Chapter 10

Alfred wound up falling asleep first. Wait, he remembered? He threw off his blankets before his eyes were even fully open and stumbled away from his bed. His side was still a bit sore, but he could stand on his own two feet. He was in his bedroom, but didn't remember how he got there from the couch.

He was outside. It was downpouring. A car came. He was lucky. Arthur saved him. Good, he remembered everything. That meant Arthur didn't suspect anything from Alfred and Matthew's new revelations, and didn't zap their heads again while they were sleeping!

It was very early; the sun was about to come up. Alfred had to get ready for school. He slouched his shoulders as he looked out his window, into the back yard, and broke into a long yawn. He'd have to deal with teachers cramming mountains of homework down his throat to make up for lost time despite being in a horrible accident, and all those people would be wondering where he was and what happened...

Alfred shrugged, and decided he finally had to get ready. Maybe, he could talk real stuff again with his brother between some classes, but definitely not in the morning. Since Matthew was going to work after school the next few days, that left very little time and energy to investigate these new, strange things they were uncovering.

Just in case they could be found by anybody like their Dad, or even Arthur, texting secrets was out of the picture, too. What if the government or somebody else got a hold of all that talk about angels?

Alfred had jeans on by then, so that was good progress. While frozen waffles were in the toaster, he peeked out into the hall and gazed out the rear door. He squinted at the thin blanket of snow on the ground. That meant it was cold and frosty, and it was bad enough that he had to walk to school in it, so peeking in the shed would have to wait for some other time.

Then again, it could have something to do with how Matthew got his memory of Arthur back. Maybe Arthur left something in there, too. Alfred jumped when the toaster popped from the other room, and hurried to get his waffles.

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

"Alfred, my man!"

"Al! We thought you like, died!"

"Where have you been?"

"You missed the funniest thing the other day..."

First period. Alfred was expecting something from his school buddies, but the crowd bunching around him as soon as he walked in his first classroom door was something else. Even the teacher's gaze lingered on him as the students threw all these kinds of questions at him. Then it dawned on Al; this was their excitement, like the one he found when he discovered the angels.

But Alfred wouldn't talk about the angels. That was his thing...aside from the fact that one of those said angels would smite his brains from one wall of the room to the other if he did talk about them.

Alfred started, "I totally almost died!"

The group around him gasped.

"You did?!"

"What happened?"

Alfred asked, "What did you guys hear?"

That got some weird looks. "Your brother said you were in the hospital."

"The Internet was saying everybody got out alive, so yay?"

"Yeah!" Alfred agreed, "Yay. I just got a cracked rib or two. I, uh, fell and hurt myself trying to get away."

"Pfft," one of the guys smacked his arm. "Really, dude? You fell?"

"Yep!"

The hoard started to make its away across the room, spreading to the desks as the kids plunked down while the morning announcements started their noisy cue music. One of the girls said, "Some people were saying you were a pancake."

Another gave Alfred's arm a squeeze as the group disbanded. "At least you're okay now, right, Alfie?"

"Of course!" Alfred let out a typical peel of laughter as their eyes lingered on him. "It's going to take more than a lousy driver to pin me down!"

The teacher made his way to the front of the room, and smacked his little podium he liked to leaned against to watch his class. "All right, settle. I almost forgot how noisy it was to have you, Bonnefoy, but it's good that you're breathing. Meet me after class to catch up on lost work. In the meantime..."

As the teacher babbled about whatever they did yesterday, Alfred shuffled against his seat when his classmates finally turned their attention away from him. Some of them were slumped over their desks, others digging for pencils. Schedules, quizzes, plans, but in a strict, structured way. It was too nuance. He didn't want it. Not anymore. It was only first period.

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

A few more hours crawled by, not yet lunch, but almost there. Alfred's stomach gurgled loud enough for anyone within three seats of his math class to hear and giggle about it. The 'What Happened to You?!' conversation happened like, twenty times now. Alfred missed his friends, but it was starting to seem like they were just piecing together gossip, and quickly fell to their own private conversations after he reenacted his accident. The whole school, even the ninth graders and janitors heard about it, and probably wanted to catch anything left behind.

Not that they would get it.

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

After all that time recuperating and being able to eat whenever he could, Alfred's stomach was ready to bust free and try it on its own from fidgeting all morning with whatever meager breakfast he ate. At last, it was time to eat again, and the café was just down the obnoxiously long corridor...with all those students in the way...walking as slow as possible. Alfred weaved side-to-side, trying to look over their heads at the hold up.

Turns out, there was no hold up. They were just slow. They should be fast, nearly sprinting to get food and a break from all those lectures, not taking their sweetest time to get there. Oh, no, it wasn't like Alfred's hunger and sanity were on the lunch line. His brother was probably already in there. He was going to sit with him and nobody else so they could talk nitty-gritty about all the who's, when's, where's, and possible why's of everything and anything supernatural. It was going to be great and very informing, and the waiting was only made worse with these damn walls of people-

Somebody hooked their arm around Alfred's, jostling him out of his vacant gaze toward the end of the hall. "The longer you wait for something, the greater the prize feels. At least for the patient, that is."

Alfred's brain buffered from the soft glowing in the middle of the sea of students. "Huh, what? What are you...Arthur?!"

"Hush!" Arthur squeezed his arm as a couple of teens glanced over. Their attention quickly went somewhere else, appearing unfazed by his halo, but they were not really seeing it in the first place.

Alfred craned his head down to hiss, "What are you doing here?! This is my school! You can't just walk in like some creeper!"

"I didn't just walk in like some creeper. I went through the front doors like everyone else."

"Ohmygod. Why?!"

"I have been for a couple of years now. You do know I'm an aid to the special education teacher, correct?" Arthur shook his head. "Guess not. Anyway, you're the only charge of mine that is not bound to a wheelchair, a walker, their couch, or a hospital bed. I tend to keep close to the elderly or very young. Look what mess I get into otherwise. Now I have to go out of my way to make sure you're not getting into trouble, as you have a knack for doing."

"Uh..."

"Oh, sorry," Arthur didn't sound sorry, whatever he was blabbering about. "I mean getting into trouble Heavenly-wise. I could not care less if you landed yourself in detention or anything of the sort." Alfred scrunched up his face as some of his classmates passed with excited waves and coos, but cut off to ogle at the pair connected by the arms. "Actually," this guy kept going, "that might be a good thing, to detain you in one place."

"Dude," Alfred laughed at him, "how much caffeine did you have in your tea this morning?"

Arthur scowled and went quiet.

Another student whooped, and almost smacked Alfred in the face as he held out his hand. Alfred smacked their palms together. "Yo, Al," his pal said, "tonight, your place, we'll catch up, all right?"

"Uh, sure, yeah! Bring the girls!" Alfred cussed under his breath as they went separate ways. First Arthur at lunch, now his friends corralling at his house? There was no time to trade secrets with Matthew!

"Oh, plans later?" Arthur broke him out of his plotting.

"Yep! Hanging out with the crew, apparently."

"Sounds like they're storming the gates with or without you."

Alfred let out a little laugh. "Yeah, seems like it." He kept quiet for a moment. Then, he blurted, "Want to stop by, too?" As soon as it was out of his mouth, he kind of regretted it. The Big Grump, all around his school buddies? Talk about awkward.

Arthur snipped right away, "I don't know. I have important things to do."

"Yeah, being a guardian ang-" A sharp pain seized Alfred's calf and he stumbled forward, but caught himself before he could collide with the people in front of him.

Arthur pulled him back, and with some serious side-eye, "It's not pleasant to hurt you, Alfred."

Alfred didn't even know he could do that. "Well, uh, then don't do it?"

"Don't be an idiot," Arthur easily shot back. He rubbed his thumb in circles against Alfred's bicep, as if that made things better. If sort of did. "Since you asked, I suppose I'll look into what I'm doing later."

"Thanks," Alfred said dryly.

Finally, freaking finally, they stepped into the lunch room, and the scent of all kinds of stuff and food wafted in their faces, making Alfred's stomach and patience weak. First, they'd have to claim a table. There were usually tables in the back, unofficially reserved for the seniors because they went through four years of Hell and deserved to get good window seats.

Alfred tried to keep his face straight, like there wasn't another guy on his arm, let alone a non-student, as a group of girls huddled by them, giggling and whispering. Arthur chose a damn good time to sneak around, blending into the hoard of kids shuffling around instead of popping into a class room, per say. Al was in such a nice, jubilant mood that he even pushed a chair out for him, eager to drop the bitter grunt and hurry to the kitchen mosh pit get his food.

The lunch lady didn't even turn an eye when Alfred checked out two lunch trays. Guess his black pit of a stomach saved the day. When he came back to their table, Arthur leaned back as food set in front of him, but stared at everything with a blank expression. "Ah, thanks."

"Yeah, sure!" Alfred tried a bit too hard to sound cheerful. He fell into the seat next to him and began chowing down on his lunch. It was hard to be grouchy with food in his mouth anyway. After making out with his grilled cheese sandwich, he noticed Arthur only picked at his tots with a fork instead of eating anything. "Come on, dude, I bought you lunch. It'd be good manners to eat it, wouldn't it?"

Arthur glared from the corner of his eye before popping a tater tot in his mouth.

"Are you staying long?" Alfred asked.

Arthur shook his head.

"Until lunch is over?"

"Yes."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes! Why all the questions, Alfred?!"

"You seem really pissy. Like, more so than usual." Alfred smiled and nudged his arm, but Arthur ate another tot like a robot executing a command. So, he grabbed Arthur's side to make him yelp.

"Alfred!"

"Hey!"

"Ugh," Arthur crinkled his nose and put his fork down before pushing his tray into Alfred's. "Eat this. I can't. To call it food is an insult."

"Like your chili?"

Crap, maybe Alfred shouldn't have said that. Arthur flushed red, but just sat there, probably unable to come up with anything with his brain so steamed. Alfred quickly snatched the tater tots from his tray, stuffed them in his cheeks, and leaned over to cross his eyes and try to coo with his mouth full of potato.

Arthur shut his eyes and turned his head away.

"Hmph!" Alfred roughly gulped his grub to nudge him again. "Come on, Artie, what's up?"

"Heaven."

"That's so tacky." Still, Alfred smiled as he carefully rested his head on Arthur's bony shoulder.

Arthur quickly shrugged him off. "Don't do that."

"Don't do that." Alfred pinched his side again. "Grumpy old man."

Arthur's hands balled into fists against his lap. "Alfred, stop it."

"Stop it. Old man."

"Stop calling me an old man!" It was actually impressive how pink Arthur could get. "I'm not that old."

Alfred shrugged and turned his gaze to the ceiling like he was bored. "Well, if you dress like an old man, and act like an old man, how am I supposed to know better?" Before Arthur could say anything, he pressed against his side and pinched his waist, making him jump. "What's that?!"

"Alfred!" Arthur actually snorted as he tried to not react and pried Alfred away. "I'm going to zap your brain!"

"Nuh-uh!"

A hand reached for his face. Alfred gasped and jerked away. He looked up when he caught a new presence standing in front of the table, and the both of them straightened, uneasily smiling at Matthew making weird faces at them.

"Um..."

Alfred smacked the table. "Sit down, bro!"

"Yeah..." Matthew dropped his tray and binders on the table before falling into his seat with a big sigh.

"What's up?" Alfred tried to make small talk pass the funky expression Matthew was making. "Got a lot of homework so far?"

Matthew glanced over his shoulder before digging into his lunch. "Of course I did."

Alfred swept the lunch room and didn't see anything wacky besides one of the lunch monitors picking his nose. Matthew took in a few tots before pushing his tray from himself. Everybody was wasting their food today.

"Are you going to eat your grilled cheese?"

"You can have it."

Of course he could. Alfred grabbed his gold and devoured it before doing the same for the rest of his own lunch. With two sandwiches in hand, he sure was a happy camper.

It was kind of chilly in the cafeteria, though. A cold itch ran across his skin as he almost brushed arms with a glowing Arthur. He glanced to his other unoccupied side, but nothing weird there, either. At least nobody was picking their nose, but there was some guy sitting at a big table against the windows, all by himself, and looking sad about it.

Arthur asked, "Are you not hungry, Matthew?"

Alfred looked to his lunch mates. Matthew spared a mere glance to his abandoned tray. "The school's food is..."

"Not the best." Both nodded and smiled at one another. Arthur said, "I can make you something to eat in school, so you won't be hungry until you come home again."

Alfred pulled a face as Matthew suddenly looked very afraid. Arthur didn't offer him any breakfast! Hm, maybe after that chili-fiasco, that was a good thing. Yes, Al decided, that was a good thing.

Matthew sputtered, "N-no! That's okay, you don't have to."

"That's rubbish. Try to eat something. I know it's unpleasant, but an empty stomach is more so."

Alfred put the back of his hand over his mouth so he wouldn't spit his cud all over the place from laughing at Matthew's obvious blight. He glanced over to his other side again, and that guy was staring at them. Maybe he was spacing off. Al waved. The guy smiled.

"Uh, dudes," Alfred turned back to his buddies, "there's been some creepy guy over there that keeps staring at us. Don't look when he's looking!"

Of course Arthur and Matthew looked. Alfred shook his head, and the creeper-staring guy lifted an arm and copied Alfred's gesture. To him? Matthew quickly turned his head away.

"Bro?" Alfred asked. He went to Arthur, "Hey."

Arthur had not looked away from investigating that staring dude, like, they locked eyes or something. Alfred leaned forward and swished a hand in his face. "Arthur!"

"Goodness!" Arthur shuddered, and his mini-staring contest flipped to a default scowl. "What?"

"Uh, you were kind of spacing off."

"Was I?" Arthur took a tater tot from Alfred's tray.

"Yeah," Alfred scoffed, and gobbled up the rest of his tots, then there was nothing left to eat.

"Right," Arthur put all the trash on one tray before stacking them together. "I'll get rid of this."

"Cool!" Alfred waited a moment with held breath as Arthur fumbled with his seat, and walked to the trash cans in the middle of the room. "Psst! Mattie!"

Matthew was looking to the creepy-staring guy again, and he pulled one of those awkward smiles like he didn't know what else to do. Alfred waved his hands in urgency. "Great, now you're the one spacing out!"

His brother slowly turned his face forward, blinking stupidly. "Huh? What?"

"Okay," Arthur just reached the bins and glanced around. One of the monitors pointed to a cart that had a pile of trays on it. "Mattie, I'm not going to have a lot of time to say this, but something freaky is going on."

"You think?"

Arthur swiped his hands on his slacks and curtly nodded to the nose-picking lunch monitor before coming back again. Alfred's legs bounced as he whispered over the table, "I don't think anybody else can see that glowing Arthur does. They would have said something."

"So, it's only us?"

"And Artie himself." Alfred rolled his eyes, "I mean, come on, you'd notice if you were glowing, too, right?" He shook his head. Arthur stopped to let a group of students stomp their way to the bins, and he glared. One of the groupies looked over his shoulder, and elbowed a buddy to laugh behind his back.

Alfred could hear the panic building in his voice, "That's not it. Of course he's aware. They all do it."

Matthew steadily stared at him. "Who all does it?"

"Mattie, I'm sure I'm not even supposed to know about it, let alone tell anybody, but you...eek!" Arthur was too close. Alfred settled back into his seat and did a little wiggle as his friend returned to his chair. "So? What are your plans tonight?"

Arthur pulled a sour face. "I need to run a few errands. Then I'll be over."

"Awesome." Alfred grinned, and nodded to Matthew, who just appeared slightly confused over everything. "Oh, Mattie, we all should...wait, you're working tonight, aren't you?"

"Yeah, sorry to be a poor sport."

"Poor sport."

Arthur kept quiet as he stared at that guy again.