There Is Nothing You can Say

The two males came across a fork in the road. Arthur decided to go to the left, figuring the Star would head toward the town that seemed to be larger than the other, smaller one further away to the right. Alfred was still complaining of exhaustion, but the warlock chose to ignore him no matter how grating his voice sounded. As they reached the inside of town, Alfred let out a relieve huff followed by an irritated groan. He dragged his feet as he walked, not having enough energy to pick his feet up all the way.

"Where's an inn? I'm tired and you said we'd have a room by now." Arthur ignored him and continued to walk down the deserted street. There was a decent sized building about a half mile down the road that had a sign out front, which he bet advertised that the place was, in fact, an inn. "Do you even know where you're going?" The blonde glared at him from over his shoulder, silencing him. It felt like the walk to the inn would last forever and Alfred was about to give up and sit on the side of the street to rest. He ran into the warlock's back and grunted in confusion. Arthur rolled his eyes and motioned him to follow. Sure enough, the place was an inn. Hopefully they would be allowed in, thought the younger male.

A gruff looking man that looked to be in his early thirties sat behind a desk reading a small, pocket-sized book. He barely looked up as they two males entered the lobby. His feet were propped up on the large wooden desk which held various papers and food and drink from the employee. The man mumbled the last few words of a sentence in the book and closed it, making sure to keep his place. "Can I help you two gentlemen? It's rather late, what are you doing out this time of night anyway?" The man asked, confused. Rarely did anyone come in at such an obscene time of the evening. The man tried to keep the exasperation out of his voice when addressing them. Arthur bored his emerald gaze into the man's own pale gray eyes.

"Sorry to have arrived at such an inconvenient time of the night, but we were wondering if we could bother you for a room." The man sighed and looked at the last key hanging up on the wall behind him.

"There is only one room left that is available. It's only a single bed though, sorry for that." Arthur nodded his head and grabbed the key from the guy as the man held it out to him.

"That is all right, thank you for your help. How much for the room?" The warlock reached into his bag and pulled out a few gold coins, setting them on the desk. The man's eyes went wide in shock. "I trust this should be enough." Snatching the coins off of the desk, the man smiled and thanked the warlock.

"Your room is up on the second floor, north hall, and fourth one on the right. Have a nice night, gentlemen." Arthur nodded in his direction and went up the stairs, Alfred following. As soon as they reached the room, Alfred rushed past the warlock and went straight to the bed, collapsing on it face first. Arthur shook his head, sitting on the edge of the bed. He took off his shoes and hung up his hooded cape and his bag. He sighed, also quite exhausted from the unexpected turn of events.

"Alfred," he nudged the younger male on the shoulder. "Hey, move over a bit, please. I would really love to be able to lie down too, ya know." The other was already out cold though. Sighing a bit, he gently pushed Alfred to make room for himself to lie on the bed. Hopefully they wouldn't have to stay in this small in for too long and would find the Star soon. Soft snores filled the room as Arthur drifted off to sleep.

~XX~

Alfred woke to the sounds of hurried running about. He groaned, not quite remembering everything that happened and still exhausted from the nights previous activities. Sitting at the end of the bed was Arthur, getting his shoes laced up. Alfred groaned and flopped back onto the bed, overly dramatic. "So everything was real. It all happened. And I'm stuck here, with you, in a town in the middle of who-knows-where!" He threw his hands up in annoyance. Arthur just rolled his eyes and finished getting dressed, his hair still damp from his shower.

"Basically," The warlock shrugged and poked at Alfred's leg. "You should probably take a shower too. Ya look filthy from running all through the forest last night." He walked over to his bag and pulled out an extra pair of clothes that would–hopefully–fit the larger male. "Here, so you're not wearing the same, dirty clothes when you get out." The younger male was still lying down, not wanting to face his current situation. "Come on, you need to at least take a shower if all you're planning on doing today is resting!" Reluctantly, Alfred sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

"Fine," He grabbed the clothes and stepped into the small bathroom, closed the door, and proceeded to go about taking his shower.

"You might need to let the water run a bit before it warms up!" Arthur warned. He had learned that himself as he had gotten ready for his own shower earlier. The water had been freezing when he had stepped in.

Arthur waited a few minutes until he was sure that Alfred was in the shower before he sat on the bed with his bag next to him. He reached inside and pulled out Alfred's letter from his mom. A twinge of guilt stung at his heart as he thought of how he had lied to the younger male when he had asked about it. Quickly brushing it off, Arthur opened the letter, curious. He read through the contents, eyes growing wider with each sentence. As he finished, the water shut off and he quickly shoved the letter back into his bag. The warlock left a note on the bed explaining that he had gone out for a bit and would be back in time for dinner and that he would send someone up to bring him breakfast. He exited the room, making sure to put a spell on the door so that it could only be opened from the outside.

Arthur thought over the content of the letter as he walked downstairs to the lobby. Well, that had certainly changed things a bit.

~XX~

Hours later the warlock returns to the shared room and is greeted by a slightly angry blonde. He sets down the dinner foods he had brought for them to eat and crosses his arms at the boy.

"Where were you that you were gone all day? I mean really! And then you had me trapped up here all day too. What if i had wanted to go with you? It's no fun being cooped up all day in a dingy little room with nothing to do!" Alfred was slightly red in the face when he finished, arms also crossed. He looked over to the food and snorts. "There's no way it took you all day to shop for that much food."

"Of course not. I was going around town to see if I could find any information about the Star. And I had to keep you locked up in here because I couldn't risk you getting out and then telling everyone about the Star. I though we already covered that part." Arthur spoke calmly, uncrossing his arms to hang up his cape and bag. "Anything else you'd like to complain about?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact! These clothes you gave me are too short on me. I feel like a giant trying to fit into dwarf clothes." Indeed, they were too small on his tall frame. The pant legs came up almost four inches above his ankles and he hadn't even bothered to put on the shirt.

"Don't worry, I got you some more clothes that should fit you in one of the bags there. Not much, but better than nothing." Alfred searched through the bags and found a few shirts and a couple pairs of pants. He pulled them out, but there was something else on the bottom of the bag. He pulled out a nice, brown jacket. It looked like it would be warm. He looked over to the warlock, his cheeks reddening from embarrassment at his earlier outburst.

"Thank you, Arthur." The older of the two nodded his acknowledgment. "Sorry for yelling. It was just really frustrating being trapped in here all day. Can I at least come with you tomorrow? I won't try to run off, I swear!"

"Sure, I'll need some extra help tomorrow. We'll probably have to stay for at least two more days to see if there's any rumors or anything going around about the Star." Alfred brightened up at hearing this. "Eat, and then go to sleep; we'll be gone all day tomorrow, so you'll need your rest." The younger of the two nodded. Arthur watched as he ate, not able to eat anything himself. The letter still shook him up a bit and a heavy feeling settled in his stomach, not allowing him to hold anything down without wanting to throw it all back up.

After he had finished up and got ready for bed, both blondes settled in for bed.

~XX~

The next day was spent wondering throughout town trying to gather any information on the Star, but so far, there was none. Arthur felt like a fool for not finding even a shred of knowledge pertaining to the Star, though Alfred tried assuring him that it would probably be a day or two longer until they would be able to find something.

The possibility that the Star might have already passed through this town and onto a different one came to mind as they headed back to the inn room. Arthur decided that the next day, they would leave for the closest town over from this one. Maybe there they would have a bit more luck.

A/N: Sorry, this was mostly a catch up chapter for Al and Artie D: and too that this was so late. Is it just me, or do senior years go by way too fast?

Review, please :D