I don't own Hetalia okay? I honestly don't have much else to say here so enough of this A/N, on with the fic!

Alfred woke up and looked around. "My head is killing me... where am I?" He asked, noting he was in one of the hotel's rooms and not his room back at his house.

"Dobroye utro" Ivan said as he walked into the hotel room. "You're in my room. I took the liberty of getting you something for breakfast the bartender said you would like."

"I passed out?" Alfred said, piecing together the night before. "I remember talking to you, my dad showing up, getting into a fight then," Alfred paused and looked at Ivan, "We didn't do anything...did we?"

Ivan laughed. "No you were out cold. They put me in a room with two queen beds, so since I don't need but one, instead of you getting placed in your car as Gilbert would have done, I let you stay here."

"Oh. Thanks." Alfred said embarrassed a total stranger who he had only briefly talked to before passing out shared a room with him. "I didn't disturb you or anything like that?"

"You slept like the dead." Ivan said. "And if I had that as a father, I would drink too Al."

"Alfred." he stated. "I don't like Al,"

"Well that's what Gilbert calls you." Ivan said earnestly placing the McDonalds bag and coffee on the nightstand.

"And I have given up asking him to stop." Alfred rubbed his temple. "Is that coffee?" He sniffed the drink.

"Black as your father's heart, at least that is how he told me to give it to you. I saw him working the breakfast earlier." Ivan explained. "He told me when you wake up with a hangover, at least when you hanging out with him, what you got." Alfred opened the bag to find multiple sausage biscuits and hashbrowns. "Although how you eat that much and aren't as big as a whale, I will never know."

"I make good use of the pool when there isn't anyone in there. If not, then the gym. Perk of working here." He picked up the breakfast foods to find a bottle of aspirin "Thanks." He popped open the bottle and took a few followed by a long drink of the coffee. "That should help my headache."

Meanwhile, Arthur woke up on the couch in the living room of the house after a troubled night. He had come home without Alfred, and explained what happened, which had gotten Francis and Matthew mad. Very mad. At him. If the argument in the bar wasn't bad enough on his conscious, the one when he had gotten home was worse. Matthew had gotten up and was sitting in the kitchen looking at his phone, hardly looking at his father. Am I really that big a monster? I mean Alfred did waste a good part of his early twenties on a dream... He thought, the glares of his other son stinging him inside. "Maybe I am worse than I thought..." as the fight replayed in his mind.

"Oh mon ami!" Francis said as Arthur pulled into the house alone. "Where is Alfred?"

"Passed out at that bar at the hotel he works at." Arthur said simply. "We had a row about him getting drunk after our previous row and then apparently he can't hold his liquor and that was that. He refused to come home with me."

"After what you said to him Dad, I don't blame him." Matthew said speaking up, causing Francis and Arthur to turn in shock. He normally didn't say much of anything. "I would appreciate if you stopped comparing us two like you did. You don't think Al doesn't know he wasted a bit of his life? We are two different people. Just because we look a lot alike doesn't mean we will follow the same path in life. Sure, I may have gotten a job as a psychiatrist up in Toronto but seriously, Al had his dream crushed and it wasn't like his songs were total garbage. You ever listen to them?"

"I remember all the noise from his room before he left and I didn't think much of them." Arthur said, trying to convince his partner and other son he was right.

"Look Al told me more of what happened in Los Angeles than he did you two and trust me, if he had the luck and was willing to sacrifice his personal convictions then he would have made it. You know the rest of his band is still out there?" Arthur shook his head no. "They were willing to go without him. They wanted the fame and will likely just be back up musicians for others but he felt doubly betrayed then. By the friends he was loyal to when they moved to Los Angeles and the industry, he played their game. He worked so much to afford the rents and costs out there, to get the connections to get the professional auditions to even be considered and at the very end, when the big break was almost broke, he lost it. I don't know about you but doing everything right, you can still lose. That's not a personal flaw, that's life." With this Matthew went to the bedroom he was staying out and slammed the door.

"Great Arthur." Francis said looking at him. "Both our sons are mad at us. Christmas is ruined because you can't put the fact that Alfred didn't succeed at life by his age behind you. You can sleep on the couch tonight. I think I will just put dinner up and go to bed. I'm not much feeling the holiday spirit anymore."

Arthur stood in silence as he lay on the couch, catching the end of various Christmas movies, until he caught the end of Home Alone where Kevin's mother was finally reunited with him. At this, he started crying. "Did I act like a bigger version of a twat than she did in the beginning, causing an adult version of Kevin wishing his family away?" He asked to himself.

"Oui." Francis said in the kitchen making himself a turkey sandwich from what was in the fridge.

"You tit!"Arthur yelled in embrassment. Recovering his composure he spoke, "Well I see you at least clothed yourself this time when you wanted a midnight snack."

"It's cold out. You know that place won't just give little Alfred a room and he's probably either put in that pathetic car of his that the windows won't roll up on or in lock up or the hospital."

"You...you can't be serious?" Arthur said.

"Because I would joke about something like that?" Francis sighed.

"Maybe that Russian who yelled at me took him in..."Arthur said as he lay back down. He had drifted off to sleep, but tossed and turned, waking up and falling back asleep. As day broke, Matthew had walked into the kitchen and poured himself some coffee. "Any calls I didn't know about?" He asked.

"Nope." Matthew said. "I'm going to see if Gilbert is working today. He's the bartender and one of the few friends Al had been able to make since he came back. Maybe he stayed with him. He has before."

"How come he tells you more than he does me?" Arthur demanded as Matthew cast him a look as to say 'did you seriously just ask that?' "Point taken."

"Look Dad, Alfred is hurt. Bad in multiple ways. Something like what happened can lead to depression or as we have seen, a budding drinking problem. Think about it. You lost what you and your friends worked so hard for, they turn their back on you, you are left to crawl back home in it and start over finding something you may never have liked in the first place that you now pretty much are forcing yourself to deal with and your father treats you like garbage and makes you feel inferior and shows favoritism to your brother. Drives many to drink." Matthew said.

"Can I come with?" Arthur asked.

"I think you've done enough damage for awhile Dad. Maybe I should try talking first as he trusts me and things like this are kind of my job." Matthew said. Arthur sighed. You went and really mucked it up this time Kirkland...

Ivan sat working at his laptop on a small desk in the room while Alfred ate greedily, but in as much silence as eating like that could allow. He did feel rather awkward about the situation. He hardly knew Ivan, didn't talk to him much than that brief conversation before his father showed up and that was a disaster. He was being much too nice to him for his liking. Finishing the last of the coffee, he looked over at Ivan and spoke up, "So, why did you treat me so nicely?" He asked quietly.

"I'm sorry?" Ivan said looking over.

"I'm a practical stranger to you. Just some guy who you met in a bar who happened to have a nice sob story. You don't need to do anything for me."

"Well funny thing is, I have to." Ivan smiled as Alfred looked at him cluelessly. "Nothing is forcing me to but my own conscious. You see I was very little when the Soviet Union collapsed. I don't remember what life was like back when Russia was still Soviet, but when it collapsed, it took the country time to get back to something that could be called comfortable. These were what me and my sisters called the starving times. My father was never around and mother was intoxicated most of the time. My older sister looked after me and my younger sister most of the time." Alfred looked at Ivan curiously. "If not for the sacrifices she made, then I doubt we could have survived. I decided that if I ever saw someone who needed help that I would help them so they could stand on their own."

"Well that's a nice philosophy and all, but I feel indebted to you." Alfred said.

"What I did was paying a personal debt." Ivan said. "But, I do have something I wanted to ask of you that might help you on finding something that will help you rebuild your life after your dreams fell."

"I'm listening..."Alfred said looking at Ivan skeptically.

"You see my company asked me to develop a curriculum to help students learn about this in either high school or college and come out with certifications, or at least be able to pass some of the programming certification tests I know of." Alfred nodded. "Well I never had done anything like that before, so before I give it to my boss, I want to make sure it works. So I was thinking, maybe you would be interested in being my how you say guinea pig. Let me know how it is, if you learn anything and if it is successful, you will have a skill that can get your father off your case about and well, I have something for my job."

"Can I think about it?" Alfred said. "I mean yeah it sounds good and all but I don't want to just fall into a job like that by default or something. Not to be rude or anything dude, but I got like 50 more years ahead of me and I'd at least like to like what I do somewhat."

"I understand." Ivan nodded. "I just know by reading your lyrics you wrote that you are good when you like to do something. It's not a question of talent I see in your crisis, you have plenty of that, it's finding a use that can provide well. If this does, then great. If not, well you will have at least helped me do my job and we can call it even."

"Still, give me a few days to think about it. I cannot thank you enough for your kindness but I guess I have got to head home and face the fun oh so fun drama that is going to come from that."

"Best of luck Fredka." Ivan smiled. "Here's my card. You can call when you make your decision on my proposal or in case you need someone to talk to again. I do have my methods of persuasion if you need it." Alfred noticed Ivan grab a metal pipe at his side.

"Ummmmm... Thanks for the offer but I get first dibs on punching my dad's clock if he hasn't been moved my the holiday spirits..." Alfred smiled. "See you later Ivan."

"Call me Vanya. It's what my friends call me and I wish dearly you would be one."

"Sure Vanya." Alfred smiled. "So far you've been one of the best I've had recently."

"What about Gilbert the bartender?" Ivan asked.

"He's a good drinking buddy but he has his moments where he's a total jerk." Alfred shrugged. "If you don't mind, I'll let you know how it went when I get home."

"Please do." Ivan smiled.

Alfred headed out, still sipping the coffee, pulling his keys out of his pants pocket and heading to his car to drive home. Maybe Dad won't be a jackass, well I do have something I can throw at him if he starts that ranting he does about me being nothing but a failed singer again. I am trying to get back on track after all... He thought as he placed his hand on Ivan's card he placed in his pocket. Ivan was nicer than I had ever expected anyone to be. Most people I have found when I try to befriend them they just don't care. As he headed into the hotel lobby, he saw Matthew heading in. "Matt!" He waved.

"Oh thank god! You're fine." Matthew said hugging his brother.

"Dude, Mattie, what's the deal?" Alfred asked confused.

"We were so worried about you after Dad told us what happened." Alfred scowled at the mention of his father. "Papa thought you were in your car, the hospital or jail."

"Just because I passed out?" Alfred said.

"Well your car's windows don't roll up all the way and it's hardly proper protection from the cold. It's so old too." Matthew said.

"Dude, I earned it and it got me to and from LA so I can't ask much else from it. Was more loyal than my band mates were..." He mumbled.

"Well they'll get theirs." Matthew sighed. "But don't worry I had a nice long talk with Dad about being a jackass to you and he seemed somewhat remorseful. Papa caught him crying at the end of Home Alone last night. You see he made Dad sleep on the couch after what happened."

"Dang. Papa is all about that Christmas lovin'... loudly too..." He shuddered at the years of knowing what he wasn't supposed to know what was going on in their bedroom because the walls in the house were paper thin.

"Well, when we get back, we can talk all about this, maybe help to get you feeling better about yourself so you don't pass out in a hotel bar on Christmas and end up staying-where-?"

"Actually that Russian guy who apparently told Dad off, from what he told me what happened, took me in and actually has a job offer, or at least some sort of apprenticeship offer." Alfred said.

"In what?" Matthew asked.

"Cybersecurity." Alfred said.

"So a Russian Hacker teaching you to block them out?" Matthew laughed.

"Ha ha, very funny." Alfred said rolling his eyes.

"Well, let's go to McDonald's" Matthew offered, knowing it was one of Al's favorites. "My treat"

"I can eat you out of Big Macs, large fries and Mcflurries." Alfred laughed. "Although I miss In-n-Out... they were pretty good..."

"You know what, maybe there is that other burger place that is better I'll take you to. You have to tell me more about what happened on your end and just how you are feeling."

"You just cannot turn off the psychiatrist routine can you?" Alfred rolled his eyes with a slight laugh at his brother.

"Not when it's my brother." Matthew said. "I do owe you from childhood and if I can't beat you at sports, I can make you cry for your own good."

"Shut up." Alfred said. "Thanks bro."

"It's what I do." Matthew smiled. "Now lunch."

So how was that? Good? Bad? Short? Long? Let me know in a review. This one isn't burning into me like Klondike is but I do want to make it a pretty sweet healing and relationship one, but I got a few other fics I am working on too, so my updates won't be like that one was. Anyway remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,

otherrealmwriter

aka

Realm