"You know you can't keep me here forever," Arthur said, looking into the younger blonds sky blue eyes.
"I know," Alfred replied, "I don't intend to. I just think you should rest here while you're still healing. I don't even think you could swim with your tail the way it is."
"You-!" Arthur started- he never finished his thought.
"Besides, it's really no problem if you stay here. No one ever comes out here; it's a few miles out of the way of any major towns or cities, and no one has any reason to come here anyway." Alfred sat down next to Arthur- or more specifically between his tail and the edge of the couch. "Unless you really do mind..." Alfred looked at Arthur with pouting puppy dog eyes- ready to cry on command if necessary.
"Wanker..." Arthur said defeated.
"Yay!" Alfred rolled down next to Arthur and wrapped his arms around him tightly.
"O-oi!" the latter shouted out in surprise.
"I promise I'll look after you, okay?" Alfred said to the blushing merman. Alfred blushed a little too, but didn't recoil from the feeling like he did before. Instead he leaned forward- his lips hovering a few inches from Arthur's forehead.
There was a knock at the door. The two boys looked up towards the sound.
"I thought you said no one ever came out here," Arthur said his face still red from a moment ago.
"T-they don't..." Alfred said. The person knocked on the door again. Alfred quickly stood up and picked Arthur up again in his arms.
"Hey!"
"Shhh, I'll put you in the bedroom for now. Just keep quiet, okay?" Alfred whispered. Arthur nodded, his blush expanding slightly. After Alfred had placed Arthur gently on the bed and closed the door, he went to answer the door.
"Alfred! Thank God you're alright!" It was George.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, the storm. Yeah I'm alright."
"You're soaking wet!" George said.
"Huh? Oh..." Alfred played with a strand of soaking wet hair and looked down at his soaked tee and jeans. "Yeah, I fell in- but I'm alright!" Alfred added in after seeing George's worried face.
"God, Alfred, you look terrible. Are you sure you're alright?"
"Positive. I just need to change into some fresh clothes and a quick shower and I'll be fine."
"Oh, okay..." George didn't seem completely convinced, but he dropped the subject anyway. "So I- uh, brought over some orange juice cake. I thought you might want some."
"Oh, cool! Thanks, George." Alfred said, accepting the small cake. The two stared at each other awkwardly for a moment- George expecting Alfred to let him in, and the latter having no intention to do so.
"So... uh, I guess I'll let you take your shower and get to bed or whatever."
"Yeah. Thanks for the cake George!"
"No problem." And with that, George finally left. Alfred set the cake down on the counter and went in to check on Arthur. He was just sitting on the bed looking rather bored.
"Sorry about that. It was one of my dad's old friends. He was just checking to make sure I was alright." Alfred explained. Arthur didn't say anything. "So it's getting kind of late... Um, will you be alright sleeping in here?"
"Yeah, sure." Arthur said curtly. Alfred got the feeling that Arthur was mad at him, although he could imagine why- well, besides the whole sort-of-kidnapping thing.
"Well, I'm going to go take a shower... So, I'll be back in like twenty minutes- unless of course you want me to sleep on the couch..." Alfred added in, realizing that he had just suggested they share the bed.
"Sleep wherever you want, wanker."
Alfred awkwardly left the room and started getting ready for his shower. He ran back out to the boat to fetch his luggage from the cabin. He found that he hadn't quite shut the door completely and the floor was a bit wet, but his luggage was more or less unharmed.
He brought his bag into the house and pulled out a t-shirt and some pajama bottoms and set them out on the toilet while he let the water warm up a tad bit. He also pulled out his shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. ((For anyone curious, it's citrus-scented, the same kind I use because apart from "alpine" I don't know what scents of men's shampoo there are…))
Alfred quickly slipped out of his salt-water-soaked clothing and into the warm spray of the shower. Some salt in his hair mixed with the water from the shower and drizzled on to his face and eyes. He quickly scrubbed most of the salt out of his hair before working to get the gritty feeling off of his skin.
He tried to focus on what he was doing instead of the fact that once he was done in the shower, he'd be sharing a bed with another boy. He hoped that Arthur would be asleep by the time he got out. Did mermen sleep? Fish didn't sleep. Sharks didn't sleep. But he guessed that Arthur was more dolphin-like rather than fish-like. So Arthur should sleep, right? And he didn't say anything when Alfred mentioned sleep to him- although he wasn't saying much at all at the time... Was Arthur mad at him?
Alfred shook the thoughts from his head. He was getting distracted again. He turned off the water and stepped out of the shower and nearly slipped on the tile floor. 'I'll have to remember to put a towel down later,' he thought. He quickly dried off his hair and body before getting dressed in his night clothes. He stepped into the bedroom.
"Arthur, are you asleep?" he whispered.
"No," Arthur grumbled. Alfred awkwardly climbed into the bed next to Arthur. He apologized when his foot accidentally touched Arthur's tail. Luckily both of their blushes were concealed in the dark of the room.
As Alfred's eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room he turned to look over at Arthur, who was facing the other way. He didn't say anything, just stared at Arthur's figure, tucked neatly under the covers. 'He must crawled under them while I was in the shower...'
Alfred stared at Arthur's hair. It had dried in the funniest way, with bits of hair sticking up here and there. It was adorable. And Alfred wouldn't have it any other way.
Alfred snored rather loudly, it appeared... Arthur looked back over at the sleeping Human. He had fallen asleep quite quickly- probably tired from his earlier ordeal- and was probably content to be able to collapse on the soft bed.
Arthur- on the other hand- was not content. He was annoyed. Annoyed that that friend-of-Alfred's-father had ruined the mood earlier. Annoyed that this bed was far too squishy for Arthur to get used to. Annoyed that Alfred was snoring- completely oblivious to Arthur's feelings.
Arthur rolled off of his stomach and instead placed his weight on the area between his right fin and dorsal fin so that he could easily look at the human. He hadn't dried his hair properly and it looked rather strange. It probably looked similar to his own hair... Alfred's face looked peaceful- despite his loud snoring- completely unaware of the merman's glare.
Arthur's eyes drifted down Alfred's figure laying beneath the covers, taking in the broadness of his shoulders, the slight curve of his hips, and finally his toes peeking out from the covers. Arthur stared at the foreign objects. He looked back at Alfred's face before making his move.
Arthur brought his face closer to the little toes- climbing out of the covers and sticking his tail dangerously close to Alfred's face. Arthur peeked back at Alfred before continuing to study his feet. He curled the blanket back ever so slightly, so that he could see all of the stubby toes.
They vaguely resembled fingers- the big one at the end was like a distorted thumb, and the rest of them were like short versions of fingers... Arthur poked at the "index" toe, forcing it to bend a little. He played with the others a bit before growing bored. Should he move on to Alfred's legs? He checked that Alfred was still asleep before rolling the covers back some more.
'Damn it, he's wearing trousers...' Arthur thought. After some debate- and a bit of self-loathing- Arthur gave up on the idea. He turned himself around and crawled under the covers again facing the right way, closed his eyes, and tried once more to sleep.
It only took Arthur a moment to realize how quiet it had been the past minute or so. He opened his eyes to see if the lack of snoring signaled that Alfred had woken up. Alfred's eyes were closed, but he was clearly holding back a smile. Arthur picked up a pillow and smacked him hard with it.
"Wanker!" He said before turning the other way to sleep.
Alfred just smiled, thinking about how cute Arthur was when he got flustered. It had only been a few seconds and he already missed the cute look on his face. He'd just have to make Arthur get all flustered more often...
((I just wanted to point out that while I was writing the scene after Alfred was talking with George, I kept writing Arthur as getting upset although I couldn't quite figure out why I kept getting that impression. Then I realized. Proof that the characters have a certain level of control over the story even without the writer realizing! XD ))