Forever and Always

4

Alfred hummed to himself, dusting the shelves. He looked out the window to try and guess what time it was, thinking it was around twelve. A little black cat on the bed meowed and rolled and went back to sleep, leaning against the warm body of a hainu.

Ivan walked back into the room, his head high and his arm bleeding.

"What happened?"

"Rosebush," Ivan replied, and Alfred didn't know if it was an actual rosebush or the pastel pink and white dragon, Rosebush. She was pretty aggressive.

He shrugged and went back to work, hearing Ivan go into the bathroom to clean up.

Ivan came out of the bathroom a few minutes later before scoffing, walking over and gently removing the duster from his hands, kissing him on the forehead.

"Relax sweetheart, I'll deal with this," he smiled, reaching down and petting his belly. Overnight it had become hard, like metal was under the skin, preventing any poking or prodding.

Alfred glared, a bit of a growl coming from his throat.

"Let me do something," he growled, and Ivan shook his head.

"No, kitten," Ivan replied, petting his cheek. Alfred hissed, glaring at him with ice-blue eyes. His pupils were slitted, and somehow, the black of his eye-whites seemed darker than before.

"I can still do stuff, I don't need to be babied," he hissed, grabbing Ivan's wrist when he brought it up to stroke his cheek again, "I know pregnancy is sucky for humans, but in case you haven't noticed, I'm not human."

Ivan sighed, giving him the duster back and watching as he started to purr, kissing him on the cheek before sitting down on the bed, watching him do his thing. Lampushka came up to him and laid on his lap, not intent on moving anytime soon.

Alfred worked quickly. He could cause things to float, so he would do that to the items, and then dust, and then put them back. He was done far faster than Ivan would have been able to do.

While Alfred was moving a glass pot of peonies, there was a sudden loud banging on the door.

"Boise Police Department! Open up! We have a warrant!"

Alfred didn't jump, just looked over. Ivan definitely jumped, and Lampushka ran.

"It seems Oregon is having a bit of a problem," Alfred said, moving the pot back to the table lazily, "I'll deal with this."

"Hell no," Ivan replied, but Alfred walked to the door and opened it, seeing the three officers of the four standing there in the light snow. They looked shocked, and Alfred knew why. She was hiding out in the Franklin house. The Franklin house was in a run-down neighborhood* and they were pretty obviously not in that house.

*Not that Boise was very run down, of course. It's so much nicer than southwest Los Angeles/north Las Vegas/the state of Connecticut. It looks about like housing in Russia with much more crime :).

Not to mention, stripes.

"Come in," Alfred said, smirking. The cops took a step back. Alfred held his hand out, palm down.

"I said, come in."

Tendrils of blue flame came from his fingers like snakes and wrapped around the ankles of the officers, dragging them into the room. One officer grabbed his gun and fired, long before Ivan could get up and the bullet went straight for Alfred's stomach.

It bounced off, going into the hip of another officer. A burnt hole was in Alfred's shirt, and he ran his hand over it, looking unamused.

"Really?" Alfred asked, looking at them all, extremely disappointed. He dragged them into the room, Ivan standing there, gaping like a fish, and sat them down at the table in the corner. Luckily, there were four seats.