Work Text:
Alfred only felt two things: soreness and anger. He tried to calm himself down to get rid of the latter. He focused on the sight of familiar buildings as Mathias drove them closer to Alfred’s apartment building. He thought about Arthur waiting for him back at home, which helped with his emotions. It even made Alfred smile a little.
There was nothing that could be done about the soreness though. Alfred knew that he would be covered in bruises, and that there were some cuts scattered about his body. All seemingly minor injuries that throbbed more than anything. Although the pain in his side didn’t seem to get better. It would suck if Alfred turned out to have a bruised rib (he didn’t think it was broken, anyway, but it was hard to tell).
“Here we are.” Mathias parked the car. “You can make it up to your floor, right?”
“I got it.” Alfred climbed out of the car. He held back a grunt as the pain in his side flared up for a second. “I’ll call Artie if I need help. Thank you for driving me home.”
“Update me on the damage.” Mathias put the car back in drive. “Get some rest, Al!”
Alfred watched Mathias drive away. He waited for his side to calm down before entering the apartment building. He made it up the one step and through the doorway before needing to lean against the wall. He let out a quiet, pained noise and clutched at his side. He was thankful that he could still breathe without pain.
There was no elevator in the building, so he was forced to take the stairs. It took him a few minutes, but Alfred was able to get up to the third floor where his apartment was at. After realizing that the door was locked, he fumbled around a bit for his keys. With a slight tremor in his hand, he got the key to go into the lock. In the next moment, Alfred was inside his apartment. He didn’t see Arthur right away, which made him wonder if he could sneak to the bathroom without Arthur noticing.
But apparently Arthur had heard Alfred come in, as he appeared within Alfred’s vicinity. “You’re home early.” Arthur took a good look at Alfred. “What happened? Your cheek is swollen.”
Alfred cursed Arthur’s ability to analyze all the tiny details. “I’m fine.” Then he had to cough, which caused his side to hurt again. Out of reflex, he clutched the area.
“You are not fine.” Arthur grew concerned. He put an arm around Alfred’s shoulders. “You’re sporting an injury to your side, it seems. Got any more injuries to tell me about?”
“I didn’t keep track of them all.” Alfred admitted. He didn’t know how many injuries he even had.
That was enough for Arthur to steer Alfred towards the bathroom. “So, are you going to tell me what happened?”
“It’s quite a story.” Alfred tried to laugh it off, but that only caused his side to flare up in pain.
Arthur only sighed in response. He had Alfred sit on the toilet lid while he looked for the first aid kit.
Meanwhile, Alfred took off his shirt. He noticed some bruising that already began to appear. He had managed to hide them well up to this point, but his hands were cut up quite a bit. The blood had dried as the wounds stopped bleeding some time ago.
Silently, Arthur began to care for each of Alfred’s wounds. At least, the ones that were visible. He didn’t know of any that were on Alfred’s lower body.
“I got into a fight at the bar.” Alfred said.
Arthur rose an eyebrow. He continued to clean the wound that he was working on. “That explains why you’re beat up this bad. But you usually don’t get into fights.”
“I was defending you.” Alfred tried to not let his anger consume him. “Defending us.”
Arthur got an idea of what happened. However, he stayed silent to let Alfred continue talking. He knew that letting Alfred talk about his troubles helped the other calm down.
Sure enough, Alfred started to explain what happened.
~~~
It was turning out to be a fun night at the bar. Alfred sipped on his second drink of the night while he listened to Gilbert tell the latest tale regarding his shenanigans.
“Then we TP-ed his car. It practically looked like a mummy by the time we were done.” Gilbert chugged down his mug of beer. “We would have done his house, but we didn’t have enough toilet paper.”
“That’s brilliant.” Mathias laughed. He downed his non-alcoholic drink. It was his turn to be dedicated driver. “Did he ever find out that it was you?”
“Nope! So I can do it again!” Gilbert grinned.
“You should try for his house next time.” Alfred laughed. “You, Francis, and Antonio can surely get your hands on enough toilet paper.”
“Oh, for sure. We’ll plan that one out so that way we can have enough toilet paper. The car was an improv plan of petty revenge.” Gilbert turned to the bartender to ask for a refill.
“Reminds me of the time where Arthur and I egged Alistair’s car when we were teenagers.” Alfred recalled the memory with a smile. “Arthur wanted to get back at his brother for something at the time. I don’t remember what. But he didn’t know what to do. It was my idea to egg his car.”
“How did that go?” Mathias asked, since Gilbert was occupied with consuming alcohol.
“As perfect as it could be.” Alfred answered. “At least, until Alistair figured out that Arthur was responsible for it. I think he figured out that I was involved too, since he gave me looks the next time I came over. Either way, it was worth it.”
“You and Arthur should TP his car for April Fool’s Day next year.” Gilbert winked at Alfred. “Relive the old times.”
“As fun as it sounds, we usually prank each other on April Fool’s. Some of the shenanigans can get very elaborate, and it’s funny as hell looking back at them.”
“You should give me some ideas.” Mathias grinned. “I would love to pull something good on Lukas next year.”
“For sure.” Alfred looked down at the wedding ring that he wore. “I will say, the crazy stuff we got into together definitely contributed to me falling for him as hard as I did. And eventually marrying him.”
“Bruh, we should have done something for your wedding!” Gilbert exclaimed. “Could have gotten all of the guests in on it and everything.”
“We’ll get another opportunity should you and Arthur ever feel the need to renew your wedding vows.” Mathias smirked.
Alfred didn’t have a chance to respond, as he felt something hit him at the back of his skull. He saw both Mathias and Gilbert flinch in surprise from the unexpected attack. He looked down at the floor behind him to find broken pieces of a glass bottle. Looking back up, Alfred found the person who must have been responsible, as he was getting ready to throw another bottle in his direction.
“What the fuck was that for?” Alfred questioned the guy. He checked his head by tentatively putting his fingers on the affected area. Somehow, there were no cuts.
“Faggots like you don’t belong here.” It was easy to tell that the man was drunk, but also supposedly not drunk enough to lose hand-eye coordination. There were two other men sharing a table with him, presumedly friends of his.
“Great, a homophobe.” Mathias muttered.
“That’s none of your business, jackass.” Alfred wasn’t pleased to realize that the man had been listening in on their conversation.
“Just ignore them. They’re only unawesome people who are not worth engaging with.” Gilbert said.
Alfred flipped the guy off before turning back around. Gilbert was right, it was no use trying to argue with the homophobic man.
Meanwhile, Gilbert got up to use the restroom. Mathias went to search for an employee, as he realized that none had come over during the small commotion. Even the bartender was missing for some reason.
Alfred tried to not let the interaction ruin his mood. It was not the first time he had been the target of another’s homophobia. He was happy with his relationship with Arthur, and another person’s ignorance was not going to change that. Just thinking of his husband made Alfred smile softly.
The lovey thoughts of Arthur were cut off as Alfred heard footsteps behind him. He turned around, thinking that one of his friends had returned. Instead, Alfred found the man that threw the bottle at his head. He swung another bottle down at Alfred, aiming for the head again.
At the last second, Alfred blocked the bottle with his hand. The bottle broke on contact, resulting in Alfred’s hand getting cut up in multiple spots. Alfred hissed in pain.
“Now you asked for it.” Alfred used his uninjured hand to deliver an undercut right to the man’s chin.
The man stumbled backwards from the force and collided with a table. He fell onto one knee before looking back up at Alfred. He was pissed.
“The cocksucker wants to fight! Let’s show him what we do to faggots like him.” The two buddies that were originally sitting with the man got up from their seats.
Then it was 2 vs. 1 fight as the original attacker was still trying to stand up from his spot on the floor. Alfred did the best he could defending himself from his attackers. It didn’t help that Alfred was a little drunk himself from the shots he had earlier. Unfortunately, the two friends didn’t seem to be as drunk as the first guy. Whenever Alfred attacked one of the men, he would get hit by the other. Alfred attempted to grab one of the men to use as a shield against the other’s attacks. Instead, it left Alfred’s side wide open. The man that Alfred didn’t try to grab saw the opening, and managed to land a nasty kick to Alfred’s ribs.
The intense pain made Alfred fall to his knees. He clutched at his side in agony. He barely felt the last of the hits that the men managed to get in before they were pulled away from him. Alfred could hear Gilbert shouting, along with Mathias. He glanced up briefly to see that both of his friends had each taken a man, and were throwing punches of their own. He saw that the original attacker was still on the floor, who now looked a little green in the face. Then Alfred went back to gazing at the ground, for all that he could focus on was the throbbing at his side.
Eventually, the fighting managed to calm down. Other patrons had to hold the homophobes back while Mathias and Gilbert were able to check on Alfred. Alfred blocked out the slurs yelled in his direction, only letting himself talk to his friends and addressing their concerns. With their help, Alfred slowly stood up while holding onto a nearby table.
Everyone quieted down when the police came inside the building. One officer talked to the homophobes while the other talked to Alfred, Gilbert, and Mathias. They also listened to the other patrons, who chimed in that Alfred was only acting in self-defense, with Mathias and Gilbert coming to his aid. A review of the camera footage sealed the deal. The drunken guy and his friends were handcuffed and put in the back of a squad car. Alfred gave the officers his contact information, should he be needed in court.
After the police left, the patrons got back to their drinking and chatting. Meanwhile, Alfred was using a table for support. He wanted nothing more than to lie down.
“Well, that killed the mood.” Gilbert lamented. “Are you okay there, Al?”
Alfred took a few moments to reply. “Honestly, no.”
“Do you want to go home?” Mathias asked.
“Yeah.”
Mathias covered the tab for the three of them. Then they all piled into Mathias’s car.
~~~
Arthur hummed in understanding as he tended to the last of Alfred’s wounds. He was reminded of why he stopped going to pubs as frequently compared to a few years ago.
“So, yeah. I couldn’t let him beat on me like that.” Alfred shrugged.
“You did better than me. I probably would have swung the first punch.”
“Especially with alcohol in your system.”
Arthur lightly hit Alfred’s arm (in an uninjured area) in response to the jest. “The only thing left is to check your rib. I’ll get an ice pack.”
While Arthur was gone, Alfred tentatively touched the area. He hissed in pain, but kept touching the area. He couldn’t feel any fractures, and he didn’t remember hearing a crack upon contact. Then again, there had been a lot going on in the moment.
Arthur came back with an ice pack. “Is it broken?”
“I don’t know.” Alfred moved his hand out of the way. “I don’t think so?”
“Either way, you should go to the doctor to make sure.” Arthur held the ice pack on Alfred’s side, making the other let out a yelp. “It’ll be much more serious if you have a fracture.”
Alfred took over in holding the ice pack. “I’ll go to urgent care tomorrow.”
Arthur wanted to retort, but he held it back. He noticed how tired Alfred was. “I’ll drive you there, if you want.”
“Thank you.”
With Arthur’s help, Alfred was relocated to the couch. He was also given a glass of water with some painkillers.
“Movie?” Alfred looked up at Arthur with the big puppy eyes.
“…Fine.” Arthur could not say no to those eyes no matter how hard he tried.
Despite the pain, Alfred could not have been happier being by Arthur’s side.