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Post by thehero on Oct 28, 2011 1:37:46 GMT -5
He couldn't help but jump as Arthur let a bullet fly right past his ear, downing another military man. Turning his head ever so slightly, he just stared at the new body, having seen the slightest flicker of something, (Rage? Worry? Fear? Who knew.) in Arthur's eyes as he shifted to shoot the assailant. He wasn't really sure what he himself felt by the action....Relieved? Protected? It was awkward if nothing else. Alfred absently lowered his own gun, only snapping back to reality at Arthur ever-faithful judgmental comment.
He grimaced, looking back at the man, but then blinked, noticing that the pirate had only taken half of the spoils. Even in pain, Alfred felt the slight burn of his cheeks, a wild mix of happiness, and a little shame, swirled all together at the small act of kindness.
"Ah!" His heartbeat quickened as the Captain took off through a handy window, (probably how he snuck in, the butthead.) and Alfred scrambled to gather his share. Looking around, he knew it was more than stupid to try risking going back through the house, and since that window did seem oh so convenient, the youth made his way over to it and climbed out as well.
Hitting the roof, Alfred stumbled as his arm was jolted with pain from the impact, but quickly recovered, taking in the surrounding, and the pirate fleeing off ahead of him. Seeing no fast way off the roof, at least not one short of falling (and he was hurt enough, thank you), Alfred followed after his former leader. He wanted to call out to him, say something, but he couldn't think of what so he kept his mouth shut for now, keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Arthur would figure out he was still there soon enough. Hell, maybe he even wanted him to follow him. Alfred almost thought it too bad that he wouldn't be for too much longer.
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Post by Cpt. Arthur Kirkland on Oct 28, 2011 14:42:09 GMT -5
They jumped over rooftop and rooftop, the commotion and chaos of the noble's home getting quieter behind them. Arthur didn't seem at all intent or stopping or checking that the other was following him, right until he'd jumped off the roof, into a small alleyway. Silent.
As soon as Alfred would jump down behind him, Arthur turns around and immediately rams himself against the other, a hand reaching out to pin him against the wall, mainly by the throat. Cold, Emerald eyes gaze unblinking, unemotional at the other. He doesn't even move for the next few moments, nor des he speak or make the slightest inclination of emotion. After a few moments, he finally speaks. His voice is devoid of emotion.
"Why."
The look in his eyes should give Alfred the idea of what he was on about.
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Post by thehero on Oct 28, 2011 15:49:58 GMT -5
He really wasn't expecting it as he jumped down. When Arthur slammed him to the wall, Alfred could only try to gasp, his throat working against the pirate's firm grip. As the elder bore into him with his eyes, Alfred knew what was coming. He knew he was going to ask it, and he internally begged he wouldn't. The child in him shrank under that gaze, it nearly terrified him, that mask without a crack of emotion.
He cringed as the word left Arthur's mouth, not even a question, a demand. Swallowing as best as he could he tried to come up with an answer. "Why?" he brought his own hand up to the arm on his throat, gripping it. "No matter what I say, I doubt it will be good enough for you, Artie." He tried to smile. It wasn't working very well. "Let me go...."
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Post by Cpt. Arthur Kirkland on Oct 28, 2011 15:59:41 GMT -5
Arthur only made his grip firmer. His eyes only narrow.
"I didn't ask for excuses." He hisses. His scowl his threatening, his eyes as hard as anything Alfred had probably ever seen before. He'd never been this threatening to him. He'd never even used so much force on him. He didn't know if Alfred had seen him at his worst, and in a way, he never wanted him to.
But god forbid those cracks in Arthur's heart. Arthur didn't know how to heal them. Arthur didn't know how to just hate the lad, and he'd never been at a loss like that before. He just wanted his boy back.
His expression didn't give away anything.
"Answer me. Now."
A hand squeezed against Alfred's wound in his arm.
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Post by thehero on Oct 28, 2011 17:13:26 GMT -5
Alfred choked as Arthur pressed harder against his throat a soft gurtled sound the only one he could make for a moment. He was almost afraid Arthur really was going to strangle him, and when he squeezed his arm it was all the boy could do to gasp out a sob. Eyes watering at the pain, he coughed lightly, throat working for some leverage.
It hurt, it hurt so bad to have Arthur treating him like this. This man was like a second father to him, he truly had nothing against him, but standing here with his throat being smashed into the brick behind him, it was like Alfred was making up for the lack of emotion he was getting from Arthur. His own mask cracked, and he opened his mouth to answer but only another sob came out.
After a few more tries he started to spill it out, "I ...I had to! Artie-" He choked again but was determined to continue, "Artie, I- I don't agree with everything you do. I had to go. I had to-" he coughed and took as deep a breath as his throat would allow him, his arm wracking his body with even more pain , "I couldn't stay under your wing forever."
His vision was blurry and starting to go black. It vaguely crossed his mind he could still shoot Arthur, or just kick him away if nothing else, but he couldn't. He just couldn't. "Papa...fuck, Artie, Arthur."
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Post by Cpt. Arthur Kirkland on Oct 28, 2011 17:47:18 GMT -5
With that, Arthur lets go and turns away from the other, folding his arms. He didn't want to hurt Alfred. He couldn't let his own mask crack.
"Oh, yes, and without saying a word? Without leaving anything to note of your absence? Didn't you even for one second think in that dimwitted, empty skull of yours think about who you were leaving behind and what their reaction would be? Hm?" He spat, and when he'd caught the slip of 'Papa' he seemed to freeze for a moment, and his shoulders finely trembled. He soon straightened, and turned back around to face his boy. All he wanted to do was hug him and pretend that it was three years since.
All he could do was glare.
"All you ever did was bloody think of yourself. I couldn't give a shit that you 'didn't agree with me'. You left without a word. You hurt people just by doing what you want. You know who I came across not long ago? Your brother. Your own, blood brother -- and he accused me of killing you and your father. He told me to leave. He talks to a bloody bear now, since he's alone." A pause. "And he was just like you, except for probably in the fact that he wasn't a selfish arsehole."
He spat at Alfred's feet.
"Y-You always had to follow through things to the end---" and he cuts himself off, his breaking at the end there before he halts himself, eyes widening at his slip up, and makes to turn around again. His mask had crumbled, even if just slightly.
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Post by thehero on Oct 29, 2011 14:23:16 GMT -5
Alfred's own hands flew to his throat as Arthur released him. He gulped down the air and regretted his slip up. It was so rare that he did that, and he was highly embarrassed every time. He barely had the chance to glance up at the Captain's back before he turned back on him, turned his cold unfeeling glare back on him. Nothing he said was wrong. Alfred knew what he was leaving behind, he knew it would hurt him. He always knew but it never stopped him, and he knew that was the worse part of it. "S-shut up!" It was a stupid response, but it's all that came out. He wanted to explain, but he truly didn't know how. Nothing, would make up for his actions.
And then Arthur let the flood waters loose on him when he started to speak of his brother. His eyes widened, and his heart shot into his stomach, the guilt making him queasy. He'd been running from that too. Running and hiding, it was how he stepped away from the important things the things, that mattered to him, his way of 'protecting' them and himself. Mostly himself....always himself. His wall was crumbling, each word blasting away another brick.
As Arthur continued to spit the cruel words at him do nothing but slide down the wall. Alfred considered himself a strong person, He just flinched at the man actually spat at him. He barely even caught the slip in the other's composure, his own breathing, becoming slightly erratic.
"Mattie..."
He covered his face with his hands, gripping his hair hard and pulling, his whole body shaking with tension as he inhaled sharply through his clenched teeth. But then, he slowly seemed to relax. Rising to his feet, he dusted himself off, mindful of his arm, and flashed at smirk at the Captain's back, one that didn't reach his eyes. "You're not wrong. I do follow through to the end." He paused then flat out grinned. "I left so that I wouldn't kill you Arthur. Isn't that what most pirates do when they don't agree with the Captain anymore? Mind you, you weren't a bad Captain and I really didn't want to kill the whole crew, so I left. I liked you that much."
He chuckled, not his usual boyish laugh, but something cold, distant " I know I'm an arsehole Arthur. Always have been. You just now realized?" It was his defense mechanism. Just shut everything out. Not that Arthur didn't know that, he did it too. "And what," his breath hitched, he couldn't. It was hard enough to be nasty to him, but he exhaled and started again. "What of my brother? Why would you give a shit? You did kill our father, and fuck" another chuckle, "You told him I was alive didn't you? I know you, you ass. I've been 'dead' for five years, Artie." damn he slipped again. "He talks to a bear? Fuck, poor baby probably doesn't know what to do with himself now. Who to talk to, who to trust. Hell he's probably doubting even the bear now."
He couldn't take much more of this. The verbal assault was his last defense. If Artie kept going, he'd soon be nothing but a weeping pile of guilt, and as it seemed, with no one to turn to.
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Post by Cpt. Arthur Kirkland on Oct 29, 2011 15:35:37 GMT -5
For some reason, Arthur could take this. He could take this verbal assault. He was used to it, in a way. Alfred really couldn't kid Arthur, especially when a moment ago he'd been curled up into a ball, agonised. His voice went calm.
"You're lying, and that's bullshit. Pirates don't leave ships if they don't like their Captains, only the most insufferable, weak ones would do that. The scroungers. Some Pirates leave because they don't simply want to be one anymore, but they'd declare mutiny. There's no bloody way you'd succeed in taking down the whole crew. Me? Possibly. Maybe, only because you can blackmail me. But the rest of the crew? They wouldn't take your shit. If they were those sort of people I wouldn't have bloody kept them around."
He shakes his head. "Of course I did. Yes, he was distraught about hearing about you, and yes, I know I killed your bloody father, Alfred. Unintentionally, and to the ship as a result of saving the rest of our crew -- your family, the one you got to know when you became a part of it -- did I ever tell you about the Captain before me? Anyway, we talked. I told him about you. He runs a restauraunt with your name on it. And you know what? I told him you'd see each other someday. Because you know what? I bloody know you, Alfred 'Williams'. You may have fucking abandoned me and you may have ran all those years, but you learnt a bloody lot from me, so let me give you some advice to learn from; you can't keep running. You fucking hurt people, Mr. Jones."
He turns to look at the other, properly, and his eyes are as cold as Alfred's. His smirk as devoid of emotion.
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Post by thehero on Oct 29, 2011 19:19:40 GMT -5
He couldn't do it. The pseudo-smug expression plastered to his face easily fell apart as Arthur continued to call him out on his bullshit. He couldn't win against Arthur, he never could.He tired to hold back the sob that shook through him, rattling out from his very core, as the pirate once again tore him down, face cold, uncaring, he didn't know what to do anymore. His face screwed up in agony and Alfred hid behind his hands like a child.
It wasn't like he didn't deserve it. Alfred knew, he knew he deserved it. More than anyone he deserved it. That still didn't stop the hurt. With a great sniffle he shook his head. "I told you. I told you nothing would be good enough." He felt small, and alone, and he hated it. He had left his family. Both of them, and only now did he really feel the loneliness of his decisions. Taking a deep shaky sigh, he looked back to the other man, no longer hiding his pain, no longer sure who this other man was to him let alone who he was, to this man. Face setting in as best a hard line as he could make it, he sniffed again, ignoring the tears trailing down his own face. "What do you even want from me anymore...Captain Kirkland?"
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Post by Cpt. Arthur Kirkland on Oct 29, 2011 19:28:06 GMT -5
Arthur watches Alfred, his boy, his lad break down in tears before him, and it takes everything in him not to rush up and wipe his tears away. The way his body tenses might give a hint of what he's forcing himself to resis, and he sighs, frustratingly.
All he can do is look at him, with that same, hard expression, before that breaks away too; still desperately restrained back, but at the same time, there's a hurt, a loss there too. His glare hardens, as though he's ashamed to say it. It sounds stupid now. He's always been stuck on the past. His voice sounds almost... frail. Hurt.
"... I want my boy back."
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