Hey everyone! How'd you like this trashy fanfic so far? :D

Ugh I'm so dead

...

The next day after the rain, Sakura got a terrible (as Mathias says, but that's probably not true) case of the flu after the event of visiting Matthew with only one umbrella. And she and Alfred shared the umbrella. Japanese people had different beliefs when it came to...certain matters...

The door creaked open and Alfred, Arthur, and Elizabeta peeked from the doorway. Sakura shivered in her blankets and coughed once, a cool cloth placed on her forehead earlier by Elizabeta. "Huh?"

"Oh, Sakura, I'm so worried about you," Elizabeta looked at her, her green eyes evidently filled with concern. "Hope you'll get better soon so we can fangirl over our favorite ships..."

Arthur glared at Alfred, who only shrugged sheepishly. The Brit spoke a few low, inaudible words to Alfred and looked at Sakura on the bed worryingly. "Get better, lass," was all he told Sakura before he walked away. Alfred sat on the floor next to Sakura's bed and brought out his cellphone.

"Alfie, dear, are you not going to tell the poor guy to feel better?" Elizabeta flashed the American a sideways smile. She called Sakura "a poor guy" the way one might call a politician a "successful individual in society."

Sakura sank further beneath the sheets and curled her body, creating a ball as small as she could be. Just before sleep got to her, Alfred pulled back the sheets and placed his cellphone beside Sakura. Kiku's eyes widened at the music playing from Alfred's phone. Counting Stars. Again?

"And I-I-I-I...
Feel something so wrong
Just doing the right thing."

Somehow, as annoyed and embarrassed Sakura could be, she found herself tapping her fingers on the bed's foam to the beat of the music. Ugh, the beneficial perks of being Japanese. It was taking a toll on her.

"I'll just leave my phone there, okay?" Alfred backed away slowly towards the bedroom door. "Anyways, there's coffee, water, and a few Biogesic pills - courtesy of Maria - on the bedside table. Just drink if you feel like it." By now, Sakura was slowly giving in to sleep. It was as if the music was present in her soul, telling her to sleep with the familiar verses.

"Baby, I've been, I've been losing sleep
Dreaming about the things that we could be
Baby, I've been, I've been praying hard
So no more counting dollars..."

"She's really sick, isn't she?" Sakura heard Elizabeta tell Alfred. She could feel her green, emotion-filled eyes look down at her nearly-sleeping figure. "He'll get better soon. I know it." And with those words, the Hungarian walked away, leaving Alfred alone with a sick Japanese girl to care for in the room. Alfred laughed bitterly to himself.

"And so she says," Alfred rolled his eyes before removing his cool cloth and - now this, Sakura might have imagined, given she was half asleep at this time - placing a short kiss on the Japanese person's forehead. "Sweet dreams, Sakura." Alfred put the cool cloth back.

"We'll be counting stars..."

And as the last lyrics of the song's chorus ended, Alfred left the room.

.

"What took you so long?" Elizabeta, being the motherly figure that she was, narrowed her eyes suspiciously, her hands on her hips. Alfred swore under his breath. He forgot about Elizabeta "investigating" him and Sakura. Before his face showed any flustered emotion, he laughed nonchalantly and shook his head.

"Nothing much, just told her about the coffee, the song," oh God, the song...he thought, "and told her to 'get better soon.' Nothing special really," Alfred replied, to his dismay to see that Elizabeta did not buy a single word Alfred said. Of course, Alfred left out the quick, stolen kiss, since that would drive Elizabeta crazy.

But it seems like she already knows.

Elizabeta sighed wearily, half to Alfred and Sakura, for the being the super-dense pair of lovers, half to herself for not being the supportive fangirl she was supposed to be, and took out her phone from her pocket.

"You're coming with me," she said fiercely, like if Alfred didn't follow her, he'd end up underground without someone paying for his funeral. "We need to talk. This has gone for far too long, and I am tired of being just another clichè passerby who acts like I don't have a clue." Elizabeta strolled towards the front door and smiled sweetly at Alfred. "Oh, and would you tell Gilly darling that we're leaving? I don't want him to go looking for me, thanks."

.

The park was one of the places Elizabeta loved walking through.

Green, well-trimmed grass stretched out before her feet underneath her sneakers. They didn't go to a cafè - ordering coffee there was much too expensive, also there were only a few people in the park and nobody Elizabeta recognized. They were going to have no problem talking here.

Elizabeta sat on the grass underneath the thick shade of a tree, Alfred following along. A few passersby whispered among themselves excitedly and nodded her heads towards her and Alfred. Elizabeta smiled smugly to herself...they must've thought they were a couple or something.

"So...what did ya want to talk about that's so important you have me following you into this park?" Alfred asked, Elizabeta eliciting a slight shake of the head. Poor Alfred. So dense. Elizabeta leaned back against the base of the tree trunk.

"Well, first, let's talk about your feelings," Elizabeta chimed cheerfully, a smile on her pretty face as she thought of the plan she had in mind. "Let's face it, you like Sakura. There's nothing you can do to hide it," she said.

Alfred looked at the sky in embarrassment, probably. "No, I don't," he said.

Elizabeta wanted to kick this tree. She clenched her teeth tightly as her mind raged from inside. How could he be so damn blunt and oblivious? Why, she may seem like just another girl, but she can see things better than most people. And it was torturing her to leave the fun out. Four months! Four months of leaving these two and her staying out of this. This was getting out of control. She had to do something.

"Yes you do," she confirmed firmly. So that's the game he wanted to play, huh? Alright, she thought. Let's play.

Alfred shook his head. "Nope. Certainly don't." A small hint of pink glowed on his cheeks.

And that's when Elizabeta realized.

Something happened earlier.

Something that made him come down the stairs earlier five minutes later.

His eyes and expression made it obvious - he looked like he just did something he did not believe he did, in a dreamlike matter, his eyes seemingly far away, out of this place, out of this park, thinking. And that blush? No wonder Sakura fell for the guy.

"Something happened earlier," Elizabeta said, making sure that her voice sounded firm. "Didn't it?"

.

Meanwhile, Sakura lay in her sickbed, feeling quite dead. Yao was right. She wasn't that immune to viruses. Maybe she should stop staying in isolation, at least for a little while. She was destroying himself, in a way.

Sakura blew her nose once and hugged the sheets tighter with shivering arms. She was cold, and oh, the song, it has been playing for a few hours now, the lyrics about love and dreams mocking her. Oh, this was unfair...she was too weak and probably too lazy to change the tunes...

"Old, but I'm not that old,
Young, but I'm not that bold.
I don't care if we get old,
I'm just doing what we're told."

More singing ensued, to the point where Sakura nearly memorized the entire song from a few hours of repetition. With all the strength a sick person could muster (which wasn't a lot), Sakura reached for Alfred's phone and blew her nose once more into the tissues. Sakura decided she did not want to sleep, since she felt like she lost the need to do so.

What had Alfred said earlier? Anyways, there's coffee, water, and Biogesic pills - courtesy of Maria - on the bedside table.

Coffee. Looking at the mentioned bedside table, there was a cup of coffee. Hmm...coffee. Sakura rarely drank coffee, since the ones brewed by Li Xiao and Im Yong Soo tasted like trash, and that's saying something. Hesitantly, Sakura gripped the handle of the little mug and lifted it to her lips. Mm...coffee. Coffee was good. At least, it tasted good. Slowly, Sakura's senses were awakening until she no longer felt like she needed sleep.

"Thanks, Alfred," Sakura smiled softly to herself.