"I still can't believe you were going to let us buy fireworks at 2 in the morning." Alfred looked across the small round table at his brother.

"Like I said, I assumed you would be arrested before you could actually do anything with them. If you managed to actually buy some at this time of the year." Mathew shrugged and stirred his coffee, disinterested with whatever line of thinking had landed his brother in the holding cell. "New topic, did you find a date to Francis's wedding yet?" Alfred groaned at the reminder.

"No. I've been busy with school and there's no one I particularly want to ask so-"

"So you're going stag." Mathew finished.

"Shut up pancakes." Alfred muttered.

"You said you would let that go!" Mathew seethed across the table.

"Yeah well you said you'd stay out of my love life and so here we are."

"Seriously though, get a date. You do not want to go stag to one of their gatherings." Mathew warned. "Gilbert will challenge you to a contest which either involve something stupid, something dangerous, or something illegal."

"Sounds like you know first hand. Which reminds me, where are Gilbert and Mathias?" Alfred asked, sipping at his own drink, smudging the sharpie lines that made up his name.

"Mathias got picked up by Lukas as soon as he heard that you idiots were trying to light fireworks. Apparently last time Mathias did something like that he started a fire in the house and Lukas didn't want to risk it."

"Wouldn't surprise me. What about Gilbert?" Alfred watched his brother try to dodge around the question as he drained his coffee and stood up to go back to the barista. Alfred knew about the almost relationship that was forming between his brother and his friend, and he did his best not to pressure them into telling him. However, watching them squirm while feigning oblivion was a rare and beautiful opportunity to be presented with in life and there was no use wasting a chance to mess with them both at once.

"I'm back, they sure know how to stay on top of things here, don't they?" Alfred smiled coyly, noticing a hint of disappoint in his brother's face.

"Yeah, you didn't answer the question before you left. I'm sure that if any of us would end up in jail it probably would have been him, right?" Mathew turned slightly red.

"I...uh, well I took him home." He said into his cup of coffee. Alfred smiled slightly as he relaxed in his chair. He didn't know when it had become a routine for them to go out for coffee when they met up, but every time they met they tended to wander towards the closest Starbucks, Dunken Donuts, or family run café in the area

"Without buying him dinner first? What kind of a person do you take him for Mattie?" Alfred watched his brother turn nearly as red as his hoodie.

"Not like that! I just took him to the house and gave him an aspirin." Alfred laughed and nodded.

"Aspirin was a smart idea knowing his drinking habits. It seems like when we get together everyone gets drunk even faster than usual."

"That's because you're all self important idiots who keep challenging each other to drink more than person A or get more numbers than person B. You're like Gilbert, Antonio, and Francis only without as much backstory and to the friendship." Mathew stated as simply as he would the time.

"Wow, thank you for dissecting the relationship I share with my friends and all but I gotta run. I have to go to go to classes tomorrow and I'm supposed to start helping Gilbert plan Francis's bachelor party."

"You guys know the wedding isn't for a couple of months, right?"

"Yeah, but its, and I quote, 'the last night for Francis to be as awesome as he possibly can'." Alfred stood and stretched. "You know better than anyone how Gilbert can get."

"What's that supposed to mean?" His brother turned red again as Alfred threw away his cup and waved from the door. Bracing himself against the bitter fall wind, he realized that he forgot his jacket at Gilbert's apartment. This left him with two options, break into the apartment and retrieve his jacket or wait who knew how long until one of his roommates was home to open the door, because there was no way he was going to leave his jacket behind.

Trudging through an almost silent town, Alfred took a moment to appreciate how still the world was on nights like this. It almost seemed like time had stopped.

At least, until a car rushed by and the spell was over. Taking a deep breath he continued his trek through the town. He hadn't known the trio of friends very long, having met Gilbert through a college course last year and through him meeting Antonio and Francis. The trio was a bunch of dorks, but they were good to hang out with and his brother liked them well enough.

Alfred looked up at the apartment complex and sighed. The small piece of him that had retained hope of not (technically) committing a crime died when he saw the lights off in the apartment and their cars gone from the parking lot. He just hoped that they left the door unlocked.

Alfred let out a breath that he wasn't aware he was holding in when the door opened without resistance. Walking inside he looked around for where he might have left it, vaguely recalling seeing it in the living room before they took off for the night. It was while he was rummaging around in the living room that he heard the door open again. Assuming it was just Antonio, home from a night out, Alfred continued attempting to move the entertainment center in case his jacket had fallen down behind it.

Which is what led him to overhear the conversation in the kitchen. It wasn't like Alfred had been purposefully eavesdropping, but it would've been rather awkward to walk out into the middle of their obviously private conversation. It wasn't until the sound of a coffee machine starting up that he realized that who ever it was had company over.

"When are you going to let me hail a cab? I have work tomorrow I'll have you know." The voice was slightly familiar, but the accent threw him off. Alfred didn't know many people with accents quite like this man's.

"Just as soon as you ask the questions that I know you have." Francis then, his accent was unmistakable.

"I have nothing to ask you."

"Not even about my fiancée?"

"I don't want to know anything about her, I'm sure she's just as much of a frog as you are."

"Non, she's..." For the first time since knowing Francis, Alfred heard him at a loss for words. There was a period of silence that, even for an onlooker, was suffocating.

"Why did you invite me? To the wedding, that is." The accented man's voice sounded by small, almost as though it was made of glass, Francis's tone was equally as fragile while responding.

"To let you know that I'm sorry." The comment changed the direction of the conversation dramatically. The once childlike voice was now enraged.

"Sorry? You wanted to tell me that you were sorry? You have a strange way of showing it!" there was a moment pause before the man continued in a much quieter but equally as enraged voice. "But you know what, so am I. I'm sorry that I met you, I'm sorry that I loved you, and I'm sorry that you left me. I'm going to always regret that day for the rest of my life but you know what, I'm perfectly fine. I have friends and a stable job. I have my life set up just the way I want it and I can promise you that if I ever end up in jail ever again I won't be calling you to bail me out."

"Arthur plea-"

"No, we're done here. I would like to go home now and if you don't take me, I'll walk home." Alfred picked up his jacket and quietly slid the entertainment center back into place.

"Arthur, that's insane, it's two miles from here to your house. You could never walk that distance."

"Watch me." It was more of a hiss than a whisper, the threat followed by a moment of tense silence, a soft sigh breaking the quiet.

"I'll go hail a cab, assuming you don't want to ride two miles in the same car as me that is?" Alfred could hear Francis putting on his shoes.

"Oh look at that, it does have a brain." There was another soft sigh and then the sound of the door closing.

And that's when it clicked. The name and the accent and the mention of prison all fit into place like puzzle pieces and as he peeked around the corner into the kitchen Alfred's suspicions were confirmed.

"...Jones?" The just previously enraged sounding man looked sick now, all color drained from his face, turning even paler as he looked at Alfred. The sudden change in personality made his stomach turn over just slightly.

"... Iggy."