Hello! This was my secret santa fic for 2012. Thought I'd just upload it here wheeeeeeeeeeeee. Also side note: Veronica - Portugal and Emma -Belgium

Upon waking up Alfred noticed two things: the right side of him felt cold, like the body that had spent the night curled against him had fled the bed as soon as he had woken up and that someone was threading their fingers through his hair. Oh… well Artie didn't leave the bed like he thought. Unless that was someone else fucking with him, but he and Arthur had locked the door last night in case anyone - particularly the four women who had spent the whole of yesterday bothering the shit out of them as soon as they had heard the two of them were a couple after so long - thought it would be funny to keep on opening the door and screaming dumb things. So that would only mean Arthur was the one running his hands through his hair.

Artie must have thought he was still sleeping. Ha, who said that guy wasn't a romantic?

"'ornin'…" Alfred finally blinked open his eyes to get small glance at Arthur, who stopped the hair petting thing or whatever you'd call it, sitting opposite of the side he slept, slightly red and looking a bit panicky, "'hat? Why'd you stop?" He got himself into a sitting position so he could better look at his (wow it felt weird to say this) boyfriend.

"Stop what?" Arthur huffed as he quickly drew his hand back down into his lap. Alfred attempted to make a goofy face to get him to actually admit it, but Arthur returned it with a glare and pinched his face.

"Ow! The hell man?" Alfred rubbed at where Arthur pressed his fingers too deeply into his skin, "I thought you'd stop that… Oh god that fucking hurt. You're awful," Alfred stuck his tongue out at Arthur again, who did not hit him like the last time, but rather gave a light smile, a quick laugh and pressed a kiss to his injured cheek.

"That didn't hurt as bad as you thought love…" Arthur gave him one of his damn smart ass grins, and hopped off the bed.

"It did, you son of a gun!" Alfred shouted after Arthur as he marched towards the door and carefully unlocked it to head to the bathroom to take a bath.

Arthur chuckled a little as the door broke open just a crack and he kept his hand over the knob, "Don't be such a baby Alfred." He winked before pushing the door fully away, creaking as it did so after not having been used for almost a year now, and stepped out into the hall.

"I'm not a baby Artie! I thought you'd stop doing that now that we're… wait… shit." He could've sworn he heard Artie laughing like a damn maniac. "You are awful Arthur… a god awful loser!"

"Not my problem." Alfred heard being shouted over the loud gushing sound of water spilling.

"It is too now," he replied to Arthur quietly now that he'd secured the door shut. He sighed to himself, kicked the blankets off, and slipped off the bed next to the nightstand where his glasses lay. Alfred wasn't sure how long Arthur would be soaking that ho-

Okay he shouldn't let his mind go there.

But he'd just have to wait until that loser was done soaking in the tub - or really sleeping in the tub, but after all the shit that happened to Arthur (and his siblings too) in the past six years, he'd wait… it gave him time to think about what exactly they were doing here… this relationship he guessed.

Alright, so it kinda started off as a deal since two certain people had been hearing about how Alfred was sure Arthur hated him and how he knew he really really liked him since the end of Reconstruction. (And no one should have had to put up with him during Reconstruction… really… all those radical republicans being… well fucking jackasses and overly sad about Lincoln…) It got to the point where he swore those two were going to kill themselves - And one of them he wouldn't have minded if she did. Alright, naw he would mind, 'cause then he'd have no one to mess around with - if he didn't tell Artie soon. There were lots of chances for Alfred to actually admit it over the years, but just… he was so sure that Arthur hated his guts at all those points he could have told Artie (and some of those times, like that time with Venezuela (and Chile, can't forget Chile…) just furthered Alfred's ideas about Arthur's hatred towards him. Seriously) he just gave up all chances to say it out loud to him.

But then the Great War happened, and when he saw how mad Arthur got when that Zimmerman telegraph came to Mexico (not like she'd invade him like that anyway, pretty sure the ABC countries would be super pissed at the both of them and then that whole revolution was going on in her home. She was too busy trying to keep track of who was her boss at the moment and who had been murdered shitless)he began to hope that maybe there was a tiny chance that Arthur liked him back. Until he actually got to the battlefield and Arthur just didn't seem alright about that. He just acted like he normally did when he was around him - a big Mr. Grumpy Pants. Except he seemed so nice to Emma and Veronica - especially after the Battle of Lys… where Alfred guess he could say he respected Veronica… (Damn was she a badass.)

Then it was all over and that treaty that happened would have really change everything for the better, Alfred thought he could do it just go over and tell him… but just the way Arthur and Francis were so adamant about getting revenge (Okay really just Francis, but Arthur was a part of it too) that he just couldn't. Not to mention how later on when Alfred's own suggestion to do the League of Nations would be taken up, but he didn't even join it. He was just fucking done with Europe. That idea increased as soon as Black Thursday happened and he just about got fucked over and everyone else got fucked over.

And pretty much the 30's were the worst times he'd ever had, right after Reconstruction (not even during the civil war was it that bad, seriously). To make things worse, Kiku started going crazy on his left while Ludwig was going crazy on his right, and because everyone was going crazy, another war happened (What was wrong with Europe man? Alright Latin America had their fights too, but Brazil and Argentina weren't as bad as they used to be!). Alfred didn't dare get into another fight again, he kept saying he was neutral over and over… but Arthur begging him to join made him once again believe that maybe, just maybe, Artie liked him back.

So when he did eventually get into the war (and not in a matter he was too pleased about), and he and Artie would sit around and plan everything, and he attempted to drag him out of his library to actually do stuff with him… he just… wow. It was like those slight feelings he had for him were just slowly increasing. And he swore to god he saw them returned in Arthur too - or maybe he could have just been imagining it. But when the end finally happened and all their troubles were almost gone, (not yet though, since he was still pissed at that damn Jap for what he did. And he needed to finish that up before he could finally say "We're good, buddy") Arthur looked so happy and ecstatic that day and, well he… had no clue what happened, but suddenly Arthur ran up to him and just flat out kissed him. And holy shit, he didn't even ask why - he was too happy and giddy himself - that he just kissed him back and kept hearing cheers and claps from so many people he didn't give a shit anymore.

So when the night hit, and they were slowly coming down from the high of the war ending, they finally did have a proper talk about their relationship and all. And boy was that awkward as hell. As they talked it seemed that as everyone was leaving Arthur's house to go back to their own, they all seemed really happy now that two of them were finally together after so long, especially Matt and Francis.

And when Arthur's siblings heard (not to mention Emma and Veronica (who the hell let her in anyway)) that was when they'd just up and decided to spend the rest of the night in Arthur's bedroom - locked of course. The night was spent packing and with awkward glances until Alfred up and climbed into Arthur's bed, curled up against Artie and fell asleep.

Man.

The sound of a creaky door cut him off of his thoughts, and he peered out the door to find Arthur with his hair damp and water trickling down his cheeks, dressed in his usual sweater and tan pants combo, rubbing his hands down his legs to get whatever wrinkles he had in the pants, when he looked up to find Alfred just starting happily at him.

"You should get ready soon…" Arthur said, stopping directly at where Alfred stood and pressed a light kiss to his lips, "You're leaving for the Pacific today aren't you?"

Alfred smiled weakly back, "Yeah I am…" He scratched at the back of his neck, "I guess we should have told each other sooner, and uhm… not have had to have waited so long so this…" Alfred just gestured with his hands, going around in incomprehensible circles, "Uh wouldn't have happened…"

Arthur sighed and stepped past him but turned around, "I guess we just thought we hated each other for so long." He smiled and put his arms across his chest, "But, what happened happened. Can't rewrite history can you, love?"

Aw shit. He was calling him love… well at least the awkwardness was fading away, "Naw…" But it just quickly came back when he looked down at his feet and then back at Arthur, "So I guess I'll just… go… clean up and eat and then… uh, go to the docs?"

Arthur approved of that plan as he nodded, "Sounds alright." He turned about his heel and started to go down that winding staircase but Alfred stopped him.

"You're coming down to see me off, aren't you?" Alfred called before Arthur could descend down the stairs.

Arthur chuckled, "Of course, love," and continued downstairs to the kitchen, where he hoped to god that he wouldn't make him a going away breakfast. But he sighed and watched the man he'd loved for most of his life gracefully slip down the stairs and disappear.

The world didn't seem so lonely to him at that point.

A/N: Aaand, that's the end of it! There are a couple things I want to add though, the Venezuela thing I mentioned is this incident where Guiana found gold in there land, right by the border of the two countries - well Guiana was a colony at the time however to great Britain. Venezuela claimed that that land with the gold was theirs, while Guiana argued it was theirs. It got out of hand that America had to step in, and almost threatened another war with Britain, until Venezuela just gave up. The Chilean one I mentioned was where two US marines were in Chile and got drunk, had a bar fight and got killed. The US blamed Chile for having their marines killed and was about to declare war in Chile. Britain eventually stepped in to stop the two from fighting. The last thing I wanted to mention was the ABC countries - Chile, Brazil and Argentina. America invaded Veracruz during the Mexican Revolution and caused a major battle that would have resulted in another war, however the ABC countries stepped in and prevented the two countries from actually doing so. Hence why the ABC countries would be mad that after working out that problem to prevent them from going to war three years ago, war was going to happen. And Mexico couldn't invade anyway since the mexican political soap opera was happening. Just wanted to clarify on those things. Ye.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and liked it. (I had a lot of fun writing it as well.) And special thanks to my friends Five and Dragon for betaing this.

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