AN: I am not dead. I meant to have this up last Sunday, but I was being a dumbass and I left my notebook with this chapter in it at school. This week I didn't get to do much with it because I was angry with this dumb chapter. I had a nice long one all ready and I was gonna type it up, but I'm such a freakin smartypants that I left my notebook at school AGAIN! I could have sworn I grabbed it too damnit. I didn't want to make anyone wait anymore though so Im gonna try and type it from memory. Sorry. I will probably fix it later.
Alfred's POV
I woke up early today, surprised that I got any sleep at all. I was going to get to meet Arthur today, like for real meet him. I could barely contain myself. I had to though if I was going to surprise Matt. He was up already, so I didn't have any time to compose myself. I walked into the kitchen to see Matt ready for school and cooking. Pancakes. Delicious.
"You're up early on your day off, Alfred. Pancakes?" I nodded and he handed me a plate of maple syrup goodness, which I devoured. "What are you going to do here all by yourself?" Crud! He was onto me already. I could handle this though. Play it cool Alfred. Play it cool.
"I had a surprise planned out for us. That means no getting in trouble at school, alright." Matthew rolled his eyes and pulled up a pinky. I met it with my own and we shook on it before continuing to indulge in the goodness that was our pancakes. Matt finished his and glanced up at the clock.
"I have to go, Alfred. See you after school." He grabbed his books and walked out the door, waving on his way.
"Bye Matt." Once I knew that Matthew was gone, I got to work. I started out in the kitchen, cleaning off the plates we just used and wiping off the counter. I swept and mopped the floor before moving on to our bedroom. It was a lot of work, but eventually I had it clean enough. I could see the carpet, which was actually red, not blue like I had previously believed.
Deeming the house clean enough, I headed out for the next part of my plan. I had to rent a car. The airport wasn't far, but the plane ride was probably tiring and I doubted anyone would want to walk home after that. I already had money saved up anyway. I had planned to take Matt on a drive to the countryside. I figure he would like this a whole lot more. Actually getting the car was easy. There was practically no one there, so I didn't have to wait. I ended up with a big 5 seater that had a trunk. On the way back to the apartment, I picked up some posterboard and a few colors of paint.
Upon arriving home, I emptied out the bag of supplies. I started on the signs for Mattie to hold, writing Francis on one and Gilbert on the other in big bubble letters. I took my time painting them in lots of colors and then I drew some bears that looked like Kumajiro on them. Then, I made Arthur's. I drew a great big British flag on them for the background. That dried quickly and I wrote Arthur in black. I was beginning to get really excited about this.
Finally, all my work was done. I even had about a half hour to spare. Most of the time I spent too excited to think, or do anything for that matter. When it was time to get Matt, I literally skipped to the rented car, posters in hand, and drove off quickly. I met Matthew about half a block away from the school. When he saw me in the car, his eyes widened.
"We're going driving!" The excitement in his voice was obvious. I watched as he hopped into the front seat. "Where are we going?" He bounced with anticipation. I shook my head and he sunk back into the seat. He remained in that position for the whole rest of the trip. Upon hitting our destination though, he sat up straight. "The airport? Alfred, what are we doing here?"
Both of us got out of the car and I ran to the trunk and pulled out the signs. When he read the names written down, I'm pretty sure that he died and went to heaven. "Are they- are they really coming? They are, aren't they? Maple! Was this the surprise? Come on, lets go inside!" I handed him his signs and we made our journey inside the airport. The plane that they were riding on had just arrived, and they should be able to see us soon.
Mattie was visibly excited and hopping around, scanning the area for anyone. He had been waiting to meet those guys just as long as I had wanted to meet Arthur. Though he would deny it if you were to ask him. I was glad that they were there for him. Before now, the only person he could depend on was me. It was screwing with his head.
People were filtering out from the area there plane was residing. Soon, we would be able to see our friends from across the sea. When we did, they were easy to point out. There were three of them, just like Arthur had said. "Matt that is them." I said pointing at the strange threesome. "It has to be." Matt's eyes lit up as they traced my arm up to who I was pointing at. I briefly glanced at a pale guy grinning and gesturing to himself and a blond haired guy that looked like a pervert. Somehow I knew that neither of them were Arthur though.
Arthur had to be the one in the middle. He was scowling and seemed overall unhappy. His hair was cropped and messy. Eyes were green, true green. They sparkled, even from faraway. Soon they met my own looking down at the sign in my hand he nodded up to both of his friends and pointed at us. The pale guy with- were those red eyes- looked up and sprinted towards Matt, tackling him in a hug. Arthur and the other guy just lagged behind him walking.
"Birdie?" Matt grinned and nodded.
"Gilbert!" I watched as they huggd again and jumped up and down. It was like a scene from one of those movies that I didn't watch (Read: watch all the time) because I'm the hero. Either way I was distracted by a hand being thrust at me.
"Are you Alfred?" I grabbed his hand and shook it, sure not to miss the fact that his scowl became a smile, a small one but still.
"The one and only. You must be Arthur." He nodded. I was kind of sad that we didn't get to do all the jumpy huggy stuff that Matt got to do. I guess that it just isn't Arthur's kind of thing. I was distracted from my small depression by Matt speaking more of that gibberish followed by that other guy responding. He must have been that frog guy... um Francis. That was it! He didn't look like a frog though.
"Shut up Frog. No one wants to hear that cruddy language. Speak english." Artie was mean, but it seemed like friendly teasing to me. They must have known each other for a long time. I looked down at Arthur to try and start another conversation when...
"Holy crap Artie! What are those? Hold still Artie I think there are some catepillars on your face! I'll get them off because I'm the hero!" Both of his friends started laughing out of control. Gilbert even fell on the floor. Arthur was bright red. He was covering up the catepillars with his hands.
"They are not bugs!" His voice was quiet like I had hurt his feelings. I couldn't have done that though, because I was the hero. "Those are my eyebrows, you git." I get it now. He might have been offended when I told him that his eyebrows looked like creepy bugs. Now that I thought about it, it did seem a little mean, but come on they were HUGE!
Matt walked right over to me and pulled on my marvelous nantucket. "Ow. Matt, that was mean." He didn't let go, and he gave me that scary look that only little brothers could give. "Mattie, let go, that hurts." His evil brother look only deepened. He tilted his head at Arthur. Oh I get it now. "I'm sorry, Artie. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. A hero would never do something like that on purpose." After saying that, my hair was set free from the death grip of scolding. I rubbed the newly sore spot on my scalp a bit. Artie nodded and called me more names that I don't know the meaning of.
Matt spoke up now. "Lets get out of this airport. Another plane just landed, and this place is about to get crowded." His words were followed by nods of agreement from all of us. The journey to the car made us feel like old friends. We talked and bickered, teasing each other all the way. Conversation bounced from choice of pets to cooking skills and which language was the best. Artie said that American wasn't a language though which made me kind of upset.
I drove the car with Artie in shotgun. Matt was in between Gilbert and Francis, in the backseat. I kept thinking about our seating arrangements. We were one bed short, so one would have to host two people. I was thinking Matt could share a bed with someone, because I really did not want to sleep on the floor. Everyone was being really noisy, keeping me from any productive thought, so I just kept driving. I couldn't multitask that well anyway and an accident would be bad.
When we got to the place, everyone scrambled. The car was empty before I even had a chance to realize what was going on. Arthur was walking in circles in the parkinglot, while Gilbert and Francis were playing a game of tugawar using Mattie as the rope. That probably should have worried me a little more than it did. I ushered everyone into the house that seemed a little too small now. I had never thought that before, but with three extra people standing in it, I was beginning to. Matthew was gaping at the cleaning job I had done earlier.
"You are never getting out of cleaning again, Al. How did you even do all this?" His eyes were wide. Beside him, Gilbert laughed. Nothing seemed funny about this. He didn't seem like a guy to laugh just for the fun of it either. Matt punched him in the arm.
"Ow. What was that for?" At Matt's pointed look he changed his tune. "It just reminded me of a talk I once had with my little brother a while ago. He is a clean freak, so I helped him out once and did such an awesome job he thought he could tell the awesome me to clean all time. That was unawesome of him, so I made a point to not clean until he threatened to kill me." Matt punched him in the arm again, playfully this time though.
"I feel sorry for your brother sometimes. The rest of the time I just like to think of how alike our lives are. I got a good venting buddy out of this." I took this as my cue to hug my brother before he went on pancake strike. Just the thought was enough to give me chills.
Now it was time for the hard part. I had to figure out sleeping arrangements and have people agree to my plans. As if reading my mind Matthew asked the dreaded question. "Hey, Alfred, where is everybody going to sleep?" I took a deep breath. This was going to be difficult.
"I pulled out the air mattress for someone and I was kind of hoping that two people could share a bed, otherwise someone would have to sleep on the couch." My voice was really quiet at the end of that phrase. I didn't tell them that the couch was where I planned to sleep, because I didn't want to force them into sharing. I would be alright on the floor for a week or so anyway.
I left the realm of my thoughts exploring life on the cold floor and saw something that I did not expect. People were fighting about who got to share the bed. Francis was poking Arthur with malicious intent, who responded with more insults that made no sense. I swear it was like he was making stuff up in his head. Gilbert was holding onto my brother who was redder than the leaf on his dumb flag. I heard Francis say my name and laugh, the sound was followed by a yelp and punch in the face from Arthur. Whatever he said must have been pretty bad.
The sleeping arrangements were decided. Arthur and Francis would switch between my bed and the air mattress and Gilbert and Matt would share Matt's bed. "Where are you going to sleep?" Arthur had asked before I had even said that I was taking the couch. There was no getting out of it now.
"I'm gonna sleep on the couch." I poited at the piece of furniture for extra emphasis. There was a deep scowl on Artie's face.
"No you will not. It is too small, and you will end up hurting yourself. We'll share." I couldn't help but feel excited. Arthur had just shown that he cared about how I felt. He was worried about me. That or he really wanted to share a bed with me. If it was the second reason, I could easily say that the feeling was mutual.
"Alright." It wasn't too hard to act surprised because I was. I really hadn't expected Arthur to say no to me, and I certainly hadn't expected him to say that we would share. I was starting to get slightly worried though. After we fixed the shell, what were we going to do? I was feeling too attatched to Arthur to just say goodbye. I could only imagine how Matt would feel. Even though I am the hero I really don't know what to do this time.
An: Done. I worked extra hard because it is like 5 days late. Sorry about that. Anyway I tried for lots of action and made it super long. Hopefully you liked it. Please review.