AN: Ajeoruarou I'm sorry this is so late! FORGIVE ME, BEAUTIFUL FOLLOWERS. I'm not going to waste your time with a really long Author's Note, so if you want to read the explanation for my lateness and my thanks to the people who reviewed, it'll be at the bottom. Now, enjoy!

Alfred woke up the next morning to the obnoxious sound of his cell phone ringing. He muttered curses under his breath while pushing himself upright. His hand groped across the nightstand, searching for his glasses and the source of music and infinite misery. After his glasses were securely on the bridge of his nose, he checked the caller ID. Ludwig.

"Ludwig, I get that you're an early riser, but this is completely ridiculous," Alfred complained. "I mean, it's… Uh…" Jeez, what time is it, anyway? "It's stupid o'clock in the morning. Normal people are asleep right now."

"Actually, Alfred, it's five o'clock," Ludwig's deep voice rumbled across the line.

"Same thing!"

Alfred could practically hear Ludwig roll his eyes. "Anyway, I'm inviting you and Arthur to come with me, Gilbert, Feliciano, and Lovino to an old shipyard."

Alfred looked skeptically at the phone. "What kind of shipyard?"

"The old naval shipyard downtown. They say it's haunted." Ludwig paused. "You aren't scared, are you?"

"Haha, s-scared? 'Course not! Heroes are never scared!"

"Good. Meet us in the park at nine." Click. Ludwig hung up.

Alfred stared at the phone, regretting this entire morning. He was stuck going to a haunted shipyard. Haunted means ghosts. Fan-freaking-tastic.

Alfred was pulled out of his reverie by the sound of slow, pounding footfalls. The blood instantly rushed from his face. He had seen this all before in an old horror game. First, there were footsteps. Then, scary chase music started playing. The door would get knocked down and, ready or not, the monster wanted your flesh.

Alfred took a few deep breaths, telling himself that he was hearing things, he was tired, it was five in the morning and the house was old. There were no footsteps or ghosts or anything. He relaxed, almost enjoying the steadiness of what had seemed like footfalls and now was obviously just old house noises.

The doorknob started shaking.

Alfred skittered back on his hands and feet, cursing himself for letting his guard down. His eyes flew across the room, searching for some kind of weapon or, better, a good hiding place.

The closet. Yes.

Just as he was about to make a run for safety, the door opened. Alfred flipped backward and slammed his head against the nightstand. Shit! I'm so screwed…

"Alfred!" a familiar English voice yelped. A strange force helped him sit up. "What happened? I heard you talking, and I decided to see what was happening, and I came in here and you were on the ground… Was there a robber?"

Alfred rubbed the back of his head, where a lump was forming. He blinked blearily until Arthur's face swam into view. "I, uh… Do you wanna meet up with some friends and go to the old navy shipyard?"

Arthur blinked in surprise. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm totally fine. Answer the question."

"Er, I suppose… Now it's your turn to answer my question. What happened?"

Alfred flushed. "N-nothing. Nothing at all. Totally cool. Just was surprised, is all."

Arthur stared blankly at Alfred.

"Fine, I'll tell you! Just don't laugh, okay? You have to promise."

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Yes, I promise I won't laugh."

"Okay." Alfred took a deep breath. "I was freaking out because I thought you were a ghost or something for a minute."

"Alfred, I am a ghost."

"That's different!" Alfred wasn't getting defensive. Not one bit. "Like, you're a nice, not evil, cool, computer ghost. I'm scared of the ghosts that want to haunt me and murder me in the woods at night."

"I already haunt you; how do you know that I don't want to kill you?"

Alfred's eyes widened. "Do you?"

Arthur smiled softly. "Of course not. I am rather fond of you."

"Aw, really?" Alfred relaxed, letting his perma-grin return. "Well, I really like you, too. We're totally awesome best friends forever!"

"Yes… Best friends." For some reason unknown to Alfred, Arthur turned away, an unreadable expression on his face.

The perma-grin vanished and was replaced with a small frown. "You okay?"

Arthur's head snapped up. "Yes, I'm fine. I… I merely didn't have many friends in my life."

Alfred gasped. "That's so sad!" He took the other's hand in his own. "Well, I'll stick with you for the rest of my life! We'll always be best friends, no matter what! You can count on me!"

Alfred really wanted to go back to Ludwig's car. It was nice and warm in there, and it had awesome speakers, and the electromagnets were brand new and made the car float through the air like a cloud. Out here, it was cold, creepy, and probably full of ghosts. Also, it smelled strongly of mildew.

"Ve… Ludwig, I wanna go home!" Feliciano wailed. "It's scary here!"

Ludwig sighed. "It's not that bad."

"It's actually rather peaceful here," Arthur agreed. Alfred stared at the Brit, confounded that "peaceful" was the word he had chosen. Alfred thought it was more along the lines of "horrible" or "gross".

"Right, Lutz, you said something about splitting up into groups?" Gilbert asked his charge.

"Wait, what? Split up? Do you have a death wish?" Lovino interrupted. "Well, if we have to, I don't want to be with Potato Bastard."

"Ludwig, Ludwig, can I go with you? Please?" Feliciano begged, clinging to the German's side.

Ludwig rested two fingers on the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes in exasperation. "Ja, we'll be a group."

"I wanna stay with Arthur!" Alfred chimed in.

"I'm fine with this arrangement," Arthur said.

"Well, I'm not!" roared Lovino. "I'm stuck with creepy red-eye Potato Bastard!"

"It's either that or alone!" Gilbert cackled. Lovino paled rapidly before grumbling into submission.

"Alfred, your group will go to the first floor of the west wing. Lovino, your group can go on the second floor of the west wing."

"Wait, why does he get to be group leader?" Gilbert whined.

Ludwig ignored him. "Feli and I will go to the east wing. We each will find something interesting and take a picture of it to show the others."

"Yes, sir!" Alfred turned his heel on the group, not bothering to listen to the rest of whatever Ludwig was saying. Now that Arthur was with him, he wasn't scared at all. He sort of understood what Arthur had meant when he said that it was peaceful. Alfred turned to tell Arthur this and was astonished to find that he was alone.

Alfred looked around for a few minutes, wondering where Arthur could have gone. He shrugged, not really caring. Now that he had reached this peaceful state, it wasn't leaving him. His only worry was that Arthur might be in trouble, but since he didn't hear any yelling, he figured that Arthur had gone in some other direction. He continued on his merry way, figuring that as long as they stayed in the same wing they would meet up eventually.

Alfred looked around the decrepit hallways. The walls were covered in graffiti, and there were strange rock formations every here and there. He snapped pictures at the particularly interesting specimens of each of these. Every now and then he would hear an angry Italian accent and figured that Gilbert was messing with Lovino.

He wandered for a little while longer before deciding to rest for a bit. Alfred looked around for a minute and found a dry, comfortable spot. He leaned against the wall, listening to the latest screeches of fear and annoyance from Lovino. It took about a minute for Alfred to realize that the yells were coming from directly above him. How dandy.

There was a rumble and a few pebbles rained down on Alfred's head. Alfred glared up at the ceiling, where the volume of the yells had increased and a German accent had joined the Italian one.

"Alfred!"

The aforementioned American spun his head in the direction of the shout. "Arthur? S'that you?"

"Yes, it bloody is me!" Arthur stormed into view, his face red and his eyebrows drawn tightly together. "I've been looking for you for two hours, git!"

Two hours? "Hey, don't blame me! You were the one that disappeared!"

Arthur's voice became deadly cold. "I was the one who disappeared?" Alfred suddenly realized that Arthur was about to explode, but he didn't realize how until it was too late. A sudden force that Alfred recognized as Arthur's fist slammed into his jaw, dislocating it and sending him sprawling. "You left before telling me where you were going! I tried to find you and I couldn't! I was worried sick, running all over the wing, and meanwhile you were here napping!"

Alfred blinked, in a daze. He put a hand to his jaw, wincing when he felt a bruise forming. He gently pushed his jaw back into place, flinching at the sound of his bones scraping. Alfred looked up at Arthur, alarmed to see how close the man was the breaking into tears. He pushed himself up so that he was standing and hugged Arthur, startling the smaller man. "I didn't realize. I… Well, I'm sorry," he offered. "I guess I wasn't really thinking."

Arthur sighed, half-heartedly pushing Alfred away. "You're like a child. A child that needs to be constantly watched."

Alfred smiled sheepishly.

"How in god's name am I supposed to guide you through life if I can't even keep track of you?"

"We should get some kind of thing that tells us where the other is," Alfred suggested. "Like a GPS, or whatever."

"That's…not a bad idea," Arthur said thoughtfully.

Alfred smiled, glad that Arthur seemed to have forgiven him and also didn't think he was a complete idiot. "You really think so?"

Arthur tentatively returned the smile. "I really do."

Arthur's smile faded slightly when another cluster of pebbles fell on Alfred. "You should probably get out from under there," Arthur warned.

"Yeah, I think you're right." Alfred brushed some of the dust on him off.

"And another thing, you beer-guzzling country bumpkin, I'll have you know that –" CRACK.

Alfred looked up just in time to see the ceiling and Lovino fall on top of him.

AN: DUN DUN DUN CLIFFHANGER IS HE GONNA LIVE OR IS HE GONNA DIE? I think we all know the answer. Anyway. Why was I so late, you ask? Well, the answer is quite simple. I started high school. This is a really big transition for me, and my workload has kind of quadrupled as a result (even though the rest of high school is really fun .). So I've spent a lot of time studying and doing homework. This chapter was actually written in my English notes because I couldn't find any other time to write it. As I start getting into the swing of things, though, the updates will be more regular.

Another reason why I didn't update though... It's kind of a stupid reason. I got flooded with reviews after I posted the second chapter, and at first I was all, "OH MY GOD PEOPLE LIKE MY STORY HAOERUAIUTIROH" and in my intense fangirling I actually managed to give myself a whole bunch of bruises because I accidentally slammed myself against every sharp corner in my room. After that, though... I realized that this meant that a whole bunch of people like my story, and they think it's really good and has a lot of potential. At this point, an irrational fear of messing up overtook me, so I kind of procrastinated. A lot.

But enough about me! Thanks to Eurlenette, therandomnessthatiam, Thieves of the Sea, beastie, and Teenage Mouse for your awesome, wonderful, and kind reviews! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! You guys have given me a whole bunch of inspiration, and you are all awesome!