A Convention 16

Ten minutes later, the pair was again sitting on either side of the table, watching amusedly as the two waitresses – the one who had greeted them and the one who took their orders – unsubtly argued over who would be the one to bring them their food, and whether or not they would do it immediately or wait and see if they decided to make out again.

Alfred laughed and shook his head.  "Jeez, who knew we'd be such a fangirl attraction," he said.

"Yea, I know.  These girls are shameless."  Arthur rolled his eyes, recalling having been distracted by more than a couple camera flashes while he and Alfred were…er…giving their relationship a jump-start.

Arthur picked up a standing glass-covered menu and checked his reflection in it.  He started fixing his hair, which Alfred had completely messed up.  "By the way, please try not to make me look like a pigsty in public.  It takes a certain degree of talent to get my hair to look right."

Alfred shrugged.  Personally, Alfred thought the Brit was attractive no matter what his hair looked like, what he was wearing, or how few hours of sleep he got.  "Well, whaddya suggest I do?  Keep my hands to myself?"  He shook his head.  "Don't wanna do that."

Arthur blushed.  "At least watch where you're putting them."  

"I have to watch where I'm putting my hands?" Alfred asked incredulously, pointing at his ahoge.

Arthur turned even redder, remembering what had happened the last time he even just grazed it.  "Right."  He placed the makeshift mirror back on the table.

Alfred laughed.  "Don't get me wrong, it feels good and all, but, you know…it can be awkward at the wrong time…"

"I know."  Arthur cleared his throat.

Alfred's gaze drifted past him for a moment.  "Oh look, here comes our food," he said.  "It's the first waitress lady who's got it."

Arthur mockingly applauded.

"Now watch this," Alfred whispered as all that they ordered was set on the table.  "Thank you," he said to the waitress.  Mitsuki was her name.

"You're welcome."  She bowed and started to walk away.

Alfred gestured to her, telling Arthur to watch.  "Now, where were we?" he said, rather loudly.  "Oh yeah, I was saying just how much I love you…"

Mitsuki did a little bit of a jump, and a small sound escaped her mouth.  She started walking briskly into the kitchen area, eager to share with her jealous co-worker.

Alfred snorted and Arthur burst out laughing.  They both nearly got their heads in the miso soup as a result.  "Nice," Arthur said between laughs.

Alfred shook his head.  "Yaoi fans, hmm?  I think I'm gonna have fun with this."

Arthur waved his hand out invitingly.  "By all means.  I won't object."

(Ironically, Arthur saw right at that moment a cosplayer walk into the restaurant with a giant sign that said 'Objection!')

He raised his eyebrows and turned back to his food, stomach growling.  Alfred's confession had made him momentarily forget about his hunger, but now it was back in full force.  He picked up his chopsticks and reached for the salad, dropping one in the process.

"Bugger."  He picked it up again, only to drop the other one.  He sighed.

Alfred looked up from his own salad.  "Dude…do you actually not know how to use chopsticks?"

Arthur frowned, trying again and failing.  "Shut up.  I don't do this as often as you."

"Here, like this."  Alfred demonstrated with his own pair.

Arthur attempted to imitate it, only to have them fall yet again when he tried to grab something.

Alfred sighed.  "Do I have to feed you?"  He smirked.

Arthur glared at him.  "I'll have the soup first," he said expressionlessly.

Typical Arthur.  Alfred rolled his eyes and giggled, going back to his own food.

It took Arthur many a trial and error, as well as much clattering of chopsticks on the table, but Arthur finally managed to finish the salad, which, he thought, had probably the best dressing he had ever tasted.  The miso soup was equally good.  Alfred had swirled his own bowl around and around again in his hands, amused by the particles that always managed to drift to the bottom.  Now, Arthur had cautiously started reaching for the sushi when Alfred swatted his hand away.

"I am not gonna sit here watch you attempt that for another half-hour," he said.  Then he added, "Not that I don't enjoy it, 'cause it's really cute, but there's a whole con over there still waiting for us to get back to it."  He smiled.

Arthur pouted and blushed.  "Fine.  But I am getting better at this."

Alfred sighed, reached across the table and grabbed Arthur's jaw.

"Oi!  I still don't want you to feed it to me tho-" His sentence was cut short by Alfred unexpectedly pressing their lips together.  He was silent when Alfred pulled away a second or two later, leaving Arthur's mouth slightly ajar.

"Uh…a-alright…what was that for?" he asked.

"Well, because I wanted to, but also 'cause you're gonna let me do this."  He picked up a piece of the dragon roll and waved it in front of Arthur.  

"Alfred…" he groaned, but bit into the sushi – albeit reluctantly – nevertheless.

"There ya go, that wasn't so hard…"

Arthur glared.  

"Alright, fine, have it your way."  Alfred lifted his hands in defeat.  

"Why don't you just, er, help me?" Arthur asked.

Alfred frowned, confused.  Then his eyes lit up.  "Oh, you mean like holding your hand?  Okay…"

Gee, Alfred, you have a way of making things as blunt as possible, Arthur thought.  "Basically," he said, getting up and moving back to Alfred's side of the table to make it less awkward.

Alfred grinned, scooted over and put an arm around Arthur's waist.  He wrapped his free hand around the other's, which had the chopsticks in a death grip.  

"Don't hold them so tightly," he said.  "Relax and like, imagine they're objects that are fragile and precious to you…or something…at least, that's how Kiku taught me…"

Arthur's grip loosened.  "Really…fragile and precious to me…?" He smirked and glanced up at Alfred.  "What, like you?"

Alfred's heart skipped a beat.  I'm precious to him? he thought, unable to keep himself from smiling.

"Uh…sure…" he paused.  "Wait a sec, I'm not fragile!!"

Arthur giggled.  "Says the man who has a permanent cold during the winter."

"Yeah, yeah.  Whatever.  Now move your fingers down lower."  Arthur did as he was told, with Alfred's help.  "And then ya go like this…"  He carefully guided their hands to the sushi tray to grab something, then moving them to Arthur's mouth.    

Arthur chewed, swallowed and looked up.  

"Thank you," Arthur said.  "Aren't you going to eat anything?  You're the bottomless pit here…"

"You're more important."  He grinned.  If Arthur had the right to say sappy things, so did he.

Arthur wished he still had a menu to hide his intense blush.  If there was one thing that he had learned since Friday – well, besides the fact that he had managed to fall for his former best friend in a matter of twenty-four hours – it was that Alfred always meant what he said.  He chewed thoughtfully, pondering this new discovery, when his eyes wandered to the entrance of the restaurant again.  He swallowed the sushi.

"Look who it is," Arthur said, gesturing to the door.  

Alfred turned around to see France and Prussia making a show of entering, along with Canada, Latvia and a new person cosplaying Iceland pretending not to know them.

"I guess they've just come back from the panel," he said.  He looked at his watch.

"You want to call them over here?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah, but…" Alfred trailed off.

"But what?"

He scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.  "But, you know, alone time…"

Oh.  Well, there was that too.  "Come on, we're in a crowded restaurant.  One can hardly call that alone.  Besides, we're going straight up to our room right after this.  We'll be alone together in there."

Alfred raised his eyebrows at the implied meaning.  He had read way too much fanfiction to allow that comment to pass unnoticed.  

Arthur facepalmed.  "God.  Sorry, Alfred.  I did not mean it at all that way…"

"I know…it's okay…"  Alfred silently willed the all-too-pleasant images out of his head.  Though, again, he'd read so much USUK fanfiction that this was quite the difficult task.

Arthur waved in their friends' direction.  Canada noticed first and tapped Prussia on the shoulder.  Prussia got France's attention and she practically sprinted towards their table.  

"Âllo, les Anglais.  What is upwards?" she said.  The others appeared behind her.

"Lunch, that's what.  Wanna join?" Alfred said.  

"Yeah, sure," Canada said.  "We grabbed a burger after the panel.  Surprised you didn't."  She sat down, Latvia and Iceland following on the same side.

Alfred shot Arthur a look.  "I'm surprised I didn't either."  He grinned.

"I can assure you he would have regretted going if he had."  Arthur said, poking him playfully with the chopsticks.

"Ohon, really?"  France scooted next to Arthur.  Prussia pulled up a stray chair.

"Actually, kinda.  Yeah," Alfred said.  "Oh, and if you're gonna sit there, keep your paws off Iggy."  He pulled Arthur closer to him and made the 'I'm watching you' sign.

"Merde.  My plans are ruined."  

Arthur rolled his eyes.  Alfred narrowed them.

Prussia tapped France lightly on the shoulder.  "What?" she said.

"Look."  Prussia pointed to the position of Alfred's arm, still wrapped around Arthur's waist.

France took a while to get the hint.  "Um…wait…is this just another one of you guys' being 'friendly' moments?"  She made air quotes around 'friendly'.

Arthur blushed and squirmed in Alfred's hold.  He didn't reply, preferring to reach for another piece of sushi.

"Uhhh…" Alfred said, unsure of how to explain the unconventional events of the past few minutes.  

"Guys are you stupid?" someone said from the other side of the table.  Five heads swivelled to look at Iceland.  

"Oh yeah, this is Iceland by the way.  We met her at the panel."  This was Canada speaking.  She turned back to Iceland.  "What were you saying?"

"I mean, you're pretty stupid if you can't see that they're like Romeo and Juliet here…Hi, by the way."

Alfred and Arthur offered their greeting, then listened, embarrassed, as everyone else spoke at the same time:

"I know, right?  I mean, mon Dieu, they're telling us they're just friends…"

"You could cut the sexual tension with a knife…"

"But they're not actually 'in a relationship', as England told us."

Alfred cleared his throat.  "Actually, um, we are…" but no one could hear him over everyone else's talking.  He was about to try again, but Arthur had already yanked the collar of his bomber jacket down and started kissing him loudly.

He waited until the others had quieted down before pulling away, wiping Alfred's saliva from his chin.  "Yea…" he said awkwardly, immediately regretting what he had just done now that he didn't know what to say.

"We actually are, now," Alfred said, just a little bit giddy.

The others exchanged glances.  Prussia spoke up again.  "So wait.  We walk away to a panel about gayness for an hour, come back and suddenly you're boyfriends?"

Alfred leaned back in his seat.  Boyfriends…wow… he smiled subconsciously.

"I-I guess so…" Arthur said.  He obviously hadn't thought of the term either.

Latvia gave a low, out-of-character whistle.  "Cool."  She nodded in approval.

France scratched her head.  "But…something doesn't seem right for some reason…"

Prussia rolled his/her eyes.  "You're a FrUK fangirl.  Of course it doesn't seem right."  

France opened her mouth to debate, then closed it again.  "I don't think that's it…cause these two are my exception to the FrUK rule…" she shrugged.  "But whatever."

Arthur looked up.  "Right!" he said, facing Alfred.  "I forgot, you were supposed to explain to me what all these strange things mean."

"What, like FrUK?" he replied.  "Isn't that like…kinda obvious?"

"No, it isn't…especially when you hear it pronounced different ways…you say fruck, she-" he pointed to France "-says froo-kay, and…um…you-" he pointed to Prussia "-say fruuk.  It's rather confusing."

"Not really, it's based sort of on the psychology of the person," Canada said.  "Oh and FrUK is the pairing of France and England."

"Ah."  Arthur nodded then frowned.  That didn't seem right to him.

Canada continued.  "America probably says fruck because he hates it, and it sounds like fuck.  I know Prussia says it fruuk out of indifferentness, and France says froo-kay because of the whole UK equals uke thing."

Everyone just stared at her.  "Well when you say it like that…I guess it makes sense…" Alfred said.

Arthur nodded again.  He whispered in Alfred's ear.  "What's an uke?" he said.

Apparently he had said that a tad too loud.  Prussia snorted.  France burst out laughing.  Canada rolled her eyes.  

"Well," Prussia said.  "I could go on and on about it, but basically, in yaoi, it's the guy who takes it."  

"Takes what?" Arthur was confused.

"Englaaaannnnnddddd…" Alfred groaned and put his head on the table, being careful not to squish the two pieces of sushi that were left on the plate.

"You are really new to all this, aren't you?" France said.  She gestured to the American-British couple.  "I wish you guys luck.  And when Prussia says 'the guy who takes it', it means 'the guy who gets the dick up his ass'."

It took a while for it to sink in.  When it did, Arthur squeezed his eyes shut, colour flooding his cheeks.  He covered it with his hand.  "Oi, thanks for that…"

"Mental images?" Iceland whispered.

"Yea."  He shivered.  

"You're the one who asked…" Canada pointed out.

Alfred blushed and decided that the opposite wall was suddenly very interesting.
    
"Anyways."  France whacked the table, startling everyone.  "I say you finish up here and we go back to spazzing at every Hetalia cosplayer we see.  And there's gonna be a lot so I kinda wanna go now."

Alfred looked back.  "Uh…actually we-" he gestured at himself and Arthur "-were gonna go up to our room for a bit."

France raised her eyebrows.  "Really?  …Already?"

Alfred sighed.  "We need to get some stuff," he added.

"Ah.  Je comprends maintenant."  

Alfred swiped one of the two remaining pieces of sushi and ate it.  "Yeah.  I guess we can just meet you out by the Hetalian field in a mew minutes."

Canada shrugged.  "Cool.  Iceland and I will be there."

Arthur nodded, having recovered from his thousandth momentary lapse of embarrassment.  He didn't bother using the chopsticks to pick up the last bit of food, preferring to shove it in his mouth with his fingers.  "Right then.  Let's go."

They all stood up, shuffling awkwardly off of the benches.  Alfred approached Yuki (the second waitress lady) who was now at the cash register.  He grinned, paid, and humoured her by pecking Arthur on the cheek before grabbing his hand and walking out of the restaurant with the rest of the group.  Arthur giggled at the squealing sound she made.  

Alfred stuck his tongue out guiltily as they stepped out to the sidewalk, releasing Arthur's hand and skipping forward to where France and Latvia were walking in front of him.  

"So how was that panel, by the way?" he asked.

France didn't reply immediately.  Instead she turned around to check that England wasn't watching.  Then she turned back, pulled something out of her pocket, and handed it to Alfred.  "Put that in your pocket now," she whispered, then added louder: "The panel was awesomeness, obviously."

Alfred frowned, feeling the edges of the little foil packet.  His eyes widened.  "What do I want this for?" he hissed at her.  

"You're gonna need it.  Trust me."  She couldn't hide the trace of a snicker tugging at the corners of her lips.  "And if not in like, 10 minutes; at the very latest you'll need it by the end of the day."

Alfred turned a bright red.  He turned around to look at Arthur, who caught his glance and smiled.  Alfred smiled then turned back.  He shook his head.  "W-We've only been like this for…not even an hour…"

"Oh, croyez-moi, it's been a lot longer than that.  I have sort of a theory about that.  But I'll tell you that later.  Right now, you guys gotta get to it."

Alfred shook his head again.  "I couldn't."

"But you want to, don't you?"

Alfred stayed silent.

"Then you've got nothing to lose."  France winked before veering off to the left with the rest of the group, leaving a flustered Alfred and oblivious Arthur behind her.  

TBC.