Loved by the Island, Smitten by the Boot

Ch 5

"Gee man you look like shit." Alfred said through a mouth full of coffee and breakfast breads. "Not gentlemanly at all, brah." Indeed, Arthur looked like a complete mess. Having only arrived approximately five minutes ago, he begrudgingly lifted his head up from its comfortable position on the table (he'd almost fallen asleep. Almost.) to reveal the bags under his eyes, his shirt that had obvious creases, how his hair refused to cooperate, and how he spilled some coffee on his tie. He had stayed up all night again and now he was paying the price. Doing what exactly? Mind your business is what. Grumbling, he turned to look up at Alfred and glared at him through dead tired eyes. The American stared right back at him blankly, loudly slurping his coffee. After a second the older gentleman sighed and rubbed his eyes, being the first to break their eye contact, before he spoke.

"Yes well we all have had rough mornings. You more than any of us."

"Walking in late with Starbucks isn't a 'rough morning'. It's a morning with an added quick little pick-me-up of super sugary almost-milkshake coffees. They're the fuckin' BOMB and the exact amount of jittery I need to start my day." Arthur hummed as he stretched his arms.

"Sounds more like a sugar addiction to me but you do you." Alfred rolled his eyes and finally sat down in his seat, pulling his Nintendo switch out of his briefcase. "Really? You're going to do that now? The meeting starts in three minutes."

"Pfft. I did what I had to do last week, now all I gotta do is chill out for the next week. Besides it's either this or I take out my super old PSP that's broken so the volume is ALWAYS on full blast. And I think I have porn on that one so I'd be runnin' a risk."

"You're a pig you know."

"Dude, no, I'm a righteous bald eagle."

The meeting started before Arthur could get in another crack at Alfred, interrupting their wonderful conversation, and a loud 'good morning!' chimed from the front of room. Arthur pressed his lips together to keep himself from smiling. Feliciano sounded rather cheerful today and he could guess why. The Italian brothers listed off the countries going today: Yemen, Ghana, Malaysia, Peru, Uzbekistan. Romano said something rather rude, Feliciano was being obnoxiously loud and with one final statement they sat back down to allow the meeting to actually begin. Yemen went up and began talking but Arthur's eyes were locked on the tablet in front of him, pen in hand. Much like last week, the poor guy was scared of looking up at Feliciano and risking making his huge fat crush obvious to others. Arthur wasn't ashamed of who he was, he wasn't ashamed to say he was in the what the kids call "talking stage" of a relationship with Feliciano (was he using that right? He didn't think so but it sounded right.), he just really didn't want to deal with other country's opinions on it. Like Alfred or his older brothers Allistor (Scotland) and Sean (Ireland). He definitely didn't want Matthew to find out because then he'd tell Francis and he definitely didn't want Francis to know. Of course Arthur didn't plan on keeping this entire thing a secret, he's too affectionate to even try and hide it, but he needed time to understand what the fuck was going on between them and his insane feelings.

Okay, yeah, it looks obvious what's going on to those outside. They had been on two dates, they had their first kiss, they napped in the near-nude while wrapped in one another's loving arms. All pretty clear, but something gnawed at Arthur's joy. Some rock was in his shoe and keeping him from skipping gayly with his new Italian partner and it was the fact that his new Italian partner is a complete airhead. Don't get him wrong, Arthur loved that about him and yes he knew that he wasn't actually completely empty headed thanks to that incredibly insightful museum date but at the same time he was. He was a silly man who loved freely and that lifestyle for some fuck all reason left Arthur feeling paranoid. He didn't care, anyone could love anyone however they wanted especially if they're immortal countries who have been around for centuries yet it still made him the slightest bit unsure. However, this raised the question: Would Feliciano be faithful?