A/N: Yay, my second chapter is going up. Thank you for everyone who reviewed the last chapter! Just so you know, this chapter was very weird for me to write. To make it fit into the timeline and make it historically accurate, this was the next thing that was going to happen. So yea.


"Matt! Matt! Wake up," Alfred shook his twin. Matthew's eyelids fluttered open, and he grunted, something that he would never do had he been awake enough to realize what was going on.

"Wha-" Matthew murmured. Alfred shook him harder.

"It's Christmas, wake up!" Alfred said, shaking him until he fell out of his bed. "-Oops."

"Ugh," Matt groaned, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. "This got old a couple years ago, just so you know. Most people stop doing this when they turn twelve."

"Well, not me," Alfred said, then stuck his tongue out at Matthew.

"Have you woken up Arthur?" Matthew asked.

"No, I wanted to get you up first," Alfred said, frowning, "Check your stocking."

"Only after you get Arthur up. We'll all check our stockings at the same time," Matthew said.

"He has a stocking?"

"Yea, Mom and I put it up last night after he went to bed," Matthew said with a smile, "Now go wake him up, I'll get some breakfast ready. We'll eat dinner after Mom gets home from Alison's house."

"Why do I have to wake him up?" Alfred whined, and Matthew flicked his brother in the head.

"I want you to get along with him. Now go wake him up, and if you could, please be nicer to him than you were to me," Matthew said, walking out of his room and going downstairs to fix breakfast. Alfred grumbled under his breath and went back to his room.

"Hey, Arthur," Alfred whispered, walking over to his bottom bunk. Arthur was curled up on his side, tugging his blanket over himself, obviously cold. Looking over at Arthur's suitcase he noticed that Arthur had very little things with him, and that this blanket was very threadbare and seemed to be his only blanket. 'Why did we not give him another blanket?' he thought, looking up to his bed where he has more than enough blankets for himself. He walked to his closet and pulled out one of his old blankets. It was one of his favorites, he just never used it anymore. Holding it in his arms he approached Arthur a second time. "Hey Arthur, wake up," Alfred said, shaking him slightly. Arthur jolted awake.

"Did they see our lights?" Arthur mumbled, looking around before he realized where he was.

"What do you mean?" Alfred asked him.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just something from Britain," Arthur murmured, and Alfred removed his hand from his shoulder.

"Well, Matthew is currently fixing us a light breakfast so that we're not starving by the time Mom gets home, and then I think we're going to check our stockings," Alfred said, still holding the blanket. Arthur stood up.

"Stocking?" he asked.

"Uh, yes, Matthew and my mom put one up for you last night, apparently," Alfred said, "Wait, you do have stockings in England, right?"

"We have stockings," Arthur said, starting to walk out the door with a shiver, and Alfred noticed that his clothes weren't in any better shape than his blanket.

"Arthur, wait," Alfred said, then he draped the blanket on Arthur's shoulders, walking over to his closet. He pulled out a long sleeved shirt and pants. "Here, you look kind of cold. They might be kind of large on you, I hope that's fine by you."

"I-I thought that you didn't like me," Arthur said, staring at Alfred. Alfred sighed.

"It's not that I don't like you, it's more like I don't like the situation. I'm sorry if it seems like I don't like you," Alfred said, then finding himself blushing, continued, "Now go put those clothes on." Alfred went downstairs while Arthur changed into his clothes.

"Hey, Mattie, is it really that bad in England?" Alfred asked his brother, walking into the room and leaning on his brother's shoulder, watching him fix eggs.

"Why do you ask?" Matthew asked, scrambling some of the eggs further.

"Arthur's clothes and blanket are really threadbare, and he barely has any stuff with him," Alfred said, in an offhanded way.

"Well, I would suppose some are worse off than others, but yes, it's pretty bad there. You have to remember that they are in a war, and they just got out of the Great Depression too," Matthew answered, and Alfred was going to continue before he heard steps coming down the stairs. He heard them enter the kitchen. Alfred stopped leaning on Matthew to look at Arthur, who suddenly looked really small in Alfred's huge clothes.

'Am I really that big?' Alfred wondered to himself. Matthew turned to look at Arthur, then let out a small noise when he noticed Arthur wearing Alfred's clothes.

"I hope you like your eggs scrambled," Matthew said, turning back to the pan.

"So, how long d'ya think Mom'll be gone?" Alfred asked his brother as he sat down in a kitchen chair. Matthew shrugged.

"Probably not long. I'm gonna start cooking Christmas dinner in a few hours, so it'll be ready when she's home. What I really wonder is if she plans on inviting Alison's family over this time. Her parents are frail, so it's getting harder and harder for them to go places," Matthew said as he put the eggs on the plate.

"I dunno, you know Mom. She'll try to help everyone. She'll probably invite her, then ask us to go to her house to help Alison's parents over here. It'd be easier if we just went to their house, but I know that won't happen," Alfred responded, getting out silverware for everyone. Matthew noticed Arthur's look, and decided to explain who Alison is.

"Alison is our Mom's best friend, who just so happens to work at the same place as her. Our mom helps Alison's parents a lot, when Alison can't, because she has a hard time by herself," Matthew explained, while Alfred chomped on his eggs hurriedly. Arthur ate slowly, savoring every bite. Alfred was finished long before either of the others, and sat there waiting for them to finish eating. Alfred noticed that Arthur was still clutching the blanket around his shoulders. Matthew had seemed to notice the blanket too, and looked at him knowingly. Alfred shook his head, denying that he'd helped the boy, but Matthew knew him too well, and just smiled, while Arthur had caught onto their silent conversation, looking back and forth between them.

"Hurry up and finish eating, both of you. I wanna look in my stocking," Alfred said, leaning the chair back and staring at the ceiling. A couple minutes later they were able to relocate to the living room, where the stockings were hanging about a fireplace that was only used around Christmas. Alfred pulled his down, as did Matthew. Arthur looked up, and Alfred noticed that the shortest of the three wouldn't be able to reach his. Alfred reached up and pulled it down as well, giving it to Arthur. He smiled shyly in thanks. Alfred sat down on one of the couches, taking the full space, while Arthur and Matthew took spots in chairs that occupied the room. Alfred riled through his stocking, setting aside the paper note that his mom had put in there, deciding to read it after he had looked at the other stuff he'd gotten, while Arthur and Matthew read the notes before looking through the bag. Alfred found the regular stuff, small pieces of candy, all things he liked. When he looked over to Matthew, he noticed that Matthew had gotten his favorite types of candy as well. Alfred looked back at his stuff to read his note.

I know you probably decided to skip this and are reading this after you finished looking through your stocking. If my guess is right, make sure to tell me when I get home. I hope you like the candy and that you have a good Christmas.

-Love, Mom

It also included a smiley face on it, and Alfred smiled, trying to remember to tell his mom that she'd guessed right. Alfred decided to see what Arthur had thought about his stocking and looked at the other person. He was surprised to see him to be what looked like crying, looking at the note in the stocking. The rest of the stocking was untouched.

"Arthur?" Alfred asked, and Arthur looked up quickly, realizing he'd been caught. "Are you feeling bad?"

"I-I'm fine," Arthur said, wiping his tears away in what he pretended to be a cough. "I'll be r-right back" Arthur quickly left the room, probably to go to their shared room.

"Did I do something that time?" Alfred asked, looking at Matthew, who shrugged. Alfred got up and looked at the note that had been included in Arthur's stocking.

This probably isn't the way you wanted to spend Christmas on your 16th year, but I'll try to make it as good as I can. Your stocking isn't as full as I would have wanted, but I learned about your coming a little late. I had to take some candy from Alfred and Matthew, not that they need anymore than they got. But don't tell them I said that. I hope we can make your stay here as nice as possible.

-Sincerely, Lucy

Arthur's also included a smiley face, but Alfred couldn't tell if there was anything that would have made the British boy cry.

"You should go try to cheer him up," Matthew said, and Alfred turned to stare at him.

"Why is it always me?" Alfred asked, not a whine this time, but close, "You two would get along a whole lot better than me and him. You're both nice and quiet, while I'm the opposite of that."

"That's why," Matthew told him, "It's the fact that you are loud and energetic that I think you'd make good friends. You could help him get used to America. And maybe he can teach you how to be less loud, as impossible as that seems."

"You're a devious little boy, aren't you," Alfred said, smiling, "I'll try to cheer him up. If I continue like this, maybe I will get a friend other than you."

"And we all know how good that would be," Matthew said, leaning back as Alfred walked up the stairs to follow Arthur. Cracking the door open and peaking in, he found himself on the opposite side of the situation from yesterday. Pushing the door open and walking in, he found Arthur curled up on his bed.

"Arthur?" Alfred asked the British boy, and Arthur stiffened, "Did I do something wrong?"

"No," Arthur murmured, but he was obviously still crying when he said it. Alfred sat on the edge of the bed, and tried to roll Arthur over to face him. Once he had accomplished this, he could see that Arthur's face was streaked with tears.

"Why are you crying then?" Alfred asked, trying his best to seem sympathetic. He actually didn't have to try as hard as he thought he would. Maybe this boy was growing on him already.

"You, and Matthew, and your mom, you're all being so nice to me, and I..." Arthur said, looking up at Arthur. Alfred noticed that he was shivering again, so he got up to pick up the blanket that had fallen on the floor as Arthur had run into the room, and wrapped it around him. Arthur was sitting up now, and Alfred stared at him.

"Like we said earlier, our mom helps anyone she can. If she could, she'd probably try to house the entire United Kingdom in our house. It's not like it's that hard to make room for one more person in the house. Especially since...since Dad's not here at the moment," Alfred mention, almost stopping at the mention of his dad. "If you don't mind my asking, what's your family life like?"

"Why would you ask that?" Arthur asked, gripping the blanket around himself. He had stopped crying, but his cheeks were tear stained still. Alfred resisted the urge to wipe the tears off his face.

"I was just wondering," Alfred responded.

"Well, my dad left to join the military last year, so I lived with just my mum before I came here. We- we weren't very well off. My mum couldn't get a job, and our source of money was never the same week to week. We made do with what we had, my mum and I, but even before my dad joined the army, we weren't well off. The only difference then was that my dad would have a job for a while before having to get a new job," Arthur told him, looking at his feet.

"What did your dad do?" Alfred asked, interested.

"Odd jobs, anything people would pay for. After he left, my mum started trying to do odd jobs, but when everyone was as bad off as we were, nobody was going to hire my mom to do anything they could already do themselves for less. Eventually she did get a job though, as a maid to a family who was reasonably well off, though her getting hired was mostly a charity act. The only reason I was able to come to America was because they payed for me to come, in exchange for a certain amount of work from my mom. She gladly snatched it, seeing as how I'd be safe and provided for if I went," Arther told him, looking up partway through the story.

"I'm sorry," Alfred said the only thing he could think of.

"Don't be. Your family is taking care of me. That's more than I should ask for," Arthur said.

"No, I mean, I'm sorry for being so mean to you when you got here. I guess I really should've thought of your feelings before I whined," Alfred told him. He lifted up Arthur's stocking. "You might want to look through this. Mom stole candy from Matt and I for ya, so you might as well look inside," Alfred said, giving the stocking to him.

"You read the note?" Arthur asked.

"Yea, I thought maybe it was the reason you were crying," Alfred said.

"It wasn't the reason, it just made me realize the reason," Arthur said, before looking into his stocking. "You can have the candy back if you want."

"Naw, I have enough already. Plus, I think I'm getting fat," Alfred said, poking his belly. Arthur smiled.

"I don't think you are, but thanks anyway," Arthur told him, and Alfred smiled at him.

"My brother would have agreed with me. Thanks for disagreeing," Alfred told him, "And by the way, if you get cold at night, tell me. I have more blankets, if you need them." Arthur looked at him, an odd look on his face.

"Alfred, would you come down here and help me cook this? You too Arthur, you're a part of the family now, at least for the time being," Matthew said, poking his head into the room.

"We're coming," Alfred said, standing up, and Arthur was right behind him.

"I'm back!" Lucy said as she entered the house.

"We're in the kitchen!" Alfred shouted back, and their mom entered a kitchen that was full of good smells and the three boys moving back and forth all over the room, fixing dinner.

"You got here just in time, we just finished fixing dinner," Matthew told her, and she smiled.

"It smells good," she commented, sitting down at the table that was already filled with foods as the three boys brought the turkey over.

"It probably smells better than it tastes," Alfred said, sitting in his seat at the same time as the other two did.

"Yea, I'm sorry about that. I've never cooked anything before, so I messed some of it up," Arthur said sheepishly, but very obviously much happier than before, as well as less shy.

"And you know how the only thing Al can fix is Kraft Mac'n'Cheese," Matthew said, and Alfred glared at him.

"I can too fix other things!" Alfred defended himself.

"So what you're saying is that Matthew was the only one here who knew what he was doing?" Lucy asked, "I'm not sure if I want to eat it then."

"Hey!" Matthew said, and his mom laughed.

"I'm just kidding!" she said, "Now let's eat, and then you can tell me about what happened while I was gone today."


A/N: I'm sorry Arthur isn't himself yet, he won't be for another chapter. But he will be eventually! Edit: And thank you to the anonymous reviewer (TeaAndRoses) who told/reminded me that Arthur would have referred to his mom as his mum. I'm sorry I don't speak British -shot-

Historical notes: As for Arthur's problems, in Britain at the time, unemployment rates were really high. Technically, in America, this is about after the Great Depression, but everyone in this story was growing up in the Great Depression, so they will be more frugal. While there is still going to be shortages, with the men beginning to get drafted, there was suddenly a shortage of people who could work.

When Arthur says "Did they see our lights?" after Alfred wakes him up, he's referring to the Blackout that England was in at the time he left and after that. Everyone had to turn of their lights, and if they had light on inside they weren't allowed to let it show through the windows or doors. People caught this way could be fined or go to court.

Well, uh, yea. That's it for this chapter. R&R, por favor!