I heard your voice shout out to me, hounding
Sounding and rebounding and echoing, all in vain
Nothing remains, nothing's the same, let's just make a clean break
There's nothing keeping us here now we've unfastened the chain
We loosed the bonds and we've let them go, now
The seam has been opened, and it's fading more every day
This is goodbye, at least we tried, but now it's over, my friend
We cannot stay, just walk away and don't ever look back again
It was relatively warmer in London when he arrived coming from New York. Or it must be autumn, so it should be warm. At least that's what he thought.
He hailed a taxi going to his house. Along the arduous trip to Arthur's house, Alfred had passed by a flower shop. He told the taxi to stop, and came to a halt it did, and he told the taxi driver to wait for a moment, and he quickly bought a bouquet of roses.
Minutes later, he came back out, with a bouquet in his hands. He went back inside the cab, and as soon as he sat down, the taxi driver asked, "Are those for your girlfriend?" He blushed, and said, "Uhh... yeah! Kinda... if you can put it that way," Alfred said, scratching his cheek with his index finger.
"Ah, I see. You're still so young after all. Being in love sure is a nice feeling, isn't it, lad?" the taxi driver said, smiling and adjusting his cap.
"Yeah, it sure is." he lied, faking a smile.
"Well, we're here now, sir." The taxi driver said. "Thanks, old man." Alfred said, handing the taxi driver the fare.
He headed up the stairs and on to the porch of the Englishman's mansion. He gathered up his courage, and his speech to Arthur. He took a deep breath, adjusted his glasses, and rang the doorbell. Not even moments later, there was already a maid who answered the door.
"Who is i-Oh! Sir Alfred! Well, I haven't seen you in quite a long time!" He smiled at the maid, and asked her, "Is Arthur inside?"
"Oh, yes! Sir Arthur is in his room, but I'm not quite sure on what he's doing. The last time I came up to his room, he was fixing up some documents and making them into paper planes. Weird, if you'd ask me, but it's what he's been up to the past few weeks. Oh, please do come in!" He gave her one last smile, and noticed there were flower petals scattered around the floor everywhere. And some red strings, too.
"Hey, umm... can I ask, uhh... what's up with the mess on the floor?" Alfred asked the maid.
"Hmm? Oh, I don't know either, I'm sorry if I'm no help. But I haven't touched anything since a few weeks ago, so it's really been like this. Plus, Sir Arthur doesn't want us to clear all of these up, so I think most of us staff here have gotten used to the clutter that's been spread around here on the floor." she responded.
"Oh, I see. Thanks." He replied briefly.
The moment he's stepped onto the stairs that led to Arthur's room, it was as if every step he took was getting heavier by the moment. The place... it was just too nostalgic.
Everything reminded him of Arthur.
"I'd be damned if there are even more of this mess upsta-Well I'll be damned, I didn't even finish my sentence yet, everything I say comes true. Or it was just a coincidence." He said, eyeing to where the trail of flower petals and red strings had started.
The hallway on the second floor was dimly lit, so he could hardly see where he was going. The further he went down into the hall, he started to notice that there were less flower petals and strings, and they were starting to become multicolored balloons.
He just kept following the trail of balloons and looking closer, it appears that the red string hadn't stopped yet. It seemed to be... continuous. And kinda tangled up at times, too. Heck, that was one long string Arthur had here.
He kept walking, trying to make out the rooms that he was passing by. He hadn't realized he had already bumped his head into a door already. He groaned in pain, and noticed that the mysterious trail of balloons and strings end here. He tried to feel for a doorknob, and when he did, he twisted it, and went inside. He just couldn't believe what he saw.
Arthur was half conscious when he'd heard the loud noise that banged onto his door. "Who in the bloody hell is it in this hour?" he muttered, lowering down a paper airplane. When the door opened, he was astonished.
"A-alfred...? W-what are you doing here…?"
Alfred took a deep breath, and exhaled. This is it. There's no turning back now.
"H-hi, Arthur! I was just checking up on you to see how you're doing!" he said as he grinned sheepishly.
"I'm fine, t-thank you." Arthur replied, as he was trying to distract himself by playing with the paper plane in his hand.
Alfred walked closer to the Englishman, and with that action, made the said Brit flinch and let go of the paper plane his was holding.
"Wh-what is it...?" Arthur asked, eyeing the American suspiciously. Alfred blushed, and handed him the bouquet of roses.
"Here, these are for you."
Arthur hesitantly took the bouquet from Alfred's hands, and said, "T-thank you."
The Englishman walked away from the American, and placed the bouquet of flowers on the bed. He sighed. Alfred walked closer, and hugged the Brit from behind.
"I missed you," he whispered into Arthur's ear. The Englishman blushed, but thought, "this isn't right."
He turned around to face the American. He then properly hugged him, and the paper plane fell to the ground. Alfred took note of Arthur's facial features, seeing as how much has changed since the incident.
He placed his hand on his cheek, and slowly leaned forward, until their lips were barely an inch apart.
"Cut it out!"
"What's wrong? Don't you miss me too?" Alfred asked, frowning.
"It's not that," Alfred muttered. "You see, he might see us-" Arthur was cut off by Alfred's lips. He tried to push away, but nothing can stop him.
Ten years without him was torture for me.
"I'm serious, please, cut it out!" he screamed.
"Arthur, darling is everything all ri-" a voice from the hall came, and the person opened the door.
"R-rosaline...! This isn't what you think..." his voice was shivering.
"Arthur? Who is this person?" Alfred and Rosaline asked at the same time, pointing at each other.
Arthur looked down, and Alfred let go of him.
He took a deep breath, and said, "Alfred, I'd like you to meet Rosaline," he gestured to her, before continuing "my soon-to-be wife."
And it was as if the entire world stopped.
Everything was getting hazy.
Before Alfred knew it, everything went black.