"I'm telling you, I had no idea there was a mama rat and her kid in that box! You really think I'd have opened it in the house if I knew? I have allergies!"

Alfred's voice quickly overtook the light patter of rain sounding off the bedroom window. A hand cradling his fiancé's head while his free arm gripped at his nightshirt, he searched Yuko's face for any suggestion of understanding.

「Oh please.」 Yuko shushed, one arm lazily rolled across her forehead. Unlike her lover, she made a conscious effort to allow the poor girl in the next room a good night's sleep. "You wanted to give Lucy a heart attack, and you nearly did. Quit the good-boy-allergy bit while I'm still sleeping with you."

Yuko was exhausted. What with the cursing under the sink, over the sink, at the sink, at the rats, Alfred was lucky he was a skilled cuddler–if it weren't for that little talent, her and Lucy's girls’ year would have quickly become a reality.

"Not my fault she's scared of her own shadow. Puts up a front like she's the second coming, though."

"My, I wonder where she gets it from." Yuko rolled her eyes as Alfred's breathy laugh bounced her head on his chest.

He stretched an arm above the both of them, the other moving to coil tightly around her shoulders. Nothing was more satisfying to him than having her in his grasp, in a home they could call their own.

Laziness and contentment quickly overtaking his usual hyper disposition, Alfred sighed as his fingertips met a cool floor instead of the usual silky hair.

It had been about half a year since he lost the guaranteed comfort of feeling Yuko's long hair gorgeously splayed above them in bed.

Why'd she have to go and cut it all off?

Maybe another six months and I'll finally be used to it.

"Hey."

Alfred winced as Yuko's chin dug into his collar bone. He crooked his head down to return the greeting.

"Hey."

She blinked lazily, eyes and mouth half-open like a cat ready to doze. "Are you searching for my hair?"

"No."

「You're lying.」 Yuko yawned as she hooked a leg around his ankle.

"I should have cut it years ago, it was so hot–oh my God you're so cold." Her knee jerked her leg away on instinct, digging her foot into the warm sanctuary of their blanket as her hands dug into his sides.

"Whattaya mean I'm cold?" Alfred whined. "It's like a hundred degrees in here, I'm dying!"

"If it were a hundred degrees we'd be dead,"

"I'm talking about American degrees!"

"Oh how grand, another thing I need to teach you." She mumbled something else as she snuggled her way into his neck, but neither of them were willing to pursue bickering any further for the day.

They laid in silence for a few moments.

Zzzzzzzzz. Zzzzzzzz.

Yuko cringed.

Oh goodness, I forgot about them.

The incessant buzzing of the cicadas was something Yuko had never missed during her time in America. Although she was a nature-lover at heart and she had a formidable "green thumb" as Alfred had called it, insects never attracted her affections and she was sure they never would.

The weather, the bugs, the food–

Everything.

Her lips tensed into a straight line as her mind ran wild.

"It’s going to get even hotter, you know. This isn't even that bad."

The man beneath her laughed in reply, tingles shooting up and down his neck as he felt her mouth twitch. "What, you trying to scare me away already?"

"I'm not trying to 'scare you away.'" She tensed as a cool hand landed just underneath the nape of her neck. "I'm...simply presenting you with the state of your life from now on."

"Well pretty lady, feel free to enlighten me some more." Alfred nudged her head up until her nose was pressed with his. "I am, after all, just a simple farm boy."

He silently praised himself for working up a blush across her cheeks, clearly visible even with just the moonlight.

"You're a simple pain in my ass, farm boy, that's what you are." Yuko plopped her head back down on his chest, reluctantly allowing more of his laughter to tumble over her while she lay there in a sweaty resolve.

Zzzzzzz. Zzzzzz.

"These bugs make that noise all summer. And it’s still only spring."

"Beats Luce yelling all the time."

"It also rains a lot during this time of year, there's going to be leaks all over the place."

"It's a good thing I'm tall and the ceilings are low, right? Ha!"

"Maybe if you bump your head you'll knock some sense into it."

Always one step ahead with a good comeback at the ready on her tongue, Yuko would have normally cringed at such a weak jab if it weren't for her mind leaping from one worry to the next.

She burrowed into Alfred's shirt as he laughed once more.

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"You're losing your touch, doll. It's almost midnight and you didn't even make me cry one tear today!"

「Shut up.」

His fingers traipsed atop her head, inky black tresses now wavy and curving from the muggy air outside.

He couldn't help the pride stirring through his body as reality steadily furthered its way into his brain. This was it–the house on its last leg, the language and culture he was certain he would never fully understand, the unreachable woman finally off her pedestal and in his arms–an imperfect life, but he would take it in stride with her at his side.

Not to mention, anything was better than the farm.

"Al." A soft murmur vibrated against his chest, coming from the head of black hair Alfred was currently entangled in.

"Yeah."

She grew stiff, her body now resembling more of a board than anything lifelike.

Now, how on earth could she word this without sending him through the roof?

Yuko took a breath, eyes closed with her nose still pressed to Alfred's chest. "Now that you're here...and seeing everything." She paused. Her toes curled and her heartbeat quickened. "Would you have done it differently?"

Ten seconds, twenty seconds passed. Alfred didn't give an answer.

Dread and shame suddenly flooded Yuko's veins.

Was he upset? Did he think she doubted their relationship? That wasn't it at all, she only–

"Nope." She nearly jumped from her skin as his hand left from her head to her waist.

She bit her lip. Was she just hearing what she wanted to hear?

"I wouldn't change a thing." Alfred's gaze shifted from her head to his hand as it quivered atop her nightdress.

Yuko was on edge. She might be having second thoughts, and that terrified him.

"Sure, Chicago was fun, I had a lot of fun with you. And there was way more to do there than back where I'm from." He kept his voice steady, no matter how unbelievably difficult it was to do so. The last thing he wanted was for his own panic to throw her into more unrest. "But no, I wouldn't change anything, not even the goddamn leaky sink."

He smirked as she let out a groan, her head turning to the side as her arms splayed above her and Alfred's heads.

"Don’t remind me of that thing, this is your last warning."

"Is this what they call ‘yoga’? Just goes to show you're fancier than I'll ever be!"

Alfred shifted her body to the side, slowly rolling her sweaty frame underneath him.

Her back hit the mat below. She cursed herself for letting him get the turn on her, just like he always did right after he cracked one of his ridiculous jokes.

"Al–" Her heightened pitch and dilated eyes were far from enough to derail the plans manifesting behind his own tired gaze.

"Forget Chicago, forget Osaka. I don’t care." His pulse quickened as his hands linked around her wrists. Virtues like patience and self-control were never Alfred's forte. It showed especially during times like these, when she was serene and smiling with her mouth parted and upturned–a tried and true sign that she was more than okay with shedding her prim and proper persona when alone with him. "What matters to me, what's always mattered to me, is getting to be with you. I'd go to the damn moon if I had to."

His eyes trailed from her face to her hands. He felt her pulse ticking under his palms. Alfred was never one for "appreciating the small things" as his late brother would say, but seeing her hands linked with his was one of the few things on earth that managed to keep him sane.

Was he thrilled that he had to move to the other side of the world, niece in tow, to continue on with her? Not necessarily, but it made her happy–as happy as she could be in her current situation, at the very least.

"Ha." Yuko's laughter took him aback as she tried to wiggle her hands free. She would be the first to admit she always got teary-eyed and blushing cheeks whenever Alfred spouted off something even remotely romantic. She'd also be the first to admit, however, that she was always more than happy to pull him back into their reality, as dank and imperfect as it was. "Yeah, I bet you'd rather go to the moon than be in the same city as my dad."

The mere mention of the man caused Alfred's sparkling eyes to turn cloudy and dim.

There it was. The situation. He should’ve known it was only a matter of time before Yuko would bring it up to him.

Alfred just wished she had given him another year or two to prepare.

His fingers relaxed, allowing her to free her hands.

"C'mon, I just put my heart on a platter for you, being romantic and everything, and you gotta bring up my eventual cause of death?" His head lowered, straight golden locks brushing against her neck

"Oh my god, he's not going to kill you, you big baby." She had found it funny the first few times: Alfred would tap his foot or chew on his lip whenever Yuko brought up her father while they were in Chicago. When the foot tapping and lip biting morphed into sudden sweats and clammy white skin, however, she knew it was something that needed to be discussed and worked on amongst the two of them.

She decided to continue, treading lightly as she unbuttoned the top of his shirt.

The poor man, maybe she should have shelved this conversation for a cooler night.

"I don't want to see him for some time, anyway, Al. You have nothing to worry about for now."

"For now!?" Eyes wide and darting every which way, Alfred's voice was beginning to resemble a whiny dog rather than a grown man. "Oh great, as if turning forty wasn't bad enough, now I gotta worry about your dad coming for me.” He brought a hand to his forehead as his life flashed before him. “Did I ever tell you about the time my grandpa and I were almost killed by wolves? Because let me tell you, that's sounding a hell of a lot more appealing than–"

His babbling was muffled with a small hand flying up to his lips.

A mixture of groans and hushes dropped from her own mouth as she rolled her head towards the wall. "Lucy is trying to sleep, shut up."

"Oh, Lucy is trying to sleep!" his neck craned down in disbelief, shoulder shaking and mouth agape as one arm flippantly waved at the wall. "Meanwhile I'm over here planning an early funeral, mhm, okay."

His lanky frame collapsed onto the mat beside Yuko, a dejected sigh finishing off his rant.

Another wave of silence washed over the room. Yuko waited for the sound of raindrops to continue on just as they had earlier that night, but now there was nothing, until-.

Knock. Knock knock knock.

「We woke her up, I told you to be quiet.」 Yuko shot up, sitting on her knees as a hand quickly combed over her head.

"Me!? You’re the one who just put the fear of God in my soul!"

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Are you guys going to sleep any time soon, or–?" Lucy’s scruffy mumbles straggled through the thin door.

While his fiancé couldn't help but laugh, Alfred groaned upon hearing his niece just outside his bedroom, gracing his ears and the night with her ever-so-shrill voice.

「Sorry, Lu-chan!」 Yuko called towards the door as she lurched her body forward, paused, then plummeted back to bed with a wave of her hand. "We'll sleep now, promise!"

Alfred had to applaud her ability to sound so refined as she drifted into a sweaty half-asleep stupor.

He let out a sigh as footsteps pattered back into the room next door.

"Now see, if this were the farm or Chicago Id've just told her to shut up."

"Well." Yuko huffed, repositioning her head with a hard thud. "I can assure you, Mister Hampton, this isn't the farm or Chicago."

"And I couldn't be happier, even if your dad’s got it out for me." Alfred's eyes fluttered shut as his hand floundered under the sheets, finally finding its way to the top of Yuko's wrist. "We still need to talk about what we're gonna do, but this is more than enough for now. For tonight."

And it truly was. As he felt the light pulse of her heart through her skin, her presence and love was enough, no matter the uncertainty waiting for them tomorrow or the days after.

"Me too." Yuko was far too exhausted to concern herself with the little tears pricking the corners of her eyes.

She didn't bother to wipe them away. "You're enough for me too."