The Time In The World [10/12?]
anonymous
August 20 2011, 05:38:54 UTC
“I see you’re a bit confused,” future-Alfred ripped out a piece of paper from the side of the notebook Alfred wasn’t scrawling in and waved his sweetheart over, “The time machine exists in two points on our timeline,” he drew a line with two points on opposite ends to demonstrate, “Since I used the same exact formula and calibration at both points, they were able to connect and create a time loop between the two points,” a circle was drawn to connect the two points, “They were dragged through the time loop to here, and they would have probably just been dragged back again, no harm done, but the machines were overwhelmed and exploded, ending the loop and stranding them here. That awesome or what?”
“No, it’s not ‘awesome,’” future-Arthur’s eyes went wide as realization hit him, “Don’t you see? If we get stuck here in high school, everything that’s happened since then never happened!”
“Including me setting up a receiving point for the time loop, which would mean there never was a time loop, creating a time paradox, which is bad. So instead of that, we’re going to send them - us, back.”
“But…” he stared at the work table full of future-Alfred’s gizmos, “the time machine exploded…”
“So I fixed it,” he gave his machine an affectionate pat, “As soon as Little Me is done with his calculations, we can get this show on the road.”
“So it was the high school version of you all along...” future-Arthur sighed as everything finally started to set in and ruffled his hair, “that, actually makes a lot of sense.”
“Was Little Me mean to you?” future-Alfred smirked, “Hopefully he’ll grow out of it someday.”
“Git,” both Arthurs said, the older one with a smile, the younger with a scowl, while Alfred scribbled with a bit more force than necessary “I mean, I figured out it wasn’t quite you pretty quickly,” future-Alfred blushed and scratched the back of his neck, “Not that, he’s not you, but, well, you know what I mean,” he grinned, cheeks still red, ‘You didn’t do anything embarrassing like ask him to marry you did you?”
Alfred and Arthur grew uncomfortable and fidgeted as future-Arthur blushed and stuttered, “N-no, of course not, idiot,” his hand found its way into his jacket pocket, “why would I do something like that?”
“Done,” Alfred slammed his pencil on the table, cutting off whatever his future counterpart was going to say, “If you two are done being gross and stuff, maybe we can get going.”
“Awesome,” future-Alfred snatched the notebook away and leafed through it, “I was right! We did use the same formula!” he nodded towards the clothes in the corner of the room, “You should change back into your uniform so we can get you guys home.” Alfred went to do that, stopping only to glare at the Arthurs, making his future self chuckle, “Relax, it’s nothing they haven’t seen before,” Alfred’s face went red, but he continued to change in silence.
“Now that you know your blasted machine works, to some degree,” future-Arthur shuffled and leaned against the same work bench his past self was, “how long are you going to spend looking for the correct formula to accomplish your goal?”
“That probably won’t be necessary,” future-Alfred shrugged, “If I fix the machine, I can just use the time loop formula to get the desired result.” “Oh, I get it!” Alfred shouted from where he was working on putting on his belt, “By setting up multiple points in the time loop, we can just travel between them!”
Both Arthurs gave a flat “What?” as Alfred hurried to button up his shirt and future-Alfred started doodling on the scrap paper.
“See, we know this formula can set up a time loop as long as it has another receiving point somewhere else in time,” Alfred explained as he tied his tie, “so whenever we set up the machine in the future, we can use the same formula and add that point to the loop.”
“Like this,” future-Alfred showed them the diagram; he added more dots to the previous line, and interconnected them all with various circles, “All we need to do is figure out how the build the machine so it doesn’t explode and make it so we can select a specific point in the loop to travel to.”
The Time In The World [11/12]
anonymous
August 20 2011, 05:44:32 UTC
The two Alfreds smiled, expecting praise for their genius, no doubt. Future-Arthur eyed the diagram some more while Arthur focused his attention on future-Alfred and stated, “But our point exploded. I doubt we can even us it again…”
“This is time travel Art,” Alfred rolled his eyes, “It doesn’t matter that it exploded; it still existed at some point and was able to set up a point in the loop to get us here. We’ll go back to just before it exploded.”
Yes, because I really want to end up in a room with an exploding time machine.”
“If you’re going to be setting all of these points in the future,” future-Arthur cut off Alfred’s response, “how do you know they will be sent back to the one they set in high school? What if they end up even further into the future?”
“Yeah, that’s a possibility,” future-Alfred scratched the back of his neck and glanced between Alfred and Arthur, “I’m guessing that since I can’t pick a point, you’ll just go to the closet point on the time line. If that happens, you’ll just have to keep going forward until I’ve figured out how to pick the point. Don’ worry, I’m sure I’ll do it eventually.”
“How do you know it won’t take us with them Darling?” future-Arthur looked away from the diagram and into his lover’s eyes, “Just because we didn’t go anywhere the first time doesn’t mean we won’t now, if you don’t know why.”
“Oh,” future-Alfred frowned and thought about it, “uh…”
“You two are wearing watches,” Alfred noticed, “Art and I aren’t. Since watches are time keepers, maybe they’re what kept you anchored to your time?”
Arthur groaned and rolled his eyes, “That is a completely ridiculous notion and you should feel bad for thinking it.”
Alfred ground his teeth and snapped, “Let’s hear what you think then, since you apparently know everything!”
“I’m not supposed to be the genius scientist, remember?”
“Well you-”
“I like it,” future-Alfred interrupted, “Yeah, because watches were created as a way to control and understand time, and what we’re trying to do here is basically let it loose. I suppose something like a sundial could be used as an anchor too…”
“There’s no scientific basis or backing for your ‘theory,’” future-Arthur crossed his arms as he protested, “just a clever play on words.”
“I know how much you love your plays on words though,” future-Arthur frowned, a slight blush creeping along his cheeks.
“I’m no scientist. My preferences should not form the backbone of a scientific theory.”
“But I am a scientist, and I like that theory,” he grinned, and it sent dread and a shiver through both Arthurs, “Well, the only way to prove a theory is to test it,” he went to the machine and placed his hand on the switch, but hesitated at the last second, “Arthur, uh, it’s probably going to explode again right after they leave, so-”
“If you think I’m going to leave you alone in a room with an exploding time machine, Alfred Jones, you are sorely mistaken,” he grabbed his hand and looked around the lab, eyes landing on the same metal box Arthur and Alfred first appeared behind, “We’ll hide behind that after you flip the switch.”
“You should hide behind there now,” he smiled, “I’ll join you after.”
“We’ll go together,” he tightened his grip around his hand.
Future-Alfred sighted in defeat, “Fine. You know I love you right?”
“I know. I love you too,” he leaned in and kissed him soft and tenderly. Arthur felt that longing tug at his heart again as he watched them interact and love each other. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Alfred looking at him, unreadable expression on his face.
“Enough of this lovey-dovey crap,” Alfred said after a long moment of kisses exchanged between the two, “Can we just go home already?”
“Someone’s eager to leave,” his future counterpart chuckled as he wrapped an arm around his love’s waist.
Alfred lowered his head, hiding his eyes behind his bangs, and muttered, “I just…want to go back and fix this future, is all.”
This time it was future-Arthur’s turn to chuckle, “My dear idiot, when the time comes to ‘change’ this future, it’s not your choice to make,” he looked right into Arthur’s eyes and smiled, radiating pure happiness, “It’s yours.”
The Time In The World [12/12]
anonymous
August 20 2011, 05:46:14 UTC
“Alright! Everyone in your time traveling or running and ducking positions,” future-Alfred announced. “Here we go!” was all the warning everyone got before he flipped the switch.
*~*~*~
Alfred woke up on the floor of the science lab with a massive headache and an angry Arthur looming over him.
“Look at what you idiocy has done now,” he snapped, as Alfred sat up. All of the beakers that had been out on the tables and most of the windows and been shattered in the explosion, but Alfred didn’t have time to be impressed with himself, “Do you know how much it’s going to cost to fix and replace everything?”
While Arthur ranted about costs and retributions, Alfred was trying to remember. The time machine had worked, hadn’t it, and he saw his future, his future with Arthur, where they were together, and it was… nice. They were happy.
“Are you listening to me idiot?” Arthur snapped, drawing Alfred’s attention to him, “If you bring me down with you because of this there will be hell to pay!”
That must a have been a dream, he decided, a pleasant dream, but a dream. No, not a pleasant dream. The explosion must have been messing with his mind. No dream where he and Arthur were together like that could have been pleasant. IT must have been a nightmare. And yet…
“Are you okay?” he asked out of nowhere, silencing Arthur mid-rant. “Oh, well,” he grabbed his arm and looked away “Aside from a slight headache, yes, I’m fine. You?”
“Yeah,” he rubbed his head, “I’m alright.”
“Good,” Arthur’s glare could probably have peeled paint, Alfred barely noticed, “then nothing will hinder you as you spend every day after school next week cleaning this mess and the mess in all of the other science labs up.”
“What, but Art…”
“No buts,” his glare intensified, if that was possible, “And how many times to I have to tell you not to shorten my name?” he scowled as he carefully made his way around the glass to the door, “I expect you back here right after school on Monday. I suggest you find a useable broom,” and with that he left.
Alfred stood up, careful to avoid the glass. No, he and Arthur together was in no way pleasant. And yet… he couldn’t help that feeling of longing that stirred in his heart as he watched Arthur leave.
*~*~*~
“Did it work? Are they gone?” Arthur asked as the dust from the explosion started to clear.
Alfred peeked out over the top of the box, “Yeah, they’re gone,” and settled back down as Arthur wrapped his arms around his stomach.
“”But did they make it back okay?” he leaned his head on Alfred’s shoulder. “Well we’re still here, and nothing’s changed,” he draped an arm around Arthur’s shoulders and squeezed, “I'm thinking they’re just fine.”
“Prat,” Arthur snuggled closer to him, hugging his middle tighter, “It was strange, seeing them. Shows how far we’ve come I suppose.”
“Yeah,” Alfred exhaled into his hair, breathing in a scent of tea, rain, books, and lavender that was uniquely Arthur. After a short pause, face still buried in Arthur’s hair, he said, “Uh, about what we were talking about last night…”
“You don’t,” he stiffened and burrowed further into Alfred’s chest, “its fine. It’s not like I actually meant-”
“Yes,” Alfred held his love tighter, as if he was afraid he’d bolt any second, “If you were to ask, my answer would be yes.”
“I-is that so?” Arthur shifted his head so his face was facing away from Alfred and reached his hand into his pocket, grasping the ring box that was there, “Then, love, I have a question for you…”
The Time In The World [Epilogue and notes]
anonymous
August 20 2011, 05:49:52 UTC
Arthur checked his phone again as he stared at the door to the roof. The text he had gotten from Alfred during lunch was still there, inviting him up to the roof. True, he hadn’t been as horrible to him as of late, but there was only so long he could keep up this charade of actually caring about Arthur. He was probably only calling him up to make fun of him or something along those lines. Still…
He took a deep breath and pushed the door open, completely unprepared for the sight on the other side.
Alfred had set up an elaborate picnic, right there on the roof, and had even gone so far as to have the whole thing lined with roses.
“You like?” Alfred, sitting in the center of the blanket, smiled a bit shy and very unlike him, “I had the kids in the Gardening Club help with the roses. They’re your favorite right?”
“It’s…nice,” he raised a skeptical eyebrow, “Why all the trouble?”
“It gives it a more authentic English touch.”
“And what on earth is that supposed to mean?”
Alfred just laughed in response and patted the empty space next to him, “Come one. I made you tea, or tried to make you tea. Drink it before it gets cold.”
Seeing no reason to object other than the obvious fact that he was up to something, Arthur complied. The tea, surprisingly enough, wasn’t that bad.
The two of them talked and ate for what must have been hours. It was relaxing, just the two of them, no pressures from school or parents or peers, and if he had wanted to, Arthur could let go of the past few years and pretend that nothing had happened between the two of them, that they were still best friends and nobody else mattered.
“Arthur,” Alfred got his attention, gaze unwavering even as the blush appeared on his cheeks, “I, uh, I wanted to ask you something…”
And here it was. It was one of Alfred’s more elaborate schemes to get funding for whatever pet project he was cooking up now, but in the end, that’s all Arthur was to him now, a giant wallet. It always came back to money.
“I know, ever since I got to high school, I’ve been a bit mean to you-”
“I’d use the word prick, but point taken.”
“Yeah,” he scratched the back of his head and looked away for a bit before finding Arthur’s eyes again, “and I’m sorry about that. You didn’t deserve it. I was just, confused, I guess, about how I feel about you, but I’ve been working it all out, and, and I realized something.
Arthur Kirkland, I like you. Like, like you like you. I like you a lot more than a friend, because you, you’re my everything. And I should have realized it sooner but I was just…”
“Confused?” Arthur suggested, his face heating up as well while he soaked in his words.
Alfred nodded, “Y-yeah. I’d like to start that kind of relationship with you, if you’d give me the chance. I know I don’t deserve it after the way I’ve treated you, and you probably don’t even think about me in that way,” he leaned back on his hands and stared resolutely at the concrete roof, “Still, I, I wanted to ask, just in case.”
Arthur couldn’t believe it. After all this time, Alfred still cared about him, and it seemed his feelings had even grown. But in the end it was all for naught. Arthur had promised himself that he wouldn’t trust his heart to anyone again, especially not Alfred, who had already had it and broken it. He couldn’t, wouldn’t give him the chance to do so again.
And yet… Alfred smiling at him, a genuine smile on his face, them together and Alfred loving him, these images, brief glimpses of a dream about the future Arthur couldn’t fully recall, were in Arthur’s mind. What would happen if he gave Alfred this chance? Could they possibly be happy together if he let them?
“Yes, I mean,” he cleared his throat, “We could, try that, if you want. See what happens.”
The smile on Alfred’s face as he hugged him so tight erased any doubts in Arthur’s mind.
This could work.
- Sorry if it steered away from the prompt a bit OP. And sorry for going into so much time travel theory stuff there. /is a fan of time travel.
Re: The Time In The World [Epilogue and notes]
anonymous
August 20 2011, 12:46:54 UTC
This was super adorable! I loved every word of it. And the extra time travel theory stuff only added to it rather than take away in my opinion, do all's well. I loved how they still bickered and how it ended up as a 'dream' for both of them. Great fill!
Re: The Time In The World [Epilogue and notes]
anonymous
August 20 2011, 18:57:11 UTC
As above anon said, good job authoranon! This was a pretty elaborate story and although I don't understand much from the scientific parts, the plot was good and it was fluffy yet not sappy.
I especially liked that it was Arthur who asked the marriage question, a nice change.
Re: The Time In The World [Epilogue and notes]
anonymous
August 20 2011, 20:19:08 UTC
this was adorable, and the science talk was exactly how it should be - present, but reduced to techno lingo by both Al's understanding of each other and glossing over the boring parts xD I enjoyed this, the light tone, and how it didn't drag on forever like it could have.
asldkfjjkfdsl I just. AHHHH. This was SO MUCH MORE than I expected! I saw it was filled this morning, then I was rushed around, and finally got to it--alsdkfjsdl Seriously--so. so. happy. It went above and beyond my expectations! Thank you SO much!
Re: The Time In The World [Epilogue and notes]
anonymous
August 21 2011, 22:37:17 UTC
Loved this so much anon! It was adorable how Future-Alfred tricked Arthur into thinking he hasn't caught on. Died at the Lovino the Plumber bit (Super Mario reference? I approve). Great job! What a lovely fill.
“No, it’s not ‘awesome,’” future-Arthur’s eyes went wide as realization hit him, “Don’t you see? If we get stuck here in high school, everything that’s happened since then never happened!”
“Including me setting up a receiving point for the time loop, which would mean there never was a time loop, creating a time paradox, which is bad. So instead of that, we’re going to send them - us, back.”
“But…” he stared at the work table full of future-Alfred’s gizmos, “the time machine exploded…”
“So I fixed it,” he gave his machine an affectionate pat, “As soon as Little Me is done with his calculations, we can get this show on the road.”
“So it was the high school version of you all along...” future-Arthur sighed as everything finally started to set in and ruffled his hair, “that, actually makes a lot of sense.”
“Was Little Me mean to you?” future-Alfred smirked, “Hopefully he’ll grow out of it someday.”
“Git,” both Arthurs said, the older one with a smile, the younger with a scowl, while Alfred scribbled with a bit more force than necessary
“I mean, I figured out it wasn’t quite you pretty quickly,” future-Alfred blushed and scratched the back of his neck, “Not that, he’s not you, but, well, you know what I mean,” he grinned, cheeks still red, ‘You didn’t do anything embarrassing like ask him to marry you did you?”
Alfred and Arthur grew uncomfortable and fidgeted as future-Arthur blushed and stuttered, “N-no, of course not, idiot,” his hand found its way into his jacket pocket, “why would I do something like that?”
“Done,” Alfred slammed his pencil on the table, cutting off whatever his future counterpart was going to say, “If you two are done being gross and stuff, maybe we can get going.”
“Awesome,” future-Alfred snatched the notebook away and leafed through it, “I was right! We did use the same formula!” he nodded towards the clothes in the corner of the room, “You should change back into your uniform so we can get you guys home.” Alfred went to do that, stopping only to glare at the Arthurs, making his future self chuckle, “Relax, it’s nothing they haven’t seen before,” Alfred’s face went red, but he continued to change in silence.
“Now that you know your blasted machine works, to some degree,” future-Arthur shuffled and leaned against the same work bench his past self was, “how long are you going to spend looking for the correct formula to accomplish your goal?”
“That probably won’t be necessary,” future-Alfred shrugged, “If I fix the machine, I can just use the time loop formula to get the desired result.”
“Oh, I get it!” Alfred shouted from where he was working on putting on his belt, “By setting up multiple points in the time loop, we can just travel between them!”
Both Arthurs gave a flat “What?” as Alfred hurried to button up his shirt and future-Alfred started doodling on the scrap paper.
“See, we know this formula can set up a time loop as long as it has another receiving point somewhere else in time,” Alfred explained as he tied his tie, “so whenever we set up the machine in the future, we can use the same formula and add that point to the loop.”
“Like this,” future-Alfred showed them the diagram; he added more dots to the previous line, and interconnected them all with various circles, “All we need to do is figure out how the build the machine so it doesn’t explode and make it so we can select a specific point in the loop to travel to.”
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“This is time travel Art,” Alfred rolled his eyes, “It doesn’t matter that it exploded; it still existed at some point and was able to set up a point in the loop to get us here. We’ll go back to just before it exploded.”
Yes, because I really want to end up in a room with an exploding time machine.”
“If you’re going to be setting all of these points in the future,” future-Arthur cut off Alfred’s response, “how do you know they will be sent back to the one they set in high school? What if they end up even further into the future?”
“Yeah, that’s a possibility,” future-Alfred scratched the back of his neck and glanced between Alfred and Arthur, “I’m guessing that since I can’t pick a point, you’ll just go to the closet point on the time line. If that happens, you’ll just have to keep going forward until I’ve figured out how to pick the point. Don’ worry, I’m sure I’ll do it eventually.”
“How do you know it won’t take us with them Darling?” future-Arthur looked away from the diagram and into his lover’s eyes, “Just because we didn’t go anywhere the first time doesn’t mean we won’t now, if you don’t know why.”
“Oh,” future-Alfred frowned and thought about it, “uh…”
“You two are wearing watches,” Alfred noticed, “Art and I aren’t. Since watches are time keepers, maybe they’re what kept you anchored to your time?”
Arthur groaned and rolled his eyes, “That is a completely ridiculous notion and you should feel bad for thinking it.”
Alfred ground his teeth and snapped, “Let’s hear what you think then, since you apparently know everything!”
“I’m not supposed to be the genius scientist, remember?”
“Well you-”
“I like it,” future-Alfred interrupted, “Yeah, because watches were created as a way to control and understand time, and what we’re trying to do here is basically let it loose. I suppose something like a sundial could be used as an anchor too…”
“There’s no scientific basis or backing for your ‘theory,’” future-Arthur crossed his arms as he protested, “just a clever play on words.”
“I know how much you love your plays on words though,” future-Arthur frowned, a slight blush creeping along his cheeks.
“I’m no scientist. My preferences should not form the backbone of a scientific theory.”
“But I am a scientist, and I like that theory,” he grinned, and it sent dread and a shiver through both Arthurs, “Well, the only way to prove a theory is to test it,” he went to the machine and placed his hand on the switch, but hesitated at the last second, “Arthur, uh, it’s probably going to explode again right after they leave, so-”
“If you think I’m going to leave you alone in a room with an exploding time machine, Alfred Jones, you are sorely mistaken,” he grabbed his hand and looked around the lab, eyes landing on the same metal box Arthur and Alfred first appeared behind, “We’ll hide behind that after you flip the switch.”
“You should hide behind there now,” he smiled, “I’ll join you after.”
“We’ll go together,” he tightened his grip around his hand.
Future-Alfred sighted in defeat, “Fine. You know I love you right?”
“I know. I love you too,” he leaned in and kissed him soft and tenderly.
Arthur felt that longing tug at his heart again as he watched them interact and love each other. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Alfred looking at him, unreadable expression on his face.
“Enough of this lovey-dovey crap,” Alfred said after a long moment of kisses exchanged between the two, “Can we just go home already?”
“Someone’s eager to leave,” his future counterpart chuckled as he wrapped an arm around his love’s waist.
Alfred lowered his head, hiding his eyes behind his bangs, and muttered, “I just…want to go back and fix this future, is all.”
This time it was future-Arthur’s turn to chuckle, “My dear idiot, when the time comes to ‘change’ this future, it’s not your choice to make,” he looked right into Arthur’s eyes and smiled, radiating pure happiness, “It’s yours.”
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*~*~*~
Alfred woke up on the floor of the science lab with a massive headache and an angry Arthur looming over him.
“Look at what you idiocy has done now,” he snapped, as Alfred sat up. All of the beakers that had been out on the tables and most of the windows and been shattered in the explosion, but Alfred didn’t have time to be impressed with himself, “Do you know how much it’s going to cost to fix and replace everything?”
While Arthur ranted about costs and retributions, Alfred was trying to remember. The time machine had worked, hadn’t it, and he saw his future, his future with Arthur, where they were together, and it was… nice. They were happy.
“Are you listening to me idiot?” Arthur snapped, drawing Alfred’s attention to him, “If you bring me down with you because of this there will be hell to pay!”
That must a have been a dream, he decided, a pleasant dream, but a dream. No, not a pleasant dream. The explosion must have been messing with his mind. No dream where he and Arthur were together like that could have been pleasant. IT must have been a nightmare. And yet…
“Are you okay?” he asked out of nowhere, silencing Arthur mid-rant.
“Oh, well,” he grabbed his arm and looked away “Aside from a slight headache, yes, I’m fine. You?”
“Yeah,” he rubbed his head, “I’m alright.”
“Good,” Arthur’s glare could probably have peeled paint, Alfred barely noticed, “then nothing will hinder you as you spend every day after school next week cleaning this mess and the mess in all of the other science labs up.”
“What, but Art…”
“No buts,” his glare intensified, if that was possible, “And how many times to I have to tell you not to shorten my name?” he scowled as he carefully made his way around the glass to the door, “I expect you back here right after school on Monday. I suggest you find a useable broom,” and with that he left.
Alfred stood up, careful to avoid the glass. No, he and Arthur together was in no way pleasant. And yet… he couldn’t help that feeling of longing that stirred in his heart as he watched Arthur leave.
*~*~*~
“Did it work? Are they gone?” Arthur asked as the dust from the explosion started to clear.
Alfred peeked out over the top of the box, “Yeah, they’re gone,” and settled back down as Arthur wrapped his arms around his stomach.
“”But did they make it back okay?” he leaned his head on Alfred’s shoulder.
“Well we’re still here, and nothing’s changed,” he draped an arm around Arthur’s shoulders and squeezed, “I'm thinking they’re just fine.”
“Prat,” Arthur snuggled closer to him, hugging his middle tighter, “It was strange, seeing them. Shows how far we’ve come I suppose.”
“Yeah,” Alfred exhaled into his hair, breathing in a scent of tea, rain, books, and lavender that was uniquely Arthur. After a short pause, face still buried in Arthur’s hair, he said, “Uh, about what we were talking about last night…”
“You don’t,” he stiffened and burrowed further into Alfred’s chest, “its fine. It’s not like I actually meant-”
“Yes,” Alfred held his love tighter, as if he was afraid he’d bolt any second, “If you were to ask, my answer would be yes.”
“I-is that so?” Arthur shifted his head so his face was facing away from Alfred and reached his hand into his pocket, grasping the ring box that was there, “Then, love, I have a question for you…”
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He took a deep breath and pushed the door open, completely unprepared for the sight on the other side.
Alfred had set up an elaborate picnic, right there on the roof, and had even gone so far as to have the whole thing lined with roses.
“You like?” Alfred, sitting in the center of the blanket, smiled a bit shy and very unlike him, “I had the kids in the Gardening Club help with the roses. They’re your favorite right?”
“It’s…nice,” he raised a skeptical eyebrow, “Why all the trouble?”
“It gives it a more authentic English touch.”
“And what on earth is that supposed to mean?”
Alfred just laughed in response and patted the empty space next to him, “Come one. I made you tea, or tried to make you tea. Drink it before it gets cold.”
Seeing no reason to object other than the obvious fact that he was up to something, Arthur complied. The tea, surprisingly enough, wasn’t that bad.
The two of them talked and ate for what must have been hours. It was relaxing, just the two of them, no pressures from school or parents or peers, and if he had wanted to, Arthur could let go of the past few years and pretend that nothing had happened between the two of them, that they were still best friends and nobody else mattered.
“Arthur,” Alfred got his attention, gaze unwavering even as the blush appeared on his cheeks, “I, uh, I wanted to ask you something…”
And here it was. It was one of Alfred’s more elaborate schemes to get funding for whatever pet project he was cooking up now, but in the end, that’s all Arthur was to him now, a giant wallet. It always came back to money.
“I know, ever since I got to high school, I’ve been a bit mean to you-”
“I’d use the word prick, but point taken.”
“Yeah,” he scratched the back of his head and looked away for a bit before finding Arthur’s eyes again, “and I’m sorry about that. You didn’t deserve it. I was just, confused, I guess, about how I feel about you, but I’ve been working it all out, and, and I realized something.
Arthur Kirkland, I like you. Like, like you like you. I like you a lot more than a friend, because you, you’re my everything. And I should have realized it sooner but I was just…”
“Confused?” Arthur suggested, his face heating up as well while he soaked in his words.
Alfred nodded, “Y-yeah. I’d like to start that kind of relationship with you, if you’d give me the chance. I know I don’t deserve it after the way I’ve treated you, and you probably don’t even think about me in that way,” he leaned back on his hands and stared resolutely at the concrete roof, “Still, I, I wanted to ask, just in case.”
Arthur couldn’t believe it. After all this time, Alfred still cared about him, and it seemed his feelings had even grown. But in the end it was all for naught. Arthur had promised himself that he wouldn’t trust his heart to anyone again, especially not Alfred, who had already had it and broken it. He couldn’t, wouldn’t give him the chance to do so again.
And yet… Alfred smiling at him, a genuine smile on his face, them together and Alfred loving him, these images, brief glimpses of a dream about the future Arthur couldn’t fully recall, were in Arthur’s mind. What would happen if he gave Alfred this chance? Could they possibly be happy together if he let them?
“Yes, I mean,” he cleared his throat, “We could, try that, if you want. See what happens.”
The smile on Alfred’s face as he hugged him so tight erased any doubts in Arthur’s mind.
This could work.
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Sorry if it steered away from the prompt a bit OP. And sorry for going into so much time travel theory stuff there. /is a fan of time travel.
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I especially liked that it was Arthur who asked the marriage question, a nice change.
I enjoyed this a lot, thank you for writing!
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My approval, anon.
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<3333
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