Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia: Axis Powers. All rights go to their creators.

Chapter 7: Scares

The Halloween season was Valeriu's favorite time of year, so Arthur's heard. And he really got into the "spooky" themed decorations. There were bats strewn up, cobwebs in ceiling corners, stickers in windows and of course ghost, pumpkin, and witch frosted treats. Berwald said they would be allowed to wear costumes and their name tags instead of full uniform.

Arthur loved the scary aspect of Halloween, not so much the cutesy part he's seen from some of his brothers' girlfriends in the past. He hadn't had a reason to celebrate for the past two years, but this time he was motivated to bring out the scares. And also they were having a costume contest and the winner received one of Berwald's homemade cakes, that might have been something he was looking forward to as well.

Arthur found himself at the local thrift store, on his day off, buying clothes that were a few sizes too big for him. He would be cutting them up into tattered pieces, for the distressed effect, and layering them over his other clothes. He was going to be a zombie. He also bought face paint, something he's never done before.

And so Arthur spent the next few hours at his flat, stabbing holes into, cutting up, tearing apart, and ripping through the pockets of an oversized pair of jeans and a couple of faded button ups.

It was therapeutic in a way when he wanted an outlet for his upsetting thoughts. And he felt it most when he saw Lovino interact with his friend Antonio.

There was something that bothered him about Lovino's friend Antonio. He was always smiling, despite being antagonistic, and now that he was thinking about it, his face was kind of attractive: prominent cheekbones, olive green eyes, dazzling smile, blemishless brown skin. His hair was kind of curly, and he'd have to brush his bangs out of his eyes sometimes. Did he have to be so…beguiling in all aspects of the word?

He kind of reminded him of… João. Wait, wait. João barely ever mentioned home, but he did say his family lived in New York City. Does he even have a brother? Did he ever mention that?

Fuck, Fuck, Fuck.

Arthur was in fucking dreamland everytime João talked to him, if he didn't expect an answer from him that wasn't a simple "Mhmm" in response. Gods the man was just too handsome not to stare at and fantasize about kissing him all over his face.

But Arthur remembered asking him about his home once, and João looked pretty upset about it, preferring to change the subject, so Arthur didn't ask again. João never talked about going back once his studies were over either. So maybe Antonio was just some bloke who looked similar to João with no relation. Highly unlikely. He could ask but like many other things in Arthur's life, he decided not to and would just ignore it.

Arthur shook his head to clear his thoughts, it wasn't helpful to ponder over that now anyway.

Arthur, with careful and slightly shaky hands, proceeded to apply white face paint to the entirety of his face, except around his eyes and lips.

He applied black around his eyes and splotches of red on his cheek, his neck and the corner of his mouth. Arthur was quite pleased with how it turned out, and would have to sleep sitting upright that night.

Coming into work, Arthur was surprised to see

someone in what looked like a seal costume, a onesie with a seal hood and flipper hands.

"A seal? That's the most ridiculous costume I've seen so far." Arthur proceeded to step on her tail fins that were dragging on the ground.

She turned, having been halted, to look back at him.

"Michelle?" The tip of her nose was painted black, and she had painted on whiskers.

"Bonjour Arthur! Happy Halloween!" She waved her flippers at him.

Arthur pursed his lips, it was ridiculous, but she had no business being this bloody adorable. "Figures you wouldn't dress up as anything scary."

"Hobos are not scary either. It's not funny to say so. I saw one on my way to work. I gave him a few left over dollars I had." She put her hands on her hips and gave him a little angry pout.

"I'm a zombie, Michelle." Arthur said, stepping off of the costume's tailfin.

"Oh! My mistake! Oh no don't eat my brains!" And then she waddled away from him to hide behind the counter.

Arthur let out a sigh and went toward the locker room.

Alondra came in shortly after, wearing a candy striper nurse outfit, complete with a stethoscope and clipboard. She was wearing stockings and flats.

"That face paint looks good. Kind of looks like real blood too," She reached out to touch it.

As she did he said, "It is."

She jumped back from him, and stared down at her slightly bloody fingertips. Her gaze flickered from them and back to his face. It took all of his willpower not to laugh.

It was real blood, he'd pricked his fingers sewing his costume a bit and just wiped it onto his face. He had to clean the paint and blood immediately afterwards so his fingers wouldn't get infected.

"You're playing a prank on me." Alondra laughed, "Sure, sure it's real blood." Although she did look uneasy upon glancing back at her fingers, before she went back out.

Arthur swallowed down the giggles that were threatening to come up and went back out.

Their workday went by as usual, various Uni students were wearing their Halloween costumes as they came into order. An array of costumes from the horrifyingly terrifying to the downright ridiculous were on display. A woman dressed as a fairy, a man dressed as mustard, a man dressed as a spirit walker, and a woman dressed as Tippi Herden being pecked at by birds from The Birds. His father had them all watch a few Alfred Hitchcock movies around Halloween when they were younger.

"Watch this." Michelle said when there was some downtime. She produced a medium sized rubber ball and started balancing it on her head.

Only for her to lose her balance, back into the register, and the ball to bounce toward the door. In walked someone dressed as a clown wearing a big red nose, and floppy shoes. It was Drifa, she scrambled to catch Michelle's ball before it went out the door.

"I haven't gotten the hang of it yet," she said, still leaning back against the register.

"There's also not much room." Arthur said, leaning over the counter to receive the ball from Drifa.

"Michelle, are you alright?"

"Oui Muffin, I was just showing Arthur my trick and I fell a little."

Arthur propped the ball in his arm. Michelle pushed herself back up to a stand and spun around to face Drifa. Then she proceeded to honk Drifa's clown nose.

Michelle said that they were going to a Halloween party on campus where there would be karaoke, and fun carnival-like games.

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Lili came in shortly after with a basket that was half filled with sweets. She was wearing a little red hood, a dress, and thigh high boots, although the dress just hit above her knees.

"Hallo Arthur! Happy Halloween!" She presented him with the basket to grab sweets from. He didn't like the chocolate made here so he was more partial to the other sweets like jelly beans and lollies. He dug around for those and took a few pieces.

"Happy Halloween." Arthur said unwrapping a green lolly to put into his mouth. "You're supposed to be Little Red Riding Hood aren't you?"

Lili nodded, wobbling a bit as she stepped into the counter space. She was just quite a bit taller. "I'm not used to walking in heels," she said, gripping the countertop.

"Are you going out for Halloween to a party?"

"Y-yeah Michelle and Drifa invited me along with them."

"Let's hope for your sake there won't be much walking." He gripped her arm as she wobbled again.

When it was Arthur's break, he went into the bathroom to prick his fingers to apply fresh blood on his face before he went outside to smoke.

Soon it was about time for his shift to end and Lovino walked in dressed as normal.

"You know there's a costume contest right?"

"I know that bastard. I'm dressed as a gameshow contestant, duh." Lovino had a name tag that was cut into the shape of a price tag and a few dollar signs stapled onto his shirt. "I've even got a buzzer." He pulled out a little plastic buzzer.

"That's so creative, Lovino." Lili said as she held out her basket of sweets to him.

He grabbed a handful.

"Mediocre more like." Arthur muttered.

"Oh and putting on old clothes and squirting ketchup on your face is sooo much better." Lovino said, swiping blood from Arthur's cheek and licking it off his finger.

"That's not ketchup."

"Eww! What the fuck?" Lovino started dry heaving. And Arthur was fighting back the urge to laugh.

"Don't worry Lovino, it's just fake blood." Lili tried to reassure him. He stopped his dry heaving, looking slightly relieved.

"Right. Che. Of course."

"No, it's real blood," Arthur proceeded to prick his finger and when a drop came out, he licked it off. "Didn't you taste it?"

To which Lovino proceeded to faint.

Arthur couldn't help but laugh as Lili rushed over to his side, but only after stumbling a bit and falling to her knees.

Arthur was laughing so hard he couldn't breathe.

"He's just playing a prank on you Lovino, it's not real." She said, helping him up to his feet.

"No-no, no I'm not. Ah! Fuck!" His stomach was starting to cramp up. "It's real!"

"Fuck you, you sick bastard!"

Arthur was starting to calm down, right as Lovino stalked up to the counter. He gripped Arthur's shirts, bunching them in his fists. Then he reared back and headbutt Arthur right in the forehead.

Arthur blinked as he stumbled back, clutching his now throbbing head. "Ahhh, fucking bollocks!" He hissed. He was knocked into the cabinet and the flavor pumps, causing them to rattle.

He could see the anger drain from Lovino's face as what he'd just done set in. Arthur wasn't sure if he was impressed, or upset. The patrons in the cafe had turned to see all of the commotion, and had brought the cafe to near pin drop silence.

Arthur stood staring into terrified hazel eyes, his heart thumping in his chest, mouth suddenly dry. He decided he would walk away, he didn't want to cause anymore of a disturbance. As he went back into the locker room, he heard Berwald emerge from his office.

"Are you ok?" Alondra asked, shrugging on her jacket. "Did something happen?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine." Arthur's palms were sweating and his hands were shaking. Not out of fear, but of adrenaline. Did he want to punch Lovino…or something else?

Arthur grabbed his guitar, and his amp. Alondra spared him another glance before she left, just passing Lovino on her way out.

Arthur could see the man visibly swallow, "Heeey…that back there, I didn't mean to do that." He let out a nervous chuckle, "Do you think that maybe, you won't beat my ass?"

Arthur placed down the amp, and pulled the brunet by his collar. He raised a fist and Lovino braced himself for the oncoming hit.

All he had to do was land one good one right between the bastard's eyes.

But Arthur couldn't do it. Lovino had helped him with the bread even though he didn't have to, especially since Arthur hadn't given him any reason to want to help him, and Lovino had given him back his journal. Granted Lovino had blackmailed him, but it ultimately was for a good cause…his brother's passing grade. Truthfully he hadn't had any malice from their first meeting left in him.

Arthur let go of him and pushed him back.

"Y-youre not going to beat me up?"

Arthur let out a sigh, "No. How about we start over? You don't have to be scared of me."

"You're gonna be nice to me?"

"Not necessarily, I'm just not going to harm you."

"What kind of a raw deal is that?" Lovino furrowed his eyebrows. Arthur picked back up his amp.

"One you should take because there's a knot forming on my forehead because of you, remember?"

"Right, si." Lovino nodded vigorously.

"Happy Halloween." He gave Lovino a pat on the shoulder before going out the door.

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Valeriu won the costume contest for his wolfman costume. He said he'd made it with faux fur himself. Arthur wasn't sure he believed that. He said he was having a little get together at his studio flat and that they were all invited. They would be sharing the cake, and leftover sweets he hadn't given out. They were welcome to bring theirs too.

As if Arthur passed out sweets for Halloween, fuck those little brats. So Arthur stood outside of Valeriu's flat empty handed, hands in his leather jacket pockets, having just buzzed the buzzer. Leaves skirted across the ground by his feet. The sunset baked everything in a warm orange glow.

The glass sliding door opened to Valeriu who gave him a wide grin. "Arthur! Welcome! You're the last one, come on in!"

Arthur crossed the threshold and followed him down the hall to his flat. He opened the door and Arthur stepped into the open room where Alondra, Berwald and two people he didn't recognize stood around a table. One was a tall woman with some kind of cross shaped clip in her blonde hair. She was dressed in all black, a knit crop sweater and skirt, black lipstick and eyeshadow. The other was a shorter brunet with green eyes.

Alondra had a small plate filled with jam topped cookies in her hand. Berwald had picked one up from her plate.

Valeriu clapped once, "Well I've got a fun game we can all play once everyone's gotten their snacks." He gestured to the table everyone was crowded around, displayed with cookies, the cake, a platter of fruit, and some beverages.

Arthur took a slice of the cake topped with almonds that was obviously made by Berwald. He had been thinking about it on the way over. It wasn't fresh but Arthur didn't care.

"He really does love your cake Ber." He felt someone nudge him, Alondra. He was in mid raise of said cake slice to his awaiting mouth. Berwald shifted his gaze to Arthur and suddenly he felt self-conscious.

"You don't have to stare. It's not news."

Arthur took a bite, the pastel pink coloring of Berwald's cheeks was not lost on Arthur. Arthur doesn't really understand Berwald's modesty when it came to appreciation of his baked goods. Or was it just from Arthur himself, was he being too bold? Or had he come off as standoffish to the point where any supposed praise was a genuine surprise?

"I guess Lovino isn't coming, you hear from him Arthur?" He turned his attention back to her.

Accidentally swallowing a large piece, he waited for the pain in his throat to subside. Alondra stared at him, eyebrows raised.

"U-uh no of course not. Why would he tell me anything anyway? It's not like we've exchanged numbers."

Alondra quirked her lips, "Oh, you see him more than I do. But I didn't text him so that was on me. He didn't say he was coming, I just assumed he'd stop by."

Arthur shrugged, and the goth blonde stepped into their circle. She introduced herself as Haldora.

"Oh you're the one who's into spooky stuff right? Like you deal with people who say they've seen ghosts. Valeriu has mentioned some of your paranormal investigations!" Alondra said.

"That's just my side hobby. I'm actually a parapsychologist." Her voice was deeper than he expected.

"What profession is that?" Arthur asked through another bite of cake.

Arthur had been interested in the paranormal, having frequented supposedly haunted places when he was younger with his brothers. Of course Arthur had been frightened but steeled his nerves when he realized that's what his brothers wanted from him, fear. It became a bit of morbid curiosity as of late.

Haldora readjusted the purse on her shoulder, he noticed her black nail polish. "The psychological study of those who believe they have psychic abilities, such as telekinesis and telepathy."

"Have you seen anyone actually do anything like that?"

The woman shook her head, "I just try to understand why they think they can."

"Well you're kind of a downer aren't you?" The woman gave him a blank stare in response.

Arthur didn't like how apathetic her stare was, like she could see through his scathing remark to see his slight disappointment.

"So have you seen any ghosts on your investigations?" Alondra asked, smiling a bit more off kilter. She was fidgeting with her hands.

Haldora went on to describe a particular outing at a home where for once she felt a presence and saw a glimpse of something but couldn't get any footage for it. She had stayed overnight and almost felt like something was watching her. The only thing she could suggest was a prayer, to ward off the spirits, and maybe holy water. Usually they weren't real and she'd just clarify that but this was not in her wheelhouse.

"So you just left?" Arthur asked.

"There wasn't anything I could do. I'm not a medium."

Alondra seemed to hug herself, that information seemingly having brought her no comfort. Berwald placed a hand on her shoulder, "Breathe."

Arthur could see her take a deep breath and hear her shaky exhale. Arthur grabbed a can of beer from the table to sip, the psssch sound of the can opening was barely audible over the music. It was either that, wine, lemonade, or some kind of mixture with cherries floating in the fountain. Arthur liked beer over wine anyway.

The conversation had fizzled out into awkward silence.

Valeriu brought out a box and said this game, Hetalia Fantasía, was fun. It was mostly imaginary, they would all have to work together as a group and roll dice in the RPG.

Arthur was not a nerd and everyone else seemed to be skeptical about playing it as well, it seemed like it would be boring too, but Valeriu said they should try it before judging the game, and if they didn't like it after that they could do something else.

Arthur chose to be a druid type character, while Alondra chose to be a bard, and Berwald chose to be a barbarian. The brunet, who he learned was named Boris, was a fighter and Haldora chose to be a cleric. Valeriu was the game master.

It took a few turns for Arthur to get into the swing of things and Valeriu was patient with them all. Arthur loved a good story, and Valeriu was just eccentric enough to keep Arthur engaged, although most of his rolls were terrible. Berwald seemed to be a lucky roller, although very modest and often only using violence when necessary, mostly getting those in trouble out of harm's way…begrudgingly this meant Arthur most of the time.

The time seemed to fly by and they weren't even finished, but it was late and Arthur, and Boris had work in the morning. They decided to call it a night.

There were still some cake slices left, but Arthur didn't want to seem greedy so he decided not to get any.

Arthur was presented with a wrapped slice on a paper plate, "I know you want a piece to take home."

"I-I'd rather not." Arthur pushed the plate away.

"Oh don't be modest. I'm not going to eat it all."

"Really I don't want to be the one to take it all."

Valeriu gave him a grin, "It's just one slice."

"Can't you take no for an answer?"

The plate was pushed into his arms. "You'd be doing me a huge favor by taking it off my hands." Arthur furrowed his eyebrows and Valeriu gave him a wink.

"Fine, whatever, if you insist." Arthur rolled his eyes.

Arthur begrudgingly received hugs from Alondra and Valeriu. Did anything about him scream that he wanted to be hugged? They were so affectionate it made Arthur sick, he couldn't understand why they seemed to enjoy his company, whatever it was that made them at least tolerate him apparently didn't teach them to respect his boundaries.

"You act like you don't see me everyday." Arthur grumbled, Alondra had hugged him last, a bit too tight.

"That's true, but I don't hug you everyday." She said, letting him go.

After receiving a collective goodbye from everyone, Arthur left.

Valeriu saw him out and said he was welcome to come over again anytime he wanted to.

Arthur said he would think about it. How true that statement was, was really anyone's guess.

A/N: Haldora is Nyo! Norway. Boris is Bulgaria

Thank you for reading!