Turning Tricks 5

The car ride back to Arthur’s townhouse was the most tense and awkward situation the teen had ever found himself in. The silence was so heavy it felt like he was being crushed. Apprehension filled his chest to bursting as he watched the world speed by through the passenger window of the Mini-Cooper.

He hated this feeling of fear from the unknown. He hated not being in control. So much of his life had been out of his control until recently and now that he had a little bit of a say in his own life he didn’t want to relinquish it.

Soon enough the little green car pulled up in front of the house and came to a stop. The engine had barely shut off before the older man climbed out of the vehicle and slammed the door harshly. Alfred had no time to react before the smaller blonde was at his door and yanked it open.

The tan boy wordlessly climbed out of the car at the Englishman’s silent command. Again, the little car was a abused by having its door slammed. The pair made their way to and up the front steps before pausing to open the door. As they entered lights came on, bags were set aside, and shoes were removed.

The American couldn’t bare the silence anymore. He knew Arthur was upset but this silent treatment was tortuous. Being screamed at, cursed at, even being hit were all things he understood and could handle. Silence. Silence was new to him and it absolutely terrified him.

“Arthur…” the wheat blonde started but was cut off by the teacher raising his hand in a halting motion.

“How long?” Arthur asked simply as his eyes locked onto the younger man’s own and effectively pinning him in place.

“How long?” the teen parroted as his brow creased in confusion.

“How long have you been selling your body?” the straw blonde pressed with an exasperated eye roll. The American boy had been expecting that question, but that did not mean he was ready or willing to answer it. He didn’t want the Brit to see just how disgusting and worthless he truly was. So he merely stood there in silence with his eyes cast downward.

The seconds ticked by and it quickly became apparent to the green eyed man that he would not be getting the answers he was seeking. He was beyond livid at this point, but he was not really in the mood for a fight.

“Go to your room, Alfred,” Arthur said tiredly and started to walk toward the kitchen. After some tea and maybe a good nights sleep they could try again with clearer heads.

Meanwhile, Alfred felt like he had been slapped in the face. Did the older man seriously just tell him to go to his room? As if he were some errant ten year old? Anger welled up in his chest. He was not a damn child.

“The Hell I’m ‘going to my room’,” he stated sarcastically as he made air quotes with his fingers. “I’m not a child and you can’t tell me what to do,”

The sandy blonde paused in his trek and turned slowly to face the younger man.

“When you stop acting like a child then I will stop treating you like one. Until then while you are living in my home you will do as I ask,” he said cooley before turning toward his previous destination.

“Then I’ll leave,” Alfred countered and to give emphasis to his words turned to mount the stairs taking them two at a time. Arthur’s eyes widened anxiously and he quickly followed behind the younger male.

“And where would you go? To one of those...perverts? No, I won’t allow it,” the Englishman stated forcefully as he followed the blue eyed boy up the staircase.

As he reached the second floor landing the wheat blonde looked back at the other blonde in confusion. What was with this guy? Who the Hell did he think he was telling him what he could and could not do? He didn’t freaking own him.

On that thought a light clicked on in the boy’s head and things suddenly made sense. He should have known no good deed was ever done without the expectation of some kind of payment. That was why the Brit hadn’t wanted his money. No, he’d had his eyes set on another means of payment. The tan youth could have laughed at his own stupidity. That was all anyone ever wanted out of him.

Turning to face the other man, who had now joined him on the landing, Alfred put on his best sheepish look and cast his eyes downward submissively while his arms loosely wrapped around his chest to complete the look.

“I’m sorry, Artie,” the azure eyed teen said softly as he watched the Englishman through his eyelashes once they both were facing each other on the landing. “You’ve been so kind to me and I’ve been so ungrateful,”

The sudden shift in the American’s entire demeanor gave Arthur reason to pause as he eyed the younger questioningly.

“It’s quite all right, lad,” the sandy blonde said cautiously as the boy’s arms fell to his sides and he took a step forward.

“But you deserve some form of thanks for everything you’ve done for me,” the ash blonde said silkily as he came to a stop just in front of the teacher and sank down on to his knees.

Viridian eyes widened in surprise as Alfred now knelt before him and placed his tan hands on Arthur’s slender hips.

“What the bloody Hell do you think you’re doing, Alfred?” the Brit asked dumbly as those hands slid forward to clasp the buckle of his belt.

“Showing you my appreciation,” Alfred cooed as he looked up at the other male with a flutter of his long eyelashes and coquettish smile.

The gears in Arthur’s head slowly clicked into place and realization hit him like a prize-fighter’s punch.

“Alfred, stop,” the peridot eyed man said placing his hand’s on the boys shoulders and tried to push him away gently.

“But isn’t this what you wanted, Artie?” the cobalt eyed boy asked his voice a mix of confusion and teasing as he paused in his manipulation of the other’s belt.

“No! Now get off me you twat,” the Englishman said a bit harshly and pushed the kneeling man with more force.

Unfortunately, Arthur, in his haste to remove the other from his person, put too much strength behind his movements and sent the teenager sailing backwards. The yelp that emitted from Alfred was more out of surprise than pain as his back met with the hardwood floor.

Propping himself up on his elbows the now prone boy glared up at his assailant.

“What the Hell man?!”

“Alfred, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to be that forceful,” Arthur apologized as he stood frozen in place upset with himself for possibly harming the boy.

“Geez, I was just giving you what you wanted. You didn’t have to freak out,” the wheat blonde grumbled as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.

“What I...You think I want you to...Why in the world would you think I want that from you?” the straw blonde queried completely baffled by the younger male.

Cerulean eyes softened from angry to confused as they remained focused on the older man before they shifted downward.

“That’s all anyone ever wants from me,” Alfred said in a rather soft, dejected voice as all the fight went out of him and he drew his knees up to his chest while his arms wound around his legs.

“I don’t want that from you,” Arthur said gently as he sank to one knee to be more eye level the the teen.

“But why? I just don’t get you?” the American boy questioned as he carded his right hand into his hair and gripped it harshly.

The Englishman felt his heart clench painfully. It absolutely broke his heart to see this boy so lost and broken. He unconsciously reached out to place a comforting hand on the younger man’s knee. Unfortunately, his well meaning gesture had the opposite effect and sent the tan boy scrambling backward with panic in his too blue eyes. The teacher sighed heavily and retracted his hand.

“Alfred as much as I shouldn’t I have come to care about you…”

“Why?” the ash blonde interjected as he again curled in on himself protectively. “Why do you care about some worthless teen prostitute you barely know?”

The amount of self loathing and disgust that Alfred put into this statement had the straw blonde seeing red. Rage at who or whatever had made this boy see himself in such a harsh, unforgiving way seethed under his skin. He swore that if he ever managed to unravel the mystery of Alfred Jones he would make the villains of his past pay for their crimes.

“Alfred,” Arthur said as he cautiously moved toward the other man. “You are not worthless. You are far from it and you are definitely more than what someone is willing to pay for you…”

Alfred shot to his feet so quickly it made the other man reel back in surprise. He didn’t want to listen to the Brit’s pretty, false words. He didn’t want to feed that part of himself that clung so desperately to hope. He knew the ugly truth.

“I’m going to bed. I’ll see you in the morning, Artie,” the teen heard himself say, but the words sounded so hollow and empty. As if they had come from some automaton and not a living, breathing person.

Moving quickly to not allow Arthur time to protest the American moved down the hall into his room. He closed the door firmly behind him and clicked the lock into place. He drew a deep, calming breath into his lungs and leaned tiredly back against the cool wood of the door.

He just couldn't understand. What the Hell did he want from him? Why did Arthur say those things?

‘Because he cares,’ the little voice of hope chirped merrily making the teen cringe.

There was no way that could be true. No one could actually care for someone as disgusting and broken as him. The only person who truly cared about Alfred was Madeline and she didn’t know about his ‘job’.

No, the Englishman must have said those things as part of whatever twisted mind game he was playing with the blue eyed boy.

‘But what if he REALLY does care?’ the little voice again chimed in.

“Shut up, you,” Alfred growled irritably as he pushed off of the door and began to strip off all of his clothing and deposited it into the nearly full wicker hamper near the door. At that moment he wanted nothing more than to get in bed and slip into the sweet oblivion of sleep to escape the reality of his life.

Snatching his favorite American flag pajama pants up from the floor, where he had left them that morning, he pulled the comfortable material onto his naked frame before climbing into bed. Snuggling into the plush pillows and warm comforter he closed his eyes as he waited for sleep to whisk him away.
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‘Bad boyz...Bad boyz watcha gonna do...Watcha gonna do when they come for you...Bad boyz...Bad boyz…”  

A deep, irritated groan emitted from Alfred as he was rudely drug from sleeps gracious arms by the ‘Cops’ theme song sounding from his phone.

“I’m going to strangle him,” the wheat blonde growled into his pillow as he blindly pawed for the offending device on his nightstand. Feeling the the familiar rectangular shape of his smartphone the boy lifted the device and swiped his thumb to the right on his touch screen before bringing the device to his ear.

“This had better be damn important, Gil,” the tan teen grumbled sleepily into the phone after pulling his face out of his pillow.

“Alfred is that anyway to answer the phone? Oh, and I love how you pick up if it’s Gil. Maple forbid you ever pick up when I call,” a very feminine, non-German accented voice trilled crossly in his ear making the blue eyed male cringe sheepishly.

“H-hey, Mads,” Alfred stammered now fully awake as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.

“Don’t you ‘Hey, Mads’ me you hoser. I haven’t seen or heard from you in weeks except for the occasional text. What you can’t give me a simple call?” the lemon blonde scolded testily. Alfred could just see her standing there violet eyes narrowed angrily and hip cocked out with a fist planted firmly on it. Maddie was the most quiet, demure girl one would ever meet, but when pissed off she became a raging Kodiak bear.

“I’m sorry, Maddie. Between school and work I have been hella freakin busy,” the cerulean eyed male half lied and a pang of guilt squeezed his heart.

“Don’t lie to me, Alfie. Gil already told me,” Maddie snapped making her brother jump.

“He told you what?” Alfred queried as a mix of dread and anger twisted in his stomach.

‘I swear if that asshole told her anything I’m going to kill him,’ the ash blonde thought as he anxiously waited for his sister’s response.

“How you are living with your new boyfriend,” the wavy haired blonde said her voice laced with excitement and irritation.

'All right I'm definitely going to kill him,' the American teen thought as an aggravated, slightly angry sigh escaped his lips.

“I really didn’t want him to tell you about that,”

“And why not?” the amethyst eyed girl asked indignantly.

“Well we haven’t been together that long and the move was kind of sudden. I just didn’t want you to worry and fuss over this in case things went all pear shaped,” the lie rolled so easily from his lips it made him sick.

“Alfie, I’m your sister. Your twin sister. It’s my job to worry and fuss when you do something crazy,” Madeline said with an irritated sigh and Alfred couldn’t help chuckling as he imagined her ‘mom face’.

“All right, Maddie. Sorry for being an idiot,” the azure eyed male said with a small fond smile.

“You are forgiven. So I’ll see you and your new beau tonight at six,” the lemon blonde said cheerily.

“Yeah. Wait? What?” Alfred sputtered completely taken off guard.

“You’re coming over for dinner and don’t you dare try to duck out on me. If you do I’ll have Gerhard use his fancy police computer to track your sorry ass down and then I’ll show you the business end of my hockey stick. Okay? I love you. See you tonight,” with that the line went dead and the teen was left staring at his phone completely dumbfounded.

“What the freaking Hell just happened?” he muttered as he rose from his bed while thinking about how he was going to explain this all to Arthur.