"Tonight there is a situation, tonight it's the end of the world. It's the end of the world. It's the end of tonight."
Alfred's touch was headier than he remembered.
Hands sliding deftly over his skin, lips trailing along just behind them. His clothes had been carelessly tossed off on the way to the cluttered bedroom, and Alfred's weren't far behind. He'd forgotten the soft glow of Alfred's skin, the spark in those dark blue eyes as they hovered above him. The feel of that damnably intoxicating kiss.
The small rustling sound of the sheets rumpling about their bodies, accompanied only by the faint sound of echoing sighs and the other markers of such a night filled the room. They hadn't even bothered to close the door behind them. A rushing sort of patience. Taunting, teasing. The slow buildup of passion followed by the rushing free fall of gratification. All of it was so much more than he remembered. And to think that he had locked it so greedily in the vault of his memory.
He silently prayed that this night would never end.
And it didn't for a long time. There was only one pause in between the beginning and the slow, rosy light of sunrise. Which just so happened to be for a quick bout of dinner in bed and more than a couple large glasses of water. Not to mention a few lazy smiles and casually knowing glances. It was a nothing less than the sweetest perfection. Like the first juicy bite into a ripe strawberry; a delicate temptation that only promised more.
There was more. Always more. At least, until the two men fell in an exhausted heap on the large, rumpled bed, drifting off to sleep with identical smiles on their faces. It was very nearly noon by the time either man began to stir. It was Alfred, a satisfied smirk sweeping across his features when his bleary eyes alighted upon the sleeping Englishman whose head lay upon his chest and had an arm carelessly thrown about him.
That was not something he had expected to see. But, he wasn't about to complain really. It was a handsome sight. Dull gold hair catching the sunlight filtering through his blinds, that little light also dancing down the upper part of his torso.
It was a shame to get out of bed.
He carefully shimmied away from the still sleeping Arthur, making his way over to his dresser and tossing on a fresh pair of boxers. (They were his absolute favorite, mostly because they had the McDonald's logo right on the front.) Tossing another quick glance towards his handsome guest, he made his way to the restroom to relieve his bladder and brush his teeth. When he caught sight of himself in the mirror, he was pleasantly surprised by the smile that kept sneaking across his face.
Even as he slipped his glasses up the slender bridge of his nose, he figured he could wear them safely around Arthur,that smile remained in place. They didn't make him look too terrible after all.
In any case, he was on the top of the world as he began to pick up the scattered pieces of his and Arthur's clothing. And as he grabbed the nice fitting pants the man had been wearing, something fell out of the pocket and skittered across the living room floor.
It was a small silver pocket watch.
With a rueful grin set firmly in place, Alfred leaned over and picked up the lovely trinket. He held it in the palm of his hand for a moment, and as he did, a curious expression crossed his mien. It was almost a familiar piece, like a rush of deja vu. There were nice vines that wound about the face of the clock, which was slightly cracked. A small, infinitesimal thing really. And yet, there was no steady tick, it was a dead piece.
Strange that a man would carry a broken watch.
A small rush of nausea washed over him as he continued to study it. A finger idly tracing over the vines, smooth, well-worn as if the watch had been handled by a hundred hands before his own. That, or the same pair of hands lovingly washing over it in a habitual gesture. Which was what he classified it as. It had to be an important thing for Arthur to carry it around so compulsively. So it was the Alfred finished picking up the other articles of clothing before bringing them back to his room where Arthur was just beginning to stir.
"Morning there sunshine." He chuckled this as he watched the sleep tousled Englishman stretch, hands already combing though his tangled hair. He grumbled something under his breath that Alfred couldn't quite catch, not that it mattered either way. This was a truly captivating picture after all. "And according to your watch, it's nearly half past eleven."
Apparently those were the wrong words.
Arthur immediately sat bolt upright, clover eyes wide and frantic in an expression he hadn't expected to see this morning. It was the look of a man having the final damning piece of evidence that indicated him for murder thrust before him in an interview room. A look that he knew all too well. A look that seemed inexplicable in the given circumstances. Obviously there was more to the simple watch that he held in his hand than he had originally deduced.
"It's working?" There was a strange tremor in his sleepily accented tenor.
"No...Was it originally? Did I break it? If so, I'm really sorry. I could probably fix it for you." The words escaped his throat of their own volition. But he did really hope that he hadn't broken the trinket, especially if it really was all that important to Artur. For some reason, the man's opinion mattered more to him than he had thought to let it. Strange that he should find himself becoming so easily attached to a relative stranger.
He was surprised by the sudden peal of nervously relieved laughter.
"No...That's why I was surprised."
"Had me scared for a minute. You'd best get it from me just in case though."
Arthur didn't know how to explain that he did not want that thing back. Maybe, if he never looked at it again it'd just go away. He wouldn't be ripped out of this time only to be flopped down somewhere else. Didn't want to go back to the dismal reality that he had left behind. He didn't have much of a choice though when the watch came flying at his head at a hundred miles an hour.
He was barely able to deflect what would surely have been a deadly blow. Could already have imagined the obituary on that one. "Young British Man Mysteriously Dies Naked in Bed After Being Hit in the Head With A Magical Time Traveling Pocket Watch". It would have been a shame if ever there were one.
"Don't give a man much warning do you Al?" Arthur grumbled this as he anxiously looked down at the all too familiar clock face, his vision blurring for just a moment as he did so. As a result he quickly turned the face upside down and looked up and away from it, not caring if his behavior seemed odd.
If Alfred noticed, he didn't say much of anything to show concern.
"Just gotta be on your toes old man." He winked then, before diving headfirst onto the bed and right into Arthur's lap, arms automatically wrapping about his waist.
"I am not old!"
"Really? I think I see some gray hair up there!"
Arthur probably would have been able to feign nonchalance if he hadn't anxiously started pulling at his hair to see if that were the case. Sometimes he really was too insecure.
"You liar."
He was answered with a playful kiss to his lower stomach followed by a grumbling laugh.
"Wouldn't dream of lying to you Arty." At this the Englishman quirked an eyebrow, thoughts already diverting themselves from the watch and to other things. Like the fact that he had spent several hours of his night having the best sex of his life with a man that was now lazily lounging in his lap.
Not to mention the fact that he was still naked.
"Ehem," It was perhaps without too much tact that the now...aggravated man cleared his throat. "I should probably be hopping in the shower though, if that's alright with you." He really did lack any sense of casual bedside manner, probably do to the fact the only "morning afters" he'd ever had were with that devil of a boyfriend he earned was a mischievous smirk by the man in his lap, blue eyes seeming brighter even with the filtered sunlight.
"Only if you let me follow you in there." Arthur began to open his mouth to protest, but then thought better of it. Only live once after all, and if there was anyone he could stand to...shower with, it'd be the one now teasing him about it. So it was, with perhaps a bit of chagrin, that the normally proud Englishman grinned just about ear to ear as way of accepting that offer.
His worries could wait a little longer.
*****xxxx*****
It was roughly an hour later, when the water began to run cold that Alfred left his new lover in the water to finish cleaning himself off. He combed his hands through his now soaking wet hair as he made his way back into his room to get dressed for the day. Unfortunately, he didn't have too much longer to goof around with Arthur, he had to report for duty at precisely three p.m.
And it was now a quarter past one.
Time well used if he did say so himself. After toweling off he shimmied into a fresh pair of the dark blue pants that helped make up his work uniform, forgoing the shirt for a little while so that he could fix his very rumpled bed. Now normally he would be quite content to leave it in a haphazard heap until he unceremoniously fell into it after his shift at work, but now was the time to make a semi-decent impression on Arthur.
Mainly he just wanted to seem like a halfway tidy man.
Only, the moment he snapped off the comforter, a tiny little trinket went flying across the room before thumping softly onto the floor. Arthur had left that watch on his bed, which was really almost funny considering how important it had seemed. In any case, Alfred sighed, dropping the blanket onto the floor so he could pad over to the watch and stick it in his pocket before it was inadvertently harmed any further.
It was oddly warm to the touch. Strange for the mere fact that earlier it had felt so cool as untouched silver often does, he flipped it over in his hands, carefully studying it once more. Maybe there was just something special about this thing that he hadn't worked out just yet.
But he figured he had enough time to waste a couple minutes looking it over.
Funny thing was, the more he looked at it, his head began to hurt. Like the most hellatious migraine he could imagine slowly crowding in on him. He ran his hands over the interesting vine work, fingers memorizing every dip and every minute detail of the intricately carved leaves; his eyes studied the second hand that upon closer inspection seemed like it was trying to move but was caught on something.
What that something was, he had no clue.
And it was difficult to concentrate when he could feel his skull pound along with his heartbeat, his vision blurring just a bit as it did. When he began to feel nauseous he decided to set the watch away from him. It was hardly an instant later that his head began to clear. Now that was a strange observation.
So he picked it up once more.
And as soon as it was in his hand, he began to feel sick once more. Now that was really strange. No time to ponder just what caused it though, not when Arthur casually sauntered into his room with nothing but a dark green towel wrapped about his waist.
"Do you think you have any clothes that would fit-" The Englishman didn't bother to finish that request, not when he noticed what Alfred was holding. Couldn't help that his eyes widened and all of the blood drained from his face so that he was nearly a sickly pale shade. "Could you toss that here Al?" He couldn't even keep the tell-tale tremor out of his voice.
Alfred wasn't so dumb as to not notice any of this. And he wasn't so dumb as to toss the trinket to the nervous man. Instead, he clutched it tightly in his fist and narrowed his eyes at Arthur.
"There's something weird about this watch, isn't there? Something you're not telling me..."
"It's just a normal watch Al, seriously." There was something in Arthur's tone that made him think about it a little harder. Recall the day that had brought them together...Remembered part of what had caused the distraction was that one of the robbers had taken something...Something small and shockingly silver.
A small piece of the puzzle clicked itself into place.
"No, it's not." His voice was surprisingly level, the tone he normally only used when he was at work. "There's something about it you're not telling me Arthur. I saw the way it affected you when it was taken during the robbery. Remember that?"
So far Arthur had gotten away with saying that he was too traumatized over the events of their meeting to talk about it, in fact, he'd insisted that Alfred not bring it up when they were together. Which, at the time, had made plenty of logical sense. It'd been a stressful situation after all. But there was something about this entire scenario they were currently entangled in that just didn't sit right with him.
"It's just an old family heirloom..."
"You're lying."
"I am not!"
"Arthur, I am a cop, I can tell when someone is lying to me. Like you're doing right now. And unless you tell me what's so damn important about this watch, you're not going to get it back." Arthur's brows drew together at that, his shoulders straightening as his demeanor changed to one of more incredulous agitation.
"Fine, you want to know what it is so badly?" There was a harsh snapping note in the older man's voice that he hadn't expected to hear. Just the slightest hint of hysteria intermingling with frustration. "It was a gift from a dying man. The most important man in my life, and he died giving this to me. And it was all my fault that he got there in the first place, I couldn't even offer him any solace in the end. I couldn't even tell him just how much I loved him! He died because of me! So, this is all I have left of him okay?"
Alfred's hold on the watch loosened as he watched Arthur. A few tears had crept out of his bright green eyes, his fists bunching at his side as he looked up at him. A lump formed in the back of his throat, he was at a loss for words. It wasn't what he'd expected by any means. Even if he hadn't expected anything at all.
He should have known there was someone else. Someone before him that had left a permanent mark on Arthur's life. It would be foolish for him to think otherwise. Kind of funny how he'd hoped that he could be that special person. He hardly knew the man after all, had only met him under the most extreme circumstances.
What a grand fool he was!
"Fine, I understand." How he wished he could keep that harsh tone out of his voice. "Here." It was perhaps a tad too harshly that he tossed it at Arthur's feet, but he didn't really care. He turned his back, going over to pick up the comforter he'd abandoned, something to focus on other than the lump in his throat that made him want to cry.
But he wouldn't do it. He steadfastly refused.
It was that stubborn pride that blinded him to Arthur's actions. The hesitant movements of picking up the discarded watch, his hands shaking as he did so, the tears in his clover eyes only multiplying with the passing seconds of silence. He didn't notice the pain this seemed to cause, how he began to shake more, and he didn't notice the way his body began to fade.
At least, not until it was too late.
"The King Court's bar; London. December the eighteenth. Find me there Alfred."
"What are you-" He turned to answer that tremulous tenor voice, his eyes widening as he watched Arthur continue to fade away. Just barely able to make out that handsome face that he had already memorized to the tiniest detail. "How am I...Arthur?"
"Just find me Alfred, I'll be waiting."
It was a miracle that he was able to make out the older man's voice by then. It was fuzzy, as if filtered through a radio not quite tuned to the right frequency. He was completely and utterly frozen to his spot as the man that he'd only just been conversing with faded into oblivion as if he had never even been there in the first place.
Even in the chaotic maelstrom of his thoughts he was able to pick out one thing. Regardless of whatever obstacles he came up against, he would find a way to make it to England. London to be precise. Thankfully he still had a few months until December.
Because, as improbable as this whole thing was, he had a date to keep.
And he had every intention of doing just that.
He was going to save Arthur Kirkland.