Un-beta beware!
This is a story I wrote for my friend arturd-kirklard on tumblr~! She's also my beta but I don't wanna bother her right now, sooooo, here it goes 8')
I am sooooo sorry for the grammar mistakes ;n;
The overwhelming smell of chloride assaulted his nose the moment he took a step inside the warm room, but of course it only took a few minutes for him to get used to it, although it also took a few seconds for sweat to break through his body, his white t-shirt slightly clinging to his body, his legs feeling a little bit uncomfortable while wearing the mandatory red shorts, and his forehead slightly damping the outgrowing locks of blond hair, but he still refused to go and cut it because it was cold as fuck and he turned into a hairy bear whenever winter arrived… It was not winter yet but who the fuck cared, it was cold and Alfred wanted as much warmth as possible.
Yet that was not what his job consisted of, in fact, sweating was not a job that existed in any way possible, no, Alfred's job involved a little more warm water, sudden dunks, and saving lives. Basically he was a lifeguard at one of the many community centers spread across the city; it was a simple, easy job with minimum wage and few hours in the week. It was an early Thursday morning and Alfred, along with the other three lifeguards, started their daily routine, one of the girls taking out the floats and boards for the upcoming students, the other initiating the flow of water in the water slide at the right side of the room and Alfred checking that the temperature was warm enough for the people coming inside. It was just mid-October, but the air outside the great city of Toronto was just right at the point of being too chilly- for Alfred completely freezing- and so the regulations said to keep the temperature of the water as warm as possible without it being too overwhelming. The fact that it was an indoor pool also helped because water evaporated and created the sticky humid atmosphere of summer that Alfred slightly missed – who was he kidding, he missed it a whole deal more than he let on.
After their round was done, one of the instructors came and thanked them for their hard work, they all nodded and some even mumbled a 'no problem' since it really wasn't a problem to just get things out for them. The instructor left with the promise of bringing the first class in a couple of minutes, apparently it was the younger group's time at the pool so their alertness level had to be just a little more aware of things. So they spread out, one of the girls went to the right, the other to the very back, Alfred took the left and the other stood at the front where the instructor would be giving orders to the kids.
A few minutes passed and soon the loud talking and giggling of kids filter through the hallway and into the open room, Alfred making eye contact with the other lifeguards and nodding as a message of good luck because they all knew very well that they will have very close calls during this session. The class started as smoothly as ever, the instructor, a brunet who introduced herself as Felicia, gave the basic rules to all the new swimmers and order them to always have a board with them while they practiced their kicks and floating techniques. Slightly bored, Alfred tuned out the class, his eyes shifting from lifeguard to lifeguard until they finally landed on the big windows at the front where parents and relatives were more than welcome to watch as their younglings learned how to swim. He quickly recognized some of the people there, there was the Chinese man who brought his daughters over every time there was Leisure time on the inside kiddy pool and then there was the "big eyebrows" guy who came over and watched over his little brother.
Alfred kind of just kept looking at the guy once his gaze landed on him, watching as he followed the movement of the kids in the pool, but probably it was only his brother that he was watching; he observed how a small, kind of shy smile made its way to the blond's lips and Alfred notice that he looked really cute with that smile. The whistle coming from Felicia broke made him jump slightly and quickly turn back to watching her as she smiled brightly at the kids and announced that they had free time to do anything or leave. After a lot of yelling and cheers, some of the kids continued to play around the pool, others practice their kicks and of course, some of them just completely leaving the place. Now it was the time to pay the utmost attention to them since some of them like to think they knew enough to swim without a board and thus end up half drowning and scaring their parents to death.
Alfred didn't know if it was subconsciously or not, but somehow he felt like he kept a closer look on the guy's brother more than the other kids. Of course he could easily blame it on the fact that the little brat was near his side and so it was very easy to notice the look in his eyes - smug and way too cocky- as he pushed the board away from him and tried to adventure swimming across the pool. The poor kid didn't last long before his look changed from cocky to panic and it took less than a few seconds for Alfred to react and jump right in to grab the kid and swim him to the edge. Once out of the water, the kid coughed some and laid on his side, his eyes tightly shot and his body shaking as a sob ripped through his small frame. Alfred sighed; this was always the reaction kids had to "almost" drowning. His eyes shifted towards the viewing window, quickly catching on to the panicked expression the older brother had and that's what made Alfred pick the kid up and slowly carry him towards the locker, his eyes connecting with the brother and motioning to him to go back to the locker room so he could get his brother.
Once inside, Alfred took care of the kid until his brother appear, his arms quickly wrapping around the smaller body and hugging him close to him while also muttering of how foolish the boy was for trying to do things he had not been taught yet. Alfred just awkwardly stood nearby, his thoughts between staying just a little longer or just going back to the pool, but the later he quickly disregarded, fully aware that his team mates were perfectly capable of taking care of the remaining children. Peter finally broke off the guy's hug and made his way back to the locker in which he'd stack his stuff and Alfred was left once again with the decision to stay or ditch.
"Thank you so much for helping him," a soft voice interrupted his decision making time and completely made him forget why he was so eager to ditch in the first place. Of course being Alfred and his luck – which was still as good as rock against paper- he stutter for a moment before nodding and mumbling a 'no problem' to the guy. Of course his antics earned him a soft chuckle and the hint of a smile and a little bit of Alfred's heart melted and he was slightly thankful that the little guy had been stupid enough to think he could swim already. He watched as the older of the two continued to watch his brother, an endearing sort of brotherly love look in him and Alfred caught himself thinking that he wanted to see that look more often than not.
"I'm Alfred, Alfred F. Jones," he blurted out, his cheeks warming up a little and his blue eyes quickly looking down at the tiled floor, his mind mentally cursing him for being an idiot. Another chuckle and a tap on the arm made him look back up, a soft smile waiting to greet him and happy green eyes regarding his face and reactions. "I'm Arthur Kirkland, thank you once again Alfred." He felt a small pressure in his arm and that's the first time he notice the guy's hand had not stopped touching him since he felt the tap and for a moment he focused on that one spot before turning back up and noticing that the kid had finished changing and they were well on their way to leave the community center.
And so Alfred ran to catch up and he had no shoes on and he was still wet because of jumping into the pool and outside of the locker room was a tad bit colder, but enough for him to shiver every other minute, but he didn't care and he finally catch up to them a bit breathless and cold as hell.
"Arthur! I- I – I – holy shit is cold as fuck!" He exclaimed, his arms subconsciously wrapping around his torso and slightly rubbing against skin. Meanwhile Arthur just watched him curiously, his hand still gripping on to the handle bar of the door that lead to the outside and Peter completely distracted as he saw some kids he knew walk upstairs to the foosball tables. Alfred swore under his breath and shook his head before giving the other a sheepish smile.
"I was wondering i-if you wanted to go out or something, you know hang out?" Alfred finally asked, his face slightly heating up, but holding Arthur's gaze and noticing how the other's slightly blushed and cleared his throat before smiling at him and giving him a small nod.
"But we'll have to bring Peter with us, since I can't leave my little brother home alone," and that was a bit of a downer to Alfred, but he wasn't willing to back down so he just nodded and gave the brightest smiles he could muster while he froze to death. "That's cool with me! We can go tomorrow after class is over," and so Alfred arrange a date and maybe it wasn't technically a date, but it was something and the only thing he could think of is that he wanted to make Arthur smile because, damn, he looked cute when he smiled.