A/N: Hallo c:

Chapter five. As you

probably know… well, anyways.

Drama/action warning.

Hope you like it.

It was currently after school, and Arthur stood outside the library, waiting for Alfred to arrive. The school library had a pitiful selection of books, so the two had agreed to meet at the town library. After a few more minutes, Arthur decided to call and see what was taking so long. He dialed the phone.

Alfred picked up on the third ring. "Hey Artie!" He said. Arthur grumbled into the receiver. "Don't call me that. Where are you?" He heard fumbling, a crash, then a distracted voice on the other end of the line. "I just dropped something… I'll be right there. Town library, right…?" After confirming the location, Arthur hung up.

"So where should we start?" Alfred said, sitting down at a library table. The library was spacious, so the two were able to have a full table to themselves. Or at least, that's what Alfred thought.

"Don't spread all your books out like that, someone else might want to use the table." Arthur put his bag down, leaning it up against the table leg.

"Why not?" Came the reply. "There's barely anyone here, and this place is huge!"

"Shh. We're in a library, not a machine shop. Just move your books."

Ignoring him, Alfred asked his question again. "Where should we start?"

Arthur didn't hesitate. "I'm going to go get that book I needed. You finish what you didn't last night."

Arthur walked to the non-fiction section, looked around, then looped back to the fiction books. Alfred probably thought he was getting books for the project, but he wasn't. He wanted to get the next book in a series he was reading. Wandering through the isles, he heard Alfred calling for him. Arthur cringed. What a bloody pain… He hadn't even gotten his book, and Alfred was already making noise. He walked back to the table.

"What?" He snapped, leaning with both hands on the table.

Alfred was unabashed; "This is confusing."

Sigh. "Would you like help, then?" He said, bitter.

Alfred thought for a moment, then said yes. "Even though I'm smart enough to figure it out, I'm just tired." He smiled.

"Of course someone like you would never admit to needing help. What are you confused about?"

Alfred pointed to a page in the book he had lying open in front of him. "This. I don't know what they mean by this."

Circling around to the other side of the table, Arthur leaned over and inspected the book. "It's simple. They're just explaining the difference between the causes of the war."

Alfred nodded. "And this?" As Arthur explained the paragraph, Alfred was concentrating on the closeness of his friend. Was he a friend? He supposed not. He wasn't sure what they were. All he knew at the moment was that he wanted the close proximity to continue on for as long as possible.

Not thinking, Alfred leaned into Arthur's shoulder. The other stopped talking, and looked over. "What are you doing." His face was completely straight, but the tops of his ears that were hidden under his shaggy hair were turning red.

Alfred found himself not knowing what to say. So, he settled for "Oh. Nothing."

Arthur waited for a moment, then asked; "So… do you understand now?" The blue-eyed boy nodded.

"Alright. I'm going to get that book." He walked off.

After a painstakingly long time, Alfred finished his papers. It seemed as if it had taken forever. "Alright! Finally!"

"How many bloody times have I told you to keep quiet in this library." Arthur growled.

"Oh, loosen up. Y'know, you might look like a badass, but you're pretty uptight." Alfred's blue eyes sparkled as he laughed. Arthur's reply was unexpected.

"You think I look badass?" There was a hint of a smirk showing on his face.

Alfred found that he had lost his usual cocky attitude, and was only able to stutter out a small "I-I guess…" The other man tended to have that effect on him. His words were lost, along with his confidence, and he began to wonder why he had even said something so idiotic in the first place.

Arthur's face resumed its usual blank slate. "If you're done, we should go."

He began to stand and pack up, when he realized that Alfred was staring at him.

"What?" He said, with his usual stony glare.

"Are you sure we have to leave? I mean, there's nothing else to do at home. Why don't we go someplace?" Alfred smiled as if he had thought of a completely original idea.

"Where would we go? Besides, I'd rather not spend my day being harassed by the likes of you."

Puffing his cheeks pettishly, Alfred protested. "I'm not that bad." Then, after careful consideration; "You kissed me, so there has to be something you like about me."

If Arthur was ruffled, he didn't show it. Instead, he walked over and stared dead into the enthusiastic blonde's eyes.

"If you want to go somewhere, do it by yourself. I'm going home." He shouldered his bag, and turned to walk off. "If you go around spouting that nonsense about a kiss, I'm sure you'll be delighted to find many of your personal belongings destroyed."

Alfred smiled to himself. He could care far less about possessions.

Arthur knew he wouldn't hurt Alfred. No, of course not. But that didn't mean he would even think of hesitating to burn the stubborn kid's stuff. After all, it wouldn't do to have his little 'friend' unable to complete his half of the project. Although he was loath to admit it, he rather liked working with Alfred on the assignment. It meant that at the very least, Arthur could enjoy the few moments of weakness he seemed to provoke in the usually upbeat teen. It was almost cute. Actually, it was very cute. Arthur had seemed to begrudgingly admit a lot to himself these days. It was a bit frightening. Since when was he prone to being friendly to Alfred, on occasion? Well, no matter. It wasn't something he wanted to burden his mind with at the moment. Unfortunately, his brain thought otherwise, and Alfred stayed in his thoughts until the next morning.

The next morning, Arthur got up as usual. It was a Friday morning, so that meant there was the weekend to look forward to, and Arthur very much needed that weekend. Working on projects with Alfred all week had sapped him of energy, and he was looking forward to being able to sleep in. This Friday happened to be an assembly day, so there would be no History class as well.

The hours dragged by, and finally, the assembly ended. But as he was leaving, Alfred approached him at the door. Just his luck.

Before anything could be said, Arthur chose to speak. "Oh joy, what do you want with me now?"

Alfred put on a fake pout, and followed him out the door. "Since we didn't do anything yesterday, do you want to go somewhere today?"

"What makes you think I want to do anything with you, outside of schoolwork? Bloody hell, you're acting like a clingy girlfriend."

This apparently stung Alfred, and he replied with a condescending, albeit hurt tone.

"Like you've ever had one! I've seen you always sitting alone. You never talk to anyone."

"Hey, I wasn't the one who asked to be talked to. Waltzing up and trying to befriend me all of a sudden. What do you think you're going to achieve? After all, I'm just an antisocial delinquent child!" The last statement was laced with sarcasm, and hit the mark exactly where planned. Alfred was stunned. After jogging to catch up, he grabbed Arthur's shoulder and spun him around.

They were a far enough distance from the school to not cause a scene, but in the back of his mind, Arthur marveled at the fact that no one seemed to hear Alfred's shouting voice, which was quickly rising in pitch.

"You know why I talked to you? You want to know why I insisted on being your partner in this? It's because I've seen you so often, and never said anything. I love you! I'm fucking in love with you!"

Now it was Arthur's turn to be stunned. Yet, a part of him was suspicious as well, and this part won out. He gave Alfred the dirtiest look he could, and shoved him away.

"You better piss off right fucking now, before I lose my self control and break all the teeth out of your head."

Looking back on the situation, Arthur realized something.

That something was that maybe, just maybe, he was a bit too mistrusting after all.

A/N: Reviews?

It would be nice to know

If my theatrical brain was making

This far too dramatic.

Anything helps!