A/N: I know this is earlier than usual, but I was feeling quite inspirational. Hope you like this :)
He cackled as he pulled out the last cartridge from the printer. Elizabeta certainly cannot publish her new book if there was no ink, whatsoever, in any of the school's printers. Even if she contacted an outside lender, it would take time.
And she certainly wasn't a patient woman.
He threw the cartridge in his basket and smirked, "Success, Arthur!" he patted himself on the back. "Sometimes, I amaze myself with my intelligence."
Picking up the basket, he skipped—because no one was here in school—to the Student Council room with utter joy. As long as he hid the cartridge under his desk, he wouldn't have to worry at all. Elizabeta would never get to the cartridges!
As he pushed the door to the Student Council room open, he froze when he saw Feliciano fiddling with his phone. Clearing his throat, Arthur gracefully entered the room and hid the basket on the ground, "Feli," he nodded his head. "Fancy seeing you here."
Feliciano glanced at him with a smile, "I wanted to pick up the tickets to the Senior Ball."
Arthur nodded his head and opened the first drawer on his desk. As the president, only he had the privilege to issue tickets to any non-seniors of his choice. Since Feliciano and Ludwig were relatively nice juniors, he easily issued two tickets.
Producing a clipboard, he motioned for Feliciano to sign the paper in the appropriate positions, "Make sure you read the contents of the document," he muttered as he turned back to his desk.
Once Feliciano signed the paper, Arthur handed him the two tickets, "Don't lose them, Feli, because I won't issue you any replacements," he warned.
Feliciano nodded his head with a serene smile, "I was planning on giving them to Luddy for safekeeping, ve!"
"Well then, I hope you have a decent night at the ball," Arthur picked up the clipboard and initiated right next to Feliciano's name. "Say, have you and Ludwig picked out what you are going to wear for the night?"
Feliciano nodded his head, "Both of us will be wearing ties that are as red as marinara, ve!"
Arthur blanched. So far, he knew at least three couples wearing red. Good thing he was planning on going for a blue or green shade.
"You and Alfred are going to be wearing red, white, and blue, aren't you?"
If he had been drinking tea, he would've spit it all over poor Feliciano by now. Luckily, there was no tea in sight. Though, that didn't stop him from sputtering in complete surprise, "Why what a ludicrous statement?! Wherever did you hear that from? Jones and I—,"
Feliciano blinked and pouted, "But isn't Frankie Washington the new boy Alfred? Don't you have feelings for him?"
"W-what?" Arthur blinked as he lost all the composure he built up. "H-how do you know about Frankie?"
"Ve? But Arthur, the whole school knows about it," Feliciano frowned. "Didn't you read the latest book?"
His eyes widened as all the circulation in his body stopped momentarily. How in the bloody hell did the whole school read it? Elizabeta only printed out one book. One book! And he was the only one who had the advanced reading copy.
The bloody cartridges were filled with ink, as well, so there was no way she used the printer before he nicked the cartridges.
Arthur grabbed Feliciano's shoulders, scaring the poor Italian out of his mind, shaking him, his voice was tinged with desperation, "Feliciano, where did you read this latest book?"
He stopped shaking the Italian. Feliciano massaged his temple with his left hand as he reached for his phone with his right hand. Flipping the phone to the other side, he frowned, "From now on, Elizabeta mentioned she would upload the chapters onto her online blog. Her first blog post is even about you!" his light brown eyes sparkled. "It's called, "Try shutting me down now, Arthur!" and it's about how you can't shut down the internet."
"What!" Arthur snatched the phone and pulled up the scanned pages of the new book. When he reached the last page, he nearly dropped the phone. In her preview for the next book, she drew a picture of Frankie kissing Ignatius on the cheek.
Bloody hell! How in the hell does she know about this? She wasn't even there! Did she install security cameras!?
"It was my idea!" Feliciano exclaimed with happiness after an awkward silence passed.
Slowing turning to Feliciano, Arthur's eyes narrowed into slits, "Care to elaborate, Feli?"
Feliciano nodded his head in eagerness, "Ve! Of course! I was on my phone searching for new pasta recipes when Elizabeta was moaning about not being able to print her new book. That's when I told her to turn to the internet for answers since it has it all. She complimented me, but," he frowned and scratched his chin, "she told me to not tell you under any circumstances. Though, I wonder why," Feliciano gave him an innocent smile.
"Ha," he dryly laughed. "Feli, because I am a nice human being, I'll give you five seconds to run before I throttle you."
Feliciano didn't need to be told otherwise. He bolted from the Student Council room in the same manner he ran away from Ludwig in his freshman year. Unfortunately—fortunately for Feliciano—Arthur couldn't catch up.
When he saw Alfred grumbling as he walked to the bus stop, Arthur quickly pulled him over to a corner and frowned, "Cover yourself!" Arthur pulled up Alfred's hood and pushed him to sit down on the bench. Glancing either way, he turned to Alfred, "No one saw you come here, did they?"
Alfred glared at him as he let out a yawn, "It's 5:30 a.m., Arthur. No one on this campus is awake. They're probably all sleeping, just like I would be if it weren't for you."
Arthur nodded his head pleased as he took a seat next to Alfred, "Excellent," he glanced at the pinkish sky with a smile. "I'll teach you how to defend against Ivan at the community football field. It's about—,"
"Are they even open?" Alfred snapped as he pouted. He pulled out his phone and quickly typed something up before slipping it back into his pocket.
"Two stops away," he finished flatly. Crossing his arms, Arthur slumped in his seat, "And I have a special pass. My brothers and I always played there, so the owners like me enough to let me play whenever."
"5:30 is still excessive," Alfred glared at the ground. "And why isn't the football field at school good?"
Arthur surreptitiously glanced around. His lips curved upward when he realized that they were alone. Turning to Alfred, he frowned, "Francis knows that I will teach you how to play against Ivan today. If Francis knows, he'll tell Elizabeta, and then Elizabeta will get ideas and inspiration to write the next book."
Alfred frowned, "I don't even know why you're worried. Don't you like raunchy romances?"
"Not when it's about me!" Arthur nearly half shouted. When he noticed Alfred's startled look, Arthur coughed and took a deep breath, "I mean, Ignatius is an honorable character. It's unreasonable to think he would participate in such an unpolished manner."
Alfred blinked and then smiled after a moment. Shaking his head, Alfred glanced up at the sky, "I'm pretty sure Ignatius will be honorable no matter what," he turned to Arthur. The top of his cheekbones were grazed with a light pink, the same color as the sky, "But, do you think you would ever be interested in starting a relationship?"
Arthur glanced away from Alfred and muttered, "And who would the other person be?"
Alfred grinned, "I don't know, maybe I should just describe a few characteristics, and you can tell me if you like them or not?" When Arthur nodded his head, Alfred began to shake with excitement, "Okay dude, would you ever date someone who has shoulder length blond hair, has a knack for eating sophisticated cuisine, and dresses very fashionably?"
Arthur's nose wrinkled as he immediately envisioned the frog, "Disgusting," he muttered. "I prefer people with short blond hair," Alfred ran his fingers through his hair appreciatively. "And I appreciate simple cuisine. There's no need for sophisticated spices and exotic specimens." Alfred thought back to his dinner which was a simple grilled cheese with a side of crispy French fries and a chocolate milkshake. Simple cuisine that was fairly bland. "And," Arthur continued, "I prefer practical clothing instead of fashionable clothing." Alfred scratched his head as he remembered the sweat pants and old T-shirt he was wearing last night. Was that what Arthur considered practical? Well, it was what Alfred thought was practical.
"Okay, okay," Alfred could barely contain his excitement, "What about short brown hair, loves a vegetable or a fruit," Alfred frowned, "you know what I mean. This someone loves to shower love—,"
"No," Arthur flatly stated. "I would never go out with someone like Antonio." He turned to Alfred who was wide-eyed, "That's who you were talking about, right?" Arthur raised a brow. "If it helps you, I'm not interested in anyone in the school."
The bus arrived at that moment, and Arthur jumped out and pressed his card on the machine. Alfred followed him and pressed his card quickly, too, "Wait, Arthur!" When Arthur took a seat next to the window, Alfred slid down right next to him and ignored how their knees were touching. Though, Arthur noticed this clearly, but chose not to say anything. "Are you telling me no one at school is interesting to you?"
"I believe that's what I said, yes," Arthur turned to look outside the window and smiled as the school passed. No one saw them. For the first time in days, he could teach Alfred football without hearing snide remarks about how Arthur liked to stay close to Alfred, or how Arthur couldn't stop gazing at Alfred's toned abs, or how Arthur does this and that. No one ever said anything about Alfred and his blushing, though, which was bloody frustrating.
"Like, you wouldn't even be interested in someone who plays video games 24/7 and who dressed up as nearly every major superhero for Halloween, Comic Con, and school pride weeks?"
"Both of those sound like dumb talents," Arthur mentioned crossly.
"Hey! Dressing up is not an easy task! You need to have the outfit perfect to every last stitch," Alfred frowned. When Arthur turned to him with a raised brow, a blush passed Alfred's cheeks, "I mean, it's not like I would know," he mumbled. "But it seems super-duper hard. Can't believe you wouldn't date such a talented human being."
"I didn't say I wouldn't date that person, I just mentioned those talents seem dumb," Arthur snorted. Alfred turned to him with wide eyes. Arthur gulped and glanced down.
Alfred was fun enough to hand around at first. He was so clumsy and awkward, it was amusing to look at. But as each day passed—and as his friends kept goading him for his nonexistent (seriously, he had no feelings for the American teen)—he couldn't help but notice that his heart beat just a little bit faster whenever Alfred was around. And maybe every now and then, he would think about what Alfred was doing in his classes. The worst was when he reimagined Alfred and him playing out the romance between Tristan and Iseult and the romance between Romeo and Juliet.
The most embarrassing moment was when he was asked by his teacher to read out a passage, and he nearly said Alfred's name. Luckily, he was able to catch himself before anyone realized. But still…it was disconcerting.
And of course that kiss. It wasn't a real kiss, but still. If Alfred mentioned that he missed, then he was certainly aiming for something else. Was he ready for such intimacies? When he met Alfred the next day, Alfred said nothing about the kiss or even missing. His heart wavered for a bit, but he moved on. Because that's what he did best.
Move on when things became confusing. It was how he could stay level headed. It was how he was able to achieve so much. It was because he didn't let himself become invested in the little details.
But, he couldn't put a name to these newfound emotions, and it was honestly terrifying.
"But would you be interested in that person?" Alfred whispered. The question was so innocent, just like him.
Arthur turned back to the window so he could distract his erratic heart with the plain buildings that rolled by, "Tell me more about that person so I can make a better call."
"Well," Alfred rolled his tongue on the word. "Would you be interested in someone who believes in aliens and has a not so secret dream of flying out into space to find a certain alien friend?"
"I would think that someone is absolute nutters," Arthur laughed. "Does that someone have other unusual friends?"
Alfred nodded his head, "Yeah, one time he went to an aquarium and fell in love with a whale. Wanted to bring him home, but his father said no. So, he cried every day to go to the museum and he used the internet to learn whale speak."
Arthur snorted as he stood up, "Does he still know whale speak?"
Alfred nodded his head with a grin, "Yeah. If you were ever interested, maybe he could ask you out in whale speak."
"Thanks, but not interested. Regular English would be perfectly acceptable," Arthur muttered as they stepped out of the bus.
As they walked along the path, Arthur turned to Alfred innocent, "So this someone you were speaking of, if they decided to ever pursue me, how would they?"
Alfred blushed and laughed awkwardly, "Pursue you? Ha, ha, good question. I don't think that he has it all figured out, but he would be slow," Alfred smiled. "I have a feeling you like things slow and sweet. Maybe other people would give you roses, but I think he would give you sunflowers."
"Sunflowers?"
He had to admit, roses were his favorite, but receiving them was quite plain.
Alfred nodded his head, "Yeah, when he was a little child, he used to look up into the sky to try to see the sun. But his mother was worried, so she gave him a sunflower. So, he found the sun in the little sunflowers that he used to grow every summer." Alfred turned to him with a smile, "But now, he doesn't need to plant sunflowers anymore."
He couldn't feel his heart beat anymore. As he locked gazes with Alfred's sky blue eyes, it seemed as though the world around him stopped for a moment, "And why is that?" his voice was soft.
"Because he finds the sun in your smiles."
The blood rushed to his face and again, he was accosted by a concoction of emotions he never experienced before.
"And until you see the sun in his smiles, he will give you sunflowers," Alfred scratched the back of his head as he turned away embarrassed. Slyly glancing towards Arthur, his voice was full of apprehension, "So…do you think you would ever be interested in him?"
He gulped as he walked away, ignoring the question. Out of all times Alfred could've come into his life. Why senior year? He had a month left of school before he graduates.
As they reached the community center, his eyes widened when he saw Francis, Elizabeta, and Antonio all laughing about something. As he slowly walked over to them, Elizabeta caught his eye and smirked as she skipped over to him. Francis followed and smirked, "You naughty little boy! Thought you could hide from us? Luckily a little mole told Elizabeta and she drove us here!"
Elizabeta nodded her head with a grin, "Can't wait to watch the raunchy romance that plays out today! My fans will be so pleased when I see the amount of skinship today! Thank the gods for Ivan's playing style."
"Yeah, our ship is going to sail!" Antonio joked.
Elizabeta grabbed Arthur's arm, "Come, come! We only have a little more than an hour of practice! Can't waste it by standing out here!" she turned to Alfred and motioned him to come over, "Come on Alfred! Quick! My readers are waiting!"
Arthur frowned as he was pushed around by Elizabeta. Luckily, the shock of seeing his friends was enough to get rid of any trace of a blush. And luckily, all of them were so excited and distracted by the upcoming football practice to notice Arthur's lack of belligerence.
As Elizabeta, Francis, and Antonio made themselves comfortable on the bleachers, Arthur turned to Alfred and muttered, "Maybe, I'm already interested in him."
A/N: I'm sorry if you were hoping for more comedy. I wanted to show Arthur's budding feelings. Next chapter should be out next Wednesday (not the upcoming Wednesday) unless I get another bout of inspiration. But if I planned this out correctly, we should be at the midway point. So, we're halfway through!
