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Chapter Text

Alfred F. Jones walked through the living room of his brand new home, his small body weighed down with the simple weight of just one box. He was only ten, having hit the big one-zero just under two weeks ago. Now though, he and his mom were moving to a new remote town and new place where they could start over. Alfred hadn't wanted to move away from all his friends, but he couldn't really fight against his mom, so here he was in the new house at the edge of town.

"Alfred F. Jones! If you don't hurry up and get these boxes, I'm throwing them in the trash!" his mom yelled from the front yard where all their boxes had been left by the movers. All the big furniture was inside, so now it was just up to them to get the rest inside.

"Coming mom!" Alfred called back, leaving the box there. Since they were so far away, they could yell as loudly as they wanted and no one would be able to hear them. Alfred's mother complained about it but at the same time she liked the peace.

Alfred stepped outside, staring at the woods that surrounded their house. He shook his shoulders, already feeling antsy to go and explore them. His mom wouldn't want him going out there too much, but maybe he could sneak away. Alfred grabbed another box with his small hands and brought them inside, making sure that he picked up his own so that his mom wouldn't throw them away without his consent.

By the time the sun was set all the boxes had moved from the front yard to inside the house. Alfred and his mother panted together, exhausted, collapsing on the couch and thinking about how it was going to be even more exhausting tomorrow when they would have to unpack all the things in the boxes.

"My back aches so much Alfie, do we have anything to eat?" his mom said, rubbing her back and moving into the kitchen. Alfred just laid down on their couch, for once in his life not that hungry.

"Um, there's some crackers?" his mom made it out like a question. Alfred didn't respond though, his brain too tired already. He just wanted to sleep.

Ms. Jones returned to the living room with a box of crackers under her arm. She paused in her efforts to maneuver past the boxes also making sure that she didn't overturn anything that would take hours to clean up. On the couch, and taking up most of the space, her only son was passed out. She gave him a small smile, not like he was awake to see it anyways, and picked him up as if he was a baby. He stirred, but Alfred had always been a heavy sleeper.

"I know we had such a busy day. Don't you worry though hun, tomorrow we'll go into town and you'll make some friends. Who knows you might end up being the hero just like in your books. I know moving is hard, but everything always turns out better than we think it's going to be right?" Ms. Jones said as she placed Alfred in his bed. She tucked him in the same way that she had been tucked in as a girl, placing a kiss on his forehead and his favorite stuffed Eagle, Liberty, under his arm. With a final glance, Ms. Jones flicked off the light and left her son alone to his dreams.

It was noon when the new single mother and her son made their way into town. Together they had spent their whole morning unpacking boxes and deciding where things would go. They had two extra rooms where they placed the empty boxes when they were done with them, but they had managed to get only a few unpacked, so their house still looked like a cluttered mess.

Alfred still held his mother's hand as he crossed the street with her, not because he was scared! The heroes are never scared. It was so that his mom was safe! Who knows what could happen while crossing that dangerous street? They traveled down the towns one main street, sometimes window shopping and sometimes actually going inside and buying something that either he or his mother wanted. They stopped at a small café for lunch where Alfred got the biggest burger that they had, chomping into it as soon as it arrived.

When that was done they traveled down to the small park where they had a small swing set and a lone slide that looked as if it was going to collapse any second. It looked abandoned, but getting closer and closer, there were more people there than Alfred had seen at a distance. They weren't going playing on the slide, or even on the swings, but running around while their parents watched from a distance to make sure that no one harmed themselves.

"Can I go play?" Alfred asked his mom pleadingly, putting out the biggest puppy dog that he could muster. His mom chuckled at the effort.

"Sure hun, just make sure that you stay where I see you." Alfred didn't need to be told twice, and with a joy filled shout Alfred ran right up to the kids whose attention was caught by the loud shout.

"Hi! I just moved here yesterday, my name's Alfred!" Alfred was hopping from foot to foot, eagerly awaiting their replies. For a moment none of the other kids moved, and Alfred began to panic internally that maybe he had made a mistake running up like that. Yet before he could say anything else one of the boys stood up.

"I-I'm Matthew," he shyly said, holding out his hand like he was afraid Alfred would bite it. Matthew had a bright red sweater on, and he carried around a small polar bear. In a way it reminded Alfred of his own stuffed Eagle that he had at home.

"It's nice to meet you Matthew," Alfred beamed, his bright attitude returning full force despite the sad thoughts that he had been thinking just moments before. Someone else stood up and captured Alfred's attention.

"Ve~ I'm Feliciano, and this is my fratello Lovino." A boy said with brown hair and a curl in the side of his head. Another male sat next to him with a scowl on his face, and Alfred could see how similar that they looked. He realized that 'fratello' probably meant 'brother'.

"Konnichiwa, I am Kiku." Another boy said with a bow, not meeting Alfred's eyes. Alfred tried to bow back, but he felt awkward doing so. Finally, a large boy who looked older than the rest stood up.

"Privet, I'm Ivan," he said with a creepy smile. Then he sat back down as if he had never got up in the first place. Alfred just stared back, not moving from his spot either.

"Um… can I play with you guys?" Alfred finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Sure, but you're it!" Feliciano excitedly said, before taking off in a random direction. Everyone scattered, except for Ivan who walked off leisurely. Alfred hesitated for a second before he took off running after them, laughing as he did.

Ms. Jones watched from the sidelines, happy that her son had found friends so fast. She didn't voice it, but she had been worried that he wouldn't be able to find friends in a town this small. Everyone seemed to be so close knit here, and she had found herself worrying that they wouldn't be welcomed. Yet the other parents talked with her easily and soon enough she had their names and numbers. She hoped to set up play dates for Alfred, maybe even a sleepover when their boxes finally get unpacked.

Ms. Jones held onto the hope that she and Alfred would be happy here. They liked their homes and really, they couldn't afford to move if things got bad. Whether Alfred or she liked it, this was their new home.

For all she knew though, Alfred could go on an adventure, and beyond all hope, she hoped that he would find an adventure.

Chapter Text

Sometime later, after the boxes had been unpacked and Alfred had finally settled into his life, he began to start school. Like any child he protested and threw a temper tantrum or two, but no matter what he did Ms. Jones got him dressed Monday morning bright and early, fed him breakfast, and had him out waiting for the bus before Alfred was even really awake. Alfred had never been a morning person, and probably never would be. Right now though, standing on the corner with the chilly morning air seeping through his sweater, he wished that he was back in his bed with Liberty.

Alfred let out another jaw splitting yawn just as the bus turned the corner. Tears formed in the corners of his eyes, but the stretch of his muscles did nothing to alleviate the sleepiness that clouded his mind. When the bus came forward and came to a shuddering halt in front of Alfred he lurched forward the two steps between him and a nice place to sit. Alfred took the first seat that he found, which happened to be right next to Ivan.

"Hello Alfred, nice to know that you're starting school with us," Ivan said nicely with that grin that never left his face. Alfred nodded dumbly, slumping in his seat and closing his eyes.

"Mhhmmm nice to see you to Ivan," Alfred muttered.

The two said nothing more, mainly because Alfred fell asleep in his seat and Ivan was doing his best to make sure that his friend didn't fall off the seat.

That became a morning routine for the both of them. Alfred would practically crawl on the bus every morning, sit next to Ivan, then when they got to school meet up with their other friends who got rides from their parents. Together the six of them would eat lunch together, do group projects together, and play at recess together. It was the most fun that their ten year old minds had ever had.

It had taken many nights, plus countless chores and begging, but Alfred had finally managed to convince not only his own mom but his friends parents into letting everyone have a huge sleepover at his house. It took countless hours of cleaning to make sure that his house was spotless by his mom standards, but finally the weekend came and Alfred was eagerly awaiting his friends arrival at his house.

Matthew arrived first, followed by Feliciano and Lovino, then Kiku, and finally Ivan. Ivan always seemed to be the last one to arrive, but nevertheless they were all there and Alfred couldn't wait for them to play and stay up late and do all of those things that you're supposed to do at sleepovers.

"What should we do first guys?" Alfred asked excitedly. His mom told him that he should ask them before he suggested his own ideas, since they were the guests.

"We should tell scary stories, yes?" Ivan responded. Alfred grinned, but Lovino's scowl just deepened, if that was possible.

"No way. The last time Feli heard a scary story he didn't sleep for a week."

The six of them lapsed back into silence, trying to think of something that they could all do. None of them could agree on a movie, since all that Alfred had were scary movies and no one wanted to watch those. They couldn't go outside and play since the sun had set long ago and Ms. Jones was still wide awake upstairs and would notice if the downstairs suddenly got super quiet. Somehow they ended up deciding that they should play truth or dare for a while, and since Lovino was the grumpiest, he would have to go first.

"Alright Lovi, truth or dare?" Alfred asked, because it was his sleepover and he got to ask first.

"Don't call me that, stupid!" Lovino fumed. "Dare, cause truths are for pansies." Lovino eventually decided on.

Alfred thought of what he could make Lovino do, but after a couple of seconds he knew exactly what would make the little Italian shake in his boots.

"I dare you to give your brother and Ivan a hug," Alfred announced. The circle that they had formed had grown quiet.

"Chigi! I hate you so damn much!" Lovino screamed before he gave both his brother and Ivan a quick half hug that shouldn't really count but it was the best that everyone was going to get. Ivan looked really happy that he simply got a hug.

"My turn right? Matthew, truth or dare?" Lovino asked Matthew. Matthew looked shocked for a moment, but quickly recovered.

"Um..dare?" he asked after a moment's thought.

"I'm bored. Go and check if Alfred's mom is asleep so that we can actually do something," Lovino grumbled out. Matthew left and ventured upstairs, checking every room to see where Alfred's mom was. He eventually found her, asleep on her bed with a book in her hands and the lights on. Matthew couldn't just leave her there, so he grabbed the blanket that had been, luckily for him, sitting to the side. He threw it over her, taking the book out of her hands and placed it to the side. Just as quickly as he was there, Matthew was gone, leaving the room as if he hadn't been there in the first place.

"Your mom's asleep Alfie," Matthew said in his quiet voice when he finally got back downstairs. He couldn't remember when he had started calling Alfred Alfie, but he didn't really want to stop and Alfred didn't seem to mind in the least.

"Awesome! What do you guys want to do now?" Alfred asked excitedly. Now that his mom was asleep they could do anything and she wouldn't know.

"Have you explored the woods yet?" Feliciano didn't even hesitate in his question. He was almost jumping up and down in his seat with anticipation.

"No, my mom says that it's dangerous out there," Alfred answered.

"Well she's not here now, let's go exploring," Lovino said with a shrug of his shoulders. No one could think of anything better to do, so off they went, gathering warm clothes and food, lastly getting all the flashlights that Alfred had in his house.

Chapter Text

It was unbelievably dark out. Even with their flashlights (about four among them) they could only see a couple of feet in front of them. The trees that towered above them had branches so thick that the moon couldn't shine through and give them any additional light. They kept barreling forward though, whispering excitedly to each other, being outside when no one else had was a big deal for them. They had hardly ever gone anywhere without their parents by their sides. Alfred was first in line, leading the pack, while Ivan brought up the rear and made sure that no one fell behind.

"Man who knows what we'll find! This is so cool!" Alfred yelled, figuring that he was far away enough from his own house and other people to where he could be loud and no one would care.

"Lovi I'm scared!" Feliciano cried, clinging to his brother. Lovino scowled, trying to pry Feliciano off the back of his shirt.

"There's nothing to be scared of," Lovino said, biting back a curse. Kiku gently patter Feliciano on his back. Feliciano calmed down somewhat.

"The woods are scary though! What if something jumps out and attacks us?" Feliciano asked worriedly, making everyone stop and try to think of a response.

"Then I shall take care of them, da?" Ivan finally said. Everyone looked at him before they shakily nodded and went along with his answer.

They began walking once more. This time though it was more quiet and measured, with the occasional question here or there, mainly all directed at Alfred about where they were and the perfect are we there yet question. Yet no matter ow many times they bugged him they just couldn't bring down his spirit and conviction that there was something worth finding in these woods.

"Alfred-san, maybe we should turn back. We've been out here a while," Kiku said after what felt like hours of walking. Other's nodded in agreement, but Alfred just smiled.

"Just a little farther guys! I'm sure that there is going to be something really cool right around the corner."

Alfred was right to. Just that it wasn't right around the corner. It seemed like miles and miles away to them, but really it was just a couple of hundred feet. They turned around a couple more times, passing through trees when they suddenly found a pathway. It was covered in branches that had fallen over the years and grass that had tangled in clumps. With renewed interest they walked together up the path, wondering where it could lead to. Just when it seemed like the path would lead them to a dead end, it opened up to a clearing.

The clearing was wide and spacious, and if there wasn't something in it then it would have been a wonderful meadow. Instead there was a park, what looked to be an old park that they would have back in the days when their own parents were young. It looked as though it hadn't been touched in years though, vines had taken over the slide, there were no swings on the swing set, and the sandbox just had dirt in it. Lovino, Feliciano, Alfred, Kiku, Matthew, and Ivan moved together through the old park, looking at everything and wondering what they should do with it.

Right in the center of the park was something that caught the attention of all of them. It was a carousel, worn down by time and nature. It didn't have unicorns and horses like the carousel did that they had back home in the mall, but instead it was filled with creatures that they had never seen before. There were half bird half lion things, and giant black ravens, things with tentacles, and most importantly and most common, were these half men half horse creatures that were obviously meant to be a substitute for the lack of horses.

"My mom told me about those, she called them centaurs. She says that they are really wise and smart," Matthew said, the first thing he had the confidence to say since they left the house. It broke the spell that seemed to fall over the rest of them, and they all began to talk about the creatures they recognized.

"That's a gryphon, I heard they like to eat people."

"Those are harpies, and nono said that they would lure people to death with their singing."

"The thing with tentacles looks like a mermaid."

"Does not! It has to have a tail."

"Does to! Mermaids don't have to have a tail."

"Does not!"

"Does to!"

"Does not!"

"Does to!"

And so a debate broke out between them. Lovino, Ivan, and Matthew thought it was a mermaid, while Alfred, Kiku, and Feliciano eagerly argued back that it was some other kind of creature. Neither were getting any kind of leeway over the other and it seemed like this was just never going to end, well that was until something distracted them all.

"I like this one the best," Matthew said suddenly, his quiet voice somehow managing to slip in between their argument and distract them all.

Matthew was standing in front of one of the many centaurs that decorated the carousel. The centaur was one of a man, who had silver hair, red eyes, and a large grin on his face. Everything about him was worn down, and it looked like nature had hurt him a lot. There was chipped paint and scratches, but underneath that there was skin that looked to pale to be normal, and his lower half that was a horse was a beautiful creamy white and he had a saddle that was a white color that was almost gray from the abuse of nature and dust that had settled on it. It was quite a contrast from the paleness that was him, but it complimented him nicely. He wore a Prussian blue dress shirt, the dark color contrasting well with paleness of his skin. Matthew just smiled up at the centaur, a small blush on his cheeks. Everyone else started looking at the other centaurs, picking out their favorites.

"This one's my favorite," Kiku announced with certainty, making everyone turn to him. It wasn't very often that Kiku announced his opinion openly like that.

Kiku stood in front of a centaur with a small smile on his face. The centaur himself had tan skin, wavy brown hair, a plain white t-shirt, and a soft calming smile. His eyes were closed, unlike the one that Matthew was staring at. His horse half was the same color as his hair, and was full of muscles. He had a saddle that was pure gold, and tassels that were a wonderful shade of brown. He had one arm up and crossed over his chest, until the hand rested against his heart. He looked so calm and at peace, like he could sleep for centuries and nothing would wake him up. He looked just as torn up as Matthew's centaur did, with chipped paint and scratches everywhere. Kiku just stared up at him, a content smile on his face.

"This one is obviously the best," Ivan claimed, gesturing to the centaur in front of him.

The centaur that Ivan was staring at was that of an oriental. He had shiny dark brown hair that was long enough to be pulled into a pony tail over his left shoulder. He was wearing a wonderful yellow oriental styled robe, with sleeves that were to big so that they came down past his hands, which were crossed over his chest like how they would place people who had died. The saddle that he wore was a bright red, that had gold and orange tassels and ropes hanging off and decorating it. Obviously, this centaur that Ivan liked so much had the best and most decorated saddle. His chocolate eyes were open, but he looked sad, as if he had seen to much and witnessed things that no one should have to. The horse half of him was white, but more of a dusty white that looked as if he had gone running through the desert. His legs were a dark black that gradually changed to white. Ivan seemed to really like this one.

"Che, I guess this one's all right," Lovino spoke up, a light blush on his cheeks.

In front of Lovino was a centaur that was even more tan than the one that Kiku had been looking at. He had chocolate hair that was curly and wavy, and he held a light smile that let people know that he was one to be happy all the time. He had forest green eyes that were smiling as well, and he was wearing a gorgeous red bull fighting outfit. On his back was a green saddle that complimented well with his skin tone and red shirt. Unlike the others, he didn't have any tassels on his saddle, but instead he had a rope that connected him from the front to the back. The horse part of him was a brown that was tinted with a beautiful shade of red, giving him a wonderful exotic look. Romano was blushing at the sight of him, trying to be discreet about it but it was obvious that he really did like the centaur that he was staring at.

"Ve~ this one is my favorite," Feliciano exclaimed, taking the attention off his brother.

Feliciano looked up at his centaur, smiling as brightly as he could. His centaur was not nearly as pale as Matthew's but it was still a lot paler than everyone else's. He had gorgeous blond hair, but he had a serious look on his face that took away from his other features. His hair was slicked back, and he wore a dark green military shirt with gold beading on it. The saddle that was on him was black, and had silver trim along the edges and even had silver tassels. He looked to be an array of color. His horse half was a nice gray color, with specs of black along his legs. His arms were muscled, along with his chest, and they were crossed over his chest in a movement of disapproval. He was the lease chipped of all of them, and it was obvious that he was the least ridden when the park was alive and kicking. Yet out of all the centaurs that were there, it was a shock that he had chosen that one.

"This one though, is just...amazing," Alfred said quietly. Everyone turned to him, wondering what could make the normally loud buy so quite and awestruck.

In front of Alfred was a centaur that was in the worst shape out of all of them. He looked torn and beat, as if he was out into the middle of a storm. He had messy golden hair, with eyebrows that were just to big for his face. Alfred didn't mind that much though, he was trying to take in every other detail that he could. The centaurs arms fell in front of him, until his hands were resting together in front of him. Also he had his eyes closed, so Alfred couldn't see what color they were. His outfit was unlike all of the others as well, he wore a bright red long sleeved dress shirt that had beautiful gold lacing and cuffs on it. His horse body was decorated even more than his upper half. His fur was a golden color, almost as light as his hair. His saddle was the same red as his shirt, with gold lining and straps that went from the front to the back. On the straps were clocks hanging down, and on even closer inspection they were all set to the same time. If one even looked closer, they could see how the seat of saddle was a light blue color. Finally his last decoration were red sleeves on his horse legs.

"It looks like we all have our favorites, eh?" Matthew said. Everyone turned to their centaur, smiling a soft smile.

"Now what do we do?" Feliciano asked, turning away from his centaur and looking at his friends. No one did seem to know what to do.

"Let's fix up the park. We can start with our favorites," Lovino suggested. Everyone smiled.

"Ya, and then this can be our special place," Alfred felt all his energy and joy returning.

"Where will we get all the supplies though?" Kiku asked.

"Leave that to us," Lovino responded. It was known that his family was a lot more richer than the rest of them.

"So were going to do this?" Matthew asked. He was smiling a lot more than anyone else had ever seen before.

"Yup!" They all laughed and cheered, thinking about what was to come.

Chapter Text

It took nearly two weeks for them to gather up the supplies that Lovino and Feliciano were supplying. Together, the brothers got paint of every color, sand paper for buff away scratches, and they even managed to get some of that clear paint that'll make the centaurs look all glossy and brand new. Apparently, their grandfather didn't even ask what the stuff was for, he just let them get whatever they want.

It didn't take them nearly as long for them to meet up one night. Since the path to the park was behind Alfred's house, at around ten o'clock at night they all just met up there and walked out into the woods. It was easier to find the path this time, but it was still another twenty minutes of walking before they reached their secluded park. They set up their lanterns and flashlights on the ground and pointed them at the carousel so that they would have both hands to paint and shine and buff.

"So have you guys thought of names for yours yet?" Feliciano asked suddenly, almost out of the blue. They turned to him, but honestly, no one had thought about giving their centaurs names.

"Huh?" Alfred was the first to respond, a confused look splashed across his face.

"I just think that we should all give them names! It'll name everything easier wouldn't it?"

"I guess your right. I'll name mine Arthur," Alfred proclaimed, picking up a piece of sandpaper. Before they did anything, they would have to get rid of the scratched so that the paint wouldn't have any bumps and lines. Alfred would have much rather preferred to start painting right away, but Mario and Luigi (as Alfred had so affectionately given them that nickname) insisted upon it.

"Ve~ Ludwig! He looked German so when we got home I looked up German names. He just looks like a Ludwig too," Feliciano said happily. he glanced at Lovino. "What about yours big brother?"

"Che, I guess Antonio," Lovino muttered, but it was obvious that he had put at least some thought into the name. Feliciano smiled at his brother, wrapping the other in a hug, ignoring Lovino's protests.

"Gilbert," Matthew said quietly. No one heard the poor boy, but for once he didn't really mind.

"I always liked the name Herakles. Like in the myth that we read in class," Kiku said as he stared up. Alfred jumped next to him.

"You mean like Hercules? Man that guy was awesome! All like no way man eating lions no one get past the hero!" Alfred yelled, striking his famous 'hero pose' that made everyone else just roll their eyes.

"No, Alfred-san, you misheard. Herakles. His name is Herakles," Kiku said the name slowly, as if that would help the word get past Alfred's thick skull. It didn't.

"That's what I said!" Alfred shouted.

"Kiku, you know Asian names correct? All the names that I know are Russia, besides ours of course," Ivan asked Kiku, breaking him out of the conversation that he was having with Alfred. Kiku turned to Ivan, trying to process the request.

"Huh?"

"Well he is Asian, da? So it's only fitting that mine has an Asian name. Will you help me?" Ivan smiled kindly at his friend. Well he thought it was kind, really Kiku was pretty scared by it.

"Eh...sure...how about Yao? That's a nice name right?" Kiku asked nervously. He got even more nervous when Ivan hesitated. But then Ivan nodded his head.

"Da, that is a nice name. His name is Yao-Yao," Ivan said affectionately. Kiku let out a sigh of relief.

The rest of the night was spent talking, eating the food that they had brought, and somehow finding time to work. They would stand with their centaurs and buff out the scratches, removing the paint that was chipping. Though they were only ten, and they could only bring themselves to work on their actual job for about half an hour at a time. Kiku was the most dedicated, he knew the job that he had and he did it thoroughly. Alfred and Feliciano found themselves dreaming off the most, because apparently doing what they were meant to was just to much work.

It was a good thing that he food that they had packed was mainly sugar, because otherwise they might have never made it through the night.

At three in the morning they all decided that they were done with their project for the night. The sugar that they ingested was beginning to wear off at this point, and they were almost dead on their feet. This time they could leave all the paint and supplies there so that they weren't dragged down by unnecessary weight. Yet by the time that they reached the back of Alfred's home, Lovino was carrying his brother and Ivan was giving Matthew a piggyback ride.

"Night guys! See you tomorrow, well today I guess," Alfred said, sneaking into his house. Everyone waved goodbye as they began to walk down the road. Ivan had promised that he would get Matthew home safely, and if there was anyone that you would want to have on your side in a dark alley it was Ivan.

Alfred opened one of the windows with a slight click, his feet landing a bit roughly on the carpet. For a moment he held his breath and listened, but when he didn't hear anything he went upstairs to his room. He had one of the nice rooms in the house, and it even had its own bathroom. Alfred brushes his teeth, washed his face, changed and was asleep before his head even hit the pillow.

Alfred didn't hear his mom cross the hallway over to his room, he didn't hear her open his door, and he didn't wake up when she sat down on the edge of his bed. Ms. Jones though was upset when she saw her son looking so tired. A noise had woken her up in the night, and she decided to check on him. She didn't think he would look so tired though.

Alfred would have to be a lot more quiet if he hoped to not wake his mom up again the next night that he and his friends decided to go out.

Chapter Text

It was forgotten about. Simple as that. Life settled into a normal routine for the boys of our group, each with a daily routine that they would follow without fail. Sure, they tried to get back to their playground and finish what they had so determinedly started, but things always got into the way. Some nights they would plan to meet up and one would forget to show up (you see, it was either they all go together or they don't), or something would happen and they would have to reschedule.

Either way, every Saturday night when they should have met up and done the work that they had assigned themselves, they were sleeping in their beds. And slowly, the memory of that place began to fade, until they couldn't remember why they ever wanted to go into the woods in the first place. Time is funny like that, erasing the things that seem like they should be the most important, and leaving people behind with nothing.

.

..

...

....

Fast forward: Eight Years

"I'm telling you Mattie this girl had tits the size of Texas!" Alfred exclaimed, not caring that they were in the middle of the hallway of their high school, or that everyone was staring.

"I seriously doubt that," Matthew muttered with a sigh. Alfred didn't hear of course. He just kept going on and on about how amazing this girls boobs were.

Ten years had passed since they were the boys we knew back then who traveled into the woods. They were only just starting their senior year, ready and eager to graduate and start their lives. In that frame of time, so much had changed. Alfred grew extremely popular, joining sports teams and being the captain of them all. This year he had joined football, easily making varsity and becoming the star quarterback. Matthew on the other hand, became almost invisible besides Alfred when he needed him and his best friend Lovino. Over the years Lovino hadn't changed to much, besides taking Matthew under his wing and learning new swear words. Ivan and Feliciano were still the same nice people, and Kiku was still a lot quieter than he should be.

"Matt! Mattie are you listening?" Alfred pouted, hands on his hips. He stomped his foot like a first grader. Matthew deadpanned at him.

"No," Matthew flatly said. Alfred whined, tugging on Matthew's sweater, making sure that the younger paid attention to him.

"Stop it Alfred!"

"Not until you pay attention to me! I wasn't done talking about her!" Alfred whined. Matthew rolled his eyes, snatching his sweater out of Alfred's grip the moment he had a chance.

"Sorry Alfred I don't want to listen to the girl who has boobs 'the size of Texas!'" Matthew used his air quotes, making Alfred pout just like before.

"Oh come on! Not like you ever meet someone!"

"Shut up. We're already late for meeting the guys. You said that you wanted to do something right?" Matthew wanted to change the subject. He didn't want this to go any further. Plus everyone else really was waiting for them outside.

"Right! Come on, your slowing me down!" Alfred grabbed Matthew, dragging him along and out of the school. Everyone was around Kiku's car. He wasn't the only one with a licence, but he was the only one who thought to save up for a car. While everyone else was waiting and saving up he was nice enough to give everyone a ride home after school. Now that Matthew really thought about it, they probably owed him a lot of gas money.

"About time fat ass, making us wait for you. What took you so long?" Lovino snapped out. Alfred grinned sheepishly, bringing up a hand behind his head.

"Sorry guys I forgot," Alfred admitted. Everyone else rolled their eyes, used to this behavior.

"Good thing Matthew was there huh? He probably made you remember!" Lovino seemed eager for a fight today, not normally as snappish as this at his friends. Matthew went and stood by Lovino, trying to calm his Italian friend down.

"Just ignore Lovi! He had a rough day and the teacher was mean," Feliciano spoke up, patting his brother on the back.

"Don't fucking call me that!" Lovino yelled at his brother, a blush on his face.

"Ms. Riola again?" Matthew asked with concern. Lovino scoffed at his friend, shrugging off the hand that Matthew placed on his shoulder in comfort.

"The bitch doesn't know how to teach Spanish to save her life," he muttered.

"Good thing Lovino already knows how to speak Spanish!" Feliciano said again.

"I told you not to call-wait you actually said Lovino that time." Lovino was in shock. His brother normally never listened to him.

"That's what you asked right?" Feliciano asked with confusion. Lovino just nodded at his brother.

"Why did you want us here Alfred?" Ivan asked, bringing everyone back to reality to where they were needed and wanted.

"Oh ya! I was thinking that since it's a three day weekend we could have a sleepover at my house, just like we did when I first moved here. Wouldn't it be great? We could have fun and play games and do random things just like we did way back then. What do you say?" Alfred looked at his friends with wide eyes, not wanting any of them to say no. Not like they did though.

"I don't know..." Ivan said.

"Please?" Alfred pleaded.

"Fine, fat ass, but only if Matthew and Feliciano go!" Lovino challenged.

"Ve~ I want to go!" exclaimed Feliciano.

"I...I guess," Matthew drawled out. At least Lovino would be there and would talk to him. He ignored the groan that Lovino let out.

Kiku and Ivan still looked distressed about whether or not they should go. Ivan and Alfred had a time of falling out, and their friends had called it the 'Cold War' period because Alfred was American and Ivan was from Russia. They still weren't over it, but at least they could tolerate each other without trying to rip out each other's throats. Kiku just didn't want to because the last time he tried to bring his futon over (because he didn't have a sleeping bag) he accidentally broke a lamp. Alfred's mom said that it was okay, but he still felt guilty.

"Kiku, bring your futon, we hated that lamp anyways. Maybe this time you could break the old t.v. so that my mom will get a new one," Alfred said. Kiku couldn't help but let out a little smile.

"Fine Alfred-san I shall come over at seven," Kiku said. Everyone turned to Ivan, waiting to see if they would be missing a member of their group or not.

"It's not our group without you Ivan," Alfred declared. It was probably the nicest thing that Alfred said to him other since they started talking to each other again. Ivan smiled at him, not a fake smile that he used always, but a real nice smile that made everyone relax.

"Seven o'clock, I'll be there."

"Alright! Seven o'clock everyone meet up at my house and we will rock the house!"

Everyone piled into Kiku's car, excited for the three day weekend that was sure to bring adventure and fun for their gang.

Chapter Text

"Nice legs, daisy dukes, makes a man go whoo whoo!" Alfred sang with his music. Well, not so much sang as he did screech. He was down in the living room, clearing away furniture so that they could all sleep on the floor. His mother was long since used to his shenanigans, and didn't say anything about her son totally destroying her living room.

"I knew coming here was a bad idea! Look at this dumb ass Why are we even friends with him?" A voice came from the door. Alfred whipped around to see Lovino, Feliciano, and Matthew staring at him like he was crazy. The radio kept on playing in the background.

"That looks like fun!" Feliciano chirped in excitement, bouncing up and down in place. Lovino held his arm, making sure that his brother didn't even have the option to join them.

"Oh no way. Go and make some pasta or some shit like that," Lovino snapped out.

"Sure, fratello. Can I Ms. Jones?" he asked Alfred's mom politely. He always asked her, even though a long while she had given up her kitchen to the two Italian brothers. They could make such better food than she could. (Not that any of them would have ever said that aloud.)

"Sure honey, just don't leave a mess when you're done."

"Si!" Feliciano ran off, pulling out pots and pans with loud bangs filling the air. While they had been talking, Matthew had turned the radio down so that it was just background noise.

"I never would have guessed that for your taste in music Alfred," Matthew sniggered. Alfred blushed, his cheeks turning a lovely shade of pink. Lovino couldn't help but grin at how embarrassed Alfred was acting.

"Shut up! It's a good song!" Alfred shouted.

"Sweetie cakes! Do your friends want pizza? I can order some but only if your friends want some too!" Ms Jones suddenly yelled from the other room. Matthew was briefly reminded of the Big Bang Theory with Howard's mother.

"Mooooooom!" Alfred stretched out the vowel, making the word so much longer than it really was. Lovino couldn't help it, he started laughing.

"'Sweetie cakes?'" Lovino said between his chuckles. Alfred started to turn from pink to red. Matthew started laughing as well. Soon they were on the floor, clutching their side with tears streaming down their faces.

"Do they want pizza or not! Last call!" Alfred's mom yelled again. It just made Lovino and Matthew laugh louder.

"Yes Mom! They want pizza!" Alfred called.

"Don't take that tone with me young man! Speak to me like that and I'll tell them how you really not the nickname of how everyone called you 'shmookie poo' at school until we moved." Alfred blushed even more red.

"Yes Mom," he groaned. Matthew had dissolved into small chuckled by now, but Lovino was still laughing.

"'Shmookie poo'?" Lovino asked. Alfred looked everywhere but his two friends.

"I hate you guys. So very goddamn much right now..." he muttered to himself. Matthew and Lovino started laughing all over again. Alfred punched Matthew lightly in the arm and pushed Lovino, who was still on his knees, down to his side on the floor.

Once their giggles and laughter was done, they all sat down on the couch and began to argue about what to watch. Alfred wanted to watch some horror movie that he couldn't handle, apparently it was hockey season because Matthew wanted to watch that, and Lovino wanted to watch day time soap operas. None of them would give up any time soon.

Suddenly the door opened, and Ivan walked in, holding three large pizza's. He grinned at his friends, putting the pizza down on the coffee table where it would be safe from getting stepped on or knocked over like the last time the boys had gotten pizza.

"A man just handed me these outside before he took off. Such a nice thing to do da?" Ivan said cheerily. He plopped down on the armchair, his large frame taking up every available surface that he could there. Ivan had been a rather large boy when he was small, but now he was huge, standing at over six feet and with a body mass to hold up. He was intimidating by nature, but he tried to be as less violent as possible. Ivan talked sometimes of being a pacifist but somehow when he would say that by the end of the day someone would have a new broken bone courtesy of Ivan.

"Who paid for the pizza?" Ms Jones asked, entering the room with a small amount of money to pay for it. Ivan smiled at her.

"Don't worry, I got it," Ivan said politely.

"Gosh, you're such a sweetheart. Thanks Ivan." Ms Jones left the boys to their own devices.

Quickly enough, Kiku knocked on the door right when seven o'clock hit. Every time they had an outing Kiku would arrive exactly on the time that he said he would. Yet even though they had known each other for years Kiku was the only one who wouldn't just barge into Alfred's house like he owned the place. Even Ivan would do that, even after Alfred and him had fought. In a way Alfred respected his friends view of honor, but he wished that Kiku could lighten up and relax and have some fun once and a while.

"Kiku my main man! What do you want to watch? Not like we need a distraction or some certain things not to be brought up," Alfred claimed excitedly, shooting Matthew and Lovino a glare. They erupted in laughter once again. Kiku and Ivan just looked confused, wondering what they had missed when they weren't here.

"Sure, sweetie cakes," Matthew chortled.

"Whatever you want shmookie poo," Lovino gasped through his laughter. Alfred felt himself blushing all over again.

"I hate you guys so much..." Alfred said for the second and most certainly not last time for that night. Kiku, sensing the mood like always could, thought that it would help if he changed the subject.

"Alfred-san, can we watch a movie?" Lovino and Matthew were still laughing on the couch. Kiku always wanted to refrain for asking for things, but Alfred had told him on almost every occasion that he came over that Kiku could ask for whatever he wanted.

"Oh ya! Guys come on! I went and bootlegged this movie just for us! It's not even in theaters yet," Alfred pleaded with his friends, using his best puppy dog eyes. Ivan rolled his eyes, way to immune to those pleading eyes. He could see everyone else caving into them already.

"It's a horror movie though, isn't it?" Romano asked. He didn't want to spend the entire night awake comforting both Alfred and Feliciano. Why they always had to watch a horror movie he never knew.

"It's Silent Hill 4!" Alfred chirped eagerly, already taking out the DVD from its case. Sure enough, in ugly handwriting, 'Silent Hill 4' was scrawled across the DVD. Matthew groaned, at least Ivan was never affected by these movies so they could laugh about them together. Every once and a while Alfred's horror movies would freak out even the Canuck, and he would have to spend the night curled up around his teddy bear to sleep. At least his friends were nice about it and didn't tease him about it like how they would tease Alfred. Maybe it was because he didn't try to crush whoever was comforting him.

Alfred popped in the DVD and not ten minutes into it someone was already dead. Lovino was grimacing and looking away, not enjoying how real it seemed to him. Matthew already had his bear out and was curling around it while he would also hold onto Lovino and let his Italian friend know when it was safe to look. (which was about ever ten minutes because it seemed like everyone was getting killed). Ivan was watching the television from his seat with a bored expression, almost as if he had seen it all before, and Kiku had already spread his futon on the floor and was reading manga on his phone, not sparing the television a second glance as he read. Alfred was the most interesting though. Feliciano had long since come out of the kitchen, and together Alfred and Feliciano were crying and watching the movie.

The three pizza boxes were spread out on the floor, everyone occasionally reaching down and grabbing a slice that suited their tastes and eating it. Everyone was either enchanted by the movie or enraptured by something else, they didn't even notice what they were really eating. By the time that the movie was over Feliciano was in a ball crying, there was only half a pizza left, and Alfred looked absolutely traumatized. Lovino and Ivan looked from their strange friends back to each other both going through a mental conversation of if they should try to get them to think about something else. It was obvious that no one was going to sleep, but still they should try to start the recovery now instead of later.

"Alfred, don't you always have some stupid game that you want us to play?" Ivan asked ruefully. Alfred always came up with some stupid plan for them, claiming that otherwise everyone would just get to bored at his house. He never seemed to realize that everyone was happy just messing around and talking. They didn't have to be doing something like the American who always needed to be moving around.

"A game? A game! I know a game! Remember the first night that we ever spent the night here? Like right after I moved here?" Alfred was already on his feet, bouncing up and down like a sixteen year old girl who just found out she is getting a car for her birthday. Ivan rolled his eyes, gosh how he wished that Alfred had a bigger attention span.

"What about it?" Kiku asked, popping out of his world of manga and anime. He had just finished the new chapter of Kuroshitsuji and the next one wouldn't be out for another couple of hours. He was so lucky that he had a friend who would scan the newest pages for him and send them to him.

"Truth or dare!" Alfred announced as if everyone was supposed to know what he was talking about.

"Huh?" Everyone stared at him with a blank face. Alfred looked at them as if they were supposed to know what he was talking about. Of course, they didn't.

"What does that kids game have to do with anything?" Lovino grumbled. He could barely remember that night, it was so long ago. He could remember how they spent the night together, but that was about all that he could remember. There was something teetering on the edge of his thoughts though, something that he was forgetting.

"When you guys first spent the night here, we played truth or dare. We barely ever do anything anymore, so why don't we do all the stuff that we did that night?" Alfred sounded so excited about it. It wasn't a half bad idea either. Alfred was right they had barely spent any time together, and this would be the perfect time to reminisce before school really started to grind into them. Everyone else was already looking around and nodding to his idea.

"Okay, Matthew truth or dare?"

Chapter Text

"Okay, Matthew truth or dare?"

Matthew silently weighed his options. Whenever his group of friends decided to play a game they somehow always managed to remember him long enough to give him the first turn. Still though, most of the time it didn't work out exactly how Matthew would have wanted it to. If he chose dare they would make him do something that he didn't want to, and with truth he would just get an awkward question at the worst. He decided to go with the safer option.

"Truth?" Of course, it was meant to sound all confident and sure that Matthew knew that was what he wanted to chose, but his timid voice turned it into a question. Matthew silently cursed his soft voice, while Lovino laughed at his best friends obvious struggle.

"Don't worry bro, I'll go easy on you. Just quit a rumor about yourself. Did you really go out with that guy from Netherlands?" Alfred asked way to cheerily. Matthew glared at him, he should have taken the dare while he had the chance. He wanted what happened between him and Lars to quiet down just like it had ended, but Alfred wanted to know what happened so badly, especially since Matthew refused to tell him. You see, Matthew is convinced that rumors die on their own if you leave them alone, but that only applies if Alfred F. Jones doesn't know about them.

When it came to gossip and rumors, Alfred was the equivalent of a sixteen year old girl.

"I hate you so much Alfred, so very very much. I want you to know that," Matthew said with a sigh. Alfred just grinned even brighter, knowing that Matthew was beginning to cave in, "Me and Lars did go out. There are you happy?" Matthew snapped. The entire group looked shocked that Matthew said yes. It was obvious that they were all expecting him to say no.

"Details! Details right now!" Lovino said excitedly. Now all the shock was turned onto Lovino instead. Even Matthew was in shock, his best friend never was the gossip. Well, Feliciano looked like he was used to it though.

"We went out for a little while, and then we broke up. I didn't like him that much, and all he ever does is sit around and try to get high," Matthew said uncertainly. He had never told anyone what had happened between him and Lars. It really wasn't that bad, but he still didn't want to talk about. Lars had broken up with him after he refused to put out and get high all the time like Lars. It hurt a lot more than he showed. Lovino looked a bit disappointed that he hadn't shared that bit of information.

"See this is why I hand out with the girls, they know all the information about everyone," Lovino groaned when he realized that Matthew wasn't going to share anything else.

"I never knew you were such a gossip Lovino-san," Kiku said, writing something down in his notebook. Lovino blushed at the comment, then glared at Kiku.

"Are you taking notes on this?" he accused. Kiku quickly held his notebook behind his back, blushing his own shade of red.

"N-no! Isn't it Matthew-san's turn to ask?" Kiku quickly changed the subject, still hiding his notebook. Everyone held still for a moment, as if remembering, and then turned back to Matthew.

"Truth or dare Lovino?" he asked quickly before the others could bug him about picking someone. Lovino somehow managed to scowl even more than before.

"Che, figures you go after me. I pick a dare not some pussy truth like you," Lovino growled out. Matthew just rolled his eyes.

"I'm so hurt Lovi~" Matthew used the pet name that Lovino hated.

"Don't call me that bastardo!" Lovino yelled. Matthew held up his arms in mock defense.

"Ve~ but you let me call you that fratello," Feliciano suddenly spoke up. Lovino blushed as all his friends burst out laughing around him.

"I dare you to go and see if you woke up Alfred's mom. I bet your shrill scream woke her up," Matthew mocked. Lovino huffed, but headed upstairs.

He did not find Alfred's mom awake like he expected actually. Instead she was dead asleep, lying under the covers and snoring pretty heavily for being a woman so small. He closed the door with a small click, glad that his 'shrill' voice didn't actually wake her up. That woman was like a second mother to him, and he never wanted to upset her. Lovino could be very sweet, despite what most people thought about him.

"She's asleep dumb asses, can I be left alone now?" Lovino drawled as he stepped down the stairs. Alfred let out a small whoop, somehow managing to make that sound quiet as to not wake his mother.

"Screw this game! Let's go out and explore the woods!" Alfred suggested excitedly. Ivan rolled his eyes as if he expected that, but didn't get up.

"The woods. At night. You want us to go and explore the woods, at night?" Kiku said slowly, just to make sure that he had everything down.

"Yes! Let's go, come on. I have flashlights and you guys have Ivan and me what's the worse that could happen?" Alfred asked. He seriously believed that they would just agree to this and be on their merry way. No one moved an inch, but Feliciano looked ready to do whatever they wanted.

Then Ivan stood. He seemed to be in a rather upsetting mood, but if he got up he couldn't be in that bad of a mood. When Ivan really got upset, he refused to move from whatever spot he had managed to place himself. So far, no one had ever been able to talk him out of it. He would sit there for hours like that, sometimes even days. It was scary to say the least, but no one knew how to make him feel better. Ivan stared down at them expectantly, waiting for them all to get up and get this ordeal over with. The sooner that they got back the sooner that they could rest and relax for the rest of the night.

"Let's go?" Matthew said as a question, but Lovino and Feliciano followed his suit. Kiku was already packing away his notebook and other manga so that they wouldn't be stepped on when they finally stumbled their way back out of the woods.

"Everyone got their cell phone? Yes? Good! Let's go!" Alfred said all in a rush, shoving a flashlight into everyone's hands before running out the back door himself. In fact, every one did have their cell phones, but not everyone had a flashlight that had working batteries.

Ivan sighed and got batteries for everyone who needed them, silently cursing Alfred and his forgetfulness. Yet as everyone rushed out the backdoor and out into the first thing that somewhat resembled a trail, Ivan couldn't help the feeling of deja-vu that overwhelmed him. It was like this had all happened before, and that he should know what was going to happen next. Yet the harder that Ivan tried to remember, the less he could. It was a slippery memory that got less and less clear the harder that you tried to grasp at it.

Ivan shook his head, banishing his thoughts from his mind as well as his feelings of deja-vu. He brought up the back of the pack, making sure that everyone was in the same place and didn't get lost, while he still tried to grasp the memory that refused to make itself know. Little did he know everyone else felt the same confusion that he did as well.

Chapter Text

Kiku decided not ten steps into the woods that he didn't like being out here. It was too dark, it reminded him too much of the manga he read late at night, and he constantly felt like he was being watched. It didn't help at all that he was next to last, and Ivan seemed to be freaking out as well, and Ivan kept stepping on the back of his heels in an effort to make him move faster. If Kiku was ruder like Lovino, he would turn around and snap at the man behind him. But alas, he didn't want to start a fuss and make everyone upset.

'How much longer?' he thought to himself. They had been walking for barely five minutes but already Kiku just wanted to go back and sleep for a couple of hours. Maybe eating all of that pizza wasn't as good as he thought it would be. His stomach felt like there was a dead weight on it with all the food he ate and all the soda as well. Why they let Alfred go on these crazy adventures and drag them along he had no idea.

He stumbled along the path, his foot catching on a rather large rock. Ivan reach out and held his shoulder to make sure that his friend didn't fall. He mumbled a thank you to his friend, but kept moving forward as if nothing had happened. Ivan didn't seem to upset about Kiku's short reply, but really all Kiku wanted to do was just go back to Alfred's house and sleep for a couple days. Or at least until school started again so that he wouldn't miss class.

"Are we lost?" Matthew suddenly asked. Everyone paused in their tracks, looking around as if that would answer the question that had been posed.

"What? Matthew you are crazy. We are so not lost!" Alfred exclaimed with a laugh. Everyone just stared at him. They knew that laugh after so many years of hearing it when Alfred would get called out in school and he didn't know the answer.

"Great. Just fucking great! The fatass got us lost!" Lovino complained, leaning his body heavily against a tree. Feliciano looked just as exhausted, but he didn't lean against a tree like his brother. He actually sat down on the ground himself.

"We're not lost guys!" Alfred yelled back with a stomp of his foot. Birds screeched and flew away, escaping into the night air where it was less corrupted with thier voices.

"Then where are we?" Feliciano asked from his place on the ground. Alfred paused for one long second, looking around as if the tree held his answers. Lovino was just getting ready to say some witty retort when Alfred replied.

"There's a path right here. Come on guys it's like we're on the path of something big!"

And with that he took of down the road without another glance back to see if they were following. Of course they did end up following him down the way, but not without a ton of complaints and dragging footsteps. Everyone pretty much knew that they were lost at this point, but they thought that they might as well go and ahead and let Alfred burn off a bit of energy before they tried to find their way home.

The path was long and spindly, but at least it wasn't completely overgrown with bushes and grass. It actually looked to them as if someone had gone traveling through it recently (and by recently I mean at least a couple of years), so they didn't have to go tromping through it as though they were barbarians. Still it was a lot of work for the two Italians who looked about dead asleep on their feet already.

"Guys! Guys come quick! Look I remember now!" Alfred screamed. He had disappeared through some branches and shouted joyously back at them. Everyone looked at each other for one long moment before Matthew took the last step forward and went through the branches just as Alfred had before him. Everyone followed suit after him.

An old, and very familiar, sight greeted them. It was the same carousel that they had come across years ago, only this time, as many years had passed, it was now more worn down by the elements, more sun damaged, and more over taken by vegetation. Yet it still had the same things that were there before, like all their painting and fixing supplied were still littered on the old carousel, and none of the rides had disappeared in their absence of a couple years. The more that they stared, the more that old memories returned to the surface of their minds.

"I never thought we would see this place again," Ivan voiced. It didn't have to be said how much everyone else agreed with them.

Slowly, they went through and rediscovered the old park once again. Now that they were older, everything looked a lot smaller than it had before, but other than that small detail nothing else had really changed. They looked over the old swings that looked like candy canes and tried to see if the chains would still hold weight. Turns out that they didn't, as Matthew found out the hard weight. While there wasn't much else in the park, the main attraction of the carousel was what really caught their eyes.

It was as battered and dusty as they remembered. Their companions were still standing in place, though they were much more sun bathed and cracked than they were before. The centaurs still wore the same clothes as before, still held the same poses as before, and still looked the same as before. Though they didn't know what they were expecting, but it was not that. For it really was that when they took their first steps into the clearing and they expected to see everything changed about the place.

They walked along the old and creaking wood of the carousel floor, stopping in front of the same centaurs that they had chosen all those years before. The only difference from now and then, was that when they stood in front of the centaurs that they hadn't seen in years, they were even in height, maybe a bit taller or shorter depending on how tall they had grown. Matthew, Ivan, and Alfred were all taller than their centaurs, but Kiku, Lovino, and Feliciano were all shorter than their centaurs.

"I remember now. Mine was named Antonio," Lovino spoke up. He sounded so relaxed, caught up in his memory.

"Heracles. You haven't changed one bit."

"Gilbert."

"Ludwig! Hey Matteo do you think ours could be brothers? They look similar."

"Yao."

"...I can't remember."

Everyone stared at Alfred in shock. He couldn't remember? Yet he was the one who found this place the first time, as well as the second time. Maybe it would come back with time.

"I'm sure you'll remember soon," Ivan said, going over to his friend and patting his back. Alfred nodded, but his stature was more slouched, his eyes a bit dull. The air around him radiated sadness, making everyone else's former feelings of joy recede a bit.

They moved around, and saw where they had left their marks previously. How there were paint marks from last time when they began to repaint. There were sandpaper marks, and little dents all around from clumsy child hands working diligently. Lovino went and opened the old paint cans, not expecting much and receiving it in turn.

"Paints gone dry. Only a couple of the paintbrushes are still usable, though with their state they'll do more harm than good," he announced.

"I can't find anymore sandpaper, it probably got washed away with the weather," Feliciano said.

They looked at once another again. Small smiled gathering on their faces. Alfred still stood in his place in front of his centaur, a frown decorating his features so unlike everyone else's.

"Are we really gonna do this?" Ivan asked. There was hope in his voice, easily heard through his tone.

"Feli and I can get the supplies," Lovino announced, his own enthusiasm gathering just under the skin.

"Weekends are free now that we're seniors," Matthew added on.

"I have a car, we can always come her on other times as well," Kiku pieced in.

"So, we're gonna do this?" Ivan clarified. Everyone nodded, smiling like school girls.

Alfred was the only one who didn't say anything. But he was paying attention. If his friends had said anything other than about how they wanted to complete the job that they had started so many years ago he would have fought tooth and nail with them. He would have been out there every weekend at his centaur, fixing him up and trying to remember the one detail that eluded him.

He finally pulled away from his thoughts and rejoined his friends and their talks of plans. He let them talk and joined them, acting like how he usually would around them. They didn't notice that much of a difference.

Yet if you watched Alfred closely, there was a far away look in his eyes, he would stare in the distance when he thought no one was looking, and he kept glancing back at his centaur, trying to remember the name that was just on the tip of his tongue. Yet nothing would ever come to Alfred's mind, just a blank space filled with silent memories.

Chapter Text

Teenage boys had never been so grateful that they had woken up on a Sunday and that they still didn't have to get up early until Tuesday. They all awoke slowly one by one, with the first being Kiku and the last being Lovino. Kiku woke up rather earlier than the rest of them, rising out of sleep at about ten in the morning and watching cartoons and other shows that Alfred had recorded on television until someone else woke up. Matthew was next and they talked quietly in hushed tones about what had happened last night, just to make sure among themselves that it wasn't really a dream. By the time that everyone else had woken out of their slumber, Matthew and Kiku were talking as if they had become the best of friends overnight. Yet all of their talking and laughing still hadn't woken up Lovino yet. He really slept like he was dead, face down on the floor and snoring softly. Feliciano managed to wake him up by running in the room and screaming that someone had stolen all of the good Italian food they had hidden over the years. Lovino shot straight up like a bullet, cursing all the way.

Matthew made pancakes for everyone, but ended up making them again when everyone ate all of theirs and kindly requested (a.k.a demanded) that he made them more. Of course he did, but not before he sat down and ate his own with slowness that would have drove a turtle insane. Every single person in the room couldn't help but watch him take every single bite. Finally Matthew broke and made more, his own batch of pancakes only half way finished and quickly cooling on his plate.

"Mattie you make the best pancakes. Live with me and make them for me for every meal," Alfred tried to say through a heavy mouth stuffed with pancakes. Matthew just stared at him, pretending not to understand a word but really he knew just what Alfred wanted to say.

"You wish," Matthew muttered. Alfred didn't hear him over his slobbering and chomping of pancakes.

"Do we really have to wait until we get the supplies to go back to the carousel?" Feliciano asked. Everyone looked at their plates. Sure, they could go back, but there would be nothing to do, so it would simply be easier for them to just wait until they could have all the supplies that they needed.

"Don't worry, we can go back there next week. As soon as we have a night free," Ivan reassured. It was surprising that he was the one who had the courage to say that to Feliciano, since normally he was quiet when a situation became to emotional.

"Lets just have fun today, okay?" Matthew said before Feliciano could have a breakdown and cry.

They did indeed have fun that day, and the day after that. But eventually they had to go home and get ready for school. It wasn't easy, especially since they had gotten used to sleeping in late and relaxing the entire day, already out of the harsh routine that school would impose. Yet underneath all the excitement of hanging out together and the thoughts about the carousel, there had been the worry of school returning and the thoughts of how things might change now.

School seamed harmlessly with the next day, melting in so perfectly that the alarms didn't even have to go off to wake the young men on their journey. Kiku came at the same time as always to pick them all up, and before it was eight they were all there at school, acting as if nothing interesting had really happened this weekend. The boys were met with smiling faces and other friends who they knew on the side. Ivan's little sister came forward and clung to his waist, saying how she missed him over the weekend.

"Hey Alfred," a sensual voice spoke through the boys. They parted to reveal Bethany, a girl who had long been after Alfred and he had been after her as well. Today she was wearing something a bit low cut, yet still conservative. Alfred smiled at her, but his eyes weren't behind the smile, no joy sparkled in them.

"Hey Beth, you look great today," he said to her. They went to their lockers, gathered their books, and he walked her to class.

"See you later Alfred," she whispered and placed her hands against his chest, leaning up and kissing him on the cheek. He smiled at her, and walked away to his classes. Yet still his eyes were hollow, but no one seemed to notice besides his friends who looked on from the sides. Already Lovino and Ivan headed off before the others could corner him and ask about it. Yet somehow Alfred's friend knew exactly what he would say when they asked him what was wrong.

Matthew and Alfred had their first class together, and Matthew wasted no time before he began to bother Alfred about what was wrong. Normally Alfred would have to race to class to be on time with how much he would flirt and talk to girls. Right now they were so early for their class that the teacher wasn't even in at her desk yet.

"Alfred what's wrong with you?" Matthew hastily asked. He didn't want to get caught talking, even if the teacher wasn't in the room yet. Alfred didn't answer immediately. Matthew caught him glancing at the door, as if hoping that someone would come in and save him from talking about what was wrong. Alas no one came in to rescue Alfred in his 'moment of need'. He finally sighed, giving in.

"It's just... I can't get him out of my mind?" Alfred huffed. Matthew tilted his head a bit, his mind blanking on who Alfred could have meant, but then it dawned on him and he berated himself for not knowing immediately.

"You're centaur?"

"Yeah, and the worst part is that I can't remember his name! I can't stop thinking about him, and I can't even remember his name!" Alfred was talking rather loudly by now, his hands balling into fists on the table. Matthew leaned a bit back in his desk chair, trying to remain calm in the hopes that his friend would follow his example.

"I'm sure that you'll remember his name soon," Matthew reasoned, but all that seemed to do was get Alfred more annoyed.

"What if I don't? You guys just don't get it, you can remember everything! I can't though... I just can't."

Alfred stormed out of the room, gathering his things in his arms before he headed out the door, roughly shoving it open with his shoulder. Matthew stayed in his chair in shock, before he rushed out of his seat and looked out the door to see Alfred pushing people out of the way to get down the hallways, leaving a clear path of pushed over students and frazzled teachers. Kiku, who had to go to his locker before he went to class and was just passing by, stopped right by Matthew and watched their mutual friend storm out of the school.

"What's wrong with Alfred-san?" he asked quietly. Students were beginning to pick themselves up off the ground, and teachers were fluttering around, making sure that no one was bleeding or had broken bones.

"He's more upset about the carousel than we thought," Matthew muttered back.

Alfred didn't come back to school that day.

Chapter Text

Alfred pushed through the throngs of people, hearing the teachers yelling and the students falling to the ground under his wake, but nothing stopped him. He could almost hear the rumors that were going to start because of this, rumors that he knew his friends were going to be a part of in trying to get rid of them, but nothing stopped Alfred as he finally pushed past the last kid and exited the school.

Matthew's words rang through his head, echoing through his skull, drilling their way throughout his brain. 'I'm sure that you'll remember his name soon.' It was obviously mean to be comforting, so soothing his soul until he either remembered or they went back, but instead the words just rang out through his head and didn't help at all. Alfred could feel the anger that was in his chest thrust itself towards Matthew in an effort to blame someone besides himself. Alfred pushed the feelings down and away, determined not to blame Matthew when he was just trying to be helpful. It wasn't Matthew's fault that Alfred couldn't remember.

The streets of his small town were barren, everyone either in school or at work. Alfred went into the one and only gas station that they had, buying a soda and some candy for later. The clerk behind the counter, Alfred couldn't remember his name either, gave him a questioning, probably wondering why he wasn't in school right now. But Alfred didn't offer up and explanation and the clerk didn't ask, so they were left with awkward silence and no new answers while the receipt was being printed.

Finally it was over and done, and Alfred didn't hesitate to pop open his soda and gulp half of it down. He quickly decided to take the back route home after he looked back at the small gas station and saw the clerk on the phone looking out the window in the direction where he just was. The school already knew that he left, the last thing that he needed was the police to be looking out for him while he was out. His mom worried enough without having to think that her idol of a son was ditching school.

Taking the back route home made his journey about ten minutes longer than it would normally take him if he took the roads. Instead he traveled through the woods and took the paths that the hunters use when they go looking for game. One path that he was familiar with took him straight to his back yard, and no one saw him on the way there.

Alfred didn't hesitate before he went in, he hardly did anything other than take a few steps inside. Yet with a sudden fury he threw his backpack on the ground, got his traveling bag and filled that with food and another set of clothes. Was he running away? The thought suddenly hit his mind, but the answer to Alfred was clear. No, he wasn't running away, he just didn't know what he was going to do or where he was going with his bag full of food and extra set of clothes.

The woods outside swallowed him whole, the only trace of him being there were the footsteps that the mud captured the soles of his shoes. They sucked at his shoes, clinging to the sides and building up. At least it wasn't raining, for the rain must have happened sometime last night for all this mud to be here. Alfred himself didn't think about when the rain had fallen or where he was going instead he just let himself walk along in hopes that he would find something.

A familiar path met his eyes, and he was suddenly at his carousel. Yes, Alfred always thought of it as his. He was the one that found it, he was the one who had the idea to fix up the centaurs, and he was the one who seemed to care the most. Alfred looked around, almost undecided about what he should do now that he was here. Eventually he moved around, just laying his bag randomly on the ground to pick up later.

Looking at the carousel now, with the light of day and the warmth of the sun, Alfred noticed so much more than he ever had before about it. Where there centaurs decorating, there were other monsters and ghouls. There was something that used to be painted a green, but now it just looked like a hue. From what Alfred could tell it almost looked like it was a swamp monster or something. There was a harpy, a giant spider (which Alfred avoided like crazy), sirens, gryphons, harpies, and one last beast that was so deformed that Alfred couldn't tell what it used to be when the carousel was at it's prime. He didn't like these other creators though, for while the centaurs gave off this feeling that they were loved and that they had lived a long life, the other creators were sinister, leaving the air with a feeling or cold and unwelcoming.

Alfred eventually circled back to his centaur. He still looked the same, with amazing detail even though the pain was faded and chipped. The hands were still beautifully sculpted, the red paint was still colorful, and everything looked perfect. There was still the marks where Alfred had buffed away some of the scratches before they forgot, but they were hardly noticeable. Alfred ran his hand against the smooth wood, ignoring the cracks under his palm.

"How come I can't remember you?" Alfred whispered. He grasped the red and white candy cane striped pole that held his centaur in place, and pulled himself up in one swift motion.

Alfred moved his hands over the places that he had never seen before from his angel on the front, brushing away dirt, dust, and leaves. Ever so slowly he could finally see everything that he had missed in the dark, and let his head fall on his centaurs shoulder, wrapping his arms around the torso.

"It's not fair..." Alfred whispered into the crook of the neck. If he didn't know better, Alfred would have sworn he felt movement beneath him. But he let his mind think it was the wind, and simply tightened his arms around the middle.

"I just want to remember..." he muttered into the crook of the neck of his centaur. And for a moment he could have sworn there was a heartbeat coming from his centaur.

Hours later, after he hadn't come home and his mother had called the police, his friends found him still in the same place, fast asleep.

Chapter Text

Alfred was avoided like the plague at school. Those who had been shoved into the lockers and floor when he had made his exit were the worst out of the bunch, quickly spreading rumors and causing more trouble for Alfred than he wanted at this point. While normally Alfred would have been upset about everything that they had done against him, it seemed like now he hardly cared about anything. He wandered the halls like a ghost, not going to practice and only responding when one of his friends spoke about the coming Friday.

"Alfred..." Matthew whispered to his friend at lunch. Alfred didn't respond to his friend, he simply sat there idly poking his food with his fork and not eating.

"Forget it, Matt. He's not going to respond, just like he hasn't all week," Lovino cut Matthew off before he could futility try to get Alfred's attention again. Matthew sighed but he did stop, quickly finishing his lunch and sitting there with his arms crossed and a pout directed at Lovino.

"Don't you shoot me that look. He's not going to respond, he hasn't all week! He probably won't even care if we go on Friday night without him..." Lovino trailed off. Matthew didn't respond, but the last words made Alfred's head shoot up.

"What?" Alfred spat out. Everyone stared at him in shock, but Lovino smirked at his American friend.

"You heard me. You have been so unresponsive, so uncaring, maybe you shouldn't go with us on Friday night when we visit the Carousel," Lovino quarreled. Alfred placed his hands on the table, balling them into fists.

"I shouldn't go? Who are you to decide that!?" Lovino was still smirking, glancing between the table and Alfred. Matthew was watching intently, quickly picking up on the method that Lovino was trying to use.

"Well, he is right Alfred," Matthew said before Lovino could reply. Alfred shifted his glare to his best friend, while Lovino quickly shot him a grateful look.

"Mattie? You agree with him? How could you?" Matthew wiggled in his seat, but didn't let himself back down.

"You don't do your homework, you're about to get kicked off the football team, and every night your mom calls me to see how you are getting through the day! If going there and remembering is more important than your day to day life, than your life in general, then I don't think that you should be going at all!" Matthew was yelling, as loud as he could for his soft voice, but it didn't seem to faze Alfred all that much. Alfred stood up, and in turn Matthew stood up as well.

"So that means that I shouldn't go?" Alfred barked.

"You're too dependent! If you don't start getting your act together and making stop making the school, your mom, and all of us worried, then no, you shouldn't be able to go."

"Oh, like anyone is going back you up!"

"I will," Ivan spoke up. He didn't need anything to intimidate Alfred.

Then Kiku stood up, as well as Lovino, and Feliciano. Feliciano looked a bit scared but he knew what was right at the moment, and so he remained standing tall with his brother and friends. Alfred sat surprised, shocked that his friends would stand up like this against him. It seemed like the entire cafeteria was against him, all of them silently watching and wanting the old Alfred back.

"I know it's hard Alfie, I know that all you want to do is go back there and be still until you remember. But you can't. That silly little park isn't the only thing that matters in your life. You have school, family, friends, and obligations that need you to be here," Matthew tried to reason.

"We miss the old version of you that didn't push people in the halls." Lovino muttered with a blush on his face.

"We missed going to football practice and being able to make fun of you when things went wrong." Feliciano said with a smile.

"We miss getting to joke around and have fun." Kiku uttered with a bow.

"We miss you." Ivan finally said.

Alfred stood and watched his friends, all of them so willing and wanting the old him back who didn't curse and smiled when something happened around him. All he wanted to do was leave and sleep, to think things over if he really did want to go back and be who he used to be. Yet he stopped those thoughts. He was too overly attached to that park, just like Matthew said.

With a smile, the first one in days, he sat back down and had lunch with his friend just like they always did before.

In the small little park that was being argued about, everything was quiet. The wind was moving the leaves on the trees and making the whisper of the nature calming, almost relaxing. Besides the wind rustling the grass and the leaves, there were no other sounds of nature. The birds weren't making their music, the animals in the forest didn't traverse through the trails, and nothing but the rays of the sun were traveling among the forest floor.

As everything there was still and warm through the nature of Earth, the wind finally stopped its puffing, and everything calmed down. Yet all around, the park remained moving. The carousel swung on its perch, and all the centaurs and other creatures moved up and down through the track that they had been on for more years than they cared to remember. Everything was silent, save for the creaks and clacks of the carousel and the creatures that moved along with it.

And yet the carousel remained moving, it was circling around and around, with no signs of stopping its movement. Up and down the creatures went, though for some of them the poles holding them in place were so rusted and gone that they could not move even an inch besides where they were.

Nature stopped, and things that shouldn't have moved before did.

Chapter Text

"It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday!" Matthew sang in the lunch room. It was surprising that he was the one singing that song, but not unheard of for him to suddenly burst out in song during the day. Well, at least he would when he thought only his friends could hear him.

"Matthew, I swear if you don't shut up I'm going to shove his apple down your throat," Alfred spoke up from his place on the other side of the table. Matthew just smirked, knowing that one, Alfred wouldn't waste food like that even if it was an apple, two, Alfred wouldn't hurt him if he was paid too, and three the song was stuck in his head so he wasn't going to stop singing anytime soon.

"Sing with me Alfred! Sing the song of the day!" Matthew yelled before he began singing louder than before. Everyone groaned, but no one stopped him.

"Why are you guys so out of it today? Come on its Friday and tomorrow we get to have an adventure and then we can go and have fun!" Matthew wiggled in his seat, clapping his hands lightly.

"An adventure? Can I come along?" a female voice suddenly spoke up. Matthew immediately stilled his movements as he looked over to see Bethany right by Alfred, looking at them all curiously.

"He is talking about the sleepover we are having tonight," Ivan said when no one else raised their voice. Bethany cringed, obviously scared of Ivan, but unlike others who would have run off at the first chance she got, she turned to Alfred instead.

"So, can I come?" she asked him. Alfred lowered his eyes from her, trying to think of some excuse to have her not come.

"It is disrespectful to have a female at a male's sleepover. It brings dishonor to one's family," Kiku suddenly voiced. Everyone turned to him, but he was just idly munching on his carrots and celery like a little rabbit, as if he had said the most casual thing in the world.

"Sorry Bethany, but it is a bit weird to have a girl at a dude's sleepover…" Alfred pounced on the excuse. Bethany's face fell, but she smiled as if nothing was wrong.

"You're right. I'll see you after practice today?"

Lately she had been waiting around for Alfred after his football practice was over. Alfred didn't mind, afterword he would walk her home because it was on the way to his house, and they would talk about all the annoying people that they encountered during the day. For Bethany, it was mainly perverts who didn't get the hint, while for Alfred it was talking about how the teachers weren't giving him a break about the assignments that he missed.

"Sure, see you later."

That wasn't a complete lie. He was going to practice today, right after school, but he had no intention of hanging out with Bethany and walking her home like always. He had to get home to meet up with his friends, so that they could go to the carousel. It seemed as though Alfred didn't care about that though, as he took a bite into his apple that he had previously threatened Matthew with.

"She's on the hook," Matthew stated when it became apparent that no one else was going to talk about the problem involving Bethany that might quickly arise. Everyone looked at him in confusion, even Alfred, but he had expected that.

"The hook?" Kiku asked warily. It sounded familiar but he just couldn't remember.

"Yeah, the hook. Remember on that one episode of How I Met Your Mother, the one about being on the hook?" No one gave Matthew any sign that they remembered what he was talking about. "Basically, Alfred doesn't want to be with her, but he likes having her around and having someone do all that relationship stuff that they like. All the while Bethany will be waiting around, biding her time by hanging out with Alfred until he wants to be in a relationship with her, but it's not going to happen," Matthew finally finished off. There was understanding in his friends' eyes, and they all turned to Alfred to see his reaction.

"She is not on my hook!" Alfred defended, cheeks tinting a light shade of pink. Matthew smirked, placing his hands on the table in front of him.

"Fine, tell her that. Stop giving her kisses on the cheek, don't let her do that to you, and tell her that you aren't looking for a relationship. And make sure you don't say right now, otherwise you're just keeping her there on the hook while you don't think you're doing anything wrong. See how long she still wants to hang with you and be 'your best dudette'."

Alfred pouted but he didn't protest about the reasoning in Matthew's words. He didn't want to be in a relationship with Bethany, but he hadn't really told her that yet. She did deserve to know the truth so that she wouldn't get hurt more than she probably was already going to feel.

"I'll tell her right after practice," Alfred finally said.

"You're going to practice today?" Feliciano asked. He, along with everyone else, thought that Alfred was going to ditch and come with them.

"Coach says if I miss another practice I won't be able to play in the homecoming game, and I've already missed enough as it is," just then the bell rang, and began to head off to their classes, "Just go and get the stuff ready and wait for me at my house. I'll see you guys later."

-After Practice-

Alfred walked out of the locker room wishing that he hadn't gone to practice at all, the amount of soreness he felt right now in no way made up for playing in the homecoming game a month away. He walked down the halls of his school, quickly going to his locker where Bethany was waiting, playing on her phone, giggling and blushing as she looked at it.

"Hey," he spoke up as he got close.

Bethany jumped where she stood, cheeks flushing a dark red as she shoved her phone in her back pocket at the same time. She looked embarrassed, like she had been caught in the act of doing something she shouldn't have. Alfred raised one slim eyebrow, but otherwise didn't ask her about the strange behavior she was exhibiting. It wasn't any of his business-she was just a friend.

"I thought you were never getting off practice," she quickly said. As soon as the words left her mouth her blush went down, but her cheeks were still a shade or two darker than normal. "I was just texting my friend…."

"That's cool. Thanks for waiting for me, like always," Alfred said as he opened his locker. She leaned against him, resting her shoulder against his bicep and resting her head on his shoulder.

"Listen, Bethany, you know, we've been hanging out so much lately…" he started off, slamming his locker shut. Bethany flinched. That's right, Alfred thought, she doesn't like loud noises.

"What about it?"

"You know that I don't want a relationship right n- right?" He almost said right now but managed to save himself in time. Bethany's face fell, disappointment and hurt obviously spread across her features, and Alfred felt his heart break slightly at the sight. He might not want a relationship with her, but that doesn't stop her from being his friend, and he cared for his friends.

"I should have seen this coming…" Bethany muttered to herself. Alfred shook his head but he had to do what he needed to do.

"I'm sorry, we can still be friends right?" he asked tentatively.

She shook her head, before turning away and quickly walking down the hall, brushing tears off her face with the back of her hand. Alfred watched her go, wanting to call her back and take back everything he said. He simply held no romantic interest in her and it was not fair to not only her but as well as him if he kept her hanging, waiting for something that wasn't going to happen between them.

Alfred walked down the hallway, shouldering his bag, knowing that his friends were waiting for him and that they were just as excited about tonight as he was. Thoughts of his centaur and going to the carousel were plaguing his mind, quickly overrunning the thoughts of Bethany. By the time that Alfred was out of his school and walking down the street, there were no lingering thoughts of Bethany in his mind.

Chapter Text

Night was something that one could say teenage boys would love. It was when they had time alone from their families and spend just some 'guy time' to get through their days. Tonight, though, was definitely a guy night in Alfred's mind because he was going with his friends to the one place that they had been waiting for all week. They were going to the reason that Alfred shaped up and started going back to a normal routine.

As Alfred was the last one home, where all his friends were waiting, he wasted no time in throwing his backpack into his room and rushing downstairs to carry the supplies that Lovino and Feliciano had brought with them. Alfred, for once in his life, was happy that he hadn't let himself get too overweight and had occupied himself with football because he and Ivan were the only ones who volunteered to carry the many buckets of paint that the Italian brothers thought were necessary.

"You guys are so slow! Come on!" Alfred complained as he walked ahead of them. His friends groaned in response; no one wanted to answer him,

but no one wanted to tell him to shut up either. They were feeding off his energy, enjoying how they were finally getting out there and fulfilling a long forgotten promise.

"Alfred, we'll get there when we get there," Matthew tried, as always, to be the voice of reason and stability, but not even his words could calm the hyperactive American down.

"Well we would get there a lot faster if you guys actually tried moving!" Alfred called back. Matthew just rolled his eyes, carefully watching where he walked so as to not trip over a stray root or rock.

Bethany fell onto her bed the moment she arrived home, too tired to talk to her parents despite their questions about where she had been. All she wanted to do was sleep and then sleep more, maybe sleep through the weekend and then through Monday so that she wouldn't have to see Alfred or his friends. His friends were sweet and everything, but to Bethany they looked down on her as if she was something lesser, like she wasn't even worth their company. She could see them laughing at her in her mind, even though the rational part of her mind was telling her that the last thing those nice guys would do was laugh at her.

"Beth, sweetie? Are you okay?" her mom was at the door, talking through it but making no move to go through the entry way. Bethany let out a muffled reply that yes, she was indeed okay for now, but she wasn't going to come down for dinner, she just needed to be alone for a while.

Her parents left her in silence for the rest of the night, figuring that if she really needed to talk to them then she would come to them and bring up the problem herself. In a way, Bethany was thankful that they left her alone, but she wished that for once they would demand to know what was wrong so they could talk about it like a family.

'Ohh poor child…'

Bethany's head snapped up. There was a voice, she was sure that she heard it; a deep voice, which was rough and rasped out its vowels. Yet, somehow, she knew in her heart that it was a woman who was speaking aloud to her.

"Who's there?" she whispered to the air, almost not expecting a response.

'The girl has ears, she can hear us,' a male voice joined in.

'I want to help her, the poor thing will be important,' the female voice spoke again.

"Help who?" Bethany whispered again, hoping that the voices would respond.

'Poor child, scorned by love, do you want our help?'

She could almost feel arms around her, hugging her and offering comfort to her. She leaned into the touch that wasn't really there, imagining that there was a real person to match the voice that spoke to her.

"Can you help me?" she asked the voice.

'Of course we can. Anything you want. What do you want from us?'

"I just want to be happy."

'We can do that, yes we can poor child. But first you must do something for us…'

Alfred ran into the clearing. He had been waiting all week, and it had actually taken all his strength not to run straight from his house to the clearing of their carousel. The only reason that he didn't run, though, was because he knew his friends wouldn't be able to keep up with him.

Instead of the sight that normally met him, the view of an old park almost glittering under the moon and stars, Alfred was met with a sight that caused him to pause right in his tracks, almost making his friends run right into him.

"Who would do this?!" he asked his friends, waiting to see the reactions that they would have as well as him. They were all in equal shock, staring at the sight before them.

Pieces of their beloved centaurs were scattered about the grass, limbs and bits of wood blending in so well and so small it was almost impossible to find them all. Spray paint blackened faces had destroyed once perfect details that had shone so brightly before. It was only the centaurs that were touched; the monsters that also decorated the park were spotless. It even looked as if someone had taken the time to brush away all the dirt and dust the boys had left there in favor of their centaurs.

"I thought no one else knew about this place," Feliciano said sadly. The others were thinking the same as him, that this place had been found by them and only them and no one else.

"Someone either doesn't like centaurs, or they don't like us," Ivan remarked, going over to his centaur and brushing his hand over the spray paint, seeing if it was still wet. Fortunately for them, the paint was still wet, and most of the paint Ivan touched came off onto his palm.

"What do you mean?" Matthew wondered. He didn't hesitate, seeing the wet paint he quickly took off his hoodie and began to wipe away as much as he could from Gilbert's once shining silver hair.

"We were the only ones who knew about this place, unless someone told," Ivan glanced around to see if anyone would fess up that they might have told someone, "so that means they must have followed us one night."

"He's right. Look, only our centaurs are damaged," Kiku agreed. Matthew got as much paint he could out of Gilbert's hair, and then handed his now ruined hoodie to Kiku, who accepted the cloth gratefully.

"What are we going to do?" Alfred finally asked. The paint on his centaur was the worst, with almost all of the horse body blacked out and painted over. One of his arms had been cut into and eventually ripped off his body, lying at his feet. Yet unlike some of the others, his centaurs face had been left untouched.

"It will be harder, but we can still fix them up," Lovino spoke up. Everyone silently agreed.

They set to work, wiping away paint with whatever they could spare. Alfred couldn't help but notice that his centaur looked different, he almost looked as if something was wrong; a frown now covered the centaur's face where one of peace once settled.

'This isn't good, this isn't good at all. The plan didn't work, the boys still want to harm us, yes they do.'

'Shut up! It will work, they will leave and then we will have everything to ourselves just like before.'

'But what if they don't leave us and we are left alone with no one?'

'They'll stay, they always do, and no boys will take them from us like they tried before. You will see, they'll stay with us. They always do.'

Chapter Text

No one really knew how the deal was split up, but it seemed to quickly fall into a pattern. Ivan and Alfred would take over the heavy lifting while Kiku and Matthew would actually reattach the limbs and broken pieces, finally Feliciano and Lovino would scrape away the black spray paint and repair the small damages. It was simply easier for them to split it up into groups this was everyone was doing something and this way no one was laying around.

As they worked through the night and part of the morning the boys managed to get some if not most of the black paint faded until it was almost just a shadow while Ivan and Alfred got all the remaining pieces fitted back into their original spot. It would hold for now, or at least until they could get a much stronger glue. For everyone though just working wasn't enough they all not only felt the need to be actively participating but there was also the strong feeling that they needed to leave, leave and never return.

Kiku, being observant and normally quiet as he is in nature, began to notice things that others in his group of friends would cast off as nothing. He watched as Feliciano passed by the creature with tentacles and fell through the floor of the carousel. Everyone deemed it too dangerous to walk over there again, and so the small area where Matthew said the floor was rotting, was condemned and avoided. Yet Kiku noticed the way that the creature who was probably shined a hue of ebony and jade seemed to have and curve of the lips that wasn't there before. Yet Kiku shook it off without another thought before he was sue the beast was baring its teeth in what one could almost call fear, it couldn't just be smiling now. After that the other monsters of the carousel were avoided like there was no tomorrow. Still anytime that Matthew tripped when he got to close over roots that hadn't been there before, Ivan fell through the floor much like Feliciano did, and everyone grew uncomfortable simply in the presence of those beings, no matter how calming the centaurs were to them.

It was quickly discovered that silence was too difficult to deal with, oppression against their ears that defended everything else. Every night when they left though someone would say how they needed a radio, but everyone would always forget. Since the silence was too much, they would simply take turns singing. Even Alfred's out of tune country songs were better than silence.

"But loving him, loving him was red," Alfred finished off his song. Matthew happily kept humming the song, completely enraptured by the song still playing in his head.

"Are you sure you guys aren't related?" Lovino asked Matthew, teasing him. Matthew scowled at his Italian friend.

"Don't give me that look, bastard, everyone else at school thinks that you guys are related as well so obviously I'm not alone here…" Lovino clarified. Personally he hadn't seen the resemblance until some random girl he was chatting up pointed it out, but then it became way to outstanding how much they were alike.

"We're not related though!" Matthew complained. Lovino smirked, crossing his arms, and raising his eyebrows.

"Really? Because you both have blonde hair, you both like country, and even your hair, while it's in a different styles, has the same shade of color. Then you both are into sports, get along exceedingly well, and hang out all the time," Lovino finished off. Matthew simply gave his friend a harsh, almost burning glare, before he turned back to his work.

"Guys why don't we call it a night? There's nothing else we can do without more supplies and it is growing dark," Kiku spoke up before Lovino and Matthew could actually start fighting. It wasn't often that the two good friends would fight, but right now tensions were high and anything could happen between the friends no matter how well they normally got along. Kiku could almost taste the tension sitting in the air.

"I agree, let's head back before we anything else happens here," Ivan spoke up.

Everyone nodded and began to pack away what little material possessions they brought with them. Alfred lingered longer than the others, glancing around as if he forgot something while he was painting or lifting things or even as he we singing along with Matthew. Yet as much as he thought or as much as he looked through the grass, he simply could not get of the nagging feeling that he was indeed forgetting something, and that if he left right now he would forget it.

"You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up," Alfred finally told the others. Kiku hastily agreed, his own mind urging him to leave now, while the others looked at their friend concerned.

"Are you sure? We can wait for you," Feliciano told him. Kiku bowed his head in shame, having letting his own feelings rule he completely ignored the concern for his friend's well-being.

"Yeah, I'm sure, go on ahead."

They left as quickly as they could, gone and out of the clearing not a minute after Alfred gave them the go ahead. Alfred almost chuckled at the sight of them practically pushing themselves out of the small exit, if he himself had not felt what they were feeling. Alfred was not immune to the oppressive air and even though some say that he could not read the atmosphere, he could read it now. And right now even the atmosphere was screaming at him to get away.

He moved stealthily around, and having already searched the grass went to the wooden boards where the centaurs stood upon. While Alfred had not been there almost all day, there was a brief time where he had visited there to get Feliciano out of the floor when he fell through.

There shining brightly even under the dim light of the moon, was the small star pin that Alfred wore underneath the collar of his jacket. For a moment, just staring at the small piece of metal, he reached up to check where the pin normally rested on his collar bone. There was nothing there except the small dent the pin left from sitting in the same place for years. Slowly, Alfred reached down and picked up the small pin with gently fingers.

"It would have been a real shame if I lost you," he whispered into the night air. Yet with no one there to listen to him, Alfred felt rather silly. He clasped the pin once more to his jacket, before taking off back into the woods.

Creaking make him pause right as he was taking his first step into the woods. Alfred slowly turned back to see the carousel slowly turning in circles, with harsh, aged music notes screaming out from somewhere inside. The creaking and screaming of the ancient wood that had not moved in years almost overpowered the slow coming music notes. Alfred stared, his eyes wide and hands shaking.

Without another thought, Alfred turned and ran into the safety of the woods. Later that night, as he settled down into bed for sleep, he could hear the screams of the wood, and the broken notes of the carousel ringing through his ears.

Chapter Text

"Hello Alfred," the sickly sweet voice of Bethany rose to his ears in the middle of the hallway. Alfred almost didn't stop, lack of sleep and fatigue from football practice and schoolwork piled on top of it was driving him into exhaustion. He was sure that he imagined she was talking to him, even as her voice was so unlike her normal voice he was sure it was someone else.

"Morning, Beth. What's up?" he asked, covering his yawn with the inside of his arm, hoping that he didn't look too tired to talk to her. She was at least trying to be friends with him, and he couldn't very well be rude to her when she was just starting to talk to him. He did not want to just lose her friendship simply because he was too tired to talk to her.

"I was wondering if you wanted to get a bite to eat after practice, you know maybe talk about things?" she asked. That sounded more like the Bethany that he knew, with the voice of caution, almost afraid to say something wrong. Alfred smiled at her, running his hands through his hair.

"Sure. Just as friends though right?" Matthew would have probably smacked him for being so inconsiderate, but he was too tired to think of a way to voice it. Her face fell, a combination of sadness and anger decorating her features, a stark contrast compared to the caring look she held moments before.

"Of course. Just as friends, what else would there be?" she asked rhetorically, her sickly sweet tone returning, before turning and almost storming off down the hall. Alfred sighed, knowing that he made a mistake but not knowing how to fix it.

"You said he would want me!"

'Hush child, we still need to work on this. Your boy isn't too bright.'

"You said that if I did that for you he would like me!"

'We're just going to have to work more. Do not worry, we will get him to fall for you. Then you will never be alone.'

"Bethany? Who are you talking to?" the teacher asked. Everyone turned and stared, sure enough, Bethany sat in her seat, muttering into her lap while looking frustrated. She moved her hands constantly, wringing them and touching her desk, never letting them sit still.

When her name was said, her head snapped up, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips. The teacher took a small step back, almost unnoticeable if one had not seen her feet move.

"Nothing, child, does something seem wrong?"

Feliciano was sitting in class, drawing randomly while the teacher droned on and on about something that was too boring for him to pay attention too. Instead he was randomly sketching lines as Lovino took notes meticulously. Feliciano enviously looked of at brother who was always able to pay attention in class, while Feliciano himself never could.

As he looked at the clock he realized that there was still another thirty-five minutes left until the bell rang. He almost groaned aloud at how much boredom was crippling him just while he was sitting here. Getting out a new blank piece of paper, Feliciano began to work on a list that was playing on the back of his mind.

While online for a research assignment, he came across a website that let you figure out your perfect man. Sure he was a guy, while before he hadn't been okay with the thoughts that he might be attracted to other guys, he woke one day and it didn't seemed to matter anymore. He might be a male himself, but as long as his friends didn't care, he shouldn't make a big deal out if either.

He quickly titled his list, 'My Soul Mate'. There wasn't a lot on it at first, but the more he thought the more features came to his mind.

My Soul Mate

1. He will be big and strong to protect me from the scary monsters under the bed

2. He will help me out with school when Lovino won't

3. He will always be happy to see me

4. He cooks or bakes

5. He's always happy to see me

6. He makes the bad dreams go away

7. He listens to me about the new pasta I try

8. He will always come and save me from the monsters

Feliciano glanced down one last time at his list as the bell finally rung. The last half hour of class completely disappeared as he wrote out his list, filled with just what he knew his soul mate would be like. They would always be there for him even as he changed and grew up.

Ivan liked school. He liked how when he walked down the hallways, people almost parted for him because they were afraid of him, and how the teachers didn't even try to talk to him as they asked for the answers to their questions. Sometimes though, he wished the teachers would bother asking for his opinion, and called on him when he raised his hand. He wished someone would bother standing up against him as he walked through the halls and pushed around others.

Yet it seemed as though no one was going to stand up against him, or at least tell him their true opinion of what they thought he did. Not even his friends. And that's what Ivan really wanted.

He tromped down the hallways once school ended, fetching Matthew to make sure that the small Canadian didn't miss the bus like he was prone to doing. It seemed as though his friend really did just fade into the background unless someone brought him into the spotlight.

'Maybe that's why he and Alfred complement each other so…' Ivan thought. Then he literally shrugged off the thought. Alfred and Matthew got along great, but they would never do as a couple. It just didn't work right in his mind.

"Matthew? If you don't hurry you're going to miss the bus…" Ivan said as he turned the corner. The sight that greeted him was not one that he expected.

Matthew was pinned to the wall by two boys. One who was holding him in place as the other punched him so hard that Matthew didn't even have time to bounce back as he was hit. Ivan felt his anger flare at the sight of his best friend being beat up so badly. Ivan let his anger take over as he stalked up to the boys, cracking his knuckles in preparation of the beating they were about to receive.

"Stupid fag! We told you to have our homework ready by today! What can your stupid mind not handle that simple-"

"What are you doing?" Ivan snarled. The two boys jumped away quickly, letting Matthew fall to the floor in a heap. Ivan moved to his friend, gently lifting the other up so that Matthew wasn't lying on the floor anymore. The culprits took the opportunity to take off while they had the chance.

"Ivan?" Matthew asked, groaning the single name out. Ivan nodded, looking over his friend and wondering if he needed to go to the hospital.

Beside a busted lip and a black eye, Ivan couldn't see any damage that was visible. Yet he thought that most of the damage was under his sweater, where Ivan wouldn't be able to see right away. He decided that the hospital could be avoided, if he took Matthew somewhere to rest.

Ivan unceremoniously picked his friend off the ground, heaving Matthew over his shoulder. Matthew groaned and confirmed Ivan's suspicious that he was at least bruised under his hoodie. He sighed as he carried Matthew out of the school and down the road. The bus had left long ago.

"You're going to be fine comrade, let's get you somewhere safe."

In a park not too far away, the birds were beginning to sing once again. For the first time in a long time the air blew through the leaves and the park where for an era no new air had touched before. The creaking of wood filled the air as the wind moved the carousel, around and around, even as the springs screamed in protested and the wood began to crack.

Eventually the carousel began to slow down and nothing more was heard beside the chirping of birds and the rustle of leaves. Yet for a moment nothing moved, and time itself stopped.

Creaking of wood, unlike anything that had ever been heard before in the park, was echoing throughout. Things were moving, and what had been still for so long now moved, without the aid of anything else, the wood moved on its own. Joints were stretched, clicks and clacks were heard. And one single phrase rang through the forest.

"Wake up."

Chapter Text

"Wake up."

And they did. It was as simple as that. Their minds were foggy, as one's would be when they slept for much longer than one would normally. At first, everything was blurry, from their minds to the eyes they saw out. Even their ears were so clogged they could barely hear the voice of their great ancestor awakening them from their slumber. Fortunately for our centaurs, their arrival from sleep was slow and relaxing, allowing them all to wake at their separate pace.

Movements were slow and deliberate, every single action planned and done with great care as not to harm their stiff joints and cautious movements. The first sounds that weren't the sounds of nature were of groans, cracking voices that broke the silence and were rusted over from lack of use.

The first pair of eyes that opened were of the most unusual color, the color of water that gathered in the sea and ocean. Blinking out dust and age out of his eyes, the centaur looked around to see if anyone else was moving as he was, or even seeing as he was. Time had passed, that much was obvious, but still the question was how much time? He simply didn't know the answer. He was one of the first to fall into the sleep of eternal slumber.

"Ludwig?" Another voice called out. Ludwig could barely move his neck around to see who spoke his name, but his neck cracked in protest, instead he simply let out a grunt to acknowledge he heard.

"It's Heracles, been a while, hasn't it friend?" the Grecian man spoke. Ludwig spoke out that indeed it had been a long time since they talked. The last word they spoke, was one wondering if the weather would turn better from the rain that had poured down from the heavens. Then the panic started, and the eternal slumber took them all.

"Who else is awake?" Ludwig asked. His neck was more flexible now, and he could turn his head to stare at Heracles instead of simply hearing from the side.

"Si, I am awake," a Spanish voice spoke as well. Antonio was running his eyes, blinking out dirt and grime just as they had been moments before. The Spaniard had always been looking as if he wanted a nap, but now he looked just happy to be awake, as they rest of them were.

"I am too," Another voice said. This one was Yao, who instead of everyone who blinked away the dust from their eyes he dusted away the dirt and debris from his clothes.

"Me as well!" Gilbert's voice rang out. Ludwig let out a breathe he didn't know he was holding when his brother voiced out loud.

"Is Arthur okay?" Ludwig asked, having waited a few minutes, but the last centaur still hadn't answered him. Everyone turned to the last centaur, curiosity and anticipation of the worst spreading across their features.

Arthur himself was rubbing away leaves and other dust away from his clothes, but when his name was called, he lifted his head. There was nothing immediately wrong with him, yet there could be something internally wrong with him as well. They all held their breathes waiting for him to speak.

Arthur opened his mouth, appeared to be trying, yet no sound emerged that they could hear. He closed his mouth, after trying for a couple moments, then opened it once more to try again. This time a voice clear as a bell rang out.

"Oi! Enough staring at me, let's figure out what's going on."

"Fella's, you're not going to believe the dream I had!" Feliciano almost screamed as he came barreling at their lunch table. It was the first time that they had all been together during the week, always someone else having to go to the library or talk to a teacher or just missing school. Feliciano was determined that they all hear about his dream together at the same time.

"Oh God here we go. This is all he's been going on for days now. At least now I get to hear what this dream is about." Lovino complained.

"I had a dream that our centaurs came to life. They were all talking and waking up like they were normal people! They were still made of wood and everything and bound by the carousel by those wooden poles that used to like move them up and down, but they were just like other people!" Feliciano was panting by the end of his small speech. His friends were all staring at him, some not moving, but some of them trying to find the right words.

"What happened in your dream?" Ivan asked.

"Oh! It was like they were waking up from sleep. They were all asking if everyone was there and if they were alright, and they even used the names we gave them all that time ago! It was so cool, like I was right there and they couldn't see me," Feliciano said dreamily.

"I had a dream just like that," Lovino muttered. Matthew looked at his friend.

"I did too. I thought it was really awesome, but at the same time, when I woke up, it was one of those dreams where it was so lifelike I didn't know if it actually happened or not," Matthew admitted.

"Don't tell me…" Kiku began, but let his sentence trail off.

"Am I thinking what everyone else is thinking?" Alfred asked.

"You know, I am suddenly getting the impression that school isn't that important today," Ivan said.

At once they all rose, gathering their possessions and exiting out of the cafeteria, trying to look casual and not like they were pursuing the thoughts of a random dreams that they all had. That, and they didn't want to get caught ditching school and have their parents called.

"Guys, my mom interrupted my dream, before my centaur even woke up. Did you hear his name?" Alfred asked as they reached Kiku's car and threw their stuff in.

Feliciano smiled at them, looking at the others, as they all looked at him. Ivan spoke before his friends could.

"His name was Arthur."

Chapter Text

Alfred would have been lying to himself and everyone else if he voiced how he wasn't feeling hope brim inside of him. This strange dream that they all had was tying them to their small playground, and now calling them forth to go there, despite how the dream happened days ago and school was still going on.

They moved quickly, even though Kiku insisted on following all the speeding laws. Despite how the others urged him on and how obviously antsy he was already. The last thing that Kiku wanted was a speeding ticket on his record. Finally though, they got to the same street they all knew by heart. Alfred let out a huge sigh of relief. Matthew shot him a look before Alfred said anything he could regret later.

"We're all eager to go and see okay? You can't just get your hopes up like this, we probably aren't even going to find anything there other than just a rusty old carousel." Matthew muttered the last part, but everyone heard him. Alfred paused, but he said nothing to his friend, nor did anyone else comment on what Matthew had said. Undefinable hope encompassed their hearts for a second, but Matthew's words brought it crashing back down, leaving nothing but growing disappointment for something they haven't even seen yet.

Alfred, obviously offended by the words of his friend, stalked forward, tramping through the woods in an effort to find the same path they always took. Normally it seemed to appear only when they stopped looking, but right then, as if sensing Alfred's anger and not wanting to anger him more, the path appeared before him. Alfred led his friends into the woods, refusing to let the disappointment that was harboring his friends bring his spirits down. He knew they were going to find something there, he simply knew it.

If they didn't, Alfred just didn't know what he would do.

Memories of when they were asleep were fuzzy, as if they were looking through fogged glass. They could all remember different things, but even the memories of those were beginning to fade while they talked. The most prominent ones though, were the memories that happened recently. With the boys who came to visit and fixed them up.

The nice boys who visited them when night fell, who seemed close to crying when they found them after they vandalized. The nice boys who none of them could remember the names of, even though they were so great to them, and were the only ones who ever visited them anymore.

Yet their descriptions of their boys were spot on. Each feature, each detail, from the way they walked to the sound of their voice, they could describe. The hours of daylight were spent talking about them, nothing left out, except for personal feeling which didn't have to be said.

"He's so quiet, I wish he would talk more. Though him being quiet is nice, he is always thinking about what he should say, instead of blurting out every single thing that comes to mind," Heracles spoke up, as he had just woken up from his nap. One would think that the thought of the endless slumber would deter him from sleep, but still the Grecian centaur still slept as often as he did before.

"Don't you want him to say his opinion more?" Gilbert asked. Sure his boy was quiet, but at least he had a backbone and wasn't afraid to talk, even if he wasn't heard.

"If it is really important, he will state his opinion on the matter. I know he will," he answered.

Heracles said no more on the subject, he would randomly go in and out of conversation, chiming in his own two cents. Ludwig would simply go in and out of conversation, unwilling to talk about his person, but he would say a few things about his person when he was bugged by Gilbert, his brother.

"He's talkative, and he always has a smile on his face," Ludwig once said, after almost an hour of Gilbert practically begging for him to talk.

They all had things to say, while on the other hand, Arthur couldn't remember a single thing. Some days, he would simply stay in place, not even opening his eyes to look around on the sunshine he missed so. He wouldn't join in conversation, simply staying in one place, thinking.

"Arthur, I don't think it's healthy for you to stay like that. Move around!" Yao voiced, moving his arms around extravagantly. Arthur barely twitched, the only notion that he heard was a barely noticeable movement of his lips. As if he was trying not to frown.

Arthur's eyes suddenly snapped open. The motion carried though the small, group, all of them stopping to hear what was going on. Arthur motioned with his hands frantically, seemingly unable to utter the words that wanted to spill out.

"Someone's coming! Get in formation!" Arthur all but hissed. Formations were something they heard before, and quickly they went and formed themselves into the positions they knew so well. No one knew they could talk and move, and it was meant to stay that way.

Arthur almost wasn't quick enough, not a moment later there were voices reaching through the leaves of the trees. The branches rustled, and a foot stuck itself into the small clearing. Arthur didn't wait long enough to see if the others were changing into their original forms. He shut his eyes, only leaving his ears intact to listen.

"Matthew, I knew you could be dark, but that was just depressing," Lovino said, even skipping out on the nickname he so often called Matthew. Matthew stared at the forest floor, ashamed by what he said, even if he knew it would be true.

"It's the truth, we aren't going to find anything." He defended. Lovino simply huffed, while Matthew and Ivan chose to ignore him. Kiku said nothing on the subject, having thought of that himself but didn't speak out like Matthew had on the matter. The only person, surprisingly enough, was Feliciano, offering his friend a strained smile even

broke though it was obvious that Matthew's words hurt him.

They walked side by side together as they entered the clearing. The only words that the silence was Alfred's.

"Finally, here we are," he spoke, making everyone look up.

They didn't know what to expect. There was the carousel, sitting still in the warm afternoon sun. The birds tweeted and there was no summer breeze that lofted through the air. Their voices grew silent, and the only sounds that broke the air was the birds tweeting as if nothing special was going on.

Together, the boys moved as one to the carousel. The birds tweeting grew silent, as if the boys were crossing a sacred ground that no one had been on for years. The sudden absence of sound though did not deter the boys, and in only a couple of seconds they stood before their centaurs.

Nothing. Even Matthew, who dared not let himself hope, felt something akin to the darkest of sadness cross over his heart. He couldn't bare to make himself look up at Gilbert, his centaur, who he spent so much time fixing up. Matthew stared at the floor, at the hooves of his centaur which were caked in mud and dust that had not been cleared.

Before he could stop himself, he could feel the tears forming in his eyes, stinging him with their pain. His hands clenched into fists, and he turned to his friends who were all staring at their own centaurs, sadness and disappointment on their features as well.

"What did I tell you? I knew there would be nothing there!" he cried out, tears beginning to fall down his cheeks. Hot anger flashed across Alfred's face, but then he saw the tears, and he held his tongue.

"They're just decorations, nothing more. It was silly of us to get our hopes up because of a stupid dream that happened!" Matthew was screaming now, but he didn't care. Hurt was all over his features, pain that hope brings crushing his heart.

"Matthew, it's okay…" Kiku tried to say, being the voice of reason as he always seemed to be. Matthew batted him away, even though Kiku was still a good ten feet away. His hands simply moved through the air.

"No! It's not okay," Matthew yelled. Kiku didn't even flinch. "I just wanted him to be real. I just wanted him to be real."

Matthew put his face in his hands and cried. It wasn't pitiful crying that simply came when one experienced a pain of the body. No he let out deep, wracking sobs, which came right from his soul. He shook in his place, hardly daring to move for fear of falling down, unsteady as he was.

"Ach Scheiße. Don't cry," a voice almost choked out.

Matthew stopped moving. Heck, he stopped breathing. Sure enough, his crying stopped, but he was frozen solid by a voice he didn't even recognize. Matthew looked up, at his friends who were all looking in shock at something behind him. Slowly Matthew turned, taking in short, shallow breathes.

And Matthew screamed at the sight before him.

Chapter Text

Matthew rushed back, trying to put distance between him and the…thing standing before him. It didn't work though, since he was already so close to the center of the carousel in the first place, he ended up backed against a plank of wood that had way too many splinters. Matthew tried to yank himself away and turned to run, but his sweater caught on the sharp splinters of the wood, and Matthew ended up with a large scrape and a torn sweater for his haste.

"Hey! Stop running I'm not going to hurt you," Gilbert tried to say, but it was no use. Matthew wasn't listening to him. The Prussian sighed, reaching out one hand that Matthew noticed no longer looked of aged wood and looked very much like a real hand, but then Gilbert retracted it. Matthew didn't get up from his spot, instead he looked at Gilbert and tried not to freak out. There were still tears marks on his skin.

"Gilbert, we all had one rule. One simple rule, and somehow you manage to break even that," another voice suddenly sounded.

The other boys jumped from their spots, trying to get away from the fixtures which should have just been that, fixtures. Instead everything was coming alive, their dream was coming true, but the boys had no idea how to react to it. They all crowded around Matthew, helping the poor boy to his feet and staring with something akin to fright in their eyes.

"He was crying, what was I supposed to do!" Gilbert almost pouted, trying to defend himself. Everyone shot him withering looks.

"Shut up, Mr. Awesome. We have one rule, and of course you manage to break that. Look at them! They're freaking out and it's all your fault," Arthur finally spoke. Gilbert opened his mouth to snap back, but one look at the scowl Arthur wore, and Gilbert's jaw snapped close. He had been on the receiving end of many lectures, and the last thing he wanted was to be yelled at right now.

The men of the carousel quickly began to argue, with Antonio, Gilbert, and Heracles on one side and arguing that this was the right decision. While on the other side Ludwig, Arthur, and Yao argued that Gilbert should have kept his mouth shut. Arguing like adults quickly got boring and soon they were all yelling at each other. Unbeknownst to them, the boys in the circle of boys was quickly whispering to each other, wondering if somehow they had maybe gotten high or if they got into a car crash while they were on the way over here.

"We couldn't have gotten into a crash, Kiku drove way too carefully for that," Lovino broke through that thought quickly.

"So we were all slipped drugs then?" Ivan asked skeptically. Lovino shot him a withering look, but said nothing.

"This can't be real, this really can't be real," Matthew simply kept muttering. Lovino got fed up with his friend, and wacked him on the side, eliciting a whine. Matthew however did return back to normal, though he did not join the conversation. He stared at Gilbert, who was still arguing.

"Did you wish really, really hard Matthew?" Alfred asked sarcastically. Matthew shot his best friend a glare, yet said nothing.

"Look at them! Huddling all together, I bet their scared half to death, what are we going to do? They're going to spill everything about this place, and we're going to be torn down, just like they threatened they would," Arthur ranted.

"There's no guarantee that they will tell, is there?" Antonio snapped back.

"We can't know they will keep it a secret now can we?" Ludwig retorted.

"Well that do you think we should do?"

The threat was obvious there. There would never be a guarantee that the boys wouldn't go and run their mouths, but at the same time, they couldn't do anything short of killing them if they were so desperate to keep their secret. Silence reigned down, even the boys quieting to hear what their fate would be.

"Take a risk," Heracles finally broke the silence with three simply words. Ludwig frowned, Yao muttered to himself, and Arthur chewed on his lower lip. Finally though, Arthur sighed.

"I guess we have to," he relented.

The boys released the breath they didn't know they had been holding. And again, they were discussing how any of this could be real. Eventually though, the reason that they seemed to approach was that they must have gotten into an accident and on the way here, and maybe they were all dead and in heaven.

"Bene," Feliciano interjected, "if this is heaven, can't we enjoy it?"

The boys all contemplated the thought. Maybe they were all in a coma, simply waiting to wake up. If that was the case, then this dream wouldn't last forever. Feliciano didn't wait for his friends to get the same positive attitude that he had. He literally skipped over to Ludwig, who looked at the small Italian in shock.

"My name's Feliciano! Is this real life?" he asked, rocking back on his heels. Ludwig looked at his own friends in wonderment, inquiring what he should do. His centaur friends were of not help though.

"Ja, this is real life?" he asked back. Feliciano smiled happily, turning back to his group of friends, who were all beginning to go out and talk to the others.

"See! Now we can enjoy ourselves," Feliciano told them. His brother, who was staring to walk towards Antonio, stopped in his tracks.

"That's just what he would say if he was a fucking pervert! Stay away from my brother you bastard, or I'm going to kill you," Lovino threatened. Ludwig wasn't really that phased, but Feliciano seemed to lose his chipper attitude.

"Big brother why can't you just be happy?" he whined. Lovino scoffed, and moved away.

"Being happy is for suckers," he muttered.

Yao and Ivan were awkwardly standing next to each other. Ivan was perfectly happy just standing by and staring at Yao, but the other man was quickly getting annoyed with the staring.

"Aiyah, quit staring! You got taller, aru," he noted. Ivan smiled, walking around Yao to observe him.

"I like staring at Yao though," Ivan replied. Yao just rolled his eyes.

"Well, I don't like your staring," Yao bit back. Ivan raised a brow, but then he started laughing. Yao stared at him like he was crazy, but didn't say anything to the Russian man who looked like he was having a heart attack.

"Not many talk to outwardly like you do Yao," Ivan eventually calmed down enough to say. Yao rolled his eyes.

"You expect me to be like most?" For emphasis he stamped one of his hoofed feet on the ground. Ivan looked at Yao's feet, before turning back to looking at the man's face.

"No, you are not like most," Ian agreed.

Next to them, Kiku and Heracles weren't conversing as much. They were both silent people, and despite how curious Kiku was about Heracles and everyone in general, he thought it would be too rude to ask. Heracles on the other hand, simply asked what he felt like asking.

"Kiku….is that a Japanese name?" Heracles asked. Kiku nodded a bit, staring down at his own feet.

"Hm, I always liked Japanese culture. Could you tell me about it sometime?"

"…Yes, I think I can."

"You don't talk a lot do you?"

"….No, not really."

"That's okay."

They simply sat in silence, absorbing the atmosphere and hardly talking beside a few words about the scenery. There was nothing to be said, as they were still trying to accept the truth of what was happening.

"-And so then, I had more pasta, and played with my cat pookie. Oh! And then I took a siesta, it was really nice and warm and comfortable-"

Ludwig didn't have to say anything, Feliciano was talking enough for the both of them. Plus, he was sure that he wouldn't even get through Feliciano's own long, steady stream of speech.

"Hey, isn't Ludwig the name I gave you? How did you know?" Feliciano asked. Ludwig almost fell in relief at the sudden relief of silence that graced his ears.

"Ludwig has always been my name. How did you think of it?" he demanded. Feliciano flinched though at the harsh tone the German suddenly took.

"Ve, I'm sorry! It just came to me and it seemed to really fit you. Please don't be mad!" he begged. Ludwig stared at the small Italian in surprise, before sighing.

"I'm not mad…it's just isn't any of this a surprise for you?"

'Finally,' Ludwig thought with relief, 'I get to ask my own question.'

"Not really," Feliciano replied, "I'm not worried, because if you meant to hurt us, you would have by now."

Ludwig felt guilt nip at his heart at those words. He had sided with Arthur, possibly doing something horrible to this tiny boy who seemed to be completely harmless. Ludwig barely took another breath before Feliciano launched himself into another speech about how he loved pasta.

"That wasn't a nice thing to say to your brother," Antonio chided Lovino as soon as he made an intent to talk to him. Antonio could almost see Lovino seethe with rage at the statement.

"Why the fuck do you care? He's not your brother!" Lovino hissed, a blush coming across his features. Antonio simply grinned at Lovino.

"You're so cute when you blush!" Antonio cooed, reaching out and poking Lovino in the forehead.

Lovino flinched away, not because of the contact, but because he expected splinters that had not been sanded down yet and harsh wood rubbing against his skin. Yet when Antonio's hand made contact with his face, Lovino was met with warm flesh instead of the harsh wood he expected. A hurt look crossed Antonio's face when Lovino flinched away, and Antonio took his hand away from Lovino.

"Stupid bastard, you're so weird," Lovino muttered, scowling at Antonio. Antonio smiled though, knowing that Lovino didn't really mean it, he just didn't know what to say.

"You are so cute!"

"Shut up! I am not!"

Gilbert and Matthew stood awkwardly together, neither really knowing what to say. Matthew still embarrassed over his display earlier, and Gilbert just awkward in general.

"I'm sorry for screaming," Matthew eventually muttered, looking at the ground. Gilbert grinned, silently pleased that he wasn't the one who had to speak first.

"It's fine. I think I would have screamed too," Gilbert said to ease the other boys embarrassment. Matthew looked up, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Really?"

"No way, I am much too awesome for that." Gilbert bragged, wiggling his eyebrows.

"You're an ass," Matthew replied back, crossing his arms.

And so the great argument of whether Gilbert was awesome or not commenced.

Alfred himself stared for a while, staring at the sight of Arthur. Mainly at his eyes, because for a long time he wondered what color they were. Now, Arthur was finally looking and seeing Alfred for one of the first times, and Alfred couldn't help but notice how Arthur had green eyes.

"What's your name?" Arthur finally asked. His arms were folded in front of him, and he was scowling at Alfred. Alfred grinned at the centaur, sticking his hands in his pockets to avoid doing something he might regret.

"Alfred F. Jones," he easily said. Arthur looked at him, before seeming to give a small nod of approval.

Alfred's hands clenched in his pockets. He waited so long for this moment, and it wasn't really going like he planned. He imagined hours of talking and celebration, not awkward questions and silence among most of them. He couldn't take it anymore. Alfred had been glancing around, wondering what the others were doing, and they were all the same as him, asking questions and having theirs answered. Well, except for Feliciano, who was talking Ludwig's ear off.

"Do you-" Arthur began to ask, but was cut off.

Alfred took two steps forward, and enveloped Arthur into a hug. He was met with warmth and a person emotions that he couldn't even identify himself. His arms were around Arthur's waist, holding the centaur there, while leaving his arms free to escape the hold he wanted to.

For a moment, Arthur tensed, and it seemed the hug would end rather abruptly. Then Arthur relaxed, and his arms were around Alfred's neck. Alfred could hear the other taking his breaths, panting against his neck. Arthur could count the beats of Alfred's heart as it pounded in his chest.

Alfred may have regretted some things in his life, but a simply split second decision to hug Arthur was not one of them.

Chapter Text

'They did it! You said they wouldn't, you lied to us yes you did. Now they will never leave!'

'Shut up! Remember the last time they did this? Horrible things happened to those who knew, it's not our job here, not at all. Fate will get rid of these boys, just like the last time this happened.'

'If it doesn't?'

'Then we have the girl! Now leave us alone, we need to think…'

In a small town long, long ago, there was a small town just starting up. It was placed in the woods, a far walk away from any city nearby. As the town was new, and houses were still being made, the one and only church banded together to build a small park for the children as to have them being watched over by the nuns and not be in the way of the men who were building the homes and stores.

The children loved the playground, the loved the small slide that the nuns worked for days filling down so it was smooth. They loved the small grassy field they had and could play hide and seek in without being told to be closer to home. Yet most of all, they loved the carousel which took the longest to build. The centaurs which the nuns modeled after the most handsome men in their town, represented everything the young children wanted to be.

Yet the monsters scared the children, and they whispered behind tiny fingers stories that the other children made about how they stole children out of their bed at night, and how the creatures that were not the centaurs would hurt them if they even got close. And so the children never came near the monsters of the carousel, fearing that they might be hurt in unimaginable ways if they so much as touched the creatures. As soon as those tales were whispered, there were whispers about how the centaurs were sent down by heaven, just to protect them.

One small boy, who was known for being very professional and kept to himself, was bombarded by the other children to join in the games and play with them instead of helping out his family finish the last details of their house. His mother unwillingly let him go, as the child was known for being sick quite often.

He played with the others, and for once the children saw him smile, and they saw him laugh and play and blush around a girl, and it was the most fun that the small boy ever had. By far though, his favorite thing was riding on the carousel. He would have to be persuaded off the ride, with offers of sweets and other games to play.

When the day was beginning to yawn and parents came to collect their children, the small boy refused to get off his centaur, having heard the stories the other children whisper, he was convinced the only place he would ever be safe is with the centaurs themselves. His mother offered sweets, and everything under the sun, but still this small boy with his black robes and hat with golden hair, refused to budge.

It wasn't until a nun came and offered him one last ride, one that she said would protect him for the night that he agreed to get off. She started the ride, and the carousel started its music and moving in the same way that it always had before.

Yet something was different. The carousel grew faster than its normal speed, but it didn't go abnormally fast. The nun in charge noticed, but didn't say anything. The ride ended too soon for the small boys taste, who was clinging to his centaur.

He moved to get off, but he swore that the wood underneath his small hands moved, and that the voice talked to him. In a panic, he threw himself off the centaur, falling with a crash onto the dirt before the carousel truly stopped. He was screaming at the top of his lungs, his mother rushing to his side.

"It talked! It talked!"

A large snapping noise sounded, everyone froze, except the small boy who was wailing on the dirt. The noise was too like gunfire, too close to a small object that took so many lives. Yet too late, they realized it was something else entirely.

The snapping noise which froze almost everyone was the sound of the wooden beam, which held the centaur in place, breaking at the top. With no more support to keep it in place, the centaur toppled over, and fell to the ground. right where a small boy pushed himself too moments before.

"Mamma-"

Silence.

An earth shattering scream rocked through the small park, and a woman staggered forward, already sobbing, to try to raise the wooden beast off her son. She wasn't strong enough, and she could barely lift it an inch off her son. Then more and more people came, and the wooden beast was lifted off and to the side.

A mother grasped her son, and held him tightly to where he wouldn't have been able to breathe, if he had been breathing.

'Remember what happened before, and the same fate shall fall to the stupid boys as well. They don't know what they're dealing with.'

'Nothing lasts forever, what if that was just a fluke.'

'It wasn't! It can't be, we shall live, and we will be the ones loved, finally after all these years, we will be the ones who are loved.'

The boys left once the sun hit the sky, realizing that they had been there much longer than they meant to. Families were more than likely worrying, and school was still going to go ahead as scheduled the next day, and they still had homework. It nearly drove them to tears as they walked away, wanting nothing more to run back and stay with their centaurs for as long as they could.

Once they left, the centaurs began a talk of their very own.

"I don't think they should leave," Ludwig voiced. There were murmured agreements to his statement.

"Remember what happened last time someone spoke up? Elizabeta just had to speak up and try to comfort that boy," Arthur growled. Gilbert winced at the mention of who used to be his best friend.

"That wasn't her fault!" Gilbert almost screamed in defense.

"How do you know something like that won't happen to them as well?" Arthur shot back.

Gilbert, nor anyone else had an answer. They couldn't leave their place, bound to it forever by some magic that even they couldn't explain. Elizabeta's fall proved that to them. They wouldn't be able to do anything to help their new found companions even if they did get out. Yet at the same time, they didn't even know if it was the fall itself that killed Elizabeta, or the fact that after she had fallen, the men took her and burned her to a crisp, in the memory of the poor boy.

Together, their eyes were all drawn to the same place. The place where a small unmarked grave lay, the grave of a child whose life was taken much too early.

Chapter Text

Months passed without notice. Graduation was quickly coming for the young men on the horizon, peeking over the edge as spring emerged from fall. There were simply a couple of months left in school, but none of the young men seemed concerned with any of that. In fact, only Kiku and Matthew seemed to have some remembrance to their grades, making sure that they were at least completing all projects and homework assignments, if not the least doing the bare minimum to at least graduate.

The hazy months from when fall turned to winter and winter turned to spring were anything but memorable. It was filled with time spent at their secret park, doing homework, and celebrating the holidays. The men spent most of their Thanksgiving and Christmas break spent in the park, talking, learning the history of the park and town, as well of their centaurs. Soon the young men could recite the memories of their centaurs almost as well as their own, perfect detail included.

Small gifts had even been exchanged over Christmas, despite how some of them didn't even celebrate Christmas itself. Each gift was given to the centaurs from the young men with careful thought and care. It had to be something small enough that they could have it with them, but important enough to where it showed the thought they put into the gifts.

Kiku, after seeing Herakles light up after the small cat phone charm he had, gave his centaur the most unusual gift, a small two month old kitten. It was the first time that anyone saw Herakles with as much excitement as he had then. Kiku spent a couple hours with Herakles, talking about how to care for the small animal, and names. Herakles didn't seem to care for the name, and more for how the cat simply snuggled and liked to lay on his head.

"You have to think of a name for him, Herakles," Kiku mentioned, his tone strained and tired. Herakles thought for a moment, his brows knitting together in concentration.

"Captain Cat…" he eventually said, smiling slightly at Kiku. Kiku raised one simple black eyebrow at the Greek man.

"You just made that up didn't you?"

"….No."

They didn't talk to each other for a while after that. Not because they were irritated with each other, but because nothing else needed to be said.

Antonio got a pillow, Gilbert got a stuffed chick, Yao got a sunflower from Ivan, and Ludwig got a necklace. All gifts were given with thought and care, and the only regrets came from the centaurs, who couldn't give any gifts themselves. Though the most thought out gift was from Alfred to Arthur. It was well known that Christmas didn't really treat Alfred that well, not that he didn't enjoy it, but Alfred just gives horrible gifts.

This time though, more than a month in advance for Christmas, Alfred thought of how to impress Arthur with his gift. He asked everyone, went to all sorts of stores and asked the clerks there what they recommended for Arthur, after a brief description of him, but nothing seemed right.

Alfred finally came to the perfect gift when he encountered a hole in the wall store on his way home walking from practice. Almost passing the door because it blended into the wall so much, curiosity pushed Alfred towards the door and walked inside the small shop. A bell rang that almost drowned out the rasping voice that arouse from the back of the small shop.

"Hello, how can I help you?" asked an old man, his smile strained in his last years of life. He seemed as though in his youth he would have jumped for joy that there was a customer in his shop. Now though, while his eyes still lit up, he looked as though he wouldn't be able to get up without help.

"I didn't know this was here," Alfred started out. The old man's face fell and Alfred quickly tried to rectify his words, "I'm looking for Christmas gifts for my friend."

"What does he like?" The old man asked with a cough.

"He's British?" Alfred answered like it was a question. The old man stared at Alfred, but then chuckled a bit.

"How about some classic English literature? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens?"

Alfred looked around for the first time. He was standing in the middle of a book store, the shelves coated in dust. In some places the dust was so thick, one couldn't even see through it to the title of the book. The more he thought though, the more he thought books would be perfect for Arthur.

"Those sound great, where are they?"

The old man rose with some difficulty, but quickly gathered all the works that he mentioned. Alfred saw some titles that he saw in classes or the library, but the main one he recognized was the complete tales of Sherlock Holmes.

The entire order only came out to forty seven dollars and fifty five cents. Alfred handed the old man sixty dollars and let him keep the change, figuring that the old man needed it more than he did. Alfred was right, for the old man looked about ready to cry.

The feeling he got from giving someone money was only trumped when he saw the look of curiosity, wonderment, and joy on Arthur's face when he unwrapped his gift. The other man looked completely happy, and most certainly would have started reading if Alfred wasn't there.

"Thank you Alfred," Arthur all but whispered to the young man eagerly standing in front of him.

"You like them?" Alfred asked eagerly. It was pretty obvious, but he still wanted to hear from Arthur that he was indeed happy.

"Yes, it was very thoughtful of you."

Alfred beamed for the rest of the day, while the rest of his friends were wondering why they were stuck with horrible and unthoughtful gifts. The rest of the day though was spent with joyful laughter and celebration.

Eventually though, the conversation couldn't stay so light forever. Time wore down their light conversations, each day the conversations seemed to grow tenser. Until finally they were together, and questions that had gone unanswered bubbled to the surface.

"Why can't you guys move around?" Feliciano asked suddenly, almost out of the blue. He was sitting on Ludwig's back, wrapping his arms around the German's shoulders. He felt Ludwig tense underneath him, and lightly rested his chin on his shoulder, where he could relax the centaur without leaning too much on him.

"We just can't right now," Ludwig replied back.

"'Right now'? So you might be able to if… I don't know, someone does something about it?" Ivan asked. He himself was leaning against Yao, arms crossed.

"What would we be able to do about it?" Matthew responded back.

"We could find out about some records of this place, maybe we can even find some ancient old spell books to help us out," Alfred offered.

"Spell books? Really, what are we five?" Lovino muttered. Antonio pushed Lovino lightly, letting him know that he should be nicer.

"Does it really look as though we're dealing with anything normal here?" Alfred shot back at the fiery Italian. Lovino scowled, but otherwise didn't say anything.

"I know an old bookstore, and we can all start searching the libraries at school and in town," Alfred spoke up once again.

It was unspoken up decided. Tomorrow, they would be searching for answers to their questions.

Chapter Text

Chapter 21

"You mean to tell me that in the entire library, all of this town, and all of the old people we know, not one person or book know how this town got founded or why there is an abandoned carousel in the middle of the woods?" Matthew snapped out. They had spent the past weekends in the library holed up and researching, and not one fact was found.

"Apparently there really is nothing," Lovino snapped back at his friend. Everyone was irritable, tired, and fed up. There was nothing in any book about the history of the town beside what the textbooks said. And even there, they simply stated that the town was founded in the eighteen hundred, and had flourished since then.

Back in the eighteen hundreds, settlers traveled so far they lost track of the days and years, until finally they stopped in the woods and couldn't travel anymore. The settlers built their town, and the small community thrived. It was many years until other people traveled as far as they did and began to keep a record of what the small community was doing. Since then, a detailed record has been kept of the town, but never of what occurred before then.

"This is getting ridiculous. How are we supposed to figure anything out when we can't even find the answer out in books?" Alfred groaned. He himself gave up pacing through the shelves long ago, now lounging on one of the chairs.

The librarian herself gave up trying to shush them hours ago, and now just sent them a dirty look. It hardly mattered though, since besides her the boys were the only ones in the library. Slamming her book down, she stomped over to them, heels clicking in a stampeding beat of a drum. The boys looked at her blandly.

"If you young men aren't going to be quiet, I'm going to have to ask you to leave," she stated calmly, years of practice from having working in the library almost all her life.

With a shrug, the boys got up, not caring to put their books back, and calmly exited the library, being as loud as they could on the way out. Once outside though, they could not think of one thing to do, and not one place to visit.

"There's no place to go?" Kiku asked after a moment of silence. There was no answer to his question, and he let it drop.

"I know a small little book store, it's where I got Arthur's Christmas gift. We could try there?" Alfred thought after many minutes had passed. There was uniform agreement, and they headed out.

As they walked up to the new place that was their destination, and quickly entered and spread. They all said a quiet welcome to the owner, who greeted them all with a smile. Everyone quickly poured over the shelves and when they couldn't find what they were looking for, they asked.

"Do you have any books on the history of this town?" Alfred asked the old man, whose name he found out was Gerald.

"There's a couple on the back shelf, any will do, they all say the same thing," he answered.

"Do you know the founding of this town then? You seem to know more than the books…" Alfred replied. The elder man looked shocked for a moment but then recovered, sitting heavily back down in his chair when he realized he wouldn't have to rise from it. Alfred quickly called his friends to the front where they all gathered around him.

"They say this town was founded solely on religion, as nuns and priests held the town up and let the people prosper when nothing was here but trees. While the men would build the town and buildings, the women would make clothes, entertain the children and cook. Though it was a bit much, for the women that is, the nuns themselves were said to build a playground for them so the children were entertained without their mothers.

"It was said that by the time the town was almost build a young child died an unfortunate accident on the merry go round they built malfunctioned or something, no one really knows the details, and killed a small child. After that they closed the park and no one has touched it since. It's said though that the woods around it are magical and the place thrives on life and love. Didn't they tell you this in school?"

To their unwavering negatives, Gerard shook his head. "Well they say that the woods are home to some of the best berries known to the world, the Elderberries. If you crush them and make them into a paste with milk and untainted blood, then they can achieve any kind of magic."

It was all normal and exciting until he just had to say something about the blood. Matthew simply paled, and everyone else just looked confused. What would someone do to have untainted blood? Would any of them count? How much blood?

"So, blood?"

"Yeah you know, the 'oh let's sacrifice this virgin' back in the old times. It was really simple, and they always meant a drop or two. You're friend still wandering seems like someone they would take into consideration."

All of them breathed a sigh of relief. At least they wouldn't have to travel and go and get a virgin from some far off land. In one easy movement they all turned to see who Gerard meant by the 'friend still wandering' part. Their eyes landed on Feliciano intently reading a book on Italian history that he found. Everyone rolled their eyes, except for one older brother.

"Oh hell no, find someone else," Lovino jumped to his feet in protest, making everyone sigh once again.

"Oh quit you're bitching, it's not like you have any say. I bet Feliciano would be happy to help us out," Alfred cut him off before Lovino could say anymore.

"He doesn't know what he's agreeing to! You're not touching him," Lovino threatened. He stood in front of his brother, obviously not going to back down anytime soon.

"Well we could probably use you if you didn't curse so much," Ivan chimed in. Lovino had almost forgotten that he was there in the first place, and jumped in his own skin.

"It's not happening!" he shouted this time, gathering the attention of his brother.

"What's happening Lovi?"

"Feli! Don't you want to help us out?" Alfred shot out before Lovino could say anything.

"Of course I do!" he answered with a bright smile.

"Great, then it's settled."

"No!"

"Too late!"

There was still shouting and arguing as they left the bookstore, taking with them priceless information that for once, didn't come from books.

Chapter Text

There are a few times in Ivan's life where he truly wanted to bash someone's head in. The unfortunate day at school happened to be one of them. It all started with the moment he woke up with the rising of the sun, like always, and his sisters were missing. It took him over an hour to locate the note they left. Who would have known they could stick a note under his pillow without waking him up in the process? Either way, they were going to be gone for the next two days, as they were driving to the next town over to go shopping for their yearly annual trip.

Ivan hated being alone. Sometimes he could hardly stand traveling to school and back after Alfred got dropped off. Now he would be forced to spend the next two days alone. Sure it was just two days but it was still more than he liked.

Next he arrived at school, to not just one pop quiz but two in the same class. He was sure that he failed both of them miserably. When Ivan arrived to his next class, he found that there was going to be an assembly to welcome back the students from the break even though they had all been back at school for more than two weeks. If there was one thing Ivan hated more than being alone, it was the mass of students that were all idiots at his school.

As he walked to the assembly with the rest of his class, he encountered someone that he had not seen in a long time, but it wasn't that hard to recognize her though. Bethany walked towards him with a purpose in her step, much unlike her gait before. Ivan studied her as she walked towards him.

Bethany held her head high. It wasn't unlike before, but this time she wasn't even glancing to her friends as she put one foot in front of the other. Her name was called a couple times in the crowd, but she didn't even glance at the people trying to get her attention. Her eyes were fixed on Ivan. That was the second thing he noticed about her. Bethany's eyes, while once bright and warm, were not boring into him with a blank coldness, a determination to get what she needed out of Ivan. Ivan almost smirked at the challenge he could sense. Whatever she wanted out of him, she would not get it. Finally his eyes traveled over her attire. It wasn't as bright as before, it was bland, neutral brown and black, and very covering, only her hands and the top of her throat showing.

"Hello Ivan," she almost purred as she reached him. Ivan nodded at her, and kept walking, leaving her with no choice but to either follow or get left behind. She followed quickly behind.

"Have you talked to Alfred yet?" she asked him. Ivan paused for a moment, his steps freezing for a moment before he kept moving like nothing happened.

"I talk to him a lot, what are you referencing?" The last word was difficult to say through his accent, but he didn't mind. Bethany paused, looking up at him as though it should be obvious.

"About me of course," Bethany answered with a smile. Ivan tilted his head as he thought, but couldn't think of a single instance where anyone talked about Bethany since Alfred told her he wasn't interested.

"No," came his simple reply. Luckily they were nearing the gym, and Bethany would have to go and leave him alone.

"No?" Bethany asked, completely shocked. Ivan didn't reply to her, "Well maybe you can help me then Ivan, what kind of girls does Ivan like?"

Ivan had to force back the bark of laughter that choked its way past his throat. At this point in his life, he was sure that no one in his small circle of friends that none of them were straight. Maybe Kiku but Ivan could never tell with his friend, he was normally so closed off from everyone who wasn't Alfred or Feliciano. Ivan smirked down at Bethany, which she returned with a huge smile thinking he was about to tell her every little thing Alfred liked about girls, when really he was thinking about how he could mess with her.

"Alfred…he likes…." Ivan wracked his brain, "ah, he likes make-up. Lots of it."

"Make-up?" Bethany asked, her eyebrows creasing together in confusion.

"Yes, lots of make-up. Also bright and flashy skirts, you know the kind that go above the knees," Ivan was still trying to think but he just couldn't think of anything that Alfred really didn't like about girls. Alfred seemed like the kind of guy who liked everything.

"Above the knees?" Bethany almost gasped out, hand over her mouth in shock. Ivan almost giggled.

"I know. And he likes the forwardness. He can be very dense even when he doesn't want to be." Well the last part was true but not the first part. Alfred did like to think of things his own way.

Ivan and Bethany entered the gym together. It was brightly decorated in streamers and posters, with upbeat pop music playing and kids screaming. Ivan looked around to see if he saw one of his friends, and luckily saw Matthew sitting not too far from him, looking way out of his comfort zone.

"Hello Matthew," Ivan greeted before plopping down in the seat next to him. Matthew shot him a smile, looking much more comfortable than he had been 30 seconds ago.

"I saw you with Bethany. Is everything alright?" Matthew asked, yelling to get over the music but to everyone else it was just a normal speaking tone.

"It's very funny. She was acting strangely, but she wanted to know what kind of girls Alfred liked," Ivan responded. Matthew raised his blonde eyebrows at his friend.

"But I thought Alfred was…you know…"

Ivan laughed at his friend's awkwardness. "Da, I think so as well. But that doesn't mean I can't tell her some things I know Alfred doesn't like," Ivan finished with a dark smile. Matthew stared at his friend before he himself doubled over in laugher.

"You're horrible!" Matthew laughed.

"Not as bad as this assembly is about to be," Ivan whispered to Matthew as the lights dimmed. Matthew had to hold back in his laughter.

"So you're telling me that a magic potion made of…what was it again?"

"Elderberries, milk, and untainted blood."

"Right. So this 'magic potion' made of some berries no one has ever heard of, some processed milk no doubt you boys were going to get from the grocery store, and untainted blood, is going to magically make us be able to move?"

Arthur could have been the equivalent of a mother hen scolding her chicks the way that he burned into the young boys sitting in front of him. Most of them bent their heads in shame, while Ivan just smiled like he normally would.

"Where in the world did you get this idea?" Arthur eventually sighed, obviously out of steam from ranting before. They hadn't been there long but the moment the boys had said the only lead they had Arthur jammed down their throats, going on the longest rant that they ever heard.

"From Alfred's friend. He runs a book store," Feliciano spoke up.

"Oh he runs a book store. Excuse me, every single word he says must be true, excuse me boys forget I said anything. This man must be refined and know everything about myths and legends," Arthur began again, and almost everyone could hear the newest rant beginning to form.

"Arthur enough…. I think it's the only lead we have right now. It can't hurt to try!" Alfred interjected.

"Oh? It can't hurt to try? How about the bloody part where we have the untainted blood?! How are we going to get untainted blood?" Arthur's face was turning red from his force of speech.

"From Feliciano! That's what he said. Also we don't need like a bucketful, just a drop!" Alfred almost shouted back. His volume was higher than normal, but not at the point of yelling yet.

"Oh yes let's listen to the old man who hasn't ever once travelled outside this town," Arthur snapped back.

"Well do you have a better idea?" Alfred shot back. Everyone looked at both of them, wondering where the argument was heading towards next. Arthur was silent.

"That's what I thought. We might as well go along with it, who knows if it could work but it sure as hell can't hurt us can it?" Alfred's fists were clenching and unclenching, looking as if he was trying not to punch something.

"Fine, we can try."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, going to their respective partners and talking to themselves. Well, all except Feliciano who was still sitting where he was before.

"What about blood?" he asked softly.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

"There are many logical reasons why I would have a hoof print on my shirt. All of which I will not tell any of you," Alfred said easily as Feliciano and Kiku mixed the bowl of potion on the dining room table. Alfred reclined on the floor, after an hour of interrogation his friends still wouldn't let up.

"What could you have possibly done to a cow to make it attack you?" Matthew wondered aloud. Alfred just shrugged, thinking that maybe they were finally ending the conversation.

"Cow? More like what could he have possibly done to a bull to make it mad," Lovino finally spoke up, after being silent for so long. Everyone paused, thinking with their brows furrowed, while Lovino smirked and Alfred fumed.

"Oh my god..."

"Alfred you didn't..."

"He did."

They laughed. Even Kiku who was still sitting on the floor was laughing as Alfred turned from his normal tan complexion to a nice shade of rose. Feliciano held his sides, which were beginning to cramp from all the laughter.

"I'm telling Arthur!" Matthew cried out. He was still chuckling, Ivan next to him was nodding in agreement.

"I hate you all so much."

The words only set them all into another fit of laughter. Eventually Alfred's mother came down to see why they were so loud, and what they were laughing about. Although at Alfred's insistence, they didn't tell her much of what had happened earlier that day.

"Fine, keep your secrets, I have a date tonight anyways. There's money on the counter for pizza!" Ms. Jones shouted as she retreated from the living room. Everyone else bid her a good night, but Alfred chased after her confused.

"You're going on a date? With who? Why wasn't I told?" He asked, causing his mother to send him a reproachful look.

"I've been talking about this all week, I'm sure your friends know."

They did. None of them would say a word on the subject. Alfred pouted sinking back to the floor, even though his friends said it was revenge for him not saying anything about him and the bull.

As soon as Ms. Jones left, they turned together. The potion had long been simply sitting and waiting, but they wanted to make sure that Ms. Jones was nowhere near when they made it. She had been nice and everything, not very questioning, but the fact they had to get blood was still a little daunting for all of them.

"Okay I guess it's time to begin," Feliciano started, but his voice wavered, showing how nervous he really was. Everyone else gulped, trying to get rid of the lumps that formed in their throats.

Kiku slowly plucked the berries from the vine, and seemingly they didn't seem to change color or anything, but they let out a great perfume of honeysuckle. Kiku wrinkled his nose at the smell, from sitting right in front of it he was almost overwhelmed by the perfume of it. Everyone else didn't really mind, the nice smell was different from what they normally smelled.

Easily he picked up the glass of lukewarm milk, and poured it in, watching some of the berries float to the top. No one moved for a moment before they turned to Feliciano, who looked eerily calm and understanding of his position. He held out his hand expectantly, waiting for someone to do something so he wouldn't have to do anything.

Kiku picked up the small knife he brought from his own home, the sharpest one he had, and quickly sliced open the skin of Feliciano's palm. To Feliciano's credit, he didn't flinch or cry, just a sharp intake of breathe from the male was the only indication that he felt anything. Kiku held his palm over the bowl, letting three drops fall before he let go of Feliciano's hand so he could cover the cut with a band aid.

The mixture of blood into the milk didn't even change the color from white to pink. There simply wasn't enough blood for it to really change anything of the appearance. Ivan took the bowl from Kiku, feeling a bit left out, and quickly mixed the contents with a spoon. He crushed the berries easily, and soon their 'potion' looked like nothing more than a pale purple paste.

It was ready. They had something tangible to try, that deep in their hearts they didn't think it would work, though they felt the need to try anyways. Heck, they didn't even know if their centaurs could actually swallow the potion, but not one of them said they couldn't, so they at least had a chance. And if this didn't work, at least they could go and try other things.

They placed their potion in the fridge, before gathering what they needed and heading out. There was nothing left to wait for, they might as well go out before it became too dark to be able to see their feet on the ground. Alfred carried the potion, insisting on it actually, and no one argued with him. The small weight of that bowl was a lot to carry, it bore a lot more than what they could imagine.

'They're trying it tonight, everything will end!'

'Oh hush, nothing will end. In fact we will grow stronger. Remember we still control the land, the boys can do nothing more than watch as we finally end the miserable existence of the centaurs.'

'That's what you said last time when we killed that boy, but look at what happened! Years and years of silence, nothing to talk to, nothing to understand. And they still lived, nothing more than fixtures, but they still lived and put us in silence!'

'Quiet! We have a weapon this time remember? The girl, the girl who is nothing more than just a girl. We will make her powerful, we will make her us, she is the key, she will be our escape, and she will be the end to those centaurs and their rulings!'

'Oh yes, the girl, the girl is everything, the girl is the key…'

Bethany slept soundly, for the first time in a while at least. School was nothing more than a boring endless routine now. She was constantly going to and from classes, looking for Alfred while failing to gain his attention. She tried to take Ivan's advice, but she couldn't wear those kind of clothes, something deep down wouldn't let her change out of the new attire she was wearing now. The less skin she had exposed the better she felt, even though she could hear the whisperings in the hallways about how she looked like an Amish woman who popped right out of the hills.

'Girl, wake,' the voice in her head commanded, the one she came to come the conclusion is the leader. She only heard two of them, but she could obviously tell who the leader was. Bethany snapped awake, breathing hard and a bit annoyed that she was awakened from the first peaceful slumber she had in a while.

"What?" she snapped back, ignoring the discomfort in her limbs that was telling her that the voice wanted her to go someplace. She held her place in her bed though, ignoring the itchiness in her hands and feet that made her want to jump up.

'You must come it is time,' the voice replied.

"Time for what?" she didn't wait for a reply before she was speaking aloud again, "You said if I listened to you I would get him. But he doesn't even look at me… I don't even know if I want him anymore," Bethany sighed, curling into herself on the bed. It felt like half of her brain was trying to get out of bed and the other half wanted to lay there, forgetting everything else.

'Girl that is enough! This is the night, when everything changes, this is all it. You will get your boy and everything will be great. Now rise and head to the woods, tonight is the night!'

Bethany couldn't help the snaps that echoed through the room at her joints cracking as they suddenly rose to the order. Her limbs were moving on their own, moving her out of bed in a rush and quickly towards the door of her bedroom. She couldn't even reach for her coat to protect herself from the cold night air she was sure was outside.

'That's right girl. Tonight is the night, when everything changes, you will get your boy and we will rise, tonight is the night!'

Chapter Text

Alfred didn't want to sound crazy, but he was sure that every single branch and leaf was set out to trip him up and make sure he fell flat on his face. Maybe it was the shoes he was wearing or the way he was walking, but nearly every step he took was on uneven ground, branches kept whipping him in the face, and he always seemed to stumble even across the smallest of stones.

Or maybe it was because he was being extra cautious due to the fact he was carrying the potion. But it did seem a lot more likely that every little thing in the forest was out to get him. He was taking every single bit of extra care to make sure that he didn't drop the potion wrapped in his hands, even if that extra caution meant not even taking his hand away from it to move a branch away. Everyone else shook their head at him and let him find his own way, but really if they had been the ones holding the potion they made they would have done the same exact thing.

Together they moved through the woods, in a line, with Alfred leading and Ivan bringing up the rear. It wasn't a big deal, in fact if Kiku decided that he wanted to lead the way he could have, but it was a habit they developed over the months of traveling at night. Normally though, they weren't in such of a rush as they were now.

Ivan kept glancing behind him, as if sensing a presence that he could never quite clearly see. He was a bit jumpier than normal, but kept the same smile on his face and the same pace as he walked. If one hadn't seen him constantly turning and looking behind him, they never would have known something was wrong. Finally the boys made their way to the open field where their carousel rested. The moon was high in the sky, casting a bright glow over the ground. The centaurs talked in hushed whispers, leaning in as close as they could to one another with the restraints that they had. Still with Gilbert being on one side of the carousel and Arthur being on the other, there wasn't much they could do in ways of being quiet.

"They're late…" said Arthur, not noticing the ways they tromped through the clearing to reach them. For a self-proclaimed leader, he wasn't observant.

"We're right here," Alfred laughed. Arthur glanced over his shoulder, but otherwise said nothing over his mistake.

"Did you bring it?" Antonio asked, energy practically thrumming off of him. Alfred nodded in response, barely even glancing at the other centaur even as his friends spread around the carousel to go to their usual spots. Feliciano didn't even hesitate before he went and threw himself onto Ludwig, clasping onto the centaurs shoulders.

"Let's get this over with," Arthur sighed, glancing at the potion still held by Alfred. With the small amount of light, the once bright purple liquid now looked almost black.

For a moment, Alfred looked at Arthur and Arthur stared back, and he felt the seeds of doubt plant themselves in his heart. In the seconds where there stare met he wondered what would happen if this didn't work out the way they wanted to, of what could go wrong. What if he died, what if Arthur just wasn't the same? What would they do with centaurs that could finally leave? They still wouldn't be able to leave this park, someone would see them and call the police or something. Alfred looked at Arthur, and realized that Arthur had already thought all of this, and was at a loss just like Alfred.

"Is it worth the risk?" Alfred voiced aloud, ignoring the way his friends questioned him about the question they didn't even know the context for, and just stared ahead at Arthur.

Arthur didn't seem to know the answer either. But looking at the centaur in front of him, his friend, the being he cried over when he couldn't remember his name, he knew his answer. Everything would be work the risk, if it meant that somehow someway that Arthur would be with him. Whether he was a centaur or a person or a figment of his imagination, then Alfred thought it was worth the risk. Arthur didn't say anything, but he reassurance that Alfred tried to put into his gaze seemed to work.

"Well, I wouldn't really think so," came a voice behind him. Alfred jumped, turning around to stare at the slight female form in front of him.

"Beth?" he sputtered out, almost taking a step back. She smiled at him, her hair highlighted by the moon light, casting an unearthly glow about her. She looked anything but beautiful though, if anything Alfred thought she looked dangerous.

"I don't think the risk is the reward that you are seeking so badly," she repeated her opinion. Alfred glanced at his friends, but they seemed just as lost as he was.

"What are you doing out so late?"

"Just checking on some friends of mine," she answered as she walked around the carousel.

Alfred noticed her bare feet as she walked up and lightly jumped onto the wooden floor of the carousel. She didn't glance at him though, her attention now thoroughly diverted. She wasn't looking at the centaurs either though, as they watched her move hardly making a sound. She was looking at the piles of wood, the other creatures of the carousel that were the monsters, the gryphons, the harpies, the sirens. She would stroke her hands over them sigh with something akin to regret lacing the edges, before moving on and looking at the next. Some were simply poles that obviously once held other creatures, but they had long since fallen apart. Bethany still stopped and looked at them.

"Friends?" Alfred asked, dragging out the word so that she would know he wanted an explanation.

"Just like your friends," she said with a wave of her hand, motioning at Yao, who happened to be closest. Yao sent her a reproachful look, looking away after a moment when he realized that Bethany wasn't really paying attention to him. He instead kept Ivan back from snapping at the girl.

She finally came to a stop in an empty space in front of Gilbert, ignoring the way both Matthew and Gilbert glared at him. Bethany didn't stop at this spot to mourn, for there was nothing there to mourn over. Where some placed there was a pole or even a couple of lost pieces, there was nothing left there. Rather, she seemed there to smile, for she finally lifted her eyes and met Gilbert's even relishing more when he clenched his fists.

"She deserved it," Bethany gloated, hands coming together in front of her.

"She deserved more than this," Gilbert growled out.

"It was so easy too," she continued, taking a step back, not out of fear though, "just a little push."

Bethany reached out and pushed the air, still staring ahead at Gilbert. She was almost laughing now, Gilbert seemed close to bursting. He was leaning forward, pushing Matthew out of the way as the old wood easily creaked and bent under the pressure he was applying. Bethany was outright laughing now.

"I knew it wasn't an accident!" He screamed, "You bitch I will end you!"

The wood was letting out its own groan, the cracking of it breaking the quiet air of the night with a sharp pierce. Matthew was at Gilbert's side, touching his arm only to be shoved off a moment later, and then his hand was back in place once again, he was telling him it was okay, but nothing was working as the centaur gave one final push and the wood broke apart with a snap.

For the first time, Gilbert's hooves touched the ground.

He crumpled immediately, Matthew falling to his knees a moment later to wrap his arms around Gilbert. Gilbert was taking deep breathes, his arms shuddering and his whole body shaking. He buried his face against Matthew, listening to the rushed sound of his heartbeat.

Bethany was laughing manically, waiting. Everyone watched in horror, expecting the worse. Yet nothing happened. Gilbert got his breathing under control, looking from Matthew to Bethany with something akin to triumph gleaming in his eyes. Bethany stopped for a moment, before sneering at the boys in front of her.

"Interesting…" she muttered. But then the grin was back, full force as she leaned down to be eye level with Gilbert.

"This just means that she was alive and well when they took her and burned her."

Gilbert let out a guttural scream of rage, filled with anger and regret and sadness and loss, as he reached up to attack. With one swift movement of his arm Bethany was on the ground, her face was already bright red from the hit. At the same time he had pushed Matthew behind him. Gilbert's legs were still wobbly, but he stood proud.

"That was for Elizabeta," he spat.

Silence reigned down for only a few seconds before she was laughing again. She laid on her back and stared up at Gilbert, with blood coming from a cut on her cheek and leaking out of the corner of her mouth. Her chest was heaving from the force of her laughter, looking almost painful from the gasps of air she was taking in.

"Oh these poor humans, how do they live?" she touched the blood on her face, looking down at the blood staining her fingers, "Falling apart so easily."

Immediately Alfred kneeled by her side, checking the cut for anything dangerous, but she slapped him away impatiently, ignoring the way he protested lightly.

"Oh hush, the girl might like you but that doesn't mean that I do," she spat.

The friends looked around each other. Together, they all seemed to have the same collective thought 'the girl'? The unanswered question caught their ears, except for Bethany, who lifted herself off the ground with little grace, brushing the dirt from her clothes. She glared at Alfred before beginning her walk all over again.

"What do you want?" Arthur asked with a bored tone, a bit of malice touching the edges. Bethany looked at him from under her lashes, walking towards him the moment his voice cut through the air.

"You were always my favorite you know," she voiced as she neared him, letting her hand reach forward and touch his chest the moment she was near.

"The color red suits you so well," she ran her hand down and let it skim over where his hips would be if he was human, "why couldn't you have been one of the followers?" she sighed, walking around him, letting her hand trail after her, still resting on him.

"Followers?" Arthur asked, his voice almost coming out as a croak. Bethany grinned wickedly.

"Oh yes, one of the true followers. But it's too late now, you chose them," she let out a small growl, looking at the boys, "and now this must all end."

"End?" someone asked, Alfred thought it sounded like Feliciano.

"Oh yes end. This has gone on too long. You don't know the magic that rests here, and it's time that it was brought forth. I've had enough of you centaurs!" she growled.

Pushing away, Bethany let herself fall off the carousel, landing harsh on her knees to absorb the impact. She seemed to cave in on herself, head going down to her knees, arms pressed tightly against her chest. All at once she gave a guttural scream, something pure and animalistic unlike anything the boys could have created. When her scream was done, she rose again, blood dripping from her nose, joining the drying blood from her cheek and lip.

"Now, you will all know the power, and you will all pay!"

Chapter Text

The sky erupted in light, trees around them shining brightly as a bolt of lightning streamed across the sky, edging from one side of the sky to the other, blacking out the stars. Bethany stood in all proudness, cackling madly as blood continued to drip down her face and onto her shirt. Lightning flashed again and again, so constant it didn’t break apart, a constant light making it seem

It was like watching a stop and go movie, where only snippets were revealed. Ivan heading to the woods and pulling down a branch for a weapon. Feliciano almost cowering underneath Ludwig as he covered his ears with his hands. Kiku and Heracles holding onto each other tightly, one of the biggest displays of affection Alfred ever saw from either.

Yet most of all was Arthur, standing with his arms braced against the pole holding him in place. His arms were straining, all the while he stared ahead at Bethany, eyebrows knitted together. Alfred watched with utter fascination as he saw muscles ripple underneath his shirt as the pole broke away and Arthur fell to the ground. Alfred moved forward but was tossed back a moment later.

The lightning stopped. The thunder which once silenced them now left the air feeling empty, for not even the crickets made a sound in the night. Arthur was struggling to his knees, pain etched across his face as he continued to pull at the candy-striped pole still stuck in his chest. The entire carousel lurched again and again, centaurs pulling themselves free and dragging themselves to their feet, while their pairs tried to help the best they could.

In their hands, splintered wood sat, poles which once held them in place now were ample weapons. Alfred only saw any of this for a second though, before he turned and looked back to Arthur, panting and holding himself up against the heart of the carousel.

“What have you done?” Bethany screeched, her nose finally stopped breathing. She waved her hands around, as if she was calling for help instead of just making movements. Alfred looked around, seeing everyone else as they wondered who was she was screaming at.

Arthur was no longer panting, still standing tall as he glared straight at her. She glanced at all of them, before bringing her glare to Arthur. Even though she was shorter, she seemed to tower over him. Arthur didn’t seem to notice. Someone behind him, Alfred figured either Kiku or Matthew, put their hand on a firm grip on his shoulder, keeping Alfred in place.

“You think you’ll will you stupid little horse? You have nothing beside a pole of bugs and boys who aren’t even close to being men!” sneering, she jabbed him in the chest with her finger. Yet he didn’t move an inch to move her away. Alfred tried to move forward, but the hand of his friend held him back.

“That’s enough Vual, leave this poor girl alone. She’s innocent.”

“Oh, you poor child, that’s all you are, a child. I don’t care about the girl, she’s weak, a pawn stupid enough to fall for my tricks,” Alfred gaped, but Bethany-Vual?- was still talking, “This is my land! And it’s about time the rest of you left.”

Arthur reeled back just in time to avoid the smack of her palm. Vual’s palm was bright and red, putting all the force it had behind the hit. Arthur slammed the rotten pole onto Vual’s back, cracking it in half as the creature fell to the floor.

Alfred had enough of being still, he struggled against the hands holding him back, finally turning to see who it was, screaming at the sight.

Rotten wood melded together to form a beast, one which could have only been one of the other creatures of the carousel before it was torn down. A mangled mouth opened and closed, as if trying it’s best to speak words and breathe life again. Alfred turned onto his back, watching as it came closer and closer using rotten poles for arms to drag itself closer. Alfred kicked wildly at it, each kick sending a pile of blackened wood.

Before he could blink the creature was gone, Heracles having come out of nowhere and rammed straight into him. For a moment, Alfred watched as Heracles kicked at him with his hooves, before he was searching around looking for Arthur. He saw Gilbert throw Matthew onto his back just in time to avoid a fatal blow from another creature, this one more intact. He saw Ivan and Yao almost pressed together, fighting off more than they should. And finally Antonio and Ludwig kicking away at the monsters, some of which Alfred could recognize. Feliciano and Lovino were nowhere in sight.

Arthur was behind him, fighting as Vual avoided him, barely moving at all. Yet together they moved an intricate dance, barely touching the ground before they were pushing off it once more, scampering away from an oncoming blow. With each clash of Arthur’s hooves dirt flew off the ground, and Vual moved with each and every kick, just avoiding the ragged end of Arthur’s mangled pole.

Alfred flung himself forward, feet kicking on the ground as he struggled to get his footing. Yet finally he was moving forward, right in the way of Vual and Arthur, intent on helping his centaur. Yet the two barely noticed him, still continuing their dance even as Alfred ran in the middle, letting out a furious cry as he tackled Vual to the ground.

The being bucked to get Alfred off him, but the blonde wouldn’t move, wrestling with Vual as he tried his best to gain the upper hand. Dirt and grass came with them as they tumbled together, barely taking time to suck in air as they turned over and over again on the ground, cuts and bruises with nails andfists appearing. Vual was screaming with Bethany, their voices mingles together as Alfred still struggled for the upper hand. Alfred flinched at the sound, barely noticing the lightning cracking along the sky at the sound of her voice as well.

Alfred was knocked to the side as the creature on top of him was before. He tumbled to his side, rolling over and over again until finally he stopped, rolling onto his back to look at the stars shinning down. For a moment, Alfred forgot everything, for the stars were shinning and nothing else mattered. Then lightning flashed and Vual stood over him, laughing at all the horror he brought.

“You see? You can do nothing,” Vual laughed, Alfred scooted back, but Vual stepped forward with him, offering no escape.

“You’re friends are going to die, and I’m going to burn this place to the ground, and burn you along with it. This is nothing, you insignificant little bug. I will burn your precious little centaurs to the ground, and then nothing is going to-“

It stopped, just like that. Vual didn’t say another word, hand lifted in the air as a final strike that was never going to come down. Alfred glanced down from eyes which were slowly fading, to see a sharp end of a branch sticking out of Vual’s stomach. Vual fell forward, and Alfred rushed forward, barely catching him before he thumped to the ground.

“Beth?” Alfred croaked out, his voice scratchy and rough from his screams. There was still fire there in her eyes, her hands going to grasp the wood sticking out of her, nails digging into it. Finally the fire faded, and it was just Bethany there.

“Alfred?” she whimpered. Alfred nodded briskly, throat tightening. “My stomach hurts.”

“I know, it’s okay,” he told her, shifting her to take pressure off her back.

“Where’s my mom?” she whispered. Alfred could barely hear her over the final sounds of fighting going on behind him.

“I’ll find her, okay? Just relax you’re going to be fine,” he choked out. She nodded, snuggling her head against his chest. Alfred placed his hand over hers, feeling her sticky blood underneath her palm.

Bethany closed her eyes, and never opened them again.

Alfred clutched her tighter, feeling the blood continuing to leak out as she took her last breathes. When she breathed no more, he reached and removed the branch from her, tossing it to the side as he laid her on the ground, placing her hands over the blood soaked garment as if to hide the wound. For a moment, he could believe she was asleep.

“I’m sorry,” another voice said behind him, one which Alfred recognized. He turned to Arthur, standing for a moment before he dove to the other, hugging him and burying his face into the centuars shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” Arthur repeated. Alfred said nothing, hugging Arthur closer as the sounds of fighting slowly died behind him.

They gathered around Bethany, no one saying goodbyes, no one offering any promises or words that she would find peace in the afterlife. Feliciano managed to find a single flower, and placed it in her hands as though it would offer her peace. Alfred held hands with Arthur, and they stood together for a life taken away too soon.

“We can make another potion a different time,” Alfred finally spoke, his voice rough with unshed tears, “for now we have a funeral to prepare.”

Chapter Text

The fresh turned dirt, lightly packed together in a pile, seemed almost like nothing more than a bump in the grass than an actual grave. The only difference was the beginning of the mound, where two twigs were tied together in a bit of a cross, a lopsided one at best but a cross none the less. The sun hung in the sky, it’s rays barely breeching the tops of the trees, yet Alfred knew that soon the sun would shine where Bethany was lying under the ground, and though she would never feel the warmth of it, he hoped she could feel it wherever she was.

They were waiting for him, pacing around the Carousel with creaks of wood and stamps of feet. There was nothing more than he wanted to do other than turn to them, to tell them to leave him alone because he was fine, just fine. Yet he couldn’t seem to turn away from her grave, from the crooked cross which wasn’t nearly what she deserved, but it was all they could give.

“Alfred?” It was Matthew, gently voiced Matthew who came forward, putting his hand on Alfred’s back. Alfred didn’t turn.

“It’s okay, at least she’ll be at peace now right?” Matthew comforted. Alfred nodded, but his stomach felt like it was being eaten from the inside. He nodded anyways, finally looking at the other. Matthew smiled at him. Alfred wondered how he could smile when a girl was buried not six feet under the ground beneath their feet.

Though it hurt him inside, he didn’t object when Matthew tugged him away from Bethany’s grave. He looked back though at it, vowing to himself to get something better than a crooked cross for Bethany and her final resting place.

“It’s okay.” Matthew repeated. Alfred didn’t respond.

Their potion was once again ready. It seemed brighter in the light of the moon, which now shone brightly in the sky, hung like a blot of white painting on a black canvas. Alfred made sure not to step on the broken planks of wood. Bethany’s grave still had a crooked cross marking it. Alfred made sure to give her a wide breath, never getting too close.

“Are you ready?” Arthur seemed to ask everyone, and they nodded, most excited to see the results. Alfred simply nodded though, excitement not grabbing him as it was everyone else. Arthur looked over at him in concern, but didn’t say anything.

Herakles was chosen to go first, as the quietest, he didn’t object either, his own pole having broken in the fight. It stuck out of his back, a jagged and sharp pole, and splinters making it dangerous to touch. He simply came forward and used the spoon they brought to help. Herakles made a face as he swallowed, but that was it.

He did not fall forwards, dead or unconscious, he simply moved away. The silence that now surrounded them was thick with disappointment, but when Feliciano insisted the rest of the centaurs try the potion as well, no one had the heart to object. After the bowl was set aside, they sat together, telling stories and watching the run rise, before finally the boys left, knowing they had to come up with some other plan.

The sky was bright red with the rays of dawn when Alfred finally collapsed on his bed.

Arthur stretched as he rose with the new night, his back popping and his feet aching. He felt like he spent the night tossing and turning, never getting comfortable. Yet he slept the whole night through, only the habitual rising of the moon waking him from his slumber. He ran his fingers over his face, feeling everything just the same as when he fell asleep. The breathe he released was one of pure relief, despite his qualms against the potion, he was worried he would wake and find himself horribly deformed. Arthur chuckled at his fears now.

“Arthur?” Alfred called from behind him, voice lost in confusion and a bit of fear. Arthur turned his head, looking at the rest of the boys, all their faces a mix of confusion and disbelief. Arthur stared back at them, equally confused. Briefly he wondered how they were managing to stay up all night and manage their normal life. He pushed the thought away though.

“What’s wrong?” Arthur tried to turn and see them, but his legs were shaky, unable to support his weight, and he collapsed. Alfred was by his side in a second, mouth hanging open, trying to form words but his mouth just kept opening and closing.

The other centaurs were rising around him, he could hear them behind him, slowing rising just like he just had, though with a bit more gasps of awe than he let out. Arthur furrowed his brows, wondering what was causing such reactions, leaning up and looking over Alfred’s shoulders, at his lifelong friends.

They were standing, Gilbert and Yao with the biggest, proudest smiles they could muster, and standing on two feet. With a pair of legs, Arthur just looked at them, watching as their significant other helped them take their first few steps, on two legs which shone in the pales of shades in the moonlight, bare feet scraping across the grass.

Arthur looked down, Alfred still hovering over him, down at his own legs. They were skinny, skinnier than legs looked like they should be. But they were his, and he could see the bones in his knees, and feel the grass prickling at his skin and making it itch.

Alfred helped him stand, holding his hands all the way, and held him steady as he took a step forward.