July 25th, 2018: Bit of an awkward ending, but it's better that that an awkward beginning to the next chapter. The next chapter is very similar to last chapter, but different and it's not very hard to guess how. Make your guesses now.

Chapter 10: What Are You Willing to Do?

Arthur felt like he was going to be sick once the video finished, having to run to his guest bedroom's bathroom to stifle the sounds of him coughing up flower petals and blood, oh so much blood.

So Alfred had finally gone and done it. He'd proposed and Arthur was the worse for it. There was this horrible pain in Arthur's chest that he couldn't tell if it was coming from his lungs and coughing up petals or his heart. Arthur couldn't help replaying the video over and over again in his head, all of Alfred's heartfelt and loving words that he would kill to have said to him and how happy Alfred had been when Kiku said yes... How could such happiness cause Arthur so much pain? If he truly loved Alfred he would be happy for him, but instead, he was coughing up flower petals and blood in jealousy of Kiku, Alfred's fiancé.

"You may be on to something with that 'kill to have Alfred to say that to you,' you know~," Oliver commented, having shown up in his head much more often after finals and whenever Alfred proposing came up in general. "Killing Kiku and framing it as a suicide is always an option~," Oliver suggested. (JD much, damn Oliver.)

Arthur coughed up more petals. "... You know I can't do that, Ollie."

"That's quitter talk my friend. You can do anything once you set your mind to it. The real question is what are you willing to do to make Alfred yours~?"

"Not that..."

"Oh, but you considered it, didn't you~? You'll eventually see it my way, trust me. It's not a matter of if, only when, my sweet little poppet~. Not to mention you're running out of time." Oliver said in an ominous tone that sent a shiver down Arthur's spine.

"No," Arthur said sternly. "I won't do that to Alfred. I wouldn't be so cruel as to take his happiness away." Oliver was silent, seemingly having said all he wanted to say.

~~~

Arthur was surprisingly okay physically after the initial sickness from the proposal video, though the same couldn't be said about his mental health. Arthur went a bit numb to everything, going through a phase of denial where he refused to mention Alfred or Kiku or respond to anyone's texts about the happy couple, let alone Alfred or Kiku. He left the room when the topic came up and slept a bit more than usual to avoid the time in between when his pill stopped being effective and when he could take the next one, but besides that he took care of his basic needs and was still talking to his family and friends that didn't bring up Alfred and Kiku.

Arthur continued on like this from Christmas to New Year's Eve, him, Francis, and Matthew traveling to France to visit Francis' family somewhere in the middle of the between holiday December low. The time of year from the 26th to the 30th was always that strange time of year where some people would still cling onto the lingering Christmas cheer, others got to work returning all the gifts they hated but accepted from their weird family with a smile on Christmas day anyway, and others spend far too much money on far too many fireworks and more alcoholic eggnog (because as far as the Kirkland's were concerned if your family didn't drink it all at Christmas you were doing it wrong and buying the wrong kind of alcohol) to get ready for the new year.

≈ 668 words, comments, and votes, are always appreciated. Thanks for reading and please correct me on any dumb typos I may have missed. X3