A/N: This chapter wasn't meant to be so short, but I wanted to get it posted by the end of today for my birthday.
Amberleysz: Hello, Amberley! This is Ashley from the U.S.. Thank you so much for your review. It brightened up my day! I hope you like everything else I post as much as the first two chapters. I look forward to hearing from you again. :)
JollyBigSis: If it's seme, it's not me. All relationships are based on give and take and I have rarely heard of anyone being a "true" bottom. I'm glad you liked what I did with Arthur's characterization as well as the chapter as a whole. I shoot for realistic, and I hope I achieved that. I'll try not to disappoint you in the future as well.
To all of my lovely Anons: Thank you for your reviews! You are all so sweet and and I have no clue where you came from, but I love you.
Last but not least, my own angry book elf, OutToGarden: you're right. I should have! Now shut up and enjoy your new fucking chapter. (I already know you're going to yell at me for this later ;) ) I love you.
Arthur never told me what his name was—the man he thought about in those moments when reality eluded him, if just for a second, when his face would change for an instant like a burst of static on the television set. It wasn't as obvious at first. I didn't know him well enough to discern the faraway look he took on from his normally aloof personality. It didn't take long. Whoever he was, I hated him. I hated that whatever happened, whatever he did to Arthur, caused him so much pain that he'd be hit with the memory like a locomotive, except without the telltale wailing beforehand that warned you of its approach.
At times Arthur was so distant that I wasn't sure he was even there. Physically, he was; mentally, I could tell he was gone. All the lights were on upstairs, but no one was home. I didn't pry in the beginning because it was none of my business. After spending a few waking hours with him, however, I began to understand why he had a difficult time making friends with the other people in town. He would slip away from the world for a while and return periodically as though that's what normal people did. I knew he only pretended to be happy most of the time. What I wouldn't give to make him actually smile.
He helped us move into our new house a few mornings after our tryst in the bookshop, though I assured him it was all being handled by the movers. I lied, of course, so he wouldn't be bothered with it. Madeline, my precious little girl, hadn't noticed any change between Arthur and myself, and begged me to let him come along anyway. How could I say no to her? Especially when the angry book elf and I had made love every night since our arrival. We definitely shared several sidelong glances over the course of the day, which if I was right, and I knew I was, meant it was going to happen again tonight.
It was nice to have the company, if nothing else. The house was too big, I realized rather quickly, and it was bound to get lonely with only Madeline and I living here. I hadn't even looked at the property before putting my bid on the house—a price far above what it was worth to ensure I snatched it up—since we had so little time to get out of New York and I was regretting it already. The furniture from our apartment couldn't stretch to fill even a quarter of the space available. We had more than enough money to last us out here for awhile, at least. Some of it could go toward new things, maybe a television or a radio; anything to fill the emptiness with life.
I hadn't lied completely. The movers did unload our things from the truck. Boxes full of what we owned were stacked amongst the pieces of furniture, decorating the front lawn like ugly Christmas presents. All we had to do was everything else. Arthur, with a pointed look of disappointment in me, took to transporting the boxes Madeleine couldn't carry and I set to moving the really heavy things, all of us stumbling around, and in to, each other more often than not. Progress was slow going and Arthur bitched occasionally. I secretly liked it. It felt like we were a family. An unconventional family, but one nonetheless.
Madeline shyly tugged on my sleeve, asking for my attention. I set the couch in place and looked down at her. "Daddy, where's my room?"
"Take any one you want, princess. There are plenty to choose from."
She nodded fervently, taking off up the stairs to pick a room, though I knew she already had her heart set on the one in the far back that overlooked the brook behind the house. Arthur came up beside me with a box in his arms. He stood there for a moment and watched my daughter dart toward the exact room I knew she wanted. She nearly ran smack dab in to the door, she was so impatient to go inside. Both of us chuckled in unison.
"She is a decisive little one," he said with a little humor.
"Just like her father." We both knew I was talking about Matthew. "She's convinced the fairies will finally visit her if she picks the right room."
"She's right."
There was nothing about that sentence that led me to believe he was joking. He turned and walked away without another word. I stared after him. Arthur always said things that made me think he actually believed in that stuff. Were I to discover he did, I wouldn't be surprised in the least. He was a strange man and all the little oddities I came across became part of his charm.
My eyes wandered down so that I could watch his backside as he walked from the living room. There was something about him I found unusually attractive that made it so I couldn't look away from him for more than a few moments at a time even if I tried, which I didn't. Arthur knew this and reveled in it. He liked to pretend otherwise.
"If you would kindly, take your eyes off my arse, Mr. Jones, or you won't be getting it tonight."
I put my hands up in defense. "When you stop looking like that—actually... No, not even then. I don't think it's possible."
He glanced over his shoulder, smirk in place. "I'm serious." His pointed ears were tinged red, though, and the blush hadn't the time to reach his cheeks.
I threw my hands out and I must have resembled a cross. "So am I!"
Arthur rolled his eyes and continued on his way, ignoring my attempt to be somewhat romantic. I didn't know if sex equated a relationship, so I was taking it by ear. Even though the constant fucking was wonderful, I sort of wished we could sit down to dinner and talk like normal people. We weren't normal, however. The world believed something was terribly wrong with us because we "chose" to love men instead of women. Sometimes I thought they were right. When I looked at Arthur, though, it was different, and I knew that it couldn't possibly be wrong. If somehow it was, well, I didn't want to be right.
We took a break for lunch around midday. Madeline begged to have a picnic in the backyard, a fancy meal of homemade sandwiches and green-bottled coke, hoping to scope the area for any fairies while the adults rested. I told her it was too chilly for that sort of thing, but she insisted that the snow hadn't stuck, so it wasn't that cold. The only magical creature I wanted to look at was the angry book elf sitting across from me, so I left her to it. While my daughter turned rocks over with a stick in an attempt to hunt for gnomes and whatever else she was convinced she would find, I watched Arthur with the same innate curiosity.
His already messy blond hair was gently ruffled by the same calm breeze that rippled the creek nearby. The sun bathed his pale skin, and I somehow knew it would not get any darker, discovering I was glad. I loved how different our skin looked when pressed together in the heat of passion, hands on the waist, fingers tracing a face. He observed the passing clouds overhead with eyes a dragon would covet. I imagined they were the same color of the grass in spring, but I honestly couldn't remember what it looked like. Every time I tried to think about the little tufts of green or the brightly colored wildflowers, I was bombarded by images of Arthur instead. It was unlike me to complain about that. Arthur's lips turned up at the corner like he could hear what I was thinking and it took my breath away. He looked like something out of a storybook. It amazed me, even now, that he was actually real.
If he knew I was staring at him, he didn't let on. I wanted to card my fingers through his hair or kiss his forehead softly so that he'd snap at me and probably hit me as well, but I could not. Things like that led me here, which wasn't quite so bad now that I'd met Arthur. It was things like that that would get me sent away from him too, or worse. Also, I still had Madeline to think about and I knew she was already so much happier here than she had ever been in New York, even though she was not pleased to move in the first place. Her joy truly gave me life. I could not bear to take that away from her now. So secretive I would be, even if it killed me.
As much as I wished I could watch him forever, my elf observations had to end. Madeline's face was getting red and puffy from the cold and the last thing I needed was for her to get sick. Having warmed up a bit from hopping around from rock to rock, she took off her coat, which I knew would be a fight getting her to put it back on. She saw the way I looked at her, knowing what it meant, giggled quietly, and started running. How did I know?
"Maddie! You come back here this instant!"
She looked behind her for a split second, but continued on anyway. Arthur chuckled. He wouldn't be any help. The sick bastard loved watching me struggle in any and every way. That meant I was on my own. I got up and started after her, knowing that I could only catch her if I was smart about it.
"Princess, Daddy's getting too old for this!"
"Good! You can't catch me, then!"
Sometimes I hated exactly how much like me she turned out to be. Why couldn't she always behave like Matthew did? Sure, she was quiet and polite most of the time, but occasionally she became a raging nightmare. That was definitely my fault. At least she wasn't doing it out of spite. Maybe she just wanted attention and knew I wouldn't turn down the opportunity to chase after her. Madeline was apparently a manipulative little girl. She had inherited that from me somehow.
Arthur sat back and watched my attempt to catch her, which wasn't going over too well. She was fast and full of energy. I'm sure she could go on like that for hours without tiring. Me, however, not so much. I was already huffing and puffing like I'd run a marathon. Damn, was I out of shape, but I had longer legs and a slightly more advanced intellect than she did. One day, I wasn't so sure I'd have these advantages.
I stopped with my hands on my knees, gasping for air like I'd been drowning instead of running. Madeline was a few yards ahead of me when she halted. There was a grin on her face. She thought she had won and was ready to begin gloating. I glanced at a space behind her, face one of awe, and said nothing for a few moments. Her eyes widened.
"Daddy, what is it?"
I didn't respond. It took every ounce of my willpower not to start laughing.
"Daddy, that's not funny. Tell me!" She glared at me. "If you see something that you're not tellin' me about..."
She was trying so hard not to turn around. Madeline started fidgeting, worried that I had spotted a fairy and she was missing it. She fell for it. As soon as she was facing away from me again, I sprinted for her, stopping short of tackling her to the ground. She squealed as I picked her up, squeezing her to my chest and kissing her cheek repeatedly. There would be hell to pay for that later, I knew. For now, however, Madeline was loving the attention.
"That's not nice!" She was shouting and laughing, too. She looked at Arthur, who was smiling to himself, hoping he would offer some support. "Arthur! Tell him he's mean!"
"Your father isn't mean, beloved princess. He wishes to escort you back to the castle before a dragon happens by and snatches you up."
Madeline appeared to understand what he meant, as though dragon attacks were highly likely this time of year. "Don't worry, I'm a brave princess," she said meekly, which told me the unlikely possibility of any of us having to fight off a fierce mythical garden lizard frightened her.
"Even brave princesses must be cautious. Let's get you inside. You've nearly played the day away."
For some reason, she always responded better to Arthur than me. It was probably because I was her father and he the mysteriously magical book elf. I suppose if one of her favorite things came to life and told her to jump off a bridge, she'd do it. Getting her inside should be nothing at all. Once again, I was grateful that Arthur knew how to handle my daughter better than I did sometimes. That must have been why having two parents was better than one, but I was definitely better than none.
All of that running had truly tuckered out my young princess as she fell asleep on the staircase on the way up to her room to unpack boxes. I figured she would need a nap soon, just perhaps on the bed I hauled all the way up there for her. Her cheek already had a crease in it from laying against the hard wooden edge as I picked her up and she hardly even moved. Living in the big city must have made her a little less accustomed to exercise as well. Arthur followed me into her room where I tucked her in to her unmade mattress on the floor. Once she woke up, Maddie would be wanting more playtime and then dinner, so I knew the only unpacking we'd get done is what Arthur and I did right now.
"She's a precious little ankle-biter, isn't she?" Arthur looked at Madeline so fondly I nearly thought she was his daughter.
"Now you see why I couldn't give her up. No one could ever love her as much as I do. Even if I'm not the best father—"
"You're a fine father, Alfred."
Arthur didn't deliberately look at me that often, but when he did, my heart exploded. His gaze shot through my chest and into my very soul when his eyes met mine. When he took my hand, I thought I had died and was born again in heaven. That couldn't be the case, I thought, or Matthew would be here too. So I guess I had found heaven on earth, then. I had given up on that sort of thing when the believers shunned me for loving another man, but maybe that had only happened so that I could meet my soul mate. I didn't know if my shaken faith could be healed that quickly after decades of fear and hiding. No matter what, Arthur was a divine gift I was lucky to receive. I would be sure to treat him as such.
He led me to a room far from Madeline's where he mercilessly took me on the floor, his hand pressed hard against my mouth so I wouldn't make a sound. It felt like it had been forever since he was last inside of me, though in reality, it had been less than a day. My name rolled off his tongue like the most beautiful melody in the world. I wished he could make out the rhythmic chant of his I had started, but his hand muffled every word until they were unintelligible moans. He must have understood the sentiment I was trying to express, as after we both came, he kissed me softly, uncharacteristically sweet of him. Arthur only did that every few days or so, and I cherished each one.
"Shall we finish now?" he asked, referring to unpacking the many full boxes lying around the house.
"I thought we just did."
Arthur rolled his eyes, something he did quite often, and dressed without trying to dignify that with with a response. He slipped away to that dark place in his mind after that for most of the night. We still laughed a bit here and there, but when Arthur left, he was really gone. Even when he pretended to be happy, and thought he was doing a good job at it, I saw right through the facade. I wish I could do something to help him, but it was hopeless. When I so much as hinted at a problem his mental state, he would shut down completely. If Matthew was here, he'd tell me that Arthur would open up when the time was right. But I didn't want to wait. I wanted to make Arthur at happy as he made me.
I never knew I was missing something until he and I made love. Then I was lost. Without Arthur, I wasn't sure I could live—I didn't want to. I did not want to even think about the possibility that I could ever lose him. Arthur was as much a part of me as my own arm. There are very few things I wouldn't give up for him. That included my life. I think I just might have been in love with the angry book elf.