"Push me higher, England!"
The said country chuckled as she exerted a little more force in pushing her little charge on the swing. "Hold on tight, America. I don't want you to... fall." The last word faded on her lips as America did, indeed, fall off the swing. She instinctively ran over to him and immediately checked for injuries. America's loud cries and fidgeting didn't help her at all.
"Annie...it hurts!" Alfred wailed.
"I know, now hold still." She blew away the dirt around the scratch on young boy's knee and got out her handkerchief to cover the wound. "Didn't I tell you to be careful?"
"I'm sorry," the young boy sniffled.
"Now," England said, tying the last knot of handkerchief around America's knee, "does that feel all right?"
Alfred just wiped the tears from his eyes. "Kiss it better, Annie."
England didn't think twice when she bent down over the young boy's knee and kissed it. She then picked the young Alfred, stood up, carried him home.
She silently swore to herself that she'd always be there for the child, to kiss his wounds better and take the pain away.
***
Déjà vu was the only way England could describe the situation when a grown-up America somehow managed to fall off a children's swing. The next thing that happened was even more eerily familiar. Alfred was clutching a newly scratched knee and was looking up at her pleadingly. "Kiss is better, Annie."
Her initial expression of blank shock made way for a scowl. "You," she snapped at him, "are not a bloody child anymore, Alfred."
She watched with a heartlessly indifferent expression as her once-colony's face fell. Unable to keep up with her apathetic charade, England forced herself to turn away and leave with the little remaining dignity she had left.
The promise she had once made to herself came to mind and she closed her eyes in frustration. Silently she wondered how things had gotten this way between her and the young boy she once loved so much.
The memories of long ago plagued her thoughts for the nth time and the fantasies of happy times with him almost made her want to cry in longing.