~*~
Chapter Four: Tea and Cookies
~*~
Dinner was a little lonely for Alfred that night, both with Ludwig and Arthur out, but also with Matthew and Lovino gone. Alfred was at home, watching Gilmore Girls (oh, come off it. Arthur and Matthew were the only ones that knew that he adored the show), and eating the ice cream that was originally for Arthur, but if things were right in the world, then the Brit wouldn't be needing the double vanilla treat.
Suddenly, the American heard a car drive up, and he found himself turning off the television, even though Matthew or Arthur would come in and… there was another car right after the first one. What a coincidence that both of Alfred's housemates would come home at the same time, or maybe something happened to make them both come home. Alfred didn't really think about any of this, as he was busy hiding all evidence that he had been being quite a girl about the whole dating thing.
The door opened as Alfred was putting away the half-eaten tub of ice cream and he heard the four voices of the two couples. Arthur was speaking, "No, no… we can try again, Ludwig. Matthew won't be sick forever…"
"Mattie… I'm so sorry…" Lovino almost whined.
Alfred peeked around the door, feeling a bit like a creeper as he did so.
"Don't be, Lovi"—it sickened Alfred to hear Mattie's accent, as 'Lovi' in Mattie-accent sounded like 'love'—"I should've followed the signs that I was sick…"
"Hey Ludwig, I know this sounds off, but can I stay home tomorrow and take care of Mattie?"
Ludwig tensed, but Arthur was staring at him, and for some odd reason, the German man was blushing as he noticed it.
"No… I'll be fine, Arty, really…" Matthew said, trying to save everyone the trouble.
Alfred was egging the conversation to end so that he could tease Arthur, but thought better of it. Instead, he played his signature hero card and walked into the room, "I'll be at work tomorrow, Ludwig. If you need it, I can wait tables…"
Ludwig thought about it for a half-second before nodding, "All right, Alfred. Arthur, you stay home with Matt. That way, Matt can get better more quickly, and you both can come back to work soon."
Alfred noticed that Ludwig seemed softer. Maybe in the two hours Ludwig and Arthur had been gone, the Brit had managed to pull the damn stick out of his ass… though that sounded just a bit… kinky. Alfred shook off the thought and grinned at Ludwig.
Lovino took Matthew's hand and put the other hand on his forehead, "Ai~ Better get to bed, Mattie… You'll probably be seeing me tomorrow with dinner or something, okay?" the Sicilian asked.
Matthew blushed and nodded, "Promise?"
"Promise. Any chance to save you from Arthur's cooking is a done deal," Lovino replied, laughing.
Arthur simply glared at him, but Ludwig had suddenly kissed his brow. Arthur blushed crimson at the gesture from the German man, but he turned his gaze from Lovino to Ludwig.
"I'm off. Gilbert will have probably used up our phone budget calling family about the fact that I had a date tonight…" Ludwig announced a little awkwardly. He squeezed Arthur's hand and waved over his shoulder as he left the house.
Arthur went to follow him, but Alfred grabbed his shirt-sleeve. So Arthur yelled out, "We'll try this again, okay? Call me!"
Lovino smiled and patted Matthew's head, "I'll see you tomorrow, 'kay Mattie?"
Matthew nodded, knowing Lovino wouldn't want to touch him again because he was sick. Instead, he watched his date leave the house. Then he turned to Arthur, "You don't have to stay home because of me, you know."
"Don't get snippy with me, young man," Arthur replied, "I'm staying home and your going to get over it."
Matthew blanched, and then walked briskly to his room, slamming the door.
Arthur looked at Alfred before saying, "And lemme guess… you were stuck at home watching Gilmore Girls and eating my tub of ice cream, weren't you?"
It was Alfred's turn to make his way to his room, "Don't rat on Gilmore Girls, buddy," he said calmly.
"You didn't even call that boy you're kind of on-again, off-again with? What's his name? Yao Wang? Chinese? Really hot?" Arthur called from the bottom of the stairs.
"Hey, I was with two very witty girls tonight. Their names are Lorelei and Rory, and we had some good times in the past…" Alfred called from the top of the stairs.
"Alfred… you're talking about two fictional characters here… you need to seek out some help. I will call Yao in the morning and make him have coffee at the Café Rose just so you can see him~"
"You are not setting me up on a pity date, Master Kirkland…" Alfred yelled.
"I think I am, Master Jones…" Arthur replied.
"No means no, you bloody Brit…" Alfred sighed.
"Fine. But I am not going to refer to you as my husband at your funeral when you die a lonely old man…" Arthur called, finally following his friend up the stairs.
"But… what else are you going to do?" Alfred asked, acting hurt.
"With any luck, I'll be dead by then," the other said. "At least think about calling someone? Eliza's on the market, I think…"
"The divorce hasn't been finalized. Besides, wasn't the whole point of her divorce from Roddy to be with Gilbert?"
"Oh yeah," Arthur replied, remembering suddenly. "Well, there's always Vash…"
"The guy with the gun kink? No thank you. I'd date Francis before I'd date Vash," Alfred replied, getting to his room and resting a hand on the door-frame.
"Then I'll talk to Francis—"
"Hell no, you twit," Alfred said, cutting him off. "Can you just leave it alone?"
Arthur sighed, "Fine…" he looked sadly into his room for a brief moment. Alfred knew what he was doing: Guilt-tripping the American. "I hope you know that I wanted to have a double wedding with you and your significant other…"
"Oh, shit, man, you are not doing this…"
"We'd all be wearing white… and if you married a girl, I'd walk her down the aisle, because I know I'm probably going to be pimped into being the woman, if I marry a man. If I married a woman, well, they'd walk down the isle and we'd look at them adoringly… unless you married man, and then there would be some complications. But white. We'd all be in white… and there would be lilies and—"
"Go call Yao…" Alfred said, and shut himself in his room.
~*~
Matthew awoke to the sound of a wind-storm outside his door… and the smell of black tea and toast. There was a tray next to his bed, and a sleeping Arthur in the armchair across from his bed. Matthew looked at the digital clock by his bed: the red numbers read 12:20.
"Merde." Matthew breathed, pulling himself up.
The sudden French swear woke the sleeping Brit at the Canadian's feet. Arthur blinked as Matthew came into focus for him, "Matin…" he said.
"Non. L'apres-midi." Matthew replied.
Arthur looked at the clock and smiled, "So it is…" he mused.
Matthew touched the food and found it was still warm, "Are you sure you're not the sick one, Arthur?" he asked, knowing that the Brit would have to fall asleep pretty quick if the food was still warm.
"No. Just tired."
"Why? I was definitely still conscious when I saw Ludwig leave, right?" Matthew asked, almost purring as he made his joke.
"I think you've been spending way too much time around Francis, Mattie…" Arthur replied, "Eat, then I'll let you have some of the cookies Alfie made."
"Did you just say Alfie in the context of making cookies?" Matthew asked after a few minutes of faux-stunned silence.
"Yes. And now I'm going to say that I'm taking over his stash of Gilmore Girls DVDs and we're watching them all afternoon…"
"Oh, Dieu," Matthew replied, rolling his eyes, "Are we a bunch of girls or what?"
"Real men watch Gilmore Girls, my dear Mattie," Arthur replied.
Matthew sighed and began to eat the toast, which was surprisingly good (for the Englishman's cooking… or what Matthew had heard of it, at least). He finished the toast and began sipping at the tea, which was disgustingly lukewarm. "Ew."
"Lukewarm?" Arthur asked knowingly.
Matthew nodded and Arthur beckoned for him to get out of bed and follow him. Which the French-Canadian did, happy to get out of the bed and into some new(ish) scenery.
Once in the kitchen, Arthur began making a new pot of tea. Matthew sat on one of the stools on an island in the middle of the kitchen/dining area. He was mulling over several questions he wanted to ask Arthur when suddenly… one just came out:
"Do you love Ludwig?"
Arthur looked up from the teapot he was setting up with tea leaves and such. Blushing, he answered, "I… I'm not sure. I have liked him more than a friend for a while… why?"
"I… I don't know. I… I still don't remember what l'amour feels like… so I wanted to observe people in love. I guess you can't really help me until… until you know…"
The kettle whistled, and Arthur hurried to transfer the hot water into the teapot. As he worked, he thought. There had been someone…
"I know what love feels like…" Arthur said, pouring the tea into Matthew's emptied cup.
Matthew looked up at him with his big violet eyes and Arthur blushed, "It might not have been real love… but it… it felt like butterflies had been let lose into my stomach… and I couldn't stop thinking about that person. But I was, what, five-years-old?" Arthur laughed as he set a cup of tea in front of Matthew. "What did I know?"
They drank their tea in silence, and once they were done, Arthur took the cups to the sink and walked out to the living room. Matthew followed after a few moments, and found Arthur on the couch, the remote in his hands and blanket over his legs. Matthew looked out the window at the snowstorm and smiled. He climbed next to his housemate and saw the menu for Gilmore Girls.
"I swear if Luke and Lorelai don't get together, I'm going to call the writers and voice my disappointment…" Arthur grumbled as he found the episode he wanted and pressed 'enter.'
Matthew scoffed and settled down under the blanket.
~*~
After a few hours of Gilmore Girls, Matthew was waiting for Arthur to come back to sit as he switched the old DVD with a new one (because the episodes were only four to a DVD).
"Hey… isn't Alfred supposed to be home by now?"
Arthur looked at the digital clock on the television.
"Oui… he'll be here soon, though. His on-again, off-again boyfriend came to pick him up. I kind of called him last night about it. Alfred was not happy about it… they were off-again, apparently…" Arthur replied.
Matthew nodded and laid his head on Arthur's shoulder. Arthur fiddled with the remote for a minute before finding the episode menu. Matthew glanced up at Arthur.
"I think I love Lovino…" he said suddenly, smiling.
Arthur glanced back down at him and smiled, "That's… that's wonderful…"
~*~
It was too weird. Alfred would not call Yao to take him home. The car ride to the café had been all polite and… weird for both the Chinese man and the American. So he walked home from work, despite Francis's pleading calls for him to get a ride with him and Ludwig. (Francis refused to drive himself these days.) Alfred had declined… and had walked home in the stupid snow-storm.
So, frozen (despite his warm coat, gloves, hat and scarf) and feeling stupid for walking home in the first place was how Alfred had felt walking up his driveway. As he was fiddling in his jacket for his keys, he over heard from inside the music of the Gilmore Girls menu, and… Matthew's voice:
"I think I love Lovino…"
And then Arthur said something in response, but Alfred didn't catch it, as his heart had sky-rocketing through his chest into his throat. He managed to choke, quietly: "Ou es ton coeur, Mathieu? Ou es ton coeur…?"
At that moment his keys appeared to his hand, and he unlocked the door. Matthew and Arthur looked up at him. Arthur smiled and jumped up, hugging his friend and kissing his cheek, "Mon cher~ You're finally home!"
But Alfred didn't want to trade wits with Arthur. He glanced over at Matthew and then turned away, making his way up the stairs and into his room, slamming the door behind him.
He heard Arthur call up, "Is that anyway to treat your family, mon tresore?" he yelled, "What about our darling son?!"
Alfred said nothing, just began the difficult business of sulking like a wronged teenager.
"Give it up, Arthur," he heard Matthew say, "Alfred doesn't want to be your husband right now… besides, you'd be kind of unfaithful anyway, what with your date with Ludwig last night~"
"Good point. He probably found out about that and id angry with me…"
Matthew chuckled, making Alfred's heart beat faster as he listened.
"Anyway… let's get back to our visit with Stars Hollow, shall we?"
But Alfred had turned on his stereo, and so he didn't hear the goings on in the fictional town of his favorite show. And as the sounds of Will Dailey reached his ears, he reached for the phone. After dialing, he put the phone to his ear and waited for the other person to pick up.
"Hello, Yao speaking…"
"Hey, Yao. It's Alfred… sorry about this morning… how about we get coffee sometime on Saturday afternoon?"
~*~
Translations from French:
Merde – "Shit"
Matin – "Morning."
Non. L'apres-midi – "No. Afternoon."
Ou es ton coeur, Mathieu? Ou es ton coeur…? – "Where is your heart, Matthew, where is your heart?"
Mon tresore – "My treasure"
~*~
... Both Arthur and Alfred seem to act like grown-up teenagers in this one. Yay for men not acting their age, right?
And yes, Yao makes an appearnce in this one. Though only as a plot-device, and I apologize profusely.
And Gilmore Girls. It has become my favorite show, and so... well, someone besides Francis and Feliks had to be somewhat feminine in this one. So Alfred and Arthur are... interesting characters to play around with. If you haven't watched the show... I think you should go and buy the first season... like now. But please review before you do~
Ciao~
~Anastasie~
