Cover It Up
A USUK fanfic (AU)
Rated T for making out
Warning: Dorks. Doooorks. Huge, huuuuge, dorks.

They haven't been together for quite a long time yet, but one could say that they're all over each other, literally and figuratively. They haven't had much experience with other people either, as they have both admitted. The date was the 4th of July, Alfred's birthday, and it was after his party. Everyone had left, and his living room was quite a disaster. He waved it off; he just wanted to retire for the night.

"That was one crazy party." Arthur lightly smiled, an eyebrow arching amusedly towards him. He sat on the couch, as Alfred cleared up the used cups and plates. He should at least do that much before leaving it for tomorrow.

"Really? Thanks, man." he laughed, albeit quite tiredly. Arthur didn't leave after the party; rather, he was going to spend a bit more time over in Alfred's place. He didn't want to go home early, especially when he was in his lover's lovely company.

Arthur watched him clean up, waiting for him to finish. Alfred was a college student; he had his own apartment (which he shared with his sister, Amelia), and seemingly unlimited freedom thanks to his lenient parents. Arthur, on the other hand, had strict parents and he still lived with them in their two-storey house a bus trip away. Sometimes, Arthur would find himself jealous of the privileges Alfred has.

Moments later, Alfred finished cleaning the used plates, cups and utensils. He plopped on the couch next to Arthur, smiling at him with a tinge of exhaustion.

"Happy birthday, Alfred." Arthur said, a light chuckle escaping his mouth. That was the thousandth time he had said that today, or so Alfred thought. Arthur couldn't seem to stop greeting him.

"Thanks. Did you have fun?" he asked with a grin, putting an arm around the smaller man.

Arthur nodded. The people who went to the party weren't all his friends (Alfred had a load of friends come to the party, and Arthur only knew a handful of them well); it was noisy, loud, messy and crowded (Alfred's apartment wasn't built to accommodate a dozen and a half dancing people with drinks and food in their hands); they served burgers and Coke (in Alfred's defence, he had cooked them and not bought a ton of burgers off McDonalds — God knows he couldn't afford that much in one go); and he was virtually invisible most of the time (more invisible than Alfred's brother, who was also one of the only people who came up to him during the whole party), but he had fun nonetheless.

Alfred was already 20, though it didn't seem like it. In comparison towards Arthur, most people thought he looked older. Of course, that assumption was based on looks and not mannerisms.

"Good, good." came Alfred's reply, smiling at him. He used his other hand, which was around Arthur's shoulders to lightly push him towards him, telling him to scoot closer. Arthur obliged and leaned his head against Alfred's. "Maybe we should throw a party on your birthday." he laughed lightheartedly at the suggestion, to which Arthur immediately shot down.

"I would prefer a nice, quiet evening to myself, thank you very much." he huffed.

"Whatever, babe." Alfred grinned. He would still surprise him with one next year, regardless if Arthur wanted one or not.

Arthur leaned up and pecked Alfred's cheek, a stiff and swift motion. It wasn't really much to speak of; it seemed hurried and embarrassed, like Arthur wouldn't really admit to wanting to kiss him first.

"Can't ya do better than that?"

"Don't complain!" Arthur huffed and pouted.

Alfred grinned cheekily, taking the other's hand and cupping his cheek. His hands were cold in contrast to his warming cheeks, which made Arthur cringe a bit. Alfred leaned in to kiss him, head tilted slightly just so their noses wouldn't squish. Arthur closed his eyes and the corner of his lips subtly twitched a bit in some sort of smile. It made him feel some sort of euphoria, like he was letting go of something burdening and instead, focusing on the present, and the present was that Alfred was kissing him, gentler, shyer, and softer than he had hoped for, but kissing him nonetheless. In all honesty, they haven't really been together that long. In all honesty, it's only been a few days. And yet, Arthur found himself expecting more. And more did he get.

It was just the beginning of it, and the next few things to come were needless to say, less innocent than the first. Alfred tilted his head a little bit more to the side and parted his lips ever so slightly just to let his tongue poke out. It brushed against Arthur's slightly chapped lips, and he gladly obliged to open them for him. Alfred slid his tongue in, at first with less confidence than he ought to have. It's not like he goes around kissing a lot of people for him to know how to do this properly and appropriately, oh no!

Arthur kissed back, trying to compensate for Alfred's lack of faith in himself. His tongue rolled against Alfred's, and he hummed slightly. He tried to think, think, think, of what to do next. Alfred's hands slid down on Arthur's waist, as he parted from the kiss. Trailing semi-wet kisses on the other's mouth, then the jawline, then the neck... It sent some kind of ticklish sensation in Arthur's body. It was a good kind of tickle, of course.

Arthur felt teeth against skin, and it surprised him just a bit. Alfred sucked on his skin, closed his eyes and licked the spot for good measure before moving to the other side. It felt good, really good, for Arthur. A barely inaudible moan escaped his lips.

"Damn..." he breathed. It hasn't even been at least a week or something! Does Alfred plan to take it that far or will it just end in some sort of awkward cliffhanger because he's still unsure?

Alfred paused for a moment, and unlatched from the skin of Arthur's neck. He paused and Arthur didn't know why he stopped. Go back, go back, he silently pled. But Alfred didn't. Instead, he was looking around the sides of Arthur's neck.

"What're you looking at?" he asked curiously, looking down at Alfred in mild concern. "D-did you leave a mark or something?" A hand rose to where Alfred had sucked, as if he could actually feel it there.

"Oh God, shit, yeah, there is!" Alfred replied, wide-eyed. He pulled away from Arthur and took a mirror from inside one of the side-table's drawers. Arthur angled the mirror so it showed just where exactly the mark was.

It was a bit bigger on the left than on the right, for he had sucked down on two sides, but it could have been worse.

"Oh God, you have to go home later, right? What if your parents see?!"

"Relax, I can just cover it up with some clothing... or something." He didn't seem sure either. He went to Alfred's place wearing a jacket.

Alfred stared at him. "That's not gonna work!"

"Well, what do you want to do about it? I'm dead if my parents see this!" he laughed, even if Alfred wasn't laughing now.

"It's not funny, dude!" he took his iPhone which was sitting beside the lamp. Search on Google. Find answers. Solve this problem or else you're in big trouble.

"...okay, so we gotta remove that..." He can't bring himself to say hickey.

"Mmhm." Arthur nodded.

"Make-up...? Worth a shot... Wait here!" he bounded down the couch and into one of the other rooms. Arthur could hear a girl shriek.

"Alfred, have you ever heard of knocking?! I was in the middle of trying on clothes here!" Amelia, Alfred's sister, yelled at him for barging in. Arthur tried to look and see what's going on, but Alfred was blocking the view.

"Sorry, sis, can I just borrow your make-up?" he said hurriedly.

"What?" she stared back incredulously. "What for? Wait, I don't want to know. Take it and go." she threw a pink bag at him irritably, the contents of it shaking and rattling against each other. Her make-up bag was bound to have something there!

"Thanks!" Alfred called back as he rushed back to where Arthur was. It's getting late and they don't really have much time left.

He checked his iPhone again. "Concealer..." he muttered, his hand trying to separate the jam-packed objects inside from one another just to see the label. "Do you know what concealer looks like?"

"Alice doesn't use make-up, so how should I know?"

"Sorry..." he went back to looking, before shouting, "A-ha!" as he held up a green stick that read 'concealer'. He twisted the cap open, and Arthur couldn't help but stifle a giggle. It was funny looking at Alfred mess with cosmetics, more so when he didn't have the slightest idea how it works. "So... Do I put the stick directly on your skin or do I take a bit on my finger?"

"Take a bit, I think." Arthur nodded.

Alfred hoped for the best as he swiped a bit onto his finger and rubbed at the spot, make-up blending with Arthur's pale skin.

"Shit! It's not the same skin colour!" Alfred exclaimed and stopped rubbing. There was a dark, skin coloured spot visible on Arthur's neck now. Furthermore, it didn't even cover up the mark. Alfred took some face powder and started dabbing at it desperately.

"Bloody hell, do you even know what you're doing?" Arthur raised a thick eyebrow at him.

"No, but it's worth a shot!"

"It's starting to itch!"

"Are you allergic to make-up?!"

"Do I look like I actually put on make-up for me to know?"

Alfred put down the face powder and closed it shut with a snap of the compact. He peered at it again. No, nothing. It's still there, and if you look closely, it's obvious. Alfred whined and made awful noises that resembled like a whale's call or something. He was really worried at what Arthur's parents might think. But Arthur was just laughing at him as he whined and groaned at his awful situation. Arthur was supposed to be the one who was worried and yet Arthur was the one who seemed like he didn't care much at all.

"What else can we try?"

"Wait..." Alfred checked again. "Metal spoon... Wait here." he went to the kitchen station and took a metal spoon, placed it in the refrigerator freezer and closed the freezer shut. After 5 minutes of waiting, Alfred held the now cold spoon against Arthur's neck.

"Damn, that's cold!"

"Well, duh!" Alfred started to gently rub the cold spoon on the spot for a really long time, his speed gradually increasing as he grew more and more frantic because it seemed like nothing was happening.

"It's starting to itch again!" Arthur whined.

"What, are you allergic to spoons too? Keep still..." Alfred frowned while he kept rubbing the spoon against the skin.

Arthur took the iPhone from beside Alfred. "They say it lasts from one to two weeks." he said out loud.

"What?! We can't have that! I mean, what are the people in school gonna think? And what if your parents see? Oh God, I'll never kiss you on the neck again..." he groaned, his other hand covering his face.

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Relax, it's not like it's that bad. Could have been worse, really. As long as you don't suck on it the next time, this won't happen again, really."

"No."

"Come on, it was good, even if you just don't—"

"No."

"Plea—"

"No."

Arthur fell silent with a pout. He really liked that and he didn't want Alfred to stop doing that just because of this incident.

They both kept quiet as Alfred kept rubbing the cold utensil on his neck. "Yes, it's starting to work!" he gave himself a mental high-five. It was starting to fade and become less noticeable. A few more minutes later, the spoon lost its coldness and Alfred placed it on the coffee table. He peered at Arthur's neck and frowned. It was still there, but if you didn't look hard enough, you wouldn't notice.

Arthur touched his neck, "Is it gone?"

"Not completely, no... But it's not as noticeable, thank God." he sighed in relief.

They both looked at each other and laughed. Maybe they were just laughing at Alfred's overreacting earlier. Maybe they were laughing at the situation. Maybe they were laughing at each other. Maybe they were laughing, but inside they were so nervous, they broke down. Maybe it was some of those or maybe it was all of those. Who knows, maybe it was another reason. They laughed, laughed for a very long time and neither had said anything. They just laughed.

Alfred hugged and kissed Arthur goodbye before he left his apartment. In a few days, the same happened on the sofa, and Alfred had not kept to his word. He did not stop kissing Arthur's neck. In fact, his kisses travelled down his neck and into his shirt the next time, making sure to leave marks only where it was covered up by clothing.

Alfred had learned.

Author's Notes: Fun fact — this was based from experience. This actually happened to me and my girlfriend. Afterwards, we just laughed about it and she told me to make a fanfic out of it. Another fun fact — it happened on July 4, that's why it was set on Alfred's birthday. Heh. We celebrated by eating McDonalds, because that was the best we could do at that time. :c Oh and also, we're not American, so it's not like there's any celebration here. Haha.

If any of you guys say Arthur could have just worn a scarf or a turtleneck sweater, I have 2 things: 1.) It would defeat the whole point of the story and 2.) I believe July is summer in the Western hemisphere, so why would you do that? Haha. :P