This is dedicated to a certain friend who is a die-hard USUK fan… You know who you are, my twin sister who is born from a different mother with a 5 year age gap! Yes, we treat each other as twins… Enjoy!

"Mr Kirkland, since your house is near Mr Jones', I would like to ask you to hand out these notes to Mr Jones. All of them are from the four days he missed from all of his subjects," the homeroom teacher, Mr Beilschmidt, said after he dismissed his class.

Arthur Kirkland, a British student, reluctantly took the thick pile of notes the teacher is giving him. When he has exited their room, he let out a big sigh; he's going to the house of his classmate who annoys him the most, well, maybe after that French senior who always throws jokes at him. The name of the said classmate is Alfred F. Jones.

As he's walking down the tree-lined street, Arthur's mind wandered to the place he's heading, the Jones residence is just a few meters away from him. He's been there once, when they've just moved in from London to New Jersey; their family was invited to dinner by Mrs Jones. It was the only time that he has seen his brothers became civilized, seeing that they do pranks on Arthur on a daily basis. Their host, Mrs Amelia Jones, a single mother who raised her two sons after her husband died, is a gracious woman; albeit she'll pull off some sexual innuendo jokes, but all in all, a graceful woman. Meanwhile, her sons, Matthew Williams and Alfred Jones, are the exact opposite of each other. While Matthew, or Mattie, is a calm, soft-spoken person, Alfred, or Al, is a loud-mouth, over patriotic one. They may not be full-fledged brothers; with Mattie's father leaving them before his parents could get married, they are as close as real brothers could be.

When Arthur reached the enormous house, which could already be called a mansion, he rang the doorbell and waited. After a few seconds, he heard a loud 'Coming!' and the door opened. It was Matthew who opened the door; the half Canadian gave Arthur a bright smile and invited the Brit in, "Artie, you're here. Please come in!"

"Ah, thank you, Mattie. I'm here to give Alfred some notes from the class he missed these past few days," Arthur said as he entered the house, "By the way, where's your ann- ahem, your brother?"

"Ah, yes, thank you Artie," Matthew replied, "Al's on his room, playing 'Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea'. Could you please give him the notes? I have some errands to run."

Arthur could only give a weak 'yes' as Matthew went out. Heaving a sigh, Arthur walked up the stairs to Alfred's room, which is obvious among the line of rooms, being the only one decorated by the American flag, and his name sewn on the flag. He has never seen anyone who is so zealous of his own country, even Arthur himself, who is proud of where he came from, could not match Alfred's patriotism. Reluctantly knocking on the door, he called out to Alfred, "Alfred, this is Arthur. I have some notes for you from the classes you've missed."

The door immediately flew open and a smiling Alfred is standing in front of him, his hair a mess, and is only wearing their P.E. jogging pants and a white tank top, which showed off his muscles. Arthur stared at the American's chest for a few seconds, before looking away and dug for the notes on his bag. He hands them out to Alfred, and instead of taking them, Alfred pulled Arthur inside his room.

"Gah! Don't pull people without warning, you bloody git!" Arthur chided. He was about to pull his hand away, when Alfred pulled him to a hug.

"Artie! You're in my room! I'm so happy! I got a hot-tempered Brit in my room!" Alfred said, giggling and swinging Arthur back and forth.

"Let me go! Fuck, let me go, you annoying wanker! I'm going to castrate you if you won't let me go!" Arthur warned as he tried to get away from the bone-crushing hug of Alfred. It seemed to work, because after a few swings, Alfred let him go, but he still has that smile that reached up to his ears, which annoyed Arthur. "Stop smiling, you look like an idiot with a Glasgow smile. Now, here are the notes the teachers want to give you. Also, you have to take a make-up quiz for every quiz you missed; it will be based on the notes I've given you, so when you feel well, study," he gave the notes to Alfred, which he took and tossed them near his bag on the floor.

"Thanks for giving me those. Say, Art, you busy?" Alfred asked, lying down on is bed.

Arthur looked at the American with doubt, "No, I'm not busy. Why is that?"

"Will you stay with me until Mattie comes back? I'm not used to be alone when I'm sick."

Arthur's doubt turned into surprise, the basketball ace of their school is asking him to stay with him until God knows how long. When he focused his look on Alfred's face, he saw that he is blushing; it was only a light blush, but still a blush. Arthur suddenly thought that Alfred is cute, which he dismissed immediately. "Why? Are you afraid of ghosts or something?" he asked.

Alfred's face suddenly turned sad. He turned around, covering his body with the blanket, "My dad used to be at our bedside every time me or Mattie would get sick. Guess it just grew on me. Can you get me my meds? It's on my study table."

Instead of snapping back, Arthur followed what Alfred said. He went to the study table and got the medicines. When he is about to go to the bed, he noticed something underneath the glass covering of the table. He moved the slight clutter, and was surprised; it was full of pictures underneath, and what surprised him most is that most of them are pictures of him. He somewhat hurried back to Alfred's bedside and gave him the medicines and the bottle of water (it was at the table as well). After he has drunk his medicine, Arthur asked Alfred about the pictures, "Say, Alfred, may I ask you why you have my photos on your study table?"

Alfred turned ten shades of red when Arthur asked him about the photos. "Ah, you saw that? You know that I'm in the photography club right? Well I would sometimes secretly take photos of you, and develop the best out of them. Ah, don't worry! I delete those that are bad or those that I don't like. So the only existing photos of you that I have are those on the table," he explained somewhat hastily, adding in a lie; he still has all the photos he had taken of Arthur. He put them on an album and hid it very carefully under his bed, where even Mattie, who knew almost all of his secrets, doesn't know.

Arthur was struck by the American's blushing face, and the only thing that he wanted to do now is to see him blush more. "Well, it's a bit embarrassing, but those takes are really… umm… good," he unconsciously said as he sat down on the bed.

"Really? Thanks, I hope you're not angry or something," Alfred said as he sat up.

"I'm not angry, if anything else, I should be happy. You're the only person, other than my family and Kiku, who would give me this much attention, even though it annoys me most of the time."

Alfred scratched the back of his neck, embarrassed by what he has been doing to Arthur, "I'm sorry. I just want to get your attention. You know I have a- never mind."

Now, Arthur got serious; what does Alfred had? Is it related to him? He tried to ask the other, "A what, Alfred? You have a what?"

But Alfred doesn't want to share to Arthur that he had a crush on him from the day he first laid his eyes on him. He first thought that he's just excited to make a new friend. But every time he saw him, his heart would beat uncontrollably, and he would just take a photo of him if the fates allowed it. And when he knew what his real relation to Arthur, he became more in love with him, "Oh damn, medicine's starting to kick in. Would you stay by my side until I fall asleep? When I start snoring, you could go," he said to change the subject.

"I would definitely go; I don't want to listen to your snoring which reached up to my room," The Brit said with a laugh.

Alfred acted as if he's offended by what Arthur said, "You're so mean, Iggy!"

Arthur's bushy eyebrow immediately went up, "Iggy?"

"Short for 'Igirisu'. Kiku told me that's how the Japs say 'England'."

Arthur was shocked by what he heard, the nickname and how the person who first called him explained what it meant. It was ten years ago when he heard that nickname, a family of four from America moved in next to them. He vaguely remembered their faces or names, but the younger brother made an impression to him, why didn't he noticed it quickly? How his mother and Al's mother are so close, how his brothers would act chummy to Matthew, and how Mrs Jones would smile at him so sweetly. He quickly scanned Alfred and ran him to his memories of the boy from ten years ago, same hair colour, same eyes, same complexion, and same cowlick; it's the same from the boy ten years ago, the only difference is the guy in front of him is older and has more muscles than last time.

"A-Alfie? Chubby Alfie?"

"Wow, after seven months of being your neighbour and classmate, you only remember me now? Yup, it's me, Alfie. But could you drop the 'chubby'? Look at my abs!" he said as he pulled his tank top up, showing off his well-defined, washboard abs.

Instead of retorting, Arthur laughed heartily and hugged Alfred, which surprised the other. After a few seconds, Arthur spoke, "It really is you. Ha, why am I so blind? The person I've been looking for years is just a stone's throw away. I really missed you Alfie. I'm sorry I didn't tell you that we're moving to Edinburgh in time."

"It's ok Iggy; your mom said she only told you were… moving two days before you have to move. I… missed you… too," Alfred said as he hugged back, but drowsiness overcame him, making his speech pattern slurry, "Shit… 'm goin' t'sleep…now…"

Arthur laid Alfred down, covered him with the blanket, and kissed his forehead, "Yes, love; you need to sleep so you'll get better faster."

"He he… you… called me… love… d'you… 've…?" Alfred never got to finish his question before he fell asleep, but Arthur seemed to understand what it is.

"Yes, Alfie… I love you…"

-End-

Now that this shit story with a shit ending is out of my head, I'll better work with 'Cards of Darkness'… Need to squeeze my brain for the brain juices to flow out… Oh yeah, tell me what you think of this shitty story, I need inspiration right now…