"What for?" Arthur asked snapping out of his shock.
Alfred felt his face heat up in embarrassment before saying,"For everything. I ran away believing some lie Logan fed me. I can't even begin telling you how sorry I am for believing that bastard." The teen felt like he was ready to just finally break down.
Arthur immediately enveloped Alfred in a tight embrace and kissed the teen's forehead gently but repeatedly.
"Don't go blaming yourself when I am also to blame." Arthur said before giving Alfred a light kiss on the cheek.
Alfred hugged Arthur around the older man's waist and buried his face into his neck. "P-please forgive me." Alfred begged. He didn't cry, but it was close enough. It made Arthur's heart ache to hear his partner sound so defeated.
"Stop fretting, love. There is no need to ask me for forgiveness." Arthur said before laying another kiss on Alfred's head.
After holding each other in silence for nearly a minute or so, they finally let each other go but instead settled for holding each other's hands.
"I suppose I should get you back to your room." Arthur said after a bit. He didn't want his partner to leave so suddenly, but he supposed he should give the teen a little more space.
Alfred looked at him with an obviously confused look on his face before saying,"My room? What do you mean? I'm staying with you."
Arthur's head snapped up to look at the American teen. "Seriously?" Arthur said with an excited tone of voice. The vampire caught himself though and added,"Don't feel obligated to stay with me if you don't want to."
Alfred shot that down right away. "I'm not leaving. I want to stay with you and I won't take no for an answer." Alfred said defiantly.
Arthur looked at the teen with wide eyes but settled down quickly. He was overjoyed to hear this. He really did miss sleeping with Alfred. He didn't really like listening to the teen snore when they were together, but he could easily put up with that if it meant he could hold Alfred in his arms again while they slept.
"I'm glad to hear that, love." Arthur said with a gentle smile placed upon his perfect lips.
Alfred returned the smile but frowned slightly afterwards before saying,"I don't know if I'll be able to trust you entirely as of yet though."
Arthur's smile faultered for a split second before taking on a more sad air to it.
"I suppose I can't really blame you." Arthur said somewhat sadly. Then the man added,"What can I do to earn your trust?" The man wanted things to be fine between them again and restoring the trust they had lost would be a good start.
"No more threatening people I love or like. Especially breaking someone's arm." Alfred said. Arthur winced slightly at the 'breaking arm' part but let Alfred continue. "You also have to learn more about me. Now that I think about it, the way Logan knew all those things about me was sort of creepy. But I give him props for learning some basic things about me before we officially met."
Arthur nodded his head in understanding. He had failed to pay attention as to what Alfred liked and even basic facts about the teen. Maybe he would have to round up Matthew's help in finding out more about his partner.
"Another thing is that you can't just lock me up. Chances are that I'll escape anyways or someone will bust me out." Alfred said.
Arthur definitely understood that. Alfred had escaped once already and had been taken away how many times now. Locking the teen up would probably set their relationship back too along with it being a bit of a nuisance. Nope. He definitely wouldn't lock Alfred up again.
"Anything else?" Arthur asked softly.
"For now, that'll be it." Alfred gave him a cheeky smile before leaning down and locking lips with the vampire.
Arthur was taken slightly by surprise but accepted it willingly. God, how long had it been since he had been able to kiss Alfred on his lips? Probably only a couple days, but that was way too long for partners to go without kissing. At least in Arthur's opinion it was. Just look at Chritstof and Romulus. They went for decades without a kiss or even a touch.
Arthur shuddered at the thought of going so long without kissing Alfred. But if he thought about it, it could become a reality if he didn't win the fight against Logan.
"Can we take a shower? Please?" Alfred suddenly asked. That was enough to snap Arthur out of his thoughts and to look at Alfred once again. Did the teen just say what he thought he just said?
"You want to take a shower?" Arthur asked.
Alfred nodded. "Yeah. With you." When Arthur merely gave him a blank look as if it wasn't exactly registering right in his head. "I just came from Australia where I was carried through the outback. I sweated, a lot, and would like to take a bath."
Arthur's large eyebrows furrowed at that. "You were carried?" Arthur asked. Couldn't he have just walked?
Alfred pulled away enough so that he could grab one of his bare feet and showed the bottom of it to the curious eyes of his partner.
Arthur's eyes roamed the small expanse of skin, or what was left of it, on Alfred's foot and winced as he saw the shredded flesh. Now he understood why Alfred was carried. He should probably track whoever did it down and thank the man.
"What happened?" Arthur asked as he took the body part into both of his hands. The vampire ran a finger softly against the oozing, scabbed skin lightly. When Alfred winced in slight pain, Arthur pulled his hand back as if he had burned the teen.
When Alfred settled down again, he said,"I ran barefoot out into the forest by the house and stepped on quite a few sharp rocks and plants." Alfred laughed as his cheeks turned a shade of scarlet from slight embarrassment.
Arthur chuckled also before asking,"Who carried you? I can't imagine Eily did but possibly Herakles?"
Alfred lost all hints of a smile before saying,"Neither of them. It was actually Ivan."
Arthur's eyes widened for a split second before settling back down again. Well, that crazy bastard was certainly not going to get any form of thank you from him. He appreciated him helping Alfred when he himself couldn't, but him and the Russian man were never exactly on good terms with each other.
Nope. He would most definitely not thank Ivan. Maybe he'd send a bottle of vodka, but that'd be it.
He instead just wanted to get Alfred's feet taken care of and give the teen a bath. Now that he looked and truly smelled Alfred, he couldn't help but realize that Alfred truly was in need of a bathing.
"How about we get you cleaned then and I'll heal your wounds, hm?" Arthur said softly.
Alfred nodded his head vigorously before making his way towards the door with Arthur in tow. Once they were in the hallway, Arthur took the lead.
The walk was rather short and within less than a minute, they were standing in the middle of the bathroom turning on the faucet of the bathtub.
Arthur started stripping slowly and was down to nothing but his emerald green, satin briefs before noticing that Alfred was yet to remove any article of clothing whatsoever.
Arthur stopped what he was doing and gave the teen a confused look. "Aren't you going to take your clothes off too? You can't exactly hop in the tub with all your clothes still on." Arthur said in an attempt at lightening the mood.
Alfred looked up at the vampire with a half-smile before saying,"It's just weird. It kind of feels like old times."
Arthur gave him a knowing smile before walking up to Alfred and kissing the teen on his tanned cheek. "That's good." Arthur said before tugging lightly on Alfred's shirt. "Now hurry up and strip so we can get you clean and then healed." the vampire commanded.
Alfred hesitantly stripped himself of his shirt and pants. He stopped long enough to watch Arthur slip off the last of his clothing and shut the water off before climbing into the large tub.
The teen took a few seconds of silent deliberation to get himself to slip out of his own boxers.
Alfred slipped into the tub right across from where Arthur was sitting. The two merely stared at each other in silence before Arthur let his hands wander underneath the water before finding what he was looking for.
The vampire grabbed ahold of one of Alfred's feet and brought it out from under the water. He studied the angry wounds that were practically glaring at him and wiped away any signs of dirt or grime that he found.
"I'd usually lick them to get them to heal right away but I'm afraid you'll kick me in the face if I do." Arthur said while dropping the foot he was holding and taking hold of the other.
Alfred frowned slightly but couldn't really say that he blamed the guy. It seemed weird and unnatural to have someone lick your foot anyways. But he had to admit that something like that would be pretty funny.
"That's fine with me." Alfred said before relaxing against the front of the tub and closing his eyes.
The teen laid in the water while simultaneously letting all his current worries just wash away. Alfred never bothered opening his eyes until he heard a faint cough come from the other side of the bathtub.
The American's eyes shot open then and quickly looked over Arthur's semi-hunched form. "Arthur? Are you okay?" Alfred asked worriedly.
Arthur tilted his head up so that he could look Alfred in the eyes before saying,"I-I'm alright, Alfred." in a raspy voice.
Alfred froze when he looked into Arthur's eyes. They were a deep, bloody red. It was quite obvious at that moment that Arthur was indeed not alright. The vampire was, in fact, thirsty. How long had it been since he drank any blood? He remembered Arthur saying it usually took about a week for a vampire to exhibit these kinds of signs. So around a week.
Alfred scooted across the tub until he was nearly sitting in Arthur's lap. "Trade places with me." the teen commanded.
Arthur looked up at Alfred with a confused expression but did as the teen told him. He let Alfred slip into his original spot and took his place inbetween Alfred's legs.
After the teen was comfortably situated, Alfred exposed his neck to Arthur's greedy eyes.
The vampire's eyes widened in shock as he sputtered,"A-Alfred! What are you doing?" The teen sighed in slight frustration but didn't say anything at first.
The American merely pulled Arthur's naked body over his as he pressed the vampire's face into the crook of his neck.
"Go ahead and take as much blood as you need." Alfred whispered into Arthur's ear before fully exposing his neck once again. But Arthur didn't take that answer so well.
"Alfred, I don't deserve to drink your blood yet. I'll be allowed to once the fight is over, but I just can't right now." Arthur whispered. He really did want to bite into the unmarred flesh of Alfred's neck but the Brit was never really one to break rules.
The teen looked at the man in exasperation. "You have got to be fucking kidding me." Alfred sighed in frustration before a look suddenly crossed his face.
Arthur couldn't really say he liked that look.
But he didn't get a chance to really ask the teen about it before Alfred took one of the vampire's hands in his.
"Well, what if I make you?" Alfred asked with a cheeky smirk.
Arthur eyed the teen's mischevious look with his own look of apprehension. Was Alfred really going to try his hand at seducing the Brit? Arthur seriously doubted it would work but he could at least humor the boy.
"I'd like to see you try." Arthur said with a smirk of his own.