Alfred was sitting in a large padded arm chair, working on some papers. His head felt dizzy as he looked over reports about his country. His people were divided, north and south. This was new to him as there had been fights within the country, but never on quite this magnitude. Arthur had experienced several civil wars; however he was reluctant to write seeing as that could be seen as weak. Alfred took a deep breath and decided to suck it up. He was a hero damn it. The great Alfred would work through this problem himself.
America headed up to bed and as he fell asleep he saw visions. His people were angry at each other. The north and the south were divided. They were yelling and shouting at each other. Guns were being shot and people were killed. The problem seemed to be slavery. His people were divided over the problem of slavery and taxes. There was a treaty being arranged, but it was turned down. The states were officially at war now.
Alfred tossed and turned in his bed. He awoke the next day, bleary-eyes and cranky. He walked to the kitchen mumbling to himself.
"God damn England. That no good bastard abolished slavery so I should too? Always on my back about stuff, no wonder I left him. I took Mathew with me as well. He's still against slavery too I bet. "
America grabbed a hamburger from the fridge and took a bite. It tasted of hard tack and salt pork. He threw out the hamburger into the garbage. He frowned and got in his car. He was going to see Canada.
As he approached the border he felt his body shake. He pulled the car over to the side of the road as he felt his hands start to spasm. His body jerked in his car and lights started flashing in his eyes. He felt his body rip in two and he fell unconscious.
He awoke on a couch in Mathew's house. His polar bear Kuma...the polar bear, was sitting on his chest.
"Hello bear."
"Who are you?"
"He's America." Mathew walked through the door towards Alfred. He was carrying a mug of coffee and a newspaper under his arm. "Are you ok? My guards saw you having some sort of seizure by the border."
"It was nothing, I just wasn't feeling well."
Matthew looked at his brother sceptically. "Is that true? I have one of your newspapers here. It says that you're in a state of civil war." Matthew slapped the paper onto Alfred's chest, making Kumajiro jump off.
"No way, I'm the hero here. It's nothing big at all." Alfred closed his eyes as another wave of pain shot through his head.
"Listen, you're America. A civil war is not 'nothing'. This is serious, you should go see Arthur, or Francis, one of the older countries." Matthew sat down on a chair by the couch where Alfred lay.
"I don't need their damn help. You've had a civil war before and you're just fine now."
"That wasn't a war, that was a rebellion. I missed one of the world meetings I felt so mixed up."
Alfred grabbed the cup of coffee that Matthew had left on the table. "Nobody missed you anyways. You're just Canada, one of the biggest countries in the world and nobody sees you." Alfred felt angry, why was he being interrogated. He didn't need anyone's help.
"You're changing the subject." Matthew's unusually cold voice would of normally silenced Alfred, if he wasn't so angry.
"No, you're changing the subject! Listen here, I'm your big brother so I'm the boss of you. When we were growing up you were such a little crybaby. I was the hero of the family and 'Canada' was sitting on his ass trying to be 'peaceful'. You were the perfect son England always wanted weren't you?"
"Shut up."
"No I won't shut up! Always kissing old Iggy's ass to get what you want. You're still loyal to him, like an adult living in his parent's basement. Running to daddy whenever you get hurt. You two were always against me. You abolished slavery too, just like him!" Alfred stormed out of the room towards the door.
Matthew chased him out and stood in front of the door where Alfred was standing "Wait, this is what this is about! Slavery? My god Alfred, do you know why I abolished slavery along with Arthur? It's because it's wrong. You can't own another human being?"
"Oh yes you can. I don't know about people but I know about countries. You can definitely own another country and if you don't stay on top you get taken. Do you think I'm going to go live in Russia's house and become one of his slaves? If you do then you should go to hell!"
Alfred pushed Matthew aside and strode out the door. He climbed into his car and started off down the road towards his own house. He needed a drink.
-E-
Matthew rushed back inside and grabbed the telephone. He started to dial England's home when he remembered what America had said to him. 'Running to daddy whenever you get hurt.'
Well, he though, I'd better see what a civil war would entail for America. It's for his sake...not mine.
Canada paced back and forth, as far as his phone cord would let him, until he heard Arthur.
"Hello, Arthur speaking."
"Oh thank god Arthur!"
"America?"
"No, it's Canada."
"Oh." There was an embarrassed cough, "How are you doing?"
"Not so well, Alfred was just here. He's going through a civil war."
"Shit."
"How bad it is?"
"I've had a fair amount of civil wars. It's messy."
"What's going to happen." Matthew felt his stomach sink, this wasn't sounding good.
"Well mostly, the small ones sort themselves out. The bigger ones, Alfred's going to need to
fix himself. You don't want to interfere unless it gets pretty bad."
"Define pretty bad. Alfred's acting strange."
"Really? How so?"
"He's really irritable, looked like he was having seizures, he got really red too, but that was
probably the anger."
"The last time I had a civil war I was practically bi-polar."
"Oh yes, One minute, we were making passionate love, the next? I am out on the streets because I was 'cheating on him'. "
Matthew practically sweat dropped at France's voice calling out from the other side of the phone.
"It was nothing like that you wanker!" There was a clunk, like the phone was dropped and then a long silence.
"Arthur?" Matthew cautiously yelled.
"What? Oh, sorry Canada. I'd just try and give him some distance. This could be big so le frog and I are going to be staying out on this one."
"But-"
"Sorry Canada, I've got to go. No, get off me you horny dog!"
Matthew sighed as he hung up the phone. Something told him that the next while was going to be difficult.