Arthur emerges from the kitchen fifteen minutes later and finds Vash leaning on the wall, engaged in a relaxed conversation with Matthew. Gilbert has his arm around Matthew's waist, lazily fiddling with the hem of his shirt and resting his head on the other's shoulder. He's talking to Elizabeta about Germany, by the looks of things, and she doesn't look too impressed.

"Vash, can I talk to you for a second?" Arthur stops next to him and the blonde looks up at him. He surveys his expression for a long moment with narrowed, icy green eyes.

"Alright, fine." Vash takes a drink from the glass of cola Roderich must have gotten him to help calm him down. "Come on."

Arthur walks with him into the hallway and they settle on the stairs, Vash periodically sipping from his drink as he eyes the other blonde warily.

"It's different," Arthur says after a few moments of silence, "with Alfred. It feels different."

"What?"

"You said you didn't know how I'd moved on so fast." Arthur explains. "It feels different with Alfred. Like it's right; like it was always supposed to be that way. You know what I mean?"

"Not really. I can't say I do."

"Well, it kind of feels like –wait, what?" Arthur frowns at the smaller blonde next to him. "You've had girlfriends before, haven't you?"

"No. What made you think that?"

"I assumed, sorry. Boyfriends, then?"

"No, not really. I've never had anything like that."

"Seriously?" Arthur asks in near disbelief.

"Yes, seriously. I realize it might come as a shock to you; the bisexual, twenty year old college student who's never even been kissed, but it's true."

"I thought you'd dated before." Arthur admits, frowning into his beer and kicking his feet out. "A few people have been interested in you, though. Francis told me that his sister was always trying to flirt with you and you kept shooting her down. And there was that girl that lives next door to Roderich; didn't you say she was always coming on to you when you still lived there?"

Vash looks at him blankly.

"You'll know who I mean; she's kind of short, has long, dark hair, green eyes; she's always in a dress?" Arthur continues.

"Oh, you mean Dalena?" Vash pauses to take a drink as Arthur nods in realization. "Yeah, she tried it a few times in between her weird on-off relationship with Alois. He lives two floors up; I don't know if you know him."

"You mean the surly bloke that's built like a brick shithouse?" Arthur asks bluntly, and Vash splutters into his drink. "Probably about two feet taller than both of us, massive hands and really unhappy expression pretty much all the time?"

"Yeah, that'd be him." Vash says after a drink. "I wouldn't try anything even if I was interested in her, to be totally honest. I think I'd like to live more; Alois would probably try and rip my face off or something."

"Like you'd let him." Arthur scoffs, dragging his legs up to his chest and resting his arms on his knees. "Were you seriously not interested in her, though? I think everyone thought you were. We all thought Kiku kind of had a thing for you too, before he started dating Heracles. He used to stare at you all the time. It was kind of weird."

"Really? I always figured he and Heracles were kind of it for each other."

"Yeah, everyone thinks that, but before Heracles started dating Kiku, he had some weird thing with Sadik. They'd come in arguing about the night before all the time, and it was kind of horrifying, to be honest. I think they stopped whatever they were doing because Heracles said he wanted to shag someone else, and so did Sadik, and it turned out that the person they both wanted was Kiku, and it turned into some awkward mess from there. I found them arguing in the Renaissance gallery the other week, so it doesn't even seemed to have calmed down after two years."

"It's Sadik; you seriously thought it'd calm down?" Vash asks in disbelief, staring at the older man.

"Fair enough, I suppose." Arthur shrugs, taking another long drink. "You didn't really answer me, though. Were you really that disinterested?"

"Well, yeah. It's kind of hard to focus on anyone –no matter how attractive they are– when you've kind of been fixated on the same person for as long as you can remember?"

"So you do like someone?"

"Yes, Captain Obvious. Why else would I say it?"

"You can't just announce that and not tell me who it is. That's cruel." Arthur muses, looking sideways at the other man.

"Oh Christ, not you too. Antonio did practically exactly the same when I told him."

"So it's not like you're keeping it quiet, then."

"Well I hardly go shouting about them, do I? I'm pretty sure a lot of people are just convinced I don't care."

"That is pretty plausible." Arthur shrugs, and Vash glares at him. "Sorry. Are you honestly not going to tell me?"

"Not if you keep asking me like that, I'm not." Vash huffs, taking a drink to calm his nerves. "Besides, what makes you think I'd tell you, anyway?"

Arthur studies the younger man for a long few minutes, eyes narrowed as he sips thoughtfully from his beer.

"It's Francis, isn't it? That's why you won't tell me; you think I'll be upset." Arthur says, his eyes never leaving the twenty year old. Vash actually splutters, just narrowly stopping himself from spitting cola into Arthur's face.

"What? You're joking, aren't you? You don't seriously think it's Francis?"

"Well, why else would you get so defensive of him? And you do spend a lot of time with him, and you do clearly feel deeply for him. It wouldn't upset me if you decided to go out with him, you know. It might make him happy."

"Oh for god's sake." Vash presses his free hand over his face and sighs. "It's not Francis! I got defensive of him because I care about him like you care about a brother; I spend a lot of time with him because we live in the same apartment. But I do not and never will feel 'deeply' for him! He's a good friend; someone I've known practically since I was born, I don't want to have sex with him or even kiss him! We're just friends and that's all I ever want to be with him."

"Okay, so it's not Francis, then." Arthur laughs, eyeing the other blonde.

"What gave you that impression?" Vash laughs weakly. "And besides, if anyone did actually show an interest in him, I can tell you now that he wouldn't be interested back unless it was you."

"Oh." Arthur falls silent, looking at Vash for a long moment and taking another sip of beer. "Then who is it? Is it Antonio?"

"Why would it be Antonio? Sure, he's my friend, but he's also incredibly cheery and annoying and never shuts up. Not to mention the irritable Italian boyfriend who clearly has some kind of complex. And the fact that he randomly talks in Spanish sometimes."

"You randomly speak in French when you get angry." Arthur points out. "So did Francis, actually."

"How astute of you." Vash rolls his eyes. "He still does, sometimes. When he gets really mad or really upset. He's upset a lot, lately.

Arthur deflates a little at his words and looks over at the other blonde.

"Sorry. I was talking to Alfred earlier, too. Before I started yelling at you. Sorry about that, by the way." Vash says sheepishly, rearranging the hair at the back of his head. Arthur raises his hand to gesture that it's fine and he probably deserved it. "He told me he didn't know that you and Francis had been together for as long as you had, and he didn't know how you met."

"I never did tell him, to be honest. I didn't know how to."

"Well, you were friends before you got together, weren't you? Didn't you ever mention it to him?"

"I mentioned I had a boyfriend, but that was it. He never asked so I never told."

"Arthur," Vash says sternly, eyes hard, "that's not how it works. You know that much by now, surely. You should have just said. Then maybe none of this would have happened."

"I suppose. But I'm happy now. Happier, rather. Because I was happy with Francis, no matter how it looks."

"So why did you leave him?" Vash asks quietly, resting his glass on his knee and looking hard at the other man. "If he made you happy, and you made him happy, then why did you go?"

"I don't know. It seemed right, it felt right, and it was different. I thought Alfred was special, I thought he might be the one, you know? I'm not so sure now, but I do definitely feel something for him."

"It's funny," Vash says after a moment's silence, "Francis said the exact same about you. He thinks you're 'it' for him. Like he'll never get over you."

Arthur's entire form droops, his shoulders sagging as he sighs and slumps forward.

"I get that too; it's like I'm drawn to him." Arthur explains quietly, like he's afraid Alfred will hear him. "Like I know we're supposed to be something, not just exes. I think there's some folklore about that."

"Please don't tell me." Vash continues with a roll of his eyes. "But I do get how you feel –at least kind of, anyway. This... This person that I like, we've been through a lot, and I kind of get it. Not that they'd ever acknowledge it, because they've always had someone and I've never had the nerve to turn around and say 'hey, I like you, please go out with me' because I'm just not their type and they go for people who are much more charismatic than me and who actually outwardly care and-"

He starts rambling, voice running away with him as he trails off into an astounding display of self-pity, until he hears Roderich's stupid, stupid dry, accented laugh and snaps his head up. He can just about see him from here if he leans right, looks around the doorway into the dining room. He's sloping against a cabinet, drink in his hand as he talks with Kiku and Heracles (the brunette has his arm around his boyfriend's waist in a loose gesture of protectiveness, probably because he knows Sadik is around somewhere) and they laugh together.

Arthur frowns at him, confused as to why he's suddenly stopped talking –not that that's a bad thing, he thinks– and sees that he's staring blankly into the dining room. He scowls harder, leaning to try and see what the younger blonde is staring at so angrily. At first he thinks it's Kiku or Heracles, but then he realizes that Vash has never shown any kind of interest in Heracles outside of 'drinking acquaintance' and he's already dismissed any chance of it being Kiku. Arthur pouts, leans a little further but still avoids drawing attention to himself, and spots the perfectly groomed, bespectacled brunette that Vash just has to be staring at. His mouth almost opens in shock, as he reels back and settles himself, staring wide eyed at the flock wallpaper in front of him. He hadn't even thought of Roderich, and now he kind of wants to kick himself because it's so obvious.

"Oh my god." He mutters to himself. "Oh my god."

Vash snaps out of his reverie and turns to the other man with an eyebrow raised.

"What now?"

"I know who it is."

"What?"

"I know who it is. The person you've liked for however many years but never said anything to because you're an utter bell-end."

"Go on, then. If I'm such a 'bell-end', then who is it?"

"It's Roderich." Arthur replies matter-of-factly, and Vash noticeably pales under his firm green gaze. "Don't deny it, I know I'm right."

"So what if you are? It's not like it makes a difference." Vash sighs, allowing his shoulders to deflate in defeat as he focuses on the patterned maroon carpet under his feet. He kicks absently at the stair with his tiny feet, watching as his boot curves against the wood.

"It makes all the difference. A problem shared is a problem halved, or whatever that bollocks saying is. You have someone to talk to, now, at least. Does anyone else know?" Arthur asks, leaning towards the smaller man and resting an arm on the stairs behind them.

"Yeah. Francis, Lilli, Antonio, and I think Feliciano probably knows. I think I'd drunk too much and stressed to him and he tried to help me fix things. He wasn't much use, but he tried. And I'll be honest here, but if people hadn't started to work it out, I don't think I'd have ever told anyone. It's not like anyone can actually do anything about it, is there? I'm not getting over him any time soon, and he's engaged to a girl I'm pretty sure he's planning a future and two point five children with, so I fail to see how this could even work."

"Now, now, Mr. Positive. Don't think like that, alright? We all know he's hardly as straight as an arrow –in fact I'd go as far to say he's about as straight as a roundabout, not that you have those here– but it's hardly like all hope is lost."

"It might as well be. Even if he did feel the same –which he doesn't– then it's not like he'd drop someone as pretty and talented as Elizabeta for someone as emotionally stunted and useless as me."

I realized while I was editing this chapter that I've completely neglected to point out which 'OC' names correspond to each unnamed canon (or not) character. As an apology, here's a full list of everyone so far:

Alois = Czech Republic
Toma = Croatia
Erik = Iceland
Bella = Belgium
Katyusha = Ukraine
Henri = Luxembourg
Michelle = Seychelles
Stevan = Serbia
Anton = Romania
Dalena = Slovakia

Sorry! I'll try and remember to sit and author's note on the bottom from now. c: