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Drabble 3: Movie Night
It had been Alfred’s idea to have a date night before their two newest additions arrived, he had set everything up himself and he was awfully proud of himself.
After Peter and Ollie had gotten home from school—after racing to their front door from the bus—Alfred had sneakily packed both boys a bag, much to their confusion and excitement and dropped them off at Elizabeth and George’s, who were more than happy to take on duty of watching their beloved grandsons.
Arthur, who had been in the office on a highly important meeting with Francis and other investors for the K&B brand, hadn’t seemed to suspect a thing when he finally emerged from the cosy office space.
Now at 38 weeks and wearing a green knitted sweater, Arthur looked a bit more like a cabbage than a human being—as Alfred liked to joke, though it was clear that Arthur did not find that funny in the slightest—but he was also highly confused as he waddled his way into the room.
“Shouldn’t Peter and Ollie be back by now?” He questioned, a hand subconsciously placing itself on his lower back and massaging it, he looked around the space and then at Alfred who had a wide grin on his face.
“Yes, and they were! Buutttttt, I took them to your parents house.” Alfred revealed, standing in the doorway to the living room and kitchen area so that Arthur couldn’t see past him.
Arthur put on a puzzled face, “Why?”
“Because I wanted to surprise you.” Alfred smiled, he moved out of the doorway a bit and took Arthur’s hand.
“Surprise me? Why? Did I miss an important date or something?” Arthur asked, gratefully as Alfred pulled him along that the alpha kept a slow pace just for him. It wasn’t a particularly long walk from the office doorway to the living room, but Arthur was more excited than anything to finally take a seat on the sofa.
The sofa, however, was not in the same position it always was though, as Alfred had moved it further back and had somehow, without him knowing or hearing, put the guest room mattress onto the floor in front of the sofa. With the help of two chairs on either side of the mattress and the back on the couch, there was also a large blanket draped over everything. That too, was adorned with fairy lights that gave the dark room a twinkling glow.
Arthur stared with wide eyes at Alfred, “I’ve not forgotten our anniversary, have I? And it’s definitely not one of our birthdays—”
Alfred laughed and pulled Arthur closer to himself, “You didn’t forget anything, Artie. I just thought it might have been nice to have a date night before the twins get here, but then I reminded myself of how much you hate being on your feet and decided that going out was out of the question—”
“And nothing restaurant appropriate fits anyway, of course.”
Alfred laughed, “Therefore! I present to you: movie night at home, in the comfort of our living room with snacks I know you love.”
Arthur felt himself positively melt at how thoughtful and adorable Alfred’s little date night idea was, and if it were even possible he thought he felt himself fall even more in love with the man in front of him.
“Wait, what’s wrong?” Alfred questioned, noticing that Arthur had gone quiet and tears were starting to form in his eyes.
Arthur waved him off, “Nothing is wrong, love. I’m just very touched and ridiculously hormonal.” Arthur laughed wetly, allowing Alfred to pull him into his arms and press a kiss to the top of Arthur’s fluffy blonde hair and then his lips.
Arthur pulled away after a second, “You’ll give me the full tour now won’t you?”
Alfred’s face lit up, “Definitely!”
As promised, Alfred took Arthur’s hand again and led him to the ‘doorway’ of the blanket fort. Of course, because it was a mattress on the floor with a blanket draped over the whole thing, Alfred had to do his fair share of helping Arthur into the fort. But once he did, and once Arthur was comfortably sitting on the mattress with his aching back resting against the front of the sofa and he was holding his favorite pregnancy pillow. Alfred went around and gave Arthur an exaggerated tour of the fort.
“And this here is the snack bunker, aka the bin from our pantry and a cooler from the garage.” Alfred laughed, grabbing a cold water for Arthur, as well as a teacup that he poured hot tea into already, having known that Arthur would want some. He also made sure that the wicker bin from the pantry was in reaching distance so that Arthur could pick out whatever he wanted when the movie started.
Arthur had watched with delighted amusement as Alfred gave a run down of his carefully constructed pillow fort and gratefully accepted the tear when Alfred presented it, he couldn’t rid himself of the smile on his face as Alfred finally turned back to him.
“Okay, so I got two movie options for us, both of which were recommended to us by the two most sought after movie critics in the world; Peter and Ollie.” Alfred laughed, presenting Paddington and Tangled.
Arthur burst into laughter, “Oh my, I’ve never seen such fantastic options before.”
“I know right!” Alfred beamed, then looked at Arthur more seriously, “But, I also picked out a few things if we want to check those out instead.”
Arthur smiled around his teacup, “As much as I love the first two options, I am a bit curious to see something else.”
And so they settled on watching Fantastic Mr. Fox, as Arthur wanted something lighthearted and Alfred was more than happy to obliged.
About a half and hour into the film, Arthur found himself less focused on the TV screen and more on Alfred’s side profile, as they had migrated together with Alfred’s arm being draped behind Arthur’s shoulders on the edge of the sofa. Arthur was comfortably resting his head on Alfred’s shoulder. With his other hand, Alfred was casually taking bits of popcorn into his mouth and giggling at the funny parts of the film, oblivious to the way Arthur was observing him with the fondest look on his face.
After a while again, he returns his gaze to the screen, taking Alfred’s left arm from where it was resting on the back of the couch and so it was wrapped more tightly around him. Alfred looked at him then and pressed a kiss to the side of Arthur’s head as his hand rubbed comforting circles on Arthur’s baby bump.
Arthur took Alfred’s hand into his own, mindlessly playing with Alfred’s long fingers as his thumb rubbed the back of Alfred’s knuckles, momentarily stopping when it reached Alfred’s gold-quartz wedding band.
They stay like that for a while, all curled up together with Arthur calmly playing with Alfred’s hand until a thought pops into his mind.
“It’s a bit unbelievable that we’ve already been married for four years already.”
“Yeah, best years of my life if you ask me.” Alfred said softly.
“Nevermind the four years before our marriage then?” Arthur quipped.
“Best years of my life as in every year since I first met you, not just since we’ve been married.” Alfred rephrased with a smile.
Once again, even though Arthur knows that he shouldn’t be surprised or affected as Alfred says similar things everyday, couldn’t help but become flustered at the sincere words, he cleared his throat.
“Mine too.” He replied softly, placing a kiss to Alfred’s lips. Alfred, seemingly waiting for the invitation, deepened the kiss, more than happy to make out with Arthur in their living room pillow fort like two overly enthusiastic teenagers.
The movie was completely forgotten by the time Arthur had to pull away to catch his breath, he laughed.
“What is it?” Alfred asked, a contagious chuckle on his lips.
“I’m just extremely stupidly in love with you, Alfred Jones.” Arthur replied.
“Whoa, that’s crazy, ‘cuz, I’m, like, also extremely stupidly in love with you, Arthur Kirkland.”
Arthur plopped his head against Alfred’s shoulder again, smiling to himself, “Also, as much as I would hate to ruin this moment, I really have to use the toilet.”
Alfred burst into laughter, he pressed another kiss to Arthur’s lips and then crawled to the doorway of the fort and reached for Arthur’s hands. The Brit would also have laughed if there wasn’t another kick to his bladder.
Once Arthur was back from the bathroom, Alfred helped him back into the fort again so that they could finish the movie and snacks, even though Arthur ultimately ended up falling asleep in Alfred’s arms, which resulted in the pair sleeping in the living room, deciding that they would deal with the mess of the fort in the morning.