"Enemies"

Chapter 1 - The First Meeting

Francis Bonnefoy rubbed his eyes as he woke up to the obnoxious sound of his alarm. It was honestly a miracle that it still functioned seeming how many times he had violently hit it each morning when it woke him up.

After a short while of both being annoyed at his alarm and procrastination, the sleepy Frenchman begrudgingly dragged his body out of bed and to the bathroom where he proceeded to get ready. As he looked at himself in the mirror his mind began to wonder.

Arthur Kirkland.

At this abrupt and undesired thought, Francis splashed his face with water to cleanse his head of anything to do with the Englishman. After all, Arthur was English, and the French were supposed to hate the English! Right? "Non" Francis explained to himself, "He is from the other side of the channel! I must pretend to hate him no matter whether or not it is a lie!" Suddenly, a pain shot through Francis' chest as he finished his sentence. His facade of distain toward the English enemy was nothing but exactly that, a facade!

His mind began to wonder into some more unholy places to do with Arthur. Francis immediately splashed his face with water again, "Non, Francis! It is too early for these thoughts!".

Buzz! "Ah! Mon téléphone!" As he lifted the screen of his mobile phone to his face, Francis noted a message from Ludwig on the group chat, reminding everyone of the meeting to be held at 9:00am sharp that same day. The message was quickly responded to by Basch, who told Ludwig that it is his duty to remind everyone of the meetings and not Ludwig. Ludwig did not respond.

"Of course," Francis thought to himself, "of course only Ludwig would be so anal as to remind people of a nine o'clock meeting at four o'clock the same morning!".

Just as Francis had put down his phone it buzzed again, this time it wasn't Ludwig or Basch, but Arthur who had replied to both of the Central European nations by saying "It's four o'clock in the morning, for Christ's sake!". Francis threw his phone onto the floor in shock that Arthur had said exactly what he had thought!

"D'accord, just calm down, Francis, you need to keep your emotions under control. Why not distract yourself? You're in Bern! It's a beautiful city with gorgeous features like it's lake. Besides, it's snowing!" He said to himself.

He put on his coat and a warm yet stylish scarf and left his apartment for a nice early-morning walk by the lake.

Once Francis reached the lake, he took a seat on a nearby bench and watched the snow fall as nearby birds huddled together in their nests for warmth. The longing Frenchman could only think of one thing, that rude Englishman and his suppressed love toward him. Why couldn't he just tell Arthur how he felt? It wasn't as if it was difficult, just three simple words! But yet, Francis knew that he could not confess his feelings for Arthur or else everything would be royally thrown out of balance.

As Francis sat on the bench, reviewing his situation, a question passed into his curious head, "Is it perhaps possible that the Englishman may have these same feelings for me?" He took a moment to think, "Non! That is not possible! After all, he hates you, remember?" Francis slumped his shoulders in sadness, "Why are you sad? You are the reason that he hates you! You invaded him in 1066 which began this whole rivalry, remember? This is your fault!".

His train of thought came to an immediate halt as he felt his phone vibrating. It was Ludwig. "Oh non..." sighed Francis as he reluctantly picked up the phone. "FRANKREICH, WO BIST DU!? DAS TREFFEN IST IN FÜNF MINUTEN!" Francis sighed and responded "Ludwig, I do not understand your angry German yelling!", Ludwig responded, "Look at the time!". In a heart-beat Francis hung up and began to run to his meeting once he realised that there was only five minutes until the meeting started.