How could he have done this to me? I think back to that day, when it seemed the rain would never stop. We stood apart from each other, and it felt very odd. Unnatural. His blue uniform, so much different from mine, which was red from the feelings I couldn't acknowledge or reveal.
"Is this how it has to be, Alfred? Is it really so horrible being with me? We've always been together, and you just to throw it away like this? Stop being an idiot, and I'll forget the whole thing. We can go back to the way things were before!" I shouted to him. He was only a few feet in front of me, yet he seemed so unreachable.
I guess I wasn't being entirely honest. I didn't really want to go back to the way things were. I wanted to be so much more to him than a "guardian" or "older brother." I just didn't want him to leave my side. Was my love for him really that despicable?
"I can't stand being with you like this! It's smothering me! I don't want to be trapped anymore. Let me be free. I won't let you control who I am anymore. I want my independence. Let me go! I don't want to fight like this, either."
The weight of the impending separation hit me and I was forced to my knees. The mud I knew would sully my uniform, but I didn't care. I cast away the musket I held in my hands. I knew I had to let him go. I couldn't refuse him, not like this. My love wouldn't allow me to force him into his unhappiness, even if doing so would cause mine. At that moment, I was happy for the rain, the raindrops concealed my silent tears.
"Fine then, go! You're free. See if I care you… you…moron!" I couldn't look at him any longer and stared at the mud beneath my fingers. Alfred lingered for a moment, but I could hear the squish of his boots as he walked away from me. The wind almost carried the words "I'm sorry" Whether they were his, or mine I didn't want to know.
I think back to those days and am almost embarrassed on how weak I was. For goodness sakes, I was a pirate! I didn't care what others thought of me then! I was powerful! I was the bloody British Empire! I shouldn't have cared that one of my colonies left me! I had dozens more! And what am I now? I have no colonies to speak of, and the only thing it seems I have to offer is my magic and rock n' roll. I began to rub my eyebrows. Why are they so much bigger than everyone else's? Is that why Alfred left me all those decades ago? Maybe it was my cooking … No, that can't be it.
"Yo, Arthur! What's up?" Alfred came strutting up to me in his bomber's jacket. He has changed so much from the time I found him. My heart still ached. Seeing him only reminded me that we weren't together.
"I should be the one asking you that. You're the one who called me out here. What, do you want to talk strategy of how to attack the Axis powers? If that's so it really could have waited until…"
"Chillax, my man. Is it so wrong to just hang out? Here." Alfred handed me an ice-cream cone that was in his hand. Two scoops, much more than I wanted or needed. But this was nothing compared to his four scoops.
"Alfred, I swear, one day you'll get diabetes, you fat imbecile." It's funny how I still worry about him like in this past. But why should I worry, he's no longer the child I knew and loved back then. He had grown and so have I.
"Yeah, yeah, just eat it."
Alfred sat beside me on the bench. I began to lick the top scoop. It was already starting to melt from the sun. The weather, so much different from that time, yet we still seemed so far away.
"Hey, Arthur, do you ever think back to the past?"
He looked at me with his pure blue eyes, and I couldn't help but be pulled back into the memories. But the memories were starting to intertwine with what I felt now.
"Don't…Don't be so stupid! Of course I do! I have a lot more history than you do!"
"We sure did spend a lot of time together. Remember that time you burned down my house? That was totally not cool, man! You do some seriously sick stuff when you're drunk."
I could feel the blood rushing to my face from the memories. That night had so much regret lingering; after that incident, I had basically locked myself in my room for years. I could see the laughter in his face when he saw my reaction. The sun was reflecting in his bright eyes.
"Shut up! It's your own darn fault! If you hadn't gone off on your stupid 'revolution,' it would have never happened. How could you have done that to me? Well, was it worth it? Are you so much happier now not being with me? You stupid idiot, I really lov…" I clamped my mouth shut out of frustration. I exposed my self too much. I was asking questions I had answered long ago. The America now far outshone my colonial America. He was definitely happier.
The laughter America had before died down, and he stared at me intensely. I was already blushing furiously, but I wouldn't back down. He broke away and looked towards the sky.
"Never gonna give you up. Never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you. Never gonna make you cry. Never gonna say goodbye. Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you." He said very seriously.
"Oh don't you dare start that. That's not very original, and I'm pretty sure that you've done all those things. Just tell me the truth already. It's been long enough."
I started to tremble a tiny bit as I braced my self for more hurt. He turned his head towards me. "You can't handle the truth."
Frustrated by his immaturity, I got up and started to leave.
"Wait, don't go! I'll be serious, I'll tell you." His hand clung to my uniform, and his eyes peered over his glasses as he stared at me. He had already finished his first scoop of ice cream and was half way through the next. I sat back down and resumed eating my ice cream.
"Well, go on."
"I … I couldn't stand the relationship we were in. How could I? You were so overbearing."
As I had thought, our relationship still hasn't changed from that time.
"I didn't want us to be like that. Believe me, I didn't want to leave like that. I did what I had to. I wanted to be by you side."
"Yeah like that makes real sense. You broke away so you could…wait what?" Alfred's face was becoming a bit pinker with each passing second.
"You know, you were so controlling. Even though we were always together. I couldn't be as close to you as I wanted. I was always your 'little brother' and I didn't want that. I wanted something more." The words he spoke were frighteningly similar to my own. The heavy burden resting on my heart slowly began to lift.
"I guess what I mean to say, Iggy, is that I loved you. And, well, I guess I still do." Even though his face was so red, his white smile was all I could think of. The ice cream I was neglecting began to drip down my face. I moved to wipe it off.
"No wait!" Alfred held back my hand moved his lips to my chin and removed the offending ice cream. After the ice cream was gone, he moved his lips to mine. The kiss was sickly sweet from the ice cream. My body filled with warmth that rivaled the bright sun beating down on us. After all these years of worrying, Alfred wanted me almost as much as I wanted him. We would never be as we were before, but we could be so much better: unrestricted and finally side-by-side.
"I…I just really love… ice cream." I hadn't thought that it would be possible for his face to get redder. And it was getting even more so with each second that he waited for my response. I took his remaining ice cream and smashed it in his face. He went white as a sheet, startled and confused from my reaction and the loss of his ice cream.
"Honestly, Alfred, you're such a slob. Well, I guess the least I can do is return the favor," I said as I moved closer to kiss his sweetly sticky face.