AN: Hello and welcome to my latest fic ^^ If you haven't already, I would suggest that you go an read A Window Opens. This is the sequel to that fic and although I think you might be able to read this without having read A Window Opens first I think it would be beneficial to you and the understanding of this fic if you did.

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia, but I love and envy the dude who does!

oOoOoOo

Alfred had changed exponentially in the months that followed the accident in which I was incapacitated in a hospital bed. I could tell just with one look to his face. It was slimmer, and not in the way like he had been working out. His cheek bones were showing and his eyes, his eyes had dark circles below them and almost looked like they had begun their retreat into his thick skull. I had assumed when I first noticed all of this that it was because he had given up going to the gym in favor of sitting with me, and he just happened to forget meals as well. Hospitals were like a black hole anyways, you go in and time either flies or creeps along at a painful pace. And I guessed that was to blame for his lack of sleep as well.

But when I began to find him sitting in the living room in the middle of the night, his eyes wide and exhausted or next to my bed, on the floor completely and totally unconscious, but looking very, very uncomfortable, I knew that he was not really okay. It only seemed to me that he was in a state of transition, like he was still getting use to the idea that I was no longer in a coma and that I was absolutely fine and he still felt the need to hover over me at all times. But somewhere in the back of my brain I knew that wasn't all true. It didn't take months on end to transition.

And no one, especially not Alfred would become so vacant from my regaining of consciousness. So it became clear to me, that there might just be more behind his empty and tired eyes then just me waking up.

oOoOoOo

"Alfred, lad, why not you close your eyes for a bit?" He shook his head, though I could see just how tempting the thought was. He blamed his exhaustion on insomnia, but I knew he was forcing himself to stay awake. There was no way on earth he wasn't.

"Nah 'm fine." He murmured, his head jerking up as his chin met his chest. I scowled, feeling anger boiling in my stomach as he resisted sleep, which was obvious that he desperately needed it. "Just need 'nother cup o coffee." He began to stand but I yanked him down by his sleeve. He came down with a grunt and he shot me a dirty look. "What was that for?" He snapped sounding more lucid then he had in days.

"We're out of coffee." His angry expression melted and he just stared at me for a moment before settling his gaze on the floor, a look mounting his face as if I had just killed all of his dreams. "We do have tea though." He nodded in reply, muttering a few words that I couldn't make out but guessed they were accepting the unsaid offer of me making the tea. I stood and gave him a pat on the back and moved into the kitchen to make him some tea.

I paused as I poured the tea into two cups, glancing at our medicine cabinet. I bit my lip and opened it up, pulling out the Benadryl* and plucking out one of the pills. I walked into the living room with the tea and medicine, placing it in front of Alfred and sitting myself back down on the couch. He took the tea and looked at it with distaste, but he didn't complain. "What's this?" I took a sip of my tea and placed the cup back onto its saucer.

"Just an ibuprofen**. You were complaining of a headache earlier, yes?" Alfred's face screwed up in thought before he nodded and plopped the pill in his mouth, downing it with a sip of tea. I watched him from the corner of my eye as his head began to nod more frequently, his eye lids obviously weighting tons to him as they fluttered. Within minutes his head was in my lap and he was breathing slowly and deeply, taken by the convoys of sleep. I sighed and ran my fingers through his hair. "Oh Alfred. This is the third time this past month I've had to do that." I ran my fingers through his hair, feeling how it was no longer the silky smooth it once was, traded for oily and scruffy. "What's caused you to be like this?" I asked him though I knew he wouldn't reply. Why would he anyways, he barely spoke to me any more when he was conscious, why when he slept?

oOoOoOo

Alfred slept through the rest of the day as well as the night and most of the next day, waking up groggy and slow. "Artie!" He cried out from his room, his shout followed by a loud bang. His door slammed open, "Artie?" I turned as he stumbled into the kitchen, his eyes not on me but the two cats that followed him. I opened my mouth to speak but found my words being cut off as I was engulfed into a bear hug. I gasped in surprise but didn't push him away as he held me.

It was the first hug I had received from him in three months. Three long months with any sign of affection from the idiot. It wasn't as though I craved it, but it felt so strange not to receive a lung crushing hug every day from him. I hugged him back and he relaxed, murmuring words I guessed were to comfort himself more than me. After a few minutes had passed he released me with a quiet apology for the hug, which I turned down and gave him a pat on the back.

"It's fine Alfred. Contrary to popular belief I really don't mind hugging every once and a while." He gave me a shy smile and skunk back to the living room. I sighed and glanced at the phone. Tempting, very tempting, extraordinarily tempting, unfathomably, exponentially, outstandingly tempting. And a tempt that I didn't mind giving into. It was a long shot, but if the shot had any chance of hitting the target, I would take it.

I picked up the phone and dialed in a number Alfred had taught me in case I couldn't reach him, to be used in the case of an emergency. This was an emergency, right? It rang for a few moments before the person on the other end picked up.

"Hello? May I ask whose calling?" I sighed in relief and glanced around the room quickly to make sure Alfred wasn't within earshot.

"Hello Alison***, I am in need of help with Alfred."

oOoOoOo

AN:

*Benadryl is an allergy medication with some really strong sleepy side effects. From what I've heard you can take it as a sleep aid, but I've never tried it before.

**Ibuprofen is a pain killer and it does wonders with headaches.

***Alison is Alfred's mother, for any of you who forget or who haven't read A Window Opens