A/N: Ello! My writers block has cleared, and ideas flow upon me like a river of honey! Let the honey river flow! Anyhow this chapter may have you face palming a bit but it was fun to write regardless. ONWARD:
Alfred was rather adorable when sleeping, all curled up and quiet. Honestly it was hard to believe this was the same man who was normally so full of energy and spirit. Even in his sleep though, he gave the illusion of smiling, soft and sweet.
Arthur had been standing in the doorway for a few minutes now, feeling kind of creepy just standing there watching him like this. Oh well, it didn't matter, it wasn't like he'd ever find out. Slowly, Arthur walked into the room and knelt down on the ground beside the bed, continuing his ogling. He looked away for a second. Why on earth was he acting like this? Alfred and he had only known each other for a few days, barley even a week. How on earth could he have developed such emotions for a person so fast? It was a mystery, but Arthur quickly came to terms with the fact that, maybe he didn't want to know. Suddenly the bed creaked.
"A-Arthur…" Alfred mumbled.
Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit…
Arthur snapped his eyes to him, stricken. Oh god, what could he possibly say he was doing?! What other explanation was there other than the fact he was just stalking him in his sleep?!
"Uh-" Then Arthur stopped himself. Alfred wasn't even awake…he had been mumbling his name in his sleep…he was dreaming about him?
Arthur felt his heart melt. Alfred, gorgeous, childish, lovely Alfred, was dreaming about him? He nearly laughed. How ridiculous…Then another noise sounded; the buzzing of a phone. Arthur knew it wasn't his own, so it must be Alfred's. It was on the nightstand, causing a ton of racket.
Arthur quickly jumped up and quietly gripped the phone in hand, stepping out of the room. He looked at the screen.
"Matthew…that must be his brother." Arthur determined, answering.
"Hey Alfred, where are you, its 6:49 a.m., I've been worried sick!" Matthew practically yelled through the phone.
"Calm down Matthew, he is fine." Arthur said, remembering a split second later that he should have said who it was.
"Wha- Who are you?" Matthew asked.
"So sorry, I'm Arthur. It's a pleasure to meet you. I assure you, your brother is fine, and he's just sleeping at the moment. We're at my place." Arthur bit his lip. He sounded like a murder who had taken Alfred hostage.
"Oh! I'm sorry, did I interrupt something?" Matthew snickered. Arthur's jaw dropped open.
"No you wanker! Good god, what is with you people and sex, take a break every once in a while! Speaking of which, that's kind of why he's over here." Arthur snapped.
"So…in other words I was right?" Matthew teased.
"I meant he's over here because he didn't want to interrupt you and your boyfriend." Arthur explained.
"Right, that. Yes, I suppose I should have thought of that. Sorry if he's an inconvenience." Matthew sounded slightly embarrassed.
"No, he's been fine. It's not that big of a deal Matthew, don't worry about it. Why don't you go back to bed? I'll tell him you called when he wakes, unless there's an emergency or you're uncomfortable in his absence." Arthur said. Damn this was awkward…
Matthew yawned, long and tired.
"No, his absence is just fine. Thank you Arthur, you're a good person. Goodnight." Matthew whispered in exhaustion.
"Not a problem. Goodnight." Arthur said, walking back into the room to return the phone. Alfred was still sound asleep and the sun was beginning rise, letting in almost movie-like lighting. It was perfect.
With this, Arthur went back to his own bed to sleep for a little while longer, not that he really slept at all that night. He'd been too busy thinking about the man in the next room. He laid in his bed, pulling the covers up, sighing in happiness, and closing his eyes.
"Arthur…" A voice whispered. Arthur thought he was still only dreaming, and didn't open his eyes.
"Arthur…" He heard again, something poking his cheek. He still wasn't fully awake.
"…Artie, wake up…" He heard. With this, he shot his eyes open and lurched upward, hitting something with his own head.
"Ow, oh my god!" He heard, looking to his left. There he saw Alfred, propping himself up with one had, another coning his nose as he half laid in Arthur's full sized bed.
"Oh my- are you alright Alfred, I'm so sorry!" Arthur had his hand hover over the American's shoulder.
"Y-yes I'm fine. Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. But when I woke up, you were asleep, so I thought I should wake you up too. So I climbed onto your bed to whisper calmly for you to wake up, but I guess I didn't think that one through too much, huh?" Alfred let go of his nose, laughing.
Oh great. Alfred had climbed into his bed to whisper in his ear gentle and sweet-like, and Arthur had come up and hit him square in the nose. How nice.
Alfred smiled. Iggy looked so cute when he first woke up, wide eyes with a somewhat glassy look them. Alfred also noticed Arthur had taken his shirt off to sleep. He couldn't help but let his eyes wander to his now exposed pale skin. He did have a slightly toned body, yet he said he didn't really do sports. Well, whatever he was doing, the dude was doing it right.
The two just kind of sat there in silence, as if they were frozen in time. Arthur noticed Alfred look at nearly every part of him before returning to his eyes. He tried his best not to blush crimson.
"W-well no I guess not. I am sorry though…h-hey, let me get dressed and then we'll..." Arthur wasn't sure how to finish that sentence. They'll what?
Alfred simply nodded, watching as Arthur stood and went to his closet, grabbing a black tee-shirt baring the green Monster symbol, and throwing it on. He didn't bother changing from his slightly ripped black jeans as he threw on some boots similar to Alfred's, just less showy. Most people couldn't pull off the look that Arthur did: A punk. Alfred smiled a little wider…a sexy punk at that. Alfred dint bother trying to shut his mind up anymore. It didn't listen.
"So…um..." Arthur stuttered as the American still sat crisscross-applesauce on his bed.
"Living room?" Alfred suggested.
"Yes, that'd be lovely, let's go." Arthur said, smiling as Alfred crawled to the edge of the bed on all fours, like a child, before swinging his legs over and hopping off.
Alfred walked over to the door and stopped, turning to look back at Arthur, who was maybe a foot away, looking at him.
"T-thanks for letting me stay the night. Thanks for the dinner, thanks for everything dude. You're a really good person. You didn't have to do all of that, just….thanks." Alfred said, grinning.
"Anytime. Thank you for coming over, I'm glad you did. You know…I'm really glad I met you Alfred...I've never told anyone that much about my life…my dad, my family. And you listened. I mean, that was kind of nice…" Arthur let his tone sound a bit harsher at the last sentence, frowning and looking away; remembering that he was suppose to act like he didn't care.
One again he quickly felt Alfred hugging him. He didn't hesitate to hug back this time, holding him close. He felt Alfred run one of his hands up and down his back a few times, causing him to shiver, before he eventually let go.
"Well, I'll see ya' later Iggy!" Alfred broke the seriousness as he loudly stated this, that dumb smile on his face; waving as he shut the door behind him.
Way to ruin a moment you wanker. Arthur glared after him. And Iggy? He'd called him that several times, what the hell did that even mean? That was no where close to Arthur, where'd he get something like that? Sometimes he wondered what went on in that boy's head. And damn it, he forgot to tell him about Matthew's phone call.
Either way, last night had been an utter success. He didn't think he'd have Alfred sleeping in his house so early! Now if only he could either get him in the same bed, or even the damn couch, either would work…decisions, decisions….
"Mattie I'm hooommmwwwhat the hell happened in here?" Alfred said, staring at the kitchen Matthew was working to clean up.
"You probably don't want to know." Matthew assured.
"Oh I'm pretty sure I do, we eat in here. I would have had less of a problem had you guys used my bedroom. What the hell did you do, roll across the damn counters?" Alfred asked. The kitchen was a mess. Things were on the floor, and almost nothing was on the large dining room table except-
"…Matthew…I'm going to ask you this once…And if you lie to me, I swear to god, your face will be more fucked up than this kitchen, though I'm not sure that's possible." Alfred slowly warned.
Matthew simply looked at him with slight fear and embarrassment.
"Did you have sex on our dining room table?" Alfred gave him a long stare.
"Um, well, you see-"
"No, shut up, answer me straight Mattie…did you…have sex…on our dining room table?" Alfred tried one last time. You would have thought he was asking a child if it ate the last cookie from the cookie jar.
"…Yes." Matthew eventually admitted.
"…"
"…."
"Dude, that's awesome, high five!" Alfred yelled, holding his hand up as Matthew high-fived him.
"I know right..." Matthew simply said, laughing with his brother.
"Ahaha yeahhh…but you're still cleaning this up." Alfred said laughing, then abruptly giving a "you better believe this is your problem" look at the cleaning part.
"Yeah."
Lizzy sat in the bed, the covers over her, feeling hurt and ashamed. This was the worse thing yet. She had to tell Gilbert, she had to. She couldn't keep it a secret anymore, or else she'd only end up hurting herself or her friendship with him. Or both. She just didn't know how…
"Lizzy, you okay? You're as white as a sheet!" Gilbert laughed, looking at the woman sitting up in bed next to him.
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine Gil, just thinking things over." She softly said.
"Usually afterwards you don't seem so depressed, what's wrong? I didn't hurt you, did I?" He asked, tenderly kissing her shoulders as to apologize for any pain.
Yes…just not like you think…
"No. I'm not hurt like that." She shook her head.
Gilbert raised an eyebrow. He quickly transferred from benefits fiend to best friend.
"Then how are you hurt?" He asked, frowning.
"I don't want to talk about it now." She placed her head on her knees that she held close to her body.
"Ja right, seriously, what is it, you can tell me." He assured.
"You'll get mad." She also assured.
"I promise, I won't get mad, now what the hell is going on with you lately? You keep spacing off as if you're in some deep thought." He crawled over on the bed to face her as she looked up from her knees, two green eyes staring widely at him. This was all he could see as she tried to hide her quickly paling face in the covers.
"It's just..." She couldn't tell him, no, she wouldn't. There was no way. But she had too, didn't she?
"Lizzy please, what's wrong?" He pressed.
She pushed the covers off of herself and tried to brace herself to tell him. She felt a bit sick. Minutes went by as Gilbert waited patiently. Whatever it was was really eating at her.
"I…I…" She hesitated. She then abruptly jumped off the bed and ran to the bathroom.
"L-Lizzy? Are you okay?" He stood quickly. He then heard the distinct sound of retching.
Lizzy was throwing up.
"So…how was it Alfred?" Matthew asked his brother, who was sprawled out on the couch in front of him.
"How was what?" He asked, mindlessly channel surfing.
"You know…you slept over at Arthur's place." Matthew smirked.
"We didn't do that, you sick minded person." Alfred dully said.
"You wanted to though." Matthew winked.
"No I didn't. Even if I did, I wouldn't destroy the fucking kitchen."
"Cant you let that go?!"
"NEVER!" Alfred yelled, sitting up and whacking Matthew with the pillow his head was resting on. Matthew rolled his eyes.
"You are so childish. Anyway, no, Arthur's just waiting for his time, until he finally strikes!" Matthew said, playfully pretending to pounce at Alfred.
"Why are you so talkative lately? You used to never open your trap, now you never shut it." Alfred questioned.
"I don't know, I guess I'm just happy." Matthew shrugged. He had been talking more lately hadn't he? Wow. In not doing so for so long, he'd actually forgotten he had a ton of shit to say.
"Well, I'm happy for your happiness if it causes you to open up like this. So…" Alfred stretched, arching his back, then plopped back down on the cushions.
"Oh no, you're not getting off that easy, brother. All joking aside…do you maybe…really have feelings for this man?" Matthew softly smiled.
"No. I don't Matthew." Alfred glared.
"Yes you do. I've never seen you act serious unless you're thinking or talking about him, even now." Matthew crossed his arms.
"…Fine Matthew. Maybe I like him just a little bit. But he diffidently doesn't like me." Alfred was almost sure of this. Matthew groaned, throwing his head back.
"Oh my god, you are the worst when it comes to reading the atmosphere!" Matthew placed his face in his hands in utter frustration.
"Everyone tells me that, why the hell is this book so damn important?!" Alfred sat up, throwing his hands up.
Matthew pulled his hands down from his face, showing only his "you've got to be fucking kidding" eyes with slightly dark circles under them caused by the way he had his head angled.
"No one's this stupid." He whispered so Alfred couldn't hear.
"I'm kidding. And I know I never can seem to read it. It's not my strong point." Alfred shrugged.
"Well you should work on that. Arthur obviously likes you Alfred. I want to meet him." Matthew stated, very matter-of-factly.
"How have you not met him, he's in our class?" Alfred narrowed his eyes.
"Alfred it took you a week to even figure out I was in your class." Matthew glared.
"You weren't talkative yet at that point in time." Alfred defended himself.
"Whatever. Today is Saturday. You should go out and be with friends. I should stay here and take a nap. Arthur should stay at his place and pleasure himself to your yearbook photo." Matthew laughed as he received a smack in the back of the head from his older brother as he finished his sentence. So worth it!
"Lizzy…" Gilbert stood in the doorway of the bathroom.
"G-Go away. I don't want you to see me like this." She had her hands on either side of the toilet, afraid she might get sick again.
"I've seen you in worse conditions. Remember the flu of 08? That was some nasty shit." He laughed, trying to make her feel better.
She actually felt fine now and he was waved out of the room as she flushed and went to the mirror to fix herself up, rising her mouth out thoroughly, bushing her long brown hair. She looked at herself and threw her hung up clothes on as she only had on her undergarments. Much better.
She walked out and looked at him.
"What was that all about?" He asked, chuckling.
"I don't know. I've never been that suddenly sick before. It was probably something I ate or whatever." She shrugged.
"Ja, probably." He nodded.
"So what was it you wanted to tell me?" He remembered.
"That was it. I had felt sick all day and didn't want to concern you." She couldn't tell him now, so she stuck with that.
"Why did you think I'd get mad over that?" He laughed.
"I don't know." She shrugged. Then she thought about something…the sex…the sudden vomiting…oh dear god…
"Lizzy, you're losing color in your face again; I don't think you're as well as you're saying." He stood again.
Her whole world froze in front of her and she started shaking. She couldn't move, breathe, anything…then it all went black.
"Lizzy!" Gilbert yelled, running up and catching her motionless body as it went to fall to the floor.
"Oh god, why couldn't you have just told me what was wrong with you?" He had never seen her in such a condition. That was it; he was taking her home and keeping her in bed rest. She was in no condition to go out hunting today…none at all.
A/N: Lizzy. Is she sick or…? -.^ I know what is it, but Lord knows I wont be telling you. On a lighter subject, Arthur and Alfred. Damn it Al, just let the Brit jump ya'. Also, don't worry, we will go into Mattie and Francis's background history very soon. :) I hope everyone enjoys! This chapter was actually harder than heck to write. I kept switching from serious to non-serious and I'm sorry if I screwed with your all's minds. I'll try not to do that as much! (Or will I? ^.-) Sorry for immensely long author's note after immensely long chapter! Remember to review, it honestly does help me! :)
