"Hello?"
"Hey, Mattie."
"…."
Alfred imagines Matthew with his lips shaking, something similar between a smile before crying turning up on his face."Did you miss me?"
Still no answer.
"Cool, I missed you too. You know, it can get really lonely out here by myself sometimes."
There's a thump and a loud crash in the background, and a faded line of swearing jumbles out in Matthew's voice. It's takes about what seems like two thousand years for Matthew to pick the phone back up and reply back, his breathing hitching with emotions mixed between excitement and bewilderment. "Hold on- did you hang up already? Alfred-"
"No I'm still here, I think."
A pause.
"Yeah I'm pretty sure."
"Fuck you Alfred, I'm not in the mood to kid with you today."
There's laughing at both sides and Matthew can't be any happier than he is right now, just the sound of the man's voice is bliss to his mind, a heart-wrenching pain throbbing throughout his whole heart. But he has to wonder, how it feels to be in space, surrounded by the million-year old stars dotting the black vastness like glittered white speckles. "So, is it scary out there by yourself too?"
"Not really, it's really pretty out here… I kinda wish you were here to watch this with me."
"I am watching them with you right now, Alfred.
"Are you?"
Matthew nods his head fervently, the words dropping hollow from his lips. "I am, Alfred."
Because he sure can, from where he was, out on his patio. And somewhere among the stars burning in the big-blue vastness of the night sky, Alfred was there. Matthew tries to think that Alfred's in between the brightest one of all, tries to think that the man is talking with him with his leisurely tone, he would come back down to his patio to meet him on the next falling star. "I'm trying to see if I can tell where the hell you're at right now."
Alfred laughs again, the chuckling sounds turning into a soft, vibrant tone in Matthew's ears. "Well," the man was saying, his baby blue eyes staring out into the glass window to examine the surrounding space around him. "I'm not really next to anything if that's what you want to hear…I mean, this whole place is just black and blue right now."
"So you're saying that you're just somewhere in the middle of that big blue and black blotch."
"You wouldn't know even if I were to send you a picture of it."
"Mmhm." Matthew doesn't know what to exactly say to that, he's trying to remember what the space looked like from the books he'd read before, he can remember some saying that it was a mind-blowing universe with the milky-way and all, it's not like anything Alfred's telling him. Now, Matthew would have been lost in his imaginations of the space if Alfred hadn't piped up all of a sudden with a surprisingly shaken tone.
"Being forgotten is so scary Mattie, I just want to see you right now- this is actually scary."
The back of his throat burns like hot coals and there are tears welling up in his eyes. Alfred pushes his hand against the cold glass- not that he could really feel how cold it was, he just assumed that it would be cold. If he could, he would ride down a passing comet and return back to earth, the pretty green-blue planet about 238, 900 miles away from him and sweep his blonde into his both arms and present him with a strangling hug. "Did you know in space, your tears float?"
"Alfred, you're a great guy, I love you." Matthew's voice is hesitant and choked; he's trying to remind Alfred that he's okay. "You're fine, no one's going to forget about you."
"Love you too Mattie."
"And you're going to come back."
Alfred's voice bubbles down to a lower tone and there's a large clank behind him. "Yeah, I'll try." He can't lie though, because he's 95% sure that he won't be- and that's the reason he called the Matthew up to talk to him. But Matthew's reassurance brings a chance in his mind and it's not a bad thing to hope sometimes.
There's a brief silence between the two as Alfred swallows down a painful lump growing in his throat while Matthew's heart's swelling up with the same exact pain. "Mattie, it's a falling star- No, scratch that, it's more like a fucking meteorite from here." Something in Alfred's voice sparks up, an interest that wasn't present in his voice before. "Make a wish for both you and me." He breathes out, his voice shaking.
"I wish…" Matthew starts out in a whisper, his eyes vigorously searching for that damned falling star in the sky that Alfred was talking about.
"You wish?"
"I wish…" He repeats again, now feeling isolated and abandoned for the first time he's been dating with Alfred. Because it was kind of hard to talk while Alfred was in the fucking space, not while he wasn't even sure what part of the sky Alfred was floating around with, not while his throat was burning -with hot tears pulsing from his eyes.
The phone line breaks into a fizzling noise, dissolving whatever Alfred's trying to tell him into broken syllables.
"I think I'd wish that you'd come back." And Matthew isn't sure if Alfred had heard him or not, but it sounds like the frizzling syllables are trying to say something back to him in response.
Then the phone line goes dead.
"I really wish you would, Alfred."