"Heya Artie," Alfred said softly, pressing the phone against his ear tightly. He barely had a single bar of signal and he didn't dare move an inch in case he lost it.

"Heya back to you too," Arthur says, voice ringing softly through the crackly telephone line.

"How ya doing?" Alfred asks leaning back against the wall and smiling. Hearing Arthur's voice again would make it worth it.

"Same old," Arthur answers and Alfred can practically hear him shrugging. "We're nearly at the safe-city actually."

"That's good Artie," Alfred says shutting his eyes and smiling, focusing on nothing but Arthur's voice, "That's really good."

"I know damn well it's good. That was a conversation starter to get you to tell me where you are." Arthur says dryly.

Alfred lets out a chuckle at Arthur's odd sense of humour that can get to him even at times like these.

"I don't think we're too far actually," Alfred says unable to stop himself from chuckling lightly at the soft sound of relief at the other end of the phone. "Looks like we might have to take an indirect route though so I don't know how long we'll be."

"An indirect route?" Arthur questions.

"Hmm," Alfred nods along slowly, listening to the noises outside the door more carefully. "There's a group of them nearby so we're taking a different route."

"How close?" Arthur asks hurriedly, "You'd better stay safe you hear me?"

"Not too close," Alfred reassures, "We have a patrol."

"I know, you travel with a large group so you keep safe together," Arthur breathes softly down the line, soft enough that Alfred can't help but wonder if he's reassuring himself instead of talking to him.

"You've got to wait for me at the safe city you know?" Alfred says, lecturing tone in his voice and imagines that if he were in front of Arthur now he'd be mock chiding him and waggling his finger dramatically. And Arthur would just roll his eyes and scoff and probably correct him about something.

"Of course," Arthur answers instantly, "I even found some chocolate, I've been saving it to share together with you."

"Chocolate? How did you come across that?" Alfred asks curious, chocolate wasn't exactly easy to come by and his mouth was watering at the thought.

"Ah well…" Arthur pauses and Alfred laughs as he realises.

"You saved someone's life again didn't you?" He chortles heartily.

"I might have done," Arthur says back defensively.

"My hero Artie," Alfred laughs, finally and truly feeling happy.

"Oh please, the hero is more your character don't you think?" Arthur retorts, scoffing into the phone line.

"Maybe," Alfred teases, "Maybe not."

"If you're going to be silly, then pass me over to Matthew so I can say hello," Arthur says and Alfred can still see the role of his eyes and the shrug of the shoulders with the little twitch of a smile to his lips and a relaxed look to the green eyes.

"Sorry, Mattie's out on patrol, I don't think you'll be able to speak to him today," Alfred answers, eyes opening and flicking to the door where the noises are getting louder. He can here Mattie behind there too.

"Oh, I see, tell him I said hello and wish him the best of luck will you?" Arthur says with a hint of disappointment but a greater tone of understanding to the situation. Not that he truly knew the situation.

"Of course," Alfred answers, "He can't wait to meet you, he's declared himself both the best man and the wedding organiser because he doesn't think that either of us will be able to keep our hands off each other long enough to plan a wedding."

"He may be right about that," Arthur laughs through the phone, light and cheery, the tone most desperately took to thoughts of the future.

"I've still got your ring in my pocket," Alfred tells him, "I know you haven't even seen it yet but whenever I look at it, it reminds me of you. You've got to wait for me at the city until I get there to propose to you got it? No going out and doing something silly, promise?"

"Promise," Arthur confirms, "Just come quickly okay? I'll be waiting for you."

"I'll always be with you babe, you know that right?" Alfred asks, suddenly feeling desperate. The noises outside the door have suddenly died and he know that there's not long now.

An indistinguishable noise comes down the phone line and Arthur gives a small gasp, "Sorry, Alfred, one of the party I'm travelling with isn't well, I think she just took a turn for the worse… I should go and help out…"

"You go do that Doc. Artie," Alfred smiles and jokes.

"Don't call me Doc." Arthur mutters and then pauses on the phone, "Alfred?"

"Yes?" Alfred answers curious as to what Arthur words will be this time.

"…I'm glad you're safe, love," Arthur says, and Alfred lets the tension in his shoulders fall away.

"I love you too," He answers, cancelling the call. The door breaks.

Love you, Arthur. Goodbye.


I can be cruel... I just feel incredibly guilty about it too. My deepest and sincerest apologies.

I ran with final goodbyes in the end after trying out a few things, I quite like how it turned out, I just hope it came through okay. The party that Alfred was travelling with got ambushed, Mattie bought him the time to make a final phone call to Arthur.

I think you can all tell what happened to Alfred. It's up to you as to whether Arthur was lying too though.

I've been heavily caught up with revision now that I have to catch up from a day off so only a short one today, I hope you liked it, well actually you don't have to like this one :) - Sekaira