A/N: New story! I wrote this myself, no RP this time. It's about the same length as Britannia's Mistake, but the chapters here will be shorter and there'll be more of them. Human AU with an Exchange program. Fun. Enjoy!

Arthur Kirkland was not a happy student. He was 16, in Year 12 (He had skipped a grade level back in primary school), and his parents had signed him up for an exchange program. To America.

His parents had claimed they were doing it to get him to be more outgoing, to get some cultural variety, and perhaps even to make a friend. To Arthur, it was more of an inconvenience. He was near the top of his class, and so what if he was more the reclusive, bookish type? He was fine being a loner and preferred his own company to anyone else's. But he had virtually no choice in the matter, so there he was at the airport.

Alfred F. Jones was having a similar problem. His high school, instead of having more...normal exchange programs to France, Italy, or Spain, had decided to set up one with England. Because someone from England definitely would want to come here to the middle of nowhere, Maine.

His older, half-brother Matthew had brought up the program one night over dinner, and their mother was instantly hooked. She had, of course, forgotten about Matthew almost immediately after and focused on getting Alfred to agree to it. The younger blond protested greatly, but his words had just bounced off into nothingness, and less than a week later, he was signed up. Luckily his mother had only signed him up to host, and not actually go over to England later. So now he was at the airport with his mother and Matthew, waiting for the Brit that would share his home for the next two weeks.

Arthur, having collected his suitcase, looked around the reception area for any indication as to who he was to go with. After a moment he spotted a small white sign with his name scrawled on it. He had seen those signs in some of the very few American movies he'd watched, but he never expected that anyone would ever be holding one up for him. He felt kind of silly as his green eyes roamed over it and also the three people standing underneath it.

The sign itself was being held by a pretty woman with long dirty blonde hair and deep blue eyes that looked to be in her late thirties. Two boys stood slightly behind her. They looked very similar, with the only differences between them being with their hair and eyes. One of them had longer, more wavy hair with a looping stray piece that fell forward into his face and purple-blue eyes. He seemed the calmer of the pair, looked a tad bit older, and was reading a 'Golden Words' magazine. Arthur hoped that was Alfred, especially when he took in the other boy. This one was slightly taller and more muscular with shorter, straighter hair that had a weird cowlick that seemed to defy gravity. The Brit couldn't tell what color his eyes were because his head was down as he texted constantly, one foot tapping impatiently. There were headphones over his ears and his head bobbed slightly to a fast tune.

Arthur forced a pleasant expression onto his face as he walked over to the trio. "Hello, would you happen to be Alfred F. Jones's mother?" he asked, addressing the woman.

She brightened up. "Yup, that's me! From your accent, I take it you're Arthur Kirkland?"

"The one and only." Arthur replied dryly, trying a stab at humor. From the woman's chuckles, it seemed to have worked.

"Wonderful! Glad we found you. There are my sons Matthew," She gestured to the boy reading the magazine, who nodded to Arthur as Arthur internally groaned. "And this is- Alfred, put away that infernal device!" She tugged the headphones off Alfred's head and elbowed him. "Say hello to your guest."

Arthur looked at Alfred again as the American grumbled and stuck his phone into his pocket. He then finally looked up and Arthur could see that his eyes were a brilliant sky blue. "Hello." he said crisply, not giving Alfred a chance to speak first.

Alfred looked down into Arthur's face and did a double-take, blinking to make sure what he saw was real. "Dude, what's wrong with your eyebrows?" he asked, quiet enough so that his mother didn't hear.

"T-There's nothing wrong with them!" Arthur hissed back, resisting the urge to reach up and touch them or cover them. Sure, they were slightly thicker than average, but they weren't that bad. The whole Kirkland family had them, from the maternal side.

"There's no way those are natural... I'm Alfred, by the way. Nice to meet ya." Alfred said, sticking out his hand.

Arthur thought the action was a little forced. "No, you know I was just looking for the other Alfred F. Jones." he snapped back as he quickly shook the proffered hand, but the sarcasm flew over the American's head.

"Well, let's go now, eh? No point in wasting time here..." Matthew suddenly cut in, his voice naturally quiet.

They all jumped slightly at his voice, and the boys' mother quickly agreed. Alfred, losing interest in Arthur quite quickly, immediately bounded away while Matthew stayed behind to walk with Arthur.

"Is he always like that?" Arthur asked, still slightly mad about the eyebrows comment.

Matthew gave him a small, knowing smile. "Similar. But don't worry, you'll get used to it. Sorry about the eyebrows comment...though they are a bit noticeable."

Arthur grew flustered again until he realized that Matthew had meant it in a good-natured way, and then he relaxed slightly. "You don't have anything to apologize for."

Alfred led the way to the Jones's car, a tan Ford Explorer. He immediately claimed the shotgun seat and hopped into the car. Matthew and his mother helped Arthur get his suitcase into the trunk, which was quite heavy due to all the books he'd taken along. Once that was done, the Brit turned to the woman.

"I don't think I've said this before, but thank you for letting me stay with you in your home, Mrs. Jones." he said politely, gentleman that he was.

"Of course, and Arthur dear, don't call me Mrs. Jones or anything like that. My name is Evelyn." she declared, smiling at him before getting in.

It was a short drive to the Jones residence which was at the very edge of a thick forest. The house was an average size and typical American style, and it was pained a pristine white. There was a wrap-around porch spanning three sides of it, a place that Arthur immediately deemed an excellent reading spot during a rainstorm. A small garage, separate from the house, stood a few feet away from it.

Once they parked, Alfred tried going straight into the house, but a pointed cough from Evelyn stopped him and sent him back to the trunk of the car.

"Here Artie, I'll take that for you." he informed the Brit off-handedly, grabbing the suitcase and unceremoniously lugging it up the front steps.

"My name's Arthur, not Artie!" Arthur called, hurrying after him. "And careful with that!"

"Yeah, but Arthur's a mouthful and Artie's much cooler." Alfred grunted slightly as he went up the steps. "The hell do you have in here anyway? This thing weighs like, a ton!"

"There may be a few books in there, so go easy!"

Alfred stopped by the door and turned to stare at him, looking him full in the face for the first time since that brief moment at the airport. "You brought books with you on an exchange trip? Dude, it's not gonna be that boring here."

Arthur crossed his arms. "I bring a few books everywhere with me, just in case."

"I think it's nice that you like reading so much, Arthur." Evelyn said, coming up behind them to open the door. "You must be pretty high up in your class, grade-wise. Who knows, you might even rub off on Alfred a bit while you're here." she added with a wink.

"Mo-om, I do read!" Alfred protested.

"Oh really?" Arthur got interested. "What do you read?"

Alfred shifted uncomfortably for a moment before grinning. "Comics! Like Superman and Captain America and stuff!"

"Not surprising..." Arthur muttered.

Evelyn opened the door and Alfred pushed through, finally setting the suitcase down by the stairs. Arthur entered next, glancing around at the door. The rooms were sparsely but nicely decorated, with simple but elegant furniture and splashes of color scattered around.

"Alfred will show you where the guest room is. You just take your time and make yourself comfortable. I'll call you down when dinner's ready." Evelyn said with a pointed glance at the taller boy.

Arthur quickly walked to the suitcase and hefted it. "I can manage this. You just show me the way."

Alfred shrugged and led him up, pausing on the stairs to wait for him. When it seemed like the Brit was struggling, he offered a helping hand but Arthur waved it away. When he finally managed to get to the top of the stairs, Alfred started down the hall.

"On the right is my mom's room and bathroom, so don't go down there. To the left here is Mattie's room, a shared bathroom, my room, and you'll sleep here." Alfred stopped by the last room in the hall and opened the door, revealing a small, quaint room. Before Arthur could move, he walked inside and plopped down on the bed, bouncing around a little bit. "Whadda ya think?"

Arthur stepped into the room slowly and looked around. There was a bed (with now-rumpled sheets, courtesy of Alfred), a desk, a dresser, a bookcase, and a reading chair. The walls were painted a blueish shade of grey and a deep red rug was spread over the floor.

"It's nice..." he said quietly, and then his eyes fell on an object on the bed next to Alfred's arm. It was a small pillow, with a case in the image of a Union Jack. "What's this?" he asked, going to over to pick it up.

"Oh that. My mom got it a few days ago. To make you feel more at home, y'know?" Alfred replied, bouncing up. "Well, gotta go now. You unpack and stuff. I'll be in my room, so you can come by when you're done if you want." He got up and left, going to his room and plugging in a video game.

When he was gone, Arthur tidied up the bed and placed the pillow in the middle of the sheets before starting to unpack. He left most of his clothes inside his suitcase, taking out only the books and stacking them neatly on the desk. When he was done with that, he went over to Alfred's room, where the door was ajar. The boy's room was an utter mess. Clothes and comic books were strewn all over and the bed was just a mass of tangled sheets. Alfred himself was sitting in front of his TV, playing a bloody game and talking to someone named Gilbert, so Arthur left without saying a word and went downstairs. Since he was already in America and there was nothing he could do about it, he decided to make the best of it and talked for a while with Evelyn and Matthew.

When Alfred came down half an hour later for dinner, he didn't seem at all fazed that Arthur hadn't come to his room. The Brit didn't know whether to be relieved or offended by that. Alfred did most of the talking, telling them about what was going on at school and with his friends. Arthur felt slightly out of place, but he didn't let that show in his expression.

"I'll help clean up." he said once he'd finished eating, standing up with his empty plate and cup.

"Arthur dear, that won't be necessary." Evelyn protested, but he was firm in his standings.

In the end, Alfred washed the dishes while he carefully dried them. After that was done, Evelyn insisted that Arthur go straight to bed because he was probably exhausted from his flight and had to be well rested for school tomorrow.

Arthur groaned slightly at the prospect of going to an American school, but he nodded and complied, only stopping on his way by the bathroom to wash up.

A/N: So what do you think? It's I think the first fanfic I wrote by myself after RPing all of those other ones. A bit of a boring chapter so far, but the (somewhat non-existent) plot will develop later. ^^

Evelyn is just an OC created for the purpose of serving as Alfred's mother in this fic. I considered calling her Emily, but I didn't want it to be confused with one of the names for fem!America because it's not. (I personally prefer Amelia for fem!America as well, but that's just a little unimportant fact.)

Golden Words is a weekly humour publication produced by students at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Currently, it is self-styled as the only humour weekly in Canada. (taken from Wikipedia.) So yeah, it's a Canadian magazine.