Heart Themed Canvas [UsUk]

Merry Christmas & Good Riddance

"Hey Arthur, I'm going now!"

Arthur glanced up from the novel he was reading. Alfred grinned at him from beside the partly-open door of their shared dorm room, all covered up in a winter coat and scarf, with the red knapsack carrying all the things he needed for the holidays behind his back.

"Good riddance then." Arthur replied, resuming his reading. "It's a shame you'll be back after the holidays but I guess a man can't have everything."

"Heeeeeey-"

"Go on, go on." Arthur cut through Alfred's beginning whine. He shooed Alfred away with his free hand, his eyes never leaving the page he was on for even a minute. "You'll miss your train if you don't move along."

"Hey Arthur," Alfred's next words were said so hastily that Arthur could hardly make sense of them.

He closed his book and narrowed his eyes at Alfred. "What?"

Alfred scratched the back of his head in a show of awkwardness. He smiled sheepishly at Arthur (and was it just Arthur or was there a faint flush coloring Alfred's cheeks?).

He took a deep breath. "I said, do you want to go home with me for the holidays?"

"I mean," Alfred added excitedly, rushing his words again, so fast that Arthur could barely catch up. "in the two years that we've been roommates, I've never seen you leave for the holidays and well, why not come home with me instead? My mom makes to-die-for mince pies and roast turkey and-"

"It's fine, really." Arthur interrupted softly. "Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. I'd rather stay here."

"Oh." Arthur winced inwardly at the look of disappointment that flashed quickly across Alfred's face (Why was he so easy for Arthur to read sometimes?). "Goodbye then, Arthur."

Arthur picked up his novel again and did not look up from it, not until he heard the soft click of the door that signaled that Alfred had left.

The snow had been falling steadily for several days now but it was only minutes after Alfred's departure that the snowstorm arrived.

Arthur had long ago given up on his novel, and he now sat by the window, watching the storm as it released its fury on the school grounds (Though honestly, there was nothing to watch. Everything was just covered in a thick white blanket of snow).

He tried hard to close his mind to the worry-filled thoughts crowding his head but he couldn't. Arthur had always had an over-active imagination coupled with a pessimistic streak and it was working full-time now as he sat alone in his dark dorm room.

"Alfred surely must be safely in the train now." Arthur muttered to himself. Still, bothersome what-if's continued to fill his head.

Like, What if no one came for Alfred when he reaches the train station? or What if Alfred hasn't reached the train station yet and he's still wandering out there, lost in the storm until he collapses because of hypothermia and-

Arthur jumped up and grabbed his cell phone from the nearby study desk. Shaking, he dialed a number.

"Goddammit, answer the phone, you git!" Arthur muttered over and over again. He had his free hand curled up in a fist, clenched tighter and tighter with every succeeding ring.

Alfred answered on the seventh ring; Arthur realized he had been holding his breath.

"Alfred!" he demanded urgently. "Where are you?"

Arthur found Alfred in the dorm lounge, buried in an old patched up coach. He was busy flipping through a dog-eared comic book and did not seem to notice Arthur's arrival.