I've come bearing new fanfiction material! I figured that it's time to explore a verse that I haven't seen being used by fellow fanfic authors. I hope you guys will like it (even if this is somewhat pointless haha).

Standard disclaimers apply here. I do not own the characters, just the (somewhat non-existent) plot.

Alfred arrived entered the suite of Carat Atlanta at nine in the morning only to find his seat had been taken by someone who arrived earlier. He frowned a little but shrugged as he put his bag under his desk. He's been working as an intern of the company for about 3 weeks and from his experience, it wasn't an unusual occurrence. Especially when a fellow intern who was of Japanese descent was hired and added to their team. Nonetheless, he decided to search for it. He'd feel better if he knew where it was so when whoever took it was finished with it, he can take it back to its rightful place. He eventually found it being used by his co-intern, Kiku, who was busy checking prices while negotiating with a someone on the phone. The Japanese boy saw him and bowed in silent apology for taking his seat. Alfred mouthed "it's okay" to appease the look of distress that was showing on his friend's face. Kiku bowed again and focused his attention on the phone conversation.

Alfred scratched the back of his head, messing the blond locks that the pads of fingers happen to rake on, and walked back to his cubicle. He stood awkwardly in front of his desk, unsure of what to do. He looked around and his eyes landed on his boss's chair-his boss's unused chair. He thought about borrowing it while his boss was away. Arthur left for a business trip a week ago, leaving Alfred to fend off for himself even if he started doing his job for only two weeks. After a lengthy debate with himself, he pulled Arthur's chair to his table and started working, waiting for his laptop-which he named Tony (it's normal to name your trusty gadgets dammit!)- to boot first. He decided to blame Arthur for this mess with the cost estimates even if it wasn't really his fault.

For some reason they always get on each other's necks. It wasn't particularly hard to get on Arthur's bad side but Alfred could usually get along with people from both ends of the spectrum. It was rare for someone to get on his nerves as much as his boss, and it definitely was not because he was remotely attracted to Arthur. When he first met the man, the first thing Alfred noticed was his eyes. He had a weakness against interesting eyes, and the color of Arthur's was a rare green. His heart wildly thumped against his ribcage at that time.

Alfred snorted at himself for purposely thinking about his British boss. He should be thrilled that the office had one less asshole present. Arthur was only four years older than him, yet he acted as if it was more than ten, hence, the running gag of Arthur the old man. He was overly prissy, usually grumpy, and his temper was the worst Alfred has seen in his nineteen years of life. Oftentimes Alfred wanted to kick him in the shin for being such an ass, but it was against his hero instincts to physically harm an innocent man. Even if said innocent man tended to become a pain in the neck more often than not.

He was cut off his reverie when he noticed Tony was already fully functioning. He stretched his arms forward and grunted appreciatively before starting his first task for the day.

Working with the media was hectic, and everything needed to be timely. Alfred normally didn't mind the quick paced lifestyle, but media people were bitches when problems arise. Which brought him to his current task, typing an incident report for an apparent mix up with the dates. Nokia ads were supposed to appear on the newspaper on Tuesdays not Mondays. How someone could mix that up was beyond him. Naturally, Nokia refused to pay for the extra advertisement. He understood the sentiment of the client. He would do the same if he were in their place. His fingers hovered above the keyboard as he stared at the blank page on MS Word, the typing cursor seemingly mocking him as it blinked away without any forward motion. He groaned. "How the fuck do I write it?"

"A problem, Jones?" Alfred jolted, inadvertently hitting the speaker's chin with his shoulder.

"What the bloody hell was that for, you div[1]?" Arthur rubbed his chin as he shot glares towards the source of his pain. Alfred didn't move as he openly stared and gaped at his immediate supervisor. Arthur still rubbed his chin while they stare at each other, his glare mellowing down to a curious stare.

"Weren't you supposed to be somewhere else? Like you know, the UK?" Alfred questioned the British man, and belatedly added, "And it's not my fault your chin got hit! You scared me! Normal people don't go whispering onto other people's ears while they're busy concentrating on something else!" Alfred put a hand on his ear protectively, face flushed from part embarrassment and part surprise. Arthur was good at making Alfred momentarily lose his hero bravado and normally good-mannered disposition.

Color seeped onto Athur's face. He sputtered a little before he denied the accusation that he whispered on Alfred's ear. "Of course I'm here! It was a business trip not a reassignment, you complete prat! Although I would greatly appreciate it if I was transferred to the UK office since it would distance me from muppets [2], dickends[3], that bloody frog-"

"Arthur! Speak English! American! You don't play fair! I can't understand you when you go all British on me!" Alfred cut in when Arthur's accent thickened considerably. It wasn't fair that Arthur had such a sexy accent! It made Alfred feel weird, his stomach figuratively flipping (from jealousy, not because Arthur can be really attractive) every time. He had vehemently denied, even to himself, the notion that has the hots for his boss.

"When you two are done releasing sexual tension[4], Arthur, we have a meeting that will start in a few minutes." Francis chided the two blondes as he exited Ms. Herdevary's office, effectively postponing their squabble for another time. There were hints of a smile on his face, borderline smirk that indicated nothing decent was running through the Frenchman's head. Arthur huffed irritably and stalked off the room to get a calming cup of tea.

Alfred didn't see Arthur for the rest of the morning. He had postponed writing the incident report until he and Kiku could work on it together. It was after lunch, when the two interns were huddled together at Kiku's desk, when the all too familiar blonde head walked in their office space. He looked chipper, borderline smug at the stress written all over Francis's face. Alfred already knew that the Briton probably whipped Francis's sorry ass during the meeting for his smart-ass comment when he stepped in during their earlier squabble. He feigned disinterest in the newcomers and pulled at the seat in front of his desk towards Kiku's. He didn't bother to turn the seat as he sat down, preferring to rest his chin on the chair's backrest. He watched as his friend composed the report. Kiku was the more formal one between the two of them so Alfred figured the Japanese boy could write a business letters with relative ease. He sighed and burrowed his face onto the seat, inhaling the scent that came from a coat he hadn't noticed hanging from the backrest. He pulled back a bit to stare at the coat before he unconsciously nuzzled it to get more of the fragrance that captured his attention.

"Alfred?"

"This smells really nice." he said absently, unaware that he voiced his thoughts loud enough for his friend to hear.

Kiku nodded at him, "Yes, Kirkland-san's cologne has a nice fragrance. It's like a breath of fresh air from the woods."

Alfred hummed, still inhaling the scent, and did a double-take when the words finally sunk in. "A-Arthur's, you say?"

"Yes. He is good at taking care of his appearance and making good first impressions. It must be because he faces many clients."

"It would be better if he would trim those caterpillars... I mean, eyebrows." Alfred snickered.

"I heard that, Jones." Alfred froze at the accented voice that chimed in their conversation. He looked behind him to confirm that Arthur was standing behind him. He didn't expect that the proper Englishman would lean towards him as he read what Kiku had typed. Alfred inhaled sharply and promptly held his breath as the familiarly pleasant scent filled his nose. Arthur made a few comments and suggestions to Kiku while maintaining his position. Alfred inwardly groaned. The more he smelled the man, the more he knew he liked it. He was sure it was made to attract women rather than men but he couldn't help but lean a little to get another whiff of Arthur. It was tantalizing but his attraction made everything awkward and embarrassing. Arthur was anything but someone to get attracted to. On top of being Alfred's boss, Arthur was possibly the only human in the world that could push Alfred's buttons the wrong way, they were both male, and Alfred could probably think of a thousand reasons why he shouldn't like that top-grade prick of a boss.

He had been too preoccupied with rationalizing why he shouldn't have any feelings that were romantic by nature towards Arthur that he wasn't able to hear when the said man called his name the first time. "Bloody hell, Alfred! What are you doing?"

Alfred realized, much to his chagrin, that he had been leaning far too close for comfort. He raised both his hands and forced what he thought would look like his usual grin. It felt awkward and he figured it looked as awkward as it felt. But he tried to smooth his way out of the predicament he landed himself into with practiced feigned obliviousness.

Arthur had let him off without further prodding, still looking unconvinced but lacking the level of curiosity that would make the Englishman demand for a better explanation. Alfred sighed in relief. That is, until Arthur smirked and told him the words he didn't want to hear before promptly leaving the room with a smug smile on his face.

"If you liked how I smell that badly you should have just said so."

Alfred blushed in embarrassment. "Stupid Arthur. I didn't like it that much."

I'm sorry if Alfred's demeanor towards Arthur tended to lean on the antagonistic side. They were supposed to playfully banter but it just morphed into what you've just read while I was writing. This scenario was actually based on my friend's internship experience. It's actually why Alfred can talk to his boss like that. My friend and her boss would, at times, shout at each other in the presence of their workmates.

I plan to write more on this verse but only if readers actually want to read it. Please let me know if you guys want me to continue.

Also, Carat is a real media-buying company.

(Edit: Thank you PolystyreneTears for the correction!)

Possible unknown words explanation:

[1] div (originally divvy), according to septicscompanion (with the correction of PolystyreneTears), means idiot. Likely derived from "divot," meaning "clod." Calling someone a divvy is pretty tame, much on a par with telling them they are a "dimwit."

[2] septicscompanion defines muppet as one of the many British slang words for "dimwit"

[3] British slang has so many variants for the word "idiot." Dickend is one of those words according to peevish UK.

[4] Yes, I shamelessly used and reworded dub!France's line.