Waiting was always difficult for Arthur Kirkland. He was the type of man who was typically the first to spring into action. This wasn't his idea of being 'proactive'. Yes, it was necessary, but he'd rather do things on his own terms. Instead, he was sitting here waiting for Alfred, who seemed to enjoy taking his time.

It was the summer of 1916, two years after the 'start' of the Great War. Arthur had already been through enough wars to know that this one was horribly massive. The war to end all wars indeed, he thought bitterly, stiffening in his seat as he remembered the awful deaths soldiers from both sides were experiencing.

He was lost in his own dreadful world when the doors opened. In walked Alfred, looking slightly cautious and hesitant. Arthur cleared his head and stood, locking his dark green eyes onto the younger nation's sky-blue ones. "Greetings, Alfred."

"Screw the formalities," Alfred said, glaring angrily. "I know why you've come, and I don't appreciate it at all. How many times have I explained to you that I'm going to stay neutral?"

Arthur felt himself tense. He should have known what response Alfred would have waiting for him. The war was over European affairs, so what exactly would Alfred have to gain by joining. However, he didn't fly all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to be rejected before he even began. "What about Lusitana?" he asked, placing his hands behind his back and straightening. Why was Alfred so damn tall? "You lost so many of your citizens-"

"Need you remind me?"

"And, Germany is to blame!" Arthur ended, ignoring Alfred's interruption. "How can you not go to war after he did that to us- to you? They also attacked the Sussex, if you-"

Alfred cut him off, rage in his eyes. "I get it!" he yelled, pounding his fist into the table. "I don't need you to go through every bad thing that Germany has done. Don't you think I keep tabs on these things, Arthur? For your information, you have also wronged me!"

This was what caught Arthur off-guard. "Wait, what? What have I been doing?"

"Oh, quit acting dumb," Alfred snapped at him. "Your stupid naval blockade has been stopping my ships- ships headed for neutral countries, mind you- and searching through the cargo!"

Oh. Arthur had completely forgotten about that little detail. But, upon thinking it over, he realized that Alfred should actually understand the reason. "This is war," he replied, his voice now as calm as his gaze as he looked at the young country. "I cannot risk your troops sending any weapons to the Central Powers. Lord knows they already have enough as is. You should see what France looks like right now."

At this, Alfred's rage seemed to leave him. His shoulders drooped and he averted his eyes to the ground. "I've seen a few pictures."

Arthur snorted. "Alfred, pictures don't show anything. I've been fighting in France for some time now, and it's ten times worse than the pictures make it out to be. Then, there's Francis himself. The man looks to be close to death sometimes. He's lost the energy even to insult me."

"And, you?"

He gave a start at this question, he had to admit. Alfred's voice was so quiet, as though he was trying to hide his real concern. Arthur sighed, wondering how exactly to answer. He'd lost more than a few pounds on his 'lovely' new diet, that was for sure. He'd been infected by disease that those blasted rats would carry, and, at many times, his hair would be full of lice or fleas, or sometimes both. Worse, though, was the mental torment he had to endure. Nightmares about his dying people frequently interrupted his sleep, and he constantly awoke in a sweat, the image of a man's skin burning from mustard gas still etched in his mind. Honestly, he couldn't count the amount of times he nearly had breakdowns. He opened his mouth to say all of this, but the worry in Alfred's face left him unable to voice his real thoughts. Instead, he gave a shrug. "It could be better. But, as I said before, Alfred, this is war. It's not your own sheltered country."

He knew he took this a bit too far when Alfred's eyes flashed. "Sheltered? You think I'm sheltered? I may not be in your silly little war, but I do have my own share of problems! Day after day, I have to deal with other countries telling me who to side with. You print your stupid propaganda posters in my newspapers, Germany continuously tries to make me join to Central Powers-"

It took Arthur a few seconds to fully comprehend what Alfred said. "Wait, Germany's been here?"

Alfred gave a smirk. Usually, those smirks annoyed Arthur. Under the circumstances, though, and with Alfred's current state of anger, it appeared to be more threatening than anything. "Of course. You're not the only one in need of allies, Arthur."

Arthur quickly processed this information. If the Central Powers gained America as their friend, the Allies would be in trouble for sure. The country had grown into a superpower in such a short amount of time. It was more than likely that they'd be the turning point of the war, and the Central Powers would prevail. To top all of that off, Russia seemed to be having some trouble within his own country, which had already lost the Allies a considerable amount of troops. America joining on Germany's side would- No! Arthur thought, stopping the worries pouring through his mind. I won't think of that! It's discouraging. Besides, I won't lose another war. He was determined to sway Alfred into joining his side. "Are you planning on going to war against me?"

"Frankly, Arthur, I'm not planning on going to war at all. I have no wish to send my men to their deaths in your war."

Silence fell as Arthur desperately tried to search for an answer, a reason, for Alfred to be part of the Allies. "Matthew has agreed to my cause."

"I know," Alfred muttered, biting his lip. "I've already spoken to him." Suddenly, Arthur realized just how tired and torn Alfred looked. "He can do what he wants, though. It's not my place to ridicule him for his decision." He sat down in a chair and looked up at the older nation. "I don't want to go to war, Arthur. My people are no longer just English. Yes, I still have many that can trace their lineage back to your people, but I also have those who have family in Germany or Poland. So many of them now have different opinions, and I don't know who to side with anymore." Alfred slowly looked up. "If I go to war against Germany, so many of my people will die. If I go to war against you, so many of my people will die. Besides," he paused and closed his eyes. "Even after the revolution, I've still loved you like my brother, England."

Arthur gaped slightly at Alfred, who was staring at the wall across the room. They'd never said anything so kind to each other since Alfred declared his independence. Now what? Arthur thought in despair. I can't force him to go to war, not after he said that! Bloody hell, Alfred, why do you always have to make things so difficult? The Englishman rubbed the back of his neck. "And, I-I've always-" He slightly blushed as he shook his head. "Never mind. Forget I ever came." He made his way to the door. "Please consider what I've spoken to you about, Alfred."

"How can I do that if I'm supposed to forget you ever came?"

Arthur gave a smile. At least Alfred hadn't lost his wit. "Twat," he muttered affectionately before walking out the door. Though he hadn't made considerable progress in getting Alfred to join the war, and he knew Alfred would probably stay neutral, he still made a shocking discovery. I still love you, America.

I actually enjoyed writing this little oneshot. I have to admit, though, the ending completely sucked. Feel free to bash me- I deserve it after such an ending. Bleh.

Anyway, it's HISTORY TIME! I have a lot of 'stuff' from World War 1 in here that's mentioned, so be prepared. Or, just totally skip over my awesome history notes. It's not like I'd know, anyway.

-World War 1, at this time, wasn't called World War 1. How could it be, if they didn't know they'd be having a sequel? Instead, it was dubbed 'The Great War', which makes perfect since. And, to put it short, there really is no clear cut over who the good guys were and who the bad guys were. Because victors write history, the Allies came out to be the good guys, though. However, it started from a tangle of alliances. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Russia, who had a treaty with Serbia, announced mobilization of their army in Serbia's defense. Seeing this as an act of war, Germany, in a treaty with Austria-Hungary, then declared war on Russia. France, bound by a treaty with Russia, declared war on Germany. Britain, in some loosely worded treaty with France, came to their defense and declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. Britain was also in a treaty with Belgium, which was being invaded by Germany. Because of Britain's involvement, their colonies also began getting involved, such as Australia, Canada, India, and parts of Africa. Japan, in a military agreement with Britain, declared war on Germany, and Austria-Hungary declared war on Japan. And, lastly, we have poor Italy, who was allied with Austria-Hungary and Germany, but because they believed that the war was an offensive, and they agreed to fight a defensive war, they turned to neutrality. HOWEVER, good old Italy came back into the war on the side of the Allies in 1915.

Seriously, though, the assassination of Ferdinand was just the spark that set off war. Before this, Austria-Hungary was attempting to oppose its will on the Balkans, Germany, wanting to be a strong power, sort of entered in a race with Britain (called an arms race) to see who could make the most weapons, France was angry at German states for their loss during the Franco-Prussian war...wow, there's just too many reasons to name.

-America isolated themselves from European affairs and managed to achieve a state of neutrality. It was not meant to last, however. Many Americans were immigrants from the areas involved in the war. The German-Americans wanted to join the Central Powers, the French-Americans wanted to join the Allies, etc. Very muddled and confusing. British propaganda wasn't helping much, either. They BASHED Germany like crazy in American newspapers. Seriously, they made the Germans look like mindless killers. In one poster I saw, Germany was depicted by a King-Kong ape-thing.

Then, the British began stopping American ships from reach neutral countries, and they searched the cargo! In all honestly, I get why they did this. For one, (as Arthur stated twice), it's war and for another, America was secretly smuggling weapons to both the Allies and the Central Powers. Very sketchy business you've got going on, America. HOWEVER (there's always a however in my world), it was a bright decision on their part. They got some nice money, and selling weapons to both sides allowed them to stay neutral. Think about it; if they only sent weapons to Germany, they'd be allied with them, and if they only sent weapons to the British, they'd be allied with them, and if they sent no weapons at all, both sides would hate them and maybe declare war on America...it's hard to tell.

THENNN (cue theme music), German submarines started attacking neutral ships in the 'war zone'. Seriously, these guys were legit in attacking ships. Just look at a map sometime of all the ships that the German's sunk. Anyway, in May, 1915, Germany sunk the Lusitania, a British passenger ship with 1,198 civilians, 128 of which were Americans. Granted, the ship probably had weapons that had been smuggled onto it, but STILL...that's a lot of innocent people to kill just because you THINK that the ship had weapons.

President Woodrow Wilson was pretty pissed at Germany for this, and told them so. Germany said they'd back away, but nearly a year later, they attacked the Sussex. In Germany's defense, they thought it was a minelaying ship (or so they said). In actuality, it was a French passenger ship. It didn't sink, but fifty-five people were killed, and several Americans were injured. Again, Wilson expressed his anger to the Germans, who made the Sussex Pledge, which pretty much said that they would no longer attack commercial ships, unless they contained weapons (they still had the right to search the ships), but only after passengers were safely off the ship.

By February of 1917, though, Germany resumed full-scale U-boat warfare, even though they knew that this meant America would now be their enemy. They kinda overestimated themselves and underestimated the American military, though...anyway, Wilson broke diplomatic ties and ordered the arming of American merchant ships.

This was not when we joined the war, however- it was just when we expressed our utter disgust toward Germany's actions and made it clear that we would not be joining the Central Powers (I just switched from referring to America as 'they' to 'we'. I'm too patriotic to continue acting as if I'm not American .). In March, 1917, we got the Zimmerman Note, which is for another story another day. I might have to write a story on it, 'cause it's rather interesting and full of conspiracies. I love conspiracies :D.

-Russia was indeed having their Revolution. It kinda started in 1916 and lasted until 1917. I'm still fuzzy on the details, but the citizens of Russia weren't too happy with their current monarchy, so they overthrew it. Hoping that the new leader would bring more soldiers into the war, the Allies accepted this. HOWEVER, the new leader made a treaty with Germany and took all troops out of fighting, which was a big loss for the Allies (although America joins the war in 1917, which slightly made up for this).

WOWWW~! You've just been educated. Honestly, I was not meaning to write so much about WW1. I meant to say, "Here are some basics, now go look up the rest if interested", but I was bored and kinda got carried away in my writing, which happens quite a lot. I enjoyed writing the fic to the point where I'm considering NOT making it a one-shot. I might add in a few more chapters about American involvement during WW1, because I find it to be interesting. Feel free to bash me across the head with your words if you hate it, or give me Internet kisses if you love it (you can do so by review or PM!). If you have any questions, or if you notice any mistakes in my history (I'm not perfect- I make mistakes), please feel free to tell me. Also, if you have more on the Russian Revolution that you'd like to share, I'd be more than happy to read up on that subject, and somehow incorporate it into another WW1 fic. Muchos gracias!