Alfred was slumped over the kitchen table, watching the living room, where Sebastian was giving Lien Hua yet another sign language lesson. They'd all been staying in Washington, along with Arthur, until the young nation was ready to go back home.

Despite not having a tongue, Lien Hua was very vocal, attempting any words she could, and she tended to laugh at nearly everything Alfred did, despite Arthur's insistence that she not encourage him.

"So how do you think it's going?" The Brit in question asked, sitting down beside Alfred with a fresh cup of tea.

"Looks like it's going pretty well. I keep telling you, I don't think Sebby's going to pull anything diabolical."

"Well you can't be too sure. And Sebby? Really?"

"I think that in this case you cahn Artie." He mocked just a bit too cheerfully. "And yes, Sebby. It's a good nickname."

"Grow up you bloody git."

The American looked horrified at the thought, and leaned in closer to whisper from behind his hand, "Well I would, but I think with a young lady in the house it's a bit inappropriate, don't you?"

Arthur turned a brilliant shade of red, snarled something unintelligible, and smacked Alfred twice across the face. "You damn wanker! You're getting to be as bad as the blasted frog!"

"Is everything okay in there?"

The two paused mid-epic-battle-of-ferocious-eyebrowed-fury-vs-true-American-heroics© and blinked at Sebastian, who was watching them with a curious stare, matched by Lien Hua's.

"Yes, yes, everything's fine! Go back to your lessons!"

As they returned to their seats, another thought entered Alfred's mind. "Hey Artie. How is it that Sebby's teaching her sign language, but he speaks Serbiac or whatever, and she's Chinese?"

"Oh where to begin with all the stupid things you've just uttered?" Arthur sighed, desperately holding back from dumping his tea onto Alfred's lap. "To begin with, it was your idea to have him teach her in the first place, so you should damn well know the answer."

He glared at the blue eyes staring excitedly back at him. "…Which is?"

"This brings me to point two, which is the answer you're looking for, there's this marvellous thing called Universal Sign Language, which I know you know, because we were all at that conference, and I remember you begging the teacher to tell you how to sign 'want to fuck' so you could pick up deaf girls."

"Oh yeah! I remember that! That stupid teacher wouldn't tell me. Keeping the greatest uses of language a secret from me. The bastard."

There was a long silence, in which Arthur gave him the blankest of all blank stares, and Alfred continued to gaze mournfully at the ceiling. Several times, the Brit opened his mouth to start a new point, only to stop, and sigh in exasperation. Finally he just decided to change the subject altogether.

"So have you heard from Feliciano at all lately?"

"No. Last I heard, he's camped out in Gilbert's basement watching all of his old VHS German Disney movies."

"…Gilbert still owns a VHS?"

"It must be a German thing. Apparently he's too 'awesome' to move into the 20th century."

"21st."

"Huh?"

"We're in the 21st century, Alfred."

"What? Pssh! No we're not! The first two numbers in the year are two, zero. Not two, one. Artie, I think you're getting forgetful in your old age. You're losing track of your years."

"I swear, one of these days, I will beat the stupid out of you."

Alfred opened his mouth to argue, only to be interrupted by Lien Hua running over, and jumping up on the chair on his other side, and poking his shoulder enthusiastically. He says I'm doing really well, she signed slowly, sticking out her tongue as she struggled to remember each one.

"That's great news! How about you take Kumajirou outside to play then? I think he's getting kind of bored."

She nodded rapidly, dropping down from the chair, and running down the halls in search for the bear.

"How is Kumajirou doing, by the way?"

Alfred shrugged, going back to slumping over the table. "He gets really quiet sometimes, but at least he's eating now, and having the little one around to play with distracts him, which is kind of a good thing, I guess."

"It is a good thing. I'm surprised Matthew's provinces wouldn't want to keep him."

Alfred started laughing sheepishly at that, slowly turning around so he couldn't see Arthur.

"What did you do?"

"I might've told Ontario that if he came anywhere near the bear, I'd punt him over to the next continent."

"You really shouldn't be threatening your nieces and nephews like that."

"Yeah, but Ontario really is an asshat, so it's okay." He started walking over to the door from the kitchen to the backyard, where Lien-hua was putting on her shoes with one hand, while holding Kumajirou in the other. "Be safe kiddo."

The brunette quickly set Kumajirou back down so she could 'talk' I will big brother Alfie. I will keep Bear okay too.

Safe, he corrected, and then ruffled her hair. "Go ahead."

"You've gotten to be oddly protective of her, you know that? Given the circumstances." Arthur murmured as Alfred watched the two race out the door into the yard.

"I just wanna make sure she grows up to be better than Yao."

"You sure that's all there is to it?"

"Pretty sure. I'm not a pedo like you."

"How many times do I have to tell you that Tino is-"

"It's not about Tino, but that still is totally creepy. But don't think me and Mattie didn't see what was going on with those frilly little dresses."

Arthur was fuming now. "I most certainly did not-!"

"Yeah, yeah. You keep telling yourself that."

The Brit snorted, and turned to grab his coat from where it lay draped over one of the chairs in the kitchen, and started to shrug it over his shoulders. "I'm heading out for a bit."

"Aww come on Artie! You know I'm just kidding… mostly. And we've got plenty of tea, so what could you possibly want to go out for?"

"Oh pardon me for finding Lipton to be a piss-poor excuse for tea. I'm going somewhere to have a cuppa' made by someone who actually knows what they're doing."

His back was turned, so he missed Alfred scrunching up his face, and sticking out his tongue at him. But from centuries of raising the boy, and just being around him, he knew exactly how his immature mind worked, so he had a good idea of what the blond was doing.

Still, Arthur didn't say a word, and walked out the front door, giving Sebastian a nod as he did so, and headed towards his car, planning on going to the coffee shop downtown he'd visited once before with Matthew and Francis. He trusted the tea they made there to be good quality.

And the thought struck him, just as he pulled the vehicle out of park. That was the first time he and Alfred had argued so light-heartedly since the whole mess with Yao had ended. It was nice to see the boy healing.

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That night, Alfred tucked Lien Hua into bed in the guest room that had seen many visitors, from nations, to Presidents, to Sealand. But never had it housed someone he'd been so desperate to hate.

At the time he'd agreed to let Sebastian and Lien Hua live at his place for a while, all he'd been thinking of was keeping a close eye on them, and maybe making life really difficult for them. But the little brunette had been nothing short of a sweetheart from the moment she stepped across the threshold, and Alfred's big-brother complex had kicked in again.

Sebastian on the other hand, was pretty annoyed about the whole deal, and took every opportunity to complain about the situation. But Arthur could usually diffuse him by reminding him that he could always go to France instead and deal with whatever punishment Francis deemed sufficient. The dark-haired nation usually got quiet after that.

Alfred stopped at the doorway of the guestroom, and stretched for a while, before staring blankly at his bedroom across the hall. And now he was met with a dilemma. Go to sleep, or play video games until dawn.

With a shrug, he turned on his heel and headed for the living room. Artie wasn't back yet, and didn't have a key. He had to stay up and wait for him like any good brother…son… buddy…type…thing would do.

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Thanks for reading~!

Most of this chapter was a blast and a half to write! And then after the Lipton joke… I slowed right down. Maybe it's because I moved my writing station to the basement. I should move back to my room.

Well, a lot of countries do have their own sign language, but then there's Universal Sign Language, which… is universal. So I figured that's the one all the nations would know for a situation just like this one. (Convenient, no?)

And finally, 20 more reviews to the grand prize! (Does anyone even want it? -sniffles-) So keep sending them!