"A dream is an answer to a question we haven't yet learned how to ask."

Ivan poked his head out the door. "Hm? Oh, Fredka. What is it?"

Alfred felt uneasy, his palms sweating and his legs shaking, as he tried his best to flash a greeting smile. "H-Hey, R-Russia, dude, umm... How you doing?"

Russia raised a pale brow. "Fine enough..." 'What was he doing here, being so civil?' he wondered.

'Get a hold of yourself! You're the hero, remember?!' Alfred mentally shouted at himself. He gulped and forced himself to speak, his face quickly beginning to heat up. "W-Well... You know what day tomorrow is, right?"

"The fourteenth? Da, it is a holiday in your country, correct?" It's not as if the Russian knew much about it.

Alfred laughed nervously, only now realizing that Valentine's Day wasn't very known outside his country. "Uh, yeah! It's Valentine's Day. You know, when people celebrate their love and shit..." he cleared his throat, his ears turning red, "So... I was wondering... If..."

Love? "If...?"

"...Fuck, this is harder than I thought..." Alfred exclaimed, running a hand through his hair. "Here, just take the damn thing." Face flushed, he pushed a bouquet of freshly-cut sunflowers in the Russian's face.

Ivan blinked. It was a fairly large bouquet, filled with the yellow flowers whose bright, glossy petals stood in stark contrast to the snow.

"...Well?" Alfred questioned, "Aren't you gonna take it?" He said this not meeting the Russian's gaze. He was way too embarrassed.

"Fredka..." he breathed, quietly taking the flowers. "They're lovely. But... Why?" A holiday gift? Based on love no less? They'd never been particularly close, not even in recent years. So why...?

Alfred glared at a nearby snowman. "Hmpf... Why, indeed?" He shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Not really sure. I stopped at Wal-Mart a few days ago and bought them just 'cause. I didn't want them to wilt and I heard you liked them. So... maybe I thought I could use this opportunity to say... I'm sorry."

Russia was reasonably surprised. An apology too? From Alfred of all people? What was the world coming to...? "What?"

"God, are you deaf?" he chuckled. "I came to apologize... For being a douche in the past. I just figured that if the bullcrap about the world ending this year was real, I might as well say I'm sorry."

He didn't actually believe that, did he? Russia chuckled at the thought of his former rival running crazy through the streets with his people on the twenty-first. Nonetheless, he was touched. "Fredka..."

He smiled sheepishly up at Ivan. "Well, yeah... That's about it. ...Maybe." He simply stood there awkwardly, shivering in the cold. "Dude, your country's a damn freezer..."

"You can come in you know. No one said you had to stand outside."

"Eh... Sure, why not." He stepped inside, taking his coat off and hanging it. He looked around. "Nice crib. Although, I must admit I imagined it... creepier."

'Crib'? Russia rolled his eyes. Goodness, America and his slang. "Well, you usually associate anything with me to be 'creepy'."

"Not everything," he said absently, "Whenever I think of warmth, you come to mind." It took him a few seconds to realize what he'd just said. He blushed heavily. "E-Eh! I mean-!"

Ivan smirked. "Oh...?"

Alfred hid his face from Ivan, turning away from him. "Nothing. I said nothing."

"Ah, ah, ah," the Russian man taunted, turning the other's face around, "What was that~?"

Alfred scrunched up his face, closing his eyes, cheeks rosy. "I didn't say anything!"

"Da, you didn't say 'anything'; you said something about 'warmth'."

"Tch," Alfred muttered, slowly opening his blue eyes and staring into violet ones. "Fine, you win... When I think of warmth, I think of you." He puffed out his cheeks, looking away.

Russia blinked again. The last thing he'd associate himself with was warm. Or peaceful. Or mentally stable. Oh, and definitely not overweight. "Why is that?"

Alfred shrugged. "I guess that, since you live in such a cold country, you'd have to be warm not to freeze to death."

Genuinely touched, Ivan was speechless for a moment. Alfred was actually capable of being... more than civil with him.

Alfred made a funny face. "What? Did the cat get your tongue, little mouse?" He chuckled internally: Russia was anything but little.

Russia ignored the attempted joke. "Alfred, why're you really here? It's not as if we casually visit each other." And the flowers! It wasn't just an apology, he could feel it.

"What do you mean?" Alfred lied, covering it up with a grin. 'Damn... He's onto me.'

His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Fredka," he said stepping closer, "You should know better than to lie to me, yes?"

He gulped, getting nervous from their proximity. "L-Lie? I ain't lying..."

"Fredka-"

"What is it?"

"Tell me the truth."

"...The truth, huh?" Alfred looked at his feet, stepping back. "The reason I'm here... Is to tell you something important."

Of course it wasn't just that. That's his fault for thinking it'd be something more. "What is it then?" Ivan sighed, folding his arms.

"I-It's not easy to say..." Alfred clenched his fists as he stared intently at Russia.

"Well, you're already going." If he had some political reason for being here, couldn't he just spit it out? He had things to do.

He cleared his throat again awkwardly. "W-Well... I umm..." he sighed. "LET'S JUST SAY I LIKE SOMEONE, OKAY?!"

"Your point?" Advice? Really?

"Ugh, stupid Commie..." he muttered under his breath, "Do you want to know who I have a crush on?"

"Not particularly." And of all people to ask advice from, why him? He was busy!

Alfred glared, removing his glasses and setting them inside his pocket. "Then I guess I'll just have to show you..." Swiftly, he took a bold step forward and wrapped his arms around the Russian's torso, burying his flaming face in his broad chest.

Ivan stumbled back from the blow. "Wha...?"

"Mm."

Oh. "Fredka, what...?"

"MMMM."

"I-I'm confused... Are you trying to say you...?"

Alfred finally looked up at Ivan, displaying an angry expression as tears welled up in his eyes. "Goddammit, fucking idiot! Do you still not-" he sniffed, "-get it?!"

Shit. "Hold on a minute- I didn't know you even felt this way!"

"I THOUGHT I'D MADE IT PRETTY OBVIOUS! The anonymous letters, the flowers, the friggin' airplane writing a friggin' poem in the sky!"

"Nyet." He grabbed his shoulders. "Don't start panicking, don't-" he blinked. "The what?!"

Alfred sniffed. "D-Didn't you get any of the things I sent you...?"

"No, no, I got the letters, but the plane was yours?!"

Alfred nodded, looking quite childish and innocent without his glasses on.

'So that wasn't sestra...' "Well, uh..."

Alfred then let go of Ivan, facing away from him. "I'm sorry... I never should've done this. It's just... I-I'm really afraid of losing you... Stupid dream..."

"Wait-" Ivan grabbed his shoulder again, though this time more shakily.

"...What is it?" Alfred said hesitantly.

"It's not-" he sighed. "It's not that I didn't like them, it's just... A little surprising its you."

Alfred snorted. "Figures. A couple of months ago I wouldn't have believed it either. But that damn dream..."

"Dream...?"

He sighed. "Yeah... I had a really weird dream some time ago. In which, you kinda didn't exist. Everyone acted like they'd never met you; only I could remember you. And I couldn't find you. And that's when I realized just how much I actually... care about you." He mumbled the last part.

'There goes his damned heart again...!' "After... After all the years of threats and war..."

Alfred shook his head. "That wasn't us, and you know it. It was cynical, old men's business. They brainwashed us into thinking that way."

Fair enough. But even so, the thought of that decades-long game of chicken made guilt pool into his stomach. "..."

"Ivan?"

Well, if all of this was true... Where do they go from here? Hell, Ivan didn't even know how he felt about all this. So sudden...

Alfred sighed and hung his head, suddenly very tired. "I knew this wasn't a good idea..." He grabbed his coat and headed for the door.

The thought of America leaving made something snap in him. "W-Wait."

Alfred obeyed and stopped walking, hand on knob. "...Yeah?"

He sighed. "You're... You're serious? About all this?" The answer was pretty obvious, but he needed to hear it out loud.

Alfred turned around and walked towards Ivan, his mind having lost all type of control over his body. He took the Russian's face between his hands and planted a light kiss on his lips. "Does this answer your question?" he said, flushed, once he'd pulled back.

It most certainly did. Russia's face blushed at the suddenness of the kiss, and his words went dry. Then without warning, he suddenly attacked Alfred's lips with his own.

A little yelp escaped Alfred's lips before they were overcome by Ivan's gentle yet cold ones. His immediate reaction was to close his eyes and enjoy this small moment of intimacy, even if it were to be short-lived.

Eventually, Ivan's mind caught up with his actions and he pulled away slowly, face flushed and thoughts racing a mile a minute because he just kissed Alfred, he just kissed Alfred, and-

And Alfred simply stood there, smiling like the idiot he was, content beyond reason. "Heh... Hehe..."

"You... What was that about? I don't..."

Al's face fell once he'd become aware of their current situation. "Aw, shit! I-I'm so sorry! I... Crap, I shouldn't have even come."

Though a bit delayed, Russia's arm reached out to grab the hood of America's bomber jacket before he could reach the door. "Hold on a minute! You're not just going to leave after that!"

"Eek!" he exclaimed as he was pulled back. "...But I thought you regretted it...?"

Regret? He was feeling a lot of things right now but it certainly wasn't regret. "Nyet, Fredka. I just-" He sighed.

They just stood there awkwardly, Alfred looking at Ivan and Ivan looking at the floor. "...?"

"Listen, Alfred, this is just a lot to process. Especially in only a few minutes! But all of this is making me realize... I might care for you as well."

His eyes lit up and he grinned, hope quickly returning to him. "R-Really?! You mean it?"

"D-Da..." Alright, that was painless enough, but... "So... we've both admitted it. Now what?"

Alfred's mouth was open to say something but nothing came out. "Ah..."

"What is it... young people do in your country after they admit... things like this?" Russia hated to admit it, but he'd never paid enough attention to his own people to know how they went about doing it.

"Hmm..." Alfred thought, "Well, they like, go on dates and stuff. After a few or when they feel ready, the guy asks the girl to be his girlfriend..." He flushed as he began imagining how weird his relationship with Ivan would be, if they even got that far.

"I see..." he gulped nervously. "So that means you think we should try this 'dating' thing...?" He wasn't very well versed in these sorts of things. Was it like a party of sorts? Where do you even go?

"Uh... Yeah, that'd be nice. We could go to the movies, or to the mall and eat, or we could even go to a park and skate or ride bicycles! Only problem is... W-Who's the girl?" He was beet red by now.

"T-There has to be a girl in this...?"

"Well, not necessarily but it would make it easier to like, assign roles or somethin'..."

"Oh..." Well there was a problem. Both of them were about as feminine as France was abstinent. Did relationships really hang in the balance of these sorts of things?

"...I-I'm not sure how this kind of relationship goes, though. I could ask someone..."

That might help. "Sure, but who...?"

"That's where we need to think hard. Ah! Maybe Arthur will know!"

"Ah, he... Has someone...?"

The American shrugged. "Maybe. At least he's had."

Russia's eyebrows raised. "Had?"

"I'm pretty sure..."

He might have pried more, but he suddenly felt rather tired. "Well then."

Alfred yawned. "I'll ask him later." He went over to a sofa and lied down like he owned the place, completely unabashed.

"Hold on, you can't just-" Already out like a light. "... Forget it."

Alfred snored softly, already fast asleep.

Far beyond caring, Ivan placed the forgotten bouquet in a vase on his coffee table. Then, looking at America's sleeping form, silently climbed on the roomy couch beside him.

Alfred cuddled against Ivan, smiling with his eyes still closed. "See? I knew you'd be warm..."

This story was written in 2012, hence the reference of the world coming to an end, thing that we all now know was total bollocks. :)