[Winter Challenge Day 17]
Title: Out in the Town
Author: miss_auto1621
Characters: Britain, Belgium
Challenge: Holiday Winter Challenge-Theme #17: Simple
Rating: T for language.
Summary: It was a coffee shop. He could not get over that. EngBel.
A/N: For Vanessa.
They met in one of America’s cafés when a world conference was held in his home. Britain wasn’t the type to drink coffee (he preferred tea), but he would do it for her since she did want to do something that evening.
“But let’s not do something so extravagant,” she said. “No expensive dates this time. Something simple.”
Oh, Belgium, how dare you ask Britain to have a simple date? She knew he was a former empire, a gentleman, someone that loved high class. And she wanted a simple gathering, just the two of them. Nothing fancy, no beautiful music surrounding them, no fabulous decorative table pieces in the center.
Just a damn napkin holder in the middle of the table; not even a candle was worthy of adorning the center. And why bloody Starbucks, of all the places? There was a nice restaurant across the street. Why not there?
He would be careful and make sure to hide his displeasure, though. He didn’t want for her to think he was a stuck-up asshole, even if America had told him plenty of times that he was one.
“This place is so cute and small,” Belgium said as they claimed a table.
“Do you want to look at the menu first before we sit, dear?” he asked.
Oh, right, there was a huge menu on top of the cash registers, with tiny letters, and pictures of coffee cups and fruits and pastries. They could barely read what each entry read and Belgium had to stand on her toes to see clearly.
They all had such weird names, which irked Britain to no end. Why couldn’t they be simple choices, like coffee, hot chocolate, and tea?
That’s when Britain remembered they had tea in Starbucks. ‘But America bastardized it and made it Iced tea’, he thought. ‘Better be careful when I order.’
Belgium tapped Britain to get his attention.
“And people say European languages are difficult?” she asked with a giggle.
“I know what you mean,” he said. “Frappuccino…that’s not Dutch, now is it?”
They laughed silently. “No, but I think it has a French root word,” she clarified.
“Curses,” he replied with a playfully irritated expression. “Don’t let America touch your languages, love, or else he’ll mess them up.”
“Too late.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Britain said as he realized something. “One of your languages is French.”
Belgium smiled as she shook her head. “I don’t know if I’ll forgive him. He has Godiva chocolate here, though, so I don’t know what to think anymore.”
“Belgian chocolate,” Britain said. “Well, at least he has fine things here. Now if only he had British tea instead of that cold beverage he calls iced tea.”
“You’re still not over that, are you, dear?” she asked with another giggle.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be over that.”
Their turn came and they chose the most straightforward choices. They weren’t even going to try to attempt to pronounce any of the foreign words that made a joke of certain languages. However, the cashier gave them a strange look when he took Britain’s name for their order.
What? Had he never heard of the bloody United Kingdom before? What kind of education was America giving his country? He was starting to get worried.
“I’m going to pretend like I didn’t see that happen, okay?” she said as she claimed their table once again.
“Do you think he would have looked at us in a strange way if I had said Belgium?”
“Probably. But as long as we get our hot chocolate and tea, I’ll be fine.”
They waited for about a minute before their order was called out.
“I just want to forget about today and the bloody subjects we all talked about in the world meeting,” he said as he held his cup of tea.
It better taste like tea, or if not he would up to the cashier and let him know how to make proper tea.
“I understand your feelings exactly. All these pressing world subjects are causing me a lot of stress and headaches. Will hot chocolate make it better? I don’t know, but you and your cup of tea might.”
He raised his cup for cheers, prompting her to do the same.
He thought of a good reason to celebrate. “To a…worry-free, simple date,” he finally said.
“Cheers,” she added with a smile.
And as the night progressed, the only subjects discussed had nothing to do with world meetings, future plans, or even hot chocolate ore tea.
A/N 2: I researched the origin of Frappuccino, and the word frappé is French. Since Belgium speaks French, I found it really funny and teasing. I also found the coffee shop idea really ironic for Britain, since he’s a tea-aholic and cannot be helped. Ever. And I had to mention Godiva, since it’s some fucking damn fine Belgian chocolate that has sadly been discontinued in my fucking mall! (You can tell I’m not bothered by that, right?) Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed!
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