[Fic] Building a Family, FrUK Style
Title: Building a Family Part I
Author: Me.
Characters/Pairings: England/France, Prussia, Spain, Rome for like half a second.
Rating: PG-13?
Warnings: Arthur's mouth
Summary: The story of how Arthur and Francis somehow managed to create a functional family despite their dysfunctional lives.
Part of this thing:
Ludwig's Family
Ludwig's Family's Drabbles
Feliciano's Family
Im Yong Soo's Family
Alfred's Family
Ivan's Family
I. The Fateful Meeting
Arthur hated hanging out with Gilbert. In his opinion, 9 year olds should be perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, thank you very much, and there was absolutely no reason for their older cousins to have to watch over them. Of course, the rest of the family had decided that Gilbert would probably burn the whole forest down or something if left unattended, and everyone else at the family reunion was just so busy not attending to him that Arthur got stuck with the job.
He didn’t seem the type, but as it turned out, Gilbert was a clinger. He would usually just cling to either Roderich or Vash since they live next to each other anyway and are already familiar, but Roderich had left early to go to a piano recital and Vash and his father opted not to show up (apparently this facility didn’t allow guns). As it was, it was just Arthur and Gilbert with an entire country club to explore.
“C’mon Arthur, you’re no fun,” Gilbert complained, tugging on his older cousin’s hand as he dragged him through the hall.
“Where are you taking us?”
“I told you: two of my friends said they were having a family reunion here too so we’re going to find them.”
“Why would I want to hang out with any of your moronic friends?”
“My friends are awesome! Almost as awesome as me, but not quite.”
“Didn’t the adults say that we weren’t allowed in this part of the club?” Allegedly a well known mob boss was having a meeting over here. The adults thought it best if no one crossed them for obvious reasons.
“This is the only part we haven’t checked yet, so they’ve got to be here.” Gilbert stopped and opened a door at random revealing a party in full swing.
“Hm? Kids?” A tall brown haired man with various curls sticking out asked them as he leaned over, completely wasted, “Do I know you?”
“I’m Antonio and Francis’s awesome friend Gilbert. This loser is my cousin.”
“Gilbert? Oh yeah, I’ve seen you once or twice I think. Antonio and Francis are probably on the golf course somewhere, here,” he tossed the 9 year old a set of keys, “use one of the carts and go after them, ‘kay?”
“If you insist Mr. Vargas…” Gilbert grinned and took off running towards the nearest exit, Arthur shouting at him as he chased him down.
Gilbert wasn’t a very good driver, that much was obvious from the get go. Eventually his poor golf-cart-driving-skills had them crashing into someone else whose golf-cart-driving-skills where just as bad if not worse. Due to the lack of seat belts in said golf carts, all four passengers went flying.
“Oh hey, you’re cute,” Arthur heard a voice somewhere above him say. He quickly opened his eyes to see an older blonde boy on top of him, undressing him with his eyes. “Eyebrows could use some work I suppose, but overall not bad…” a stray hand found its way under Arthur’s shirt.
“What the…GET THE HELL OFF ME YOU BLOODY PERVERT!” He pushed and kicked at slapped until he was free.
“Mon dieu, you pack quite a punch,” great, he was molested by a French pervert, “but resisting just makes me want you more, mon cher.”
“Francis!” Another boy, this one with curly brown hair and green eyes, tackled hugged him from behind, “Look, we found Gilbert!”
“More like you hit me!” Gilbert complained, “I was doing awesome and you just come out of nowhere and hit me!”
“Can it wait, Antonio, I just found a new friend to play with.”
“Oh really?” Antonio looked at Arthur with new interest. “Hm…what’s with the eyebrows?”
“I beg your pardon?!”
“That’s my cousin, Arthur. He has to watch me.”
“Where are our manners?” Francis stood up, knocking Antonio off, and grabbed Arthur’s hand, simultaneously pulling him up and kissing it. “Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir?”
He got a slap to the face, a knee to the groin, and a punch to the stomach for that. Not bad for a scrawny English kid.
***
II. Papa’s Falling Into Love
Francis Bonnefoy always knew he would find love at first sight. He was French, so he knew a thing or two about the subject.
When he first laid eyes on Arthur Kirkland, there was definitely lust at first sight, but that happened every five seconds, so really, no big deal. There was something else too though: annoyance. For some reason he just couldn’t stand the other boy’s face.
He never saw Arthur outside of any of Gilbert’s family events, but every time they did cross paths it was always the same routine. Francis would flirt with the English kid just to watch him squirm, and would continue until he finally snapped and started either throwing things at him or physically beating him up. Francis would then run away for a bit, flirt with some of the other lovely people around, and repeat as soon as Arthur cooled his head. He, Antonio, and Gilbert had made sort of a game out of it.
Francis showed up to Gilbert’s 11th Birthday Party. Gilbert didn’t seem to notice, so he just snuck on in and found Antonio talking to some girls by the punch bowl. He seemed too preoccupied to notice though, so Francis opted to search for Arthur instead and have some fun.
He found him by the punch bowl being hit on by some local slut that Francis knew quite well, so he was willing to sit back and watch Arthur squirm without putting forth any effort. What could be more fun than that?
After a few minutes though, Francis started getting uncomfortable watching. Something about the scene was just…wrong, and the blonde felt the need to stop it.
“Bonjour, mon ami,” he proclaimed as he walked up and wrapped an arm around Arthur. “Did you miss me?”
“Almost as much as I miss having a root canal. What do you want frog?”
“What’s so suspicious about me greeting an old friend?”
“We’re not old friends!”
“Of course not, we’re a bit more then friends by now right?” He pulled Arthur into a hug and started rubbing his cheek against his head. “Ah, and what beautiful, passionate, sounds we make together…”
The girl just stared. “…he’s only 14…”
“Ah, mon cheri, love waits for no man!” At this point Arthur was kicking and scratching and biting at any part of Francis he could get to. Francis didn’t seem to notice.
“Oh, I get it. Sorry Francis, I didn’t know he was taken.” She winked and went to find someone else to flirt with.
“What the hell you bloody pervert frog?!?! Why are you telling people we’re together!?!”
“I know her. She’s…rather persistent. You’re still a virgin right?” That got him a punch in the stomach.
“Th-that has nothing to do with anything! What are you the defender of my virginity?!”
“No, I’m sure your virginity can stay intact quite well without me. Of course if you ever want to-”
“You’re just as bad as her! Just traded off one for another…”
“You know the more you resist the more desirable you become.”
“…So if I gave in you would leave me the hell alone?”
“Of course but we both know that’s never going to-”
“F-Francis…” Arthur suddenly blushed and looked at his feet, shuffling about, “I-I don’t quite know how to tell you this, but…I-I think I might…love you…”
Francis stopped and stared at the English boy, new emotions he couldn’t quite place suddenly popping up all over the place. “Really?”
“I-I…fuck, I can’t do it. It actually causes me physical distress to even pretend to like you. No. I hate you. Please leave me alone.”
The Frenchman shook his head and pulled Arthur into a tight hug. “Oh, but you made grande frère so happy when you said that!!” He said it in a mocking tone, but really, it wasn’t a lie.
“G-get off me, leave me alone!” Arthur kneed him in the stomach and made a run for it.
“Running only makes my love for you burn hotter!!”
After that, Francis realized most of the things he said to Arthur to annoy him became the truth too.
***
III. Dad’s Falling Into Love
Arthur Kirkland was a good son. He got up early, brought home all As from school, ate all his vegetables, and did everything his parents told him to, because Arthur was good.
Francis was everything Arthur was not, and he thanked whatever divine beings out there that he only saw him every other family outing. That is, until Francis Bonnefoy transferred to his school.
Now instead of taking lunch alone in the library studying as he liked to do, Arthur found himself spending it running away from Francis, whose new favorite game seemed to be to find him wherever he was and annoy him endlessly. Arthur had now started fighting back on school grounds, which lead to trips to the principal’s office and even a detention when their fighting got particularly violent. His parents weren’t too happy about that, because Arthur was a good kid and didn’t get into fights. Francis just made him bad.
Detention wasn’t something Arthur was used to, naturally, so when he walked into the room after school he didn’t expect it to be full of all of those big students who routinely tried to beat him up. Instinctively he sat down in the empty seat as far away from them as he could get. Unfortunately that put him right next to Francis.
“Who brings homework to detention?” he smirked, “you sure are a strange one, non?”
“It’s better than having to look at your scruffy face for two hours.”
“Oh Arthur, you’re always thinking such dirty thoughts…”
“Only you could interpret that to mean something perverted!”
“Hey You In The Back, quiet down!” the teacher shouted. Arthur shut up and turned to face forward while Francis chuckled. “Now look, I don’t have time to waste with You Delinquents, so I’m just going to lock y’all in here for the rest of the time while I go catch a movie or something. You With The Eye Patch is in charge while I’m gone. You With The Mohawk and You With The Rose better behave yourselves or else.” With that he left, and Arthur heard the door’s lock click shut.
A kid with an eye patch sat down at the teacher’s desk and put his feet up as if he owned the place while a kid with a mohawk on the other side of the room sulked and turned to face the chalkboard while Francis sniffed his rose again.
“Really, you grope a few people and all of a sudden the world’s against you.”
“Tch, you would be the kind of guy to wind up in detention all the time.”
“And you would be the kind to not. Arthur, mon cher, you never live.”
“I always live. What else would I be doing?”
“Non, you’re always alive, but you never live.”
“I live plenty, thank you very much. I don’t need your concern about my well being!”
“If you insist…”
One of the few girls in the room happened to be a very good lock-pick and had the door open in about five minutes.
“Finally,” Francis complained, “these conditions are too poor. I should write a letter of complaint to the establishment.”
“You would,” Arthur commented, not moving towards the open door to freedom.
“Aren’t you coming mon cher?”
“I received a punishment for my actions and I intend to sit through that punishment until the end, although with you gone it’ll be more of a pleasure cruise then anything.”
Francis shrugged, “Suit yourself,” then left the classroom without a care in the world.
Arthur was too busy not-caring to notice that the other, bigger, muscular boys in the room had turned their attention to him.
“Ain’t you that Kirkland kid? The one that thinks he’s better then everybody else?”
“First of all, ‘ain’t’ isn’t proper English, stop raping the language. Second it’s ‘better than,’ I think I’m better than everybody else, not better then.”
“Yup, it’s him.”
Two of the largest kids grabbed him out of his seat and pinned him against a desk, hard.
“Bloody hell! What do you think your-”
“Quiet Kirkland,” Eye Patch said. Most of the other kids had left already, leaving just Arthur and his tormentors, “Ya in my English class ain’t ya? Even though ya a freshman? Always getting all them good grades and such? I find that annoying ya know.”
“Well I don’t bleeding care what you think you wanker, just let me go.”
“Now now, that’s not the way ya ask nicely ya know…” One of his bigger friends drove his fist straight into Arthur’s spine. The blonde grit his teeth and tried not to let the pain show.
“What are you trying to accomplish by pinning me here and kicking my arse anyway?”
“Accomplish? Nothing probably. It makes me feel a hell of a lot better though.” At his signal the thug hit him again, this time into his kidney. He raised his fist for another shot-
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, mon ami,”
As if Arthur’s life couldn’t get any worse, Francis had decided to come back, for no other reason than to prove that Murphy’s Law was still function properly.
“Whaddya want Francis? Can’t ya see I’m a lil’ busy here?”
“I can’t say I appreciate you beating up on him like that.” He twirled the rose in his hands, staring at it intently.
“Well I don’t give a rat’s ass what ya appreciate or not there Frenchy.”
“I would, if I were you…”
“Wuzzat?”
“I’m just saying that if you were to continue with this little charade of power you have going, you should be well prepared to deal with the consequences.”
“What kinda consequences are ya talking ‘bout?”
“Your sister is very lovely. She’s a freshman is she not?”
“What of it?” Eye Patch practically shouted, disturbed by the sudden change in conversation.
“I hear Antonio’s taken an interest in her…”
“What?! That bastard better keep his paws off my sister or else-”
“Or else what? Antonio is a dear friend of mine; I know him quite well. Tactics such as this will have no use on him…he’s a complete idiot when he’s in love. To be fair, he’s a complete idiot all the time, but I suppose that just means he’s always in love…too bad it’s never with the same girl. He leaves a path of heartbreak wherever he goes. It’s a shame that most of them opt for suicide. I would like a crack at them too sometimes…”
“If he even so much as-”
“Calm yourself, mon ami, I can help you. Antonio takes my advice very seriously. One word from me, and he won’t go anywhere near your sister. Of course…”
“Yeah yeah, I know the drill. Whaddya want?”
“For starters you can let Arthur go.”
He snapped his fingers. The thugs released Arthur and stepped away.
“Anything else?”
Francis made a show of thinking about it. “Not right now. I’ll let you know if I need anything.”
“But-” he thought better of it, nodded, and left the classroom with the others.
Arthur moved his wrists to get circulation flowing through them again. “I didn’t know being around you had such a high suicide risk,” he said, more to fill the silence then anything, “perhaps I should consider myself lucky I’ve survived this long.”
“Perhaps,” Francis still hadn’t moved from the doorway and was still twirling his rose, “or maybe I just made it up.”
“What, the whole thing?”
“It’s entirely possible that Antonio doesn’t care what I think or take my advice. It’s also possible that his sister is a skanky, disease ridden, whale that no man could possibly love.”
Arthur stopped and stared. “He’s going to be pissed when he finds out.”
“Maybe so,” the other boy shrugged, “but you’re assuming he’s going to find out.” He looked up and met Arthur’s green eyes, who found himself unable to hold the gaze and looked away.
“What are you doing right now?” Francis asked.
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I was going to met Antonio and Gilbert in town later. I figured if you ever wanted to leave your precious books for a moment or two to actually live the moment, you could come too.”
Arthur blushed and looked at his feet. Eventually he tossed his books into his bag and walked out the door.
“D-don’t misinterpret this,” he said, “I’m coming with you because I was planning on going there anyway, not because you asked me.”
“Whatever you say mon cher,” he walked next to him and secretly placed his hand on the other’s ass.
Arthur let him keep it there for a bit before violently kicking it away.
***
IV. First Kiss
Despite all the fairy tales he’d heard as a small child, Arthur did not go around habitually kissing frogs. So when he found himself accidently kissing one, it’s only natural that his first instinct was to punch said frog in the face and make a run for the nearest closet and lock the door. Well maybe second instinct; for some reason his first was to kiss back, but that was definitely because of confusion caused by suddenly falling not because of any affection he most certainly did not have for said frog.
It was all Gilbert’s fault anyway.
Gilbert was staying at his house while his father was out of town. Since Arthur’s parents were out for the night, his cousin though it would be a brilliant idea to have his stupid friends over. Bad things always happened to him whenever those three were together and tonight was no exception.
Arthur didn’t know why he was even in the same room as them, he had homework to do, and he had absolutely no idea why he opted to share the same couch with Francis of all people, it’s not like he didn’t hate him or anything like that. As usually they started fighting, which turned physical fast and had them wrestling on the couch space.
“Sheesh, get a room you two,” Gilbert had cackled (he actually cackled, that should’ve been his first sign!), “Arthur I don’t think your folks will appreciate you making out with perverts while they’re away.”
His commentary caused Arthur to blush and stumbling, which made him tumble to the floor, which made Francis tumble with him and somehow land on top of him, which somehow made their lips touch, which for some reason neither felt the need to correct as soon as it happened.
Arthur came to his senses as soon as Antonio and Gilbert started with the catcalls and immediately punch his assailant in the face and run to the nearest closet and lock the door, where he currently was now.
It only took Francis about five minutes to hunt him down and cause him further grief. “Mon cher, you can come out of the closet now.”
“Fuck you!”
“Well if you really want to I won’t object…” Arthur wished it were possible to punch people through solid wood doors without causing property damage.
“Why are you being so difficult?” Francis continued, “It’s not like that was your first kiss or anything…”
“N-no! Of course not!” It was, but that frog had no business knowing that.
“That was your first kiss? Interesting.” Damnit.
“Sh-shut up!” Arthur buried his face into his knees as he leaned against the door, “Go away!”
“Mon cher, you misunderstand,” he heard him sit down and lean against the door as well, “if I had known that was your first kiss I would have made it special.”
“Probably try to make it in a secluded area so you can try to get a few more firsts out of me,” Arthur muttered.
“What kind of man do you take me for? I wouldn’t try such things on you for your first time.”
“Pft, yeah right. You’ve done nothing but grope me ever since we met!”
“That’s just because you’re cute when you’re flustered,” Arthur’s face went beat red and he was grateful that the other couldn’t see him, “For something as serious as your first kiss…well, I would have done things a little differently.”
“Well go on,” he was curious despite himself, “if you could have planned it what would you have done differently?”
“For starters, Gilbert and Antonio wouldn’t have been around,” sounding good so far, “and your parent’s living room floor would not be my ideal location. Probably somewhere outside, you seem like a nature person, maybe a lake or a forest somewhere. And I would have taken you out to dinner somewhere before hand, someplace French where you would have complained, which would have been adorable, but the food would have been excellent. I would have just taken you out for a walk after dinner and let you rant about anything and everything, and at the end said something like your eyes are like sparkling emeralds. You would have called me some British curse and try to hit me, but I would sneak in there before you actually did and kissed you.”
That actually didn’t sound that bad, and Francis sounded genuinely sincere while describing it. “I think you read too many romance novels.”
He heard him chuckle. “Everyone needs a little romance in their life, mon cher.”
“Why do you keep calling me that?” Arthur asked all of a sudden.
“Hm? It means ‘my dear-’”
“I know what it means…why do you keep…never mind. You’re just making fun of me is all.”
“Au contraire, I am not making fun of you at all when I call you that.”
“Excuse me while I don’t believe you.”
“Well maybe at first, but after a while…you’re a very unique person, Arthur Kirkland.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means what it means.” They sat in silence for a bit.
“You know…” Arthur said after a while, “Despite how I may behave most of the time…I may not exactly hate you sometimes.”
“Same here…quite the opposite actually…”
“…what’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means what it means.”
“But that you mean you l…” he couldn’t bring himself to say it.
“Yes, perhaps I do. But just because I love you…it doesn’t mean I don’t hate you, because I still do.” Arthur heard him stand up and stretch. “I’ll see you around, mon cher.”
“W-wait!” Arthur stood up and opened the door, causing Francis to stop in his tracks.
“You…you…” unfortunately he had no idea what to say, “You can’t just tell a person you love them and walk away!”
Francis blinked, confused for all of two seconds, before he smirked, walked over to Arthur, and leaned forward to whisper in his ear, “Well then, I’ll call you later. How’s that?” He gave him a quick peck on the cheek and sauntered off downstairs to rejoin his friends.
Arthur blushed deeply and thought of so many good comebacks for him when he called him later…if he did call. There was no way to be sure with someone like Francis…not that Arthur actually cared if he did call or anything, because he didn’t. He hated the frog; no matter how much he might have actually…not hated it so much.
Homework. Yes, he had homework. He should go do that now…
***
V. First Date
It took about a month for Arthur to actually agree to go out with Francis. In Francis’s defense, he didn’t purposely try to make the date a disaster; it kind of just did that on its own.
True, he knew Arthur didn’t like French food, so maybe taking him to a French restaurant wasn’t the best of ideas, but how was he supposed to know that the chef and Arthur’s family vehemently hated each other? And really, it’s not his fault those eyebrows are so damn distinctive.
And before dinner, when they went to the fair, how was Francis supposed to know Arthur was afraid of heights (“not heights,” Arthur insisted, “just rickety Ferris Wheels being held together by spit and prayers,”)? It was rather cute when Arthur huddled up next to him when they stopped at the top, but that ended fairly quickly when the puking started.
But it didn’t stop there, how was he supposed to know what flowers Arthur was allergic to? And how could he have possibly known that dog hated British people? There’s only so much Francis can control after all.
As such when Francis finally got Arthur home that night, he fully expected a slap on the face, which he got.
“That was possibly the worst date ever,” Arthur had said. Francis couldn’t help but agree.
“You better not fuck the next one up this royally or so help me God…” he never heard why God had to help Arthur because at that moment the door was shut in face, but he was to elated to care all that much.
He knew Arthur was a keeper.
A/N: This...wasn't supposed to be this long. I blame me having some free time again and me having too much fun with this to keep them short like they were originally supposed to be. I also apologize if I go the whole FrUK relationship-dynamic completely off, as my OTPs are actually USUK and Frussia *is shot*. But anyway, yes, there are ten sections that I divided into two parts with five in each because they got so very long and out of control. The second part will be up soon.
Author: Me.
Characters/Pairings: England/France, Prussia, Spain, Rome for like half a second.
Rating: PG-13?
Warnings: Arthur's mouth
Summary: The story of how Arthur and Francis somehow managed to create a functional family despite their dysfunctional lives.
Part of this thing:
Ludwig's Family
Ludwig's Family's Drabbles
Feliciano's Family
Im Yong Soo's Family
Alfred's Family
Ivan's Family
I. The Fateful Meeting
Arthur hated hanging out with Gilbert. In his opinion, 9 year olds should be perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, thank you very much, and there was absolutely no reason for their older cousins to have to watch over them. Of course, the rest of the family had decided that Gilbert would probably burn the whole forest down or something if left unattended, and everyone else at the family reunion was just so busy not attending to him that Arthur got stuck with the job.
He didn’t seem the type, but as it turned out, Gilbert was a clinger. He would usually just cling to either Roderich or Vash since they live next to each other anyway and are already familiar, but Roderich had left early to go to a piano recital and Vash and his father opted not to show up (apparently this facility didn’t allow guns). As it was, it was just Arthur and Gilbert with an entire country club to explore.
“C’mon Arthur, you’re no fun,” Gilbert complained, tugging on his older cousin’s hand as he dragged him through the hall.
“Where are you taking us?”
“I told you: two of my friends said they were having a family reunion here too so we’re going to find them.”
“Why would I want to hang out with any of your moronic friends?”
“My friends are awesome! Almost as awesome as me, but not quite.”
“Didn’t the adults say that we weren’t allowed in this part of the club?” Allegedly a well known mob boss was having a meeting over here. The adults thought it best if no one crossed them for obvious reasons.
“This is the only part we haven’t checked yet, so they’ve got to be here.” Gilbert stopped and opened a door at random revealing a party in full swing.
“Hm? Kids?” A tall brown haired man with various curls sticking out asked them as he leaned over, completely wasted, “Do I know you?”
“I’m Antonio and Francis’s awesome friend Gilbert. This loser is my cousin.”
“Gilbert? Oh yeah, I’ve seen you once or twice I think. Antonio and Francis are probably on the golf course somewhere, here,” he tossed the 9 year old a set of keys, “use one of the carts and go after them, ‘kay?”
“If you insist Mr. Vargas…” Gilbert grinned and took off running towards the nearest exit, Arthur shouting at him as he chased him down.
Gilbert wasn’t a very good driver, that much was obvious from the get go. Eventually his poor golf-cart-driving-skills had them crashing into someone else whose golf-cart-driving-skills where just as bad if not worse. Due to the lack of seat belts in said golf carts, all four passengers went flying.
“Oh hey, you’re cute,” Arthur heard a voice somewhere above him say. He quickly opened his eyes to see an older blonde boy on top of him, undressing him with his eyes. “Eyebrows could use some work I suppose, but overall not bad…” a stray hand found its way under Arthur’s shirt.
“What the…GET THE HELL OFF ME YOU BLOODY PERVERT!” He pushed and kicked at slapped until he was free.
“Mon dieu, you pack quite a punch,” great, he was molested by a French pervert, “but resisting just makes me want you more, mon cher.”
“Francis!” Another boy, this one with curly brown hair and green eyes, tackled hugged him from behind, “Look, we found Gilbert!”
“More like you hit me!” Gilbert complained, “I was doing awesome and you just come out of nowhere and hit me!”
“Can it wait, Antonio, I just found a new friend to play with.”
“Oh really?” Antonio looked at Arthur with new interest. “Hm…what’s with the eyebrows?”
“I beg your pardon?!”
“That’s my cousin, Arthur. He has to watch me.”
“Where are our manners?” Francis stood up, knocking Antonio off, and grabbed Arthur’s hand, simultaneously pulling him up and kissing it. “Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir?”
He got a slap to the face, a knee to the groin, and a punch to the stomach for that. Not bad for a scrawny English kid.
***
II. Papa’s Falling Into Love
Francis Bonnefoy always knew he would find love at first sight. He was French, so he knew a thing or two about the subject.
When he first laid eyes on Arthur Kirkland, there was definitely lust at first sight, but that happened every five seconds, so really, no big deal. There was something else too though: annoyance. For some reason he just couldn’t stand the other boy’s face.
He never saw Arthur outside of any of Gilbert’s family events, but every time they did cross paths it was always the same routine. Francis would flirt with the English kid just to watch him squirm, and would continue until he finally snapped and started either throwing things at him or physically beating him up. Francis would then run away for a bit, flirt with some of the other lovely people around, and repeat as soon as Arthur cooled his head. He, Antonio, and Gilbert had made sort of a game out of it.
Francis showed up to Gilbert’s 11th Birthday Party. Gilbert didn’t seem to notice, so he just snuck on in and found Antonio talking to some girls by the punch bowl. He seemed too preoccupied to notice though, so Francis opted to search for Arthur instead and have some fun.
He found him by the punch bowl being hit on by some local slut that Francis knew quite well, so he was willing to sit back and watch Arthur squirm without putting forth any effort. What could be more fun than that?
After a few minutes though, Francis started getting uncomfortable watching. Something about the scene was just…wrong, and the blonde felt the need to stop it.
“Bonjour, mon ami,” he proclaimed as he walked up and wrapped an arm around Arthur. “Did you miss me?”
“Almost as much as I miss having a root canal. What do you want frog?”
“What’s so suspicious about me greeting an old friend?”
“We’re not old friends!”
“Of course not, we’re a bit more then friends by now right?” He pulled Arthur into a hug and started rubbing his cheek against his head. “Ah, and what beautiful, passionate, sounds we make together…”
The girl just stared. “…he’s only 14…”
“Ah, mon cheri, love waits for no man!” At this point Arthur was kicking and scratching and biting at any part of Francis he could get to. Francis didn’t seem to notice.
“Oh, I get it. Sorry Francis, I didn’t know he was taken.” She winked and went to find someone else to flirt with.
“What the hell you bloody pervert frog?!?! Why are you telling people we’re together!?!”
“I know her. She’s…rather persistent. You’re still a virgin right?” That got him a punch in the stomach.
“Th-that has nothing to do with anything! What are you the defender of my virginity?!”
“No, I’m sure your virginity can stay intact quite well without me. Of course if you ever want to-”
“You’re just as bad as her! Just traded off one for another…”
“You know the more you resist the more desirable you become.”
“…So if I gave in you would leave me the hell alone?”
“Of course but we both know that’s never going to-”
“F-Francis…” Arthur suddenly blushed and looked at his feet, shuffling about, “I-I don’t quite know how to tell you this, but…I-I think I might…love you…”
Francis stopped and stared at the English boy, new emotions he couldn’t quite place suddenly popping up all over the place. “Really?”
“I-I…fuck, I can’t do it. It actually causes me physical distress to even pretend to like you. No. I hate you. Please leave me alone.”
The Frenchman shook his head and pulled Arthur into a tight hug. “Oh, but you made grande frère so happy when you said that!!” He said it in a mocking tone, but really, it wasn’t a lie.
“G-get off me, leave me alone!” Arthur kneed him in the stomach and made a run for it.
“Running only makes my love for you burn hotter!!”
After that, Francis realized most of the things he said to Arthur to annoy him became the truth too.
***
III. Dad’s Falling Into Love
Arthur Kirkland was a good son. He got up early, brought home all As from school, ate all his vegetables, and did everything his parents told him to, because Arthur was good.
Francis was everything Arthur was not, and he thanked whatever divine beings out there that he only saw him every other family outing. That is, until Francis Bonnefoy transferred to his school.
Now instead of taking lunch alone in the library studying as he liked to do, Arthur found himself spending it running away from Francis, whose new favorite game seemed to be to find him wherever he was and annoy him endlessly. Arthur had now started fighting back on school grounds, which lead to trips to the principal’s office and even a detention when their fighting got particularly violent. His parents weren’t too happy about that, because Arthur was a good kid and didn’t get into fights. Francis just made him bad.
Detention wasn’t something Arthur was used to, naturally, so when he walked into the room after school he didn’t expect it to be full of all of those big students who routinely tried to beat him up. Instinctively he sat down in the empty seat as far away from them as he could get. Unfortunately that put him right next to Francis.
“Who brings homework to detention?” he smirked, “you sure are a strange one, non?”
“It’s better than having to look at your scruffy face for two hours.”
“Oh Arthur, you’re always thinking such dirty thoughts…”
“Only you could interpret that to mean something perverted!”
“Hey You In The Back, quiet down!” the teacher shouted. Arthur shut up and turned to face forward while Francis chuckled. “Now look, I don’t have time to waste with You Delinquents, so I’m just going to lock y’all in here for the rest of the time while I go catch a movie or something. You With The Eye Patch is in charge while I’m gone. You With The Mohawk and You With The Rose better behave yourselves or else.” With that he left, and Arthur heard the door’s lock click shut.
A kid with an eye patch sat down at the teacher’s desk and put his feet up as if he owned the place while a kid with a mohawk on the other side of the room sulked and turned to face the chalkboard while Francis sniffed his rose again.
“Really, you grope a few people and all of a sudden the world’s against you.”
“Tch, you would be the kind of guy to wind up in detention all the time.”
“And you would be the kind to not. Arthur, mon cher, you never live.”
“I always live. What else would I be doing?”
“Non, you’re always alive, but you never live.”
“I live plenty, thank you very much. I don’t need your concern about my well being!”
“If you insist…”
One of the few girls in the room happened to be a very good lock-pick and had the door open in about five minutes.
“Finally,” Francis complained, “these conditions are too poor. I should write a letter of complaint to the establishment.”
“You would,” Arthur commented, not moving towards the open door to freedom.
“Aren’t you coming mon cher?”
“I received a punishment for my actions and I intend to sit through that punishment until the end, although with you gone it’ll be more of a pleasure cruise then anything.”
Francis shrugged, “Suit yourself,” then left the classroom without a care in the world.
Arthur was too busy not-caring to notice that the other, bigger, muscular boys in the room had turned their attention to him.
“Ain’t you that Kirkland kid? The one that thinks he’s better then everybody else?”
“First of all, ‘ain’t’ isn’t proper English, stop raping the language. Second it’s ‘better than,’ I think I’m better than everybody else, not better then.”
“Yup, it’s him.”
Two of the largest kids grabbed him out of his seat and pinned him against a desk, hard.
“Bloody hell! What do you think your-”
“Quiet Kirkland,” Eye Patch said. Most of the other kids had left already, leaving just Arthur and his tormentors, “Ya in my English class ain’t ya? Even though ya a freshman? Always getting all them good grades and such? I find that annoying ya know.”
“Well I don’t bleeding care what you think you wanker, just let me go.”
“Now now, that’s not the way ya ask nicely ya know…” One of his bigger friends drove his fist straight into Arthur’s spine. The blonde grit his teeth and tried not to let the pain show.
“What are you trying to accomplish by pinning me here and kicking my arse anyway?”
“Accomplish? Nothing probably. It makes me feel a hell of a lot better though.” At his signal the thug hit him again, this time into his kidney. He raised his fist for another shot-
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, mon ami,”
As if Arthur’s life couldn’t get any worse, Francis had decided to come back, for no other reason than to prove that Murphy’s Law was still function properly.
“Whaddya want Francis? Can’t ya see I’m a lil’ busy here?”
“I can’t say I appreciate you beating up on him like that.” He twirled the rose in his hands, staring at it intently.
“Well I don’t give a rat’s ass what ya appreciate or not there Frenchy.”
“I would, if I were you…”
“Wuzzat?”
“I’m just saying that if you were to continue with this little charade of power you have going, you should be well prepared to deal with the consequences.”
“What kinda consequences are ya talking ‘bout?”
“Your sister is very lovely. She’s a freshman is she not?”
“What of it?” Eye Patch practically shouted, disturbed by the sudden change in conversation.
“I hear Antonio’s taken an interest in her…”
“What?! That bastard better keep his paws off my sister or else-”
“Or else what? Antonio is a dear friend of mine; I know him quite well. Tactics such as this will have no use on him…he’s a complete idiot when he’s in love. To be fair, he’s a complete idiot all the time, but I suppose that just means he’s always in love…too bad it’s never with the same girl. He leaves a path of heartbreak wherever he goes. It’s a shame that most of them opt for suicide. I would like a crack at them too sometimes…”
“If he even so much as-”
“Calm yourself, mon ami, I can help you. Antonio takes my advice very seriously. One word from me, and he won’t go anywhere near your sister. Of course…”
“Yeah yeah, I know the drill. Whaddya want?”
“For starters you can let Arthur go.”
He snapped his fingers. The thugs released Arthur and stepped away.
“Anything else?”
Francis made a show of thinking about it. “Not right now. I’ll let you know if I need anything.”
“But-” he thought better of it, nodded, and left the classroom with the others.
Arthur moved his wrists to get circulation flowing through them again. “I didn’t know being around you had such a high suicide risk,” he said, more to fill the silence then anything, “perhaps I should consider myself lucky I’ve survived this long.”
“Perhaps,” Francis still hadn’t moved from the doorway and was still twirling his rose, “or maybe I just made it up.”
“What, the whole thing?”
“It’s entirely possible that Antonio doesn’t care what I think or take my advice. It’s also possible that his sister is a skanky, disease ridden, whale that no man could possibly love.”
Arthur stopped and stared. “He’s going to be pissed when he finds out.”
“Maybe so,” the other boy shrugged, “but you’re assuming he’s going to find out.” He looked up and met Arthur’s green eyes, who found himself unable to hold the gaze and looked away.
“What are you doing right now?” Francis asked.
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I was going to met Antonio and Gilbert in town later. I figured if you ever wanted to leave your precious books for a moment or two to actually live the moment, you could come too.”
Arthur blushed and looked at his feet. Eventually he tossed his books into his bag and walked out the door.
“D-don’t misinterpret this,” he said, “I’m coming with you because I was planning on going there anyway, not because you asked me.”
“Whatever you say mon cher,” he walked next to him and secretly placed his hand on the other’s ass.
Arthur let him keep it there for a bit before violently kicking it away.
***
IV. First Kiss
Despite all the fairy tales he’d heard as a small child, Arthur did not go around habitually kissing frogs. So when he found himself accidently kissing one, it’s only natural that his first instinct was to punch said frog in the face and make a run for the nearest closet and lock the door. Well maybe second instinct; for some reason his first was to kiss back, but that was definitely because of confusion caused by suddenly falling not because of any affection he most certainly did not have for said frog.
It was all Gilbert’s fault anyway.
Gilbert was staying at his house while his father was out of town. Since Arthur’s parents were out for the night, his cousin though it would be a brilliant idea to have his stupid friends over. Bad things always happened to him whenever those three were together and tonight was no exception.
Arthur didn’t know why he was even in the same room as them, he had homework to do, and he had absolutely no idea why he opted to share the same couch with Francis of all people, it’s not like he didn’t hate him or anything like that. As usually they started fighting, which turned physical fast and had them wrestling on the couch space.
“Sheesh, get a room you two,” Gilbert had cackled (he actually cackled, that should’ve been his first sign!), “Arthur I don’t think your folks will appreciate you making out with perverts while they’re away.”
His commentary caused Arthur to blush and stumbling, which made him tumble to the floor, which made Francis tumble with him and somehow land on top of him, which somehow made their lips touch, which for some reason neither felt the need to correct as soon as it happened.
Arthur came to his senses as soon as Antonio and Gilbert started with the catcalls and immediately punch his assailant in the face and run to the nearest closet and lock the door, where he currently was now.
It only took Francis about five minutes to hunt him down and cause him further grief. “Mon cher, you can come out of the closet now.”
“Fuck you!”
“Well if you really want to I won’t object…” Arthur wished it were possible to punch people through solid wood doors without causing property damage.
“Why are you being so difficult?” Francis continued, “It’s not like that was your first kiss or anything…”
“N-no! Of course not!” It was, but that frog had no business knowing that.
“That was your first kiss? Interesting.” Damnit.
“Sh-shut up!” Arthur buried his face into his knees as he leaned against the door, “Go away!”
“Mon cher, you misunderstand,” he heard him sit down and lean against the door as well, “if I had known that was your first kiss I would have made it special.”
“Probably try to make it in a secluded area so you can try to get a few more firsts out of me,” Arthur muttered.
“What kind of man do you take me for? I wouldn’t try such things on you for your first time.”
“Pft, yeah right. You’ve done nothing but grope me ever since we met!”
“That’s just because you’re cute when you’re flustered,” Arthur’s face went beat red and he was grateful that the other couldn’t see him, “For something as serious as your first kiss…well, I would have done things a little differently.”
“Well go on,” he was curious despite himself, “if you could have planned it what would you have done differently?”
“For starters, Gilbert and Antonio wouldn’t have been around,” sounding good so far, “and your parent’s living room floor would not be my ideal location. Probably somewhere outside, you seem like a nature person, maybe a lake or a forest somewhere. And I would have taken you out to dinner somewhere before hand, someplace French where you would have complained, which would have been adorable, but the food would have been excellent. I would have just taken you out for a walk after dinner and let you rant about anything and everything, and at the end said something like your eyes are like sparkling emeralds. You would have called me some British curse and try to hit me, but I would sneak in there before you actually did and kissed you.”
That actually didn’t sound that bad, and Francis sounded genuinely sincere while describing it. “I think you read too many romance novels.”
He heard him chuckle. “Everyone needs a little romance in their life, mon cher.”
“Why do you keep calling me that?” Arthur asked all of a sudden.
“Hm? It means ‘my dear-’”
“I know what it means…why do you keep…never mind. You’re just making fun of me is all.”
“Au contraire, I am not making fun of you at all when I call you that.”
“Excuse me while I don’t believe you.”
“Well maybe at first, but after a while…you’re a very unique person, Arthur Kirkland.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means what it means.” They sat in silence for a bit.
“You know…” Arthur said after a while, “Despite how I may behave most of the time…I may not exactly hate you sometimes.”
“Same here…quite the opposite actually…”
“…what’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means what it means.”
“But that you mean you l…” he couldn’t bring himself to say it.
“Yes, perhaps I do. But just because I love you…it doesn’t mean I don’t hate you, because I still do.” Arthur heard him stand up and stretch. “I’ll see you around, mon cher.”
“W-wait!” Arthur stood up and opened the door, causing Francis to stop in his tracks.
“You…you…” unfortunately he had no idea what to say, “You can’t just tell a person you love them and walk away!”
Francis blinked, confused for all of two seconds, before he smirked, walked over to Arthur, and leaned forward to whisper in his ear, “Well then, I’ll call you later. How’s that?” He gave him a quick peck on the cheek and sauntered off downstairs to rejoin his friends.
Arthur blushed deeply and thought of so many good comebacks for him when he called him later…if he did call. There was no way to be sure with someone like Francis…not that Arthur actually cared if he did call or anything, because he didn’t. He hated the frog; no matter how much he might have actually…not hated it so much.
Homework. Yes, he had homework. He should go do that now…
***
V. First Date
It took about a month for Arthur to actually agree to go out with Francis. In Francis’s defense, he didn’t purposely try to make the date a disaster; it kind of just did that on its own.
True, he knew Arthur didn’t like French food, so maybe taking him to a French restaurant wasn’t the best of ideas, but how was he supposed to know that the chef and Arthur’s family vehemently hated each other? And really, it’s not his fault those eyebrows are so damn distinctive.
And before dinner, when they went to the fair, how was Francis supposed to know Arthur was afraid of heights (“not heights,” Arthur insisted, “just rickety Ferris Wheels being held together by spit and prayers,”)? It was rather cute when Arthur huddled up next to him when they stopped at the top, but that ended fairly quickly when the puking started.
But it didn’t stop there, how was he supposed to know what flowers Arthur was allergic to? And how could he have possibly known that dog hated British people? There’s only so much Francis can control after all.
As such when Francis finally got Arthur home that night, he fully expected a slap on the face, which he got.
“That was possibly the worst date ever,” Arthur had said. Francis couldn’t help but agree.
“You better not fuck the next one up this royally or so help me God…” he never heard why God had to help Arthur because at that moment the door was shut in face, but he was to elated to care all that much.
He knew Arthur was a keeper.
A/N: This...wasn't supposed to be this long. I blame me having some free time again and me having too much fun with this to keep them short like they were originally supposed to be. I also apologize if I go the whole FrUK relationship-dynamic completely off, as my OTPs are actually USUK and Frussia *is shot*. But anyway, yes, there are ten sections that I divided into two parts with five in each because they got so very long and out of control. The second part will be up soon.