Alfred walked back into the parking lot; he'd been shopping in the town centre for a while and he was starting to get tired, sure he'd only just parked there but still, he'd been shopping other places and his feet were beginning to hurt. He was just opening the door to his car (he still got confused sometimes with the change of sides when it came to the driver's seat… England was weird) when he fully noticed the large multi-store building that connected the parking lot. He was surprised he didn't see it before, but then again he sometimes went into a daze if he didn't have to pay attention; he looked down the row of shops and businesses. Movies, bowling, arcade, skating… this was place was awesome! But there were also other shops like the ever present 'Tesco' that was in England, as well as a 'Poundland' which he guessed was like Walmart back home; as well as some shops he'd never even heard of.

Alfred had recently moved to the UK, not only to help with his career but also for the change of scenery; and settling down in the large town was a good choice for him in his opinion. It was a nice change to the crowded cities that he grew up in, but it wasn't one of those little English villages that had nothing in them; so it was all good, a nice balance of population and facilities. Besides, English villages kinda creeped him out; he'd seen WAY too many horror movies that took place in small English villages where no one could hear you scream. He repressed a shudder as he decided to venture into some of these new shops.

Walking in, he was surprised with the size of the store; it didn't look that big from the outside. 'Looks like 'The Doctor' is at work here~' he thought giddily to himself as he smiled and made his way around the store; he'd been getting into British television for a while and he was loving it, especially now that he was in the actual country of origin. People never stopped noticing his accent on the street and were always really nice to him; and he had to admit, it was nice getting so much attention from complete strangers. Maybe it was vain of him to think so but it was cool to get people walking up to him and being so friendly, especially since the stereotype for British people that he'd grown up with was that they were all irritable fuddy duddies. Besides, he was pretty awesome to begin with (if he did say so himself) so why wouldn't they be nice to him?

The store was perfectly nice, just a normal shop with a variety of merchandise; clothing for the most part, and most of that being women's clothing, but there was a men's section, and the clothes they had were pretty good, cheap too. But then the store expanded to children's clothing as well as basic home supplies; stuff like bedspreads, frying pans, cups, plates, cushions, nothing extravagant but all essential stuff. Everything in the shop was cheap and honestly, Alfred was annoyed with himself that he hadn't been in here before; he was still buying stuff for his new house (in fact it was the reason he was shopping today, the rest of his stuff was in his car), and he had been paying a fortune for stuff at 'Homebase' and 'B&Q'. Here, a plate was £1 and there were offers everywhere! And the stuff was nice, he didn't really have a particular style or theme with his house and kitchen like some people and these were fine. AND he definitely wouldn't be spending £35 on a 'dining set' again anytime soon.

Despite this way of thinking, he decided against buying anymore stuff for the house, he'd do that another day, maybe; this store was nice and everything but nothing was really catching his eye, he'd already spent quite a bit of money today and he really should've been saving some. However even as he thought about this he picked up a few short sleeved T-shirts with American motifs; he needed a couple more shirts and these were cheap, besides, he was nothing if not a bit of a patriot. Not to mention he always felt a little guilty if he walked into a shop and didn't buy SOMETHING, even just a candy bar would do (needless to say, this frame of mind resulted in many of his 'impulse buys'); seeing as this shop didn't sell candy bars (which he thought was crazy!), he figured he'd buy something he needed. He walked back down the aisle near the queue that held men's formal suits and shirts, leading to the exit; he hadn't been down that aisle yet and he thought he might as well see the rest of the shop before buying his items and deciding if he should go there again or not. He was minding his own business in the queue behind an old woman, looking aimlessly about the tills, looking at the merchandise on the back wall; more cushions, boxes, oh hey! They did have candy! But it was only in big jars or tubes and those were expensive… yep, nothing of interest, just boxes, towels, cushions...

'Holy…'

A mop of messy blonde hair caught his eye; a flash of spun gold that caught the light as the person moved. Alfred's eyes widened as the blonde man behind the till served his customers, unknowing of his presence, moving with ease through the motions of his work; he gave his customer a small smile as he handed her the plastic bag full of clothes and Alfred felt his stomach flip. He wanted the man to smile at him like that. The man was perfection; even though his eyebrows were pretty damn big even they were perfect, they kinda suited him, and the more he looked, the more he liked them. They also hung above the most dazzling green eyes he'd ever seen, Alfred wished he was closer so he could have a proper look at them; he was slim too, his uniform polo shirt unbuttoned slightly and the collar laying lazily open. The mystery blonde was simply fantastic. He continued to stare openly at the man as a new customer gained his attention; he didn't care about anything at that moment, the last thing being his own sense of shame, he couldn't stand to tear his eyes away from the vision in front of him (and he wasn't one to exaggerate).

There weren't many people manning the tills apparently so the slightly large queue was going rather slowly, all the more time to stare; after a while he saw another man, on the register next to the green-eyed blonde, lean over and talk to him. This man had longer, paler blonde hair and a beard; not that the American bothered to take a proper look at him, he was too busy staring at the man with huge eyebrows. He watched as the man's expression became angrier from the moment he was spoken to, his eyebrows knotting beautifully as he then raised one of them in question; he opened a bag and looked to the queue as another customer came to him, Alfred swore that the man did a double-take. For one moment in time their eyes locked; it felt like an eternity and Alfred wished they could stay in that second forever, the man was looking over at him, those lovely green eyes slightly wide with the initial surprise and confusion. The moment ended almost immediately though and the blonde man went back to serving his customer, and Alfred continued to stare; every now and then he would catch the man's eyes flickering up to him for a split second before looking back down with determination.

Nothing else mattered in that moment; Alfred gazed at the man and concentrated his whole will, he yelled and screamed and prayed in his head, all the while keeping his eyes on the blonde. No matter what, more than anything… 'Please. Oh PLEASE!' he wanted to be served by this man; oh God in heaven let him be served by this man! The old woman in front of him stepped forward as the male English voice called out the man's till number, and Alfred felt his dreams die a little inside; but as she walked, the man on the other register called her over to him. Did that mean… yes! Alfred's whole face lit up like the fourth of July as he practically bounded forward; someone, somewhere must have heard him and apparently they liked him enough to grant his wish. He didn't really notice the kinda sour expression on the man's face but he didn't really pay it much mind anyway; a lot of people in England looked like that, it was like their national facial expression. He'd seen that expression a lot since he came to England… he couldn't imagine why. He smiled his best, most 'charming' smile, the kind that made people back home in America go nuts, no one could resist this smile.

Although… he wasn't in America anymore… And even if he was, he was pretty sure he was smiling more like a maniac than a cool, sexy guy; and this smile, whatever it was, wasn't working out the way he'd hoped. The Englishman just smiled shortly and Alfred ignored the summersault his stomach did.

"Thank you for waiting." He said politely; Alfred's knees almost buckled.

'OH GAWD that accent!'

Like many Americans, he had a soft spot for the British accent (though most of them claimed they didn't even have one; couldn't they hear themselves?), but THIS guy, it was insane! He'd heard plenty of British voices since he came to England, and he'd thought he'd got used to it by now but apparently not; this guy's voice was like music! Alfred couldn't think of anything articulate to say so settled with grinning his head off and practically yelled the very intelligent response:

"No problem!" he saw the man in front of him do another tiny double take, his eyebrows furrowing a little before blinking and getting back to work. The American wanted to see what other cute expressions the man could make. The whole time while his items were being scanned, Alfred felt as though the air was way too thick; the silence between them was unbearable. He subconsciously started to bounce on the balls of his feet a little, he couldn't stand it anymore. He had to say something; he had to talk to him!

"I've never been in this store before!" he grinned his most dazzling smile; 'Nice, Alfred; smooth, laid-back, good conversation, keep it up.' He psyched himself up in his head. "I'm really glad I came in now cause I saw you-y-" the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, now he was stuttering like a moron; the Brit looked up and raised a beautifully big eyebrow.

'NO. BAD. WRONG. WARNING!' this was NOT how things were meant to go. Alfred floundered for a quarter of a second before grasping at any escape he could find; thankfully, he was AWESOME at talking his way out of things. "Y- YOUR! Your SHIRTS! Y- yeah! Th- they're REALLY cool shirts! I uh, didn't know you guys liked the US that much! There's the flag and stuff… uh e-everywhere!" he inwardly slapped himself. 'NICE recovery, HERO.'

He looked up at the Englishman again (after noticing that he'd been looking at both the ceiling and his feet in succession during his panic) and observed that the blonde man's mouth was pressed into a hard line; he seemed speechless for a second but then took a breath through his nose and turned his attention back to the shirts; his voice seemed a little harsher when he spoke.

"Yes, though you'll notice the Union Jack dotted about the place as well, along with other nation motifs; it's a theme that's been rather popular since the whole Olympics season. Patriotism and all that." He completely missed his tone of voice (English people always sounded like that right?). Alfred stopped himself from looking dreamy-eyed; 'Haa~ 'dotted' his accent's so cute!' he thought before he'd actually registered what the other man had said; finally he felt as if he was on equal ground, he could start a conversation with this! And the rest would flow from there.

"Oh yeah!" he piped up happily, "Yeah the Olympics were awesome! And we won too so that was cool!" he smiled so much that his eyes squeezed shut in the process for a second; he opened them again and saw the one look he didn't want to see.

The man was staring at him in a mixture of what looked like (held back) disbelief, disgust, and disdain; his eyes slightly wide and his mouth hanging open the smallest bit. Oh yes, he'd seen THAT look many times since he'd come to England.

That was the 'Oh God, it's a stereotypical American!' look.

Alfred frantically tried to think of something to say, ANYTHING to say, anything to redeem himself, he'd obviously offended the man and that was the LAST thing he wanted; sadly, the only thing he came up with only seemed to dig himself deeper. "B-But you guys came third so hey! That's cool!" he stammered in a voice that was embarrassingly higher in pitch than it was usually. "Not everyone c-can go up against China and stuff so, yeah…" he trailed off pathetically and felt his whole body physically sink, he wished that he COULD sink into the floor and be gone forever. The Englishman looked at him blankly for a second, his voice was almost emotionless.

"Do you have a store card at all?" Alfred felt caught off guard again and mentally kicked himself for stuttering so much, he really didn't understand why he was acting like this today, he wasn't usually this nervous either; he put it down to embarrassment for making a fool of himself.

"A s-store card? What's that? Do you need one?" the smaller blonde moved to pick up a card on his cash register and lent on the counter; the American couldn't help his eyes from following him, feeling the heat rise in his cheeks. The Englishman turned the card over in his hands, looking at it lazily.

"Well, no you don't need one, it's not necessary, but it certainly helps if you do have one." He went on to explain the benefits of the card and honestly, it sounded pretty good to Alfred; but he was finding it really hard to concentrate. The man in front of him talked calmly while turning the card over almost absently; every now and then he would look up and Alfred from his position and make eye-contact, maybe to check he was still listening, each time he did, the American smiled and nodded once to show he understood. Holy crap this guy looked cute like that; leaning on the counter with that slightly bored look, turning the card over in his fingers, and his voice. Sweet JESUS that accent was to DIE for! He was practically prickling just from hearing it, like music washing over him. 'Woah wait what? No, bad Alfred. Listen to what he's saying, it's probably important; crud now I can't stop looking at his mouth!'

All too soon the Englishman stood up straight again. "Would you like to register for a store card today? It's completely free of charge." Alfred paused.

"That sounds pretty cool…" he said under his breath; he hadn't heard half of what the man said (too busy looking) but he could definitely see the card coming in handy, he could see himself going to the store again.

Y'know. For plates.

He tried to look charming again as he grinned. "Yeah! Sure why not!" when the man on the other side of the counter passed him a form to fill in, he looked to the pen resting on the cash register and looked to the other blonde with a smile "Can I fill it out now?" after a second the man answered absently.

"Yes of course; don't bother with phone numbers or anything like that, just the home address and email address really matters… And your date of birth if you want that voucher." He was looking at his cash register screen inattentively.

Half way through filling in the little boxes on the form, Alfred remembered the parking ticket he got when he came in; he fished it out of his pocket, aware that in some places he could get free parking.

"Do you guys validate parking?" he asked with a grin.

"Have you done all your shopping within the hour?"

"Yep! This was the last store I came to! Just got in the parking lot." He chirped happily, cheerful that he was able to talk a little more with the man. His small smile made it feel like his stomach was trying to join a gymnastics team.

"Ok, you fill out that form and I'll go do this for you." The Englishman said politely as he turned and walked down the line of tills towards a little machine on the desk by the wall; the American smiled as he continued to fill in the boxes on the form, but couldn't stop his eyes from flitting up for a quick glance…

And holy shit did this guy work out? 'Christ, his ass is fantastic! Damn… lookit that… wh- NO. BAD Alfred! The form! F-fill out the form...!' his blush deepened as he caught the knowing smirk of the bearded blonde man on the till across from him.

By the time the man came back to the till, Alfred had just about filled out all the boxes (he put his phone number down anyway. Might as well). He handed over the form along with two £20 notes (he still found it a little funny that English money was colour coded) and felt a little too happy when the shorter man thanked him for it; he asked if he wanted the receipt in the bag and the American was taken aback for the millionth time that day.

"Uh, yeah sure go ahead!" he had no idea why the man had asked. He was about to take the bag off the counter when the blonde held out a piece of flimsy card. Alfred took it automatically, not even knowing what it was.

"You can use this in the meantime." The Englishman explained. "Just bring it in next time you come in store and you can use it as many times as you like until your card arrives, then just throw this one away." Alfred looked at it for a split second then grinned at the cashier with his best smile.

"Awesome! Thanks a lot for all your help!" the man smiled shortly as he handed him his bag, making the American smile even more.

"Have a nice day."

"Thanks! You too, see ya!" and with that, he waved and left the shop, grinning his head off.

Alfred practically skipped to his car.

He wanted to run; he wanted to jump, he wanted to throw his bag down on the ground and dance like he'd just scored a touchdown. He didn't know what he wanted to do but he did know ONE thing for certain.

A plan was now in motion.

A most cunning plan that would take all his skills and charms.

He was going to that store again.

He was going to meet that man again.

He was going to see A LOT more of him.

Fortunately, fate had always rather preferred Alfred in the grand scheme of things anyway.

Chapter 2! Guys I can't believe the response I've recieved from this fic. Thank you SO much! It's given me the determination to write the next chapters with even more determination! X3

I tried to make the changes that people suggested to me but I still don't fully know how this site works so I'm sorry if I'm making it difficult for you :'3

This chapter is just chapter 1 but from Al's perspective XD (I always like it when Al's the one who falls first XDD and from first sight too ;3).

There's more dialogue and stuttering cause the way I see it: Arthur didn't really care and wanted to forget the meeting, so he didn't really remember all that was said. Al cared too much and so remembers every horrible detail of his humiliation XDD

I love writing fail!Alfred XDD

Thank you so much again everyone and I hope you enjoy this chapter and chapters to come! Any reviews are welcome! X3