When Arthur woke up properly, Kiku was on the phone.
"Arthur-san, I see you're awake" said Kiku, covering the speaker with his hand.
"No shit." Arthur wasn't a morning person. Nothing new, Kiku didn't mind.
"Mm, Allistor-san would like your address and place of work"
"Why does he want to know where I work?"
"You can ask him"
"Pass me the phone, Kiku"
Kiku gave him the phone after informing Allistor that he was being passed to Arthur.
"Heyo Artie-boy, how are ya?" Allistor sounded significantly older. Of course he did. Arthur mentally slapped himself. Ten years.
"Tired. What are you doing up so early? I thought you hated mornings as much as I did"
"That's a fantastic way to greet someone you haven't heard from in a decade… anyway, I never went to sleep. People to do, things to see…"
"Surely you meant it the other way around?"
"Nope"
"Okay… why do you want to know where I work?"
"To know where to find you, ya dill pot. It means I can hang at a pub until you get off work. Actually, meet me at the nearest place after work, I'll probably be there"
"I thought you were in Scotland, Allistor"
"I rocked up to London last night. It was a very long trip so I haven't slept yet"
"Why are you here? Is it because of me? Actually, no don't answer that yet" Arthur glanced at the clock and sighed "we'll catch up later; I have to get ready for work" He told Allistor his adress and the rest of his details, bade him farewell and hung up.
Kiku and Arthur then had a lovely breakfast consisting of whatever was in the fridge and some tea.
"I should go now Arthur-san. There's a serial killer that I must catch. He takes all of his victims' blood and it's just… awful" Kiku shivered, putting down his tea cup and grabbing his coat.
"Oh yeah, you're a detective now, aren't you? Good job" Arthur pat Kiku on the back.
"Yes." Kiku smiled and waved "Goodbye, Arthur-san"
"Bye Kiku" Said Arthur as he closed the door to the bathroom and tried to have the quickest shower ever taken. before he missed his bus. He threw on some mildly smart-looking clothes before he ran out the door, Missing said bus that he'd tried not to miss.
When he arrived at the tailor having run about two… maybe three kilometres, he was greeted by a young man with bright orange hair and freckles.
"Hi Artie, You look like shit. Maybe comb would do you some good. Also, you're late; it would suck if I told the boss how late you've been recently" he said
"Shut up Patrick" Replied Arthur. It's true Arthur had been off the ball recently. He was very lonely and his apparent lack of friends wasn't helping anyone.
"I'm not Patrick and you know it" the orange hair freckle guy said, glaring daggers at Arthur.
"I'll call you by your name when you call me by mine, Patrick"
"Did somebody say my name?" Said another orange hair freckle guy with shorter hair and less freckles as he walked through the door.
"No Pat, Artie here was just being a prick"
"Well Artie should stop being a prick, then" Said Patrick
"My thoughts exactly" He flicked Arthur lightly "Call me Dylan~ It's my name, you know you want to call it~"
"Shut up and let me work, you Irish bastard!" Shouted Arthur as he began on the ball gown he'd been working on for the past two days. He was glad it was still another thirty minutes or so 'til the shop opened. Shouting wouldn't be good for buisness.
"Calm yo titties" said Patrick "Dylan's a dick but you don't need to shout. Let's get to the matter at hand"
"I hate you, Pat"
"I hate you too, Dylan" said Patrick, blowing a kiss to his brother "The point is, will you come down to the pub with us?"
Arthur paused. How... the two topics weren't even related..."No, go do your work" said Arthur after going through his mental process.
"But-" Started Patrick
"Now"
Patrick clicked his tongue and left to find his work station.
"You too, Dylan"
Dylan smiled and gave Arthur a very sarcastic feeling hug. "I knew you had it in you" He said before tottering off.
The day passed fairly slowly. The twins kept pestering Arthur until he caved and agreed to join them on the condition that they go only to the nearest pub.
The only thing that kept Arthur happy was that he'd be seeing Allistor at the end of the day. Having forgotten (or purposely blocked out) many of the details of his stay at the orphanage, the kiss being one of them, Arthur was entirely clueless about how much Allistor liked him.
So, the work day ended and pub time was upon them.
"A-and she just l-left" sobbed Dylan recounting the tale of a girl he'd loved very much when he was twelve "I really thought she was the one"
"I know, Dylan. I liked her, too" said Patrick as he pat his brother on the back. Being significantly more sober, Patrick was not crying over something that happened over seven years ago.
"Ya know I really liked some someones when I was twelve… or was I thirteen? I can't remember, but there were these twins from North America that I really enjoyed the company of and these brothers from Italy, and two guys from Germany and a French guy and a Spanish guy…" Arthur started listing their nationalities as the booze had made their names escape him.
"Whoa, whoa, Artie, we don't need a list of where your friends came from" said Patrick
"But I want to tell you" said Arthur
"Yeah, I'm listening~" Dylan seemed to have forgotten all about the girl he was talking about for the time being
"Fine" said Patrick
"I'm listening, too" said Allistor sitting down on the stool next to Arthur.
"Hey Allistor" Said Arthur, having no trouble at all recognising his old friend even after ten years and many, many drinks.
Arthur noted that Allistor had gotten significantly more handsome, his face was more angular and his hair wasn't as red as it once was. He was still pasty as fuck, though.
"Hey" replied Allistor, clearly not entirely sober
"Who's he? He sounds Scottish" Inquired Dylan, somehow able to distingush his accent from a simple word.
"I'm Allistor, an old friend of Artie's"
"I don't like you" Said Dylan.
Arthur fell off his chair after growing bored and falling asleep "You're... so... pasty..." He mumbled.
"I don't like you much either"
"Artie seems to have fainted" Said Pat dragging him to a safe enough place at the edge of the bar.
"You wanna go?" asked Dylan
"Sure, but let's take this outside, people who aren't involved don't need to get hurt, after all" said Allistor cracking his knuckles
"Okay" Said Dylan holding the door open for Allistor
"Thanks" Gentlemanly.
When they came back, they seemed to have become rather good friends, despite the many cuts and bruises they sported.
"We should do that again!" Said Dylan patting Allistor on the back roughly
"Hell yeah, you're a great bloke! I've gotta take Artie home, but I'll see you again" (and from that day forth, there was an unspoken respect between the two men.)
"Sure, Allistor"
So, without conflict, Allistor put the extremely hammered Arthur on his back and left.
After Allistor and Arthur left, Patrick stared at Dylan.
"Dylan" he said after a long silence.
"Yeah?"
"You let a Scotsman steal our bitch"
There was a pause "...Shit, should we do something?"
"We should" said Patrick.
"We should." Repeated Dylan.
Oh wow it's been almost a month since I last updated, sorry guys. I had my birthday, exams, a party and all that shizzle going on so I guess I got a little caught up in the real world.
Can you give me some reviews as a birthday present? Pretty please? (Even if this chappy sort of sucked).