Title: Full Circle
Sequel to:
Draw a CircleWarnings for this chapter: none
Rating: M
Character/Pairings: USxUK, minor FrancexCanada, minor GerIta, minor Spamano, plus others.
Summary: On the day of her third birthday, little Emma Kirkland Jones makes a wish for a playmate. The fairies are at it again, making sure the daughter of Arthur Kirkland has her wish come true!
Alfred lay on the couch, taking up as much space as humanly possible, as he mindlessly flipped through channels for lack of something better to do. The days following the conference had been hectic, but boring. Nations were constantly calling and asking questions about pregnancy and fairy curses, which was driving Arthur out of his mind. Ludwig and Antonio had called so many times that Alfred had threatened to block both of their numbers--honestly, did they need the English speaking countries to hold their hands throughout the next nine months until their babies were born? To make matters worse, they were now receiving pregnancy scare calls. Feliks had called them several times, in completely hysterics, saying he thought he might be pregnant because he had taken a liking to some food he had never tried before in his life. Arthur had sent him off to buy a test, which came up negative, calming the Polish nation down for another day or so when he called back with yet another complaint. However, every time he took a test it came up negative, meaning that he was simply blowing things too far out of proportion.
Arthur, in the meanwhile, had made some progress on his own pregnancy. His stomach had quickly started to dome and his cravings were getting stronger every day. He would make frequent trips to the kitchen, putting together whatever he felt like devouring at that particular moment. Emma found this to be quite funny since no normal person would want to eat sandwiches with toppings such as chocolate chips, crushed nuts, the spiciest peppers known to man, salsa, and soy sauce. It seemed like Arthur’s pregnancy had taken an international turn recently.
The American could hear his husband in the kitchen at that very moment, searching through the refrigerator for something grotesque to snack on. He also heard Arthur sighing heavily every few seconds, leading to a sinking feeling in his gut. He twirled a lock of Emma’s curly blonde hair around his finger, staring down at the girl sleeping on top of him (she claimed that he was comfy, which in Alfred’s words meant he was gaining weight).
Suddenly, Arthur appeared in the doorway, one hand splayed out on his little stomach. “There’s nothing to eat.”
Craning his neck, Alfred looked over at the angry Briton, hand slipping down to rub Emma’s back. The young girl shifted in her sleep and clutched her father’s shirt a bit more tightly in her little fist. “Seriously? Didn’t I just go shopping like…three days ago?”
Arthur turned bright red at this, heading for his chair to sit down. “I-I’ve been more hungry than usual, you know that.”
Alfred smiling at this. He knew first hand just how hungry Arthur had been lately. He was devouring almost everything in sight and his appetite was starting to rival Alfred’s own. It was just as it had been when he was pregnant with Emma. “I’ll go shopping.”
Blushing more deeply, Arthur gave an appreciative smile, watching as Alfred shifted and tried to figure out a way to get out from underneath Emma without waking her. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been in such a deep sleep and her green eyes opened the moment Alfred lifted her off of him. Groggily, she stretched and yawned, pushing herself up on the couch as Alfred sat down next to her.
“Go back to sleep, Emma bear.”
Curious green eyes met her father’s soft smile. “Where are you going, daddy?”
“Daddy has to go shopping,” Alfred answered, running his fingers through Emma’s hair in an attempt to tame it. “We’re out of food again.”
As if a switch had been turned, Emma’s sleep clouded eyes suddenly cleared and she became wide awake. “Can I come?” Never before had the world seen a child so excited about doing such a boring chore as shopping for groceries. Emma absolutely loved to help out with anything she could and didn’t find meager everyday tasks to be a bore.
Alfred looked over his shoulder at Arthur. The two never made a decision unless they were both for it (that way Alfred wouldn’t get in trouble for making stupid choices). Only once Alfred received the okay did he turn back to his daughter with a wide smile. “Sure! Let’s go get your shoes and jacket.”
- - -
Since the cart was overflowing with bags, Emma was forced to walk along side it as they left the store and headed for the car. Alfred looked down at her every few minutes to make sure she was still there, and she would smile up at him and hold onto the metal frame of the cart, helping him push it. She had helped him throughout the whole trip and had been extra patient, so he had bought her a little treat. Emma gripped onto her grape lollipop, happy to have such a tasty reward for coming along.
Suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks. It took Alfred several seconds to realized that she was no longer beside him, and when he looked back he found her curiously staring into an alleyway. “Emma?” He brought the cart to a stop and slowly walked to her. “What is it, Em?”
Standing just a few feet away from them was a little girl with fiery red hair and large chocolate brown eyes. Her clothes were torn, her feet lacked shoes, and she had no jacket to shield her from the cold elements of the approaching winter. Once she caught sight of them, she shyly ducked behind a garbage can, peeking out a few seconds later to see if they had gone.
Concerned, Alfred stepped into the alley and cautiously approached the child. “Where are your parents, little girl?” Perhaps she had gotten lost out here? Or maybe she had even run away from home.
The girl’s eyes widened and she quickly ducked back behind the garbage can. That was when Emma stepped forward, walking straight past her father and stopping directly in front of the girl’s protective barrier. She peeked around the side of it, catching the girl’s eye and smiling brightly. “Hi!” she chirped. “I’m Emma! What’s your name?”
The fear slowly melted out of her eyes and the little girl moved away from the trash can. Apparently, she felt much less threatened by Emma than she did Alfred. “Rose…” she softly replied, standing up straight. She was taller than Emma and looked to be a little bit older. “M-My name is Rose.”
A smile touched Alfred’s lips and he released a sigh he hadn’t realized he was holding in. If Emma could break through this girl’s walls then perhaps he would be able to figure out why it was that she was in this alleyway all by herself. He needed to return her to her parents or where ever it was that she belonged.
“That’s a pretty name!” Emma replied, giggling. “Is your name Rose cause your hair is a pretty red color like roses?”
“I guess…”
“Neat!” Emma then remembered the question her father had originally tried asking. Maybe if she asked, then Rose would tell her. “How come you’re not with your mummy and daddy?”
Rose looked down at her feet, playing with the bottom of her torn dress. She didn’t seem distressed, only a little bit timid. Alfred took this as a good sign. “I-I don’t have parents.”
Okay. That was not what he was expecting to hear. This little girl had no parents? She was out here all alone with no one to care for her? How did she feed herself? What would happen if some creepy person decided to pick her up? What happened if she got sick? Alfred had to do something about this! He was a hero and he wouldn’t allow people to suffer, especially children.
“I’m sorry,” Emma said softly. She then held out her hand for Rose and smiled. “Do you want my lollipop?”
It took no time at all for Rose to smile right back. She looked down at the treat, about ready to take it before she realized that that might not be the best thing to do. “Really?”
“Uh huh.” Emma replied, depositing the sweet into her new friend’s hand.
Rose’s smile lit up the entire alleyway, managing to pour right through Alfred’s chest to touch his heart. Yes, he would do something to help this little girl. He bent down and tapped Emma on the shoulder, whispering something into her ear.
“Good idea, daddy!” Emma faced front once more and put on her best smile. “Wanna come have dinner with us? We’ll make lots of yummy food! You’ll like it, Rosie, I promise!”
Rosie. She had just met this girl and already she had acquired a nickname. How could she turn down Emma’s kindness?
Hesitantly, Rose reached out and took Emma by the hand. “Okay.”
- - -
“Let me get this straight,” Arthur started, staring his husband down even with his slight height disadvantage. “You went to the grocery store with Emma like I asked you.”
“Uh huh.”
“And you found a little girl in the parking lot.”
“Actually, she was in the alleyway.”
“Whatever, Alfred. The point is that you found a little girl who seemingly had no home and you decided to bring her here with you.”
“Yeah. So?”
Arthur heaved a sigh and sank into one of the kitchen chairs. “Did it ever occur to you that this is kidnapping? This little girl obviously has to belong to someone! You should have brought her to the police station so they could call her parents!”
Pushing himself from the doorframe of the kitchen, Alfred walked over to the table, spun one of the chairs around, and straddled it backwards. He rested his chin on his arms on the top of the wooden seat, blue eyes pouring sadly into the acidic green ones of his husband. “But she looked so sad! What kind of a hero would I be if I brought her to some scary place like a police station or an orphanage?”
Arthur bristled. Just how hard was it to get through to him? “She isn’t some puppy you can pluck off the streets and take home with you, Alfred. She’s a human child! Do you even realize the dangers of bringing her here?” A quirk of a blonde eyebrow was enough to prompt Arthur to continue. “The baby, Alfred. One look at me and she could know the truth! You’re lucky I’m wearing one of your shirts today!”
“Okay, now you’re being the ridiculous one,” Alfred laughed, reaching out and poking Arthur’s cheek. “She’s just a kid, Iggy! She’s barely even older than Em! There’s no way she would notice something like that.”
Swatting his hand away, Arthur turned as red as a strawberry and continued his unpleasant glaring, trying to break through Alfred’s obliviously happy demeanor. “That’s beside the point.”
“And what is the point?”
Arthur felt his fingers flex and the almost uncontrollable urge to wrap them around Alfred’s neck and squeeze to his heart’s content nearly took over. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose. “The point is that we should be calling the authorities and trying to locate her parents--”
“Which she doesn’t have,” Alfred spoke up, hands toying idly with the salt shaker left on the table from last night’s dinner. “She already told Emma and I everything about herself. There’s not much to learn. She’s been in that alleyway for as long as she can remember, all alone. I think she has some kinda amnesia or something.”
Arthur frowned, considering this. Rose didn’t seem to have any external injuries that would indicate any kind of brain trauma, but then again he wasn’t exactly an expert when it came to these kinds of things. She was merely a poor child with no home, no food, and no parents, who had become lost in the world. Arthur really couldn’t blame Alfred for taking her back with him, but he really wished the American had more sense when it came to things like this.
“Daddy?”
Turning his head, Arthur noticed Emma standing in the doorway, holding Rose’s hand and looking a bit worried. “Rosie’s tummy is rumbling. Can we help make dinner?”
Arthur locked eyes with the mysterious girl standing beside his daughter. The second they had arrived home, Emma had hastily introduced them, almost slipped up and calling him her mother in front of Rose. Luckily, Emma was a smart little girl and quickly corrected her mistake, using the proper name which Arthur had taught her to address him by when they were in front of “normal people”. He couldn’t have his daughter calling him “mummy” in front of every day people, so he had trained Emma to call him her “papa” when she was in public.
He wasn’t able to make a proper assessment on Rose since he hadn’t spent enough time with her (Emma had whisked her off to her room the moment after introductions were through), but from what he could tell she was a sweet child. She was shy and withdrawn, which was natural for someone coming from her situation. She seemed to be warming up to Emma faster than the others, though she did give him a polite smile when they were introduced.
Then there was something else Arthur was able to pick up on. Something that lay hidden deep within--something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. He was unable to pinpoint exactly what it is, or why it felt so strange, but he had the feeling that Rose was different from other girls. He felt drawn to her, wanting to find out more about her, wanting to reach out and protect her even though they had only just met.
Pushing these thoughts aside, Arthur surmised that it was merely a side effect of his rapidly changing hormones.
“Sure!” Alfred replied, rising from his chair and smiling down at the girls, who both smiled back. Alfred had always been great with children. “What kind of awesome dinner should we make for Rose?”
“Let’s make hamburgers!” Emma chirped, rocking forwards onto her tiptoes. She turned to Rose excitedly, blonde curls bouncing. “My daddy is from America! That’s why he talks different.”
“Differently,” Arthur corrected.
“Differently.” Emma repeated, looking back up at her father. “Can we make hamburgers, daddy?”
Placing his hands on his hips, Alfred bent down, a twinkle in his eyes. “Only if you two promise to help me!”
Emma cheered, making Rose smile, and that mysterious feeling washed over Arthur again. He had to get to the root of it--but first, he had to contact the authorities and find out if Rose’s parents were indeed deceased.
- - -
“Right. Yes. Thank you very much. Goodbye.”
With a sigh, Arthur hung up the bedroom phone and lay back on the bed. He uncapped the marker in his hand and crossed off the last orphanage on the list he had received from the police station. He had just spent the last hour calling up all of these numbers, giving out Rose’s description and hoping that he would find the clues he needed to piece together the girl’s past. Unfortunately, Rose was neither a missing child nor a child who had belonged to an orphanage at any point in time. It seemed as if her past had been erased--as if she had just appeared in the alleyway today for the first time, unaware that she had never existed yesterday.
“I just don’t get it…”
Thundering footsteps were heard, followed by the bedroom door flying open. Alfred peered inside, smiling broadly. “Dinner’s done, Iggy.”
Looking up, Arthur met his eye, giving him a half smile. He shifted on the bed, putting his notepad and marker away and sitting up. He looked crestfallen, which was more than enough to make Alfred press him for answers.
The blue-eyed nation slowly entered the room, his smile falling from his lips as he sat down beside his husband and wrapped an arm around his waist. “No luck?”
Arthur shook his head, eyes boring into the wall in front of him. “No one has ever seen a five year old girl with red hair, brown eyes and freckles named Rose. It’s like she only exists to us.”
“Well then, I guess we’re all she’s got, huh?”
His heart nearly stopped in his chest, the impact of those words nearly shattering the very Earth beneath him. This little girl who they had only known for mere hours was now their responsibility, just like Emma was--that was what Alfred was saying, what he was trying to get at. Suddenly, Arthur was able to see right through his plan. “We can’t keep her, Alfred.”
That kicked puppy look came over the American as Alfred rested his chin on Arthur’s shoulder, eyes pouring into Arthur’s own. “Why not?”
Why not? Shouldn’t that have been obvious enough? A child was a great responsibility--hadn’t Alfred learned that with Emma? They had enough to worry about with the one child that they had already and the new baby on the way, and now Alfred wanted them to open up their house and hearts to Rose as well?
He had been ready to protest, honestly he had, but something foreign took over, redirecting the words that were coming out of his mouth. “We’ll see.”
Alfred smiled.
- - -
After dinner came bath time, that was always the way it went. Arthur knew that he would have his work cut out for him tonight. While Alfred was cleaning the kitchen, he took Emma and Rose upstairs into the bathroom and ran them a nice, warm, bath. He had guessed this was a very new experience for Rose, since she seemed to be extra hesitant of the water, but once she saw how eagerly Emma climbed into the tub she soon followed suit.
“The water isn’t scary, Rosie. It’s fun!”
Rose stared down at the water around them, which had quickly turned black with the amount of dirt that had been caked on her body. She frowned at it, jumping a bit as Arthur pulled the plug to the drain, replacing the dirty water with fresh water. This happened three more times before the water stayed a relatively clear color and Arthur was able to start washing the girls’ hair.
“We’ll wash Emma’s hair first,” Arthur told Rose, smiling softly at her. “That way you’ll see that it’s nothing to be scared of.”
Rose smiled right back at him and nodded. “Okay.”
Feeling a warmth gathering in his chest, Arthur set to work washing out Emma’s hair. He applied shampoo, bubbling it up and showing Rose the foamy bubbles, which she giggled over, squishing them between her hands. The sounds of her laughter bounced off the tiled walls, a beautiful sound which was soon joined by Emma’s familiar giggling. Arthur found himself laughing along with the girls as he washed the suds from Emma’s hair.
“Look up to the moon.”
Emma tipped her head back, shutting her eyes and pretending she was sky rocketing through space to go and swing off a crescent moon. “If you look up to the moon the bubbles won’t get in your eyes,” she told Rose, smiling at her once Arthur began applying the conditioner.
Rose laughed and smiled, watching as Arthur carefully combed out Emma’s hair. He was so gentle, so caring, and that look in his eyes gave her great comfort. She had never met a person like him before and she really hoped that she would get to spend more time with him. Vaguely, she wondered what it would be like to have parents like Emma’s. How wonderful would it be to wake up every morning knowing that two parents who loved you were there to spend the day with you and take care of you? She longed to experience that life--something she had never thought of before.
When it finally came time for her to have her hair washed, she was a bit frightened, but Emma took hold of her hand, and the sound of Arthur’s soft voice filled her ears as she tipped her head back and clamped her eyes shut.
“I won’t hurt you, Rosie.”
She truly believed that. She was safe here with these people. They wouldn’t leave her to fend for herself, out in the cold with no food and no clothing. They had taken her into their home, fed her, cleaned her up, and given her more attention than anyone had in her entire life.
For the first time ever, Rose felt as if she had some place she belonged.
- - -
A/N: Oooh, I threw a COMPLETE curveball at you guys! Bet you weren’t expecting that, huh?! HAH! *laughs obnoxiously like Alfred* Now, before you go asking questions, I’m going to say that I won’t answer them if they pertain to Rose. For one, I’m just getting used to writing her--she’s my girlfriend’s OC who I have fallen deeply in love with. You’ll just have to wait until the next chapter to see what the future holds for her!
Thanks so much for reading and sticking with me! You guys have no idea how much it means to me, really. I feel honored that people enjoy this story and want me to continue it. I promise it’ll get done!
Oh! One more random thing--it’s my birthday on March 26th! I’m gonna be 23! Yaaay!!