Summary: Stationery AU. USUK. With ink-stained hands, Arthur gave his paper heart to Alfred. However, Alfred is careless and paper is fragile. Of post-its, notes, and love letters.
Warning: Language, suggestive situations, and grammar mistakes. Brief Alfred/Natalia.
Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia.
Paper Hearts
Prologue: Tear Here
Arthur doesn't like loose leaf paper.
They were easier to misplace, to lose. To forget. Arthur values his thoughts, and thus whatever he writes, he deems valuable and keeps. Most of these, however, gather in his trash bin. Daft thoughts, he calls them.
Arthur prefers spiral-ringed notebooks. They bind his words together in a way that lets him exercise his freedom of control. He's never completely filled out every page, though. By the time he'd reach the last sheet, the notebook would have already lost half its content.
His freedom:
Spiral-ringed notebooks let him rip out what he doesn't want to remember and keep what he likes.
An entry in angry scribbles:
September 26, 20XX
Dear Alfred,
You are a dick. I told you not to mess with Ivan's sister. Told you to keep her out of you two's obsessive competition to compare who's a bigger asshole. What did you do? Fuck the girl and have the gall to brag to Ivan.
And on that note, please do not text me on the details of how the sex went. I don't care how good of a lay she was, nor how you thought one nipple was bigger than the other. Have some respect for the girl. God, Alfred.
You know what, you deserve that broken nose. Don't come asking me for help. I'm done. Fuck you.
Hours later, the entry would be crumpled up, and Arthur would be on his way to Alfred's. To play video games or to celebrate pissing Ivan off, he doesn't know.
What he does know:
He is Alfred's best friend and he didn't really mean what he wrote – or at least the latter half of it.
He had scrawled his anger on the paper so hard the pen tip pierced the surface, and the ink tainted the next page. The writing was almost illegible with how his hand was shaking. It didn't help that his vision blurred, his eyes misting and his teardrops further staining his words. He knew he was venting. He was feeling angry, irrational, and hurthurthurt.
He rips the entry out with more force than necessary and into the overflowing trash bin it goes with the rest of his frustrations surrounding Alfred.
Idly, he wonders if he could rip his heart out too.
Spiral-ringed notebooks let him rip out what he doesn't want to remember and keep what he likes. If Arthur didn't like Alfred losing his virginity to Natalia, he can rip out that event from the rest. What was once part of a notebook is now a loose leaf.
That way, what he doesn't want to remember is easier to forget.
Author's Notes: Hello, and thank you for reading! English is my second language, so if you manage to find grammar mistakes, please PM them to me so I can correct them. Otherwise, please review and tell me what you think.
I promise the next chapters will be lighter than this one. I hope.
Haruhasu
