6 years ago-
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARTHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUR! xoxoxoxoxo Ur lik 16 now huh u old man?
TeaandCrumpets responded: Your grammar really does need work, Alfred. As endearing as it is for an idiot like you to type like that, it is rather a headache to read. Aside the point, thank you for acknowledging my day of birth.
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: Aw come on Artie dont be lik that! r u gettin a huge cake and lots of presents? how about ur uptight british friends r they comin to ur party? DID U GET MY GIFT?!
TeaandCrumpets responded: I have it right next to me actually. I wanted to wait until you got on to open it. I'll start right now.
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: aww thats cute tell me wat u think k? ;)
TeaandCrumpets responded: Alfred.
This is really amazing! How did you afford this?
Oh my God, I can't even believe this!
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: wooooow look whose using exclamations :D
do u really like it?
TeaandCrumpets responded: Like it?! I love this! You know I love The Beatles and this is just perfect! Thank you so much!
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: haha well u know me 6w6
i know what u love
and stuff
geez that sounded creepy
oh
mom's callin :(
gotta go art
love you 3
u
lol didn't mean to type that
ttyl
5 years ago:
TeaandCrumpets responded: Hey, Alfred. It's been a while since we've talked. Are you alright?
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: yeah yeah I'm good. how are you Art?
TeaandCrumpets responded: I'm fine. I'm a junior in highschool now. One more year and I'll be able to move back.
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: really? cool. it'll be nice to see you again. I'm still a sophomore.
TeaandCrumpets responded: Are you really OK, Al?
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: yeah
why wouldn't I be?
TeaandCrumpets responded: I don't know? Your typing strangely.
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: oh
I guess all the schoolwork is finally getting to me.
TeaandCrumpets responded: It's about time something did.
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: yeah
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: Arthur. Can I tell you something
TeaandCrumpets responded: Of course. Anything.
TeaandCrumpets responded: Alfred?
TeaandCrumpets responded: Are you asleep?
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: nevermind
good night Arthur
TeaandCrumpets responded: Good night.
I suppose.
4 years ago-
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: Where the hell have you been?
TeaandCrumpets responded: I'm sorry. I've been busy with schoolwork, my job, and balancing friends over here.
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: Seriously? So you just forget about me and go hang out with crooked-teethed people.
TeaandCrumpets responded: Alfred, that's really offensive. I don't even have crooked teeth and I'm British. What's wrong?
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: I'm being mean? What about all the times you've called me an 'idiot' or all the times you've made fun of Americans and the way we eat.
TeaandCrumpets responded: Well you can't exactly blame me, can you? You're customs are repulsive.
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: Oh, and sipping tea all day with your heads up your own asses is a fine way to spend the evening, isn't it?
TeaandCrumpets responded: You're being really rude right now, Alfred.
I think I'll just let you alone for a bit.
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: No, I'm not done. You say I'm rude and yet you seem to find it perfectly acceptable to be a whiny bitch all the time. Can't say I'm surprised about that, you've always been that way.
You seem to believe you're better than everyone else until I decided to do the right thing and hang out with you when were kids. I honestly think I was your only friend. And back then you used to believe you could talk to fairy's and shit. No wonder no one wanted to hang out with you.
TeaandCrumpets responded: Well you know what, Alfred.
At least I don't have a bastard half-brother from their whore of a mother with a father who left when they were four years old.
At least I bother to work for a living then mooching off of said brother for years.
At least I have the decency to man up and make a life for myself.
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: Don't talk to me anymore.
We're done.
TeaandCrumpets responded: It's about time.
hamburgerhero6w6 sent you: Goodbye.
TeaandCrumpets has permanently blocked hamburgerhero6w6
That was 4 years ago. Arthur was now 22. Alfred was 21.
For the years after the fight, Arthur deeply regretted what he said but it seemed Alfred had cut off all connection with Arthur from cellphone number to email address to Skype to letters. He couldn't find the sunny blonde anywhere.
Now, he had moved back to America. To Tennessee. To the small rural area Arthur had lived in so many years ago before moving back home and leaving his best friend forever.
He really hoped Alfred hadn't moved to New York as he so desperately wanted to do to be closer to Arthur.
God, he hoped.
It had taken him years to get the funds to move back out here with a permanent home but it was worth it as he stared at the unreal reality of Alfred's front door staring back at him. The house hadn't changed. A pale baby blue door with a white frame and an old-fashioned house of wood freshly painted with the same ugly beige Emelia, Alfred's mother, loved. The tree-house they had played pirates in was rotting and falling apart from years of being exposed to the rain and no one to care for it. Maybe he and Alfred could rebuild it. They may not be able to play in it any longer but maybe kids could. His kids, Arthur's kids (though he had yet to have any). Their kids. The thought made him blush and he willed it away. Knocked on the front door.
Emelia answered. Years had not touched her sunny glow and perfect features of motherly sweetness yet Arthur had certainly outgrown her by a good head or two. Her hair was curled and she wore a light sundress and an expression of confusion. "Hello?"
"O-oh. . I'm Arthur Kirkland. I'm not sure if you remem-"
"Artie! Sweetie! It's been so long, dear!" He was engulfed in warmth and the smell of cookies and baking bread, a scent he had always loved and associated with the woman who he basically considered his second mother.
"Mom?" For a moment, Arthur's heart stopped. Alfred peeked around the corner and seemed to consider the man in the doorway before smiling with a gentleness akin to his mother. "Arthur. It's good to see you."
Arthur's heart dropped. "Hello, Matthew. I...is...is Alfred here? I really need to speak with him."
He had never felt an atmosphere turn so cold so quickly or gotten such a look from Matthew, the boy having been such a quiet child. Moreover, he had never seen Emelia cry before. Extremely concerned, Arthur guided her to the worn mint green couch sitting in the same place as it always had been. She cried for under and hour, taking tissues from helpful Matthew who supplied them along with a trashcan as if on instinct.
"I'm terribly sorry, . I didn't mean to upset you."
Blowing her nose, Emelia shook her head vigorously before responding. "No, I'm sorry, dear. It's just...these days are just harder to get by without him here."
Again, Arthur's heart took a dive. He had moved on. "I see...I understand it must be hard with him gone, but I'm sure he'll be back to see you. Possibly on holidays?"
Emelia looked utterly surprised so Matthew took the stand. "Eh...Arthur? Where exactly do you think Alfred is?"
"New York, I assume. He always did have his head in the clouds for bigger things like acting." Arthur reminiscing was broken by a worn envelope being held out to him.
"Read this. We assumed he told you, but I guess this will." Matthew comforted his mother with cookies, milk, and a warm blanket.
"What is it?"
The boy gestured to the letter.
Arthur turned it over and saw, in Alfred's terrible handwriting that he had grown accustomed to reading, his own name written in pen. He took no time in opening it.
Dear Arthur,
I tried sending this letter but it seemed you had moved and it came right back. I couldn't contact you for one specific reason and I will explain it in this letter soon.
Firstly, I don't know if this will ever get to you. I'm trusting Matthew and mom to keep it safe until the day you might decide to come home and read it. I don't believe you'll ever truly forgive me for what I did and I'll never expect you to. But you should know why I did.
That day, your 16th birthday, my mom had called me to go for a doctor's appointment and it turned out I had cancer in my lung. I couldn't play sports anymore, mom wouldn't let me, and I got really weak and thin. It was terminal, meaning there is no cure or hope for surgery. But with your big brain, you probably already knew that. :)
I didn't know how to tell you. I spent those few months trying to think of ways to tell you, but I just couldn't. Imagining you smiling about me having kinda good grammar for once just made it too hard. I shut you out.
The day we fought, I meant to start it. I thought if you lost contact with me it would make it easier on you and I could rest in peace knowing you had a full life without living with the loss of your best friend. I better still be. :I
Secondly, I forgive you. I know you didn't mean what you said about mom and Mattie and even if you did I'd still forgive you. Because if you're reading this, then you obviously cared enough to come back home and that thought will stay with me my final days.
Lastly, I love you. Yeah, I know right. The awesome me has fallen for the nerd reading books alone in the library. ;) Just kidding but seriously. I love you, Arthur Kirkland. And of all these friends and lovers, there is no one compares with you. Get it? Beatles reference. Just for you.
I realized just how badly I felt this during our 'fight' and I was so tempted just to tell you then and there but I didn't.
And I'm sorry for that. If I had we might've been able to start something together. I'm not even sure how you felt about me but I just assumed.
I love you. Don't forget me.
Love, Alfred 6w6
P.S: Nevermind about the 'starting a life together thing. I mean, if you wanted to then that's freaking awesome but if not then sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I don't have an eraser on this pencil and the nurse won't get me another one and I don't want to strike it out.
Arthur rubbed at the crinkled spots of long dried tears that decorated the single piece of paper and wiped at his own.
"We thought you knew, dear. You two were such good friends. He...he died. Three years ago. His lung collapsed and he went peacefully in his sleep." Emelia began crying onto Matthew who took it with open arms. "My baby was only 19..."
"Can I...see him?"
Arthur stood staring at the gravestone with clouded eyes.
Alfred Franklin Jones
Age:19
July 4, 1995-August 14, 2012
Beloved Son, Brother, and Friend
R.I.P.
Arthur crouched and touched the picture of the smiling American as he remember him. "I'm here, love...Rest in peace."
A/N: I'm sorry for all the angst I've been posting
I'll be writing exclusively usuk
and taken from this persons post
post/120880623469/human-au-alfred-and-arthur-grew-up-together-as
is the prompt i used
Enjoy!