The night of Noah's brawl with the homophobic jock. Alfred and Arthur had spent the whole night fighting, even when they went to bed they didn't face each other. They laid on either side of the bed, backs to each other and Arthur did not sleep on Alfred's chest as he otherwise would. Alfred felt so bad about their dispute, he couldn't fall asleep. He stayed up thinking about how he wanted to make up, but knew Arthur wasn't giving in to his harsh treatment of Noah. The morning came too quick, Alfred got out of bed first and thought he'd make breakfast for his husband. He brewed his coffee and fried his eggs. He leaned against the counter with the mug in his hand, waiting for his eggs to finish cooking.
Arthur walked in, adjusting his suit jacket and rummaging through his briefcase. "Morning." Alfred said. Arthur only acknowledged him by a slight glance and returned his focus to his briefcase. "Breakfast is almost ready." Alfred turned around to scramble the eggs some more.
"I'll get something on my way to work. I have to go right now." He said, closing his briefcase and taking it off the tabletop. He walked towards the door.
"No goodbye-kiss?" Alfred asked, only half-joking.
Arthur looked to the doorknob and then to Alfred, "Not today, Al." he said coldly. He left with that.
Alfred put down his mug. He was silent for a long time, longer than he'd ever been. He gripped the marble isle with two hands and with a look of defeat. He was still mad at Arthur, and Arthur was for sure pissed off with him. Noah strolled in with sleep still in his eyes, "Morning, Dad." He groggily said as he made his way to the fridge.
"You're grounded, remember? Go back to your room." Alfred said, harsher then he wanted.
"I was just getting some breakfast." Noah defended.
Alfred stood quietly, "Fine, hurry up and eat then go back to your room.
"Fine." Noah worryingly said as he grabbed the cereal box for his breakfast.
For months this treatment between Arthur and Alfred had been going on and getting worse. The Jones-Kirkland household had grown cold, even though it was spring outside. Noah's punishment had ended long ago, but neither Alfred nor Arthur said more than five words to each other a day. It made Noah feel bittersweet for his parents' relationship to be slowly crumbling while his was only getting stronger day by day. In fact, he had a date tonight for the sixth day in a row.
Alfred sat with his knees to his chest on the couch watching shows he didn't even like. Arthur was in his office, as usual. Once he finished his work, it was late at night, he was tired and wanted nothing more than to fall into his bed and sleep for the rest of the night. On his way to the bedroom, Alfred spoke up. "Are we at a point where we're just staying together for Noah's sake?" he asked, not looking towards the Brit.
Arthur was silent for a long time, contemplating his answer, "It looks like it." Arthur said with his head down and hand holding his opposite arm.
"Oh, okay." Alfred replied, he curled himself tighter against his knees, it took everything in his body not to cry in front of Arthur. "But I don't want it to be this way." He said, his body betrayed him as a tear fell from the corner of his eye.
"I don't either, but… I don't know what else we can do without fighting." Arthur stated.
Alfred wiped away his tear and under his nose, "Uhm, I've been talkin' to Mattie," he started, he reached his hand out with a small card between his first two fingers. Arthur stepped closer and examined the small, white, rectangular card. "he says that's where he and Gil go when ever they have a problem."
Doctor Antonio Fernandez Carriedo
Marriage Counselor
Arthur swallowed down saliva. "Marriage counseling." He said, almost as a question.
"I don't know if it'll help, but it's worth a try right?" Alfred suggested.
Arthur stood, reading the letter formed into words over and over again. He lightly tapped the card to the palm of his hand, "I guess." He said and handed the card back to Alfred. He proceeded to head back to their bedroom. Alfred rubbed his arm and thought to himself, It's a start.
Unfortunately, their first meeting with the man was scheduled at the worst time: right after Arthur's school let out. Traffic was horrible getting home on every average day, but now he had to go 30 minutes farther. By the time he got past all the horrible teenage drivers and strange parking system of the counseling building where their meeting was held, he was almost an hour late. He checked in with the receptionist who was ready to go home and she directed him to the correct room. When he stepped in the nicely furnished office, he saw Alfred and their counselor laughing up a storm like they were old college buddies. They looked to him as he came in the room. "I'm terribly sorry I'm late, traffic was horrid." He closed the door behind him.
"No worries at least now we can get started, yes?" the counselor said. He sounded Spanish, his skin tinted darker (yet still looked Caucasian), he was built like Alfred, his hair was as brown as Noah's, and his eyes as green as Arthur's. He looked as if he was a mix of their small family into one person.
"Of course." Arthur sat next to Alfred on a black leather couch.
The counselor grabbed his legal pad and pen from his desk and came around to sit in the, also black leather, chair in front of them. "I'm Dr. Carriedo, but since we are going to be amigos while you two take my sessions, you can call me Antonio." He reached his hand out to Arthur's, while the Brit politely shook it. Arthur crossed his legs and Alfred stretched his arms on the top of the sofa. Antonio clicked his pen and looked to the couple, "Okay, tell me about how you two met, si?" he asked.
They looked to each other briefly, "When we were in middle school he moved into my neighborhood," Alfred started to explain. "I remember my mom wanted me to welcome them to the street, so I walked over and introduced myself. He was the one that answered the door." Antonio scribbled notes down on his paper.
"We were best friends up until our last year of high school." Arthur said, his eyes wondering off.
"Okay, and how close were you two?" Antonio's Spanish accent asked.
"We were thick as thieves. We spent every day together." Alfred shrugged.
"We still spend every day together." Arthur added. Antonio scribbled again.
He finished writing down some more scratches and looked to them once more, "Alright, now let's talk about amor. Let's talk about sex."
Both became tense and uncomfortable. "Wh-what about it?" Arthur asked.
"Don't worry, I won't ask about specifics, I just want to know if that area for you is going okay." He just kept staring at them for an answer, one that neither of them wanted to answer. After a while he said, "How often are you intimate with each other?" he asked.
They were quiet, it was a very personal subject. Though, they had to answer it if it could help them any with saving their marriage. "Not that often recently." Alfred answered.
"Well, I figured that much, but before you started having problems." Antonio said.
"Oh, once or twice a week." Alfred said cautiously. He knew Arthur would be mad at him later on. Antonio's eyebrows briefly raised and he wrote down more notes.
"And have you had any problems in your marriage prior to this?" Antonio asked.
Arthur recalled when they first got married. "Valentine's day." He whispered.
"Qué?" he tried to listen harder.
"The Valentine's day after we got married, we kind of had a small fall out. Alfred left for four days and when he came back, he brought Noah home." Arthur explained.
Antonio gave a sort of incriminating look to Alfred, "I only left because he was working too hard and wouldn't even spend Valentine's day with his own husband." He defended.
"I would've if you had just given me a second to relax. I told you that day was extremely stressful." Arthur countered.
"It was only that day, Artie, everyday you were working yourself ragged and wouldn't come out of that office!" Alfred started raising his voice.
"Sorry it's only my work that needs to be done so I'm not up to my ears in ungraded papers!" Arthur's voice started getting louder as well.
"It was almost twenty years ago and you still are up to your ears in papers!" Alfred shouted.
"I wouldn't be if you wouldn't nag me about spending time with you, I could get it done faster and not have move deadlines!" Arthur shouted back.
"Amigos! Amigos! Please, this is not the time for you two to be fighting. You are both here to fix your marriage, arguing will only make it worse." Antonio tried to calm them both down.
They crossed their arms and turned their heads away from each other. Now, they barely even wanted to sit on the same couch together.
"I think I know what your problem is, amigos…" Antonio spoke, peaking Arthur and Alfred's attention, "the problem is that you've been together since you were niños, you even act like kids when you argue with each other. You don't know how to act like mature adults around each other because you see each other as teenagers still." Alfred and Arthur looked to their husband and then back to Antonio. "But you have been with each other for a long, long time… clearly you must love each other very mucho. You don't just spend your whole life with someone you don't love. The reason you don't see it is because spending everyday with each other, you don't see the other growing as a person." Arthur started welling up a bit. He couldn't help it, but Alfred was also. Both had realized how childish they were being.
"I love you, Artie." Alfred said very quietly.
Arthur looked to him, "I love you, too Al." he responded just as quiet.
"And that's exactly why I have the job I do. I love letting couples see the love they once had all over again." Antonio said. A small timer set off on Antonio's desk with an annoying buzzer. "Looks like time is up, I will see you next week. Have a nice day." Antonio stopped the alarm and smiled to both of them. They left the office and headed towards the parking garage. It was a silent walk, but at least they walked together.
Alfred walked Arthur to his car, "I'll see you when I get home." He said.
"Okay." Arthur said and started his car, "Maybe, this marriage counseling thing will actually help us a lot."
"Let's hope so." Alfred said.
Arthur and Alfred had been going to see Antonio for 15 sessions, every one ended up strengthening their relationship more and more. They were sleeping closer together, starting up their date nights again, and Alfred was visiting Arthur at work for lunch everyday. They thought Antonio to be a miracle worker. At their most recent meeting, they found what Antonio said a bit odd. "One of you must leave the other if you ever want to get back to the way things used to be." They stared in disbelief that their marriage counselor told them to separate.
"But we've been doing so well at these meetings." Alfred tried.
"Exactly! If you spend time away from each other then you will start to miss one another and grow even stronger than you ever were!" he said, just as happy as he could be. "I suggest Arthur travel back to Inglaterra for the summer."
"A whole summer?!" Arthur protested.
"Yes, trust me! They didn't sign my name on those certificates behind me for nothing, you know! This will be the best thing for your marriage." He said with full confidence.
So the day came, the day Arthur was to fly to the UK again and leave his family for a whole three months. His flight about to take off, he still had some reminders to tell to Alfred. "Don't forget to feed Dakota." He said.
"She will be fed." Alfred said.
"And don't put the bills off until last moment."
"Artie, I got everything under control." He picked up a suitcase and handed it over.
Arthur took it. "Okay, I'm off then." He said and gave a kiss to Alfred and Noah. He left through the frame and boarded the plane.
Alfred, with Arthur gone now, took Noah's shoulder and escorted him towards the exit of the airport. "So, big guy, what's up? Everything with Kira cool?" he asked even though he was still thinking of Arthur. It'll be for the better. He thought.
"Uh, yeah I guess. I think I'm starting to love her actually. I don't know what I should do to tell her though." Noah said.
"It'll work out for the better." Alfred said, referring to Arthur's absence. Noah took it literally.
"What'll I do if she loves me, too?" Noah worried.
Alfred thought to their first counseling session, "he asked about sex."
"Sex? I-I-I, uh, I don't know about that." Noah stammered.
Alfred really no clue what Noah was talking about, "It'll work out for the better, right? Right." He patted Noah's back and went to the car. Noah gulped down access spit and got in the car with his father. It'd be a long summer for both of them.
I really don't feel like putting in an author's note if it's just going to be excuses and apologies of why I haven't posted chapters in a long time. I hate hate hate hate procrastination. BAD COVERT COMMANDER! Anyway, if you want to follow the story or favorite it feel free to, it makes my smile grow fifteen sizes. Reviews make me extremely happy as well.
