Golden Boy
Title: Golden Boy
Genre: Friendship/Fluff
Pairing(s): USUK
Word Count: 1,145
Rating/Warnings: PG
Summary: Done for the usxuk ' Summer Olympics'. Arthur saw people as colours and Alfred Jones was gold. AU.
Arthur was wondering if anyone would actually know if he had stayed at home for the day instead of coming to school. Would anyone search the classroom for him when he didn't turn up that morning? Would anyone send a worried text to see whether he was okay?
He realised how self-pitying his thoughts had become and shook himself, physically as well as mentally, to try and shake this frame of mind. It was his own fault for isolating himself when he had joined the school. You would have thought that he would have learned his lesson after having to leave his old school because of the bullying that accompanied the talk about things that weren't there or the colours of people but instead of striving to fit in, he had gone the other way and avoided fitting in at all.
At least there were no bullies here. Everyone was nice, if distant, and there were no people that were truly dark purple. There was a boy who was a light purple, almost lilac, with black wisps floating through but it did not have the same malice as the girl at Arthur's last school did. Swirling around her was the viscous dark purple, almost black, smoke and it blocked her pretty face all the time. Arthur could not look at her without feeling sick and unfortunately, it had showed.
The morning bell rang and a few stragglers started to come into class. There was Antonio, a deep red, almost the colour of blood but not quite, and Francis, a bright blue if he ever saw one. Feliciano was a happy orange with yellow appearing as he came into the classroom with a big smile on his face. Then there was Lili, who was the gentlest pink that he had ever seen.
It was interesting watching his classmates even though he was never included, their relationships with each other could spark up a whole soap opera and it swirled their colours together so they resembled a canvas before the finished product was completed. There was only one colour missing this morning and Arthur searched the room with his eyes, even though he was sure that he could never miss him.
Everyone started to sit down in their seats, the one next to Arthur being avoided simply because he had no close personal friends and he started to worry. Where was he?
"Hello, everyone!" Alfred F. Jones marched in, beaming at everyone and everything. Several people smiled back, a few more rolled their eyes but Alfred was the centre of attention. As for Arthur, he could not staring at Alfred. The boy was golden in colour, one of the only people that Arthur had ever known that was gold. He had passed people on the street that were the same gold, but to know someone personally was very different.
Alfred was loud, obnoxious and oblivious to the atmosphere of the air, but he was also generous and kind. He had spoken to Arthur a few times, but almost definitely did not remember what had been said. Unlike Arthur, who remembered exactly the topics of conversation. Knowing this made him feel a bit like a stalker so he tried to avoid thinking about it.
Instead he bent his head towards his book but watched Alfred out of his peripheral vision. The boy's skin gleamed gold like the Crown Jewels on television and it was hard for Arthur to look away. However, Francis, the blue boy, had noticed him staring and teased him rather good-naturedly about it. Wanting to avoid anything that would set off the bullying again, Arthur had resolved to keep his head down and to avoid looking at Alfred whenever possible. This was hard, which had led to Arthur sneaking peeks out of the corner of his eye.
Alfred was laughing and joking around, greeting everyone as he came in. No one noticed as the teacher came in while Alfred was still doing his rounds and so it took several throat-clearings to get everyone's attention.
"Alfred, please sit down. If you're going to come after the bell, you can't expect the time to greet everyone here." The teacher was obviously annoyed at Alfred holding the lesson and the class quietened down quite quickly. The teacher was normally quite firm and she was a navy blue that seemed to suit her perfectly. It relaxed Arthur slightly, because she was exactly the same as she appeared. The dark purple girl at his last school had charmed everyone around her by batting her curly eyelashes and throwing her blonde curls over her shoulder. People said that she looked like a china doll but Arthur found this comparison more disturbing than anything else. He liked people that looked alive, like Alfred.
Arthur was jolted out of his thoughts when the chair beside him was pulled out and he looked up in reflex. Alfred Jones, shining gold was sitting down next to him and pulling out the things that he needed for the lesson. Arthur spent an embarrassingly long time staring at Alfred's back trying to work out what he was doing before realising what he must look like and focused on the teacher so hard, he gave himself a headache.
Alfred sat up putting his notebook and textbook on the table, distracting Arthur horribly. His hand was golden as well and seemed to shine in a strange way that made Arthur want to touch him, to see if the gold was able to be felt or even if the gold would be tainted if someone like Arthur touched it.
"And now that Alfred is finally sitting down, I have the enjoyment of saying that these are your assigned seats until Christmas." There was a lot of grumbling, some wanted to move, some wanted people to swap over but no real protest was made. Arthur felt like his insides were freezing and burning all at once. "Good. Okay, today we're going to be working on plate tectonics. Please open your books to page twenty."
"Hey," Alfred leaned over and suddenly Arthur could not breathe. "I'm Alfred Jones. I figured that we should be friends or at least know each other's name if we want to survive the next three months." Arthur did not want to burst this bubble and decided to not tell him that he already knew Alfred's name. He also knew Alfred's locker number and who he normally ate lunch with (number thirty four and Matthew in a different class in the year and Kiku in the year above) but decided that mentioning this would not be a good idea.
"I'm Arthur Kirkland. Please call me Arthur." Alfred grinned and the gold around him started to glow as if he was Arthur's own light bulb. It made his eyes hurt slightly but he could not turn his eyes away.
Genre: Friendship/Fluff
Pairing(s): USUK
Word Count: 1,145
Rating/Warnings: PG
Summary: Done for the usxuk ' Summer Olympics'. Arthur saw people as colours and Alfred Jones was gold. AU.
Arthur was wondering if anyone would actually know if he had stayed at home for the day instead of coming to school. Would anyone search the classroom for him when he didn't turn up that morning? Would anyone send a worried text to see whether he was okay?
He realised how self-pitying his thoughts had become and shook himself, physically as well as mentally, to try and shake this frame of mind. It was his own fault for isolating himself when he had joined the school. You would have thought that he would have learned his lesson after having to leave his old school because of the bullying that accompanied the talk about things that weren't there or the colours of people but instead of striving to fit in, he had gone the other way and avoided fitting in at all.
At least there were no bullies here. Everyone was nice, if distant, and there were no people that were truly dark purple. There was a boy who was a light purple, almost lilac, with black wisps floating through but it did not have the same malice as the girl at Arthur's last school did. Swirling around her was the viscous dark purple, almost black, smoke and it blocked her pretty face all the time. Arthur could not look at her without feeling sick and unfortunately, it had showed.
The morning bell rang and a few stragglers started to come into class. There was Antonio, a deep red, almost the colour of blood but not quite, and Francis, a bright blue if he ever saw one. Feliciano was a happy orange with yellow appearing as he came into the classroom with a big smile on his face. Then there was Lili, who was the gentlest pink that he had ever seen.
It was interesting watching his classmates even though he was never included, their relationships with each other could spark up a whole soap opera and it swirled their colours together so they resembled a canvas before the finished product was completed. There was only one colour missing this morning and Arthur searched the room with his eyes, even though he was sure that he could never miss him.
Everyone started to sit down in their seats, the one next to Arthur being avoided simply because he had no close personal friends and he started to worry. Where was he?
"Hello, everyone!" Alfred F. Jones marched in, beaming at everyone and everything. Several people smiled back, a few more rolled their eyes but Alfred was the centre of attention. As for Arthur, he could not staring at Alfred. The boy was golden in colour, one of the only people that Arthur had ever known that was gold. He had passed people on the street that were the same gold, but to know someone personally was very different.
Alfred was loud, obnoxious and oblivious to the atmosphere of the air, but he was also generous and kind. He had spoken to Arthur a few times, but almost definitely did not remember what had been said. Unlike Arthur, who remembered exactly the topics of conversation. Knowing this made him feel a bit like a stalker so he tried to avoid thinking about it.
Instead he bent his head towards his book but watched Alfred out of his peripheral vision. The boy's skin gleamed gold like the Crown Jewels on television and it was hard for Arthur to look away. However, Francis, the blue boy, had noticed him staring and teased him rather good-naturedly about it. Wanting to avoid anything that would set off the bullying again, Arthur had resolved to keep his head down and to avoid looking at Alfred whenever possible. This was hard, which had led to Arthur sneaking peeks out of the corner of his eye.
Alfred was laughing and joking around, greeting everyone as he came in. No one noticed as the teacher came in while Alfred was still doing his rounds and so it took several throat-clearings to get everyone's attention.
"Alfred, please sit down. If you're going to come after the bell, you can't expect the time to greet everyone here." The teacher was obviously annoyed at Alfred holding the lesson and the class quietened down quite quickly. The teacher was normally quite firm and she was a navy blue that seemed to suit her perfectly. It relaxed Arthur slightly, because she was exactly the same as she appeared. The dark purple girl at his last school had charmed everyone around her by batting her curly eyelashes and throwing her blonde curls over her shoulder. People said that she looked like a china doll but Arthur found this comparison more disturbing than anything else. He liked people that looked alive, like Alfred.
Arthur was jolted out of his thoughts when the chair beside him was pulled out and he looked up in reflex. Alfred Jones, shining gold was sitting down next to him and pulling out the things that he needed for the lesson. Arthur spent an embarrassingly long time staring at Alfred's back trying to work out what he was doing before realising what he must look like and focused on the teacher so hard, he gave himself a headache.
Alfred sat up putting his notebook and textbook on the table, distracting Arthur horribly. His hand was golden as well and seemed to shine in a strange way that made Arthur want to touch him, to see if the gold was able to be felt or even if the gold would be tainted if someone like Arthur touched it.
"And now that Alfred is finally sitting down, I have the enjoyment of saying that these are your assigned seats until Christmas." There was a lot of grumbling, some wanted to move, some wanted people to swap over but no real protest was made. Arthur felt like his insides were freezing and burning all at once. "Good. Okay, today we're going to be working on plate tectonics. Please open your books to page twenty."
"Hey," Alfred leaned over and suddenly Arthur could not breathe. "I'm Alfred Jones. I figured that we should be friends or at least know each other's name if we want to survive the next three months." Arthur did not want to burst this bubble and decided to not tell him that he already knew Alfred's name. He also knew Alfred's locker number and who he normally ate lunch with (number thirty four and Matthew in a different class in the year and Kiku in the year above) but decided that mentioning this would not be a good idea.
"I'm Arthur Kirkland. Please call me Arthur." Alfred grinned and the gold around him started to glow as if he was Arthur's own light bulb. It made his eyes hurt slightly but he could not turn his eyes away.