A/N:

*cries*

Mistakes are my fault, but do not blame me!

.

"Alfred, this is my boss, Ivan, and his partner Yao."

"Nice to meet you," Alfred smiled, shaking hands with the two. Arthur was glad the man was making an attempt to be semi normal for once. Matthew must have talked to him.

"Where's everyone else?" Arthur idly asked.

"Playing an epic game of tag on the back lawn!" Alfred replied.

"Alright, well tell them to stop in and say hi when they decide to come in, okay?"

"Sure thing boss!" Alfred gave a half nod, almost a courtesy bow before turning on his heels and running back outside.

"You must run a very energetic household," Yao commented with a smile.

"Yes there is a great deal of boundless enthusiasm," Arthur chuckled. "Fortunately I'm only run the place on paper. All actual credit must go to Matthew."

"Still, this is a very lovely house," Ivan commented. "I'm glad you didn't mind us coming out here on such short notice."

"I was literally hired to do nothing but sit at a desk and do nothing, while keeping the face of a good employee. What kind of good employee doesn't open his house to his boss when he spends hours on an airplane to go check on his international branches of companies?"

There was light laugher at that, and Arthur counted it a win that it didn't sound forced.

"More seriously though, there really was no need to come all the way out here just to see us. I'm sure after such a long flight, more driving would not have been welcome."

"Of course there was need," Yao put a light hand on Arthur's arm. "Mr. Winters was very careful in informing us of what you did for us, and the risk you took for yourself to do it. It would be wrong not to acknowledge that debt."

"Oh please," Arthur waved him off. "There is no debt, I got more than my fair share of joy from this arrangement."

"And yet, we are in your debt none the less," Ivan nodded as he linked his finger's with Yao's. Arthur smiled at how comfortable the two of them were. With both Ivan and Yao being alphas, the risks for their relationship were huge, as there were still news reports of couples like them being beaten to death in angry mobs, yet here they were, tall and proud.

There was noise, as those outside tromped back in. Arthur did a brief headcount as introductions happened, and then remembered that Roderich was still in the city.

In the magical way that coincidences always happen, his phone rang, and caller ID revealed it to be the man he was just thinking about.

"What's going on?" He casually asked as he strode into the other room.

"You know how there's supposedly that group of cops tailing Ivan to prove him guilty?"

Oh. Oh shit. "Yes."

"Well I'm pretty sure they just passed me on the highway out, and they're moving really fast. I estimate you have about ten minutes before they're on your doorstep."

"Shit. Right. Can you contact Vash? We may need to do damage control."

"K. I'm gonna head back into the city. I'm not a good enough actor to pull off how this needs to look. Oh and keep Lovi and Alfred out of it as much as possible, would you? If anyone is going to blow your cover, it's them."

"Already planned on it."

Arthur hung up the phone, then headed back into the main room.

"Ivan, your tail is about nine minutes away, we don't have much time, so everyone listen closely..."

.

There were two cars that pulled up, both unmarked though one was obviously a ghost car, and the other unobtrusive and dark black. Two men in black suits got out of the black car, and two officers out of the other. It wasn't until they got closer that Antonio realised on of the men in black was actually a woman, though still a very dominant alpha. He made sure to give the four of them a cheery wave that was barely acknowledged as he continued to dig in the garden.

The group of alphas was welcomed into the house by Elizaveta, who made a welcoming gesture before scurrying back to the kitchen continuing to chop vegetables. They made a basic sweep of the house, finding Francis and Gilbert in an office going over paperwork and nothing else before heading to where the voices were.

Arthur and Ivan were playing a low stakes game of poker, though there wasn't much point to the game as it was mainly to do something with their hands as they watched Matthew.

Matthew who was decked out in fetish gear. Matthew who was wearing a bright red thong and bra to emphasise his more feminine qualities, as well as tall leather boots and a tight black collar. Matthew who was polishing the windows for no reason other than it made his butt jiggle.

Arthur hated it. He absolutely hated that this was the kind of image they needed to portray to get away with love, but they didn't have much of a choice.

The officers were easily distracted, the suits less so, but Arthur's anger translated easily to acting like a pompous asshole who was pissed at other alphas on his turf. Ivan was smart and followed Arthur's lead, leering when Arthur ran a smooth hand up Matthew's inner thigh, making him blush and squeak, and when Arthur yelled at Elizaveta to get back to the kitchen when she took interest in the guests.

The suits gave them all scrutinising looks, but the four of them were out of the house before they had even been there an hour.

They continued the charade for another half an hour before Antonio came inside again.

"God I thought they would never leave," Antonio groaned, as Matthew and Ivan sighed in relief.

"They poke around too much?" Arthur asked.

"Oh they looked as much as they could, but they found nothing," Antonio confirmed.

"Fuck, I hate these," Matthew muttered, as he pulled off his boots.

"Matthew, are you okay?" Arthur asked. "I didn't... cross any boundaries did I?"

"Well I'm not going to claim that dressing up in frilly underwear to wash windows is my favourite activity, but I think I managed to get through it without any emotional scarring."

"Good. You can probably go tell Alfred, Lovi, and Yao that it's safe to come out of the attic now."

Matthew smiled, and patted Arthur on the head as he walked out of the room.

"Eli I'm sorry!" Arthur called, "I really don't care if you aren't cutting the vegetables at exactly ninety degree angles!"

"Its fine!" she called back, "I'm glad the only things you can think of yelling at me about are bizarre and trivial!"

"Did it work? Are they gone?" Gilbert bounded down the stairs.

"It's all fine," Arthur responded. "We're safe."

"Fuck yes!" Gilbert fist bumped. "We rule, we rock, we're awesome!"he sang, and did a little victory dance.

"What are you doing?" Elizaveta giggled.

"What does it look like?" He responded, adding in some pelvic thrusting that had Elizaveta rolling her eyes, and Antonio and Francis snickering.

Alfred and Lovi lead Yao back down the stairs and everyone was smiling in accomplishment.

"It sure is quite the setup you have here," Ivan commented.

"Yeah, it works for us," Alfred shrugged.

"We are sorry to have brought your home under such scrutiny," Yao added.

"Ehh, it was bound to happen sooner or later," Matthew called, now wearing proper pants, though he hadn't bothered to remove the collar or his top. "We survived, that's the point."

"Uhm, Matthew," Alfred called, "You did bother to take off the super uncomfortable underwear before putting that on, right?"

"Why don't you come up here and find out?"

There was a moment of silence, before Alfred bounded up the stairs, and the two of them were gone from view.

"We thank you for your hospitality," Yao formalised. "You must tell us if there is anything we can do to repay you for your kindness."

"Well..." Gilbert began. Arthur shot him a disapproving look, and Gilbert raised his eyebrows before turning back to their guests. "See Mattie's writing this book, right? It's mainly going to be about how horrible the conditions are in the Reformation Camps, but we were thinking..."

Francis smiled as Gilbert began narrating Matthew's grand plans for social change.

It was a good day to be alive.

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A/N: Annnnnd, that's a wrap!

Thanks for sticking with me through this! Have any questions/comments/oneshot requests for this verse? PM me or leave it in a review!

Hope to see you all when I make it back to the fanfic scene in June

~RosemaryBagels