Hmmm I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, might do it over sometime. But here it is~

Chapter 9

Arthur wished he could claim he had no idea what had happened to his behaviour towards Alfred that evening, but he was pretty sure he knew. First of all, there was always that awkwardness of Arthur being frustrated with not knowing what to do with the American. Second of all, he had come to terms with liking the other, but he didn't really know how to express it. Add more frustration. And last, the fight with Ivan. Hell, if an angry Alfred wasn't one of the most sexiest things he had ever seen.

He was weird, he knew. It was probably something wrong too, to get all bothered by that. To think about it, would it connect with his weird obsession of trying to get his parents angry at him? But, that was just something he wanted because they were never angry. He wouldn't like them being angry at him all the time. He just wanted them to snap once, and show that they weren't the ideal parents.

Anyway. The fight was pretty inevitable, Arthur didn't really have any idea of why he decided to intervene either. It just seemed like the logical thing to do when Ivan pestered Alfred about the Brit. He had some pride, thank you very much. But aside of that, he didn't really know about their rivalry, but there was always enough tension when they passed each other on the school corridors. He'd have to ask about it later.

As soon as Alfred had pushed him out of the way and taken the blow for him though, Arthur could only stare with some sick kind of fascination. It was exhilarating. He had never seen the American angry. Sure, he got a little heated in his arguments about superheroes and aliens, but if Arthur said something mean or provoking, Alfred always brushed it off with a joke or smile. But he had definitely been angry then. He honestly hadn't thought the American had it in him. But he had always kind of wished he'd see something like this. Alfred was big, and strong, and he could probably pick Arthur up like he was a bag of feathers. And yet he was always so gentle and careful, and it annoyed Arthur to the point he got used to the irritation, but this…

People had eventually broken Alfred and Ivan apart, and both of them didn't sport any big injuries. Ivan had a slightly more than normal swollen eye, and Alfred was wiping at his mouth. Ivan left the scene after that, and Alfred came back, and the first thing Arthur had done was arguing and being mean, just because he felt so exhilarated, and he didn't know what to do. As soon as Alfred left, Francis pulled Arthur away from the group to discuss something about Matthew. Arthur had been irritated about it and had continuously thought about Alfred and Alfred and Alfred, until Francis left him and Matthew came to find him to tell Alfred was looking for him. Arthur went to him, and did the only logical thing to do; went up to him and gave him a somewhat less-awkward than the first time kiss.

Alfred had brushed it off for impulsive behaviour, but Arthur pretty much knew why (he could deny it though) he kept looking at the American again and again. They had decided to re-join the group, and Arthur couldn't keep his eyes off of the other. He knew he was acting a little too different from before, because even Francis was just looking weirdly and not commenting on it, but he didn't care. He wasn't doing anything wrong.

As soon as Francis directed his attention to getting drinks, Arthur caught Matthew sitting on his other side and smirked. "So, how are you and Francis?" Arthur started out nonchalantly, wanting to continue, but Matthew interrupted him politely and smiled.

"Francis had warned me about this, but you don't need to worry. I'm not a plaything, I guess." Arthur was annoyed that Francis had told him about the routine Arthur would take, whenever Francis dated for longer than three weeks.

"I thought so, because it looks like you have him completely wrapped around your fingers. But I just wanted to pretend I'm some protective friend." He admitted. Of course, Francis had just returned and heard it, and let out a scandalized gasp.

"Do my ears betray me, rosbif? You are not actually the protective caterpillar I thought you were? My world is shattered!"

"Don't call me a caterpillar, you frog!"

"Honhonhon, then don't get your perverse excuses for eyebrows anywhere near my petite Mathieu! I still don't know if they're contagious!"

"The hell they are! The only thing that's contagious around here is your herpes!"

"Nasty! But how do you know I would or would not have herpes, hhhhmmm?"

"Wanker! Don't imply such a thing!" Arthur noticed Matthew was laughing the loudest he ever heard him laugh, and he wondered if everyone saw him and Francis as just another joke. Well, it was, actually.

He felt his hand being grabbed and he started, before letting Alfred intertwine their fingers. It felt horribly cheesy, but he allowed it, because Alfred's attention was on him and he wanted that. Alfred smiled lightly. "Stop fighting already guys, I'm getting tired of it." How contradictory of him to say, when he's just been complaining to someone about the Russian.

Arthur pointed that out and Alfred pouted, retorting about not being able to help it, like some superheroes can't control their strength. Ridiculous comparison, but okay. Arthur sighed and leant back slightly, surprising yet again the entire group when he casually leant back on Alfred and the American wrapped his arm around the other's waist. Alfred had a big goofy grin on his face and Arthur's face burned slightly, but he ignored it and pointedly closed his eyes until the group went back to their chatter and the two were forgotten.

Alfred buried his face in the other's hair so he could whisper. "So, that earlier, was that an one-time thing or can I do it again?"

Arthur rolled his eyes and scoffed. "What do you take me for, some whore? Of course it wasn't an one-time thing!"

"Yeah, yeah, thought so. It was just… kind of random. Doesn't mean I didn't like it."

"Just take it or bloody leave it, wanker."

He heard the American chuckle slightly mainly through body movements and Arthur grew silent again, staring blankly at the sand in front of him while Alfred bend down again a bit. "Does this mean, you're, you know, my boyfriend or something? I mean... we're practically are… you know."

Arthur cleared his throat. "What, you weren't my boyfriend already?" Oh shit, he felt so gay and girly for saying it, but this would clear it up, this would make it easier… and he didn't mind the word all that much. He wanted to be with Alfred, he wasn't sure if that was always in a romantic matter, but it might as well be. Besides, they didn't always need to be snogging or hugging or whatever. They could do loads of friendly stuff.

When Alfred didn't respond at first, Arthur untangled himself from the other and turned around to ask what his bloody problem was. He froze when he saw Alfred looking at him intensely with a growing smile.

"Heh… guess I am, huh." He said softly, probably more to himself than to Arthur. Arthur boldly kept looking at him, hoping he was doing a good job of glaring. It didn't intimidate the other anyway, and Arthur didn't really feel intimidating either. Alfred smiled a bit more confidently, inching closer to the Brit again. "So I can kiss you again?'

Arthur scowled, shrinking back a little. "In front of everyone?" Was that to prove his manliness or whatever? He wasn't really comfortable with it but everyone in this group already knew they had at least some kind of fling, so he supposed it wouldn't hurt if it made Alfred happy, he'd just have to put up with Francis afterwards.

Alfred laughed. "Let's go, come on." He stood up and practically dragged Arthur upwards as well. "Matthew, you're going home with Francis right?" At Matthew's startled answer, Alfred nodded and quickly collected their things and dragged the Brit back to the car. As soon as he dumped their stuff in the backseat of the car, he grabbed Arthur and gave him a peck on his lips with a chuckle, before shoving Arthur into the passenger's seat.

"At least be a little gentle!" Arthur complained as Alfred got in the driver's seat. "You're an idiot. Why do we need to go back already? I'm not tired yet."

"Neither am I." Alfred said, starting the engine. He glanced back at Arthur and smiled suggestively, and Arthur's eyes widened. Wait, what? He was momentarily angered because Alfred simply dragged him away just because he was selfish, but he felt a little constricted too.

After a few seconds of staring at each other, Arthur coughed lightly. "Eh… Alfred, I know I acted like it, but I don't want to move that quickly…"

It took a while for Alfred to understand, and he burst out into laughter. Arthur scowled. "Dude, no! I just meant, we could go hang out at my place without them and just, you know, spend time with each other. I wasn't even thinking about that. I was hoping for another make out session though but if you don't want to, that's that. We should go watch horror movies though, I heard it was going to storm tonight!"

Arthur shook his head firmly. "Absolutely no horror movies! You can do that with someone else you wanker!"

The other smiled and pushed himself forwards, bending a little over the arm's rest and pressing their lips together. Arthur tightened his fists, resisting the initial urge to flinch, and slowly let Alfred coax him into opening his lips. Arthur had never really liked open mouthed kisses, they were too wet and sticky, but somehow, Alfred worked around that disgusting little fact and made him feel warm and pleasant instead of aware of the weirdness. Alfred broke the kiss with a sweet peck on his lips and smiled, before sitting back down on his seat and practically dragging Arthur's hand down on the armrest.

The Brit glared, sitting back as well and trying to relax a little more. The ride back to Alfred's house was pretty silent afterwards, alternating with Alfred switching channels on the radio and commenting on someone's driving, trying to amuse the other. It worked, because Arthur relaxed completely, and called him a wanker once or twice. Back at Alfred's house, Arthur tensed up immediately though, and as they entered the house he feared the worst when he heard sounds from the kitchen. Alfred snickered at his 'deer-in-the-headlights' look and squeezed his hand before releasing him and walking to the kitchen.

"Hey mom! We're home!"

"Hey honey. Who's we? Thought Matt was going to sleep over at Francis'?"

Alfred's mother was a very pretty lady, was the first thing that childishly went through Arthur's mind. She was of average height, a little chubby but not overly, had long, blonde hair and warm brown eyes that looked at him in a friendly way. She was barefoot and in a sweatpants and a large T-Shirt, making her look younger than she probably was.

"This is Arthur!" Alfred introduced happily, clapping Arthur on the back softly. Arthur scoffed at the motion and stiffly held out his hand to shake Mrs Jones her hand. She gently shook his hand while introducing herself. "He's my, eh, you know, boyfriend."

The randomness of it all made Arthur's skin burst out into various shades of red and he reeled back to Alfred to yell at him, and was about to whack him over his head, before he noticed that Alfred's mother only smiled a bit warmer and nodded. "He's cute, good job."

What.

Alfred laughed and petted a dumbstruck Arthur. "Yeah, he's not that fond of people saying that though. Better watch out or he'll unleash British anger on you, ma."

"I'll show you British anger!" Arthur tried to sound a little amused (and hopefully menacing towards Alfred), but he felt it coming out as a squeak, and was it hot in here or was he really that embarrassed? "Nice to meet you, ma'am."

"Oh please don't call me ma'am. Emily is all right." Arthur stuttered an 'all right ma- I mean Emily', and her attention went to smoothing down Alfred's hair for a moment. Alfred dove out of the way like it happened all the time and Arthur hid his smile behind his hand – it looked rather silly. "Well, I was on my way to bed. Sleep well kids, don't make it too late." With that she took a mug from the kitchen counter and left to go upstairs.

Once Arthur no longer heard footsteps on the stairs, he looked the American with a hardly contained amused look. Alfred rubbed the back of his head with his hand and smiled goofily. "Yeah, should've told you that I told her about us. Sorry. Dad doesn't know however. Only told her this Friday."

Arthur sighed and shrugged. "It caught me off guard, is all…"

"Sorry 'bout that, then." Alfred said with a sweet smile, before prancing off to the kitchen again. "I'm gonna grab us some drinks and snacks and we can go upstairs to watch a movie, okay?" Arthur made a sound of agreement, looking at the clock. It was eleven P.M. They had been at the beach gathering for quite a while. His skin did feel a little warm too, perhaps the lingering sun had got to him before it went down. Alfred returned quickly before pushing him to the stairs. Arthur looked at the small pile of snacks with a slightly disgusted frown – he wasn't even remotely hungry after the barbeque they had earlier on the beach. "Come on slowpoke, up the stairs with you."

"Shut it, fatass." Arthur muttered, quickly climbing up the stairs with the American behind him. Alfred took the lead once they were upstairs (of course it was also spacious up here), and led them through a hallway, before stopping at a door. Alfred kicked it open gently and entered, dumping all the stuff on the desk. Arthur had already been here before so there was nothing new. Posters of sportsmen and superheroes painted the walls, there was a mess near his desk and near his television, and there were comic figures on emptied bookshelves. Arthur sat down on the bed and looked around. His own room was a lot smaller, yes, but at least he stacked his mess. Alfred just left it lingering.

"Soooo which movie first? I've got Paranormal Activity, the Exorcist, Poltergeist, The Descent, The Omen-"

"And do you have anything that won't have you peeing your pants?"

Alfred pouted. "Aww come on Artie! I'm not scared of those movies, I watched them hundreds of times!" Arthur's glare was unrelenting. "Ugh, fine. I got… Superhero movies, obviously. X-men, Spiderman, Captain America, Iron Man, etcetera. Harry Potter… uh, work with me man. What do you want to see?"

"I don't care as long as you don't stop my blood circulation in fear." Arthur said dully.

"You're not too enthusiastic about this." Alfred said, suddenly serious. "Do you wanna go home instead? I can take you home if you want."

The way he said it, made it very obvious that Alfred didn't want to take him home. He'd probably do it once Arthur would ask him too, though. He scooted backwards until his back met the wall. "I'm just tired of today. You'd better put the spare bed up already, in case I fall asleep during the movie."

After a small argument over where Arthur would sleep – Alfred said Arthur could sleep in his bed and that it was big enough for the both of them, and Arthur thought that was ridiculous and embarrassing (even though he would do it with Francis when they were drunk and/or tired), and suddenly Alfred was demonstrating how many people could fit in without even touching each other, and he was pulling ridiculous face along it, so Arthur chuckled and gave in. He did go as far as changing clothes in the bathroom adjoined with Alfred's room, because he wasn't all that familiar with his boyfriend yet. Wow, it felt so strange to say that word. And for some reason it didn't really feel like anything had changed. Arthur had never singled out the option he could like guys, so when he thought of the challenge of dating Alfred he had naturally gone along with it, albeit with some stress and trouble.

As he looked at himself in the mirror, he frowned. Was he even remotely attractive? Sure, he had his distinctive features. He had blazing green eyes that often got everyone's attention. Girls always talked about how cool and rebellious his mop of blonde hair was (which he didn't do anything with, actually). Upon closer inspection there'd be a tiny scar by his ear from when their former cat had attacked him in blind fear (the poor old cat was old, blind, and practically deaf by then, and Arthur had been a silly six year old). It wasn't very noticeable or ugly, though. He didn't look chubby, but wasn't very skinny either.

The only thing he lingered at – of course – his eyebrows. Perhaps he should pluck them. His mum always fussed over how ugly that would turn out to be. It probably would, like some photo-shopped model. He sighed and ran his hands over his eyebrows with a glare. At least he wasn't the only one burdened with it – Two of his brothers and his father had the same. Alfred didn't seem to mind, at least, he never mentioned minding them. He pulled his shirt over his head with a huff and changed into something more comfortable to sleep in. As he had thought, Alfred's sweatpants was too big for him, but it stayed on his hips good enough. The shirt had too much space left too, but it was nothing to be bothered about.

As if he hadn't thought or stressed or mulled things over enough, Arthur sat down on the rim of the bathtub and complemented if he found Alfred attractive. He had never really thought a guy to be attractive. But the same went for a girl. Of course he admitted some girls were pretty and some guys were handsome, but he had never really felt an attraction. He did like to kiss Alfred though. Even if he was somewhat playing hard-to-get because he was nervous. And when Alfred would smile he would feel a bit better, but that sounded cheesy. He supposed that if he had to choose from all the people he knew, he'd rather see Alfred naked.

Wait, that sounded creepy.

Arthur grinned at his own stupid thoughts. That probably meant he thought of Alfred as attractive yes. Or he was just a hormonal teenager, but probably a combination of both. He retreated from the bathroom and came back into the bedroom, seeing Alfred lying on the ground in front of the telly and tinkering with the DVD player. He climbed back onto the bed and watched as the other eventually stood up again, turning his way. He fell silent and smiled, which eventually grew into a grin. Arthur scowled; the American did get on his nerves a little… but mostly on a good way, he assumed. "What is your problem?"

Alfred shrugged. "Oh just, you in my clothes. Quite adorable."

"You did not just call me adorable."

"Oh yes I did!" He sing-sung.

Arthur groaned and threw a pillow into the American's face. This was going to be a long night if it would be up to Alfred.


R&R!