The two best friends sat side by side in front of the fire place, a fuzzy blanket draped around both of them as they wrapped their fingers around their mugs full of hot chocolate. Arthur stared at the American as the snow from outside started melting and roll off the tips of hair that dangled in front his face. His nose was pink along with his cheeks but his body was still warm even after being outside in the snowstorm for so long. The bloody git walked all the way over here in the snow. Why would he do that? Arthur thought to himself.

He could tell something was on Alfred's mind. His face lacked the warm smile it usually possessed and he had barely said a word since they sat down. He thought about asking him but decided it was better if he didn't. He obviously came here to talk to him about it and when he was ready he would tell him.

"Hey Arthur…" Alfred said as he stared unremittingly into his cup "have you ever had a dream?"

Arthur looked at him in surprise. He wasn't expecting such a random question to be the start of the conversation. "Yeah." He answered, "Why do you ask?"

"What is it?" Alfred asked.

"Huh?"

"What's your dream?"

The Englishman looked down at his cup as he went red in the face. "It's… nothing."

Alfred jumped at his chance for a challenge, a smile coming back to his face. "Oh come on man. If you can't tell me you can't tell anyone."

"No. If I tell you you're going to tease me about it." Arthur protested.

"Pleeeeeeaaaaasssseeee?" Alfred whined.

"I said no! It's a stupid dream anyway." He said.

"Dude! Even I don't think that there are stupid dreams. America is nothing but dreams." He said.

Arthur sighed. "Fine." He said, giving in "Well, there's someone I know… who's very special to me. I think… I'm in love with them."

Alfred focused on Arthur's starry-eyed face as he clenched his pant leg, trying to hold in his thoughts of jealousy.

"My dream is that they feel the same way about me." Arthur continued.

"I guess you proved me wrong." Alfred said as he tried to keep his voice steady so he didn't show any sign that he was upset. "There is a such thing as a stupid dream."

Alfred smirked at Arthur to show he was giving him a hard time but that didn't stop him from getting bonked on the head.

"You bloody git! This is exactly why I didn't want to tell you!"

The American laughed. "Out of all the dreams you could have had you had to choose the most cliché dream in all of history? Why couldn't it have been something good like having the ability to notmake your cooking taste like death?"

"Why you bloody-" he steamed, ready to attack the man in front of him.

"Calm down!" Alfred laughed, "I wouldn't want to hurt you." He said as he flexed his muscles.

Arthur scoffed but he knew he'd never win a fight against him. "So Mr. Jones…"

Alfred tensed up at the use of his last name. Only Arthur could say it in that way that he loved.

"If my dream is so stupid than why don't you tell me your ibrilliant/i dream?" he continued.

"My dream?" Alfred said looking down at his cup again, his smile fading again "I just want to be a hero."

Arthur watched him carefully. Normally when he talked about being a hero he had so much energy. His brave spirit couldn't be broken and he boldly spoke of what he had already done to prove that he was a hero. Now he suddenly seemed weak, saddened by his wish. Almost as if he were the villain for once. What had happened since the last time they saw each other?

"Alfie?" he said as he touched his shoulder.

Alfred sighed. "…Yeah?"

"Is everything okay?"

Alfred looked up from his cup and stared into the Brit's deep green eyes. His goal was to make him not worry. He hoped he wouldn't notice that anything was wrong or different about him. The expression of worry shined in his eyes. He knew that he had failed to hide anything.

"Yeah man! Everything is fine. Why wouldn't it be?" He said, suddenly changing his attitude, hoping to replace any doubt Arthur might have had.

"Well… okay." He said, deciding to accept the answer for now. It would come out eventually. "So, what did you come here for anyway?"

Alfred ran his fingers through his blond hair "Oh, um, if you're not busy or anything I was wondering if it would be okay if I stayed over here with you for the week."

Arthur was slightly surprised with such a random request. "Sure you can stay with me. But do you mind if I ask why? What's wrong with your house?"

"There's just… a lot going on over there." He answered.

"Like what?"

Alfred wished he hadn't asked that. "Um, just, uh, something to do with… uh… France."

"France?" he repeated.

"Uh, yeah. He's been stalking me at my house and it's freaking me out."

"That horny git." Arthur said. "Sure you can stay here with me if you think that'll help."

"Thanks man." He said.

Arthur knew that he had obviously just been lied to but he figured he'd play dumb for now. He'd force it out of him soon enough and he knew that he would eventually slip up or forget which lie he used and finally tell him what was really happening.

Alfred realized it had been an extremely long time since he last spent a night at Arthur's house. He hoped that he could make the most of this week together alone. Alfred smiled to himself before it was interrupted by a loud cough coming deep from within his chest.

"You bloody berk! You've gone and gotten yourself sick! Why would you walk all the way over here in a snowstorm you bloody moron?" Arthur yelled as his motherly senses switched on.

He felt his forehead and moved his hand down, caressing his cheek. Alfred hoped that his cheeks were still red from being outside to hide that fact that he was blushing like a little schoolgirl.

"You feel warm. You better hope you don't have a fever."

Arthur got up to go find a thermometer. He came back with one along with a spoonful of liquid medicine.

"Here, take this." He said as he put the spoon in Alfred's mouth even though he was a grown man fully capable of putting the spoon in his own mouth. "It might make you a bit tired but it will help."

Arthur took the spoon out of his mouth and replaced it with a thermometer. When it was done he took it out and looked at it.

"You don't have a temperature. That doesn't mean you're not going to get one though. You better take it easy so it doesn't get any worse." Arthur said as he looked at the numbers.

"Oh Iggy, from the way your acting I'm getting the feeling that you might actually care about me." Alfred smiled.

"Of course I care you git. Now get up." Arthur helped the American up and led him to the couch, setting him down and wrapping the blanket tightly around him. "Now you sit here and don't move. If you need anything I'll get it for you. Here, give me your cup if you're finished."

Alfred did as he was told. He chuckled to himself. He hadn't seen Arthur like this for a very long time.

"What are you so bloody cheerful about?"

"Nothin'. It's just… like old times." a nostalgic smile forming on his face.

Arthur stared at him. He remembered when he was still his "little brother", when he was still so small and innocent. A smile to match Alfred's grew on his lips as he ruffled his hand through the American's blond hair. "I guess it is kind of like old times. Only you're a lot dumber."

Alfred pouted. "Aw, I thought we were going to have a moment."

Arthur smiled to himself as he walked away and headed into the kitchen to wash the dishes. Alfred settled himself into the couch. It wasn't the most comfortable thing his butt had ever sat on but it was better than nothing. He exhaled deeply out of his nose. Letting himself relax as he closed his eyes. He stretched his legs out and scooched down to make himself more comfortable. He opened his eyes again. A light emitting from a lamp dimly lit the room, the window still opened showing that the snow was still softly falling as nighttime slowly crept into the sky. The atmosphere was very relaxing but the pain of anxiety crept into his mind, forcing him to stress again.

"How am I gonna tell him?" he whispered under his breath. "I can't even get myself believe it."

His troubled thoughts melted when Arthur walked back into the room but he noticed a devilishly evil smile on his face.

"Looks like you're out of luck, love." Arthur said in an evil tone.

"Wha-?'Alfred replied in confusion.

"Since the roads are so bad there's no way that I could get food delivered over here and you're too sick to cook so it looks like you're stuck with my cooking."

Alfred stuck his tongue out in disgust. "Whhhhyyyyyyyyy?" He whined.

Arthur laughed. "I'll make you some soup. How does that sound?"

"I guess that sounds good." He sighed.

"I'll get working on it so you can eat before the medicine kicks in and you fall asleep on me." Arthur said as he disappeared in the kitchen again.

Alfred sighed. He forgot that staying over would actually require him to eat English cooking if he didn't want to starve. He saw that the remote to the TV sat in front of him so he decided he'd watch TV until Arthur returned. He flipped through the channels until he found something he was content with. He suddenly realized that he didn't bring anything with him. He was sure to get a lecture from Arthur once they went to bed and he didn't have anything to change into.

Soon enough Arthur returned from the kitchen, a bowl with stream rising from it in his hand.

"There you go, love." He said as he sat it on his lap.

Alfred observed the gray food that swam around in the bowl.

"Are you sure you made this edible?" Alfred asked as he slid his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Just eat it you wanker." He said, annoyed.

He picked up his spoon and dipped it into the soup (if you could even call it that) and ate what could have been good if more flavor was added. Arthur sat beside him and watched him, waiting for a reaction.

"It's not bad." Alfred said as he took in another spoonful.

"I was expecting you to spit it out and refuse to eat it. But then again, you'll eat almost anything as long as it's food." He said.

"You might actually get this to taste good if you worked on it."

"You think so?" he said as he rested head on his hand.

Alfred shoveled more spoonfuls into his mouth as Arthur watched him, happy that he seemed to be himself again. After he finished he handed his bowl to Arthur to wash it.

"Hey Iggy?" Alfred said before he disappeared again.

Arthur stopped and turned around to look at him. "Yes?

"Thanks. For taking care of me that is."

"It's my pleasure." He said as he turned around and continued to the kitchen.

After he left Alfred realized that the medicine was starting to kick in. His eyelids teased him as they fluttered open and closed. He placed his elbow on the armrest and propped his head up on his hand. He tried to stay awake long enough to talk to Arthur a little longer but he failed and he soon dozed off.

Arthur returned to the room to find a sleeping Alfred. His mouth was open and a little drool escaped from his lips. His glasses had slid down to the very tip of his nose, almost on the verge of falling off.

So cute. Arthur thought to himself as he felt himself smiling. There was no way he could pick him up to get him to the bedroom and he knew that he was pretty much knocked out after the medicine kicked in. It looked like he was stuck sleeping on the couch tonight even though that wasn't what he was planning at all. He removed the blanket and took his shirt off. He realized he hadn't brought anything with him to change into when he came over.

"You git!" he said under his breath.

He doubted he had anything that would fit him comfortably but he didn't feel sorry for him. It was his own damn fault for not thinking ahead. He searched his draws for some bottoms that might fit him. He had a pair that he rarely wore because they were fairly large on him. He figured these would do although Alfred being taller than him they would probably just barely fit him. He grabbed a pillow off of his bed and returned to the living room.

He bent down and started unbuttoning his pants. He blushed. If someone looked in on him this would be very awkward. He unzipped them and quickly pulled them off to get it over with. His underwear slipped down a bit when he pulled down his pants, revealing more of his perfectly sculpted body. He blushed even more as he pulled his boxers back up, covering up his slightly exposed butt. He slipped the pajama pants over him. It was a bit of a tight fit but it would have to do.

He slid his glasses off and folded them and placed them on the coffee table beside him. He decided he wouldn't even bother giving him a shirt since he knew none of his shirts would fit him. He laid his body down on the couch so that he could be more comfortable and he placed the pillow under his head. He draped the blanket around him along with another one since the heat would be turning itself off soon.

Arthur left to go get himself ready for bed. After he was done he came back to turn the light off but was distracted by the adorable sleeping Alfred. He stared at him; plenty of room was left for someone to lie next to him. He struggled with the decision of whether or not he should do what he wanted to do. It was already pretty cold inside the house and Alfred might get cold and get even sicker.

Arthur curled his toes against the carpet. He decided he was going to do it. Only to keep him warm though. And once he started feeling sleepy he was going back to his own room to sleep and Alfred would never know. It sounded like a good plan.

He turned off the light and the TV and snuggled next to Alfred, getting under the blankets. His body was so warm. He cuddled closer to keep himself warm and rested his hand around his neck while the other rested on his chest. He was close enough now that he could detect the scent of faded cologne. He was slightly surprised. He thought he would smell more like a McDonalds. He rested his head dangerously close to Alfred's, watching him peacefully breath in and out, his eyes moving underneath his eyelids. He felt his chest rise and fall while his heart beat in and out of time underneath his hand.

Despite his earlier plans of leaving before he could fall asleep he was unsuccessful and sleep captured him before he even realized that he was tired. Leaving the morning for what might be either a sweet awakening or a very awkward week.