Arthur and Alfred were bickering like usual while walking into the next world meeting. Since it was being held in England, Alfred stayed at Arthur's house. After all, it's what you would do it you were dating someone right?
Arthur was pestering Alfred about not hanging his suit properly so it was wrinkled in some spots, and Alfred was going on about how sitting behind a table no one would notice. As they took their seats next to each other, they finally managed to calm down, only after Alfred promised to make him a cup of tea with their lunch. Francis was sitting across the table, at his spot between Matthew and Antonio and watching as Alfred and Arthur had their lovers quarrels.
With a soft sigh, Francis remembered how he and Arthur would argue about where to go to dinner, who would clean the kitchen after a meal, who would top or bottom that night; simple things that popped up again and again, but seemed to trivial now. Francis and Arthur used to date, and the past year at the conference in England, they had walked in together, the happy couple who argued over trivial matters that seemed so important then…
As the meeting started, once everyone had arrived Antonio accidentally knocked some of Francis' papers off the table when he shut a notebook… As the older blonde leaned over and noticed that Alfred and Arthur were holding hands under the table. His heart sank a bit… He missed being so familiar with Arthur, he missed hugging him at night, kissing his obnoxiously thick eyebrows, the cuddling, how Arthur would always badger him to shave from head to toe.
And there they were… geographically farther apart, but closer as a couple. The squeaky clean cut, tanned, young and fresh American… Handsome and he had the glasses Arthur always had a fetish for. As Francis grabbed the last slip of paper, Arthur ran his thumb over the knuckles over Alfred's large tanned and calloused hand…
And for some reason, Francis smiled… He was still aching for the touch, the smell, the chill of Arthur's skin on his own… Yet he was happy; because Arthur was finally happy. The best of us can find happiness in misery.