Right Under Your Nose (A USUK Hetalia Restaurant AU fic)

[Not_Telling]

DAWWWWWWW WHY ARE THEY SO CUUUUUUTE?????

MORE MORE MORE MORE MOOOOOORE!!!

[obsessed]

Alfred is so sweet to Arthur. <3

[Pyrus_Fangmon]

O_O .........

I have no words for this...

[meepsy]

Thank you guys for sticking through the hospital visit part -- I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. The next few parts should be more on the fluffy side though!

Here we go with the next part!

~o~

Part Eight

Alfred felt his eyelids growing heavier by the second as he parked his truck in the parking lot of his apartment complex. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so tired, but the night's work was not over yet. He turned to Arthur, who had been asleep for most of the car ride -- breathing heavily through his mouth, leaned up against the cool glass of the window, the quilt Alfred had brought wrapped tightly around his shoulders. The Englishman shifted and let out a soft, gurgling snore, and Alfred's stomach did the tiniest of somersaults in response.

It was so surreal to be seeing Arthur in such a vulnerable state – sort of intimate even, and it was really starting to mess with Alfred's emotions. The involuntary attention he paid to every one of Arthur's sounds and movements... the strange feeling of possessiveness he had developed for him... it was almost, (he could not stress almost enough), like having a crush, except that it couldn't be. Not because Alfred didn't occasionally swing that way, (he'd already blazed his way though that particular jungle of self-discovery, thank you very much), but because it was Arthur, and there was no way the stuffy, Shakespeare-reading twenty-five-year-old would ever be interested in a guy like him, and besides, they were co-workers, (workplace drama, much?) and even more besides, he was already involved in a relationship with a nice, pretty, only-slightly-crazy girl who he liked a lot (or believed he did), and that, quite frankly, was that.

Nevertheless, it didn't stop his heart from racing a bit when the smaller man let out a small groan and nuzzled deeper into the crook of Alfred's neck as he carried him up the stairs to his apartment. He knew Arthur was currently slightly delirious and not in full possession of his faculties, but a small part of him couldn't help appreciating (and even relishing) the Brit's affectionate passivity, so different from the bristling, hot-tempered personality he was used to...

“G'Tchsh! ...h'TCHshu!” The Englishman sneezed thickly into Alfred's neck, trying too late to turn away, and Alfred could feel exactly how messy the sneezes had been, but it didn't phase him in the slightest. He was a pre-med major after all.

Arthur sniffled back what he could, and coughed. “S'rry,” he mumbled weakly.

“Don't worry about it-” Alfred just barely managed to stop himself from calling Arthur sweetheart. Honestly, what the heck was wrong with him anyway?

He fumbled distractedly with the lock, and opened the door to a pitch black living room, feeling Burger Kitty come up purring, twisting his huge cat body around the American's ankles.

“Sorry, B.K, not right now,” Alfred whispered, stepping over the cat, and made his way carefully across the room to his bedroom door. He opened the door, and lowered the Brit onto his unmade bed, feeling the relief in his arms at once.

“Nnnnngh...” The Englishman made a noise that fell somewhere between a moan and a whimper, then breathed in sharply in anticipation of a sneeze

“hh'GTTch! ...hh'GXTch! ...hhh- h'GTCH!” The sneezes sounded painful and viscous, as though there was a brick wall of congestion they were trying to break though at any cost, to little avail. The Englishman sniffled with equally unproductive results, and then proceeded to break into a coughing fit.

“Hey now, Artie, you're okay. You're okay now, shhh...” Alfred soothed, lifting the Brit up just enough to put one of his pillows beneath his head. He removed the chilly quilt, replacing it instead with his own comforter and flannel sheets. The Englishman huddled into them immediately so that the blankets reached up to his ears, shivering and sniffling miserably all the while.

“Here...” Alfred said softly, pulling a few tissues from the box he kept in the first drawer of his night stand for... purposes, and held them to the Englishman's nose. “Blow.” He didn't care that it was kind of a weird thing to do, he only wanted to help relieve the Englishman of some of his obvious discomfort.

If Arthur minded, he didn't show it, (or maybe he was too exhausted to). The Englishman obeyed, blowing as hard as he seemed able to, which wasn't very hard at all, but the tissue was filled all the same, and Arthur's cursory sniffle sounded much looser and less painful, to Alfred's slight satisfaction. Oh, the joys of sinus infections...

Alfred balled the tissue up, and tossed it away, He put an experimental hand against the smaller man's brow and frowned, left the bedroom and returned with a dampened washcloth. He placed the cool cloth against Arthur's forehead, and, after a beat, moved it to a temple, then back, keeping a comforting rhythm, covering a yawn with his other hand as he did so, but Arthur continued to shiver.

He gave a small, gasping cry. “Nnghh... mb'sorry, Li... mb'so sorry...”

Alfred tensed, wondering who this “Li” person Arthur was talking to was, before realizing it probably had something to do with the apparently pretty messy break-up the Brit had recently had. A sharp pang of hurt (or maybe jealousy?) jetted through him, but he told himself it was just irritability because he was so flipping tired...

When at last the Englishman's shivers began to abate and his breathing evened out, Alfred relaxed and slid down to the floor, resting his back in the corner made by the mattress and his nightstand. He knew Arthur was probably well out of the danger zone now, but a promise was a promise, and he was going to keep watch over the Englishman no matter what. Still, it wouldn't hurt to just rest his eyes for a little bit, right? He tipped his head back, (swallowing back the slight itch in his throat), closed his eyes, and...

…

…

…

Alfred was startled awake by Burger Kitty rubbing up against his leg. He groaned, scratching absently behind the cat's ears with one hand, while massaging a crick in his neck with the other. The crack of pale winter sunlight that radiated from the window told him it was already well into morning, but that was okay: it was the Sunday of a three day weekend, and he didn't have anything to do but study, and potentially help his brother move some more of his stuff out.

He yawned, and lifted himself up off the floor, giving the sleeping Englishman in his bed a reflexive cautionary once-over. He remembered waking up to Arthur's coughs and sneezes a few times throughout the short remainder of the night, and rousing himself in order to ease the smaller man back to sleep, (that washcloth had worked miracles). What little sleep he got had been restless, filled with dreams of emergency room visits, and truthfully, he felt even more exhausted now than he did last night. That didn't matter though. He could stand to lose one night's sleep if it meant helping a friend (just a friend, nothing else!) in need.

The Englishman was snoring heavily, the blankets wrapped tightly around him like a burrito. Alfred grinned, amused, knowing it would make prime teasing fodder later, when the Brit had recovered. He did his by now routine fever test, and his smirk softened into a smile of relief. Much better. Not gone by any means, but better. Alfred allowed himself a sigh, then a thought occurred to him.

Arthur usually worked the Sunday brunch, didn't he? The more Alfred thought about it, the more certain he got, until finally, grudgingly, he grabbed his cell phone and dialed the number to the restaurant, heading out into the kitchen so as not to wake the sleeping man up.

He paced across the tiled floor as he waited for someone to pick up.

“Thank you for calling Hetalia's, this is Katyusha speaking, how can I help you?”

“Hey, Kat it's Alfred,” Alfred greeted hurriedly. “Hey, listen, can you tell me if Arthur is working at all today?”

“Yes, he's supposed to be here in thirty minutes,” the Ukrainian girl replied. “Why?”

Alfred groaned deeply. Shiiiit.

“-Uhh, nothing, it's just that... he uh, asked me if I could work for him, but didn't give me a time. I'm on my way right now, I might be a little late though.”

“Um, okay...” the hostess replied. “I'll let Ludwig know. Thanks for covering. Is Arthur okay?”

“Ohhh yeeeah,” Alfred replied, hastily unbuttoning the work shirt he still had on from last night, holding the phone against his ear his his shoulder as he did so. “I think he's just a little under the weather, you know? Gotta go, Kat, I'll be there in a jiffy.” He hung up the phone and tossed it on the counter as he scrambled back to his room to get a change of clothes.

Upon getting himself halfway decently clothed, Alfred did a rapid fire tooth-brushing / deodorant-applying / swig of orange juice-swallowing -- trying to make as little noise a possible as he rushed around the apartment getting ready. He was just on his way to the door when the thought struck him that he probably shouldn't leave Arthur alone in his apartment without saying anything about where he'd gone off to. He dove over the arm of the sofa, reaching to grab the notebook that sat on the coffee table, and began to scribble out a note for the Englishman.

He opened the door to his bedroom, and silently deposited the note on the nightstand, stealing one last look at the sleeping Brit before rushing off to work yet another shift that was not his, and that he absolutely did not have the energy for...

~o~

I'll be writing more from Arthur's POV in the next chapter (finally!) Also, two of my favorite Hetalia characters will be making a cameo appearance!! Can you guess who?

Thanks for reading!

<3 meep

[Not_Telling]

:o :o

Purposes????

Future contagion hinting???

Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my gooooooood!!!!!!

[Akahana]

OH MY GOD I AM SO EXCITED FOR THE NEXT PART YES

[Pyrus_Fangmon]

O_O *is waiting patiently for more* I am so loving this!

[VividBubbles!]

Future contagion hinting???

Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my gooooooood!!!!!!

^This. Oh my god, this. I can't wait to read the next part! I'm absolutely loving this!

[JQLovesSneezes]

AHHH!! This story has been perfect!!! I hope you update soon!