"You look like someone shat in your cornflakes and made you eat it." Will comments, strutting into Arthur's flat.

Arthur and Richard are stood in the empty living room, boxes in hand, in the midst of loading a moving truck with their stuff.

"Well things haven't been all sunshine and rainbows lately, have they?" Arthur murmurs, watching as Will bends down to pick up one of the other boxes.

"I don't know man, life's pretty good from my perspective." Rich quips, sounding distracted.

Arthur looks at him confused, before following the shorter man's gaze to their curly haired friend. More specifically, his bottom. They've obviously made up.

He kicks a leg out and taps Richard's, snapping his cousin out of his ogling. Arthur gives him a flat look.

"What's up, Artie?" Will says, finally turning around, causing Richard to snap his vision upwards.

"His mum wants him to marry Bex." Rich answers for Arthur.

With an incredulous look, Will exclaims, "Bex?! But she's..."

"A big fat lesbian?" Rich supplies, not an ounce of tact in his words.

Arthur looks at him, eyes wide and disbelieving, but Will just rolls his pretty blue eyes.

"Not exactly how I would put it. Especially considering she's sort of still in the closet." Will scolds.

"Mate, she's so far in the closet, that Narnia feels like a walk to the corner shop." Richard scoffs, heading out of the door to the moving truck.

"Takes one to know one." Arthur mutters, earning a delighted snort from Will and a shove in the shoulder.

"So... how's Grace taking it? I assume you've said no to your mum?"

"Of course I have." Arthur replies, following Will out the door too, "I haven't told Grace yet, I've asked her to come round before I leave tomorrow night."

"Right... well, how d'you think she'll take it?"

"Poorly." Arthur sighs, "Mum's already told her that she basically doesn't want me to be with her. And now she wants me to marry her friend."

"A blonde, white girl at that." Will notes solemnly, "It's gonna kill her self-esteem."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she wants nothing to do with me," With a heavy exhale, Arthur loads his box onto the truck and turns to his friend, "All of her worst fears are being confirmed. The insecurities haunting this relationship are all getting validated within a week."

"I'm sorry, lad." Will tells him, placing a comforting hand onto the brunet's shoulder, "I just hope she knows you love her."

"Same here." Arthur agrees, "Oh, by the way, how's Sam? I heard he's been looking into our uni?"

"Yeah!" Will grins proudly, "He's fantastic!"

Sam, Will's seventeen year old brother, is an absolute genius. His biological parents, who died on a trip to their home country, Sri Lanka, when he was just 10 months old, were accomplished doctors, surgeons in fact. Will's parents knew them well, so were always sure to remind him of how great a family he came from. Despite this, they were always supportive of him following his own path, it just so happened that he wanted to be a doctor too.

He and Will were inseparable growing up, and it's always easy to forget that they aren't blood brothers. The only reminder of this is the contrast between Sam's deep brown skin and the pale colour of Will's. Otherwise, they're virtually twins.

"He's great, a massive pain in the arse, but he's doing amazing at school. Mum and Dad are well chuffed with his AS Levels."

"Has he got his results already?" Arthur says surprised. It's only June, exam season has only just finished, and the results days aren't until August.

"Nah, but he's been getting coursework results back and all that stuff. He's been acing it all. Chip off the old block, eh?"

"Yeah because he got his natural talent for biology and chemistry from you, the physicist."

"Biology, physics, tomato, tomato. It's all the same." Will dismisses.

"No. William. It really isn't."

~~~~

Arthur surveys his bedroom. The only items that remain are his bed and a bag of overnight essentials.

He walks over to the bed and pulls his phone from his pocket, noticing that he has a couple of unread messages.

Arthur grins. Meal deals had become their thing, in a way. Before a late night meet up, one would visit the supermarket in between their two buildings and bring a pair of meal deals to the other's flat. It was cheap, delicious, and convenient. And it happened so often that it had become a sweet tradition between the two of them.

He tosses his phone to the other side of the bed and flops down onto his front. Without opening his eyes, he toes his shoes off of his feet, and curls his legs up onto the bed.

~~~

Arthur is awoken by the soft press of lips on his. He flutters one eye open, his face screwed up cutely on one side.

Grace is hovering above him, her top half leaned over his while she sits next to him on the bed. She has a hand in his hair, caressing it tenderly.

"And here I thought you were the prince." She jokes, smiling softly down at him.

For a second, Arthur just stares up into her dark brown eyes. They reel him in like a vast empty chasm whispering his name. He looks at her entire face. The naturally curled eyelashes that fan out across her eyelids, the wide, flat nose which buttons adorably at the end, the full, soft lips which form a gorgeous brown cupid's bow.

He feels like he's won the lottery. It's a familiar feeling when he looks at her.

"Well, you'll always be the beauty." He whispers, voice like liquid velvet, seeping into her soul.

Grace's face heats up and she leans down to press another sweet kiss onto her boyfriend's lips.

Arthur takes her shoulders and pulls her down towards him, so that she ends up lying next to him on the bed. She manoeuvres herself until she is lying face up, head in the crook of his armpit, staring at the ceiling.

When she is comfortable, she takes Arthur's arm and wraps it around her, curling her body into his side.

"How have you been, my Sunshine?" He asks her planting an affectionate kiss on the top of her head and rubbing her stomach.

"Well... I've just found out that my close friend has been spying on me, and that as a result of the spying, my boyfriend's mother doesn't want me dating her son." Grace word-vomits, "and to top it all off, my darling boyfriend is leaving for his hometown tomorrow. A hometown that also happens to be my hometown but might as well be fucking Antarctica with the way our lives work."

"Damn." Arthur responds with an exhale, "I say you just dump him."

Grace bursts out laughing, wheezing like she's out of breath.

"It would make things so much easier." She says, then looks up into Arthur's chocolate brown irises, "but I love him too much."

Arthur smiles, and strains to peck Grace's lips.

They sit in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying each other's company.

Despite the air of peacefulness, Arthur's head is buzzing with thoughts. He needs to figure out a way to tell Grace about his mother's desire for him to marry Bex. But the words won't form in his mind. He doesn't know how to tell her without making her feel unloved, unworthy.

He considers not even telling her. This is one request of his mother's that he is not going to fulfil. As long as Grace wants him, he won't let her go, so for once, Alexandra is going to have to make do.

The thought leaves his head as fast as it entered. She would find out eventually. There's no way he could hide something like that from her, no matter how careful he is. Besides, he loves her too much to lie to her, one look into her big brown eyes and he'd crumble under the weight of the guilt. It's already eating him up; just lying here with her and staying silent

"Do you have pets?"

"What?" Arthur's broken out of his stream of consciousness by Grace's random question.

"We've been together for months now, and I don't think we've ever discussed it."

Arthur pauses and thinks carefully back their many unimportant conversations. He realises after no time at all that she's completely right.

"We have two family dogs, Winston and Elvis. We adopted them from a local rescue, Winston had been abused and Elvis was found on the street." He says,

"Aw, babies." Grace coos, rubbing Arthur's chest with her thumb, "What breed are they?"

"They're both British Bulldogs. Ugly little fuckers. But they make me so happy. To me, they're the most adorable things ever."

"That's so lovely, Arthur. I love rescues."

"And I have a cat. Her name is Aria and she's the love of my life... after you of course." Arthur tells her, a hint of pride in his voice.

Grace squeals gleefully, "I love cats." She says,

tone bright, then she lifts herself up to look at her boyfriend cheekily, "And I love boys who love cats."

"Oh yeah?" Arthur smirks, "Well I love girls who love boys who love cats."

Grace grins and puts her chin onto his chest, "You're such an idiot."

"I'm your idiot." Arthur says, stroking her head, "forever."

She blinks up at him lovingly, "You promise?"

"I-," Arthur goes to speak but he can't. The sincerity in her eyes is getting to him. The thing he was terrified of happening, has happened; the guilt has completely floored him.

"I have to tell you something."