This is the first fic I've ever posted, actually so I hope you all enjoy it! It's a gift for "unofficial-official-hetalian" and a fic for the USUK Network's Summer Festival Event 2016.
Arthur woke up to an irritating knocking on his bedroom window. What the hell was knocking on his window at this ungodly time in the night? "It was probably just the wind," he thought sleepily, rolling over onto his side, away from the window.
Annoyingly, the knocking persisted. "Goddammit…" Arthur muttered, drowsily getting up to shoo the annoying knocking away. Arthur got up and staggered over to the window and pulled it open.
Suddenly, he was blinded as an intensely bright light flashed into his eyes.
"Aghh!" He yelled, flinching away from the light and trying to cover his burning eyes the best he could as the light was quickly shut off.
"What the bloody FUCK is that?!" He snarled into the darkness, trying to rub away the dark spots in his eyes, now awake and quite angry. He should have been more concerned than angry that there was a blinding light outside his window in the middle of the night, but he was far more irrational and short tempered when he was tired, so he just jumped to being extremely angry instead.
"Shhh! Shhh!" a voice whispered hastily, a pair of unknown hands grabbing him and covering his mouth. "You'll wake people up!"
Arthur immediately panicked at sudden appearance of the person and whirled around, fists flying at his attacker, sending him stumbling backwards and making him let out a muffled "Owwww!"
The boy's mind raced in a flurry of panic, wondering what he was supposed to do in this situation. Who was this person? A thief? A murderer? He could yell, and wake his family, but who knew what the intruder would do if he alerted the others. The intruder might be extremely dangerous or have a weapon! He braced himself to defend or attack, depending on what the situation would call for.
He was not expecting the bright light to shine straight into his eyes again.
He tried to blink away the spots again as the light was lowered, and hissed, trying to keep an eye on where the attacker was and ready himself for what might happen. Would the intruder attack him while he was thrown off balance?
"Oh my god, dude, are you ok? I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to shine that right in your eyes!"
That was unexpected as well, but that voice was familiar…
"ALFRED?" He whisper-yelled. In the light of the cursed flashlight, it was quite clear that his longtime boyfriend Alfred F. Jones was standing there in jeans and a sweatshirt, with a rueful smile on his face.
"Hi Artie! Surprise?"
Arthur stood speechless for a moment and then exploded. "What the hell are you doing!? I thought that you were some kind of thief or murderer or something!
"SHHH! Hey! You're gonna wake everyone up if you keep yelling like that!" Alfred whispered urgently, waving his arms around, as if that would help calm his boyfriend down. "And if you wake everyone up we'll both get in trouble and your parents might not like me anymore 'cause I snuck over to see you! He cried, getting louder as he continued. "I came over to see you 'cause I have a surprise for you, but if you wake everyone up, everything will be ruined!" He ended with a little bit of a pout.
Arthur sighed, annoyed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. And then thought of something pretty damned important if he said so himself. He grabbed Alfred's flashlight and stuck his head out the window. "How in the world did you get up here? We're on the second story! Oh my god Alfred, you better not have climbed up the trellis. I swear if you killed my clematis…
Alfred gave a sheepish, apologetic smile. Also known as his 'I love you, please don't kill me babe' look.
Arthur groaned and put his head in his hands, resisting the urge to smack his head on the nearest wall. "You are coming with me to buy me another clematis and another trellis. I can see from here that you've scuffed up the trellis and crushed my poor clematis. What on earth possessed you to climb up the trellis anyway? It's not very sturdy as it is!"
Alfred tried for another smile and shrugged a bit. "I thought it'd be romantic? Also, I didn't wanna sneak a ladder out of my house. I nearly got caught anyway; I swear Mattie almost saw me."
Yes, it'd be quite romantic for you to sneak out to my house in the dead of the night, try to climb the trellis and break your skull open trying to see me," Arthur snorted. "Either way, why are you here Alfred? If you just came to see me, I appreciate the gesture but I certainly do NOT appreciate in at one in the bloody morning, losing sleep, or you trying to blind me with your flashlight. I do have things to do in the morning, you know. And I refuse to partake in your tradition of staying up until 4 in the morning and sleeping until 1 in the afternoon."
"Oh yeah!" Alfred grinned excitedly. "I have a surprise for you! C'mon!" Alfred started toward the window and ducked out of it, but Arthur stayed put.
"Oh no," Arthur said. "I am not going anywhere. I am staying right here in my room and I am going to go back to bed. Also, I will not climb out that window with you. No matter how Hollywood worthy or romantic it is, I am NOT breaking my neck climbing out the window."
"Pleeeease?" Alfred whined, giving him the puppy eyes look he knew Arthur normally melted into.
Arthur tried to shield himself from the look, really, he didn't want to crush Alfred, but he had plans to to get up in the morning and do some work in the garden and then he was going to run to the store because Allistor had eaten most of the food in the house and Oliver had found his secret stash of tea. "Alfred…" he groaned. He turned his back to him. Dammit, he couldn't take that look…
Alfred looked crestfallen. "But Arthur… the surprise has GOTTA be tonight! Please? I've spent like, days making sure it'll be perfect!"
Arthur sighed. He really hated to crush his boyfriend's plans, but he really just wanted to go back to bed. He snuck a look back over at Alfred, who looked positively miserable.
"… What is the surprise Alfred?"
"It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you!" Alfred replied with a cheeky grin, knowing he'd won Arthur over.. "Now c'mon Artie! We're late! Believe it or not, we're on a schedule!"
"We are not climbing out of the window Alfred!"
About ten minutes later, after retelling Alfred that he was NOT climbing out the window, and that doors were there for a reason, as well as putting some proper clothes on, (he sure as hell wasn't about to go out in his pajamas), they were ready to go.
"Ok!" Alfred cheered quietly, as they made it to Alfred's car which was parked a few blocks away, for 'extra precaution" Alfred had said. "Let's go!" Alfred's revved up his stupid bright red convertible sports car (how the boy had afforded it, Arthur would never know) and started driving out of the suburb-city thing they lived in and started toward the countryside.
"Where ARE we going, Alfred? I know you won't tell me what the surprise is, (as I've asked quite a few times and you still refuse to tell me) but at least tell me where we are going! I swear if you've gotten me up at 1 in the morning for something ridiculous…"
Alfred pouted. 'It's not ridiculous, I promise! I just know that you'll like it, ok? We'll be there pretty soon, ok? Uh, you can go to sleep if you want, since I woke you up and everything. I'll wake you up when we get there and I'll try to avoid the holes so you sleep fine!"
Arthur sighed. Despite his boyfriend being annoying, loud and rather obnoxious sometimes, he was extremely caring and sweet and made Arthur happy being around him, so all was well. "Alright love, wake me when we get there. And stay below the speed limit Al, it's there for a reason." Arthur grumbled, rolling his eyes just a little bit and relaxing in his seat.
'G'night Arthur!"
•••
A voice interrupted Arthur's sleep, while a hand gently, but persistently shook his shoulder. "Hey Arthur, wake up!"
Why was someone waking him up? It wasn't time to get up, was it? He hadn't heard his alarm yet… A sleepy hand shoved at the hand shaking him. "Go 'way…"
The voice laughed. "But Artie! We're here! It's time for me to show you your surprise!"
Oh yes, that's what had happened. Arthur blinked sleepily a few times and then stretched and yawned "Hnn, Alfred, where are we then? May I see the surprise that gave you the need to climb up to my window in the dead of the night now?"
"Yep! It's all set up!" grinned Alfred, practically bouncing up and down "And we're in a parking lot, duh!"
Arthur sighed. He seemed to sigh a lot around Alfred, didn't he? "I meant besides that Alfred… So what type of surprise is one that you have to wake me up in the middle of the night and bring me to a parking lot in the middle of god knows where?" he asked, climbing out of the car and stretching again. Note to self, a car is not the best place to sleep.
"C'mon!' Alfred said, beaming. He grabbed Arthur's hand and began practically pulling him toward the fence surrounding the parking lot.
Arthur stumbled, trying to keep up with his overexcited boyfriend. "Slow DOWN Alfred!" he complained, "What's with the huge hurry?"
"We're behind schedule! It took a minute to wake you up!" Alfred replied, pulling him along a little too fast so they both nearly crashed into the wooden fence. "Hurry up Arthur!" He grinned, despite their near crash. "It's right up this way!"
"Where?" Arthur asked, confused. All that's here is a wooden-" Before Arthur could finish his sentence, Alfred had climbed over the fence and was standing, beaming on the other side, apparently waiting for Arthur to do the same.
"Alfred, no."
Alfred continued his beaming. "Artie, yes!"
"I swear, if we are trespassing Alfred…" Arthur let the threat trail off.
"We're not! For some reason Mathias' family owns a bunch of land so I asked if we could come out here! It would totally suck if we got like, arrested because of my surprise! But I made sure we wouldn't, I planned everything out!
Arthur tried to protest some more, but before he could Alfred had vaulted over the fence again, again and literally had picked him up and dumped him over the fence.
"OW!" Arthur let out a squawk as he landed on his butt in the grass on the other side of the fence. "Alfred!"
"Sorry babe!" Alfred said, laughing. "Had to be done!" Alfred climbed back over the fence and pulled Arthur to his feet.
Arthur scowled. "You will never throw me over another fence, ever again." Arthur brushed off his pants and crossed his arms. "I swear…"
As Arthur began lecturing his darling boyfriend, Alfred pulled out his phone and checked it.
"Holy SHIT Arthur! We've got like 15 minutes! Crap! C'mon!" He grabbed Arthur's hand again and began dragging him up the path, then up the hill off to the left side of the path, about fifty yards down the path.
When they finally reached the top of the hill Arthur was out of breath. Damn Alfred and his sports stamina! Just as he was about to turn to Alfred, a pair of hand cover his eyes.
"Guess who!" Alfred said cheerily.
"Arthur smiled an exasperated smile. "Alfred, if we're here may I finally see your surprise?"
"Not yet! Give me just a minute! Now keep your eyes closed and keep holding my hand! Ima lead you there!"
Arthur walked forward holding Alfred's hand a few feet before feeling the grassy texture suddenly change to a different texture under his feet. Then he felt Alfred stop.
"Okay! Sit down, look up, and open your eyes!"
Arthur carefully sat down and felt the thing he was sitting on. It felt like a blanket of some sort. He tilted his head up and opened his eyes to see the most beautiful night sky he'd ever seen. The stars were big and bright, the sky, a deep indigo blue color.
As he gazed around at the beautiful sky, he could spot a few consolations, and even a few brighter, bigger shining, glimmering diamonds that might have even been planets. And then… it started.
A single streak of light flashed across the sky, so fast he almost missed it. Then it was followed by a few more, and then so many more he couldn't count them even if he wanted to, and even then he still wouldn't be able to.
It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, and it was made even better by the amazing boyfriend who had woken him up in the middle of the night, driven him out into the middle of nowhere, dumped him over a fence and gave him the best surprise he had ever had.
"Wow…" he murmured. He was practically speechless, Alfred had driven far out into the country where there was far, far less light pollution and all he could hear was the sound of crickets and chirping in the grass and Alfred and his own soft breathing.
He turned to look at Alfred and saw a deep blue blanket, a sleek new telescope and Alfred sitting right up beside him, tearing his gaze from the beautiful meteor shower to look at him with such a huge smile on his face, Arthur thought Alfred might simply smile to death right there and then.
He had a picnic basket beside him with two canteens and a camping lamp as well, turned off and unneeded as a brilliant shining full moon hung in the sky, rabbit and all, lighting up the hill and all the hills and forest area surrounding them.
Just then a little beep from Alfred's phone startled Arthur and Alfred beamed a smile of pure happiness, and without a explanation, pulled him into a long loving kiss. When they pulled away they both were a tad bit out of breath and by the light of the moon, Alfred's face was thoroughly flushed. He put on his unending look of pure happiness back on and held a red rose and little wrapped present that he picked up from behind the picnic basket. "Happy anniversary Arthur."
Wait, anniversary? Seeing the surprised look on Arthur's face Alfred pulled out his phone and showed him the date and time. July 30th, at 12:03 AM. Their anniversary, three minutes into that very special day, the date from three years ago when they had become a couple.
Alfred's smile softened and eyes shone like the moon. "So do you like your surprise Arthur?"
Arthur's smile was brighter and more beautiful than the night sky.
