Finally Noticed

Princess Allison

The annoying ring of Arthur's cellphone broke him out of his dreams. He reached out an arm and groped for it blindly, knocking quite a few items to the floor.

"'Ello?" he answered, his British accent thicker than usual due to being tired.

"Bonjour iz zis ze Arthur Kirkland residence?" An unfamiliar, thickly accented voice that Arthur did not know asked.

"Yes this is Arthur Kirkland speaking and may I ask who the bloody hell is calling so early in the morning?" Arthur snapped, angry at being woken up.

"Early in ze morning? Que? Non, it iz one in ze afternoon. And zis iz Francis Bonnefoy, your client. In ze email zat I sent, I said zat I would call around one."

Arthur sat bolt upright in bed, annoyance forgotten. Shit that was a client. One in the afternoon?! Crap.

"Allo?" Francis asked after a couple moments with no reply, afraid that Arthur had hung up on him.

"Yes i'm terribly sorry about that I did not have a chance to read your reply and as you can see, i'm not the most polite after I wake up so again, pardon my rude behavior."

"Oh mon dieu did I wake you up? Je suis tellement désolé!" Francis exclaimed. "I guess I will leave you to have your day in peace and we can discuss what was in ze email later. Au revoir!" he hung up. (I'm so sorry)

Arthur kept the phone to his ear for a couple moments after, processing what just happened.

So I snapped at him, and he apologised? For what? Sure he woke me up but it was a perfectly reasonable time to call. At least I hope whatever he said in French was an apology. I don't know French! Even so I could barely understand him when he spoke English. That accent is bloody annoying... I think.

Arthur unlocked his phone, smiling briefly at the lockscreen, which was him kissing a beautiful lady as she held baby Alfred in her arms. He swiped through all the apps on his phone before tapping on his email and waiting for it to refresh. Scrolling through the emails, he found one that was sent yesterday from Francis.

Dear Mr. Kirkland,

Thank you so much for agreeing to help us. I have looked over what will help me get custody of my son and it says that you need to inspect my home to make sure that I can keep Matthieu there. That, along with all the things that need to be discussed, can be done over dinner yes? I would like to invite you to dinner at my house so you can perform the inspections and we can talk. Is this Saturday at 7:00 alright? I can call you at about 1:00 on Saturday so you can say if you are going to be there or not, and so you can tell me the details about the inspection. Again, thank you so much for agreeing to help, and I look forward to meeting you in the future.

Sincerely,

Francis Bonnefoy

Arthur read through the email quickly, replying that he would be there, and answering any questions Francis might have about the inspection. As he was preparing to drag himself out of bed, he noticed the time Francis's email was sent. 12:37 am. Just mere minutes after Arthur sent the first one.

Arthur walked downstairs, rubbing his eyes as the bright sunlight streaming through the windows shone in them.

"DADDY!!!" A voice shrieked, before Arthur felt something slam into his stomach, making him fall back onto the steps and knocking the wind out of him. He gasped for air as Alfred jabbered excitedly, hugging him tightly. "Good morning! You slept for so long! I watched some cartoons and I built an awesome block castle!"

"Yes yes good morning to you too." Arthur said weakly, recovering from another one of Alfred's death clutches.

"OY! THA SLEEPING BEAUTY RISES! ABOUT TIME YE LAZY PIECE O' SHITE!" a loud voice with a strong Scottish accent yelled through the house.

"ALLISTOR?! FOR THE LOVE OF THE QUEEN WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE YOU WANKER?!" Arthur screamed, face rapidly colouring. "Alfred cover your ears. For the love of god please don't repeat my words."

Alfred laughed, but covered his ears and replied. "You were asleep so I called Uncle Allison so he could make me food and play with me."

"MY NAME ISN'T FUKIN' ALLISON!"

Arthur picked up Alfred and walked into the living room, and almost dropped him because of the sight that greeted him. "I told you I built an awesome castle!" Alfred happily chirped. Arthur's older brother was tightly tied to a chair with several jump ropes, with walls of toy blocks surrounding him. To top it all off, there was a fluffy pink tiara on perched on Allistor's flaming red hair.

"A wee bit o' help o'er here, brother dear?" Allistor grumbled, raising his head to look at Arthur. Arthur shook his head and laughed harder, fishing his phone out of his pocket to take a picture.

"Yeah daddy you gotta be the dragon so I can slay you and save the princess!" Alfred said.

"I'M NOT A BLOODY PRINCESS." Allistor yelled, straining against his ropes. Alfred jumped out of his father's arms and grabbing a toy sword, running toward the "castle". Alfred chased the "dragon" around for a while, swinging his sword around while destroying the wall of blocks, hitting Allistor a couple times by accident. The five year old finally fell down, tired.

"It's past your lunchtime lad. How about you start cleaning up and i'll order some pizza?"

"I'd be happy ta do tha', if A CERTAIN BROTHER UNTIED ME."

Arthur laughed and began picking at the jump ropes, untying the tight knots while Alfred cleaned up the mess he made. After about half an hour Allistor was freed. The Scotsman stood up, stretching.

"I'll go order tha pizza." He mumbled, dialing the number for a nearby pizza place and walking to the kitchen.

"You still have that ridiculous tiara on your head!" Arthur called to Allistor's retreating back. Allistor paused, put a hand on the doorframe and replied.

"I'm a bloody princess, o' course I have a tiara."