Alfred opened the door to Arthur's basement. The entire room was shrouded in pitch black darkness. Alfred stepped into the room and squinted in the darkness, trying to see. Alfred waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. "Yo, Arthur! You in here, bro?"
Alfred was not given a response if he was there. "Where the hell are you, man?" Alfred muttered under his breath.
Alfred turned around to go back when Alfred heard someone walk down the steps that led up to the upper floor. Arthur pushed open the door, which Alfred had left ajar, and flicked on the lights from a switch to the right of the door. "Alfred? What are you doing down here?"
"I was looking for you, dude!" Alfred explained.
"With the lights off?" Arthur deadpanned. "I didn't know there was a switch," Alfred grinned sheepishly.
"Well, then. Why were you looking for me?" Arthur questioned.
"I hadn't talked to you in a while, so I came to check out what you were doing," Alfred smiled innocently.
Arthur raised one eyebrow, "Really, now?" Alfred smiled almost too innocently. Something was up. "Just admit why you wanted to see me, I know you're lying."
"What?" Alfred spluttered. "I just wanted to see what my fam was doin' is all." Alfred's eyes shifted suspiciously.
"You're a terrible liar, Alfred," Arthur said. "Okay, fine!" Alfred surrendered. "You always boast about your magic stuff, so I came to check it out."
"I don't boast!" Arthur protested. "And besides, why should I let you see this magic of mine?"
"'Cuz you love me?" Alfred guessed. Arthur rolled his eyes. "You're my favorite brother?"
Arthur smirked, he was probably lying, but it was nice to be called a favorite brother, let alone a brother, "Alright." Alfred jumped up and cheered, "Woohoo!"
"On one condition," Arthur warned. "Don't. Touch. Anything. I mean it."
"You got it, fam!" Alfred grinned in triumph.
Arthur set down the miscellaneous items he was carrying and grabbed a few candles from a table. He set them down on the circled star painted on the floor. "By the way, this isn't demonic, it's-"
"-Pagan," Alfred finished. "How did you know that?" Arthur was perplexed.
"I love learning, man, and I happened upon a book about Paganism and thought that piece of information was pretty interesting," Alfred explained.
Arthur continued to set up the things he needed for his spell, or whatever he was doing. He lit the candles and gathered different ingredients that he would need. Alfred leaned against the wall, watching with an interested face, this was sort of fascinating!
Once Arthur had gathered all he needed, he mixed it into a bowl, put it into the middle of the star and started to read an incantation from a book. Arthur finished the incantation and waited. After a good minute he flipped through his book.
"Was something supposed to happen or…?" Alfred raised one eyebrow. "Yes, but, hold on…" Arthur stared at the page in his book. "No, I'm sure I said it right…"
Suddenly, a wind, like a tornado, started whipping around the room. "Arthur!?" Alfred said with a fearful edge. The wind got faster and faster, it started to suck Arthur and Alfred in like a whirlpool. Alfred dug his fingers into the stone floor, but it was no use he was sucked into the tornado-whirlpool.
Alfred regained his vision and his eyes met with the bright sun in his face. Alfred squinted and sat up he was laying in a field. There was a military camp near by, it looked like it was in really bad shape. Alfred looked over and saw Arthur sit up and shake his head.
"Dude, what happened?" Alfred asked.
Arthur looked around, "No clue."
Alfred got up, "Well, we just can't sit around, we gotta figure out where we are." Arthur got up, too. Together they made their way down to the military camp. Alfred had a weird feeling, like he had been there before. It all just seemed too familiar…
They walked past a few soldiers and Arthur decided to ask one. "Excuse me, sir, but where are we?"
The soldier looked confused for a moment then answered, "Valley Forge, Pennsylvania."
Alfred's eyes widened, there was no way… "And what year is it?" Arthur questioned further.
Again, the soldier looked confused, "April 5, 1778. Is this some kind of test?"
"WHAT," Alfred blurted out then excused himself and the soldier walked away. Alfred grabbed Arthur's shirt, "We are in Valley Forge, 1778! What did you do?!"
"I think I messed up. I may have used the wrong ingredient," Arthur explained.
"What was that spell supposed to do?" Alfred asked.
"It was supposed to make FIREWORKS! Damn it, FIREWORKS!" Arthur stressed.
Alfred let go of Arthur's shirt, smoothed his hair, and grumbled to himself. Suddenly, someone clapped a hand on his back. Alfred swore he jumped ten feet in the air.
A man with a french accent spoke to him, "If you're here to enlist go see General Washington or his right hand man." Alfred turned to find France talking to him. "Hey, are you okay? You look like you've seen some kind of ghost!" He chuckled to himself.
Alfred felt like he was going to have a panic attack, then Arthur's voice jogged him out of it. "Um, actually, we are looking to enlist. So, could you take us to the General, perhaps?"
France smirked, "But of course! New recruits are always welcome!" They started walking toward General Washington's tent.
"You two look strangely familiar," France remarked. "Us? No, uh, we're…" Arthur felt at a loss for words.
"Just two men who want to fight in the revolution is all!" Alfred finished. Maybe Alfred wasn't as bad a liar as Arthur thought.
France chuckled and smirked, "I like your attitude, mon ami!" Alfred smiled brightly. They made it to General Washington's tent and stepped inside. General Washington sat at his desk writing something down. Another man sat in a chair in the corner with his hands over his eyes.
"General Washington!" France said to try to get his attention. Washington looked up and met eyes with France. "Hello, France," he said.
"Hello to you to, General. I brought you some new recruits."
"Did you?"
Alfred could not believe who was standing in front of him. George Washington. The man he saw as his father, living, moving, breathing. Alfred wanted to hug him and cry and melt into a puddle on the floor, all at the same time, but he tried to keep his composure.
"What are your names?" Washington asked Alfred and Arthur.
Alfred felt speechless, but fortunately for him Arthur answered first so that he could try to get himself under control.
"Arthur Kirkland, sir."
"M-my name's Alfred F. Jones, your Excellency."
"What does the 'F' stand for?" France asked.
Alfred said the first thing that came to his mind, "Uh, Freedom."
France looked off into the distance like he was pondering his own existence. "Well, Kirkland, Jones, welcome to the Continental Army. First thing we need to do is get you boys in uniform," Washington announced.
The man in the corner chair took his hands off of his face, stood up, walked over to Washington's desk, and started to look through the drawers. Alfred recognized him at once, it was Alexander Hamilton.
"You'll meet with Baron Von Steuben at six o'clock in the morning tomorrow to start your training and- Alexander what are you looking for?" Washington stopped to address Hamilton.
"Sir, where'd you put your quills?"
"Bottom desk drawer, son."
"Thank you, your Excellency."
Arthur looked at Alfred and Alfred mouthed, We'll talk later. Washington turned back to them, shaking his head with a look of listen to this kid. He finished talking to Alfred and Arthur and they went to get their uniforms, on the way they talked.
"Who was that? He looks familiar," Arthur said.
"That was Alexander Hamilton, dude," Alfred explained.
Arthur groaned, "I remember him… He's that one crazy bastard who stole some of my cannons when he was still ill as hell."
Alfred couldn't help but smile, "Yeah, pretty cool, right?"
"Not when it's your own cannons."
They both chuckled and Alfred asked, "Dude, how do we get back to our own time? We can't stay in 1778 forever."
"I'll need some things to get us back, but it's going to take a while. Because as you could probably have guessed, it isn't going to be easy to get the things I need in colonial America."
"Yeah, well, that's your fault," Alfred jokingly accused. "Y'know with the blockade an' all."
Arthur cracked a smile, "I was quite the bitch, wasn't I?"
"Yep."
"You weren't supposed to agree!"
They both laughed despite the predicament they were in, because right now they only had one job, one burden. But because of this they could let everything go as a nation in the future and just focus on one thing, getting back. Alfred felt like a huge burden had been lifted off his shoulders, but at the same time he felt hurt in his heart.
Alfred had finally seen Washington again and was able to talk to him and he would actually talk to him back. But he knew that after they got back to their own time he would never be able to have a conversation with the real Washington and not just his grave or a statue or a painting. Alfred forced back tears at this thought, he had to worry about that later.
Alfred and Arthur got their uniforms and were assigned a tent to sleep in. For now, they just wandered around camp with Alfred pointing out historical figures to Arthur. A kid accidentally ran into Arthur and knocked him over. "Ouch!"
"Oh, sorry!" the kid said. He had his blond hair pulled back into a ponytail, which was
unsurprising for the time. A piece of his hair stuck up and he had sky blue eyes.
Alfred realized who it was, "Hey, kid, what's your name?"
"My name's Alfred F. Jones! Oh, wait, France says to introduce with my nation name… I'm the United States of America, or just call me America! I think my name sounds pretty cool right? I really like it, Washington says that it's good that I like my name! He says he's really proud of me! I love my dad a lot! I just know we can win my revolution and kick Britain's butt! Britain was being mean so I threw his stupid overpriced tea into the harbor! Take that Britain, you loser!" America talked a million miles a minute and Arthur thought he wouldn't shut up until dusk.
"Hey, that's great!" Alfred said. "You show Britain what-for, little buddy!"
"Thanks, mister!" America spotted Prussia and ran after him, effectively ending the conversation.
"Wow, seeing you like that makes me remember how much of a twat you were," Arthur remarked.
"Hey!"
They roamed camp once again, waiting for night, so that they could try to find something they needed. But just before they could slip away from camp France caught them. "Alfred Freedom Jones, eh?"
Alfred almost screamed when France came up behind him. "Y-yeah, that's me!"
France smirked, "Well, I know a certain kid with a name like that."
"D-do you?"
"Yes, you don't know anything about him, do you?" France asked.
Arthur sighed, "Damn you, alright give up the act Alfred."
Alfred glanced at him, "Bruh."
France laughed, "Got you now! Who exactly are you and why did you take little America's name?"
"Listen closely, France, because I am not saying it again. We are from the future. I did a spell and we were sent back to 1778 and now we can't get back to our time without the proper ingredients to the spell. My name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or just England or Britain, as you know me. This is the United States of America or just America. Now please, France, help us or leave us alone."
France was left in a stunned silence. He tried to process all the information he had just been given. "Wow."
France ran a hand through his hair. He paused and then, "America, how tall you've grown! You're a bit taller than me! Wow!" He laughed.
"Are you serious?"Arthur turned to Alfred. "Is he serious right now?"
"I am completely serious, mon amour!"
"Here he goes with the nicknames…"
"I will help you with this situation you are in, mes amis!"
Arthur rolled his eyes. "Think whatever you want, Angleterre, but you should be thanking me! Without me you two would probably be stuck here 'til the revolution ends!"
"Oh, shit… I hadn't thought about that," Alfred stared at the ground. What if France didn't decide to help them?
"So, what do you two need?" France asked.
"Why so helpful?" Arthur narrowed his eyes at France.
"Perhaps, I'm just happy to help America and not you," France smirked.
Arthur crossed his arms, "Well, I never!"
"You got a paper and pen?" Alfred asked France.
"Actually, I do," France reached into his coat pocket and pulled out some paper and a quill. "Here."
Arthur took the paper and quill. "Turn around," He told Alfred. He turned around and Arthur put the paper on his back and wrote a list with the quill. Arthur handed it to France, "This is everything we need."
France stared at the paper, "Whaaat?" Alfred looked at the paper as well and was equally perplexed by it. "This is weird."
"Everything that has to with magic is weird, get used to it."
They sent France off with the list and Alfred and Arthur went to go find some of the things they needed. They walked along a path to get to the closest town, when a British soldier stopped them. "Stop, you two!"
All Alfred could think at this moment was: ...Fuck. Alfred noticed the flint-lock pistol at his side. "What are two doing?" He was up on a horse and he had a lantern in his hand.
"We are…" This time Alfred couldn't think of anything to say.
"Traveling home, very sorry, sir, my brother is slightly intoxicated and I was bringing him back home from the tavern," Arthur lied.
The soldier narrowed his eyes at them, "There is no tavern by this road." the soldier looked at their outfits, "Those are Continental uniforms…"
Alfred quickly reached up and grabbed the pistol from the soldier's side. "What the-?" Alfred cocked the gun and shot the soldier in the side. His horse got scared by the bang of the gun and ran. The soldier fell, but one of his feet were stuck in the stirrup and the horse drug him on the ground as it ran.
"I must say, good shot, old sport!" Arthur exclaimed. Alfred pocketed the gun, "Let's go."
They walked on toward the town. "I didn't want to kill him, so I just shot him in the side," Alfred explained.
"Yes, I understand. He was in the way of our mission and he had to be incapacitated or exterminated," Arthur agreed. "It looked like something out of a film, almost."
Alfred snickered, "I humbly accept this Oscar. I would like to thank the Academy and my co-star Arthur Kirkland."
Arthur snickered as well. "We should get back to the task at hand."
They reached the town. The streets were empty, but the lanterns were still lit. They looked around for a shop that could have what Arthur needed. Alfred spotted a shop and they went toward it.
"Dude, I kinda feel bad for stealing from this place," Alfred said. Arthur was about to go in from the front door when Alfred stopped him, "Let's go through the back door, someone might be watching us do a break-in."
They went to the back of the shop and found it, unsurprisingly, locked. They didn't have time to meticulously pick the lock, so Alfred kicked down the door easily. It made a bang and Arthur and Alfred froze to see if anyone would come to investigate, no one did.
They went into the shop and Arthur began to look around. Alfred kept watch while he did. After a while of watching nothing happening, Alfred saw British soldiers walking the streets. "Arthur, get down!"
Arthur immediately ducked behind the front desk, where he had been searching. "What do you think they're here for?" Alfred looked at Arthur.
"Well, I don't know, maybe because you shot that soldier!" Arthur hissed.
"Bruh, he was a liability to our mission! I had to take him out!" Alfred said as quietly as he could.
Arthur looked out the window, "They're gone."
Alfred stood up, "Good."
"I have to look for a few more things, then we can get out of here," Arthur informed Alfred. He nodded to indicate that he understood. Nothing else happened for the rest of the time that they were there. Arthur got almost all of what he needed, but was still missing five things. They left the shop and headed back to camp.
They talked as they made their way back. "Did you get everything?" Alfred asked Arthur.
"No, unfortunately," Arthur said. "I still need five more things."
Alfred didn't ask what those five things were, because he knew he wouldn't understand. Magic, like Arthur said, was complicated and hard to understand. He had to take Arthur's word for it, because he was obviously an expert. He did have tons of time to practice. Plus, Alfred had always been wary of magic ever since the Salem witch trials.
They made it back to camp before dawn and snuck into their tent. The next day they woke, ate, and trained. After their training they met up with France to see if he had found anything.
"You are in luck, mes amis. I have obtained this, this, this, and this," he pointed to four items on the list. Alfred knew that he couldn't possibly pronounce them. Hell, he couldn't even pronounce the word 'vests'.
"Alright, that leaves one more thing," Arthur concluded. "Great! Is it hard to get?" Alfred questioned.
"Could be," Arthur answered.
"Hey, uh, France?" A small America tugged on France's sleeve. "Yes?"
"Prussia says that he needs to talk to you," America said to him.
France addressed Alfred and Arthur, "Don't worry, you two, I'll be back." France left to find Prussia.
America looked at Alfred and Arthur, "What were you talking about?"
Alfred remembered how curious he used to be, always wanting to know what someone wanted with Washington or France or Prussia.
"We were, uh, talking to France about…" Arthur started.
"...Traditional French cuisine and, um, how to make it properly," Alfred finished, they had been doing that a lot lately. But, Alfred always did work best with others, even though he had been an isolationist at one point.
America didn't seem satisfied with the explanation, "Really? I feel like you're lying to me."
"Why would we lie to you?" Alfred smiled.
"'Cuz I'm just a little kid," America said.
This hit Alfred, because when he was this age everyone acted like he couldn't do anything on his own and no one really told him anything. Alfred decided he would do something extremely stupid.
"Hey, I'm gonna tell you something, but you can't tell anyone else, okay?" Alfred met eye-level with America.
"Okay?" America said.
"You might not believe this, but it's true. I'm you, but from the future," Alfred let that sink in.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Alfred watched America's eyes widen. And, then: "Do I beat Britain? Do I become a super strong country like France and Prussia? Will George Washington live forever? Will I ever have any friends? Does Canada hate me forever? Am I happy?"
The last one caught Alfred off guard. "Alfred, what are you doing?" Arthur hissed at him. Alfred ignored him, "Hey, uh, slow down, one at a time!"
"Oh, um, do I beat Britain?"
"What do you think?"
"Uh… Yeah!"
"Okay."
"Do I become a super strong country like France and Prussia?"
"Yep."
"Will George Washington live forever?"
Alfred felt himself tear up. "No."
America made a sad whimpering sound. "Oh. Will I- will I ever have any friends?"
"Yes, absolutely."
"Does Canada hate me forever?"
"No, in fact he's one of my best friends!"
America smiled brightly. "Am I happy?"
Alfred actually had to think about that. Was he happy? He decided to tell America that he was even though he might be lying to himself. "Yes."
America smiled, "Yay!"
"Remember, you can't tell anyone about this, okay?"
"Not even George Washington?"
"Not even George Washington."
"...Okay."
America walked away. "Alfred, what did you do?!"
"What?"
"You just told America about yourself!"
"Yeah, so?" Alfred stood up.
"Did you not even watch Back to the Future?!"
"Dude, of course I did!" Alfred didn't know what the problem was. "What's the big idea?"
"You may have just altered history!"
"I don't think so, man. Look, I only told him about the stuff he asked. I didn't even tell him if he won the war or not! Even if he does tell someone, they're not gonna believe him!" Alfred defended.
"Okay, you might be right," Arthur admitted. "Plus,-" Alfred shushed him, something was wrong and Alfred had just figured it out.
"What-?" He looked around, "Someone's been following us ever since last night and someone was listening to the conversation we just had with France and America. Hell, I think they're listening right now."
Arthur lowered his voice, "You think so?"
"Yeah, man," Alfred continued. "I've had a knack for this stuff ever since the Cold War. Russia was a sneaky son of a bitch."
"What are we going to do about it?" Arthur asked.
Alfred lowered his voice into a whisper, "We're gonna find out who it is. If they're smart enough, which I think they are, cuz they've been tailing us, they'll have probably figured out that we've discovered them."
"How exactly are you going to find out who it is?" Arthur raised one eyebrow.
Alfred simply winked and said, "A magician never reveals his secrets."
Alfred waited until it was nearly dusk when everyone was retiring to their tents. He scanned, but not too obviously, the people still left. No one really gave him the feeling of: 'that's him, that's the one'.
"What are you even looking for?" Arthur asked. Alfred shushed him.
After about an hour of waiting and searching he noticed a pattern. One soldier was sitting on a barrel with a hat over his eyes. Every five minutes he would get up, walk to the nearest tent, stand there a few seconds, then he would return to the barrel. Sometimes he would go to different locations, but never straying too far from the barrel.
Alfred resisted the urge to point to him, "That's him. The one by that barrel with the hat."
"That's our man?" Arthur said. Alfred nodded. Just then, the soldier got up and walked past all the previous places he had been. "He knows."
Alfred and Arthur followed him and made sure not to lose him no matter how hard the soldier tried. They caught up with him by a tent on the outskirt of the camp. There was no one else around.
The soldier turned on them, "Why are you following me?"
Alfred recognized him, it was Alexander fuckin' Hamilton. That's who had been following them. Alfred should have known. If France figured it out than he had, too. The man was a genius after all.
"Don't play dumb," Arthur said. "You were the one who was following us!"
"I have no idea what you are talking about!" Hamilton defended.
Alfred smirked, "You knew what was up as soon as I said my name. Hell, even France figured it out."
Hamilton still claimed ignorance, "You two," he pointed at Arthur and Alfred. "Come into the Continental Army and all you do is start trouble!"
"Drop the act! We know about the eavesdropping, too!" Alfred argued. "Ever since we got back to camp you've been tailing us!"
Hamilton seemed at a loss. His face painted his feelings perfectly, he was fighting a battle he could not win.
"Okay, yes! I have been following you! When you said your name to Washington, I knew something was amiss. My reasoning being, is that you have the same name as the representation of the United States of America! So, after that I saw you talking to France last night, I decided to follow you in the morning! Your behaviour is extremely strange and the conversations you two have are appalling! You're like two disabled war veterans reminiscing about war and your fallen comrades! And the way you spoke to America, it was quite alarming and disturbing! How could someone, such as yourself, know so much about the future!?"
Everything Hamilton said felt like an accusation and, frankly, it was a little disarming. Alfred felt speechless for a good few moments. Alfred didn't expect that he'd drop a bombshell like that!
"Um… uh… I guess we have to tell the truth," Alfred addressed Arthur. "Seems so, old chap. We have been found out."
Alfred took a deep breath, "Alright, the truth is, I am the United States of America, but I'm from the future. Britain here," Alfred gestured at Arthur. "Did some spell and sent us back to the year 1778 and now we're stuck. France found out and we told him and now he's trying to get us back by getting us some of the stuff we need. To get back, we just need one more thing and then we're outta here."
Hamilton blinked a few times, "Huh."
Alfred was worried about how he would react to the shocking information that he had just dropped. "'Huh', what?" Arthur questioned.
"That, uh, that was… wow. I knew something was wrong, but I never expected this. I thought you two were spies for the British."
"You actually believe us?" Arthur inquired.
"I mean, you said it so truthfully. No one could come up with that on the spot," Hamilton said.
Alfred grinned, he was so glad that he believed them. "You won't tell anyone, will you?" Arthur narrowed his eyes at Hamilton.
"If I did, no one would believe me, so what would the point be?"
"So, um, yeah," that was all Alfred could manage to say.
"Well, it seems that we must be on our way," Arthur ended the confrontation.
They left Hamilton alone and headed back to their tent. "That could have gone better, but overall it was a good outcome," Arthur remarked.
"Yeah, but, like, didn't you feel personally attacked by everything he said. Like it was an accusation?" Alfred still felt that disarmed by what Hamilton had said.
"A bit, but when didn't your enemies do that to you?" Arthur agreed.
"Haha, yeah. It's just been a while since I had a real enemy and Russia and I are not threatening each other anymore. It was kind of disarming, y'know?" Alfred half smiled at Arthur.
"Yes, I understand how you feel."
They went to their tent slept, got up, ate, trained, and then met with France. "Bonjour, mes amis!"
"Hello, France. Let's make this quick, do you have it?" Arthur skipped all the 'good days' and 'it's good to see yous'.
"Oui, mon amour," France answered. Arthur rolled his eyes.
"Good job, France! Now we can get back to our own time!" Alfred exclaimed. Arthur gathered candles and ink and went to the field he and Alfred had woken up in. He made the circle and star and put the candles around it.
"Alright, now all I have to say is the incantation and we'll be able to go back to our own time," Arthur stated.
"Oh, how I will miss you dearly, America!" France smiled sadly. "But, now I know that you will become a great nation!"
"Thanks, France," That almost made him tear up. "Hey, tell Washington that he's the best dad anyone could ever ask for."
"Will do, America."
"France, step away, you might be sucked in as well. Go back to camp," Arthur ordered.
France made a 'Hmph!' sound and walked away.
"Alright, Alfred, are you ready for this?" Alfred nodded and Arthur said the incantation. They waited until the whirlwind whipped around and sucked them in.