[Winter Challenge Day 14]
Title: Not Bad
Author: miss_auto1621
Characters: America, Britain
Challenge: Holiday Winter Challenge-Theme #14: Good
Rating: T because of language
Summary: America loves to tease Britain about his cooking, but he tried giving it a chance.
A/N: For Kira.
America was a little bit of a dick with Britain…
…Okay, he was a big dick with him, but that was only because Britain asked for it.
When world meetings would end, they always got into verbal arguments and ended up going home angry and ready to hit something. Well, that was Britain; America would forget once he’d see food.
America would also rub it in Britain’s face that his other former colonies were happy without him as well, and did so by getting together with Australia, New Zealand, and India so they could chat with each other, rather loudly, in order for the Brit to hear.
Britain always got him back, though, by telling everyone about embarrassing moments about America when he was younger every time America was late to meetings.
Despite their fights, they would somehow manage to patch things up, what with them being allies and all. So, they had to tolerate each other. This tolerance usually came when they stayed over at each other’s home. If America was holding the meeting in his place, Britain would take the guest bedroom for the day. If Britain was holding the meeting, America would go and crash in his house, indirectly trying to ‘Americanize’ the poor Brit’s house.
It’s not that they couldn’t afford a hotel (they were countries, for crying out loud), but they just…felt comfortable in each other’s homes. Didn’t they live together for a few centuries as brothers? Didn’t America sleep in Britain’s room whenever he had nightmares, or couldn’t sleep, or just wanted to talk until they fell asleep?
It was so different now, but they still had the same habits. While he reminisced about the past, America’s thoughts would shift to something that always came up: food. The unavoidable subject that everyone came across at least twice a day.
And since he was in London, he had to eat what was available…
…Which meant…Britain’s cooking….
But as he kept thinking, he remembered that when he was little, he enjoyed eating what Britain made for him. Of course, he was the source of his food so he had to like what he was given. Then, when he ate foreign foods, he began to see the difference in tastes. However, even if America didn’t want to admit it, he felt as if his food was derived from Britain’s food, just a little tastier. Or saltier.
Now that he analyzed this, he didn’t understand why people didn’t like Britain’s cooking. He grew up with his food, so he didn’t see the ‘bad taste’ in it. Everyone just made a big deal out of it.
But his logic was competing with his impulsive thoughts.
He was just saying that because he was being housed by Britain, right? There was no gratitude due anymore, right? He was bullshitting with himself and just trying to keep a calm atmosphere during his visit, right?
He just hoped he didn’t end up dying because he consumed Britain’s ‘tasty’ food. However, he refused to give in to his thoughts. He would experiment to test this hypothesis of his, positively thinking it would yield the results he sought for.
So when Britain finished cooking the meal of the day, America tried being nice and helped him by setting the table and doing everything else. He thought that if he did something before he ate, he may taste the food better.
Truth be-told, Britain was actually nervous about cooking. He was cooking for himself, of course, but he had America, who loved teasing him about his food. He had heard so many negative comments about his food that he sometimes lost the confidence to cook. The other nations didn’t realize they hurt him by telling him his cooking sucked, and America was one of those countries that just loved to rub it in.
So when he placed the large dish of fish and chips in the center of the kitchen table, he was surprised to see America eagerly reaching for the spatula to serve himself. Britain just thought that America must’ve been so hungry that he was disregarding any terrible taste in foods as long as he had something to eat. What a pig. Britain remembered raising him better than that, but up to a certain point, America’s American instincts took over and left the gentleman attitude behind and in the trash.
He also served tea and scones, and America reached for the tea pot to pour himself a cup and took a scone from the pastry plate.
Britain was wide-eyed. He hadn’t seen America eat his food so eagerly since he was a child. And he looked like he was enjoying it when he dug into his food.
“Are you enjoying the food?” Britain asked.
“Yes,” America answered with his mouth full.
The Brit couldn’t read his face as he took a bite of his piece of fish.
“Really? Is it okay?”
“Yeah, dude, it’s great!”
That could either mean that he meant it, or he was just trying to get Britain to shut up so he could finish his food quickly and not be rude by throwing his food in the waste basket.
Britain touches America’s forehead with his hand. “Are you sick? Do you feel alright? You’re not down with a fever, are you?” He was frantically touching America’s face to feel if he was too warm for signs of a sickness and then made his way to his medicinal pantry to retrieve something that could help America.
“Britain, relax,” America said. “I’m fine. I’m not sick. I’m just eating.”
“Are you sure? You’re not joking about my food and-”
“It’s cool. Your food’s actually pretty good.”
Britain raised his eyebrows in astonishment as he went to sit down. “REALLY?”
“Yeah! It’s not bad,” America answered as he took another bite of his fish. “Not bad at all.”
For the rest of the day, the only thing America could see from Britain was a damn smile that didn’t want to go away.
A/N 2: In my head canon, since he was raised by him, America secretly loves Britain’s food, but he teases him about his cooking. ^-^
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