."

"Are you trying to be difficult?" Elizabeta forced a smile.

"I aim to misbehave," was all he said.

A few more snickers from Elizabeta and Kiku and they dragged out a long tan trenchcoat that was fitted to his form more. Lovino wanted to ask how many more of these damned things he had to try on, but the Hungarian and Japanese conspirators were currently locked in an argument over ties and screwdrivers. Ties he could understand, but screwdrivers? The brunette had no idea what the hell was going through their minds and was stuck standing on the platform until they remembered him again.

"It makes you look slim and a little bit foxy!" the SHIP president grinned.

"Great…" Lovino rolled his eyes. "I've always wanted to be slim and foxy."

"Really?"

"Of course, just like I've always wanted to be ginger!" he retorted sarcastically. "Can we be done now, dammit?"

The dynamic fandom duo didn't let his surliness bother them, as they grabbed the final trenchcoat – a long dark grey one that was nearly black in the slightly dimmed lighting. Elizabeta had also dug up a blue scarf to complete the look. Lovino wasn't sure what that strange hat in Kiku's hands was all about, but he sure as hell wasn't going to wear it. He swore that if anyone tried to put that…thing…on him, he would skin them and make them into shoes.

"Beautiful!" the long-haired girl quickly wove a long blue scarf around his neck. "Now tell me 'I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high-functioning sociopath!"

"…At least you've done your research."

oOo

A/N – This chapter was to help set-up for later on when Arthur's Iris becomes really important.

The bonus side-story was for all my fellow SHERlocked fans who find all of my little references to Sherlock (mostly in Lovino) and make me feel slightly less crazy. How many fandoms did you spot in this one? XD

Slowly, more and more characters are having their Irises revealed to you guys! Let me know if you're ever having any confusion with them and I'll clear it up if I can. At the moment, the only one I can't reveal from this chapter is Antonio's…still waiting on some plot devices to work themselves out for that one ;) Feel free to guess though! :)

-Rajikka

Translations

Tsundere – A type of character seen in anime or manga known for appearing cold or hostile, but having a hidden sweet side. "Tsun Tsun" is the aloof or irritable side, while "Dere Dere" is the lovey dovey side. (Jp.)

Cabron – Bastard (Sp.)

Churros – Cinnamon sugar-coated crack. A fried pastry treat popular in Spain and the abyss that is my stomach.