Ex's to Lovers

Chapter 46

In Which Alfred... Actually Does Something Smart?!!???

When Alfred heard the door open, he'd expected Gilbert to Arrive soon with the pizza. When that didn't happen, Alfred had investigated. That's when he found Michelle interrogating Gilbert. Like in most small towns, if you weren't distantly related to someone, you knew someone who was, which in this case was Michelle being a distant cousin of Francis, and sharing the same stubborn streak as well. Alfred, having experienced this too many times, knew that she wasn't about to give up and leave.

So Alfred thought about what to do, and for the first time, in like, ever, Alfred's brain decided to help him out. The bonus of having a twin brother was that most of your clothes was stolen from him, which meant Alfred had some of Matthew's favorite sweaters and socks. Another bonus was the ftwn being mistaken for each other. So Alfred slipped on one of Matthew's favorite hoodies (His brother would have been angry if he knew Alfred had it, but he didn't so Alfred didn't care) put the hood up to cover his shorter hairstyle than his twin, and did his best Mathew impression.

Gilbert looked horrified as Alfred stepped out, but Alfred gave him a half-smirk before wiping his expression and changing it to a more worn and frustrated look.

"Sorry for suspecting you Gil," his said in his best imitation of Matthew's softer voice. "It's just I figured Alfred would be here."

Michelle turned at his voice, and Alfred made a show of just noticing Michelle.

"Oh! Hey Michelle! I was just looking for my brother, but he's just too smart and I don't know where he'd be hiding. What are you doing?"

A regular person might have at least doubted themselves for a moment, especially if their best friend was giving them a look behind Michelle's back that clearly said "You idiot there's no way she'll fall for that!". But Alfred would have gotten first place in a computition of self-confidence, and naturally was not surprised when Michelle looked surprised, but quickly fell for it. 

"oh! Sorry! I didn't know you'd be here, I was just checking for Alfred too!"

She gave Gilbert a pitying look, apparently attributing his suspicious behavior as Gilbert feeling wronged that he was deemed so suspicious TWO people came to check, and muttered a quick apology and excused herself. Then, just as she was about to walk out the door, she stopped, remembering something.

"Um, Mathew.... So you think he could be with Ivan?"

Alfred, who had temporarily forgotten about Ivan's existence, came to the sudden realization that Ivan hadn't been pranked in a long time, and might think Alfred was losing his touch. He stopped for a moment, nearly letting his gleeful expression show as he had a glorious idea, but quickly masking it with a Mathew Ike look of concern.

"Well," Alfred mused in a fake-concerned voice, "Ivan was acting rather strangely earlier today."

Alfred hasn't seen Ivan at any point that day, but he was certain that Ivan was always acting strangely, so he wasn't too concerned with the verity of his statement. Apparently, he was right, because Michelle seemed to agree with him, nodding emphatically.

"I'll ask Arthur."

Alfred raised his hand and waived goodbye to her, grinning at her back as she left. As far as Alfred was concerned, he was home safe and got to annoy Ivan, so it was a win-win situation.

He didn't realize what would happen because of his sneaky lie.