Sorry I haven't posted a chapter in like a month...

Anyway, this chapter happens between 'Downpour' and the first chapter of IITB. I feel like some of it conflicts with what I wrote back then, but honestly, my ideas and headcanons for these situations and characters have evolved so much since then that that stuff hardly seems canon for this universe anyway... But I digress, consider this chapter 0.5... but 34 chapters in...

Enjoy! ;)

Wales was suspicious. Not in a 'they're doing something bad and I'm going to stop them' kind of way, more in a 'They're doing something I don't know about and I want to know what it is' kind of way.

The secretive little conversations they were trying so hard to hide was his first clue. Simply perhaps because Scotland and England weren't the kind of people to drag each other into lonely rooms without express reason to do so. If Wales had been able to hear more than muttering then maybe he'd have more of a clue, but they always spoke so low and had their faces so close together that there was no way an outside observer would be able to listen in without being seen.

He'd even considered using magic to be able to hear what they were saying after the third time he'd come across them hiding in a room together talking all secretively. Next time he was going to confront them or something, because it was getting to him.

His second clue were those... glances. Small, and almost invisible to someone who wasn't looking for them, but after the first time Wales had noticed they'd become more obvious than the clouds in the sky. They were never just one thing either, they were a mixture of things, doubt and uncertainty sometimes, amusement and sarcasm others, and sometimes he couldn't even work out what the looks were supposed to convey. If England and Scotland's behaviour turned out to be the end of him, he honestly wouldn't be surprised.

The third and final clue, and perhaps this was the most damning, was that Scotland seemed... comfortable... happy even, in England's house. Not once had he made his usual complaint about how they should get together in his house for a change. Not once.

Quite frankly, Wales was about to rip his hair out.

North seemed to be finding it amusing, however, Wales' utter frustration.

"Sweetie, let it go, whatever it is they'll tell us in their own time." She cooed softly, standing on her tip-toes and ruffling his hair, to which Wales swatted her away.

"I don't want to wait for them to tell us, I want to know what's going on!" Wales whined, and he would normally have hated how childish he sounded, but at that moment he was too worked up to care.

North rolled her eyes, "Go and make yourself some tea or something, you're all jittery."

Wales huffed out a breath petulantly, but did as she said, heading toward the kitchen with slightly more tension in his step than allowed him to look natural while doing so.

He didn't like being out of the loop, especially where his fellow Brits were concerned. Honestly he felt like he might as well just float off into the Atlantic what with how they treated him half the time. He was sure they wouldn't notice for a good while anyway. Maybe he should just take a leaf out of Ireland's book... no, that was a shit idea. Time to file it away with the other shit ideas like 'floating off into the Atlantic' or 'magically amplifying his brothers' conversations'. He claimed to be the 'smart one' but the more he thought about it he was probably just the 'slightly mad one'. Next thing he knew he'd be staring up a lab and artificially creating new breeds of dragon. That's the way he was headed right now, but with any luck he just needed to know what was going on and-

Oh...

Oh, okay, he understood now.

England and Scotland were snogging. Not in a 'I'm going to eat your face' kind of way, more in a 'I want to hold you close and keep you forever' kind of way.

Wales felt a soft smile come to his face in understanding, the tension in his body melting away as the mystery solved itself in half a split second. They weren't planning something, they didn't have a secret agenda, nothing massive was in the works without Wales' knowledge, they were just in love and didn't want everyone to know about it yet. It was almost sweet when he thought about it.

"You know," he said, making the two of them break apart in a panic, looking at him as if he were about to gut them alive. He shook his head in amusement, "Oh don't give me that, I was just going to say you've had me worried sick over nothing all day."

The two of them, still clinging to each other as they had been a moment before, and Wales couldn't help but notice the comfortable way they curved into each other, still stared at him, like the proverbial deer in headlights. He felt a wave of sympathy for them, and he simply shook his head, turning around and walking from the room, "I'll leave you two to it, you can tell me in your own time. Consider this forgotten."

He barely made it two steps before he felt a hand on each of his shoulders. He turned, to see England and Scotland standing worriedly behind him. "You won't..." England began, and although he couldn't seem to find the words, the look in his eyes spoke for him.

Wales shook his head, "I won't tell a soul, I expect you to tell North soon though, the longer you wait the madder she'll be that you kept her out of the loop." And then he smiled, both of the hands falling from his shoulders, and walked back to the living room without his tea.

Little did he know that wouldn't be the only time he walked in on them snogging, but hindsight is 20/20 as they say...