AN: This is a long overdue fic that I promised my friend Amy. I'm not used to writing for these characters (well, at least two of the four...), so it was interesting getting this done.

Hope you all enjoy!

(This was beta'd by fanfiction user natd-le)

The summer season had just begun and people far and wide werealready cranking up their air conditioning or rolling their car windows down to escape the almost unbearable heat. Weather forecasters predicted these conditions would keep up for quite some time; it was just something residents all over had to get used to.

Alfred F. Jones didn't quite mind the hot weather. In fact, summer was one of his most favorite times of the year for a number of reasons. For one, there was the Fourth of July— a momentous occasion that Alfred had been enjoying for a couple centuries now— plus the different events he had been invited to over the season like backyard barbecues, pool parties…the list went on and on.

This particular morning, however, he wasn't enjoying the weather at all. The plans he had made with his friends got cancelled because of the extreme heat; they all figured going to the public pool would be a bad idea since everyone would probably be flocking to it in an effort to keep cool, and no one wanted to leave their air conditioned house to commute somewhere. So, they all decided to stay home, much to Alfred's annoyance.

Spread out on his couch, a bag of chips opened up beside him, Alfred flipped through the channels on his TV for what seemed like the billionth time that morning. Sighing in agitation, he dropped the remote onto the couch and glared at the screen in front of him. A movie featuring happy teenagers at a pool party played before his eyes, making him green with envy. He'd kill to be in their position right now.

It wasn't as if he didn't have a pool in his own backyard, but Alfred saw it as a waste to go in by himself. It just wouldn't be as fun without friends to splash around with.

The sudden vibration of his cell phone in his pocket made him jump up in surprise, a small yelp escaping his mouth. He scrambled to pick it up and find the right button to press.

"Yo, what's up?" he answered over enthusiastically, not bothering to check who was calling before he picked up. At this point, he didn't care who he talked to; he'd be fine chatting with anyone right now, so long as he was kept entertained.

"Hey Al, it's me." a soft, kind voice answered. Alfred's face lit up as hestood up and laughed. "Mattie!" he exclaimed, inwardly hoping this call was one to arrange some sort of plans to hang out. "How ya doin', bro? Haven't talked to you in a while!" There was a laugh from the other end, and Alfred could tell Matthew was rolling his eyes.

"I just talked to you yesterday, calm down."

"Yeah well, yesterday feels like forever ago to me!"

"Whatever you say."

Another laugh escaped his lips before Alfred cut straight to what he wanted to ask. "So, why ya calling? I hope it's to tell me you wanna hang out."

"Actually, that's exactly why I'm calling."

Pleasantly surprised, the smile on Alfred's face grew about ten times bigger. "Really? That's great!" he said, quickly making his way upstairs so that he could change into something more suitable for going out; he hadn't changed out of his pajamas yet. He didn't see a point since he thought he wasn't going to be leaving his house today.

"I thought you'd be happy." Matthew replied happily. "Toni and I were thinking about inviting a few people to my place today. We were just gonna hang around in the pool and maybe play some outdoor games to keep cool, so bring a bathing suit."

Nodding as his brother spoke, Alfred reached the top of the staircase and got to his bedroom. He swiftly opened his door and made his way to his closet, making quite the commotion as he did so, since his room wasn't exactly the tidiest.

"Alright! Sounds like a plan, bro!" he said, grabbing a shirt and a pair of shorts to throw on after he got off the phone, as well as his favorite pair of star spangled swim trunks.

"Alright then, see you soon, Al. Just call when you get here and I'll pick you up."

"Alright, will do! See ya soon, Mattie!"

Alfred flipped his phone shut, then tossed it over his shoulder and onto his bed. He stripped himself of his pajamas and undergarments andquickly changed into his swimming trunks, shirt, and shorts. He looked at himself in the mirror approvingly, winked at his reflection, and gathered the things he would need for his trip.

Since each individual nation had their own private jet for both business and personal use, the commute wouldn't take half as long as it normally would for him, so he didn't need to bring as much entertainment such assnacks and the like with him for the trip.

Alfred normally tried to steer clear of flying; it made him nervous. But since he was eager to hang out with his brother and his boyfriend, he let go of his anxiety. Besides, flying privately was a hell of a lot better than public commute.

Calling up the small, government owned airport, Alfred made arrangements to leave in a half an hour, making his way to his car while doing so. He was done with his call just as he was pulling out of his driveway and, in no time at all, he was pulling into the parking lot of the airport.

It didn't take long for him to get to the plane and board it, conversing shortly with the pilot about the beastly weather. Before he knew it, he was in the air and on his way to Canada.

XXX

The flight was uneventful and short— in comparison to other trips Alfred had taken recently, at least. Stretching out his limbs as soon as he stepped out of the plane, Alfred thanked the pilot and made his way for the main area of the airport. He had already called his brother while on the plane when he was getting close.

Looking around as he walked, he smiled and chuckled. Not much had changed since the last time he'd been here. He liked that; in a world full of change, it was nice to see some things untouched.

"Al!" The call of his name made him snap to attention and he looked around, trying to find the source of the voice.

"Over here, idiot!"

"Lovino, that wasn't very nice! Apologize!"

"Like hell I will! We're right in front of him! How can he not see us?"

Raising an eyebrow at the rude comments, he looked over a bit to his right and spotted the people he wanted to find.

There was his brother, Matthew, standing off to the side with a sheepish smile on his face, glancing at the other two with him as they argued. Squinting his eyes, Alfred recognized one as Toni. The other took him a bit longer to remember, but he recognized him as Romano - or Lovino - Feliciano's big brother.

"Found you guys!" Alfred said, dashing over to them.

"About damn time…" Lovino mumbled under his breath, earning him a disapproving look from Toni. Brushing off the comment, Alfred busied himself with pulling Matthew and Toni into a tight hug. From the way he was acting, you'd think the three hadn't seen each other in months, when in actuality, it had only been a few days.

"Alright Al, you're kind of killing us here…" Matthew said after a few moments, wincing in pain from the tight hold his brother currently had him in.

"Oh, sorry 'bout that!" Alfred said, quickly pulling away and giving them sheepish grins as the two brushed themselves off and stretched out their aching limbs. While they were busy doing that, Alfred turned to Lovino and give him a curious look.

Glaring back at him, Lovino scoffed. "If you try to hug me, I swear to God I'll break your fucking back."

Lifting an eyebrow, Alfred laughed. "Calm down dude, I wasn't gonna hug ya! I'm just trying to figure out if I've ever hung out with you before! I don't think you've come to any of my parties…" he said thoughtfully, wracking his brain for any memories of seeing him besides at meetings.

"Of course I've never come to any of your dumb parties." Lovino snapped back, rolling his eyes. "Parties are a waste of my damn time. Especially ones put on by arrogant assholes like you."

'Asshole? Just where is this guy coming from with this crap?' Alfred thought, visibly offended.

"Well I-"

The sound of someone clearing their throat behind him made Alfred stop talking. Turning around, he saw Toni and Matthew standing awkwardly side by side; obviously, they had witnessed the "pleasant" exchange of words.

"Are we just going to stand here and sweat to death, or are we going to go back to my place and have some fun?" Matthew asked, taking Toni's hand and pulling him towards the car, not leaving any room for anyone to answer.

It took a few seconds, but sure enough, Alfred and Lovino followed behind the couple, shooting each other a few looks as they walked along. Once they arrived at the car, Toni and Matthew exchanged a look, glancing back at Lovino and Alfred before sighing. "I'm sure that the two of you can handle sitting in the back together for a little while." Matthew said, unlocking the car doors for them to get in.

"Just try to behave yourselves for a little while, no?" Toni commented, opening up the passenger side door for himself to get in.

"Yeah yeah yeah…whatever you say." Lovino huffed, opening up his own door and plopping inside. As soon as he got in, he closed the door and faced the window so he was facing away from Alfred.

Sighing, Alfred also got into the car and buckled himself in, getting as comfortable as he could in the small four seater. As soon as everyone was situated, Matthew pulled out of his parking spot and made his way out of the airport, making small talk with the others in the car as he drove. Alfred tried to keep up with the conversation, but kept on getting distracted by the looks Lovino would give him every so often.

Judging from the way things were going so far, this was going to be a rather interesting visit.

XXX

After the longest car ride in the history of forever (at least, it felt like the longest to Alfred), the group finally made it made it to Matthew's house.

During the commute to the house, Alfred and Lovino had kept uncharacteristically quiet; they were too busy having a staring, or in this case, glaring contest with each other. They argued once after Alfred got tired of all the sideways glances and spoke up about it, only to have Lovino come back with an insult. The argument soon ended though when Toni lost his patience with their bickering.

"So, how about we go in the house and get changed. Then we can all meet up again outside at the pool." Toni suggested, wrapping his arm around Matthew's waist as they exited the car and made their way up the driveway.

"Sounds like a good idea. We'll meet back up with you guys in a few. Alfred, you'll show Lovino where the guest room is, right?" Matthew asked as he started to walk towards the house with Toni.

"Uh, yeah sure!" Alfred replied, following after them. Upon entering the house, he smiled at the familiar scent of Matthew's home, breathing it in. He began looking around and finding that a few things had changed. Since Toni had moved in with him, a few altercations were made to the setup of the home. The same had been done back at Toni's house, since they alternated where they lived every few months.

"So, are you just going to stand there and admire the place? Or are you going to show me to the guest room?" Lovino asked, appearing in front of Alfred and waving a hand in front of his face with an amused expression on his own.

A bit startled by the gesture, Alfred blinked a few times before chuckling. "Oh, right…completely forgot about that!" he said, leading the way to the hallway and down to the single guest bedroom.

When they reached it, the two exchanged a few glances before speaking.

"I'm changing first." Lovino stated, narrowing his eyes at Alfred.

"I was just about to say the same thing about myself." Alfred retorted, annoyed that Lovino wouldn't just let him go first.

"Does it look like I care? I patiently waited for your ass to quit daydreaming! Now you're going to patiently wait for my ass to change!"

"You didn't even wait for me! Besides, I'm the one that showed you where the room was in the first place!"

"Tch, like that even matters. I could've found the damn room by myself by the time you quit staring off into space like an idiot! Just step out of the way."

"No, you step out of the way!"

"Make me."

At that remark, Alfred smirked, raising an eyebrow at Lovino, who gulped in return. "Alright then. You asked for it!" Alfred laughed, picked Lovino up, and swung him over his shoulder.

"Put me down, dammit!" Lovino yelled, banging his fists on Alfred's back, feeling himself being carried off somewhere. A few seconds later, he flopped onto a soft surface, his swim trunks being thrown at him. Looking down at where he landed, he noticed that it was the guest bed.

"I figured that since we couldn't agree on who changed first, we'd just change together." Alfred said, already stripping himself of his clothing.

"I-" Lovino started, but found himself at a loss for words once Alfred's shirt was off.

"W-whatever." he stuttered, looking away, a blush on his face. Al was too busy getting out of his clothes to notice the blush on Lovino's face. Hechanged quickly and turned back around, only to find Lovino was just pulling up his trunks. He looked away before Lovino could notice andfound himself wondering why the room suddenly got hotter.

"Alright, I'm ready." Lovino said after a moment of fixing himself up.

"Alright then, let's go. Mattie and Toni are probably waiting for us outside by now."

Nodding, Lovino made his way for the door, taking a look back at Alfred before exiting.

XXX

By the time the two finally got out of the house, Matthew and Toni already had everything they needed all set up. The pool was ready to dive into, there were towels ready to be used later, water guns and balloons lay in bins over to the side and fun, energetic music played in the background.

"The water looks really nice!" Alfred commented as he walked over to his brother's side, patting him on the shoulder excitedly, not able to contain the grin on his face.

"Thanks." Matthew smiled, looking over his shoulder at Alfred. "I actually just got it all ready for the first time yesterday with Toni. Today's the first time we're using it this season."

Alfred nodded, a bit surprised. It had been really hot so far this summer season; it was shocking that the couple hadn't taken advantage of the cool water sooner. Looking over towards the pool, Alfred saw that Toni and Lovino were already starting to enter. Toni was playfully splashing Lovino with his feet as they sat at the edge of the pool and Lovino was yelling at Toni to stop. It was pretty amusing; Alfred wanted to join in the fun.

"Let's hop in the pool, bro!" he said, taking Matthew by the hand and pulling him towards the pool.

Laughing, the two hopped in and shivered a bit, the cool water a far cry from the hot weather. At the other end of the pool, Toni and Lovino were still splashing each other.

Alfred smiled mischievously and went under the water, swimming towards where the two were fooling around. Once he got within close proximity of them, he quietly made his way towards the unsuspecting Lovino. Toni took notice of Alfred sneaking his way over towards them, but kept his mouth shut. It would be amusing to see what he was up to and if he would succeed.

Lovino was too busy still arguing with and splashing Toni to care about Alfred coming up behind him. By the time he noticed the man, he already had a hold of his hands. Giving Alfred a questioning look, it didn't take long for him to realize what was going on.

"Don't you dare-!"

Before he could finish his sentence, Alfred pulled Lovino down and into the water with him, holding onto him so that when they came back up, he was holding the Italian bridal style.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, you crazy bastard?" Lovino sputtered, flailing his arms, frantically trying to get out of Alfred's grasp. With a smirk, Alfred shrugged his shoulders and laughed. "Not much…just this!" and with that being said, he threw Lovino over to another section of the pool, sending him splashing into the water with a scream.

The others in and around the pool laughed and shielded themselves from the water that splashed everywhere as Lovino flailed his arms around like a fish out of water, trying to regain his composure.

"Well, now you've done it." Toni said with a chuckle as Lovino finally calmed down and glared daggers in Alfred's direction. "Now it's going to be war between you two for the rest of the day!"

With a laugh, Alfred shot Lovino a grin and a wink.

"I'm ready for whatever he throws at me, dude!"

Still a bit upset that he'd been taken off guard like that, but amused and slightly flustered at the same time, Lovino smirked right back at Alfred and chuckled a little himself. "Good." he said, a glint in his eyes. "Cause I'm not going easy on you, you jerk!"

XXX

The rest of the day went just as Toni had predicted it would; Alfred and Lovino went back and forth trying to out-prank the other or beat the other at certain activities. At one point in the day, Lovino took Alfred off guard when he was talking to Matthew on the lounge chairs by the pool. With a little help from Toni, the two successfully lifted Alfred off of his chair and dumped into the pool, leaving Alfred in almost the same state Lovino was in when it happened to him. He still had somewhat of a proud smirk on his face from that.

Later on, the four had a water gun/balloon fight and were sectioned off into teams of two. Matthew and Toni were on one team and Lovino and Alfred were put on another.

By this point in the day, the two 'rivals' were actually starting to enjoy each other's company. The war between the two had finally settled down to where they could be next to each other for more than a few minuteswithout trying to pull something on the other. In fact, you could say that the two were starting to become friends, in a way.

The two were settled behind a section of gate in Matthew's backyard, waiting for the right moment to attack the opposing team. "Let's just go, dammit!" Lovino whispered to Alfred, impatiently tapping the water gun that lay in his lap.

"Just wait a few more minutes…" Alfred whispered back, getting a bit annoyed by Lovino's complaining. He'd told him to move at least fifteen times in the past few minutes. They hadn't even been hiding that long!

Lovino had had enough of sitting there though and was just about ready to take matters into his own hands. "I'm making my move…" he said, starting to get up and ambush the other two.

"Wait! I said don't go yet!" Alfred hissed, pulling Lovino back down by his trunks, a bit of his skin becoming exposed to him. A small blush on his face, Alfred turned away and pretended to look around the corner at Matthew and Toni, who were patiently waiting with smirks on their faces for the other two to attack.

"And just what the hell are we waiting for?" Lovino asked, starting to get even more annoyed. He hated waiting; he just wanted to get out there! Alfred was going to answer, but suddenly, his mind went blank. Why were they waiting here for so long? He couldn't quite remember why anymore. It was true that the two had been sitting there for a while, just watching and waiting. They could have moved at any time by now. So why was he insisting that they still sit there?

Glancing over at the impatient Lovino, Alfred felt his heart skip a beat and he remembered why. Ever since the two had started their little rivalry earlier on in the day, Alfred couldn't help but to want to make Lovino react to him. He wanted to be near him, even if it was only to pull a prank on him, or to annoy him. He liked to hear him yelp in surprise, or laugh at his stupid jokes. He liked his frown and his smile…the way that he said his name when they talked. He knew that it was a bit soon, but Alfred couldn't help but fall head over heels for the Italian as the day progressed.

"I-" he started, wanting to tell the other just what was on his mind. "Nevermind. Let's go." he changed his mind and started to get up, pulling Lovino up with him by the hand and smiling at him. "Maybe I'll tell you later!" A bit confused, but happy that they were finally taking action, Lovino got up with Alfred, surprisingly not even caring that his hand was being held. Getting their guns ready, the two ran out from behind the gate and, with a laugh, the two went at it again with their friends.

In the end, the game had to be stopped early because Alfred and Lovino somehow forgot they were still holding hands and ended up tripping over each other after trying to go separate ways whilst still holding hands. The two had to sit down for a little while and bandage up their bloody knees after the spill.

Following that, the group decided to eat something. Alfred and Toni brought out the grill and made hot dogs and hamburgers while Lovino and Matthew made some side dishes. When they were finished preparing the food, the four sat down on Matthew's porch and ate,engaging in conversation as they ate. To Toni and Matthew's surprise, Alfred and Lovino sat next to each other and even seemed to be enjoying the closeness they were sharing.

By the time they were finished eating, it was getting late and the sun was beginning to set. Sighing, Matthew got up and smiled at his guests and boyfriend. "Toni and I'll go wash up the dishes. It seems like you two are getting along pretty well now, so we'll leave you two alone for a little while, okay?" Giving the two a sly smile, Toni agreed with Matthew's statement and followed him into the

house, leaving behind a blushing Alfred and a flustered looking Lovino.

"What the hell are they talking about? I still can't stand you." Lovino said under his breath, although the protest was halfhearted.

"Oh yeah? The blush on your face is telling me differently." Alfred laughed, poking Lovino in the cheek.

Turning to face Alfred, Lovino was about to make a rude remark towards him, but was cut short when he felt Alfred's arms wrap around his waist. Pulled close to the other, Lovino was barely able to catch his breath from the surprise before his lips crashed into Alfred's. It took him a few moments, but soon, Lovino found him kissing the other back, not too sure why he was so happy that this was happening.

The kiss was quick and sweet. Just as soon as it started, it was over and Alfred was pulling away, a satisfied smile on his face.

"Wha-what'd you do that for?" Lovino spluttered, the small blush that was on his face before blossoming into a much larger one.

"Just wanted to see what it would be like." Alfred said with a small laugh. "Besides, I've been wanting to do that for some time today…"

"Really now…" Lovino said softly, not able to believe it. In all truth and honestly, he'd been thinking about doing that for some time today too; but he never thought that it would actually happen. "Ya know, Alfred. You're not all that bad." he said with a smirk, shoving the other playfully.

"Glad to hear your opinion's changed about me." Alfred replied with a grin. "You're a pretty cool guy yourself, ya know."

"Y-Yeah…."

"Yeah."

After a few moments of silence between the two, they sat down and talked for a little while. During that time, they exchanged cell numbers and arranged to meet up soon. Lovino was reluctant to call it a date at first, but after some prodding from Alfred, he finally agreed to refer to it as that.

With smiles on their faces and happy feelings coursing through their souls, the two sat like that for a while longer until it was time to turn in for the night; both of them knowing that this could possibly be the start of something wonderful.

As always, thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story!

Please feel free to leave any constructive criticism you may have for me in the reviews. It's much appreciated!