Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia. But who ever does is one lucky duck.
"Frère…où est-"
"Là-bas, là-bas!" Francis seemed even more excited now than when we got off the boat. I knew that we were going to that one place of England's…oh, what's it called? Amerana or something? I also knew we were meeting someone, probably England. I like him well enough but I don't see why Francis has to go see him constantly.
Francis basically dragged me up the front steps of a large but inviting house. It looked like they had some land out back. He rang the doorbell and stepped back a bit. England answered it, not surprisingly, but was followed by two small boys about my age. One ran in front of him and stared at me while the other hid behind England's leg.
"Ah, Chamonix, always nice to see you." England said, pronouncing my name almost right. At least he tried. "If only you weren't related to this frog." He added in a quieter tone.
"Arthur, you know she's not good with English." Francis sounded kind of annoyed. It was true that I wasn't completely fluent in the language, but my brother didn't see the need for me to speak it at all. So, I almost never did, especially not around him.
As they continued to talk, I turned my attention back to the two boys. The one closer to me had shorter hair than the one hiding but otherwise they looked almost identical. They must have been twins, or at least brothers.
"So, you don't speak English?"The closer one asked.
"She doesn't understand you, stupid." The other one stepped out from behind England. "Comment vous appellez- vous?" He asked me.
"Je m'appelle Chamonix. Et toi?"
" Mat-er, Canada." He stuttered on his name for some reason. I think he was trying to be formal and polite since I hadn't given him my real name. Maybe that's too informal for a first meeting.
"Et il?" I asked, pointing to the other boy.
"What'd that girl say? She pointed at me."
"'That girl' has a name you know. It's Chamonix. And she asked what your name is." Canada said, obviously annoyed with him.
"Oh." He turned back to me. "I'm Alfred." Canada glared at him. "What?...Oh, I'm suppose to say the Americas and not Alfred, right? Oh well, either one." He grinned at me. Alfred didn't seem too bright. His grin fell suddenly. "Hey, if we're gonna be friends, you're gonna need to learn some English."
"Al! You can't ask someone to learn a whole language just so they can talk to you!" Canada growled. But the other colony was already trying to get England's attention. Yes, definitely not a bright one.
"Hey, hey, Arthur!"
"Hm? What is it?"
"Can we go teach…uh...Chamoneeks English so we can talk to her easier?"
"We?" Canada hissed.
"Well…America…" England was obviously trying not to disappoint the little guy. "It's not quite that easy…it takes years for someone to properly learn a language and France and his sister will only be here for a few weeks…"
"Aw, please?"
"I'm not saying you're not allowed; I'm saying it cannot be done." Alfred pouted. England sighed and added, "But…I suppose there's no harm in trying…"
"Yay!" With that, Alfred grabbed my hand with one of his and Canada's with the other and started running with us towards the back of the house.
"Wait a moment, where are you going? Get back here you-"Francis put a hand on his shoulder to stop him from running after us.
"Ah, let them go. Children need a little freedom sometimes, non? Besides…that gives us time to…"
"Oh, just get in the house, you git."
As we rounded the house, I was tempted to tell them that I did in fact know most of the English language, so they wouldn't have to 'teach' much. But I didn't, mostly due to the fact that it's hard to talk when you're trying to run fast enough to keep up with a bundle of energy like Alfred.
He stopped running at a large apple tree. The three of us sat down beneath us so its shade would shield us from the summer sun.
"So, how much English do you actual know?" That seemed like as good an opportunity as any.
"Quite a bit, actually." Both boys stared at me in disbelief. Oh, my accent must have been awful.
"Then why didn't you…"
"My brother doesn't like it." I mumbled.
"Aw man! I was looking forward to knowing something that you didn't!"
"Don't hold your breath." Canada said quietly.
"Well, Arthur hasn't told us to come back yet," Alfred said, apparently not hearing him. "What do you wanna do now?" I didn't have any ideas and neither did Canada. Alfred on the other hand…
"Oh, I know!" He announced, "We should go down to the river and play there!" Canada looked at him uneasily.
"B-but Arthur told us not to go there because it's dangerous…"
"Oh, he's probably just saying that because he doesn't want us to have any fun." Canada still didn't look too sure. Personally, I thought that a river meant water and mud and bugs. None of which I am particularly fond of, especially since I was wearing one of my favorite dresses. Of course, Alfred ended up dragging us there anyway.
It turned out they did have quite a bit of land behind the house. We passed many more apple and pear trees. The farther we went, the taller the grass got. By the time it was to our knees, the lawn was not so much a lawn any more. It was less processed, wilder. When we finally got to the river, it wasn't what I expected. It was worse.
It was surrounded by hanging trees and menacing ferns. The muddy banks resembled quicksand which was certainly not the best thing for walking on. The water of the river itself was slow moving but deep and murky. The only hope one had of getting across without getting soaked and covered in less than sanitary sediment was a single fallen tree stretching from one side to the other. I was terrified.
"I'm not so sure about this…" Canada mumbled softly, clearly feeling the same way.
"Yes, Alfred, maybe we should go back." I said.
"What? Why would we leave now? We haven't even gotten to the other side yet! There's this really pretty spot over there…" Alfred really had his heart set on this. He ran off, through the quicksand mud, to the fallen tree. I sighed and followed him, dragging Canada along.
The little colony hoisted himself on to the make shift bridge with ease and started walking across. He stopped when he realized that we weren't following him.
"Come on! It's not hard!" When Canada and I didn't move, he hurried back to our side of the river and held his hand out to me. "Come on up, I'll help you across." I still didn't want to do it, but something in his eyes made me trust him. Blushing a tad, I took his hand.
Now that I was actually standing on the tree, I saw how narrow it was. There was only just enough room for us to inch across side by side. Alfred did make an effort to help me cross. He held my hand the whole time, warned me of particularly slick or mossy spots, and even managed to slow down enough for me to keep up.
We were nearly halfway to the other side when I felt something on my nose. I had been looking at my shoes for the entire time we'd been crossing and was hesitant to look up for even a moment. When I did though, I sorta wished I hadn't. A small brown spider swung carelessly from its invisible thread directly in front of me. I hated spiders. And that thing had touched me.
I made a sound that was somewhere between a gasp and a scream and made a desperate attempt to get away from it. I lost my footing and fell backwards off the fallen tree. I held fast to Alfred's hand however and pulled him down with me. I think I heard Canada yell something as we splashed into the river.
The water wasn't as deep as I'd originally thought, but I still couldn't touch the bottom. It was exactly as murky as I'd originally thought though. I couldn't see a thing. The one thing I could feel Alfred, whose hand I was still crushing with my own, pulling me to the surface.
We both gasped for air and looked at each other. Then we laughed. We laughed. I'm not completely sure why, but something was definitely funny. But at that little moment, swimming in a horribly dirty river with muddy water soaking through my favorite dress, I was really, truly happy for some reason.
When Alfred and I found our way back to the bank and emerged, we looked a bit like swamp monsters and Canada was there. He was colorless and shaking and rambling about how terrible this idea was and how we could have gotten killed. This was only a temporary spaz attack though.
"I really am kind of sorry for taking you there…I didn't realize you would be scared and stuff" Alfred confessed on the way back to the house. "Forgive me, Chamonix?"
"Of course. It's not like it was your fault I fell. And…call me Monique." I smiled at him.
"Hey, um…" Canada spoke up, not to be left out. "My real name's Matthew, if you want to call me that…"
"Or Mattie." Alfred suggested.
"Don't tell people what to call me!" The words were angry, but he was laughing. We all were.
"What the bloody hell have you done to your clothes?"
"Mon Dieu! That pretty dress I made you! And just look at your hair!"
Can ferns be menacing? Of course! XD I'm sorry if the french is bad...I know some but I'm far from fluent, so tell me if there's something majorly wrong with it. D: I tried to make it at least sorta historically accurate .
Also...you should like...review and stuff. That would make me happier than a moth at a porch light sale. :D