Alfred- Sophomore

Arthur- Junior

Alfred's favorite part of any track meet was the bus ride home.

Sure, meets are fun in their own way, but nine times out of ten the weather was cold or rainy or windy, or he would spend all day hungry and tried and (though he would never admit it out loud) nervous for his upcoming races.

No, it was the wave of relaxation he was allowed to feel as soon as he got on that coach bus; the finally he felt as soon as he tucked his bag into the overhead compartment and rested his head against the cool window. All he had to do for the next three hours was sit on his ass, watch some ridiculous movie Coach Rome decided to put on, and share a junk pizza with Arthur.

Which of course, brought him to the other reason he enjoyed the ride home so much.

Arthur trudged onto the bus, tossing his own bag next to Alfred's in the overhead once he had taken out his psychology book. Alfred smirked, Arthur kept that book out every week, despite never actually doing any studying.

"More psych homework?" he asked.

Arthur scoffed, sitting next to Alfred in the aisle seat. "But of course, why on earth wouldn't I have an ungodly amount of homework in psychology every bloody weekend?"

Alfred chuckled, tempted to make a snappy comment about getting it done on the bus that morning, but held back. For you see, despite popular misconceptions, Arthur Kirkland was very much not a morning person. Every Saturday morning, Arthur would drag himself out of bed with just enough time to throw on his uniform, fill up his water bottle and slip his running spikes into his bag before dragging himself out the door to catch the bus.

Alfred, who had been up for well over an hour and a half at this point in order to shower, make himself some breakfast, brush his teeth and pack his bag, always found this hilarious. He would sit at his counter and watch Arthur drag himself around their apartment, bumping into things and cursing at them, and together they would walk out to the bus. Once there, Arthur would shove a granola bar into his mouth, pop his iPod into his ears, and conk out once again until they reached the meet.

To be honest, Alfred was actually pretty impressed with that. About an hour into their drive, Coach Germania always put on some super loud "motivational" movie to wake everyone up and get them pumped up for the meet, and yet Arthur was somehow able to sleep through it. Thankfully, Arthur was apparently well rested from all of his sleep in the morning, and never slept on the bus ride back.

Just another reason to love the ride home.

"So, how did the races go today?" he asked casually.

"The 800 went well," Arthur sighed, "Not a PR, but better than last week at least."

"Well that's good! How about the 1500?"

Arthur narrowed his eyes. "I didn't run the 15 today... Do you even watch me race?" he exclaimed.

Alfred cringed. Whoops. "Of course I do, Artie! I just loose track of how many laps you do and stuff!" Arthur didn't look very convinced. "W-what were you running with all the laps today then?"

Arthur's eyes narrowed even more. "I ran the open 800 and the 4x800 today Alfred; both of which only involve two laps."

"Y-yeah, well, you know how I am," Alfred laughed pathetically, "any more than one lap and I lose count! Hahaha..." Thankfully satisfied with that, Arthur turned his attention to flagging down a pizza and Alfred sighed in relief.

Arthur really had no idea, did he? Of course Alfred watched him race! He never missed a single one! He just got... distracted sometimes. It was just... well... Arthur looked good while he ran, okay? Like, really good. Strong and smooth and completely in the zone; Alfred had never seen someone as light on their feet as Arthur while he ran. It really was a sight to see.

The fact that he wore those cute little shorts didn't hurt either. Arthur had some nice legs.

Sometime during his musing, Arthur had managed to secure a supreme pizza and Alfred thanked the heavens for the change in conversation as the two chowed down.

"My races went well today," Alfred said between chewing with a smirk. "Thanks for asking."

Arthur tutted. "I am aware, I watch your races. Unlike someone I know."

...Goddammit.

"I did watch you!" he exclaimed. Alfred slammed his head into the back of the seat in front of him with a frustrated groan. Thankfully, the older boy simply chuckled and continued nibbling at his slice of pizza.

As the pizzas were passed around the bus, Alfred let his mind wander even deeper to the area reserved especially for his British roommate. See, Alfred had this dream. A dream that had rather consumed his mind for the better part of two years.

He and Arthur would be sitting next to each other, but instead of the short, soft touching of coat sleeves on their shared arm rest like usual, Arthur's head would be nestled comfortably on his shoulder, and his own head would be rested atop his. Alfred's hand would be holding Arthur's hand on Arthur's left knee, and they would talk in quiet, intimate whispers to share jokes or secrets or simply sweet nothings.

Sitting like that, wrapped up in each other, they would watch the stupid movie Rome put on and eat their pizza. Arthur would make his usual biting comments (unless, of course, it happens to be a British film of some kind) and Alfred would roll his eyes and tell Arthur to just watch the movie, for fuck's sake. Eventually, though, they would lose interest in the movie and gain interest only in each other.

Alfred would tell Arthur he ran awesome that day, and through his stuttering denial and blush, Arthur would tell Alfred the same. They would then kiss; nothing frantic or needy, because they had been kissing for a while now and it was nothing new, just a simple kiss that Arthur would end with that soft, sweet smile that was reserved for only special occasions. They would then settle back to their little embrace for the rest of the trip, ignoring the cat-calls and joking exclamations to 'get a room' by their teammates, because those had been going on just as long as the kissing.

Okay yeah, it was a cheesy dream, but it was all Alfred had so shut up.

"Oh, looks like Elizabeta has brought treats this week."

Alfred snapped out of his daydream at the sound of Arthur's voice and cleared his throat. "O-oh yeah! Lookit that!" he exclaimed just a bit too loudly. Arthur rose an eyebrow quizzically.

"Yes, anyway..." he trailed off. He turned to Elizabeta with a smile as she walked down the aisle holding a large, rectangular tin. "Hello love, what have you brought for us this week?"

The Hungarian smiled, pulling a chocolate chip cookie from the tin and waving it around. "Actually, Emma made them! Her mother sent her some chocolate from home, so you know they must be good! She just asked me to pass them out because she has psychology homework to do."

Alfred grinned at Arthur who turned away from him with a huff. "Sounds good, Liz! Hit me!"

"Yes, please do," Arthur mumbled. Alfred pouted, but Elizabeta just laughed and handed them each a large cookie.

"Oh, you two are just adorable!"

Arthur scoffed. "D-don't say such foolish things."

"It's not foolish if it's true!" she sang, her wicked eyes never leaving Alfred's horribly blushing face. The girl had a freaking sixth sense for the team's crushes apparently, and was able to pick up on Alfred's crush on Arthur from pretty much the moment they met. She delighted in making him miserable over it almost as much as she delighted in trying to hook them up.

Despite his blush, Alfred grabbed for his cookie and took a disgustingly large bite. "Fanks Efifavifa!"

Arthur scrunched his nose up in disgust but rolled his eyes and nibbled at his cookie anyway.

"No problem, boys!" she chirped, and turned around to offer Toris and Feliks across the aisle a treat as well.

Alfred breathed a sigh of relief, checking out of the corner of his eye that Arthur was fully absorbed in watching Rome fight with the bus's DVD player and eating his cookie before turning back to Elizabeta. As predicted, she was giving him another look over her shoulder.

"Make a move!" she mouthed, practically throwing a cookie at Toris. The Lithuanian squeaked and dove to catch it just in time.

Alfred bit his lip and shrugged back, hoping she understood that if he knew how to make a move, he would have done so by now.

Luckily for him, it seemed she did, and she sighed dramatically as she offered a cookie to Ludwig and Feliciano, who were seated behind them. To Ludwig's horror, she draped herself over his shoulder with an exaggerated yawn and wink. Alfred rose an eyebrow in disbelief.

"That will never work," he mouthed, shaking his head and nodding in Arthur's direction. Elizabeta waved him off.

"Just try," she replied silently and spun on her heel to feed the rest of the bus. Alfred blew a puff of hair through his bangs in irritation.

Why was it that people seemed to conveniently forget just who he was trying to woo whenever they told him to "just try." there was no "trying" with Arthur Kirkland. In fact, Alfred would even go as far to say that the famous words of Yoda should be tattooed on the guy's freaking forehead: "Do or do not. There is no try."

There were two possible outcomes to pulling The Move on Arthur Kirkland. 1) he could totally accept it, turn to face him with that adoring, lovesick look in his eyes and they could ride off into the sunset together forever, or 2) he could shriek, punch him in the balls, and kick him out of the apartment for the rest of the year.

Fan-fucking-tastic.

Alfred spared one last look at Elizabeta, who was holding her tin away from a particularly hungry looking Gilbert with one hand, and making a cutthroat motion across her neck at him with the other, and groaned. If there was one thing he feared more than his adorable little roommate it was Elizabeta Hedervary, and there was no telling what that woman would do if he didn't at least attempt The Move.

To his left, Arthur tsked at Rome's failing attempts at getting the DVD player to work. Finally, Germania called a stone-faced Kiku up to fiddle around with it, and he managed to get it working in a matter of minutes, to Rome's delight.

"I don't understand why he didn't do that in the first place," Arthur sighed, finishing off his cookie and licking the chocolate off his fingers in a way that had to be illegal in most countries. Alfred gulped.

"Uh-huh."

"I mean, honestly. He wastes a solid half an hour poking around at the bloody thing, and then when we don't finishing the movie, he pouts about it for a week. Don't you agree? Alfred?"

Alfred snapped out of his Arthur-licking-his-fingers-sexually zone and cleared his throat. "O-oh yeah, totally."

He was going to kill Liz. That cookie was totally her fault and now she expected him to make The Move with Arthur all licking himself like that? Not likely, Liz. NOT LIKELY. Unfortunately, she was distracted talking to Tino and Berwald in the back of the bus, so he couldn't glare his anger at her like he wanted, but he made a mental note to do so once she walked by again.

Arthur wiggled around in his seat a little before sighing heavily and pushing his neglected psychology book aside. "I wonder what mindless drivel Rome brought for us to watch this week," he grumbled. Alfred smirked.

"He is never going to play one of your movies, dude."

"W-who said I want him to, you git?" Arthur snapped back with a pout. "I only bring them i-in case we don't have anything else to watch!"

Alfred snickered, but stayed safely silent. As fun as pushing Arthur's buttons was, if he didn't make some kind of advance on him soon, Liz was probably going to kill him. He peaked over his shoulder quickly, relieved to find the girl still busy with their other teammates.

Arthur was now staring stubbornly at the tiny television suspended from the roof of the bus a few seats in front of them with a small frown on his handsome face. His arms were crossed stiffly across his chest, but Alfred could tell he was starting to drop the whole grumpy-gus act by the way they were relaxing as the previews played loudly from the speakers. Alfred loved how easily Arthur always forgave him.

He took a deep breath, here went nothing.

"Aww, turn that frown upside-down!" Alfred chirped, tossing a friendly arm around Arthur's shoulders and tousling his hair. "We'll watch Love Actually when we get back to school, how about that?"

Arthur squeaked and pushed Alfred's hands away from his hair. "Let go of me, you oaf!" he cried. Arthur flushed lightly, running his fingers through his hair, trying and failing to make any sort of sense of it. He seemed to settle down then, biting his lip and pointedly adverting looking at his younger roommate. "And fine. But you have to stay awake for the entirety of the film this time! Not just for the naked parts!"

Alfred grinned and pulled Arthur a little closer to his side, still not able to believe he hadn't tried to pull away. "Deal! I'll even read all those subtitles this time!"

"You are hopeless," Arthur said with a sigh, though if Alfred didn't know any better, he would totally swear he saw a little smile. "Now do shut up, the drivel is starting."

Alfred beamed, both because Arthur had yet to free himself from the arm Alfred had draped around his shoulders, and because, with a yawn, the older boy had comfortably rested his head on Alfred's own left shoulder.

Alfred knew his face was probably about as red as a freaking tomato, but at that moment he couldn't care less. Arthur was resting his head on his shoulder! His arm was around Arthur's shoulders! And while there was no sweet nothings or little kisses, it was the closest to his little bus fantasy Alfred had even gotten and he was not about to ruin it for himself now.

"Wake me up if I fall asleep, would you lad?" Arthur mumbled into the crook of Alfred's shoulder.

"You never fall asleep on the way home," Alfred replied with a chuckle.

"Well, I'm bloody comfortable," Arthur grumbled back.

Alfred smiled goofily, not even regretting it when Elizabeta practically skipped passed them down the aisle, a huge, obnoxious grin overtaking her face. With a whispered promise that he could thank her later, she settled back next to Emma and squealed in delight.

To his left, Arthur let out a small cough and snuggled a bit deeper into Alfred's shoulder, successfully distracting him from Elizabeta long enough to remind what was actually happening at that actual moment. Alfred slouched a little in his seat so Arthur would be more comfortable, and ever so cautiously, let his head rest atop his own.

"Sleep tight, Artie," he whispered as he closed his eyes. "Awesome job today."

Sorry the the delay, you guys! It's been so hectic at work getting ready for testing and I've been sick and oy, I'm just happy I finished this one!

The bus ride home is seriously the best thing in the world, though. Nothing is better than knowing that a meet is over and you don't have to do it again for another week! XD

Anyway, short on notes today! XD Thank you all again for the great reviews! I love you dudes so much!