Thank you, Idea-explosion for the idea for this chapter. I know it was just with a few words, but oh, the possibilities with your review ;) Without you, this chapter would never have been there.
~o~o~
Happier than ever before, Matthew burst into his room. He did this so loudly, his snoring twin, who was currently sleeping all over the place, jumped straight up. His shoulders hung the second after as he rubbed his eyes. "Whah-wud? Matt? What's up so early in the morning?" He asked hazily, still hugging Matthew's pillow while his own had been discarded to the floor a few hours ago. The blankets were a crumpled pile over his feet and over the edge.
"I made an agreement with Arthur. We're switching rooms." Matthew said, still only half believing it himself.
"Wud? What? What?!" Alfred sat up straight immediately, startled awake.
"You heard what I said." Matthew answered, hastily gathering his stuff together.
"But, dude. That means Arthur's gonna sleep here!"
"Well, yes. That was the whole idea."
Alfred jumped out of his bed immediately and Matthew was sure he would have started running in circles if the narrow room had allowed him to. "But-but-but! Dude! You're making me share a room with Arthur! You know what that means, right?!"
"Yes, I'm helping you take the first step into the right direction." It was difficult not to snigger at Alfred's desperate reaction.
"Aaargh! Matt! That's…how did you even know I had a crush on him?!"
Matthew sighed and looked up. "Al. You talk in your sleep. A lot. Sometimes even more than during the day."
Alfred yelped and put both his hands into his messy hair. This was bad. "How did you make me say that?! I didn't say that from myself, did I?!"
"You did." Matthew responded. He had to admit seeing Alfred freak out like the world was about to end was rather funny. He hadn't even put his glasses on yet. Thanks to that, it didn't take long for Alfred to trip over his own shoes and fall face-first onto his bed. "But Matt! What if I say that kinda stuff when Arthy's here?! He's gonna kill me 'till I'm dead!"
"Arthy?" Matthew asked, sniggering behind his hand. "You call him Arthy? I can tell you now he's probably not going to like that."
Matthew didn't hear his brother's panicked shouting anymore. He almost had his things gathered to bring it to the other room. He opened the door, only to nearly bump into Arthur.
"Oh, sorry Arthur!" Matthew quickly apologised.
"Don't mention it. Good luck with that nuisance of a beanstalk. And good morning, Alfred." He greeted. He crossed his arms and raised one of his thick eyebrows at the younger one of the twins.
Alfred tensed up at the spot and slowly turned around. "Oh, hi Arthur."
"Hi. As of now, we are sharing a room, it seems."
Matthew quickly passed him and hurried away. "Good luck, you guys." He said, but they didn't seem to hear it. It was their mess to take care of now.
"Says who?" Alfred asked, trying to hide the fact he was freaking out on the inside. Arthur's eyes were drawn towards the complete mess of a bed and he shook his head.
Alfred saw this, and he was instantly uneasy again. This wasn't really a good start. Not at all. What was he supposed to do now? Try to hide that hell of a mess? Distract him? Act oblivious? He didn't know.
"Says Trouillefou. I'm surprised you didn't wake up from Abel's 'wake-up call' this morning."
"Well, yeah…I-eh…sleep though a lot."
"Including History and English class?"
"Yeah, that too. So…why did you and Matt switch rooms? I think I missed something."
Arthur shot him a sarcastic glance that had the sentence 'why are you so stupid?' dripping off it. "My roommate has kicked me out, nearly choked me and woke me up with one hell of a noise at six in the morning. Does that sound like a reason?"
"Yeah. How did you get Matt so far?" Alfred wondered. Maybe it was too early in the morning, or maybe he just really didn't understand.
"Surprisingly enough, the lad volunteered." Arthur sighed.
"Sounds more like 'sacrificed himself' than 'volunteered'."
"Yes, well, I don't think Matthew was exactly fond of his roommate either." Arthur once again glanced at the complete mess Alfred's sleeping place was. Yes, sleeping place. It wasn't exactly recognisable as a bed anymore. He could see Alfred wasn't exactly a steady sleeper, but at least he wouldn't kick him out on purpose. Or so he hoped.
Alfred was once again reminded of this not-so-great part of himself, and the worst part was that Arthur hadn't even been inside the room for a minute. On top of that, Alfred hadn't ever been this awkward before. Usually when he was around Arthur, there were other people around and he could just be himself and hide behind the others if he had to. Now, he was alone with him in a messy hotel room in France, both only wearing their pyjamas.
And a watch, it seemed.
Arthur checked his and came to the conclusion that it was only fifteen minutes past six, and that it would be two hours or even more before their teachers would make their rounds to get everyone to wake up. "I don't know what you wanted to do, but I'm going back to sleep for a couple of hours." He rearranged the sheets and claimed one half of the bed for himself.
"Uh, yeah. That sounds like an idea." Alfred said, before yawning. He just now realised it was still very early and he should probably follow Arthur's example of lying back down and taking the two remaining hours he had to sleep.
Even so, he could tell he probably wouldn't be able to fall asleep with Arthur being right next to him. Especially when knowing he shifted like no one in the world when he was asleep. Arthur wasn't at all uneasy, it seemed, as he turned to look at Alfred after he had settled. "Aren't you going back to sleep, Alfred?"
This brought him back to earth again. "Uh, yeah." He lay down on his bed again, pulled the covers up to his chest and looked at the ceiling. After a few seconds, he noticed Arthur's breath distantly stroking his neck and he turned around at his roommate. Even though he probably should have expected it, he couldn't help but being taken aback when he noticed Arthur was facing his way, and was in fact not asleep. No, the Brit was very much awake, and also very close now thanks to Alfred turning.
It was not that he minded it, though.
It was also the first time to literally have a closer look at Arthur. His eyes were greener than Alfred had always thought they were, his lashes were long and light and his porcelain skin was dotted with freckles. A lot of them. They were just small darker dots scattered over his nose and his cheeks.
It was the first time Alfred noticed something else than his thick eyebrows. Especially the freckles were intriguing. The made his otherwise so harsh and serious look more soft and innocent. His features were both mature and innocent; a rare, but beautiful combination.
"What are you looking at?" Arthur asked, but it didn't sound like he actually meant 'stop staring at me', as it usually did when someone asked that question. It sounded like he was genuinely interested in what he was looking at. Alfred immediately looked somewhere else, but his eyes went back to Arthur's again. "I never noticed you had freckles." Alfred said, a little blunter than he had hoped.
Arthur looked away and with an expression that looked like a mix of annoyance and embarrassment. "I usually don't let people close enough to see. And that has a reason."
"Why? It's cute." Alfred gasped when he said that. It had rolled out of his mouth before he realised it. Oh, now he had done it.
Arthur's eyes were growing wider, and he seemed to look for the appropriate words. "Cu-cute? I think should inform you that you have a rather strange definition of cute, Alfred. Maybe you should have your head checked."
"What do you think is cute then?" He asked, more than a little offended. This had only been a way to hide how much he wanted to turn back time and slap himself to silence before he had said it, but now he was curious.
"Well, eh. That depends on the context and what exactly you mean." Arthur sat up and folded his hands in his lap.
"What do you think is cute about a girl?" Alfred asked, leaning back on his elbows and looking at his roommate.
"What?" Arthur asked.
"Or a guy, if you prefer." Alfred added casually.
"What?!" Arthur squeaked. His mouth hung open and he was looking for his words again. "I have never told anyone that! How did you know?!"
"Dude, relax. I was just joking." Alfred quickly said, and a sly grin crawled onto his face. "But this is nice to know." He smiled visibly. Okay. Now he was in control of the situation again.
"Oh, don't be ridiculous! Why would you want to know that? It's not as if my sexual orientation is of any importance, or your business."
"Dude, we've been friends for what, five years now? That's one of those things you tell your friends. I'm just interested, that's all." Alfred put his glasses on. From this short distance it was easier to see without them, but he thought it'd be just a bit more comfortable to keep a little more space between them at his point. The last thing he wanted was scaring Arthur away.
Arthur wasn't going to answer that. He merely raised an eyebrow. "Interest or wishful thinking?" He asked.
Alfred swallowed. "How did you know that?!" He shrieked, and only realised the mistake he had made when Arthur grinned in victory. "Just a lucky guess, but this is nice to know. I think we're even now." Still grinning, Arthur turned away and covered himself tightly in the blankets.
"Go back to sleep, Alfred. Now is not the time for such a conversation."
"Hey, that's not fair! And I'm not even tired anymore."
"Well, I am. Just for your information: I haven't slept one single minute in this past night, and I am going to use every minute of rest I can get from now."
"Dude! Do you think I can sleep now?! I'm totally flipping right here!"
"You can stay awake if you want, but do so in silence, please. I'll talk to you again in an hour and a half exactly."
"But, dude! You just-!"
Arthur looked around and threw him a demonic glare that would have made the Devil himself wet himself and scream for his mother like a small child. "Go to sleep and forget this ever happened." He doomed.
Alfred yelped and gave in. He lay back down as well and tried to sleep. Needless to say, that was a difficult task when your secret you had been keeping for years now had just been guessed by the very subject of said secret. He looked at his mobile phone every few minutes to see how long he still had to wait until eight o' clock at least, but time seemed to be going backwards at this point.
He started jumping back and forth between dreaming and being startled awake because of said dream. Waiting had never been his strongest point, but this was absolutely killing. How was he ever going to survive waiting that long? He couldn't sleep anymore, but staying awake only got him more and more anxious.
He thought it would never come, but when it was finally eight o'clock, Alfred carefully leaned over to Arthur. Again, his eyes fell on his long eyelashes and those light freckles. Suddenly, waking him up didn't seem like the best idea anymore. He was so sweet and innocent like this. Not to mention that he would probably be not as sweet and innocent in his choice of words if he were to be woken up right now.
Instead of waking him up, Alfred carefully stroked his cheek with the side of his finger. Softly and slowly, he caressed the smooth skin and captured the feeling. If this wasn't perfect.
He was so handsome. Arthur looked so perfectly mature and warm, but at the same time innocent. He was just something you wanted to hug as soon as you laid eyes on it.
"I'm awake, you know." Arthur suddenly said, only after that opening one eye to see Alfred's reaction.
He quickly withdrew his hand and turned to lie on his back again. His cheeks flared up, but he chose to ignore it. "You could've said something sooner."
"What, and ruin a perfect chance to annoy you? Tsk. As if."
"You're terrible." Alfred said and hid his head underneath his pillow.
"Terrible you say? Hm. Not more than an hour and a half ago you said you had a crush on me." He said, sadistically grinning.
"Stop it!" Alfred shouted from under the pillow, but Arthur wasn't exactly planning to listen.
On cue, someone knocked the door rather hard. "Guys! Time to get up!" Trouillefou said from the other side of the door.
"We're awake." Alfred said, and completely tried to forget what had happened the past morning. This was all too awkward. He put his jeans on and grabbed his dog tags from the bedside table. From the rustling behind him, he could make up Arthur was doing the same. "Hey, Arth. Where were we going again today?" Alfred didn't dare to look around.
"I thought we'd go to the Louvre and the Notre Dame." Arthur responded blankly. He buttoned his shirt up and straightened it out.
After that, not a word was spoken anymore. Alfred looked at the floor and put his t-shirt on. Okay, so Arthur wasn't interested. That was fine. That was completely fine, no problem at all. He just wasn't his type, that was all.
But Alfred knew there was no fooling himself there. He was disappointed. He had wanted Arthur to like him so badly for so long, but now reality had caught up. And all this just because his brother just had to be the perfectly polite kid again and offer to help Arthur out. Just great.
Well, at least there was no way this week could become more awkward now. And Matthew was dead the moment Alfred would catch him. For damn sure.
~o~o~
Oh, Matthew. You can be such a troll sometimes. Poooor Alfred. Yup, awkward situation is awkward.
Sorry for the crap-tastic chapter, but I had to add this. If I hadn't, the next chapters would have been very random for no reason.
Please review, my few dear readers. I know you are out there somewhere. My stats told me so.