"You may need to brace yourself for this." he said. "It is very... surprising."
Alfred blinked. "Ookaayyy..." he said. "How bad could it be?" he asked with a laugh before walking into the room.
Kiku had been right.
Alfred froze at the sight, his eyes widening in a combination of shock, disbelief, and hope. On the bed in the corner lay Arthur; he looked the same age as Alfred, as if he had been alive and aging over the past decade as well. He looked over at Alfred and Kiku with the same emerald eyes Alfred had dreamed of so many times, his golden hair swaying ever so slightly as he turned his head. He smiled a bit.
"Oh, . Hello. Did you want me for something?" he asked in the same voice Alfred knew so well. Alfred staggered to the bed weakly, completely shocked.
"Ar... thur... How? I... I saw you die... I was at your funeral..." he whispered.
Arthur furrowed his eyebrows. "My funeral? What are you talking about? Who are you?"
With that, Alfred's hopes were shattered. The words rang in his head over and over.
Who are you?
"I-I'm Alfred… It's me, Alfred…" he said, his voice cracking even more.
Arthur raised an eyebrow. "Alfred? Alfred who? I've never seen you in my life." he said.
Alfred was completely overwhelmed. "We were best friends our whole lives! Then you... you…"
"I what?" Arthur asked in irritation. "Again, who are you?"
Alfred turned to Kiku. "Why doesn't he remember me? Why is he here? How is he here?" he asked.
Kiku frowned. "I'm not sure how this happened. He was found in the forest with a bullet through the chest a week ago… We only just got his name." he said, motioning to the nurse who had spent so much time trying to find the name of their mystery patient. "He was in the same place and condition as he was at his time of death." he continued grimly, looking over at Arthur. Alfred's breath hitched.
"He… was exactly the same as when he died?" he asked, dumbfounded.
Kiku nodded. "In the same condition, yes. However, look closely. He has aged just as you have." he said, motioning towards the British man. Alfred looked at Arthur in shock.
"How the hell is this possible?" he asked breathlessly. "I… he was dead!"
Kiku shook his head. "I don't know. I'm sorry. However, he is here, though with a bad case of amnesia… He can't remember a thing prior to when we found him. He didn't know his name, age, address or anything. Still, you had a right to know."
Alfred looked over at Arthur, who was now glaring at him. "To hell with it. Hospital or no, I'm coming here every day." he decided aloud. No way was he going to leave just like that. He didn't know how it was possible—and was, somewhere in the back of his mind, very concerned about it—but he wouldn't leave Arthur again. No, he left Arthur, only to come back and find him dying. He couldn't leave again. "Hell, I'll spend the night. It's Friday, I don't have work tomorrow. I'm not leaving." he said.
Kiku sighed. "Very well. I assume you'll want to stay somewhere nearby?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"Hell, yeah! I'm not leaving this room!"
Kiku sighed. "I expected as much. Unfortunately, it's against hospital policy to allow that without the patient's consent; however, the cafeteria itself is down the hall and open at all hours, though you can't buy anything from 8 pm and 6 am."
"Deal." Alfred said without a moment's hesitation. He looked over at Arthur, his eyes blazing with fierce determination. "I won't leave him again." he said. "I'll make him remember everything," he continued, walking towards his childhood friend, "no matter how long it takes."
Arthur frowned. "What are you, deaf? Git. Who are you?" he asked, wincing in pain as he crossed his arms. Alfred smiled—the first genuine smile in 10 years—as he held out his hand.
"The name's Alfred Jones." he said warmly, determined to make the best of the situation. He'd get his Arthur back someday; he'd make sure of it.
Eying Alfred with slight unease, Arthur hesitantly took Alfred's hand. "Arthur Kirkland. It's a pleasure." he replied, albeit a bit sarcastically. There was the Arthur that Alfred knew and loved. Wait, loved? Alfred mentally shook himself out of it and smiled gently at the Englishman.
"The pleasure's all mine." he said.
Meanwhile, Kiku stood in the background with another doctor. "He's taking this remarkably well..." the man commented, watching the two. He and Kiku had so far been the only ones to learn of Arthur's death, and in turn were the only two staff members aware of the full intensity of the situation.
Kiku gave a small smile. "I've never seen him like this. Perhaps this is what he was like before Mr. Kirkland had died." he wondered aloud. "Regardless, he seems quite happy."
The other doctor nodded. "Yes... That aside, how do you think this happened? People don't just come back to life, and a whole decade later at that. Got any ideas?" he asked with a frown.
Kiku frowned as well and shook his head. "No... I simply can't fathom it. However, while it could be important that we know how this happened, I don't think we should tell anyone yet." he said, gazing back at the two.
The doctor looked up at the ceiling for a moment, deep in thought, before nodding. "Yeah. It could end up being a pretty bad decision, but things could get real ugly real fast if this got out." he agreed. He smirked, looking at Kiku. "You're awfully talkative today. Usually you're close to silent." Kiku blushed and turned away. "Please, don't." Kiku chided quietly.
The doctor smiled. "Alright. Well, I have work to get to." he said before walking off. "Bye bye."
Kiku gave a small wave. "Goodbye."
Back with Alfred and Arthur, Alfred had taken it upon himself to find a stool so he could sit by Arthur. "So you claimed to know me?" Arthur asked, quite skeptical. Oh, how Alfred wanted to say yes. But Alfred knew Arthur; to bombard him with stories would only irritate him in some way. So instead, he had decided to start anew, and the memories would come back on their own.
"Oh, that? Just forget it." he said cheerily.
Arthur stared at him. "Ookayy... Quit staring at me, git. What do you want?" he asked.
Alfred laughed; he was so happy, simply being in Arthur's presence. "I'm just looking forward to spending time with you..." he said happily.
Arthur blinked before scoffing and looking out the window. "Oh, brilliant. I've attracted the attention of an American fool. Wonderful..." he muttered sarcastically. He looked Alfred in the eye. "You expect me to believe such a blatantly horrible reason? Why are you here?" he asked.
Alfred frowned. "I told you why..." he said. "I want to spend time with you."
Arthur scoffed again. "I was hoping for the truth."
"That is the truth."
"Why would anyone want to spend time with me?" Arthur asked.
Alfred blinked. "Why wouldn't they?"
Arthur rolled his eyes. "You're not leaving anytime soon, are you?"
Alfred grinned. "You guessed it." he said happily, a faint blush dusting his cheeks without him ever realizing it.
Arthur gave a sigh of defeat. "Gits will be gits, I suppose..." he muttered. "I'm going to sleep."
Alfred nodded. "I'll be right here when you wake up."
"Is that meant to make me feel better?"
"Um... Probably?"
Arthur blinked before sighing and laying back down, turning away from Alfred. Meanwhile, said American just gazed at him softly. Yeah... It's definitely Arthur... he thought, feeling warmer than he had in years. He had to restrain himself from playing with the smaller man's hair. "God, how I missed you..." he murmured, watching Arthur (who by this point had fallen asleep).
When Arthur woke up a few hours later in need of painkillers, sure enough, Alfred hadn't moved from the spot. He looked at the American in dismay, ignoring the intense pain just long enough to glare at Alfred. "What the—urgh—bloody hell are you still doing here?" he asked in exasperation, clutching his chest in an attempt to quell the searing pain he felt.
"I said I'd be here, didn't I?" he asked.
The nurse looked at him. "Excuse me, sir, but visiting hours are almost over..."
Alfred frowned. "I can stay in the lobby or café, though, right?"
The nurse frowned and tilted her head. "Well, I suppose…"
That was all Alfred needed to hear. "Alright, then it's decided. When can I come back here?" he asked.
The woman blinked, a bit taken aback. "Visiting hours are from 8 am to 10 pm…"
Alfred nodded and looked at Arthur. "Then I'll be back in 8 hours."
Arthur sighed. "Must you really?"
"Yep."
"Whatever, git."
The poor nurse, now both confused and feeling like a third wheel, finished giving Arthur the painkillers and left the room quietly. Alfred left shortly after, albeit reluctantly, and made himself at home in the café. He checked his phone; 12 texts? Geez, he must've been pretty into the visit not to notice the annoying message alert go off… Alfred sighed. "Okay, let's see what we got here…" he muttered, opening the first text.
Mattie, 12:48
Were r u? wernt u gunna com ovr 4 that big baseball game u wer goin on and on abot?
Alfred face palmed and replied.
O crap, that was 2day, wasnt it? Srry! Sumthing came up!
He sighed again. No doubt, he was going to have a lot of explaining to do when Matthew checked his inbox… Luckily, the Canadian rarely checked his phone, and for the most part only carried it around for emergency purposes. He checked the others.
Ludwig, 3:24
Do you have those papers or not? We need those signatures.
Alfred rolled his eyes at that one. "Of course he'd text me just to ask about work. Lol, who else would text with actual grammar and spelling in a text?" he muttered, quite obviously amused. "Meh, Luddy can wait for a response. As for the rest of them, I don't even wanna know what that attachment Francis sent was, and Antonio's on his own with the lolita thing…" he continued thinking aloud, skimming through the texts, until he eventually fell asleep. He wasn't having a very good dream, either… Like the past few weeks, it was the same scene; Alfred being forced to watch Arthur die in his arms over and over. However, this time was different; instead of Arthur's eyes closing, he just stared at Alfred. Always staring, as if to ask, "why did you let this happen?"
Alfred woke with a start the next morning. He jumped up in his seat before looking around and remembering where he was. He checked the time on his phone; 8:34 am. He bolted down to room 146.
Please, please let me be awake…he prayed. He opened the door to find Arthur, sleeping in his hospital bed in the corner. Alfred pinched himself to find that, no, he really was awake, and Arthur really was there. He was pretty banged up, but he was there, he was alive. Alfred would've started crying right then and there if he hadn't noticed the people staring at him in the hallway. He walked in and quietly took a seat on his little stool by Arthur's bed. "This is really happening, isn't it?" he whispered to himself. "Arthur's really here, isn't he?"
Who are you?
Who are you?
The words rang through Alfred's head again and he winced. "Mostly here… right?"
ASSOJOIGJSOITJGV SOXIUT Omfg! 5 pages! I write all this on my phone, and when I fix up the formatting on Word (as per usual, I blatantly ignore the SpellCheck button) I see OMG PAGE 5 OF 5 WHOOOOOO! Just cracked 2000 words… wait, only 2000? No, that's not enough! I say that, but Im at a loss, and this was my last unfinished file… On to Peppermint c2! *has become a fanfic workaholic*
OMFG B4 I GO! GO TO
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http: / / . tumblr . com / tumblr_lfu4gk5rBv1qan0j3o1_500 . jpg
THE GREATEST RUSSIA COSPLAY EVAR!