A bit later in the day, when school was finished, Alfred, his brother and their friends all managed to catch the bus to home. It was a rare happening, since Gilbert sometimes had his parents pick him up, Arthur went by foot a lot of times, so they were happy to have their time together.
The British boy still didn't fully believe Alfred since their little conversation at lunchbreak, and was now stuck in one of the biggest dilemmas of his life - should he stay true to the one he loved and respect his privacy, or try to help and find the root of his problem, even with the cost of Alfred getting mad at him for doing such a thing?
"Today was quite an exhausting day. I say we all get together this afternoon for some warm drinks and a movie! We don't have that much homework, and it seems like a good time for that. Who's in?" Elizabeta, the happy Hungarian girl, proposed a suggestion, hoping that she'd get positive answers to it.
As much as Alfred wanted to, he knew he wasn't able to leave his house today. His dad was home, and even if he weren't, the boy was currently trapped in a ball of constant fear that something bad would happen to him and bring him down to an even worse mental state than he already was in. "I'll have to pass... I doubt I'd be allowed to go anywere on a Monday."
"Same with me." Matthew added on, which was perfectly reasonable. If Alfred couldn't go, it was already obvious that he wouldn't go either.
"Fine... What about you, Arthur?" Elizabeta seemed a little bit disappointed, but still held on hope that the Brit would be free. Of course, Gilbert didn't even need to be asked. He used every single possible second to hang out with the girl.
"I'm not sure, but I'll call you if I can come along."
In reality, Arthur was always free to hang out. His football trainings were once or twice in two weeks, and he didn't have any extracurricular activities besides that. But, lately, his thoughts and worries about Alfred were constant and actually quite overwhelming, and he just wanted to stay in his room for a while, relax with his guitar and think about how to solve this problem and what it was in the first place.
Once the school bus stopped at the first station, Alfred, Arthur and his brother got off and greeted the rest of their friends goodbye. The Brit had about fifteen more minutes to go by foot unlike the American brothers - their house was right by the station.
"So... I'll see you around." Arthur softly smiled to the other, fixing up his backpack so it would be more comfortable over his shoulder.
"Yeah, see you", Alfred shyly replied before they parted, the two brothers heading towards their home. Matthew couldn't help but smile a little at the two, loving their closeness, especially that look in his older brother's eyes which clearly said how much he was in love.
"It's so nice to see you in love, you know that?" The younger American said as they slowly made their way to the house in no hurry whatsoever.
Alfred didn't reply in words, but just gave a pleased, happy look towards Matthew. "Yes, well... I'm enjoying it too."
He truly didn't hurry home, and would in all honesty rather stay outside than have to look his father in the eyes again. Lately, especially in the past couple of weeks, coming home was nothing more but feeling scared and anxious, with a strong will to escape. Truth be told, he spent a few nights completely awake, lost in the thought of how nice it would be to run away and never come back - but then, the thought of his younger brother who still needed to be protected flashed in his mind and he just couldn't bring himself to leave.
It would be selfish.
With visible hesitation, he unlocked the door, Matthew getting in first. Luckily, their dad seemed to be busy with someone on the phone, shouting as he always did, so they went to their room unnoticed.
It's unbelievable how angry one person can be all the time.
I don't understand it whatsoever.
"So, do I just cook some pasta or something? You haven't eaten absolutely anything today." Matthew asked as he dropped his backpack on the floor next to his bed, followed by Alfred who did the same movement.
"No need to, I'm not hungry. " The taller boy shrugged, shaking his head. Food was his most meaningless worry right now. He didn't have the energy for it, and all he had in plan was lay on his bed and think of a way to motivate himself to do actual work. Which was going to be quite difficult.
"Alfred, don't be a child. You must eat something."
As much as Alfred took care of Matthew, the younger took care of Alfred as well - maybe in more of a motherly way than a person would expect. Surprisingly, the brothers almost never fought, unlike all other siblings who fight almost all the time. It was just not in their nature, especially not Matthew's. They loved each other to infinity, and if they lost each other it would most certainly be a tremendous tragedy. All they wanted was for the other to feel happy, and protected as much as it was possible in a small, broken family without a visible way out of a mess they were stuck in.
"...Fine." Alfred gave in soon enough, seeing as it would be irrational to start an argument over such a thing.
Especially with Matthew.
And while they discussed what to have for lunch, their father still talked on the phone about what seemed to be a serious issue. Work or home related, the boys didn't really understand from the few angrily said lines they managed to hear from the man's bedroom, but they knew he was in a severely bad mood.
"I'll talk about it with my son. I understand. Okay. Okay! I get it! Goodbye." And with that, the blonde man walked into the living room, throwing his phone onto the couch in total frustration, not even noticing that Alfred and Matthew were both in the kitchen.
He'll talk about what with which son? This is all making me a tiny bit concerned. But just a little.
"Alfred, we need to talk."
Okay, maybe more than a little.
Whatever it was they needed to talk about, it suddenly made the said boy feel frightened, his entire bloodstream feeling as if it momentarily froze. Matthew and him exchanged a worried look, but Alfred nevertheless approached their father in a slow, careful manner. "A-about what?"
Just please, don't hurt me. That's all I'm asking.
"I got a call from school. There have been a lot of recent complaints about you falling behind in work."
Oh dear lord, not this again. "I see."
"And your class teacher said that she spotted a change in your behaviour in the past months, even more in the past week or two."
I'm just really surprised he is managing to stay calm. Maybe he lashed out all his anger at my poor class teacher on the phone.
"So she told me to check on you more, and maybe help you with what you don't understand. Which is absurd, is she trying to tell me I'm not a good parent or something?"
At least you're honest and objective, unlike most parents. I guess that's a... Quality? Alfred thought, a bit confused what to think of his father. "I don't need help."
"I wasn't offering it."
From the kitchen, Matthew listened to every word of the conversation in complete silence, quite taken aback and amazed at how peaceful, with a hint of passive-agressiveness, the dialogue sounded like.
"Then what are you suggesting?" The older boy was still puzzled and perplexed.
"I'm suggesting a tactic that I like to call isolation. If you're falling behind in your work, which you are, you must isolate from your friends and social life completely, until you finally get something correctly done. And once you do, you can reward yourself with a day out, a nice dinner or whatever you find pleasant."
Wait, hold on a second. Is my dad actually being... Partially rational for once?
This does seem like a tactic a crazy physicist would use while having troubles researching dark matter, and I surely am already isolated enough, but... I'm awfully surprised he hadn't burst out on me yet.
"I... Suppose I can do that, but, aren't I already stuck in my room until I do all my work?" Alfred didn't want to argue. As much as he found the plan quite ridiculous for any sixteen year old boy who had no intention to research theoretical science, he didn't want to get on his father's bad side again. A day without being yelled at was deeply appreciated, and just thinking about how miserable he felt when the man's anger was unleashed in a bit more than just words made him stay as polite as possible.
"I really don't give a shit, you know? It's not like I'm asking you do you want to or not, you have to."
I kind of guessed that already, honestly.
Oh well, if being able to reward myself with whatever I want means being able to practise piano without him stopping me, and going out with Arthur once in a while, I don't see why this will be a problem.
"Fine."
"Great. I don't want you a minute late from school, I don't want to see a single bad grade, and you're certainly not going out anywhere, not even piano class which I know you secretly go to even when I say you can't, and you can't go to Scotland for Christmas holidays like we've planned to."
How about you just put me in a cell, lock me up until you feel like letting me out, put me on a leash, don't give me any food and make me work for free?
I mean, if that won't help a person who wishes to be wiped off the face of Earth, then I don't know what will.
Oh, and, have fun in Scotland without me.
I'll be fine.
- - -
A/N
Yo, I'm sorry for not being to update any sooner! ;-; I've been sick with the flu, so that kind of sucks, but I feel a bit better now.
Oh, and yesterday afternoon, a (terribly evil) great idea struck me for this fanfic! I can't wait to get to that part.
Thank you for reading!
(P.S. this time i'm just too lazy to proof read. Warn me for a mistake.)