Wheelchair Accessible

Part 2

Alfred's twin brother, Matthew, was alwaysgetting on his case about how he didn't think before he acted. It was probably pretty close to the top of his seriously long list of 'things about Alfred that drive me insane'. Right behind the fact that he never remembered to replace the toilet roll after he'd finished it. Which dude, you'd think he was murdering people with how pissed off Mattie got when he did that.

But today, Alfred had proven that there was nothing wrong with not thinking before you acted, so 'in your face, Matt!' Alfred Jones' spontaneity had just paid off in the most amazing way possible.

Because he now had a date planned for tonight with Arthur Kirkland.

Seriously, it was like fate itself had smiled down on him, 'cause he shouldn't even have been in that Walmart parking lot in the first place. It was one of those rare weekends when he didn't have much to do. He was actually caught up on his work for once and all the important exams were far enough away that he didn't feel any need to start studying yet. So he'd been planning on spending the next three days locked in his bedroom, playing video games until his eyeballs fell out of their sockets.

But then he'd gone downstairs this morning and found Matt sitting at the kitchen table with an apologetic expression and a freshly-brewed mug of coffee that he immediately offered his brother.

"I'll pay to replace it," was the first thing he said. Then he sighed and explained what happened. Apparently Gilbert, his boyfriend and their occasional third roommate, had discovered Alfred's secret snack stash the night before and—after he proceeded to not tell Mattie where the snacks came from—the two of them ended up decimating his supply.

Seriously, Gil was one of those guys who was the coolest bro ever half of the time, but then did something like this that made you want to punch him in the face. If it hadn't been for the pleading kicked-puppy-dog look that Mattie sent him and the fact that Alfred was too much of a hero to slug a legally blind guy, he probably would've gone and kicked the douchebag's ass right then and there.

Instead, he'd just grumbled to himself and drank Matt's apology coffee. Then he'd bundled up and made his way to Walmart with his brother's credit card in hand.

Where he found Arthur struggling in the slush, his wheelchair overturned beside his van. Alfred had immediately run over, asked if he needed help, and returned him to his seat.

And seriously, how lucky could you get? Well, it wasn't lucky that Arthur fell, but Alfred shouldn't have even been there. What if the guy had fallen out of his chair without a hero around to help him? He could've frozen to death!

Alfred was grinning to himself as he turned the doorknob to his and Mattie's apartment. He pushed the door open with his shoulder, his arms currently occupied by half a dozen grocery bags stuffed with junk food.

"Yo, Mattie!" He called out. "Guess what hap—?"

But he was interrupted by a voice shouting back to him, "Dude, where have you been? You get any beer? We're totally out."

Had Alfred mentioned yet that Gilbert was a dick?

His smile gradually faded as he walked into the living room, to find Mattie and Gilbert sitting together on the couch. Mattie was seated upright, his and Al's shared laptop resting on his lap, while Gil was slouched down with his feet up on the coffee table and an open can of beer dangling from his fingertips. He raised the can in Alfred's general direction and shook it. "Totally empty, bro."

There'd been at least four cans in the fridge when he left this morning.

Alfred decided to ignore Gilbert and instead turned his attention to his brother. "Mattie, dude, you'll never guess what happened while I was out!"

Mattie had been fiddling with his laptop, used to Alfred and Gilbert's bickering, but he glanced up at that question. "What happened?"

Alfred pointed his fingers toward himself and grinned excitedly. "I was a total hero! I was at Walmart in the parking lot and I noticed a wheelchair tipped over, so I went over to rescue the person and it was Arthur! I helped him up and everything and then…" He paused for dramatic effect. "Your super cool brother got a date out of it!"

Mattie didn't respond immediately, which was rather disappointing. Alfred had been hoping that Mattie would say something like, "Wow, Alfred, I am impressed with your mad skills with the dudes. I feel so jealous because I do not have these skills, as proven by the fact that I'm currently dating a douche who's uncool enough to eat another bro's snacks."

Eventually, he said, "Huh, well, congratulations."

"Isn't Arthur Kirkland the guy who you cried over in high school because you thought he was into Birdie? 'Cause he kept showing up at his hockey games or whatever it was?"

Maybe he should have waited until Gilbert was gone to share his news with Matthew.

He hadn't cried, anyway! And it was a reasonable assumption to make! Arthur tended to stick out in crowds, so it wasn't long before Alfred started noticing him amongst the stands at every single one of Matthew's hockey games. At first he hadn't thought much about it, because maybe the guy just really liked hockey? But then he'd overheard one of the girls from his and Arthur's old middle school talking with one of her friends about Artie… "Wonder what he's doing here. Doesn't he hate sports?"

Her friend had responded with a weird giggle and then said, "Isn't he like super gay? Maybe he's checking out one of the players?"

He hadn't heard anything else, since his brain had kind of short-circuited at that. Arthur was gay?

That had sent an immediate jolt of hope through Alfred's chest, because he kind of had been crushing on Arthur for ages now. He'd always just assumed the guy was straight, though, 'cause Alfred always ended up crushing on the straight guys.

But then his mind passed along to the second part of her statement. 'Checking out one of the players?'

It'd make sense. Why else would Artie attend every single hockey game if he didn't like sports? Alfred started engaging in super stealthy espionage to try to uncover Arthur's secret. And eventually arrived at the conclusion that Arthur had to be here for Matthew. He was the one Arthur was generally looking at; most of the time Alfred would look over to see Arthur staring back at him and then immediately turn his attention back to Matthew.

It…had been a pretty sucky realization. Particularly since Matthew and Gilbert weren't actually dating at the time, so there really wasn't anything keeping the two of them apart. A good brother wouldn't stand in the way of his sibling's happiness.

So he'd sucked up his own feelings, stomped into Matthew's room one evening, and told his rather-startled brother that he was extremely happy for him!

That was one of those 'didn't stop to think' moments, since Mattie told him—once he figured out what Alfred was talking about—that he wasn't at all interested in Arthur.

Yeah, that'd been kind of an awkward moment. Especially when Matthew went all turncoat on him and told his then-best-friend Gilbert about the whole affair; Gil hadn't stopped teasing Alfred about it for months. And obviously he'd never entirely forgotten.

"Shut up," Alfred said.

Gilbert immediately threw his head back and cackled, then elbowed Mattie in the side. "Is he blushing? Tell me he's blushing."

Matthew ignored him. "That's really great, Al. Where are you guys going?"

Alfred puffed up proudly. "I'm taking him to Mathias's game and we're gonna stop at Micky D's beforehand." It was the perfect plan.

Or at least, that's what Alfred thought. But Matthew immediately grimaced at his statement and Gil snorted, which was usually a sign that he'd done something that they both thought was stupid. He tensed slightly. "Wait, what's wrong with that?"

Matthew shook his head. "Alfred, I don't think that McDonald's is really date-appropriate. A basketball game seems nice, but don't you think it'd be nice to take him somewhere a little…" He hesitated, "Classier?"

Like one of those shirt and tie places? Those restaurants were super lame, though. He'd gone once with his family to celebrate his grandpa's ninetieth birthday and it had sucked. The clothing itched, everybody expected you to act all prim and proper, and the meals were crazy expensive, but you barely got any food at all!

Mattie seemed to realize where his thoughts were going, though, as he stated, "I'm not saying you have to take him to a five-star restaurant or anything, but maybe a nice café?"

"No way, you gotta take him clubbing!" Gilbert threw his arm around Matthew's shoulders. "That's how you show a guy a good time!"

Matthew snorted at the comment, shaking his head at Alfred and mouthing 'don't listen to him.' Like Alfred would anyway. He remembered what happened last time he, Mathias, Mattie, and Gil went clubbing. Sure, the beginning of the night had been fun. Drinking, dancing, all that stuff. But then Matthew managed to lose Gil in the crowd and they'd spent the rest of the night freaking out while trying to find him.

Alfred had ended up being the one to finally locate him, gyrating in the middle of the dance floor, apparently without a care in the world. He'd grabbed him in order to drag him back to his brother when the guy turned and flashed him a tipsy grin, called out "Birdie!" and then reached forward andgrabbed his dick.

And dude, it really wasn't fair that Mattie ended up yelling at him. It wasn't like he'd meant to sock his boyfriend; it was an instinctual response. And he'd felt bad enough about it without having to get scolded. Gil had just mistaken him for Matthew. Hell, it happened all the time with their friends with normal vision.

Gilbert wasn't entirely blind—he'd told Alfred that he could see colours and vague shapes and he could even read with this special magnifying glass. And he could tell Alfred and Matthew apart in a normal environment without even needing to lay eyes on them. He could tell by their footsteps or smell or whatever. In a dark environment, though, surrounded by bright lights and moving people…wasn't really shocking that he'd mistaken him for his twin brother.

So yeah, no clubs. Alfred didn't really think that Arthur would be that type of guy anyway.

"What about that bar on Allenwood Street? Merge?" Matthew offered. He was leaning into Gilbert's embrace, which meant Alfred should really get out of here before he was forced to witness his brother and friend cuddling, which was always a mildly traumatic experience. "Don't they have good food?"

"Their beer's shit." Gilbert wrinkled his nose slightly at the thought. "They've got fucking awesome burgers, though. And Toni likes their margaritas."

Alfred had immediately perked up at the word 'burgers'. "That sounds good." He didn't really care that much about the quality of their beer—plus, Gilbert's standards were crazy high anyway, so it might not even be that bad—and he supposed that McDonald's might not be quite high class enough for a legitimate date with Arthur Kirkland.

Which, that thought brought him back to reality. He had a date with Arthur Kirkland. And he wasn't even close to being ready. He still needed to shower and get dressed…

"All right, cool, I'm gonna get ready now." And he immediately turned and hurried toward the bathroom.

He thought he heard Gilbert say, "Finally. Now, did you get the pigeon game started yet?" But honestly, he really didn't want to know.

All right, so he had to think this through. Arthur was the type of guy who always dressed pretty nicely—kinda old-man style, but it looked good on him—so Alfred should probably put a bit more work into his appearance than usual. He wanted to impress him and according to most people, that was not going to be easy.

Alfred grinned to himself as he entered the bathroom and prepared his shower, hopping in as soon as the water was warm enough. That fact didn't bother him at all, though. He wasn't intimidated by challenges.

He hadn't been able to interact with Arthur as much as he'd like, but everything that he'd seen and heard made him want to get to know the guy better. They'd attended the same middle school and, of course, everyone knew at least of Arthur. He was the only kid in their school in a wheelchair. There were plenty of rumours flying around about him, most people said he had a pretty nasty personality.

He and Alfred had ended up in the same English class, though. And Alfred, at first, hadn't really paid much attention to him. He was more interested in figuring out ways to chat with his friends without getting caught by the teacher.

But then they'd been partnered together on a project—probably solely to keep Alfred away from his friends—and Alfred had found himself intrigued by the other. They were supposed to be creating a poster or something… Alfred hadn't cared enough to pay attention to the instructions. Arthur had immediately relegated him to design, apparently not trusting him with the content.

He wasn't even entirely sure what it was about Arthur that intrigued him so much. He was grumpy and they hadn't talked much, Alfred uncharacteristically unsure of his words. Maybe it was the way he scrunched his massive eyebrows while he worked or those incredibly green eyes…

Whatever it was, so had begun Alfred's first major crush. He'd started listening to the rumors surrounding Arthur. Apparently he was crazy smart, a fact which Alfred could guess at after listening to him talk in that one class. He was pretty sure that Arthur knew more about English literature than even their teacher. And while a lot of people commented on his personality as being pretty nasty, others said he wasn't that bad. He had a bit of a short fuse, but it seemed more related to frustration that anything else.

And Alfred really couldn't blame him for that. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose the ability to walk and run and play sports... He'd always loved sports more than anything else. And Alfred had also noticed the way that people stared at the boy in the hallways.

He'd been friends with Gilbert since elementary school and he'd already noticed that people acted differently around his friend once they realized he was blind. Sometimes they'd start talking really slowly or adults would reach out and grab his arm to 'help' him around obstacles.

Pft, if people thought Arthur's responses were bad, they would never be able to handle Gilbert. He always flipped the fuck out when strangers touched him without asking.

So Alfred figured that people's comments on Arthur's personality had more to do with that than with him actually being a nasty person. He didn't seem mean. Actually, the more Alfred paid attention to him, the more he realized that he was actually a very kind person. Just maybe a little shy and sarcastic and frustrated.

Then they'd gone to different high schools and Alfred almost forgot about him, until that day when he'd noticed him sitting in the stands at Mattie's hockey game and all those fluffy crush feelings decided to return with a vengeance.

It was really incredible. It'd been so many years and suddenly Alfred ran into him like this? In a Walmart parking lot?

He'd been washing himself while deep in thought and now grinned to himself as he let the warm water wash all the suds and dirt away. Somebody was looking out for him maybe? Somebody was telling him to finally get over himself and just ask the guy out?

Alfred had known better than to let the opportunity escape him and now he had a date with Arthur Kirkland. They'd have the chance to get to know each other better. If Alfred was able to impress him, then maybe this could be the start of something…

Impressing him would be difficult, though. That's what he needed to think about right now. He turned the spray off and exited the shower, began drying himself, and then wrapped the fluffy yellow towel around his waist.

He knew that Arthur liked literature—or at least he had in middle school. He remembered how Arthur almost got into a fight with the teacher about Romeo and Juliet. Unfortunately, that wasn't really something Alfred knew much about.

At least, not that type of literature. He liked reading sci-fi and he'd read War of the Worlds and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Brave New World and Slaughterhouse-Five

Alfred wasn't sure what type of books Arthur liked. It seemed like there was potential there for Alfred to make a fool of himself, so it might be better to remain on safer topics. Although, what safer topics were there? There was hockey, but Alfred had never really established why Arthur was attending Mattie's games. Matthew wasn't interested in Arthur, but that didn't mean that Arthur wasn't interested in Matthew.

That thought actually made Alfred pause with his hand hovering halfway between him and the bathroom door.

He hadn't even stopped to think about that.

It was entirely possible that Arthur was into Matthew. Maybe he'd only agreed to this date because Alfred was Matthew's brother; maybe it even had to do with the fact that they were twins.

Fuck.

What if this was a replacement thing? Or maybe he wanted Alfred to help him get with Mattie? Arthur wouldn't know that he was already dating somebody… Maybe he'd only agreed to be nice, or maybe he didn't even realize this was a date and he thought they were just getting together as, like, friends or something.

Fuuuuuuuck.

What should he do? He shoved open the door and made his way down to his bedroom, ignoring the cackles coming from the living room as he considered his potential courses of action.

Okay, so Arthur may like Mattie, but Matthew was already dating Gilbert and he said that he wasn't interested in Arthur anyway. So even if Arthur did like Mattie, it'd never work out between them. So obviously, as the hero, Alfred should do everything in his power to change Arthur's mind and make him realize that they should date instead.

He nodded to himself as he let the towel drop and headed over to his dresser. This was going to be the best date of Arthur's life or his name wasn't Alfred Fucking Jones.


A/N: Ya know, what if Alfred's middle name was actually 'fucking'? That would be hilarious. I bet you he tells people it is just because he's silly like that.

Uhhhhh, so yes! I can't remember what I had to say about this, outside of the fact that Gilbert and Mattie are playing Hatoful Boyfriend, because that's an AMAZING game. xD Legit, it is. Weird as heck, but that's how it lures you in and then it hits you with the feel train.

Also, I actually gave Gilbert vision problems in this one, which he really should always have since he's albino. According to what I read, also, the vision problems caused by albinism are different than other vision problems, so glasses and surgery don't generally work that well. It can also vary in intensity; Gilbert's got about 20/400 vision, which is severe. (You can google that and get images that show what it looks like if you want.)

He and Mattie can still play dating sims and visual novels, though. xD Mattie reads the dialogue (with voices of course) and let's Gilbert make the choices.

Also, Alfred is a dork. And next chapter we get to see the beginning of the actual date! Also get to see what outfit Emilie chose for Arthur! xD