Things seemed to have been going great for Alfred that day. He was finally able to enjoy a week long break with his boyfriend and his brother after having worked over time for the past month at his job. Ivan seemed to have really been needing a break too, even if he hadn't been working for as long as he had, his boyfriend's job was still much harder than his at times. Besides, the two of them were growing tired of never being able to leave town. They'd literally been unable to travel anywhere for an entire year, due to either always being busy, being too worn out to want to do so anyways, or not having enough money to at the time. Alfred's brother had been cordial enough to invite them over to his house for five days, and he lived eight hours away by car from where he and his boyfriend lived, so it wasn't the worst distance one would have to cover (some of the places Alfred had wanted to go to were days away, and he didn't have the time for that, nor did he have the money for plane tickets).

Even if the drive to Matthew's house was only eight hours (which wasn't the longest time he'd had ever been stuck in a car, and besides, they had planned on stopping a few times on the way), Alfred couldn't help but feel restless throughout the trip. Usually he wasn't so fidgety whilst riding in a car, especially after he'd been worn out for an entire month. The boredom (he tended to obtain motion sickness whenever he tried to read or use his phone in a moving vehicle, which he thought was really stupid) and the pent up energy had even made him begin to think about things that he deemed annoying, yet believed he shouldn't care about since others would probably consider them pointless. Such as how Ivan would occasionally complain about having a migraine. The American didn't understand what was so horrible about them. He'd even looked them up before, and all he gathered from the information was that they were just more painful than the typical headache. In fact, he thought that people were just being dramatic about them. Perhaps he wouldn't have been so apathetic towards them, if it wasn't for the fact that he'd had horrible experiences with people who suffered with them. Yes, he knew that headaches sucked, but he didn't think it gave one of his co-workers the right to take the rest of the day off. Nor did he believe they warranted his brother and his boyfriend to yell at him for 'making too much noise'. What made him the most furious was the fact that Ivan would sometimes tell him to turn the television off when he had a migraine while they were in the bedroom. Alfred had just told him to go on the couch if it really bothered him so much, and the Russian would just insist that the couch wasn't very comfortable. They would always argue afterwards, and the result was always the same; Ivan would leave the room in tears, and the American would just roll his eyes and returned to what he was doing. Sure, he loved his boyfriend, and would sometimes feel a bit ashamed of himself for making him cry, but he also thought that he was a little too sensitive at times.

When they did finally arrive at Matthew's house, Alfred couldn't remember another time when he'd felt so relieved in his life. The first hour of the visit seemed to being going beautifully. He and Ivan almost immediately felt at home when they brought their luggage into one of the guest's rooms, and right after they were offered some refreshments, his boyfriend and his brother became intrigued in a conversation he couldn't have cared less for.

However, the mood began to change when about one fourth of his vision became purple and wavy. Not only did he not understand the cause for the sudden change in his vision, but things seemed to be growing tense between Ivan and Matthew (they'd only been there for an hour, he hoped they weren't about to start fighting). Alfred tried to ignore the tense atmosphere, though, as he didn't want to stress himself out by actually caring for the potential fight. Instead, he was worried about why his vision was suddenly acting up. Even if his glasses were off, a part of his vision wouldn't just suddenly turn purple. Though after a while of trying to figure out what was going on with him, he eventually just put it off as him having looked at the bright, cloudy sky for too long while he was in the car.

Time passed by as Ivan and Matthew became more and more hostile towards each other (and even if this was starting to annoy him, he didn't want to risk being yelled at for trying to make them stop arguing), but even if things were becoming more tense, Alfred couldn't help but feel a bit relieved when the dark section of his vision began to return to normal. However, soon after things seemed to have been becoming better for him physically, he began to feel a mild pain behind his left eye. At first, he wasn't too worried about it, but soon, the pain became more intense, and it spread. It wasn't long before the pain became unbearable to the poor American.

To make matters worse, Ivan and Matthew were now nearly yelling at each other. This, of course, was not at all helping Alfred deal with the intense agony. It wasn't long before he'd lost his patience, and snapped, "Would you guys just shut up!?"

Both Ivan and Matthew immediately grew silent after hearing him raise his voice. They both immediately turned their head towards Alfred to find him sitting at the kitchen table with a hand over his eye. He was hunched over, and the eye that was not being covered was screwed shut. Sympathy immediately ached in the Russian's chest at the sight of his boyfriend looking so distressed, and he therefore decided to walk to his side because of this. Then, once he was close enough, Ivan placed a comforting hand on Alfred's shoulder as he asked, "What's wrong?"

Alfred nearly whimpered in response, "It feels like my brain is being stabbed with a knife!"

"Can you tell me where exactly it hurts?"

"Behind my left eye, and pretty much the left part of my head."

There was a moment of silence before Ivan stated, "It sounds like you're having a migraine. Why don't you go lay down in the guest's room? It'll be dark and quiet in there, and that should help make you feel better."

Not long after Ivan requested this, Alfred made his way to the guest's room and curled up under the covers and removed his glasses to set them on the nightstand. Soon after he was comfortably (for someone experiencing such an excruciating headache, anyways) curled up under the covers, his boyfriend returned with a cold glass of water. Ivan placed a kiss on the American's temple before inquiring, "Do you think you're going to need anything?"

"I feel kind of nauseous," Alfred stated, "Also, do you think you could give me a pain killer?"

"Sure, if you're willing to eat something small with it. I'll go get you a bucket as well."

Once more, Ivan didn't fail to return in to Alfred at a reasonable time with the needed items. Setting the items down in their appropriate locations, he advised, "Just try to get some rest now."

Alfred laid down on his left side, hoping that this would help relieve the pain (which it did seem to sooth it a bit). While he waited for the pain to go away, after having forced himself to stomach a small snack, some water, and a pill, and invasive thought came to him, I wish I had never called anyone out for having a migraine. This is probably the most painful thing I've ever felt! I guess I do deserve though...

What seemed to be too hours finally passed. The queasiness and the pain finally calmed down, and Alfred was able to stomach the rest of the water. He was thirsty, after nearly panting due to all of the pain. When the glass was empty, he decided to lay there on the comfortable bed until Ivan entered the room to check on him. As soon as he made his appearance, the Russian stated in a soft voice, "I brought you a milkshake, since ice cream always seems to make you feel better. How do you feel?"

"Much better," Alfred replied, and couldn't help but feel delighted by the fact that his boyfriend had been thoughtful enough to buy him a milkshake. Ivan glanced over at the empty glass on the nightstand and said, "That's good, you drank all of your water."

Ivan handed the milkshake over to Alfred before crawling onto the bed next to him so that he could start cuddling with him. The American slurped up some of the chocolate milkshake, before stating, "I'm sorry for being so apathetic towards you when you had a migraine. I never realized how painful those were until now."

"It's fine. You know now, so I'm sure you're never going to do it again."

Alfred snuggled up against Ivan as he continued to drink his milkshake. Even if he had been in a lot of pain that day, he was still happy to know that the Russian was willing to ease it despite how cruel he had been towards people suffering migraines in the past.

A/N: I swear, migraines used to be the worst things ever for me. For whatever reason, during puberty, I would have them for no reason sometimes. Now, it doesn't really seem like I get them anymore, though I'm sure it could still happen (I hope not). Sometimes, people didn't believe me about them, which kind of sucked.