"Alfred F. Jones, I presume?"
The teen turned his attention to the source of the voice and found that it belonged to a gruff looking man with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He actually looked look an older, longer-haired version of Ludwig.
"Um, yeah." Alfred said sheepishly while casting his eyes back to the ground. He felt like he was in one of those weird dreams where he was naked in front of a huge group of people. At the moment though, he'd rather be having that sort of situation. He felt extremely embarrassed the way it was.
He couldn't help it though. He could practically feel both Arthur and Logan staring holes into the front of his shirt and pretty much wherever else their greedy eyes could reach.
He tried to tune our their deep stares though and instead tried to focus on the man talking to him.
"Good. We were just about to send someone to retrieve you." the blonde man said before walking out of the circle and making his way over to Alfred.
"I assume you have been informed of the situation you are in?" the man asked.
Alfred nodded his head. "A little bit." the American teen choked out uneasily. Eily hadn't given him much, but he had been informed on the way inside there was going to be a fight.
"Well, I'll give you a shortened version then." the man said. "Arthur, your true partner, and Logan, a vampire who wants to claim you as his partner, will have a duel. No weapons, just their strength and agility."
The man had retained a sense of emotionless dignity throughout the whole speech, but he grew solemn as he said,"They don't have to kill each other, but they are allowed to."
Alfred felt his breathing suddenly stop and his eyes widen. Did he hear that right? Had the man really just said that?
The teen finally looked at Arthur and Logan to see their own faces. Logan was wearing an unexpected smirk while Arthur was staring at the ground.
Alfred drew his own gaze back to the ground before looking back at the blonde-haired vampire with vibrant blue eyes.
"Got it." Alfred choked out before swaying around on his heels in nervousness. After a moments thought, Alfred added,"I'm going to just go to my room. Can you have a neutral party take me there?"
The man nodded and gave him a faint hint of a smile before it disappeared quickly and was replaced by a look of surprise. The man was suddenly shoved out of the way leaving Romulus in his place.
"That's where I come in. Let's go, Alfred." Lovino's grandfather said before taking the astounded teen by his shoulders and hauling him out the door before anyone else could say anything.
Once they were safely out in the hallway, Romulus released the teen and started walking nonchalantly in some random direction.
Alfred looked at the man with slight confusion but shrugged it off and followed after him.
"What are you doing here?" Alfred asked. The last time he had seen the older Italian man was when him and Lovino were taken by Arthur. Alfred's heart ached at the thought of the blonde vampire but tried to not think about him at the moment.
"Well, since my last grand-baby was taken by vampires and wasn't about to leave, I thought it would be good if I finally joined my partner." Romulus said with a strained smile.
"Oh. Who's your partner again?" Alfred asked.
"Christof. That big, burly, blonde guy from before." Romulus said with a smile. "Bastard's as big as me. You can only imagine how awkward showing affection for each other is at times." Romulus let out a loud chuckle before turning back to look at Alfred.
The teen looked slighty perturbed by that mental image but brushed it off.
"So, uh, I'm alone in my room, right?" Alfred asked trying to change the subject. He was sort of hoping that he was but at the same time it would be nice to sleep in the same room as someone else. The last person he had slept in a bed with was Logan and he wanted to forget that.
Romulus stopped abruptly then and looked at Alfred with his usual joking demeanour gone from his face.
"You could. But if I remember correctly, you can choose to sleep in the same room as Arthur or even Logan." Romulus said looking at Alfred. He was curious to see if the teen would choose to go with either one of them. He didn't really care either way, but it could be something he could use for conversation material between him and Christof.
"Uh, let's walk around more and let me think about it." Alfred said.
Romulus nodded and turned around to walk back to where they had started. The way they were going would end soon so they might as well just back-track and begin anew.
"So, who do you believe?" Alfred asked. He was curious to know what the neutral party thought. Maybe hearing this would aid in his own decision.
The older Italian didn't need to ask in order to know what the teen was referring to. "I haven't chosen. I don't know them well enough to really know whether one of them is lying or not. Arthur might officially be my King now, but I'm not about to believe someone is right just for that mere fact."
Alfred nodded his head. "Can you tell me a little about both of them? That is, if you know anything." Alfred asked.
Romulus nodded his head slightly. He didn't know much, but he could tell Alfred what he had all seen and at least heard about the two men in question.
"Um, bad stuff first. Give me the bad stuff on Logan." Alfred said.
The Italian nodded his head and gathered up all the bad stuff he knew about Logan before saying,"He has a short temper at times. He's also a cocky little shit. He has some violent tendencies. I could go on but I feel that I better not."
Alfred cringed at some of the things that were said but tried to continue listening as they walked down the hallway.
"Good things for Logan?" Alfred asked quickly.
"He's passionate about what he cares for. He fights for what he wants. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera." Romulus waved his hands around lazily in a mock imitation of the King from The King and I.
"Ok. Those are good. What about Arthur's bad traits?" Alfred asked. The name felt rather strange coming from his lips but he tried to keep a straight head so he could listen to what Romulus was going to say. He needed to hear the man's next words.
"Well, he probably has a stick up his ass the size of a tree. He has a nasty temper at times. He's a pompous ass. I could go on, but I might bore you." Romulus said.
Alfred shook his head. Probably not.
"The good?" the American teen asked. He really was curious as to what the man was going to say about this subject.
"He speaks his mind. He isn't afraid to go after what he wants. He obviously cares for his subjects. But the most important thing is that he clearly feels a large amount of love for you." Romulus said with a gentle smile.
Alfred's heart skipped a tiny beat when he heard all of the positive things about Arthur. But what made a smile appear on his face was the last comment.
"Hm. It's so hard to choose." Alfred said with a joking tone of voice.
Romulus chuckled to himself but stopped abruptly once he heard two angry voices snapping at each other.
"What's wrong?" Alfred asked curiously.
Romulus brought his finger to his mouth to signal that Alfred should be quiet before the Italian crept up to the half-cracked doors of the room they had been in not even twenty minutes ago.
The older man beckoned for Alfred to join him in listening to the arguing happening on the other side of the door.
After a few nasty words were exchanged between the two voices, Alfred realized that it was Arthur and Logan talking to each other.
"Why are you doing all of this? Do you really hate me that much that you would go after my true partner?" Arthur's voice rang out loudly. Alfred winced as he heard the venom practically dripping from the British vampire's voice.
Alfred had never heard the man sound so deadly and lethal.
"I'm doing this because you betrayed me so long ago." Logan laughed bitterly. Alfred's eyebrows furrowed slightly but continued listening to the two vampires talk.
"I never betrayed you. If anything, you betrayed me." Arthur retorted.
"Me? Betrayed you? I helped you. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have received your title as king for another millenium. What did I get for my hard work? I was exiled to some barren land that was used to imprison people." Logan spat back.
"Helped me? Helped me? You murdered my brother's partner so that I could get that crown! I was right to send you away. I loved you but there was no way I could not overlook that!" Arthur yelled in exasperation.
"I helped you and you know it!" Logan roared back.
Good lord. Alfred really wanted to know what they looked like right now. Were they standing there civilly or were they ready to rip each other's throats out then and there?
He didn't know but from the way their voices were escalating, he figured it might get physical any second now.
He didn't want to listen to any of this anymore though. He knew then that he most definitely did not want to sleep alone. But neither did he want to sleep with Logan.
"Take me to Arthur's room. I've heard enough." Alfred said sighing in frustration. He felt so stupid for believing Logan's lie. He just wanted to meet up with Arthur again and apologize for the hell the teen had put him through.
Sure, Arthur had practically done the same thing, but he just wanted things to be right between them again.
Romulus didn't really argue with him and started walking in the direction of the vampire King's room.
"Well, I'm no longer neutral. Team Kirkland all the way." Romulus said with a half-hearted chuckle. He wasn't completely serious but the man wasn't exactly joking either.
The two went through the winding hallways in utter silence for the next five minutes then before they finally reached the room that supposedly belonged to Arthur.
"Sorry you had to find out that way, kid. But I suppose it's better late than never." Romulus said trying to cheer Alfred up.
He could tell by the deep-set frown planted on Alfred's face that the teen was feeling absolutely guilty at the moment. He didn't want the American to be falling into some sort of depression or anything like that so he opened the door and shoved the teen inside.
When Alfred turned around to look at Romulus and demand what that was all about, he was met with the door slamming in his face.
"Just relax. Arthur would never blame you for what you did. Don't beat yourself up about it." Romulus said from the other side of the door before he walked away.
Alfred stared at the door for a few split seconds before he turned around to look at the room more properly.
Creepy drapes, old paintings, dimly lit, and a big bed. Yep. This was definitely Arthur's room. Alfred walked towards the bed slowly before touching the comforter on it with feather-light touches.
Alfred was itching to have Arthur in this bed now and just crawl into it with him, but he knew he would have to wait for Arthur to get back before he could do so.
So he opted for sitting on the bed instead of laying on it and watched the door with nervous, calculating eyes.
Was he ready to face Arthur? He wasn't exactly sure if he was, but he knew he had to face the blonde vampire eventually. Besides, he wanted to make things right between them again. He didn't want to ignore the man any longer and then lose him in a life-or-death battle.
It just wouldn't be worth it no matter how pissed Alfred had been at the man at any one point or another.
As Alfred thought about what he might possibly say to Arthur, the door opened slowly and in shambled a rather weary-looking Arthur.
The American teen's head immediately snapped up to meet Arthur's form.
Arthur sniffed the air at that moment then and realized someone else was in the room with him. The British vampire tilted his head up enough so that he could get a better look at the figure sitting on his bed. He didn't really need to since he'd recognize the scent just about anywhere, but his eyes were eager to finally see Alfred again.
Seeing the teen's honey-blonde hair, perfectly tanned body, and bright baby-blue eyes brought a sense of overwhelming emotions to the forefront of his mind.
Without a second's thought, Arthur crossed into the threshold and over to the bed before stopping abruptly in front of the teen.
He wanted to take the American into his arms and cover him with kisses and gentle caresses but he wasn't entirely sure as to why Alfred was there in the first place. The teen might just be there to chew him out for all he knew.
He definitely didn't want to get carried away in his affection for the boy and make Alfred hate him even more.
He'd rather just wait until Alfred told him why he was there then try anything with the teen just yet.
"Uh, what...what are you doing here?" Arthur asked uneasily. He cast his eyes down again to avoid eye contact with Alfred while he scratched the back of his head uncomfortably.
Alfred stood up from the bed in his own uncomfortable manner and looked around awkwardly. "I came to say sorry." the teen murmured. A light shade of pink stained Alfred's cheeks as he looked around embarrassed.
Arthur looked up at the teen with shock written all over his face. He was definitely not expecting something like that.