"You know you're singing to your headphones out loud, right?" Alfred started, turning his head to see a slightly shorter man standing next to him on his bus ride home, staring up at him with a single extremely thick raised eyebrow. He studied the man for a moment, his green eyes seemed dull as a result of college stress, if his appearance was anything to go by; messy blond hair, large dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, and clothes that seemed to be at least a day old.
"Anyone home?" The man, probably British, guessing by the accent, pressed on.
"Oh, yeah, what did you say?" Alfred replied, unable to remember what the hell it was the guy had said to him.
"You were singing to your headphones out loud." The dude seemed slightly annoyed now, which is understandable.
"Oh. Right." I'll just go bury myself in a cave. Alfred put a hand to his temple and rubbed small circles on them. "Well, anyway, are you in college? You seem like you are."
"How so?"
"Well for starters you look tired as shit, man. That's always a dead giveaway."
"I see. To answer your question, yes, I am. And it's not very polite to tell someone they look like shit. What if I wasn't a college student?" The blond asked.
"Then you'd have to be in some really stressful job, bro. No one looks like that on a normal day." Alfred laughed slightly at his own words.
"Hm." The guy averted his attention to his phone of which he had just removed from his skinny jeans' pocket. How did he even get his phone in there?
"So what's your name? I haven't seen you before, either you're a newbie or you're not in any of my classes. Then again I only started here this year." Alfred asked, catching the attention of the shorter male.
"Arthur. Arthur Kirkland. Yours? And I'm majoring in art." The man, now known as Arthur, replied, surprising Alfred at his words.
"Art? You look more like a literature or theatre kind of guy, honestly. Oh, and the name's Alfred F. Jones, or Al for short!" Alfred gave Arthur an enthusiastic thumbs up and smiled at Arthur's slight chuckle.
"Yeah, I get that a lot. I did consider literature, but I love art and photography far more. There's something special about seeing a moment and being able to capture not only the moment itself, but the emotions felt at the time. It's the same when you look at someone else's work. What did they feel at the time? In most cases the photo reveals a lot about what the artist or photographer was feeling, but there's endless possibilities. Symbolism is the finest art, and not always understandable. It's not about what the artist meant for it to mean, it's about how you interpret it, what you think it means, and what it means to you," Arthur stared out the window of the bus, eyes glazed over in reverie.
Alfred, on the other hand, was in awe. The fact that this guy whom he had met but moments ago had said something that deep was extremely unexpected, yet not at all unwanted.
"Wow."
"Ah, sorry, I do that sometimes. I'm a little absent-minded when I'm low on energy," Arthur apologised and reverted to his phone for entertainment once again.
Alfred let out a low, hearty chuckle, one that was uncommon from him as of late," Nah, it's cool. Your absent-minded talk was pretty deep, man. Didn't expect to have that kind of conversation with you yet."
"Yet?" Arthur raised one impressive eyebrow.
"Well, we're friends now, right?" After all this conversing, they pretty much are, whether the other likes it or not.
"Hm. I wouldn't have thought that a simple conversation such as this is enough to make us 'friends' but I suppose so, just don't expect this to be an everyday occurrence. I rather do enjoy peaceful bus rides." The Brit replied, nonchalantly.
"You're saying I'm not peaceful?" Alfred teased. He was fully aware of his loud personality.
"Yes," Was the only reply Alfred got before the bus came to a stop and Arthur prepared to get off. "This is my stop, I will see you tomorrow, I presume?" He continued.
"Yeah! See you later, dude!" Alfred cheered and waved as the shorter blond got off the bus. He was cute.
No, Alfred was not singing out loud to his headphones on the bus the next morning for the sole purpose of having a conversation with Arthur again, not at all.
"You're doing it again." A familiar voice sounded behind him.
Alfred failed to sound oblivious, "What?"
Arthur sighed, "Singing aloud to your headphones. You were doing it again, you buffoon." He continued, looking up at Alfred with a slight smile on his face. He was sitting behind him, reading what appeared to be an art textbook.
"Ah. Right." Alfred chuckled. Moving to sit beside the brit as opposed to in front of him. "Hope you don't mind." He said as he looked towards said brit for affirmation.
"Not at all." He smiled.
"You look better today." Alfred observed as he sat down, while his eyes still seemed dull, the bags under them had significantly lessened and they were no longer bloodshot, his hair seemed less messy and he was wearing clean clothes. A simple white button-up shirt and a clean pair of light-blue jeans to be exact.
"I'll take that as a compliment, seeing as though you insulted me yesterday." Arthur jested as Alfred turned to his phone.
Alfred looked up at Arthur from his phone, "I didn't mean to insult you, you know."
"I know, I was merely joking." Arthur replied, still looking down at his textbook.
"Yeah. Hey, if you go to the same college as me, how come I've never seen you on this bus before? You don't look like this is your first year here." Alfred pondered out loud.
"I used to walk, but I've found that taking the bus makes it easier for me to read. It also gives me time to think, but I guess that's gone out the window now."
A comfortable silence enveloped the two, Arthur reading and Alfred half on his phone half staring at Arthur, before Alfred broke the silence.
"Whatcha reading?" He asked with mild interest.
Arthur looked up, "An art textbook. I have a quiz first thing this morning."
"First thing? That sucks." Alfred blanched.
"Hm."
The rest of the bus ride was spent in blissful silence, until their stop came.
"You're getting of here, too?" Alfred asked as Arthur collected his things into his bag.
"I do happen to go to the same college, you know." Arthur replied smugly.
"Oh, right. So I guess we'll be heading in together then." Alfred left no room for Arthur's reply as he thanked the driver, got off, and waited patiently for Arthur to do the same.
The smaller blond followed Alfred's actions and walked up to him with a smile. "What class do you have first?"
Alfred had to think for a second to remember, "Astronomy." At this, Arthur stopped.
"Astronomy? Really?" Alfred turned to see Arthur standing, staring at him with a mildly surprised look on his face.
"Yep! I know, surprising, right? Most people reckon I'm studying sports or something." Alfred laughed.
"Well I certainly did. Why astronomy?" Arthur asked, looking at Alfred from the corner of his eye as they began walking again.
"I just love the stars, man. I could go into a longer explanation, but my friends tell me that once I start talking about stars I never shut up." Alfred laughed and looked up at the sky.
"Hm, that's not the only time you don't shut up." Arthur teased.
Alfred gasped in mock offence, "Hey! I don't talk that much!"
"Sure, sure." Arthur chuckled, then gestured down the hall. "This is where we part, I guess. The art rooms are down this way, I'll see you later."
"When do you have lunch?" Alfred asked just before the brit could walk away.
"Around 12." He replied.
"I'll see you at the Subway down the road at 12, then?" Alfred's hopeful smile was enough to make Arthur agree.
"Sure. Bye." He smiled.
"Bye! See you at 12!" The taller blond smiled his megawatt grin and waved as he watched Arthur walk down the hall.
Did I just score myself a date? Nah, he's probably not even gay. But he looks gay! But he's probably not. All the hot ones are straight. Alfred sighed and walked the opposite direction to the Astronomy classroom.
"Hello, Alfred. Is something the matter? You look down." Alfred's long-time best friend, Kiku, appeared next to him when he walked into class.
Alfred took a deep breath, "Yeah, I met this cute British guy on the bus yesterday afternoon. Apparently he's catching the same bus as me from now on and he's an art major at this college. He's super adorable and nice and funny and God, I think I'm falling for him but I don't even know if he's gay but we're meeting up for lunch today, Kiku what do I do? Should I try my luck and make a move or wait and try to find out if he's gay first?" he spoke in one breath.
"Uh, okay. That's a lot to take in, Alfred. Though, I'd suggest trying to find out if he's gay, first. If you're going to be seeing him every day on the bus then it would be silly to make a fool of yourself on the off chance that he's not gay, yes?" Kiku replied, "After all, friendship is better than nothing, correct?" he continued.
"I suppose. But how do I find out if he's gay?" Alfred asked.
"Well you could try flirting, and if he flirts back, then he is most likely gay. Or you could just ask him. Though, he may think that a bit forward if you only met yesterday. He might even tell you himself, you never know." Kiku suggested.
"Right, okay." Alfred slumped down in his chair as he thought.
Time passed quickly as the old, boring professor droned on about stars and how large they are. When will this guy actually teach us something useful? Alfred thought bitterly. He hadn't come to college to be taught things he already knew. He came here to learn.
He glanced at the clock and saw that it was 11:30. The professor wasn't going to be saying anything important anytime soon and even if he did, Kiku would let him know.
And so, he decided to go visit Arthur in the art rooms, hopefully he'd have finished his quiz by now.
Arriving at the art rooms, he was immediately hit with the overbearing smell of paint. He pushed the door open to see barely anyone in the room. A short-looking olive-skinned man with brown hair and a strange long curl protruding from his head looked up at him and glared.
"The hell do you want? If you're looking for the professor, he's over there being a stupid tomato bastard." The man scoffed and gestured to a door that appeared to lead into a supply room. Alfred was surprised at the words that came from his mouth, he certainly didn't expect it.
"Uh, right. I was actually looking for Arthur. Is he around here somewhere?" Alfred asked nervously, not wanting to be sworn at again.
The other blinked in surprise. "Arthur? You sure?"
"Uh, yeah. Why?" Alfred was confused, what's wrong with asking for Arthur? Did he not get visitors much?
"No reason. He just doesn't have many friends. Apart from myself and the Bad Friends Trio, that is. It's surprising that someone would ask for him. You ain't gonna hurt him, right? If you do I'll get the mafia on your ass." The man was glaring suspiciously at Alfred, as if he was a murderer or something.
"No, no! We are just going to get lunch after class ends, but my professor is boring as hell so I decided to come see what he was doing." Alfred insisted, the other man sounded entirely serious in his threats. The Bad Friends Trio? Who on earth are they? He thought.
"Lunch? One surprise after another. I'll go find Arthur." He said, turning away from whatever he was painting and walking towards the supply room.
Alfred took this opportunity to observe the room. The painting the man was working on appeared to be of a tomato field, it was very beautiful in Alfred's opinion. There were multiple paintings and photographs hanging on the walls, on the tables, leaning against walls, chairs and/or tables.
Alfred managed to find a bunch of photos of scenery, it looked like the forest that was downtown near the park, but it seemed different, eerie yet inviting, almost. It was taken on top of a hill in the last minutes of sunset, pastel pink and pale lavender mixed with subtle gold and warm orange that faded into the entrancing indigo of night.
"Do you like it?" Arthur's ever-familiar voice startled him and he turned around in a flash.
"What?" Alfred asked, confused as to what Arthur was asking about.
"The photo. Do you like it?" Arthur repeated, his cheeks becoming somewhat flushed.
Cute. Alfred thought. "Yeah. It's really nice. Kind of gives off a nice vibe, know what I'm saying? Makes me was to go watch the sunset on that hill forever." Alfred chuckled, picturing himself and Arthur having a picnic on the hill, watching the sunset together.
"I'm glad." Arthur grinned, his cheeks grew slightly redder.
"Wait, were you the one that took this photo?" Alfred questioned, suddenly staring directly at Arthur.
"Check the bottom left-hand corner." Arthur replied, and confirming his thoughts, there was 'Arthur Kirkland – 'Silva' 11-6-XX'
"'Silva'? What does that mean?" The taller blond asked.
"It's Latin for forest, if you look close enough in the picture, you can see tiny silver specks. I'm not entirely sure what they are, they could quite possibly jut be glare, but I thought it was rather intriguing, and naming it 'Silva' kills two birds with one stone, in a way." The brit explained, slowly making his way closer to the picture on the wall.
"Wow." Was all Alfred could muster as he looked closer and, true to his word, there were tiny silver specks here and there, they appeared to give off a faint glow, which made him think of fairies or some kind of mythical creature. It seemed the more you look, the more beautiful it seems. "You're an amazing photographer."
Arthur beamed, now standing adjacent to Alfred, "Thank you. I try my best, this is one of my better photos; I'm generally more skilled at painting, though I enjoy photography more."
Alfred didn't reply, only stared at the photo a moment more before facing Arthur.
"Well, it's almost 12, shall we get going? I'll have to let my Professor know that I'm leaving a few minutes early, though." Arthur said sheepishly, "I'll go find him, meet me at the door." Then walked off.
Alfred made his way over to the door and stood there patiently for the smaller blond to reappear. Arthur came out of the supply room with two other males, one of which was the man he had spoken to upon arrival.
"Hey, Alfred. This," He gestured to the taller of the three, whom of which had brown curly hair, cheerful green eyes and slightly darker skin than the other brown haired man, "is my professor, Prof. Antonio Carriedo, but he prefers it if we call him Antonio. And this," He gestured to the shortest of the three, "is Romano Vargas, one of my good friends. I hope he didn't cause you too much trouble when you came in. He tends to threaten people a lot." Arthur teased. The shorter man, now known as Romano, glared up at him and the professor laughed loudly.
"Nice to meet the two of you." Alfred grinned.
The professor, Antonio, grinned back at him, "Nice to meet you too, Alfred!"
Arthur smiled, "Well, we best be off now. I'll see you two tomorrow. Goodbye." Arthur waved them off as he and Alfred walked out of the room and into the warmth of the sun.