A/N: Hi there, guys. I don't own Hetalia, or the board game Sorry. There's no smut in this chapter, I'll try not to write too much of that.
"Come on, Ivan, it's time to get up." It was already past the time where they normally walked to work, both of them obviously tired. Ivan didn't budge. "Ivan?" Ivan still didn't respond, chest rising and falling in blissful sleep. Alfred rolled Ivan over, straddling his body. "Ivaaaaaan. Get uuuuuup." Nothing. Alfred moved around a bit, trying to get Ivan to wake from his slumber. After ten minutes of trying to get him up, Alfred hadn't had any luck. He decided to get up and stretch a bit, eyeing the clock that told him he ought to be working right now. He frowned; while he ought to be at work, he felt bad for leaving Ivan by himself, especially since it was Ivan's first day of not having work on Fridays. He bit his lip, then decided to make a phone call, grabbing his phone and walking to the kitchen.
Alfred dialed Ludwig's number, waiting a few rings before he finally picked up. "Yes? Hello?" Alfred had never called in fake sick before; he made his voice sound a bit gruff. "Hey Luddy, I need to take the day off—I'm real sick." There was a grunt and the sounds of a pen scribbling things down on paper on the other end. "Very well. Get well, then." And with that, Ludwig hung up, successfully ending Alfred's first pretending-to-be-sick-but-not-really-sick call.
"Ivan!" Alfred's healthy sounding voice echoed down the hall. "Let's bake more stuff today! Let's bake bread!" Ivan's reply was muffled, causing Alfred to run down the hall and slide to a halt in the doorway of the bedroom. "What was that? Couldn't hear you." Ivan pulled the pillow off his head, looking at Alfred.
"We have to work, it's Friday." Alfred laughed softly. "Yeah, uh, obviously you've already forgotten your new work schedule. You don't have to work, and I took the day off!" Ivan muttered something into his sheets, then rolled over, snoring softly once more in a matter of seconds.
Alfred sighed, heading back to the kitchen and hitting the power button on the coffee pot. He stretched and looked at the clock. 8:15. He himself was actually still fairly tired, and he figured that he could sleep for half an hour while the coffee was brewed. He headed down the hall, turning left at the end and walking into the bedroom. He walked to his side of the bed and flopped down, being reminded how blissfully comfy the bed was from five minutes ago. He rolled and snuggled into Ivan, wrapping his arms around him and holding him close. He soon fell back into a restful sleep. So much for baking.
-ooo-
They both had been far more tired than they had originally thought. The two both woke up around noon, stretching and yawning some, their bodies entangled still from when Alfred had returned. The blanket and body heat were too much put together. Ivan kicked the blankets off, stretching more. "Alfred, what time is it?" He turned his head to Alfred, rubbing his eyes lackadaisically. "Around noon." Ivan blinked. "Noon? Why aren't you at work?" Alfred smiled some. "We've gone over this already this morning, dear." Ivan gave him a look of confusion. "No we didn't." Ivan couldn't recall a conversation about Alfred's work attendance for the life of him. "You don't remember? Well, I guess that'd make sense. You were still half asleep at the time." Alfred laughed softly, ruffling Ivan's hair. "It's alright. I already called Ludwig this morning, so he knows where I am." Ivan wasn't sure if he liked the idea of Alfred not going to work, however he wasn't given much time to think about it as Alfred began to speak again.
"Let's bake! Or dance! Let's dance some more and bake, Ivan!" Ivan couldn't stop the small smile that snuck its way onto Ivan's lips, Alfred's enthusiasm was just so adorable. "How about we bake, then I can teach you more stuff?" Alfred nodded excitedly. "Alright!" He practically bounced out of bed, smiling at Ivan, who was the opposite of Alfred in his manner of getting up. He looked about torpidly before flinging his legs off the side of the bed, sitting up slowly. Once the two were both up, they made their way to the kitchen where Alfred heated up coffee and Ivan got out an old recipe book. He flipped through a few pages before landing on a recipe for flax seed bread.
"Alfred, will you please grab the flour, sugar, and measuring cups?" Alfred nodded, walking about and getting everything in his arms. "Here." He set everything down on the counter, watching as Ivan got a large bowl mixer from under the counter. He plugged it in and began adding ingredients, getting the yeast from the fridge. Ivan explained things as he went along, point to this and that on the recipe, asking Alfred if he knew why you had to add this to the mix before that, and explaining why if he didn't know.
Finally, they got to the fun part of making bread. "Alright, so you knead it, then you can braid it, or make fun shapes out of it." Ivan went through the motions of kneading, watching Alfred closely as he pushed at the dough and then pulled back. He was pretty good at it already, allowing them to get done with everything fast. "Alright, so I'm going to braid my bread. What you do is you cut your dough into three equal pieces, then make them into long shapes." Ivan sliced the dough in three, doing as he'd instructed. "Then, you mush the three pieces together at the top so they stay together. Then, you just braid it as you would braid hair." Ivan made quick work of it, finishing the braid quickly and efficiently. "Then, you glaze it with some egg, and put it in the oven." Ivan put his in the oven before returning to Alfred. "Try it."
Alfred nodded and quickly cut the pieces evenly, rolling them into long snake looking rolls. He pressed them together at the top, then began to braid. He, too, finished easily, showing it to Ivan. "Very good. Now put egg on it." Alfred took the brush from Ivan, dipping it in egg before brushing it evenly over the soon to be bread. He put it in the oven with Ivan's. "There, all done!" Ivan and Alfred smiled at each other. "Good. Let's clean up, then we can go and dance some, alright?" Alfred nodded, the two gathering their dirty dishes and putting them in the sink, cleaning them properly before drying them and putting them away.
As they walked to the living room, Alfred hesitated. "I don't know if I'm awake enough to do this. I'm still really tired." Ivan nodded some. "We don't have to, then. Would you like to do something else?" Alfred nodded a bit. "Want to play a board game?" Ivan shrugged. "Sure. Sorry sound good?" Alfred nodded and Ivan went to get it from his difficult closet. He came back and set the box on the ground. "I need to get a refill on my coffee, I'll be right back." He walked to the kitchen, taking his mug from the counter and filling it with the warm black liquid. He took a few swallows, then went back to the living room, sitting across from Alfred who had already set everything up. "I call red!" Alfred looked to Ivan as he claimed his color. "Alright, I'll be blue. Hey, don't you think it's kinda ironic you're from Russia and you chose red?" Ivan said nothing, just took the first turn. Alfred frowned a bit; he hadn't meant to offend him.
Alfred took his turn, then Ivan, and so on and so forth until they were nearing the end of the game. "It appears as though I'm winning." Alfred looked up to Ivan as he spoke. "Yeah, looks like it. Just like you won poker the other night." The two couldn't help but grin a bit to themselves, blush tinting their cheeks a warm pink.
After a few minutes, Alfred was crowned the winner, Ivan ruffling his hair. "Good job. You really pulled through on that." Alfred smiled happily. "Yeah! I totally kicked your ass, Ivan!" Ivan scoffed. "Let's play again!" And for the rest of the afternoon, they played Sorry, making silly remarks and laughing at each other's stories, the room filled with the wondrous, warm feeling of companionship.
Notes: Sorry this chapter is short, I was lacking the time and amount of sleep required to write my normal stuff. Thanks for reading!
