"Hey, Iggy…?" ….. "What does it mean to live?" the dark-blonde haired boy dressed in jean and a dressy top looked up at his elder brother.
"Everything in the world."
Arthur rest his head on his pillow and sighed. Yet another Independence day that had brought nothing more than tears. The pocket watch that lay on his lap resound a quiet tick, which was the only noise in the rather silent room. Only three more minutes left in this unsettling day. He silently wished Alfred a happy birthday and closed his eyes, waiting for July Fourth to end…. And sleep found him.
This nightmare was constantly recurring and rather unsettling. Though what wasn't? It was always him and Alfred, when he was younger and still a British Colony, and they were eating together. While the younger, who, at the time, still called Arthur "big bro" or "Iggy" , ate hastily, the older would slowly eat his small amount of food. Alfred, looking so innocent and cute, would look up to Arthur with a smile on his face and ask him,
"Hey Iggy… what does it mean to live?"
"Everything in the world."
But the scene would warp itself.
"I'm no longer your younger brother!" Alfred yelled, "I'm independent!"
"I won't allow it!" Arthur cried, racing forward, slapping Alfred's musket out of his hands and to the ground. The next moments slowed, and his brain sped up.
'How could I do it?' he wondered, 'shoot my own brother?'
Falling to the ground, tears filled his eyes. "Why…" a sob, "Why, dammit!"
But the ground changed to a hole. Arthur fell through the entire story, the one he longed to forget. The story of him an dhis younger brother, who grew up and left him without hesitation.
He'd always wake up crying.
For Alfred, his birthday meant colourful cakes with candles(this year was two hundred thirty-five candles atop a quadruple-decker red-white-and-blue cake), parties, and presents. But this year, he couldn't even bring himself to try and forget the pain he endured by covering it up with festivities. Small bandages don't hide big wounds. At least not for long. It was time for him to be serious. Time for him to remember why everything happened the way it did, and why his nightmare kept him up each night.
In his dream, he was still a young colony. He'd be eating with Arthur and he would look up at his handsome older brother, and ask him,
"Hey, Iggy, what does it mean to live?"
"Everything in the world."
And then Arthur would hug him and whisper in his ear how strong he was. It brought a tear to his eyes, seeing his younger self and Arthur. He missed having Arthur there for him, to hug him and smile for him. To hold him like he'd never let go.
But he threw it away so selfishly and quickly. He didn't realize that he broke poor Iggy's heart, and his own. Alfred was forced to watch the bittersweet memories of childhood, restrained by his mind.
And then he'd wake up in tears.