Elizabeta's Side:
On the car ride, Elizabeta's been trying to convince Alfred to take a nap and finally he gives in. Sleeping soundly at the passenger seat, he shifts on his seat and Elizabeta smiles.
'Poor kid. If only you understand what you're missing out on...'
Breathing out a sigh, her mind wanders...
She knows exactly why Alfred's so angry whenever anyone comes close to Arthur, even the nicest people. She knows exactly why Alfred endures the pain of watching over Arthur from a distance, why he does what he does even without an exchange, why he protects him so much to the point of beating the boy's harasser secretly. She knows something about Alfred that he himself cannot understand for he hadn't felt it for anyone else before.
Alfred is in love with Arthur.
And that thing where he's angry whenever ANYONE gets too close to the boy? Jealousy.
It's all so clear on Alfred's face and his reactions. He even described at one point that whenever he sees Arthur, he feels warm and fuzzy inside. That he just wants to hug him for a long time and stroke his hair. In fact, Alfred always talks about wanting to run his hands through Arthur's hair as if it would be the softest thing he could touch on earth.
Sighing, she gives a small chuckle. Alfred's too naive. Probably since he's never fell in love before that he doesn't know how to identify his feelings for Arthur. Therefore, he gives the really lame excuse of "Because he's still my friend!" and she thinks that it's not really a lie but the majority of his feelings are definitely because he loves him. But little does he know...
She remembers the time she saw Alfred a couple months back behind a building of the school, near the gardening shed.
Elizabeta was going to the shed to grab a couple of brooms. The faculty room needed some cleaning and she was ordered to grab the brooms from the shed.
But as she turned to the long pathway leading to the shed, she saw Alfred. He was standing there with a girl infront of him. Elizabeta quickly recognized her as Alfred's seatmate during her class. The girl looked extremely flustered, holding what looked like to be a card. Looking over at Alfred, he just gave her a crooked smile but his posture signaled that he was bored.
Elizabeta concludes that Alfred was getting another confession, and guessing from him, the poor girl's already rejected before she knew it. The two were a couple of meters away from Elizabeta so she could only watch as their mouths move to speak. The girl mouths something, her red face getting even redder (how could that even happen?) and she pushes the card to Alfred's chest. Alfred merely looks at her, and slowly gets the card off from the hands on his chest, to which he mouths and the girl gets her hands off Alfred, blushing even more furiously (seriously, how?). Alfred opens the card and reads the letter. After a few moments of not much movement, just from the girl swaying her skirt side to side, a loud crash emits from somewhere and both their heads turn to the shed. A figure runs out of the shed and freezes as he's infront of the two.
Looking closer, she gasps. It was Arthur, and he was blushing furiously! But wait... Arthur's there and Alfred clearly likes Arthur...
Elizabeta looks over to Alfred and as expected, his face is flushed red too and his eyes clearly stuck on Arthur's. Both of them seemed to stare at only each other, completely forgetting the poor girl in the middle. But as if like a switch had been turned on, Arthur runs away with mad speed, a gust of wind hitting Elizabeta as he runs past her.
Elizabeta's mind wanders for a second. Should she follow Arthur? Maybe he needs some help regarding to that situation a few seconds ago. ...yes, she probably should. And so she gets on her way.
Elizabeta follows the trail of students looking at a direction, all frozen on the sides of the hallway. Clearly, the boy had run here. The trail ends to an
empty hallway towards a classroom. Elizabeta quietly looks inside. Arthur was there, his back facing towards her angrily stuffing his bag with his books and papers.
Is he mad? Will he hate Alfred even more now? Elizabeta wonders, a small frown on her face.
"...hat stupid Alfred! Exactly at my cleaning period he comes out of nowhere with a girl! That git...! Always getting girls and guys from all around him!
And not any of them he feels anything, even for me! This sucks! He sucks!..." Arthur goes quiet. His hands have stopped stuffing his poor bag with items and now he was just there, standing like a statue.
For a brief moment she sees Arthur's shoulders shake. Elizabeta was now scared. Is he so mad now that he's gonna go on a rampage??
Expecting the worst like a table flying out the door, Elizabeta sits on her legs and covers her head. But after a second, she hears sniffling. Confused, she looks back at the classroom and sees Arthur on his knees, slouching over. He was shaking tremendously, and Elizabeta was shocked.
Arthur... Arthur was crying.
Not knowing what to do yet, she continues to observe the green eyed boy.
"Stupid Alfred..! Getting another girl to fall for you and acting like nothing's wrong.. You're always like that..!" Arthur's voice was sad, making Elizabeta sad too. What can she say? When one cries her heart softens.
"You're still the same. Why can't you change?! Why haven't I changed? Why am I still..."
Still?
"...in love with you..."
Elizabeta's eyes widen as she gasps, mouth agape.
ARTHUR IS STILL IN LOVE WITH ALFRED!
Elizabeta feels her whole being light up! Alfred's going to be so happy when he learns about this-
"Who's there...?" Elizabeta breaks from her happy state and looks back at the classroom to find Arthur looking directly at her.
Elizabeta feels herself crumble. OH NO!
She fumbles on her words as she tries to explain herself.
"Oh- I-I'm sorry Arthur but I-- I saw you running over here and-"
"Ms. Héderváry, please don't tell anyone." Elizabeta breaks from her rambling and her eyes meet with sad, pleading green eyes.
"Please don't tell him or anyone. Once Alfred knows he'll kill me because he hates me..." Elizabeta blinks.
Why does he think Alfred hate him? Alfred is obviously obsessed with him.
After a moment, she gives a reassuring smile towards Arthur. "Of course. I promise not to tell anyone."
This makes the green eyed boy relax his shoulders.
"BUT!" The boy flinches from the sudden burst. "In exchange, you talk to me about your problems." She finishes with a grin. Arthur looks at her like her grew another head, but then sighs and nods.
Once she's been convinced by Arthur that the boy needs his private time, Elizabeta starts walking away with joy.
Well, sorry Alfred but I made a promise to Arthur not to say anything. And because this thing is something between you two, you both have to figure things out on your own.
Skipping happily to the faculty room, she gets scolded at once for forgetting the brooms.
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Wow! What a chapter!
If you must know, Alfred arrived home safely that night and I just didn't add it in cuz I wanted to end this chapter on a nice touch from the lovely Elizabeta!
Elizabeta: Thank you, dear Arthur.