There were only four minutes left on the clock until midnight. "The wanker promised he would be back by Christmas eve! Here we are and where is he? I would like to know that!" Arthur muttered to himself while Matthew tried to calm him down. "Alfred always runs late to things, he will be here."

"Well if he does not get here soon, the food will need a chainsaw to cut through it!" Francis poked his head out of the kitchen to check the clock nervously for the hundredth time that night.

"Like anyone could eat your food anyway, Frog."

"Unlike you, I can cook."

"Oi! My cooking is just fine!" Just as Arthur was about to pummel Francis there was a soft knock on the door. "It's about bloody time!" Arthur stomped to the door and yanked it open prepared to yell until he saw that it was not Alfred. "Kiku? What are you doing here so late? Shouldn't you be at home with Yao?"

Kiku was silent, his eyes glued to his feet with his posture slightly slumped and his arms behind his back. "Kiku?" Matthew looked around Arthur to the silent Japanese man. When Kiku finally looked up, he avoided looking at Arthur directly and brought his hands out from behind his back. Gently gripped in his hands were the dog tags that Alfred had insisted on getting before he left for the war.

"I am sorry."

The words settled in Arthur's gut like lead and an awful ringing settled in his ears as Matthew gasped lightly behind him.

And he knew; without Kiku saying another word that Alfred was not coming home for Christmas eve.