Chapter 10 – Hello, Goodbye
Alfred stepped into Arthur's office. "Hello, Iggy!"
Arthur rolled his eyes at Alfred while stepping past him and out of the office. "Sorry, Alfred. I have a meeting, so goodbye."
"What? Can't you skip it? I know that you only go to these things out of duty. You find meetings just as boring as I do!" Alfred pointed out while following his boyfriend down the hall.
"No Alfred." Alfred couldn't see Arthur's face but he knew that he was rolling his eyes again. "Maybe you should stop being so childish."
Alfred pouted a bit at that and sped up so he could walk beside Arthur. "C'mon Artie. Let's just go!" He then frowned. Why does this seem sort of familiar?
Arthur sighed and looked up at Alfred. "Look, just go to my house and wait a bit. I'll see you later."
"But I don't want to wait! Can't I just kidnap you or something so you have an excuse for your boss?" Alfred grinned at that idea. Oh, I could make it so epic! But I don't have any explosives…
"Why would you kidnap me?" Arthur was looking at Alfred like he had lost his mind. Then again he often looks at me like that during World Meetings… Alfred thought.
"I don't know…" At this, Alfred scooped Arthur into his arms, causing the Brit to give a cute squeak, and ran down the hallways. "But it's a lot more fun than boring meetings! I'm just rescuing you from the meetings!" He laughed his hero laugh all the way out the door. He then put Arthur in the passenger's seat of his car, buckled both of them in, and tore out of the parking lot like an Italian.
Unseen by Alfred, all of the workers within the offices rolled their eyes at his antics and went back to work. Luckily, Arthur's secretary did place a call to the Prime Minister to inform him of the "rescue." It was late afternoon anyway, so they were all feeling the call of home.
And in any case, they all knew how "special" the relationship between the USA and UK was.
Meanwhile, Arthur was currently cussing Alfred out. "Why the bloody hell did you do that?! You just should have said 'goodbye' and waited at my house. But no, you have to ruin my whole bloody day by making me leave early, you bloody git!"
"You know most people would be happy to leave work early." It was Alfred's turn to roll his eyes. "But speaking of goodbyes…" His eyes lit up. "Ah, that's what I was thinking about earlier!"
"Thinking about what earlier? It didn't seem like you were thinking at all." Arthur huffed and settled back in his seat.
"Well, I would say one thing and you'd say the opposite. Like in the song Hello, Goodbye!" Alfred smiled over at the Brit. "The moment I got there and said, 'Hello.' You said, 'Goodbye.' And the rest was vaguely like the song too. Only we talked more."
"I guess." Arthur rolled his eyes. "Still, you didn't have to bloody kidnap me."
"'Rescue' not kidnap, Artie." Alfred smiled. "Anyway, I came this early because I wanted to show you something. So I wouldn't have been able to wait at your place anyway if I wanted to get there in time."
"Really, what sort of thing?" Arthur couldn't help but be curious.
"You'll see!" Alfred laughed.
He drove the car out of the city and skillfully maneuvered the car into a forested park area. The car eventually emerged at the top of a hill overlooking London.
"C'mon!" He exited the car and pulled Arthur out with him.
"Really, what sort of thing are you…" Arthur stopped short and Alfred grinned at his reaction.
From this hill, which was also a clearing within the forest, one could see all of London and it also offered a beautiful view of the sunset, which bathed the entire city in oranges and reds. It was a beautiful sight. Alfred had found it recently when he was wandering around the area outside of London. He had instantly wanted to share it with him, but had not had a good opportunity to do so until now.
"What do you think now? Am I still a git for rescuing you to show you this?" Alfred raised his eyebrows and gave a cheeky grin.
"You're always a git, no matter what." Arthur said this with a soft smile. "But this is a nice place to say goodbye to the Sun, huh?"
"Huh? Why are you saying, 'Goodbye?'" Alfred gave a confused look at Arthur.
"Well, it's the end of the day." Arthur used that patient tone he always used when he thought that Alfred was being stupid.
"But you'll see the Sun tomorrow, right? Goodbye seems so final." Alfred looked at the beautiful sunset, ignoring the fact that Arthur was staring at him. "So, it's more like a 'See you later.'"
Arthur chuckled. "So is that why you never say goodbye?"
Alfred smiled. "Yeah, I'll always want to see you again!"
Arthur's face turned even redder in the fading light as he blushed. "Yeah, me, too."
Alfred put an arm around Arthur and pulled him close. Yeah, I'll always say 'Hello' but I'll never say 'Goodbye.' That way there's always the hope of seeing you again.
AN: While listening to this song, I had a vision of Alfred kidnapping Arthur. This is the result.