Building a Family Part II
Part of the My Family series: The story of how Francis and Arthur made a functional family out of their dysfunctional lives.
Word Count: 6,934
VI. Love and Marriage:
Arthur had always known that he wasn’t attracted to girls, and the fact that all of the women in his life had been manipulative bitches didn’t help. Even so, he didn’t fall for guys that easily either, and on the off chance he actually did, he preferred to bury his feelings in school work until they went away then actually try anything. He was a good boy after all, and good boys were supposed to fall in love good girls after they graduated college and got high paying jobs, married them, and started families of good children who repeated the process.
Francis ruined everything by making him fall in love with him, that bastard.
Naturally, when Arthur’s parents found out, they weren’t exactly thrilled. They blamed Gilbert for being a bad influence (Arthur did to, but for completely different reasons) and refused to let Arthur see Francis. And Arthur complied, because he was a good boy, even if he strayed away from that, even if it hurt to push Francis away and mean it (or at least pretend to). He slept at night knowing that Francis probably thought the whole thing as just another fling anyway (even if it had lasted over a year) and was already over him right now.
Except that, you know, he wasn’t.
Francis hadn’t expected to fall for Arthur as hard as he had. In fact he hadn’t realized just how hard he fell until after Arthur had kicked him out of his life. At first he just blew it off as if it didn’t really matter to him and started drinking to try and convince himself of that fact as well, and for the most part it worked. He saw other people and only thought about Arthur when he was sober, which was become less and less.
Antonio and Gilbert knew him too well to get fooled by such tricks. Which is why they felt the need to kidnap him…it was for his own good, they swear. And if Gilbert got to pull some cool ninja moves he’d been working on and Antonio got to try out his new rope knotting skills in the process, well, that was just a bonus. They swear.
“Seriously, this isn’t healthy, even for you,” Antonio said as he finished tying Francis to the chair.
“I’m fine guys, really…”
“Of course, that’s why you’ve been disappearing with a different girl every night for the past month or so,” Gilbert rolled his eyes, “not to mention that you’ve also gone through enough wine in that time to keep the entire population of China drunk for a good year or so.”
“I’m cool, really…sure what’s-his-face calling it off like that was a bit sudden, but if he’s moved on, then so have I.”
“But Arthur hasn’t moved on,” Antonio said. Francis twitched at the mention of his name.
“Of course he has, or else he wouldn’t have…well it’s not like he was all that committed anyway…not that I care…”
“It’s not like he wanted to call it off,” Gilbert stated, shocking everyone in the room. “Aunt and Uncle found out and forced him. What you didn’t know?”
“No,” Antonio smiled, not that nice happy smiles that he usually did. This was one of those smiles that you would run from. “You know Gilbert, things like that would have been nice to know LAST MONTH WHEN THIS ALL STARTED!!!”
“Hey I didn’t find out about it until this week! Somehow this is all my fault and Vati’s been arguing with Aunt and Uncle lately. Apparently I’m not allowed within ten feet of their house anymore. Roderich is though, and he told me that Arthur’s just been throwing himself into his schoolwork for the past month…not that it’s doing him any good, because he’s still failing everything…Aunt and Uncle are talking about sending him to a private school back in England.”
“What’s that supposed to accomplish?”
“I dunno,” he shrugged, “apparently surrounding him by dudes is supposed to somehow make him straight.”
“But still, Gilbert, all of this lovely information would have been great LAST MONTH!!”
“Stop shouting at my awesome self! I told you I didn’t find any of this out until this week! Besides I don’t hear Francis complaining…right Francis?”
The both turned to see that somewhere in their conversation Francis had escaped the ropes and made a run for it. A small fight broke out to decide whose fault it was (it was Gilbert’s).
Nobody heard from Francis Bonnefoy for three days.
Meanwhile, Arthur Kirkland was getting ready to move back to England, or more accurately, be sent away to England, which was fine. It’s not like there was anything here for him after all…perfectly fine…
A rapping on his window shook Arthur out of his train of thought. He walked over and opened the window to find Francis sitting in his tree.
“Bloody…what the…Francis…”
“Bonsoir mon cher. I see you’re articulate as always.”
“B-bloody hell Francis!” He whispered harshly, “I-I told you I never wanted to see your frog-face again!”
“Oui, but you always say that to me. Why should I let that stop me now?”
“I mean it this time…go away. I-I never want to-”
“Gilbert,” he interrupted, “told me. Everything.” Arthur blushed and turned away. Francis attempted to stroke his cheek, but his hand was swatted away. “I missed you mon cher.”
“I’m sure you did,” he turned to face him again with a glare that may have caused a weaker man to combust on the spot, “Gallivanting around with any two-cent whore that crossed your path.”
“Oh, I see you still kept tabs on me…”
“D-don’t misunderstand! Roderich just mentioned some things in passing,” (after he had asked), “I-It’s not like I actually c-cared…or anything…”
“It still hurts,” that caused Arthur to look him right in the eyes, “I know you don’t mean it and you’re just trying to make your parents happy…but it still hurts.” He reached out to grab his check, and this time Arthur let him, “Yes, there were other girls, but it was always you. Will always be you.”
“Francis…I…I’m going to England tomorrow.”
“I am aware,” he lowered his hand from Arthur’s face and grabbed his hand instead, “If you really want to, I won’t stop you, but I was hoping that you would rather stay here.”
Arthur lowered his gaze, hiding his eyes behind his fringe, and unconsciously tightened his grip on Francis’s hand.
“There’s nothing for me here,” he stated in that monotone way that implied he’d been telling himself that for the better part of the last few days, but still didn’t quite believe it.
“I’m here.”
“For how long?” His eyes snapped back up intensely glaring again, “How long until you grow bored with me and leave me for someone new? I’m not going to bet my future on the off chance that you might…”
“Not? Feel the same way you do? If that’s the only thing holding you back, then I’ll gladly assure you-”
“Yes assure me, with your fancy words riddled with lies. Excuse me if I don’t gamble everything on your word.” He turned to go back into the room but was stopped when Francis pulled on his hand.
“Let me finish, please Arthur,” he held his gaze as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring. It wasn’t anything special (which considering Francis’s love of doing thing extravagantly is nothing short of a miracle), just a simple gold band surrounding a green diamond.
“Arthur, will you marry me?”
Arthur gave himself about ten seconds for his brain to crash, reboot, analyze the situation, and then crash again.
“You’re crazy…insane…I’m dreaming. Yes, that’s right, there’s no way you’d be here at me window asking me to marry you.” Francis pinched him, hard.
“Ow! Bloody wanker, what the hell?!”
“Well, now you know you’re not dreaming. So what’s your answer?”
“I can’t just…I’m only 16! I can’t get married!”
“I’ll take care of you, I promise! My parents left me with a lot of money, enough for the two of us to be set for a while.”
“There’s more to it than just money Francis!” Arthur snapped. “I can’t just…there’s a plan! I have a plan and you just…why do you always ruin it?!” He took his hand back only to grip the window sill as if his life depended on it. “There’s a plan…no one has to get hurt…”
“You mean, you’re parents’ don’t have to get hurt. They can continue living their perfect life with their perfect son. Which is fine, they’re your family after all, but Arthur, is their happiness worth yours? In their life plan for you, will you really end up happy?”
Arthur blanched before slowly backed away from the window, shutting it in the process. Francis sighed and looked away. He had tried; if he couldn’t change Arthur’s mind, then there was nothing more he could do. He had said his piece and he had no regrets.
Suddenly the window burst open again. Francis looked up in time to see Arthur jump into the tree branch carrying a backpack. He slipped, but Francis caught him and steadied him before he fell.
“Arthur…”
“You said you have money right? Do you have a house yet? It better be as far away from here as possible because I don’t think my parents will just let me live down the street from them.”
“Y-yes…I have that all set up.”
“Good…” he coughed awkwardly and blushed. “D-don’t think that just because I’m running away with you, it means I don’t hate you, because I still do.”
Francis just laughed and pulled his fiancé into a kiss. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
***
VII. Alfred and Matthew:
For probably the first time in his life, Arthur was comfortable. Francis had set them up in a town far enough away that no one would ask any unneeded questions and Arthur was still able to attend his last semester of high school and graduate early. It took a while, but after a few months of filling out paperwork and court proceedings, Arthur was legally free from his parents. The only thing that could possibly ruin this for him would be if one of them somehow got pregnant, but that was just silly. Men couldn’t get pregnant, everyone knew that.
There was no way he could have expected his life to change so dramatically by simply answering the knock at the door.
There on his doorstep was a young blonde woman with bright blue eyes caring a sleeping newborn in one arm and trying to stop a young blonde toddler from wandering off with another.
“Um…can I help you?” he asked, unsure what caused this visit.
She and the child looked up at him when he spoke.
“Damn he sure like ‘em young,” were the first words out of the woman’s mouth.
“Excuse me?!”
“You’re British too? I’m totally into that, but I didn’t think Francis was.”
“And who the bloody hell might you be?”
“Huh? Oh, I guess he hasn’t mentioned that I might possibly be stopping by sometimes. Jeeze, talk about rude. You really should let your wife know these things.”
“Husband. And that still doesn’t explain who-”
“Mon cher, what’s taking so…” Francis trailed off when he caught sight of who was at the door. “Vanessa! What are you doing here?”
“I said I would stop by you know!”
“You said maybe if you were in the area…two years ago…”
“Yeah, and you never told me you moved and got married! I had to find out from Antonio. Talk about rude.”
“Well where are my manners? Arthur, this is an old ‘friend’ of mine, Vanessa Williams. Vanessa, this is my husband Arthur. I see you brought some little guests as well…”
“Huh? Oh yeah,” she handed the baby to Francis, “that’s Mattie and, um…where’d Al go?” Sometime during the conversation, the child slipped out of his mother’s grasp and was currently wandering in the bushes.
“D’ya mind getting him for me Arty?” Vanessa asked. “Francis and I wanna catch up and all, you know how it is.” She pushed her way into the house, grabbing the Frenchman and dragging him too in the process.
“Don’t call me Arty!” Arthur shouted a little belated. Sighing he wandered over to the bushes where Al was currently exploring.
“Come along lad, I’m sure your mother is…um…well, just come along now.” He said, holding out his hand. The child stared at him for a bit before running over and eagerly taking it."Yes, well…” Arthur was never very good with children. Younger children often found him dull and would naturally migrate to anyone else in the area, so the fact that this child warmed up to him so easily was unexpected, but not necessarily in a bad way. “Let’s go inside now, come along.”
As soon as they entered the house though, Alfred tugged away from Arthur and ran away.
“What…wait come back! Get down from there this instant!” After some fighting, scrambling, climbing, and general running, Arthur managed to get him into the kitchen, where Vanessa was chatting Francis’s ear off while he gently rocked a peacefully sleeping Matthew.
“Oh good you found him,” Vanessa remarked, “Al usually just wanders all over the place so I have trouble finding him sometimes.”
“So what you just let him wander? He looks like he’s barely a year old. That’s not very good parenting!”
“He’s like, 18 months or something…well he was born in July and what day is it? Anyway I don’t think you have any right to lecture me about that. It’s not like you have kids of your own Arty.”
“It’s Arthur! And leaving a small child unattended is just-”
“Relax, mon cher. Your shouting will wake up the baby.”
“Nah, Matty can sleep through a thunderstorm. I think he actually did at one point…anyway he’s pretty calm, which is good ‘cause that one,” she specifically pointed at Alfred, “is a handful.”
“I’d imagine so,” Francis observed. Meanwhile, Alfred grew bored with their talking and had climbed on top of Arthur’s shoulders to play with his eyebrows.
“He’s quite the climber isn’t he…” Arthur mumbled.
“I guess. I mean, I always find him on top of stuff.”
Alfred was now faced upside down staring into Arthur’s eyes. Suddenly he grabbed at the man’s nose and tweaked it, giggling like mad when Arthur made a distressed noise.
“He’s taken a liking to you, somehow,” Vanessa commented, “which is actually really good, because I need to ask you a favor Francis.”
He sighed, expecting something like this from the beginning. “What?”
“I need to go out to Vegas for a little bit…to track down their father. I can’t really take the kids to Vegas, so-”
“Absolutely not,” Arthur stated, “We are not some nanny service for your convenience! Why don’t you leave them with family or friends or-”
“There is no family. Just me,” she smiled, “besides, Francis is a friend, so it’s cool right?”
“We are not prepared to take on two children out of the blue like this!”
“It’ll be fine, they practically take care of themselves,” she stood up and made her way to the front door. “I’ll be back from Vegas in a few weeks ‘kay? I’ll get them from you then! See ya!” With that, Vanessa Williams walked out of their lives.
“…She’s never going to come back for them, is she?” Arthur asked.
“No probably not,” Francis agreed. “She’s always doing stupid things like this…”
“I’m 16, you’re 18, and we really only started living together six months ago. We can’t raise two children right now.”
“No, we can’t.”
“What are we going to do with them?”
Francis sighed. “I’ll call around for orphanages I suppose…”
That took time though, time that was spent taking care of Alfred and Matthew, who despite their mother’s insistence, did not practically raise themselves. Matthew, who was still a newborn, needed either breast milk or baby formula. Considering neither Arthur nor Francis was equipped to produce the former, the logical option was the latter, which was very expensive. Also it seemed he vanished half the time, as there were moments when both Francis and Arthur had no idea where the baby went, only to find he was sitting there the whole time. At least he was quiet most of the time, only really crying when he was hungry…which only seemed to be at three in the morning.
Alfred, as it turned out, was an extremely picky eater. He would only eat Arthur’s food, which was weird because Arthur couldn’t cook. At all. His food had none of the nutritional requirements for a child his age on top of the fact that it tasted horrible and he almost burned the house down several times while attempting to cook for him. Unlike his brother, he needed either Arthur or Francis constant attention, and would go about several ways to get it, his favorites being crying in the loudest, most obnoxious way available to him at the time and climbing on top of the tallest object in the room (which sometimes was Francis or Arthur) and attempting to jump off.
After two months of this, tired, beat, and exhausted, Arthur was more than happy to hand over the kids to some Christian orphanage in another town, and was set to do just that.
The nuns were taking them away so Arthur never had to see them or deal with them ever again, Matt unusually crying and screaming the whole time, when suddenly Alfred squirmed away to run over and attach himself to Arthur’s leg.
“Dada!!” he screamed over and over again almost as loud as his brother, whose shrieks increased in volume after his brother’s escape. Alfred cried and screamed and held on to his leg with a grip stronger than a normal child his age should have. “Dada!!”
Arthur gulped. That was Alfred’s first word wasn’t it? He knew right then that he was going to be stuck with these kids for the rest of his life.
“Um…Francis…”
“I’ll call the adoption agency when we get back.”
***
IIX. Jake:
Francis’s parents had left him enough money for him and a spouse to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. Add two kids to the equation however and, well, Arthur was more comfortable taking a few extra shifts every now and then at work. So when his boss offered a huge bonus for anyone willing to accompany the documentary crew to Australia for a month, Arthur wasted no time packing his bags, grabbing his passport, and promising Alfred he’d bring him back a koala.
Yes, he’d been left with doing the grunt work, and that was perfectly acceptable, after all it was what he signed up for, but that didn’t mean they could just dump random children they found in the outback on him simply because they had the same eyebrows (purely by coincidence) and he may have had a child or two around the same age. Still, it was complete bollocks.
“Wat’s dis?” the kid asked, pulling out one of Arthur’s photos from his back.
“That is a picture. Please don’t go through my things. Haven’t your parents taught you anything?”
“I’m only twee,” he held up three fingers to prove his point.
“Yes, that’s splendid Alfred-”
“Jake.”
“Yes, Jake, that’s splendid. Don’t just-” but Jake had already gone back into Arthur’s bag and pulled out another picture.
“Who’s dat?” he asked, holding the picture out to Arthur.
“That is my family.”
“Where are dey?” he peaked around the chair Arthur was seated in as if they were simply hiding.
“They aren’t here, they’re back home.”
“Oh,” Jake sat down and stared at the picture some more.
“…Jake, what do you remember about your parents?” Arthur tried asking, again, “It could help us try to find them quicker.”
“We were ‘sploring,” Jake answered, not taking his eyes off the picture, “Ma and Pa went away. I twied to find ‘em…but…” instead of finishing he turned the picture back to Arthur and asked, “who’s dat?”
“That’s my son, Alfred,” he carefully moved himself off the chair and onto the floor next to Jake. “He likes to play around outside and go exploring…a bit hard to handle at times since he’s always moving, but he’s such a sweet lad. A lot like you, in a way…you’d like him.”
“Yeah…” Jake trailed off again, staring at the photo yet not, “who’s dat?”
“That’s my other son, Matthew. His brother’s complete opposite in almost every way. Quiet, smart, generous, quiet. I’m sure you’d get along.”
He nodded. “Is dis your wife?”
“Yes, that’s Francis. He’s a right tosser and perverted as all hell. Can’t count on him for anything really, and he’s probably the single most annoying human being on the face of the planet.”
“But you luf him wight? Or else you wouldn’t haf mawied him wight?”
“…Yes, I love him very much…just don’t tell him that, or anyone else ever for that matter. It’ll be our secret alright?”
Jake giggled. “’Kay.”
Arthur spent the next few hours showing Jake the rest of the pictures he brought and telling him all the random stories that went along with them. Eventually they were interrupted by one of the team members that found Jake and were looking for his parents.
“We might have found your parents Jake!” she practically squealed. “Isn’t it great? You’ll be reunited with them as soon as we can confirm it!”
“Well, who the bloody hell are they and why did they just let their son wander around the outback by himself?” Arthur demanded.
“Chill dude. According to the data we managed to extract from Jake and the internet, we’ve concluded that Jake’s parents are probably the famous extreme explorers Steve and Dana Jenkins. Rumors say that they had a son three years ago, although no one could ever actually confirm that, and they were taking this week off to hike through the outback. Jake here must have wandered away from their camp site. We’re trying to reach them by satellite phone now to confirm our theory.”
“Can’t you just ask Jake?”
“He hasn’t exactly been a goldmine of information you know. Couldn’t even give us a clear description of what his parents looked like.”
“Do you have a photo of them?” she nodded and handed one over. Arthur showed it to Jake. “Jake love, do you know who the people in this picture are?”
He stared at it for a long while before his eyes lit up in recognition. “Tom!”
“Tom?” Jake was pointing at a man in the background of the picture fiddling with some equipment.
“Tom Brady is their assistant,” she explained, “he usually travels around with Steve and Dana, but since this was just for fun, he took the week off.”
“Tom plays with me lots ‘cause Ma and Pa are always busy…I don’t think he likes me vewy much…”
“So the man and woman in the photo are your parents then, Jake?”
“I…guess. Tom’s with ‘em.”
“We just got a hold of the Jenkins!” Another member of the team shouted as he came in.
“Well what did they say? Were they missing a child?” The first girl asked.
“They didn’t notice at first, but yeah, they lost their son. They asked if we could hold onto him for a bit until their done with their trip, since he’d been getting in the way because Tom wasn’t there to watch over him.”
“Wasn’t there to…they’re his bloody parents! It’s their job to watch over him, not some underpaid assistance who doesn’t give two licks!”
“Hey, if you want to tell them yourself Arthur-”
“Damn right I want to tell them myself, where’s the bloody phone?”
Arthur spent the next hour and a half arguing with Steve and Dana Jenkins about parenting. They claimed that it was difficult traveling around and doing so many dangerous things with a kid in tow and it wasn’t their fault Jake couldn’t just stay still, and Arthur complained that they shouldn’t put their work ahead of their child to the point where he can’t even recognize them, especially if it put Jake in danger.
Somehow it ended with Steve shouting, “Well if ya know so damn much, why don’t ya just raise him, mate!?”
To which Arthur replied, “Maybe I should! The boy could use an actual loving family!”
“If ya think ya can handle him, then go ahead! Congrats Captain Jerkface, ya’re now the proud father of an Aussie brat!” Arthur waited for the pending tone dial before slamming the phone down.
“Well, what now Captain Jerkface?” the girl said, “Now we have no idea where they are or how we’re going to get Jake back.”
“It’s fine…I’ll take him.”
“You what!? You’re not seriously just going to-”
“I said I’d raise him, so I’m going to raise him. And I’ll do a much better job than those two could ever manage to accomplish.”
“Arthur I think this is kidnapping…”
“No, it could work out…” the other guy said, “I’m pretty sure if you don’t notice your child getting lost in the outback that qualifies as abandonment. I’ll call the adoption and border people and see if we can get this to work.”
“What about Jake? What if he doesn’t want to leave Australia, did you ever think of that?”
“Jake,” Arthur asked, “would you like to come live with me and my family in America?”
“Can I really?!”
“You don’t mind if you leave your parents and Australia behind?”
Jake shook his head. “I wanna stay with Archur!”
“Well now that that’s settled,” Arthur coughed awkwardly, “Um…is it possible for me to call home for a bit?”
-
“Well, Mattie and I certainly don’t mind. He sounds like a sweet child who needs a good home and I’d be more than happy to welcome him. Alfred says he’d rather have a koala.”
“Tell him koala’s are vicious and eat people and that a new little brother will love him forever.”
“…He says he has a little brother already and would still rather have a koala.”
“Tell him he’s getting a brother and he’s going to like it.”
***
IX. Angelique
Arthur set his teacup down and glanced at the little girl glaring at him from across the table.
“I don’t like you,” she stated.
“I figured as much…and I honestly don’t blame you. I’ve been a right git as of late and you were unfortunately on the receiving end, but I hope that you can forgive me and we can start over.”
“You made Papa sad, but he forgave you. You took Papa away from Mama, but she forgave you. I don’t wanna forgive you.”
“I am sorry about that, but one day when you’re older and you fall in love, maybe you’ll understand.” The glare she gave him said otherwise. “Or not.”
“We coulda been a family, like all the other kids. Just me and Mama and Papa. But you took Papa away and ruined that!”
“I’m…sorry I ruined your family,” Arthur said, tracing the rim of his cup, “but, if you want, you can become part of our family.”
“Yeah do it!” someone shouted from the hallway, followed by several shushes and a “Quiet!”
“You do make Papa happy, somehow,” she conceded, “and Matt and Jake and Alfred seem to like you…I guess I could give it a try.”
Cheers erupted from the hallway. “That’s all I can ask for. Now why don’t I make you something to eat?”
“NO!!” Alfred, Jake, Matthew, and Francis shouted as the burst into the kitchen.
“Don’t do it mate!”
“You’re too awesome and cool to die!”
“Please don’t risk it!”
“Angelique, cheri, you don’t have to go that far!”
The all received a fist to the head. Francis got an extra kick to the gut, just because.
Angelique questioned the sanity of her new family, and had a feeling she’d be doing a lot of that for the next few years.
***
X. Hong
“Honey…*hic* ‘M home!” he stated as he stumbled through the door.
“Mon cher, have you been drinking?”
“S’fine I can handle it…”
“You know I don’t like it when you drink.”
“Yeah, well I dun like your face, but I still love ya!”
“I still love you too, but really…Arthur is that a child?”
“Hm?” he turned around drunkenly and sure enough, there was a young boy behind him. “Oh yeah, where’re the kids? Boys! Girl! I’ve gots a surprise for ya!” he swayed, but Francis was there to catch him.
“Is Dad home?” Alfred asked from the top of the stairs. His siblings peeked out from behind him.
“Yes, he is, go back to bed. And who might you be?” he asked the boy.
“Wang Hong.”
“Tha’s Hong Kirkland-Bonnefoy now ya tosser!” he giggled, “Wang Hong Kirkland-Bonnefoy…”
“Dad brought us a brother?” Alfred and Jake scrambled downstairs, Matthew and Angelique not far behind.
“No-”
“Tha’s right kids! I won ya a brother!”
This is why Francis hated dealing with a drunken Arthur; nothing ever made sense.
“Kids, go to bed. Monsieur Hong, please meet me in the kitchen,” He pointed towards the kitchen door and turned to drag his husband over to the couch. “I said bed now.”
“Yes Papa!” the kids scrambled back up the stairs while Hong made his way to the kitchen. After dumping Arthur on the couch, Francis joined him and made him some hot chocolate.
“Now, if you could be so kind as to inform me of what my husband was up to tonight…”
“I’m not…entirely sure myself. My older brother, Yao, he takes care of us, has a little bit of an opium problem mixed in with a gambling problem.”
“Funny, my husband has a bit of a drinking problem mixed in with a gambling problem.”
“S’not a problem if you win!” Arthur shouted from the living room.
“My brother…doesn’t win. Not as long as I’ve been around anyway. It was my turn to drag him back home tonight, and apparently he bet a little more to Mr. Kirkland then he actually had on him…”
“So he used you to compensate?” Francis sighed, “The state of the world today…”
“Don’t…it’s not like Yao’s a bad brother, or even a bad guardian,” Hong explained, “He just has some issues he needs to get over. Hopefully this can be some kind of wake up call for him.”
“You’re a very optimistic child. Where are your parents while this is all going on?”
“I don’t have any parents. Yao takes care of us.”
“And by us, you mean other siblings?”
“Yes, there are five of us now. Yao found us, so he takes care of us, and we watch out for him.”
“I see,” and he did. They weren’t actually blood related, just like another group of siblings he knew quite well, but that didn’t mean they didn’t care or worry about each other, “I’m not sure how much your brother actually lost to Arthur, but I can take you home tomorrow if you want.”
“N-no waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay,” Arthur said from the doorway, “I won ‘im fair ‘n square so I’ma gonna keep ‘im!”
“Go lie down mon cher, the sober people are talking.”
“If it’s not too much trouble, I would actually prefer to stay here a while,” Hong said, taking a sip of his drink, “Don’t get me wrong, I love my family very much, but I’m very worried about Yao, and I think this kind of incident might set him on the right track.”
“Are you sure you want to sacrifice yourself like that? For all you know we could eat children.”
“I owe everything to Yao. If I can’t even do this much for him I wouldn’t be a very good brother to him. Besides, I saw your kids when I came in. They look happy enough.”
“That’s true enough,” Francis muttered, “alright, you can stay for as long as you want. Welcome to the family Hong. Alfred, Matthew…”
“Yes?” Two voices from the hall answered.
“Do you want to take Hong upstairs and get him settled in?”
“Yeah!” Alfred burst through the door. “Hi, I’m Alfred! This is my brother Matt, and we’re gonna have a lotta fun together, kay?”
“If…you say so.”
Alfred grinned. Matthew shyly took Hong’s hand and led him upstairs.
“You’ve brought home another troubling one haven’t you?”
“Ya know ya love ‘em,” Arthur muttered as he collapsed at the table.
“You can’t sleep there, mon cher, you’ll get an even worse headache tomorrow morning.”
“Dun feel like walkin’.”
Francis smiled at him, “You can be so cute sometimes, but I wish you didn’t have to drink yourself half to death to get that way.” He sighed before lifting him into his arms bridal style and carried him off to bed.
The next morning, Francis made eggs for breakfast.
***
Bonus: IIX.V. The Second Phone Call, a.k.a I Swear, It’s Not Kidnapping
“Hello?”
“Yes, hello Mr. Jenkins. This is Arthur Kirkland again.”
“Oh really?”
“Please hear me out…I just wanted to apologize for my conduct before. I said some completely inappropriate things and I really shouldn’t be getting involved in your family affairs like that.”
“Well I got a bit hot-headed too, so we’re both at fault mate. But, well, the wife and I were talking about it, and you were right.”
“Pardon?”
“We weren’t expecting to have kids right now, and Jakey just sorta happened. And I know ya’re supposed to, ya know, dedicate some time to raising the kid or something, but we’re just not ready to give up our lifestyle for that yet.”
“Well, that’s your choice, I guess, and I shouldn’t judge you for that…”
“But ya do, don’t cha? I think I know what kinda man ya are by now Mr. Kirkland.”
“…”
“And ya’re a good father, I can tell that much, and I know we never actually met ya or anything, but if Jakey seems to like ya and all that…ya wouldn’t mind takin’ ‘im back to America with you would ya?”
“Mr. Jenkins, it would be my honor.”
***
Bonus: XI. Meeting Grandma
Peter wanted to go to the zoo that day to see monkeys or something, and Elizabeth Kirkland saw no reason not to take him herself. After several hours of wandering around and seeing just about everything the establishment had to offer, Peter was fast asleep in his stroller and she was resting in the picnic area, reading a book. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a small child approach the stroller and peek inside.
“Excuse me young man, what are you doing?” she questioned.
The boy looked up at her with his bright blue eyes, golden blonde hair rustling in the slight breeze, and smiled at her.
“I was just lookin’ for my brother.”
“Well I can guarantee he’s not in there.”
“I know,” he giggled, “I saw the eyebrows and Jake has the same ones and I thought it was him so I checked.”
“What’s your name?”
“Alfred.”
“Alfred, where are your parents?” She gave the picnic area a quick glance over and found no adults frantically searching for a child.
“Um…Matt wanted to see the polar bears so he and Dad are probably there.”
“And why aren’t you with him?”
“Polar bears are cool, but me and Jake wanted to see the elephants so we went to go over there instead and we sorta got a little lost and a little separated.”
“Wouldn’t your father be worried about you once he discovers you aren’t with him?”
“But I’m fine so there’s nothing to worry about!”
“I’m fairly certain he doesn’t know that.”
“He should. I haven’t gotten hurt or in too much trouble yet.”
He was such a stubborn child, but there was something about him that was rather endearing. Perhaps it was the smile.
“Your father will probably pass through this area eventually looking for you,” she reasoned, “Would you like to wait with me until he comes?”
“Thanks lady, but I gotta find my brother first. I’m the big brother so I’ve gotta watch out for him.”
She glanced at Peter, blissfully asleep. Sometimes she wondered about Peter’s big brother, a bunch of what-ifs that always would come and go. But that was in the past, Peter was her future now.
“I admire your courage, Little Hero,” his grin doubled at that, “but don’t you think your brother will pass through here as well at some point? It’s best to remain in one place when you’re lost.”
“I’m not lost! I know exactly where I am!”
“And where is that?”
“Right here,” he pointed at the ground, “and what if Jake is staying in one place waiting for me?”
“Maybe your father had found him already or maybe he’s found another kind lady to watch out for him.”
“I guess,” Alfred pouted.
“Come,” she patted the seat next to her, “sit with me and tell me about your brother while we wait.”
He climbed up on the bench and told her about Jake, who was from Austra-something. It’s out back somewhere. He used to wrestle kangaroos and dingoes before their father found him and brought him home so he could play with Alfred and his little brother Matthew.
“And what about him?” he asked when he was done, peeking into the stroller again.
She told him that was her son, Peter, her youngest son, and that the eyebrows were genetic…from his father’s side of the family of course. He was only two at the moment, but he was a bright and curious boy, just like Alfred, and he was her world.
He asked if he had any brothers too. She said he had an older brother, but they all had a falling out some years ago and he’s never met him. He said that was sad, because brothers were lots of fun to play with. She agreed.
Eventually he complained about his hunger, so she bought him an ice cream and they talked some more, mostly about Alfred’s likes and hobbies, which included, but was not limited to, adventures, archeology, quick draw, learning new things, space, hamburgers, and heroes.
“Alfred!” a voice she hadn’t heard in three years shouted from across the picnic area. Said boy looked up and sure enough, Arthur was there, frantically running over to them. Alfred jumped off the bench just in time to be scooped up into Arthur’s arms in a tight hug. He hadn’t seen her yet, so Elizabeth quickly picked up and opened her book to hide her face.
“Alfred what the bloody hell do you think you were doing,” he scolded and tried to keep the worry from his voice, but she could tell it was there.
“I just wanted to see the elephants…”
“We would have seen them eventually, you and Jake didn’t have to go running off by yourselves!”
“I’m sorry…”
“You’re lucky I found you both before something happened.”
“But I’m fine! This nice lady was taking care of me, so it’s all good.”
“What if she wasn’t here and some creep or pervert or…but your safe now,” he sighed and put the child back on the ground, “Don’t do that again, alright?”
“Yes Dad!”
“What do you say to the nice lady who went through the trouble of watching you?”
“Oh yeah,” Alfred tugged at her pant leg to get her attention. She peeked over to book, pointedly ignoring Arthur. “Thank you for taking care of me and getting me ice cream.”
“You’re quite welcome. Try not to worry your father like that again though.”
“Kay!” he smiled at her before running off to play with his brothers who were on the other side of the area.
“Don’t - oh, too late…at least Matthew’s with them,” Arthur muttered before turning to talk to her, “Thank you for looking out for him. Truly, it means a lot to me.”
“No self-respecting parent will just let a child wander around by himself…you should learn that.”
“I know that…” he muttered again. Arthur was about to go back when he caught sight of Peter.
“Who…what’s his name?” he asked.
“Peter.”
“He’s lovely…get’s his eyebrows from his father I suppose,” she didn’t say anything. “I’m…I’m sure he’ll grow up to be a fine man, much better than his brother anyway.”
“His brother is a fine man, I’m sure…just a little misguided is all,” she peeked out over the book again to find Arthur blushing and looking away, “your boys are lovely. Alfred is very sweet. You’ve done a good job raising them.”
“Th-thank you, but I guess there Papa should get some credit…you, um,” he coughed awkwardly, “you can always…come and visit us - them, if you want…”
“…I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“Ah, of course not…well, take care then.” She heard him turn and walk away.
“Arthur,” she called out before she could stop herself. He turned, and she found it surprisingly hard to look into those green eyes that she used to look into every day.
“…It was nice seeing you again.”
“…It was nice seeing you too.”
“Please take care.” He blinked, smiled, and nodded before turning to rejoin his sons, her grandsons, she supposed.
She put her book in the bag hanging off of Peter’s stroller and wheeled him in the opposite direction, trying not to break down right there.
Alfred really was a sweet boy.
A/N: Well this was way longer then I expected. And it took a lot longer, but enjoy the extra bonus to make up for that. For Seychelles fans, yes, her part is a lot shorter than the others, and it doesn't make much sense. The reason for that is because her part was actually much longer then every other part, so I cut it and will probably post it as a separate one-shot later whenever I find time to finish it again. So yeah, sorry about that..
And apparently when I get stressed and over worked, things get a bit serious business, so it's kinda like one of those 'everyone's life sucks until they all meet each other' type deals. Sorry about that too.
Word Count: 6,934
VI. Love and Marriage:
Arthur had always known that he wasn’t attracted to girls, and the fact that all of the women in his life had been manipulative bitches didn’t help. Even so, he didn’t fall for guys that easily either, and on the off chance he actually did, he preferred to bury his feelings in school work until they went away then actually try anything. He was a good boy after all, and good boys were supposed to fall in love good girls after they graduated college and got high paying jobs, married them, and started families of good children who repeated the process.
Francis ruined everything by making him fall in love with him, that bastard.
Naturally, when Arthur’s parents found out, they weren’t exactly thrilled. They blamed Gilbert for being a bad influence (Arthur did to, but for completely different reasons) and refused to let Arthur see Francis. And Arthur complied, because he was a good boy, even if he strayed away from that, even if it hurt to push Francis away and mean it (or at least pretend to). He slept at night knowing that Francis probably thought the whole thing as just another fling anyway (even if it had lasted over a year) and was already over him right now.
Except that, you know, he wasn’t.
Francis hadn’t expected to fall for Arthur as hard as he had. In fact he hadn’t realized just how hard he fell until after Arthur had kicked him out of his life. At first he just blew it off as if it didn’t really matter to him and started drinking to try and convince himself of that fact as well, and for the most part it worked. He saw other people and only thought about Arthur when he was sober, which was become less and less.
Antonio and Gilbert knew him too well to get fooled by such tricks. Which is why they felt the need to kidnap him…it was for his own good, they swear. And if Gilbert got to pull some cool ninja moves he’d been working on and Antonio got to try out his new rope knotting skills in the process, well, that was just a bonus. They swear.
“Seriously, this isn’t healthy, even for you,” Antonio said as he finished tying Francis to the chair.
“I’m fine guys, really…”
“Of course, that’s why you’ve been disappearing with a different girl every night for the past month or so,” Gilbert rolled his eyes, “not to mention that you’ve also gone through enough wine in that time to keep the entire population of China drunk for a good year or so.”
“I’m cool, really…sure what’s-his-face calling it off like that was a bit sudden, but if he’s moved on, then so have I.”
“But Arthur hasn’t moved on,” Antonio said. Francis twitched at the mention of his name.
“Of course he has, or else he wouldn’t have…well it’s not like he was all that committed anyway…not that I care…”
“It’s not like he wanted to call it off,” Gilbert stated, shocking everyone in the room. “Aunt and Uncle found out and forced him. What you didn’t know?”
“No,” Antonio smiled, not that nice happy smiles that he usually did. This was one of those smiles that you would run from. “You know Gilbert, things like that would have been nice to know LAST MONTH WHEN THIS ALL STARTED!!!”
“Hey I didn’t find out about it until this week! Somehow this is all my fault and Vati’s been arguing with Aunt and Uncle lately. Apparently I’m not allowed within ten feet of their house anymore. Roderich is though, and he told me that Arthur’s just been throwing himself into his schoolwork for the past month…not that it’s doing him any good, because he’s still failing everything…Aunt and Uncle are talking about sending him to a private school back in England.”
“What’s that supposed to accomplish?”
“I dunno,” he shrugged, “apparently surrounding him by dudes is supposed to somehow make him straight.”
“But still, Gilbert, all of this lovely information would have been great LAST MONTH!!”
“Stop shouting at my awesome self! I told you I didn’t find any of this out until this week! Besides I don’t hear Francis complaining…right Francis?”
The both turned to see that somewhere in their conversation Francis had escaped the ropes and made a run for it. A small fight broke out to decide whose fault it was (it was Gilbert’s).
Nobody heard from Francis Bonnefoy for three days.
Meanwhile, Arthur Kirkland was getting ready to move back to England, or more accurately, be sent away to England, which was fine. It’s not like there was anything here for him after all…perfectly fine…
A rapping on his window shook Arthur out of his train of thought. He walked over and opened the window to find Francis sitting in his tree.
“Bloody…what the…Francis…”
“Bonsoir mon cher. I see you’re articulate as always.”
“B-bloody hell Francis!” He whispered harshly, “I-I told you I never wanted to see your frog-face again!”
“Oui, but you always say that to me. Why should I let that stop me now?”
“I mean it this time…go away. I-I never want to-”
“Gilbert,” he interrupted, “told me. Everything.” Arthur blushed and turned away. Francis attempted to stroke his cheek, but his hand was swatted away. “I missed you mon cher.”
“I’m sure you did,” he turned to face him again with a glare that may have caused a weaker man to combust on the spot, “Gallivanting around with any two-cent whore that crossed your path.”
“Oh, I see you still kept tabs on me…”
“D-don’t misunderstand! Roderich just mentioned some things in passing,” (after he had asked), “I-It’s not like I actually c-cared…or anything…”
“It still hurts,” that caused Arthur to look him right in the eyes, “I know you don’t mean it and you’re just trying to make your parents happy…but it still hurts.” He reached out to grab his check, and this time Arthur let him, “Yes, there were other girls, but it was always you. Will always be you.”
“Francis…I…I’m going to England tomorrow.”
“I am aware,” he lowered his hand from Arthur’s face and grabbed his hand instead, “If you really want to, I won’t stop you, but I was hoping that you would rather stay here.”
Arthur lowered his gaze, hiding his eyes behind his fringe, and unconsciously tightened his grip on Francis’s hand.
“There’s nothing for me here,” he stated in that monotone way that implied he’d been telling himself that for the better part of the last few days, but still didn’t quite believe it.
“I’m here.”
“For how long?” His eyes snapped back up intensely glaring again, “How long until you grow bored with me and leave me for someone new? I’m not going to bet my future on the off chance that you might…”
“Not? Feel the same way you do? If that’s the only thing holding you back, then I’ll gladly assure you-”
“Yes assure me, with your fancy words riddled with lies. Excuse me if I don’t gamble everything on your word.” He turned to go back into the room but was stopped when Francis pulled on his hand.
“Let me finish, please Arthur,” he held his gaze as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring. It wasn’t anything special (which considering Francis’s love of doing thing extravagantly is nothing short of a miracle), just a simple gold band surrounding a green diamond.
“Arthur, will you marry me?”
Arthur gave himself about ten seconds for his brain to crash, reboot, analyze the situation, and then crash again.
“You’re crazy…insane…I’m dreaming. Yes, that’s right, there’s no way you’d be here at me window asking me to marry you.” Francis pinched him, hard.
“Ow! Bloody wanker, what the hell?!”
“Well, now you know you’re not dreaming. So what’s your answer?”
“I can’t just…I’m only 16! I can’t get married!”
“I’ll take care of you, I promise! My parents left me with a lot of money, enough for the two of us to be set for a while.”
“There’s more to it than just money Francis!” Arthur snapped. “I can’t just…there’s a plan! I have a plan and you just…why do you always ruin it?!” He took his hand back only to grip the window sill as if his life depended on it. “There’s a plan…no one has to get hurt…”
“You mean, you’re parents’ don’t have to get hurt. They can continue living their perfect life with their perfect son. Which is fine, they’re your family after all, but Arthur, is their happiness worth yours? In their life plan for you, will you really end up happy?”
Arthur blanched before slowly backed away from the window, shutting it in the process. Francis sighed and looked away. He had tried; if he couldn’t change Arthur’s mind, then there was nothing more he could do. He had said his piece and he had no regrets.
Suddenly the window burst open again. Francis looked up in time to see Arthur jump into the tree branch carrying a backpack. He slipped, but Francis caught him and steadied him before he fell.
“Arthur…”
“You said you have money right? Do you have a house yet? It better be as far away from here as possible because I don’t think my parents will just let me live down the street from them.”
“Y-yes…I have that all set up.”
“Good…” he coughed awkwardly and blushed. “D-don’t think that just because I’m running away with you, it means I don’t hate you, because I still do.”
Francis just laughed and pulled his fiancé into a kiss. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
***
VII. Alfred and Matthew:
For probably the first time in his life, Arthur was comfortable. Francis had set them up in a town far enough away that no one would ask any unneeded questions and Arthur was still able to attend his last semester of high school and graduate early. It took a while, but after a few months of filling out paperwork and court proceedings, Arthur was legally free from his parents. The only thing that could possibly ruin this for him would be if one of them somehow got pregnant, but that was just silly. Men couldn’t get pregnant, everyone knew that.
There was no way he could have expected his life to change so dramatically by simply answering the knock at the door.
There on his doorstep was a young blonde woman with bright blue eyes caring a sleeping newborn in one arm and trying to stop a young blonde toddler from wandering off with another.
“Um…can I help you?” he asked, unsure what caused this visit.
She and the child looked up at him when he spoke.
“Damn he sure like ‘em young,” were the first words out of the woman’s mouth.
“Excuse me?!”
“You’re British too? I’m totally into that, but I didn’t think Francis was.”
“And who the bloody hell might you be?”
“Huh? Oh, I guess he hasn’t mentioned that I might possibly be stopping by sometimes. Jeeze, talk about rude. You really should let your wife know these things.”
“Husband. And that still doesn’t explain who-”
“Mon cher, what’s taking so…” Francis trailed off when he caught sight of who was at the door. “Vanessa! What are you doing here?”
“I said I would stop by you know!”
“You said maybe if you were in the area…two years ago…”
“Yeah, and you never told me you moved and got married! I had to find out from Antonio. Talk about rude.”
“Well where are my manners? Arthur, this is an old ‘friend’ of mine, Vanessa Williams. Vanessa, this is my husband Arthur. I see you brought some little guests as well…”
“Huh? Oh yeah,” she handed the baby to Francis, “that’s Mattie and, um…where’d Al go?” Sometime during the conversation, the child slipped out of his mother’s grasp and was currently wandering in the bushes.
“D’ya mind getting him for me Arty?” Vanessa asked. “Francis and I wanna catch up and all, you know how it is.” She pushed her way into the house, grabbing the Frenchman and dragging him too in the process.
“Don’t call me Arty!” Arthur shouted a little belated. Sighing he wandered over to the bushes where Al was currently exploring.
“Come along lad, I’m sure your mother is…um…well, just come along now.” He said, holding out his hand. The child stared at him for a bit before running over and eagerly taking it."Yes, well…” Arthur was never very good with children. Younger children often found him dull and would naturally migrate to anyone else in the area, so the fact that this child warmed up to him so easily was unexpected, but not necessarily in a bad way. “Let’s go inside now, come along.”
As soon as they entered the house though, Alfred tugged away from Arthur and ran away.
“What…wait come back! Get down from there this instant!” After some fighting, scrambling, climbing, and general running, Arthur managed to get him into the kitchen, where Vanessa was chatting Francis’s ear off while he gently rocked a peacefully sleeping Matthew.
“Oh good you found him,” Vanessa remarked, “Al usually just wanders all over the place so I have trouble finding him sometimes.”
“So what you just let him wander? He looks like he’s barely a year old. That’s not very good parenting!”
“He’s like, 18 months or something…well he was born in July and what day is it? Anyway I don’t think you have any right to lecture me about that. It’s not like you have kids of your own Arty.”
“It’s Arthur! And leaving a small child unattended is just-”
“Relax, mon cher. Your shouting will wake up the baby.”
“Nah, Matty can sleep through a thunderstorm. I think he actually did at one point…anyway he’s pretty calm, which is good ‘cause that one,” she specifically pointed at Alfred, “is a handful.”
“I’d imagine so,” Francis observed. Meanwhile, Alfred grew bored with their talking and had climbed on top of Arthur’s shoulders to play with his eyebrows.
“He’s quite the climber isn’t he…” Arthur mumbled.
“I guess. I mean, I always find him on top of stuff.”
Alfred was now faced upside down staring into Arthur’s eyes. Suddenly he grabbed at the man’s nose and tweaked it, giggling like mad when Arthur made a distressed noise.
“He’s taken a liking to you, somehow,” Vanessa commented, “which is actually really good, because I need to ask you a favor Francis.”
He sighed, expecting something like this from the beginning. “What?”
“I need to go out to Vegas for a little bit…to track down their father. I can’t really take the kids to Vegas, so-”
“Absolutely not,” Arthur stated, “We are not some nanny service for your convenience! Why don’t you leave them with family or friends or-”
“There is no family. Just me,” she smiled, “besides, Francis is a friend, so it’s cool right?”
“We are not prepared to take on two children out of the blue like this!”
“It’ll be fine, they practically take care of themselves,” she stood up and made her way to the front door. “I’ll be back from Vegas in a few weeks ‘kay? I’ll get them from you then! See ya!” With that, Vanessa Williams walked out of their lives.
“…She’s never going to come back for them, is she?” Arthur asked.
“No probably not,” Francis agreed. “She’s always doing stupid things like this…”
“I’m 16, you’re 18, and we really only started living together six months ago. We can’t raise two children right now.”
“No, we can’t.”
“What are we going to do with them?”
Francis sighed. “I’ll call around for orphanages I suppose…”
That took time though, time that was spent taking care of Alfred and Matthew, who despite their mother’s insistence, did not practically raise themselves. Matthew, who was still a newborn, needed either breast milk or baby formula. Considering neither Arthur nor Francis was equipped to produce the former, the logical option was the latter, which was very expensive. Also it seemed he vanished half the time, as there were moments when both Francis and Arthur had no idea where the baby went, only to find he was sitting there the whole time. At least he was quiet most of the time, only really crying when he was hungry…which only seemed to be at three in the morning.
Alfred, as it turned out, was an extremely picky eater. He would only eat Arthur’s food, which was weird because Arthur couldn’t cook. At all. His food had none of the nutritional requirements for a child his age on top of the fact that it tasted horrible and he almost burned the house down several times while attempting to cook for him. Unlike his brother, he needed either Arthur or Francis constant attention, and would go about several ways to get it, his favorites being crying in the loudest, most obnoxious way available to him at the time and climbing on top of the tallest object in the room (which sometimes was Francis or Arthur) and attempting to jump off.
After two months of this, tired, beat, and exhausted, Arthur was more than happy to hand over the kids to some Christian orphanage in another town, and was set to do just that.
The nuns were taking them away so Arthur never had to see them or deal with them ever again, Matt unusually crying and screaming the whole time, when suddenly Alfred squirmed away to run over and attach himself to Arthur’s leg.
“Dada!!” he screamed over and over again almost as loud as his brother, whose shrieks increased in volume after his brother’s escape. Alfred cried and screamed and held on to his leg with a grip stronger than a normal child his age should have. “Dada!!”
Arthur gulped. That was Alfred’s first word wasn’t it? He knew right then that he was going to be stuck with these kids for the rest of his life.
“Um…Francis…”
“I’ll call the adoption agency when we get back.”
***
IIX. Jake:
Francis’s parents had left him enough money for him and a spouse to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. Add two kids to the equation however and, well, Arthur was more comfortable taking a few extra shifts every now and then at work. So when his boss offered a huge bonus for anyone willing to accompany the documentary crew to Australia for a month, Arthur wasted no time packing his bags, grabbing his passport, and promising Alfred he’d bring him back a koala.
Yes, he’d been left with doing the grunt work, and that was perfectly acceptable, after all it was what he signed up for, but that didn’t mean they could just dump random children they found in the outback on him simply because they had the same eyebrows (purely by coincidence) and he may have had a child or two around the same age. Still, it was complete bollocks.
“Wat’s dis?” the kid asked, pulling out one of Arthur’s photos from his back.
“That is a picture. Please don’t go through my things. Haven’t your parents taught you anything?”
“I’m only twee,” he held up three fingers to prove his point.
“Yes, that’s splendid Alfred-”
“Jake.”
“Yes, Jake, that’s splendid. Don’t just-” but Jake had already gone back into Arthur’s bag and pulled out another picture.
“Who’s dat?” he asked, holding the picture out to Arthur.
“That is my family.”
“Where are dey?” he peaked around the chair Arthur was seated in as if they were simply hiding.
“They aren’t here, they’re back home.”
“Oh,” Jake sat down and stared at the picture some more.
“…Jake, what do you remember about your parents?” Arthur tried asking, again, “It could help us try to find them quicker.”
“We were ‘sploring,” Jake answered, not taking his eyes off the picture, “Ma and Pa went away. I twied to find ‘em…but…” instead of finishing he turned the picture back to Arthur and asked, “who’s dat?”
“That’s my son, Alfred,” he carefully moved himself off the chair and onto the floor next to Jake. “He likes to play around outside and go exploring…a bit hard to handle at times since he’s always moving, but he’s such a sweet lad. A lot like you, in a way…you’d like him.”
“Yeah…” Jake trailed off again, staring at the photo yet not, “who’s dat?”
“That’s my other son, Matthew. His brother’s complete opposite in almost every way. Quiet, smart, generous, quiet. I’m sure you’d get along.”
He nodded. “Is dis your wife?”
“Yes, that’s Francis. He’s a right tosser and perverted as all hell. Can’t count on him for anything really, and he’s probably the single most annoying human being on the face of the planet.”
“But you luf him wight? Or else you wouldn’t haf mawied him wight?”
“…Yes, I love him very much…just don’t tell him that, or anyone else ever for that matter. It’ll be our secret alright?”
Jake giggled. “’Kay.”
Arthur spent the next few hours showing Jake the rest of the pictures he brought and telling him all the random stories that went along with them. Eventually they were interrupted by one of the team members that found Jake and were looking for his parents.
“We might have found your parents Jake!” she practically squealed. “Isn’t it great? You’ll be reunited with them as soon as we can confirm it!”
“Well, who the bloody hell are they and why did they just let their son wander around the outback by himself?” Arthur demanded.
“Chill dude. According to the data we managed to extract from Jake and the internet, we’ve concluded that Jake’s parents are probably the famous extreme explorers Steve and Dana Jenkins. Rumors say that they had a son three years ago, although no one could ever actually confirm that, and they were taking this week off to hike through the outback. Jake here must have wandered away from their camp site. We’re trying to reach them by satellite phone now to confirm our theory.”
“Can’t you just ask Jake?”
“He hasn’t exactly been a goldmine of information you know. Couldn’t even give us a clear description of what his parents looked like.”
“Do you have a photo of them?” she nodded and handed one over. Arthur showed it to Jake. “Jake love, do you know who the people in this picture are?”
He stared at it for a long while before his eyes lit up in recognition. “Tom!”
“Tom?” Jake was pointing at a man in the background of the picture fiddling with some equipment.
“Tom Brady is their assistant,” she explained, “he usually travels around with Steve and Dana, but since this was just for fun, he took the week off.”
“Tom plays with me lots ‘cause Ma and Pa are always busy…I don’t think he likes me vewy much…”
“So the man and woman in the photo are your parents then, Jake?”
“I…guess. Tom’s with ‘em.”
“We just got a hold of the Jenkins!” Another member of the team shouted as he came in.
“Well what did they say? Were they missing a child?” The first girl asked.
“They didn’t notice at first, but yeah, they lost their son. They asked if we could hold onto him for a bit until their done with their trip, since he’d been getting in the way because Tom wasn’t there to watch over him.”
“Wasn’t there to…they’re his bloody parents! It’s their job to watch over him, not some underpaid assistance who doesn’t give two licks!”
“Hey, if you want to tell them yourself Arthur-”
“Damn right I want to tell them myself, where’s the bloody phone?”
Arthur spent the next hour and a half arguing with Steve and Dana Jenkins about parenting. They claimed that it was difficult traveling around and doing so many dangerous things with a kid in tow and it wasn’t their fault Jake couldn’t just stay still, and Arthur complained that they shouldn’t put their work ahead of their child to the point where he can’t even recognize them, especially if it put Jake in danger.
Somehow it ended with Steve shouting, “Well if ya know so damn much, why don’t ya just raise him, mate!?”
To which Arthur replied, “Maybe I should! The boy could use an actual loving family!”
“If ya think ya can handle him, then go ahead! Congrats Captain Jerkface, ya’re now the proud father of an Aussie brat!” Arthur waited for the pending tone dial before slamming the phone down.
“Well, what now Captain Jerkface?” the girl said, “Now we have no idea where they are or how we’re going to get Jake back.”
“It’s fine…I’ll take him.”
“You what!? You’re not seriously just going to-”
“I said I’d raise him, so I’m going to raise him. And I’ll do a much better job than those two could ever manage to accomplish.”
“Arthur I think this is kidnapping…”
“No, it could work out…” the other guy said, “I’m pretty sure if you don’t notice your child getting lost in the outback that qualifies as abandonment. I’ll call the adoption and border people and see if we can get this to work.”
“What about Jake? What if he doesn’t want to leave Australia, did you ever think of that?”
“Jake,” Arthur asked, “would you like to come live with me and my family in America?”
“Can I really?!”
“You don’t mind if you leave your parents and Australia behind?”
Jake shook his head. “I wanna stay with Archur!”
“Well now that that’s settled,” Arthur coughed awkwardly, “Um…is it possible for me to call home for a bit?”
-
“Well, Mattie and I certainly don’t mind. He sounds like a sweet child who needs a good home and I’d be more than happy to welcome him. Alfred says he’d rather have a koala.”
“Tell him koala’s are vicious and eat people and that a new little brother will love him forever.”
“…He says he has a little brother already and would still rather have a koala.”
“Tell him he’s getting a brother and he’s going to like it.”
***
IX. Angelique
Arthur set his teacup down and glanced at the little girl glaring at him from across the table.
“I don’t like you,” she stated.
“I figured as much…and I honestly don’t blame you. I’ve been a right git as of late and you were unfortunately on the receiving end, but I hope that you can forgive me and we can start over.”
“You made Papa sad, but he forgave you. You took Papa away from Mama, but she forgave you. I don’t wanna forgive you.”
“I am sorry about that, but one day when you’re older and you fall in love, maybe you’ll understand.” The glare she gave him said otherwise. “Or not.”
“We coulda been a family, like all the other kids. Just me and Mama and Papa. But you took Papa away and ruined that!”
“I’m…sorry I ruined your family,” Arthur said, tracing the rim of his cup, “but, if you want, you can become part of our family.”
“Yeah do it!” someone shouted from the hallway, followed by several shushes and a “Quiet!”
“You do make Papa happy, somehow,” she conceded, “and Matt and Jake and Alfred seem to like you…I guess I could give it a try.”
Cheers erupted from the hallway. “That’s all I can ask for. Now why don’t I make you something to eat?”
“NO!!” Alfred, Jake, Matthew, and Francis shouted as the burst into the kitchen.
“Don’t do it mate!”
“You’re too awesome and cool to die!”
“Please don’t risk it!”
“Angelique, cheri, you don’t have to go that far!”
The all received a fist to the head. Francis got an extra kick to the gut, just because.
Angelique questioned the sanity of her new family, and had a feeling she’d be doing a lot of that for the next few years.
***
X. Hong
“Honey…*hic* ‘M home!” he stated as he stumbled through the door.
“Mon cher, have you been drinking?”
“S’fine I can handle it…”
“You know I don’t like it when you drink.”
“Yeah, well I dun like your face, but I still love ya!”
“I still love you too, but really…Arthur is that a child?”
“Hm?” he turned around drunkenly and sure enough, there was a young boy behind him. “Oh yeah, where’re the kids? Boys! Girl! I’ve gots a surprise for ya!” he swayed, but Francis was there to catch him.
“Is Dad home?” Alfred asked from the top of the stairs. His siblings peeked out from behind him.
“Yes, he is, go back to bed. And who might you be?” he asked the boy.
“Wang Hong.”
“Tha’s Hong Kirkland-Bonnefoy now ya tosser!” he giggled, “Wang Hong Kirkland-Bonnefoy…”
“Dad brought us a brother?” Alfred and Jake scrambled downstairs, Matthew and Angelique not far behind.
“No-”
“Tha’s right kids! I won ya a brother!”
This is why Francis hated dealing with a drunken Arthur; nothing ever made sense.
“Kids, go to bed. Monsieur Hong, please meet me in the kitchen,” He pointed towards the kitchen door and turned to drag his husband over to the couch. “I said bed now.”
“Yes Papa!” the kids scrambled back up the stairs while Hong made his way to the kitchen. After dumping Arthur on the couch, Francis joined him and made him some hot chocolate.
“Now, if you could be so kind as to inform me of what my husband was up to tonight…”
“I’m not…entirely sure myself. My older brother, Yao, he takes care of us, has a little bit of an opium problem mixed in with a gambling problem.”
“Funny, my husband has a bit of a drinking problem mixed in with a gambling problem.”
“S’not a problem if you win!” Arthur shouted from the living room.
“My brother…doesn’t win. Not as long as I’ve been around anyway. It was my turn to drag him back home tonight, and apparently he bet a little more to Mr. Kirkland then he actually had on him…”
“So he used you to compensate?” Francis sighed, “The state of the world today…”
“Don’t…it’s not like Yao’s a bad brother, or even a bad guardian,” Hong explained, “He just has some issues he needs to get over. Hopefully this can be some kind of wake up call for him.”
“You’re a very optimistic child. Where are your parents while this is all going on?”
“I don’t have any parents. Yao takes care of us.”
“And by us, you mean other siblings?”
“Yes, there are five of us now. Yao found us, so he takes care of us, and we watch out for him.”
“I see,” and he did. They weren’t actually blood related, just like another group of siblings he knew quite well, but that didn’t mean they didn’t care or worry about each other, “I’m not sure how much your brother actually lost to Arthur, but I can take you home tomorrow if you want.”
“N-no waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay,” Arthur said from the doorway, “I won ‘im fair ‘n square so I’ma gonna keep ‘im!”
“Go lie down mon cher, the sober people are talking.”
“If it’s not too much trouble, I would actually prefer to stay here a while,” Hong said, taking a sip of his drink, “Don’t get me wrong, I love my family very much, but I’m very worried about Yao, and I think this kind of incident might set him on the right track.”
“Are you sure you want to sacrifice yourself like that? For all you know we could eat children.”
“I owe everything to Yao. If I can’t even do this much for him I wouldn’t be a very good brother to him. Besides, I saw your kids when I came in. They look happy enough.”
“That’s true enough,” Francis muttered, “alright, you can stay for as long as you want. Welcome to the family Hong. Alfred, Matthew…”
“Yes?” Two voices from the hall answered.
“Do you want to take Hong upstairs and get him settled in?”
“Yeah!” Alfred burst through the door. “Hi, I’m Alfred! This is my brother Matt, and we’re gonna have a lotta fun together, kay?”
“If…you say so.”
Alfred grinned. Matthew shyly took Hong’s hand and led him upstairs.
“You’ve brought home another troubling one haven’t you?”
“Ya know ya love ‘em,” Arthur muttered as he collapsed at the table.
“You can’t sleep there, mon cher, you’ll get an even worse headache tomorrow morning.”
“Dun feel like walkin’.”
Francis smiled at him, “You can be so cute sometimes, but I wish you didn’t have to drink yourself half to death to get that way.” He sighed before lifting him into his arms bridal style and carried him off to bed.
The next morning, Francis made eggs for breakfast.
***
Bonus: IIX.V. The Second Phone Call, a.k.a I Swear, It’s Not Kidnapping
“Hello?”
“Yes, hello Mr. Jenkins. This is Arthur Kirkland again.”
“Oh really?”
“Please hear me out…I just wanted to apologize for my conduct before. I said some completely inappropriate things and I really shouldn’t be getting involved in your family affairs like that.”
“Well I got a bit hot-headed too, so we’re both at fault mate. But, well, the wife and I were talking about it, and you were right.”
“Pardon?”
“We weren’t expecting to have kids right now, and Jakey just sorta happened. And I know ya’re supposed to, ya know, dedicate some time to raising the kid or something, but we’re just not ready to give up our lifestyle for that yet.”
“Well, that’s your choice, I guess, and I shouldn’t judge you for that…”
“But ya do, don’t cha? I think I know what kinda man ya are by now Mr. Kirkland.”
“…”
“And ya’re a good father, I can tell that much, and I know we never actually met ya or anything, but if Jakey seems to like ya and all that…ya wouldn’t mind takin’ ‘im back to America with you would ya?”
“Mr. Jenkins, it would be my honor.”
***
Bonus: XI. Meeting Grandma
Peter wanted to go to the zoo that day to see monkeys or something, and Elizabeth Kirkland saw no reason not to take him herself. After several hours of wandering around and seeing just about everything the establishment had to offer, Peter was fast asleep in his stroller and she was resting in the picnic area, reading a book. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a small child approach the stroller and peek inside.
“Excuse me young man, what are you doing?” she questioned.
The boy looked up at her with his bright blue eyes, golden blonde hair rustling in the slight breeze, and smiled at her.
“I was just lookin’ for my brother.”
“Well I can guarantee he’s not in there.”
“I know,” he giggled, “I saw the eyebrows and Jake has the same ones and I thought it was him so I checked.”
“What’s your name?”
“Alfred.”
“Alfred, where are your parents?” She gave the picnic area a quick glance over and found no adults frantically searching for a child.
“Um…Matt wanted to see the polar bears so he and Dad are probably there.”
“And why aren’t you with him?”
“Polar bears are cool, but me and Jake wanted to see the elephants so we went to go over there instead and we sorta got a little lost and a little separated.”
“Wouldn’t your father be worried about you once he discovers you aren’t with him?”
“But I’m fine so there’s nothing to worry about!”
“I’m fairly certain he doesn’t know that.”
“He should. I haven’t gotten hurt or in too much trouble yet.”
He was such a stubborn child, but there was something about him that was rather endearing. Perhaps it was the smile.
“Your father will probably pass through this area eventually looking for you,” she reasoned, “Would you like to wait with me until he comes?”
“Thanks lady, but I gotta find my brother first. I’m the big brother so I’ve gotta watch out for him.”
She glanced at Peter, blissfully asleep. Sometimes she wondered about Peter’s big brother, a bunch of what-ifs that always would come and go. But that was in the past, Peter was her future now.
“I admire your courage, Little Hero,” his grin doubled at that, “but don’t you think your brother will pass through here as well at some point? It’s best to remain in one place when you’re lost.”
“I’m not lost! I know exactly where I am!”
“And where is that?”
“Right here,” he pointed at the ground, “and what if Jake is staying in one place waiting for me?”
“Maybe your father had found him already or maybe he’s found another kind lady to watch out for him.”
“I guess,” Alfred pouted.
“Come,” she patted the seat next to her, “sit with me and tell me about your brother while we wait.”
He climbed up on the bench and told her about Jake, who was from Austra-something. It’s out back somewhere. He used to wrestle kangaroos and dingoes before their father found him and brought him home so he could play with Alfred and his little brother Matthew.
“And what about him?” he asked when he was done, peeking into the stroller again.
She told him that was her son, Peter, her youngest son, and that the eyebrows were genetic…from his father’s side of the family of course. He was only two at the moment, but he was a bright and curious boy, just like Alfred, and he was her world.
He asked if he had any brothers too. She said he had an older brother, but they all had a falling out some years ago and he’s never met him. He said that was sad, because brothers were lots of fun to play with. She agreed.
Eventually he complained about his hunger, so she bought him an ice cream and they talked some more, mostly about Alfred’s likes and hobbies, which included, but was not limited to, adventures, archeology, quick draw, learning new things, space, hamburgers, and heroes.
“Alfred!” a voice she hadn’t heard in three years shouted from across the picnic area. Said boy looked up and sure enough, Arthur was there, frantically running over to them. Alfred jumped off the bench just in time to be scooped up into Arthur’s arms in a tight hug. He hadn’t seen her yet, so Elizabeth quickly picked up and opened her book to hide her face.
“Alfred what the bloody hell do you think you were doing,” he scolded and tried to keep the worry from his voice, but she could tell it was there.
“I just wanted to see the elephants…”
“We would have seen them eventually, you and Jake didn’t have to go running off by yourselves!”
“I’m sorry…”
“You’re lucky I found you both before something happened.”
“But I’m fine! This nice lady was taking care of me, so it’s all good.”
“What if she wasn’t here and some creep or pervert or…but your safe now,” he sighed and put the child back on the ground, “Don’t do that again, alright?”
“Yes Dad!”
“What do you say to the nice lady who went through the trouble of watching you?”
“Oh yeah,” Alfred tugged at her pant leg to get her attention. She peeked over to book, pointedly ignoring Arthur. “Thank you for taking care of me and getting me ice cream.”
“You’re quite welcome. Try not to worry your father like that again though.”
“Kay!” he smiled at her before running off to play with his brothers who were on the other side of the area.
“Don’t - oh, too late…at least Matthew’s with them,” Arthur muttered before turning to talk to her, “Thank you for looking out for him. Truly, it means a lot to me.”
“No self-respecting parent will just let a child wander around by himself…you should learn that.”
“I know that…” he muttered again. Arthur was about to go back when he caught sight of Peter.
“Who…what’s his name?” he asked.
“Peter.”
“He’s lovely…get’s his eyebrows from his father I suppose,” she didn’t say anything. “I’m…I’m sure he’ll grow up to be a fine man, much better than his brother anyway.”
“His brother is a fine man, I’m sure…just a little misguided is all,” she peeked out over the book again to find Arthur blushing and looking away, “your boys are lovely. Alfred is very sweet. You’ve done a good job raising them.”
“Th-thank you, but I guess there Papa should get some credit…you, um,” he coughed awkwardly, “you can always…come and visit us - them, if you want…”
“…I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
“Ah, of course not…well, take care then.” She heard him turn and walk away.
“Arthur,” she called out before she could stop herself. He turned, and she found it surprisingly hard to look into those green eyes that she used to look into every day.
“…It was nice seeing you again.”
“…It was nice seeing you too.”
“Please take care.” He blinked, smiled, and nodded before turning to rejoin his sons, her grandsons, she supposed.
She put her book in the bag hanging off of Peter’s stroller and wheeled him in the opposite direction, trying not to break down right there.
Alfred really was a sweet boy.
A/N: Well this was way longer then I expected. And it took a lot longer, but enjoy the extra bonus to make up for that. For Seychelles fans, yes, her part is a lot shorter than the others, and it doesn't make much sense. The reason for that is because her part was actually much longer then every other part, so I cut it and will probably post it as a separate one-shot later whenever I find time to finish it again. So yeah, sorry about that..
And apparently when I get stressed and over worked, things get a bit serious business, so it's kinda like one of those 'everyone's life sucks until they all meet each other' type deals. Sorry about that too.