Prompt: "Of all the people I could've gotten stuck in an elevator with and it just had to be you."
Arthur could feel a very bad headache coming and well when was ever really there a good headache to begin with?
"Of all the people I could've gotten stuck in an elevator with and it had to be you."
"Oh come on, stop pretending you don't like me, Artie."
"It's Arthur and I'm not pretending." He rolled his eyes. "I really don't like you."
"Okay, keep denying it. I'll wait."
"Just please shut up."
"I'll wait." Arthur watched as his boss, Alfred Jones slumped down unceremoniously on the floor without a care for his ironed suit. He looked up at Arthur and pulled on his wrist, tugging him down but Arthur refused to budge. "Sit beside me."
"No thank you."
"You'll get tired. It's gonna be a while before rescue comes, you know?"
"I know."
"Lol you're so stubborn."
"I've been told." Arthur leaned on his back and a shiver crawled on his skin upon contact with the cold elevator walls. He felt warmth envelope his wrist.
"It's an order. Sit down." There was seriousness in Alfred's face and a change in his tone as well. Arthur was not really convinced after knowing Alfred for a year now since Alfred took over the company from his father. Nonetheless, he gave up and did as he was being told.
"You're so bossy." He commented with a sigh and the smile on Alfred's face was back in full blast that his teeth shone through the dimness inside the elevator.
"Well, I'm the boss so it's a given."
Arthur merely shrugged his shoulders and opted not to say anything in hopes of getting silence Alfred by showing lack of interest. He curled his fingers against his palms and tucked his hands behind his knees for warmth.
"Are you cold?" Alfred asked. Arthur shook his head.
"No."
"But you are."
"Then don't ask if you already know."
"Scoot over." Arthur raised a brow and leaned away instead, looking at Alfred suspiciously. He was pretty sure he was not trying to be funny but Alfred laughed.
"Scoot over or I'll scoot over." Arthur made no attempt to move and Alfred sighed. "Fine then, I'll scoot over."
The arm-length distance between their shoulders disappeared and Arthur could feel the body heat that Alfred radiated warm his side. It was not much, not enough to stop his fingers from trembling but it felt comfortable so he chose not to push Alfred away. He did still sigh dejectedly though just to be clear that he was not craving Alfred's warmth or anything of the like.
"You like that, huh?" Alfred cooed.
"Don't make it sound so perverted and again, no, I don't like it."
"You know, the Japanese have a word for people like you. What is it again? Ah! I remember!" Alfred exclaimed and turned his head to look at Arthur. His face was too close that Arthur could feel Alfred's breath on his neck so he kept still, intent on never facing his boss. "It's 'kawaii.' Do you know what that means?"
"No and I don't want to know."
"It means, cute." Alfred proudly answered his own question. He shifted and leaned more on Arthur's side, putting more weight that Arthur had to lean on the wall to his left.
"Don't call me cute."
"But you are! I mean look at you, you're already blushing." He felt a finger poke his cheek and Arthur tried to lean away further and be one with the wall, let the wall eat him alive if it meant saving his cheek from Alfred's annoying poking.
"I'm not blushing. It's just the cold."
"I thought you weren't cold?"
"Shut up, Alfred."
"Woah is that how you should speak to your boss?" Alfred looked flabbergasted but Arthur was having none of that. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. "There's another Japanese word that I know of that also perfectly describes you aside from 'kawaii.' Do you wanna know?"
"No."
"It's 'tsundere.' I learned it from Kiku when he once called Lovi a tsundere. Do you know what that means?"
"I don't care."
"It means, that you are in love with me and you're just too stubborn to admit it."
"Alfred, for the hundredth time, I don't like you."
"Yeah you don't like me, because you're in love with me."
"I'm really not."
"It's okay. I'll wait." Alfred hummed and they both fell silent for a while, much to Arthur's relief.
There was just the sound of Alfred's index finger tapping against the floor rhythmically and it helped Arthur relax. His lids had drooped and he felt sleep slowly seducing him away from consciousness when Alfred's voice came through again.
"They're taking a while."
"Yeah." He answered, half dazed.
"I really wanna kiss you."
"Ye— what?" His eyes snapped completely open and he felt Alfred's weight on his shoulders lessen as Alfred moved to lean forward so he could peer up at Arthur's face.
"I said, I wanna kiss you."
Arthur's cheeks flushed and for the second time, he wished that the elevator would accept him to be part of its walls.
"W-well you can't."
"Yeah, I know. Doesn't change the fact that I really want to."
"If you try anything I'll have you kiss my fist."
"Really!?"
"It's not something to be happy about, idiot!" Arthur flicked Alfred's forehead with his fingers and the tingling pain made Alfred sit straight up. His one hand tried to console his skin by rubbing over it.
There was another short-lived silence and Alfred was peering up at him again with a new kind of glimmer in his eyes that could only spell out trouble for Arthur.
"Hey Artie,"
"W-what is it?"
"Can I try kissing you?"
"I already said no."
"But this is different." Before Arthur could ask how it differed Alfred went on with his explanation. "Coz, I'm just gonna try kissing you, so it's like, just gonna be almost kissing you. So basically I'm not really gonna kiss you, unless you want me to kiss you."
Arthur's eyebrows furrowed because he was just utterly confused and he did not really get Alfred's point. The look on his face must have been obvious because Alfred only looked more determined in trying to get his message across.
"I'm gonna try to kiss you, but before our lips connect you can push me away and I'll stop. I won't kiss you unless you want me to. If you pull away on the last second I won't try to kiss you again ever, but only until you confess your love to me."
Alfred looked at him hopefully as Arthur slowly processed his words. It took a while but finally it sunk in.
"Yes. I get it." Arthur finally said but before Alfred could rejoice, Arthur continued. "And no you cannot try to kiss me."
"Why not? Afraid you might not push me away because you actually do like me?"
"Seriously, where are you getting all of this confidence from?" Arthur asked, really wondering about it but all he got was more of Alfred insisting on trying to kiss him.
"If you push me away I'll never try again. That's a pretty good deal, ain't it? And you seems so sure that you don't wanna kiss me and of course I don't believe that, but if it's true then there's no reason to worry about anything!"
Arthur stared at Alfred and tried to see if his idiot boss was serious. It was really unfortunate because the answer to that question was yes, Alfred was serious about this and he was not going to back down anytime. Alfred would willingly try to bother Arthur for the whole time they were trapped if it meant getting Arthur to agree.
"Fine." Arthur relented, but only so Alfred would stop pestering him.
"Yes! Okay so you do understand what you're gonna do right?"
"I'm going to push you."
"Yep! Though I really hope you won't." Alfred chuckled and then moved again to change positions so that they were face to face.
Arthur felt more cornered that he had been seconds before as Alfred knelt in front of him, towering above him in a way. It did not help that Alfred had one arm blocking the only opening Arthur had to his right where Alfred sat before. The coldness on his left cheek was dampened by Alfred's palm.
He tried his best to keep his eyes on Alfred's and his lips in a thin line. He tried to keep still and ignore his frantic beating heart as Alfred came closer and closer to his face. Their breaths mingled, the distance between them continued to diminish, and Arthur swallowed the lump in his throat.
When their foreheads touched, Arthur took it as a cue to push Alfred away.
But his hands refused to move.
"Anytime now, Arthur." Alfred whispered as their noses touch and Alfred was already poised in between his legs. The arm that blocked Arthur's opening now rested by Arthur's sides and there really was no opening for him anymore because Alfred had completely invaded his space.
"Anytime, now." Alfred repeated, the ghost of his breath was warm against Arthur's lips and he really should push Alfred away now. He really should but his hands betrayed Arthur as they remained frozen beside him.
Arthur's mind was at a complete loss as Alfred also managed to invade through his thoughts, monopolizing his thinking. Because they were so close now, their lips merely centimeters apart and Arthur's eyelids were slowly falling shut as Alfred came closer, and closer, and closer that it was nearly not close enough—
— a loud screeching noise shattered the heated trance that Arthur had fallen victim to. There were voices from the outside and the elevator doors slid open, permeating light to enter.
Arthur pushed Alfred away in an instant with more force than he intended to, it had Alfred stumbling on his back but there was no time to feel guilty about anything. Still flushed and exceptionally embarrassed, Arthur remained frozen in his little corner while Alfred had the sense to look up and greet the maintenance team.
"Mr. Jones! We heard you were trapped here with your secretary Mr. Kirkland."
Alfred shrugged his shoulders and gestured to himself and Arthur.
"Well I can assure you that what you heard was right. We were trapped in here."
"We apologize for taking so long—"
"Nah, it's fine!" Alfred assured and stood up, dusting the back of his pants after. Arthur did not wait for Alfred to offer his hand to him. Finding his strength back, he pushed himself up and fixed the wrinkles on his clothes with his eyes trained anywhere but his boss.
"Mr. Kirkland are you alright? Your face is red." One of the maintenance staff asked and Arthur resisted the urge to punch the man in the face, but not before punching Alfred's jaw until his pretty white teeth fell off.
"I'm fine. I just need some air."
"Arthur—" Alfred tried to hold his hand but Arthur stepped away.
"If you'll excuse me." He muttered quickly under his breath before storming out past Alfred and the confused maintenance staff.
The headache came to him with its hundred percent force and Arthur could hear his own heart beat as he fled out the building, desperately trying to rid his mind from the image of Alfred's face, to rid of the lingering heat of Alfred's body heat.
On his way home he chanted in his head over and over again how stupid Alfred was and how he was definitely going to quit his job one day and look for a better one that did not have anything to do with Alfred Jones.
His phone buzzed. There was a message from the devil himself.
"You can take the day off." It read, and Arthur thought that he definitely would.
His phone buzzed again and there was another message.
"I love you." It read. "I'll be waiting."
aaah loove *sighs*