Damsel in Distress: The First Moment
Title: The First Moment (Damsel in Distress 1)
Genre: Drama/Fluff/Romance (though not really at the moment)
Pairing(s): USUK, mild Poland/Lithuania (or Poland + Lithuania if you want)
Word Count: 2,583
Rating/Warnings: Imprisonment and abuse (nothing explicit, just implied)
Summary: Alfred has dreamed of being a true hero and saving a damesl in distress from death or worse. When he gets a chance to leave his village on a rescue mission, he jumps eagerly at the chance. The damsel in distress may give him a few unexpected surprises. This is the first part in a series of stories. There will be others in this universe. For the prompt 'hero' in the usxuk summer camp.
"Hi Tor, can you come down to the market with me?" Toris' friend, the one that was born in the house of ill-repute as the village people whispered, showed up when Toris was doing the washing one afternoon. Since Feliks' aim even without magic had never been very good, this had meant he had appeared in the water with the dirty clothes. Feliks, completely unfazed by this, stepped out of the tub and shook himself like a dog before drying himself with a quick spell.It also happened to dry the clean clothes hanging by the fire but Toris was more grateful for this than being showered with soapy water.
"I can't Feliks, I have to have these chores done by the time Alfred gets back," Toris explained as he indicated the mounds of clothing that surrounded him. Alfred had been good to Toris, offering room and board as well as money for the simple housekeeping job, and Toris would feel horribly guilty if Alfred came back to a dirty house.
"Well, don't you have some chores that, like, have to be done at the market?" Feliks asked, undeterred by Toris' refusal. It amused and annoyed Toris at the same time, the dominant emotion depending on what he was feeling at the time.
"I do have the shopping... " Toris mentioned, eager to use some excuse to have some time with Feliks.
"Great! Then let's totally do that. I can help, Alfred will really like the recipes I know!" With a strange sense of foreboding, Toris collected the basket from the cupboard and wheeled it out. Feliks stared at it in curiousity. "Woah. Does that basket have wheels or am I, like, totally imagining it?" Feliks asked, coming over to prod at the wheels on the basket.
"Alfred fixed it for me so I won't have to carry such heavy loads back from the market. It was so helpful of him," Toris smiled at the thought of his employer. Compared to Toris' previous one, Alfred was an absolute saint even if he did have a tendency to explode his room and the kitchen several times a week.
"Why don't you just use magic?" Feliks asked in an obvious tone of voice. Toris shot him a look.
"You know that Alfred doesn't like magic Feliks. He goes very quiet whenever magic or the topic of why he doesn't like magic comes up. I think that magic could have something to do with why Alfred lives alone," Toris explained to his friend, compassion and sympathy colouring his tone. For such an outgoing and cheerful man, Alfred had few friends. One was a quiet scientist in the village called Kiku who worked with Alfred and who came over for dinner sometimes. The other was Toris himself. Sometimes there was a man who seemed to have invisibility magic, able to disappear and reappear when he chose, but since Alfred always became more tense after seeing the man, Toris was reluctant to call him a friend.
"Where is Alfred anyway?" Feliks looked around as if he was going to see Alfred pop out from behind the pans with a loud cry.
"He's on a quest," Toris told Feliks, who started to laugh. "It's not funny!" Toris scolded Feliks. Feliks managed to choke down his laughter even though some remained in his pale green eyes.
"But it is Tor! Alfred tries so hard to be a hero and he succeeds but things totally don't go out the way he planned," Feliks explained. Alfred was known around the town as someone who was always willing to help out, even if the problem he normally tried to solve was not what he ended up fixing. Last time, he had tried to rescue the restaurant owner's brother from the cliff face and instead fixed the restaurant owner's failing marriage. The brother had been rescued in the end by an old family friend, even though his cursing suggested that he was not altogether pleased with the turn of events.
"I know, but these men who wanted him on the quest were from out of town and don't know of Alfred's reputation. They just took one look at him, seemed to sneer and then invite him on a death trip!" Toris gestured as he talked and Feliks now looked serious.
"Look, Alfred can, like, handle himself in dangerous situations. It's just domestic ones that he needs work," Feliks rolled his eyes as Toris smiled fondly, "what quest is he on anyway?"
"A damsel in distress one," Toris answered and Feliks' eyes widened.
"Oh. My. God. Like, poor damsel." Toris had to agree with Feliks' solemn statement. Alfred was one thing to cope with, but an excited Alfred on a quest was sure to cause the poor woman to faint or cry. Damsels in distress that needed rescuing never proved very hardy.
"I really hope it goes well for him anyway," Toris said wishfully as he and Feliks made their way down to the market.
It was not going well for Alfred. He had managed to get past the Forest of Nightmares, over the Lake of Fire and past the Dragon's Nest but the riddle to get into the damsel's chambers was proving a problem. Logic puzzles had never been Alfred's strong point.
"I herald the darkness which descends on all creatures/ You will know my approach by moans and wracked features/ I visit the hippo, hyena and horse/But never go near the snails and spiders of course/ I would circle the globe, leaping one to another/ Should all the world's people ever clasp hands together/ What am I?" Alfred read out to himself, trying to see if some answer would pop magically up in his brain. "Alright, let's do this bit by bit. 'darkness which descends on all creatures' - does that mean death? And the moans and features bit, torture? But snails and spiders can get tortured and die as well. Something contagious that spiders and snails can't get, but is contagious among people. So the darkness bit can't be death." Alfred thought about it some more before a yawn almost split his face in half. Running from the dragons had really taken it out of him but he could not sleep until he had saved the damsel. Heroes didn't need to sleep.
"That's it!" Alfred yelled into the corridor. "Darkness is sleep and something that is contagious which some animals can do but insects can't, but happens when someone is tired... It's a yawn!" With a groan, the door slid open and Alfred, flushed with success, marched on through to the fussily decorated room. It looked rather grim in the dim light from the corridor, not somewhere where a young woman would live.
"Oh goody, another one." Alfred turned towards the voice, his eyes searching in the dim gloom of the room. He saw a figure reclining on the sofa and he smiled brilliantly at the person.
"Hiya, I'm Alfred Jones and I've come to rescue you!" His voice seem to fill the room, the quiet becoming oppressive after he finished speaking. Alfred struggled to keep the smile on his face as the silence continued.
"Why don't you switch on the light," the figure said, the question coming out more like an order. Alfred's smile dropped as he searched for the light switch on the wall with his hand. The door provided some light but not enough. The resulting glare made Alfred's eyes close but he tried to force them open again, only to see the figure with their eyes (hidden under huge eyebrows) scrunched up against the light as well. This was not the most obvious thing though.
"You're not a girl!" Alfred said in a shocked voice. He thought damsels in distress were meant to be damsels. With long hair and dresses and lots of swooning at the slightest mention of a hero or being rescued.
"Congratulations, I see you have full use of the two brain cells you possess," the other man said in a snappish tone. "And before you ask, I do not repay any rescue with kisses, blowjobs or sex. So you can bugger off." Alfred took offence at that, he would never expect anything back from being a hero. And this man obviously needed to be rescued, damsel-in-distress or not. The room was even more grim in the light, with a four poster bed, a chest of drawers, the sofa and several bookcases being the only furniture in the room. A screen was standing at the end of the room and Alfred guessed the bathroom was behind there. Everything was covered in a fine layer of dust and cobwebs layered everything near to the ceiling - obviously the place which the man could not reach.
"What's your name?" Alfred asked, resolving to go for a less controversial topic for the moment. But the man gave him a angry look and Alfred's eyes widened. He wasn't that bad a rescuer, was he?
"I suppose my brothers sent you. Such a great laugh it is to send the worst heroes possible so I would want to stay in here instead of travel with them. Then they could at least explain that they tried to help me," the man said bitterly and Alfred frowned. He must have been really bad for the man to hate him so much. Maybe he could figure out what he was doing wrong.
"Um - why do you think I'm the worst?" The man's blank look made Alfred rephrase the question. "I mean, you said that one of the worst heroes and I'm was thinking that you could tell me why you thought that and I could know what I was doing wrong. You know, just for future reference." Even though with the way this rescue was going, Alfred didn't think that he would be doing any hero work for a very long time. Maybe he should just stick to making the new machines.
"What?" The man looked astonished and they both stared at each other for a moment. The other man was the one to break the stare first; he put his face in his hands. Worried, Alfred took a step forward, intending to help him. "I didn't mean that, it's just the ones before you - they weren't very nice." For the first time since Alfred walked into the room, the man's voice was gentle and when he stared up at Alfred, his eyes were kind.
"That's good 'cause this is my first real quest and I really didn't want to mess it up. Even if you're a guy instead of a damsel in distress. So what's your name?" Alfred said quickly, his mind flicking from one topic to another. The man rolled his eyes but he looked more amused than anything.
"My name is Arthur." The man suddenly stood up, knocking the book that was on his lap to the floor. "So you're here to rescue me then? I just need to pack my things." Alfred grinned at Arthur in delight. He had succeeded in getting through all the obstacles and now the sort of damself in distress was allowing himself to be rescued. Now Alfred just had to return him to his family and more people would start to come to hero work.
Arthur started to put things into a small bag, towers of book disappeared into the bag which Alfred would never think could fit in it. Arthur seemed to brush over the expensive looking knickknacks that Alfred could see dotted around the room and instead concentrated on the books.
"So where is your home? The guys who told me where to rescue you didn't really explain where to take you to after I did it," Alfred said as he picked up the book that Arthur had accidently thrown off his lap. The Complete Illustrated Guide to Engineering was embossed in gold on the cover. Alfred gave a low, appreciative whistle, unknowingly making Arthur jump and spin around. "Wow, I didn't know you were interested in engineering."
"I'm not. I've been stuck in here for so long, I've read all these books several times over. Even ones like that, which I would have never even glanced at, I read out of sheer boredom." Arthur's tone was light but Alfred felt a pang as he realised how lonely Arthur must have been with only the books to read and no human contact. Even though Alfred had only met him barely an hour ago, he had a feeling that Arthur would hate for this sympathy to be voiced or even acknowledged in any way, shape or form. "Anyway, I don't want you to take me to where my brothers are. I want to go somewhere completely different. Where's your home?" Arthur asked as he managed to squeeze another few books in his shoulder bag.
"My home? It's the village of Panama, just south of Rocket. Why?" Alfred asked, looking up from the engineering book which was slowly sucking him in.
"Let's go there," Arthur answered with a endearing smile. Alfred's mouth dropped open before closing with a snap.
"But we can't go there! You should go home! There's really nothing interesting in my village at all." Alfred tried to explain but Arthur carried on packing, shoving several items of clothing in the bag now.
"Well, my home is dreadfully interesting and I hate it with a passion. Maybe something boring and quaint would be better. You can keep the book by the way, I don't want it and it'll just stay here and gather dust otherwise." Arthur shifted the bag onto his back, indicating that he had finished packing. Alfred looked down at the book with longing, it was one he had wanted for so long but could not afford. It was a hardback and contained everything there was to know about engineering. There was also a rumour that it had been spelled to be -self-updating so you never needed to buy another one again - one reason why it was so expensive.
"Thank you," Alfred said gratefully and Arthur turned his head away but not before Alfred saw a smile tug slightly at the other man's lips. "Okay, I'll take you to Panama. I don't think you'll like it though," Alfred warned and Arthur gave him a look, a look that seemed as if Arthur was looking down his nose at him. This look made Alfred think that Arthur was of a higher class than he, or his brothers, said. The look and his way of talking gave him away.
"I think I'll enjoy it just fine. Lead the way." With a grin Alfred marched out of the room and chose to ignore Arthur's hesitancy as he stepped out of the room he had known for so many years. No matter what Arthur said, Alfred knew he needed to be rescued. No one deserved that treatment.
Far across the country, in a small room in the depths of a castle, a young man with the same brilliant green eyes and eyebrows as Arthur, cursed to himself as he watched Arthur leave the room from the camera posted above the bed. The boy was not meant to actually retrieve Arthur! If the boy brought Arthur back to them like he was supposed to, then they could easily replace Arthur in the room. But in the meantime, the two of them were out of their reach.
He hurried off to tell his mother and brothers the news.