A/N: AU; human names used; no countries. Constructive criticisms, and corrections are appreciated, questions would be answered.
What's this- I don't even-? I should be updating that My Immortal parody I'm working one but instead I made this... why am I procrastinating? /shot
Anyway, this is my first Hetalia fan fic and this will be short. I apologize in advance if some characters are acting OOC, do point it out so I could fix it as soon as I can. Other than that, this will be just a short story with less than 20 chapters.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for this version of Philippines, my OC.
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He stared at the grading papers he's been doing. "8 down, 7 more to go…" he mused to himself as he stopped grading his students' papers for a while that night. He shuddered. The weather's getting colder and this is not helping his feelings. At times like this, he felt like drinking coffee! Then to satisfy his want for coffee, he went to the kitchen of his apartment to get his coffee… only to find out that he is out of coffee. Not just any coffee, but it's his favorite 3-in1 coffee (1) that he bought the last time he's been to the Philippines! Scowling, he went towards the fridge and grabbed his apartment keys that are sitting innocently on top of the fridge.
"I'll continue it later…" he thought, tidying up the papers that he's been grading and set a heavy material on them before getting his jacket and scarf and leaving the apartment to head to the grocery store to buy some more coffee.
So that's how he, Juan Miguel C. de la Cruz (2), a 24-year-old teacher teaching the Filipino language in the local public school (3), found himself sitting in the café that his adoptive brothers owns, drinking coffee and feeling contented instead of continuing his work of grading his students' quizzes after buying some coffee (although, sadly for him, they're not the ones like what he bought in the Philippines) and some food so that he wouldn't go out when the snow arrived. Huffing, he drank his coffee as he settled himself to a satisfying silence as he went deep in thought.
Juan was deep in his musings when a woman approached him but he didn't notice her until she cleared her throat, causing him to snap out of his thoughts and look up at the girl.
"What-uh oh, yes, uh… how may I help you?" he asked the woman, his face slightly heating up in embarrassment
"You okay there, dude?" the woman responded with wide eyes "You were spacing out and I was going to ask you something!"
"Um… sorry about that," Juan replied, sipping more of his coffee to calm himself down "So how may I help you?"
"Is this seat taken?" the woman asked "I'm sitting some friends of mine and there are no more available seats." She referred to a group of people sitting down a few tables near his, they're probably her friends. Juan looked around; it seems that the café is full today (must be because it's the last day of free coffee and two cupcakes of their choice) as his seat is the only one available as of now.
Looking back at the woman, Juan shook his head "No, it's not taken," he said "You can borrow it if you want…"
"Thanks dude!" The woman responded with a huge smile before returning to her friends.
The woman, Juan observed, looked about the same age as him, has shoulder-length, wavy blonde hair and blue eyes (Here, Juan thought "Typical American…"). She is also wearing jeans and a shirt that has a phrase saying "Ms. America" under what looks like a brown bomber jacket. Something about that woman seems familiar to Juan, like déja-vu. Taking a last sip of his now nearly empty cup of coffee, he left the café with his groceries and headed back to his apartment. Little he did know that he forgot his pastel red scarf on the table.
Several days later, Juan now convinced himself that he probably dropped the scarf on the way home. Sadly for him, he now needs to endure the coldness that he feels on the back of his neck until he has enough money and time to buy a new scarf. It wasn't until two months later when he finally bought a new scarf… when the snow started.
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That Friday, December 16th, before Christmas break starts, he announced a pop quiz for his students. And he's disappointed. Why? It's because only a third of his 15 students in his Filipino language class passed the pop quiz… and he thought he taught them enough already! Thank goodness it's a Saturday the next day and Christmas break by Monday or else he would be giving his students quite an earful. Well, he couldn't blame his students if they don't want to learn the language however, he is sure that the language would one day come in handy if they ever found out about the beaches and other tourist spots in the Philippines. Then at least they wouldn't worry about a tour guide who couldn't speak English.
He sighed, as he went to the café again. It wasn't the same like last time, (when it was was so full you could barely find any seats) today, the café currently have a few customers who are warming themselves up with a cup of hot chocolate, tea or coffee.
"Hi Alejandro," he greeted the cashier when he approached the guy
"Hola amigo Juan," Alejandro (4) responded with a grin, glad to see his friend again "The usual?"
Juan nodded in reply "Yep, coffee and a waffle." He said, giving Jan the payment of his order
"Coming right up amigo," Alejandro replied, getting the payment before preparing the coffee and gave Juan the waffles (with maple syrup) he usually orders.
Later, when the coffee is ready, Juan took his orders and went to a table near the window and drank his coffee.
"Hey, it's you again!" A voice near him exclaimed enthusiastically, Juan looked up in surprise and he was face-to-face with that blonde woman he met last October.
"Ah, hello again," Juan responded in surprise, nearly dropping the fork that has the waffle that he was about to eat before the woman approached him "I didn't expect to see you here again."
"I should be saying that," the woman replied with a chuckle "I mean, I go here every day and yet, I never see you!"
"I only come here during late Friday afternoons, like now or Friday night." Juan said with raised eyebrows
The woman raised an eyebrow at him "Oh really?" she asked "Well, then, do you mind if I join you?"
Juan didn't know how to respond to this. Normally, people would just ignore him or have a small chat then leave but this woman is actually asking if she could join him for coffee. Today really is a weird day.
"Perhaps you could," Juan answered with a shrug "I don't mind."
The woman beamed as she sat down on the seat across Juan and put her coffee and… a hotdog and some cookies, on the table.
"Thank you." She said "I'm kinda alone today; my friends are in working over time."
"Okay…" Juan responded as he sipped his coffee and silence surrounded the duo's table, only the sound of the fork cutting waffles and the sound of the other customer's chatter could be heard for the two of them. The silence broke when the woman introduced herself.
"Anyway, my name's Amelia," she said, swallowing her hotdog "Amelia E. Jones." (5)
"I'm Juan Miguel de la Cruz," Juan replied politely "It's nice to meet you."
"That's a long name, Juan Miguel. I'll call you Miggie instead." Amelia told Juan, who looked baffled at his newly earned nickname
"What?" Juan asked "Miggie?"
"Well you remind me of someone I knew when I was a kid," Amelia answered nonchalantly with a shrug "You two share the same name, and your name is a mouthful too. Are you Spanish or Mexican or something?"
"I'm Filipino actually." The newly nicknamed Miggie corrected.
"Dios… why is it that every time I tell someone my full name they automatically assume I'm Spanish or Mexican?" he thought
"Seriously?" said Amelia, looking quite amazed "I never knew you Filipinos have Spanish names!"
"It's because of the Spanish colonization during 1565 – 1898." Juan flatly responded "Well I am Spanish somewhere very, very far away in my family tree anyway, so I guess it counts."
And they sat in silence again. This pretty much made Juan feel quite guilty. Here he is, talking to Amelia, feeling that he kind of offended her in some way.
"Look, if I offended you in some way, then I'm sorry." Said Juan, taking a bite of his waffle before sighing.
Amelia looked confused "What are you talking about, Miggie?" she asked, drinking her coffee "You didn't do anything."
At this, Juan just looked at Amelia in wonder. Taking a closer look at her, she is quite familiar to him, he just can't remember how and why.
"I guess so." Juan replied, looking outside and watched the snow.
Later, they chatted again, until it was closing time. Juan observed that the girl is pretty loud-mouthed, friendly, outgoing and open. Juan is amazed. For the first time since he graduated college, he actually had a long conversation with someone and that someone is a girl nonetheless.
"I think I'll see you next Friday if I got the timing right," Amelia told Juan when they were outside the café "You did tell me you go here on Fridays."
Juan nodded "Yeah, I do, but maybe I'll be here earlier because I have not much work since it's winter break." He told the blonde with a small smile, watching the snowflakes float downwards and on his dark, blackish-brown hair.
"Oh by the way, you forgot this," Amelia said, grabbing something from inside her bag and handed it over to him "I think you forgot this when we first met."
Juan took a closer look at the object in Amelia's hands. It was his pastel red scarf that he thought he lost on the way home two months ago.
"Thanks," Juan told Amelia in relief, getting the scarf "I thought I lost this last October."
"Is that from someone special?" Amelia teased with a smirk "With the way you said it, you made it sound like someone gave it to you."
This caused Juan to slightly blush, thanking the heavens for the snow.
"N-n-no, it's not-it's not from someone," he stuttered "I bought this and it would be a waste of my money if it did get lost."
Amelia giggled as she started walking "Well you're welcome," she said, smiling as she crossed the road "I'll see you next time."
"Do you want me to walk you home?" Juan asked sheepishly "It's kind of dangerous to go anywhere alone at this time of the night."
"No need," Amelia responded reassuringly "I just live in that apartment across this street."
"Fine, okay, then do you mind if we have coffee again next Friday?" Juan replied
Amelia stopped walking for a while to think about it before smiling again and said
"Sure, I'd love to." Then she started walking again to the apartment building "Good night, Miggie!"
Juan nodded in response before starting his way back to his own apartment. Yep, Amelia is kind of familiar to him, judging with the way she acted. For the first time in Juan's life, he found the snowflakes falling around the place with the lamp posts turned on beautiful.
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A/N: Fem!America x M!OCPhilippines needs more love.
Anyway, explanations for the numbers: 1 - If you want to know what brand, it's Nescafe 3-in-1~ 2 - In my head, M!Philippines' name is Juan Miguel Carriedo de la Cruz. 3 - Yes, in some public schools in the US, Filipino is taught as a foreign language course (according to Wikipedia that is) 4 - Alejandro... this guy is Mexico xD It's just a cameo. I don't know why I put him there. 5 - Nyo!America's female name that is popular for the Western fans. Emily is the meaning of the E. and that name is popular for the Japanese fans. btw, the cafe is Cafe Spain(?), but it wouldn't have that much of an appearance in future chapters after chapter three XD Now when was the last time I wrote a romance fic... hmm... 2 years ago? Yep. 2 years ago so my romance writing style is kind of rusty since I like writing adventure/friendship/family/humor more =w=
So if you've read this already, then maybe you've seen it in my deviant art account~