A Convention 11

Alfred and Arthur weaved their way through the crowd, which was getting thicker as the morning wore on bringing with it the scalding hot of a summer afternoon.

"Ew, dude, I'm sweating!" Alfred said, undoing the top button of the military jacket, which was under his other jacket.  

Arthur just nodded, feeling the heat as well.  There was moisture starting to build up around his neck, under the soles of his feet, and between his and Alfred's hands.  "Alfred," he said.  "I d-"

"America," Alfred said.  

"…What about him?"  

"Rule number one of cosplay: never use the cosplayer's real name.  Call me America."

Arthur frowned.  "Alright, America," he corrected himself, feeling awkward saying it that way.  "I was just going to say, I don't know much about cosplay, but I'm sure that rule number two is not to complain about your costume and therefore, the heat."  He wanted to complain about the sun that was sure to be giving him sunburn and the sweat soaking through the dress shirt and the odd scent of heated asphalt and the lack of cloud cover and the- I should practice what I preach, he thought, trying to ignore the temperature.

"I know, I know, but…" Alfred scratched the back of his head with his free hand.  "Whatever.  Next time we go into the dealer's room I'm getting one of the massive fans they have."

The pair finally got to what they decided to refer to as simply 'the field', where all 40-odd Hetalia cosplayers were sitting, shouting, talking, and waving flags.  Alfred skimmed the crowd, searching for any of the three 'nations' they had met in the morning.  He spotted Italy waving a giant German flag, with Germany looking on with (oddly) Italy's white flag in hand.  France was frantically running around in circles for no apparent reason.  He heard Arthur laugh beside him, probably having spotted the trio as well.

"Let's-a go!" Alfred said, imitating (unbeknownst to Arthur) Mario's accent.  He started skipping, dragging Arthur along behind him.

"Christ, Alf- America, would you stop being so bloody hyper?" he stumbled across the grass, nearly kicking an unfamiliar nation in the head.  

"Nope!" he said cheerily, jumping to a halt near Italy, whose back was turned to him.  

"Hey lookie!  It's zee lovebirds!" France exclaimed, teetering on her feet a bit from spinning.

Alfred and Arthur shared a flustered glance before turning back to her.  

"Yeah, yeah," Alfred said, grinning hugely, the wavering voice only audible to Arthur.

Italy turned around, Arthur having to shove Alfred's head down so he wouldn't get beamed in the head with the flagpole.
   
"Amici!" he shouted, smiling and handing the giant flag to Germany.  "You haven't met our new friends yet!!  Come with me~" he grabbed them by their arms, dislodging their hands.  They allowed themselves to be turned around and led to five new people.  

"Hey guys I found the America and England I was talking about!  Aren't they so awesome?" Italy said.  He released their arms.  

"Not as awesome as me!" one of them said, standing up.  

Arthur racked his brain trying to figure out who it was.  White hair… he thought.  You'd think I'd remember…   

Alfred just smirked.  "Sure, whatever."  He looked over at Arthur and saw the confusion in his face.  "Oh and by the way guys, England here watched Hetalia for the first time yesterday.  Just sayin'."

Arthur nodded.  He turned to the white-haired person (who neither Arthur nor Alfred could tell the sex of).  "Who are you again?" he asked them.

The other four that Italy had introduced them to muffled their laughter behind their palms.  Arthur frowned, feeling flustered.

One of them – who he recognized as Latvia – noticed it.  "Oh, we're not laughing at you," she said.  "But at 'Awesome' over here."  

"Shut up Latvia," 'Awesome' said.  "I might just go let every one of the Belaruses loose on you."

Alfred giggled to himself.  "Anyways, guys, you have quite possibly the most random group I've seen.  Seriously: Latvia, Norway, Japan, Prussia, and…" he looked at the last member of the group and grinned.  "…and you."  He winked.

"Well…they just seemed to suit our heights and personalities and stuff," the one Alfred had winked at said.

"Yeah, you know, like Prussia is awesome and so am I," White Hair said.

Okay.  So now Arthur knew that Awesome was Prussia.  Noticing the nation Alfred had skipped over, he took in the coat, the bear, the distinguishable curly piece of hair… "You're Canada!" he said, snapping his fingers in triumph.

"Whoa!  Whoa!  So you remember this guy, of all people-" Prussia pulled Canada to her feet.  "-and not me?"

Arthur shrugged.  "What Alf…America said.  Besides, I only remember Canada because he's the one that's always forgotten."

There was an amused silence for a moment as Arthur realized the irony of the situation.

He laughed, and the other six – seven, including Italy who had started to walk away – joined in.  "Brilliant," he said.

"Right!  So that was your introduction," Alfred said.  "I believe ours is pretty obvious.  I'm the hero, and this is my England."  He slung his arm around Arthur's shoulder.

"Wait…what?" Canada said.

Alfred just laughed.  "Yup."

Arthur just wondered when it had been established that he was his England, and was about to say so, but bit it back when he discovered he didn't hate it.  He blushed.  In fact… he thought.  I don't mind at all…

"So whatcha guys planning to do all day?" Alfred asked, sitting down and pulling Arthur with him.

They looked at each other.  "Uh…" they said collectively.  

Norway, who hadn't spoken yet, took charge.  "Are you guys yaoi fans or…"

"Shit YES," Alfred said.  "What about it?"

I have got a VERY bad feeling about where this is going, Arthur thought.  Isn't yaoi that thing…

"Well in about an hour we're going to a panel for it.  It's in the con book thing, you guys have one?" Norway continued.

"England?" Alfred said, turning to him.

"It's in our room," Arthur replied.

"Oh.  Well that's okay.  It's the Gay Sex 101 panel."

If Arthur had been drinking something at that moment, it would have ended up all over Prussia's and Canada's faces.  His face sort of contorted into a bunch of different expressions at the same time and the colour couldn't decide whether to stay in his cheeks or rush out of them.  He tried to shake himself.  "Aren't you-"

He was cut off by Alfred's hand over his mouth.  "You know this is probably the only place in the world where you can say that like that without getting weird looks?" Alfred grinned, turning to Arthur and telling him with his eyes to not say anything.  He removed his hand.

Canada laughed.  "Very true," she said.  

"Anyways, I normally would be up for it, but…well, England here…" Alfred gave him an all-knowing grin.

Arthur shifted uncomfortably.

"Mhm…" Prussia said, smiling perversely.  "So he learns by doing, and not seeing."  Prussia waggled his/her eyebrows.

"Oh God," Arthur said, laughing weakly and putting his head in his hands.

Someone wolf howled behind them.  "C'est très zexuel, ça.  Bonjour, les anglophones."

"Hello France," Latvia said.  "We were just talking about the awesomest panel in the world, in case you missed it."

"Ah, but of course~" France said.  "Will you guys be going?"

Arthur looked up.  "Well…that's not really what I'm…into, you know?" he said, trying to sound as open-minded as possible.

"Oh.  You guys aren't there yet?"

"No, we're not even…"

"ENGLAND." Alfred said in a warning tone.

"…in a relationship." Arthur finished, ignoring him.

"??!?!" the five other nations said.

France gaped.  "WHHAAAAAAAAAATTT?????????????????????" she shouted, making anyone within a 50-meter radius stop and look at her.  "BUT YOU- THE- HUH?!?!?!" she paused for a moment, as if deciding what to do next.  She turned around.  "ITALY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she ran off towards him.

"WELL then," Alfred said awkwardly.  Now that that's cleared up…"

Everyone just stared at him.

Arthur sighed.  Well I made this weird, time to try to undo it…

"So what's that polar bear for?" he asked Canada.

"Oh, Kumakitchi?" she said, starting to smile.

Japan spoke up for the first time.  "You know it's Kumajiro, right?"

"I can actually never remember which one is accurate…"

"Nice.  Of course you wouldn't," Alfred said, smiling.  He shot a thankful glance at Arthur.

Arthur smiled back.  Good.

----------

"There is no way that should be happening!" France had calmed down slightly, and was pacing around beside Italy, who had resumed waving the giant German flag.  

France stopped moving for a moment.  "Have you seen how they look at each other?  There's no way those two being apart for a moment should be legal!!"  She resumed her pacing.  "They are so freaking madly in love.  I notice these kinds of things.  And it's so obvious!"

"You're going OOC," Italy warned.  "But yes, I thought they were lovers as well.  And I'll even go so far as to say there's definitely something that should be happening between them.  But they're just going to have to figure that out on their own."  He looked to Germany, who just nodded in agreement.

"That may be true.  But.  I am La France, and La France is le pays de l'amour.  So my goal is now to get those two idiot Anglophones together by the end of this convention!" she put her fist in the air.

Italy stopped waving the flag and took Germany's hand in his own.  He smiled at France.  "You go do that."