Tea

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Alfred hated tea.

He hadn't always hated tea. In fact, when he was little he loved it. It always made Arthur's horrible cooking go down easier.

But after the revolution, Alfred stopped liking it. Not only was it 'un-patriotic', the taxes on it had forced him to fight with Arthur.

He knew it was rude to refuse the cup of tea that Honda had offered him, but he really couldn't stand the taste.

"No thanks, I'm not thirsty!"

"Are you sure, America-san?"

Alfred nodded, saying,

"I don't really… Like tea."

Honda nodded knowingly and walked over to Arthur, offering him the tea. Alfred sighed and leaned against the wall of the UN meeting room. The place was in chaos, like it always was before the meeting started. He closed his eyes, memories he didn't want to deal with right now invading his senses. He wanted to go home now.

Stupid tea.

"Alfred, the meeting's starting." Arthur's voice informed him.

Alfred opened his eyes and pushed himself off the wall, walking by Arthur without a word. He couldn't deal with this right now.

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Arthur glared Alfred's retreating back.

He couldn't even manage a civil thank you or hello?

Alfred could be so rude sometimes. Arthur sat down in his seat, only paying half-attention to Ludwig as he went through the things that they needed to discuss. Alfred had been acting strangely around him for a while now. Even after his revolution, Alfred hadn't been this rude to him. It had been a long time and Arthur had thought that they might even be friends now. But about a month ago, Alfred started acting weird whenever he was around Arthur.

The meeting was fairly quick, with Russia only terrorizing Latvia once and Feliciano shouting about pasta a few times.

Alfred being silent throughout the whole meeting helped as well.

One could practically see Alfred's unhappy mood hanging off of him after the meeting. Arthur watched Matthew go up to talk to him as they left.

Arthur slowly stood up, and pushed his chair in.

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"Hey, Arthur's home!" Northern Ireland yelled as Arthur walked in. She giggled at the scowl on Arthur's face. Arthur was already in a bad mood because of Alfred. He did not want to deal with his siblings' whinings about him being in charge. He walked past Bedelia, having half a mind to push her over and stomped up the stairs and past Scotland and Wales before either one of them could get a word out.

He slammed the door to his study shut and sat down at his desk. He sat in his chair, and was just about to start some of his work, when he realized that he didn't have his tea. He sighed, greatly annoyed, and went back downstairs to go get his tea. He ignored his siblings again, got his tea, and headed back to his study. He was almost to his study, when he tripped over an old trunk. He landed on his butt and spilled his tea all over himself.

"What in bloody hell is this doing in the middle of the hallway?" Arthur shouted. Wales poked his head out of the room next to it as replied,

"It was in my room and I don't know what it is. And I know how you are about people going through your stuff, so I just left it there for you to find!"

Arthur mumbled something impolite under his breath and lugged the trunk into his study. He shut the door, and actually looked at the trunk.

"I don't remember ever seeing this trunk either…" Arthur muttered to himself. He kneeled down, ignoring the fact that his hair was dripping tea, and opened the trunk. It was full of old clothes. He picked out a shirt and instantly recognized it as one of Alfred's.

"Stupid git. He left his clothes here."

The doorbell rang and Arthur snapped the trunk closed.

"Arthur! It's America for you!"

Arthur sighed and stood up. He walked down the stairs to see Alfred standing there, talking animatedly with Scotland. He was obviously over his bad mood.

"Well, what do you want?" Arthur asked, crossing his arms.

"Oh, Arthur! I was just wanted to ask you a question – Hey; did you know that you're wet?"

Arthur raised an eyebrow, wondering how it came to be that Alfred was so easily distracted.

"Yes, I do. It's tea. I tripped while holding some."

A dark looked flickered over Alfred's face.

"What?"

"I don't like tea."

"I know that!" Arthur snapped, "You've told me before. What did you want to ask me?"

"N-nothing. It's not important. See ya, Arthur."

Alfred started to walk away, but Arthur grabbed his shoulder.

"It's just tea. What's wrong with you? You've been acting so weird lately."

Scotland had run off at sometime during the conversation, leaving Alfred and Arthur alone in the living room. Alfred turned around, sighing a little.

"I just don't like tea. At all. And every time I come over to talk to you anymore, you smell like stupid tea and it's really distracting."

The way Alfred stressed the word tea gave Arthur a pretty good indication on just how much he hated it.

"What's wrong with tea?"

Alfred cast his eyes down, and almost didn't answer. When he did, his voice was quiet, and he obviously felt awkward talking about it.

"It makes me think of you crying, you know, during the revolutionary war? Because one of the reasons I fought was because you were piling all of the taxes on it without having me or my people getting a say in it. And, um, I don't want you to cry."

Arthur stood there for a second, not really sure how to respond. Of all the ways for Alfred to answer, Arthur had not suspected this one. And for reasons not even he understood, he reached forward and hugged Alfred.

Alfred froze for a second, before hugging back.

"You're stupid." Arthur mumbled into Alfred's shoulder, "Absolutely daft. And off your trolley."

"I'm not the one who's dripping tea all over their carpet."

"Belt up."

"And if I don't?" Alfred inquired, smirking down at Arthur.

"I'll have to make you."

"Oh, rea-"

Alfred was effectively cut off by Alfred's lips. After the kiss ended, Alfred said,

"I appreciate the kiss, but you're going to have to stop drinking so much tea. And you're going to have to stop bathing in it."

"I wasn't bathing in it, I tripped!"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

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Author's Note: Um, yeah. I don't know where this idea come from. I think I got it from my friend, who hates tea. She was going on and on about how liking tea was "un-patriotic" so it didn't matter if she liked it or not anyway.

And I was like, "Would Alfred like tea?"

I have some crazy friends.