Matthew's POV

"Al, time to wake up!" I exclaimed unplugging myself from the outlet and yawned. Alfred was always too lazy to wake himself, even if he had a concert that day. You would expect him to be all jittery and nervous, while it was quite the contrary.

Silence, as usual.

An evil smirk engulfed my face. "Don't make me throw my pillow at you!" I held my white pillow over my head as proof. I still don't understand why Kiku did not just set an alarm in his head or something. Instead, he relied on me to wake up the beast.

Again, silence.

I scowled and threw the pillow at the lump in his American flag colored bed. That usually woke him up immediately. I raised an eyebrow, walked over to his bed and ripped the starred and striped comforter from his body. Instead, there were just multi colored blankets to greet me. I tripped backwards in shock, almost falling over. "Very fun, Al," I said nervously. "There's no time for hide and seek when you have a concert in an hour."

Hastily, I checked all of his normal hiding spots for days when Kiku installed updates for him. First the closet which was only filled with thousands of his dumb clothing and then under the bed which was surprisingly clean. A few more obvious hiding spaces remained empty and only thirty minutes remained until the concert. My knees buckled from underneath me and I fell to the white tiled floor asking myself what am I going to do?

Arthur's POV

"Now, try not to draw too much attention to yourself," I scolded turning over the 'We're Open' sign and unlocked the glass front door with a golden key. "You would not want Natalia or Ivan to kick you out, would you?"

"No problem, Artie. I'll be super quiet," he said with a wink and peeling off his jacket and one of my scarves to reveal one of my large, burgundy argyle sweaters my mother bought for me one Christmas and trousers.

"Here, read this," I said holding out a pink paperback book out for him that I picked out last night after he went to bed. I was stuck sleeping on my pull out couch, which I really didn't mind, except that I did not get enough sleep.

He tilted his head quite confused. "What's this?"

"Romeo and Juliet, one of the most famous love stories," I said, although a bit biased because of my undying love for Shakespeare plays. But, someone of his age should be exposed to such refined literature.

He took the book from my hands and scanned it with his blue eyes. "Oh, what's love?"

I raised an eyebrow and went over to the computer to check if any shipments came in. Luckily, only one box so it would not take more than ten minutes to unpack. "Love is one two people like each other, it is a feeling."

"So, are we in love?" he asked innocently.

My face reddened, almost matching the color of a tomato. I turned around in the swirling desk chair and replied "o-of course not, we just met each other!"

"But I like you and you like me! So why aren't we in love?"

"It's not that simple," I explained walking to the back of the store for a brown box filled with new books. "Usually people date before they fall in love."

Curiously Alfred asked "what's a date?"

My eyes remained focused on stuffing the books into their proper shelves before explaining "usually when two people like each other they go out for a movie, dinner or just talk."

"Like last night?" he asked thinking back to the previous night. The two of us stayed up past two in the morning clarifying human culture, which ended with him laughing the entire time.

I rolled my emerald eyes at his naïve behavior. "Last night was certainly not a date. We are just friends," I said unconvincingly.

He glanced around the bookshelf with his blue eyes following my every move. "What's the difference?"

Frankly, I explained "friends do not want to spend the rest of their lives together as a couple. Their relationship is simple platonic."

"Okay," he said watching me put the last of the new books away.

"Will you stop staring at me?" I asked coldly noticing his eyes refused to budge from mine.

"Sorry," he said adverting his longing gaze. "Humans are just so interesting!"

"Yes, yes," I said returning to behind the front desk. "If you do not mind, I am working."

He followed me like a lost puppy and asked "but I thought you don't like it here."

"I don't," I explained in a matter-of-fact tone. Who would possibly like selling other's pieces of literature when I could sell my own?

He jumped up onto the counter and swung his feet playfully. "That's what I do not understand! You don't like working here, but yet you do!"

"That's part of being human. Sometimes, you have to do things that you don't like."

"Why?" he asked nosily.

I shot him a glare, obviously annoyed with his constant questioning. I exhaled and pondered his question. "I don't know."

"Well…you have a lot of potential, from what I can tell. And you wouldn't want to spend a gift stuck in a book store!"

"I could say the very same about you," I said smugly noting how he ran away from his quote-un-quote gift to be stuck in a book store all day.

He pouted and stuck out his tongue. "That's different. I want to be an average human, and I'm happy doing whatever you're doing," he said making me blush a little. "But you don't seem satisfied with your current condition."

There was a small pause before I said small "I have always wanted to be a writer."

"Huh?" he asked.

"I have always wanted to write a book, and I thought this could get me some extra money to start writing."

Curiously, Alfred asked "and what is it about?"

"It's a romance novel; a story about love."

"Why is everyone always writing about love?"

I bit my lip and explained "love is an equivalent to magic. It is an emotion that plays with your other emotions. It swallows your whole body making your stomach churn and your hands feel s-" I stopped realizing that I was explaining everything I felt when I was near Alfred.

"Have you ever been in love?"

I looked down at the wooden floor. "No. I have not," I said partially lying.

He nodded and hung his head low. "Either have I."

Through the glass window, we watched a navy blue smart car pull into one of the front spaces.

"You better hide," I advised watching Ivan step out from the driver's seat and Natalia waltz out of the passenger's side. Honestly, I was surprised a car that small could hold so much evil.

"You got it, Artie," he said running off into the aisles with the book.

TBC...

Author's Notes: Greetings, sweethearts. Urg, I hated the ending to this chapter. No, I despised it. But I could not think of anything better, and I'm lazy so...yeah. Also, there's a little more with the whole romance aspect, which is turning out to be quite a fail if you ask me. I do not know how many more chapters I could write of this before the climax. Urg. And I'm sorry to all of you following this story, but it is going on a temporary hiatus until the end of July. I'm so sorry, but I am going away and before I do I want to update all of my stories at least once, so this is on hiatus until I return. I am so greatful for all my wonderful reviewers! Keep being awesome! If you can, follow my tumblr at betweendreamsandrealityy (yes two Ys). Not to get you excited too quickly, but I think next chapter will have Natalia's POV and a cute shopping scene with Alfred, Arthur and a special guest. *Wink wink* See you at the end of July!

Warnings: Some language.

Disclaimer: I do not own hetalia.