Alfred kicked in the door to the world meeting, a large smirk over his face as he raised his arms, making sure he was as visible as possible "MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!" his grin was incomparable to that of anyone else, as was his volume. He didn't care though, he dragged in a large bag that showed points of what appeared to be cards, waving to everyone as he opened up the bag. Then with that he opened it up, going around to each and every person and handing them cards, ignorant to any conversations they were having, and instead shouting out "I'm having a Christmas Eve party as my place guys, you're all invited!"
While Alfred was sending smiles all around, everyone else grimaced at one another, they remembered last year's party and it hadn't gone too well. It had involved Alfred getting up on a table and challenging Ivan to a drunken brawl, Arthur stripping naked, and then Basch getting into it with Roderich, but still he went around shouting "Don't worry everyone, this year's gonna be great, I promise!" but as they looked among one another, it was obvious they doubted him. Though a few whispered they'd try to go, but try at the most.
Arthur leaned into Francis, a scowl on his face as he cupped over his mouth, looking down at the cheap hand-made invitations made by Alfred, with a poorly drawn Christmas tree on the front. It was a good attempt, but he hadn't advanced in drawing in all the years he'd known him, and he doubted it would anytime soon. "I can't believe he expects us to come after what happened last year… I mean, that alcohol he put out was too strong for any one man!"
Francis smirked, shaking his head as he waved the other off "Well, maybe any one Englishman, but you're right, I mean, the food he had was simply atrocious!" he scoffed, spitting into one of the plants nearby, an admirable shot "I mean, none of the food there was worthy to be even near me, and he expected me to eat it? Ha!" He rolled his eyes, stuffing the invitation into his pocket, crumpling the thick paper he'd made it out of.
Yao leaned into Kiku, eyebrows in a scowl of their own as he muttered "If it's anything like last year, I have no intent on going, all of Chinatown couldn't fix up the mess he made!" and he rolled his eyes, hiding the invitation in his sleeve, no intent on retrieving it from the bottomless sleeve later. Meanwhile he continued to sip at his tea, watching as Ivan simply stared at the American while he took the invitation, and everyone seemed to be able to sense the tension, but them.
Though while regrettably, Kiku gave a slight nod of his own, simply staring at the little picture of all of them at a party together, while it was beyond the artistic ability of a second grader, it definitely wasn't any form of art he recognized. "I am sorry to say I probably won't be attending, after all, I'd prefer to stay by myself as opposed to be involved in the chaos of last year…" He sighed, setting it in front of him, but would likely leave it behind by accident.
Amongst the other nations, large and small, the consensus was rather obvious.
Nobody was coming to Alfred's party
That wasn't obvious to Alfred though, and when he got home he looked around his large house, rubbing his hands together as he tried to warm himself up from the outside, but quite soon, his fiery personality warmed him up and he was revving up and ready to go. "Alright Tony, where are you?! We need to get this place ready for the party!" He looked around, walking into the living room and quickly swiveling his head around.
Tony was sleeping on the couch, and sat up as Alfred called out, scratching the top of his head as he spoke out "Huh?" it wasn't much, but the message was clear, he had no idea what Alfred seemed to be talking about right now.
Alfred rolled his eyes, walking over as he turned on the TV, grabbing the remote from Tony's side and changing the channel to Christmas music, turning the volume up so it could be heard through the whole house. "Just like you to forget dude, we're setting up for the Christmas party! Remember?" he looked back down to him, tossing the remote on the plush chair under it would inevitably disappear for an hour while Alfred forgot where he put it. "Come on, let's get working!"
And then the work began, Alfred already had all the materials, he'd set up the Christmas lights and all the outside decorations, but he still needed to set up the inside. It was early in the afternoon so he opened up all the blinds, getting in as much natural light as possible, not to mention he loved the snow outside. Tony helped for the most part, but he would take frequent breaks, allowing Alfred to do most of the heavy lifting, he didn't mind though, he enjoyed doing this for his friends!
All through the afternoon he worked tirelessly, and once he was finished he had a large table set up, tablecloth to hide the many stains he was too lazy to clean up, and atop of it sat chips, dip, and all the normal party attire. He'd set up the TV and speakers all through the house to play Christmas songs on low all through the party, and he'd even set aside rooms upstairs in case people needed privacy.
Though on top of all of that he had taken the other people into account, he'd gotten lighter liquor for England to drink so he didn't get drunk on his first glass, he'd gotten fancier food for France-which consisted of incredible seafood dip among other things-he planned to dress up as Santa later on, and he was even going to be nice to Ivan. He had food for all the nations, and he had even recorded Christmas tales from everyone's culture, setting them to play periodically through the night, it was going to be perfect.
He looked to the clock, a panicked look on his face as he realized he only had a half hour to get himself ready! He had to hurry, and he definitely didn't have time, he knew Arthur, Feliciano, and Ludwig came early every year, Kiku and Yao were extremely punctual, and he didn't want to be naked and getting dressed when that happened!
He sprinted upstairs to the shower, grabbing a nice big beach towel and locked the door, taking only eight minutes to shower before he was out, body and hair perfectly clean. Then he ran to his room, putting on the Christmasy Pajama pants he always wore during the Holidays, his sweater with an elf's face on it, and then a Santa hat to top it all off. Then he paused before he ran downstairs, opening up his closet and smiling at the contents.
He hadn't had time to go shopping last year except for himself, he was convinced they were all going to die last year so he thought it was useless to get gifts, and he hadn't gotten any. This year he'd made up for it, completely filling up his closet with all the presents he could muster, he was running low on money still, but that didn't matter, what mattered was making sure his friends were happy.
He grabbed only one present from the closet which was tagged "To: Matthew From: Alfred" he wanted Matt to know he hadn't forgotten him again, like he had last year… he was determined to give him his present upon arrival! And with that he ran downstairs in his slippers, standing in the living room and commenced his pacing, awaiting the arrival of his friends!
He paced back and forth for a half hour, the exact amount of time he said he had before he started getting himself ready, and still nobody was there "Huh… I guess my writing was a little sloppy, they probably thought it was six, not five!" he laughed to himself, scratching the back of his head and sitting down, turning the channel to Cartoon Network, watching "Grandma got Run Over by a Reindeer!" it seemed festive enough to play it while people walked in, and if he didn't change the channel, he could quickly press 'last' to get back to the music.
And so he waited, through the entire movie, spending the later part of it pacing through the halls of the house, relying on his speakers to hear what was going on. He wasn't really paying attention though, instead he was practically biting his nails, wondering what had happened to his friends! First he sat down again, convinced they were ok, then he couldn't stop pacing, he then proceeded to eat half the chips, having to refill the bowl once more, and finally he pressed his face up to the glass of the door, waiting for car lights in what was a darkening atmosphere.
At nine o'clock he finally got the hint… nobody was going to come to his party, not after what happened last year, even though he promised it would be better. He sighed, head dropping down as he trudged back to the living room, with the humorous Home Alone playing when Alfred came in. It played quietly, but Alfred couldn't hear it, he couldn't hear anything, he simply walked in, falling face-first onto the floor, a frown on the ever-ecstatic face of the American. He couldn't believe it… he would be alone this Christmas Eve… He attempted to take a deep breath to calm himself, but it sounded ragged, sad, and broken, even during Christmas, they couldn't take him.