I'm back again with another non-depressing USUK story. Not much to say here... Please review if you want more~.


Arthur let out a groan. His eyelids felt like they had been screwed shut, and the pounding in his head was as if something was caught inside his skull and bashing his brain with a hammer. The pain hit him like a truck upon waking up. He hadn't even opened his usually brilliant, green eyes yet.

This was more than just a normal hangover. The light-blond Brit knew that. What he didn't know, or didn't remember was what had happened the previous night, where he was now, or what he was even doing before he was drinking.

"Artie… You awake, dude?" He was unable to completely register the speaker, but whoever it was sounded as if he were talking in a hushed way, thankfully. Too bad it wasn't very much of a help. The whispered words were so sharp he felt like someone had just driven a stake through his brain. The Englishman let out another unpleasant sounding groan. His throat hurt now too. No doubt when he opened his eyes or tried to move, that'd cause even more pain.

"How are you feeling?"

Arthur opened his mouth to respond, rather than just moan, as he wasn't getting his point across that he didn't want to be bothered very clearly. Nothing came out. Just a choked, raspy breath.

Silence. For the next eternity it seemed, Arthur remained quiet, and so did the other chap sitting beside him. Finally he brought himself to crack his heavy eyelids open, only to immediately shut them as his vision was blurred with bright white lights. He tried moving his hand up to shield his eyes, but it was no use. He couldn't move his hand.

"Oh, here, lemme help!" Arthur waited a moment and then picked up on the lack of brightness now in the room through his eyelids. He forced them open again at a snail's pace. At first things were either very sharp and doubled, or blurred and melted together. He really didn't get a clear focus on anything until he cut his eyes to the side at the other man who was leaning close to his flushed face.

The blue-eyed American came into focus. It was Alfred! What was he doing here at his house? Were they even at his house?

"A-alfred?" Arthur choked out in a rough whisper.

"Shh, yes. I'm here."

"What-" The Englishman had to stop and breathe. Talking was harder than he thought.

"After you visited me… I guess you left and went to a bar. You were driving on the wrong side of the road and got in a head-on crash," Alfred informed him, trying to keep his loudness down.

Arthur took a few moments to think about this. He didn't recall any of it. Ahhhh… wait. Now he sort of remembered. It was still pretty foggy. He had been at Alfred's house. They'd been watching some stupid movie together, and Arthur had tried to be… romantic. Alfred was just too oblivious. When he left he was pretty frustrated but Alfred had been unaware of that too!

"Th-this is your… bloody fault!" England choked again, sort of hissing. It was hard to make it out, but from what he could tell the American looked slightly shocked. He didn't say anything, though. He just sat there with his mouth ajar like the ignorant fool he was.

"I-I... n-no… If I had known you went out drinking afterwards I woulda gone to drive you!" Even though the American was quick to defend himself, he was obviously trying his hardest to keep his voice low. No matter that. Arthur wanted him to shut up all together. He tried to not focus on Alfred for a moment and zoned out, eventually falling back asleep.


"Hey," said Alfred from the doorway. This drew Arthur's attention from gazing out the window from his propped up position on the stiff hospital bed. He watched Alfred with tired eyes that looked like they'd barely had any sleep despite the copious amounts he'd gotten in the last few days.

"Good morning, Alfred." Arthur didn't sound too enthused at his presence.

"You get a good rest while I was gone? I kept comin' to visit you but you were like asleep every time I came."

"No. I've gotten horrible sleep."

"Oh… Sorry."

"Everything… hurts…"

"Well… If it makes you feel any better I haven't gotten any sleep either."

"How does that make anything better?"

"Well I dunno. I just thought," Alfred paused and shrugged, "you'd wanna know that I've been worried about you. I've been up late every night in case there's something that happens with you."

"Oh." There was a pause. "Well… Why would I want to know that?" The Brit asked, another pause following. Alfred just shook his head and gave a slight shrug.

"Arthur… If nothing else… I really want you to stop drinking." Arthur narrowed his eyes but listened. "When it lands you in the hospital… I just don't like seeing you like this."

"I should hope you don't! And besides! I can stop anytime I want to. I just choose not-"

"No, I don't think you can, dude. I'm really being serious. And I've come up with an idea." Arthur stared at him. Another one of Alfred's super ideas? Great. Arthur just rolled his forest green eyes.

"Fine then. Let's hear it."

"Well I was thinking it was about time I, ya know, went on a diet," Alfred started, lowering his blond head.

"That may be true but what does this have to do with me?"

"Erm well I was thinking that maybe we could do it together." Alfred looked up again, at Arthur, his blue eyes sparkling. "Except you'd not drink and I'd go on a more… restricted diet. So that way we won't be alone in doing it and you keep telling me to go on a diet so that could be your motivation, and you not drinking for my diet could be mine."

Arthur had to admit. That idea wasn't half bad. Alfred really did need to stop over-eating. A diet would be great for him. And even though he had been frustrated at him, he still did care about Alfred's health. He knew that this was mainly for his own benefit to stop drinking, but he could use this. And have fun with it. This was definitely one of the better ideas that popped into Alfred's head.

"So?"

"Alright. I agree. This could work." Arthur could just see Alfred's face lighting up slightly.

"Awesome, du-"

"Ah-ah! Wait. There need to be terms! I get tell you what you can eat. And if you slip up… I get to drink for whatever things you caved into." Yes… And he knew this diet would be difficult for Alfred. The American would probably wind up failing at one point and he'd get to enjoy some alcoholic beverage of his choosing. Of course, everything he planned on making Alfred eat was healthy. Nothing harmful. Not even burnt scones if he didn't want them.

"Alright! Deal!"

"And!" Arthur paused. Was he really going to add this? It was a good opportunity… A great chance really for him to draw them together. "When I recover enough to leave. I want us to stay together so we can make sure we don't give in and don't tell the other."

"You mean like… live together?" Alfred asked, blinking, a little bit... surprised.

"Erm well, for a time. I suppose that's what I mean. You know, until we both get on better tracks."

"Alright… That's cool, but can we stay mostly at my place?"

"Mostly."

"Cool! Then we've got a deal!"


Ohohoho... First Chapter! I can't give you a rough estimation about how long this one will be, so for right now I'm just leaving the length undecided.