This was a requested pairing from Scarlet Phantom(Phantom Angelic). I hope you like!

Characters

Arthur Kirkland – England

Allistor Kirkland – Scotland OC

Rhys Kirkland – Wales OC

Patrick Kirkland – Ireland OC

Seamus Kirkland – Northern Ireland OC

Alfred F Jones – America

Francis Bonnefoy – France

Matthew Williams – Canada

Enjoy!

I do not own Hetalia!

Please don't leave me!

"Fine! Do what you want! Just don't come running to me when it all goes wrong."

All talks between England and Scotland ended in arguments and fights but when Arthur Kirkland went to Edinburgh to talk to his brother, Allistor about the bid for Scottish Independence, it was only going to end one way and the brothers were once again knee-deep in disagreement.

"If my people don't want to be part of the UK no more," Allistor shouted back, his scottish accent pronounced in his anger. "Then that's all there is to it. So suck it!"

"That should make you happy," Arthur retorted. "You've always wanted me gone. Well, good riddance, you wanker!" and he stormed out.

The red-haired nation sat down, putting his head in his hands. The issue of Scotland's independence always divided him, partly because his people were divided over the wisdom of such a move and partly because, while he would dearly love to be his own country, such a move would separate him, perhaps for good, from the one person he truly loved.

His own brother!

He knew it was weird, after all everyone thought Belarus was nuts for her obsession with her older brother, Russia, but Allistor could not help it. He had always loved Arthur despite of how they were always fighting, in fact the reason Allistor fought with Arthur all the time was because of his love for him and how everyone would see it as unnatural. He was trying to distance himself from Arthur.

The only thing he had done was distance Arthur from himself because, while he was still as in love with his brother as always, Arthur hated him and it was his own fault.

It started out as brotherly love and concern that Arthur would be too weak to withstand being a nation so Allistor got Rhys (Wales) to help him toughen Arthur up. It had taken time but it had eventually worked, Arthur became the most powerful of the British Isle nations and Allistor's brotherly affection had morphed into something deeper but they had perhaps pushed it too far because Arthur had felt bullied as a child and their relationship never became close as a result.

Now he was slipping further away and Allistor felt it was his own fault. Maybe it was for the best that Arthur did not grow closer to him. He did not know if he could hide his feelings if Arthur was less hostile to him.

Allistor went to get himself a large whiskey. Or several.

"Git, git, GIT!"

Arthur drove his mini cooper down the A702 and turned on to the M74, watching the lights in the night, wondering why he thought this visit to his brother would be any different to the others over the centuries. He wanted to repair the problems of the past and build a relationship with all his brothers. It was slow going but he had made headway with Rhys, Patrick (Ireland) and Seamus (Northern Ireland) but Allistor was strangely resistant to his overtures.

And now this. Scotland was threatening to pull away from the UK, taking Allistor with it and Arthur's chances of growing close to him were disappearing.

Did Allistor really hate him so much, he wanted to be permanently separated from him? The idea was enough to break Arthur's heart. Because despite their troubled history, Arthur did not want to lose Allistor like this. The last time he felt like this, he was losing America.

Arthur did not think he could take that again.

A mile down the road, coming the other way, the driver of the articulated lorry was wishing that he had stopped at the last motorway service stop. He was tired, his eyes were drooping and his head was nodding. He decided he would stop at the next services as his eyes began to droop again.

Moments later, he was asleep and his lorry jumped the central reservation and careered down the wrong side of the motorway.

Straight for Arthur's car.

Bright headlight suddenly blinded Arthur and then there was a massive impact and the air bag deployed, preventing Arthur's head from hitting the steering wheel but the mini cooper was airborne as it spun and crashed to the ground and, after rolling across the motorway two more times, finally came to a stop but by that time Arthur was already unconscious.

The impact woke the lorry driver and he struggled to bring the lorry under control. The lorry blocked the motorway as it came to a stop. The driver breathed a sigh of relief.

Until he saw the wreck that was barely discernible as a car, let alone a mini cooper, with an unmoving arm sticking out of what used to be the side window.

The whisky did not help. Allistor did not feel any better, he just felt drunk and he was too wound up to sleep so he turned on the radio.

" …... in the city." the news reader finished the previous story. "In local news, there has been an accident, which has closed the south-bound lane of the M74, involving an articulated lorry and a mini cooper. The driver of the mini, a man in his early twenties who has not been named, was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary where he remains in a critical condition... "

Allistor turned off the radio as he was hit with a really bad feeling that ate away the drunk feeling. Arthur's car was a mini cooper and if he was driving home, then the M74 …...

No! It could not be Arthur's car but he could not shake the feeling. He had to be sure.

He grabbed his phone and, after finding the number, rang the hospital.

"Glasgow Royal Infirmary!" a female voice said.

"Hello," Allistor replied. "Can you put me through to A&E, please?"

"One moment, sir!" Allistor impatiently tapped his foot as he was put on hold.

"A&E!"

"Hallo!" Allistor said, almost breathlessly. "I just heard about a crash on the motorway, involving a mini cooper and someone being injured. I wanted to check because my brother drives the same car and would have been on the motorway."

"And what's your brother's name, sir?" the man on the other end of the phone asked.

"Kirkland. Arthur Kirkland."

Allistor waited desperately for them to say it was not him. It was quiet on the phone for a moment.

"I think, perhaps, you should come to the hospital, sir!"

In that moment Allistor knew it was Arthur.

Allistor took the next train to Glasgow, not wanting to drive after the whiskey he had consumed, then went straight to the hospital and A&E. He passed the other people in the waiting room and went straight to the man behind the desk.

"My name's Allistor Kirkland," he told him. He had given his name over the phone so they would know him when he came. "I'm here about my brother, Arthur."

"Yes, Mr Kirkland," he replied and stopped a passing orderly. "Donald, can you take Mr Kirkland to the relatives room while I tell Dr McKinley?"

"Aye," the man replied and showed Allistor the way. Allistor waited for five minutes sat in the green relatives room until a black-haired man in a white doctor's coat finally arrived.

"Mr Kirkland?" he asked. Alistor nodded.

"I'm Dr McKinley," the doctor said. "I've been taking care of your brother since he was brought in."

"How is he, Doc?"

"I'll be honest, Mr Kirkland," he replied. "Your brother is in ICU. He has some of the worst injures I've ever seen on someone who wasn't dead, I'm not even sure how he stayed alive after the crash. As it is, I'm afraid, right now, your brother is in coma."

Allistor knew that a nation could take the kind of physical punishment that would kill a human but if Arthur was injured enough to be comatose, it had to be bad.

"Can I see him?" Allistor asked.

"Of course," the doctor agreed. "But be prepared. His injures are very severe."

Allistor was not prepared. Arthur was a mess. There did not seem to be a single part of his body that was not damaged, broken or bruised. In short he was a bloody mess.

Allistor clapped his hand over his mouth to prevent himself from crying out but he could not stop the moisture flooding his eyes. Arthur was on a ventilator, enabling him to breath, and he was surrounded by machines monitoring his heart and brain function. A drip was inserted into his arm as he was given a blood transfusion.

Arthur's face was a mass of bruises and grazes. His large eyebrows stood out in contrast and if he could see Arthur's eyes, Allistor would have seen that they were blooded.

Arthur's right arm was in a cast and his chest was bandaged, bruises showing where the bandages did not cover the skin. His left arm was also bandaged and his left wrist was in a cast. Wires snaked out from under the bandages to the machines monitoring his condition.

Allistor could not believe that this broken wreck was his brother.

"He was lucky he survived," the doctor told him. "I still don't know how. I was told the crash was pretty bad."

"Arthur's tough," Allistor replied, resolutely. "He'll pull through."

Dr McKinley just smiled and nodded, believing that Allistor was fooling himself. If Arthur did survive, the doctor doubted he would be the same.

"I'll give you some privacy," he said and left ICU. Allistor sat down by Arthur.

"Well, bunny," he said. "You got my attention now. You didn't have to be so drastic, you know." Arthur did not respond and the beeping and sounds of the machines was his only answer. Allistor could feel tears burning his eyes again.

"Please don't leave me, bunny," Allistor plead. "Funny. Isn't that what you came to beg me? I wouldn't listen. Why should you listen to me now?"

Allistor thought back over the centuries that they had been brothers. When Arthur was born, when the britons were finally unified by King Arthur, hence Arthur's name, he was so small and helpless.

"You always thought I hated you," Allistor realised how his actions would have looked to the tiny nation of that time. "I never hated you, bunny. I didn't want anyone to take advantage of you so I was hard on you to toughen you up but you still fell prey to the likes of France. All I did was make you hate me." He put his hand over Arthur's and held it. "I lost my favourite brother."

Allistor let go of Arthur hand, stood up and left the hospital. He pulled out his mobile phone and he first called the other British Isle brothers to tell them what happened. Then he called America, Canada and France who began to call the other nations.

And the world was coming to England's bedside.

Wales was the first to arrive the next day, followed by the Ireland brothers who had caught the earliest flight to Glasgow available. Other nations were on their way, surprising Allistor with just how many of the nations actually cared about Arthur. He wondered if Arthur even knew.

"What happened?" Rhys was shocked to a mere whisper at the sight of his younger brother's condition. None of the British Isle brothers had been expecting to see Arthur so badly injured and Seamus, as the only nation younger than Arthur, took it the hardest. The young teenage looking red-head (though not as red as Scotland) had the closest relationship with Arthur and, seeing his brother in such a condition had reduced the boy to tears and Patrick had taken him outside to calm down.

"I was told some idiot lorry driver fell asleep at the wheel," Allistor recalled what he was told by the police who came to see if Arthur was in any condition to give a statement. Some hope. "He swerved in to oncoming traffic and hit Arthur's car almost head on. The police got the driver in custody."

"Arthur's in a hospital bed because someone was tired?" Rhys said, stunned. "What was he doing up here, anyway?"

"He came to see me," Allistor admitted. "About the independence vote. He didn't want me to leave the UK. We had a blazing row about it and Arthur stormed out. It's my fault Arthur was on that motorway." Rhys shook his head.

"You both have tempers," he replied. "It was Arthur's choice to leave. No one knew what was going to happen so stop blaming yourself."

"Easier said than done," Allistor replied. He could only believe that if he had not argued …..

It grew dark and the other brothers went to a nearby hotel to rest but Allistor refused to leave Arthur's side and fell asleep in a chair by his bed. He woke in the morning when Doctor McKinley made his rounds and checked on Arthur.

"Hmm," he mused. Allistor looked at him.

"What's wrong?" he demanded.

"Nothing wrong," the doctor replied. "In fact, your brother seems to be breathing easier. I'll do some tests and if they come back clear, we'll take him off the ventilator." He went away to order the tests.

Allistor looked back at Arthur and the ventilator tube in his mouth. He would be glad to see the back of it and he noticed the some of Arthur's bruises were beginning to fade. Arthur would recover, Allistor was sure of that but they would be right back to the problem that brought them here in the first place.

The test results came back good and Arthur was taken off the ventilator. His breathing was stable which reassured the British Isle brothers that their brother was indeed getting better. The machine were still beeping but the heart monitor was a little more regular and the doctor was more optimistic of Arthur's recovery.

"Are you really going to become independent from the UK?" Seamus asked Allistor. "I don't think Arthur wants you to go."

"What he or I want is irrelevant," Allistor replied. "If my people vote for it, that's what going to happen, whether I want it or not."

"But do you really want to?" Rhys asked. Alistor did not reply. It was a question he had asked himself countless times and had no answer for. Yes, he wanted to be his own country, every nation did at some point or other, but he did not want to leave his brother behind, despite their rocky relationship. But would it be better, given the feelings he had for his sibling, to finally part from Arthur, despite the fact it would break his heart to lose the one he truly loved?

He wondered if America went through this dilemma when deciding whether or not to declare his independence. Allistor knew the former colony and former caretaker still cared about each other, even if they bickered, teased and sometimes outright insulted each other. If they did not then why did they back each other up in times of trouble.

Actually, when you think about it, that's what brothers do.

Allistor did not think it would be the same way for himself and Arthur. Alfred and Arthur's love for each other was only ever brotherly, no matter what France claimed. Allistor's affectation had ceased to be brotherly a long time ago and he could not help but think there was something wrong with him. Allistor knew Arthur had been trying to build bridges but Allistor kept him at arms length. He did not think he could keep his feelings to himself if he and Arthur were on closer terms.

Suddenly the doors burst open and America, Canada and France came into the room. Alfred and Francis had been visiting Matthew when Matthew got the news and they immediately caught a plane to Scotland.

"How's Iggy?" Alfred demanded, urgently. "And what the fuck happened?" Alfred had this habit of using foul language when he was worried or upset and he had worked himself into a right state on the plane flight over. It had taken both Matthew and Francis to keep him under control and from annoying the flight stewards.

Allistor told them about the accident and took them to see Arthur. He was glad Arthur was off the ventilator because if Alfred saw that he would lose it, big time!

"He's getting better," Allistor assured as they stared at Arthur's injuries in shock. "He's off the ventilator now and he's more stabilized."

"Mon Dieu!" Francis gasped. "How bad was this accident?"

"It was a mini cooper against an articulated lorry," Allistor replied. "It was bad." Alfred sat down beside Arthur's bed and took his hand.

"It's okay, Iggy," he said. "The hero's here." Allistor could see traces of the little colony who once adored England in the super power's face as he sat by Arthur, desperate to help but unable to do anything. Matthew went to Alfred and put his hand on his shoulder.

"He'll be all right, eh!" Matthew said, quietly. "You heard. He's getting better."

"As long as you don't put a hamburger on his head," Francis remarked in a light tone. Alfred chuckled, dryly.

After a few hours, everyone decided to go for something to eat. Alfred, unusually, abstained and Allistor stayed with him. As the others strolled out, a silence reigned for a while.

"What was it like for you?" Allistor asked Alfred, unexpectedly.

"What was what like?"

"Declaring your independence from England!"

"As America, it came easier than you'd expect," Alfred replied. "After all, it's what my people wanted. As Alfred, it was the hardest thing I ever did. Arthur raised me. I loved my big brother, although he didn't want me to call him that. I never understood why."

Allistor knew why. It was because of him and, to some extent, Rhys. His treatment at their hands probably made him afraid to be called big brother. Bad memories.

"Do you ever wish you hadn't become independent?"

"I wish it hadn't been necessary," Alfred mused. "But Arthur was too overprotective, he wouldn't let me do anything. I had to become independent to become my own person, to prove I could stand on my own two feet. But it damaged my relationship with Arthur and it took awhile to be back on speaking terms with him. The War of 1812 didn't help, either. Is this about that scottish independence thing?" Allistor nodded.

"I can't tell if it's the right thing to do, man," Alfred said. "But your people should think about it carefully. Once it's done, there's no going back!"

Allistor thought about what Alfred had said. Everyone in Scotland was thinking hard about the issue. How the vote would go was anyone's guess. A vote that would change his life forever.

Alfred's stomach eventually growled and he laughed.

"I better go get something to eat," he said. "You coming?" Allistor shook his head and took Alfred's place when he left and took Arthur's hand.

"I don't know how this is going to work out, bunny," he said. "I don't know what'll happen if my people vote for independence. Maybe it'll be for the best in the end. I can't keep it in forever but I can't let anyone see. I can't love you like a brother any more, I'm too far gone for that now."

Allistor stood up and bent over Arthur and gentle pressed his lips to Arthur's

"I love you, bunny!" There, he finally said it. "I'll always love you, no matter how this all turns out." Allistor stood up and left the room for a smoke and to get his head straight. He did not see Arthur's eyes crack open a little or hear his whisper.

"I love you too, you celtic wanker!"

I hope you liked this story. I've tried to be as realistic as possible with the roads and the hospital that Arthur would be taken to. I was originally going to go with Edinburgh but my brother said anyone in an accident on the M74 would be taken to Glasgow because it's closer. By the way Glasgow Royal Infirmary is a real hospital. (I've never been there, I googled it)

Thank you for taking the time to read it.

Hasta la Pasta!