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hetalia2010-11-20 12:38 pm
lahelapup.livejournal.com) wrote in hetalia2010-11-20 12:38 pm
Entry tags:
You Do, But I Don't Part 6/?
Title: You Do, But I Don’t
Characters/Pairings: France/England, America, Canada
Word Count: 1,454
Rating: PG 13 (language and sex references)
Summary: Alfred finds himself in a tough situation when he finds out that he’s going on a road trip with his dad and soon to be stepdad and stepbrother. It’s a family bonding vacation right before Francis and Arthur get married. Arthur is excited. Matthew is nervous. Alfred is annoyed. But he can’t resist an adventure, and that’s exactly what this little family outing quickly turns into… Even if it’s not exactly the kind he wanted. *An AU story with humor and teenage family drama*
Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: Part 4: Part 5:
We couldn’t take it anymore. The small room was making everybody miserable. Even Francis, who was the most optimistic out of all of us, was complaining that his back was hurting from sleeping on what must have been a 20 year old mattress. Personally, I think it had to have been better than the rock hard, pull out couch that Matt and I slept on last night, but whatever. The important thing is that we’re not staying there anymore. This morning, Matt and I woke up to discover that our bags were packed and by the door. “Oh no,” I groaned. “Don’t tell me we’re getting kicked out of THIS room too!” As much as I hated that hotel room, it was preferable to sleeping in the streets, or worse, our van. Dad smiled and shook his head.
“Nope. We’re leaving by choice. We’re going somewhere else; somewhere much better.” Apparently when Dad and Francis left us yesterday, they drove into town, where there was an internet café. They did a little research, made some phone calls, and booked us a couple of days at the Lake Mead Resort and Marina. It was going to be a four and a half hour drive, Francis warned us, but we had a three bedroom suite waiting for us, and there was an abundance of activities to do there. Hiking kayaking, canoeing… and we didn’t even have to make a reservation in advance for most of the stuff! Matt and I perked up at this welcome news.
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Seriously,” my dad answered. “Now grab your bags and go wait in the van while I check us out. We didn’t need to be told twice. We practically ran from the room, as if to escape all of the bad memories associated with it. We were finally getting out! And I was beyond excited. Matt and I raced to the van, bags in hand, nearly pushing each other down the stairs… unintentionally, I promise…….. I won, of course. Cause I’m awesome like that.
Anyway, after about 20 minutes of waiting, Dad and Francis finally came to the van. Dad had that smug smile on his face that he always gets when he feels like he’s outsmarted somebody. He must have filled out that nasty comment card before he checked out. But I don’t think that place will care; the way I see it, they outsmarted us; they got us to pay them to stay in that piece of shit crappy hotel room for three nights. That’s probably the longest anyone’s ever stayed in that room… So after Dad and Francis put their bags in the trunk, we were off, this time with Francis holding google map directions. Apparently the GPS wasn’t to be trusted. We all knew that was complete crap, but at this point, we didn’t want any more problems. On the ride there, Matt shared his iPod with me, and I didn’t even have to ask. So I in return let him borrow my jacket to use as a pillow. I figured it was better to have Matt as an ally, rather than an enemy, at least for the rest of this trip, so I decided I’d be nicer to him. Plus, having the jacket as a pillow made him fall asleep faster, so I could have the whole iPod to myself and switch from the crap he was making us listen to, to something more decent. Maybe this whole brother thing could work out. Maybe.
I guess I must have fallen asleep too at some point because the next thing I knew, I was being shaken awake by Dad, telling me that we were there and scolding me for not wearing a seatbelt. It was then that I realized that I was lying on something… Matt’s lap. That was awkward. I immediately sat upright before Matt woke up and realized what happened. I could have sworn that I went to sleep with my head in the opposite direction! Well luckily, he never found out, but I guess I have to be more careful about sleeping in the car. When it comes to brothers, laying on their shoulder is questionable. Laying on their lap is just plain creepy.
Anyway, despite… that… today actually went pretty well. Our room is amazing; it’s got a full kitchen, two bathrooms, and a Jacuzzi. Not to mention that Matt and I each get our own room, so for the first time on this trip, I actually have some privacy. It’s so great! When we first walked into our suite, I immediately dropped my bags, bolted into one of the bedrooms and flopped down on the bed. It felt good to be on a bed that actually had some bounce to it… and fresh sheets. Never again will I take having fresh sheets for granted. So after everybody took a look around and sorta got settled in, Dad decided it was time for us to bond as a family. Apparently, we hadn’t spent enough time together on this trip, so we had to make these last couple of days count. “Let’s go kayaking,” he suggested. We all looked at each other and shrugged.
“Sure, why not,” I said finally. So Dad pulled out his map of the place, and we all headed down to giant lake. But I don’t really think we needed a map to find that. Even I could have found the lake… it’s freaking huge! The man in charge of renting out the equipment was friendly, which was nice for a change. He didn’t make anything difficult either. All we had to do was show him the wristbands given to us when we checked in, and he handed over the kayaks and paddles. Of course then, he had to explain the “you break it, you buy it” policy, and for some reason, he was looking at me! His eyes didn’t have the malice in them that was in the eyes of our guide on the rafting trip, but still… Just because I am the most likely to break something, doesn’t mean he should assume that! He doesn’t know me yet.
After we all got situated in our kayaks, it was time for some fun. “Let’s race!” I said excitedly.
“Alfred, the other side of the lake is 110 miles away,” Dad pointed out, shaking his head. Dad… always the downer.
“Oh…” I said. It didn’t look so far away from where I was sitting. Francis must have noticed htat I was disappointed.
“Why don’t we race to that buoy over there?” he offered, pointing to something floating in the water a good distance away.
“Sure,” I said, grinning. “Think you can beat me?”
“Maybe he can’t, but I bet I can,” said Dad. Honestly, Dad is one of the strictest, most uptight people I know, but when it comes to a competition, he tends to throw all his morals out the window. It doesn’t matter what the game is, or what’s at stake… he HAS to win, or he gets pissed. One time, when we were at a festival, Dad was playing poker, and he argued with the dealer for 45 minutes, complaining that there was no way anyone could be dealt a royal flush, and that the deck was rigged. We weren’t allowed at that festival anymore…
So once we all got into our starting positions, I looked over at Dad, who had a determined look in his eyes.
“On your mark…” he started. “Get set…” Then just to mess with him, I started to paddle. “Hey! Alfred, stop it! You do not get to go early!” I laughed… faking him out is fun. “Ok,” he started again. “On your mark, get set… GO!” I charged ahead, and to my surprise, Francis was right behind me. Dad trailed a little behind Francis, but you could tell he was trying. And Matt… Matt had obviously never gone kayaking in his life. He trailed WAY behind everybody; it took all of his effort just to steer the thing in the right direction. When we finally reached the buoy, my arms were starting to get a little tired. But I couldn’t slow down; I had to keep my lead, after all. So I continued to push myself at full speed, knowing that Francis was still right on my tail. Dad was probably out of the race; Matt was DEFINITELY out of the race… it was down to Francis and me. As we were getting closer to the finish line, I heard Francis approaching fast. How was he suddenly going faster this late in the race? My arms felt like they were gonna fall off! He rode next to me, and then passed me up. I tried to pull some extra energy from somewhere, but I couldn’t do it. We had a 1, 2 finish, and Francis beat me by a few seconds. Exhausted, we both got out of our kayaks and pulled them up on land.
“How… did you… get… so fast?” I asked, gasping between words.
“It’s called pacing yourself,” he answered calmly. “It involves patience and knowing when to go full speed. You weren’t patient, and you peaked too early, so I passed you.” He smiled slyly. I scowled for a minute, but then ended up smiling myself.
“It was a good race,” I admitted. “And you won. You know what the winner get, right?” He looked at me and shook his head.
“No, what?”
“This!” I said, pushing him into the water. He made a huge splash, and when he finally came up, he looked kind of angry. My smile faded. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. After all, if I did that to Dad, he would be furious at my “disrespectful behavior”.
“Well,” he said demandingly. “Aren’t you going to help me up?”
“Of course,” I muttered. “Sorry.” I extended my hand, which he grabbed, and immediately after he grabbed it, his angry façade fell. It was his turn to smile.
“Gotcha,” he whispered. Then, before I could pull away, he pulled me into the lake with him. I came up, spit out the nasty lake water, and glared at Francis, who just grinned. “Ah, this brings back memories,” he said. “I used to play tricks like that on all my friends… I didn’t think you would fall for it though!” A small smile made its way back to my face.
“Well played, Francis, well played… It actually feels kind of good in here. We should stay in here and wait for Dad and Matt…”
“We’re actually not allowed to swim in this area… it says so on that sign over there.”
“Right… Let’s get out then.” So we scrambled to get back out of the lake before any officials saw us. A minute or so later, Dad finally came back, completely out of breath.
“I… was… a little… late… starting… so that’s why… I lost…” he said, trying to justify his utter failure. “Why are you two wet?!” he asked, after getting a good look at us. “You know you’re not allowed to go swimming in this area; at least not without a lifejacket!” Francis and I looked at each other, trying not to crack up. “Oh, my god!” he said, appalled. “You DID go swimming in the lake, didn’t you?!”
“Uhhhh, no we didn’t…” I lied. But it was a bad attempt at lying. Finally, Francis stepped in for me.
“Relax, Arthur; we’re fine. Nothing Bad happened. We were just having a little fun… We had to do something while we were waiting for you…” We both broke into huge grins again and high fived each other. Dad sighed, but surprisingly, he let it go.
“Fine…” His gaze was then directed back to the lake. “Poor Matthew is really having trouble with this… We should do something..." I looked over to where Matthew was. He was barely past the buoy!
“I’ll go go get us some ice cream,” I announced. “This could take awhile.”
“Alfred!” Dad scolded. “That’s not nice!”
“Make mine a vanilla please,” said Francis. I nodded.
“You got it!” Maybe I had it all wrong… Maybe this whole stepdad thing could actually work out… I glanced back over to where Dad and Francis were sitting. Francis put his arm around Dad and pretended to give him a shove, which freaked Dad out. I laughed. Yes, I decided. Francis and I were going to get along just fine…
Characters/Pairings: France/England, America, Canada
Word Count: 1,454
Rating: PG 13 (language and sex references)
Summary: Alfred finds himself in a tough situation when he finds out that he’s going on a road trip with his dad and soon to be stepdad and stepbrother. It’s a family bonding vacation right before Francis and Arthur get married. Arthur is excited. Matthew is nervous. Alfred is annoyed. But he can’t resist an adventure, and that’s exactly what this little family outing quickly turns into… Even if it’s not exactly the kind he wanted. *An AU story with humor and teenage family drama*
Part 1: Part 2: Part 3: Part 4: Part 5:
We couldn’t take it anymore. The small room was making everybody miserable. Even Francis, who was the most optimistic out of all of us, was complaining that his back was hurting from sleeping on what must have been a 20 year old mattress. Personally, I think it had to have been better than the rock hard, pull out couch that Matt and I slept on last night, but whatever. The important thing is that we’re not staying there anymore. This morning, Matt and I woke up to discover that our bags were packed and by the door. “Oh no,” I groaned. “Don’t tell me we’re getting kicked out of THIS room too!” As much as I hated that hotel room, it was preferable to sleeping in the streets, or worse, our van. Dad smiled and shook his head.
“Nope. We’re leaving by choice. We’re going somewhere else; somewhere much better.” Apparently when Dad and Francis left us yesterday, they drove into town, where there was an internet café. They did a little research, made some phone calls, and booked us a couple of days at the Lake Mead Resort and Marina. It was going to be a four and a half hour drive, Francis warned us, but we had a three bedroom suite waiting for us, and there was an abundance of activities to do there. Hiking kayaking, canoeing… and we didn’t even have to make a reservation in advance for most of the stuff! Matt and I perked up at this welcome news.
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Seriously,” my dad answered. “Now grab your bags and go wait in the van while I check us out. We didn’t need to be told twice. We practically ran from the room, as if to escape all of the bad memories associated with it. We were finally getting out! And I was beyond excited. Matt and I raced to the van, bags in hand, nearly pushing each other down the stairs… unintentionally, I promise…….. I won, of course. Cause I’m awesome like that.
Anyway, after about 20 minutes of waiting, Dad and Francis finally came to the van. Dad had that smug smile on his face that he always gets when he feels like he’s outsmarted somebody. He must have filled out that nasty comment card before he checked out. But I don’t think that place will care; the way I see it, they outsmarted us; they got us to pay them to stay in that piece of shit crappy hotel room for three nights. That’s probably the longest anyone’s ever stayed in that room… So after Dad and Francis put their bags in the trunk, we were off, this time with Francis holding google map directions. Apparently the GPS wasn’t to be trusted. We all knew that was complete crap, but at this point, we didn’t want any more problems. On the ride there, Matt shared his iPod with me, and I didn’t even have to ask. So I in return let him borrow my jacket to use as a pillow. I figured it was better to have Matt as an ally, rather than an enemy, at least for the rest of this trip, so I decided I’d be nicer to him. Plus, having the jacket as a pillow made him fall asleep faster, so I could have the whole iPod to myself and switch from the crap he was making us listen to, to something more decent. Maybe this whole brother thing could work out. Maybe.
I guess I must have fallen asleep too at some point because the next thing I knew, I was being shaken awake by Dad, telling me that we were there and scolding me for not wearing a seatbelt. It was then that I realized that I was lying on something… Matt’s lap. That was awkward. I immediately sat upright before Matt woke up and realized what happened. I could have sworn that I went to sleep with my head in the opposite direction! Well luckily, he never found out, but I guess I have to be more careful about sleeping in the car. When it comes to brothers, laying on their shoulder is questionable. Laying on their lap is just plain creepy.
Anyway, despite… that… today actually went pretty well. Our room is amazing; it’s got a full kitchen, two bathrooms, and a Jacuzzi. Not to mention that Matt and I each get our own room, so for the first time on this trip, I actually have some privacy. It’s so great! When we first walked into our suite, I immediately dropped my bags, bolted into one of the bedrooms and flopped down on the bed. It felt good to be on a bed that actually had some bounce to it… and fresh sheets. Never again will I take having fresh sheets for granted. So after everybody took a look around and sorta got settled in, Dad decided it was time for us to bond as a family. Apparently, we hadn’t spent enough time together on this trip, so we had to make these last couple of days count. “Let’s go kayaking,” he suggested. We all looked at each other and shrugged.
“Sure, why not,” I said finally. So Dad pulled out his map of the place, and we all headed down to giant lake. But I don’t really think we needed a map to find that. Even I could have found the lake… it’s freaking huge! The man in charge of renting out the equipment was friendly, which was nice for a change. He didn’t make anything difficult either. All we had to do was show him the wristbands given to us when we checked in, and he handed over the kayaks and paddles. Of course then, he had to explain the “you break it, you buy it” policy, and for some reason, he was looking at me! His eyes didn’t have the malice in them that was in the eyes of our guide on the rafting trip, but still… Just because I am the most likely to break something, doesn’t mean he should assume that! He doesn’t know me yet.
After we all got situated in our kayaks, it was time for some fun. “Let’s race!” I said excitedly.
“Alfred, the other side of the lake is 110 miles away,” Dad pointed out, shaking his head. Dad… always the downer.
“Oh…” I said. It didn’t look so far away from where I was sitting. Francis must have noticed htat I was disappointed.
“Why don’t we race to that buoy over there?” he offered, pointing to something floating in the water a good distance away.
“Sure,” I said, grinning. “Think you can beat me?”
“Maybe he can’t, but I bet I can,” said Dad. Honestly, Dad is one of the strictest, most uptight people I know, but when it comes to a competition, he tends to throw all his morals out the window. It doesn’t matter what the game is, or what’s at stake… he HAS to win, or he gets pissed. One time, when we were at a festival, Dad was playing poker, and he argued with the dealer for 45 minutes, complaining that there was no way anyone could be dealt a royal flush, and that the deck was rigged. We weren’t allowed at that festival anymore…
So once we all got into our starting positions, I looked over at Dad, who had a determined look in his eyes.
“On your mark…” he started. “Get set…” Then just to mess with him, I started to paddle. “Hey! Alfred, stop it! You do not get to go early!” I laughed… faking him out is fun. “Ok,” he started again. “On your mark, get set… GO!” I charged ahead, and to my surprise, Francis was right behind me. Dad trailed a little behind Francis, but you could tell he was trying. And Matt… Matt had obviously never gone kayaking in his life. He trailed WAY behind everybody; it took all of his effort just to steer the thing in the right direction. When we finally reached the buoy, my arms were starting to get a little tired. But I couldn’t slow down; I had to keep my lead, after all. So I continued to push myself at full speed, knowing that Francis was still right on my tail. Dad was probably out of the race; Matt was DEFINITELY out of the race… it was down to Francis and me. As we were getting closer to the finish line, I heard Francis approaching fast. How was he suddenly going faster this late in the race? My arms felt like they were gonna fall off! He rode next to me, and then passed me up. I tried to pull some extra energy from somewhere, but I couldn’t do it. We had a 1, 2 finish, and Francis beat me by a few seconds. Exhausted, we both got out of our kayaks and pulled them up on land.
“How… did you… get… so fast?” I asked, gasping between words.
“It’s called pacing yourself,” he answered calmly. “It involves patience and knowing when to go full speed. You weren’t patient, and you peaked too early, so I passed you.” He smiled slyly. I scowled for a minute, but then ended up smiling myself.
“It was a good race,” I admitted. “And you won. You know what the winner get, right?” He looked at me and shook his head.
“No, what?”
“This!” I said, pushing him into the water. He made a huge splash, and when he finally came up, he looked kind of angry. My smile faded. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. After all, if I did that to Dad, he would be furious at my “disrespectful behavior”.
“Well,” he said demandingly. “Aren’t you going to help me up?”
“Of course,” I muttered. “Sorry.” I extended my hand, which he grabbed, and immediately after he grabbed it, his angry façade fell. It was his turn to smile.
“Gotcha,” he whispered. Then, before I could pull away, he pulled me into the lake with him. I came up, spit out the nasty lake water, and glared at Francis, who just grinned. “Ah, this brings back memories,” he said. “I used to play tricks like that on all my friends… I didn’t think you would fall for it though!” A small smile made its way back to my face.
“Well played, Francis, well played… It actually feels kind of good in here. We should stay in here and wait for Dad and Matt…”
“We’re actually not allowed to swim in this area… it says so on that sign over there.”
“Right… Let’s get out then.” So we scrambled to get back out of the lake before any officials saw us. A minute or so later, Dad finally came back, completely out of breath.
“I… was… a little… late… starting… so that’s why… I lost…” he said, trying to justify his utter failure. “Why are you two wet?!” he asked, after getting a good look at us. “You know you’re not allowed to go swimming in this area; at least not without a lifejacket!” Francis and I looked at each other, trying not to crack up. “Oh, my god!” he said, appalled. “You DID go swimming in the lake, didn’t you?!”
“Uhhhh, no we didn’t…” I lied. But it was a bad attempt at lying. Finally, Francis stepped in for me.
“Relax, Arthur; we’re fine. Nothing Bad happened. We were just having a little fun… We had to do something while we were waiting for you…” We both broke into huge grins again and high fived each other. Dad sighed, but surprisingly, he let it go.
“Fine…” His gaze was then directed back to the lake. “Poor Matthew is really having trouble with this… We should do something..." I looked over to where Matthew was. He was barely past the buoy!
“I’ll go go get us some ice cream,” I announced. “This could take awhile.”
“Alfred!” Dad scolded. “That’s not nice!”
“Make mine a vanilla please,” said Francis. I nodded.
“You got it!” Maybe I had it all wrong… Maybe this whole stepdad thing could actually work out… I glanced back over to where Dad and Francis were sitting. Francis put his arm around Dad and pretended to give him a shove, which freaked Dad out. I laughed. Yes, I decided. Francis and I were going to get along just fine…