England x Reader ~Four Loves~ Part 1

~Four Loves: Part 1~

There was a boy crying on the front lawn of your next-door neighbors' house. They had just recently moved in; you had known that they had children, but you had never seen any of them. They would simply disappear from time to time to do their own thing. But, now, here was a fortunate event in which you had actually come across one of the Kirklands', your neighbors', children. He looked to be about your age, too.

"Excuse me?" you started as you walked carefully over to him. "May I ask why you are crying?"

The boy sniffed and wiped his bright green eyes clear of his tears. He had a pair of the bushiest eyebrows you had ever laid your eyes on, and his hair was sprouting out of his head in a blonde, messy mop.

"My brothers went through the gate without me," he sniffed.

You tilted your head to the side. "Gate? What gate?"

"Why should I tell you?" the boy suddenly snapped.

Surprised, you frowned and placed your hands on your hips. "Well, now I can see why they would want to leave you behind. You're a meanie face!"

"I am not!" the boy protested. "If you want to know who are meanie faces, my brothers are the ones!"

"Oh. I wouldn't know," you admitted. "I'm a single child."

"Lucky," the boy grumbled.

"What's your name?" you asked.

The boy scowled making his adorable face scrunch. "You're not going to tell me yours first?"

"Fine," you sighed. He certainly was a meanie face. "I'm ____________. I live next door."

The boy's eyes lit up. "You do?" You nodded. "Well, I'm Arthur, but everyone in my family calls me Artie."

"Can I call you Artie?"

"Sure," Arthur answered.

"If your brothers left you behind, can't you just follow them?"

Arthur shook his head. "It's dangerous to go through the gate by myself."

"I could go in with you," you offered sticking out your hand.

Arthur blinked. "You will?"

"Of course!" you nodded.

"I don't know…" Arthur said hesitantly. "You're definitely as not as strong as my brothers."

You pouted. "Do you want to go or not?"

Just then, Arthur quickly took your hand and got to his feet. "Of course, I do!" He took the lead and went around his family's house. "This way!" You eagerly followed Arthur to a vine-wrapped and white-streaked gate that you had not noticed before when looking into your neighbor's vacant backyard.

"This wasn't here before," you pointed out.

"Nonsense," Arthur chuckled. "It's been here all along. You just needed to look."

"Is that so…?"

Before opening the gate that lead into a series of thick shrubs that supposedly went into the woods, your new playmate turned to look at you.

"Are you ready?" he asked gazing into your eyes. His green eyes—now dry of tears—sparkled with a new glimmer of determination and excitement. He looked ready for adventure.

"Yeah," you nodded.

"Let's go, then," Arthur said and pushed open the gate and lead you through it.

-----

"Ho! Look at that! Artie's made it through the gate! An' he's even brought a friend along!"

"Guess the little bugger wasn't man enough to come inside by himself."

"Come on, you two. Easy on the boy. We don't want to embarrass himself in front of his new girlfriend now, do we?"

"All of you be quiet!" Arthur snapped at the three laughing boys that towered over you. Judging by their casual, familiar tone, they must've been his brothers.

"So what's yer name, lass?" the tallest one with bright red hair and green eyes asked.

"__-_________..." you answered shyly.

"Nice name," the second tallest one with strawberry blonde hair and brilliant green eyes commented. "I'm Cailean. Cail' fer short. An' that's Allistor." He pointed to the redhead. "We call 'im Scottie, though. And this one, here, is Dylan or Dyl'." He patted the sandy blonde one with glassy blue eyes on his shoulder. "I can see you've already met our little brother."

"Uh-huh," you nodded and cowered behind Arthur.

"Look at that!" Allistor laughed. "She's shy! What'd you go bringing her here for, then, Artie?"

"Because she wanted me to bring her here," Arthur answered with his nose tilted upwards. "She's going to help me find some faeries."

"I don't know…" Dylan commented skeptically. "Are you sure it's alright for someone as meek as her to be wandering around in these parts?"

"It's much better than hanging around the likes of you," Arthur spat.

Cailean shrugged. "If ye say so, Artie, bro." He paused. "I know! How's about we have a friendly contest?"

This got your attention. "A contest?"

"Why not? How's about…" Cailean thought for a moment. "If you an' Artie can catch more faeries than us, then we'll let you join our little club."

"___________ doesn't need to join your club!" Arthur snapped.

"Then we'll lock the gate," Allistor threatened.

"That's not fair!" Arthur whined.

"How is it not fair?" Dylan asked. "If she shows us that she can see the faeries, then that's proof enough, but we want to make things a little more exciting is all."

Arthur grumbled some incomprehensible slurs of speech before turning to you. "What do you think, ____________? Do you want to try this out?"

"Uh-huh," you nodded. "It sounds like fun."

"Alright." Cailean bent down to pick up a glass jar that was at his feet and handed you a net. "You'll use these to catch the faeries. Good luck, you two!" With that, he and his two other brothers took off into the woods at breakneck speed.

"That's not fair, you guys!" Arthur shouted after them. "There's three of you and two of us! Plus, you're all bigger!"

"It's okay, Artie," you smiled placing a hand on the fuming boy's arm. "We'll still try to do our best, won't we?"

"___-___________?" Arthur looked at you for what seemed like a small eternity before a smile crept across his face. "Yeah. We'll try."

"Great!" you giggled. "You can catch the faeries, and I'll hold the jar!"

"Better step on it, lovebirds!" you heard Dylan shout from a good distance away.

"Wankers!" Arthur shouted back at them.

You just laughed and took Arthur's hand to guide him deeper into the woods.

-----

"There's one over there!" Arthur cried pointing to the roots of a tree.

"Where?" You looked down and saw a brilliantly glowing light that bathed a small winged creature that looked like a small girl.

"A faerie!" you beamed.

"Let's catch it!" Arthur smiled and readied his net. Your hands gripped your jar and waited patiently as he tiptoed closer to the faerie.

Almost there…

"Gotcha!" Arthur cried as he swung his net down as hard as he could, landing his net over the unsuspecting faerie.

"You got it!" you grinned and rushed over to put the faerie into the container.

"That's one," Arthur counted. "I wonder how many my brothers have caught."

"Don't think about them, Artie," you said as you sealed the lid over your jar. "We're just having fun, aren't we?"

"True, but if we don't hurry, then we won't be able to have fun here, anymore," Arthur pointed out.

"We can have fun some other ways, Artie," you said. "There's so much more to do than catching faeries and playing in the woods."

"I suppose…" Arthur reluctantly agreed.

Suddenly, you saw a gleam of light flash by.

"I saw something fly over there!" you said and began to drag Arthur towards the light.

"Easy, ___________!" Arthur cried as you went further into the woods.

-----

By the time the sun went down, you and Arthur had successfully managed to capture twelve faeries—but Allistor, Cailean, and Dylan had captured eighteen.

"Ha!" Cailean laughed. "We beat you!"

"Aww…" you whined. "Really?"

"Really!" Allistor grinned. "And you know what that means? You guys are banned from crossing the gate!"

"You guys are so mean!" Arthur huffed.

"That's what you get for not picking up the pace," Dylan smirked. "Though I'm surprised __________ can see faeries, too. It's not often when something like that happens."

"Wankers…" Arthur grumbled.

-----

"Hey, today was really fun, Artie," you grinned. "I'm glad I was able to catch faeries with you and your brothers."

"Yeah…" Arthur pressed his lips together and swung his arms around as if he wanted to tell you something, but he was too afraid to.

"Hurry it up, Artie!" you heard Allistor's voice say interrupting whatever thoughts Arthur might have been carrying. "Ma's waitin' for us to come to supper!"

"I'm coming!" Arthur called after his oldest brother. Before leaving, he stopped to take a good long look at you. Under the fiery glow of the sunset, his cheeks looked unusually red. Perhaps it was just the sun. "Then, I'll be seeing you around, __________."

"Me, too, Artie!" you smiled and gave him a quick hug.

"Wh-What are you doing, _________?!" Arthur cried as he froze in place.

"It's only a hug," you giggled.

"Only a hug…" Arthur muttered. "I'm leaving then."

"Bye, Artie!" you waved. "I hope we can play again!"

Arthur didn't say anything, but he did give you a quick wave before disappearing into his house. Your parents were probably worried about you, too, so you faced your house and headed inside.