Alfred, an otaku, wins a bet and drags his best friend - a reluctant Arthur - to a 3-day convention. They encounter, of course, anime, cosplay, Pocky and fangirls! Little do they know that it will change their relationship status of 'just friends'...
Alfred and Arthur are friends who attend a rather…multicultural high school. Recently they had a bet onwhose home country made the better movies. The winner would get the loser to do whatever the winner wanted (within reason, of course). And as expected, Alfred won. To Arthur, it seemed like a small deal, and agreed that what Alfred had suggested was 'within reason'. Arthur didn't ever guess how far such a simple bet could be taken…
-
"I cannot believe you managed to talk me into this," Arthur said, gripping the pole on the bus and leaning his head tiredly against it. He stared at the clouds drifting slowly across the summer afternoon sky. Ugh. Alfred was dragging him to an anime convention that was hours away from either of their houses. Anime.
During the past few months, Alfred had started talking with a Japanese kid named Kiku in his tech class over their shared love of videogames, which eventually led to his most recent obsession of the strange cartoons. Since then, he hadn't stopped talking about this convention for months.
Alfred grinned in the seat next to him. "Come on, it's only three days Arty! Besides, you can't say anime is bad, 'cause you've never seen it."
Arthur turned away from his friend. He scoffed. "Like I ever wanted to," he muttered.
"What was that?"
"Never mind. Anyways, why are we coming early again?"
Alfred rolled his eyes. "You know, there's gonna be this huge line and we need to go find a hotel room and well, it's just so awesome that you haveto be early!"
Arthur just scowled. "Better be."
-
Arthur perched his elbow on the counter of the hotel reception and leaned his face against it, watching Alfred get them a room. The lady at the desk was obviously flirting with him.
Arthur watched the exchange, yawning. The rather attractive American was constantly being flirted with. "Hey, Alfred," he said indifferently.
Alfred looked up from his conversation. "Yeah?"
"Make sure you get a room with twobeds, will you?"
Alfred gave him a funny look and a crooked grin that made Arthur's cheeks flush red. From the heat, he told himself. "You scared of me or something?" Alfred asked.
The Brit gave him a look that told even someone as dense as Alfred to stop inquiring into the matter.
A few minutes later, Alfred walked away from the desk and towards his companion, whistling and twirling two key cards between his fingers. "Don't explode, 'kay?" Alfred said.
"What is it?"
"They're out of rooms with more than one bed."
"…Oh." Arthur pondered this in silence for a while. "Well then, it doesn't matter."
Alfred breathed a sigh of relief. He took a look at the key card. "Room 3417," he said. "Better get going."
After about five minutes of waiting for an elevator in an awkward silence they finally got inside, Arthur having to carry both their suitcases ("I won the bet, you do it."). Alfred looked at the buttons on the wall, finding number 34 and pressing it. The elevator started up slowly and creakily. It took 15 seconds between every floor.
