Alfred hadn't known that what he'd said to his husband that morning was going to be taken the wrong way, but it was too late to try and take it back, once the hurtful words had left his mouth. His husband was absolutely furious with him after he heard those words that the American regretted even considering to utter. His love, Ivan, hadn't been afraid to express how he felt about the simple statement either. For the first moment after the words had been spoken, he just silently stared at his husband in shock. Though it didn't take long at all for the bemused expression to transform into one that was full of outrage. The icy glare that had decorated his features during at that moment was enough to send chills down the spine of the one who'd unintentionally provoked him. Alfred could've sworn that the room became twenty degrees colder, as he'd broken out into a frigid sweat under all of the pressure.
Not even an apology seemed to be enough to make up for what he'd said, as Ivan ignored any attempt that Alfred had made to say that he was sorry. Instead, he gave him a full on rant about why what he'd just said was messed up and how it would be considered extremely offensive to people who had been through the same struggles as he'd been through. Unfortunately, the lecture didn't seem to be enough, as after he'd finished with his angry speech, Ivan didn't talk to his husband for the rest of the morning. He didn't even give him a kiss, as he usually did every day before heading off to work.
All of this had left Alfred in a terrible mood that morning. This certainly wasn't how he wanted to start out his day off from work; all he'd wanted to do was have an interesting conversation with Ivan before he was left on his own for eight hours. Wasn't the fact that he had some sort of sickness affecting his stomach, that made him have no appetite and sometimes gave him cramps, enough of a misfortune to deal with? According to the unfair universe, it wasn't. He just hoped that whatever higher power that might be out there would have some sympathy for him and not make his day any worse than it already was.
However, there seemed to have been something that Alfred had done to make that random deity angry with him, as when he had called his brother to see how he was doing (it'd been six months since he'd seen him in person, as well as a week since he'd made any sort of contact with him), he'd somehow managed to end up in a rather heated argument with his normally agreeable brother. Then, he was abruptly hung up on in mid-sentence. He didn't understand what had caused the argument in the first place, nor did he care. All he knew was that if people were only going to disagree with everything he said that day, or if he continued to mess up when it came to socializing with other human beings, he wasn't sure if he was even going to want to be around anyone for the rest of the day. Even if he was an extrovert, having no contact with anyone for an entire week was beginning to sound pleasant to him.
Until his husband returned home from work, Alfred had promised himself that he would stay reclusive (unless Ivan didn't want to talk to him; in which case, he would remain silent for the rest of the day) for the rest of the time that he had the opportunity to be home alone. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to handle going to work with his horrible emotional state and the faint cramps in his stomach that were making him all the more irritable. As much as he loathed the fact that his adversity was making his day off an unpleasant experience, he couldn't help also appreciating the fact that he at least had the chance to try and blow off some steam and forget about his two unfortunate, social encounters. Sure, he still had his physical discomforts to deal with, but at least he could hopefully try to distract himself from that with some sort of entertainment.
Alfred remained on the couch for a couple of hours. The movie he was watching had been interesting enough to make him forget about his current struggle to socialize with other human beings. Beside, being wrapped up in a thick blanket and laying on his side was easing his cramps. Relaxation also seemed to be a much more pleasant emotion to him that it usually was (and it was one of his favorites), after having to deal with all of the stress of the morning. He just hoped that he could remain this comfortable for the rest of the day, and not have to deal with anymore problems.
Another hour passed by, and at first, things seemed as if they were going to continue to be fine. That was, until Alfred felt a sharp pain shoot throughout his stomach. Though the sudden pain had caught him off guard and caused him to squirm around for a bit, he tried to pay it no mind. After all, it could've just been one of those random body pains that he would sometimes have every now and then. He certainly didn't feel queasy, overheated, or agony that lasted more than a few seconds. He'd also been drinking a lot of water, as the doctor had told him to. Everything was going to be fine with his stomach, he was almost sure of it.
Much to his misfortune, however, his stomach was not finished with being in any sort of pain after the random stabbing sensation that he'd just experienced, as the cramps that he thought he'd made go away began to return. Alfred still tried his best to ignore the pain, though. As long as it was still quite minor, as it was at that very moment, there would be no need for him to fret over it. Stressing out over the pain would only make it worse and aggravate his stomach. Besides, if it became too unbearable, he could always put a heating pad on his stomach.
It didn't take too long for the cramps to be painful enough to cause him to start squirming around. The sharp pain that he thought wasn't going to return ended up doing so anyways, and sometimes when it dulled, it would return right when he let his guard down, as he thought that every time it became insignificant, it would be gone for good. He'd really hoped that he wouldn't end up having to use a heating pad. He simply did not want to leave the comfort of the couch, but laying down on the particular piece of furniture was starting to not feel that comfortable to him as time passed by. Nothing could be comfortable when one was in a lot of pain.
Since Alfred no longer wanted to deal with the pain that he was in, he decided to leave the warmth of the couch and set off to look for his heating pad. He couldn't help but appreciate the fact that his search hadn't lasted long at all, as walking was only making him feel queasy, and was also aggravating the cramps. While he prepared the heating pad, so that it would actually be useful for keeping his agony at bay, he tried to remain seated throughout the process, as his legs were starting to become shaky every time he stood. When the heating pad was finally warm enough, he applied it to his stomach, and let out a sigh of relief when he felt the muscles in his abdomen relax. Keeping the heat on his stomach for a few seconds had also made the cramps much more faint. In fact, he would say that they were almost nonexistent at that point. Now that he was in bliss with having been relieved of the pain, he resumed to laying down on the couch, and continued to watch the movie he'd been watching while the heating pad did it's job.
Time continued to pass by, as Alfred enjoyed his time without feeling any discomfort, and at one point, he'd eventually became so comfortable on the couch that he began to doze off. That was, until a surge of nausea made itself present within his gut, and the pain that he'd thought he made go away had returned once again. He even found himself removing the heating pad from his stomach, as it was beginning to make him feel overheated.
On his way to the bathroom, Alfred began to gag, as he tried to prevent his body from vomiting while he was walking towards the room. He felt too weak and sickly to want to have to clean any potential mess off of the carpet in the hallway, and he didn't want to give his husband any more reasons to be angry with him if he ended up not cleaning up his puke. It was already horrible enough that he didn't believe that Ivan would forgive him for accidentally offending him that morning. He didn't need anymore problems that day.
Not too long after he entered the bathroom, Alfred prepared himself to vomit into the toilet as quickly as he possibly could. Sure, there was no carpet or rug he would have to worry about cleaning up if he'd happened to up chuck all over the floor (which would make ridding the floor of the mess a much easier task), but he was still not in the mood for having to clean up after himself. As the gagging continued, though, he averted his mind's attention away from the thought of making a mess, and focused on trying to remove what ever his stomach wanted gone from his body. It didn't take too much longer for the bile to finally make it's up to his throat, and when it did, Alfred felt relief for the fact that letting it leave his body might end up making him feel a bit better. The only thing that he wasn't looking forward to after he was finished doing this was the sore throat that he would have right after the vomit passed through it.
Alfred flushed the toilet once he was finished emptying the contents from his stomach. A vile taste remained in his mouth, but he was too worn out to want to brush his teeth at that point. All he wanted to do was sallow a couple of painkillers and go to bed, so that he could hopefully fall asleep. When he poured a couple of pills into his hand, he didn't really care much for the fact that he hadn't bothered to grab a cup from the kitchen and fill it with water. Instead, he decided to drink straight from the faucet in order to make the pills easier to swallow. He knew that some people would probably consider this gross, but it would be the quickest way for him to gather up some water into his mouth for the pain killers. Besides, no one was around to see him do this, so there was no need for him to worry about looking socially acceptable at every waking moment. Not that he would care much in his sickly state, anyways.
When he'd finished swallowing the pills and drank enough water to feel hydrated, Alfred began to make his way out of the bathroom. However, the pain that had still remained in his stomach area didn't seem to want him to leave the bathroom, as he felt himself grow feint with every step. By the time he was right next to the door, he'd felt his legs give out, which was when he decided that it would probably be best for him to give up on trying to leave the bathroom, and instead lay on the floor as he waited for his condition to improve. The cold tile floor of the bathroom helped him feel a bit better though, as he was feeling quite febrile at the moment.
As the pain continued to pester his nerves, Alfred began to feel tears gather up in his eyes. He just couldn't understand what he had done to make this day turn out so horrible for him. It's not as if he'd meant to make his husband all worked up that morning, so karma shouldn't have been punishing him for that. Besides, he learned his lesson about not saying anything similar to what he'd said that morning, after being scolded and then given the cold shoulder by the one person he cared most for in the entire world. His brother had also been the one to start and perpetuate the argument between them. Alfred had been the one who tried to stop it. The fact that he was now lying on the floor as a result of the pain he was in had been made this day one of the worst he'd ever had in of his life. He didn't even want to begin to think of the ways that it could end up turning out much worse than it already was.
The pain killer that he'd tried to take didn't even end up having much of a chance to work either, as after what had seemed to be twenty minutes of him lying on the floor and moaning in pain, he suddenly felt yet another surge of nausea, and ended up throwing up a second time. Fortunately, he was able to make sure that the vile substance ended up in the toilet. He was still highly disappointed with the fact that the pain killers probably didn't even have the chance to work, though, and he didn't want to risk swallowing anymore pills in case they had ended up working (which based on his luck, he doubted that they did). He just didn't understand why his body was now trying to reject the one thing that would've helped him overcome this. He knew now that he was most likely up for a very long session of agony. He just hoped that his husband would return home soon. Maybe Ivan would be willing to help him out, despite the fact that he had offended him that morning.
Alfred was in the process of drifting off to sleep by the time he heard footsteps approach him. He had no clue how long he'd been laying on the bathroom floor, but he couldn't help but feel relieved when he noticed that his husband had finally returned home. Though his cramps were not as terrible as they had been when he first started laying on the bathroom floor, he was still too worn out from all of the pain he had to deal with that day to want to move. All he wanted to do at that point was sleep.
When Ivan spotted Alfred laying on the floor, looking as pale as a ghost, he couldn't help but feel a bit worried for his love at that moment. Seeing him this way also sort of made him regret lashing out at him earlier as well. Thinking back, he realized that what his husband had said really wasn't that horrible, and he could've just calmly explained why he wasn't okay with what he'd said, instead of freaking out like a child. Besides, he figured that putting him through such stress was only going to aggravate his sickness.
Ivan kneeled down so that he could scoop Alfred into his arms. His husband was shivering, so he figured that tucking him into bed would make him feel better.
While Alfred was being carried, he decided to snuggle his head into his husband's shoulder. The warmth was helping him overcome his chills, and the fact that Ivan was now willing now carry him to a more comfortable location made him feel as if he'd been forgiven for accidentally hurting him that morning. There had been something in the back of his mind that told him that the Russian would still be angry with him when he returned home, and he was grateful for the fact that that paranoia had been proven wrong. He was already beginning to feel much better as he was tucked into the king sized bed he shared with his husband.
When Alfred was wrapped tightly into the thick overlay on the bed, Ivan leaned forward to give Alfred a quick kiss on the forehead, and then told him, "I hope you feel better soon."
A warm fuzzy feeling began to flood Alfred's stomach after being kissed; causing him to feel as if he'd never had a problem with another human being in the first place. Perhaps that day wasn't so terrible after all.
A/N: This story is pretty much me just venting out all of those times that someone lashed out at me for accidentally saying something offensive. I don't understand why these people can't just try to understand that it's never my intention to start something with them, or why they can't just calmly explain why what I said was wrong. They know that I'm socially inept. Besides, how come they never attack the people who actually want to be jerks? I'm not sure if you guys can relate to this or not, but to me, this is one of the most annoying things I have to deal with in my life. Besides, freaking out like that just makes me not have as much sympathy for the person as I usually would.
Also, half of the time after something like this happen, I always end up being in a lot of physical pain too. I don't know why, but I think life hates me sometimes.