Forever Yours

Chapter 1: Playing Pretend

You were playing on the swing set when a boy pushed you off your swing. "My turn!" He snarled. You whimpered, as you held your bloody knee. "Hey!" You and the bully turned to see a blonde haired boy with thick eyebrows and emerald green eyes. "Did you push that girl off her swing?" He said though he knew what happened.

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't, so what if I did? What are you going to do about it shrimp?" The bully sneered.

"This." The blonde said, and stomped on the bully's foot, and punched him in the face.

The bully limped hurriedly away holding his nose. "Don't you dare, hurt a smaller kid again, much less a lady!" The blonde called after the bully.

He then turned to you with a charming smile, "Hello Miss, here." He wiped your wound with a sterilized wipe and then put a band aid on it and then kissed it. Then he gave you his hand and helped you up. "I'm Arthur, and you are?"

"I'm _, nice to meet you Arthur. Thank you for helping me."

He shrugged, and blushed while smiling, "It was nothing." He took your hand and bowed and kissed it.

You felt like a little princess when he did it.

"I'm twelve, what about you?" He asked.

"Eight." You responded.

"I just moved here from England, so I don't have any friends…So…would you be my friend."

"Sure!"

"Great! Then I can protect you all the time!"

"Are you a prince, Arthur?" You asked.

He giggled, "I can be, as long as you're my princess."

"Okay!" You replied with glee.

He helped you back onto the swing and pushed you.

~Seven years Later~

You opened the door to see your boyfriend, "Arthur, come on in."

"So, what's the important news you had to tell me?" He asked.

You twiddled your thumbs and looked him in the eyes, "We're…we're moving."

"You're what!" He asked incredulously.

"We're moving…to Moscow."

"But that's in Russia!"

Tears brimmed at your eyes, "I know."

"Why?"

"Mom and Dad have business up there."

"Will…will you ever be back?"

You shrugged, "I have no idea, if they do, they aren't telling me."

"Let me guess…you have to break up with me."

"I know you wouldn't be able to handle a long distance relationship…so…I think it would be best that…we break up, but if we ever see each other again…Then well you know we can get back together."

"There's no if's about it. We will see each other again." Arthur confirmed. You nodded and he kissed you firmly, with tears brimming at his eyes, "I don't want to lose you, and I won't. I promise." He helped you pack, so that you guys could spend as much time as possible together.

The following week as you drove off, he ran as far and as fast as possible then waved as you guys watched each other from the back car window for as long as possible. Waving and crying, hoping to see each other again.

Three Months Later

You were unpacking your last box when your mother called, "_! Can you come down here for a second? There are some people your father and I want you to meet."

You sighed and made sure to straighten up, you knew they were coming. But you hadn't bothered to dress up; they were only old colleagues of your father's after all. You were wearing your favorite sweater and a pair of old jeans. You hopped over the last step and walked into the room and saw your parents faces look at you a little disapprovingly and then smiled, "Well here she is, our little _. It's been almost ten years since you last saw her, but here she is all grown up." Your mother smiled. "You may not remember, _, but you and Ivan were playmates." Your father said gesturing to the tall broad shouldered man, whom seemed to be about Arthur's age."

"Yeah, sorry, don't remember at all." You lied, as some images of the big brute pulling your hair as a kid, and laughing.

Ivan looked a little sheepish as if he knew you were lying and remembered exactly what he had done.

"Well, why don't you two go hang out while we talk business?" Your father said.

"Um…sure…would you like a tour Ivan?"

"Da, that would be nice." The violet eyed young man replied.

You nodded uncertainly, and showed him around the lower half then took him upstairs and showed him your room.

"May we close the door? There's something I have to tell you and I don't want them to know that I know." Ivan whispered.

"Sure." You replied a little hesitantly, reminding yourself, that your can of mace was under your pillow.

You sat down on your bed within hands reach of the weapon.

"They are planning to get us together." He said.

Short, straight to the point, simply put, but sweet was definitely not the way to put it.

"W-what?" You asked unbelieving.

He nodded, "I thought it would be best to hear it from me, before you heard it from them."

"Oh…my gawd…and when were they planning to tell me?"

"Your birthday."

"So you're here today for?"

"For us to 'get to know each other better' before the wedding."

"B-Before the wedding?"

He nodded, "They've been planning it for a couple of years now."

"Why do they want us to marry each other?" You asked.

"Uh, very long story."

"We're not going anywhere." You grumbled.

"Well, it started over twenty years ago, you see our families were a part of this…erm…this…group. They founded this gang, I should say."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, please tell me you mean 'gang' like Scooby Doo and the gang and not like gangster gangs from like New York."

He sighed, "That's exactly it."

"Oh shit."

"Da, I know. Anyways, so our parents tried to leave but that was not going to happen. Now my grandfather and your grandmother used to hate each other, but they will only join forces and fight off the other half of the gang that's after us if we're legally together."

You had your head braced between your hands now, trying to take this all in. "This…this is all a joke right? It's all just some kind of joke." You said. "I'm going to go to lie down and just wake up and I'll be back in America with…" You stopped there as tears came to your eyes.

"You…alright?" He asked knowing you were not alright, "With who?"

"My…my boyfriend, we-we were supposed to get back together when we saw each other again."

"I am sorry." He replied.

"Just shut up! You have no idea what it's like to be in love and then be stripped away from the life you've always known! Then as soon as you move in, you hear that you have to get married to someone who bullied you when you were five!"

Ivan stood as he looked down at you, "I'm sorry, I was a kid, I didn't know any better."

You crossed your arms. "This is absolute bull crap! I can't believe this!"

"Shush, they'll hear you." He hissed worriedly.

"Like I give a damn!"

"Hey! I was in love too you know!" Ivan growled, losing his temper.

You stopped and looked at him, "What?"

"I was in love too, but she was killed in a car crash…Listen, the main reason I wanted to tell you all this was one, when we get married we have to act like we care about each other, forced or not. If our grandparents are going to let our families join together to defeat the enemies, we have to act like we're in love with each other. But we don't have to be, my plan is we play pretend, get married, act like we're in love. And when this whole deal is over we get divorce, and go back to our old lives." He said.

The idea wasn't too bad, it made sense and you didn't have to do anything intimate with him. Just play along with his plan. Then when this whole battle between gangs fiasco was over, you could go back to Arthur and live happily ever after with him, like you had always planned. "Alright, but not a moment after this is over, we're getting that divorce." You said.

Ivan sighed in relief, and hugged you. "Thank you."

"Um…sure." You said with a small smile.

So you guys pretended to act like you were getting along well, and when it was time for them to go, you asked your and his parents if he could come to your birthday party since you didn't have any other friends who could be there for you. The adults agreed and Ivan and his family left.