Chapter 38

There was a chill in Alfred's bedroom. He scrunched his blankets closer to his chin, grumbling as he shivered, since Spring was well underway, and it shouldn't be treating him like that. His bed springs creaked, and his eyes flew open, blinking at a soft glowing before his face. Alfred pulled himself up with a gasp.

"Arthur!"

The angel furrowed his thick eyebrows, and his voice was taunt with a hiss, "What's wrong?"

"Um, what?"

"Antonio said you came around the bookstore. He said you seemed upset." Arthur tipped his head. "Did something happen? Anything with the demon-"

Alfred tugged his blanket close to distract his gaze. "N-no, nothing with...no, I..." His jaw started to tremble. "I'm sorry," he blubbered and stuffed the cover to his face. "I'm so sorry, Arthur."

Arthur scoffed and started to tug the blankets away. "Come on, now. Tell me what happened."

"N-no!" Alfred wouldn't let his cover go, and eventually, Arthur just stopped pulling on it. "I kissed a girl, man! W-we were. Hanging out. Like we always used to. And." He gasped for a short breath, already feeling like a complete idiot with his hands curled over his face, "I didn't think anything of it. And. She just." His shoulders shook as he tried to shrug. "I don't know, I let her do it. It felt nice! But, but, but-"

"God, really, Alfred?" Arthur let out something like a laugh. One of his hands combed through Alfred's hair, coaxing the blanket down from his face. ""When I heard you called, I started to dread the worse; a demon, something happening to your brother, or your father...stop getting yourself so worked up, all right?"

"No, it's not all right." Alfred grunted and sniffled as Arthur leaned over the bed and pressed his nose to the side of his head. "Aren't you mad at me?"

"Mad at you?!" Arthur pulled back with a little snort, only to bring his mouth to Alfred's cheek, "Why in the world would I be mad at you?" Before Alfred could think to respond, Artie lightheartedly scoffed, voice teetering, "After everything I've said and done, you should be angry with me!"

"What?!" A bit too loudly for the hour, "No, I'm not-"

Arthur pressed his fingertips to Alfred's lips, hushing, "Months, now, Alfred, I've been gone. The last time we saw one another, I wanted nothing else but you! If hadn't acted so cold, if I let you close, if I saw you smile, I would never return to Heaven. Back to my duties. That's all I've ever done. That's all I ever put above all else, including you. I would never blame you for getting sick of this shite and finding a better life for yourself. Because that's what that is. Something far better than what I have to offer."

Alfred squeezed his eyes shut against the wonderful prickling across this skin, shaking his head as Arthur kept going, "Young men kiss women. It's supposed to feel good, idiot. Maybe that's what you need. A wonderful wife that will be there for you every day. One that can actually cook and not burn your kitchen down."

"Arthur."

"Is that what you want?"

"No! I-I don't know. I missed you! I-I was thinking of you the whole time my friend and I...um...I just want you to come back down here and stay so everything can stop being confusing!"

That sad look of Arthur's melted into something else, like he was about to smile. "Mm-hm?"

Alfred glanced away from prolonged eye-contact. "And you said you were gonna get mad and rip my limbs off if I, like, messed around..."

"Have you messed around?"

A sharp inhale caught in Alfred's throat when Arthur dipped his head, his mess of hair teasing his cheek as his 'visitor' pressed a hard kiss to the crook underneath his jaw. "N-nothing from what I told you about."

"Have you been wanting to mess around?"

Wait, what did he just say? Whatever was powering Alfred's brain scampered off to be somewhere else. Arthur's lips trailed down his jaw and neck, and Alfred flinched, giggling over the tickling sensation, but yelped as teeth suddenly nipped at his skin, "Agh, no!"

Gentler, Arthur murmured against his neck, "Not even with me, love?"

Alfred snorted, acting like there were still coherent thoughts left behind in his head space. "Of course I've been thinking about...uh, you, like everyday, man!" He tried to jerk away, but an arm had snuck over his waist and persuaded him to stay close. "How was that a fair question?!"

The Bastard Angel snickered like a devil, tapping his thumb to Alfred's lip, "Then why are we still talking?"

Alfred blinked. Come on, thoughts. "Um, what?"

"Every minute I'm here, is a minute longer we both have to wait for me to come back!"

"What! Arthur, stop it." Alfred caught himself doing one of those sad laughs, "You're making sense!"

"God, you fool!" Arthur sprung forward to squish their faces together. "Don't you think I've missed you, too?!"

"Oh, come on," Alfred groaned against his mouth, against him, "just stay, Arthur!"

"I can't. I mustn't." Just as they pulled back, they came forward again, meeting with another eager kiss. "I have to go, or else I may never be able to come back."

Alfred tried words, pleading, "When are you coming back, then? For real? Come on, give me anything."

"I don't know. They're keeping me busy."

"Why?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out." Arthur clasped his hands on Alfred's cheeks, kissing him in a way that stole the breath out of his lungs. Literally. A moment later, Alfred's eyes went wide as a cold shudder ran over his tongue, moments before his brain would turn into sap.

"Arthur, no!"

Arthur pressed on his chest, and Alfred fell back onto his bed with a startled grunt. "I must, and always have, put Heaven first, before anything else." He leaned down and kissed him again, much more softly this time that ended with a sigh, "Look where doing that has me, yet again."

What a lose-lose situation; a drowsy mind took over Alfred's senses with each touch, and if they broke apart, well, that would leave him sad and lonely in bed. "Artie...miss you..."

"I know. Don't worry, I'll deal with this. Go to sleep."

"Don't wanna."

"Oh, yes, you will," Arthur whispered, smooching Alfred again.

Alfred lazily smiled, fuzzily gazing at the glowing figure slipping away from his bed to raise his wings and arms above his head. He forgot what they what they were even talking about. Just that Arthur looked good in that poofy little toga. Then he was gone.

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

When Alfred opened his eyes that morning, he glanced down, confused why he thought something laid on his chest. Blankets, maybe? Ditching weird dreams and his bed, he hazily got ready for school.

On the way, Matthew asked, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah! Why?"

"Oh, uh..." When Alfred glanced over, Matthew quickly looked away. "You seem quieter than usual. Did you eat breakfast?"

"Uh-huh. I grabbed some toast. You?"

"No. I forgot."

More like, didn't have enough time between pulling himself out of bed five minutes ago. "I think I had a funny dream yesterday."

"Really? So did I!"

"Really?" Alfred echoed. "Wait, I dreamed that Arthur came down and kissed me, man."

"What? Ugh, that's not weird!"

"Let me guess your dream then, huh? Ivan was touching your butt."

"No, he did that enough before he went back to Hell."

Alfred remembered not-so-subtly eavesdropping on that conversation around Spring Break. It wasn't his fault that Mattie liked to have serious talks in the hallway instead of his bedroom. The demon-dude went bye-bye soon after that, and Al couldn't help but be mildly surprised that nobody told him right away. Or that Ivan didn't duck by and say goodbye, even after all that crap they went through together! Stupid demon. "For now?"

"Of course."

"How can you be so sure?"

Matthew replied too cheerily for the time of the day, "Because I say so!"

"Oh. What if...something happens down there? I mean, it's Hell." Alfred glimpsed across the street when Matthew trained an annoyed scowl on him. "Like, did you ever worry that a lady-demon would try to be all up on him?"

"No one's all up on Ivan."

Alfred laughed, "Because you say so?"

Matthew didn't laugh. "No, because they don't want to be."

"Huh? What?"

"Shut up already, Al."

"Wow, okay." They were almost at the school, anyway. "So, what was your dream about?"

"I made about six-thousand pancakes, and they were all over the house and we couldn't get anywhere."

"Oh, wow." Alfred wished his dreams were like that. They nodded to one another before Matthew ducked into the library. "Nerd."

Matthew must have not heard him. Alfred kept walking. He shared his first period class with a lot of his friends, but at least he didn't share a class with the girl from last night until later. Gave him more time to think about what to say without breaking their friendship, if it wasn't already broken. He opened the door and put his books on his desk, stopping to give his buddies a weird look as they steadily stared up at him.

"Hey, guys?"

"Hey, Al." Their eyes followed him as he settled, like he was going to run away from them, too.

"What's up?"

"Nothing much."

They probably all chattered and gossiped about what happened three times over already. Alfred meekly nodded. They didn't talk to him the rest of the period. What a cruddy morning.

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

Maybe Alfred should pull a page out of his brother's book and hole himself in the library. Well, he shouldn't be pulling any pages there, but...ugh, that was beside the point. The weird smell of books, and kids playing math games on the computers would be his new haven. He lingered outside the library doors before his study period, debating if he should get a pass or not. It was either sit with his friends but in silence, or sit by himself, again, in silence, because Matthew had English class at the time.

"Alfred?"

Alfred jumped, trying to keep surprise from his face as his gal-pal approached. "Oh, hey."

"Are you taking your study hall in the library?"

"Uh...yeah. You?"

"Let's go in."

It was quiet between them as they waited in line. They took their passes, and went back to their normal study classroom to get it approved before going back to the library. Way too much walking back and forth; another reason Alfred disliked the whole school library business. "You're going to take your free period in the library, too?"

"Yeah, I wanted to talk to you."

It had to happen sometime. Alfred forced a little smile on his face when she looked up at him. "Okay. We can sit in the back."

When they set the books on the long table furthest from the entrance of the library, she propped herself against the window sill overlooking some kind of fenced-in generator behind the school. "Look, I've been thinking."

Oh, no. It was never a good thing when girls said that. Alfred blew breath on the window to distract himself. "Yeah?"

"I had fun last night."

She went quiet. Must have been waiting for Alfred to say something. "Me, too," he admitted.

His friend seemed pleased at that. "I'm glad. I don't want any hard feelings between us. We've been friends since ninth grade, and I would hate to ruin that over...silly relationship stuff."

"It's not silly. I just..."

"It okay." The girl reassured him with a smile that made Alfred want to smile, too. "You like someone else, and kicking and screaming about it isn't going to make things better for either of us. So..." She sighed, and gave a little nod, "I'm not going to get in the way of you and Arthur. You obviously like him, and I can't really deny that."

"Really?"

"Pssh, yeah, really!"

"Wow. Yeah, wow. How come?"

The girl rolled her eyes, "Well, I sure didn't leave that hickey on your neck! Someone must have had a surprise visit last night, huh? Is he finally back for good?"

Wait, what? Alfred clamped a hand on his neck.

"Other side, dummy."

"Oh!" He squeaked. "Thanks! No, he just stopped in for a little bit, and...I-I...yeah, thanks! W-we'll sit together at lunch, okay? I'll tell Mattie, and...yeah, I have to go! Bye!"

She laughed and waved. "Study hall doesn't end for another forty minutes, Alfie!"

Alfred zipped by a hall monitor, who, taking her duties seriously, hollered way more louder than necessarily, "Hey! No running in the halls!"

He didn't listen, making a show to go to the bathroom. If he had to pee, then he'd run all he wanted to, but she didn't need to know that. Thankfully, nobody was in there at the moment, and he leaned over the sinks and gave his shirt collar a tug.

"Oh, man!" Alfred bemoaned the purple/blue mark near the crook of his neck. He scrubbed his palm over it, and when that didn't do anything, he dipped his hand under the faucet and tried to work water into it. "Fuck!"

No wonder Matthew and his friends were looking at him all funny. Alfred grabbed paper towels and dried his hands before trying to tug his shirt over the 'bruise.' Of course, it was in a perfect spot - a little too high for his collar to hide. He tipped his head back and groaned, "Fuuuuuuuuck."

Some kid, probably a ninth grader, came in, looked scared, and fled into one of the stalls. Alfred decided to high-tail back into the library instead of lamenting over the broadcast on his neck. He'd have to wait until he got home to do that.

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

"Oh, yeah, your friends came up to me and kept asking about it. They're very weird."

"Ugh, yeah, weird." Alfred glanced around the other students rushing toward the exits. His hand found a new home over that certain spot on his neck. "Seriously, I can't believe he freaking-"

"What chowed on your neck like that?" Matthew didn't help matters with his snickers. "Yeah, coming from someone that's supposed to be all holy and everything."

"Shut up, Mattie! It's bad enough everyone else is talking about it. Jeez."

"Wait 'til Dad sees it!"

"No! It's just a hickey! Why's everyone freaking out over it?!"

"Why are you freaking out over it?" Matthew dipped into a mocking tone, "'It's just a hickey.'"

A group of girls passed by them on the other side of the street. "Bye, Alfie! Mwah, mwah!" They blew kisses at him before they all peeled into obnoxiously loud laughter.

At least Matthew put a hand to his mouth as he snickered this time. "Honestly? I think it's some kind of coping mechanism."

"For what?!"

"Oh, you know. One of the most popular guys in the senior class with all these girls pining after him, winds up coming out as gay? I mean, rumors were going around before, but now it's real? That's big talk."

"I didn't come out nothin'!"

"Ooh, yeah," Matthew bumped against Alfred's shoulder to get a good look, "It's more like the hickey did more of the coming out."

"Arthur's not a dude, anyway! He's an angel!"

"Yes, of course! An angel with a dick, and - oh, last I heard, that's something you have, too. Sorry, angel-sexual or not, you're still kind of gay."

"Well, you're swinging with a guy, too! Why the Hell is nobody talking about that, huh?!"

"You know what? I'm glad they're not. For once." Matthew finally chilled with the teasing. "It's...it's nice that Arthur flew by last night. I know you were worrying about him. Good for you."

Alfred grumbled, "It wasn't even for that long...I think." He glanced over when Matthew went super quiet. "What?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing!"

"Does Ivan stop by every now and again?"

"No. It's a hard journey back and forth like that. Trust me," Matthew laughed just a little, "I know."

Alfred scrubbed a palm over his neck. "It's...different when they're not here, huh? Quiet."

"Yeah. Quiet."