Author's Note: Inspiration struck! I wrote this pretty quickly, in about an hour. These two are my OTP and I want to spread the love, obviously. I hope you enjoy this fic!

Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia :(

How to Say I Love You

English had always been such a simple thing for Alfred. Having been born in the United States, he had grown up surrounded by the English language. Everywhere he went, people spoke it, and though he hadn't been out of the country, he knew hundreds of millions of people spoke the language. So he had always taken this whole spoken native language thing halfheartedly. It was just how things were. So why was it, that now, he was having such a hard time speaking? He didn't want to say a lot, of course. Just a few words. Yet Alfred had never faced a challenge as difficult in his life as this.

"Alfred? You okay?" The familiar voice snapped him out of his trance, and he turned to look at his friend sitting next to him, a concerned expression etched across his perfect face. Those bright green eyes, a color as beautiful as emeralds- no, Alfred corrected himself, they were better than that. They were, were, he tried to grasp for the word, finally settling on amazing. It didn't do them justice, but it worked. Those amazing green eyes, framed by golden blond hair, messy, and yet not a single hair looked out of place. The sunlight filtering through the windows set his hair and skin ablaze, the dappled sunlight casting him in just the perfect light. It looked like he was glowing. Alfred sighed in admiration, thanking whatever god had been looking out for him when the beauty that was Arthur Kirkland said yes.

It had been a regular old day at school. Nothing special. Except for the fact that Arthur was surrounded by even more girls than normal and Alfred couldn't quite accept that.

At first glance, Arthur seemed the type to be unpopular and disliked by his peers. However, his cynical-yet-gentlemanly personality made him popular with the girls, who screamed and squealed if he so much as looked at them. His ability to twist words and throw them right back at someone effortlessly made him a role model for the weaker students, and a source of fear for the athletes, who were neither bright enough nor brave enough to stand up to the short, frightening then-15-year-old.

Alfred had been an exception, and he knew it from day one. After many, many, many, failed attempts at friendship al throughout elementary and middle school, Arthur had finally relented, and the two became closer than anyone could have expected. Which is why Alfred secretly hated himself for developing feelings that could potentially ruin everything he had worked so very hard to gain.

But with the Homecoming dance on the horizon of their sophomore year, the girls were increasingly unrelenting. Blatantly following him from class to class, begging to carry his books for him, pleading for help with their homework, delivering homemade cookies and sweets to his locker, all of which he gave to Alfred. Arthur had never cared much for sweets.

"If they really liked you, they'd have realized that by now." Alfred commented one day, munching on yet another bag of cookies, this one cinnamon-chocolate. "I can't help but wonder how far their devotion will go."

"Stop that." Arthur had replied. "You and I both know I have no interest in social events such as dances."

"Yeah, but I wouldn't put it past Mr. Fancy-Pants to jump on the occasion to dress up."

"I am not that bad."

"Dude! You read Shakespeare in your free time, think cricket is a man's sport and watch the opera. For fun. You are that bad and quite possibly more."

"Point taken. Either way, I'm not going to ask anyone to Homecoming, just like I didn't last year and won't next year or the next. They're just wasting their time."

"Yeah, yeah."

"What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Will you ask someone?"

"...No. There is someone, but I don't have enough courage to ask them. I'm afraid they'll turn me down."

"Nonsense! Any girl would be lucky to have you, Alfred! Have faith in yourself!"

'Easy for you to say,' Alfred thinks. 'I wonder if you'd feel the same if you knew who I wanted to ask.'

"Hey, Arthur, I-" He's cut off as a shrill voice interjects. The horde of girls has returned, surrounding Arthur just as quickly and shoving Alfred away in the process. They didn't even give him a second glance, crowding around the shorter boy until he all but disappears. Alfred can feel rage start to boil inside him, and all of a sudden he sees red. Shoving through the throng, he places an arm around Arthur's shoulders, pulling him towards him and into his chest.

Glaring at the girls, he says loudly "Sorry, but Arthur can't go with you all to Homecoming. He'll be too busy going with me." He watches as the girls mouths drop open in shock, and Arthur slowly turns his head to stare at his best friend. Opening his mouth to say something, he thinks better of it, before shaking his head and taking a step forward.

"You heard him." Alfred doesn't have a chance to utter his surprise before Arthur grabs his wrist and leads a flustered Alfred away, as the girls watch them go, positively flabbergasted. It's not until they're safely down a hallway far away from the main building before Arthur lets go. And then Alfred realizes he just ousted himself, and Arthur had, in fact, backed him up. Not only did he back him up, but he had agreed.

'Maybe he thought I meant as friends. Maybe I can still fix this. Maybe-' All hope of that was dashed when Arthur cut through the tense silence with a soft chuckle.

"The look on their faces!" He crows, taking a few paces forward, laughing happily. "Priceless!" And Alfred can't help but stare at the glow coming from the Brit. 'Really,' Alfred thought. 'Everything about him is perfect.'

"Was that your way of asking me to Homecoming?" Arthur says quietly, circling back to stand in front of Alfred, a shy expression on his face, cheeks tinged with the faintest of pink.

"Depends," Alfred says slowly, breaking into a grin. "Was that your way of saying yes?" And that was when Arthur stood up on his tiptoes and kissed him.

It was brief. But wonderful. All warning lights that had flashed in Alfred's mind only moments before vanished to be replaced with heavenly choirs going off in his head. He could swear he heard fireworks exploding around them, Arthur's soft pink lips pressed gently against his. But as soon as it come, it had faded, Arthur pulling away slowly. Their eyes met, and both laughed when they saw their own expressions of unease and surprise reflected.

"What do you think?" Arthur had replied, smiling broadly. It was the biggest smile Alfred had ever seen on him. And in that moment, Alfred decided that he simply couldn't live without it.

But that had been years ago. They were in college now, living together while Arthur finished his master's degree in education. He already had a job lined up, in the small town of Starling Peak, Rhode Island. With less than a year left, he and Alfred were prepared to move as soon as he received his degree.

"Are you okay?" Arthur repeated his question, setting his book down to kneel in front of Alfred. "You haven't been working too hard at the office, have you?"

"Yeah, fine, fine." Alfred had finished college sooner than Arthur, becoming an employee of a popular advertising company. It might not have been the incredible job of an astronaut or an actor, like he wanted when he was little, but it gave Alfred the creativity he looked for in a career, and also provided a steady income for the two of them.

"If this is about moving, like I said, you don't have to come with me."

"Idiot!" Alfred said, flicking Arthur in the forehead. "You know they say long-distance relationships never work out! And besides, how long have we been together?"

"...Eight. Our anniversary was a few months ago."

"Precisely! How am I supposed to go back to living without you now?"

"Wanker." Arthur replied, smacking him on the head goodnaturedly. He yawned and turned over to lay his lap on Alfred's lap, eyes closed. "So you know that paper I worked so hard on?"

"That one that took like five weeks? Yeah, it cut into my time with you. I'm glad it's done."

"Well my professor gave me a B!"

"...And that's bad how?"

"This is me! In a literature class! I always get As!"

"Well what did you mess up?"

"He said it was too concise. I didn't elaborate enough on the topic or explain and analyze the sources for thesis well enough either. It's quite frustrating, especially since my job is to be a high school literature teacher."

Ah yes. The job. Alfred groaned inwardly as he recalled his most recent problem with the English language. Arthur would surely laugh at him over it if he asked. So there was no way he was going to. Besides, Arthur was every reason the problem was there in the first place.

"You always have preferred the facts to details, haven't you? It shouldn't matter too much at the school anyway."

"I suppose."

He watched as Arthur sighed, his eyes blinking open for a split second to flash a smile at Alfred. And as he watched his partner of eight years, eight long, wonderful, beautiful years, Alfred decided that he didn't need to be especially fancy with his words, nor did he need to be romantic, shocking, extreme or anything like that at all. He just needed to be honest.

"I'm not one for elaboration either Arthur. We're pretty similar in those regards. But I don't have to be fancy. So I'll be honest instead. I really really love you. For years, I've only loved you, and I intend to do so for the rest of my life." Arthur opened his eyes, only to find them drawn to something Alfred had fished out of his pocket and was holding above him. Tears sprung to the man's handsome green eyes. Fingering the ornate, silver ring, Alfred smiled.

"Arthur Kirkland, will you marry me?"