Arthur pulled up into a space at the McDonalds car park. Alfred rushed out of the car "Yeah! Oh my god it feels like its been forever since I had a big mac!" he hopped about with glee.
"But you came here yesterday?" Arthur got out of the car and locked the doors. He was surprised that Alfred wasn't fat by now from over-eating, and he didn't recall him going to the gym that often.
Alfred turned to face Arthur and was now walking backwards towards the entrance.
"Yeah but yesterday I had a double cheeseburger." Alfred stated matter-of-factly whilst holding one finger up.
"Watch out, you'll fall over if you're not careful. Seriously, every time we go out I have to treat you like a baby." Arthur crossed his arms whilst following after him.
"I'll be fine Mr. Bossy jeeez." Alfred placed his hands behind his head and continued to walk backwards. "Sometimes I think that you enjoy ruining my fun, what'll it take you to lighten up-" Arthur and Alfred froze simultaneously as they heard noises coming from Arthur's car.
"Holy crap your car is haunted!" Alfred stumbled on his own feet, causing him to fall onto his bottom.
"I told you.." Arthur mumbled "And my car isn't haunted!" he exclaimed while making his way over to his car, Alfred picked himself up and followed after him. Suddenly one of the car's back windows started rolling down, causing Arthur and Alfred to jump into each other's arms in a cartoon-like fashion.
Matthew poked his head out of the window. "uhh..guys? You kind of..locked me in the car.." he started nervously laughing, and before they knew it, they were all nervously laughing at the awkward situation. Arthur and Alfred looked at each other, only just realising they were in each other's arms, and simultaneously took a large step back from one another. There was no time to ponder on the thought of how they had just been embracing however, as Matthew was still locked in the car.
There was silence for a moment.
Alfred, of course, was the first one to break the silence. "Oh dude, sorry! We didn't do it on purpose we swear, we just.."
"Forgot you were in there.." Arthur continued. He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment and unlocked the car as quickly as he could. He was ashamed that he allowed himself to forget about Matthew and leave him in the car. He expected such things from Alfred, but himself? Never. He was a gentleman. He suddenly felt obliged to live up to this gentlemen stereotype and so he offered a hand to Matthew who was struggling to make his way out of the car.
"Thank you" Matthew said shyly. His cheeks flushed a soft pink and Arthur smiled.
The three of them made their way to the McDonalds entrance,Arthur and Alfred made sure to keep a close eye on Matthew this time. Arthur opened the door for Matthew and Alfred gave him a firm pat on the back. However,it seems this pat had more force than Alfred had intended and so Matthew stumbled,went flying forwards, and landed face first on the floor. Panicking, Arthur and Alfred rushed to his side.
"Oh man, are you okay? Sorry 'bout that buddy!" Alfred said whilst rubbing the back of his neck, nervous laughter soon followed. Matthew sat up, rubbing the back of his head. His cheeks were now red from embarrassment.
Arthur's hand reached out towards Matthew to help him up "Alfred you really need to be more careful, he could've gotten seriously hurt!" Arthur stated, glaring at the irritating blonde.
"Hey, don't make it sound like this is my fault! Coming to McDonalds was all your idea!" Alfred shouted back,stomping his right foot on the floor.
"No it wasn't!" Arthur raised his voice. His anger grew as he pulled his hand away from Matthew's, clenched it in a fist and shook it at Alfred. There's nothing Arthur hated more than being accused of something he hadn't done.
The Brit and the American were now in a full-scale argument. Matthew was still on the floor, he noticed people around them staring. His cheeks flushed an ever darker red.
"Uh..guys? It's fine, I'm fine! Please stop fighting, okay?" Alfred and Arthur completely ignored him and kept arguing. He tried talking louder, "Guys, you really need to stop! People are staring.." but it was still no use. Of course it wouldn't be, no one ever notices Matthew, let alone these two. He sighed, clumsily picked himself off of the floor, walked over to one of the booths, and sat down. He rested his elbows on the table while cupping each of his, now extremely warm, cheeks.
Arthur looked over at Matthew. He felt terrible, here Alfred was trying to make up for what happened earlier and now, he and Alfred had just made him more upset because of their constant bickering.
"And another thing-" Alfred shouted but was cut off as Arthur raised his hand.
"Look..look what we've done now" he murmured pointing towards Matthew.
The two of them hung their heads in shame. They looked at one another, sharing embarrassed glances.
Arthur gave a half smile, "Let's not fight anymore today." he moved the hair out of his face.
"Yeah" Alfred agreed "for Matthew's sake". Alfred gave Arthur a thumbs up and in return Arthur nodded to Alfred before rushing over to the booth where Matthew was sitting.
"We're..really sorry Matthew. For everything.." Arthur was still embarrassed, but for now he just hoped that his apology sounded genuine enough.
"Yeah, and to say sorry I'll buy you what ever you want!"Alfred exclaimed, Arthur flinched. "You can have as much as you want too. If I were you I'd probably order five double cheeseburgers, six big macs ooh and don't forget the fries! You couldn't go wrong with four McFlurries either, and hey while we're here you may as well order the twenty chicken nugget sharing box am I right?" Alfred folded his arms and nodded his head as if he were proud of his suggestion. Arthur shot Alfred an angry look but Alfred just laughed it off.
"Thanks for the offer..But I'm not actually feeling very hungry right now." Matthew mumbled,looking down at the table.
Arthur let out a sigh of relief. He was glad that Matthew was the way he was, polite and quiet. It was a nice change to the loud,cockiness that he was used to.
"Hey Arthur" Arthur turned to look at Alfred, he was lost in his thoughts yet again. "Just get me a big mac meal, kay?" Alfred slid into the booth seat opposite Matthew.
"Oh, wouldn't you like a cheeseburger as well? Or how about extra fries?" Arthur asked, the sarcasm making his lips tingle. Arthur crossed his arms and swiftly turned his head to the right, Matthew started to panic. 'Please..no more arguing..'
"Nah I'm good. I'm on a diet." Arthur began to wonder if Alfred actually understood the concept of sarcasm. Arthur's usual remarks seemed to have no effect on him and his replies always sounded extremely genuine. Arthur raised his eyebrow and Alfred shot him a grin.
Arthur rolled his emerald eyes "God help us all" he mumbled as he walked to the back of the queue. Alfred ignored him and turned his attention to Matthew.
"Looks like we finally got rid of him!" Alfred chuckled, Matthew forced a smile onto his face. Alfred detected the awkwardness between them "Bro, I swear that'll never happen again. And don't worry, I'll make lots of time to hang with you to make up for it, kay?". Alfred grabbed Matthews hands. Matthews cheeks, which had only just returned to their original colour, flushed pink.
"Okay."
Arthur strolled back towards the booth "Hey Alfred, you forgot to tell me what drink-" he stopped as he saw Alfred laughing, clutching Matthew's hands between his own. Arthur's bushy eyebrows crinkled and he spun around in one motion and made his way back over to the cashier. 'What was that feeling just now?' It felt like he had been betrayed in a strange way. Arthur pondered at the idea of it being jealously, but quickly dismissed this thought.
Arthur returned to the booth with Alfred's tray of food. Sliding in next to Matthew he muttered "Here's your food."
"Awesome!" Alfred excitedly shot back. Picking up his drink he asked "You got coke right?"
"Yes" Arthur smirked "Diet coke" he chuckled to himself, but then stopped realising that what he had just done was so petty.
"Aww what? But diet is the worst kind of coke!" Alfred wined,slurping up the coke nonetheless.
"Well you did say you were on a diet, I thought it was rather fitting." Arthur was satisfied that he had managed to justify his actions.
Alfred gobbled up his food like there was no tomorrow and attempted to talk whilst chewing. It seemed Alfred couldn't go two seconds without talking. Matthew became uncomfortable and leaned further back into his seat as food was being spat towards his face by the self-indulgent American.
In an attempt to distract Matthew from Alfred's terrible eating habits, Arthur placed a hand on his shoulder. "So..is there anything you'd like to do after this?" he asked, smiling.
"Oh no, that's okay. I'm fine" Matthew saw Arthur's expression change to one of concern "Really I am..but thank you for the offer." Arthur nodded in response, not quite sure what else to say. He wanted to treat Matthew, he deserved it after all that had happened to him today, but he wasn't about to force him in to anything. Alfred on the other hand, seemed to have different ideas.
"Nu uh" Alfred continued chewing his burger and then swallowed. "We're not gonna take no for an answer!" he slammed his fist on the table, the force made his fries bounce. "We're gonna give you the best day out you've ever had to make up for our jerkyness!". Matthew started biting his lip while he thought about what kind of things awaited him for the rest of the day.
"Hang on a minute." Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose "It's not up to you what Matthew does today, if he really doesn't want to go anywhere then just leave him be." Alfred shoved the remainder of his fries into his mouth.
"But he does wanna hang." Alfred leaned over the table until his face was only inches away from Matthews "You do wanna hang, right?". Matthew opened his mouth to speak but stopped as no words seemed to be coming out. He became flustered, Alfred was so close to him that he could feel his warm breath and the smell of salty fries.
In an attempt to regain his personal space, Matthew blurted out "Yeah, of course I want to." whilst nodding his head repeatedly. It seemed to have worked as Alfred sat back down, he saw Arthur roll his eyes again. "It sounds like it could be.." he glanced at Alfred who was now grinning at him "fun". He would much rather have gone home for the day, he had had enough torment for one day and just wanted to sleep it off. However, he just couldn't say no to his bright eyed friend. Of course, Arthur didn't believe for a second that Matthew really wanted to stay so he figured he would try and make the time as enjoyable as possible for him.
"Told ya! Off we go then" Alfred rose out of his seat and started marching towards to door, expecting the others to follow. Arthur wondered if Alfred really knew the extent of his power of persuasion. Obviously they only worked on certain people, he would certainly never fall for it.
Sighing, Arthur picked up Alfred's food tray and took it over to the bin. He was surprised as he saw Matthew's hand push the metal flap open for him.
"Oh, thank you" he placed the trash in the bin and began dusting off his hands. He gave Matthew a smile and the Canadian returned the favour, but this smile felt more genuine that the one's he had given earlier in the day. Matthew's light blonde hair looked so soft, it wasn't straggly like his own. He couldn't help but give Matthew a light pat on the head, he just hoped that he wasn't being patronising. 'He must receive hair products from Francis or something' even the thought of Francis made him grind his teeth together.
"Hey guys I thought you were right behind me, what gives?" Alfred asked, poking his head round the door. Arthur and Matthew followed Alfred through the door, Arthur's hand gently guiding Matthew forwards.
Arthur unlocked the car when Alfred grabbed his hand,pulling him backwards. "After you" the American said to Matthew, gesturing towards the vehicle. Alfred placed his arm around Arthur and spun them both around to face the other direction to initiate a private conversation "Well that went better than I expected".
"What did you expect? World war three?" Arthur was baffled by Alfred's words, if anything he would've said that the day couldn't have gone any worse.
"I dunno, I just expected Matthew to be kinda lame. But he's freaking adorkable." Alfred didn't even attempt at whispering, he chuckled. Arthur flinched at the cute new adjective Alfred had used to describe Matthew.
"Tch."
"Dude, don't be jealous." Arthur's eyes grew wide, 'what is he talking about?'. "You're still my BFF" Alfred squeezed Arthur's waist, and his natural reaction was to push him away.
"Get yours hands off me you twit." He hissed, Alfred laughed in response to which Arthur was relieved. Alfred ran towards the car, and jumped into the driver's seat.
"Hurry up grandpa" he remarked, honking the horn. Arthur couldn't help but smile and hop into the passenger seat, not minding if Alfred drove this time around.