A/N: I apologize for the late posting of this final chapter. Already the second day, and I have homework that keeps me busy. Oh well, hope you like it!


"Arthur, have you ever had your first kiss?" Alfred asked Arthur out of the blue one day.

"W-why do you ask?" Arthur responded with a question, trying to lead Alfred away from Arthur having to answer it. Alfred noticed the trick though.

"Just wondering, now don't avoid the question," Alfred told Arthur, leaning against him. The two boys were sitting outside, under a big tree. It was a hot summer day, and Alfred had decided it was time for them to get outside. Which really just meant Arthur was going to read in the shade while Alfred stared at him. Alfred's mom was away, working on something or another, while Matthew and Francis had decided they were going to stay inside where it was somewhat cooler.

"Um...no," Arthur answered quietly, but Alfred heard it nonetheless. He smiled and prodded the other boy. Arthur blushed and poked him back. "It's not like you've ever had one either," Arthur said, and Alfred blushed in turn, leading Arthur to smirk at the American. "I'll take that as a no."

"It's not my fault! I've just never had a girlfriend," Alfred defended himself.

"Well, neither have I. Nor have I really ever planned on it, though," Arthur said. At that comment, Alfred remembered what he had been trying to do. The two of them were already sitting close, and no one could see them in their fenced in back yard. Arthur's book had been closed already, as soon as Alfred started talking to him. Alfred just had to wait.

"You have a boyfriend though. Did you ever plan on that?" Alfred teased, and Arthur blushed.

"Of course I did! I wanted to be happy," Arthur responded, sounding vaguely like he was talking about a "happily ever after."

"Did your plans come true?" Alfred asked, looking at the clouds in the sky.

"Maybe...I think s-" Arthur mumbled, blushing, before he was cut off as Alfred's lips pressed against his. Completely taken back, he closed his eyes. Alfred wrapped his arms around Arthur's waist, and Arthur responded by wrapped his arms around Alfred's neck. The book Arthur had been reading fell out of his lap, unnoticed. After a while, surprisingly, Alfred was the one to pull back. He took a deep breath.

"Sorry for interrupting you," Alfred said before Arthur could go at him, "What were you saying?"

"I was saying, 'I think so'," Arthur said, looking away, confused as to why Alfred completely disregarded the fact that they'd both just had their first kiss.

"I think so, what?" Alfred asked.

"You know what you asked me," Arthur responded, and Alfred laughed.

"I just want to hear you say it," Alfred told him.

"My dream...it came true, love" Arthur responded, humoring the other boy, "A million times over." Then he realized what he had added to the end of one of his sentences, blushing bright red.

"So I'm your 'love' now, right? Is that a British thing?" Alfred asked Arthur, wrapping his arm around the Brit's waist, prompting a sputtered retort back at him. "Oh, don't be like that. I like it." Alfred told Arthur, who merely blushed and laid his head on Alfred's shoulder.

Meanwhile, in the house, Francis and Matthew returned to their seats.

"I feel bad, watching them like that," Matthew commented.

"We just looked outside to see how they were doing. I'm just proud of them for having their first kiss. Bizarre, la façon dont le jeune frère ont eu leur premier baiser devant la plus ancienne a fait," Francis said, adding the last part in French just to see if Matthew was listening, and by the blush that rose on Matthew's face, the thought of their first kiss made him embarrassed.

"Pas vraiment, Alfred a toujours été un peu plus lent que moi," Matthew replied in kind, and Francis laughed at Matthew's comment.

"Touché," Francis responded, then wrapped his arm around Matthew, "Aren't you so proud of your big brother?"

"Sure, if that's something to be proud of."

"It is, mon cheri."

...

"Mom, I want to tell you something, before we go off to college," Alfred said as he approached his mom, the day before he and Arthur headed out to college. His mom looked up from her book, smiling at her son. Arthur stood not far behind him, but then again, the two were rarely ever apart.

"Sure, sweety. What do you want to say?" Lucy asked him, sitting up and motioning the other two to sit down.

"Well, um...you know how I've never gotten a girlfriend?" Alfred asked his mom, who nodded, grinning.

"Don't tell me you've finally gotten a girlfriend. I'm so happy for you!" his mom responded, and Arthur looked away, knowing this wouldn't end well. Alfred coughed.

"Kinda..." Alfred said, to which his mom stared at him.

"How is that a kinda, statement?" she asked, and Alfred's blush became more noticeable.

"Well, erm, I- darn it, I don't know how to say this," Alfred said, "Maybe I shouldn't say. Arthur, can you...?"

"Nice one, Alfred. Leave it to me to break your mother's heart," Arthur muttered to Alfred, but Lucy caught part of the sentence with growing dread.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Fine," Alfred said, "I'll do it. Mom, Arthur and I are together."

"Together? Obviously, you're sitting right next to each other on the couch," Lucy responded, not catching what he meant. Alfred looked away.

"No, Mom. I meant, Arthur and I are a couple," Alfred told her, and this time, she got it. She stared at the two of them, noticing for the first time that they had been holding hands.

"You mean...Alfred, you're homosexual?" Lucy asked, her voice quiet, and Alfred was wondering what she was thinking at the moment.

"I-yes, I am," Alfred said, not attempting to "defend" himself to his mom.

"How-how long?" Lucy asked, staring at Alfred, and Arthur squeezed his hand in comfort.

"Just a year," Alfred said, and he saw his mom tremble a bit at the response.

"Mrs. Lu-" Arthur tried to say something to Alfred's mom, before she turned and glared at him, cutting off his sentence. Alfred noticed that, and wasn't going to let him take it.

"Mom, don't get mad at him. You are the one who invited him here," Alfred told her, "It was probably inevitable, anyway."

"You-" Lucy said, stopping herself, and Alfred wondered how she really felt about this. Right after this, Alfred heard footsteps.

'Great. Now Matthew plans on breaking her heart,' Alfred thought as Francis and Matthew came into the room, holding hands.

"Hmm," Matthew said as he walked into the room, noticing what was going on, "I guess you beat us to it."

"'Beat us'?" Lucy said warily, then noticed the hand holding. It was enough to tip her over the edge, "Of course, you're twins. What one does, the other will follow. Matthew, why do you always have to do what Alfred does?"

"What?" Matthew asked, surprised at his mom's snarkiness, "I was the first one, this time."

"Oh, my younger son finally does something one his own, and what is it? Get a boyfriend," Lucy commented, and the room was full of tension. "So what? I'm not going to have any grandchildren, nope."

"You can always try again," Francis said, and for once, Matthew glared at him.

"Now is really not the time," Matthew told him. The room was quiet for a while. Lucy looked up to see her children still standing in the room.

"So, what now? Are you waiting for my verdict?" she asked them, and Matthew and Alfred nodded their heads. "Fine," Lucy said, "I guess a good mother would say 'I want my children to be happy,' but just for once, I wish I could have the happiness. Sure, sure, I won't force you to do anything, but then again, what can I do? You are legal adults, you may do as you wish."

"That..." Alfred started, looking at his brother, "wasn't what we wanted."

"What did you want then?" Lucy asked, and Alfred knew that she would never give them want they wanted.

'Your approval,' Alfred thought, but then said, "I love you, mom." He then kissed her cheek and walked out of the room. The other's followed until Lucy was the only one in the room. Left to regret how mean she had been to her children.

...

"Open this door right now, you two!" came the call from outside Alfred and Arthur's dorm room. Alfred got up from his desk where he had been writing an essay for one of his classes.

He opened the door to one of his neighbors, who looked like he was about to pop. "What is it now?" Alfred asked him, and the man shoved a newspaper in his face.

"The war in Europe is over! Germany signed an unconditional surrender, so now all that's left is for the Japs to surrender!" the man yelled excitedly, and Alfred stared at the paper.

"What?" Arthur yelled, jumping out of his seat in the room and rushing over to look at the newspaper, standing on tiptoes to see over Alfred's shoulder.

"The War in Europe is Ended! Surrender Is Unconditional; V-E Will Be Proclaimed Today; Our Troops on Okinawa Gain," Alfred read the headline out loud, then looked over his shoulder at Arthur, who was happy enough to burst at the news.

"You can keep that paper if you want, I know you'll want to read it," the man said, looking at the excited British man. As soon the door was closed, Arthur hugged Alfred in his happiness.

"It's over! It's finally over!" Arthur said, and Alfred just couldn't stop staring at the paper. The two went over to one of the two beds in the room, and Arthur was so excited, Alfred didn't know he could even get that excited.

'What if he leaves now that he can go back to England? I'm worthless to him, now that he can go back home,' Alfred thought, looking at Arthur. Arthur immediately calmed down when he noticed how sad his companion seemed to be.

"What's wrong? The war is over, at least in Europe," Arthur asked him, but Alfred said nothing. Arthur suddenly seemed to realize what Alfred's thought process was at the moment. "You think I'm going to leave you now that it's safe to go back home, right?" Alfred nodded his head ever so slightly.

"Idiot!" Arthur said, hitting Alfred in the head, which knocked him out of his sulkiness, "I could have gone back years ago, with Germany being of no threat to England at that point. I stayed here because of you, why would I leave now?"

"You mean it?" Alfred asked, and Arthur just chuckled.

"Yes, silly, I mean it. Plus, I want to be with you when you finally see England," Arthur commented, and Alfred stared at him. "What, I want to show you my home country, is that so weird?"

"But...what?" Alfred asked, confused at the sudden track the conversation had gone.

"I had already been speaking to people about this 'study abroad' program for a while now, and it seems as though it'll be more likely to happen, now that the war is over," Arthur told Alfred, who smiled as he suddenly got what he was talking about, "There's a college that will accept us in London, so we can go to school there, and I can show you England. Though, now that it's been through a war, it probably won't be like what I remember it."

"Sounds good to me," Alfred commented with a smile, and then wrapped his arm around Arthur.

"I can finally introduce you to my mum," Arthur told him, and before Alfred could ask, Arthur continued, "She'll be so excited to see you, I just know it."

"I'd like that," Alfred told him, and Arthur leaned onto Alfred's shoulder, and they sat there like that for a while, happy now that they had some good news to share.

...

Alfred was surprised at how willing Arthur was to hold hands in public while walking through his old neighborhood. He guessed it had something to do with the fact that everyone there already knew Arthur was homosexual, but then again, Arthur had never been one for public displays of affection. As they walked into the front of Arthur's old apartment, they heard a voice.

"Arthur? Arthur Kirkland?" the both of them turned around to see an old lady who was sitting at a desk in the front part of the front hallway. "It is you! Your mother supposedly sent you off to America during the war, but nobody believed her."

"It's true, I've spent the past five years of my life living in America," Arthur told the old lady, then seemed to remember that Alfred was standing there. "Oh yes, Mrs. Howell, this is Alfred Jones, one of the members of the host family that kept me while I was there, Alfred, this is Mrs. Howell, she and my mum are good friends." Alfred smiled at the older lady, who raised an eyebrow upon noticing their hands. Normally, that would have been when Arthur pulled away, but he remained the way he was.

"Is he your, um, partner?" she asked Arthur.

"Yes, he is," Arthur responded, and Alfred was surprised at the fact that she didn't freak out on them.

"Nice to know you finally met someone like you," Mrs. Howell said, not rudely at all, "Your mum is home, she's in her apartment, if you remember which one that is."

"Of course I do," Arthur said, and the old lady laughed.

"Of course you do, what was I thinking?" she asked, and Arthur nodded goodbye and lead Alfred up to his old place. Alfred let go of Arthur's hand once he knocked on the door. Once the door opened, Alfred immediately took in what Arthur's mom looked like. She looked a lot older than he had expected, but she didn't look like she was about to turn to dust.

"Arthur?" she asked, and Arthur's eyes watered as he pulled her into a hug.

"Hi mum, I'm home," Arthur whispered into her ear, and they both stood there like that for a while. After a few minutes, they pulled away.

"What am I thinking, come in, come in," his mom said, and the two of them made their way into the small apartment. In what seemed to be the living room, Arthur and Alfred sat down on the couch while Arthur's mom sat down on the chair next to it.

"Who is this?" Arthur's mom asked, and Alfred smiled at her.

"This is Alfred Jones, he's one of the members of the host family I stayed with in America," Arthur told his mom, and Alfred took his hand back into his, which Arthur didn't seem to mind.

"How're ya doin'?" Alfred drawled, and Arthur poked him, to which Alfred corrected himself, "No, really, how are you?"

"Sorry about that, he seems to think that all British people think that Americans are hicks," Arthur apologized, but his mom didn't seem to notice, and was instead staring at their hands and smiling, much to his embarrassment. Alfred decided to tease Arthur by letting go of his hand and instead snaking it around Arthur's back, pulling him closer. The Brit just started to blush, looking at the taller man, then back at his mom.

"It's nice to finally meet you," Alfred told Arthur's mom.

"I can already tell that it was a good thing that I sent Arthur to America, even if it was for such a long time," Arthur's mom responded with a smile, and Arthur just blushed.

"I am too," Alfred said, "No matter how much I didn't realize that when I first met him." Trying to do so without alerting his mom, Arthur held the hand that Alfred had wrapped around him.

"How was your stay in America?" Arthur's mom asked, trying to start a new conversation.

"It was great, if only for the people I met," Arthur answered.

"Tell me about what it's like. Tell me about your experiences," Arthur's mom said.

"Well, when I first got there, Alfred wasn't too friendly, but Matthew..." Arthur began telling his mom what life had been like staying with Alfred, Matthew, Lucy, and for part of the time, Francis. Alfred settled down and let Arthur tell his story, interrupting only every once in a while to add something into the story. Over the course of the story, Arthur began to be less embarrassed by Alfred's showing of affection, and leaned into him.

At the end of the story, Arthur's mom summed up what Alfred had learned years ago.

"So, just because something is different and unwanted at first, that doesn't mean it'll stay that way forever, right?"

"Right," Alfred and Arthur said together, looking at each other with a smile.


A/N: And here ends my first completed multi chaptered story. It's also quite a few other firsts, including first kiss scene written (though it wasn't a very detailed one. I apologize for lack of details, I will probably be able to write it better once I have experienced such a thing.) Also, sorry about the extremely corny ending, I couldn't help it. It was the only way I could manage it.

Historical notes for the last chapter start now! Including the translation (by the way, I used Google translate.)
Bizarre, la façon dont le jeune frère ont eu leur premier baiser devant la plus ancienne a fait. - Odd, how the younger brother had their first kiss before the oldest one did.
Pas vraiment, Alfred a toujours été un peu plus lent que moi,- Not really, Alfred has always been a little slower than me.
Now, I must apologize for Alfred's mom's reaction. I had the majority of the fanfic with people being pretty accepting to the idea, so I really did have to make someone against it, so... yeah. The seventh of May, 1945, was the date of Germany's unconditional surrender. The headline used in this fic was taken from the Internet, and therefore is real. As for the Japanese, there were still a couple months to go before that surrender would occur. I'm not sure whether there was a "study abroad" program then, but from what I found on the Internet, there most likely was. That's pretty much it for the notes, more or less.

Wow, I actually wrote an entire fanfic. Brain is currently spinning. Please, tell me what you think about it! R&R, por favor!