Hey lovelies, I was role playing with my pet Seahorse and this idea came to light. One night of messing around and laughs at Al and Artie's expense turned into a full blown story with a plot and everything . I know right?

Well, I usually shy away from making anything larger then one shots. I'm afraid I won't finish it and leave my readers hanging…. But this… this one would not leave me alone until I sat down and began to fill out pages (you think I'm kidding), pages of story lines and character plans and sketches and conflict theories and goals and beginnings and a somewhat finish! Regardless to say, after yammering to my pet Seahorse about my plans for a week she told me to belt up and write it already (though in a much softer tone).

So here you go, enough of me talking.

Until later lovelies,

~Ying

"Love isn't any less just because you don't recognize it sometimes." ~ Katie Dickerson

Prologue ~ The Pea Coat

"Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance, five-hour phone conversation, the best soy latte that you ever had and … me?" Alfred belted the lyrics of the worn out classic as he turned down another road. His head bobbed steadily as he took another deep breath to launch himself into the chorus, right foot goosing the gas as he started traveling down a long lonely, stretch of road. The dingy red jeep took the roads imperfections with ease as the American turned up the music when the next song came on. He began singing along with Van Morrison as if he were a long time friend sitting next to him in his two seater vehicle. Under the blaring music Alfred could hear the wind howling past his black soft top and he shivered even with the heater turned on full blast. He hated the cold. Especially since night had fallen long ago and the warmth of the sun had been chased away by the persistent wind chill and light powdering of snow that had been falling steadily all day. It had only been a dusting, most of it melting before it could stay on the ground long, but now a few inches of the white was accenting the edges of the black roads as Alfred drove down the highway.

He leaned back in his seat fully, taking one of his hands off the black pleather steering wheel so he could grab his Big Gulp from the cup holder. He sucked Dr. Pepper from the jumbo red straw and relished in his chilled carbonated pop. Taking his eyes off the road for a moment he wedged his too big plastic cup carefully into it's holder so he wouldn't have a sticky mess to deal with. One infestation of tiny black sugar ants was enough to rid Alfred of leaving his fast food wrappers and partially empty plastic cups in the jeep. Spilling sugary liquid all over his floor would only be asking for trouble.

He had just placed his drink down when he felt his phone vibrating against his thigh. Alfred awkwardly lifted his hips, trying to simultaneously fish his phone out of his front pocket without pushing his foot harder on the gas petal. He finally pulled his phone out and glanced at the contact before pressing 'answer' and holding it up to his ear, balancing the phone on his shoulder for a moment so he could turn the volume down.

"What's up?" He asked casually, frowning when he looked up ahead and notice the tall street lamps on the road were dark. Weird. Was the snow already knocking out the power?

"Ma chère…" His roommate sighed into his ear, "Où êtes-vous?"

"Um…" Alfred racked his brain for the French phrases that Francis was constantly trying to teach him. It wasn't uncommon for Francis to start blathering to him in his native tongue, and now that Alfred was taking French as one of his classes, the foreigner was doing it consistently. He supposed he should be grateful; he was actually doing well in the class because of Francis, but it didn't change the fact that it was irritating sometimes.

"Je suis sur… um… la root?" He struggled.

"Je suis sur la route, Alfred. Route. That was very good. 'Owever, you still need to learn to stop dragging your pronunciation," Francis critiqued. Alfred almost commented that Francis usually butchered the English language by speaking through his accent, but decided against it when his roommate's voice sounded through the earpiece again. "Why are you still on ze road Alfred? Don't tell me you're just now going home? What about ze party?"

Alfred sighed, bracing the steering wheel with his knee so he could grab his soda for another drink. "Francis, I'm totally wiped out. I had to pull a double shift, plus I have to finish revising my speech for class tomorrow."

He had actually revised his speech twice already, seeing as Mrs. Banes was a complete bitch and he didn't want to take any chances on her giving him a bad grade. The woman was of Welsh origin, looked old enough to be looking forward to grandchildren, and had a permanent sneer on her hard-lined face. Feliks, a rather effeminate male, study mate, and friend, hated her almost as much as Alfred did. More often then not the platinum blonde followed up her lectures by storming out of the classroom besides Alfred. Ranting bitterly with a brisk flip of his iron straitened hair that the woman needed to either pull the stick out of her ass or get "fucking laid already".

"I want to come, but I've gotta get home. Should I leave the front door unlocked for you and Gil or are you staying somewhere else?"

He could practically hear Francis pouting on the other line. "Alfred, I worry about you. You work too 'ard. You do know zat right?"

The American shrugged, but answered when he realized that Francis couldn't see the gesture. "Don't worry about me. I'll come out with you and Gil some other time. I just have to get through this semester first. Some of these classes are kicking my ass."

"Alright, alright." Francis gave up, sighing again. "You can go ahead and lock up. Zat albino has already made plans to go home with zat beautiful 'ungarian girl and as for moi…" He trailed off with something Alfred usually referred to as Francis's rape laugh. "I will find someone to spend the night with."

I.e. Francis was getting laid tonight.

"Well, have fun with that. Be safe," Alfred chuckled, rolling his eyes at his roommate's blatant depravity.

"Bonne nuit, mon cher."

Alfred hit 'end call' and blindly stuck his phone into the vacant cup holder in front of his soda.

He suddenly noticed how dark the roads were with the streetlamps knocked out and immediately turned up the music so his radio blared in the small cabin of his jeep. It was still creepy driving by himself on the near pitch black road… Next to the woods... Around midnight…

Alfred changed the channel of the radio until he found a song he was familiar with. He then began singing along loudly to a popular song by Eminem, hardly hitting the blurred-together words correctly but feeling less afraid while singing along with the radio.

His headlights cutting through the darkness and the reflectors on the road along with passing road signs were the only thing that really stood out in the darkness. He was thankful the road only lasted for fifteen miles, already able to see lights up ahead for his exit Songs came and went and he was grateful for the pleasant distraction.

Something caught his eye in the pitch of night and he squinted light blue eyes to try and see what it was.

Someone was standing in the middle of the road.

Alfred's heart lodged itself in his throat and he slammed on the brakes as hard as he could while sharply turning the wheel. The ice and snow on the road made his vehicle fishtail sideways and keep going, hitting the person with a loud thunk and coming to a stop a dozen or so meters away. Half of his jeep ended up on the road and half on the shoulder.

Alfred sat there, stunned and shaken to his core, his breaths coming in sharp, painful jabs and his stomach churning unpleasantly. He could clearly hear Bruno Mars singing mournfully about someone's Daddy being unable to look him in the eye. His thoughts buzzed in his head, almost drowning out the popular song.

He had just hit someone.

He had just hit someone with his jeep.

He had been going too fast, hadn't he?

He had probably just killed someone.

That thought alone almost had Alfred vomiting right into his lap, but he swallowed thickly and pulled his hands from their death grip on the steering wheel. He took a few deep breaths and tried to rationalize with himself. If the person was still alive he needed to get out of the car, assess the damage, and call an ambulance right away. He couldn't just sit here like an idiot. God forbid another car or truck come through and run the person over a second time.

If he was dead… Alfred swallowed. Well, he needed to call an ambulance regardless.

He unbuckled his seatbelt with numb fingers and fumbled in his glove box for his emergency flashlight, grabbing it quickly before snatching his phone out of the cup holder. His drink had miraculously managed to stay put in place, the lid keeping all of its contents within the plastic container. He took another deep breath, and opened the car door, leaving his jeep running and the headlights on. The cold seemed to penetrate his body like a knife and Alfred gritted his teeth against the icy blast, his teeth clicking together as his stomach trembled within him. Flashlight in hand, Alfred scanned the road and saw a body laying on its side facing away from him. He gulped down a lump in his throat and tentatively neared the body. Nothing seemed to be bent at an odd angle, nor was there a giant pool of blood like Alfred was half expecting. As the teenager got closer he realized that it was a guy. Alfred walked around the man so he could look at his face, careful not to touch or move him in case his spine had been fractured. He got on his knees and saw that there was blood. There wasn't quarts of it like Alfred's imagination had grotesquely conjured up, but enough to where it was trickling across his forehead from his hairline and pooling on the freezing black tarmac. He reached down to cup his hand in front of the man's nose and mouth to see if he could feel any breath. The man's face grimaced before Alfred's hand even came close, and his mouth parted in a groan. Alfred yelped and fell back onto his rear.

Green eyes blinked open and a thin hand came up to feel an injured forehead. "Fucking hell," The man snarled, wincing when his fingers came in contact with his bleeding scalp.

Alfred stammered, absolutely taken aback that the man was alive, let alone conscious and talking. He sat there with his mouth opening and closing uselessly for a moment until the man saw him and began pushing himself up into a sitting position.

"Wait!" Alfred gently pushed the man back down onto the road. "Don't get up. We don't know if anything is broken yet. Hold on, I'll call an ambulance and-"

"That won't be necessary, thank you," the man cut in, giving Alfred a stern look and pushing himself up again. Alfred pushed him back down while getting up onto his own feet, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket as he went.

"No, you don't understand! I- I just hit you with my car." Alfred felt stupid for stating the obvious, and even more foolish when the man leveled an impatient look at Alfred. Almost as if he was imploring him without words to get the point already. "I mean, I tried to brake but I hit you and I want to make sure you're okay. I'll get you to a hospital ri-"

The man's hand shot up and grabbed Alfred's wrist with enough force to startle the teenager into fumbling his cellular and almost dropping it.

"I said that won't be necessary, boy," he man all but growled, "Now help me up."

Alfred was about to tell him, again, that he really shouldn't move but the man simply used Alfred's wrist as leverage to pull himself up into a vertical position. The college student watched, eyes wide and confused, as the man simply dusted himself off. He made it appear as if being violently struck by a vehicle was as graciously forgiven as bumping into someone with your cart at a grocery. Alfred stumbled over his musings, not sure how to properly react in this situation. Could he act as nonchalantly as the man in front of him? Would that be rude?

Alfred was so caught up in his thoughts that it took a moment to realize that the man was gone. Alfred spluttered and looked back and forth before his flashlight landed on the man walking on the side of the road.

"Hey!"

The man turned around and Alfred jogged to meet him, gesturing wildly to the surroundings. "What the hell are you doing out here, man? It's, like, twenty some odd degrees and you're walking down a highway in the dark?"

The man raised a thick eyebrow - a very thick eyebrow, Alfred noticed - and answered with an equally thick accent that Alfred was too wired to notice at first. "Yes, I am. I'm simply out taking a stroll, not that it's any concern of yours."

Alfred blinked and was struck by the bizarreness of the situation. He looked down at the man and finally saw him clearly. The man was obviously not from around these parts and was dressed smartly in grey slacks and an expensive-looking black pea coat. A green and white striped scarf hung around his neck and almost reached his now scuffed, dress shoes. Shoes, Alfred noticed, that looked like they had a brand name that Francis would both know and wear proudly. His outfit seemed to be ruined by the fact that the man wasn't wearing anything under the pea coat so his bare chest peeked through the black folds. His hair looked like it hadn't been combed properly in days. Unruly blonde locks stuck up at random from a thick head of hair. Alfred's eyes came back up to the man's face, ignoring the blood now dripping down his left cheek in favor of studying his features. Pale skin contrasted with thick, nearly black eyebrows and under those eyebrows were intelligent, emerald green eyes. Alfred probably would've considered the man to be attractive if his face wasn't permanently chiseled with a deadpanned look.

"A stroll?" Alfred finally said, letting his shoulders drop a bit as he said the words. When the man didn't answer, Alfred nodded and took another deep breath, scrubbing his head with the pads of his fingers. "Okay, um… well, would you mind if I gave you a lift?"

It seemed like the proper thing to do, right? It was only natural to offer someone a ride after you hit them with your car. Right?

The man frowned at the teenager, looking him over once before turning around and walking down the road again. "Not interested, thank you."

Alfred walked faster and caught the man's wrist, trembling at the chill of his skin. He pulled the man back so he could look him in the face. "Look, I really don't feel comfortable leaving you out here in the middle of the night with no transportation. You're freezing! Just humor me and at least let me give you a ride."

The man sneered and opened his mouth to say something but Alfred cut him off.

"I'm not leaving you out here, so you can either get into my car or I'm walking with you."

The man closed his mouth and looked at Alfred, confusion and a bit of stubbornness etched into his facial expression. Finally the man sighed and nodded, pulling his wrist out of Alfred's grasp.

"Fine, if you insist."

Tell me what you think lovelies.

Special thanks to Elle Eclaire for edits~