Chapter 4: "The boy in the Cowboy hat"
Two months passed. Alfred had made a little progress with the boy, but Arthur tended to stop him more often than naught. The strange thing was it felt like none of that mattered as soon as they got into Arthur's flat. Alfred had migrated from couch to floor to tabletop and back to the couch as his sleeping place. The two of them made conversation now, as if they were just casual acquaintances...and NOT on a mission to foil each other's plans. Alfred felt strange about it, though at the same time he felt more comfortable. Every other week, Arthur helped him with his wings; every other week Alfred gave him one kiss in return. But this time the man didn't need a deal, he just helped, and didn't ask for a thing.
Arthur was becoming both at ease and yet uneasy at the same time, with Alfred around. He enjoyed the company and was happy they could easily share conversation, even the small kisses every now and again made him happy, but still he couldn't shake the feeling he had about Alfred. There was defiantly something there that he was missing. It bothered him that he couldn't figure it out.
Alfred looked at the man's perplexed face as he patted a towel on his wings. "...Do you need any help with yours?"
"What?" He blinked. Alfred's voice brought him back to reality. "What did you say?"
"Your wings...I've never helped you with them...are they easy to handle on your own? Mine are such a pain because demons don't typically have feathers, but are Angels taught this crap or something?"
"No I don't need help, Angel's have adapted to the difficulties of the feathered wings." Arthur nodded. "Thank you for the offer though."
"Right..." Alfred said looking away. "So...You didn't really ask for anything..."
"I didn't ask for anything? You mean a kiss?" Arthur furrowed his brows.
"Yeah...is this one free or what?"
"I will let you decide Alfred."
"...What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Alfred held an air bubble in his mouth, puffing his cheeks and looking perplexed.
"What do you think it means?" Arthur looked at the other. "If you want to thank me by doing something for me you can, or you can just simply say 'thank you.'"
"...Thanks then..." Alfred looked away. "Y'know..." He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. "I never expected anything to be like this..."
"Really? It would be a difficult thing to expect, wouldn't it?" He said smoothly.
"Yeah..." He rubbed his palms together and gulped. "Arthur. Can I ask you something stupid?"
"Go ahead."
"...Why are you here?..."
"Why am I here on Earth? Because I was cast down from heaven." Arthur stood, and made his way to the kitchen, sitting down in one of the chairs to gaze at the night sky. Alfred followed him, but didn't sit down.
"Yes but...why do you do what you do?...what's your purpose?"
Arthur tilted his head to the side. "You meaning, why am I listening to heavens orders still even though I am fallen? That is not something I can answer Alfred."
"No..." Alfred hid his face in his hands. "Why is it...do you KNOW what you're doing?...Do you have a reason?"
"Yes, I do have a reason."
"...Mfnmgh..." He muttered and pulled his face away from his hands. "...right...I figured that..." He sighed. "...It's important...for a man to know why he's doing what he does..."
"It's a good idea to know, but sometimes you learn as you go along the path you take."
"...But how did you know if you're on the right track in the meantime?...What if it just gets worse?"
"Sometimes, you just don't know. But at some point you will realize something isn't right. At that point, you should stop and rethink what you are doing. What's with all of the questions Alfred?"
Alfred blushed. "...n...nothing I just...I don't know..." His tone turned sad suddenly.
Arthur leaned back in his seat, his eyes on Alfred. What was with the sudden questions. How strange. "Alfred, have you had something bothering you?"
"...No...Well...yes but it's nothing new..."
"Do you want to tell me what is on your mind poppet?" Arthur asked.
Alfred cocked an eyebrow and looked at him. "What the heck does poppet mean?"
He laughed. "You are avoiding the question."
"Fuck you." He muttered. After a moment he sighed. "Well...I'm just confused right now...about a lot of things...I mean I've always been different...but...I don't know...it's almost as if the earth is...trying to tell me something...like a puzzle piece I have to fit in...I haven't told you about before the king took me in have I?"
"No, you haven't. You really haven't told me much about your life at all. But I don't blame you; I haven't told you a thing about myself."
"Right...well we have no reason to...But honestly you probably know about as much as I do...I don't remember anything...it goes blurry to a point...and then it's all black...my earliest memory was fifty years ago, waking up in some dump on the outskirts of Hell...I couldn't remember anything, I didn't even have a name...in fact I didn't receive the name Alfred until a little while before I was sent on this mission."
Arthur observed him silently, "That is a strange occurrence indeed." He folded his hands together. "I can see why you feel so lost." Arthur sighed. His mind mulling over the new information given to him.
"Meh...well not remembering anything would make sense considering where I woke up...but I didn't have any head injuries...and I'm just...not like the others. I have feathered wings, I can change my appearance. I can make my wings and horns disappear whenever I want, I can look just like a human. Only thing I can't seem to control when it pops out is my tail." He said, swinging the thing through the air behind him. "I'm...I'll never understand why I'm so different...and the sucky thing is it probably made sense before...but I forgot..."
Alfred looked toward Arthur. His face seemed perplexed as if solving a riddle. "Dude...what is it?"
"Hmm, I have been around many years, this defiantly is an occurrence I have never come across."
"...Exactly..." Alfred looked away. "I don't mind it. I like my abilities, they are useful...but...they just...are confusing...the rules my kind are taught don't always apply to me. I don't know what...I'm supposed to do...do you ever get the feeling you're just...meant...for something else?"
"A long time ago, I felt that way, but that changed as my life changed." He let out a long sigh.
"...What changed?"
"I lost something," Arthur didn't feel like going into details about it, but he couldn't stop his eyes from drifting to the picture of the boy in the cowboy hat.
Alfred followed his gaze and something suddenly clicked. "...does it have anything to do with that picture?"
"Damn. I gave myself away didn't I?" He sighed, "Yes, I suppose it does."
"...So that kid on the wall...you knew him?"
Arthur nodded his head slowly. "Yes, very well."
"...the pictures old...So he's dead right?...it must be hard to watch somebody you know grow old and wither..." He said with a sad face.
"He didn't have the chance to grow old." Arthur said in a voice full of anger.
Alfred's eyes went wide. "Oh...I see..." He figured he should back up from the subject around this time. "I won't ask you any more then...you don't have to talk about him..." He couldn't stop his curiosity from flaring though. The puzzle seemed to connect. "...Did you...care for him then?...like a brother or...something else?"
"I loved him, and he loved me back." Arthur let out the breath he was holding in. "Alfred, stop, I don't want to be having this conversation right now."
"...Right...I'm sorry about that...It's sad how humans can be huh?" He said with a dry chuckle. "Sometimes I think they are worse than demons the way people kill each other." He said gazing out the window before realizing what he had said. "Oh! Hell, I'm sorry I didn't mean for it to come out like that!"
Arthur glared at him, but still went on. "He wasn't killed by a human."
"...Then...how did...never mind...you don't want to talk about it..." He looked away and out the window for awhile before it began to rain heavily. "...Storm...I haven't ever seen one of these on earth..." Lightning flashed in the distance and a few moments later Alfred heard a rumble. He glanced back at the other before swallowing some of his saliva nervously. "I'll leave you alone for awhile." he said before turning away and making sure his wings were dry before making them disappear along with his horns. His hair turned blonde again, but his tail wouldn't cooperate as usual. He sighed and paced to the door. Putting on his shoes and jacket before struggling to make his tail vanish again.
Arthur sat in silence once the boy had left the house. He tried to cast the thoughts of his love away, it was hard enough to do that seeing as the two of them had the same name, but that demon was nothing like Alfred. Come to think of it, now that Arthur knew he had only barely received that name, they probably sent that specific demon to him on purpose. The demon king must have known and looked into it, sending Alfred to throw the angel off. Why would he do that?...The angel couldn't even remember his Love's features clearly anymore. It had been a hundred years, and all he had was a note, and a picture that covered Alfred's face. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to imagine his Alfred's face. But all he saw was that counterfeit demon...he growled and lay down on the couch. He was sick of this.
Alfred walked through the streets. He was glad he could get rid of his wings while in disguise; the rain would have ruined his cleaning effort. He pulled a hood over his head and walked on. He had been in such a rush, he forgot his glasses, so he made sure to stick to the sidewalk. It occurred to him this was the perfect chance to attack Peter, so he began to head in that direction. He stopped soon after though. His thoughts rushed as he stood ther in the rain, he didn't want to... He didn't care about his mission at this point. If this kid was going to grow into something amazing, why should he crush the boy's potential? It didn't seem right. Right? All of this made his head hurt.
The air around him was lifeless, everything felt fake, and yet so real. Arthur could smell the scent of smoke, a scent that had haunted his dreams for a lifetime. Where was he? This place was not his apartment. As his eyes darted around the darkened woods, it dawned on him as to where he was. This was the land he and Alfred used to live on so long ago. "No." He whispered, it was the night, no moon in the sky, not a star to be seen. The only scent was the dreadful smoke. His eyes searched wildly for the direction of their cabin. He began to dart through the trees, running, running until he could no longer muster the strength, but he was there now, at the cabin.
The light of a candle flicked through the window. Good lord what day was it? He reached for the door handle, the smell of smoke getting stronger. When he opened it he saw emptiness nobody was there. He searched for a calendar. July 4th 1912. This couldn't be happening! Was he in the past? This had to be a dream. He heard a sudden shriek from Alfred's bedroom. He bolted inside, the young man's voice seemed foreign to his ears, it had been a long time since he heard the nineteen year old's accent. "Sir I reckon you're one o' those angel types, Arthur said you might come bu-Ah! Let go o' me! What're you searching for?! Evidence?!"
"Alfred!" Arthur shot into the room without a thought. Nothing changed.
"S-stop!" Alfred had shouted at the intruder. Arthur attempted to shove away the angel, Adam, but his body went straight through the other.
"Damnit!" Arthur looked panicked, "Where am I, why am I not here to help! Fuck!" In fact, he did remember where he was at the time of the attack. He had left to fulfill a task that very angel had given to him. He wouldn't find Alfred's body for two days after the fact. Again Arthur tried to rid the world of the angel, but nothing worked. He tired for a long while before exhausting himself; he collapsed on the floor in a heap of tears. "Why can't I help him?" He hiccupped. He rocked back and forth trying to drown out the screams that fell from Alfred's lips. "No, just stop!" Arthur screamed as he covered his ears from the sound.
Adam's voice growled. "There, it's plain to see. He's touched you hasn't he? He slept with a human. That's not allowed." Alfred cried out as his head hit the wall. "He was selfish to endanger you like this. How long ago?!"
"STOP IT!" Alfred screamed. "So what? He may have touched me, but I did the same! And I don't regret it! I love 'im and there is nothin' wrong with that! Now get offa my property!" He voice cracked from time to time, Arthur didn't dare look. He could smell his dear Alfred's blood.
The thought that he had brought death to Alfred sent a pain through his chest. Adam was right at one point; it was quite selfish of him to do that. He was to blame for Alfred's death. The scent of blood was getting stronger with every passing second. He could hear the pained breaths Alfred took.
"He brought this upon himself. Orders are, you are to die, and he is to become fallen." Adam smiled, "We haven't had a situation like this occur in over a thousand years, and now here we are again, history repeating itself." He pressed his hands tighter against his neck.
"S-stop…" Alfred gasped. "Please." Tears streamed down his face as he attempted to gain breath. Minutes passed, the only sound was the noise of the mocking birds outside the window chirping their song. The angel left the room; he looked directly at Arthur and smiled a devious smile. Arthur looked away, his eyes falling on the glossed over blue of Alfred's eyes.
Alfred, the demon Alfred. Then the world once again blacked out.
"Let go!" Alfred's voice echoed. But it had lost its accent it seemed. "Let go!" His eyes shot open. The demon was right in front of him with wide eyes and human eyes that didn't glow. He blinked a few more times before realizing Alfred was blushing. "Dude let go!" Arthur looked down and realized he was holding the demon's tail.
"Oh, sorry." He whispered. He attempted to keep himself from shaking. "I uhh, sorry." His voice was hoarse, as if he had been shouting. He coughed trying to clear it up.
Alfred twitched his tail away and took a long breath. "Jeez, I came in and you were yelling in your sleep. That's the last time I ever try to wake you up." He said, rubbing his buttocks.
"I- Thank you for waking me up." Arthur sat up. He hid his trembling hands behind him. Why had he seen the Demon's face?
"Right...jeez you're sweating...are you alright?...or...maybe I shouldn't ask?"
"I-I'm fine. It's just hot in here. Could you open a window?" Arthur asked. His voice couldn't stay steady as he spoke. He cursed under his breath.
"Yeah sure." Alfred traveled to the window and opened it, allowing the smell of rain to spread through the room. "...so...something strange happened while I was out."
"Really? What happened?" Arthur tilted his head to the side.
"...I had an opportunity to ruin Peter...and I'll have you know I didn't..." He closed his eyes and chuckled. "There's gotta be something wrong with me."
"Y-you didn't?" Arthur took a breath, willing his voice to stop shaking. He glanced at the demon. "What went through your head to make you decide not to?"
"...I don't know...it didn't seem...right...to ruin a kid...I...I hate this mission. If he's gonna be a good person then let him be. Demons don't have a right to fuck with people's lives, neither do angels...why can't we just let them live? Peter is a good person, he'll do great things. We've taken down thousands of people. We don't give them chances to be great...your..." He gestured to the picture on the wall. "Your love never got a chance to be great...it's...it's not fair." He turned and looked at him with completely honest blue eyes. "I don' wanna do this anymore."
"Y-you." Arthur gulped. Was that? No it couldn't be.
Alfred blinked. "What? Oh...I started talkin' weird right? Forgive me. I slip some of the time. I used to speak in a strange accent when I first can remember. But the Demon King didn't like it, so he taught me how to speak correctly when he took me in. I slip every once in awhile...but...did you hear what I said?"
Arthur blinked a few times. "Yes I heard what you said." He shook his head trying to rip himself of the shock.
"...okay...right I guess you saw this coming or something?...Am I that predictable?"
"No, no, I'm sorry it's just, I just woke up, and I feel really sick right now." He wasn't lying; he had been feeling the need to throw up since he opened his eyes.
"Do you...need help?" He came closer and knelt next to the couch. "I think I owe you at least that."
As Alfred knelt down next to him; he could smell the burning of that night. He sucked in a deep breath of air and suddenly felt light headed.
Alfred caught him as he collapsed. "Whoa...are you alright?"
"I'm perfectly fine," He attempted to push himself away from Alfred, away from that scent.
"No you're not. Stop lying to me alright?...I've been more honest than I should have been with you." As he tried to pick the other up, Arthur pushed him and he fell backwards, his arms still around the angel and he hit the floor, the other man on top of him. "Ow!" the lights were all down already, but Alfred saw a few white spots before blinking them away.
Arthur pulled himself away, "Just stop! Don't- don't come near me! Please." His mind was beginning to drift back into the dream. He could hear Alfred's screams, his cries for help. Arthur covered his ears. "Make it stop!" He shouted.
Alfred sat up. "Dude calm down!" Arthur suddenly fell backward and once again his world went black...
