Author's Note: Not much to say about this one. I'm really proud of how much Alfred has grown though. Remember when he was denying any attraction to Arthur at all? Ah, good times.

"You really don't mind if we cut this a little short?"

"Not really, no. Why, should I be concerned?"

Alfred shrugged, tossing the medicine ball back to Arthur, who caught it with ease. "I guess I feel bad, cheating you out of money and all."

Arthur hummed slightly, throwing the ball back again. They'd been doing that particular exercise for a little over twenty minutes. Maybe it was a waste of time considering that Alfred had asked to cut his session down to forty-five minutes today, but the teenager didn't feel like doing much else. "Your company is compensation enough."

It took a lot of will power to keep from smiling like a love-struck idiot. Alfred still didn't understand why Arthur was always so happy to see him, but he was long past questioning it. There was no reason behind Arthur. He just was.

"Besides," Arthur continued, and he kept the ball when Alfred tossed it back to him. Alfred took that as the end of the exercise. "You have a good reason. Matthew's leaving today, isn't he?"

Alfred sighed. He hadn't told Arthur the reason he'd asked to leave early, but of course the man would remember something he'd said two weeks ago. "Yeah, he is."

"Must be tough on you." Arthur said, smiling sympathetically. "I hardly remember when my eldest brother left for uni, but my mum says I cried for a good three hours after he was gone."

"Really? I thought you hated your brothers."

"Hate is such a strong word. It's more of a… vexation that I feel for them. But I didn't always."

Alfred wasn't sure what happened to change Arthur's opinion of his brothers. Maybe it was the whole tree incident or something else entirely. Either way, Alfred planned on finding out sooner or later.

To be honest, Alfred would rather stay and be with Arthur than go home and say goodbye to Matt. He'd been dreading it all week, spending as much time away from home as he could with Kiku and Elizabeta in an effort to ignore everything. His parents had finally lifted the grounding after realizing that it wasn't going to stop Alfred from doing what he wanted, but he did have a curfew if he wasn't spending the night somewhere else.

Matthew had been insistent on spending time together, and while Alfred never denied his brother, their outings were far from fun. Everything was heavy between them and had been since Alfred met Arthur. There were still things that needed to be said before Matt left, hatchets to bury and all that, and it was all Alfred could think about when he was around his brother.

Maybe it was stupid, but something in the back of his head told Alfred that Matt's departure would bring back the inferiority complex he had as a kid. That feeling of being ignored, calling out but never receiving an answer, was something Alfred never wanted to experience again, but some part of him was convinced it would happen.

His brother would be busy reconnecting with his biological dad, after all. Maybe it would bring back all the hate he'd felt when they were kids. Alfred didn't know what he would do if Matthew were to turn on him once more. There would be no recovery from it, not again.

"It'll be okay." Arthur said, and Alfred blinked, meeting the trainer's warm evergreen gaze. "He'll only be a few hours drive away. And I'm sure he'll miss you as much as you'll miss him."

"Don't be stupid." Alfred replied, annoyed that he was so transparent where Arthur was concerned. "I'm turning his room into a bachelor pad. He can't leave fast enough." Arthur quirked an eyebrow, unconvinced, and Alfred huffed, blowing his bangs out of his eyes. "Look, I don't get emotional over stuff. Trying to get a confession out of me is like pulling teeth."

"You don't say." Arthur said, deadpan.

Alfred rolled his eyes, and the muscles in Arthur's arms tensed as he prepared to throw the ball again. The phone at the front desk rang, and Arthur stilled, listening. Alfred watched with interest.

He could see Angie answering the phone just beyond Arthur's shoulder, and her cheerful expression melted away almost immediately. Alfred knew what was coming.

"Hey, Arthur?" She called, resting the phone's speaker against her shoulder.

Arthur tipped his head back over his chair, shoulders sagging. Suddenly faced with an unguarded neck as tantalizing as Arthur's, Alfred floundered for control, stood slightly only to sit back down on his hands to keep himself from doing something unsightly in public. "You know the drill, Angie!" Arthur called.

The receptionist nodded with a slight sigh before lifting the phone to her ear again, speaking into the receiver quietly.

"This has been going on for weeks now." Alfred said once Arthur had righted himself. "Someone really wants to talk to you."

"It's not important." Arthur replied, and again, his mood had hit ground levels. Alfred felt it like a sudden drop in air pressure, and it bothered him. "I'm not supposed to take personal calls while I'm working anyhow. Whoever it is, whatever they want, will have to wait."

They've been waiting for nearly a month. Whoever it is gets an A plus for determination from me. "You should get out more." Alfred said out loud, deciding a subject change was in order.

Arthur eyed him warily. "What makes you think I don't get out?"

"I don't know, maybe it's your 'I'm not supposed to take personal calls' disposition. But do you?"

"Not lately. Too much on my plate."

"That's something an old person would say." Alfred groaned, and he could've sworn the skin around Arthur's left eye twitched. "I think you should go out, turn off your stupid cell phone, and let loose."

"You don't know me very well, then, if you think I never let loose." Arthur retorted, somewhat indignant. "I'm not necessarily proud of this, but on the weekends, there's hardly a night when I'm not pissed."

It took Alfred a few moments to realize Arthur was using British terms again. "Are we talking raging off your ass drunk or happily buzzed?"

"You tell me. On the morning after my twenty-first birthday, I woke up with this nose piercing and a tattoo."

Alfred's eyes narrowed. "Tattoo?"

"Yup." Arthur drawled, P-popping in a way that Alfred found unnecessary and ridiculously attractive. "Would you care to see it?"

"Um." Alfred couldn't think, couldn't move until he heard the glass doors sliding open at the entrance to the building. Elizabeta walked in first, flanked closely by Kiku, who was tapping away at his iPhone, completely oblivious to the world around him.

Alfred stood up, and Arthur watched him, tossing the medicine ball back and forth between his hands. "Well, those are my bitches." Alfred said quickly, wiping his sweaty palms off on his jeans. "Gotta go."

Arthur nodded, not bothering to hide his smirk. "Good luck."

Walking away from Arthur felt like slowly peeling off a Band-Aid, and it took every ounce of Alfred's willpower to not turn around and hustle back to the man's side. Elizabeta was grinning slyly as he walked up to her, and Kiku pocketed his phone, casting a fleeting glance in Arthur's direction.

"I hope you don't mind my saying so, but he's a hot piece of ass." Elizabeta drawled, jerking her thumb in Arthur's direction.

"Fuck off, he's mine." Alfred replied, and Kiku snorted as the three of them walked back out of the building. They'd been bouncing back and forth between houses for two weeks now, and tonight they were heading back to Alfred's. Of course, Elizabeta and Kiku also wanted to say goodbye to Matthew, so the timing couldn't have been better. Alfred was glad they were going to be there.

"Hey, I won't fight you for him, Alfie. But still. I can't believe you held out for so long. He's sex on legs!"

"With piercings." Kiku commented, pulling his car keys out of his pocket. Alfred had finally gotten his driver's license a few days previously, but he'd yet to go out with his parents and actually get a car. Like hell he was going to drive his mom's fucking minivan. "Which I'm sure will only worsen your oral fixation, Al."

Alfred tripped, quickly righting himself when Elizabeta burst into giggles. "Dude, no. I don't want to think about that right now."

"But you will later?"

"Well, probably, since you fucking brought it up!"

"What were you two talking about when we came in?" Elizabeta asked as they all piled into Kiku's car, Alfred in the passenger's seat as was routine. "Your neck was as red as a tomato. Still kinda is. Is it warm?"

Alfred couldn't help his cringe as Elizabeta leaned forward to poke at his neck, and he shrugged his shoulder, trying to brush her away. "Nothing. He mentioned that he has a tattoo."

Kiku whistled in appreciation while Elizabeta did some weird spaz attack thing in the back seat. "What's the design?" She asked. "Where is it? Did he say?"

"No, but… "

"But – " Kiku prompted, and it really wasn't fair that he was capable of holding conversations, paying attention to what was being said around him, and drive at the same time.

"He asked if I wanted to see it." Alfred muttered, readjusting the vent in front of him so the AC was blowing at him directly. "The tat, I mean. That's probably why I was red."

"You were blushing over someone's advances? Oh, baby, you've got it bad."

Elizabeta really wasn't telling Alfred anything that he didn't already know. He was quite aware that he tended to swoon over Arthur and was still coming to terms with it. He tried not to do anything too juvenile in front of Arthur, because the fact still remained that there was a six-year age difference between them. Alfred didn't really care about it, but he still wasn't sure how Arthur felt. The older man did like to call him a kid all the time…

"Do you have… any idea," Alfred lifted his hands to his face, palms pressed firmly to his eyes, "how frustrating it is to wait for someone? It's torture."

"Well, of course you're not used to it." Kiku said blandly. "You crook your finger and every man inclined to do so comes running."

Alfred opened his mouth to make an argument to the contrary but hesitated. "… Shit."

Elizabeta snorted, a sound her mother wouldn't hesitate to call unladylike. "It's the baby-blues, I'm telling you! They're tantalizing."

"Tantalizing." Alfred repeated, stifling the urge to bust out laughing. "That makes me sound like some hardcore seductress."

"Not too far off the mark."

The three of them went back and forth like that for the rest of the car ride to Alfred's house. Alfred took comfort in their easy banter, though the fact that Kiku would be leaving soon, disrupting the order, continued to nag at him. They hadn't discussed it since the day Kiku found out, and Alfred was just waiting for the confrontation.

When they pulled into Alfred's neighborhood, Alfred could easily see Matthew's car, filled with his older brother's junk. "He's really going." Elizabeta said quietly, her voice close to Alfred's ear.

Having only just recently been told why Alfred so vehemently hated the soul mate concept, Elizabeta was friendlier with Matthew than Kiku was. They got along pretty well, but then, Elizabeta tended to treat his and Kiku's families like her own.

"But," Elizabeta went on as Kiku pulled up at the curb and turned off the car, "maybe I can use his room so I don't have to sleep in the same bed as you two dweebs."

"Like either of us is gonna touch you." Alfred said as he got out of the car. "I'm fucking gay, and Kiku's as sexually disinterested as they come. Not to mention you're way too bossy, you snore, you burp in people's faces – "

"Okay, okay, I get it, I was just kidding!" Elizabeta exclaimed from somewhere behind Alfred, her voice somewhat shrill. "Jeez, way to give a girl a pep talk, Al."

"Just let it go." Kiku said, laughing as he and Elizabeta followed Alfred through the lawn to the porch. "What he means to say is, you're too good for us."

"Exactly." Alfred called over his shoulder, reaching for the doorknob and finding it unlocked. Upon opening it and walking inside, he called, "I have returned home, my love!"

There were a few beats of silence before Matthew's voice sounded from the kitchen. "My heroic soldier, back from war at last!"

"You two are such nerds." Elizabeta sighed.

Alfred ignored her, heading off to the kitchen while Kiku and Elizabeta headed for the stairs. They knew better than to follow him, figured that now would be the time for Alfred to get what he had to say to his brother out in the open; and they would be right, though Alfred was in no way prepared for it.

Matthew was standing at the island, stuffing chips in a Ziploc bag with his iPod playing on low on the counter. He glanced up when Alfred walked in, offering his brother a slight smile. "You're home early."

"An older brother only leaves home once. Hopefully." Alfred said, moving forward to lean on the island, bracing his palms on the cool surface. "Where are Mom and Dad?"

"Robert was called down to the station or something, and Mom ran to the store."

Alfred nodded along as his brother spoke, biting at his lip nervously. "Cool. Uh, can we talk?"

"Sure. What about?"

Matthew's head was elsewhere; otherwise he probably would've reacted in a concerned manner and given Alfred his full attention. Alfred wouldn't be surprised if his brother was second-guessing his decision to leave, but it was too late now.

Scratching at his neck nervously, Alfred went on. "So, um. You know how you told me about Mom and Dad? Well, my dad, anyway."

That caught Matthew's attention. He reached down and turned off his iPod, giving Alfred his undivided attention. "… Yeah."

"I have a confession to make." Alfred kept his head down, stared at his brother's bag of chips. "I always told you that I wasn't mad at you for telling me, but… I lied. I was incredibly upset with you for a really long time, and I feel like a dick for not being up front with you about it. So, I'm sorry I lied and pretty much avoided the problem until now when you're about to leave."

Everything was quiet for a few moments, and when Alfred glanced up, Matthew wasn't looking at him either. He didn't look happy, though Alfred hadn't expected him to. "When did you stop being upset with me?" Matthew asked eventually.

"Honestly? I'm still not completely over it. Whenever I let my guard down, it's like… a time loop. I can't stop reliving that moment." Alfred shook his head. "You just sat me down after my eighth grade graduation and told me we didn't have the same dad. I hadn't even opened my presents yet. Who does that?"

Ancient feelings of anger and betrayal came boiling to the surface, but Alfred chose not to focus on them for a change, only stared at his brother's guilt-ridden expression. "I'm not saying all of this to hurt you." Alfred said. "I just wanted it out there. If someone felt bitter toward me for something I did, I'd want them to tell me. Depending on the person, I probably wouldn't care even if I did make them mad, but you're my brother. You deserve my honesty."

Matthew still wasn't looking at Alfred, though after seemingly turning his younger brother's words over in his head, he finally met his gaze. "I don't think I'll regret anything more than I do what I did to you. Looking back, I can't believe that I ever thought that making sure you found out that way would be okay."

"It was pretty douchey."

"I'm not making excuses, but… I think I was so angry with you because I never really dealt with Mom's divorce with my dad." Matthew said, and Alfred stiffened slightly. Matthew had never talked about Jordan Williams of his own volition before. "They weren't happy. I remember they used to fight a lot. I still don't know why, but I guess I expected them to just work it out."

"What good did it do to be mean to me? It wouldn't have changed anything."

"I know that now. And I didn't always think it was your fault. I actually used to let Mom put you to sleep in my room when you were a baby, but then I got old enough to realize that you were born pretty much nine months after my parents divorced. I thought Mom left my dad because she had an affair with Robert and became pregnant with you. I guess I was upset with everyone, but you were just… you were my size. You were easier to take my frustrations out on."

Picking on the little guy. It pissed Alfred off, and if he saw any of that happening at school, he was always quick to say something, verbally or physically; but like Matthew said. It was just easier, and that was the route most people opted to take. That, Alfred could understand, though as a former punching bag himself, it was difficult to swallow.

"You know, I never believed you when you said you weren't mad at me." Matthew mused. "If I were in your position, I don't think I'd ever get over it."

"Yeah, well, I'm a better person than you are." Alfred said, and Matthew's shoulders shook in a silent laugh. "I don't know. I get mad on a daily basis with a long list of stupid fucking people. It doesn't make any sense to hold grudges against my family. You guys are the ones I can't get away from."

"Why now? You had years to say this stuff to me, Alfred."

"I just can't live with it anymore." Alfred admitted, shrugging his shoulders. "I'm taking steps, I guess, to move on from this, and telling you how I feel was at the top of my list of things to do. And… just in case you had any doubts, I wanted to tell you before you left that I forgive you. Before, I just buried all the negative bullshit, but now I'm actually facing it. I'm still a little bitter, but I don't hate you. I never have. Frankly, I don't think I'm capable of hating you."

The truth really was invigorating. Alfred had been dreading this ever since Matthew announced that he was leaving, but now his entire body was buzzing with adrenaline. He'd never had the guts to say any of this before, and finally letting it out felt liberating.

Matthew moved away from the island suddenly, and Alfred tracked his movements critically, pulling a face. "You're not going to hug me, are you?"

He was given his answer in the form of a tight embrace, and Alfred tried to relax, wasn't used to being touched so completely. Come to think of it… Alfred hadn't had to force himself to calm down when Arthur was the one hugging him. Interesting.

"I'm so sorry, Alfred." Matthew said on his next exhale, voice thick with barely suppressed emotion, and Alfred's mouth quirked as he returned his brother's embrace. "You're my baby brother. You may not believe me, but I never wanted to hurt you, not like this. There isn't a thing I wouldn't do for you."

"Yeah. Same. I wouldn't hesitate to beat someone's ass if you asked me to."

It was as close as they could get to an actual "I love you" without really saying it to one another. Alfred was stunted beyond belief, but Matthew wasn't all that emotional either. Alfred would stand by as Matthew got in his car and drove away, probably shake his hand or something, but he wouldn't be this involved.

This was their temporary goodbye, as meaningful as either of them could make it. Matthew would be off to St. Louis to be with his dad, and Alfred would stay behind to put his life back together.

Alfred was going to miss his brother, but at least he would have no regrets after Matthew was already gone. Maybe next time they met, Alfred would be the one initiating hugs.

Probably not.

But it was the thought that counted.