Teacher, Teacher《UsUk》

Adding Salt in The Healing Wound

Arthur coughed, holding a napkin up to his face. The cold weather was giving him a cold. He shiviered and pulled his coat around himself. It had been less than a month since his previous nightmare about the past and it had gotten a lot colder.
There he saw it. The first snowflake of winter fell right in front of him. He reached out his hand and caught it, watching it dissapear into nothing. He was meant to be heading to school but his head was hurting so he took the long route past Alfred's house hoping he'd read the text he sent telling him to wait for him.
The snow started piling around his feet and he was brought to attention by a loud train passing by. He fumbled for the time and widened his eyes when he saw it. Even though Arthur didn't see the point in running, he ran ayway. The hospital checked up on him every week, his arms, neck, chest and especially his leg were always monitored. They had done surgery twice on Arthur's more serious injuries.
What Arthur found strange was that none of the doctors pressured him to tell the truth when he told them it was an accident. They gave him a sad look and continued with what they were doing. Arthur's feet crunched through the snow. They never thought it was an accident... he thought, they always looked at me with such pity...
Then it hit him.
They thought I did it myself. He reached the school gates with a blank expression. Quickly shaking off the thought, Arthur stepped inside the school and tried to dust the snow from his hair. He hated snow. It always snowed so thickly in America as back in England it would rain. After aimlessly wandering the halls, he saw Alfred with his head literally in his locker and put on a smile, remembering the night of the party when it snowed too.
"Alfred!" He yelled, "get your butt over to the library! It's cold in the hallways!" Alfred bumped his head on the inside of his locker as he saw Arthur and hurried to lock it before running over to the brit and hugging him.
"You don't like the cold Iggy?" He asked, laughing as Arthur's cheeks flushed even more pink than they already were. They rushed through the yards, dodging stray snowballs thrown near and the occasional student falling over until they reached the library.
They pushed the door open and looked around for two seats next to each other. (Although Arthur wouldn't have minded if they shared one)
"Ah, there's only one seat..." Alfred sighed. Score. Arthur put on a small smile and stood on his toes to whisper,
"We could share a seat if you'd like." Alfred took a moment to process the tone of voice the brit had used.
"What do you mean by that!?" He exclaimed "there are others here Arthur!" Alfred's cheeks had turned an even darker shade of pink. Arthur was blushing like crazy and was trying to calm his boyfriend down who, despite having done an unspeakable thing with him, was getting embarassed about sharing a chair.
"No I meant like- what kind of things have you been reading!? I meant like share one innocently you twat!" Arthur hissed and Alfred tried to hide his immature thoughts with a frown and his hoodie. They abandomed the idea of sharing a seat and walked to the back of the room, snaking their way through shelves and messy stacks of books that no one could be bothered to tidy. They slowed down, the sound of pages turning now almost inaudible.
Arthur bent down to pick up a book that was messily thrown on the floor, looking around at the several others in the same state.
"Maybe we should tidy these-" before Arthur could finish Alfred grabbed his arm, making him drop the book. Arthur stayed silent with a light blush across his face.
"In the library?" Arthur asked and stared into Alfred's eyes. He smirked.
"What, you afraid I'm gonna do something risky?" Arthur scoffed.
"Yeah right." Alfred kissed Arthur, first softly then rough. Arthur stepped backwards, trying to balance himself. Alfred pushed him even further back, knocking over a pile of books and pinning Arthur to a bookshelf. Arthur made a strangled noise at the feel of a hardbacked book digging into his shoulder. Alfred stopped the kiss and looked into Arthur's eyes.
"Am I being too rough?" He asked. Arthur shook his head and let Alfred kiss him again.

"Am I being too rough?"
"No no, I'm new to this Francis. It's okay."

Arthur's eyes widened and filled with tears. He panicked and didn't know what to do. Alfred was too late to pick up on his panic before Arthur bit down hard on his tongue. He sprung back and clutched his hands over his mouth.
"Ow!" Alfred stuck his tongue out "you bit me!"
"I... I'm sorry Al I..." he covered his mouth as he started to cry.
"Artie!?" Alfred rushed to his boyfriend, scooping him up in his arms and cradling him like a baby.
"No... put me down!" Arthur coughed and covered his face with his hands. He was ashamed that all his grief was coming up at once to the point he couldn't look his boyfriend in the eye.
"Arthur. The last time I saw you cry was in the hospital. What's wrong?" Alfred's stern but caring voice cut through Arthur's sobs.
"I can't..." Alfred's eyes widened.
"You can't see? You can't breathe? Can't think?" He frantically shot questions at Arthur who just wanted to shut the world down for a while.
"Alfie! I can't bloody think!" The whole library was dead silent. The sound of someone taking a deep breath from a few shelves down startled the brit and caused more tears to come rolling down his cheeks.
"I can't tell you what's wrong..." he paused "-from years ago Alfred. Years!" Alfred rushed out of the library with Arthur in his arms and found a corner behind the sports shed to sit. Alfred sat on the snow, not caring that his trousers would get soaked. He placed Arthur onto his lap and tried to gain eye contact with him. Arthur stared down, at his bandaged arms with tears dripping from his chin.
Alfred clasped Arthur's left arm in his hands.
"You've had this arm bandaged for months Arthur. Any normal wounds would have healed by now." Arthur tried to pull his arm back to his chest but Alfred was stronger. He pulled at the bandages until they came undone and fell slowly off of Arthur's pale arm.
Alfred froze. All along Arthur's arm were scars, almost completely covering his arm and part of his hand too. Arthur stared coldly at the floor and let his tears fall silently.
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Alfred asked, his eyes tearing up. "You were struggling. You never told me. Arthur..." There was no response.
"Alfred..." Arthur finally made eye contact. "I'm sorry..." Alfred sighed.
"You know I will always love you. No amount of scars will stop me from loving you Arthur. Arthur clutched onto him.
Time passed without the pair noticing, the bell rang and rang and rang again. One more lesson. Neither of them wanted to move. Arthur fell asleep and Alfred kept stroking Arthur's hair.
"Arthur..." Alfred muttered, looking down at his boyfriend's peaceful face. "What are you hiding from me?" Arthur had no dreams, only memories flash through his head. Memories of names and faces not yet remembered. One stuck in his head for far longer than the others...

Michelle.

I'm so sorry for the extremely long wait! I hope this chapter is okay, writers block is so annoying and school too.