What's in a Name
Chapter 11
"Peter! Come on, you're going to be late!" England banged on his brother's door. He knew that Peter was dressed and was once again trying to put off the journey to school once again. "Come on! Alfred's going to be here in a minute and it's bad enough he's nearly always late as well!" He thumped on the door a few more times before Peter appeared from the other side, adjusting his tie and blazer so that England wouldn't have anything more to moan at him about.
"I'm coming, okay?" He asked rhetorically, glaring up at England.
"Good." England nodded, crossing his arms over his chest, "Antonio and Lovino left ten minutes ago. Still, it's no surprise that Alfred's late again." He glanced at his wristwatch, "No, it's too late. I'll walk you, let's go."
He steered Peter towards the door, looking down at his watch again, making full sure that he'd gotten the time right and it was definitely Alfred who was late, not them running early. No, it was definitely Alfred, as usual.
"Wait here, Peter." England sighed, before turning to head back up the stairs again. He wasn't usually this late.
"Hey, Alfred?" He knocked on Alfred's door, knowing full well that the younger man was still inside his apartment. There was still a light on inside. "Alfred, do you have any idea what time it is? You're making both yourself and Peter late, git!"
"You're making an awful lot of noise, aru." Yao appeared at the door to Kiku's room, staring at England hammering on Alfred's apartment door. "The landlord will not be happy."
"Who cares about that frog?" England overlooked Yao, turning his attention back to trying to get Alfred's attention. He had obviously become deaf overnight. (Like that was actually possible...)
"My brother already tried to get his attention once this morning already before he had to leave, aru. He didn't think that the boy was at home in the end."
England ignored him and tried the handle. The door swung open unexpectedly, nearly causing England to fall headfirst onto Alfred's doormat. "Al?" He moved further inside, not listening to Yao's protests that 'one should not enter another's home uninvited'.
It was strange being inside the flat when Alfred wasn't there acting like his normal, incredibly hyperactive self. It gave the room an eerie, empty feel to it that was not right in the slightest. "Al, I know you're in here. Do you have any idea what time it is?"
He could hear running water from one of the other rooms, but no other movement from inside. Did he fall asleep in the bath or something...?
"Al? Are you alright in there?" He wasn't entirely convinced that Alfred was even there, but why would he have left the door unlocked otherwise?
There was the sound of something slipping from inside the room and something falling over, followed by loud swearing. "Alfred?"
"Ow ow ow... shit!" Alfred's voice could be heard over the water in the bathroom. "England? What is it?"
England caught himself staring at the door and shook his head, bringing himself back to the subject at hand, "Erm... well it's getting really late and Peter's going to be late for school." He waited for an answer, "If there's a problem I can walk him."
Alfred's head appeared from around the door. "Bloody hell... What happened?" England returned to staring. Alfred was dripping wet but did appear to be wearing clothes, which meant that there was no way that he had been in the shower.
"Ah, well I had a bit of an accident..." The younger man tripped over his words, carefully hiding most of his body on the side of the door that England couldn't see. "It's nothing to worry about, honest. I probably shouldn't go out looking like this though."
"What kind of accident?" England pushed on the door, trying to see the extent of the damage done to Alfred's bathroom.
"No, it's nothing! Really!" Alfred pushed England back, finding that the smaller man could be a lot stronger than he looked.
"Oh come now! It can't be that bad." England scoffed, forcing his way past Alfred into the small bathroom, which, to his surprise, was perfectly clean. "I don't see what the problem is."
Alfred had leant back against the sink, avoiding looking at the older man. He had his hand clamped over his side, hiding most of a growing crimson stain that was seeping through his shirt. "You see? Now, didn't you say that Peter was going to be late?"
England turned to face him, coming to face a very nervous looking Alfred. He had shifted further into the corner of the room, hand still covering his shirt. He caught sight of the red that was soaking into the younger man's shirt. "What's that?" He moved closer to Alfred, trying to catch hold of his hand.
"It's nothing! England, Peter's going to be late!" He pushed England's hand away, backing into the corner completely.
"Stop being a baby." England grabbed hold of the other's larger hand, yanking it away from the sopping wet shirt. He lifted up the hem, examining the gash on Alfred's waist. "What on earth did you do?"
"Would you believe that I cut it while shaving?" Alfred rubbed the back of his head with his clean hand, sending drops of water showering down onto his shoulders.
"You're a terrible liar." England rolled his eyes up at Alfred, still inspecting the wound. "Were you trying to stop the bleeding by soaking yourself or something?"
"Of course not!" Alfred huffed, "I'm not that stupid. What are you doing?"
England had pulled out his mobile, while still pressing one hand hard against Alfred's side. "Texting the frog to get him to take Peter to school so I can stay here and clean up this mess, and Antonio to get him to tell someone that you're going to be late."
"England, I'm fine! Seriously!" Alfred tried to push England's hand away, only to flinch when he put more pressure on the wound.
"Shut up for once will you." England jabbed him again, resulting in another hiss from Alfred. "You've usually got this all bandaged up, why did you take it off, you prat?"
Alfred didn't answer, instead looking away sheepishly from where England was now carefully cleaning the blood away.
"This wound is fresh, Alfred." He knelt down to get a better look at the gash, wiping away another streak of blood. "What in blazes were you doing?"
Still no answer.
England sighed, "I'm not an idiot Al. I can work out that you did this to yourself. I just want to know what possessed you to do such a thing."
"I couldn't take it anymore." Alfred mumbled so quietly England almost missed it.
"Pardon?"
"I had to get rid of it!" Alfred's hands were clenched into fists, partially from the pain of England touching the cut, but most from his own frustration.
"Get rid of what? Alfred calm down; you're making it bleed more!" England clamped the cloth he was holding over Alfred's side.
"England get off. I can handle it."
"Not until you calm down." England frowned up at the taller blonde, resolute in his decision not to move.
"Can we at least move into the living room?" Alfred met England's scowl, "It's too cramped in here."
"Fine." England stood up, keeping eye-contact with Alfred in order to try and make some assumption on what he might have been thinking.
The tension didn't ease up even when they had moved into the larger room. Alfred refused to look at England as he placed another bandage over the cut. "And there we go." He smiled lightly up at Alfred, whose face was still turned away. He sighed, dropping his shoulders, "What's wrong, Alfred? It's not like you to be like this."
Alfred jerked his face round, his eyes visibly darker than their usual sky blue. "How would you know what I'm like?"
"What?" England stared at him. The statement had been so unexpected that he couldn't think of any reasonable reply.
"You have no idea what I'm like." Alfred continued, ignoring England's obvious dismay at his outburst. "You don't even know how to handle the situation you're in, let alone mine!"
"Alfred!" England stood up in front of him, his brows furrowed into a glare. "My situation has nothing to do with this. I'm trying to help you, and you're throwing it all back in my face. And you try to tell me you're not a brat." He rolled his eyes, not moving from his position in front of the sofa.
"I'm sorry..."
The mutter was nearly inaudible. Alfred was staring into his lap, the water still dripping from his hair. His breaths were rasping and coming through quickly.
"It's okay." England stepped forward between Alfred's legs, tilting his head up so that he could see his face. He rubbed his thumb under one of those bright blue eyes, brushing a stray drop of water away. He held the damp head in his hands, a small smile set on his lips, trying to reassure the distressed younger man. "You know, I was so annoyed when Francis told you about me, and don't try to say that he didn't because I heard it all from the window." He cut across before Alfred could interrupt. "But you didn't push me about it, or my parents, so I didn't mind you knowing. It was like you understood what I was thinking in a way." He moved his hands into the wet hair, "I really respected that, you know? So I won't press you about this either unless you want to talk."
Alfred leant his head against England's chest, breathing out deeply. He closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of the other's hands running through his hair. "Thanks..." He whispered, roping an arm around England's smaller waist. He looked up to meet England's smile, squeezing him slightly before leaning back against his chest. "It's just... well, it's been three years since I did something really stupid. My mom called this morning and brought it all back up again and it really mucked me up. It's stupid really." He sighed, nuzzling in closer to England's touch, "I can't really talk about it. It's difficult. Sorry."
"That's fine." England crouched down to Alfred's eye level, moving his hands onto the other's shoulders. "I won't ask if you don't want me to."
The next thing he knew Alfred had pulled him into an embrace, resting his head on top of England's, nuzzling into the short, messy hair. England froze at the sudden gesture, not knowing what to do now that he'd been pulled so close to Alfred. But it wasn't unpleasant. No, it was quite the opposite, Alfred's arms placed around his waist, holding him gently actually made him feel amazingly comfortable.
"Thank you." Alfred spoke straight into England's ear, sending shivers running down the older man's spine, the tingling sensation lasting a few seconds before finally calming down.
England could feel that his face had flushed, but the heat coming from Alfred's cheek when he rested his head on the smaller man's shoulder indicated that he was equally as flustered, but was considerably better at hiding it in his body language. He felt his hands drop down over Alfred's shoulders unintentionally, but didn't do anything to rectify the action. It was just too damn comfortable being held by him.
Alfred felt England relax finally and held him moved so that the embrace was more comfortable for both of them. He hoped that he wasn't the only one of them whose heart rate had notably increased at the time when he had pulled England closer, especially since the older man had seemed so stiff when the hug had been initiated. But he had returned them embrace, his hands holding lightly to the back of Alfred's still sopping shirt.
"I'm getting you soaked." He chuckled into England's ear, feeling him let go of the shirt briefly before returning to his previous position.
"Yeah." England laughed back, ruffling Alfred's now only damp hair with one hand, sending a few drops showering down.
Alfred moved back, holding England's shoulders at arm's length, still smiling softly. "I'll get a couple of towels."
As soon as Alfred had left the room England let himself fall back to sit of the coffee table. Even without pressing a hand to his chest he could feel his heart thumping against his ribcage. He could hear the blood pulsing in his ears and knew that his face must be matching the whole affair by blushing horribly. He breathed in and out deeply, willing himself to calm down and relax.
That whole incident had pretty much confirmed the feelings that he hadn't been sure of for the last few weeks, and the fact that Alfred had been the one to begin the embrace only confused him further. Did that mean that they had feelings for each other? No. No of course not. That would be ridiculous. They were just friends. Good friends, even.
"You know you look kinda cute when you're flustered." Alfred smirked, reappearing in front of England, holding out a clean towel. He saw England's blush darken even further under the man's embarrassment at being caught while thinking about those kinda of things. He laughed, tossing the towel over England's head, effectively hiding the smaller blonde's face, and, in turn, the expression he was now wearing.
Oh hell! Who am I kidding?
"It's been over a week." Russia stared down at Gilbert, his eyes boring into him while that smile stayed permanently glued to his lips.
"I know..." Gilbert muttered, not meeting the giant man's gaze.
"Did you tell him that I would be angry?" His voice didn't change. Still calm, yet menacing.
"Of course I did!" He jerked his head up, looking at Russia briefly before turning back to face the ground at the foot of his bike.
"He's still been attending his work." Belarus cut in from her position sitting near to Russia on the platform. "Both Estonia and I have seen him. You'd think that he would have enough sense not to go out if he was going to keep avoiding come to meetings like this."
"True, true." Russia nodded towards his sister. "Well, he's going to have to be taught a lesson in any case." He closed his eyes, leaning back against his bike. "Pity, I would've hoped he had learnt after the incident with Spain and Romano." He looked back at Gilbert, a sly look in his eyes, "Prussia, give him one final warning from me. If England knows what is good for him, then he'll come back."
"Al, will you, like, stop singing!" Felicks huffed from his position lying over Toris's lap, pen in hand while scribbling notes into his workbook.
The three of them were using their lunch break to finish their work from the morning's lecture, sitting under one of the campus's only unoccupied trees. Toris, who had already completed the work, had relinquished his book to Alfred after he had arrived half way through their second lecture, having completely missed the first.
"Oh, don't be such a downer." Alfred laughed, copying down another phrase from one of the textbooks. "It's one of the few days when we can actually sit outside without freezing our butts off." The late autumn sunshine beat down through the leaves of the tree, which were starting to turn a more golden-brown colour.
"I don't know how you can so, like, totally relaxed after you turned up so late today." The other blonde complained, not removing his eyes from the page.
"It's not like you finished the notes either." Alfred tossed a discarded ball of paper at Felicks, which missed, instead hitting Toris.
"Oh, you're totally asking for it now." Felicks sat up, smirking, and grabbed the paper ball from next to him.
"You're on!" Alfred pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose, jumping up.
"Grow up you two..." Toris sighed as the two blondes started kicking the ball between them, laughing like hyenas. "You need to finish these before class starts."
"Ha, yeah, okay." Alfred plopped himself down again in front of his papers, throwing the ball at Felicks a final time.
Felicks ran his hand through his hair, frowning slightly before laying back across Toris's knees. "Hey, comb my hair for me?" He glanced up at Toris, pouting slighting.
"But you always complain when I do your hair." The brunette whined, leaning back on his hands.
"Save it for later you two..." Alfred rolled his eyes at them and continued writing. "Come on, class starts in a few minutes."
Felicks scoffed, picking up his own pen. He nudged Toris, "Yeah, later." Toris spluttered, blushing as Alfred turned to frown at them.
Thump.
The last bag was tossed inside the car before the boot lid was closed. "And we're done!" Antonio stretched, rolling his shoulders back. "Thanks for the help, guys."
"Honestly, I swear I do too much for you boys." Francis huffed, tossing his ponytail over his shoulder.
"You're the one with a car." Gilbert clapped the Frenchman on the back, grinning.
"Can we just get going?" Lovino appeared at the front door, his own bag slumped over his shoulder. "We've been hanging around here too long."
"I agree." Francis grumbled, "I should have started charging you rent."
"Aw, but you wouldn't do that, Francis." Antonio drooped his arm over the blonde's shoulders (receiving a dark glare from Lovino in the process), "After all, we're all friends here."
"Maybe I should've charged you then." England leant on the doorframe, a small smile tugging up one corner of his lips. "My flat's a mess thanks to you guys. I'll be glad to see that back of you."
"And we'll miss you too, thanks England." Antonio laughed, moving away from the very disgruntled looking Francis.
England nodded, raising a hand in a half-wave before turning to go back inside. "I'll see you at work then." He called over his shoulder.
"Hey, England, wait!" Gilbert caught up with him before he could close the door.
"You're not going with them?"
"Hell no, I don't have anything to move out." He sniggered, "Besides, I don't want to get caught up in Lovino's argument with West when they get back to their apartment. Antonio let slip that he'd asked Feli and Lud to help them get settled back in, and our little friend wasn't best pleased."
"Ah, fair point." England beckoned him inside, closing the door behind them. "So what did you want?"
"Who said I wanted anything?" Gilbert held up his hands, grinning.
"You don't usually miss out on the opportunity to bully your brother, so something must be up." England raised his eyebrows and started to walk up the stairs in front of his friend. "So what is it?"
"Fine, look." Gilbert held onto England's wrist to stop him from moving. "The boss is getting pretty angry that you haven't been turning up to the meetings. I almost got it in the neck for when I didn't show last week. He said that you're on your last warning."
"Since when did you become his messenger boy?" The blonde scowled down at Gilbert, trying to jerk his wrist away.
"I'm just worried, okay?" He tightened his grip, ignoring the other's protests. "I know that you hate the gang, but you saw what they did to Antonio! We can't take any risks."
"Bullshit." England swore, finally yanking his arm away. "One: you're the biggest risk taker I've ever known, especially when you start arguing with Liza. Two: being in the gang is a risk in itself. And three: I don't care what Russia says. He can do what he wants. Being in that gang is hell and I can't stand it anymore. I have better things to do with my time and so do you."
"So you're just going to-"
"I'm not going to do anything!" England stomped up a couple more steps, "I don't owe him anything, Gil."
"I never said that you owed him!" Gilbert fought back, "I'm just worried you're going to get yourself hurt!"
"You don't need to worry about me." England growled, fuming down at Gilbert.
"I wouldn't normally but you've been acting like such a twat lately that I'm just worried that you're going to something stupid!" The albino spat back.
"Fuck off!"
"Whoa..." A voice whistled from behind them, "Hey, do mind if I come inside, guys? It's started raining."
England jerked his head up, spotting Alfred and Peter standing behind Gilbert in the apartment doorway. His glasses were spattered with a few droplets of water from the rain that could now be heard outside.
He turned on his heel and sprinted up the remaining stairs and out of sight, the sound of a door slamming indicating that he'd gone inside his room.
"That idiot..." Gilbert sighed, running his hand over his head.
"I'll talk to him." Alfred placed a hand on Gilbert's shoulder, his expression serious as he started heading for the stairs.
"Thanks." Gilbert turned to head back out of the door into the rain, "I'll be round at Antonio's if you need to get hold of me. I need to let off some steam."
"Don't tease them too much." Alfred smiled, waving shortly before the door closed. "We're in for quite an evening by the looks of it, eh?" He rolled his eyes at Peter, who readjusted his school hat on his head sheepishly. "Here kiddo." He held out the key to his room. "Head on up and play some video games or something while I try and talk some sense into your brother."
Peter's face lit up at the prospect of being able to play games instead of having to do his homework and bounded up the stairs past Alfred.
"If Kiku knocks then just let him in, okay!" He called up after Peter, chuckling at the boy's enthusiasm, before climbing up the remaining stairs to the third floor.
He closed his eyes, trying to compose himself before knocking on the door. "England? I'm coming in, okay?"
He didn't spot England right away when he entered the room. The smaller blonde was hunched up in the corner of the sofa, clutching hold of his helmet. The sight was almost pitiful, England crouching over like that.
"Hey." Alfred crouched down in front of him, crossing his arms over his knees. "You alright?" He knew it was a stupid question, but it was all he could think to say under the circumstances.
England raised his head, his eyebrows fixed into a frown. Alfred had almost expected the older man to be crying, but wasn't too surprised to see that his green eyes were dry. The hands gripping the helmet had turned white at the knuckles from gripping it so hard and didn't relinquish their hold even when one of Alfred's larger hands was placed on top of them gently.
"Do you want to talk?" Alfred asked calmly, "I won't force you if you don't want to."
"I hate it..." England muttered quietly, dipping his head down again.
"Sorry?" Alfred leaned in closer, one hand still atop of England's, the other resting on the arm of the sofa.
"I hate it!" England's head snapped up again, shouting into Alfred's face, "I fucking hate it! All of this shit! It's pointless!" He stopped to breathe, taking short breaths. "He's already taken my name! What more does he fucking want?" He threw his helmet to one side, ignoring the crash as it hit the table in the corner of the room. "I can't take it anymore!" Angry tears had appeared in his eyes, threatening to spill down his cheeks.
Seeing this, Alfred shifted to sit on the sofa next to England, pulling him closer so that his head was rested on the taller man's chest. He wrapped his arms around England's smaller form, rubbing one hand in circles on the other's back in an attempt to calm him down.
"Hey, hey, shhh. It's okay." Alfred hushed him, noting that England was now clinging tightly to the front of his shirt. He was trembling slightly, his breaths still coming through in short rasps.
The two of them stayed in that position for a few minutes before England began to calm down, stopping from shuddering and just resting his head against Alfred as the taller blonde kept his arms tightly in place around the smaller man's waist, giving him some form of support.
"You know what?" Alfred spoke up suddenly, tilting England's head up so he could see his face. "If we keep taking turns acting like this people are going to get the wrong idea." He chuckled lightly, receiving a faint smile from England in response.
"Get the wrong idea about what?" England leant his head against Alfred's shoulder, closing his eyes.
"I dunno." He rubbed the back of his neck, flushing slightly. "They might think that we're just a couple of depressed weirdoes." He laughed lightly, feeling England do the same.
"Maybe we are. Antonio and Gil are always telling me that I'm too grumpy for my own good." He glanced up at Alfred, a smile twitching up the corners of his lips.
"That may be true- ow! I was kidding!" Alfred rubbed his head where England had hit him, still chuckling. "Anyway, are you feeling better now?"
"Hmm." England shifted on his shoulder, breathing in again. "Yeah, I suppose."
"Good." Alfred smiled down at the older of the two, catching sight of the bright green eyes. He moved his hand up, brushing England's bangs out of his eyes, and rubbing a thumb over one of those unusually large eyebrows.
"Hey, leave off." England jerked his head away while batting away Alfred's hand, rolling his eyes. "They're nothing to gawk at."
"I wasn't gawking." Alfred frowned, moving his hand back around England's waist. "I'm just looking."
"That's the same thing, git." England chuckled, adjusting himself on the sofa so that he could look at Alfred properly.
Alfred moved to face England again, hanging his arm over the back of the sofa. The older man was slightly flushed in the face, the small smile that rarely graced his lips made him look younger and more his own age than he did when his face was set in its usual frown. More and more often he had found himself drifting into thinking that England was, dare he say it, cute. He was good looking, no doubt about it, but the very fact that he found the time he spent with the other man to be more enjoyable with each of their encounters made him nervous as to what he actually thought of England. He couldn't like him that way... But he was comfortable holding him... He was a man!... But he seemed to understand him in a way no one else had... Aw shit...
"You really are a strange one." England reached over, running his hand through Alfred's hair, pulling slightly on the one strand of hair that still seemed to be fixed standing apart from the rest of his hair.
"And you're not?" Alfred swatted England's hand away, instead drooping his own back around the other's shoulders.
"True, true." England nodded, chuckling. "Still, there's no point in continuing to mope around like this." He stood up, stretching before turning back to Alfred. "Don't you agree?"
"Ah, yeah." Alfred leaned forward, taking England's hand to help himself up.
"Good."
England turned quickly. So quickly that Alfred almost missed it.
The older man seemed to be in a better mood now. He was smiling at least, and it was a genuine smile, not one of those fake ones that he's seen previously, and definitely not one of those pirate-like sniggers that he often shot towards his other friends. No, this was a sweet smiling that felt like it was so warm that it was actually melting Alfred's insides.
And England had just kissed him on the cheek...