A/N : AmeGer, in which Alfred takes advantage of Ludwig's lack of knowledge of traditions. Here's a late 4th of July one for ya. Allow me to allow Alfred to brag about the state of my birth for a moment, if you please.

THE LAST NIGHT OF THE WORLD

Ludwig had done many dumb things in his life, he would admit that. Perhaps his dumbest venture, in hindsight, was being so bold as to take his first trip to the United States during their independence day.

He got far in over his head.

It was such an innocent thing, really. Ludwig had had a choice to make : Canada Day, or the Fourth of July. One or the other. Could have stayed at Niagara Falls and done both on either side of the border, but there was one minor problem.

Ludwig's insufferable American acquaintance.

He had met Alfred in Paris when they had both been backpacking, and they had hit it off, because Alfred had spotted Ludwig sitting alone on the couch and had literally dragged him out with the group to a bar. Naturally, when the opportunity to travel to North America had finally come about, Ludwig had of course told Alfred of his plans.

Just as naturally, Alfred had said, 'Ditch Canada! Come down here for the Fourth! It'll be awesome! I promise. I'll show you all around.'

The promise of a free tour guide had swayed Ludwig, and so he had marked off Canada and went down to North Carolina instead, to Wilmington, where Alfred resided. Alfred had told Ludwig that he was welcome to stay with him, of course, but Ludwig had felt much like a free loader that way and decided to stay in a hotel in the heart of the city for two days. Afterwards, his plans had depended entirely on how much, exactly, Alfred intended to show him.

Of course the very first thing Alfred showed him was an American battleship, which was admittedly very interesting, and they had walked about it for a good few hours, Alfred never once shutting up and gesturing frequently as he gave Ludwig a very enthusiastic tour.

Ludwig enjoyed listening to Alfred speak, because he liked that Southern accent, that languid drawl. Had always liked the way Alfred said 'I', as more of an 'Ah'. Maybe, in the very back of his mind, he also just really liked Alfred, although of course he could never just outright say that.

Alfred had taken him next to the beach, and nudged his side, saying, "How come you didn't wanna stay with me? What, afraid I'll bite or something?"

A very deep blush, and Ludwig averted his eyes. Alfred's hand flew up to the back of his arm and stayed there as they walked, and Ludwig was very intimidated by Alfred's intensity. Certainly charming.

Alfred was just very hands on, and always had been.

The next day, Alfred called him at noon, and said, "Come over to my house. We're going to have a great party. Everyone will set off a ton of fireworks tonight. First we'll watch the city ones, then we'll set off our own. Come over!"

Ludwig did, very happily (and nervously) putting Alfred's address into his rental car's GPS.

He liked Alfred, more than he should have, and so being near Alfred made him nervous, particularly with how exuberant Alfred was in his mannerisms.

When Ludwig arrived to Alfred's quaint little home, it was very clear that the 'great party' consisted of merely him and Alfred.

Oh dear.

Somehow, though, when Ludwig pulled into the drive and Alfred came running out to greet him, it felt very much like a party indeed, because Alfred was always so excited and pumped up. He ushered Ludwig inside so cheerily, and Ludwig was awed by him, as always.

Alfred certainly was very exuberant, lived life to the absolute fullest, and Ludwig envied that. When they had first met, in fact, Alfred had dragged Ludwig to a shitty club long after Ludwig had been down for the count, saying, 'What's the matter with you? You could die tomorrow, you know? You gonna be happy with what you did today? Every night is the last night of the world!'

Wise words, if not exhausting.

Alfred had lived by those words tonight, for sure, because his small kitchen was very set up for a party, if only for just the two of them. The counters were covered with various dishes, the tablecloth was a plastic rendition of the American flag, there were little red, white, and blue streamers here and there, cheap little decorations.

Overkill. Did all Americans do this? Was this normal or was this just Alfred? Sometimes, it was very hard to tell.

"Now!" Alfred began, so very proudly, as he swept his hand emphatically over the counters, "I have prepared for you some of the finest dishes my state has to offer, and I know you're picky, so I made sure to get top-notch quality. I have, for your consideration, some BBQ, homemade biscuits, livermush, a variety of Calabash seafood, and, my personal favorite, sweet potato pie. To drink, of course, Pepsi, which you may have heard of, and then to season your BBQ, we have Texas Pete! All proudly created here. I hope you're hungry. I'm going to give you the best Independence Day of your life. Since, ya know, you guys don't know how to party."

Hmph.

Ludwig swept his eyes over the table Alfred had clearly very lovingly prepared, and couldn't help but smile, just at how proud he was of himself.

Well, when in Rome...

Ludwig met Alfred's gaze, smiled, and said, "You outdid yourself."

Alfred puffed out quite proudly, face full of arrogance, and Ludwig found it rather charming in some way. When Alfred tossed him a beer, Ludwig took it, even if it was horrible.

When night came, everything was going so nicely, so pleasantly. Ludwig was having a great time, even though it was just him and Alfred. Alfred was enough life and party for an entire platoon, naturally, so it was quite entertaining. Had nearly laughed himself senseless by then at Alfred's stupid jokes and stories, loosened up by beer and Alfred's friendliness.

Ludwig did make the grave mistake, however, of saying that he had thought BBQ was a Texas thing, and Alfred looked deeply offended, mortally wounded, as if Ludwig had slapped him across the face or shot him right in the heart. Ludwig had immediately tried to change the subject, but failed, and was then made to suffer a half-hour long lecture about how very different that BBQ was, thank you very much, blah blah blah.

Ludwig zoned out very quickly, nodding his head along, and when Alfred stopped speaking Ludwig had merely intoned, "You're right. Forgive me."

Alfred seemed relieved to have made Ludwig see the light, but then Ludwig made the stupider mistake of asking why it was called 'Texas' Pete and made for BBQ if Texas BBQ was so inferior, and Alfred sputtered a bit before railing on another tangent.

Ludwig wished he knew when to shut his mouth.

He was very grateful when it was time to go watch the fireworks.

For a while, anyway, and then everything went off the rails again. They had driven out to the beach, to watch the show, standing a bit back on a dune under the clear, starry sky. The scent of the ocean and the sound of the waves. Comforting. Alfred was standing very close to him, occasionally bumping into his shoulder.

When the first firework burst overhead, there was a very shocking development :

A hand on his arm, a firm yank, and Alfred had suddenly clenched him up within his arms and kissed him very furiously with absolutely no warning.

Had come entirely out of nowhere.

No hints whatsoever had been dropped, or at least Ludwig had clearly missed them if they had been, and he was so stunned and shocked and bewildered that he stood very placidly still within Alfred's strong arms, eyes wide.

Alfred kissed him for a very long minute, and then released him.

Ludwig gawked at him for far longer, staring away as if hypnotized.

Alfred just lifted his chin, ran a hand through his hair to smooth it, and drawled, so casually, "It's the Fourth, man! You gotta kiss someone when the first firework goes up. That's the rule. You're the only one here."

...was it the rule? Had clearly missed that in all of his readings.

So Ludwig just shifted his weight, and replied, stupidly, "Oh."

Was Alfred leering? Looked like he was leering.

Ludwig stood there quite like an idiot for a while, shuffling about and uncertain of how to react. Very much wanted to fling himself into Alfred's arms and stay there, but up until that point Alfred had made absolutely no other motions. If this were just a tradition he missed, then perhaps it was simply that and trying to make a move on Alfred would backfire terribly.

Couldn't handle that humiliation, and so Ludwig instead turned his eyes back out to fireworks bursting above the waves.

Felt dizzy, and Alfred just stood there right beside of him life before, just as closely, but said nothing and made no other move.

...damn.

When they went back to Alfred's house, Alfred set off his own fireworks, as promised, saying, because he knew it would bother strict Ludwig, "This is illegal here, ya know. I bought these babies down in South Carolina."

Needless to say, Ludwig spent the rest of the show looking out at the road for a police car to come roaring up. Alfred laughed at him. Ludwig laughed at Alfred, when he lit a fuse and then scampered quickly back to avoid losing any fingers.

Come midnight, Alfred was very tipsy, and came up far too close to Ludwig, throwing a very warm hand down on his shoulder and saying, "Hey. It's late. You can spend the night here."

Terrified of himself acting a fool around Alfred, Ludwig quickly refused and said he would rather go back to his hotel, since he had paid for it already. Alfred just waved him off, didn't seem offended, and just said, as Ludwig got into the car, "Call me tomorrow. We'll find something to do."

"I will."

Ludwig tossed and turned and didn't sleep at all that night, mind constantly on Alfred and his hands, and hating himself for it. That guy was the worst, the absolute worst, and Ludwig hated liking him as much as he did.

In the morning, with an awful headache and needing to check out of the hotel, Ludwig gathered his things and went out to his car. Didn't want to go immediately to Alfred's, jittery as he still was, and could look for another hotel in some other city after he was done with one last day of frolicking with Alfred.

But first.

He went straight to the nearest store, and bought a bottle of aspirin. The lady at the register heard his accent and made conversation with him, asking him where he was from, how he liked it here, how long he was staying, what he had seen, etc.

Ludwig politely responded, and did hear himself say, at one point, "American customs are very strange to me. I have never seen another country that kisses on their independence day holiday."

She tilted her head, and said, "What's that?"

Ludwig tinted pink a bit, and replied, sheepishly, "I didn't know that when you see the first firework, you have to kiss someone. I was not prepared for that. I was surprised."

The lady lifted her head, looked Ludwig up and down, and drawled, "Honey, someone sure got one over on you."

Ludwig crinkled his brow in confusion, and just gave a dumb, "Huh?"

She shot him a smile and laughed, and said, far too cheerily, "Oh! Bless your heart. We don't kiss on the Fourth of July here. That's only on New Year. Someone got you good."

Shock.

Ooh—Alfred!

His face had never been so red in his entire life. He marched straight out of the store, threw his bag in his car, pulled out his phone, and called that bastard.

It was answered immediately.

"Hey! Thinkin' about me, huh? I knew—"

"How dare you!" Ludwig screeched, so loudly that Alfred no doubt pulled the phone away from his ear. "You lied to me!"

"Did I?" came the nervous sputter.

"You said that you kiss people on the Fourth of July! You lied to me!"

Alfred was very tellingly silent.

"Well?" Ludwig pressed. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

A short silence, and then Alfred said, in a much more casual tone, "Come over so I can kiss you again? And stay here for a few days. You ain't got no other plans and you know it. Ditch the hotel. Come over. Now."

Bossy!

Ludwig's face blazed up once more, and he hung up the phone with a huff.

He angrily punched in the address in the GPS, and very sulkily drove straight back over to Alfred's. ...but not to kiss him again. Absolutely not. Was going to punch him, for sure, that was right, that was it. Punch him, yell at him, and then leave after a kiss. No, wait! Not that.

Damn.

Alfred was standing out on his porch when Ludwig pulled into the drive, and Ludwig stomped out, perhaps a bit childishly, marching up to Alfred as he chided, loudly, "What's wrong with you? Do you think I'm that stupid, that I wouldn't find out that you—"

Alfred rolled his eyes, stalked forward to meet Ludwig during his march, and before Ludwig could finish bitching Alfred had just grabbed him by the upper arms and kissed him again.

And Ludwig was very furious about it, absolutely.

...just not enough to bother pulling away. That was simply too much effort, was all. His head did hurt. Best to relax.

It was Alfred actually who pulled back in the end, and Ludwig, after blinking a bit to remember where he was, immediately started bitching again, and Alfred sighed a little before kissing him once more.

That time, when Alfred pulled back, he said, "See? I gotta kiss ya, 'cause that's the only way you stop bitchin' at me. Now get inside the house."

Ludwig fell dumbly still, as his brain malfunctioned under Alfred's audacity, and the next thing he knew he was somehow on Alfred's couch and Alfred was on top of him and he wasn't bitching anymore.

Hated this man.

Really.

It was just very hard to argue with a man like Alfred, because he was as stubborn as an ass, bullheaded, and impossible to really resist in any manner. So, when Alfred stood up and yanked Ludwig to his feet, grabbing him by the waist to walk him backwards, Ludwig didn't exactly give his best efforts at fighting him off. Gave an effort, oh yes, but one so pitiful that Alfred just sneered at him and muttered, "How'd ya know I like it when you pretend to fight me off?"

Oh, this asshole—

That time, it was Ludwig who kissed Alfred, as they tumbled back into the bedroom, so that he could get Alfred to shut up for once. Alfred didn't complain, and when Alfred shoved him roughly onto the bed and tried to hold him down, Ludwig certainly didn't roll him over and force him to work to pin him because he knew that Alfred liked that. Absolutely not. He was really, truly struggling. For sure. Really.

A frustrated Alfred snarling as he fought, though, well, that was rather nice indeed. His glasses had long since fallen off, and Ludwig was very much intending to steal them before he left, to blind the bastard for a while.

Long minutes later, when Alfred finally managed to hold Ludwig still underneath him, he grunted, testily, "Remind me why I like you so much again?"

Ludwig glared up at Alfred, wrists painfully clenched within Alfred's big hands, and he griped back, "I ask myself the same of you!"

Alfred scoffed, and grumbled, "Oh, yeah. That smart mouth. I forgot."

"No one else tells you how awful you are, so I have to—"

That was the last Ludwig got to speak for a very long while, because apparently Alfred really did very much like his smart mouth.

Ludwig did make sure, during that very long afternoon, to raise as much hell as he could and leave Alfred with a few bruises.

Alfred, the jerk, just seemed pleased.

Eh, he should have just gone to Canada.