Arthur climbed down the shelves, the old, dusty book gripped close to his side. These books might have just the answers he needed. After all, he had used a lot of black magic back in his younger days. Who knows what he might have missed? He just hoped that if that is the reason for everything that had been happening, that it could be undone.
Arthur returned to his bedroom and sat up on the king size bed, delicately tracing the rim of the book cover with his fingers before gingerly opening the cover and carefully turning the beige coloured, aged pages. He gently blew the dust from the first page, revealing a small sentence, "Forever minding the rule of three,"
"…The rule of three…" he thought to himself.
It was a warning. A warning that sent shivers down Arthur's spine. He knew he never used to take the come backs of some spells seriously. "Is this all my fault?"
Arthur released a sleepy yawn and looked to window beside him, it was dark outside and all he could hear was the taping of the light rain against the glass. Arthur slumped back against the head board. It was quiet... too quiet. Arthur sat up as he realised, Alfred still wasn't back.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and hurriedly dialed his number.
Alfred was laid on his hotel bed. He was almost asleep when his phone rang. He looked down at the caller ID that had an image of Arthur asleep with doodles all over his face.
With half open eyes, Alfred pulled the phone up to his ear and mumbled a barely understandable, "Sup,"
"Hello, Alfred, where-"
Alfred jumped and his eyes shot wide open. He hung up the phone in a panic at the sound of Arthur's voice. He hadn't come up with a good enough excuse for Arthur yet as to why he wouldn't be coming back. He sighed, trying to pick out an excuse in his head. "Maybe I could just tell him… but I can't! There's no way Arthur would be able to keep his temper! Especially since Francis is involved, the pictures would be out in an instant. I could try the storage clearing excuse, it seemed to work with Matthew, no, Arthur wouldn't believe that… The only possible reason there could be was because what he did to Matthew, what am I meant to do…" Alfred groaned, falling back onto the bed. "Francis sure has bad timing, it's like he knew what had happened..."
Alfred pulled one of the pillows from beside him, squashing it into his face and using as a muffler for his yell. Why was nothing ever easy for them?
Arthur kept trying to call Alfred back, but sadly, the words of Alfred's he heard came from a pre-recorded message.
"Come on Alfred, pick up!" Arthur thought, as if he could telepathically get Alfred to answer his phone. He dropped his body weight, making all but his arm that held his phone, that still remained in the air, relax into the mattress. He tried to call one more time but still there was no answer. He let his arm flop down beside him, the phone falling to the other side of the bed. Arthur laid silently, listening to the rain. With Alfred still lingering on his mind, he soon fell into an uneasy sleep.
Arthur woke up the next day, with the bright sun illuminating all in it's reach, and the sound of rain had been replaced by the sound of birds outside. He sat up and sheilded his eyes from the warm sunlight. In that short moment everything seemed perfectly in balance and all his worries seemed a million miles away. He smiled, enjoying the warmth against his skin.
"But wait... it's December?" Arthur realized. He was about to get up and look outside but he felt movement beside him, he turned to see scruffy blonde hair poking out from the covers beside him. He pulled down the sheets, revealing Alfred curled up beside him. Alfred yawned, rubbing his eyes and letting them adjust to the sudden change of lighting. He smiled up at Arthur. "Good morning."
"Morning..." Arthur looked down at him slightly confused
"What's wrong?" Alfred questioned him.
"What happened last night? Why did you hang up the phone?"
Alfred sighed "It doesn't matter, everything's fine now."
"What about Matthe-"
"He's fine, don't worry."
Alfred sat up and placed his hand on top of Arthur's.
"The only thing you need to worry about it sorting out your... " he winced "…Problem."
Arthur weakly smiled back at him and sighed. "Alfred... I'm sorry for dragging you into this... You know you don't have to stick around if you don't want to."
Alfred squeezed his hand. "We've been through this Arthur, you're not getting rid of me."Arthur squeezed his hand back. For some reason the kind smile made him feel guilty.
"And that's what worries me..." Arthur mumbled to himself.
The sun shone through the trees, making everything appear to glow. Despite the time of year, the hole of Hyde Park looked like it was summer. Alfred sighed, earning him a worried glance from Arthur.
"What's wrong?"
"Arthur... I-I need you to help me..." his words came out as a hazy whimper as he gazed at the ground.
"Why? What's wrong?" Arthur stopped and pulled on Alfred's hand making him face him.
"It's... Look its not my fault, okay? It's him, please don't be mad at me! I do want to but... I-I can't be with you right now. "
"Why? Alfred, what hav-"
"I need you to do something for me..." Alfred's face was pale and held a unfamiliar look of grief. It was rare to ever see Alfred this upset.
"Of course, anything." Arthur gently grasped his hands but Alfred pulled away making them into fists.
"Just please help me..."
"Alfred what do you mean?"
"You'll understand soon enough... But for now, I just need you to wake up."
"What?" Arthur raised an eyebrow at him
"Wake up, please, please wake up, I need you!" Tears pricked in the corners of his eyes.
"But Alfred, what do you mea-!"
Arthur jumped up in bed, breathing heavily. The room was illuminated red. The sound of rain had gone, but there were no birds. He looked down, realising he was still in his clothes, which were now all wrinkled and creased from sleep. He tore away the sheet beside him, to find no one was there.
He shifted himself off the bed and quickly ran down the quietly peeked into Alfred's room, but to his disappointment, it was empty. He went downstairs and checked the kitchen and living room but Alfred was nowhere to be seen. "Just a dream..." Arthur whispered to himself.
Arthur sat back on the sofa, wiping his hand down his face. "You've really done it this time... " he groaned "maybe Matthew would know, Alfred did go back to see him. Or at least that's where he said he was going. But I wouldn't be able to bring myself to talk to him now, not after what I did..." Arthur looked over to the coffee table that had Alfred's clothes flung across it and frowned. Was it really that hard to fold your clothes up properly? But the annoyed expression soon disappeared from his face. Why would Alfred leave his stuff behind unless he was planning on coming back?
All of this was just giving Arthur a head ache. So many things running through his mind. The worst, never ending worry of once again losing the one he held nearest and dearest to his heart. He couldn't take it a second time.
The dream still lingered in his mind, "Hyde park..."
Arthur pulled on some new clothes and called a taxi, it may have just been a dream but if there was even the slightest chance that Alfred would be there….
Arthur walked along the path looking around at all the people. There were a few kids and the occasional couple, but no sign of Alfred. Arthur sighed, looking out at the path ahead of him.
And there he was. He was in the exact spot him and Alfred were standing in in his dream. He looked further e couldn't. He looked further and couldn't believe his eyes. It was Alfred, and he was leaned against a tree, looking lost.
"Alfred!" Arthur called to him as he picked up his pace, but when they made eye contact Alfred didn't walk over to him and explain what was going on like Arthur thought he would. No, he did the complete opposite. Arthur couldn't even explain the look on Alfred's face when he saw him but he… He ran.
Arthur chased him out of the park and at one point nearly caught up with him, but he lost sight of him when they ran down an alley way.
Arthur stopped to catch his breath. Why did he run? He definitely saw him, he looked right into his eyes. Why did he have that dream if he was going to run? He said something to himm but what was it… he said there was someone stopping him, but who?
"What am I thinking?", he mumbled. "It was a dream." Arthur glanced back down the alley way where Alfred disappeared and left. But he was still so confused. Why did Alfred hang up? Why didn't he come home? Why did he run? And if that dream was some kind of warning or something... who was he talking about, and why did Alfred need his help?
Arthur kicked his shoes off at the door and walked through to his living room. There was only one thing left for him to do.
Call Matthew.
Arthur picked up the phone and looked down at it for a minite before hesitantly typing in Matthew's number. He clenched the fabric of the sofa as he listend to the ring.
"Hello," a kind voice greeted him.
"Hey Matthew, it's Arthur. Have you seen Alfred lately?"
"Yeah, he was here last night, after taking you home. He said something about staying in the hotel. Didn't he tell you?"
"No. He just said he was going to see you. Uh, Matthew, by the way I'm sorry about you know… what happened. I don't know what came over me I ju-" his throat tightened.
"Arthur, it's fine. Don't worry about it"
"... Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, seriously just... just put it behind us."
Arthur sighed with relief.
"Um... Arthur, me and Alfred were planing on going to the movies tomorrow. If you want to see Alfred, you can come along."
His heart skipped a beat at the mention of seeing Alfred again. "Sure, where?"
"Odeon cinema. We'll be there at about four-ish."
"Alright, thanks. See you then."
"It's no proble. Bye."
Arthur hung up the phone and sat back on the sofa. One day. That's all he had to wait for until he could see Alfred and get answers.
Hey everyone Finally got chapter 14 Up hope you enjoyed don't forget to review and follow. Also if that dream ticked you, trollololollool
The next chapter is already half done so it shouldn't long.
byez for now.
Also I'm starting another UKUS story once this one is done. If you want to read it you can follow it here - story/story_edit_ ?storyid=9274957 - so you will know when It's made.