Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

First Part:

Arthur Kirkland, unlike his brothers, took forever to get the typical ambitious spirit of his lineage. As a child, he considered himself happy with his quiet life on Earth and never imagined himself going to other planets to pursue a career that potentially could give him great powers. Since the planet he lived on was a huge environmental and cultural preservation area, he knew there were considerable chances that he acquired a modest future, like maybe becoming a florist, and he was as pleased as he was aware of this possibility. Work with spacecraft on Mars? Deal with problems of loss of particles in teleporters on the Moon? Hmph. Not a chance. He didn't want a career that revolved around machines, particles, and numbers. Math is torture, concluded an eight-year's old Arthur solving his quadratic equations. Moreover, the Earth was the original planet where there was beauty, comfort, and serenity without the need for complex-technological-weird-things. If he could stay there and take care of a beautiful garden, he would be happy forever.

Or so he thought until he reached the age of twelve.

In the year 3052, when Arthur was in his early teens, confused and lost in relation to all his prior convictions, a light came to show him a new path -- the light of a three-dimensional hologram used to show the lecture of Professor Matthew Jones to a class of students, one of the notable names in the department of engineering in the development of Habitable Regions.

This lecture changed Arthur's whole perspective about the universe. He almost couldn't breathe, hearing about all the adjustments that the planets passed in order to become areas where humans could live comfortably. It was impressive to see how many things needed to be planned so that a planet could pass from a desert with toxic fumes to a modern and organized urban area. And there was an art in planning these Regions which was extremely admirable. New types of buildings, new types of roads, new types of recreational areas -- creating a new Habitable Region meant taking the first step towards the emergence of a completely new culture.

It was amazing. Being an engineer of DHR was a profession in which one would create a home for thousands of people at present and for all their future generations. It was a work whose final product would last until the end of times and keep developing autonomously over the centuries, earning a history, an identity.

Upon leaving the room at the end of the lesson, Arthur Kirkland still had questions about his body, other boys, and his own personality, but now he had one certain about his future. He would become an engineer of D.H.R.

Thus it was this that initiated his ambitious phase and Arthur did not allow for his passion to be diluted by all the problems and skeptics he faced. By the way, there were many skeptics and problems. The training of an engineer of D.H.R was complicated from start to finish. Only two Habitable Regions offered the courses and each course only had about twenty people per year. Therefore, Arthur Kirkland had to be among the first twenty places in the entrance exam to attend one of the colleges he wanted. With this goal in mind, he completely threw away his personal life during high school. Not even the vaguely frustrating, gentle warnings from his mother that, "You should not spend all day studying, when you know you won't be able to pass on what you want, honey. Just try to enjoy your teenage days," managed to divert him from his goal.

It was comically shocking when -- different from what his parents, siblings, teachers, classmates, neighbors, acquaintances and even some strangers expected -- his efforts had taken effect and he finished his high school, packed up to move to the Moon, leaving everyone dumbstruck and still absorbing the new information. Arthur Kirkland went from a kid who just wanted to plant some roses to a student of one of the most complex and limited courses of the universe. How unpredictable were the Kirklands.

Attending college was not easier than getting through the course. D.H.R engineers needed exceptionally high grades in mathematics, astrophysics, civil engineering, architecture, history of art, and more. Only six students graduated from a twenty person class. Among those graduates was an exhausted and satisfied Arthur Kirkland.

Achieving a Planetary Project was the last and equally hard next objective for Arthur. It was not every day that a planet could become habitable and, when the opportunity rose, hundreds of people wanted a job with few vacancies. Some of these people waited decades to become a part of such a project. In the end, most of them could never design a planet and had to settle for small jobs such as creating a new model of a building under certain parameters to a planet already inhabited or refining the construction of an architectural structure in natural satellite also already populated.

Ha! As if Arthur would let that happen to him. If one were to just design an insignificant floating building, it would have been better for him to stay on Earth! His ultimate goal was a planet. This was a dream that consumed him entirely while it burned inside his chest. He had kept drawings of several new types of constructions to suit the most diverse circumstances in his desk. Shapes, colors and themes inhabited his imagination. Sometimes, while going along the road Altitude 02 in his antigravity car, he looked at the blue Earth in the distance, his original home, and wondered how the future planet that he would plan from scratch would be. Maybe a frozen planet? Or a planet filled with active volcanoes? He dreamed and worked too much. Due to his ultimate ambition, he picked up the most complicated and unpleasant works to establish his name. He had dinners with influential people in the same business that he probably would slap in any other situation. All his efforts came from the hope of one day being able to create a whole new world somewhere in the galaxy.

Finally, on a certain morning in which he was asleep for a long time, after finishing a particularly complicated project - Dear God, how exhausting was making adjustments in the artificial climatic conditions of an underground Habitable Region - he was awakened by the annoying and alarmingly high-pitched noise of his holographic messaging device, which should have already been called five times if it had already reached this volume.

It was with a hostile snarl, a staggering gait, and silent promises of revenge that he attended the messaging device and saw the face of Francis Bonnefoy appear on the screen. In that moment, he wished with all his heart that holographic devices allowed the transfer of contact so he could punch him right in the face in that very second. Argh. Technology still had much to improve.

He was about to scream at Francis. Just because he was his old college roommate and one or another night of sexual curiosity, didn't mean he could keep calling so insistently and...!

"Have you seen what's going on Network , Arthur?" Francis asked before Mr. Kirkland could say anything scathing. There was such a peculiar gleam in his eyes that Arthur's anger was momentarily dimmed by his own curiosity.

He wanted to ask what happening on the Net was so fucking important, but again Francis did not let him speak. However, it didn't seem like he wanted to prevent him from talking. He was just too desperate to say whatever it was. Noticing this, Arthur felt his curiosity rise and begin to fill with anxiety.

"They got one," Bonnefoy said, dropping an expiration that seemed to been saved for many years.

"A what?"

"A habitable planet."

"..."

"And we're on the list of engineers of DHR invited to participate in the direction of the project."

This time, Arthur's response was not stopped by Francis but by his own sobs. Loud sobs, laden with emotions, memories and hopes accumulated for twenty years. Hiccups finally admitting the uncertainty and insecurity that he tried to hold back for so many years. Sobs of pure relief. Sobs that were so strong that left his body aching.

Arthur dropped to his knees and continued to cry while the hologram in front smiled, becoming more and more blurred by his tears.

      ---

As stated, a planet was Arthur's original plan. His final project. A planet took ten years to be fully planned and another ten years to build. When Arthur finished this task, he would be fifty- two years old and could retire with the cozy certainty that his biggest dream had been realized.

So he had reason to believe that now he should only enjoy his happiness and everlasting peace because nothing could possibly bother him, right? And he actually thought so before meeting Mr. Jones, the man responsible for convincing him that people can find displeasure even in the most potentially delectable conditions.

No, no. He wasn't Mr. Matthew Jones, that kind man who used a teddy bear to talk about his fascinating profession to twelve year old boys and girls. He wished. Unfortunately, this Jones was his son. Alfred F. Jones. The unbearable, annoying, stupid, and unbelievably immature Alfred.

Oh, their first meeting. How could Arthur ever forget that date. The day on which Alfred came late to the reunion with loads and loads of pills of instantaneous nutrition that he was eating in the loudest way Arthur had the displeasure to see and hear. Previously, Mr. Kirkland didn't even know that someone could chew pills of supplement, producing the sound of a stone being ground!

When Arthur had the good sense to ask about his identity, since his delay meant that he had not had the opportunity to present himself, Mr. Jones smiled broadly and replied without caring at all about the hostile denotation of the question "May I know who the hell do you think you are?!" issued by an impatient Arthur Kirkland:

"Finally! I thought that the star of the meeting would not have a chance to perform! Alfred F. Jones at your disposal, ladies and gentlemen! Glad to meet you all!"

Preferring to ignore his own anger, the next question of Arthur was, of course...

"This 'F' stands for...?"

"Oh!" Mr. Jones opened his eyes with an air of surprise that was definitely fake, considering how it was followed by the most cunning smile and comment that Arthur Kirkland witnessed in his thirty-two years of life. "Listen, old man. I really understand that you want to know me better, but we're in the middle of a meeting here!" To make the matters worse, he took on a tone similar to the one of an adult explaining a rule to a child, adding a smile that had the audacity to look embarrassed, while spreading his arms in a mocking manner "Let's have some professionalism, ok?" 

It was hate at first sight.

Chapter Text

Second Part:

Alfred F. Jones was the youngest member of the project's direction. He had just completed his college and had done no more than two or three jobs before receiving his current position. No matter how good his grades were, it was noticeable that he was in the project just because his father's sucess made people automatically reach the conclusion that he must also be a genius.

Well, suffice to say that people were wrong.

Maybe it was because he was too young. Maybe it was because he was inexperienced. Maybe it was simply because he was such a goddamn prick.

What was certain is that the fascinating meetings that Arthur hoped to have with other engineers to let their imagination and knowledge generate a new world, now had become gatherings to prevent Alfred from adding absurds to the project.

That was outrageous. They could hardly do anything productive, since seventy percent of the meeting consisted of Alfred releasing unacceptable suggestions and Arthur refusing them with a fury that he didn't even try to contain.

They fought day after day. Indeed, the meetings had a minimal advance before Alfred said something, but in general, little had been established there, except that Alfred F. Jones was an idiot and that Arthur Kirkland was an enemy with a aggressive-aggressive style.

Facing many complications and confrontations, in the third month of the project, Arthur finally felt that he had reached his limit. When he came out of the meeting room, after damaging his voice from shouting "Do you really want to make the hospitals of this planet have the shape of the logo of superheroes?! This proposal makes no sense!", and after receiving arguments such as "But superheroes save people! And do you know what also saves people, Kirkland? Hospitals! Wow, you couldn't even understand this? Your generation really need to upgrade!", Arthur Kirkland was so done with everything, frustrated and unhappy that he resorted to a help that he only asked on the apex of his despair, sexual frustration or both.

“I don't know what to do anymore, Francis.” he groaned exhausted, leaning against the wall in the hallway outside the meeting room. “I was sure that he would get tired with time and let us do our job, but it seems that it's getting worse every day. We're ridiculously late.”

The hallway of the meeting room was a quiet and undisturbed location. Although the back walls were flawless white, the front walls were composed of transparent material, allowing the contemplation of the city below, the infinitude of stars in front of it and the Earth grandly placed in space, looking very close when viewed from that position. That was a corridor with the impersonality of a business building, in which there was nothing but white doors, a silent drinks machine and a constantly empty trash can. Therefore, that location was an acceptable refuge for a deeply troubled engineer.

In contrast to Arthur's dispair, Francis's smile was bright and had a touch of secret fun.

“Of course it's getting worse every day. You disapprove everything he proposes, so he tries to bring new ideas and convince you to accept them. It's only natural, that's what I think.”

Mr.Kirkland merely made a sound of disapproval to show his discontent and offense with that answer. "You disapprove everything he proposes, so it's natural that he will continue to do stupid proposals all the time". What a ridiculous statement. Arthur wasn't the villain and his continuing disapproval of Alfred's non-sense was the only natural thing there.

He was the victim. He struggled for years to get that job and a jerk kid was completely ruining the experience that he had always dreamed about.

“If you really want to appease him, why not adopt some of his projects?”

The question of Bonnefoy was immediately followed by a sarcastic and somewhat horrified laugh coming from his listener.

“You can't be serious.” Arthur's mouth was smiling, but his eyes were wide “A planet that has any of the projects from that kid would be doomed to ridicule. Think about how its inhabitants would be debauched for living there. We don't want to encourage bullying between planets, Bonnefoy .” Arthur concluded partially ironic. Partially .

“You mean you're determined to not accept his suggestions?” Francis questioned again, giving a very careful and subtly confrotational glance to the colleague beside him.

Arthur took a deep breath. He understood the implied lines in that question. Yes, the project was delayed and they could lose their vacations because of this. Theoretically, it would be easier to accept one or two stupids plans to allow the progress of their work. However ... That was a special project. It was the planet he had managed to work on after so, so much effort. The greatest achievement of his career. The only thing he aimed so hard in his life.

He couldn't allow his masterpiece to have intersection of routes that formed "emoctions"  when viewed from above.

“Unlike some cases that I know, I actually worked a lot to get this project.” he snorted, touching his forehead with one hand and feeling that his brows had furrowed without him realizing it. “I won't let it be spoiled for a twenty-three years old boy.”

“In this case, you have only one option.”

Arthur's chest contracted with a bad feeling. He crossed his arms defensively.

“That would be ... ?”

“Seduce him .”

Arthur almost choked on his own saliva. He slowly turned his neck and stared intensely Francis Bonnefoy with a mortified expression.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Oh, you know what they say.” Bonnefoy spoke, the bastard, looking very entertained with every word coming out of his mouth. “People listen with more attention when they are in bed. Or anywhere you meet for your adventures, actually. After all, I have the impression that Jones is somewhat impulsive and I know you transmit your usual savagery for your lewd activities.”

The casualness with which Francis was proposing such a thing was horrifying. He wasn't seeing how absurd was that idea...? That had never crossed Arthur's mind! He and Alfred! Why he and Alfred...!

“How can I...? How that would even work? For God's sakes, we hate each other guts! He is the last person in the galaxy that I would ...!”

“For three reasons.” Francis said calmly, showing three fingers. “First, I think Jones has a crush on you. This is why he insists on proving himself to you. His project goals are absurd, yet physically possible. Imagine the amount of effort he must put to create one every week. I don't think he would do that, unless he had a burning desire to impress you, my dear .” All the arguments presented by Francis were equally amazing and terrible because they were somehow strangely logical. “Secondly, since when you're so sentimental? I know you from other nights and sordid episodes, Arthur. Don't try to play the innocent virgin in front of me.” Listening to this part, Arthur made a grumpy growl deep in his throat, but still didn't contradict that remotely and remained quiet to hear the rest. “Finally, the advantages are huge, Eyebrows. You will return to take the lead of the project of your dreams and will be able to achieve your goal sleeping with a particularly desirable individual. What are you complaining about?”

“Desirable?” Arthur raised a questioning eyebrow. He closed his eyes and shook his head in disapproval. “Hmpf, your uncontrolled beast. Unlike you, I have my standards.”

“So you really didn't notice it? Come on, Eyebrows. This place is not like Earth, where they wear those loose cloths. Our clothes adapt and stick to our body. There isn't much room for imagination.”

To the great sorrow of Arthur, those arguments made perfect sense.

“This is really the best ...”. Mr. Kirkland sighed exasperatedly in disbelief at what he was about to do. “I mean, the only option I have, isn't it?”

Francis shrugged with a perverse satisfaction that didn't emit any disagreement with this opinion.

“What do you think?”

One single time. If he had sex with Jones once and used that to his advantage, all their problems would be solved.

Sex with Jones. Creating a planet with hospitals in the form of logos of superheroes.

“I think I have to start to use capsules of perfume again when I come to the meetings.” he said, and his voice just by accident sounded a bit hoarse and low. Though the prospect of seducing Jones was humilliating, he didn't had sex in a very long time and the clothes of the Moon really left no room for imagination.

Francis patted his right shoulder in friendly way, however Arthur avoided turning to him to see his expression. He had the feeling that any one of them would be unbearably annoying.

Damnit.

As a legitimate terraqueous, Arthur had a basic education on the Earth's fauna, which gave him knowledge enough to know that he wasn't a direct predator like Bonnefoy. While Francis was more akin to an eagle hovering over a region and advancing a prey as soon as detects it, Arthur's techines were more feline. Peeking closer and grabbing at the right moment. Therefore, his approach was excruciatingly slow. His methods and moves were calculated and subtle.

Counting that what Francis had told him was true and Jones had a secret crush on him, Arthur Kirkland went on to make certain movements that would go unnoticed to the average person, but which definitely would call the attention of anyone who felt a certain attraction to him. They could increase this attraction too, if he had any luck.

He had this perspective, even though he wasn't so confident that his plans would pass as well in practice as in theory.

The only indication that Alfred F. Jones had a crush on him was a guess and Francis Bonnefoy wasn't exactly the most reliable human being of all the Habitable Regions. There was a big chance that all this was an elaborate joke. Arthur kept that fear until the last second.

So it was quite a surprise when he found out that it was quite easy to sadistically provoke adorable and fun reactions from Jones.

If Arthur stared fixedly in his eyes, Alfred blushed in a few seconds and although he shouted with a pout, angry phrases like "What's your problem, Kirkland! If you want to say something, say it!" he became quite lovely in the eyes of Mr. Kirkland.

When Arthur passed his hand quickly over Jones's shoulder to greet him before sitting down to start the meeting, he could fell the tension in his muscles appear automatically.

And though it could be because Arthur hadn't noticed it before, never was so obvious that Alfred spent the entire meeting giving quick glances in his direction.

Feeling more confident, Arthur was also becoming bolder. "Hey, Jones. Are you busy now? Obviously you're not. Listen, I'm feeling my clothes getting out of adjustment. Can you check if it is well glued to my body?". "Sit closer to me, Jones. This way, you can see better my calculations. We don't need to scream all the time, do we? ". " I think one of your thousands of pills of instantaneous nutrition fell under you legs. Excuse me. Let me check ... ".

If his techniques were beginning to border on comical, so were Alfred's innocent reactions. The outraged, shocked and embarrassed way how Alfred would scream a "What the hell, Arthur!" without moving away from him was ridiculously adorable.

At the moment, Arthur's biggest problem was that Alfred seemed to be playing that game too.

Arthur Kirkland didn't know exactly why, but since his first attempts to seduce Alfred, the behavior of the latter had already changed. Not always in a positive way. Arthur couldn't say if Alfred was taking revenge, if that was the treatment he gave to people with whom he was used or if it was ... Er ...

Overall, there were two types of odd behavior that he was showing even in moments in which Arthur didn't take the initiative to tease him.

The first was made of a more provocative nature. Suddenly, Alfred began to become super interested in making sexual jokes and phrases with double meanings and dedicate them with a charming smile and the most cynical blink of all times to Arthur. Once, he casually put a hand in one of the sides of Arthur's waist, when Mr. Kirkland stood up, justifying himself with a "You're so clumsy ! I thought you would fall... Falls are dangerous at your age, you know!" ... Well, Alfred's heroic principles did not explain the soft and almost curious pressure that his fingers were applying sinuously - for a longer time than necessary, mind you - in Arthur 's hips.

Moreover, the amount of times that Alfred began to whisper his (still ridiculous, despite everything) opinions inside Arthur's ear, with his lips dangerously close to the lobe, when someone else was talking in meetings, was very disconcerting. Before that, Arthur didn't even know that Alfred could whisper!

The second was made of a more gentle nature. Inexplicably, Jones began to occasionally show some consideration to Arthur and, somehow, this behaviour was even more distressing than the other. His gestures were simple, yet so purely sweet that Arthur 's chest hurt a little for seeing them. Things such as the caution that Alfred had to see if the gravitational level in the room was adjusted enough so that Arthur wouldn't feel dizzy, the fact that he started to always bring a cup of tea with him, when he left the meeting to get his coffe, or the fact that the always ate - even if he still complained about that every time - the usually rejected homemade salade that Arthur brought for the lunch meetings table, made Arthur Kirkland so, so happy that he wanted to hide his face in his hands.

Yes, the situation looked wonderful. Arthur was entertained, moved and more than a little turned-on. However, what made the situation so wonderful also made it dangerous.

Arthur's primary intention was to leave the sexual and aggressive tensions between him and Jones reach their maximum so that they would have a night of wild sex, giving him the chance to emotionally blackmail the naive Jones with the old "You aren't listening to me after all we did that night? Now I see that you just wanted to use my body!" and all that stuff.

However, this ultimate goal began to become something more and more distant and less relevant in the process.

Damn that Jones with that sudden kindness and those lovely and discreet reactions to attempts of seduction. Feeling kind of flattered and softened with the unexplained and abrupt attention he was receiving, Arthur Kirkland couldn't help but try to repay them in part. He was a gentleman, after all.

He grumbled and complained about some of the mannerisms of Jones as much as before, but his new attitude was significantly different from the previous one. Compared to the period in which all the interactions between them were composed of sincere impatience and hostility, now even at the times when Arthur was angry with Alfred, his anger had a touch of affection.

That stupid boy. It's so adorable how he creates all these projects that seems to come out of a child's imagination. Oh, dear. How can he look so confident saying so many stupid things? I have to admit that this absurd confidence that he emits it's kind of exciting. The way his eyes sparkle when he speaks about his passions is ... Well.

In the end, his attempts to be friendly with Alfred probably left the desired proportions. What should be a cordial relationship of accumulated sexual tension became strangely similar to a ... Friendship with accumulated sexual tension? Or something worse?

He didn't notice exactly when this change happened. In fact, he realized this when it was too late to reverse the damages. One day, he saw Alfred laughing at one of the stories that he told about his older brothers, felt a smile grow spontaneously on his own lips and before he could disguise it, he saw Jones return it in a way that took his breath away. That was when he finally knew. His heart missed a beat. At that moment, Arthur Kirkland realized that he was completely lost.

No. No. No. No.

Seducing Alfred was something waaay different from liking him!

That wasn't good at all. If Arthur continued to sink in that feeling, he could end up losing everything. The chance to blackmail Alfred, the chance to sleep with Alfred and the chance to maintain a friendship with Alfred.

He was pretty sure that Alfred wouldn't reject him if he was pulled against him and had their bodies pressed together. However, Arthur didn't think Alfred would accept so easily that painful, warm and sweet affection that he was starting to feel.

Arthur could no longer take any risks. He had to go back to the safe route. Be damned the newly formed friendship between them. Be damned those cravings that his heart was beginning to feel. The moment to sleep with Alfred and blackmail him had come.

Thus, in a common Wednesday and right after a turbulent meeting, he turned to Alfred and suggested with the more professional look that he archieved:

“If you really want to evaluate the possibility of realization of your project to create musical streets that change colours, I think we shouldn't discuss this here. Do you have any appointment tonight?”

“Er... No?” Alfred tilted his head to the side, clearly confused by this question. The innocence of that question caused a wave of affection and guilt go through Arthur Kirkland. Being pragmatic, he opted for erasing these two sensations.

“Great.” Arthur sighed and gave him a small smile that blended conformism, relief and melancholy. “Let's go to a coffeshop. “

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