Alfred and Ivan ended up ordering Chinese food for dinner and bumming around in the living room for the rest of the evening. Alfred had ordered a bunch of Chicken lo mein and egg rolls, and Ivan had decided to get a bowl of wonton soup. Alfred was lying on the couch, his head resting on Ivan's lap as he read the news on his phone, and Ivan was reading a book. Their dinners were spread over the coffee table. Occasionally, Hero or Milashka would try to steal a piece of food out one of the takeout boxs, but Alfred would spray them with the water bottle, and they would retreat and sulk under the Christmas tree.

"You know, you could give them a small piece." Ivan said in amusement as Hero tried for the fifth time to steal a piece of chicken out of Alfred's box.

"Nope." Alfred said, not even bothering to look away from his phone as he sprayed Hero in the face. Hero let out a hiss and ran under the couch. "That fatty knows better, and he has a full bowl of food. Plus, a lot of fast food isn't good for him. He's spoiled enough with pizza."

"You are a mean person." Ivan said with a small laugh, and Alfred rolled his eyes in amusement.

"Yeah, I'm stopping my cat from becoming a beach ball. How awful of me. Clearly I should throw myself out the window for being such a cruel person." Alfred said with an amused huff. "Hey, could you pull that box closer to the middle of the table? If I have to keep spraying Hero, he's going to try and start scratching the couch in protest."

"You are right here, you can do it yourself." Ivan said, taking a sip of his soup.

"But I'm so comfy." Alfred whined.

"I am sure a pillow would be more comfortable than my lap. Why are you laying there anyways?" Ivan asked, and Alfred shrugged his shoulders.

"It was convenient, I wanted to stretch out and you were in the way, and you're warm."

"You are like the cats." Ivan scoffed, but he pulled the box closer to them anyways.

"Thank you dear." Alfred said with a cheeky smile. Ivan flicked him in the forehead in response. As he leaned back into the sofa, Ivan spotted a pair of fortune cookies that he hadn't noticed before behind one of the containers of food.

"I have not had one of these in years." Ivan said as he picked one up. Alfred glanced up at the cookie, and he let out a laugh.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about those. China hates those things you know. He hates being associated with them."

"You think he would be flattered that you put his omens into cookies." Ivan said in amusement as he opened the wrapper. "Do you want the cookie part? I only want the fortune."

"Yeah, sure." Alfred said, putting his hand up. As he munched on the cookie, Ivan opened up the fortune. "So what does it say?"

"People are naturally attracted to you." Ivan said with a snort. "This is not even a fortune."

"Bummer man." Alfred said with a chuckle as he opened his cookie. "Any lucky numbers?"

"24, 12, and 2." Ivan said with a shrug. "What does yours say?"

"Someone short will be bringing you news soon." Alfred said. "Well, I guess that could be anyone. God, these cookies love being vague, don't they?" Alfred said with a shake of his head. "My lucky numbers are 12, 18, and 2. Aw, we were just one number off."

"I guess you could say we were unfortunate." Ivan said with a straight face, taking another bite of his soup.

"Oh my god. No."

"What? It was a good joke." Ivan said with a small smirk as Alfred smacked his arm.

*Meanwhile*

Across the street from the entrance of the apartment, two men watched the building from an alleyway. One of the men was smoking a cigarette near the entrance of the alley, occasionally tapping the ash off the end of it. The other man was standing a little bit behind him, reading something on his phone. They were dressed casually so they didn't stand out. They were both watching one of the windows of the apartment building, and although the curtains were drawn, they could still see that the lights were on in the room.

"So," The man with the cigarette asked, glancing over at his partner with a frown, "How long did the boss say to keep an eye on this place again?"

"Until the lady says so." The second man huffed. "I don't get why, but I don't ask questions. Plus, it's an easy assignment. It's not like we have to kill the guy or anything for her, just tell her what the guy does around her brother."

"Who is this lady anyways? Why is she so important that the boss has to take orders from her?"

"I have no idea. She must be some big shot in the government or something." The man said with a shrug, and glancing up from his phone he frowned at his partner. "How did you even find them anyways?"

"He gave the boss a business card. Had his name on it, as well as a phone number. I looked him up in the phone book." The man said with a chuckle, taking a drag from the cigarette.

"Those things still exist?" The second man asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I was surprised too. It was weird though, I had tried to look him up online, and he did have social media accounts and stuff, but nothing older than three or four years old." The man said with a frown. "When I tried to look in deeper on him, I came up with nothing. No degrees, no birth certificate, no family connections. Nada. When I talked to the people he had decorated for, they said he just showed up out of nowhere one day. It's strange. I had to use the phone book as a last resort, and to my surprise there he was in black in white."

"Witness protective program?" The man with the phone suggested, but the first man shook his head.

"Nah, no one would make a stupid mistake like putting his name in the phone book if that was the case. And anyways, why would someone who was trying to hide go out to dinner with that creepy bastard in the first place? They would have known being around that weirdo in that restaurant would have brought attention on himself."

"True." The second man agreed.

"It's a shame you weren't able to get into his apartment." The first man said with a sigh, flicking his cigarette butt onto the sidewalk and crushing it with the sole of his shoe.

"Yeah, and when the guy at the front desk had dozed off and he had left the lock open no less." The man with the phone said bitterly. "If that damned old lady hadn't opened her door I would have been able to get more on the guy. I think she saw me too, I saw her marching down to the front desk as I was leaving."

"Hmm. It's probably too risky to try to get in again. She probably told the kid that someone was trying to break in. He'll be on alert now, as well as the front desk."

"Shame. At least we didn't get the bosses hopes up by telling him that we were going to break in." The second man sighed, and he put his phone away and pulled a pack of cigarettes out his jacket pocket. He offered them to his partner. "Want one?"

"True, and yeah." The first man said, taking the box with a smirk. "What the boss doesn't know won't hurt him."

*TheNextDay*

Alfred hummed as he looked at his phone. He was sitting at the kitchen table waiting for Ivan to finish getting ready so they could go pick up his sister. She had asked them to pick her up around eleven, and it was about 10 now, so they had about thirty minutes before they had to go. Alfred was already dressed, wearing a blue sweater and a thick pair of black pants, and was scrolling through memes on his phone. Just as he was thinking about making another cup of coffee, his phone started to play the X-men theme. Grinning, he answered the phone with a smile.

"Mattie! What's up bro?"

"Nothing much, I wanted to check up on you." Canada said cheerfully.

"Oh, I'm doing okay. Although I can't really talk for long, Ivan and I are showing his sister around the city today." Alfred said, glancing up at the clock with a small frown.

"That's fine." Canada said, and Alfred heard him mutter something to himself.

"What was that?" Alfred asked.

"Nothing." Canada said, clearing his throat. "Hey, Al, I need to ask you something. Did something happen after I left your apartment the other day?"

"Yeah…" Alfred said, squinting his eyes suspiciously at the phone in his hands. "How did you know?"

"I have my ways." Canada said causally. "Look, a little birdie told me you and Japan got into another fight, and it didn't go well. Are you okay? Do I need to come over? Do I need to make you my maple cookies to cheer you up?"

"What? No, no I'm okay. I mean, I wouldn't say no to you bringing me cookies, but you don't have to drop everything to bring them over." Alfred said with a fond shake of his head. "Sure, I'm still kind of bummed out about it, but I've been keeping myself busy."

"Are you sure?" Canada asked hesitantly. "I know how you get when stuff like this happens."

"Mattie, I'm fine." He assured Canada. "I promise."

"Were you alone when you talked to him?" Canada asked worriedly. "Al, I swear if you're lying on your couch, binge eating ice cream and watching Mean Girls again-"

"I thought I told you to never bring that up again!" Alfred squawked. "Mattie, I'm fine! I promise! Stop mother Henning me! If you don't believe me, you can ask Arthur. He was here yesterday."

"He visited you?" Canada asked in surprise.

"Yeah, he did. He came over to apologize about his behavior actually. He said that after you told him off he did some thinking. I don't know what you said to him dude, but you really shook him up." Alfred explained as he walked over to the coffee maker. "I even made him a cup of tea."

"Really!?"

"Yeah, I did." Alfred said with a small chuckle at the shock in his brother's voice. "Hey, if you ever get bored of working for your government, you should go into family counseling. You seem to be doing a lot of that lately. You could make millions."

"Maybe I should." Canada said, and Alfred swore he could hear his brother actually considering it. "Anyways, I'm still coming over later. Not today, but soon. Oh, I heard from France by the way. I'm not going to tell you where his is, but I just wanted to let you know that he's safe."

"If I pay you, will you tell me where he is?" Alfred asked as he started to make himself a travel mug.

"No. You'll kill him if I do."

"I wouldn't kill him." Alfred said casually, his eyes slowly drifting to the knife block next to him.

"Yeah, right. Like I'd believe that. I wasn't born yesterday you know." Canada huffed. "Hey, weren't you supposed to have a cooking lesson with him this week?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Alfred hummed, still eyeing the knife block. "I doubt he's going to come over this week though. Shame, I was actually looking forwards to that coconut cake."

"Well, I guess there's always next month." Canada said. "Look, are you sure you're okay? I can come over now if you want."

"Mattie, I'm fine." Alfred said in exasperation. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, Ivan was with me when I called Japan. I wasn't alone, and he was able to cheer me up a little. He even gave me a hug. It was nice. He was nice. I felt better. Happy?"

There was a pause, and then Canada let out a small hum. "Interesting…" Alfred heard him mutter thoughtfully.

"What's interesting?" Alfred asked in confusion.

"Nothing. Well, I'll let you go then. Text me when you get a chance." Canada said happily. "Bye!" And with that, Canada suddenly hung up. Alfred looked down at his phone in bewilderment, then rolling his eyes he turned back to his coffee. His brother could be so weird sometimes.

About five minutes later, Ivan came out of his room. After Alfred had made sure he had actually locked the door this time, they made their way towards the lobby, where to their surprised they saw Greg cowering under the fury of his wife. He was sitting behind the front desk, and she was standing in front of him, hands on the desk and leaning over him with a scowl on her face.

"How many times have I told you not to doze off at the desk?!" She shouted, and Greg sunk even lower into his chair. "How many times?! Do you even know what could have happened if you hadn't been lucky?! I don't know what would happened if that woman didn't come down and demand to speak to me!"

"Darling, it's been a busy couple of days. I haven't gotten much sleep." Greg protested, but she only started yelling even louder.

"YOU HAD ONE FUCKING JOB! YOU THINK IT HASN'T BEEN BUSY FOR ME AS WELL?! NO, I'VE ONLY BEEN DOWN TOWN FOR THE LAST TWO WEEKS, WORKING MY BEHIND OFF-"

"Oh dear." Alfred said with a quiet chuckle as they walked by. "I think its best if we leave them be."

"Do they fight like this very often?" Ivan asked curiously as they walked out of the lobby, and to his amusement he could still hear Mrs. Carol screaming at her husband from the street. From what he could see through the glass doors, the poor man looked like he wanted to be anywhere else in the world right now.

"No, it's really rare that she blows up on him like that." Alfred said with a slight frown, fishing his keys out of his pockets. "The only other time she's yelled at him like that was when he almost fell off the roof when he was fixing a leak. I swear she was more freaked out about it than he was. Anyways, let me pull the car around and we can go get your sister." Alfred said with a grin.

*Somewhereinthecity*

"So, it's been a few days." Prussia said, and the other nations around nodded eagerly. A group of nations that were still hanging around and touring the city had decided to get together in one of the hotel lobbies and compare notes. "Does anyone have any new information for the betting pool?"

"I do!" Finland piped up from one of the arm chairs. "I was able to talk to them recently, and it turns out Japan and America were never dating."

"What?!" S. Korea yelled in disappointment from the corner of the room. "Damn it, I thought for sure something was happening between them."

"Pay up! I told you America wasn't the dating type!" Mexico shouted. A couple of nations grumbled as money was passed around the room, and Switzerland updated his little black book.

"Anything else?" Spain asked Finland, who shook his head. "Not really. Before we met up though, I saw them talking to each other in a coffee shop."

"Should you be spilling the beans on them like this?" Denmark asked curiously from a nearby couch. "It's not like you."

"What can I say, I'm invested." Finland said with a small chuckle. Sweden hummed in agreement from next to him.

"Anyone else?" Prussia asked, and Germany smacked the back of his brother's head.

"What the hell are you doing?!" He shouted. "This is an invasion of personal privacy! It isn't our business whether or not America is dating!"

"Oh come on west!" Prussia said with a pout. "Don't be such a kill joy. It's not like we don't have a betting pool on other people as well. Hell, we had a betting pool on you and Italy for years!"

"WHAT?!" Italy yelled in shock from across the room.

"YOU HAD TO RIGHT TO DO THAT!" Germany shouted, but Prussia just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, whatever. Anyways, does anyone want to put on anymore bets?" Prussia asked the room, ignoring his now fuming brother.

"Oh, has anyone bet on when Belarus is going to try and kill America?" Australia asked. "If not, I say she'll make her move in less than a week from now."

"I say she's already started." Belgium said, holding up her hand. "She's not one to sit by and just watch."

"I have a bet to place." A quiet voice said from the one of the hallways, and looking over they were surprised to see America walking towards them, kindly smiling at them.

"America?" Norway asked in horror, and Canada sighed.

"That's his brother, Canada." Prussia pointed out. "America would never make such a quiet entrance. Plus, the maple leaf hoodie kind of gives it away."

"Thank you." Canada huffed. "Anyways, I want to put down a bet."

"Well, well, well." Hungary said from a sofa to the right of Canada, a small gleam in her eye. "This is a surprise. You don't usually join us. I thought you didn't like taking bets like this."

"Let's just say I'm in a betting mood." Canada said with a small smile.

"Alright, what's your bet?" Switzerland asked.

Canada smirked, and leaning over he whispered into Switzerland's ear. As he spoke, Switzerland's eyebrows lifted up in disbelief. "Are you sure about that?" Switzerland asked, not looking convinced. "That's an odd bet to make."

"Oh, I'm sure." Canada said with a grin. "Oh, and I want to put down a thousand on it."

"A thousand?!" S. Korea asked in shock. "What exactly are you betting on here?"

"It's a secret." Canada said with a small smirk as he handed Switzerland the money.

"Come on! That's not fair!" Australia protested, and there was a cry of protest from the other nations.

"Sorry, but my lips are sealed." Canada said with a wink, and with that he turned around and headed back towards his room. The other's looked towards Switzerland, but he just shook his head.

"I'm not going to say." He said with a huff, snapping his book shut. "Privacy reasons, I'm sure you understand."

"Not even a hint?!" Denmark asked, and Switzerland gave him an unimpressed look.

"No."

*Ivan'sP.O.V*

Much to Ivan's surprise and delight, he found the bus tour of the city had not been as boring as he thought it would be. When his sister had suggested it, he had hadn't had the heart to tell her that he found them boring because she had been so excited about it. He honestly didn't care much about the history of the buildings around him, or what the cheery tour woman was saying, but he was amused with his sister's and Alfred's behavior. To put it simply, they were having a blast.

Alfred was in his element, whispering excitably to Katya about some of the buildings that the tour lady had ignored, telling stories about some of the former residents and their stories. Once and awhile they would pass a building Alfred used to live in, and Alfred would get even more excited. He would start talking about the jobs he used to have, and some of the history of the time. Ivan was rather amused by one story about the 70's when Alfred had worked as a bar tender, and how he had had to throw out a very drunk customer that had started to hit on his reflection, and then had broken down crying when his reflection wouldn't flirt back.

Katya, bless her, was having the time of her life. Ivan didn't know why, but she loved these sort of tours. Because Alfred had an encyclopedic memory of everything in the area, she was able to ask him more detailed questions than she could with the tour guide. She was practically glowing by the time the tour had ended. Then when Alfred had offered to walk them down some other parts of the area on foot, she had all but dragged Alfred around, pointing at random things and asking him their history. Ivan tried to pretend to be interested, but after three hours he had started to tune out their chatter in favor of starting at anything that caught his attention instead. At one point, he had found a very interesting pigeon to have a staring contest with. He lost.

Eventually, Alfred noticed Ivan practically falling asleep on a bench. "Hey, big guy. You doing okay?" He asked, and Ivan nodded. Alfred must have realized that Ivan was a couple of seconds from falling asleep, so he made a show of looking down at his watch. "Wow, look at the time! We should probably grab something quick to eat." He said. "Hey, there's this really good sandwich shop near here. I could go and grab us a couple of sandwiches and we can eat them as we walk around." Alfred offered. "I can also us up some hot drinks."

"Large coffee please." Ivan asked with a yawn.

"I'll take a hot chocolate again!" Ukraine said happily.

"Cool. I'll be back in a sec." Alfred said cheerfully, and he jogged down the road. Ukraine let out a happy sigh, and after brushing off some snow off the bench, she sat down next to Ivan.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Ivan asked, and she beamed at him.

"Oh yes! I had no idea that there were so many interesting neighborhoods here! They have so much history too, even though they're relatively new!" She gushed.

"That is good." Ivan hummed. They sat in comfortable silence for a minute, watching the people pass them.

"I missed this you know." Ukraine said suddenly. "I missed us just sitting down and talking. No politices, or bosses getting in the way. I missed you. You've been away for a long time."

"I did not leave." Ivan said with a confused look. "We have seen each other many times after you left my house."

"Maybe not physically, but you did leave us for a time." Ukraine said, and she rested her head on his shoulder with a smile. "I missed my Vanya. I'm glad you're back now."

Ivan felt a sudden lump in his throat at that. He eyes started to sting a little, but he blamed that on the cold wind. He rested his head on his sister's, and they sat like that until Alfred came back, laughing loudly about something or other. Maybe these tours weren't so bad after all, he thought with a small smile.

A/N: Big moments are nice, but I find that the smallest moments have the most meaning. Nothing much going on in this chapter, but I think we've earned a bit a breather, don't you? I mean, so much has happened already. Not every day has to be grand or long you know. Although if you look closely, you'll find a treasure trove of information, (hints), hidden away. ;)

That awkward moment when you've written over 100k words, and you're only just getting to the romance because you had to make them friends first. Oops.