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Post by Arthur Kirkland on May 22, 2011 0:13:55 GMT
In the end, Arthur brought a cheap mobile for Alfred and gave it to Joel to give to him. It just made life easier knowing that he could call him to arrange a meeting, although in the end he sent a text as he walked home from the estate agents. “Got the keys – going to go looking for paint tomorrow/start painting tomorrow if you want to come. Meet me by the flat before 11.” He frowned at it for a moment, before sending it, and pocketing his phone.
His flat was a mess, as he was in the middle of trying to organise things and pack them up. He was having difficulties, though. For some reason it was hard to focus at the moment. It was even hard to sit down and write some days. Arthur brought a box of papers over to the window seat and curled up there to try and sort through them, but in the end fell asleep over them, even though it was mid afternoon. He slept badly, and woke at teatime feeling groggy and ill, and ended up leaving the papers in a mess to go and sleep.
In the morning he didn’t feel much better, but after a shower, tea, and after almost fainting, a slice of toast, he at least looked presentable. He’d had the presence of mind to put an old pair of trousers on, though they were held in place with a belt, and with a t-shirt rather than his usual shirts he looked a lot more casual. With another cup of tea in hand he headed back to the window seat and curled up there to wait to see if Alfred turned up. If half eleven came and went with no sign of the other he’d head off to get started anyway.
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Post by Alfred Jones on May 22, 2011 3:56:59 GMT
The young blonde obviously hadn't been expecting to have a mobile phone waiting for him when he went by Joels to see if Arthur had given him any messages, and he flat out refused it for the first half of a week. However, he eventually accepted it, although very begrudgingly.
The text message of course made him hum happily though, and the night before he cut his round making short to go to sleep a bit earlier. By cutting it short, it meant around 3:30 AM. He found a place for the night that was a bit out in a nearby forest of a park, and camped out there for the night. One of the things he liked about the phone was that he could use it as an alarm clock at least, and at ten he was up and heading over to Arthurs.
The younger man showed up around fifteen after eleven, noting this was the first time he had showed up like this on his own to Arthurs house...Hmn. Shaking off the thoughts, he then knocked on the door. At least he was clean, he had gotten cleaned up in a river near the place he had camped. When Arthur opened the door, his smile almost fell. Arthur might have been dressed fine, but he looked even worse than the last time he had seen him!..Well he could use the excuse of helping him move to hang out more with him, and nag him into eating more and taking better care of himself.
"Hey Arthur! You all ready to go?"
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Post by Arthur Kirkland on May 22, 2011 11:58:22 GMT
Arthur had started to get worried that Alfred wouldn't come when eleven o'clock came and went, but he still jumped when the doorbell went. Starting up, he opened the door, and was pleased to see Alfred there, and looking presentable. "More or less." He replied, standing aside so that Alfred could come in while he gathered his things together. "Please excuse the mess. Do you want a drink or something?" He offered.
Heading into the bedroom, Arthur picked up a list he'd written out and the house keys, then threw a jacket on, before going to get his shoes too. "If you want to plug the phone in to charge while we're out, you're welcome to." He offered, as he sat down on a chair to pull his shoes on, fingers fumbling a little with the laces. He was finding it hard to co-ordinate himself sometimes.
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Post by Alfred Jones on May 22, 2011 12:05:02 GMT
Grinnin at the other playfully, Alfred shook his head at the offer and headed on inside. Setting his bag where it would be out of the way, Alfred nodded as he found an outlet and plugged the phone in, giving Arthur a worried glace. "Having some issues there, bud?" He asked nonchallantly.
While the bag was off, he dug out a hoodie to wear, since the clothing he wore, while presentable, was also something he wouldn't mind getting paint on. Tugging it on, he settled in the warmth before he glanced Arthur over a bit more while the other was concentrating on tying his shoes. "So, do you kind of have an idea of what color you're thinking you want the bedroom to be?" The younger man asked, just to get his own mind off of thoughts of forcefeedin Arthur until he was healthier looking.
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Post by Arthur Kirkland on May 22, 2011 12:14:04 GMT
Snorting, Arthur looked up at Alfred. "Of course not!" He said, but that distraction meant that he lost the track of what he was doing and had to start again. This time he managed it with only a small fumble, and stretched out, checking his pockets again, and then moving to get his wallet. "I'm definitely going to paint my room blue, but the spare one is up to you, like I said."
His phone was by his wallet and he snatched that up too, grabbing the flat keys from the door as he headed back there. "I took some pictures on my phone for you so you can have a look." He said, double checking he had everything and then leading the way back out into the hall way. "I'm going to pay for us to get the tram over to the shopping district, so you can have a look on the way." He wasn't having an argument about that. While he would normally have walked, he hadn't felt up to it lately, so he'd been getting the tram pretty much everywhere.
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Post by Alfred Jones on May 22, 2011 12:18:02 GMT
A brow arched, obviously questioning Arthurs abilities at show tying. Or maybe he was just wondering how much longer it'd be till he collapsed and realized how dangerous this was. Humming, he nodded, giving Arthur a smile. "Damned the carpet coloring then?" He asked.
Perking to hear that though, Alfred hummed happily. Well he'd have something to look at while Arthur was choosing paint anyway. "That's good then, I was curious about what you were dealing with." Alfred teased before he blinked, cocking his head. For once he didn't fight Arthur paying though, figuring he shouldnt exert himself. "Are there any other areas you're thinking that need to be painted over too?" He asked then as he opened the door, slipping out and waitng for him to follow, lock up, then lead the way.
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Post by Arthur Kirkland on May 22, 2011 12:33:55 GMT
"I don't think it'll look too bad." Arthur said, smiling. "If I don't like it later I can always replace the carpet, anyway." He was planning on getting a softer blue than he'd first thought anyway, so he thought that it would be all right.
Locking up the door behind Alfred, Arthur pocketed the keys and led the way out of the flat, down towards the road so they could walk to the tram stop. "They said they repainted the corridors recently, so I think they'll be fine, and I'll redo the kitchen and the bathroom as I get to them." He paused then, frowning a little. "I might do the sitting room, but I think if I do I will need to replace the floor in there. It's got a wood floor at the moment, and I think I'd rather have a carpet. I'll show you when we're sitting down."
The tram stop was just round the corner from Arthur's flat, next to the park, and the trams came every ten minutes, so Arthur just sat for now, pulling his wallet out so he'd have it ready. "I started making a list of the furniture I'll need, but perhaps when we get to the house later you can look over it and see if you think I've missed anything?" He asked, glancing up at Alfred. "I'd appreciate the second opinion. I don't really want to have to go back a second time."
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Post by Alfred Jones on May 22, 2011 19:52:00 GMT
"Yeah, that's true...Still a bit spendy though." Following Arthur along, Alfred nodded with a small hum before he smiled. "Well wood does go with a lot of things, in the least, so either way." Sticking his hands in the hoodies pockets, the taller blonde faintly rocked on his feet lazily before glancing back, nodding.
"Sure, I can definitely do that. I remember stuff really well too, so it's no problem findin' stuff that you might have missed."The rest of the ride to the home interior shop was rather uneventful, with Alfred just looking over the pictures of the house that Arthur had and pointing out some small issues. Such as the room, that he assumed was the childrens, seemed to have a small crack in the wall from something hitting it.
Once the pair arrived at the shop, Alfred of course pleasedly led the other over to the paints--He had done quite a bit of this kind of thing with helping people out, so he found the labor rather fun. "Let's see...Ah ha, here are the shades of blue." Smiling, Alfred pointed out the chart that showed the swatches, looking at them curiously but standing to the side so Arthur could see them best.
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Post by Arthur Kirkland on May 22, 2011 19:58:37 GMT
Looking up as the bus arrived, Arthur was already getting the fare out. "I'm not fond of wooden floors." He said, while they waited for the doors to open. "They're too cold and collect dust." He paid for single fares, as they'd be coming back from a different place, and then led Alfred to the back so they could sit down, pocketing his wallet again and then passing over his phone instead. He frowned when Alfred pointed out the crack. "Can you help me fix it?" He asked, worried that that would mean that they wouldn't be able to paint there today.
When they reached the shop he let Alfred lead, amused by his confidence. It was nice to see that side of him. Leaning in closer than he might have done otherwise, he glanced over the swatches, before pulling his phone out so he could have a reference for the colour of the carpet too. After a moment's deliberation, he picked out a soft shade, a blue that already had a fair amount of grey in it. "Here, this one. Do you think?" He glanced over at the shelf, looking for it there. "Do you think one pot'll be enough?" He asked. "And have you decided what colour you want yet?"
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Post by Alfred Jones on May 22, 2011 20:05:02 GMT
"Hmn? Oh yeah, easily. If we're going to an interior store they should have something for it...I'm thinking it's just the plaster that got cracked anyway, so I should be able to fix that up and we can paint over the spot when it's dried." Alfred had fixed much, much worse, and if they set up a fan to blow on it gently then they might be able to paint it over faster...
Looking at the color that Arthur picked out, Alfred cocked his head." It's nice, but it seems a bit...Depressing? Are you picking it out based on what you like, or what you think is going to look good with that carpet?"A brow arched, but then he shook his head. "Even if I did we'd have to do a base coat of white for it anyway. And I'm fine with white. It's...Clean." Nodding, he gave a faintly nervous smile before looking away and clearing his throat.
"I'm going to go grab the stuff we need to fix up the crack." And with that he headed off to get the supplies. He'd also grabbed a few other things as back up, smaller pots of sealant and what not.
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Post by Arthur Kirkland on May 22, 2011 20:10:38 GMT
Frowning a bit at that reply, Arthur looked at the colour. He didn't think it was that depressing, though perhaps a little cold. Glancing at the scale again, he moved along a couple and then paused, his finger lingering over a colour that was almost exactly the same colour as Alfred's eyes. That'd just be... creepy, wouldn't it? But it was such a nice colour...
"I don't mind if you want to do something else with the walls." Arthur said, frowning a little when Alfred seemed so nervous. "We can look at wall paper as well if you'd like." He got a couple of pots of white paint while Alfred was fetching things, though, putting them in their trolley, then went back to considering the colours. When Alfred returned, he cautiously pointed out that colour to him instead. "What about this one?"
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Post by Alfred Jones on May 22, 2011 20:20:04 GMT
"Nah, wall paper kind of scares me cause of this movie I saw once..." Alfred chuckled goodnaturedly as he headed off. Returning, Alfred set the things in the cart before he blinked at the new choice. leaning in a bit, he stared for a moment, imagining it...Well it seemed a bit bright for Arthur as well, but, maybe it'd be good for him.
"It's pretty, kind of like the sky." Alfred smiled at him. The taller teen didn't really look in mirrors, so he didn't actually know what his own eye colors shade was. "When I was younger, in my room, I had um...It was like, halfway up it was normal sky, then all the way up to the ceiling it got dark and turned into stars. It was really cool." Smiling brightly, he looked on up the way at the other colors.
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Post by Arthur Kirkland on May 22, 2011 20:26:18 GMT
Pleased that Alfred seemed to like it, Arthur quickly located a pot of it on the shelf and transferred it into their trolley. He almost suggested that Alfred might like that in the room again, but then had a sudden thought that it might bring back bad memories. "It sounds nice." He smiled, more fondly than usual. "When I was younger I used to dream of painting a forest on my walls, but my father would never have let me."
He played with the colour selector still, flicking through to see what they had. He paused on the reds, and offered it out to Alfred. "Maybe something like this for the spare room?" He offered, before flicking over another two pages to the yellows. "Or something like this? I really don't mind if you want it." Arthur was willing to have a colour that he wouldn't have normally picked if it made Alfred feel more comfortable in there, or made it feel like it was more his and a safe place. Besides, it wasn't as though he had any other friends or family that might come and stay with him. Really, half of the reason he'd brought a two bedroomed house was so that Alfred had somewhere to stay when he needed to. He'd never admit to that, though, of course.
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Post by Alfred Jones on May 22, 2011 20:33:42 GMT
When Arthur said that, Alfred was slightly surprised--he had been considering asking if Arthur could do that. However he had chosen white just because it was easier and well, like he said, clean. Smiling faintly, Alfred shifted and stuck his hands in the hoodies pockets again, watching Arthur.
"Um...Actually...That forest idea sounds kind of what I was originally thinking..I just didnt wanna trouble you though, cause I know I couldn't do it by myself." he mumbled, looking away. He could at least paint inside lines, but his artistic expertise lay in blueprinting, machinery, etc. The kid could barely draw people!
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Post by Arthur Kirkland on May 22, 2011 20:43:27 GMT
Pleased that Alfred had taken that idea, Arthur nodded quickly. "You're in luck, I'm better with landscapes than I am animals." He laughed, referring to the little drawings in the books that he'd just published. "I'll have to find some reference pictures, but I'm sure between the two of us we can manage it."
Frowning a little, he started to think it through. "We're going to need a step ladder so we can reach the ceiling. Do you want sky or treetops on the ceiling?" He asked. Pulling out his phone, he connected to the internet and started to flick through pictures. "How dense do you want it? It'll be easier if it's more dense, but you might prefer it to be more open." He offered Alfred a couple of pictures to look at, one an old forest, probably a picture from before the third world war, mossy and over grown, and quite thick, one rainforest, with splashes of colour from flowers and animals, and another more of the kind of woodland that was on the island; short and sparse, with plenty of space for grass inbetween the trees. "It'll probably take us a couple of days either way." He warned. It'd take him a good day to get it drawn out in the first place, and then they'd need to paint it.
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Post by Alfred Jones on May 23, 2011 9:52:51 GMT
That made Alfred smile more, nodding with a chuckle before he hummed in thought. "Sky." He said immediately though, smiling at Arthur. "Umm...Dense in most of the parts but I thought it'd be cool to have some area where a river and little waterfall could be seen.."
He sounded almost shy adding in his input, and he smiled at him more. "I don't really care, I'll help with what I can and if I have to I can just crash on the couch at your apartment so we can go over early and work on it as much as we need, right?" Well that was one way of getting things done. "Or you could work on that while I paint your room, that way we'd both be of use." He chuckled as he flicked through the pictures curiously, though he was obviously leaning more towards forests of less than tropical origin.
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Post by Arthur Kirkland on May 23, 2011 20:17:15 GMT
"Night or day?" Arthur asked, but his attention was already back on the paints, frowning a little over the greens and browns. "You know you're always welcome to sleep on my sofa." He said, sounding a little distracted, as he started to pick pots of paint up, adding them to the trolley. He got smaller ones than he'd gotten for his room, but he picked up three different greens and two browns, as well as a yellow, red and grey. "I like the idea of a waterfall, by the way."
Double checking what they had, Arthur frowned a little to himself, then added a black, then waited for Alfred's response as to whether they needed a darker blue than the one they had for his room. "Maybe... If we white wash the spare room first, then move onto mine, I'll start drawing as soon as it's dry, and I suppose you'll get a break then." He sighed. This was definitely going to take more than a day. "Maybe that'd be a good time for you to look over the list for me? Or... if you're going to stay over we should get some groceries."
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Post by Alfred Jones on May 23, 2011 21:36:04 GMT
"...Both..? I think it'd be cool if the side that had the waterfall had the day.." Alfred said a bit sheepishly with a smile. He couldn't help it, it was a cool thought. Falling silent as colors were chosen, Alfred nodded a bit and smiled brightly at the idea being liked. Lightly leaning on the carts side while he peered inside, he then looked up at Arthur and then hummed out pleasedly.
"Sounds good to me. Lets see...We should be good for painting, now we need to get the rollers and the brushes, and the tarps to lay down...I'll go grab the tarps since they're out of the way, and I'll meet you at the check out?" Alfred offered, but then cocked his head and nodded with a grin. "How does seafood spaghetti sound for tonight hmn?" He question, knowing the older man seemed to have a soft spot for the stuff.
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Post by Arthur Kirkland on May 23, 2011 22:02:51 GMT
Smiling at that, Arthur nodded and picked up the darker blue paint after all, checking over the trolley. They had a lot of paint, but... Well, he could afford it, especially if that was what it took to make Alfred feel comfortable in the room. He frowned a little when Alfred mentioned brushes and tarpaulins - he'd forgotten about those. "Seafood spaghetti sounds okay, I guess. There's spaghetti in the cupboards that probably needs eating anyway." He didn't sound too enthusiastic, but then again he rarely did about food. It didn't help that he'd already eaten today. He really didn't need something like that on top of it, but maybe he could get away without eating too much. "Can you grab a step ladder too? We're going to need one."
It took Arthur a moment to spot where the brushes were, but he wheeled the trolley over, picking up a variety of brushes to do the painting in Alfred's room with, and then a couple of rollers as well. Then he padded over to the tills, joining the short queue, and starting to load everything onto the conveyor belt while he waited for Alfred.
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Post by Alfred Jones on May 24, 2011 6:48:43 GMT
"Mm! Good, I've been thinking of this recipe I've been wanting to try for its sauce for awhile. You better eat a ton or I'll feel bad." he teased faintly, bot he did wave a bit as he walked away. While he was over there, he grabbed the palattes for the paint as well as the tarps and a step ladder that went up to a good height.
Meeting Arthur at the line, Alfred smiled as he sat the palattes down first, then the tarps while he held on to the ladder since it wouldnt fit. "So Arthur, for dinner we're going to be going to your apartment for it and then maybe back over to the house, right?" He asked, curious about that. It' dbe much easier if they just cooked over at the house though...Ah well.
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