Arthur Kirkland would never admit the truth about how he felt for Alfred F. Jones. The American was always so loud and annoying, eating hamburgers while talking during world conference meetings and blabbering on about heroes. Arthur, like everyone else, would always tell him to shut up, but the truth was that he was in love with Alfred and had been for many years.
Even though Arthur had thought he had done a pretty good job at hiding this, everyone knew about the Englishman's feelings for Alfred. That is, everyone except Alfred and a few others knew. He was as oblivious to love as he was with reading the atmosphere. Kiku was the first one to try and fix the problem.
"Arthur-san," Kiku had said, "I heard Alfred-san saying that he wanted to see that new horror movie today, and you know how scared he can get. Maybe you should go with him, just to make sure he's alright."
"Are you suggesting I go out on a date with Alfred?," Arthur said, blushing fiercely. Kiku's head nodded just a tiny bit. "As if I'd ever go on a date with that git." Arthur said.
People had hinted and hinted to Arthur and Alfred, but nothing had ever come from it. One day, Francis and Antonio, two of the other nations who attended the world conferences, were out having lunch at a restaurant after a meeting. After talking about the usual topics of politics, the recession, Antonio's boyfriend Romano, and the Canadian representative Mathew, they got to talking about the tension between Alfred and Arthur.
"You see, mi amigo, I really just can't take it anymore. The tension between those two is just so distracting. No one is even focusing during the meetings anymore, they're just watching Arthur and Alfred, waiting to see what will happen next," Antonio said.
"Oui, mon ami, I'll admit I've been paying more attention to those two than to anything Ludwig's been saying about global warming these past few days. It's just so much more interesting, non?," Francis said, "But I agree, it has to end soon. And since I am the country of love, I think I should be the one to help them out."
And so, it was decided that Francis' plan would be put into action the next day.
"Alfred, my good friend! I was just in town to visit with your twin brother, Mathew, and I thought I'd stop by and say hello to you as well, and I was hoping that you would be ok if I could ask to spend the night here, since my flight leaves from an American airport in the morning?,"
"Oh, hey Francis! It's good to see you! How is Mattie, I haven't been to visit him in Canada for awhile. And of course you can spend the night at my place," Alfred said with the clueless smile he always wore. Of course he would never find it strange that Francis had ordered a plane ticket to return home from America instead of Canada, when that was where he had been going to in the first place.
"Ah, your brother is as charming as always, he took me to see one of his hockey games yesterday afternoon and I took him out to dinner afterwords."
"How are things in Europe? With the recession and everything, I haven't really been able to visit anywhere for anything other than work lately, and phone bills are getting expensive."
"I wouldn't know. I've had a cold for awhile and only got better recently, so I haven't been out of France much until now."
"Oh," Alfred said, with just a hint of disappointment in his normally cheerful blue eyes. Francis knew that, of course, he had been hoping to hear something about Arthur.
"Ah, well, it's getting late, and my plane leaves early tomorrow. Can you please show me to my room?," Francis asked, knowing that it would soon be time to put the first part of his plan into action.
Late that night, when Alfred was asleep, Francis crept into his room and cut off a small piece of his hair, nothing that Alfred would notice, but more than enough than Francis would need.
The next day, Francis was on his plane, heading not home to Paris, but to London instead. When the plane arrived a few hours later, he hurried to Arthur's house.
Now, Francis had known Arthur a long time, long enough to know that he always left his house at 10 AM on Sundays to go shopping, and that he always kept his spare key in the flowerpot near his door. He also knew that Arthur was always brewing potions. Needless to say, he knew that Arthur had brewed some love potions "in case of emergencies". All Francis would have to do was add a few pieces of Alfred's hair to one of those potions in Arthur's refrigerator and slip some of it into his afternoon tea, and by the world conference tomorrow, Arthur would be all over Alfred and finally confess his feeling to him. It was that simple.
Francis found the small, pink vial easily. He took the cork off and the smell of roses wafted out of it. As soon as he added a few strands of Alfred's hair, the potion turned the same ocean-coloured shade of blue as the American's eyes.
"What are you doing in my house, you git!?," a voice shouted. Francis hid the tiny vial behind his back, and turned to face the angry Englishman who was yelling at him.
"Ah, Arthur, I only came here to help my dear friend prepare his afternoon tea," Francis said, trying to sound innocent. Arthur glared at him, his eyebrows furrowed in anger.
"You lying. We've never been friends, Francis. I hate you, and I have no idea why you keep interfering with my life."
"Ah, but I'm not lying, mon cherie. I know how we've had our problems in the past, but I was really hoping we could get off to a fresh start, and I know how much you love your tea. I even got Yao and Kiku to give me some of the finest tea in of China and Japan for you," the Frenchman said, gesturing to a shopping bag that had boxes of tea he had left by the front door. Arthur picked it up, and sure enough, the boxes had never been opened.
"I still don't trust you, but good tea is good tea, so for now you can stay, as long as you brew it for me," Arthur said. Francis happily complied, slipping the love potion into Arthur's tea cup unnoticed. Arthur drank it cheerily.
"You know... this tea tastes different than I remembered. Almost more like the coffee that that American always drinks," Arthur noted. Francis laughed.
"Really, Arthur, I think you're imagining things because you're so desperate for 'that American'. It's not a secret anymore; everyone knows how you feel about him," Arthur laughed loudly.
"There's no way I could ever feel anything towards Alfred. He's so rude, and immature... and handsome... and kind," Arthur finished, blushing, as the effects of the potion began to fall on him.
"That's what I thought you'd say," Francis said with a smirk, "Now, I have to go home now. I promised Mathew I would call him later. Perhaps you should give Alfred a call before the world meeting tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I think I will. It's been awhile since I called him last," Arthur said, "And goodbye, Francis, I'll see you at the meeting tomorrow."
The next day at the meeting, Arthur arrived first as always. But today he was nervous. He had told Alfred that he had something important to tell him. Arthur had decided that today he would ask Alfred out on a date after the meeting. Arthur was wearing his best suit, and his favourite green tie that really brought out his emerald green eyes, his finest watch, and everything.
Alfred was the second one to arrive. He was surprised to see Arthur so dressed up, even more so than usual.
"Hey, Arthur, it's been awhile," he said with a grin, running up to his friend with a smile. Arthur smiled back.
"Hello, Alfred. You look very handsome, as always,"Arthur said. It took Alfred a moment to register what was going on.
"Arthur... are you... flirting with me?," Alfred asked with a blush. Arthur sighed, and pulled a rose out of his jacket.
"Alfred, I've been waiting years to ask you this, and I just finally got the courage recently. Will you go out on a date with me?"
"Of course I will!," Alfred beamed, throwing his arms around Arthur in a hug. Neither of them had noticed the gathering crowd, until everyone started cheering.
"It's about time that those two got together, huh?," Elizaveta, the representative of Hungary said to her husband, Roderick.
"They look so, like, totally cute together, right Toris!," Feliks, another of the representatives said to his friend, Toris.
"Well, I think now that that's out of the way, we should start the meeting now," Ludwig, the most serious of everyone there, said sternly.
"Ah... ahem... yes..," Alfred said, taking his seat. Arthur followed, taking the seat next to him.
"Umm... hey, Francis?," Arthur said to him, after a world conference six months later.
"Hm? What is it, mon ami?," Francis asked.
"Things are going great between Alfred and me, and I figured out what you did with the potion to make my feelings for him finally show, since I already loved him, and the effects wore off after a few days. So, I just wanted to thank you," Arthur said with a smile, "But don't think that this means that we're friends or anything. I still hate you."
Francis laughed. "Of course, I only wanted to help. And really, the tension between you two was getting to all of us, so I just did everyone a favour."
"And... Alfred and I wanted to know if you and Mathew wanted to go on a double date with us next week? Perhaps to see that new American horror movie that Alfred and Mathew can't wait to see," Arthur asked.
"Of course, I'd love to, and it'll be nice to see Mathew again so soon. I'll just call him later and ask," Francis said.
"And again... thanks," Arthur said, but he hastily added "But don't think that this means you can ever do anything like it again," Francis laughed and agreed.