Author's Note: Finally~! The ending to "Save Me From December"! A huge thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed the story! I wish I could give all of you some internet cookies or a hug or something...

Chapter Song: "Cool" by Gwen Stefani

Francis burst back through the apartment door, a carton of milk in hand, calling a "hello" to Arthur, who had nearly finished placing the thousands of photos in albums. Arthur looked up and sighed, "Francis, normal people don't go off to the store for two and a half hours to get a carton of milk when there's already a full thing in the fridge."

Francis pulled the fridge open and protested, "There waaaas? No way!"

Nearly chuckling, he replied, "You're such a bloody liar." He sighed, "I hope you were doing something productive, like I was."

Placing the carton of milk in the fridge and closing the door again, Francis stepped into the living room and leaned over the chair that Arthur was sitting in, "You put all those photos into the books?"

Arthur nodded, "I figured that you'd never get around to them, and since I had no entertainment for two and a half hours, I decided to work on this."

Giving a chaste kiss to Arthur, Francis thanked him and sat down in the same chair beside him, resting his head on his shoulder. Watching Francis doze off was interesting for about ten minutes, and by the time he had grown bored of the activity, the phone rang from the wall by the kitchen. Arthur thought he noticed Francis twitch in his sleep, and mutter something like "answer" quietly. The Brit assumed that Francis wasn't entirely engulfed in sleep, but wanted Arthur to get the phone in his place.

Standing up and stretching his back, he made his way over to their house phone before plucking it off it's rest and hitting the green talk button. Little did he know that Francis had awoken back up and was waiting to hear conversation. Arthur asked into the speaker, "Hello?"

"Arthur?"

At once, Arthur's eyes widened and he gripped the phone tighter than his casual hold. He snarled, "What do you want from me? Why did you call here? How did you even get this numb-?" He suddenly looked over at Francis, who was peeking out from behind the chair, and shot him a dirty look. So that's what the damn Frenchman was doing for two hours!

"Look, Francis came over and talked to me and Ivan for a little bit. I want to talk to you, though."

"Sod off and leave me alone! We have nothing to talk about!"

"Iggy..." Oh fuck him! Using that stupid nickname he gave him once! Arthur, though, couldn't stop his cheeks from flushing into a bright pink.

Through bared teeth, he growled, "What?"

"Please can't we talk somewhere?"

"Why? So you can just yell at me again like you always do?"

"No...it's just...Francis told me some things, and..."

"Yes?"

"Well...I...um..."

"You have no idea what you're getting at, do you?"

"Iggy, it's hard! My words never come out right!"

"That's the cold hard truth, Alfred."

"Please! I'll never bother you again if you just let me speak to you for a little bit!"

Letting out a long sigh and leaning against the wall, Arthur finally caved. Though he really didn't want to speak to Alfred, he'd much rather speak to him now and have him leave him alone for the rest of eternity than having to deal with this situation later on. "Fine, fine. Where did you have in mind?"

"There's this secluded cafe halfway in between us, how about there?"

"Fine I guess. What time do you want us to be there?"

"Us?"

"I'm not allowed to bring Francis along?" He intended to use that walking time to ask why he had bothered going to see Alfred and Ivan, and how he had come to the conclusion that they were causing him some kind of problem.

"Well...you can...but I wanted to just talk you one-on-one."

"Oh. Well, then he can entertain himself by talking to Ivan, since he likes going over to talk to the two of you without my knowing."

"Ohhh, he snuck over to our place while you were asleep?"

"Yeah, it's not nice to wake up to a note that says you're going to milk for a couple hours." He had no idea why he was telling this to his ex, but he figured that he'd just roll with whatever came out of his mouth.

"Milk? That was the best excuse he could have come up with?"

"Apparently. But he did bring back a carton of milk despite the lie."

"Well, anyway, why don't you meet us there at two forty-five?"

Looking over at the clock and saw that it was ticking away at one-thirty, he replied, "Sounds fine, I'll be there."

"Cool. And Iggy...?"

"Hm?"

"I think...ah...never mind. I'll tell you when you get to the cafe..."

"Um, okay. Goodbye, Alfred."

"Goodbye."

The line went off and Arthur hung up the phone, shooting another glare at Francis, who squeaked and attempted to hide behind the chair. Walking briskly to the chair, Arthur crossed his arms atop the back and looked down at Francis, who was worming his way off the chair and towards the floor.

Giving a long sigh, Arthur said, "Am I going to get my explanation now, or during the walk to the cafe?"

Francis frowned, "I knew something had been bothering you for the past few days, and I hated seeing you so upset so..."

"Let me guess, you called your friends, and the three of you miraculously figured out that the people at the store were Alfred and Ivan?"

"Oui...and Gilbert gave me Alfred's cell phone number, so I talked to Ivan, and he invited me over. Alfred and Ivan told me their perspective of the story..."

"And just because they may have been more innocent than I made them out to be means that they're just off the hook for what Alfred did?"

Francis protested, "You'd have to hear it from him, Artie."

"Well, I'll get to do that in an hour and fifteen minutes."

Slowly standing back up, and pushing his knee into the chair to keep him steady on the armchair, Francis came up close to the Brit and spoke softly, "Don't treat him too harshly, okay? I'd like this to be put behind us once it's over."

Arthur gave a small smile and exhaled, "You're not the only one." Leaning into the back of the chair, he caught Francis's lips in a kiss, but the two silently decided against using tongue. They had to be heading out of the building in twenty minutes, and they couldn't show up disheveled. It'd be improper and frankly embarrassing.

The walk to the cafe was somewhat pleasant, but would be more so if Arthur wasn't going to see Alfred. Francis was polite enough to refrain speaking about the ex; though he had several questions he wanted to voice. Another time, another place perhaps. Instead, the two spoke about trivial things, such as dinner options and Francis thanked Arthur again for organizing his seemingly never ending photo collection.

They had finally decided stopped on Chicken Alfredo as the choice for dinner whenever they reached the cafe, with Ivan and Alfred waiting outside for them.

Francis hissed in Arthur's ear, "You never said that I was going to stand outside and be forced to mingle with Ivan!"

Arthur gave a mischievous smirk, "Oh, and what's so bad about that? If you can speak to him for several hours without me knowing about it, you can certainly hold a conversation with him for about thirty or so minutes."

Though he gave a pout, Francis didn't say another word. Arthur instead looked over to Alfred and gestured to the door, "Are we talking or not?"

Alfred nodded, and pulled the door open, allowing him and Arthur to step inside the cafe. The place was filled with couples talking to one another and people using their laptops (why did they always seem to gather at cafes?); so there was plenty of noise to keep them safe of eyes and ears being drawn to during their conversation.

Taking a seat across from each other, the two former lovers exchanged a somewhat awkward glance, before Arthur said harshly, "Go on. What do you want to say to me?"

Alfred pouted, "You're not exactly making this very easy for me."

"And? I have no reason not to." Narrowing his eyes, he frowned, "You cheated on me, and now Francis heard whatever story you and Ivan have and suddenly everything's all better? Francis went easy on you, Alfred. I will not."

Protesting, the American said, "I didn't want to hurt you Arthur! I hated cheating on you, it was the hardest thing I ever had to do!"

"Oh spare the rubbish, Alfred, don't lie to me!"

"I'm not lying! I hated it! For the whole year the guilt wouldn't leave me alone...!"

Arthur blinked out of surprise whenever he saw Alfred looked genuinely upset. Taking a moment to calm himself down, he let out a sigh and said, "I'm sorry..." Making eye contact with Alfred, he replied smoothly, "Tell me your side of the story, I'll try not to interrupt you."

Giving a nod, Alfred started the story.

It took a twenty minute explanation, and by the end of it, Arthur felt a little guilty about immediately yelling at his ex whenever he tried to talk to him. But, at the same time, "I understand some of your choices...yet; you lied to me, you wouldn't even allow me to retrieve my belongings and money, and your rudeness at the convenience store was inexcusable. I'm not going to forgive you easily for those things."

Alfred sighed, "I understand. I'm so sorry Arthur."

"I'm sure you must be."

Burying his face in his hands, he said, "I've just fucked up your life so much. I hate what I've done...it's my fault you begged on the streets, began working as a whore, everything..."

Arthur was somewhat shocked by his response, and gave a small sympathetic frown, "No...those things weren't all your fault, Al. It was my own choice to work at the Underbog, it wasn't yours."

With a melancholy laugh, Alfred responded, "I know you're just saying that 'cause I look like I'm gonna cry or something...you probably want me to atone, don't you?"

Arthur leaned across the table to rest his palm on Alfred's fist, "I don't. In all honesty, I don't want you to feel like you should go back in time and try to fix anything."

"You...don't?"

The Brit smirked slightly, "No, you git. If you didn't cheat on me, I wouldn't have entered some kind of depression and gotten myself a little addicted to drugs. If you hadn't kicked me out of the apartment without anything to my name, I wouldn't have joined the Underbog to begin with. If those thing hadn't happened to me, I would never passed out in the alleyway when a whore gave me some drugs...and Francis would have never found me."

Alfred blinked, and slowly but surely, understanding dawned on his features.

Arthur smile broadened, "It's funny...all these bad things happened to me, and yet they led me to the person I love." Resting a hand under his cheek, he asked sincerely, "I don't want you to feel like you owe me something, because I'm happy now, Alfred. I've found the person who I want to be with, and I'd rather see us peacefully separate and have all this mess behind us, rather than have the overbearing thought of our regrets. I'd rather see you be happy with Ivan than trying to make up for everything you did to me."

Alfred nodded, "Okay..."

"I'll only say this one thing: don't make that same mistake again with Ivan. He looks like he'd run you over with a bulldozer if you tried anything on him."

Exchanging a laugh, the two men gave each other a genuine smile and stood up from their table to head towards the door. Alfred nodded, "Yeah, he doesn't like to do anything halfway."

"I suppose he really does care for you then, doesn't he?"

Giving a sheepish nod, he countered, "I'm pretty sure Francis is the same way, though. Right?"

Arthur nodded back, "He is. The oaf cares for me too much beyond his own good." Chuckling, he added, "But I don't complain too much about it."

Pushing open the door, the two broke up the somewhat fractured conversation that Francis and Ivan were having, and the two turned to look at their respective partners before looking at the man standing with them.

Francis asked, "So...is everything alright between the two of you?"

The two looked at each other and gave a short nod of the head, before Arthur extended his hand to shake Alfred's. The American apparently wasn't going to be happy with just that, so he grasped onto Arthur's hand and pulled him in for a hug. Hissing "git" in his ear, the Brit hugged him back before letting himself out of the hold and stepped back towards Francis.

Alfred stepped towards Ivan, and the two exchanged a quick glance before turning back to Arthur. Alfred smiled, "Thanks for agreeing to this..."

Arthur shrugged, "It's no problem." With a slight smirk he added, "Will you please get lost now?"

With a stroke of faux sadness, Alfred wailed, "So mean Iggy...!" But, nevertheless, the two waved and headed down the street away from them.

Francis and Arthur gave each other a small hug, and Francis smiled, "It's finally over isn't it?"

Arthur nodded, "What's done is done. I'm tired of dwelling in the past. It's exhausting."

The Frenchman laughed, "Same here." Playing with several strands of Arthur's choppy hair, he asked, "Everything alright?"

Arthur smiled back, "Everything's perfect. Nothing could spoil it, not a thing."

Exchanging a lusty kiss, there was a sudden call of "Hey! Will you two stop sucking face and hurry up already?!" Looking up the slow sloping of the road, there were four figures standing with their backs to the afternoon sun.

Arthur's smile fell and his shoulders slacked, "Except for that..." Glaring at Francis, he growled, "Why do you feel the need to keep Gilbert and Antonio updated with everything that we do?"

Nevertheless, the Frenchman pushed the Englishman up the road towards the quartet, all while saying, "Gilbert wouldn't leave me alone after I asked him for Alfred's number, and I felt bad we abandoned Antonio from the conversation..." Winking, he added, "And, you're officially an equal to Lovi and Matt."

Arthur snapped, "I don't care about any of that, even if Lovino and Matthew are nice! Why do I have to get dragged into every little thing that you and your friends want to do?"

"Because that's how it works in the group. Don't worry, Lovino was like that for a while, but he got used to it..." Once they were close enough to the four others, Francis smiled, "Sorry to make you walk all this way."

Antonio grinned, "It's not a problem, Francy."

Gilbert smirked, "Please tell me that somebody killed somebody!"

Francis sighed, "Why do you always jump to these kind of conclusions?"

Meanwhile, Arthur was speaking to Lovino and Matthew, who were also blocking out the bad friends. Lovino asked, "So, that bastard's paying for all he did?"

Arthur scratched the back of his head, "Ehh...not really. I listened to what he had to say and we came to an understanding."

Matthew smiled, "Thats good too, I suppose."

Before anything else could be said, Gilbert slung his arm over Matthew's shoulder and said to the group, "Since now everything is all worked out, can we got to the bar? I'm parched!"

Antonio chuckled, "Can't we just walk off into the mid afternoon sun like the people get to the do in the movies once they have a happy ending?" Lovino looked at his boyfriend as if he had lost his mind, and Matthew giggled.

Gilbert sighed, "Fine, but we're doing what I wanna do later on, okay?"

And somehow, the six men walked through the city with the sun lighting their way, Francis and Arthur both silently thinking of some kind of excuse they could use to ditch the others to go back to their apartment together. They had just found true happiness again, and although spending this time with friends would be fun, just the two of them alone together would be even better.

Thanks for Reading~! :)