The Sweets Shop

Part 6: Valentine's Day 2011

Francis Bonnefoy loved Valentine's Day.

This was a fact that would probably fail to surprise anyone who knew him well. It was a holiday that solely existed to celebrate the thing he loved more than anything else in the world—l'amour—so of course he adored it. He had a perfect excuse to give his friends chocolates and roses and he could stand around and watch happy couples being cuddly and adorable. It was a nice holiday.

Those weren't the only reasons why he liked the holiday, though. There was at least one other major one, which some may consider to go against the spirit of the day but how could anyone blame him?

That reason was named Arthur Kirkland.

Because Arthur hated Valentine's Day with an intensity that absolutely fascinated Francis.

Of course, Arthur wasn't really one for holidays in general. He was always complaining about their commercialism. Especially Christmas, which he'd grumble about every year. It always felt like he was spending a good ninety percent of the season complaining about people's false altruism and greed and Francis's Christmas sweaters. He had no problem with New Year's of course, because getting drunk was one of Arthur's favourite things to do. But then Valentine's Day would come and in Arthur's mind, Valentine's Day's existence was unforgivable.

It had actually taken Francis a while to figure out why exactly he hated the holiday so much. He'd listened to his complaints and thought through what else he knew about Arthur and eventually hit on an explanation.

It was actually rather adorable, because as much as Arthur may try to deny it, he was in fact a complete romantic at heart. The reason why he hated Valentine's Day with such intensity was because it too was rather commercialized. And commercializing a holiday celebrating love offended sweet Arthur's sensibilities so much that he was ready to go to war with the entire holiday.

It was a mentality that Francis could understand. He himself had decided a long time ago to ignore the stores' rather obnoxious attempts to bank on l'amour, but he could understand that for someone as stubborn as Arthur, that just wasn't an option.

Just because he understood, though, didn't mean that he wasn't going to use this knowledge to annoy the shit out of his dear friend.

Every year, Francis spent the day wandering around the school between classes, handing out roses, kisses, and chocolates. Arthur, in return, would do everything possible to avoid him. It ended up being an incredibly-entertaining game of cat and mouse, which Francis always won.

Except, this year.

And Francis was not happy about that. It was currently three o'clock in the afternoon on Valentine's Day. The last class of the day had just let out, releasing hundreds of students to converge in the hallways. Most were rushing about, wanting to get home as soon as possible. Some dawdled a bit more, probably those with afterschool activities or who were being picked up by parents.

Francis himself was leaning against the wall beside his locker.

He hadn't seen Arthur today. Not once.

Which was strange. Francis, of course, knew Arthur's schedule and he'd shown up outside his classroom on a few separate occasions with a rose in hand and his box of chocolates. But, according to his classmates, Arthur hadn't actually attended classes today.

Which led to the reasonable assumption that he was absent, but then he'd talked to some other students and they'd said that they'd definitely seen him in the school building. They said he'd been rushing and they hadn't paid enough attention to see where he was going.

So he was skipping?

That didn't seem like Arthur, though. At least, not the Arthur who existed right now. He'd left those days behind him years ago and apparently decided to head so far in the other direction that he was practically living on a different planet. He was now the model student, the council president, always offering to do extra work, a teacher's pet…

Francis was confused and he didn't like it.

"Oi, Franny! Earth to Franny!"

He was suddenly startled from his thoughts by a loud voice shouting right in his ear. He jerked away, startled, and then realized that Gill was standing in front of him. Smirking with her arm thrown around the shoulders of a girl who looked like she'd rather be anywhere else right now.

She laughed. "Dude, what planet were you on, Franny-kins? I was calling your name from all the way down the hall and you're like off in lala-land."

"Ah, sorry, Gilly." She'd been calling him and he hadn't noticed? That was actually rather impressive. "I was thinking about something."

Gill rolled her eyes, "Well, duh," and then made a wiggly motion with the arm around the other girl to move his attention to her presence. "I told Mattie here that she could come join us at our Single's Awareness party tonight, if that's cool with you? I told her that she could be Toni's replacement since he betrayed us."

Ah, yes. Mattie. Francis had forgotten the girl's name for a moment. She was Allison Jones' sister.

He gave her a once over. Cute, but she was definitely dressed like she wasn't super comfortable with people noticing her. She had on an oversized pink sweater and a pair of light blue jeans that were doing their very best to hide her figure. They weren't quite succeeding, though, and he could tell she had a nice, full figure. Her hair was longer than her sister's, but the same shade of blonde. Couldn't really see her face, since she was staring at the ground, but it was probably pretty cute too.

He was interrupted from his thoughts again, this time by Gill clearing her throat. He returned his attention back to her and was shocked to see that she was glaring at him.

She tightened her grip around the other girl's shoulders, earning her a startled squeak, but continued to stare straight at Francis as she continued. "Anyway, it's gonna be at your house like usual, right?"

He blinked, but nodded. "Yes. At nine."

"Awesome, we'll both be there then." She tilted her head slightly, then sent Francis a smile that was all teeth. "You find Artie yet?"

He shook his head. "Non. I really have no idea where he could have gone. He wasn't in any of his classes. At least, none of the ones after fourth period."

"Isn't he with Ally?"

The girl's voice was very soft, but he did manage to catch what she said. "With Ally?"

She moved slightly behind Gill when he turned his attention fully on her, as if she regretted speaking up, but she did nod. "Um, I think so… Ally said that she wasn't coming home on the bus today and I'm pretty sure she said it was because she was helping Arthur in the gymnasium with taking decorations down."

Oh… Well, that would explain it. Francis had completely forgotten about Saturday's Valentine's Day dance and the fact that Arthur was generally the person in charge of clean-up. He vaguely remembered Arthur complaining about something related to that when he was over this weekend, but he hadn't really been listening to what he said.

Gill frowned. "They seriously let Artie out of class for clean-up duty? That's totally unawesome. I wanna skip class."

Yes, now he remembered. Arthur had definitely mentioned something about his classes and clean up duty when he was over. Francis just hadn't been paying much attention because he'd been…more focused on other things at the time.

Well, now he knew where Arthur was. He flashed Gill and Mattie a smile as he pushed himself away from the wall. "Well, I'd better pay him a visit then. I'll see you later tonight."

Oh, and he wasn't going to forget about the way Gill acted when he was looking Mattie over. Apparently his friend had already staked her claim on the other girl. Which was fine, since she wasn't really his type anyway. It was cute; he'd definitely have to keep an eye on how things progressed.

For now, though, he had a different mission. He definitely wasn't going to let Arthur get away with avoiding him all day. He should know better.

He walked as quickly as he could toward the gymnasium. Ally had said that she wasn't going to be riding the bus so he was probably still there, but Francis didn't want to risk missing him. Besides, if he was too late to the pick-up area then his chauffeur would probably get nervous and try calling him and he didn't really want to deal with him right now.

No one else was around when he stopped by the doors to the gymnasium and glanced inside. It looked like they were almost finished with their work, since there were more streamers and paper hearts lying on the floor than there were hanging from the ceiling or walls. He was rather disappointed that he couldn't see Ally or Arthur from where he was standing, though.

Hmm, they probably were in there and just not visible. Problem was, if he entered the room from here, then Arthur would see him almost immediately and he wouldn't have the element of surprise in his favour. That would take away at least half of the fun. It was always much more entertaining when he snuck up on his friend.

There was another entrance through the locker room, although he generally avoided that area after school and when he was alone, since there were a number of boys on the sports teams who didn't particularly like him. To put it mildly. He was pretty sure that none of the boys' sports teams had practice today, though, so it should be empty.

He hesitated for another moment. The risk of potentially getting jumped was a definite deterrent, but if there was someone in there, he could always leave before they noticed him.

It should be fine. He shifted the weight of his backpack and then headed toward the entrance to the locker room, opening it slowly with his shoulder as he quickly glanced around the room. He didn't see anyone, so he stepped fully inside and slowly closed the door so it didn't slam.

Then he began to walk toward the entrance to the gym, careful to not make any noise.

But then he stopped; he'd heard something…

"You git. I told you to be careful."

Well, looks like he found Arthur.

"I was being careful. I just slipped. It's really distracting when you're yelling at me to be careful when I am being careful."

And Allison was with him.

It sounded like they were over near the toilets. Francis began to move toward them, even slower and quieter than before. There wouldn't be anyone else in here; Arthur wouldn't bring her into the guy's locker room if there was a chance of anyone else being in the room.

"Well, you obviously weren't being careful enough." His voice was a strange combination of irritated and worried. There was a moment of silence. "Are you sure you don't need the nurse? I think it's swelling."

"It's fine. I've sprained my ankle plenty of times. It's no big deal. I've just gotta wrap it up in ice when I get home."

Francis could see them now. Ally was sitting on the bench facing the bathroom stalls, while Arthur was kneeling in front of her with her right leg held in his hands. He was holding a wet towel, which he was now winding around her ankle. "Now you know to be more cautious when you're standing on ladders, at least."

"Dude, you sound like my mom." She rolled her eyes and twisted her head away.

And was suddenly looking straight at Francis.

He'd kind of forgotten about hiding, but this was fine. He grinned and then placed his finger against his lips in a shushing motion.

Ally liked messing around with Arthur almost as much as he did. She stared at him for a moment, but then a smile twitched across her lips and she turned back to Arthur. "Or should I say 'You sound like my mummy.'"

He scowled at her as Francis moved behind him and Ally did a wonderful job of keeping him distracted. He didn't notice as Francis crept up behind him. Not until he pounced with a loud, "Bonjour, cher!" He hurriedly wrapped his arms around Arthur in a suffocating hug. "Happy Valentine's Day! I finally found you!"

Arthur nearly jumped out of his skin. "What the fuck?! Francis, you fucking—!"

"Language, cher!" Ally was laughing hysterically as Arthur attempted to turn around to throttle him. There was no way he was letting go so he could do that, though. He just squeezed more tightly. "There's a lady present!"

"I am going to fucking kill you!"

Arthur had such a temper. It was unfortunate, especially with such a lovely lady present. Although she didn't seem to mind the language, as she just continued laughing.

"Now, now," he decided that it'd be safer to release him than continue to hold on and anger him more. He held out his hands in surrender. "You say that to someone on the day of l'amour? And I brought you a present too." He pouted and turned to Ally. "You see how cruel my cher ami can be?"

She smirked. "Aw, don't be mean, Artie."

One very amusing thing that Francis had been noticing recently was that Arthur seemed to be very susceptible to pretty Allison's smiles and requests. He visibly deflated at her words, although he did still send Francis a look that promised future revenge. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

He'd just said why he was here. Ah, well, Arthur wasn't known for listening very well. He sighed, then moved to sit on the bench beside Ally—there was no way he was kneeling on this filthy floor—and began to rummage through his backpack. He pulled out two slightly-squashed roses, one of which went to Ally with a wink, and a bag of chocolates. He handed the second rose and chocolates to his friend, who glared at them like he'd just handed him a dead rat.

"I made those last night." He noticed with amusement that Ally was giving the chocolates a look of pure lust. "Make sure that you share them with Ally. A gentleman should always share his chocolates with a beautiful woman, especially when she's injured."

Arthur scowled at him. "I don't want your fucking chocolates." Then he tossed the baggie to Ally, who caught it and then stared at the chocolates like she wasn't entirely sure if she should accept them or not. Francis could visibly see when she made the decision of 'Eh, not gonna turn down free chocolate.'

She was adorable. She opened the baggie and popped a chocolate in her mouth; her face lit up in delight. "Dude, these are awesome!"

Very adorable. "See, at least someone appreciates my hard work." He rather doubted that Arthur would let her eat all of them. He knew that Arthur loved his chocolates, despite his attempts at denial.

Anyway, speaking of her injury. He turned his attention to her ankle, which definitely looked swollen. "So, what happened?"

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Git wasn't being careful and fell off the ladder. Thankfully she wasn't very high off the ground, but she still managed to hurt herself."

Ally made a waving motion of dismissal, then tossed another chocolate in her mouth. "Dude, I told you. It's fine."

It didn't really look fine. Not that Francis knew a lot about injuries, but he was pretty sure that it wasn't a good sign when one ankle was nearly twice the size of the other. Arguing with Ally probably wouldn't get them anywhere, though, so he'd have to be a bit creative. "Hmm, it still seems like it'd be a good idea for you to get home right away."

Ally frowned. "I gotta help Artie finish up, though."

"I can do that. It won't be a problem." And now for his secret weapon to help convince her. "I could always have the limousine driver take you home."

And that was enough to get her to quiet. She stopped chewing and her eyes widened. "A limo?"

There you go. "Oui. He's probably waiting outside right now. I can just have him come around to this entrance and take you home."

It was pretty lucky that he had the limo today. Normally, Francis would just drive himself home or his driver would pick him up in their 'normal' car. But that car was in the shop and the car he usually drove had been giving him trouble this morning, so he'd just taken the bus to school and called his driver to just pick him up in whatever car was available, which turned out to be the limo.

He'd call Leon to come pick him up when he was finished with the gym, so it wouldn't be any trouble. Leon had been planning on taking the cake Francis baked over to Johnson's sometime this afternoon anyway.

Ally looked torn. She glanced down at the baggie of chocolates, then at her ankle, then at the door to the gymnasium. Then she sighed. "Okay. I'll go home. But you gotta promise to help Artie!"

Arthur scowled, of course. "I don't need his help. There isn't that much left to do."

Ah, Arthur. Francis shook his head. "Non, non. I will definitely help you. Leaving you here to finish the job all by yourself would not be fair, after all."

Besides, he needed alone time with Arthur so he could start teasing him about his response to lovely Allison's smiles.

A/N: Happy Valentine's Day! So this was just a quick fic for today because Valentine's Day fics are important and Ally and Arthur are cuties.

I actually really like Ally, Arthur, and Fran's interactions when they're all together. I don't think I've written them together all that often, but it's fun. Arthur totally gets ganged up on. Of course. Also, this timeline-wise would take place 2 days after the events of "And It's Supposed to be the Day of Love". Or, those events from that story that are still canon. xD Which aren't many, really. Haha.

Reviews are always appreciated! They make me very happy~