Author's Note: Alfred, Elizabeta, and Kiku interact the way my friends and I do, I swear. It's ridiculous. See if you can guess what video game they're playing. It really is the worst thing I've ever played.

"Al, one of those big guys is behind you."

"Yeah, yeah, I can hear him. Would you two hurry up and finish the mission already?"

"Well, we would if you would do your job and take care of the stupid zombies!"

Alfred rolled his eyes, though of course Elizabeta couldn't see. Her voice was every bit as harping over the Skype call. "There's only one of me and fifty-thousand of them. Plus, my character is the one with the bum leg. Cut me some slack."

The blue-eyed teenager fixed his gaze firmly on his television screen, finishing off the zombie he was currently fighting with a curb-stomp combo. After leaving the rehabilitation center, he'd immediately gone up to his room and texted Kiku and Elizabeta, just as he'd planned. Thankfully neither of them had lives, so they were available to try and finish the game they'd been working on for months.

It was a good thing they were. After Arthur left, that Ivan guy had come to stay with Alfred for the remainder of his session. That guy wasn't nearly as fun to jibe at as Arthur, so Alfred had been pretty bored.

He'd still yet to tell his friends about his watch coming off. He wanted to prolong that as much as possible.

"Kiku's wearing heels and he's still doing more than you right now!" Elizabeta said, though she was half screaming at the video game. "Oh, you motherfucker!"

"She has a point." Kiku's voice wafted out of the speakers on Alfred's laptop, seated beside him on the floor. His character on-screen moved forward to finish off the huge zombie that had bear-pawed Elizabeta's character to the ground. Alfred just stood and watched, accepting the likelihood of his imminent death. "Are you feeling okay, Alfred? You've died more times than your average."

"My arm's kinda killing me. It hurts every time I try to push a button." Alfred leaned back in his beanbag chair as he waited to be revived. Having to listen for sounds outside his bedroom door was also distracting him from the game.

Usually after he came home from spending an hour with Arthur, his mom wanted to play 20 Questions, most of which no normal teenage boy would want his mother asking him; but for some reason, she'd left him alone today. Whether or not that was a good thing was yet to be determined, so Alfred wasn't going to let his guard down.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that." Kiku said with an air of realization. Alfred followed after him once he was revived, leaving Elizabeta alone to deal with the hoard while they climbed up a set of stairs in search of the alarm they were supposed to be turning off. "Are you doing anything about that? Or are you just supposed to wait for it to heal on its own?"

"I have to go to physical therapy everyday for a few weeks." Alfred said after some consideration. "It's stupid. My parents are paying money just so I can do some exercises that I could've looked up on the Internet and done at home."

"Oh, thank God. I was getting sick of that alarm." Elizabeta said when Kiku finally deactivated the cellblock's alarm system. "Let's move out, bitches! Do you at least get a hot trainer or something, Al? When I tore my ACL last year, my physical therapist was some guy from Spain. He was delicious. Remember him, Kiku? You had to drive me one time."

"Why am I not surprised you don't remember his name?" Kiku sighed while Alfred winced at Elizabeta's question. Of course she would bring up the one topic he wanted desperately to avoid.

"Well," Alfred paused. Was Arthur hot? Perhaps he wasn't the one to ask, since he was horribly biased and all. "He's British."

"You lucky son of a bitch. Hey, isn't that one of your, like, kinks or whatever?"

"No, it is not." Please, Kiku, keep your mouth fucking shut. "And I'm not attracted to him or anything, so it doesn't even matter."

"Touchy." Elizabeta laughed, and Alfred took a swung at her with his katana, though he couldn't do damage to her. He enjoyed games when you could actually hurt your teammates when in multiplayer. Certainly would've come in handy right about now. "Oh, guess what? As of today, I'll officially meet my soul mate in seven years!"

Alfred had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from screaming. "Fucking fantastic. Can we just play the game, please?"

"I hope they're not some stiff, office-worker type." Elizabeta continued. She was long used to Alfred's rants about the soul mate watches. "I need someone fun."

"Oh, look at that." Alfred said loudly. "There's a zombie glitched through the wall. How nice!"

Kiku stopped walking, turned to the zombie Alfred was referring to and took an experimental swing at it. When nothing happened, he kept going. "This game is horrible."

"Wasn't my idea to play it. The Last of Us multiplayer game-play is godawful, otherwise we'd be playing that instead."

"Did you download the new DLC, Al? I called Ellie being a lesbian. You owe me ten dollars."

"What? That's not fair, you have a sixth sense when it comes to that shit!"

"Gentlemen! Focus, please!" Elizabeta barked, shooting at a couple of guards that appeared around the corner. How they managed to stay human in a cellblock completely infested by zombies was beyond Alfred. Kiku was right. The game sucked. "All I can think about is my soul mate, and you two, as my friends, need to indulge me."

"I'll mute you if you start up with that shit again."

"Would you rather we talk about you? You're supposed to meet the Mister or Missus sometime this year, right?"

Alfred steeled himself, thumb poised over the B button, ready to make a hasty getaway. It didn't matter if Lizzie couldn't do any damage to him in multiplayer. She wouldn't give up until something happened.

"Yeah, I've been thinking about that a lot actually." Kiku admitted, sounding slightly worried. "What are you going to do when you meet them, Al?"

Alfred thought back to that day, the infuriated heat that had stained his cheeks red as he stalked away from all those prying eyes. "Yeah, about that. You know my trainer? British guy I am in no way attracted to? Well… he's the guy, I guess."

Elizabeta and Kiku were silent for a few moments. They didn't stop running to get back to the main mission, but everything might as well have been at a stand still. "Clarify, please." Elizabeta said eventually. "I want to make sure I understand this completely."

Alfred groaned, glancing at his laptop screen forlornly, even if it was just an audio call and he couldn't see his friends. "It happened about a week ago. Our timers went off when we looked at each other, okay? Don't make me say it, you know I don't believe in this crap."

When he glanced back at the television, he was alone. Surprised, he stopped running and swiveled around only to find that Elizabeta and Kiku's characters were motionless. Eventually, Elizabeta lifted her gun and shot at the propane tank right next to Alfred, blowing it up and effectively killing him.

"Jesus Christ, Lizzie, what the fuck! I thought you couldn't kill each other in multiplayer!"

"You can't." Kiku said.

"Then that was the glitchiest piece of shit I've ever seen!"

"A week?" Elizabeta screeched, her voice crackling through the speakers. "You waited a fucking week to tell us that you met your soul mate?"

"He's not my damn soul mate. I don't even like him that much!"

"Ohhh, my God, I'm gonna throttle you the next time I see you, Alfred Jones."

"What's his name?" Kiku inquired. He sounded calm, but Alfred knew he was probably just as infuriated as Lizzie, if not more so. They'd been friends since Pre-K. They told each other everything. Alfred had ultimately violated the Guy Code of Conduct.

"His name's Arthur."

"Last name?"

"Kirkland."

"Favorite color?"

"How the hell should I know?"

"What's his foot size?" Elizabeta cut in, still wasting her bullets by shooting at Alfred.

"I wouldn't answer that even if I knew, you thirsty bitch. And I don't care to."

Kiku snorted, and Elizabeta broke out into hysteric laughter. "Lies! If the guy's English, you gotta know his dick size in order to function, Alfie."

Alfred scowled at the TV, contemplating whether or not to yank the PS3 cable out of the wall. "Untrue."

"Benedict Cumberbatch? David Tennant? Daniel Radcliffe?"

"Dan Howell?" Kiku cut in unhelpfully.

"Alright, alright, I get it." Alfred shouted, forgetting momentarily that he wasn't alone in the house. "God, I hate you both."

"This is huge, Alfred!" Elizabeta exclaimed, still recovering from her laughing fit. They weren't even trying to play the game anymore. "You're only seventeen and you met your soul mate! Aw, this is so exciting. Baby Alfie's growing up. I could cry."

Kiku didn't say anything to add to Elizabeta's claim. Unlike her, he knew exactly why Alfred wasn't fond of the biological clocks, and while he would get upset that Alfred had kept this from them, he wouldn't dare get bent out of shape just because Alfred wasn't happy about his situation.

"I'm doing whatever I can to make him lose interest in me." Alfred said. "So far, I haven't received positive results."

"Has he come on to you?"

"Hell no. I'm pretty sure he knows better than that. He just doesn't do anything. It's like he forgot all about what happened."

"Isn't that what you want?" Kiku asked.

"Well, yeah, but – " It wasn't supposed to be that easy, right? As far as society was concerned, Alfred and Arthur were soul mates. Alfred had been rebelling against that for years, but what about Arthur? Alfred had expected more of a fight, but so far, his own family was pushing him more than Arthur was. The teenager didn't know what to make of it. "It's just weird, I guess."

"I'm sure he's in a Hell of desire for you." Elizabeta said reassuringly, as if Alfred was concerned about that. "But let's be real. You're about as approachable as a poisonous snake."

"I mean, he's okay." Alfred admitted. He would never say any of this to his parents or Matt. "I don't hate him, and he's fun to mess with. But I don't like feeling like I'm obligated to love him just because a timer told me to."

"Fall in love with him on your own then. He's a Brit, so it shouldn't be too hard."

Alfred wanted to tear at his hair in frustration, so he did, dropping his controller in his lap. "I'd still be going along with what everyone wants me to do. I wouldn't feel right about it."

"Whatever you think is best." Kiku said before Elizabeta could complain some more. "It's your life, Al. You can do whatever you want with it."

Elizabeta sighed heavily. "Yeah, I agree. Sorry, Al. You know I'm a hopeless romantic."

"Yeah, and it's gross." Alfred replied, though he couldn't keep himself from smiling.

A knock on his door ruined that, however, and Alfred scowled at the door, suddenly anxious for what was to come. "Who is it?"

The door opened with a creak, revealing Matthew, and Alfred turned to reach for his laptop. "Gotta go, guys. See you later."

Elizabeta and Kiku voiced their goodbyes before Alfred closed the Skype call and tossed his laptop back up to his bed. Turning back to his brother, he said, "What's up?"

"Can we talk?" Matthew said seriously, and Alfred frowned.

"Are you dying? Am I dying?"

"Alfred."

"Okay, fine." Alfred huffed, standing up and climbing up onto his bed, sitting on his pillows and crisscrossing his legs. "Take a seat. Let's get this over with."

He kind of wished his mom had come to talk to him instead of his older brother. Not to say that he felt uncomfortable around Matthew, because they were way beyond that stage and aside from Elizabeta and Kiku, there was no one Alfred trusted more. It was just… if Alfred was to talk about soul mates with anyone, Matthew was the last person he would pick.

"So, Mom's kinda freaking out." Matthew began with a slight sigh after he sat down. "She thinks you're squandering your future."

Alfred closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm reaching the end of my rope here, Matt. I don't know what you want me to do."

"Give Mr. Kirkland a chance?"

"Why?" Alfred demanded, throwing his hands in the air and trying to ignore the burning in his throat. "What the fuck does it matter to any of you? You could just back off and everything would be fine."

"But you wouldn't be happy, Al."

"Do I look happy?" Alfred asked seriously, staring his brother down as tears started to blur his vision. He'd be damned if he let them fall, but he wasn't going to sit there and let his brother make him feel badly for his opinions. It was partially Matt's fault in the first place, though Alfred felt guilty for even thinking it. "Give me your honest to God opinion if you think I'm happy or not."

Matthew only sighed again. He'd been doing that a lot lately. The nineteen-year-old pulled his legs up onto the bed and shifted around until he was facing Alfred, his legs crossed as well. "No, you don't. And I'm sorry, Al, I really am. But… the point I guess Mom, your dad, and I are trying to make is that you used to be really excited about finding your soul mate. You can't deny that."

Alfred sniffed, rubbing at his face furiously. "Don't remind me that I used to be as idiotic as the rest of you."

"You used to be kind, you used to be… charismatic. But that kid disappeared. I think that being with Mr. Kirkland would be good for you, okay?"

"First of all, I'm still kind to the people who deserve it. Second, did you ever consider that maybe I just grew up? Realized that when an attraction is strong enough, endorphins are released into the bloodstream and the watches react to that? So I saw Arthur and my watch went off. That just means I really wanna fuck him, not that I have to spend the rest of my life with him."

"That makes zero sense." Matthew groaned, tilting his head back to stare up at the ceiling. "Your watch would have gone off weekly if that was the case. And what about the numbers, huh? You can't deny that it counted down to the day you met Arthur exactly. Plus, the odds of two people being equally attracted to each other just from making eye contact is slim to none."

"I never said it makes sense. But then, neither does the concept of soul mates, Matthew!"

The two of them glared at each other, Alfred mostly over his small emotional breakdown. He wasn't even sure why his brother was trying to reason with him. They'd been down this road before, multiple times in fact. It was getting old. "Look, it just – " Alfred huffed, searching for words. "It doesn't work, all right? My existence is proof enough of that."

"Don't be like that."

"What? It's a legitimate reason. You know that more than anybody."

"I don't see how you can't just let that slide." Matt said tiredly, and Alfred wanted so badly to punch him. "Just don't let our parents' actions ruin your chances at happiness, okay? That's all I'm asking."

Alfred refused to say anything. He'd had enough; and he didn't respond when his brother gave him a brief hug, didn't even blink until Matt had left the room entirely. Once he was completely alone, Alfred let out a shuddering laugh tinged with hysteria and rolled over, burying his face in his pillow.

Matthew was always telling him to forget and move on. How long would it be before he realized that Alfred just couldn't, no matter how badly he wanted to?

If there was one thing Alfred had learned since he was a kid, one thing that changed him from the boy Matthew had spoken of, it was that time didn't heal all wounds. It only made them worse.

It didn't hit Alfred until half an hour later that he'd basically told Matthew he wouldn't mind sleeping with Arthur.