There was a certain beat to the way he walked, to the way he did ALL the things that he did, that just drew my eyes like an insect to a burning flame. When he was on the stage, dancing, singing, speaking, I could never bring myself to look away, completely enthralled in, well, HIM. The way he tossed his short blond hair, strutting around like he owned that stage, not really caring what any of the other cast members were saying about him. But offstage… it was like he was a completely different person. He gave everyone else in the room a wide berth, like if he got near them, it would be the end of the world, and rarely spoke a word. Mostly, he just sat alone, frowning, his (kind of bushy) eyebrows furrowed delicately as he stared at the book in front of him.

He always dressed nicely, wearing formal things even though it was around 100 million degrees outside right now. I figured it was just a British guy thing. Also, when he sat, I had noticed, he crossed his legs in that extremely girly way, like women have to sit when they have dresses on so they don't show everyone what's going on down under. Sometimes, when I knew he couldn't see me, I just stared at him while he read, watching his expressions change, though they rarely did, as the story proceeded, his luminous green eyes first dark with rage, and then swiftly turning to a lighter, softer color as he reached a funny part, his mouth breaking out into the grin that I only usually saw on the stage.

And so I was drawn to him in a way even I couldn't understand, no matter how hard I tried.

Right now, he was on the stage, flaunting his stuff, and I had the privilege of being next to him. Incidentally, in the musical we were doing, Arch, I played his character's best friend, Thomas Galati. He was my roommate and detective partner, Daniel Seolist, an aspiring young man with dreams of someday solving an impossible case without the help of our boss, head detective Cedric Kipling, played by the guy we had all come to know as Roderich Edelstein. He was a quiet, consistent guy who did what he was told in his own way, really bringing out his character's personality. As the boss, he was always the smart one, telling Arthur and I what to do, how to do it, and when to do it by, leaving no room for mistakes, which was why my character was always in trouble.

Today we were running the whole first act, which was all about how he and I met at a detective school, began living together, and got assigned to our "leader" who takes us on our first official case ever, the murder and rape of a very well known bartender from one of the best bars in town. Left with no evidence, we eventually have to give it up and leave, but" Daniel" just can't let it alone. After all, this was a good friend of his, and he wants to find the criminal and put him behind bars with an almost frightening passion. I was the comic relief in the whole tense situation, never knowing what I was doing and usually screwing things up. Almost like the Pink Panther, but not. Because I didn't have a weird French accent.

The second act hadn't been released to us yet, but our director promised that it would be a massive plot twist that no one would see coming. It sounded pretty epic, but I couldn't even begin to imagine what it could be. Like, does the criminal turn out to be the head detective? Did "Daniel" end up finding his bartender friend dude alive? Did I end up doing something useful so I could be the hero? I hoped it was the last one, because that would be so cool! Of course, it was Arthur's character who wanted to solve his own case, not mine… but the audience would never see it coming! A useless sidekick, nothing but the friend of ANOTHER useless sidekick, and then…. BAM! HEROOOO! I save the day with an elegant swoop of justice and… something else!

Meanwhile, back in NOT Alfred Land, they had just finished the last lines of the act, and we were finally given our break. I decided that today was as good as any other to finally talk to Arthur for real, off the stage, where I could actually figure out more about him. As I stood there, mind babbling, he walked away, grabbing his coat and going down the stairs. Before I could let him get away, I called out to him.

"Hey! Wait!"

He didn't turn, probably assuming I was talking to someone else, since anyone rarely asked him to wait up. I ran over to him and pulled on the sleeve of his shirt, which he, thankfully, DID notice, turning around with a look of irritation, like I had interrupted something important.

"Yes, what is it?" he asked me crankily.

"I… Uhhhh…." What had I been about to say? Had I even PLANNED what I was going to say?

He raised one eyebrow, looking seriously unamused with my lack of actual word formation. "Well that was a riveting conversation, really it was, but I have some business to be attending to at the moment," he finally said after a few more stutters from me, turning away and beginning to leave again.

"No! Stop! I mean, dude, your shoe is untied…" I said, again forgetting why I had come over here to say and getting distracted by his loose lace.

Blinking a few times in surprise, he looked down to confirm my statement. When he turned back to me, he glared heavily, crossing his arms and looking indignant. "No, it isn't."

"Oh… well… I thought it… I'm Alfred!" I said, changing the subject quickly.

"I already know that. Don't be stupid. We had to do all those exercises to get to know each other at the beginning of the production, so obviously I would know your name. Not to mention that we've been cast as best friends in this bloody musical. Putting your idiocy aside, not to be rude or anything, but was there something that you wanted from me?" he wondered, sounding rude despite what he had said.

"I just wanted to get to know you and stuff! I thought that we could be friends in REAL life too, y'know, so then in the musical we'd be even awesomer together! You always look so alone, I just figured maybe you were shy and needed someone to talk to you!" I said, triumphantly remembering why I had wanted to talk to him and pulling a hamburger from my coat pocket and biting into it, grease dripping down my chin.

I was a little surprised when he did a sort of double-take at me taking out my burger , pure shock written all over his face, which melted into delicate disgust when I felt the juice dripping. He was regarding me with a look of arrogance as I chewed and wiped off all the crumbs and ketchup from my face with my sleeves.

"YOU want to be friends with ME?" was all he asked, though I could tell he wanted to say more.

"Mmhm!" I mumbled, my mouth full of food.

He considered for a moment, looking me up and down until, finally, his face broke out into that rare smile, though his eye was twitching in an almost concerning way. He gave a couple awkward laughs and told me, "I-I don't know if you could take being my friend, you wanker. There are so many other people who are just dying to have the chance to get to know me!"

I cocked my head, genuinely surprised. "Wow, I didn't know that! Like who?"

His smile faded a little and he looked frazzled and thrown completely for a loop. "U-uh…"

"Oooooooohhh! My little Iggy has found himself another man! My poor, defenseless heart! How could you replace me so quickly, mon beau? In the prime of l'amour as well!" Out of nowhere, the guy I remembered was named Francis, who was playing a minor role, leaped across the stage, latching himself to the unsmiling British man in front of me and making kissy faces at him.

"Get OFF OF ME FRANCIS!" he growled, pushing the Frenchman aside, who just laughed in a funny way.

"Did you two used to date?" I asked.

"NO!"

"YES!"

Looking more than aggravated now, Arthur pushed hair that had fallen into his eyes out of the way. "We never dated! Look, Alfred, you see why I get out of here as quickly as possible? It's because this bloody wanker is stalking me like the pervert he is! And Francis, Alfred is NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" With another flip of his hair, he turned his back on both of us and stalked away, clutching his coat and his book tightly in both fists.

Francis waggled his eyebrows after him and turned to look at me. "He is fun to mess with, non?" Then someone was calling his name and we both turned.

Oh! I remembered this guy! His name was…. It was, uh… Gilbert! He was telling Francis to hurry up, that the awesome him and Toni were going to leave without him if he didn't get his French butt moving. He laughed again and, waving good-bye to me, went off to do who-knew-what with them. I looked away after Arthur, planning to go chase after him again, but suddenly, I registered something very slowly. I turned back to the "trio" quickly, and among them, I found two other, smaller boys, who were walking out with them.

MATTHEW? Well, look who was finally making some friends! When I noted his hand in Gilbert's, I was sure they would treat him nicely and, satisfied with that, I took off after Arthur once again. He had left the theatre and was sitting in the outside room, drinking tea and looking ticked off beyond belief, unnerving me with the way he was gripping his cup's handle.

"Hey!" I said, going over to where he was. "It's, uh break now, so we can go get dinner and come back, you know. So, I was wondering if you would wanna come with me tonight? We could go to McDonalds!"

When he shot me one of the dirtiest looks he'd given anyone all night, I figured he would say no, but to my surprise he stood up, snapped his book shut and calmly drank the rest of his tea, putting the cup back in his man purse. "Alright," he sighed. "But we aren't going to McDonalds. Don't be a twit. Let's go to some place with class."

"Okay! But I'm driving!" I called and ran out ahead of him, energy pumping through me.

Like a gentleman, he walked slowly and calmly after me, getting into the front passenger's seat of my awesome Mustang, raising an eyebrow at the pile of wrappers sitting on the seat before closing his eyes and gritting his teeth, so that he could pretend he wasn't touching them as he pushed them onto the floor. "Bloody hell, Alfred, that is DISGUSTING."

"Yup! You can just put that stuff anywhere… So, hey, like, where are we going dude? I don't really know how to get anywhere else from here than home and, obviously… yeah. So what's happening?"

After taking out some hand sanitizer and thoroughly dousing his hands in it, he sat down and pulled the seat belt across his slim, girlish chest. Well, flat-chested girls, anyway. "Hmm… anywhere that isn't French or fast food. Let's see…"

"Why no French?"

"Look, I appreciate that you are taking me out for dinner and all, but I'd also love if you would stay out of my business. It just brings up some… rather disturbing memories. If you didn't realize that when Francis came up to me. Which, though I barely know you, I have already depicted that you are rather slow and a little bit stupid, so my guess is you didn't."

I watched him as he glared out the window, his eyes like pure, hard jade with his ferocity. I started the car, still glancing at him and rolled down the windows, though I had air conditioning. Truthfully, I just wanted to see his soft, angel-like hair blow in the light breeze there was tonight. As I put my Stang in reverse and looked through the back to be sure no one was coming, I wondered, "So you DID date him?"

Immediately, he started to stutter all over the place. "N-n-n-no! We didn't- I mean we hadn't…. What I mean to say is…. It wasn't exactly…" He went completely silent and still, and for about a minute, we stayed like that.

I glanced over, just to be sure he still planned to answer, only to find his face red and his eyes troubled deeply.

"Yes," came his true answer finally. "Yes, we dated. But it was a little while ago, nothing too recent. That was in high school. And barely decided."

"So… you're gay?" I turned to look at him again, wanting to see his face when he answered.

"Y-yes… you don't have a problem with that, do you?" His voice reached me, soft and musical with the accent that just captivated me, wrapping around me with its sadness.

I turned back to look at the street thoughtfully right in time to see the light turn red and speed right through it. Though cars were honking at me incessantly, I kept right on going. It appeared that Arthur hadn't noticed, so I just tried to keep a normal, steady voice with him when I said, "No, I don't have a problem with that! I'm gay too!" I knew I had sounded too excited when his head shot up and his piercing eyes were gnawing at my soul viciously.

"Really…" was all he said, eyeing me keenly.

"Yup!" I continued driving in silence, until I saw a restaurant that I remembered going to a couple of times that fit his qualifications. It wasn't fast food, French, or McDonalds, plus, in my opinion, it was pretty classy. I turned in, already anticipating what I was going to get.

"Wait. Please tell me the restaurant is somewhere BEHIND this one!" Arthur complained. When I stayed quiet, he yelled, "ALFRED! The Golden Panda is NOT CLASSY!"

I laughed at the look on his face as I pulled into a parking spot and killed the engine. "It is too! It's classically Chinese! It isn't French or fast food, so I assumed it would be alright," I told him, a smile across my face. "C'mon, you'll like it!" I got out of the car and grabbed his hand, pulling him out of his reluctance.

Hastily, he pulled his hand out of mine, blushing lightly. "Alfred… I don't really… I'm not sure what to eat here."

"Just get anything that looks edible! It's a buffet, y'know, so you just, like, take a plate and get all the stuff you want! If you still don't know what to get, watch me and get what I get!" I said, trying to appease the nervous look on his face, but only making his face squidge more.

"I'm not sure I WANT everything you get…I might die of intoxication or poison or something."

I burst into laughter, taking his words as a joke. I started to walk in, pulling a burger absentmindedly from my pocket, but Arthur grabbed my arm, surprising me so much that I turned to look at him. "Sup?" I asked.

A look of pure disbelief was dominating his face. "Are you BRINGING THAT IN?"

"Bringing wha…? Oh! Um, yeah, I guess I was planning on it!" I took a bite, just to emphasize.

When he crossed his arms and set his hips, I knew I was in big trouble for something I did. I'd watched him on stage long enough to memorize his reactions to things. "No. Absolutely not. Drop it right this instant! You are NOT taking that in!"

I looked from him, all full of cold anger, to my beautiful hamburger, all full of warm juice and cheesy goodness. Arthur didn't have cheesy goodness. He just had a few anger problems. Feeling part of me die, I slid it back into my pocket, saving it for my after dinner snack later. I was already drooling in anticipation, which I probably wouldn't have noticed if Arthur hadn't taken out (what were those things?) a tissue majigger… Hanky! That was it! If he hadn't taken out the gayest looking pink hanky covered with lace and wiped the saliva off my mouth anally.

"You," he muttered, "are SO revolting!"

"Okay, okay MOM! I think you got it!" I countered, taking the hanky from him and immaturely holding it up high so he couldn't reach it.

He jumped a few times in vain, causing me to laugh at him like a jerk. But it was kinda funny that he was leaping at it and… it wasn't as funny when he punched me so hard in the stomach that I lost all the air in my lungs and doubled over. "Ow…" I gasped, giving him his stupid tissue back.

He "harrumphed" and put the piece of cloth back into his suit pocket. "You deserved that and you know it."

"Man." I frowned, rubbing my throbbing abdomen. "Taking you on a date is no fun!"

Halfway in the door, he froze, still as a statue, before turning around to look at me, his eyes slightly less sharp than they had been a few seconds ago. "Taking me on a date? Is that what this is?"

Now I went still, and thought about it for a second. Well, we were going out to get something eat, just the two of us and… and I kinda liked him. He had agreed to come with me, but then again, we barely knew each other, so maybe it WASN'T a date, maybe it was just two co-workers going out for a little dinner. Leaning more towards the second idea, I shook my head. "Nah! I was just jokin' around!" I chuckled, playfully ramming my shoulder into his.

He looked unamused at my behavior, maybe even a little hurt, which surprised me. Turning away again, he stalked into the restaurant, his hands curled into angry fists at his sides. I followed him inside slowly, wondering just what it was I had done to ruin our night out together already.