America groaned as he arrived at England's door. He glared at the sky as if it had personally offended him. Stupid time difference. Stupid rain. He yawned before knocking on the door, loudly, with what was left of his scarce strength. England was quick to answer the door, slowly looking America up and down.
"God, America, you look horrible."
A weak glare. "Thanks."
"Well, come in. What's with the sudden visit?"
He stumbled forward into the house, tripping on the entrance rug and nearly face-planting into the ground. England was quick to grab his arm and lead him to the couch.
"America! What on Earth is wrong with you? And why are you here?"
He blinked blearily at him. It took a few moments for his mind to register that he was being spoken to, asked a question actually, and to form a response.
"I...couldn't sleep."
"You couldn't sleep?" Disbelief laced his tone.
"Ya."
"That is why you took a 7 hour plane ride to England and then a taxi ride to my house?"
"...Actually, I walked..." A yawn. "from the airport."
An awkward silence filled the air as America sat there, head dipping occasionally as if he was going to fall asleep, and England standing there, shocked.
"You walked here...from the airport...? That's a half hour drive America!"
"I..." He blink as if he forgot what they were talking about, "forgot my wallet."
"Well, whatever." Though he was certainly more concerned now than when he greeted America at the door. "What did you expect me to do about you not being able to sleep?"
"I...don't know." In a burst of strength, America was clinging onto England's shirt, his fingers gripping his shirt sporadically as if they lacked the energy to hold it for more than a few seconds. He was shuddering as he buried his face into England's shoulder. "A week, Arthur. A week! I can't sleep, I can't concentrate, food makes me sick, and my body aches. I need to sleep!"
England could feel the wetness seeping through his shirt. He wrapped his arms around the shaking nation, one hand in America's hair and one rubbing soothing circles on his back.
"Shhhh...it's okay. I'll help you." He had never seen Alfred like this before. He couldn't even remember the last time he had seen the younger man cry. "Let's go upstairs and get you into bed okay?" A nodded confirmation was all he needed. He slowly led them to the staircase. Unfortunately, he had no rooms on the first floor of his house. "America, you need to let go." The grip on his shirt tightened. "We cannot go up stairs like this. Someone is going to get hurt." At that, his grip loosened until England was practically the only thing keeping America on his feet. He situated America so he had one of his arms wrapped around his neck and one of England's arms wrapped around his waist. Once he had a secure grip, they slowly climbed up the stairs. When they finally reached the top, he glanced at America. His eyes were tired and empty, halfway closed, as if mocking him for being unable to sleep. His hair was disheveled with days of neglect. His face was pale and that only helped to accentuate the dark bags under his eyes. As soon as they were safely on the second floor, America latched himself back onto England, tears quickly starting to flow.
"I just wanna sleep. Please. Please! Let me sleep." America was begging desperately for some sort of relief and that fact that he even had to beg for one of life's necessities nearly broke his heart. The proud America reduced to begging to get a few hours of unconscious bliss.
"Shh America. We're almost there." He guided America over to the nearest bed, which happened to be his own, where they collapsed. He felt America tense for a second before relaxing into the sheets. He whispered soft nothings as he hummed and soon felt America's grip on him loosen. He sighed in relief when he realized that America was, thankfully, asleep. The relief was short lived though as a few minutes later, America gasped and shot up, forcing England to quickly roll off of him to avoid getting injured. He shot a questioning glance to America. "America...?" America turned towards England, but he was concerned when he saw no recognition, nothing but a strong fear shining in America's eyes, his eyes glazed over with remnants of sleep.
"...England?" America glanced around frantically before crawling over to England. He was panicking. Wait, why was he panicking? "England! We have to..." he glanced around desperately before he continued. "We have to leave!"
"America, are you daft? Why would we leave? For one, it's raining cats and dogs outside and two, you are dead tired. The only thing we are going to do lay on this bed and sleep." He sent his best glare at America and gently pushed him onto the bed. He was surprised to feel America struggle under his grasp.
"You're working with them, aren't you?" A heart-wrenching sob tore from America's throat and shot straight through England's heart. "W-why? Why would you help them? Why would you do this to me?"
"Help who, America? What on Earth are you talking about?"
"Them!" He gestured around the room with his head. He whimpered and dug farther into the sheets. "Th-they want to hurt me! They want to kill me! And you're...you're helping them. Why? How could you?" England was shocked to say the least. What on Earth was America talking about? He shot America a sympathetic glance.
"America, no one's here but me."
"No. You're lying to me! You want me to believe you. You're on their side. As soon as I believe you and relax, they're going to hurt me!"
"Alfred. I am not going to hurt you. I promise you, no one but you and I are in this room." He was curious though, "Who are 'they'?"
He could tell America was trying to believe him and relax, trying to make them go away. "Th-they're everyone against me!" A choked sob. "Why do they hate me?"
"Alfred, I don't understand."
"I'm just tying to help them! Why can't they see that? Why do they attack me and yell at me? You Europeans too! Arthur, I just try to help. When I try to help, you all yell at me for interfering! But when I stop and leave, going to deal with my own problems, you yell at me for not trying, not helping enough. What can I do?" By now, America was sobbing, grabbing at England's shirt. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Alfred...I'm so sorry." How had he let this happen? How could he have permitted this? More importantly, how had he not have known this was happening? "I'm so sorry. I'll help you. I'll help protect you." He shot America a soft, sad smile. "If I had known this was how you felt, I would have helped immediately. I'm so sorry."
"Arthur..." He was gazing at England so hopefully that it fairly broke his heart. His eyes suddenly focused in on England's face and he swallowed thickly. "I'm so tired." His eyes had dipped again and England had a suspicion that no matter what he said or did, America was going to be asleep soon.
"It's okay. Go to sleep. I'll be here when you wake up." America gazed at him tiredly, already halfway asleep.
"You promise?"
England thought about it for a minute. And he knew that yes, he was not only promising to be here when America woke up, but promising that he would help America, and be by his side. He looked down and saw that America was asleep. He gently leaned down and kissed him softly on the forehead, smiling to himself.
"I promise."
A/N: Sooo...I've felt bad that I haven't posted anything in a while. I've been busy with school and other stuff that I'm not going to bore you with. So instead, I decided to upload the beginning of a story that I've had on my laptop for a while now. Why didn't I upload it before? I didn't and still don't really like it that much. I feel it's poorly written and only typed it out to get the plot outta my head. I've edited it a couple times to get it from it's horrible first state. Actually, this has been sitting here for a long time. This was actually one of my first fanfics. So here, enjoy. I have three chapters right now but I'm not gonna post the rest unless people like this. And just a forewarning, America will be freaking out once a chapter. Because that is what I love about America in this story. His freak outs. Poor America, I torture him way too much.