Alfred stared at Arthur, blue eyes penetrating green as if by sheer force of will he could break through the barriers and all would be made clear as a crystal pond.
"English."
"Yes, Alfred."
"English."
"Yes, Alfred."
There was a pause and Alfred's eyes glanced to the side as if thinking the two words through on multiple and deeper levels.
"But. English?"
"Alfred!" Arthur faced Alfred side-on, hand placed forcefully onto the counter-top. "Yes. I chose English!"
Alfred was quiet for a moment again, looking at Arthur as if the simple answer confused him. "But...You already speak English."
Arthur bent over, placing his elbow on the counter and pushing his palm to his forehead. "Well I'm certainly not speaking to you in Dutch!"
Alfred tore his gaze away from Arthur's figure. "But...You can do English any time..."
Arthur regarded Alfred and let his hand flop back down to dangle off the edge of the counter. "Well I chose the course I knew I would enjoy."
His words hung in the air and Arthur tried to convey the deep adoration he had of poetry, words and print over to the younger man; the feel of smooth paper and the smell one could only indulge oneself in a dusty library. Alfred looked to the side again, eyes flickering, following the path his thoughts made.
"But...English?"
Arthur groaned. "God. YES, ALFRED!"
"Are we, like, interrupting something here?" Feliks was grinning as he and Toris entered the room.
Arthur's face flushed and he slammed his hand down on the counter top. Swift to kill any misguided innuendo with one strike. "No...No..."
Alfred crossed his arms over his chest, creasing the American football logo on the front, and mumbled something, pout unmistakable on his face, under his breath.
Arthur walked around the counter and slapped him on the arm quipping; "I could trip over that bottom lip." As he passed.
Alfred scowled further. "But you like psychology too." He whined. "You could have been in a class with me and Feliks!"
Arthur paused, then sighed again. "Alfred." He said. "What do you feel when you...do psychology?"
Alfred frowned. "You mean like papers?"
Arthur thought. "Yes, and when you read books on it, and write your own views, and when you learn something new?"
Alfred's eyes lit up. "Well I feel good. Kinda tingly. Like I've done something great in something I love."
Arthur smiled, happy he had established the connection. "And that's what I feel with English." He gushed.
Alfred clicked his fingers and pointed at Arthur, wiled eyed and grinning. "And when you eat a fresh stack of pancakes! That's the same feeling too!"
Arthur felt the connection wither and die.
He couldn't help but bare an unwilling, but genuine half-smile. He looked at Alfred for a moment, then turned and gave a small wave over his shoulder to the group, saying "I'm going for a shower now."
Alfred gave a half-smile of his own. "You're always having showers." he chuckled.
Arthur looked over his shoulder and twitched his lip, unable to met Alfred's eyes. "Yeah." He attempted to chuckle back.
As Arthur shut the bathroom door and stripped off his shirt, the memory of that little dingy bathroom at his old home resurfaced. His fingers stilled on his jean's button. Honestly, he couldn't afford a shower. It had been baths any time he could grab them when he was on his own. And on the rare off-chance that he had no where to be, he had washed, then wrapped his arms around his knees and let the water grow stagnant as he stared passed the greying tiles and let his mind wonder.
Arthur let his boxers drop to the floor and turned the shower on. Stepping under it Arthur let that euphoric thrill wash over him. He grinned to himself as he faced the spray with scrunched-shut eyes. Arthur adored that feeling. He adored being enveloped in gorgeous heat and billowing steam clouds. He loved how the moment the water hit him he could feel it run in rivers and streams from his head to his toes and down the drain, carrying all the dust and dirt of the day with it. It almost felt like being clean. Not in the commonplace meaning of the word, but in Arthur's meaning.
Perhaps, Arthur thought as he scrubbed a hand through his choppy hair, if he had enough showers, one day he really would be clean.
Arthur decided to overlook the implications this might have on his psychological well-being.
Arthur ran his hands over his hair and body, he stopped with his right hand on his face. Eyes still closed he tilted his head slightly, into his hand.
It had been days but he could barely get the thought out of his mind. His hand had been wrapped around Alfred's penis.
Sure, he had touched a few men in his time. But still...Alfred...
Arthur shivered.
He held his hand up in front of his face, still smooth planes of pale skin, bone, and ligaments. Yet Alfred...
Arthur squeezed his eyes shut again and threw out his hands and flailed, bouncing from foot to foot and letting his toes curl.
Arthur's heart jumped into his mouth when there was a knock at the door.
"Arthur" Toris' voice came floating though the steam and jets of water. "Are you all right?"
Even though no one could see him, Arthur straightened out and let his hand fret at his side. "I'm fine!" He answered. "I'll be out in a minuet!"
"Ok." Toris called, and Arthur let out a shaky breath as he reached for the soap to finish up.
When Arthur had towled off and pulled on a clean set of borrowed clothes he found Alfred and Toris chatting by the coffee machine, and Feliks leaning on the counter, engrossed in a glossy copy of Vogue.
Feliks glanced up at him, pink shadow dusted over his eyes, and beaconed him over with a manicured hand. Arthur walked around the kitchen unit and peered over Feliks' shoulder as he jabbed a pink varnished nail at the page.
"You seen these?" He asked "They seem you're style."
Arthur regarded the male model on the page, frozen and appearing weightless as he let his hands dance over his body. He looked at the cream, fitted slacks Feliks was pointing too. They didn't look too bad...
On the model.
Arthur looked away and let his lip tug into a lopsided smile. "I don't think anything like that would look good on me." He admitted softly.
Feliks reversed his position so that his elbows rested on the counter-top, giving him room to regard Arthur critically. "And, like, why ever not?"
Arthur drew his shoulders into himself, his eyes rolling, embarrassed, to the ceiling. "Well, I think I'm too old for that sort of thing."
"Arthur." Feliks deadpanned. "You're, what? Twenty-three?"
"You're right. I sometimes forget." Arthur whipped back.
Feliks ignored him. "Right. Not old...Like..Anti-old."
Arthur's cheeks where steadily beginning to burn. He gestured to the model on the page. "Yes, but, what is he? Twelve?"
Feliks snapped the magazine up, displaying the model in question clearly. Arthur couldn't tear his eyes away. The model seemed to be gazing deep within his soul. Undressing him with his eyes.
"This man is Ralph Ward. He is gorgeous, talented, and most definitely not twelve!"
"Certainly." Arthur said, breaking contact with the models lusty gaze.
He had been wondering what Alfred would look like with clothes that tight on.
Arthur blinked at Feliks. "Wait, how do you now so much about him?"
Feliks tossed some golden hair over his shoulder. "A name isn't, like, that big a deal."
Arthur gave him an ironic expression. "It's more than I know."
Suddenly Alfred came from no where and threw his arm around Feliks' shoulders. "Feli wants to go into the world of fashion, don't you, Feli!"
"Really?" Arthur inquired.
"Yep" Feliks smiled, extracting himself from under Alfred's heavy arm. "I wanna do clothes design and maybe a bit of modelling."
Arthur frowned. "I thought you where smitten with psychology..."
Feliks grinned. "I, like, totally am, but y'know. Keeping doors open and stuff." Abruptly he sized Arthur up, letting his green eyes run over him. "Speaking of which you could totally be a model."
Alfred chocked on the ToffeCrisp bar he had been stuffing in his mouth.
Arthur didn't blame him. He made an incredulous noise, looking away again and self-consciously ran his fingers over his...thick eyebrows. "Somehow I don't think I'm what they're looking for."
Feliks snorted, giving Arthur a look as if it had been him saying something fantastical. "Arthur." He gave a strange little laugh. "Have you, like, seen you?"
"What?" Arthur flushed.
"You're...adorable."
Arthur's eyebrows lowered. "That was not the word I was expecting." He said. "And anyway; have you seen these?" He pointed bluntly at the caterpillars snuggled on his forehead.
Alfred seemed to remember himself, far-off gaze and flushed cheeks evaporating as he blinked at Arthur's forehead.
"Hay" he said, reaching out a finger to poke. "I never noticed those before." He giggled. "They're so soft."
Arthur slapped his hand away. "That's enough of that."
"Arthur." Toris' soft voice called from where he had been leaning against the other side of the counter, observing the happenings. "They're not that bad."
Lies, Arthur thought, rubbing them again, as if they would go away. "Francis told me they where repulsive." He said, not really thinking.
A horrendously awkward millisecond came into existence and would have supernova-ed into a nightmare of embarrassing if Alfred; being sort of embarrassing himself, with his flushed cheeks and his mental images of a posing, pouting Arthur, sort of allowed the levels of awkward to cancel each other out. Physics or something.
He jumped over to Arthur, wrapped an arm around his waist and used his free hand to stroke Arthur's generous eyebrows. "They're so fluffy!" He grinned.
"Even some models have, like, huge eyebrows" Feliks said "Or, like, nose or something."
Arthur tried to fight off Alfred's hands like an offended cat. He snorted "Yes, thank you, that's a huge consolation."
There was a knock on the dormitory door. The group froze, turning towards the door, Feliks and Toris watching Arthur practically bent backwards over Alfred's arm, pushing the younger man's hands away.
Mr Felicita smiled as Toris answered the door.
"Hello, Toris." He greeted.
"Good morning, Mr Felicita." Toris replied.
"I would like to have a word with you all, if that's all right." the teacher said as Toris let him into the dorm.
Toris' smile faltered for a moment. "Not bad news I hope."
"No, no, not at all." Mr Felicita assured, waving his hand and beaconing the others forward. "I need to talk about accommodation."
Alfred frowned. "'scuse me, Sir?"
Mr Felicita drew breath to explain. "Well. These dorms are only meant to house two."
Feliks' pink-rimmed eyes where slowly widening "So..."
Mr Felicita waved his hand again "Wipe that look off your face, Feliks, I'm not throwing you out. But..." He looked around the group. "Two of you are going to have to take a separate dorm. I'm afraid the rules and regulations are rather clear and four of you in one dorm is just too many."
Feliks's face morphed into one of abject horror, but Mr Felicita cut him off before he could start wailing.
"Now don't you give me that, Feliks Ćukasiewicz, no amateur dramatics, thank you. There is a free dorm literally down the hall, left by two students who graduated last year to go into politics. You're not even going to be five doors away."
Feliks abruptly halted in his sniffling and hiccuping and placed a hand on his chest. "Oh, well that's, like, peachy then!" He made a 'phew' gesture.
The other three gave him a look.
"So" Mr Felicita clapped his hands together "I'll leave you boys to decide between yourselves which room's you're going to be in, and then Mr Schwertschmied will send someone up to help you shift you're things."
Alfred blinked. "Actually" He said, leaning slightly as if to see his teachers other half hiding behind the man. "Where is Mr Schwertschmied?" You two are never apart, he added in his head.
Mr Felicita's eyes flickered and he made a small movement as if he too was about to turn to check behind him. "Err.." He said awkwardly. "He's in the staffroom. Phoning different police stations..."
Alfred felt a rock sink in his stomach. "Oh...well..Ok."
Mr Felicita's honey-brown eyes softened. He gripped Alfred's broad shoulder briefly. "Don't worry, Alfred." He said, tone firm and gentle.
He smiled back at the boys as he left. "See you later." Then he was jogging back to the staffroom; Things to organise, students to keep safe.
They watched the empty space for a moment, then turned to face each other.
"So..." Toris broke the silence. "I think I should go."
"No." Feliks and Alfred both said, firmly at the same time.
"I think I should." Toris insisted "I'm the newest here."
"So am I" Arthur added.
"Yes, but I'm not a student." He said.
"I should move." They turned to Alfred, hand on his chest. "It's kinda my fault..."
"And that's why you should stay." They all turned again, struck silent by Feliks' tone. It was strong, and not to be contradicted. "Alfred, while you're here you are in an environment you feel safe and familiar with. If we take you out of it and put you in an unfamiliar place, even if it is only down the hall, who knows how your PDSD would take it. You might have full-on black out flashback, screaming fits, nightmares."
They where silent for a moment. Alfred's hand slipping from his chest.
"So." Toris said. "Alfred stays."
"I feel useless now." Alfred murmured, a slight crease between his eyebrows.
Feliks sighed a bit and patted him on the arm. "Don't. Because you're not. Now honestly.." He said, turning away and gently slipping his hand into Toris' "I'd like to stay with Toris."
"Ok." Toris said, gazing deeply into Feliks' eyes. "Then I guess we go."
"I guess we do."
Feliks rubbed his thumb over the back of Toris' hand.
He blinked.
"You know what this means?" He said suddenly.
"What?" Alfred asked.
Feliks inhaled, his eyes sparking. "Shopping."
A/N: 'Ello, Peeps.
XDDDDD
Sorry, i know nothing much happens in this chapter but hay! At least this shows i have not died! xDDD
At the beginning i was going to put; '...Swift to kill any misguided innuendo with one ''blow''.' But then i realised that would have defyed the purpos of killing innuendo in the first place...
SO. At the current plane of space and time i am stuck right smack bang in the heart of the storm, as it where, the middle of my examination leave, half way, before exams ARE OVER. And i hate it. =_=
So, maybe the next chapter will come out soon, while im in the metaphorical Island In The Middle Of The Ocean of examination revision periods, or, it will come out..
say..
...Early June?
XDDDD See you soon. 'Luv you guys (SPEAKING OF WHICH HAS ANYONE SEEN THE 'NEW YORK' EPISDE OF GLEE? OH. MY. GOD KURT AND BLAINE, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!)
Oh! And i nearly forgot!
We have over a hundred reviews! And didn't i promis you a picture of Arthur in his full prostitute gear?
Well. Somewhere along the line i did.
So...
Here you go, you lovely people - XDDDD (remember to take out the spaces)- www . sallydawn . deviantart . com / # / d3eoico - Thank you guys, thanks for reading and reviewing and being generally great XDDD
Over and out.
