The Ancient Works

By: T.A.W. 21

A/N: Ok, people, this is gonna be the first story I'm going to put up on ff so please be a little gental with it. I'm a ff virgin XD Just so you know, I'm a grammar nazi AND I've read and re-read this chapter, like, a million times so I hopefully didn't miss any mistakes. But if I did, please, please, PLEASE tell me. Then I shall fix it then go into my emo corner of doom XD

Anyway, I'll stop ramblin and get to the stry. And I dont own Hetalia. Just pics of the characters on my phone XD Oh, and two book marks that GaaraFreak gave me for my birthday 0w0

Summary: AU. Arthur was orphaned as everything burnt down in flames. Now he starts a new life with his new best friend, Alfred. (15th century, magicians, witches, Kings, Queens, Princesses, Princes, Knights, dragons, and a mix of technology from the future. The works XD) [AlfredxArthur and maybe others. Sibling relations with Arthur/OCs and Arthur/Hetalia siblings]

Chapter 1: Orphaned

He felt numb.

That was all he felt as he stared at the ashen and scorched earth. Random pieces of ruined wood stood up from the ground, being the remains of his burnt down village. His forever lost home. All of his toys, all of the books that were in his family's library, and all of the letters his siblings had written him before they disappeared. All of it was gone. And to make things worse, the sun was setting.

He was the only one that survived the fire. He learned that after those two men came and tried to tell him as gently as they could that his parents 'left' and were never coming back. He knew what they ment. They died. And now... he was all alone. He was an orphan. He knew what orphans were as he'd read about them in books. But with him, he wasn't abandoned, kidnapped, a runaway, or his parents disappeared. No, he was different from all those people in the books. His parents were gone and there was no hope for him to meet them again.

So he just stood there silently as the two men, gaurds from a near by palace, stood with him, gently asking questions as the strange, bright green, gaint...horses, he guessed, pecked at the ground behind them. He recognized the men, somewhat, as they often came to the once proudly standing tavern down the road to get away from work. And they recognized him as well.

"Arthur, you'll be alright. Someone's coming as we speak to take you to your new home." One said, knealing before him with his hands on Arthur's scrawny shoulders. The small 9-year old looked down at the man with blank green eyes, not saying a word. Arthur was covered in black smears of ash, his light blond hair having splashes of grimy, gray-ish black spots. His night gown wasn't fairing well either as they were singed at the ends and had random tears and stains on them from his escape.

Before the man could make another useless attempt at making the boy speak, the sound of hoof beats was coming closer to them. Standing and turning towards said noise, the man watched as a slender, brown haired woman road up to them on a normal horse and quickly came to a stop before them before sliding off and straightening her light blue dress. Even in the dimming light, you can tell she was quite fair skinned.

"Ah, Miss, I'm glad you've arrived." One of the men greeted, relaxing after his awkward attempts to make Arthur speak. The woman nodded slowly, exhaustion etched onto her face.

"Is this the boy?" She questioned tiredly.

"Yes, he is." The man who had remained silent answered, sparing the silent boy a quick glance. "His name is Arthur. We have tried to question him but he has silenced himself..."

"I see." The woman nodded. "Allow me to attempt at questioning him." She mumbled before crouching down before him.

"Hello, Arthur. May I know your last name?" Arthur just stood there, staring blankly at the woman. "How about how old you are?"

More silence.

"Do you know how the fire began?" She asked, impatience creeping into her voice. This question evoked a small response from the boy, being that he gave his head a small shake, signaling no. Sighing, the woman stood and looked towards the gaurds. "Thank you for watching after him before I arrived. I shall take him and leave you to your business now."

"You are welcome, Ma'am." With that, the woman grabbed Arthur's hand gently and began walking towards her horse. She easily helped the boy onto it before hopping on herself, riding side saddle as they took off. As soon as Arthur felt the jostling movement of the horse, he gripped the woman's dress.

By the time the two had reached the next village, night had already fallen. The woman urged the horse to move more briskly through the dimly lit streets, staying in the path the street lanterns made. They didn't stop til they reached the other side of the village, going to the very edge of it as they reached a large building. It seemed looming but welcoming and behind it was nothing but a large empty field with a forest after it.

Arthur's attention was pulled back to the woman when he felt her lift him off the horse. He stood still for a moment as the woman brought her horse to a nearby stable before she grabbed his hand again and brought him into the building.

Once inside, the boy looked around the lightly decorated hallways. Even though the building was quite big, the halls were somewhat narrow. What they mostly passed up were doors and hallways leading in different directions and had even passed a few stairways. They kept walking until they reached the very end of the hallway. It was just a normal brown door that had a name plate next to it, reading 'Record Room'.

The woman dragged Arthur into said room. The walls of it were lined with book shelves filled with brown and black folders. In the center of it all was an old oak desk with a few papers and folders scattered about it. She released his hand when they were in front of the desk before leaning over it and grabbing one of the folders. She flipped through it silently before letting out a small 'Ah-ha!' and grabbing a pen to write something on it.

Lightly closing the folder and setting it on the desk, she turned to Arthur and gave him a tired but warm smile, crouching down to his height.

"Alright, Arthur. Sorry I haven't spoken to you this whole time but I had a lot on my mind. My name is Ms. Markel and this place is called an orphanage. It's where children who... who are in the same situation as you, are sent to to live. Now, I'll be taking you to your new room, alright?" She said softly. Arthur just nodded and Ms. Markel stood straight again before grabbing his hand and leading him out of the room and up to one of the closest flight of stairs. They climbed up about two levels before he was led down another hallway. Each and every room had a name plate beside it, Arthur noticed, and all of them had two names on it.

They stopped in front of a room half way down the hall and Arthur noticed that this one only had one name beside it.

'Alfred' was all it said and he turned his attention away from it when Ms. Markel opened the door and walked in. He was about to follow when he heard a loud thump.

"Alfred, what are you doing awake at this hour? It's far passed curfew young man!" He heard her saying, scolding whoever else was in the room.

"Oh, c'mon, Ms. Markel! Curfews waaay too early! And besides, you were gonna come wake me up anyway." Growing curious, Arthur quietly peeked around the corner of the door. The other person in the room was a boy that didn't look much older than himself. He had somewhat dark golden blond hair and was wearing a clean, white night gown.

He jumped when saphire eyes suddenly landed on him and quickly hid back behind the door frame again.

"Hey, who's that?" He asked bluntly, interrupting what Ms. Markel was about to say and pointing at where the other boy was hidding. The woman turned around to see Arthur poking his head out from behind the doorframe again, looking up at her.

"He," she began, motioning the boy over to her and he hid behind her skirt, "is your new roommate. Please try not to cause him too much trouble." She asked but Alfred stopped listening to her after she said roommate. He was now intent on meeting Arthur face to face as he moved around Ms. Markel. Arthur moved to the other side of her. Alfred attempted to move closer again and Arthur moved away again. This continued to happen until Alfred was chasing his new roommate in circles around the poor woman.

"Alfred!" Ms. Markel called, gabbing the boy's collar. "What did I just say not two minutes ago?"

"Sorry." He grinned. Ms. Markel sighed before releasing her grip. Arthur was still hiding behind her and slowly, she turned towards him and ushered him towards Alfred.

"Sorry about that, dear. This is your new roommate." She smiled.

"Hi there! I'm Alfred. What's your name?" The 8-year old asked. Arhtur just stayed quiet, staring blankly at Alfred. An awkward silence passed. "C'mon, what's your name?" He tried again. Arthur remained silent.

"What is it, what is it, what is it, what is it, what is it, what is it, whaaaaat iiiiiiiiis iiiiiiiiiiit?" One of Arthur's large eyebrows began to twitch but he stayed silent. "I'm gonna keep asking until you say something."

"...Arthur..." The boy finally whispered.

"What was that?"

"...My name is Arthur..." he trailed off. Alfred's grin widened.

"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"...Shut up."

"Alright, alright, enough introductions. Alfred, can you please let Arthur barrow some of your clothes until we can get him some new ones?" Ms. Markel asked. Alfred nodded and went to a near by dresser that stood between two matching beds. The room wasn't very large but it was big enough and when Arthur looked around he saw one single door that he assumed led to a bathroom.

When Alfred approached them again, he was holding a white night gown that matched his.

"Here ya go. Bathroom's right over there. You can take a bath tomorrow." He grinned, handing Arthur the clean clothes and pointing towards the door the older boy saw.

"Now then, after Arthur changes, it's time for bed." Ms. Markel stated as Arthur wandered off towards the other door, entering and begining to change. "That means both of you, Alfred." He heard as he slipped the clean night gown on before heading out again.

"Fine." The boy pouted. Arthur ignored him and began to climb into the only neat bed. Alfred ran over to the other bed and jumped on, bouncing a few times before pulling the covers over himself.

"Sleep well boys." Ms. Markel yawned out after Arthur was under his covers as well before blowing out the lantern on the dresser and walking out the door, shutting it behind her. All went silent, save for the few shuffles coming from Alfred's side, and Arthur finally realized how tired he actually was.

"Hey, Arthur?" Alfred called, pulling the other boy out of his semi-unconciousness. But he stayed silent, pretending to sleep. "I know you're awake, Arthur."

"What, you git?" Arthur finally muttered, his exhaustion and frustration seeping into his voice.

"Tomorrow, I'm gonna show you all over the place. I'll introduce you to all the teachers and we'll be best friends!" Arthur could just hear the grin in the other's voice.

"Shut up and go to sleep."

"Good night, Arthur."

"..."

"I said good night, Arthur."

"Good night, you twit."

*~ e.e ~*

True to his word, that next morning, Alfred dragged Arthur out of bed, made him get dressed in a pair a work pants and white t-shirt after a bath, and dragged him downstairs to the dining hall. The whole way, Alfred was babbling away about all the places and telling him about all the people they came across.

Inside the dining hall, it was quite large compared to the hallways and rooms. It had rows upon rows of tables with a few early rising children sitting at them, eating their food. Walking up to a small line at the end of the room, Alfred smiled at the elderly woman serving the food once it was their turn.

"Mornin' Granny!" He greeted.

"Why, good morning Alfred." She replied softly, smiling back at the boy. She looked over at Arthur. "And who's this young man?"

"That's Arthur, my new roommate and best friend." Alfred grinned. Arthur glared at him but didn't say anything as the woman's smile grew.

"Well then, it's very nice to meet you Arthur. I'm Ms. Gracelyn but you can call me Granny. As a welcome, here." She said as she placed a small bit of extra food on Arthur's plate. Then handed Alfred a plate with way more food than what Arthur had recieved. Then again, it had more than what anyone had recieved.

"That lady likes you a lot." The older commented as they went to a table and sat, beginning to eat.

"I guess. Why do you say that?" Alfred replied, mouth already full.

"Well, she gave you far more food than anyone else."

"She does that all the time. Guess she got tired of me always coming up for more." He shrugged as he continued to munch away, half of his food already gone. Arthur just continued to slowly eat his food, one fourth of it already gone. They were silent, more focused on eating. By the time Arthur was half way done, Alfred had already finished and was staring intently at the older boy's food.

When Arthur noticed, he sighed before picking up his plate and scrapping half of what he had left onto Alfred's empty plate.

"Thanks!" He grinned, quickly eating the newly aquired food. Arthur finished eating about a minute after Alfred had. Then said boy pulled Arthur over to the sink to start cleaning (they were expected to wash their own dishes) and then began dragging him all over the place, showing him places and introducing him to others.

That continued for the rest of the day, with Arthur refusing to really speak with anyone, until curfew. That night, before they fell asleep, Alfred promised his new friend an adventure they could go on the next day.

End Chapter 1

A/N: Fail ending is fail. And for those of you who might have noticed that this story is similar to kyuubicle's 'Catch the Falling Sky', yes it is similar. Thats because her story inspired me to write this and by accident I wrote it similar. I already asked her if i could post this even though it is, she said yes, so dont flame. The line of events, world, and a few moments are a lot alike but im trying to change them all as i type. I swear itll only be similar only up to chapter 5 XD

Till then, review please. I want to know what you all think so far.