Newspaper peeked over his bosses shoulder. "What are you reading?" It certainly didn't look like something he'd written.
"The news." Austria didn't even look at him. He was cheating on him with another newspaper.
"Herr Roderich," He said softly. "How could you do this to me?"
"Zeitung, what are you going on about?" Oh, now he dared set eyes upon his face, now that he knew something could be wrong about the entire situation.
"You're. Seeing someone else. That 'Daily Prophet.' I don't like it. And I don't like that you're so nonchalant about it." Tears welled up in his eyes. "Am I not good enough, Herr Roderich? Is that it?" His fist clenched.
"Newspaper. Please stop saying such nonsensical things." Austria shook his head and went back to the paper. He'd have nothing of it though, and swiped the paper away. "What, no. Give that back." Roderich was unamused.
"But why, sir? Why do you want this garbage back when you have me?" He drew out the 'me,' making himself sound a bit like a whiny child.
"I'd prefer my paper back because it doesn't talk back at me." The not amused look did not go unnoticed.
"But Herr Roderich," Was he- By God, Mr. Newspaper was practically purring in his ear. "Don't you prefer it that way?" That self-confident, egotistical smirk graced his face naturally, as it was seen there so often.
"Zeitung. The hell?" Austria leaned back in his chair as far as he could, but it didn't seem to be far enough.
"Did you know," News slid himself into the other man's lap. "That I find it completely irresistible when you call me that?" He wrapped his arms around his neck and leaned in to kiss him. Roderich, however, had other plans. He craned his neck far enough back to tip the chair over, and his head smacked against the unforgiving floor. Newspaper rolled to the side as Austria felt the back of his head for blood.
"Herr Roderich! Are you alright?" Austria groaned and tried to sit up, but black spots clouded his vision. He carefully leaned back, cradling his skull.
"Newspaper." He sighed. "Call an ambulance. And never try to seduce me again."
"Newspaper?" Eliza raised an eyebrow. "The hell were you two doing?" They stood at the end of Roderich's hospital bed. He was bandaged up, but no worse for the wear.
"Well…" He ran a thin hand through his hair. "We…may have been maybe…about to have sex. Or something." A blush covered his freckled cheeks.
"Roderich. Please, I beg you, tell me you weren't about to sleep with your newspaper?" She put her hands on her hips, clearly not finding this as funny as she could. He shook his head.
"Of course not. I mean, he was practically dry-humping me, but that's all." Even he stopped at how odd that sounded.
"I was no-"
"Newspaper. Please, just stop." Eliza shooed him out of the room. Then, she turned to the bedded man again. "So you flipped over your chair to avoid actually rejecting him? Smooth, Roderich. Very smooth."
"Eliza, what was I supposed to do? I had my employee on top of me, read to undress and bed me without even paying for dinner-"
"Roderich. Reflect on what you just said."
"I-"
"Oh."
"Yes. Oh."
"Herr Roderich, I'm very glad you're home." Newspaper wrapped his arms around the slender man's torso. He, of course, slipped out of his grasp and made his way to the other side of the room in earnest.
"No touching. I'm…still sore? And besides, it's only been a few hours since we left. You only evacuated the hospital a half hour ago. How in God's name could you have missed me?" He shook his head and didn't wait for an answer, choosing instead to go into the other room and set himself gracefully on his piano bench.
True to his own character, Mr. Newspaper followed him quietly, standing near the doorway and listening to the notes. He warmed up a bit, then got to some of his Chopin. The younger man couldn't help but be drawn closer, until he was practically sitting on the bench himself. Austria shook his head, but didn't say a word. Instead, he kept playing, getting very into the ups and downs that the music took until it reached fine.
Newspaper clapped quietly. He was always amazed at his boss's ability to pull not only beautiful sound, but absolute personality out of the instrument. He'd tried it once himself, and only managed to break two wires, and get his hand stuck when he tried to fix them himself. He hadn't been allowed in the piano room for weeks after that lovely incident.
Roderich's long legs crossed the short distance between them in no time at all. Before Newspaper could speak, or Austria could change his mind, he grabbed the journalist by his collar and kissed him deeply. Without another word, and without revealing his bright blush, he left the piano room, closing the door softly behind him.
"Eliza, do you think that helped relieve the tension between him and myself?" Hungary looked up from her reading.
"Roderich. It only increased it by tenfold. Trust me on this." She chuckled.
"What? It was supposed to lessen it. Right?" He looked a little panicked.
"Multiple marriages and you still haven't figured this out? You can't just kiss people and wish sexual tension away. It doesn't work like that, silly." She got up and moved to where he leaned against the doorframe, kissing his lips lightly. "See? Now we'll have sexual tension for weeks." With a giggle, she left, probably to go home.
Austria stood awkwardly for a few minutes, simply wondering why such things kept happening that day. Then his mind wandered to why Eliza would want tension between them- did she want to sleep with him, or was that just his imagination taking everything too far? Or perhaps the doctor was wrong and he just had a concussion.