AN; Feeling a little guilty about how long it's been since I've updated this! As it is, this chapter was induced by some rather lovely cider. I have checked through, but if I've missed any mistakes, just PM/review so I can fix them.

And enjoy!

Chapter 6

The journey back to England seemed to take forever. Alfred had a hard time staying quiet, and it was hard to resist the temptation to 'whoop' loudly to himself. He didn't want to wake Arthur, though; the other nation had had a rough day, and he was clearly in need of a rest. He looked pale and worn, although there was a slight flush to his face and small beads of sweat clinging to his brow. Alfred didn't know exactly what Francis had done to Arthur, but he looked somewhat reminiscent of someone suffering from a bug or the flu. He just hoped that he'd start to feel better after some rest. If he didn't, no matter what Francis had done to try and fix their 'relationship' problems, there'd be hell to pay for the pervy nation.

Arthur was still asleep as Alfred pushed the little car up the rough country lanes that led to his house. Alfred was mildly concerned that even bouncing over the many potholes that littered English roads the sleeping nation hadn't woken up, but figured that it was probably for the best. If he was awake, the motion of the vehicle might have made him travel sick, and he knew for a fact that even if Arthur was the one to throw up in the car, it would be Alfred who was left to clean up the mess. After all, he would know that Alfred was far too heroic to make a sick person do that kind of work.

It was exploitive, pure and simple, but Alfred had never been able to say 'no' to the other man.

After a few hours of driving and the cloying silence that made even the cheery Alfred frown on more than one occasion, he finally pulled up into Arthur's driveway. Stopping the car seemed to have roused Arthur at least a little, and he was beginning to stir with vague mumblings and slow movements, although he hadn't opened his eyes yet. Alfred took pity on him and instead of waking him up abruptly, drew him up into a tight hold and carried him into the house. He was kind enough to avoid jostling the nauseous man whilst carrying him, to little protestations on account of still being partially asleep.

Settling him down in the living room, he decided to wait for the dozy nation to wake up of his own accord. This didn't actually take very long, especially after Alfred had dropped him on the sofa and practically entombed him in a pile of blankets and duvets.

Arthur moaned, holding his eyes tightly shut to try and block out the invasive light.

"I feel terrible."

"You kinda look it, too."

"Arsehole," Arthur grumbled from his spot on the sofa, huffing as he buried his head into one of the blankets that Alfred had thrown on top of him. His stomach still felt fairly unsettled and his head ached with a dull throbbing, but at least he was away from that damned frog.

He felt and smelt unpleasantly of sweat, and his clothes were still damp. It was distinctly uncomfortable, and he told Alfred exactly this through a series of muffled complaints and curses. Alfred had chuckled, but then left the room to try and find something clean and comfortable to wear. Arthur looked like he was about ready to fall back to sleep, and it wasn't very nice to do so in dirty clothes.

Alfred helped him shed the sweaty and uncomfortable shirt - or, at least, tried. In the middle of tugging his shirt off he'd been thumped on the shoulder and told to 'piss off back to your own sofa, I can do this myself'. It was replaced it with a very much oversized band tee that Alfred had somehow found in his wardrobe, a relic from his punk days. It was rather cozy, actually. The much-ruffled trousers had also been replaced with some plain black jogging bottoms. Usually Arthur would renounce possessing such an informal item of clothing, but he couldn't deny that they were comfortable for simply lounging around in.

He didn't remember much of the trip back from France, excluding brief forays into consciousness in which he'd felt a hairsbreadth away from throwing up anything he'd managed to eat in the last day. He was grateful that Alfred had decided to drive to France's house; he wasn't sure he'd have been able to cope with flying back. He felt crummy enough as it was, without throwing that sort of stress into the mix.

It was uncharacteristically considerate of Alfred to have thought about this beforehand, but he seemed to have been a lot more thoughtful in general the past few days. It gave Arthur a lot to think about.

Alfred had slumped down in the armchair opposite after complaining about the new bruise he'd acquired. Arthur cast a lazy eye across the room, settling his gaze on the younger man. He was flopped on the armchair sofa with his head resting to one side, seemingly wrapped up in his own thoughts. Bored, it was only then that Arthur noticed the actual state of the room.

"Why are there pine needles all over the floor?"

"Eh? Oh crap…" Alfred bolted upright and launched out the sofa chair, much to Arthur's amusement, leaving the room before he could say anything else. Faintly, he could hear dull thuds and curses, muffled by the fabric of the blanket that he'd buried his head in. A few minutes later Alfred had returning, dragging a rather worse-for-wear Christmas tree behind him.

"Well, that's in a pretty sorry state." His voice actually felt pretty hoarse, but hell would freeze over before he actually admitted it. A cup of tea would solve this issue, but he felt too dopey and a little bit too heavy to bring himself to ask for one.

"Yeah… I didn't really factor in the size of your doors. Why are they so freakin' small? At least you actually have a tree now, though."

"Hmm." But a small smile had crept onto Arthur's face.

"There we go! I was waiting for one of 'em, especially after all I went through to rescue you." Alfred was grinning like a loon. Arthur's smile was quickly replaced by an irritated scowl.

"I didn't need to be saved. Francis was just doing it be-" he snapped his mouth shut and flushed. He could feel his tail curl tightly around his leg.

"Francis was just doing it because…?" Alfred gave him a teasing smile.

"Nothing. No reason. He was just being his usual arse-y self." Alfred gave him a look, but didn't try to force him to continue. There was a comfortable silence as the two men sat, left to their own thoughts.

The bare Christmas tree had been propped up in the one corner, and Arthur raked his eyes over it lazily. It was certainly looking a bit forlorn – Alfred seemed to have knocked a fair amount of needles off it in the process of getting it into the house. It needed decorating, but Arthur wasn't really feeling up to it, and heaven knows what Alfred would do to it if left to his own devices.

They fell back into silence. Arthur absently snuggled up into the mess of blankets, whilst Alfred simply sat there quietly. It was disconcerting, considering how loud he usually was.

Alfred seemed to be humouring him, like an adult would a child. Irritation bubbled forth, fuelled by exhaustion and the unfairness of the past few days.

"I'm not an idiot." He stated, suddenly and sullenly. He saw Alfred lift his head from where he'd settled and watch him attentively. "I know France thinks so, and you probably do too. I know how I feel about you. How the hell could I not know? The pain and misery it's caused me for the last 200 or so hundreds years makes it pretty damn hard to ignore. I'm just… It's ju-"

"It's just what, Artie?"

"You'll laugh. You'll think I'm stupid and pathetic and you'll be right."

"I won't laugh at you, I promise."

Arthur took a deep, shuddering sigh as he steeled himself. No turning back now.

"I-I was scared, alright? I lost you for so long and it hurt so much after the revolution, a-and then after the World Wars we were friends again and it felt so good to know that you didn't h-hate me, even after everything that had happened…" He sighed, but pressed on before Alfred could interrupt. "I always loved you as more than a friend, but I couldn't live with myself if I'd opened my heart and you hadn't felt the same way… I'd rather be a friend and have you only partly, than to not have you at all. Does that make sense?"

His voiced drowned in the stifling silence, and it felt as though the air itself was crushing down on him. Any other words dried into dust. He closed his eyes and swallowed, bracing himself for the inevitable ridicule. Instead, he was pleasantly surprised.

"You're right I think you're an idiot. I've loved you for years, and I wasn't exactly subtle about showing it. I was starting to think that you were being deliberately dense."

Arthur tentatively unburied himself from his nest of blankets, hardly daring to believe the words Alfred had spoken. He peered up at the younger nation, hope's weak pulse settling in his chest. It took a few tries for his next words to come out; his throat felt thick and heavy with an indescribably warm and pleasant emotion.

"I… I thought that everything you did was just me seeing what I wanted to see. I-it was too scary to think that, just maybe, you'd reciprocate those feelings. And… I did notice the way you acted towards me, but I never thought you meant it as anything more than friendly… I-I didn't want to say anything. I would have been mortified if I'd read the situation wrongly. I'm not very good with this relationship stuff, pathetic though that may sound... "

"And you call me stupid! I've loved you ever since you fought with France to be my big brother. I was starting to think it was hopeless. That I was sick and twisted and that there was no way you'd ever feel the same." He gave a watery chuckle, but a clear smile graced his face even through the echo of heartache.

"Seems like we're a pair of fools, then."

"You can say that again." They both basked in the happiness, before Alfred spoke up again.

"I think there's a betting pool amongst the other nations on how long it would take for us to finally hook up. I think this means Kiku'll win."

"Who cares?" Arthur looked at Alfred, his normal scowl replaced by a smile that illuminated his entire being. "Does this mean-?"

"Yes. Any chance of a hug from my adorable boyfriend?"

"Boyfriend sounds so immature, and I'm not adorable…"

"Lover?"

"A bit better."

Alfred had stood up and fallen onto the sofa, latching onto Arthur and wrapping the smaller man in a tight embrace. Arthur relaxed into the warm arms, tucking his head into Alfred's chest and dozing to the calming sound of his heart beat. He could feel calloused fingers gently stroke his fuzzy ears, but it was a soothing sensation.

He felt lighter than he could ever remember having felt. Even the lingering sickness seemed to feel diminished.

The last time he'd felt this happy had been the last time he'd seen Alfred as a child; before everything had started to go wrong. And for the first time in years, remembering this didn't drive that painful ache of loss into his heart.

It was disconcerting. It was also amazing.

He felt Alfred shift and knew instinctively that, no matter what happened, he was stuck with this oaf for good. And he was quite alright with that.

"I refuse to thank Francis, though."

~SR~

Light flooded into the room through a parting in the heavy drapes. The two bodies were tightly intertwined, skin pressed flush against skin, and legs tangled like so many wayward threads. The sheets were ruffled underneath the dozing pair, the smaller man cocooned in both blankets and his lover's embrace.

Arthur purred and his tail flicked, lethargic and content.

Alfred watched the dozing man quietly, smiling softly at the picture of absolute serenity before him. It felt so amazing to have finally opened up to his former caretaker. He hadn't been lying when he'd told Arthur that he thought his feelings would be seen as sick and twisted; they'd been brothers. The fear that Arthur would view him as immoral and disgusting if he'd confessed how he felt had terrified him for decades. He'd had to resort to hoping that how he felt would become apparent through his actions and not his words, although that had never worked particularly well.

Never mind. It had taken a bit longer than these sorts of things usually took, but they'd got there in the end.

He knew that their relationship wasn't going to be plain sailing just because they had both finally picked up the nerve to confess to each other. Alfred had never been in a proper relationship, and he knew he had a lot to learn. There were going to be mistakes along the way, but he knew that he'd never stop feeling the way he did about Arthur, so he wouldn't let that stop him. He'd simply surpass any obstacles thrown in his way. He knew Arthur was worth it.

And Arthur… well, years of abuse and poor relationships with his own brothers and surrounding nations had left him jumpy and insecure. Alfred knew for a fact that, at his vast age, there was no way he'd never been in a relationship before, but until recent years most nations' relationships were based on politics and a mutual hatred for other nations. Actual love rarely factored into the matter.

But that was okay. It was just another thing that they could work on together.

Because Alfred knew that, no matter what happened, he would never let Arthur go. He had waited too long to finally call the other nation his own. Now he had the rest of forever to make up for the years of heartbreak, and he was most certainly ready to step up to the challenge.

He could see Arthur smiling dopily, purrs still reverberating through his chest.

Now the only problem to solve what the whole cat thing…

Because, no matter how cute it was, Alfred needed someone competent to steal notes from during conferences, and how was he supposed to do that if Arthur wasn't there?

AN: And then they spent the rest of forever going at it like rabbits...

Thanks to all my lovelies for favouriting and reviewing and following! It always made me smile, even if I felt bad about the time between updates... Special thanks to Sxvgwii, HollyKnight, KassyAmlone and the two Guests for reviewing the last chapter, too.

I consider this the end of Christmas Kitty, although there may be an epilogue at some point. If you enjoyed this, I'm going to shamelessly plug my other finished USUK fic, 'At World's End'. Go and take a look if it's your kind of thing!

And thanks to all the boys and girls who read this until the end. It makes me endlessly happy to know people are enjoying my fics :)