Arthur's POV

"Arthur!" Natalia's voice rang around the store. Oh shit, I thought to myself stuffing the poetry book back into its proper shelf and stood up. I dusted off my green sweater vest and trousers the store makes me wear as some type of nostalgia, when I think they just did it to torture me. They were always trying to torture me.

"Yes, Natalia?" I asked as properly as I could without straining myself. "I was just cleaning this bookcase."

She frowned walking over to the bookcase with her loud heels clicking on the red carpet. Unlike me, she got to wear a sleek indigo dress with a white apron and frills on the bottom. At the crown of her platinum hair was a white bow that made her seem innocent when she was certainly terrifying. I bet she keeps knives or some other type of weapon in there. "Cleaning, hmm? I doubt that. You're supposed to be selling the books, not reading them! I wonder why my brother gave you this job anyways?" She said with a chuckle. "Ivan wants you to lock up tonight after you clean up this aisle."

"But this aisle is clean," I said catching the keys that she threw towards my way.

With a flick of her right hand, she knocked the entire bookcase over. I winced. "And now it's not. Clean it," she snarled leaving the book store with an insufferable laugh.

"Bloody bitch," I muttered to nobody collecting all of the books into my hands. This was going to take a while. Let me explain why I even tolerate with this bitch in the first place. First, I come from a poor family of starving writers, and what better place for inspiration than a book store. Second, the family that owned the store wasn't as bad as Natalia was. Actually, Ivan was even worse, but their parents and older sister were not. Maybe the parents dropped Ivan and Natalia on their heads or something. Or maybe they were adopted. Whatever the reason was, they were most certainly nothing like the rest of them.

The door made a dinging noise informing me that a customer was here. Of all the times a customer had to come, it had to be now. We barely get customers anyways, thanks to Natalia and Ivan's auras. "Sorry, we're closed," I lied stumbling to retrieve the last of the books Natalia tossed onto the floor into one tall stack.

"Do you need some help?" he asked rushing over to where I was. "I'm a hero here to help! Here let me lift this back up for you," he said lifting up the bookcase with ease.

"Thanks but I really do-" and that is when I saw him. Sapphire eyes with golden locks dropping down his face and an obnoxious cowlick that screaming nothing other than Alfred F. Jones. He even had the bomber jacket for Christ's sake. But, it couldn't be. He was only a computer program unit that my younger brother, Peter, would sometimes force me to listen to before I moved out. I cleared my throat. "Thank you."

He smiled radiantly making my heart flutter in inconsistent heart beats. "Glad to help, Arthur."

"How do you know my name?" I asked raising one of my, totally normal sized, eyebrows.

"Oh, uh, that girl has a pretty loud voice," he stumbled to say, which was an obvious clue to a lie. His eyes watched as I placed a red covered book onto the shelf in amazement. "So…do you work here?"

"Sadly," I muttered.

The mysterious man laughed. "You say it like it's a bad thing."

"I don't suppose you hate working do you?"

"It's…monotonous," he said scratching the back of his neck as another obvious sign of lying.

He couldn't be Alfred, I thought. He is all too real. "Are you staying in town long?"

"I'm not sure that my brother would like that."

"I see. Well, you are always welcome at my place."

His blue eyes gleamed behind his pair of wired glasses. "Really? That is so nice of you! I've never really had many real friends before, besides my brother of course"

"Well, you know my name, so what is yours."

I held out my hand for him to shake it. Instead he looked puzzled at it and replied "Alfred."

"Like the unit?"

"No!" he said defensively. "Why does everyone say that?"

I shrugged. "You bear a lot of resemblance. I think it is a compliment."

His cheeks flared a bright pink. "Thank you."

I cleared my throat. "Well…the faster we clean this up, the faster we could go home."

"Oh right," he said quite embarrassed.

"You're not from around here, are you?" I asked in an attempt to make small talk. I locked the stack of books between my arms and placed them on their designated spot on the shelf.

"Nah, but I'd rather not talk about it. I don't really plan on going back."

"Ah," I said putting the last of the books away. "Ready?"

He intertwined his strong hand into my clammy ones making a blush tint my cheeks. "Ready Artie!"

TBC...

Author's Notes: Okay so now I've gotten intertwined in three stories at once. Yeah. *Sarcastic* Anyways, what do you think? I'm not sure I like the short chapters. I wonder what happened before Alfred met Arthur. Where he wondered to and what he saw before the bookshop. And how did he know about the name? I'll probably answer these questions next chaper, which BTW is in Alfred's POV. Yeah~ Thank you lovelies for reviewing and reading! For updates and check out betweendreamsandrealityy (yes two Ys). Don't forget to tell your father (if you have one or two that is) how much you appreciate him.

Warnings: Some language.

Disclaimer: I do not own hetalia.