The Thirty Day Roommates

by nicetwin123

America and Russia have a tense relationship, so in an attempt to improve it America's boss makes America host Russia in one of his houses for a month. Neither one of them is thrilled with this, but try and not fight the best they can. Even though they clash on just about everything they can't help but both agree that they can't wait for the thirty days to end.

8. THEY'RE WHAT? (Day 5)

"Ivan!" Alfred yelled, banging on Ivan's door. "Wake up! It's time to set up the tree!" It was early the next morning, and Alfred was dressed in an old Christmas sweater and grey sweatpants. He also had on some warm thick socks with little snowmen on them, and was holding one of the box's of ordainments that they had picked up the day before. Unlike most mornings, he was awake and buzzing with excitement, bouncing up and down with happiness. Ivan opened his door open, eyeing the younger nation in annoyance. He was wearing just his pajama pants and an old worn out white shirt, and his hair was ruffled from sleep. He was also still wearing his scarf, much to the confusion of Alfred.

"Alfred," Ivan grumbled, "It is 7'oclock in the morning."

"And you're point is?" Alfred asked with a grin, shoving the box into Ivan's hands, which Ivan took grudgingly. Alfred spun around and walked cheerfully back towards the kitchen, gesturing for Ivan to follow him.

"I thought you were not a morning person?" Ivan yawned, following the hyper American into the kitchen, where he saw much to his relief that Alfred had already made a pot of coffee.

"It's never too early to set up a Christmas tree!" America said brightly, pointing to the Christmas box's in the living room, which were propped up in the corner of the room next to the T.V. "And I'm already late setting it up this year! I have to get a move on!"

"And why," Ivan asked as he poured himself some coffee, "do I need to help you set it up? I'm sure you are capable of doing it yourself."

"It's no fun setting it up by myself." Alfred said with a pout. "Come on, pull your weight! I've been feeding and housing your ass for the last week, you should at least help me with this!"

Ivan sighed, realizing that Alfred had a good point. "Fine." Ivan relented, and Alfred gave a small cheer, bouncing over to the boxes. Ivan watched as Alfred pulled a box cutter out of his pocket and started to open the boxes, cheerfully whistling frosty the snow man. Ivan shook his head in amusement.

"You are always so excited about Christmas." He commented, leaning against the bar and taking a sip of his coffee.

"That's because it's the best time the year!" Alfred said cheerfully, flashing his smile at Ivan. Ivan briefly wondered if Alfred's smile was naturally that white or if he bleached his teeth. Either way, it was rather shocking how bright it was. "I always feel so warm and fuzzy this time of year! I just love getting people presents and making people happy! Plus, my citizens love to go all out! They decorate like crazy, they all buy presents for each other, and everyone is nicer to each other! Not to mention all of the charities that are going on right now. Plus all the kids get excited and there are a bunch of Christmas traditions and cookies!"

"And your Christmas party." Ivan added.

"Yeah…that too." Alfred said a little less excitedly, his smile falling a bit.

"It's rather famous you know." Ivan commented, not noticing Alfred's change in behavior. "I know many of the other Nations get excited about it."

"Really?" Alfred asked happily, perking up again.

"Yes, I hear them talking about how they try to outdo each other with the gifts every year." Ivan said, rolling his eyes. "I also hear that you usually do a good job setting them up. Is it true that you're doing a secret Santa this year?"

"Uh, yeah. I am." Alfred confirmed, pulling the Christmas tree box towards the center of the room. "But since I'm the host I get everyone who attends a gift, so I'm not involved with that."

Ivan paused for a moment, a frown growing on his face. "What do you mean? Does everyone who attends give you a gift as well?"

"No, of course not!" Alfred denied quickly. "I would never force anyone to give me a gift. If they want to that's cool, but I'm just as happy if they don't want to get me anything. I'm usually happy with people showing up to my party as a gift."

"That does not seem very fair." Ivan pointed out.

Alfred just shrugged his shoulders. "A present means more if you give it willingly. A forced gift isn't much of a gift as it is an empty gesture. I'd rather receive nothing than something that was given to me out of obligation."

"Do you give out gifts every year?" Ivan asked, putting his coffee onto the bar and making his way into the living room to help Alfred.

"Well, yeah." Alfred said, starting to pull out fake branches from the box and throwing them onto the couch in different piles. As Ivan helped him, he realized that each branch had a small colored band around the end of it, which was why Alfred was separating them. As he did the same, Alfred continued. "I get almost everyone a gift. I mean, I don't get gifts for some nations because some of them don't celebrate Christmas, or they've told me personally that they don't want a gift from me."

"I see." Russia commented.

"So, do you give out presents?" Alfred asked curiously, glancing up at the taller nation.

"Da, I do." Ivan said. "I give my sisters gifts every year, and sometimes other nations if I'm friendly with them."

"Do you get gifts from them?" Alfred asked.

"Da, my sisters always get me something." Ivan said with a small smile, his hand touching his scarf gently. "My scarf was actually a present from my older sister."

"Aw, that's cute." Alfred said with a warm smile. "I wish I had a sister. I'm stuck with just brothers I'm afraid. Although I wouldn't give up Mattie for the world." Then he added with a slight laugh, "Even when he is a pain in the ass sometimes."

"I would not say having sisters is all that it is cracked up to be." Ivan said with a grimace. "While I do care deeply for them, they can be rather odd sometimes. And scary." Ivan added with a shudder.

"Mattie can be scary." Alfred commented, a disturbed expression flashing over his face.

"Canada?" Ivan asked in confusion. "Scary?"

"Hockey." America muttered cryptically. "Never again."

"Umm, okay." Ivan said awkwardly as Alfred snapped out of it, and awkwardly laughed.

"Yeah, it's a long story." He said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"It must be nice to be siblings with someone around your age." Ivan said, giving Alfred a curious look as he placed the final branch on the couch. "Although it must be weird to have someone so similar to you living next to you."

"Not at all!" Alfred said, a large grin growing on his face. "It's awesome! Since we're around the same age and like a lot of the same things, we end up getting along really well! He's my cute little bro!"

"I thought you were twins?"

"Oh, we are, but I'm defiantly older." Alfred said with a smug smirk as he pulled out the trunk of the tree and stand out of the box. "He claims he's older, but I know I am."

"Right." Ivan said in amusement as Alfred looked around the room, his face falling slightly.

"Oh, that's a problem." Alfred said worriedly. "I forgot all of the walls were taken up with stuff."

"What about behind the couch?" Ivan said, pointing to the space behind the sofa. "You could just push it forwards and move the coffee table against the T.V."

"I guess." Alfred agreed reluctantly. "But then I'm not going to be able to get at my video games, and we won't see the full length of the tree."

"Well, there's no other place to put it." Ivan said with a shrug.

"Damn it, I should have thought about that when we got the tree." Alfred grumbled as he started to move the furniture forwards. "Well, looks like it's going to be slightly more cramped in here. Hope you're cool with that."

"I do not mind." Ivan said as he took the fake trunk and stand to the newly made space and started to set them up. After the tree was set up and put the lights on, Alfred excitably started to go through the ornaments that they had bought.

"Which one's should we start with?" Alfred asked, holding up a few them so Ivan could see.

"My sisters and I always start with the icicles and snowflakes." Ivan said, picking one of the boxes with the snowflakes. "Then we add more colorful ornaments."

"That's a good idea." Alfred said with a small smile, picking up the icicles.

"And you must put them at the very tips of the branches." Ivan added. "It makes it look more like the trees in the forests."

"Aw, that's a cute idea." Alfred said. "Who thought to do that?"

"My little sister." Ivan said fondly as they started hang the ornaments. "She always said that she likes how the ice glimmers in the trees. It became a tradition after awhile."

"And the colors coming afterwards?" Alfred asked.

"That was my idea." Ivan admitted. "I always preferred the tree to have a more color in it. It makes the tree look more inviting and expressive. What ornaments do you prefer on your tree?"

"I like everything." Alfred said with a laugh. "Classic ornaments, weird ornaments, candy canes, stars, Santa's, pictures, beads, lights, anything you can think of, I've probably put on my trees."

"Nothing in particular?" Ivan asked, stretching up slightly to reach some of the higher branches.

"Well," Alfred said, looking a bit embarrassed, "I really like birds and real candy canes to be in my trees."

"Why birds?" Ivan asked with a chuckle. "Is it because you're a bird brain?"

"Ha ha." Alfred said sarcastically. "Like I haven't heard that one before. No, it's because it sort of a tradition of mine."

"How so?"

"Well, it started when I was still a colony. England would carve me a new wooden bird the years he was able to visit and give it to me as a gift. He was pretty good at stuff like that." Alfred said sadly. "After I went independent he stopped making them for me, and I started to make them myself because I missed them." Then he gave Ivan a panicked look. "For the love of all things Christmas, do not tell England. I would never live it down."

"I promise." Ivan said with a chuckle.

"Anyways, my birds never looked as good as his did, so I eventually gave up." Alfred said, crouching down to decorate the lower branches. "When Christmas trees started to get popular at my place, I started to buy birds to decorate them. I don't think England's caught on to that yet. He's probably forgotten about it. I only put a few on the tree's I decorate at my parties, but usually put a good number of them on the tree's in my own personal homes."

"Do you have enough to cover a whole tree?" Ivan asked.

"I have enough to cover at least two trees." Alfred said with a smile. "But all of them are scattered through my different homes, so I only have about ten on average depending on which house I'm spending Christmas at."

"Except here."

"Yeah, I move around New York too much to keep anything here." Alfred explained. "I keep most of them at my Texas or California home, seeing as they're the largest houses I own."

"Do you still have the birds England gave you?" Ivan asked as he started to start on a new box.

"Yeah." Alfred said. "In my original house in Virginia. But I haven't been in that house for about twenty years or so, so I forgot where I've stored them."

"And what about the candy canes?"

"Oh, that's a joke between me and Mattie." Alfred said with a shake of his head. "Each year we decorate our trees with fake candy canes and a few real ones. It's a game of sort. When we visit each over the month of December we have to find a real one from the fakes and steal it. If he notices one is missing from his tree or if I notice one missing from mine the thief has to return it to the tree. If the thief leaves before the other one notices it's gone from the tree they can eat it."

"How did that start?" Ivan asked.

"I have no idea." Alfred said with a shrug as he finished hanging the snowflakes. "It kind of just happened. I think we kept eating each other's candy canes too much, so we made a game out of it."

"That is a rather amusing tradition." Ivan said with a chuckle, finishing hanging the icicles.

"Yeah, but I'm not going to be able to steal from his tree this year." Alfred pouted. "I guess I'm just going to have to keep a look out for him stealing from mine this time."

"Did you pick up real candy canes?" Ivan asked, glancing over the box's of fakes.

"Yeah." Alfred said, pulling out one of the boxes and showing Ivan an about ten identical looking real candy canes. "But I'm only going to put five." He said with a grin, grabbing one of the candy canes and sucking on the end of it. "I like eating the others."

"May I have one?" Ivan asked, and Alfred passed him the box. "I like making them sharp at the ends."

"Oh, so do I!" Alfred said. "It's the best part!"

They both laughed, and started to hang up some of the colored ordainments around the tree. The hung the candy canes, real and fake, on the ends of branches that didn't already have a icicle or snowflake on the end, and put the round ordainments around the tree. By the time they had finished, it was around 10'oclock. The tree looked nice, and they were both satisfied with their work. But one thing was missing.

"We do not have a tree topper." Ivan said, looking rather disappointed.

"Oh, I got that covered!" Alfred said gleefully, running to his room. A moment later he ran back with a tree skirt that looked like a Santa suit and a Santa hat.

"A Santa hat?" Ivan asked as Alfred set up the skirt.

"The star got boring." Alfred said, throwing Ivan the hat. "You can reach the top of the tree, so you put it on."

"I'm honored." Ivan joked, placing the hat on top of the tree.

They both admired the finished tree, then Alfred's stomach rumbled. "Okay, I think it's time for breakfast." Alfred said, making his way into the kitchen and opening the fridge.

"I am surprised Hero is not begging for food." Ivan commented as he followed.

"Oh, I fed Hero and Milashka when I woke up." Alfred explained as pulled out some eggs, onions, ham, and peppers and put them on the counter. "God forbid I open my eyes and Hero not beg for food."

"Didn't you mention that Hero likes to climb the tree?" Ivan asked, opening up one of the cupboards and pulling out some cereal.

"Ah! That reminds me!" Alfred said, snapping his fingers and opening a drawer and pulling out a squirt bottle. "Put that on the bar would you?" he asked, handing it to Ivan. "That's for if he gets near it."

They heard a rustling noise, and looking over they saw Milashka and Hero playing in the Christmas tree box. Milashka was chewing on one of the edges, ripping off little bits of cardboard, and Hero was hiding under some of the wrapping paper in the box, his head popping in and out of sight.

"I think that'll keep them out of trouble for now." Alfred cooed, pulling his phone out of his pocket and making kissy noises. The two cats turned to look at him and he snapped a picture.

"Perfect!" Alfred said with a grin as showed Ivan the photo.

"Very cute." Ivan said, pouring out his cereal. "By the way, the meeting is tomorrow, correct?"

"Uh." Alfred groaned, turning back to the counter and pulling out a frying pan. He put it on top of the oven and turned on the burner. "Yeah. Don't remind me."

"They are not that bad." Ivan said sympathetically, but Alfred just snorted.

"Yeah, because it's so fun being the hosting nation. Not to mention that we're going to have to put up with some of the nations asking about our living arrangement and with France's rumors." He said as he cracked a couple of eggs on the side of the pan, filling the room with a sizzling noise.

Ivan just rolled his eyes. "France is always spreading rumors. It is not like we have done anything to prove him right."

"I guess." Alfred agreed, as he started to chop up some of the peppers. "It was kind of annoying of him to follow us at the museum though." Then he paused. "Actually, I've been meaning to ask you something about that."

"Hmm?" Ivan asked, looking up from his phone, where he had been reading the news.

"Did you feel like someone other than him was there that day?" Alfred asked with a frown, continuing to chop up his ingredients.

"No, I did not." Ivan said with his own frown. "After we got off the bus to that shop I did not sense anyone following us. France is not that good. If he had continued following us we would have known."

Alfred didn't say anything for a moment, and then he relaxed slightly. "I guess I was just being paranoid." He said with a laugh, tipping his ingredients into the frying pan.

"That is not a bad thing to be." Ivan said, looking back down at his phone. "And it is not like any of the other nations have any reason to spy on us. They are all to be busy preparing for the meeting tomorrow."

"I wish England would be there tomorrow to do his own speech." Alfred sighed. "I just know I'm going to get something wrong."

"It would not be the first time someone messed up." Ivan pointed out. "Many of the hosting nations mess up the facts when filling in for someone. Your own brother did not even get a chance to give your speech or his the last time he covered for you."

"Yeah, he was pretty bitter about that." Alfred said with a sad shake of his head. "I wonder what he's up to right now? I should probably give him a call later and tell him I'm not mad at him anymore."

"I am sure he is not worried about it." Ivan said.

_LineBreak_

"England, you're going to have to calm dow-, I said calm down!" Canada tried to say over the hysterical Brit. France had stepped out of the hotel to get some shopping done, and Canada had the whole hotel room to himself. About an hour after France had left he had gotten a Skype call from England, and he had happily accepted it, only to be met with a hysterical England who was angrily demanding to speak to France, and blubbering something about having to save America from himself.

"IT'S SILLY I TELL YOU! THE BOY'S BEEN FIGHTING WITH THE MAN FOR THE LAST CENTURY AND HE SUDDENLY FALLS FOR HIM!? IT'S OUTRAGEOUS! CLEARLY THAT RUSSIAN HAS DONE SOMETHING TO HIM! I'M COMING OVER IMMEDIATELY AND FIXING THIS! AND WHERE THE HELL HAS FRANCE GONE?! I MUST SPEAK TO HIM AT ONCE! HE HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO!" England yelled, running around his room, throwing clothes into a suit case and wringing his hands worriedly.

"England!" Canada yelled, finally getting the attention of the former empire. "What on earth are you talking about? What's going on with Al?"

"You mean that perverted frog hasn't told you yet?!" England hissed angrily, snatching his phone and typing something into it. "Here. Have a look for yourself!" He spat.

Canada heard his phone ding, and he opened the text. His eyebrows shot up at the three photos England had sent him. The first one was of Russia and Al talking over a candle lit dinner, Russia leaning towards America with a smirk and what appeared to be his brother blushing. The second photo was of America smirking at Russia as he dabbed ice cream on Russia's nose, and third photo was of America and Russia laughing together. He let out a low whistle.

"That's some pretty damning evidence." Canada commented.

"DAMNING INDEED!" England shouted angrily.

"I mean, Al never combs his hair back for anyone!" Canada said in shock.

"FORGET THE HAIR, YOU IDIOT! DID YOU NOT SEE THEM ABOUT TO START SNOGGING?!" England shouted hysterically, pulling at his own hair.

"I mean, I wouldn't say they were about to kiss." Canada said. "It looked more like they were flirting."

England made a sound similar to a mouse being trodden on, and he turned around and started packing even faster than before. "No, no, no, no, no!" he muttered.

"Ok, I fail to see what the big deal is." Canada sighed. "So Al finally found someone he's interested in. Good for him! Shouldn't we be happy for them?"

"CERTAINLY NOT!" England snarled, turning back to face Canada again. "Of all the people he chose to fall in love with, it was the one nation that was going to be the most likely to break his heart some day! Oh…why couldn't it have been Japan?" England asked mournfully. "He's a good chap. He'd be good as a first love. He'd treat America with respect."

"Whoa! Japan has a thing for Al?!" Canada asked, his jaw dropping in shock.

"Well, he's never said so." England admitted reluctantly. "But he's not very fond of America taking an interest in others. For all of his work hiding his emotions, he has a hard time hiding his jealously."

"Oh my God." Canada said, reeling from all of the new information being thrown at him. "Is there anyone else that's crushing on my brother that I should know about?! And when did Al even start getting into the dating game anyways? And why wouldn't he tell me?! I'm his bro!"

"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?!" England yelled.

"Okay, let's just calm down. Have you tried asking Al what's going on?" Canada tried to reason.

"If he were dating Russia, do you really think he'd tell me?" England asked. "No, this is a face to face matter! And once I get my hands on the frog I'm going to-"

"Do what?" France asked, as he walked into the room, holding a couple of shopping bags in each hand.

"YOU!" England shrieked, pointing at the amused Frenchman. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! EXPLAIN WHAT THOSE PHOTOS MEAN AT ONCE, OR BY GOD I'M GOING TO STRANGLE YOUR SKINNY LITTLE NECK!"

"Oh?" France chuckled, putting his shopping down and walking over to sit down on the couch. He gestured for Canada to move over, and Canada made room for the older nation so they could both be in view of the camera.

"Calm yourself, Angleterre." France said soothingly. "Why are you making such a fuss? And what about your health? Surly acting this way is not good for your flu. You need to go back to bed and rest. You do yourself no favors by getting yourself into a tizzy."

"If you don't start talking this moment, I will curse all of your cheese to taste like my scones for the next hundred years." England growled.

France's face went white. "Ok, ok! You do not need to make such threats!" He said, holding his hands up in surrender. "Sheesh. All I did was follow America and Russia to one of the most expensive restaurants in New York, watch them have a nice time, see them flirt a little, and then send you pictures. Japan was with me as well, so you can verify with him that I'm telling the truth!"

"Japan was with you?" England asked in horror.

"Yes, poor thing." France sighed sadly. "He did not take it very well."

"Ok, that does it." England said, a determined look appearing in his eyes. "I'm heading over now. I'm going to put a stop to all of this nonsense." He said, slamming his suitcase shut.

"But your health!" France objected.

"MY HEALTH BE DAMNED!" England roared. "I'm going to make sure that fool doesn't make a mistake that will screw him up forever!"

"Al is an adult! He can make his own decisions!" Canada argued.

"He has never been in this situation before! He's going in blind! What's stopping Russia from taking his heart and then crushing it under one of his unforgiving boots!? How do you know he isn't just playing America for a fool?" England yelled, turning to face the other two nations again. He pointed a warning finger at them. "Mark my words, all of this smells fishy to me, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it." Then he glared at the two of them, catching his breath for a second. He was wheezing slightly.

"My friend, I must advise against you coming here until you are better." France said desperately. "Taking a flight in your condition is not a good idea."

"Don't think I don't know that you two had something to do with this. You especially." He hissed, jabbing his finger at France. Canada tried to object, but England cut him off. "I know you went early to try and play peace keeper. You told me, remember?" England said angrily. Canada closed his mouth, looking hurt.

"Well, yes." Canada admitted.

"Then don't you try and stop me. I'll see you tomorrow at the meeting. AND DON'T YOU DARE TELL AMERICA ABOUT ANY OF THIS! I DON'T NEED HIM RUNNING FOR THE HILLS!" and with a final glare, the call disconnected.

The two nations sat in silence for a minute, and then Canada sighed, rubbing his face.

"Oh boy." He said. "So that's overprotective England."

France hummed. "Yes, I haven't seen him this upset since a pirate tried to kidnap America for ransom."

"When did that happen?!" Canada asked in surprise.

"Oh, don't worry about it." France said dismissively, stroking his beard worriedly. "What we really need to worry about is keeping him away from the world meeting tomorrow. If he bursts into the meeting this angry, the rest of the world is going to go crazy. Not only that, but he is going to hurt himself. He is in no condition to be raging at anyone, let alone America and Russia at the same time."

"This is all your fault you know." Canada huffed. "Why the hell did you send him those pictures?"

"Because he said I was wrong!" France whined. "I just was going to prove him wrong, nothing more!"

"Well you better fix it! Or else we're going to have World War 3 on our hands!" Canada said. "Thank God we were the only ones to see those photos!"

"Ah, about that…" France said nervously.

"What. Did. You. Do?" Canada asked in horror. "How many people?" He asked desperately, taking France by the front of his shirt in terror. "How many people saw those photos?!"

"…all of them?"

Canada let go of France in shock. They stared at each other in shocked silence for a moment, the Canada whispered, "We're so screwed."

_Around the world_

Italy opened the text France sent him, and immediately started screaming. He ran sobbing over to his brother and showed him the photo's, and his brother immediately started to cross himself and started praying. This caused Italy to freak out even more, and he sent the photos to Germany, and called him sobbing for him to save them.

Germany was stunned. He couldn't believe that France had been right. How long had Russia and America been dating?! How long had they been working with each other? How much did they not know? What were they hiding? For once in his life, he had nothing to say to the sobbing Italian on the phone. No orders, no words of comfort. Only shocked silence. In the background Prussia spit out his beer in shock.

As soon as China got the photos, he started ranting to anyone who would listen that he had been right, and all the bad omens he had been seeing for the last week had been right. He called Japan to tell him, and was shocked to find out that he had been there with France when the photo's had been taken. When he demanded answers, Japan hung up on him.

The Nordics started a shouting match as soon as they found out about the news. Finland couldn't believe that America would ever date Russia, saying America was too nice for Russia. Sweden didn't say anything, just looked like a disappointed father. Denmark was shouting curses around the house, and Norway was trying to contact the magical world to try and make sense of the shocking news. Iceland didn't too bothered by the news, merely telling everyone to be quiet and it wasn't that big of a deal, only to be ignored by everyone else.

Switzerland didn't care about the news. He chose to be neutral about the whole thing.

Ukraine stared at her phone in confusion. She was happy for her brother, but she didn't understand why he chose America of all people. What on earth did they have in common? She heard a glass break in the other room and Belarus screaming in rage. Oh dear, this wasn't good.

Lithuania dropped his phone in shock, the screen breaking on the hard floor tiles in his kitchen. He stared at the phone in horror. When he had called America, he had expected them to maybe get along a little better, not start dating! Oh dear, was he responsible for this? Oh no! He saw Poland in the other room shriek in fear and he threw his phone away from him.

Austria nearly fainted at the news, and Hungary started to scream about how unlikely all of this was, and for Austria to get a grip on himself.

Around the world there were gasps of disbelief, of shock, of anger. The whole world was rocked by this news to it's very core. And in one apartment in New York, a blood curdling scream could be heard over a block away.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN FRANCE TOOK PHOTOS OF US AT THE RESTAURANT?!"

A/N: Okay, that's it till next time. I know, I'm a monster. :) Worry not, the next chapter is coming soon! The next chapter is going to be the world meeting! Buckle up lady's and Gentlemen, this story is starting to move!