Counselor's Office (anyone can come in)

He looked up at Helena with a tears stricken face, a broken smile tugging at his lips. “H-He got mad... I knew he w-would....” Alfred hiccupped as he cried, bringing a hand up to wipe away a few tears from a bruised and swollen eye. Why had he even bothered to ask that man? He was a man filled with rage, hate and violence. There was a reason his mother had left, after all. Not that he’d known why at the time. Back then he thought his father was a perfectly good person and that his mother was evil and hateful for leaving. How wrong had he been...

Alfred couldn’t stop the tears from falling, no matter how much he tried. It hurt. It really hurt. Not just physically, it obviously hurt like that after taking a beating. But emotionally too. This felt like the final straw for him, the final confirmation he needed to know that his father truly hated him.

With a tiny brave smile he looked Helena in the eyes, trying to find his voice again. “I-I’d like to take you up on your o-offer.... c-can I stay with you... even if it’s just f-for a little while...”

Helena was horrified to find out that Alfred's dad beat him up into the state she saw the young man now. What a hateful person. No, monster. That what that Alfred's "father" is. A creature of darkness and malice who would do such a thing to someone they're related to, she thought with fury, but none of what she was thinking appeared on her face, for she was deeply concerned for Alfred.

When she heard his question, she nodded automatically.

"Of course you can stay at my house for a while, Alfred."

Even though he gave a brave smile, it still tore at Helena's heart at how Alfred looked.

"Let me get an ice pack for you, so you can put it on your eye," she said softly, got up from the hug, and went behind her desk to get an ice pack she brought with her. When she found it, she wrapped it in a paper towel, went back over to Alfred, and put it on his black eye.

"Is there anything you need to help with anywhere else you're hurting?"

He nodded back at her, feeling thankful that the offer was still there. After all, he was kind of afraid to go home right now, where his fath-.... no, that man would be waiting for him, probably still as angry as he was last night. And Alfred didn’t really want to go through THAT again; it had been both terrifying and painful.

“Thank you, Helena...”

Alfred held the ice pack up to his eye, wincing a little when he felt a pang of pain due to the contact. It may have been a night old injury but it still hurt like hell. When she asked him about anywhere else that was hurting he frowned slightly, wondering if it would be easier just to list what wasn’t hurting.

“I don’t think so... a lot of stuff is hurting and I don’t think there is a lot you can do...”

His eyes scanned the office, stopping on a chair. He instantly put his bag on the floor, sitting down, relieving the pressure off his sore leg. It had been throbbing with an intense pain since last night and Alfred was starting to wonder if it was more than just a little bruised.

Helena frowned. If a majority of his body was hurting, she didn't want him to be in pain all day. She went over to her purse and rummaged through it until she found a bottle of aspirin. She opened the small container, poured two of the pills onto her hand, then closed and stored the bottle back into her purse. She grabbed a water bottle and some Hershey's kisses from her fridge before closing it and walking back over to Alfred.

"Here. Eat the Hershey kisses first before you take the aspirin. The two pills together are 800 miligrams and I don't want you to have a stomachache because of taking them without having eaten something."

Alfred graciously accepted the pills, water and chocolates with a small relieved smile, listening to Helena’s instructions and replying to her with a curt nod. He un-wrapped the Hershey’s kisses quickly, before eating them all one by one. When he was done with them he swallowed both of the pills, washing them down with a few swigs of water.

“Thanks, Helena...” After that he honestly had no idea what else to say, his eyes moving down to stare into his lap. Alfred was tired and sore and honestly, he just felt emotionally and physically drained.

"You're welcome, Alfred," she said, and hugged the blonde again. She didn't know what else to do. Even she wasn't certain what she would say. But she had to talk to keep his mind busy.

"If you would like to, you can stay in here all day. Or during my lunch break, I'll take you to my place to drop off some of your things."

Alfred hugged Helena back shakily, trying not to wince when he felt a few bruises shouting out in pain, after all, he really did enjoy hugs. It was just harder to do so when hugging lead to pain.

“Could I maybe take a nap in here until lunch time? I couldn’t really sleep well last night. And then... maybe we could take my stuff back to your place? I have everything in this bag...”

He yawned quietly as he rested his head on Helena’s shoulder, feeling sleepier and sleepier by the moment.

"Of course you can, Alfred. You can sleep on that couch in the corner. I'll wake you up when it's lunchtime, so we can get yor stuff to my place" Helena said softly.

She felt Alfred head rest on her shoulder. He looked exhausted. He definitely needs some sleep, she thought.

"Want me to help yuo over to the couch?"

Alfred smiled up at Helena thankfully, muttering a few words of thanks sleepily as he did so. “Thank you... Helena... ” A slurred yawn escaped his lips as he managed to pull his head up off her shoulder, rubbing his eyes slowly.

“Yes please... I feel like I’m gonna...” He yawned again, his eye lids dropping shut as he fought back the urge to fall asleep. “Gonna fall...” Alfred nodded off for a moment, before snapping back awake. “Fall asleep...” With an embarrassed grin he scratched the back of his head, forcing his legs to work so he could make his way over to the couch.

Helena smiled and replied, "You're welcome."

She helped him over to the couch when he snapped himself to a semi-conscious state. She grabbed a pillow and placed it down before helping the blonde lay down on the couch. She then grabbed a blanket she hid and draped it over Alfred's body.

"Sleep well, Aflred."

Alfred clung to Helena and with slow and sloppy footsteps and a lot of help he finally made his way over to the couch, with Helena helping him to lie down.

The moment he was lying down on that couch Alfred almost instantly fell asleep, only staying awake long enough to feel a blanket being placed over him and to faintly hear Helena bid him goodnight.

Just before sleep stole him away he sent her what was possibly the warmest and most true smile he had smiled in a long, long time, before drifting into the land of dreams, that magical smile still stuck on his face.

Helena saw the smile that Alfred gave her before falling asleep and it warmed her heart. It looked like he hadn't smiled that genuinely in a long time. She smiled as the blonde slept, crept quietly back to her desk, and started on the paperwork that laid on her desk.

***Lunch Time***

Four hours later, lunch time came around. Helena stretched in her sleep before her eyes drifted over to her other occupant in the office, who still slept peacefully. She grinned a little, got her purse, then walked over to Alfred. She shook his shoulder gently to rouse him awake.

"Alfred, it's time to wake up," she said softly.

Alfred had been having a wonderful dream, one filled with many friends and a family that loved him with all their hearts. Just as he was trying to make out all their faces, wondering why some of these people looked so familiar to him, he was shaken awake gently.

He slowly opened his eyes, slightly annoyed at first to have been woken before breaking out into a soft smile when he saw who it was. “Ah, hi Helena... is it lunch time already?”

To him it had seemed like only seconds had passed and he hadn’t fully caught up on his sleep yet but at least he was no longer falling asleep and feeling all drowsy. Plus, the pain killers had kicked in while he was sleeping, with only his leg still hurting.

With a small grunt Alfred moved to sit up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and yawning as he woke himself up. He then stood up, walking across the room to pick up his bag.

Helena smiled at the young man who woke from his slumber.

"Yes, Alfred. It's lunchtime."

She saw him walk over to his stuff and she placed a hand on his shoulder gently.

"Maybe I should carry your stuff, so it doesn't affect where you're hurting. Do you mind?"

She didn't want him to burden himself since he was hurt quite a bit. However, if he wanted to carry his stuff, she wouldn't stop him.

Alfred had just lifted up his bad, holding back a hiss as the weight of it made a pang of pain shoot through his leg when Helena offered to take his bag for him.

“Are you sure? It’s kinda heavy... I don’t want you to carry something really heavy, Helena...”

He did put the bag down though, not really wanting to carry it while his leg was hurting. After all, he had packed everything his own in there, which really, wasn’t all that much. But it was still a lot to be carrying around.

"I don't mind. Besides," she winked at him, "I can carry at least 60-70 lbs of stuff no problem."

She lifted up Alfred bag like it was a bag of groceries and held onto it tightly.

"So, shall we head out now?"

He sent her a grateful smile as she lifted his bag, thankful for the help. “Thank you~”

Alfred nodded in reply, stretching a little before going over to open the door for them.

“Yes please, it would be nice to have my stuff somewhere safe.” As he said this he opened the door, holding it open for Helena as he did so.

"Alright. Thanks for holding the door open," Helena said with a smile.

She walked out of her office, holding the bag, while she gestured Alfred to follow her.

She walked outside the school to her car, which was a Jeep. She unlocked the trunk with a car clicker and placed Aflred's stuff in the back. When she closed the trunk, she unlocked the rest of the car with the clicker and opened the passenger for Alfred.

"Here you go."

“You’re welcome, Helena~!” Alfred replied, shooting her a bright smile before following her out, closing the door behind them.

He was glad to see that the bag wasn’t too heavy for her, but still, he watched to see if she was struggling, ready to help her the moment she needed it.

Alfred followed her until they came to her car, stopping briefly to check it out. It was nothing all that fancy but still, a good car. A Jeep, maybe? He didn’t really know, he wasn’t the kind of guy who was into cars like the rest of them.

Helena opened the door for him after she threw his bag in the trunk, nodding to her in thanks. “Thank you~!” He slipped into her car, closing the door behind him.

"You're welcome."

Helena went over to her side of the car, got in, closed the door, puts the keys into the ignition, started it up, and then drove off towards her house.

After about 15 minutes, Helena pulled into the driveway of a fairly large one story house. The exterior was grey brick and the outside paneling was a blue-grey color. There was a big window on one side of the house and was connected to a garage on the other side of the house.

Helena turned off the Jeep, got out of the car, and went to Alfred's side and opened the door for him. She smiled.

"This is my house. What do you think of it?"

During the entire car ride Alfred sat there in silence, looking outside the window with fascination. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d ridden in a car, seeing as how since his mother had left them his father had stopped driving him anywhere, which didn’t matter all that much, since walking to school only took about two hours.

It took him a minute or two to realize the car had actually stopped, getting out of the car as Helena opened the door for him, thanking her with a small smile.

“It’s... it looks huuuuge! And so nice!”

Alfred blinked as he stared at the house in amazement. To him, this seemed like the kind of house that rich people had! Not the millionaire ones or the celebrities but still, pretty rich people.

"Thanks. It was my parents when they had retired. But then they passed away some years ago and left the house to me in their will," Helena replied with a sad smile. She missed her parents. They were such kind and courteous people and very big on respecting those in the military.

Soon, Helena's sad smile was replaced with a happy one.

"Well, let's get your stuff inside," she said. She went over to the trunk, opened it, grabbed Alfred's bag, and closed the trunk. She slung the bag over her shoulder before locking the Jeep with the clicker and gesturing Alfred to follow her towards the house.

“I see.... you must miss them very much...” Alfred couldn’t imagine how it must feel to lose both your parents, especially ones that one loved so much. It must be a very lonely feeling, he thought. Not that he’d really miss his father if he died... then again, they’d never been close. When his mother had still been around he’d always been a Mama’s boy.

As her smile turned from sad to happy he tried to do the same, after all, no need to dwell on the past right?

“Ah, right!” He nodded his head, obediently following her to her house, looking around at everything as he did.

She was able to get her keys out, unlocked the door and open it up without having to put down Alfred's stuff. She walked into a white hallway with white marble slabs as the ground. The room with the big window was a type of parlor, to greet guests and have little teas and luncheons with them.

"That's the parlor. The door next to that china cabinet leads to the kitchen. Follow me, so you can see it." She then walked into the parlor and headed over towards the door that led to the kitchen.

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I'll do the kitchen and dining room in the next post. ^w^

Alfred was rather amazed by how, well, NICE everything was. He’d been right to think this house was kind of rich. After all, a parlour? Marble hallways? China cabinets? These were fancy things! Counsellors must make a lot of money... either that or her parents had been rich people.

“A parlour... it looks very nice! So pretty...” He made a mental note to be very careful in this room, a lot of things looked very breakable and he didn’t want to get in trouble. Alfred nodded as she walked into the parlour, following her towards the kitchen.

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Coolies~! >u<b