#islando

"Isometric Pirate Island"

I was watching this video when this showed up. (Around the 3:12 mark, in case the gif doesn’t play.) (Edit: Gif should be fixed and playing! *throws confetti*)

The Bad Friends trio manage to catch hold of the Islando duo and got them each to give a flying kiss to the camera. Kiku’s priceless reaction afterwards resulted in the below.

I haven’t written fic for about two or three years now, so it feels like I’m getting awkwardly acquainted with writing all over again. ^^;

"That was so embarrassing..." groaned Kiku, his face buried in his hands as he desperately willed himself into an imaginary black hole. Arthur could only blink down at him in mild puzzlement.

"What's embarrassing is your behavior right now." He crouched down on his haunches in front of his partner and cocked his head at him. The fact that the Asian was trying to achieve the impossible feat of melting his way through the floor by sheer willpower did not escape Arthur's notice. "What's wrong? You were perfectly fine doing worse things than that during our concerts."

"I have my prince mode switched on then! This is different!" Kiku wailed, his entire body trembling as he recalled what he had just done in front of the camera and at Gilbert's persuasion.

"Prince mode?"

"You wouldn't understand, you are a natural delinquent every single hour of the day."

That particular hard little truth caused something to snap in Arthur. "Oh, am I now?" All thoughts of sympathy gone now, he rose stiffly and turned to go. This action caused Kiku’s current levels of distress to rise rapidly as he realized that he was going to be alone.

In public.

Where people could see him.

"Don't leave me here!" he wailed, eyes wild with terror.

"Well, I'm just a natural delinquent, aren't I?" snapped Arthur, not even bothering to look back.

Kiku sprang forward and clung to the tail of Arthur's shirt, a whimper escaping from him as he sprawled ungracefully on the floor after his partner.

"I'm sorry!" He cried, actual tears beading at the corners of his eyes at the thought of possible abandonment in public. "You are an upstanding gentleman as well! The finest in the whole world! I humbly beg for your forgiveness! Please don't leave me here!" This last cry was almost a sob.

Arthur heaved a huge sigh. Turning, he gently tugged his shirt out of Kiku's grasping hands. Looking down at the grown man before him who looked as if he was going to burst into tears out of sheer fright, he offered him a hand up.

"Looks like somebody needs more time to adjust to life outside of rehearsals and his room."

Kiku latched onto the proffered hand with desperate gratitude. Alternating between thanking Arthur and apologizing profusely, he managed to stand up, and clung this time to Arthur's arm. Arthur ruffled the smaller man’s hair with his free hand and wondered how, in any way, was it possible for Kiku to be that much older than him.

Then again, he thought as the apologies at his side died down and gradually gave way to incomprehensible mumbling about how the third dimension was dangerous after all, it wasn’t as if he couldn't understand Kiku's paranoia at being out at public by himself. Given what he'd heard of how long the other man had been a shut-in, it was nothing short of a miracle that he could go on stage and perform, having undergone Spartan-like idol training or not.

With the patience of one resigned to the fact that the other half of his duo wasn't quite used to the ways of the third dimension yet, Arthur led his partner back to the dressing rooms to return the costumes they were wearing.

The Islando idols had been taking a short break by the vending machines from their dress rehearsals when Gilbert and the other two men comprising of the Bad Friends trio had caught them by surprise and requested a flying kiss from both of them for their anniversary video, aptly titled “Kisses” in Spanish. Arthur had happily obliged for the free publicity; Kiku had had no choice but to follow suit, and subsequently be mortified beyond measure at what he'd just done.    

He watched as Kiku slumped onto the sofa next to him, both men now out of their costumes and back in their regular clothes. Arthur had to squint a little at the twin pony-tailed girl contoured in a ridiculous pose printed on Kiku's shirt. Given what he knew of his partner's tastes, it was probably some virtual idol of some sort.

Meanwhile, the dark haired man had exchanged his contacts for spectacles, and was currently happily basking in the safety of familiarity of the four walls around him.

"Say, Kiku."

The owner of said name turned, still indulging in his relief at having escaped the outside world in one piece.

"Up for a drink later?"

Kiku's rosy aura of relief immediately turned back into that of pure terror.

"At my place, I mean."

Kiku's terror lessened, but only slightly. Exasperated, Arthur resisted the urge to grab him by the shoulders and start shaking.

"Your place isn't fit for human sight, from what I've heard from your manager. So it's either my place or a public pub, and I know which one you'd rather avoid."

Kiku continue to stare at Arthur as if he'd just grown a second head. Arthur sighed, mentally shrugging off the familiar sting of rejection.  

"It's all right if you don't want to,” he mumbled, more to himself than to the man beside him. “I mean, it's not as if we have to get along outside of --"

"Yes!" Startled at this sudden outburst, Arthur looked back up to see that the other man had his hand raised high in the air, as if answering for attendance in class. Sheepishly lowering his hand, Kiku looked away. His courage summoned up, he turned back to Arthur, spine ram-rod straight and hands now properly folded in his lap as he answered.

"I-If you do not mind having me," He stammered, the blood rushing to his head, coloring his cheeks and making the world around him spin a little, "I would like very much to have drink with you. As long as it is not somewhere with..." He swallowed down his terror and looked Arthur straight in the eye. "P-people. If that does not inconvenience you, I mean." he added quickly.

This time Arthur really did clap both hands on to Kiku's shoulders, making the shorter man yelp in surprise.

"Good man! That's the stuff!"

"W-What is this 'stuff' that you--"

"It's nothing. Don't mind me!" High on the fact that he had managed to drag Kiku out of his shell even just a little bit, Arthur leveled his gaze at the stunned man before him.

"Now, depending on your preference, we may have to drop by the store first. I have ale, beer, some cider if I recall, and there’s that wine Francis left behind but that one's just rubbish--"

Frantically casting around his mind for something familiar amidst the sea of alcoholic names Arthur was rattling off, Kiku latched onto the nearest one he could remember and blurted it out.

"Tea!” That single word was enough to make Arthur pause. Misunderstanding the look that the other man was giving him, Kiku frantically back-pedalled. “I-I mean tea would be very nice, but if you don’t have any that is all right as well, we don’t have to have it, I am so sorry--“

Arthur’s grip on Kiku’s shoulders tightened as he mused out loud.

"Tea is good. Yes, we could do tea." A burning question flashed through his mind. "Milk? Or lemon?"

Kiku's own mind had burned out at this point, partly because this was possibly the longest conversation he’d had with anyone outside of his family, and mostly because he just realized that he had agreed to spend more time than necessary away from the safe haven of his room, and with someone he, honestly speaking, didn’t know that well at all. 

Staring into Arthur’s burning eyes, Kiku was beginning to think that he had perhaps made a terrible mistake.

Arthur gave in and shook him a little in impatience.

"In your tea, man! Do you take it with milk or lemon?"

Kiku quailed at Arthur's fiery gaze. Milk and lemons were the furthest things from his mind at the moment.

"W-whichever way you prepare it is fine with me," he managed to stammer out, now further intimidated by the close proximity of Arthur’s eyebrows, which were bristling alarmingly.

The Englishman in Arthur applauded this answer. The delinquent in him was chuffed as well, seeing as there was the possibility of introducing another to the delights of alcohol, and proper alcohol at that. But only after the tea of course.

Both sides of him agreed that this partnership could work out after all.

As a consolation, the Bad Friends teamed up with Islando later to produce this video. Islando’s popularity shot up after that.

Arthur still cannot understand why Kiku is able to nonchalantly thrust his hips like that for a promotional video, yet still scream like a little girl whenever he remembers the impromptu flying kiss he gave earlier. The closest explanation he can get is again the mysterious “prince mode”, which apparently Kiku switches to whenever work is involved, and leaves him the moment work is done.