Hetalia Oneshots

[ℝ] England - Fortified Walls

Requested by katlynm18

Arthur Kirkland was probably the most expressionless and coldest man in all of London. But he had a good reason for it.

The previously kind-hearted, loving gentleman was married two years ago to a lovely lady named Marie until he found out three months after the marriage that she was cheating on him with a man from her workplace named James.

He filed a divorce, moved out of the apartment both of them shared and stayed in another apartment somewhere else in London. Ever since then, he distanced himself from almost everyone he knew, except for his immediate family.

He was a work-at-home person, but on days off, he immersed himself in his newspaper, old novels, and his thoughts.

And you were his roommate for quite some time. He was actually one of your friend's friend, and she suggested that you stay in his rather "too big for one person" apartment. She assured you that he wouldn't mind, as long as you left him alone.

When you first met him, he rarely spoke to you, and only spoke if it was absolutely necessary. You were always the one starting conversations, and he, visibly annoyed, always ended them as quickly as possible.

You wondered about your roommate. He was often sitting on his plush chair, resting his feet on an ottoman, cup of tea in hand, and staring out of the balcony, lost in his thoughts. Other times he would pace around the living room aimlessly, still deep in thought. Again, other times he would be in his study, doing his work diligently.

He was around five years older than you, he being twenty-six, and you being twenty-one.

There were a lot of things about him that were worth admiring. Like his jagged blond hair, thick eyebrows, green eyes, pale, pinkish skin, rubicund lips, his hands, and the somber expression on his handsome face.

The time you managed to get him to have a proper conversation was when you saw his rather large collection of books on the shelves. Before you knew it, both of you were enthusiastically discussing your favorite authors and novels. That was when you saw him smile for the first time, and the sight of that warmed your heart.

He slowly and eventually warmed up to you, but he was also careful not to tell you much about himself because you know, an Englishman's house is his castle.

Regardless, he treated you nicely and respected you just like he did to anyone else. He was also one to joke around and poke fun at you sometimes, which made you a little happy since you got to see him smile.

You could definitely tell that he was starting to get used to having you around.

After months of staying with him, you came to find out that he could do a lot of British accents, which impressed you. He generally spoke the London accent (plus all the swearing) but his favorite was the Cockney. Pretty often, you noticed that he spontaneously switches to a Cockney when he's angry with someone on the phone.

He was also pretty bad at cooking, but you filled in for him by doing that. He also had brothers. One of them was Scottish, the other Irish, one Welsh, and another young lad who was also English. All of them lived in different places, so they didn't talk too much.

Another surprising revelation was his emo/punk rock loving phase when he was a teenager. He told you that his hair was dyed all sorts of colors, black eyeliner was a definite need, and his clothes were just plain ridiculous. He also used to play an electric guitar, which he eventually sold off when that phase of his died a clean death.