Oh God, I'm dead exhausted and it's only six in the evening (I say six in the evening because that is when I first typed this sentence). TT^TT I feel old. So bleh—managed to find some time to update tonight :) That makes me happy. Oh and you get to learn quite a bit about Alfred's uh…relationship past? Something like that ;) So enjoy ;)
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"That's him," Yao pointed a finger at a rather large young man with short silver hair sitting at a table far from theirs. "The big guy with the silver hair," he continued, Arthur nodding his head, already having the feeling that the big guy was Ivan Braginsky.
"Okay, I'll go talk to him for you," Arthur offered, backing away from the table before being stopped by the Chinese pilot who looked nervous. "What's up?"
"U-uh, I don't think that's such a great idea…" he muttered. Arthur shook Yao's hand off and crossed his arms, cocking an eyebrow in a wordless gesture that asked why Yao thought it wasn't a great idea. "He's kinda…scary and tricky to talk with…" he explained. "Here, let's just keep eating lunch, lunchtime's almost over anyways," he shook his head vigorously and tried to convince Arthur to return to his meal.
"Nuh-uh, I'm going over there," Arthur insisted, shaking his own head. "Just sitting there isn't the best idea," and he wheeled himself calmly over to the far table. Yao watched Arthur get further away from them before turning his attention to David who was happily finishing his meal.
"Don't worry 'bout it Yao," he started after swallowing his food. "Arthur's tough," he continued with a soft grin. "Anyways, where's Alfred?"
"Uh…over there," Yao pointed to the American with a finger after looking around the lunchroom a bit. Alfred was currently sitting with Matthew and his hockey buddies, talking about likely the game he wanted to get working on with Matthew and Francis. Alfred was making a whole bunch of hand motions and Yao could tell he was talking about planes. David blinked and nodded.
"Why isn't he sitting with us?"
"I think he's working on that laser tag plane kind of thing that he was talking about yesterday during our flights," Yao answered. "Heard Matthew was really good with technology—that's probably why he's with him."
Arthur stopped a small distance from the table Ivan was sitting at and was immediately greeted by what he expected least.
"Hello, what brings you over here?" Ivan smiled in a friendly manner, waving a hand. Arthur cocked an eyebrow.
"Yao confronted me about you making him feel uncomfortable," Arthur started. "And I just came over to make sure you are or aren't doing such a thing," he continued bluntly. It was strange how the other's smile never faltered.
Ivan sat up straighter in his seat, looking a bit thoughtful. "Well then why didn't Yao come to me himself?" he asked smartly, still smiling down at Arthur.
"You're intimidating him with whatever you're doing," Arthur huffed. Hopefully Yao wasn't mistaken about this guy stalking him—if he was, then Arthur was in for some deep shit. This guy looked like he could beat even Alfred no sweat despite how much Arthur didn't want to admit that. "So could you stop whatever you're doing?"
"What's your name?" Ivan changed the subject much to Arthur's irritation, still smiling nonetheless! "I guess since Yao talks of me so much, I don't need to introduce myself, but I'd like for you to give me your name," he continued innocently. Arthur pressed his lips into a thin line, not exactly liking Ivan's attitude at all.
"I'm Arthur Kirkland," he answered reluctantly.
"Oh yeah! You're the guy that crashed his plane," Ivan's smiled cheerfully. Arthur felt his eye twitch, getting even more irritated with the guy—he didn't come here to talk about his crash. "You must be pretty stupid to go out and fly in such weather though."
"I wasn't thinking straight," he snapped, balling his hands into fists and wishing that he wasn't handicapped. It probably didn't look intimidating at all.
"It still was stupid," Ivan smiled, shrugging his shoulders while he was at it. Arthur huffed, raking a hand through his hair, thinking over what he'd say next. He really wanted to beat this guy's skull in, but then again, Ivan looked like he'd snap Alfred in half like a twig.
"Look, I didn't come here to talk about my crash," he started, shaking his head. "I'm just here to make sure you're not doing anything to Yao excessive," he continued, looking the other straight in the eye. He found that the other had unnaturally purple eyes kind of like Matthew's, though his were more on the dark blue side. Ivan's were pure purple and that got Arthur thinking.
Ivan shrugged his shoulders, still smiling. "I'm just watching him, no harm done."
Arthur sighed in relief. He now didn't have to deal with this guy much longer. "Okay, I'm just making sure," he waved a hand in the air. "Just don't do it anymore okay?" he continued, turning the wheelchair so he could go back to the, what Yao dubbed, the Pilot's Table.
"Not do it anymore? You can't tell me what to do," Ivan remarked and Arthur stopped to glare at Ivan from over his shoulder, but was thrown off at the smile that remained on the Russian's face. It was starting to creep him out and began to understand why Yao was so uncomfortable about the topic of Ivan.
"Ivan, what the hell are you doing?" Arthur turned his head once more to find Alfred standing in front of him, staring stonily at Ivan. Arthur was about to ask Alfred if he knew Ivan or not before the American brushed past him, approaching the taller. "Leave him alone."
"He approached me first," Ivan shrugged his shoulders, though his smile dissolved and was replaced with an extremely intimidating frown. Arthur gulp and figured that despite the creepy demeanor Ivan's smile would give him—he preferred it over this scary expression the other was pulling. "Why? Is he you're new 'pet'?"
"Oh shut up about that—I don't do that anymore," Alfred furrowed his eyebrows and Arthur turned the wheelchair so he didn't have to crane his neck. Was Ivan talking about how Alfred used to pick people up left and right before Arthur came along? Likely.
"Are you sure?"
"Hell yes I'm sure you bastard," Alfred snapped, stomping a foot on the ground before continuing. "Now just sit down and keep your mouth shut if you don't want to get your ass kicked."
Ivan though, didn't do as he was told. "You? Beating me? Why does that though feel inaccurate?" Ivan questioned mockingly, placing a finger on his chin. "Well, I'm taller and stronger than you, that's why."
"Shut up."
"Why not test it out right now?" Ivan let his hand fall to his side, a toothy grin that was meant to be threatening stretching his lips. Arthur felt his heart skip a beat at the thought of these two fighting—they were both pretty impressive in the strength factor from what Arthur could observe and Alfred was really stubborn. If Ivan ended up getting the upper hand, the American would obviously be too stubborn to give up and would drag the fight on. There would be blood too. Lots of it.
"A-Alfred, let's just go back…" Arthur urged, though his voice came out quieter than he wished. Within the time that it took for Arthur to blink, Alfred had sprung forward and thrown a fist at the other's face only to have it blocked easily. The two obviously had a huge tension in between them, for if they didn't, this fight wouldn't have started. "Alfred!"
Ivan had managed to strike quite a few blows to Alfred's face, the American's nose already bleeding after being hit once. People gathered and only cheered them on much to Arthur's dismay and he looked around, hoping that Matthew would come to his aid much like last time, or Yao, or David, or anybody! As long as they helped him stop the fight.
A few kids let out disgusted sounds when they got blood spattered on them, wiping at the stains with their sleeves before continuing to cheer them on, telling one or the other to 'murder' their opponent. "Out of my way! Move it! Excuse me—coming through!" Arthur was relieved to hear Matthew as he Canadian basically threw people to the side to get to the fight. "Alfred what the hell? Is that Ivan?" Matthew then bellowed once he made it to the scene.
"No time to talk Mattie!" Alfred answered as he dodged Ivan's fist only to get a knee to his stomach. His glasses fell off only to be smashed under Ivan's boot as the Russian stepped forward to follow up with another attack.
"What's going on?" Arthur looked up at Matthew.
"Alfred and Ivan—look it's a long story, let's just get this fight broken up," Matthew urged, stepping forward and taking a hit for Alfred, though managing to grab ahold of Ivan's hand.
"Ouch! Matthew, this is between this commie and I!" Alfred barked, though the fight was brought to a standstill now that Ivan had one of his hands stuck in Matthew's death grip and Alfred was a few paces away from them. "C'mon! Move!"
"Are you serious?" Matthew asked, voice cracking due to anger.
"What's going on?" Yao asked once he managed to shove his way to the center of the crowd. "Alfred? What the—Alfred?" his voice was disbelieving and Arthur swore he heard disappointment in the Chinese pilot's voice, but he could never be sure.
"Step back four eyes!" one of the spectators yelled angrily, his angry remark aimed at Matthew. Gritting his teeth, Matthew turned and was about to retort angrily when Ivan took the chance and literally flipped Matthew over. Alfred's cousin yelped in surprise, his glasses flying off as well before he was brought down on top of them. A few of their spectators cheered while some watched in horror, though not doing anything to help. Couldn't they tell that they should go get an officer or something?
"Hey! Don't do that to my cousin!" Alfred angrily ground out and charged at Ivan, the Russian looking up from his smug gaze on Matthew, fixing his eyes on Alfred.
"Alfred don't!"
Arthur didn't know who to blame. He really didn't want to blame Yao though for all of this. Yao was insecure about someone who was bothering him and voiced his insecurities. Arthur though, really wanted to blame himself for landing Alfred in the hospital. He insisted that he go confront Ivan and Alfred had taken it the wrong way when he was just about done with Ivan. But then again, if Matthew wouldn't have lost his temper with that spectator, they probably would've been able to hold it off until a police officer arrived and separated the three.
But he still concluded that it was his entire fault. He did the one thing that lead up to all of those events.
Arthur lifted his face from his hands. He was currently in the lobby of the hospital. God, he'd been here much too often—for Matthew, himself and now for Alfred. Yao was seated next to him, basically traumatized with how much blood that had been shed in that fight. He was probably blaming himself much like Arthur was while Matthew was being bandaged up by Francis back at Francis's dorm. Ludwig was probably helping too since Arthur knew the guy was good with medical stuff. "How do you feel?" he decided to ask Yao.
"Like a huge dick," Yao muttered. Arthur nodded his head, fussing a bit over Yao's choice in vocabulary, but then again, who was he to question? "How bad is he? Did they say something?"
Yao had arrived just recently, that was why he was asking. "I don't know—they're keeping their lips sealed," Arthur sighed, shaking his head. "But obviously this is my entire fault for going over to confront him in the first place," he continued with another sigh. "I've been here far too many times…"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm the guy the crashed his plane in that blizzard," he started. "Because I was angry and ended up in here for a while. I came here to visit Matthew every now and then too after the shootout since Matthew had been shot in the lung. I was shot too, but was released much earlier than him. Then Matthew suddenly picked up some lung problems," he shook his head. "Just…I'm tired of this place."
"Hm. I can tell," Yao muttered, smiling the best he could, though it was more of a grimacing smile than anything else. "I've never had to come to the hospital," Yao continued.
"I envy you," Arthur uttered under his breath. Yao remained silent after that.
[French Frog]
Finished patching up Matthew. What's up on your end?
[Angleterre]
Nothing so far.
[French Frog]
How unfortunate.
Arthur stared down at the screen of his phone before setting it in his lap. He looked up hopefully when a nurse approached the two, asking them if there were here for Alfred F. Jones. "Yup, that's us," Yao answered for Arthur whose throat had suddenly dried up in anticipation.
"Okay," she started. "Good news all around for you two," she smiled and both Yao and Arthur let out the breaths they didn't know they were holding. "He's just bruised and we haven't found a broken bone or anything serious that needs our attention."
"That's good," Arthur sighed. "May we visit him?"
"Yes you may."
They followed the nurse to the room that held a bandaged up Alfred who was lying on the hospital bed, grinning of all things up at the ceiling. "Okay, what's so funny?" Arthur asked, furrowing his eyebrows more in confusion than irritation. "What's with the smile?"
"Dude!" Alfred started, sitting up quickly, flinching at the bruises that spawned pain when he moved too harshly. "All we gotta do is land Francis in this hell hole!" his grin never faded and Arthur would've done what some called an 'anime fall' if gravity allowed it and if he weren't handicapped. So he simply settled with staring blankly at his overly optimistic boyfriend.
"Uh…why?"
"You and Mattie have been here, I just got myself in here—now all we need to do is torture Francis with a hospital bed!" Alfred refrained from dropping his grin.
"Do you seriously want to get your own friend in the hospital?" Arthur asked, his voice disbelieving.
"What? Well I can't really call him my friend can I?" Alfred furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side.
"Okay, okay, then how come you're not upset about uh…losing to Ivan?" Arthur then asked. Alfred seemed like the kind of guy that would get really upset over losing to his opponent. Instead, he had walked in on an optimistic Alfred. His brain had yet to catch up.
"What? Oh yeah, I'm mad as hell about that," something flashed in Alfred's eyes as he said that. "But I don't wanna bother with that right now," he continued, waving a hand in the air carelessly. Arthur nodded his head a bit numbly before wheeling himself closer to the side of the bed.
"So are you okay then?"
"Other than so sore that I'd prefer going through a meat grinder over this, I'm great," Alfred grinned and Arthur rolled his eyes. Yao approached the two awkwardly as seated himself next to Alfred's bedside.
"Uh…it's kinda my fault this all happened Alfred. Just so you know."
"Wait, how is it your fault?" Alfred asked, cocking his head to the side in confusion.
"Remember when I told you guys about Ivan before you left the hangar yesterday? I kinda set everything up unintentionally…"
"Oh hush Yao," Arthur shook his head, the other stopping to listen to the British pilot. "It was me who went over to confront him remember?" he brought up and Yao nodded his head, though didn't look thoroughly convinced.
"Oh come on guys, is this that 'No it's my fault' argument?" Alfred asked, furrowing his eyebrows. "Dudes, that's so cliché," he huffed, leaning back on the pillow that supported his back. Arthur and Yao both simply stared blankly at Alfred who peeked an eye open before sighing and losing the laid-back position, sitting up once more. "So what're we gonna do until I'm out?"
"When are you discharged by the way?"
"I heard the nurse say tomorrow morning—hey, are you two happy that it's Friday? I am," Alfred grinned. "No school tomorrow."
"Could you at least act like you're in a hospital bed instead of your room?" Arthur asked. Alfred simply grinned toothily at his boyfriend who rolled his eyes at the response. A thought then struck Arthur and he turned to Yao who looked at him curiously. "Could you leave? I kinda need to talk with Alfred," and with a nod of his head, Yao stood up and left the room.
"Alright," Arthur started, turning his attention to Alfred who was looking at him in a confused way, lacking his glasses. It made Alfred look older and more, oh what's the word? Something. It took Arthur a moment to realize that he had a question to ask. "Ugh! Okay Alfred, you and Ivan seemed to know each other, could you tell me if it's okay?"
Alfred tilted his head back and looked up at the ceiling, licking his lips and furrowing his eyebrows. "Ivan and I…kinda were in something. You know how I used to 'pick people up' and all that stuff?" he asked and Arthur nodded his head. "Okay, so then I didn't really pick him up, more like he picked me up…oh, but let's not forget that he dropped me," Alfred snorted.
"Wait, wait—you and Ivan were together at one point?"
"Um, sorta? I don't really know, it was a super awkward relationship and I was really confused and shit, he came right after I left some French girl," Alfred shook his head, waving a hand in the air as if it were no problem. The idea of Alfred being with someone French made Arthur mentally snicker nonetheless. Unfortunately, when it came to French, Francis had tainted his brain and that was now the only face he could pull up mentally when a French person was mentioned.
"Okay, so after we broke up the first time, he kinda came back with this little guy who was Toris, that's how I met him by the way—and since I really didn't have anyone and was uh…I don't want to say heartbroken, kinda…clung to him," he furrowed his eyebrows further at how he worded it before shaking his head. "I don't know how to explain it—it's complicated. It was an on-off kinda thing you know what I mean?"
"Yes, I know what you mean," Arthur nodded his head. He had an on-off relationship with Francis a while back and hopefully they were done for sure.
"It happened a few times too. We'd met, get together, break up, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat," Alfred sighed. "All I can say is that it really sucked and that I've come to really hate the guy."
"Well, how did you get to hate him?"
"He was the one who kept cutting our relationship not me!" Alfred pointed out, crossing his arms and huffing. "I mean, if I did that to you and didn't even have a care in the world about how you felt after doing so, wouldn't you hate me?"
"Yes, but that's not who you are so I don't have to worry about that now do I?" Arthur grabbed Alfred's one good hand, the other bruised.
"Well…I was giving an example okay?" he then shivered, grimacing a bit at what he was about to say. "The guy kept trying to get into my pants too—we were only thirteen when he started doing that!"
"Th-thirteen? Wait, how long has this been going on for?"
"Since we were twelve. The first time, he just said he was testing things and all of that bullshit," he grunted. "Left, came back in January, left, came back in July, which is when I turn thirteen, left, came back next January and tried to get in my pants then left when I turned him down rather epically."
"Jeez, you really are dense if you fell for it that many times…"
"Yeah, but I'm sure you'd be the same way if I did that wouldn't you? Like…it's a hoping against hope kind of thing."
"Alright," Arthur nodded his head with a sigh. "Anything else you think I should know about?"
"Other than I've been with basically every nationality on earth nothing."
"I doubt you were with every single one, but probably quite a few."
"Ugh. You obviously know now that I was with Ivan, so Russian's on the list, Lithuanian because I hooked up with Toris very briefly, Japanese 'cause Kiku and I were confused," he snickered at his own words. "Damn, that was some hilarious shit. Kiku might not think so, but I think it's super funny."
"What?"
"Okay! So Kiku and I were confused right? This was when we were first getting used to the whole gay thing since Ivan hadn't stepped into the picture yet, which means we were twelve—which is kinda young for this kinda stuff. I was like—super curious about kissing and shit since we both concluded together that we were something called 'gay'," he made air quotation marks with his fingers. "Ha, ha, Kiku was so scared when I tried it on him."
"The next day, he said that he'd heard from other kids that if two people kiss they have to get married right? So he had gone out and gotten me one of those plastic rings you get in those quarter machines? Since my mom was really blunt with stuff like kissing and the like, I told Kiku that people kissed only because they liked each other and that they didn't have to marry each other. Oh man! You should've seen his face!"
"Okay, okay!" Alfred calmed himself down after his fit of giggles. "So who else? I've been with a few Mexican gals and one guy. Was in something with this Italian hot head and I'd be mortified if he was actually Romano, because I think he was—why are you laughing?"
"Just the thought of it makes me do so," Arthur grinned and Alfred pouted.
"Come on, I'm giving off 'top secret' information here!" he joked before continuing. "M'kay let's see uh…You obviously, so one Brit," he grinned, ruffling Arthur's hair before grabbing Arthur's hand again. "I was with this Canadian gal before Mattie totally stole her from me, bastard…but then we both got kinda tired of her and she obviously wanted this French guy over us—ha, ha! I guess the Canadians are attracted to the French eh?"
"Whatever you say Alfred," Arthur smiled, resting his head on the mattress, nuzzling Alfred's hand.
"Oh! There was this one Irish guy that I kinda liked, but really got on my nerves," Alfred groaned at the thought of said person. "It kind of was a sexual tension kind of thing since we were fourteen and like…yeah, that age is tough."
"Did you do anything?"
"What? Naw, don't worry Artie," Alfred grinned, leaning over so that his cheek was softly pressed into Arthur's soft hair. "A few Chinese, but those were super brief—oh! There was this one Korean guy, I think his name was Im Yong Soo something really weird, he was super annoying and I swear he had ADD or something," he shook his head.
"We just kinda got together and his twin brother—I don't know his name—got super jealous and he kinda reminds me of Romano. Angry all of the time, it kinda makes me hope that he has someone right now…Oh hey, who all have you been with? I'm sharing a whole treasure trove of stuff, you gotta participate too Artie!"
"Obviously and unfortunately, Francis probably ever since I moved here. Briefly with Antonio before Romano stepped into his life…and I briefly crushed on Francis's roommate Ludwig," Arthur was glad Alfred wasn't looking at him since his head was resting atop his own, for his face heated up significantly.
"Ha, ha! Dude, I totally remember when Francis called having sex with you 'naked time'!" Alfred laughed, lifting his head so he could see the other's face turn an even darker shade of red if possible.
"What the bloody hell did he call it?" Arthur wailed.
"Dude, it was way back when he had that bribe thing on you. In exchange for paying for your plane, you had to have sex with him? Remember? So we were watching you fly your plane I think and I think I asked him why you were acting so strange and he just said something along the lines of you being nervous about having naked time with him," he snickered as Arthur hid his face in the sheets of the hospital bed Alfred was laying in. "Ah, good times," Alfred grinned before rolling onto his side with difficulty. "So, Mattie, Bonerfoy and I are gonna get going on the laser tag equipment for your planes—you wanna do anything specific or something? We haven't done much in a while."
"Um, I'm not sure, I was actually hoping to just sit in your house for a while and do nothing in particular," Arthur shrugged his shoulders.
"I'm fine with that," Alfred grinned, hugging Arthur closer to him the best he could. "So what're we gonna do about Yao and Ivan since Ivan's obviously a problem?"
"Well I think we should do most of the things on Yao's side since obviously the other lead to this," Arthur shook his head.
"Totally, hey, you can let Yao back in by the way," Alfred announced, leaning back from Arthur. The Brit huffed, Alfred making sure that he memorized Arthur's expression before the Brit turned and wheeled himself over to the door and opened it, turning his head so that he was talking to the Chinese boy outside.
Eventually, the two reentered the room and Yao seated himself in the chair next to Alfred's bedside, looking a bit refreshed after having a bit of time to himself without having to worry about Alfred's health. "Alright Alfred, so are you going to get that stuff started once you're out of bed?"
"Yeah, I'm going to get Mattie's help and Bonerfoy's."
"B-Bonerfoy?" Yao snorted back a laugh as Alfred grinned toothily at him. Arthur smiled and shook his head. At least Alfred wouldn't be stuck in here for a long period of time. The poor guy would never survive.
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Okay, I just looked at the outline I wrote for this chapter, which I did in church and was like blah. Lol, I blahed because of the half-finished sentence in it XD "Glad that Yao's…" that's exactly what's written in there before it goes completely blank. Hm…can anyone finish that sentence for me…(insert Francis laugh here)?
Ugwahahahuunuu!
…Sorry about that. I'm just spazzing over how I'm about fifteen hundred shy of ONE THOUSAND KAY PLUS –epic voice that echoes- God, I'm so proud of myself –w- I've never come this close at all. Yeah, my other story's pretty close as well, but it's about two, three chapters longer and has fewer words than this one. I love this story so much because of you guys. Thank you~! I don't know how many times I have to say it to show how thankful I am—all I can say is that it'd totally fill way too many pages. So blargh! Please review, I absolutely love to hear what you have to say and peace out my friends!