Hello you guys! SO sorry I have not updated in like forever! ;_; I have been very bussy with work and getting my life to stick together xD haha

anyway! Hope you're looking forward to this chapter! :'D

Still sorry for the errors in this chapter as well, my beta has not had time to go through it, I AM TOOOO QUICK! :

Warning!: THERE WILL BE LEMMON! sooon... I promse... not yet maybe but the one who waits... ;) will be rewarded

Disclaimer: No one in this story is min... yes well the OCs are mine but not the ones from APH ;)

His knees had been shaking the entire way up the driveway and his fingers had done the same when he reached for the doorbell. Lauren had opened and as soon as he saw her happy face he tried to remind himself that, even though he felt like he'd pee himself from nervousness, it would be worth it in the end. To see her happy.

"Come on in" she giggled and he blinked, pulling his eyes from her cute face and beautiful dress. It really did a lot for her curves even though it did not reveal a thing. He had never seen her in a dress like this, white and innocent. She was very pretty indeed. "I told them you where scared so dad promised he wouldn't interrogate you or anything..."

"That's reassuring..." he mumbled and stumbled as he tried to take his shoes of with grace, which was impossible. The tie suddenly felt very tight around his neck and he reminded himself to kill Arthur when he got back home for trying to strangle him from a distance.

"Al, this..." she said as they stepped into the living room; a very homy room with two smaller couches and one armchair, a table with glasses on and a pair of smiling parents. "...is my mom and dad, mom and dad, this is my boyfriend Alfred"

He wanted to puke. And did she have to use that name? He sounded like an old man from Sweden or something?

"Nice to meet you both" he said instead and shook hands with both the woman and her husband. They didn't at all look as dangerous as in his dream but he could have sworn the man gave him a look that said ' you better not be fucking my little daughter' for a second... but when the moment passed he thought that maybe he just have been imagining things again.

Lauren's family seemed to be just like any other really. Her mother was gentle and sweet, spoke with a smile every time she mentioned her daughter, not at all like the monster he had imagined after all Lauren's stories about her. But all teenagers exaggerate when they talk ill about their families after all. Her father seemed to be a bit strict but liked the fact that Al had good grades and had a brother that studied abroad. He seemed genuinely interested in what kind of person Al was, instead of accusing him of stealing his daughters innocence. If he only knew.

"And what do your parents do, Alfred?" he asked as he was drinking from his glass with whiskey, the ladies in the kitchen next door, preparing dinner. "You must have gotten your good genes from somewhere, am I right?"

Al chuckled slightly, beginning to relax slightly now since the first wave of nausea had left him. "Well, my mother has been working several jobs for a while, but now she has just been hired somewhere, a couple of days ago to be exact and I haven't really had time to talk to her much about it I'm afraid..." he smiled apologetically and drank some of his soda. "My father works in construction, but he studied to be a lawyer when he was younger..."

"And why didn't he continue on that path?" the older man asked curiously and Al felt a flicker of pain go though his stomach before answering.

"I think it had something to do with him changing? He wanted to do other things with his life and being a lawyer would have gotten in the way of that... at least that's what he said."

"I see... I hope that you're not the kind of person to give up on your dreams Alfred, you seem like a bright kid after all"

"No, I am not the kind of person who quits" Al agreed and smiled a little again as he got a reassuring nod from the older. Impressing parents when you didn't have much to impress with was hard. But he'd do the best he could of course.

...

"Ahhh I'm so tired..." he complained and Jody laughed a little as he sprawled himself on top of Al's covers with a groan.

"You look like my cat when you do that" she said and pushed her glasses further up on her nose, looking like a complete nerd, so adorable he had to laugh a little. She didn't mind though, he had assured her that she was perfect and that her glasses were awesome.

"Can't we do something else for a while?" he begged, looking like a sad puppy instead and whining slightly. "We've been studying for hours now and I really need to concentrate on something else before my head melts..."

"Fine..." she sighed, trying to look annoyed even though she was smiling. "What do you want to do then? We already had tea and cookies?"

"Can't we just... talk or something?"

She looked surprised at his suggestion and tilted her head to the side as he had realized she did a lot. "A boy that wants to talk about stuff, that's something you don't see everyday, I can tell you that."

He had realized that she was actually a really smart girl when she tried. When you were alone with her, she was so patient with you, caring. She listened to him and his thoughts about math, took in everything. She wasn't at all as daft as he had thought the first time he saw her and he felt stupid for even thinking that about her. Apparently others had done it before him though and she had million stories about guys trying to treat her like a dumb blond...

"I might not be like all the other boys then..." he sighed and he knew she could see the pain in his eyes, so he looked away. It was stupid and mean of him to want to talk about things with her... that was about the only reason he had wanted to have her as a friend in the first place anyway, because he could see in her eyes that she could listen.

"I know you're not..." she smiled and gently took his hand on top of the covers, squeezing it softly with a smile on her lips. "Of course we can talk if you want to? I've always wanted to have someone like you to talk to so I'd love to actually"

He laughed a little, just on the brink of not laughing at all. It was only like a fain chuckle and as he felt her hand tighten around his fingers he knew that as long as she was the one he spoke too, he'd be okay.

"You know..." she spoke up again and let her thumb rub the back of his hand gently. "I know there is something getting you down, I can see it, okay? So just say it and get it over with, for your own sake... cause it's much easier to deal with when it's out there you know.."

"Ehm..." he started and scratched his neck with his free hand, not wanting to look at her even she was looking for his eyes. "Fuck... haven't told anyone about it in ages, don't know how to even start..."

"Just say it, I won't judge you... not even if it's something about drugs or being an alcoholic or something"

The smile in her voice was reassuring and he took a deep breath as he smiled too, looking up at her with his green eyes feeling dry and itchy. "I.."

"Just say it Arthur..."

"Well, I'm.. you know... gay?"

The smile in her face became even more apparent and she nodded, even giggling slightly. "Not like I didn't already know that idiot" she then said and poked at his nose with a soft fingertip, eyes shining with enthusiasm. "I see how you look at him you know, it's a wonder that he hasn't noticed yet himself... stupid kid."

He was in total shock and could do nothing but nod a little at what she was saying. He couldn't believe that she had taken it so well. No one had ever... Not that she seemed like a person that would care that much, but still? This was America? His mother had said in the beginning that no one here would accept him right away... damn she must have been so wrong. He really shouldn't have been listening so much to her.

"You don't think he knows..?" he then asked and felt his heart sink slightly as she shook her head.

"He is too daft to notice I'm afraid..." she sighed and looked sad. "And all this, doesn't it hurt you?"

"I'm not in love with him Jody" he half laughed and wondered slightly why the fuck it felt so wrong to say those words. "I'm hard for him, because he is fucking gorgeously hot and I want him to fuck me, that's what I feel" he laughed at her shocked face and then smirked at her blushing cheeks. "If anything but horniness, I feel jealous of Lauren... who he is already fucking every day"

"Oh... I see..." she blushed and then hid her face in a nearby pillow. "So... you want him to... you know... hnn.. eh..?"

"Put his dick inside my ass...?" he asked back and tried to pull the pillow away as he spoke, which was impossible since she just gripped it tighter and squealed at his words."Yes, and other places of course"

"Stop it!" she laughed and buried her face even harder in the pillow. "You're making me embarrassed!"

"You where the one who was asking Jody"

"But I didn't think that you would answer so frankly!" she half whispered in a squeal, which made it almost impossible for him to hear what she was saying underneath the thick fabric and stuffing. "I'm not used to people talking to me about... stuff... like this!"

Arthur laughed again and lay down on the bed, stretching out as he spoke. "Well, get used to it hun... cause I talk about sex all the time"

...

The dinner was calm and nice. Lauren's parents where not as scary as he had thought in the beginning and the food was pretty good too. It was low fat though and he preferred hamburgers... Lauren's mother had made some sort of salad instead of cooking potatoes for the meatloaf and even though the flavors where really great together, he was already missing Arthur's wonderful breakfast and his mother's mac'n cheese.

"So Lauren tells me you have a younger brother too?" the older woman smiled and put some pees in her mouth, watching him with the same kind of eyes Lauren had. Now that just made everything awkward... It was hard not to think about sex when seeing Lauren, since their relationship had always been based on just that. But seeing this woman, looking so much like her daughter...

So this is what Lauren will look like when she is thirty plus...? he thought and suddenly his stomach turned again. Girls become so scary when they grow up...

"Yes..." he answered instead of letting him think any further than that. "He lives in Vancouver at the moment since he wanted to go to school there, my family thought that since I didn't want to go any special education, he could... and we have some friends there too so if something happens, he'll be fine"

"So he is the promising one then?" Lauren's father joked but even so, Al could see that the question was asked for a reason. He knew he needed to give a good impression for Lauren, because this meant a lot to her. But he didn't like the fact that her father wanted to make him look like an idiot...

"Not really." was his answer before he drank some of his soda, wishing that he had some alcohol about now. "He's always been a bit daft, but we love him anyway and he deserves as good a chance as anyone in our family"

"I see"

It seemed as if though Lauren and her mother had formed a pact, saying that if the mood ever became somewhat awkward, they would change the subject immediately, because they did so as soon as the silence fell, talking about the school now or something.

Al was eating and smiling as Lauren met his eyes but soon he was distracted by a buzzing in his pocket and pulled up his phone quickly. "I'm sorry" he excused as he got up to answer it in the other room. "I've got to take this"

"Hi brother!" came the happy voice of his younger brother from the other side of the line and Al breathed out in relief in the hallway where he now stood. He had thought something was wrong but now as he realized Matt was only drunk, he knew everything must be fine after all. "How is it hanging between your legs mr?"

"What kind of question is that?" he half laughed, half whispered back and made sure he was not being followed by Lauren's father or something before continuing. "Are you drunk Matt? I sure hope you didn't call mother because she'd freak and you know that, right?"

"Right, yes yes!" the younger one sighed and then laughed at something someone else said in the background. "I called though but cousin Arthur answered! He was suuuuper funny and told me all about himself! I wanna seee him sooooon!"

"Awesome, look Matt" he sighed even though he was smiling slightly. It wasn't that he was really worried about his brother, not even when he was drunk, but he was a bit scared of the fact that their mother would find out sooner or later. And when that happened... well, let's just say she had the best of ways to make life miserable when finding out things like that. Al had learned it the hard way... "I'm at Lauren's place, here to eat dinner with her parents so I can't really talk right now, on the phone I mean"

"I know I know" the other one laughed and Al could hear happy voices singing in the background now. "I just wanned to tell you I fucking love you bro!"

"I know, I love you too Mattie..."

"Ann it doesn't matter that you're gay dude..! I love you the same anyway, remember that!"

"Shut up Matt, go to bed or something before you make a fool of yourself."

"Yes boss!" his brother almost screamed on the other side. "Then I'll go color my hair now! Good bye!"

"Wait? What..? Mom will kill you if she finds out you have col-... Matt? Hello?"

The line was dead and he felt his stomach turn. Damn drunken kid. He collected himself slightly before walking back into the dining room again, he couldn't look all upset and confused when he had to be a good boyfriend... Lauren looked slightly worried when he came back in, but he smiled reassuringly and told them all that that had just been his brother, wanting to get some help with a math problem. That seemed to be taken well by the two parents and he felt good about himself for being such an excellent lier.

...

"Soooo... Truth or dare?" she giggled and stuffed her mouth full with popcorn, spilling half of it on the madras but he didn't mind even though he was the one who should be sleeping there soon.

He took his time before answering, picking only the popcorn that were big and looked fluffy, poking at his teeth where some of the brown corns had gotten stuck when he chewed. "Truth again" he then answered and laughed as she rolled her eyes at him.

"You're such a bore Arthur! You should become a professor or something..."

"All professors are boring then?" he chuckled back and threw some popcorn her way. Since she had rolled over to her back, they mistakenly got caught between her breasts and she laughed while blushing.

"Anyway..." she continued after calming down and drinking some soda. "I wanna know... if you've ever... hmmm... I mean, hmmm... Have you ever made out with a girl?"

"Yes..."

"Oh you've gotta tell me more about it than just a 'yes' Arthur! You don't fully understand the rules of this game..."

"It seems I don't.." he smirked and then turned his eyes to the bowl of popcorn again. "It was once, me and my ex we... well, hm... he dared me to 'find out if you're really gay' and he had me kissing a girl he knew..."

She blushed but turned back to her stomach to look at him. "He forced you to do it? That doesn't sound like such a nice guy..."

"He didn't force me... it was a joke, like 'truth or dare' almost..." he protested and was careful not to meet her eyes as he spoke. "And besides... I wanted to know what it was like, if it was any different you know? Like... did her lips really taste like cherry chopstick and does girl's have softer lips than guys in general..." She nodded in understanding at this and bit her lip, as if though the thought had crossed her mind as well.

"Did it then?"

"Nah..." he replied, now he was the one with the blushing cheeks. "She smelled like alcohol and tasted like tobacco... like a lot of guys, she did have pleasantly large lips though... but my dick didn't even tingle the slightest"

She giggled and nodded again, closing her eyes softly as if in deep thought for a moment before speaking. "I kind of get that..." she said and nodded while talking, even though she kept her eyes closed. "I kissed my ex friend once... she was suuuper hot and everyone wanned her you know, like all the guys... and she kissed me cause she was told to during a game, she was a good kisser"

He laughed a little and smiled as she looked up at him again. "Why don't you know her anymore? I mean... you said ex friend so..."

"Hmmm... she came out as gay a couple of years back, and I was fine with it, but her girlfriend didn't like me very much" she giggled, even though he could see there was sadness in her eyes. "I guess she thought I was some kind of threat to her, anyway, we lost contact after they had a major fight"

"You should contact her again" he suggested and reached out to pat at her head. "Since that was a long time ago, I bet you could just talk if through and become great friends again, yeah?"

"You know so much about women..." she sighed as if in bliss and he laughed. "You're not even into women and still you know more than any guy I've ever met"

"That's cause unlike many guys, I take my time and get to know the women I meet"

"Maybe you should teach other guys that as well, that would be awesome..."

Only half an hour later she left for home, looking sad when he followed her to the door and hugging him hard before stepping out on the porch with an 'I'm so glad you came here and ended up in my class..' before walking away, waving from the side of the road.

"I am too..." he mumbled and closed the door, only to open it again after putting his shoes on and stepped out on the lawn. The air was cold but he liked it, the smell of rain reminded him of home. It was that kind of home-feeling that he liked, nothing reminding him of his mother or anything, just of London. Beautiful London.

He sat down on the stone bench, which the Jones's for some reason had placed underneath the half dead apple tree. He suspected no one had ever been sitting there, or at least not the past couple of years, but he liked the spot.

It was calm now, since the cars had stopped driving passed the house the later it got, there were hardly any sounds, except for a couple of disorientated birds singing as if it was morning already.

"You pretty confused too..." he smiled at them and shook his head slightly. "Aren't you?"

He breathed in deeply a couple of times, closing his eyes, enjoying their frail company. Before long, he was laying down on his back on the narrow bench, smiling pretty happily in his solitude. Being alone wasn't always good, but when he chose to be, it was a total bliss. The cold air against his skin made him even more relaxed and he drifter away slightly, sighing with memories and feelings.

I remember when you used to lie like this with me... he thought and drew in a deep breath. Back then, it wasn't at all lonely like this... you were always babbling in my ear after all...

"Arthur?" Al's sudden voice came as if out of nowhere and he almost fell off the bench in confusion. He must have fallen asleep because he hadn't even heard the other one walk up the driveway or anything. He sat up quickly and must still be looking pretty confused since his cousin laughed at him before taking a seat next to him on the bench.

"I must have fallen asleep..." Arthur excused but Al just smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, I saw that..." he said and then looked out over the darkness in front of them, both of them falling silent for a while.

"So..." Arthur then said when suddenly realizing why it was that his cousin had been home so late to begin with. "How did dinner go? Did they half kill ya or what?"

Al chuckled drily, looking slightly bitter and scratched his neck. At first, Arthur thought that this must be a sign of it all going to hell but as his cousin started talking it turned out the dinner had actually been pretty much to his liking. Lauren's parents hadn't killed him, nor laughed at him, which was a good thing. He seemed to have felt a bit like a poor bastard though, when talking to her father though and Arthur smiled a little when he saw the embarrassed blush on the younger one's face.

"You're gonna get married into a rich family there, ey?" he joked and rejoiced as the young one blushed even more. It was hard to see the color on his cheeks in the darkness around them, but he could see it on the way Al pulled his shoulders together slightly and turned his face away.

"Don't you dare make this bigger than it is..." he almost whispered and looked up grumpily as Arthur gave him a soft shove with his elbow in the side. "...I don't even know if I like her enough to even say I love her or anything..."

"Relax kid..." he just smiled back and looked back up into the sky again. "you're at the age when you should be playing with it all, yes... some guys meet the love of their life and end up getting married at a young age... some meet the love of their lives and get dumped, crying their eyes out until the find the next one..."

"Aren't you talking about girls now?" Al chuckled back but quieted down when Arthur gave him an annoyed eye since he wasn't done. "Sorry... go on then..."

"Anyway... you can think that you've met the best person ever and that you will always be together, but believe me, there is always more than one true love out there for everyone..." He paused and made sure his cousin was still listening. "If you don't feel like you can give her the fantasy she wants, then you shouldn't keep being with her... I know she's gorgeous and that practically everyone else in school wants to be with here, now weather they want to fuck her or make love, I have no idea. But even if she is gorgeous, you can't just do what everyone else expects you to do you know...? Just because you're super gorgeous and all, doesn't mean you need do be with her to live up to some kind of expectations that don't even make you happy in the end..."

Al looked even more surprised than he had been expecting and Arthur shut up for a second. Apparently, his cousin had not seen the whole thing in this light before. But Arthur knew he was kind of right this time. Al had to wake up and realize that even if he might be having a blast at the time, the longer and deeper he got into the relationship with this girl, the harder it would be for him to blow it off if that thought ever crossed his mind. If he really DID want to love her, he had to work on that too of course... he just needed to think a bit more of what he himself wanted.

"Look..." he then said and leaned a bit against his younger relative, his hand poking slightly at the other's fingers before he realized how gay he was acting. That didn't stop him though because, according to Jody, Al didn't even know he was sexually interested in the male gender, in him. "...If you don't wanna talk about it with me, that's fine... but I'm gonna be here for a while and you better understand that I'm here to listen to you... I just think that if you really really like her, you should stay with her and treat her like a queen..."

"And if I don't think that's the case..?" Al asked back before Arthur had time to finnish and Arthur felt his stomach knotting into a hard ball. He felt bad for the girl, who had this gorgeous guy by her side that didn't feel about her like she thought and like she felt. He did feel bad for his cousin too though, maybe that was because they were related or something... but going through this must be a bit hard on him too.

"If you don't think you can live up to what she wants, even though I am sure you could if you just wanted to..." he sighed as answer and shrugged. "...you should tell her as soon as possible and maybe... just take some time off from the whole 'relationship' thing... maybe you just need to be you for a while? Do what ever you feel like..."

The younger one sighed beside him and Arthur could feel him lean back against him. He didn't say anything for a while, none of them did. Instead they just sat there in the silence, looking up at the night sky. Arthur felt his stomach grumble and his back hurt a bit. Somehow he wished he would have just told Al already, about being gay... (Since he clearly hadn't gotten the hint and probably never should) because what if Al was bisexual or something? Maybe he would consider...

Oh stop thinking like that! You're gonna kill yourself of you keep thinking you'll get sex within these next couple of months...

He smiled instead and sighed too, Al wasn't gonna talk about this anymore that was for sure. "What do you say to us going inside and take a midnight snack? Maybe watch some TV so that you can focus a bit on something else for a change?" Al nodded with a smile that looked like a thanking one and without further due, Arthur took his hand gently in his own and stood up, leading the way back to the house. The younger one followed obediently and he couldn't stop himself from smiling a little. Al really was cute after all. Especially when he looked so much like a little brother, like now...

He made some tea as Al stepped into the living room. Both of them where tired but none of them wanted to sleep for at least an hour or two. When the tea was done and some sandwiches placed on the table coffee table in front of them, Arthur relaxed on the couch with his legs facing Al, back to the armrest with a tired smile on his face. He could see his cousin watching him, even smiling as he did but he didn't really mind it. Maybe the younger one was just happy that he had someone there for him now, that was older and not that bad to talk to? When some cheesy movie started, they both laughed and started watching without saying much, just exchanging looks when the actors were so bad you could just kill them or when the music was overdramatic.

It's nice... he thought and chewed slowly on the delicious sandwich in his hand. Just sitting like this, letting the hours go without really caring what happens next. Can't remember the last time I just relaxed like this...

"I like it when you're around..." Al suddenly said, sounding like he was going to fall asleep at any moment and Arthur looked back at him, finding those blue eyes so much more awake that he would have guessed. "You calm me down and all, makes me feel like maybe I'm not really just a dick on the inside..."

"Likewise..." he smiled back and breathed out when Al did the same. He'd looked awfully serious right there. Arthur didn't much like it when people he cared about looked as serious as if they where going to tell you they had AIDS or something.

"Thank you for hating your family and coming here" the younger one then chuckled and poked at Arthur's foot, just to show that he really didn't mean the thing about hate.

He just smiled back and nodded. Al was kind, even though he didn't quite know it himself. He might even bee thinking of himself as the one who'd always hurt other people but that was not the way it was going to go down for him. One day he'd find the person he really wanted, someone who truly brought out the good parts of him and showed them to him with a smile. Someone who even loved the arrogance he could portray and kissed the bad temper out of his troubled mind... and that person, who ever it was, would be really happy to have found someone like him.

Awww... wasn't that sweet? :')

I have a plan for all this fluffiness so don't you worry ;) hope you liked the chapter and that you'll feel the urge to comment and tell me so! ;)

See you next time, yes?

Chu /Codes out