It was raining when Alfred first arrived on the deary streets of London, the gray skies reflected his mood perfectly. This is stupid! Why did I have to get shipped off to this gloomy dump while my brother is probably living large in Paris? There really no point to torture himself by asking that question, he already knew the answer. Alfred's parents had sent him to live with his Uncle David in his 'beautiful' cottage in some English forest. They told him that he wasn't being punished, but he knew he had run out of second chances and was sent here so he would stop being a stain on his family's 'good' name for a little while.

His brother, Mathew, was the good child. Alfred was the one that always caused trouble, or the one that was caught. Matthew was so quiet and sweet that no one ever suspected that he was the one that use to put the snake in the babysitter's pocket. Where as, Alfred was so obnoxious that it couldn't be anyone else, but him. His papa loved Alfred very much and had often overlooked everything he did wrong as just him having fun, but his latest stunt was the last straw. His step-mother had made sure he would be sent to the absolute worse place ever.

"Bitch..." Alfred grumbled under his breath.

"You shouldn't use such foul language," his tutor said, not bothering to look up from his book. His glasses sat low on his nose and the dull light reflected off his pale skin, making him look even paler.

Alfred pouted. "Oh shut it, Roderich." His eyes glared at the colorless scenery around him. "How long until we get there?"

"Patience, Alfred. Our estimated time of arrive is forty-five more minutes." He raised his eyes to catch Alfred's. "Please show some manners to your uncle. It's not his fault your being punished for your mistakes."

Alfred growled, "I didn't do anything wrong!" He gave him a fiery glare.

His violet eyes stared coolly into his. "I suppose throwing a party and destroying the house before a very important dinner was nothing then. Or as you put it," he imitated Alfred's slurred voice at the time of the incident, "'Just a little duck tape and a good cleanin' would have everything spic and span in no time.'"

Alfred made a noise of frustration and looked away, his pride stinging from his tutor's sharp words.

Roderich sighed softly, "You brought this upon yourself."

"I know... I didn't mean to take it this far..." He trailed off.

His voice grew soft. "I'm sure you didn't mean to, but the fact of the matter is, you did."

Alfred glanced at his old friend, but he had returned to his book. He sighed and returned to staring out the window. It amazed him that even though Roderich was only year older than him, yet, he already seemed to know more than him. Then again, it seemed everyone knew more than him lately. Alfred sighed and shifted in his seat.

"If you keep moving, I will be forced to stop the car, tie you up and throw you in the trunk." A small, playful smile worked its way across his face and his eyes sparkled with amusement.

Alfred grinned, happy to hear his friend's old humor. "I'd like to see you try, dude."

"I didn't have a problem doing it when we were younger." His smile widened.

"Yeah, but that was before you got all boring and smart. You should have stayed fun."

The amusement fade quickly and his smile was replaced with his usual cold mask. "Well I apologize for my father's sudden bankruptcy that forced me to grow up and support my family by becoming your tutor."

Alfred bit his lip, realizing his mistake. "I'm sorry Roderich... You know I didn't mean it like that..."

"I know exactly what you meant and it's that childish reasoning that got you here in the first place." His face seemed to age before his eyes. "If you're not careful, you'll end up like my father. So I highly suggest you grow up."

Alfred opened his mouth to reply, but nothing came out. By the time he found something to say, Roderich was back to his book, ending the conversation. Guilt clawed at him for being such a dense idiot. He hadn't meant to trigger such a painful subject for him. It had been many years since Roderich's father gamble and drank away his family's fortune, but his son had used his connections to get a job as Alfred's tutor, a job he consider lowly and below him. But it was all he could do to keep his family afloat and out of poverty.

"We're here." Roderich's cold voice retched him from his thoughts.

"Huh?" Alfred looked up and observed they surrounded by trees. He checked his phone for signal and gave an internal groan when he saw that he had none. "Have no bars! How do they expect me to talk to my friends?!"

"Do believe that's the point." He gave him apathetic look. "You friends are atrocious anyway."

Alfred glared at him. "They are not! They're really nice guys to hang with!"

"Oh, yes, letting that idiot vomit on your stepmother's Persian carpet makes them perfectly respectable men." Roderich's mouth twisted into a rueful smile. "That poor carpet will never be the same."

"You weren't even there! How could you possibly know that Matthias hurled on the carpet?" Alfred exclaimed.

Roderich laughed softly, but it was a joyless laugh. "I didn't, but that's nice to know." Not waiting for him to answer, he got out of the car.

Grumbling, Alfred trailed after him. The driver grabbed his bag from the trunk and quickly followed. The path was long and it led to a small cottage that was nestled cozily between a stream and a large boulder. Trees were full of leaves and were so packed together the sunlight barely had room to filter through the thick foliage.

Roderich knocked politely on the door.

"One moment." A cheerful voice called from the other side. The sound of footsteps and the crash of things being knocked over could be heard through the door.

Alfred held back a laugh, but received an especially painful elbow to the ribs from Roderich.

The door burst open, ripping it off its hinges, to show a tall man. "Damnit, I'll need to fix that," he grumbled before addressing his visitors. "Hello!"

"Uh... Hey," Alfred greeted him.

"Well if it isn't my favorite nephew! I haven't seen you since you were this big," he said motioning to knee height before pulling him into a tight hug. "What can I do for you?"

Roderich coughed. "Alfred is here to stay-"

The man cut him off by knocking the air out of him with a hug. "Roddy! It's nice to see you, boy."

He gasped for air. "Yes... It's nice to see you too, sir."

"Not so formal, I don't bite."

Roderich just nodded. "As I was saying, Alfred is here to stay with you, Mr. Jones."

He looked at him blankly. "He is?"

"Yes, you and your brother talked about this."

"Oh..." He blinked, the confusion on his face slowly disappear as he remembered. "Oh! It's coming back to me."

Alfred laughed. "Nice job, Uncle."

"Call me David." He smiled. "I'm glad your father finally let you visit."

"Yeah, so am I," Alfred lied smoothly.

Roderich gave him an approving glance before looking back to David. "I am sorry to leave so soon, but I really must go."

"What?" Alfred exclaimed. "I thought you were going to stay with me!"

"Did I ever say I was?"

"Well, no...but-"

Roderich cut him off. "I have important business else where and I can not sit here and babysit you."

Alfred pouted. "I don't need a babysitter."

"Good, then I can leave without regret. Farewell Mr. Jones." And with that, he turned away smartly and walked away quickly.

"Goodbye! Come back sometime." David waved, then turned back to Alfred. "Come on in, I'll show you the place," he said as he walked back inside.

Alfred sighed, but followed closely, barely sparing a glance to the detached door. The inside of the cottage was small and old leather books seemed to take up most of the small space. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling and dust-covered everything; the air was stale and filled with the scent of musty book pages. The only place that seemed empty of books, was the large bookshelf that took up the entire west wall. Other than the insane amount of books and dust, the main room was rather nice and homely.

"I'm sorry for the mess. I completely forgot you were coming." David smiled at him and shoved a pile of books off the couch. "Please sit while I clean up some."

Alfred sneezed. "It's oaky, I don't mind a little dirt." When he sat in the space David had made for him, a puff of dust blew up before settling all over Alfred.

David laughed. "It's no problem, this place has needed a good dusting," he said as he went around opening all the windows.

"If you say so..." Alfred pick up the book next to him and blew the dust off the cover. "Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants...?" He flipped it open to find it filled with hand-written descriptions of leaves and berries. There were even detailed pictures of each plant.

"You should study that." David's voice had lost its cheerfulness and his face became grave.

Alfred looked up, startled by the change in him. "Huh?"

David smiled, his voice returning to its bright tones. "Do you like the book? You can have."

Alfred paused, trying to sort out what he said. "What did you mean by I need to study it?"

"Hmm? Study what?" He began to put books back on the empty shelves.

"You said I should study this book," Alfred said, confused by his Uncle.

David looked at him blankly. "I did?"

"Uh...Yeah..." Alfred shook his head. "Can you show me my room?"

"Ah, it's just down that stair." He motioned to a stairway Alfred didn't notice before. "It's the bedroom at the end of the hall."

"Thanks..." Alfred quickly retreated down the steps. He found his bedroom where his Uncle said it was. The room was small and the only things that furnished it was a bed and a small dresser beside the bed.

"It's so small..." Alfred muttered to himself as he emptied his suit case into the dresser. He set his laptop and iPod on top of the dresser, grumbles at how useless they are now that he was in the middle of nowhere.

"Alfred~!" His Uncle's voice called. "Come have some lunch."

He slowly made his way back up to the main room. His jaw dropped at the sudden changes just a little cleaning could do. A little was an understatement, the entire room was spotless, the previous dust was nowhere to be seen.

"How did you clean everything so quickly?!" Alfred gawked at the now full bookcase.

"I had a little help." He stirred a pot.

"From who? And what are you making?" Alfred's nose took in the delicious scents coming from the pot.

"Perhaps you will find out soon." David smiled. "And this is potato soup."

"Sounds like something a poor person would eat..." He wrinkled his nose.

"Hey, you wanna know a secret..." David leaned closer, a smirk played on his lips.

Alfred eyed him suspiciously. "What-"

David shut him up by shoving spoon full of soup into his mouth. "It may be simple, but it's delicious."

He slowly swallow, savoring the taste, but refusing to show he like it. "...Why do you have wooden spoons?"

David laughed. "I broke all my sliver ones and had to make wooden ones. Why do you ask?"

"You broke them all? How!" Alfred laughed.

"I don't know! They all broke one by one, until I had none left!" His Uncle laughed with him and filled a bowl with soup for him.

Alfred took it and ate the soup quickly, then held his bowl out for more. "Just like the door?"

He just laughed and refilled his bowl. "I'll fix that now," he said as he rummaged through his cabinets.

"How far is the closest town?" Alfred asked after scarfing down his soup.

"Hmm..." He paused in his searching to calculate in his head. "That's an estimated seventy-two miles... I would say about two days."

"What?! But it barely took an hour to get here!" Alfred was bewildered by the difference in time.

David went over to him and flicked him in the head. "Don't be stupid, because I know your not. You came here in a car and if you didn't notice, I have no car."

Alfred pouted and rubbed his forehead. "Ow! That hurt!"

His uncle pinned him with a stare and something stirred behind his eyes before he said, "Be patient. All the excitement you could want is waiting for you here."

Alfred was too annoyed to notice. "What could be here other than dirt and trees?"

A smirk made its way across his face. "Perhaps you'll find out."

He made a frustrated noise, but remain silent.

David finally found his toolbox. "You should go explore the forest around here."

"I guess..." Alfred glared at the ground.

He handed him a backpack as if he was waiting to get him out. "There's some snacks and water in there. Just follow the stream, there's an abandoned village about four miles down." David smiled and said jokingly, "Now get out of here before your grumpiness rubs off on me."

"Abandoned huh..." Alfred grinned and grabbed the backpack. "Thanks Uncle David." He walked off quickly.

His uncle watched him until he was out of sight. "That stupid boy..." He glanced to the disturbance in the air next to him. "I hope your right..."

All that answered him was a slight gust of wind.


I know it's kinda slow, but bare with me, it will get better.