Arthur sighed as he listened to the rainfall pattering on the classroom's windows. His teacher, Mr. Beilschmidt had left to retrieve last week's test papers for distribution. Turning to look at the wall clock behind the class, he groaned. It's still 2 o' clock. Darn it, if only time would go by faster! He could go home and finally relax in a few more hours.
Yes, a cup of tea wouldn't hurt as well. It was nearing the end if the school year, the bloody pressure is nearly unbearable due to all the projects and requirements. It was driving everybody crazy!
A train of thought was brought to a crash when the thunder rumbled outside. He flinched slightly, disturbed. Alfred F. Jones, self-proclaimed school 'Hero', and unfortunately his seatmate, laughed at his reaction. Arthur's eye twitched in irritation. 'That prick.' He thought as he turned away, deciding to ignore his oh-so-obvious 'tiny' crush beside him.
Honestly, he doesn't mind his presence, but dear heavens; he could be so annoying sometimes. Alfred snickered again, ignoring the fact that he's being 'ignored'. Arthur heard scribbling beside him, 'Great, what is this loon up to no-' and was interrupted when a crumpled piece of paper hit his head. 'What the bloody hell?' He took the piece of paper and read it:
You look cute when you're surprised
His face turned slightly pink as he read it. He quickly, but tidily, wrote down, 'Shut up.' And tried to fold the piece of paper neatly before passing it back to Alfred.
He heard more scribbling and the paper had been thrown (Can't this bloody idiot pass it?) back to him with a new addition of 'Psh- dont deny it pls. U r.' Arthur frowned at the once again crumple piece of paper, and the awful use of spelling, he read it again as he tried to keep his face as stoic as possible. He clicked his pen and started writing down 'Prove it.' But shook his head as he crossed it out and replaced it with 'Fine then, idiot.' Arthur hesitantly folded it again and passed it to the cheeky American when just as Alfred was going to take the paper, a loud stern voice had interrupted,
"Mr. Jones! Mr. Kirkland! Are you passing notes in my class?"
Alfred thickly swallowed and tried to come up with a reasonable reply, "Sir, we-" He was interrupted again by the said teacher, "No explanations will do, I'm afraid. I saw you passing—what? Love letters? —With my very eyes. Detention for both of you, be at the library after dismissal time." Arthur was internally screaming at Alfred, but in reality, he just shot the boy a glare. As the teachers distributed the papers, he furrowed his eyebrows and decided to frown at his table for the time remaining.
The rest of the period was a blur until the bell had rung, signaling their dismissal period. As the students began filing out of the room, the teacher had reminded Arthur and Alfred to be at the library in 20 minutes. He heard Alfred groan but paid no mind to it as he went off to collect his things from his locker. As he was about to head off to the library for one hour of tedious book arranging, he heard footsteps behind him and figured it was the American.
"Uh, hey dude. Sorry for getting you in trouble."
Arthur puffed as he closed his locker and turned to look at him, he smiled, "No, it's fine. I must be responsible for my actions. I went along with your silly note-passing when I knew that it was clearly not allowed."
Alfred's gaze remained on Arthur and he very carelessly blurted, "You should smile more often. It suits you." Instantly realizing what he had just said, he quickly added, "Uh… You know! Because that's like a hundred times better than keeping a grumpy, old scowl on your face!" He chuckled nervously. After a few more seconds of silence, "Not that you scowling isn't cut- I mean! Isn't presentable?" Alfred retorted.
Arthur slightly stumbled backward at the 'unintended' compliment, his cheeks tinted with a slight pink. Pretending not to notice the compliment, "What the bloody heck do you mean? I don't always scowl! And I definitely don't look old while I actually am scowling!" He snapped back while scowling. 'Oh the fucking irony.' He thought. He huffed and turned away as he briskly walked to the library while giving off a little 'I'm-annoyed-and-you-should-not-dare-talk-to-me' aura. It took a moment for Alfred to process that Arthur had just ditched him, he jogged over to the Brit and took his hand,
"Dude, no! I didn't mean it like that, what I mean was, like, you should just—Ugh, just don't mind what I said, okay? What I'm trying to say is that you look a hundred times a billy better when you smile! C'mon dude, don't be like that."
He said as he stopped in his tracks. Arthur had also stopped, gazing at Alfred for a moment. He soon nodded in understanding, "Okay then, but I won't smile so easily. Be warned, you idiot." He smirked internally as he finished the sentence. This might turn out interesting.
He pulled his hand free and looked at the nearby clock. His eyes widened to find that they were running late, he grabbed Alfred's hand again and dragged him quickly to the library. "Oh shit! We're late, bloody hell. Quick! We might have to stay longer if we're late, and we wouldn't want that now, do we?" he hastily said as he ran up the stairs and turned the 2nd corridor.
By the time they arrived at the library, Sir Beilschmidt was impatiently tapping his foot. He glared at the two as they entered, then he gestured them to take a seat on the chairs beside him. "Okay, since both of you are five minutes late, you'd have to stay for ten extra minutes. For the next hour, both of you will be arranging the books strayed from the shelves. Make sure that they are in the correct categories, are we clear? Also, restrain from talking with each other, Mr. Springsteen will be watching both of you." As said teacher left, they scurried to the rack with aforementioned 'stray' books and started arranging.
Arthur didn't mind arranging the books, it was quite relaxing actually, enjoyable too, if you think about it. What bothered him is that Alfred kept on putting them in the wrong shelves every single time. It fussed his relaxed mind as he tried to rearrange what the American had screwed up on doing. Said American caught his eye and mouthed him a 'Sorry', wherein he responded with a look quite unreadable. Sighing, he turned back to the books he was arranging.
Alfred didn't quite understand what Arthur had mouthed back, but he could tell that the Brit was quite agitated. He looked back at—what's his name? —Mr. Springbean and saw that he was leaving for the restroom, thank the heavens. Once Mr. Stingmean was out of sight, he quickly took Arthur's hand and dragged him behind one of the shelves,
"Dude! I am so, so sorry. I know you're really, really annoyed and- I don't know! I'm just so, so sorry. Okay? My brain is literally one cluttered mess right now, and I have no fucking idea what the hell I am even doing!"
Arthur brought up his finger to silence the babbling yank. "It's okay. Yes, you annoy the bloody hell out of me, but don't worry. I won't hate you for it. Now let's go back to arranging before Mr. Spring—Springsteen? Comes back." He said, blushing in embarrassment for not remembering the name properly. Once again, he offered Alfred another genuine smile. Alfred smiled too, and out of the blue, gushed, "Arthur, I have something really, really, really important to tell you."Alfred's eyes widened the slightest bit as he cursed internally,
'I should have not said that. I should have NOT said that'
Arthur's face clearly showed confusion and curiosity. He spoke slowly, "W-What is it?" He shifted a little and mindlessly added, "I have something… to say to you too." Arthur wanted to say that he had loved the idiot for a long time but never had the chance to, but now that they're finally alone together, he could say it to him.
Alfred inhaled sharply, this is it; he's putting his heart on the line. 'Please be careful.' He thought. "Arthur, I, uh, really, really—" He exhaled and continued, "like you." Without thinking, or even considering what Arthur feels about him, he held his breath and leaned forward to kiss Arthur beside the lips.
Arthur flinched back in surprise before grabbing Alfred by the collar and kissing him fully on the lips. A thousand butterflies fluttered in his stomach and his head was buzzing in joy before pulling away and saying breathily, "I really, really like you too, Alfred."
Alfred's grin went from ear to ear as he fidgeted with his sleeve and said, "Oh. So do you want to, uh, grab a bite to eat? You know, to talk? O-Or, uh, we can do whatever? After all this?" 'This' referring to detention; Oh, right! Deten—
"Mr. Jones! Mr. Kirkland! Where are you two?"
Arthur simpered and whispered, "Sure, love." As he turned around to make it look like he's arranging the shelf behind him.
A/N: I'd like to credit my best friend (or wife), Fiona, for playing Arthur and helping me pull this whole thing together *laughs* And this is going to be my first published fic so it may be really, really rusty. I wouldn't mind some constructive criticism, so review, maybe? : D
EDIT HEH 052214: Okay, so I found the time to fix the formatting uvu To sort of make it look 'ethical' as theSardonyx put it, hey thanks for pointing that out! I tried, okay?