"Jesus fucking Christ, Alfred! Do you really expect me to believe that?"
Alfred looked down and tried to adjust his pants. They were on backwards.
"Can't even look at me, can you? Am I that disgusting?"
Oh, the stomped snow had a pretty design. Maybe he should take a picture of it and ask his brother to paint it later. He loved paintings.
"Tch, you little bastard. I wonder if you did this to me when we got together too. Is this some sort of ritual?"
Quietly, like he was about to disturb some wily beast if he made a noise louder than a whisper, he murmured, "Arthur. It's not-"
"Don't fucking tell me it's 'not like that'! Oh god. I remember this. You and him were fighting outside of my door just like we're doing now. Next you're gonna tell me to please understand, oh please understand. And then when I say fuck you and leave you're gonna go straight through his door and fuck him senseless."
Alfred brought his gaze up. His blue eyes connected with Arthur's green ones and he felt a jolt. God, after all this time he still felt a jolt. "Arthur."
Slowly, he brought his hand up to fiddle with a piece of messy yellow hair, as he'd always done when he was upset. It was smacked away.
"Arthur," he said again, with a pang. He could feel past hurt in that gesture. "Arthur, I need to tell you something."
There were tears trickling down the green-eyed man's face. When did they get there?
"Don't. I don't want to listen to you any more. I," his voice cracked, but he continued on, "can't. Goodbye, Alfred."
Alfred blinked and looked away, fixing his gaze on one of the scattered oak trees dusted with snow. Damn, was it freezing.
"Still can't… Huh." Something soft brushed Alfred's cheek and he flinched.
"Arthur," he said, and his throat hurt.
He heard crunches in the lightly fallen snow.
He kept the tree in his vision. It was beautiful. Fairytale like. Alfred wanted to sit under it and call for a handsome man to save him.
Save me from what?
Alfred decided he'd get frostbite if he stayed out any longer. He went inside the tiny house warmed only by a small fire. The person in front of it stood up and approached him. Alfred took hands warmed by the fire into his own frozen ones.
"Al…"
"Shh," he said, and led the way to the bedroom.