December 20th
Arthur sighed as he stepped outside. That meeting had been chaos. He wasn't even sure it was possible to list everything that had gone wrong. Arthur rubbed his temple and sighed again; a little more dramatic this time.

"What's the matter, mon cher," A French accent was heard followed by a rose in the face.

"I'm fine..." Arthur said as he swatted the rose away and turned to look at Francis.

"Really? You don't seem it?" Francis slowly pulled a petal off the rose and let it blow away, "Stop over thinking things,"

Arthur rolled his eyes as Francis continued to pull the petals off the rose he had. They stood out in the icy wind for a while longer before everyone else began to pour out of the meeting hall and disturb the peace.

"HEY EVERYONE!" A very loud and American sounding voice called out, "I NEED TO TELL YOU SOMETHING I FORGOT TO DO IN THE MEETING HALL!"

Everyone slowly stopped and turned to look at Alfred. For once he was wearing a suit and it looked like he'd tried to tame his hair but the cowlick was still standing tall and proud.

"OK! AFTER SOME TALKING WITH TINO, WE CAME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT THIS YEARS CHRISTMAS PARTY WILL BE AT MY PLACE!" Alfred called out with a huge smile, "IT'LL BE MY HOUSE ON CHRISTMAS EVE!"

"Oh! And before you leave please get a secret Santa name... it's completely anon! Just a way to make sure you don't have to buy too much and everyone gets a present!" Tino said as he came out with Berwald and holding a Santa hat full of names, "Come on everyone!"

Everyone made their way over and pulled out a name from the hat. As Arthur approached he watched as Alfred pulled out a name and smiled wider; he seemed very happy with who he got, was it someone special?

"Here, Arthur," Tino said as he held the hat out to him.

"Thanks," Arthur pulled a name out and made sure he didn't see it, but instead slid it into his pocket; he didn't want to know right now.

Due to the Christmas party being in four days here in Dallas, everyone had stayed in Dallas. Arthur was sitting in a Starbucks while turning the piece of paper over in his pocket. There were two reasons why he hadn't looked at it yet. Firstly he may get someone he doesn't like or have any idea what to get or he's got a person he really wanted and- ok he needed to stop thinking.

"Kanichiwa," Arthur jumped and turned around to see a short Japanese nation behind him.

" Hello Kiku," Arthur said with a awkward smile, "How are you?"

"I am good, thank you for asking," Kiku said with a bow.

It was a good hour that the two sat in Starbucks and chatted. They eventually got to the topic of the secret Santa.

"I got Romano," Kiku said with a sigh, "What can I get him? Pasta? Tomato's? A dead German?"

Arthur laughed at the last part. After a pause he reached into his pocket and slowly took the piece of paper out. He looked at Kiku and then to the paper before he slowly opened it and reading the words he wasn't sure if he wanted to see or not see.

"Alfred F. Jones... aka the Hero," Arthur read out loud as his face began to heat up.

"Arthur? Are you ok? You're face is so red," Kiku took the liberty of pointing out.

"I"M FINE! PLEASE EXCUSE ME!" And with that Arthur made it quickly out of Starbucks.

He practically ran half way down the street before stopping and looking at the paper again. He had no idea why he reacted like that; his brain had shut down as the name left his lips.

"What's the matter mon amor?" Oh crap, this is JUST the person Arthur wanted to see.

"Ha?! Um... Nothing!" Arthur said quickly and awkwardly as he stumbled backwards, away from Francis.

"You seem awfully upset and rather flustered over nothing then," Francis stepped forward, "Are you sure you don't want to talk?"

"I'm sure!" Arthur wasn't; and as he started to walk off he had no problem with Francis following along beside him.

After a while they reached a large shopping complex. By this time Arthur had calmed down and was breathing at an even pace again. Francis placed an arm over his shoulder and pulled him close.

"Ready to talk Mon Angleterre," Francis said and Arthur sighed.

"I'm not sure what I need to say though," Arthur muttered.

"Well ok then; What made you flustered?" Francis wasn't going to give up till he knew what was making his Angleterre so upset.

"... Who I got for Secret Santa," Arthur held the piece of paper close to his chest as his heart raced again.

"Oh? Do you not like who you got? Or is it because it's someone special?" Francis swept his hair back and smiled at Arthur as he finally looked at him.

"I want to say it's someone I don't like but... but... I don't know..." Arthur looked away again and relaxed his hands a he realized he was digging his nails into his palm.

"Tell me... How do you feel around this person?" Francis said as he slowly began to understand.

"Well... Um... I usually want to punch him in the face," Arthur said as he stared at the ground and walked faster, "But recently, when I get close to him... My heart races and I feel nervous and scared and happy and my hands get sweating and the other night when I was at his place he came into my bed and he slept holding onto me and I liked it and when he hugs me I like it and ugh..."

Arthur stopped walking as he took a shaking breath before holding his breath. Francis was trying to hard not to laugh as he came up behind Arthur and hugged him. He gently stroked the smaller man's hair and moved a bit behind his ear before moving his lips close to said ear.

"You know what's wrong now don't you?" Francis whispered but got a shake of the head, meaning no, "You're in love Angleterre; with Alfred~" Francis whispered before backing away.

Arthur looked at the ground, eyes wide and breath held. 'What? n-no... Not true... Yes it is.. Crap,' Arthur processed it in his brain before turning around to Francis who was biting his lip in the effort to stop his laughter.

"Go ahead, Laugh you asshat..." Arthur looked at the ground again and clenched his hands; Francis swallowed the temptation to laugh after a moment.

"You finally understand," Francis smiled sweetly as he stepped closer to Arthur, he lent in and placed a kiss on his cheek; worst timing ever.

"Oh.. hey..." Arthur quickly spun around at the sound of that voice, "Didn't expect to see you guys here..."

Alfred smiled awkwardly and it twitched slowly out of place as he looked away. Francis was trying to think of every way to fix this now because he may have just messed something up that had been waiting to happen for almost 100 years.

"Oh... h-hey Alfred..." Arthur said nervously, his feelings had no idea what to do.

Now the awkward had set in, Francis really needed to do something now. It a swift move he deliberately stumbled forward, giving Arthur a good shove and pushed him right into Alfred's arms.

"Whoa!" Alfred stumbled and tripped and spun so Arthur was nearly lying on the ground and he was leaning over him but still holding him off the ground.

Arthur and Alfred stayed like this, hold on to each other for dear life because it would hurt if they let go. They didn't try moving till his glasses began to slip off the end of Alfred's nose.

"Shit-" That was all Alfred got out as his glasses fell and he tripping, turning again and falling so Arthur was on top of him now; but there was a crack as the glasses hit the ground.

Arthur quickly scurried off of Alfred and picked up the American's glasses, looking over the cracked lens. He sheepishly handed the glasses back to Alfred. Alfred slowly held his glasses up and looked thought the broken glass before sighing and putting them in his pocket.

"Damn..." Alfred muttered as he got up and looked down at Arthur who was making it seem like he was highly fascinated with the tassels on his scarf, "Here," Alfred held out a hand and pulled Arthur up off the ground.

Arthur looked behind him to see if Francis was still there but he'd vanished as soon he'd shoved Arthur and the two crashed into each other.

"S-Sorry about that..." Arthur muttered as he finally looked at Alfred.

"You all right?" Alfred muttered as he looked closely at Arthur and placed a hand on the Brit's cheek, "You're kind of warm... You aren't sick are you?!"

Arthur smiled and shook his head as he placed his own hand over the one on his cheek. Alfred smiled back but slowly pulled his hand back. He looked down at his watch and then back at Arthur.

"Well I've got to run... I guess I'll see you at the Christmas party," Alfred said as he smiled brightly for the first time during this encounter.

Arthur just raised a hand in a wave as he watched Alfred run off to where ever he needed to be. Arthur let out a sigh before sliding his hands into his pockets. Then he remembered what Francis had said.

"Shit! Fuck... Crap..." Arthur bit his lip and felt hot tears of some strange emotion swell up, "It can't be true! But it is..."

Arthur wiped the first tears away as he walked around the shopping complex; he had to think of what to buy Alfred now. Nothing would come to mind as he walked around, looking into shops.

He found that thinking of the perfect present distracted him from thoughts on his feelings; right now he only had to be the perfectionist he is. He past store after store after store.

"What the hell do I get that idiot!?" Arthur voiced out load as he came to stop outside a pet shop.

His head shot up at the little "woofs" and "meows" coming from said shop. He couldn't help but smile softly as he walked up to the window, the glass box full of young pets, and placed his hand on the glass.

The little dogs jumped up at the hand and tried to lick it though the glass, Arthur laughed and suddenly every problem in the world was a million miles away as he played with these darling little animals.

"Hello sir..." A young girl with a shy smile and dark hair came out to where Arthur was playing with the dogs, "Can I help you? Would you like me to get them out?"

"Oh yes please! I'd love to pat them..." Arthur smiled at the girl as she quickly went back to the desk, and getting the keys to unlock the box to get the puppies out.

She set the little, jumping and excited puppies down in a small play pen. Arthur looked over them before bending down and placing his hand onto the head of one puppy.

Arthur let out a laugh as five puppies jumped at him and licked him and gently nipped his fingers. It wasn't until looked closely that he noticed one of the little darlings standing back from him.

It was staring right at him with bright blue eyes. His fur was a sandy blonde and he was pawing at the ground nervously. Arthur slowly moved his hand out to this puppy and the others moved away to play with the toys in the pen.

"Hey little guy," Arthur said quietly, he let the dog sniff at his hand before slowly moving his little head under Arthur's hand.

It was an instant connection and understanding. Arthur swiftly lifted the puppy up and turned to the shop assistant who had come to him earlier.

"He's perfect!" Arthur said as the puppy licked his face.

A/N: Wasn't that cute?! Well only one part left for this Christmas magic to do what it must~
See you soon!