A/N:Hi, I've had an idea for a urban explorer!Arthur for so damn long, I absolutely love the idea of urban exploration, if it wasn't illegal I'd probably do it xD
Anyway, I've been planning on making a full blown fic of Arthur meeting and falling in love with Alfred in this urban exploration setting but damn. I have other things to finish first. There's a bit of information about where Arthur and Alfred 'explored' at the bottom. See you when you get there… If you do!
Urban exploration.
It was a hobby of Arthur's. Not mine.
Never mine, I'd never want to do something as scary sounding as exploring abandoned places, ghosts and all. It was something that Arthur liked though. He respected me by not taking me when he went 'exploring'. He would take instead those three friends from college; Antonio, Gilbert and Francis. They would tease me about being a baby, not taking my boyfriend out.
Not going with him to somewhere potentially dangerous.
But that would change today.
Which was why we were stood in an empty swimming pool as my beloved walked around the area, tracing his fingers along the cracked dirty white tile of the inside of the pool.
The place was littered with glass and broken mirror.
It was empty and lifeless.
Dull and scary.
Too different to my normal flashy life for me.
But Arthur was staring at the place as if it was the most wonderful place in the world. As if the cracked tiles were beautiful polished ballroom marble, as if the paint on the walls were art work by only the best artists, as if the floor was littered with rose petals and jewels instead of broken glass and rubbish. It was something I couldn't see, the beauty that he saw. As if this modern day macabre leisure centre was instead a beautiful castle filled with a beauty that was nowhere else, unique.
Arthur was too quiet, I didn't like it. A place as ugly as this would make one go insane if the silence lasted too long. The empty and broken atmosphere was maddening, it was only me who could feel that though as Arthur climbed the steps out of the pool only turning to beckon me forward and hold my hand.
"Do you see it, Alfred?" He would say as he looked at a trashed room. The broken mirrors of the gymnasium. The yellowing walls of the children's pool. The boarded up windows. He would give it that smile. As if it was wonderful, a work of art. It wasn't the sort of look he would give me when he could show all of his love in just one glance but instead as if he was watching over a city at night, the fondness given to a somebody close.
"I don't see it Arthur. The only thing I can see is an abandoned leisure centre." I would say as he laughed and snapped more photos. It was annoying, how I couldn't see what he could. But it was also what made us different. The differences that brought us together and kept us that way.
Arthur would walk around as if he was reliving a memory, seeing a part of his childhood. I would just trail behind coughing and spluttering. Wiping at my eyes to get the dust from them and cleaning my glasses every few minutes. I felt like some thug that was breaking into an off limits place. I didn't see Arthur as that. Oh no, he looked almost one with his surroundings. Not sticking out like I felt I was. His green eyes would look around seeing everything. My blue would just see what was presented before me. It was boring to me but to Arthur it was like a new toy at Christmas. I was surprised the novelty of exploration hadn't faded. When he had told me about it on our first date just last year I couldn't help but think how boring it sounded.
Arthur stopped and waited a few times for me to catch up. I had taken my glasses off completely in irritation by the time we had gotten to the men's changing room again. Arthur stopped completely and turned to me as I had gone through the door, his green eyes boring into mine expectantly. I scratched my shaggy blonde hair as he looked at me a moment longer. He finally smiled before he walked up to me and raised his large eyebrows in curiosity.
"So how was it? Planning on joining me and the guys any time soon?" He said as he turned his head to the side playfully. I chuckled slightly before shaking my head in the negative then looking into his eyes.
"No, I don't plan to join you any time soon. It has been a real great time with you though" I lied; the company was, yes, amazing but where said company was? Ugh, "I just don't think that this exploration business would hold my attention too long. I'll stick to my video games." I said with a smile. If Arthur had caught the lie then he didn't say anything as he carried on looking at me. Green eyes filled with that innocent curiosity I loved so much. He eventually turned his back to me as he looked around the empty room, the caving ceiling holding his attention instead as he gave it that look that he had probably given everything here.
I had joined him at his side as he simply crossed his arms over his chest, the black camera poking out of the bottom, and looked at him a moment before trying again to look around with him, a comfortable silence had fallen between us.
Of course it had been me that broke it.
"Arthur. I don't understand what you're seeing in this place." I said quietly, it would have fallen on deaf ears had the place been as filled as it was once upon a time, but of course, now wasn't that time. Arthur looked at me in confusion before scratching at the back of his mussed blonde hair with a shy smile.
"So you don't see it then do you." It was said more as a statement than as anything else but I still shook my head to answer that no, I didn't understand.
Arthur looked at me with that small smile as he stared right into my eyes and answered.
"It's beautiful. In its own way."
A/N: Arthur and Alfred were exploring Hayes pool, indeed the swimming pool that Mr Bean visited in one of the episodes and started spazzing out on the elephant slide… Someone took that particular slide though (Mega sad face)
Sorry it's so short. Just wanted to try a new writing style. Not going to change mine like this though... If you have read then could you please drop a review telling me whether you'd like to see a fic based in this setting, how Arthur and Alfred came to love each other?
I based this around the pictures some urban explorers got of the pool, I kind of thought it was pretty… I made Arthur think that way too. I'll leave some links up in my profile to the posts so that you can check them out. Sorry the endings so crappy... Just an off-shot for if I do make that multichaptered series...