Hello, all! It's been awhile since have posted something on Fanfiction! So, this is based on the song Heat Haze Days/ Kagerou Days. You don't have to listen to the song to read this!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Hetalia!
Summary: A Hetalia adaption of the song Heat Haze Days/ Kagerou Days. August 15 was just supposed to be a normal day but all Alfred could remember was the heat haze and Arthur's blood smearing the streets. Enduring for so long, there was only one thing to do. Squint for USUK.
NOTE: Small twist at the end. Nothing serious.
August 15, 12:28pm
A nice warm day was welcomed with open arms by a couple of people, but some loathed this heat, for heat had always played with their minds.
Alfred F. Jones took out his iPhone to briefly check the time and for any messages. He was out with his best friend that day at one of the parks near his friend's apartment. They went on outings like this often and made a deal to wear the opposite color clothes everyday. That day, Alfred was wearing a pure white zipped down hoodie with a white t-shirt underneath, white pants and white sneakers.
The park was right up a street and he could hear the distinct chatter of people speaking on phones and their friends. The swing set, where he was now was directly next to the street.
"Hey, what's the matter?"
Alfred looked up from his iPhone to look up at his friend, the young Brit Arthur Kirkland. Arthur wore clothes that contradicted Alfred's, a black sleeveless hoodie with no undershirt, black shorts and black sneakers.
Arthur was always one to wear anything dark or green but with that baby face of his, nobody could take him seriously. Except for when he's angry, then he's a living nightmare.
Arthur looked up at his taller friend as Alfred stuffed his iPhone into his pocket. A curious expression inhabited his features as the black stray cat he found meowed.
"Nothing much. Just bored," Alfred answered, taking a glance at Arthur.
Arthur dropped the topic and looked up at the clear sky.
"Well, you know, I kind of hate summer," he muttered boldly while stroking the black cat on his lap.
Alfred looked at Arthur with an eyebrow raised. Before he could ask him anything, the cat's head snapped up and it looked around. It meowed before jumping off of Arthur's lap and running out of the park. Almost immediately, Arthur chased after it.
"Hey wait!" he called as he ran out of the park towards the cat.
Alfred went after Arthur but he didn't bother running. He was used to this kind of thing since Arthur was a cat lover and he had a cat himself. Alfred had always dubbed Arthur as 'the Cat Man'.
Arthur laughed while chasing the cat. He knew he was running towards a street and found it safe to proceed since he didn't see any cars in sight. So, he chased the cat into the street.
Alfred sped up slightly when Arthur was starting to cross the street. He figured Arthur wasn't paying attention to the lights since the white walk light had turned into a red blinking hand.
'Eh, he'll probably realize sooner or later,' he thought.
Unfortunately, Arthur still wasn't paying attention. He was nearly in the middle of the street once the walk light fully turned red and the stoplights turned green.
Alfred's eyes widened and he started to run towards his friend. With the cat away from Arthur's sight and he, still thinking that the light was red, Alfred did the only thing he could do.
Call out his name.
"ARTHUR!"
Just as Arthur turned to Alfred, a truck had turned the corner and was going full speed towards Arthur. Arthur's eyes widened as Alfred screamed.
A crunch was heard and a blood curling scream erupted from Arthur. Alfred turned unnaturally pale as Arthur was hit by the truck.
It was like time slowed down. Arthur fell to the ground with a thump. His back was arched unnaturally and his limbs were bent in odd directions. Blood splattered everywhere Alfred could see, the truck, the stoplight, even his once angelic white clothes were stained with the crimson red of Arthur's blood.
The truck had continued on it's way, like it didn't even notice that someone was in front of it. So, it left Alfred alone with Arthur's body as it slowly leaked out blood. Blood was trailing out of Arthur's mouth and a blood puddle was forming under his still body.
Alfred covered his mouth in horror as tears began leaking down his cheeks. The scent in the air was horrid, with the iron scent of blood mixed with his own tears.
He refused to believe that this was the truth. He refused to believe that this was reality, that Arthur had been run over and he had witnessed it.
Alfred looked across the street and through his hazy vision, a boy stood on the other side. He had the exact appearance of Alfred, with brown hair and piercing red eyes. He wore the exact same clothes, right down to the shoes except they were the opposite color. The boy didn't have reading glasses like Alfred. Instead he had sunglasses that sat on his head.
The brunette grinned, sharp teeth showing. The teen's eyes, although blank, showed amusement.
"This is all real," he said, his hands in his pockets.
Alfred shook his head. The heat haze was playing with his mind.
'There's no way that there's a guy who looks exactly like me across the street!' he thought, shutting his eyes then opening them.
There was no identical boy across the street, much to his brief relief but rather...
"This is all real..." came his voice next to his left ear.
Alfred froze as he stared down at Arthur's body, not daring to look next to him. He looked across the street again and saw the unrealistic heat haze standing there once again, a grin on his face.
"This is all real!" the heat haze shouted giddily before starting to laugh.
People started to gather around, calling 911 and pointing fingers. Some started to run the way the truck went to chase after it.
Alfred felt faint, his head was pulsing so badly that it hurt his entire body. The last thing he remembered before his vision faded was Arthur's body getting picked up and the heat haze's grinning figure.
In a room full of clocks, all the clocks were turning. They were turning at different times except for one. That one clock had stopped at exactly 12:35 and it stood out like a sore thumb. The heat haze boy suddenly appeared and began walking past all the clocks. He raised his hand on that one clock and, while walking stained the clock with a crimson red stain. He walked past it and disappeared.
Alfred woke up to his window open and the clear azure sky smiling down at him. He groaned as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. The teen squinted a little to find his glasses and spotted them on the table next to him. His mouth quirked up ever so slightly as he picked them up and placed them on his nose. He looked out the window.
"It's a nice day," he muttered to himself.
Pulling his iPhone out from under his bed covers, the time and date was in nice big white numbers and letters.
"12:04... August 14..."
He looked up at the sky, which was bright for some reason. It was 12:04 in the morning and he didn't know why he woke up.
'Oh yeah, the nightmare...'
Alfred remembered everything, the park, the cat, the truck and the heat haze boy. He shuddered, remembering the corpse of his best friend laying on the street. Alfred shook his head.
"It was only a dream," he muttered out loud, "Only a dre- I mean, nightmare."
With that in mind, Alfred threw the covers over himself and shut his eyes tight.
In his mind, "only a nightmare" was his mantra, but he didn't know that the heat haze boy stood near his bed, smiling and staring at his analog clock.
On 12:24 that August 15, Arthur and Alfred sat in the same park as before. Alfred felt a sense of deja vú and decided to tell Arthur about it.
"But y'know," he started, glancing at Arthur, "It's a little strange."
"What is?" Arthur asked, looking over to his friend.
"Yesterday, in a dream. I saw us walking in the same exact park," Alfred answered.
"Then we've probably come here before and we don't remember that we have," Arthur replied simply, stroking the black cat's fur, "It's happened before, after all."
Alfred sighed, "I- I guess you're right, Artie."
Arthur glared at Alfred of the nickname but diverted his attention when the cat jumped out of his arms.
Images flashed in Alfred's mind. The fat running across the street, Arthur following it, the truck hitting Arthur...
Alfred grabbed Arthur's hand before Arthur could go after the cat.
"Hey!" Arthur shouted, trying to pull away from Alfred's iron grip, "I can't leave the cat there! What if it gets run over?!"
'That's what might have happened to you,' Alfred thought.
Alfred pulled Arthur away from the cat's direction, much to the Briton's dismay. Before Arthur could say anything, Alfred cut him off.
"Why don't we go home now?" he asked his shorter friend.
Arthur raised an eyebrow, seeing that Alfred seemed panicked and... scared? Not wanting to worry his friend further, Arthur agreed to go home. Alfred sighed in relief and led Arthur on the route to Arthur's home.
Once they stepped off the pavement of the park and onto the pavement next to a building under construction, people started to shout and point fingers up at the sky. Alfred stopped and looked up like all the others. Arthur, who was trailing behind, didn't bother looking up and continued on his way.
What everyone except Arthur was looking at was a crane. A giant metal crane was moving iron poles from different directions and one seemed to dangerously teeter to the side. People muttered worriedly to each other and began to disperse. Alfred kept his eyes glued to the teetering pole as it started to lean towards the ground.
Suddenly, the crane jerked to the left, causing the teetering pole and several other poles to fall towards the ground. People started screaming, running out of the vicinity. Alfred looked left and right, searching for the Briton he had lost in his dream. He couldn't find him, for there were too many people screaming and blocking his view. After a few more minutes, he spotted a familiar head of blond hair and started to sprint towards it.
"Arthur!" he called, waving his hand.
Arthur turned to Alfred, smiling at him and Alfred had grinned back.
But...
The sound of metal clanging was accompanied with a scream and the loud sound of tearing. Arthur coughed out blood, spraying his life everywhere in his vicinity. His breathing became labored and his vision became dangerously blurred. The metal pole struck through his chest, going in from the back and out the front. Arthur shouted in pain and slid down the pole to the ground, his body creating a giant red stain on the pole.
Alfred shouted Arthur's name as he witnessed to pole's fall. He ran past everyone, just to get to his quickly dying friend. He was able to weave through the crowd and quickly get near him. Alfred suddenly bumped shoulders with someone and the ghastly voice of the heat haze came to his right ear.
"This is the real thing!" the heat haze said.
Alfred spun around to see the heat haze and he saw his copy grin and laugh, disappearing into the crowd. He spun back around to look at Arthur.
Arthur had been reduced to a sprawled out position now, the pole painfully sticking out of his back. Blood trickled out of his mouth, painfully reminding Alfred of the truck incident in his nightmare.
"Arthur, Arthur are you okay?!" Alfred asked as he knelt down next to his friend.
Arthur couldn't do anything with his body. He couldn't move, he couldn't speak, so the only thing he could do...
Was to smile.
The heat haze smeared another clock with the red hand stain and smiled to himself. The time was also exactly 12:35 and he touched another clock next to it.
"Not too long now," he whispered before disappearing.
'It's been so long...'
Alfred stared up at the unforgiving sky and sneered at its mocking happiness. The leaves of the trees around him licked at his face as he stared at the swing set he had seen Arthur sit on so many times. The streets were danger zones, the sky was never to be trusted, the people around them were always a hazard.
It's been decades since the very first accident, when Arthur had been run over. So many other things happened over time and he had failed saving Arthur each and every time. Alfred walked over to a nearby tree and leaned on it. He closed his eyes and imagined the room with the clocks.
The heat haze had shown him the room of the clocks, somehow. He had shown Alfred every clock that he had smeared, every clock that stopped at 12:35 and that there were an endless amount of clocks left.
"You'll keep on suffering until you manage to save him," the heat haze told him, his grin ever present.
In Alfred's mind, his figure stood in front of the large wall of clocks, but the ones in his eyesight's range were all smeared and stopped at the dreaded time of 12:35. Well, all of them except for the one in front of him.
Alfred slid a finger across the clock's glass before placing a hand on it. It was ticking, a sweet sound Alfred seemed to savor as time went on. However, he knew that if he wasn't able to save Arthur, then this clock would be stopped and smeared too.
'If I can't save Arthur without not letting myself get hurt, there's only one hint to do.'
The real Alfred opened his eyes and saw Arthur looking up at him. Alfred spied the black cat in Arthur's arms and saw that the cat was going to jump out of Arthur's arms. The cat meowed before jump out.
"Hey, wait!" Arthur called, just like the first time.
Alfred ran at the same speed as Arthur and both of them ran past the first walk sign. In the corner of his eye, Alfred spotted the green light for cars and the truck make its sharp turn.
'Here goes nothing.'
Suddenly, Alfred pushed Arthur out of the path of the truck. As Alfred faced Arthur, a small smile was plastered on his face before the American got struck.
Alfred felt every bone in his body feel like they shattered. The powerful recoil knocked the wind out of Alfred, but that wasn't the only thing that got knocked out of him. Blood sprayed out of his mouth as his body started to fall.
The time became slower and Alfred saw his heat haze self staring at the teen in disbelief. Alfred grinned the best that he could and mouthed, "Serves you right."
The heat haze stumbled backwards, much to Alfred's hazy confusion. Tears formed in the heat haze's eyes and they traveled down his cheeks before he disappeared into nothingness.
Alfred sighed in relief before coughing violently. Arthur had run up to Alfred and held his head on his lap.
"Alfred! Alfred, can you hear me?!" he shouted.
Alfred couldn't answer but simply gazed past Arthur's left shoulder. Now Arthur was safe and he was the one who died. It was finally over.
"You died."
Alfred turned his head to Arthur's right shoulder and his eyes widened.
A heat haze of Arthur stood over the teens. To contradict Arthur's black clothes, he wore all white. The other's blazing yet blank golden yellow eyes stared directly at Alfred's dying figure. A firm frown was planted on his face, going against the dark colored heat haze's grin.
"You died and now it's my turn."
It was another room of clocks, identical to heat haze Alfred's one but all of these were shattered and smeared. The smears were not in red blood, but rather, a light blue liquid. There was always one clock that seemed normal but this one had blue stain on it. Arthur's heat haze suddenly appeared and he stared at the whole clock.
"You failed."
The heat haze smashed his fist against the clock, shattering it into tiny pieces.
On the morning of August 15, a young blonde gazed out of his window, tear silently coming down his cheeks.
"I failed again too..." he whispered.
The white cat on his lap meowed contently as Arthur stroked his fur. A few inches away from Arthur's bed, his heat haze smiled at his 'kindred spirit'.
"It will be a long time until it is his turn, Arthur," the heat haze said, knowing that the blonde was listening, "You could either continue this or end both of your suffering. Would be able to do that?"
"I could, but..."
"But what, Arthur? Neither of you remember your pasts, for this cycle has been going on for hundreds of years. You don't live with your parents and you don't even remember your siblings' na-"
"Peter. My little brother's name is Peter and Alfred's twin's name is Matthew. What is the point, right? If you can remember them but they can't remember you?"
"That is was I'm saying, Arthur. You could just end it now and be together forever."
"..."
"Well?"
"...I'll do it."
"Excellent! Now, go to the usual place you've been going to for a few hundred years and follow my instructions."
"Alright."
'I'm ending it, Alfred. I'm ending it, once and for all.'
In the clock room, all the clocks were gone except for one. It was not tiny, it was enormous, almost taking up the height of the wall. The clock was stopped at exactly 12:35, but it was not stained with blue or red liquid. The liquid was a tantalizing purple, the mix of the crimson red and the light blue.
The two heat hazes stood side by side as they stared up a the clock.
"They have attained eternal peace," Arthur's heat haze said as he looked up at Alfred's heat haze.
"Then it's time for us to attain it as well," the heat haze of the American finished.
The blue heat haze nodded and they both began to fade away. Within moments the two disappeared, bringing the purple liquid with it.
The giant clock now was not stained, having a clear glass casing. Another giant clock appeared next to it and the hands of both clocks reset at a certain time. They did not move until they were born.
On July 4, the first clock began ticking.
On April 23 of the next year, the second clock began ticking.
They cannot escape it, for they are eternally tied to it. Every August 15, they would have to endure loss and death, but if they are able to free themselves by making the right sacrifices then they will be free.
And as of that August 15, they are now free.
So, how'd you like it? Yeah, there was a twist at the end but I kept most of it to the actual song.
If you like how I did this, is there any Vocaloid song that you want me to make a Hetalia fic for? Review it!
THANKS FOR READING! REVIEW!
Also, I'm planning to do a fic for Dark Woods Circus. :)