Author's Notes:
So here it is! Good ol' chapter 10. Thanks for all of the reviews and favs and messages, I really appreciate them! :D And so, the party continues. Enjoy!
Arthur sighed. He and Alfred hadn't had anytime to chat, not that he would've had anything to say after what happened in the closet. It was amazing, better than he'd hoped for, better than any fantasy. If it weren't for Matthew being involved, Arthur would insist on Alfred being his boyfriend right now. He was pretty sure now that Alfred did like him, but maybe he always knew. Maybe he liked playing with him a little. With the thought of Matthew in mind, Arthur scanned the room for him - no luck. But Matthew was hard to find so he had another look – still no Matthew. Arthur suddenly felt guilty, what if Matthew had left the party upon hearing his pleasured moans from inside the closet?
As Gilbert told everyone to take a break from the game, Arthur went upstairs to look for Matthew as there was a chance that he was still around. He was having no luck so far, he checked the room to the right of the staircase. It looked like it was the guest room as the walls were a plain white and all of the furniture was made out of simple oak wood. And there he saw Matthew, sat on the floor leaning against the bed.
Matthew turned around as he heard someone enter and watched as his classmate sat down beside him.
"Hi Matt, I've been looking for you. Are you alright?" Arthur asked, his voice soft. Matthew saw concern in his facial expression and so quickly nodded.
"Yes..The party was just getting a bit too much for me. I decided to come up here so I could be alone." seeing Arthur furrow his brow, he added "I don't mind you being here with me though."
Arthur nodded. It was still unclear whether Matthew had heard anything. Arthur sighed as he leaned his head on the side of the bed.
"It's quite hot down there too. I suppose I could stay here for a bit to cool down." He stretched his arms out in front of him before turning to Matthew. "So have you enjoyed playing Gilbert's game? Personally, I think it was a ridiculous suggestion." He lied.
"Well...I still haven't had my turn yet." Matthew bit his lip, he stared into Arthur's eyes for a moment which made the Brit feel uneasy. "I would hate to have to go in to the closet with someone..that I didn't like. Gilbert also said that we had to do things in there-"
"Well I don't think he really cares that much. If you don't want to do anything you don't have to." Arthur interrupted, he was worried that his words were too hasty.
"Even so..I wouldn't mind if I was in the closet with someone like you..." Matthew looked down at this lap, he cheeks growing warm. Arthur opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it as he couldn't think of anything to say. "Arthur..could you tell me..what exactly is going on between you and Alfred?"
Arthur froze. He heart thumping hard in his chest, he was anxious that even Matthew would be able to hear it. There was a moment of silence. Arthur put together what he was going to say in his head, and opened his mouth to speak.
He stopped as he heard a familiar voice.
"Kay Gil, so the party poppers are in the guest room?" Arthur and Matthew heard footsteps come up the stairs.
"Oh no, it's Alfred!" Arthur panicked, he wasn't ready to face him yet. "Don't tell him I'm here, I'll answer your question later." He didn't wait for Matthew's reply before hiding in the wardrobe, he slid the door shut but left a tiny gap so he could view the happenings.
Alfred entered the guest room and saw Matthew sat on the floor, still frozen in place. He closed the door behind him, a worried look spread onto Matthew's face.
"Oh Mattie, didn't know you were here." Alfred sat down next to him. Matthew couldn't form any words and so he just nodded in response. "You been having a good time?" Matthew gave Alfred another nod. "Your face looks really warm, no wonder you came up here, it's boiling downstairs." He stroked Matthew's cheek with the back of his hand.
'This is the perfect opportunity.'
Alfred moved his hand to Matthew's chin and pulled him in for a soft kiss. The kiss only lasted for a moment as Matthew was being fairly unresponsive with it. Alfred pulled away, knowing that he had made a bad decision.
Arthur was fuming. After all that had happened in the closet, and Alfred practically jumped straight onto Matthew. Had everything meant nothing to him? Was he really just the type to jump from person to person? Arthur sensed that he was being hypocritical, but he was too angry to care.
"Man..I'm sorry. I guess I'm a little tipsy." Alfred scratched the back of his neck, feeling embarrassed. He got up and opened the draw next to the bed to grab the party poppers. "See ya later." He mumbled, before making a hasty exit.
Arthur got out of the wardrobe, straightening out his shirt as he did so. "Alright. Should we go back down to the party?" he asked, expressionless. He held out his hand for Matthew, smirking to himself.
Matthew wasn't sure if Arthur was aware of what had just happened, but he was no idiot. He figured that Arthur would be jealous – and that could only mean good things for him. Matthew nodded before taking Arthur's hand, Arthur pulled him up and held onto his hand as they went down the stairs.
Arthur looked left and right, he saw Alfred in the kitchen with Kiku. He grinned,he would be able to position himself as if he had never been upstairs in the first place. Arthur led Matthew over to the wall to the left of the kitchen, purposely in view of Alfred.
"Wait here a second." Arthur ruffled Matthew's hair and gave him a wink. Matthew became flustered but managed to nod. The Brit made his way into the kitchen, he grabbed a beer out of the fridge.
"Oh Artie, can we-"
"Sorry, no time to talk. Matthew is waiting for me." He spoke clearly and confidently as he opened the bottle with the bottle opener. He took a large gulp of the drink before rubbing his mouth and making his way back to Matthew. He knew he was already a little drunk, but maybe that was for the best. Alfred looked puzzled, curious as to why Arthur was giving him the cold shoulder. He looked at Kiku who averted his gaze as he sipped his drink. Alfred decided he'd keep an eye on Arthur, but only because he didn't want him to get out of hand as there was a likely chance that'd he'd become pissed at any moment.
"I have returned." Arthur approached Matthew, placing his hand on the wall that Matthew was leaning against. Matthew's cheek appeared to be permanently red as he fidgeted in place. Arthur smirked at Matthew as he leaned in close, mischief lurked in his eyes. Matthew didn't know whether to feel terrified or aroused, in the end it was a bit of both.
Arthur wasn't sure if he'd be able to go through with this. He wasn't completely off his face just yet, so he began doubting himself.
Before Arthur could move away in doubt, Matthew placed his hands on his shoulders and pulled Arthur's lips onto his own. This was unlike Matthew, either he had been drinking too or he really liked Arthur.
Alfred watched closely. If Arthur didn't kiss back then he knew that Arthur must have feelings for him. But to his dismay, Arthur titled Matthew's head with his hand as he got into the kiss.
Matthew clearly lacked kissing experience so Arthur took control of the kiss. He daren't put his tongue into Matthew mouth, even after Matthew sneakily brushed his own tongue against Arthur's bottom lip. Alfred stood there in shock for a few moments, he couldn't look away. So Matthew would kiss Arthur but not him? Alfred's eyes grew wide in realisation 'Shit..maybe they really are a couple.' It was the most logical answer. Arthur must have only done things in the closet for the sake of the game, and nothing more.
Arthur continued kissing Matthew, whose arms looped around his neck, but then pulled away. His heart just wasn't in the kiss. He averted his gaze from Matthew and quickly surveyed the room for Alfred. He wasn't there, Arthur just hoped that he had seen. He hoped that it had made him as jealous as he felt when he saw Alfred kiss Matthew in the guest room. Arthur quickly felt guilty, he shuffled away from Matthew to create space between them. Arthur met Matthew's gaze, his face was beaming, which only made him feel more guilty.
"Okay guys, gather round for the next game." Gilbert announced, giving Arthur the opportunity to flee from Matthew's side. "So we're going play spin the bottle, but it looks like someone was cheating before." Gilbert tipped the magnet from the bottle onto his hand and held it up for all to see. Arthur gulped. "And there is only one person that it could be..." Gilbert pointed across the room and Arthur began to sweat.
"Eliza!" Gilbert stated, stopping his finger on her.
"What? Why me?" Elizaveta objected.
"Well you obviously have the hots for me, but why wouldn't you? I am awesome-"
"In your dreams." Elizaveta interrupted, crossing her arms and facing away from Gilbert.
"Sure, whatever babe." Gilbert snorted before continuing his announcement. "Anyways, we're gonna be using my spin the bottle app this time to avoid any more of Eliza's cheating." Elizaveta rolled her eyes at the mention of her name. Gilbert chugged down the beer in his hand "This is gonna be awesome,so let's begin!"
Arthur volunteered to go first as he saw Alfred sit down opposite him. He placed his finger on the smartphone and brushed it in a circle. The bottle span around really fast – unnaturally fast, until it stopped on the space between Alfred and Toris. Gilbert cursed under his breath.
"Told you this app was a bad idea." Feliks stated, Gilbert peered in close to the screen and darted his eyes towards Alfred and Toris.
"Hey it's no biggie, the bottle is definitely closer to Toris anyways." Gilbert shrugged.
"What are you talking about? The bottle is clearly shown as closer to Alfred." Feliks clicked his fingers and pointed to Alfred, he gained a glare from Gilbert.
"No it's not, and I think I would know because I am the awesomest."
"If I may, I have to agree with Feliks on this one." Arthur nodded at Feliks. Gilbert shrugged again.
"Yeah well whatever, I just wanna start this game. Okay, so Arthur and Alfred, smooch it up!" Gilbert made kissing noises before moving out of the way.
Arthur thought it was clear that Gilbert was right, the bottle did point closer in the direction of Toris. But would Arthur rather kiss Alfred than Toris? - Hell yes. Arthur tried his best to look displeased, he didn't know if he was fooling anyone but hopefully he'd at least fool Alfred.
He shuffled over to Alfred on his knees, but quickly became anxious that he looked too eager. He blocked out everyone in the room so it was as if it were just himself and Alfred. Leaning in, he closed his eyes. A moment later he felt Alfred give him a light kiss on the cheek. His heart sank. He quickly retreated back to his seat on the floor, not uttering a word.
"Wh-What was that?" Gilbert exclaimed, he then chuckled whilst bringing his hands together. "Lame..But I guess you're allowed to do that after earlier.." He winked at Arthur whose head was facing the floor.
Arthur didn't understand, was Alfred nervous? He couldn't be. He was now beginning to doubt whether playing 'hard to get' was actually working, and whether it had been a very good idea in the first place.
He glanced at Matthew who was sat beside him, and then to the American opposite him. It couldn't be. Arthur refused to believe that Alfred had liked their Canadian classmate this whole time and not him. Sure, it had always been a possibility, but he had dismissed that idea weeks ago. The guest room kiss was recent evidence, but he quickly disregarded it after reminding himself of the closet happenings. But did this mean that there was a chance that Alfred had only done what he did in the closet for the sake of the game and nothing more?
Arthur couldn't stand all of the ideas buzzing around in his head any longer. As Elizaveta and Katyusha were about to kiss, Arthur got up and stepped his way over the crowd of people sat on the floor. He crouched down next to Alfred.
"Can I speak to you a second." He whispered, he heard his words slurring slightly but he insisted to himself that he was fine. He was convinced that he was sober enough not to do anything irrational. Alfred sighed and reluctantly got up from the floor. Arthur dragged him over to the stairs.
"What is it?" Alfred crossed his arms, his gaze averted to his right.
Arthur opened his mouth to speak, but then realised that he hadn't actually thought of anything rational to say. What was he going to speak about? 'I was just wondering why you didn't snog me earlier'? That would be ridiculous.
"Why weren't you playing the game properly?" Even as he said it, he knew it sounded strange. Alfred raised his eyebrow. "Did I do something?" his tone of voice turned sour, Alfred looked down at his feet.
"Look" He looked up at the shaggy blonde and began rubbing the back of his neck. "I understand if you don't mind playing games and stuff...But like..I don't feel comfortable doing stuff knowing you have.." He averted his gaze to the floor again, Arthur locked his emerald eyes onto Alfred, feeling very intrigued. "A boyfriend..sorry.." He trailed off.
Arthur was taken aback. He was puzzled, what boyfriend? But that's when it clicked. Alfred thought Matthew was his boyfriend.
Arthur chuckled, causing Alfred to meet his gaze.
"Oh Alfred. Dear, dear Alfred." Arthur smirked, Alfred hated the patronising tone in his voice. Arthur was about to admit that Matthew wasn't actually his boyfriend, but then he decided against it. He felt the overwhelming power flow through his body once again as he noticed that Alfred did look quite upset about the whole idea that Arthur wasn't single.
Of course, Alfred would have really liked to kiss Arthur, but he wasn't about to do that to Matthew. He figured he would apologise to Matthew later, saying that he didn't realise that he was in a relationship. Alfred wasn't a jerk, even though he had these urges to kiss and touch Arthur all over, he knew he would just have to restrain them. Not wanting to look at the perfect figure of the man in front of him any longer, Alfred retreated back to the living room.
He hated it when he wanted something that he couldn't have.
Matthew watched as the American returned to his seat on the floor, the Brit soon followed behind him. There was definitely something going on between Alfred and Arthur. Part of him didn't want to know what is was, it's not like it was any of his business in the first place. But maybe he already knew what was going on, maybe he just pretended not to notice. If Alfred did really like him he would be flattered, but he just couldn't bring himself to feel that way about his classmate. He also noticed that Alfred showed feelings towards Arthur, which confused him. Matthew knew full well that he was infatuated with his British classmate, and so he would have to make it clear to Alfred that he was not interested in him. And, while he was at it, he could make Arthur sure that he was not interested in Alfred either.
Matthew stopped his thoughts with a shake of his head. What was he thinking? He still cared for Alfred as a friend, and he wouldn't want to make him purposely jealous – even though it would probably end up happening anyway since it was pretty obvious that Alfred liked at least one of the two of them. It was also up to Arthur who he really liked, even though Matthew wished that it could be him he knew there was a strong chance that it wasn't him.
There was a possibility that Matthew had consumed more alcohol than he had intended, but there was also a possibility that he was drunk on something else.
"Hey." Matthew jumped as he turned his head to find Arthur crouching beside him.
Alfred watched from across the room. Arthur whispered something into Matthew's ear, he nodded, and they both got up. Arthur took Matthew by the hand, which made Alfred's eyebrow twitch.
"We're gonna head home now." Arthur stated, purposely not loud enough – he didn't want to be rude, but part of him also didn't want other people to think that he and Matthew were in a relationship.
Alfred held his breath as waved goodbye. Matthew smiled gently and waved back, but Arthur turned away and began dragging Matthew to the front door.
As soon as they grabbed their coats and left, Alfred let out a long sigh. He sipped his beer, not fully paying attention to the game that was still going down in front of him. Alfred didn't understand Arthur at all. He was gutted that the two people he liked were dating each other, but why was Arthur being so bitter? Well – more bitter than usual. He had no reason to be angry with him, as far as he knew he hadn't done anything to upset him. He rubbed his face, barely noticing Kiku shuffle in besides him. He didn't speak a word, which Alfred was thankful for – he had a lot on his mind.
Kiku watched as Alfred let out a small gasp.
"What if.." He mumbled during his train of thought. He darted his eyes to his left, now fully realising that he had company. He cleared his throat. "What if..I go and get another beer?" he forced a grin at Kiku, who raised his eyebrow. "Uhh..do you want me..to get you one?" he nervously laughed as Kiku shook his head. "Okay,BRB." Alfred shot up and speed walked over to the kitchen.
He let out another sigh. He wouldn't be able to concentrate on his thoughts as long as he was at this party, but maybe that was a good thing - after all he did love to party. He clenched his fist and grinned to himself. A little spin the bottle, dancing and beer and Alfred was sure to forget his worries.
His theory didn't work as well as he thought it was going to. Alfred continued playing spin the bottle but became reluctant to kiss anyone, so he eventually just sat on the sofa and watched TV. Gilbert was not pleased and told him to go home if he wanted to do that. So he did.
Alfred glanced at the time on his phone. It wasn't even late, everyone would probably still be at Gilbert's house. 'Except Artie and Matt'. Alfred felt his tummy flip as his mind wandered onto the topic of his two crushes. He began to feel guilty as he remembered a theory he had come up with earlier at Gilbert's party. 'What if Arthur saw me kiss Matthew...what if he's mad because I forced Matthew to cheat on him?'
Alfred grew nervous just at the thought, he got off of his sofa and began pacing around his living room. This was bad. The last time he had made Arthur really mad he cursed him. Of course Alfred didn't believe in curses and witch craft at first, but that was before all of the bad things started happening to him. Alfred shivered 'No! I refuse to go through that again!'.
Alfred glanced at his mobile phone which rested on the arm of his sofa. He slowly walked over to it, and snatched it up. He dialled Arthur's number and called him. Alfred bounced up and down on his heels mumbling 'pick up, pick up!'.
"Hello?" He heard that familiar crisp British accent come from the other line.
"Hey, Artie- uh Arthur. My good companion...I..Uhh-"
"Spit it out. What do you want?" Alfred sighed as he heard the, all too common, bitterness in his voice.
"I...I need to talk to you."
"Again? Now I'm beginning to think that you're obsessed with me." Alfred heard Arthur snigger. He nervously laughed along but stopped as he began to wonder if he actually had become obsessed with his classmate.
"Well..I just, I really need to ask you something." Arthur sighed. "It's important, and you'll be lifting a weight off of my shoulders if you-"
"Out with it then." Arthur sounded impatient.
"Okay so...uhh..." Alfred scuffed his trainers on the floor.
"Well?"
"Well.." he continued his nervous laughter as he scratched the back of his neck with his free hand. "It feels kinda weird talking over the phone.." Alfred was sure that Arthur would have rolled his eyes if he could see his face.
"Are you implying that we should meet up?"
"Sure..if you want to, I mean." he felt nervous, it felt as if he was actually asking Arthur out on a date.
"By the lack of booming pop music, I'm guessing you left the party. Strange, it's a little early isn't it?" Alfred couldn't help but notice a hint of playfulness in his voice.
"Yeah, it was getting boring without you." he knew that his choice of words sounded dodgy, but he was curious as to how Arthur would react. He grinned as the phone went silent, he imagined the Brit's cheeks growing bright red at his comment. Arthur cleared his throat as he regained his professional demeanour.
"Well, as much as I'd love to come all the way to your house to have you ask me a question, I think I'll pass." Alfred frowned at his sarcasm, even though he had been expecting that answer.
"Haha yeah..It was a stupid suggestion. Plus, it is late-ish." Alfred made his way over to his sofa and sat down. "You and Mattie ought to be getting to bed, right?" he relaxed his eyes shut and smirked as the phone went silent again.
"Actually, Matthew is already asleep. He is curled up against me as we speak." Alfred froze, his eyes springing open. "Adorable, isn't he?" Alfred almost heard Arthur smirking through the phone, he bit his lip. 'Oh shit, oh shit! He knows!'
"I guess so." Alfred tried to speak as confidently as possible. He paused as he decided to choose his next words carefully. "You're cuter though." He heard the tiniest gasp through the phone. He figured, since Arthur was already going to wreck his shit after seeing what happened in the guest room, he might as well tease him a bit. Arthur chuckled after a moment, but it sounded fake. He heard his classmate sip what he guessed was a cup of tea.
"Flattery will get you nowhere, Alfred. What exactly is it that you want from me?"
'A cuddle, a kiss. No, just your company would do me fine.'
"S-E-X." Alfred seductively whispered into the phone.
Those letters, he presumed, had caused Arthur to do a kind of spit-take as the only answer he received was a load of coughing and spluttering.
"P-Pardon?" Arthur spoke in a loud whisper, his voice wavering.
Alfred hung up. He tossed his phone onto the sofa and led down beside it. He chuckled. Now at least he wouldn't be the only one with something on his mind.