When Ricardo walked down to the park he sat alone on a bench to enjoy himself. With a cigar in his mouth while smoking earnestly, he wondered if Matthew would come and join him. Ricardo hoped, breathing in his smoke, he would not mistake his friend for Alfred, that unforgivable son of a bitch. Just last week he paraded like a loud fool, gossiping about how weird his hair was! How dare he? Ricardo thought his hair was great. It was totally obvious Alfred spoke out in jealousy for Ricardo's curly dark locks.
Hopefully, after the conference meeting and a day off, Ricardo could finally enjoy his peace away from work and that obnoxious American. Of all things, he was by far the worst person he had ever met. That Alfred would act like he was a saint, could do no wrong. But all he ever did was wrong! If only the others could honestly gossip behind his back or outright tell Alfred he was a dick, then Ricardo would feel at peace.
Feeling a coming sigh, he took out his cigar and exhaled a long cloud of grey smoke. Ricardo felt the releasing relief, placed it between his lips and continued gazing up into the sky, enjoying the peace. But then...
"Ricardo, what's up man?"
Ricardo looked up in shock: it was Alfred, no doubt about it. Who else talked with that annoying American accent, or look like he just been to a rave party and smelt of sweat and, a scent that caught Ricardo off-guard, licorice? Why did Alfred have to come here and ruin today? This was Ricardo's day off after a whole week of suffering from Alfred! Ricardo felt his heart race in anger, or could it be something entirely different?
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"Nothing," he said, "I'm just eating ice cream." Ricardo looked at his hand and saw a triple scoop cone of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry with sprinkles and drizzled in chocolate syrup. Although Ricardo grew envious of the ice cream, Alfred was just asking for diabetes.
"Really?" Ricardo asked, unconvinced. Did Alfred expect him to let his guard down?
"Yep, like, it's good!" Alfred gave a long lick of his ice cream and suddenly took a seat next to Ricardo.
How dare he? First he came up out of nowhere, ruining his break, and now Alfred was sitting next to him. Ricardo took out his cigar and puffed a large, irritated smoke.
"Do you always smoke?"
"Only when I want to,"
"But you smoke, like, all the time. Don't you ever get a break? I hate smoking, it's bad for you."
"So is eating that ice cream." Ricardo pointed out flatly.
Alfred playfully expressed a hurt expression and placed a hand over his heart. "My god, Ricardo, how can you say this totally perfectly healthy dessert is bad for me?"
Ricardo felt his cheeks strain painfully. He didn't want to admit that he was jealous of Alfred having ice cream right now. It was worst because this was the person he disliked the most, and in Ricardo's eyes he seemed to be mocking him. What did he do this time to earn such misery?
"Dude, what's wrong?" Alfred asked him. "You look piss for some reason."
"Why the hell are you here?"
"Uh...cause I have a right?" Alfred replied.
"OOOOOHH, is that so?" Ricardo asked snarly. "Let me guess: you have a right to this and that, and others can't!"
"Dude, what are you talking about?"
"Like remember that one time when you said Arthur didn't have 'the right' to borrow your sugar? He asked you nicely, from what I heard." Ricardo was getting irritated now. Not the best thing to do after a long week of work.
"...is this because I'm capitalist?"
"OH MY GOD," shrieked Ricardo furiously, hands up in the air and his cigar fumming black smoke. "I cannot believe you pulled the fucking right wing slash left wing crap on me! On a day off!"
"Well, you're acting as though I did something wrong! Look, I just wanted to see how you were doing, that's all, and I guess I made you mad-"
"No kidding!"
"-but that doesn't excuse the fact that I'm...trying to be nice with you."
Ricardo looked up at him with a calm sense spreading slowly around him. Be nice to me? he thought in confusion. What was this guy thinking? Alfred and Ricardo, actually not trying to strangle each other and having a nice day out...together... It was crazy. Ricardo gave Alfred an apprehensive look but the expression the American gave was placid. This whole thing was rather strange as it happened so fast. One minuted the argued and then, out of nowhere, the two ceased shouting and allowed the peace to amble along.
Before he could open his mouth, Alfred came in, "So can we do it?"
Ricardo was baffled, "Can do what?"
"Can we have a day where we don't argue and enjoy the day together?" Alfred smiled, looking hopeful.
At first, he didn't want to. Why should he be the one to agree with this jackass? But this look on Alfred's face seemed rather honest... Ricardo always thought whenever he looked at Alfred's face, it was just a bunch of screwed up expressions with red ink saying, in Ricardo's opinion, 'jackass'. Yet now...
"Oi, you're ice cream..." After that thought track, he just realized Alfred's ice cream was melting.
Alfred caught sight of his ice cream, melting and dripping on his hand as Alfred tried desperately to lick the remains until it somehow slipped out of his fingertips and it fell to the floor in a pathetic fashion. Alfred was shocked, Ricardo just expressed a 'what-the-fuck' look to the ice cream and Alfred.
"...so you gonna buy another one?" Ricardo asked.
Alfred opened his mouth, paused, and said, "I don't have any money..."
"Don't tell me you used all your money on that ice cream..."
"...Yes, and my McDonald's breakfast!" Was Alfred going to cry? He looked like he was going to cry.
"Ah, crap, uh..." Ricardo took out his cigar at last, puffed it out uneasily and scratched behind his head, tangling his dark locks.
And, despite the outcome for Ricardo, he came up with a plan.
"Hey...why don't we get some ice cream?" Ricardo bit his bottom lip. "My treat." He said in a unnerving strain of tone.
Alfred went from teary-eyed to an ecstatic child being rewarded so suddenly. Before Ricardo could say he needed him to pay him back, Alfred took his hand in a firm grip and pulled Ricardo off the bench, shocking him from that out of nowhere act. Ricardo would pull away from Alfred's embrace, whether a hug or a fist bump, he would do it in a aggressive fashion. Yet this time when the two were alone, they had the chance...to socialize? Ricardo thought of it crazy but allowed the 'date' to happen.
"So you like...riding pigs?"
"When I was a kid!"
"I can actually picture you doing something weird like that..."
"What does that suppose to mean?"
"Nothin', it just means I can picture you doing strange yet normal stuff, dude!"
From that statement, Ricardo and Alfred, together, broke out a laughter a true friendship. It was so crazy! They were totally getting along for the first time ever and neither knew how it happened. One minute, Ricardo remembered being annoyed by Alfred who was getting on his nerves and the next thing he knew, the two of them were bonding like school kids telling each other bizarre stories.
"Hey...what time is it?"
Ricardo looked at his wrist watch and pursed his lips, "Two o'clock,"
"Thanks, I actually gotta go."
"Wait, really, why?"
"Cause I'm gonna miss the next episode of Game of Thrones," Alfred got up, waved Ricardo a goodbye and prepared to walk away when he said suddenly, "..hey, why don't you come along, too?"
"R-really?" Ricardo asked, feeling nervous. "You want me to come, too? I don't know..."
"Dude, it'll be awesome to watch it with you!" Alfred grinned cheerfully. He held his hand out in invitation and waited rather patiently.
Ricardo at first wanted to reject it because he felt like it was a trap...but after bro-bonding each other for nearly four and a half hours and feeling closer than anything in the world, Ricardo took the chance and grabbed his hand.
"Sure, why not?" Ricardo said, getting up with the help of Alfred's hand. "But, whatever you do, don't spoil anything."
"Kay dude," replied Alfred with a happy grin.
And, as the two friends walked hand-in-hand, they began to walk away from the park and the two, for the first time ever, became the best of friends.