Sorry for being not so productive on, well, anything! I've had a lot of shit has been thrown at me lately, but I've finished finals, I boosted my confidence back up by writing this thingy and I hope that it stays up! I know I shouldn't feel insecure, but I can't help it sometimes and I also know that that isn't a good excuse, so I'll just shut up and let you all read!

I don't have the privilege of owning any character in this chapter, by the way. If I did, then Rome and Germania would be making a lot more appearances on Hetalia.

~~~ Chapter 3 ~~~

Augustus shut the door as fast as he could to avoid getting slapped in the face with a pillow. He laughed to himself at the other's short temper.

It was odd but even though he's only known the other for a day, he already wanted to know this Beilschmidt more. He kept himself in this shell, shielding himself off from the rest of the world. He acted like some sort of wild beast that just wanted to be left alone, and maybe that all he really wanted, but Augustus wasn't about to turn a blind eye to this wild stallion. He was majestic, feral, and definitly will be tamed. It was a bit weird, creepy even, that he managed to figure all that out in a day-ish.

Plus, have you seen him?! He was gorgeous! He would put Venus to shame with that face! When he entered the room for the first time, he really did thinkhe was ashe. The beautiful blond might've already been married, but Augustus was willing to take that chance.

He didn't realize it, but he had this silly smile on his face, the type of smile one would see on an adolescent love-stricken teen aged boy. One of the nurses noticed this and walked up to him, luckily it was a nurse he knew quite well, "What are you smiling about Roma?"

Elizabeta Héderváry smiled with a hand on her hip as she walked over toward him. She was a good friend of the Roman, and the name 'Roma' was only used by his dearest of friends. He insisted his close friends call him by this name. He never really liked the name Augustus, it sounded too formal, and Dr. Vargas made him sound like an old man –which he keeps on insisting that he isn't.

Roma smiled back at the Hungarian woman and said, "Oh nothing."

She raised an eyebrow, not convinced. He really was a bad liar. She looked over his shoulder, eyeing the German patient's room, and back to the Roman. She rolled her eyes at the other; he could be so easy to read sometimes. She had no real intent on dropping the subject, but she made regular conversation, "Oh by the way, sorry about this morning. I was really stressed, and I kind of just let it all out on your patient."

Augustus laughed at this and said with a smile, "Don't worry about it. He had it coming, one way or another."

The two shared some light giggles. "So how's you treatment with him going anyway?" Elizabeta asked.

"I think it's going pretty good. I mean, he said something."

Her eyes widened. She had no doubt that he was a good psychologist, but to cure hysterical aphonia in a mere day? That was phenomenal!

Upon seeing her shocked expression, Roma clarified, "And by 'said something', I mean made a weird noise from the back of his throat."

Elizabeta's expression drooped. She really thought. . .

The nurse punched the doctor in the arm as he laughed at her surprise. "Roma!" she spat as she continued to punch him in the arm.

"Okay, ow!" the doctor said as she continued to assault him. "But seriously, I think that this might be easier than I thought. I thought this thing might take years, well it might, but you never know. I mean, this guy really wants his voice back so I think he's gonna get it."

"Yeah yeah. Whatever," Miss Héderváry said as she ceased her punches. Those were starting to hurt a bit. "So how do you cure hysterical aphonia anyway?" Her curiosity was getting the better of her. Since she was Mr. Beilschmidt's nurse she thought it would be best to know how to treat him as well, that and she was curious as hell.

The Roman thought about it for a bit and then said, "No clue!"

The Hungarian knew her friend by now and knew that he just didn't want to tell her. She rolled her eyes and settled for a different question, "Fine don't tell me. But can you at least say what you were doing in there for so long? You were in there since this morning."

"Oh," Roma laughed, "I wasn't in there all day! Well I was in there for maybe a few minutes then I grabbed some lunch, chatted with a pretty nurse –what was her name again? Felicia? Feliks? – something like that, and then – "

"Roma!" Elizabeta interrupted. The Roman stopped his rambling at the woman's slightly panicked tone. "God, you did it again you idiot! You can't just leave your patients!" She sighed, trying to calm herself. Unfortunately her coworker was very lazy, and he did this often. She had to save his ass on more than one occasion, one time almost costing her own job. She couldn't keep covering for the man anymore! "I know you aren't use to getting many clients, but you have to be more responsible than that. You can't just go running off doing who knows what anymore. Mr. Beilschmidt is counting on you, so you have to be there for him."

Roma sighed. He really hated it when she lectured him like he was a juvenile teenager. Sure he felt like a youngster at times, but he was a man damn it!

She huffed crossing her arms across her chest again after her lecture to the older man. He had this adorable pout to his face that made him look like a small child that just got scolded. How could anyone stay upset at a person with an expression like that? She let a sigh escape her lips and tried to bring the mood back to a happier one. "So Roma, what else did you do? You know, besides ditching the poor man for a few hours."

The Roman explained what else he did with the blond from flirting with him to the moment he shut the door. Her eyes widened and she felt like she was about to burst. She knew her friend could be a bit of an air head, but this was ridiculous!

"Roma!" she shrieked for the second time.

Dr. Vargas flinched and asked, confused as always, "What?"

"You-You don't just flirt like that! Especially to your patient, which you just met! God, we aren't in high school anymore! If the circumstances were better, I would be pushing you through the wall to get to that man, but. . . this man. . . Ugh! Roma you're such an idiot!" Elizabeta yelled at the doctor, not sugar coating a thing. She was so angry at the brunet she really had no words. Other staff and patients past them, giving them confused glances, but didn't bother them.

"Why are you yelling at me?" Augustus said when the Hungarian paused to punch him in the shoulder, roughly.

"Because you are an idiot!" she answered simply.

"Well, care to elaborate?" he almost yelled back adding a bit of bite to his words. Being punched and scolded was starting to get on his nerves. He was a man, not to mention older than the girl, and he should be treated with more respect than that.

She flinched, but didn't back down, "You can't hit on someone you met after, barely, two days. Well, not like that anyway." The Hungarian sighed before she continued, "The man's in a fragile state, simply saying 'their hot' isn't going to get you anywhere. You have to be more subtle and not just blurt out random crap that comes from that head of yours."

Roma thought about what the woman said, "So what would you do?"

Miss Héderváry placed a finger to her chin and thought aloud, "Well, first try to befriend him. Get him to like you as a friend before you get him to like you in a more intimate way." She nudged Roma with her elbow and winked. She paused, tapping her finger to her chin humming in thought, and then continued, "Oh, I got it! I was just about to go to the cafeteria for a late lunch; you can come with and bring him an early diner!"

Dr. Vargas liked the sound of food (even though he ate only a few short hours ago) so he immediately thought it was a good idea, and Elizabeta has yet to steer him wrong. Roma silently agreed with the nurse as she started to make her way to the hospitals cafeteria.

"How do you know so much about this?" Dr. Vargas asked as they made their way down the blank halls.

"Psh. I've been hooking people up since high school. I was voted best match-maker in my class! And I haven't lost my tough yet!" she bragged.

The two made their way to the cafeteria. It wasn't too crowded for lunch hour had past, but a few lingering patients, visitors, doctors, and nurses were seated at the tables. Elizabeta suggested what to get for Augustus' patient for dinner, not forgetting a drink. When Roma was all set, the two parted ways. Elizabeta sat with her other nurse friends while Augustus headed back up stairs to his patient's room.

To be polite, he gently knocked on the door. He didn't wait for a response as he opened it and poked his head inside the room. The blond was sitting upright in his bed leaning back on the pillow that almost collided with the doctor's face (how'd he get that back? . . .) and a book in hand.

Dr. Vargas smiled at him. He looked so peaceful. The crease on his brow disappeared and a light smile graced his face. Whatever he was reading he was thoroughly enjoying it by the looks of it. It seemed like the blond didn't even notice his doctor's presence. Augustus was almost tempted to leave the other be, but he took a deep breath and opened the door wider and greeted his patent with an oddly timid, "Hello."

Aldrich looked up from his book to see his doctor standing in the door way with a tray of food. He raised an eyebrow. Didn't he bother him enough for one day?

"I brought you an early dinner. It was Miss Héderváry's idea," he said walking in further into the room.

Aldrich assumed that he was referring to his nurse, which he later found out was the woman that yelled at him before. He gave his doctor a dull look and turned his attention back to his book and shook his head no.

Dr. Vargas placed the tray down. He gave the blond a confused look and said with a slight chuckle, "What do you mean 'no'?"

Aldrich tore his eyes away from his story for a second time and held up the book as if trying to say, I'm trying to read.

Augustus, somehow, understood what he was trying to say and laughed, "Oh, I see. Well, I'll just leave this for you here then." The doctor was about to head out, but he didn't want to leave quite yet. He knew he should probably leave the other be, but he couldn't get his legs to leave the blond's side. Instead, he leaned over to see what his patient was reading, but was disappointed when he couldn't understand the words. They were in a different language.

Aldrich noticed this and looked at his doctor as if saying, What are you doing?

The two made eye contact at that, and Augustus knew he should've looked away but didn't. The other's green eyes were sucking him in. Augustus felt like he was going to drown. Before the brunet could even take in a breath, Aldrich looked away and back to his book. Dr. Vargas blinked rapidly for a moment, trying to re-gather his bearings.

With a smile Augustus asked, "So, what'cha reading there?"

Aldrich looked up at his doctor with an un-amused glare. He pointed to the title that Vargas couldn't read and ignored the look his doctor gave him.

"I can't read that! It's in some sort of alien language!"

In retrospect, he was probably never going to get his answer considering the one person in the room that could tell him what it was about was mute, but Augustus left that thought to be dealt with later.

The blond glared, harder, at the brunet. His language was nothing near alien. There were plenty of people who could speak German, thank you very much! It still baffled Aldrich how this buffoon was a doctor.

After that, Augustus continued to make one sided conversation with him. Aldrich didn't really know why the other was still there, but it wasn't like he could say, 'Get out of here! You're annoying me!' So he just let the other talk his ear off. Aldrich zoned out and read his book mostly. He wasn't paying attention to what the other was saying, but couldn't help but feel a sense of happiness. He was so use to being left alone because he was too hard to handle. Having someone by him was different, not a bad different though. But the doctor was still annoying, none the less.

After a while, Aldrich decided to eat his 'early dinner' while Augustus continued to talk the day away. He came up with the craziest of topics and didn't mind in the slightest Aldrich just sitting there half paying attention. That is, until Dr. Vargas asked, "Say, do you know sign language. I mean, you must know considering. I'm just asking because you never bothered to answer me back, ever. So do you?"

With the Roman's fast tongue, the blond almost missed the initial question. When he deciphered the other's quick words, he simply shook his head.

Dr. Vargas placed a hand on his chest and gasped over dramatically. Aldrich resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his doctor. "How do you not know sign? How have you communicated all these years?"

Aldrich dropped his head and raised his eyebrow, giving him a look that said, Really? I don't need to talk, idiot.

"What?" Augustus said defensively, "It's important, especially for someone like you, to learn sign!" The Italian snapped his fingers as an idea flashed in his head, "I know! I can teach you if you like!" Aldrich made a discussed face as if the idea appalled him. Augustus didn't wait for an answer as he continued, "Alright, it's settled then! Oh, how about we start now?"

The blond wanted to object but it seemed the brunet couldn't take a hint. He shifted around in his chair to get more comfortable and to be closer to his patient. He brought out his hands and faced his palms toward himself. He made circular motions with his hands that were moving toward himself. One hand was up while the other was downward; almost like he was wafting something toward his torso. "This means 'happy'!" the doctor explained. "Now you try!"

Aldrich once again raised his brow. His doctor was really something else. He decided, instead of trying to ignore him and have him wine about it, he rolled his eyes and indulged him. He copied his movements, but didn't look by any means happy.

"Good!" his doctor praised, "Now this one," Augustus then brought up a hand to his face and made a claw, all the while looking genially upset. "means angry. I don't use this one too often myself, but you might."

More than you know. . . thought the German. Aldrich then copied the motion, still keeping the same emotionless face while doing so.

Augustus continued to teach Aldrich, and Aldrich continued to learn from Augustus. Before they knew it, it had turned to dusk, and from dusk it turned to night.

Dr. Vargas was fairly impressed by the blond's ability to learn. The German had already picked up all the basics and was now learning how to form simple sentences. On more than one occasion, Augustus got to see the other's eyes light up in knowledge and a small smile creep onto his face when he got something more difficult correct. Augustus would continuously point this out which left Aldrich in a bad mood after and make it an extra effort to look annoyed at his doctor.

Augustus was laughing in his chair at the sentence Aldrich made as Ms. Héderváry walked into the patient's room. Upon entering, she froze at the door. Roma's laughter was so contagious she was beginning to giggle herself, but not only her but Aldrich as well. Only the laughter never really escaped his lips.

Elizabeta tried to be mad at the doctor for staying in so late, but couldn't really bring herself to stay angry at him. She ushered him out while Roma waved his patient goodnight. He closed the door with a soft click while Aldrich was still lying in bed, practicing what he learned from his dimwitted doctor.

So there's that! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, 'cause I sure did. The whole sign language thing I totally made up on the fly! And it works! *Evil laughs*

If you all thought that this was a pretty good chapter then feel free to tell me so in a wonderful and much appreciated comment/review! I love reading every single one of them, and if I don't replay to it then that means either a) I'm too busy at the time. Or b) You weren't very nice so I decided to ignore it! :3 But I really do appreciate every review and that's what keeps any writer going!

Thanks and see y'all soon ;P