The food was finished and questions continued to be avoided, and eventually Arthur grew so tired of the situation that he roughly stood from his seat, sparing a withering glance at Francis before storming out the room. Alfred stared after him, unsure, part of him having hoped they could get some better answers from Francis and while the other part wanted to ask if they could get some ice-cream as a dessert.

Francis noticed Alfred's uncertainty and said with a widening smile, "You should go home. It wouldn't be good if your family found you weren't in your bed, and I doubt Arthur will wait very long before he leaves without you."

Alfred nodded, suddenly reminded of Matthew. While his parents wouldn't be home, as usual, Matthew was an early riser and would definitely notice that Alfred was gone. A clock was on the cream coloured wall behind him, and Alfred groaned when he turned to see it was nearly midday.

"Mattie's going to kill me," he muttered, eyes squeezed shut.

He found Arthur lingering in the hallway when he left his seat, the fairy leaning against a wall with an uncomfortable expression. Perhaps he was embarrassed about having lost his temper so easily again, or maybe he just really didn't like being in Francis' house. Whatever it was, he seemed genuinely relieved when Alfred stepped out of the room.

"Let's go," he said quickly, turning for the front door, barely waiting to see if Alfred was following. Alfred simply nodded, trying to think of excuses Matthew would believe as he stepped forward, but an odd thought hit him as he went towards the door. The shape of the hallway, the position of the stairs and doors and the rooms in the house—just as he had thought before, it was all familiar. It was all something he had seen before. But where?

Arthur was walking ahead, paying no heed to Alfred who was still inside the house, and Alfred decided to shake his head of any confusing thoughts for now and moved to go after him.

A hand tapped his shoulder.

"By the way," Francis said from behind him, causing Alfred to stop. Arthur continued forward; it seemed he hadn't heard the Frenchman. "Don't worry. I'll put forward some… precautions, in case The Assassin tries to attack you again."

"Can't you just tell him to stop?" Alfred asked, turning to look at him. "I mean, he's meant to take orders from The Fey, and you're part of that, right?"

Francis sighed dramatically, a hand over his heart. "Unfortunately, as hard to believe as it may be, The Assassin isn't very fond of me. While he'll listen to the other members of The Fey, it seems he likes to make me the exception."

"Then can't you just get them to make him stop?"

"That would be an obvious solution," Francis said, staring off into the distance and pretending to relive some sort of memory. "Unfortunately, the other members of The Fey don't like me either.

With the way Francis insisted on being vague and showy, it took everything Alfred had not to sarcastically ask why.

"In the end, it's The Assassin's word against mine," Francis continued. "The Assassin is their prized warrior. If anyone, including me, were to complain about him The Fey would do everything in their power to make it seem as though The Assassin was the one in the right. And they have a lot of power." Before Alfred could argue how unfair that was, Francis smiled at him. "It'll be fine. Just forget about The Assassin—you should focus on getting along with Arthur."

Alfred wanted to bring the subject back to The Assassin and why he seemed so intent on attacking him, but there was something in Francis' expression that told him he would only avoid his questions. Instead, he gave a half-smile and said, "Yeah, well, getting along with Arthur isn't always easy. We had this huge argument a while ago; we weren't talking to each other for days after."

And then we both forgot about it for some reason, Alfred added silently.

Instead of laughing and agreeing, as Alfred would have expected, Francis' suddenly looked startled.

"You remember that?" he asked, staring at Alfred in disbelief.

"Well, yeah, but Arthur doesn't," Alfred said without thinking, only then realising how strange Francis' comment was. He hadn't told Francis they lost their memories, after all, and Arthur seemed unaware as well so it wasn't as if the fairy told him.

"Wait…" Alfred's eyes widened. "Francis? Were you the one who wiped our memories?"

An unmistakable expression of guilt flashed across Francis' face.

"I had no choice," Francis murmured after some silence. "You're both so stubborn. You refused to talk to each other after that argument. If you carried on like that the two of you could have grown to hate each other. That would have ruined everything, and—"

"'Ruined everything?'" Alfred repeated, having held back enough anger to hear that much. "What the hell are you talking about? What does it matter if we argue? People argue all the time! You didn't have to mess with our minds!"

Francis paled very slightly, as if realising he said something he shouldn't have. "I… I couldn't take any chances. I'll admit, I acted rashly, but—"

"But what?" Alfred demanded.

"Forget it," Francis said, almost begging. "Just… forget it. It doesn't concern you."

"Well, obviously it does if me having an argument with Arthur messes things up," Alfred countered, but he didn't get a reply. There was a call of "Alfred," he turned to see Arthur at the end of the front garden staring at him irritably, and when he looked back Francis was gone and the door was closed.

—Chapter end.

Hi everyone, it's been a while! :) I haven't updated this story in about… eleven months? That's uncomfortably close to a full year ^^' Hopefully this chapter's a prelude to more updates, but I don't think I can make any promises in that respect. Sorry :/

I kind of want to go back and redo some of the earlier chapter for this fic, but there are a lot of early chapters in a lot of my fanfic that I want to redo and revising all of them would take time away from actually writing them ^^' Still, I can't look through the old chapters without thinking, "Wow, this is really bad," and so the urge to edit returns…

Well, please review and tell me what you think ^_^