Characters: Arthur (England) and Alfred (America)

Special Thanks: I would like to thank my two friends duckie-force and sketchygryphon (tumblr) who have been my amazing betas.

Rain poured down from the sky as a cold breeze cut through the layers of warmth from Arthur's coat causing him to shiver. The beginning of December had just begun and Arthur already wasn't looking forward to the rest of the month. He would be more than happy for the New Year to start, maybe then his people might know what direction they want to go in. So far everything seemed to be up in the air with no one knowing the difference between left and right. It was all starting to give him a major headache.

Arthur sighed from under his umbrella knowing that dwelling on the problem wouldn't help matters. In fact his plans for the rest of the evening once he got in was to make a nice cup of tea and just relax with a good book. Let his people deal with their problems without him for awhile, not like it was his fault they were in this mess. They just dragged him along for the ride.

As he started to walk up the path to his house, Arthur paused mid-step and blinked. He walked back down the path to check the street sign before looking back at the house. "Bloody hell…" he muttered, taking the sight in before him. That was definitely his house before him, though he knew it didn't look like that before he left for work.

The house before him was covered in an array of Christmas decorations, from colourful flashing lights to various inflatable characters, a massive Santa that loomed over the left side of his house being one of them. It was a surprise you could still see the house with the amount of decorations surrounding it and the glare from all the lights.

Glaring at his house Arthur made his way to his front door, half tempted to knock over one of the light up reindeer's that he went by.

It seemed someone had invited themselves to his place uninvited and proceeded to decorate his house in such a ghastly fashion without his permission. He knew exactly who that someone was and once he got his hands on that bugger he was going to-

"Arthur you're back!" exclaimed Alfred as he threw the door open upon noticing the Englishman's return, said door almost hitting Arthur in the face. He grinned at his friend but his grin faltered upon noticing the look on Arthur's face. "Um… Arthur?" he questioned once he noticed his friend just standing there and not responding. Alfred looked behind him to where Arthur was gazing at, "Ah… um, Merry early Christmas?" he said trailing off.

Perhaps he had gone too far with the decorations.

A small strangled sound came out of Arthur's lips as he made his way indoors, mechanically putting his coat and umbrella in their respective places, the sound of the front door shutting behind him. Ignoring the American, he then moved as though on auto pilot towards the living room, sat down on his favourite armchair and closed his eyes, a small sigh escaping his mouth as exhaustion finally caught up to him.

He should have realised the inside of his house would be decorated just as badly as the outside, since this was Alfred they were talking about. Arthur snorted to himself and shook his head in a mixture of fondness and annoyance. Well no point in being angry, what's done was done. It's not like it was the worst thing Alfred had done, considering last year Alfred almost burnt his house down while making an iced gingerbread loaf in the oven. Somehow the idiot had forgotten that his oven was English, making it a Celsius oven and ended up putting the oven temperature for the loaf in Fahrenheit.

"I do hope you realise it will be you that has to take down all these appalling decorations." announced Arthur as he opened his eyes and looked at the American who was now standing in the middle of the living room.
"Of course." acknowledged Alfred.
"And you will be paying for the cost of having all these lights on." Arthur stated.
"Okay, that's fair." Alfred agreed. "You're… not mad?" he asked having expected the Englishman to have at least ranted at him for the decorations, for even he admitted it was a bit early for such things, not that it stopped him putting them all up. If not that, then at least for entering Arthur's home unannounced or uninvited. Again.

Arthur rolled his eyes and sunk further back into his armchair, "Of course I'm a little bit mad you dolt, but that's hardly stopped you from doing things before. Besides, I'm too tired from work to be having a go at you, dealing with my new boss is frustrating." he mentioned, not bothering to go into detail. "Anyway, what brings you here so early? I wasn't expecting you over until at least the 20th."

"Um.. yeah guess it hasn't." Alfred laughed, a smile forming on his face. "Well... I was starting to get bored on my own and since everyone else has kind of been ignoring me lately because of you know what, so I decided why not come here earlier." said Alfred as he shrugged his shoulders.

A grimace appeared on Arthur's face as he winced in sympathy. Everyone had been giving him the silent treatment not that long ago, though the only one who still kept that up at this point was his older brother Alistair, the ungrateful git. Arthur suddenly jumped in surprise as Alfred was now stood in front of him.

"Besides," started Alfred as he leant down slightly towards Arthur. "'Tis the season to be spent with your loved ones after all." he said, quickly kissing Arthur on the forehead and dashing off into the kitchen in retreat to make some warm drinks for themselves. "Is earl grey tea okay with you?" Alfred yelled from the kitchen.

"Y-yes." stammered Arthur, a slight blush adorning his cheeks as he groaned into his hands letting a small smile appear on his face. Idiot, he thought fondly.

Perhaps an early Christmas wasn't such a bad thing after all.