The first thing apparent to Arthur Kirkland was the vicious pounding in his skull that could only be the result of a head-on collision with a train. When he finally gathered the courage to open his eyes he was pleased to find that the curtains were shut and the lights were off, leaving him in blissful darkness. If he had not been suffering from crippling hangover he would have realized the obvious presence of a second person. However, he skipped over that detail and instead noticed the fact that he was naked.

His immediate thought was that he had gotten lucky with some broad but when he finally noticed the head of short, disheveled hair to his left he understood that he had gotten lucky with a young man. The sleeping blonde was laying face down as he snored softly and judging by the lack of soreness he felt there was probably a reason the young man was laying that way. He seemed to be sleeping pretty deeply with no signs of waking up soon so Arthur decided to take his time in contrast to gathering up his stuff and leaving as quickly as possible. Plus a morning nookie with someone that handsome wouldn't hurt.

As the Brit recovered his trousers and started creating a remedy drink for his hangover he looked around the room. It was nice enough and he was pleased to find he wasn't in some roadside motel. Obviously, this kid had money which was just as well. He knew that he needed to make sure he had his wallet and everything in it before he left. He wasn't going to trust some blonde bimbo he woke up in hotel with after a night of excessive drinking.

A groan and the shifting of sheets pulled his attention back to the young blonde who was beginning to fully awaken. "Christ." The man muttered and Arthur could see how young he truly was now. "What happened?"

"I believe the two of us got brick-faced and decided to partake in each others' company. You may want to take ibuprofen." Arthur replied. "I am Arthur Kirkland."

"Alfred F. Jones." He said as he placed pair of glasses on and opened his eyes fully to reveal their blue depths. "Must have gotten smashed if I can't even remember last night."

"That makes two of us, love. Though I have woken up to worse."

"I'm surprised you didn't take off since we're in my room." Alfred stated as he pulled on his own trousers and stood up tentatively. There was no doubt that he would be limping.

"It crossed my mind. I figured it wouldn't hurt to linger a while longer. You seem a bit young to be in Vegas. Why lose a fortune before you make it?" Arthur commented as he brought a cup of his hangover remedy and some painkillers over to the American.

"I don't gamble." He answered as he took the offered items graciously. "My brother and some of our friends decided that we needed to learn what it's like to party so here I am. Not sure where my brother is though."

"Not much of a gambler myself. I am curious as to how we met." Arthur said as he observed the actions and mannerisms of his partner. He seemed a bit on the scrawny side which was probably accounted to his youth, not that he could say much. He wasn't exactly considered stout.

"God knows I don't remember either." Alfred mumbled as he ran a hand through his messy hair.

"It would seem that the two of us are fine. I think I shall take my leave."

"Sure dude. Do whatever you want. I'll just track you down if I end up positive for an STD or something." Alfred replied nonchalantly. "Not my place to stop you."

"Likewise." Arthur returned as he pulled on his shirt and gathered up his personal belongings. However, as he prepared to open the door and leave, he froze at the sight of a silver ring with one blue stone and two green ones on either side of it.

Arthur immediately dropped his bag and grabbed Alfred's left hand to look for a matching ring. As he had predicted there was a silver band with a large green stone and to blue ones that happened to match his. "Did we-"

"It would seem so." Arthur interrupted. What was he supposed to do in this situation? Then again, Alfred was handsome enough and seemed amiable enough. "At least I have good taste."

"But we're married! In Vegas of all places! We don't even know each other that well!"

"Obviously that didn't stop us last night. And it would seem we skipped straight to the honeymoon as well."

"This isn't funny dude."

"Not at all. Might as well make good of a bad situation. Seems like I will be staying at your place for the time being until we can get this mess sorted out. At least I can prove my brothers wrong. They thought I would marry a stripper." Arthur stated. Marriage may be easy in Vegas but he doubted divorce would be. Plus he liked seeing the young American annoyed and flustered.

"What do you mean staying with me?" Alfred demanded. "I don't even live in Vegas!"

"And I don't live in the United States. However, my work can travel with me. Pick your poison, love." Arthur explained, enjoying the young man's annoyance. He had chosen a cute one and he seemed receptive to his teasing.

"Fair enough. Hope you like Seattle. Because that's where we're flying." Alfred shot back as he began getting everything cleaned up and packed. He could manage until they got the stuff filed for divorce.

However, neither of them cared to notice that they were both still wearing their rings. Even through the flight to Seattle when they finally arrived at Alfred's small apartment as the rain washed down the windows.

It was a nice enough place and it looked like there was an extra room that could be a guest room (though Arthur hoped it wasn't). Everything was surprisingly neat and kept immaculately clean despite the carefree attitude Alfred seemed to have there was enough furniture to make the place seem inhabited but it wasn't overcrowded.

"Nice flat you have. Is there a guest room?" Arthur asked as he set his belongings down and hung up his coat.

"There's an extra room but it's where I keep my things for work so you might want to avoid it." Alfred warned as he turned the heat to a reasonable level and set about preparing his home for his guest.

"What is your job, if I may ask?"

"I'm a forensic scientist here in Seattle."

"Really? What type of evidence do you deal with?"

"The bodies. I perform autopsies and dissections so we know what the time and cause of death are."

"Lovely." Arthur muttered. He would be avoiding that room for the duration of his stay. "I happen to be a writer and editor so as long as I have my laptop with me I can work from anywhere."

"That's good. The wi-fi info is on a sticky note in the kitchen if you need it. I'll order something for dinner." Alfred said as he began punching in the number for a pizza place.

Arthur nodded in agreement as he looked at the sofa in the center of the living room. It looked comfortable enough and surely his gracious host would have some extra linens he could use. As he was about to voice this assumption in the form of a question Alfred spoke, "You can sleep on my bed. I'm usually not back until late at night and I have a couch in my work room that I usually sleep on anyway."

"It's not necessary to give up your bed, really. I can make do on your sofa."

"It's fine. It'll probably get more use while you're here than it does in a year. Just make yourself at home."

"If you insist." Arthur relented as he went to the bedroom at the end of the hall to find it in pristine condition. The bed was made and thankfully there wasn't a layer of dust like he had been anticipating after hearing that he never slept in the bedroom. The decor was nice enough though it looked more like a guest bedroom than an actual bedroom besides the pictures on the shelf that showed Alfred with friends and family.

As he set his bags down Arthur couldn't help but wonder how his own crazy brothers were doing. He would be surprised if at least one of them wasn't in jail by now and frankly a tad disappointed. He had always been at odds with his brothers and the relationship hadn't improved much despite the countless times he was told how thankful he would be for brothers once he got older but he still considered them as pretentious bastards.

When he came back out he found Alfred writing on some papers he assumed were for his work. "Nice room you have. Seems a tad impersonal though." Arthur commented.

"Most of my stuff is in my office. I'm pretty busy but I enjoy what I do so it's no problem." Alfred responded as he put the papers away. "Pizza should be here in about half an hour."

"Splendid. So you live here by yourself?"

"Yeah. My coworkers are cool though. Crazy but cool."

"That's good. No girlfriends or boyfriends though? Seems a bit surprising."

Alfred gave a shrug, "I tend to be a bit of an introvert considering my job. Working with cadavers doesn't really develop the best people skills."

"I guess not. At least you seem to enjoy your job."

"I do. Not what I thought I'd end up doing but go figure. No one thinks to themselves 'When I grow up I'm going to cut open dead people'."

"That would be an interesting childhood though." Arthur said with a chuckle.

"Anyway, what do you do for a living?" Alfred asked as he pulled an energy drink out of his refrigerator and opened it with a hiss of pressurized air.

"I'm a writer and editor. And do most of my work from home and I have my laptop with me so there should be no problems."

"That's good. I hope you at least enjoy your time staying here. Seattle's a nice city so you should look around." Alfred said as he got up to answer the knock at the door.

After a few minutes, the American returned with a pizza box and opened it up, grabbing a slice for himself. "Have as much as you want.'

"Thank you." Arthur said as he took a slice with a napkin and began eating it carefully. He had enough to worry about without staining his shirts with pizza grease and sauce. The pizza wasn't too bad though he certainly didn't want to make a staple out of it. Although it didn't look like Alfred ate nothing but pizza everyday he could still have a young metabolism.

"So... How should we get this thing sorted out?" Alfred asked quietly after a couple minutes of silence had passed.

"You mean the marriage thing? I'm not exactly sure. It will be more complicated since I'm not an American citizen."

"Yeah. I guess we can see someone about it tomorrow after I get off work."

"Excellent. Hopefully we can get the matter solved expediently."

Alfred nodded as his mind began to drift. At least Arthur seemed like a nice enough person. It would have sucked if he did get married to a stripper or something like that. He could only keep doing his everyday tasks and hope that the matter got solved without too much trouble.