2 Green-Eyed Woman

His heels clicked on the floor as he fast-walked to the outside world, almost getting blinded by the Texas sun as he looked for her car.

The black Jag came up beside the curb, and Alfred instantly went to the backseat, strapping himself in before curling in on himself.

"You okay?" Rulyn asked from the front seat, looking at him through the mirror, green eyes seemingly emotionless as she studied him, eyes narrowing as they saw his messed up eye. Alfred could only bring himself to whine in response, covering his ears. He felt overwhelmed. She grabbed his bag, knowing full well that there were knives and other items in it, before motioning for him to hand over his jacket. He loved it dearly, and she knew it, but there was a gun in the inside pocket. He handed it to her, and she folded it before placing it on the passenger seat.

With a final sigh, she turned on the radio, calming melodies flowing through the speakers before she started driving.

It took about ten uncomfortable minutes for them to get to their hotel. Rulyn gave him one of the key cards and he went ahead of her, basically running to their room on the second floor (it was a small hotel), and immediately going into the bathroom. It was stark silent, but at least it was secluded.

He could hear the click of the rooms door opening and closing as she came into the room. He could hear her shuffling around, doing whatever she was doing, and it made him uncomfortable.

There was a tiny little plop before the sound of a piano broke the silence, and a bar of chocolate was slid under the door. He could barely bring himself to look at it. They already thought he was fat… he couldn't he couldn't he couldn't.

'How much did he weigh now…' he asked himself, standing up and looking for the weight thing, most likely kept under the sink… where was it? It was there this morning… Ru must have moved it, damn.

Pulling on his loose t-shirt, he was thankful that Russia had only seen his arms, although they were still heavy as well, and not the rest of his body. His other self-harm scars, how fat he was, and… 'war wounds' recent injuries done by... humans. He was so weak he got hurt by measly little humans!

His… his eye. Reaching up, he gently prodded the almost pure black bruise, wincing as he did so. He tried to see if he could find the tweezers in either of their bags before one came from under the door.

Oh c'mon Ru, it wasn't even that sharp…

Slowly, he removed the glass from around his eyes, placing his shattered glasses on the counter. He didn't need them to see, they were honestly just for decor. Grabbing some of the wound-glue from Rulyn's first aid kit, he started mending his wounds, being careful to shut them really tight.

It was only so long before it was done, and he threw his glasses out under the sink. Ru wouldn't be to happy about buying new ones… then again he did get a few K's for last night.

He… he felt lonely now.

Placing the chocolate on the sink like it was radioactive he walked out of the bathroom, picking up her phone along the way and turning the music off.

"What happened?" She asked from her spot on the other bed, papers surrounding her as she calculated the costs for this month. Their money was dwindling in several of their credit card accounts because of the rising costs in their area, not to mention the government taxing government officers more so that they could afford more bombs.

"Russia…" he muttered, sitting on the opposite bed as she looked over with a raised brow.

"Saw your scars?"

"Yes… do you think he'll tell anyone?" Alfred asked, her laughing a little with a smile.

"He's Russia, if he listens more to his people, like you do, there won't be much of an issue," Rulyn explained, "besides, Russians are weird about suicide, they feel uncomfortable about it, at least in my experience. Definitely wouldn't use it against someone."

"Thanks," Alfred muttered. He wanted to ask her where the weight thing was, but she'd probably force him to go down to the deli for food.

"Eat the chocolate?" God dammit.

"No, I'm not that hungry," Alfred said, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. She saw right through his lie though. There was no point.

"Al, chocolate doesn't make you full," she stated, a pierced eyebrow raising as she looked to him, unamused. She ran a hand through the longer portion of her short hair, the part that covered her eye, before telling him to do exactly what he thought she would:

"Go get something from the deli, you're hungry."

"No I'm not!" Alfred exclaimed, a little to fast.

"If you weren't hungry you wouldn't be thinking about your stomach and your weight," Rulyn explained in her unusually calm way, "c'mon, I'll come with you."

"I'm not a child!" Alfred snapped, worry seeping into his words.

"I know you're not, but your sick," Rulyn said carefully, "A sickness nobody can see, yet still a sickness."

Fighting was no use against her, and he was forced to give in. Rolling off the bed, he followed her out the door.

They got to the deli and ordered their food, both getting considerably little, although he knew why. She didn't need to lose weight, she was perfect the way she was! Why did she have to torture herself by only eating the same amount as him?

"Ru…" he muttered angrily, giving her a half glare as she smirked. She was completely unaffected by his anger, probably didn't even care (that wasn't even a probably!), what the hell!

"Shush," she cooed, "I'm not hungry, ate before you got out."

That was a lie. That was such an obvious lie. The car or the room would have smelled like food if it was true- oh. Is that how obvious his lies were?

The waitress served their food, glancing to them -probably to see if they were a couple- before she spotted the lesbian flag braclet Ru was wearing and walked off with a pout.

"So, what was your conversation with Russia like," Rulyn asked, picking at her food with her fork, "must have been odd to you if it made you uncomfortable enough to have an anxiety attack."

"Uh… hard to explain." Alfred started, "We started fighting, well, more like wrestling, and he broke open some of my scars, I hit him pretty hard, and he pulled my jacket off."

"Did you clean your cuts?" Rulyn asked. He was in the bathroom for a fair amount of time.

"No, I'll do it later," Alfred replied before continuing, "he got pretty weird about it, stopped being aggressive immediately. Looked, I dunno how to explain it, scared? I don't really remember the rest of it, but I know you called me."

"Lucky you didn't collapse there," Rulyn said, picking at her nose piercing, "Russia would have probably taken you with him."

"You're joking… right?"

"Nope," Rulyn chuckled, "Russians, unlike Americans, help people in need. You know how in America a middle aged person could fall over, but they get really offended when you try to help them?"

"Ya."

"Not the case in Russia, there it's courtesy." Rulyn stated, watching as Alfred's expression shifted to shock and worry.

"That's… that's why Vegas is like that…" he muttered as she laughed.

"Not to mention the Italians there," Ru joked, him laughing in response. It was silent for a few minutes as they ate.

"We going home tonight?" Alfred asked, running his hand through his hair.

"Nah, I had too much coffee today, I don't want to pass out of the way there. Besides, I want to finish our money situation before going near little kids again," Rulyn explained, searching her pocket for her credit card as she spoke, her plate empty in front of her, "I don't want to buy three bottles of cheap migraine pills."

"Aww, what's wrong? Mariana getting on your nerves?" he cooed, his mood lifting.

"You have no idea, kid wants to know why her older sibs keep saying that their dad went to go get milk," Rulyn complained as Alfred winced, "but don't worry Alfie, you're the best mother those kids could ask for."

He could admit he missed his little ones, and not so little ones. Not to mention his siblings, and his other immortal and mortal workers like Rulyn. The immortal workers… the ones that literally gave their souls to him. Jesus, why did they trust him so much?

And Ru was one of them!

Leaving the table, she paid at the counter before both of them left, heading back up to their hotel room for the last night. Rulyn went back to her charts before seeming to remember something and pulling out her laptop.

"Which color, black?" she asked, scrolling through what she was looking at, "For your glasses?"

"And metal frames, they might not break as much," Alfred replied, "If they aren't tremendously expensive of course."

"Your fine," Rulyn said with a chuckle, "I have a discount… with ~honey~"

"Oh my god a discount with honey," America joked, the other snorting in response.

There was the clicking of Ru ordering the glasses before she shut her computer and looked over the papers surrounding her.

"We need to sell Lillin," she said, looking over the amount they've made this month, "She's old enough now."

"Aw, I like that horse," Alfred said, remembering how the white filly would jump around him with no fear.

"Ya, well we need more meat for the gators, we're almost an entire cow off from what all our exotics need to eat next month," Rulyn sighed, seeing the confused look on Alfred's face, "Bessle had a miscarriage."

"Oh," Alfred piped, "well, she has been getting older, not really a surprise."

"Think we should butcher her?" Rulyn asked, "Sami said her liver has been getting worse, and I don't want her to go through that pain."

"Before it fails ya," Alfred agreed, "it would hurt her to much."

"I'll make sure to tell them," Ru replied, grabbing her phone, opening Semaphor and texting the others. "You can go to sleep, you were up all night."

"I'll take you up on that," Alfred muttered, listening to the sound of Ru flipping papers as he fell into a restless sleep.