AN: I'm a naughty authoress, sorry. But to make up for it you get a longer than usual chapter and a Christmas update! So that sort of makes it a bit better ;)


Chapter 9

"We should go out."

Arthur looked up from the book he'd been happily engrossed in. Alfred was perched on the other sofa in the living room, staring at him expectantly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we've been stuck in this stuffy house for days! I'm dying of boredom. Not everyone can be happy sitting in a room reading all the time. We should go for a walk! Or to the movies! Or just for mooch. I mean, we're practically in London. There should be tonnes of stuff to do!"

There was a pause as Arthur looked as Alfred and the younger nation waited for a reply. It didn't come.

"And we could go out to eat…?" Arthur stared at him, but sighed. He was just trying to help, a thought that he repeated to himself daily.

"Fine. But no fast food."

"Yay! You won't regret this, Iggy!"

"I already am." He huffed, but still put his book down and got up to go and find his coat. As far as he was concerned it was hardly arctic conditions outside, but anything below room temperature was far too cold for him in his current state. He ended up choosing a long brown coat, and scowling when Alfred threw a scarf at him to top it all off.

"It's not that cold, Alfred."

"Maybe, but I dunno how long we'll be out for, and I don't want to have to deal with you complaining all day about how cold it is. If it gets too hot you can just take it off." Arthur grumbled under his breath, but didn't bother arguing and instead wrapped the stripy scarf snugly around his neck. He didn't miss the small smirk Alfred sent his way, so he threw a cushion at him before wandering out into the hallway to find his shoes.

He smiled at the sound of the American yelping, pulling out a pair of black boots and fumbling around as he wriggled them on, his balance not being the best at present. Alfred was jumping around on one leg behind him, trying to figure out where he'd kicked his other shoe the last time he'd taken them off.

"Stop faffing around. If we're going, let's go. I'm not going to spend the next hour waiting for you to get ready," Arthur declared, before marching out the front door with a grin. He chuckled to himself as he heard Alfred hurriedly locate his other shoe before stumbling out of the house behind him. After reminding him to lock the door - something he knew from experience that Alfred was good at forgetting - they made their way down the street.

The air was harsh and cold, but the sky was clear and the sun shone brightly. It was late morning, and the pair could see their breath fog up the air. Without any particular aim in mind, they meandered down streets and side roads. Refusing to say it out loud, Arthur appreciated the scarf, as it gave him a chance to bury his cold face into something warm. If Alfred noticed him doing this, he didn't say anything.

After a short time, they found themselves on a street lined with shops. Arthur hadn't brought his wallet, which was an oversight that he wouldn't have normally made, but Alfred had money that was apparently burning a hole in his pocket, so he was dragged rather unwillingly into several stores as Alfred spent his cash on random and often useless touristy merchandise. Arthur didn't comment. He was far too focused trying to hide the violent blush on his face and wondering if Alfred realised just how tightly he was holding his hand as he pulled him along.

Inevitably, Alfred got bored before too long and was soon complaining about how hungry he was. In deference to Arthur's threat to remove some vital organs if he took him to a MacDonald's, they ended up in some little café/restaurant tucked just off the high street. It took Arthur a lot longer to pick what he was going to eat than it took Alfred, and he realised after a couple of minutes that the younger man was looking at him with a frown and some concern.

"You feeling okay?" Arthur realised that he was taking Arthur's indecision to mean that he wasn't hungry.

"I'm fine. Really," he added, upon seeing as disbelieving look. "I'm just deciding what to have."

After a couple more minutes pondering, he decided to have some soup. Despite feeling the gnawings of hunger, he knew that he wouldn't physically be able to manage anything of substance, and didn't want to waste food if he bought something bigger than he could actually eat. The soup would have bread with it too, which was rather filling and on the list of allowed foods from his doctor.

Alfred looked a bit happier once Arthur had decided upon his meal, and they were soon served by a chirpy young lady, wearing a pretty dress and probably a bit too much makeup. Arthur examined the café, bored, whilst Alfred played with his phone. It was quite a quaint little place, with maybe a dozen round tables scattered across the room and various paintings artfully lining the walls. The entire atmosphere was of yellow and crème and warmth, and Arthur found it surprisingly pleasant.

And then he was bored again. There were only so many things to see in a small room, and people watching was of limited interest when all they were doing was eating.

"What are you doing?" Alfred glanced up from his phone.

"Playing games, mostly. I'm talking to Kiku too, 'cept he keeps going quiet because apparently he's in some meeting or another."

"Oh. What are you talking about?" Arthur could quite easily guess the answer, but a conversation with Alfred was better than sitting in silence while waiting for their food to arrive.

"Games, mostly. He's got his hands on some stuff that won't be released in my own country for a little while, so he's gonna bring them over soon and we're going to spend an evening just playing. I like having him around. It's fun, even if he is real quiet."

"That sounds nice."

"Totally is! We get popcorn and sweets and soda…"

"And a trip to the dentist later?"

"Hah, you're hilarious, Artie," the younger man gave an exaggerated pout. Arthur bowed his head forward slightly, hiding a small smile.

"So when's this going to happen?"

"Dunno. Whenever you're well again, I guess." Guilt hit Arthur, like a hand squeezing his innards.

"You don't have to put a hold on anything for my sake-"

"I don't have to, but I want to, Artie." He gave a bright grin. "I promised, didn't I? Anyway, you're way more important than games!" Arthur felt flattered, but it only assuaged the guilt slightly.

"Still, you should put your life on hold for me. What about all the work back in your country?"

"I took some leave. I usually let it build up so I get one helluva a big holiday! Usually at Christmas, because I love it."

"So you're wasting your holiday looking after me?"

Alfred's smile dropped off his face, and Arthur suddenly and inexplicably felt bad. Alfred was selfless enough to stay with him whilst he was ill, and here he was reminding him that he could be doing so much more than being stuck in a house with a miserable old Englishman. Just as his thoughts were trailing off in a depressing and rather self-deprecating direction, Alfred spoke up.

"Don't ever say that. Don't ever even think that any time spent with you is a waste. I mean," he was starting to gesture, phone forgotten on the table and food completely out of mind, "do you really, honestly think it's so bad that anyone would want to spend time with you?"

"I usually think they're joking," Arthur offered, weakly. "People don't like being around me, Alfred."

"Then they're idiots."

"No, they're not. They just have better things to do than to hang around someone who insults them and doesn't enjoy socialising and who would rather spend the day inside reading than anything else. And I don't blame them. I don't mind. I'm used to it."

"Arth-"

"Just leave off, Alfred," he sighed. The younger man looked like he was about to carry on, but was cut off by the arrival of their food. He could see Alfred angling to talk, and shoved a spoon of soup into his mouth to discourage him. Put out, Alfred frowned before tucking into his own meal, flashing an all-American but half-hearted smile at the waitress as she left.

They ate in silence. The soup was rather nice. It wasn't too strong in terms of flavour, something Arthur appreciated. He'd been depriving himself of food for so long that anything too potent made still him feel a bit nauseous. The bread was obviously from a local bakery too, judging by the quality. All in all, Arthur was very happy with the meal, and although he didn't manage to empty to entire bowl, he got pretty close. He could feel Alfred watching him finish off, the younger nation having practically inhaled his own meal.

When they were done Alfred offered to buy dessert too, but Arthur declined. Upon seeing the younger man pout he sighed, and pointed out that Alfred was allowed to buy his own dessert, but at this point Alfred had already waved the waitress down and paid their tab. Meal over and done with, the pair left the café and were greeted by a chilling wind and late afternoon shoppers upon exiting to the street.

The icy air bit into his skin and Arthur found himself wrapping the scarf as tightly around his neck as possible whilst wondering if Alfred himself was alright, having only opted to wear his usual fare of jeans and his bomber jacket out. If the cold was affecting him he wasn't showing it, though. He watched the younger man stuff his hands in his pockets, before declaring that he knew 'exactly where to go to next!' and rushing off ahead.

"Wait up, you tosser!" Cursing the fact that Alfred had longer legs, Arthur struggled to keep up and only managed to catch up when Alfred was forced to stop at a pedestrian crossing. "Where are we going?" He huffed, trying to catch his breath.

"The cinema!"

"Why?"

"There's an awesome new movie out. It's from Disney, so I know you'll love it!" Arthur spluttered.

"What the hell do you mean by that?!"

"Hah, everyone knows you love all that magic and fairytales stuff! C'mon, live a little! It's better than being stuck in that boring house all day. We can get popcorn!" And with that he rushed off ahead again. Arthur sighed, but was feeling in a shockingly good mood, all things considered, and couldn't actually think up a good argument or reason why he didn't want to go and watch this new movie. He really did love Disney - as far as he was concerned, it was one of the few things America's people had got right.

Arthur wanted to question Alfred on how he knew where the cinema was, but was too out of breath and after a moment's thought realised that he'd probably used his phone to find the one nearest to the café they'd been in. Arthur himself had never managed to actually get the internet on his phone, and was just about able to text.

It took a few minutes of Alfred darting about and Arthur frantically trying to keep up before they reached the cinema. Upon entering the lobby - which was thankfully quite empty and substantially warmer than outside - Arthur stood to one side whilst Alfred argued with a machine to buy tickets before finally giving up and going up to the counter, getting them from a human instead. He was then dragged towards the refreshments area and practically ordered to choose something by Alfred. Reluctantly, he chose a small tub of popcorn and tried not to look at the price, consoling himself that Alfred was the one buying it and Alfred was the one who would inevitably end up eating most of it too. Alfred came back with a stack of sweets and a large cup of something unidentifiable but no doubt incredibly sugary. He didn't show any negative reaction at all upon hearing the price of all this, and Arthur was left to wonder if the younger man understood English currency enough to realise just how expensive his snack trip was.

But that was neither here nor there. The screen their film was in was mercifully quiet, with only a handful of other people settled down in the rows of red chairs. There was the occasional rustling of sweet packets being opened and a few hushed murmurs, but it seemed that despite the target audience of the movie there weren't actually any children watching it in this screen. Because of this, both men were able to fully immerse themselves in the film as the screen blared into life. For a couple of hours, Arthur was able to completely block out the rest of the world.

At least until the end, that was. He'd felt his phone buzzing in his pocket about halfway through but had ignored it in favour of watching the film, but as the room lit up and the screen dimmed, he reached into his pocket, ignoring Alfred's choir of wrappers rustling as he stretched out next to him, and looked to see who had been texting him and why.

As was his luck, it was nothing to celebrate.

Arthur leant back into his chair, cradled his head in his hands and sighed. Alfred looked over, worry flickering over his face.

"Art?"

"Please don't call me that…"

"What's the matter?"

"I just got a reminder from my Prime Minster. There's a conference tomorrow. I'd completely forgotten about it."

"There is? Well, I forgot too, so no biggy." Arthur tried to bury his face deeper, but it didn't work.

"That's not the point, idiot." Voice still hushed, despite the film being over. "The point is that there's a conference in my capital tomorrow and we're both expected to go. I'm just glad I've got most of my notes and paperwork sorted from the last time. Have you?"

"I might have to borrow yours." Arthur sighed, but wasn't overly surprised. It was hardly an uncommon occurrence, after all. This wasn't the way he'd imagined finishing this day.

"This was lovely Alfred, but we should really get home. I've got some things I need to prepare for tomorrow."

"It'll be dark by now, so I was gonna take you home anyway. Wanna grab anything for food on the way back? We can get a takeaway."

"No thanks. I'm still stuffed from lunch. Come on, let's go home."

And with that they left the warmth of the cinema and found themselves out in the dark and the cold, making their way on foot back to Arthur's house.

~SR~

Arthur woke up shortly before Alfred, thanks solely to his alarm clock. He felt over-tired despite the long night's sleep and desperately wished he could stay in bed, but a conference was a conference and it was more of a hassle to miss one than it was to grin and bear it and get the whole sorry mess over and done with. With that in mind, he forced himself out of the warm refuge of his bed and stumbled down the stairs, grabbing a cup of tea before slumping against the work top and cursing bureaucracy in general.

Breakfast was courtesy of Alfred, who had come downstairs shortly after Arthur had got up only to promptly evict him from his place in front of the cooker and force him into a kitchen chair. He sat there nursing his morning cup of tea, observing the American who seemed one yawn away from falling straight back to sleep. It was safe to assume that he wouldn't have been up for several hours if it wasn't for the fact that the conference started at 9am prompt.

After a few minutes of quiet grumbling from the weary American, sizzling sounds and wonderful smells wafting over, he was presented with his breakfast. He'd never say it out loud due to the risk of swelling up the idiot's already over inflated ego, but the omelette was actually quite nice, and easily better than anything he would have managed to conjure up. His morning fare usually consisted of a couple of cups of tea and some burnt toast, and that was only if he even remembered to eat in the first place. In contrast, the omelette was a whole plate of egg, mushroom, tomatoes and cheese. To Arthur it seemed enough to feed three people, easily.

As Alfred sat down, Arthur noticed that despite his fervour in eating his own omelette, he seemed exceptionally jittery. He sighed, and put down the cup of tea he'd been about to take another sip of. Alfred hadn't outright said anything, but it was clear from the way he'd been acting since the previous evening that he was starting to have second thoughts about the pair of them - or more specifically Arthur, not that he was suicidal enough to say that out loud - going to the conference.

"Good god, if this is going to stress you out so badly, let me call Scotland and he can take my place."

"Scotland?"

"My brother. And don't give me that look, because you definitely know him. He has red hair."

"The one with the leprechauns and booze?"

"... no, the other one, idiot. The one with haggis and booze."

"Smokes a lot?"

"That's the one."

"I thought you hated him."

"Exactly. He can suffer this for once. I'm not sure I can bring myself to deal with that bunch of idiots today." At this, Alfred cracked a smile.

"No, it'll be fine... I'll be with you the entire time, and heroes don't let damsels get hurt on their watch!"

"Call me a damsel again and you'll be the one getting hurt." Arthur scowled at him, pushing the half-eaten plate of food aside before leaving the kitchen. He had just under half an hour to get showered and ready to leave, and he wanted to use the bathroom before Alfred hogged it. Then it was the usual frantic rush out of the door, yelling at Alfred to hurry up and jumping into the car. He was further delayed when Alfred decided he still needed to wear a scarf and spent another five minutes tracking down the stripy one from the day before, finally finding it thrown over the coat rack, where Arthur had told him it was in the first place.

The morning had actually been going rather well for Arthur, up until the car journey in when Alfred decided to open his 'slovenly, unappealing maw' and harass Arthur a little more about things that had been said the previous day. They'd spent the rest of the journey in a tense silence, each of them refusing to be the first to break or apologise.

As usual the conference was situated in a high-end hotel, this time in outer London, a fact for which Arthur was eternally grateful. And naturally, within about half an hour of the conference proceeding merry hell was taking place and any semblance of control or order had long since vacated the premises.

Not that they were paying it any heed; Arthur was simmering and Alfred was sulking childishly next to him, each oblivious to the chaos around them as they wallowed.

It didn't take long for this to change, though. Prussia had managed to sneak in although, in all fairness, there was never a major effort to keep him out. Arthur had a sneaking suspicion that Germany let him do it to in some way occupy himself, or make the albino feel like he was still capable of doing things or something ridiculous like that. This had resulted in Hungary screeching something in an unholy high pitch, Italy fainting as a consequence and half of the table caving way as physics did it's duty and the poor aged wood cracked under the weight of a flying Prussian.

At about this point Arthur and Alfred were shocked out of their self pitying and took refuge under the half of the table that remained standing. Amidst the yelling and screaming and general ruckus, Arthur was shocked to see Alfred placing himself at such an angle that he'd be protecting Arthur should this part of the table ultimately give way. And immediately found himself lost in thought again.

"I'm sorry."

"Eh, for what?" Arthur was quickly jolted out of his daydream. He could barely hear himself think over all the noise, but Alfred's voice seemed to stand out above the din even though he wasn't even trying.

"For everything. For prodding and probing when ya didn't want me to. Now you're upset with me again. Sorry."

Arthur blinked in shock. It wasn't like Alfred to admit fault, and yet this wasn't even the first time he'd done so since staying with the older man. Well, he wasn't going to be out-mannered by someone less than half his age. Anyway, he realised he rather owed it to the American to make amends.

"I'm… sorry, too. I over-reacted. You've been so good to me the last few days and I keep throwing it back in your face, don't I?"

"Nah, you have an excuse for being irritable. I mean, more irritable than usual…" He paused, before ploughing on but tactically not mentioning anything about illnesses or food. "But about yesterday - and hear me out," he shot Arthur a warning look when he began to open his mouth. There was a brief interlude as the table shook and the yelling above them intensified. "Do you honestly think that nobody wants to spend time with you? I'm not sure that I like that you think that. It makes me worried. People don't hate you, Arthur. And you shouldn't think that they do."

Arthur slumped noticeably.

"I know, I know… but sometimes it just gets so quiet and my brothers barely come to visit and France only swings by if he wants to annoy me or feel me up. It just feels like it sometimes. I don't know why you even visit me either, when to you I'm just some 'stodgy old man'." He noticed the distressed look on Alfred's face.

"Y'know I don't mean it when I say that, right? I mean, I just say it because it'd be uncool if you knew that…"

"That?"

"That I came to visit you cause I wanted to see you. And for no other reason."

The whole world held still momentarily, and Arthur forgot to breathe. Everything that was going on in the background faded out; all he could think or see was Alfred's face, wide blue eyes looking at him. He looked scared, although he couldn't understand why. He took a moment to figure out his words before he opened his mouth and said something ridiculous. As it was, he choked out his next words anyway.

"Do you really mean that?"

"I wouldn't lie. Not about something like this, Arthur."

And relief flooded through his body. It seemed like such a small thing, and it was undoubtedly obvious to anyone viewing their odd relationship from the outside, but for him to hear the words straight from Alfred's mouth was one of the best things that had happened to him in years. Unwittingly, he felt relieved chuckles bubble up his throat. Alfred's brief look of befuddlement gave way to one of happiness, and he gave a light laugh too.

Their little moment was rudely interrupted by a particularly loud thud emanating from above. There was a mutual glance, and the decision was quickly made that the meeting was a lost cause. With that in mind, the pair wriggled their way under the chairs remaining next to the table, carefully avoided trampling feet and flailing bodies and not so much snuck as ran out of the room, not caring in the slightest if anyone saw.

In the relative quiet of the hallway they grinned. Desperate to get away from the noise and destruction, they made a quick pace down the endless red corridors of the hotel before finally breaking free of the building. It was barely lunchtime, the conference having fallen into chaos in record time.

"So Artie, wanna go to lunch?"

"Do you ever stop thinking about food?"

"Nope!"

"Fine. I'm a bit hungry myself." He saw Alfred's face light up at this statement, and was amazed at how happy a few words made him. "But you're paying!"


AN: I hope everyone has a lovely day!