Arthur woke up slowly the next morning. The bright summer sunshine was coming in through the open windows since he hadn't drawn the curtains the night before. Thankfully he had angled his bed so the sun wouldn't fall on his face and blind him in the mornings but this particular day was already very sunny and Arthur could feel the light behind his eyelids.
He squeezed them tightly shut and wriggled further into the warmth he could feel surrounding him until the warmth constricted and pulled him too close for comfort forcing his eyes to open in shock.
Alfred lay in front him, Arthur's face was almost pressed flat against his bare chest, still fast asleep with his mouth open slightly so Arthur could feel the puffs of air on the top of his head and face. Arthur realised with a jolt that he was also still naked and blushed slightly as Alfred shifted against him in his sleep.
He sat for a while tensed wondering what he should do, if he should wake Alfred or let him sleep in. At some point he would have to get up -even if it was his day off- and who knew how long Alfred liked to sleep (a lot was Arthur's guess). After a few minutes of silent debate Arthur relaxed back into Alfred's embrace. He closed his eyes and thought back over the last night. The smile on his face grew as he remembered one thing in particular that stood out from everything else, he had said 'I love you' to Alfred! He had done it, and now there was no turning back but Arthur couldn't care less at that moment.
Before he could think over anything more, music blared into the silence. Arthur jumped in alarm and bashed his head hard into Alfred's chin, effectively waking him up and giving himself a throbbing headache in the process as the opening chords for 'God save the Queen' rang into the room.
"Ow, whazzat for?" Alfred asked sleepily, releasing Arthur to rub his sore chin and get rid of the sleep in his eyes. "If you wanted me to wake up," he interrupted himself with a yawn, "ya coulda just asked like a normal person Artie."
Arthur rolled his eyes at Alfred as he tended to the sore spot on the crown of his head. He rolled out of bed and looked around for his trousers. Spotting them across the room he snatched them up and rifled through the pockets for his mobile phone.
"Arthur!" Alfred cried out indignantly. Arthur held the phone in his hand as it continued to ring but made no move to answer it and instead stared back at Alfred in confusion. "Don't answer it." Alfred pleaded.
"I have to, this tone means-" he started before Alfred interrupted.
"The queen? Come on I just wanna lie down with you without stuff getting in the way. Just this once?" he asked holding his arms out from the bed expecting Arthur to put the phone down and return to him.
"Alfred, it's not her majesty, it's the baby." he emphasized.
"Huh? Oh come on you don't expect me to believe that? Babies can't use phones Arthur especially ones that haven't been...born?" realisation hit him like a ton of bricks. "The baby's being born?! Answer it!" he sprang from the bed and almost fell into a heap when his foot caught in the blankets in his haste.
Ignoring the pain and Arthur's worried fussing (and barely concealed laughter), Alfred grabbed Arthur's hand and forced it up to his face whilst pressing the answer button.
Looking somewhat amused by Alfred's abrupt 180 turn of emotions and a little apprehensive, Arthur answered the call.
"Hello?" Alfred forced his face as close to Arthur's as possible to hear the response.
"St Marys. Her royal highness has gone into labour and is on her way there now." came the curt response from a Palace official in charge of informing all the contacts left for him in this situation.
"Right. I'm going there now." Arthur hung up and grinned at Alfred. "You coming?" he asked as he turned away to grab some clothes from the closet.
"Me?" he asked surprised and indicated to himself as if to make it abundantly clear which 'me' he was referring to.
Arthur looked at him like he was mentally retarded and nodded slowly. "Yes you. Well?"
"Um, I dunno if I should. I mean, this is you thing right? And, uh, not sure if wearing clothes for the third day in a row is acceptable when I'm gonna be meeting the royal friggin family." Alfred looked absolutely terrified and nervously scratched the back out his head.
In the mean time Arthur had managed to pull on underwear and new pair of trousers. He straightened up and smiled softly at the bashful American. He stepped up to him and cupped his face, much like Alfred had done to him the other day. His thumb stroked Alfred's cheek as green eyes met with blue. Alfred overlay Arthur's hand with his own and squeezed it gently to show he appreciated the gesture.
"You'll be fine love, even in old smelly clothes." he wrinkled his nose in mock disgust before grinning when Alfred looked genuinely upset. "Kidding, you can wear the clothes you left here after the chocolate bedspread disaster of your last visit."
"I left clothes here?" Alfred asked cocking his head to the side slightly. Arthur dropped his hand.
"Mmm, I was under the impression that you thought I was going to grow three heads and breathe fire and decided to bolt if I'm honest. You left the suit you wore for the conference in a ball in the corner of the room." Arthur returned to getting dressed.
"Great! And I was by the way, you looked seriously pissed. I thought you were gonna murder me."
"I was." awkward silence. "I hung them back up in the closet in the spare room after I cleaned them." he added casually.
After rushing from the room incase Arthur's murderous intent returned at the memory, Alfred quickly pulled on his clothes and rushed downstairs to join Arthur in the kitchen. He was completely thrown off by the fact Arthur was sitting down at the table with a fresh cup of tea in front of him and a steaming mug of coffee sitting opposite presumably for Alfred.
"Err, what are you doing?" he asked.
"Having my morning cup of tea what's it look like?"
"I thought we were in a rush, you know that little thing about the new royal baby being born right now?" had Arthur forgotten?
Arthur snorted. "Please, I've had enough experience with these things to know labor doesn't pass in the blink of an eye especially not for first borns. I'll have my tea and give them time to settle." he smiled into his cup.
Alfred huffed impatiently, annoyed they weren't on the move for something so important. He hated just sitting still when he knew something was going on. Nevertheless he sat down at the table to drink and finished his coffee in half the time it took Arthur to finish his. Whilst he waited for Arthur to drink his tea he sat bouncing in his chair and asked rapid-fire questions about what Arthur thought the child was going to be like.
"Do you think it'll have hair?"
"Do you think it'll be a boy or girl?"
"What will you do if it's born with only one arm? Or no head!"
"Ow! Why did you throw a plate at me?"
Arthur soon tired of his unstoppable and mostly insane questions. He downed the last drops of his tea and set the cup on the table.
"Come on idiot, let's go." he stood up and picked up his jacket from the back off his chair. Alfred nearly knocked his chair flying with the energy he used to practically explode off it.
When they left Alfred felt his jaw drop. Waiting on the drive was a sleek black car. Inside sat a driver who, noticing their arrival, started the engine.
"When did that get here?" he asked as he followed Arthur's lead and climbed into the back.
"About half an hour ago sir." replied the driver from the front seat. "fifteen minutes faster than you did for the previous prince sir." he noted addressing Arthur as they pulled away.
"I can't believe you remembered that. And it wasn't my idea at any rate, you can blame this one," he nodded in Alfred's direction, "he wouldn't sit still."
"You just let him wait out here whilst you took your sweet time with the tea? Dude you coulda invited him in at least." Alfred was incredulous.
"Well I would but I've learnt from experience that Barnes prefers to wait for me in his car." he smirked slightly as the driver nodded his agreement.
"That's right. No offence sir but it can be overwhelming around you, still haven't quite wrapped my head around the age thing." he smiled benignly at them through the rear view mirror.
Most of the rest of the trip was in silence with the occasional comment from Arthur and reply from Barnes. Alfred tried his best to sit still and ended up staring out of the window at the busy London streets.
When they reached the hospital Alfred was amazed by the sheer mass of people crowding the front entrance. Standing by the doors he could just make out the uniform of Arthur's police force standing guard and preventing the well wisher's from getting too close. It was so strange seeing such a fuss over one little child who hadn't even arrived in the world yet to see all the commotion. At Alfred's home there was no way to tell when his future boss was being born so there was never this kind of hype and even if the King's and Queen's of England don't run the country the way the Prime ministers do, they are popular and greatly respected by their people. Their car was taken through back-streets until they were dropped off at the back of the hospital. Arthur bid Barnes farewell since no one knew how long they would be and he couldn't just circle London until they were finished.
Alfred followed Arthur past nurses, doctors and men in suits Alfred supposed were the security staff who stood aside for Arthur with smiles and stared at Alfred in confusion having never seen him around before and not knowing who he was. With all those stares pointed at him Alfred grabbed Arthur's arm to pull him to a stop.
"Maybe I shouldn't be here." he said glancing at the nearest nurse.
Arthur frowned and followed his gaze. "Don't be ridiculous. Why not?"
"It's not really anything to do with me, I'll be intruding."
"I'm here to give my approval and bring luck to the baby. Surely two countries blessings would be better than one, even if it is unofficial." he smiled and Alfred suddenly understood.
"You're scared." Alfred stated shocked.
Arthur didn't even bother trying to deny it.
"'course I am. Do you have any idea how terrified I am that one day I'll walk through doors like that and find... even with all the advances in medicine not every child makes it into this world and not every child is born well. There are so many things that can go wrong both for the child and the mother. So what if I'm scared, I'll still go." he glared defiantly at Alfred.
"Do you have any idea how much I respect that?" Alfred pecked him on the cheek and took his hand. "Let's go."
Even after their late start and the chaos on the roads, there was a lot of waiting around. They were lead to a room kept empty for family and spent quite a few hours sat just holding hands and whispering quietly to each other. Occasionally someone would walk in and give an update, but nothing really happened.
Eventually Alfred dropped off resting his head on Arthur's shoulder. Although he rolled his eyes a small smile was present on Arthur's face as he leaned his head on Alfred's and ran his hand through his hair. When the nurse found them like that, Arthur was mildly worried they would be yelled at. Sometimes it amazed him how far things have come and when she merely smiled and said the baby had been safely delivered, Arthur nodded and gently woke Alfred up with a small blush on his face because of her knowing look.
Together they were lead down a corridor and into a brightly lit room. Alfred let go of Arthur's hand just before they went in and offered him an encouraging smile as the doors swung open. Inside was a small number of people all fawning over the new mother and baby. A few looked up at their entrance, smiled and moved aside to allow them past.
When they reached the head of the bed, Arthur on one side and Alfred on the other in the narrow space between the bed and the cabinet, a small bundle was offered to Arthur who took it carefully and held it securely against his chest. A goofy grin had spread over his face as a tiny hand that poked out of the cloth gripped the finger Arthur offered to it.
"It's a boy." someone said, Alfred didn't see who, he was too focused on Arthur's face and the baby in his arms.
"A boy." Arthur cooed quietly down at him, suddenly his smile dropped and was replaced with a surprised expression. He looked up at Alfred then back down at the baby. "Oh."
"What is it?" Alfred asked. Everyone else in the room was struck silent with fear.
Then a huge smile lit up Arthur's face. "Nothing. He's perfect."
The relief was tangible and the happiness from Arthur was infectious, soon everyone was smiling and chatting and cooing as the baby was passed around the room. Arthur watched all the celebrations cheerfully and his gaze sharpened when the Prince was handed to Alfred. Alfred had grinned at the baby who had promptly started crying leaving him looking bemused as he handed the baby back to his mother to calm down. Their eyes met over the bed and they decided to leave the family to celebrate in peace.
On the way out Arthur took Alfred's hand once again, in plain view of the royals as they left. Alfred went bright red but nothing was said about it and they left without a problem. He glanced sideways at Arthur as they walked. He was still smiling happily and Alfred decided he loved that expression, he hadn't seen it too often since he was a child and was determined to see it more.
"So what was that about back there?" he asked.
"I always knew most babies are born with blue eyes," he grinned sideways back at Alfred, "I just never expected to see your blue eyes in any other persons face."
"My eyes? Really?" Alfred thought about it, "Cool." he decided with a smirk.
"Yep, your beautiful baby blues."
And this is almost it...like for everything. Um yeah.
Wish me Happy Birthday guys :)