Merry Christmas everybody! I have another UsUk fanfiction for you this time; well if your name is Tori-Colour-Bastia, then this is actually specifically for you! I'll explain for those of you out of the loop – this is my form of a Christmas present for Tori, and I thought I'd put it up here for you other UsUk fans looking for a bit of festive shounen-ai fluff! I hope you guys like it; and (I'm surprised none of you are sick of hearing this from me, but that's why I love you all!) please read and review if you have the time! Let's Wondering! xxx
For Tori
You've quickly become one of my best friends and I can't imagine how dull my life would be without our weird conversations! I'm so glad we 'met' and I'm certain we'll be friends for a really long time. Merry Christmas babe, I hope it's a great one!
Love Charli x
Floods
I can feel them before they really happen. Floods. I feel all teary and weakened, and the headaches are unbearable. It's like I am actually being dragged under water, my mind clouds, my throat tightens, and I struggle to breathe. It's so tiring and every movement feels a thousand times more strenuous. I just want to shut my eyes and sleep forever... But I don't. For various reasons...
In the next few days , the rain falls. And it falls and it falls and it falls. It's harsh and unrelenting, and soon the entire country is swimming. It's particularly bad this year – people's homes have been invaded by the gushing torrents of filthy water, their possessions entirely submerged in the stuff, forced to wade through water that laps as high as their hips just to try and get out.
I hate it. I hate seeing my people go through this. I hate how hard it is to solve the problem. I hate the fact that there's close to nothing that I can do to prevent it. But above all, I hate that this time around, it's chosen to strike at Christmas.
The other nations are excited and cheerful, even more so than usual if you can believe that; I'm surrounded by a bunch of idiots, but it's Christmas so just this once, I will forgive them. I don't really ever enjoy these international conferences to be honest, but this one is far worse than the others. All I can think about is the flooding. The water everywhere. The utter hopelessness of the entire affair. Everyone else is so carefree, it's heartbreaking. I can't help but feel bitter, even though I know it's not their fault. Because I am an island, it's only natural that I should have a lot of water, and sometimes I just gain too much. It's horrible and I envy the landlocked. I won't have any yule festivities this year, and neither will my people, and that is what hurts the most. Well, this is it, I suppose. Merry Christmas England... Merry Christmas Arthur.
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England was clearly distracted today. I can tell because usually he'd be fighting me. On just about everything actually! Christmas or not, Arthur was still Arthur – miserable, irritable, sarcastic, condescending, but mostly adorable. I know that something's up with him, but at these big meetings and gatherings and whatever the hell we have to do this week, there's very little time to talk with him alone. I find calling people on the phone kinda uncomfortable, and when I do get the urge to speak with him like that, I nearly always call when he's out or asleep. Call me stupid, God knows he has, but I always forget about the time difference thing...
I don't think a lot, but whenever I really do, it's nearly always about him. I'm America dude – world's greatest, I'm the hero! I've basically got my pick of the world! But... I haven't. I've never even looked twice at anyone else. He means everything to me, and I hate seeing him this unhappy.
I bet it's because it's Christmas. He's a pretty lonely guy, and I guess the holidays aren't all that fun to spend alone. I always invite him for my Christmas party but he never seems to enjoy it... I mean what is with that? I throw an awesome party!
I'm getting distracted-! All the same, I've gotta do something. It's my duty as the hero after all!
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"What?"
"Do you want to spend Christmas at my place?" he repeated. "Come on man, it'll be fun! Lots of gifts, lots of parties, and more food than you'll ever be able to eat! Sounding great yet or what?!" he pumped his fist in the air excitedly.
And for just a moment, I was going to say yes. I really can't think of anything better than Christmas with America. I love him, I always have. And he is good at hosting; much as I hate to admit it, he's far better than I could ever be. He's not a terrible cook and he's not stingy with his cash either. The idea had merit, I'd admit. But... As much as I wanted to go, I couldn't leave them...
They needed someone. Sure I couldn't do much, but what I could do was something. Enough to make a small difference. And it takes but a simple spark to light a fire – it doesn't matter how long or how hard I have to work, I know I can do something.
"Sorry," I replied, "I... I don't think I can." Oh damn, did he really have to look so crestfallen? Is it too late to change my mind...?
"Oh..." he scratched his nape resignedly, "Well uh, that's okay. Some other time then..."
"Yes, of course." I turned to walk away, before I could change my mind and he called after me.
"Hey England... Would you mind telling me why?"
God, I really had upset him hadn't I...? The thought that I had made him that unhappy made my stomach turn over. "It's really nothing personal, I promise." I assured him, "I just can't get to yours that easily at the moment..."
"Huh? What do you mean?" he sounded concerned.
"Really, it's nothing. I have to go, excuse me."
Okay, now something was definitely wrong. He always had a rant to accompany a rejection, unless that is, he actually wanted to accept. I wonder what's keeping him... I'd feel bad letting him spend Christmas alone. I've never known loneliness like that – I've always had Canada at least, and people literally queue round the block to party at my place! England... Well, he's always by himself. I worry about him. I know that how lonely he is, is partly my fault. I feel guilty sure, but mostly I just feel sad for him. I want to do something, I have to! I just need to know why he can't make it, and stop it-!
…But how do I find out that?
000ooo000ooo000
After the world conference, I made my way back to England. Thankfully the floods haven't caused obstruction at the airport, but it's murder trying to drive anywhere. This Christmas I was going to stay with my friend Catherine. She and I met many years ago and we're very close, though not in distance – she lives in Devon, and as that's where a lot of the flooding has occurred, I am going down to volunteer there. Her area hasn't been as badly affected yet so it's safe to live there, but only a little way away people are having to be evacuated. I
arrived that evening and rung the doorbell.
The door swung open and I was enveloped in a large hug. "Arthur-!" Cat greeted me, "It's so good to see you."
I hugged her back, just as happily. "You too." she released me, inviting me in.
"You look great." and she did – her naturally blonde hair was still as radiant as ever, and she'd maintained her trim figure. She was still small but as always had been the case, it didn't detract from her radiance at all.
"Aw thanks, you look good too. Still haven't plucked those eyebrows yet I see...?" she laughed mischievously.
"You leave my eyebrows alone."
"Alright, alright – I suppose it is Winter, you need them to keep warm...!" she poked her little pink tongue out at me, moving into the kitchen to turn on the kettle.
Her daughter sat cross-legged on the floor, reading a brightly-coloured book, thoroughly engrossed. Her ginger hair was tied into two pigtails, wrapped in pink ribbon.
"Hello Angela." I smiled, wondering if she remembered me from the year before
last.
"Hello Igland." She flashed a gap-toothed smile at me.
"She's still not entirely there, pronunciation-wise." her mother clarified.
"Good memory though. I'm impressed that she even remembered who I was..."
Catherine laughed, "Of course she remembered you idiot! There are pictures of you everywhere in this house, and you're on the news practically every other week! Goodness Arthur, you're such a recluse!"
I'd truly forgotten how much I missed my best friend. She was so unlike any of the female nations – she was a free spirit, and light-hearted, and didn't have to obsess over world affairs. It was refreshing, but I was here to do a job, and I couldn't forget that. People mere streets away had had their presents swept away and their houses trashed. It wasn't fair.
000ooo000ooo000
"Okay Google, do what you do..." I said to myself, hitting enter after the search.
I wasn't expecting the results I found. I knew England was prone to flooding but this... People were leaving their houses and their stuff behind. People had their gardens drowned and their cars washed away. People had even died. Christmas was far from their minds.
I picked up the phone, "Japan? Dude I need you."
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I made my way down the stairs wearily and walked into the living room. "Good morning Arthur, did you sleep well?" Catherine asked brightly.
"Meh."
"Ah, I see you're still incapable of forming sentences. You never were a morning person…"
"No, you just always insisted at doing everything at 5AM-!" I grouched.
"And wasn't that a fantastic time to be awake?"
"No. It was not." I groaned.
She busied herself making tea, and handed me a cup, taking a seat opposite me. "Do you want something cooked for you or would you rather make your own breakfast?" she asked kindly.
"I'll cook, thank you. Have you already eaten?"
"Yeah, Ange and I ate about an hour ago. Colleen's not even up yet though, so I'm sure she'd appreciate something if you don't mind?" she smiled appreciatively.
"Of course not, it's the least I could do."
"Thanks, you're such a good cook Ar."
I cringed, "It's been a while since I've heard that."
She looked confused at this, "Really? What about that America kid?"
"Man." I corrected her, "Huge economic and political growth – he's nearly the same age as me now."
She shuddered, "How you guys age creeps me out. Still, I bet he's a cutie." she leaned forward on her forearms.
"Hah, more than that." I confirmed.
"Ooh, crush much? Have you asked him out yet?" she queried.
I was taken aback, "You know things aren't that simple! There's too many what-ifs to consider to even think about that!"
"Hey, it worked for me."
Right on cue the door swung open and Colleen entered. She raked a hand through her long hair and bent down to kiss Catherine on her cheek. "Morning sweetheart."
"Good morning."
Even in those few brief seconds, I could tell that they were in love. The way they looked into one another's eyes, it was beautiful. I wanted that. Still, never mind.
Angela was sat on the sofa watching something on television, and barely even noticed neither her mother nor my appearance in the room. It was sweet, and reminded me immensely of him…
"So England," the taller woman addressed, "I hear you're volunteering with us today?"
"Yes, I hope it's not too much of an inconvenience."
"Not at all!" she beamed, "We're happy to have you! I just hope you didn't feel obligated to spend Christmas this way?"
"No, this is the right thing to do. I wanted to do it."
000ooo000ooo000
"Okay, is everybody here?" I yelled out, ignoring all the troubled glances of the people around us. God, if English people were uptight and nervous about something as mundane as this, I dreaded to think what it'd be like trying to get a cab around here…
In fairness to them, we were a large and kinda weird bunch. We were all huddled to one side in one of the terminals of Gatwick airport, each with our two bags (in Poland's case five, all of them being carried by Lithuania rather than himself), Japan and I heading and ending the group, armed with clipboards and a little registry thing, you know, just so we didn't lose anybody. As was our way, we weren't the quietest sort either – either laughing too loud and raucously or arguing unstoppably, and ultimately drawing all eyes our way. I practically had to shout to be heard over them.
"Raise your hand if you're not here!"
"America-san, I do not think that will work…" Japan noted.
"But I don't think we've got the time to do a role call, why can't they just do that?!" I questioned exasperatedly, "Okay, can you guys think of anybody who's missing?"
"For Gott's sake, America!" Germany spoke up, "Can you just do a count-off?!"
The moment that last word left his lips, Italy and Japan answered almost instinctively:
"Uno!"
"Ni."
I looked at him. "Dude, you train them too hard…"
000ooo000ooo000
"Okay England, are you okay to help with the water clearance? It's a bit of a hands-on job but we could really use the help?" one of the administrators for the project put forward.
"Of course, that sounds fine." I replied, trying to ignore the water already seeping into my shoes.
Next to me Colleen was pulling her hair back, a band held between her teeth. She too donned the gray workers overalls I wore; as we were going to be doing some of the more dirty jobs, it made sense that we wore clothes that were either resilient or not going to be missed. "You ready?" she smiled.
"Yes, just give me a second."
She picked up some of the buckets and tools we'd need, and pointed out a street just around the corner. Catherine was over in the break area, serving tea and taking care of the children – she could hardly leave Angela at her age but she wanted to help in some way. I gathered up the rest of the equipment and we began to walk down the road with a couple of the other volunteers.
"Anything we can do?"
I knew that voice instantly and turned around. "America?"
I really wasn't expecting the sight that I was met with – the others. Dozens of them, so many were here and ready to help, every one of them clad in those same God-awful overalls! I felt tears welling in the corner of my eyes and fought the urge to cry, instead starting, "How did you-? What are you all doing here?"
"America invited us." France said, pointing at the country in question, who stood proudly at the front of the group.
"We found out about the floods," China continued.
"And we don't think that it's too late for you Englishy people to have a Christmas!" Italy cheered.
"You all… For me?"
America grinned sheepishly, "Yeah, you're important to us all England. We just couldn't let this be your New Year's gig."
I laughed lightly, still reeling from the surprise. "Well then, we'd better get started~!"
000ooo000ooo000
We'd been working for a fair few hours when England suggested that we, and the rest of our team, took a five-minute break. In my opinion, it was greatly needed and deserved. It's tougher than it looks doing all that, especially when there's only a few of us and we're greatly outnumbered by the volume of water. I lifted my soda up to my lips – having politely refused point-blank to drink tea – and took a swig. I was stronger than the others, mostly mothers and England, and I wouldn't need as long a break. To be honest, I think that the sooner we're done, the happier England will be – you know, on account of people being able to relax a little. I know that he cares a lot about his country, probably far more than I do.
The nation actually came over then, standing beside me, looking out towards the site of the clean up. "We'll go back in a moment then?"
"Yeah, sounds good."
"Excuse me," a child's voice called up, "Mr Merica, are you Iggy's boyfriend?"
"Angela! Don't ask people things like that-!" England had gone bright red, and scooped the girl up onto his hip, "Sorry Amer-"
I interrupted him, addressing Angela boldly, "I'd like to be. Do you think he would?"
England was speechless but the girl was excited, balling her chubby hands into tiny fists. "Yep yep yep!" she nodded her head energetically, "He's always looking at you and whenever he talks-"
The man in question clamped a hand loosely over her mouth, "That's quite enough Angela, I don't think America needs to know all that!" I'm not even kidding, his face was redder than Finland's Santa suit. "Go on, run along to your mothers."
He put her down and the girl proceeded to trot other to a tall, similarly auburn-haired woman and ambush her legs in a tight embrace. We both watched her go silently.
"So..." I said, more to make him uncomfortable than anything else. "You like me? A lot apparently if Angela's anything to go by..." I teased.
"Shut up you git." he responded.
"Is it a form of masochism if I love it when you insult me?" Okay, so I was flirting. Shoot me down but now I know I'm in, I may as well get some fun out of it.
He chuckled lightly, "Probably, but I've always said you were weird."
"Ahh." I grinned, "There it is again...!"
"Stop it you freak-!" he retorted, but this time he laughed, loudly and whole-heartedly, and suddenly everything was okay. His arm dropped down by his side, and I took his hand in my own.
"Merry Christmas... Arthur."
He smiled, "Merry Christmas Alfred."
I leaned forward and kissed him.
"Whooo-!"
We broke apart and I turned to look for the source of the cries. A short blonde woman was cheering happily over by the tea stand.
"Do you know her?" I asked.
He looked down, "I've never seen her in my life." he stated adamantly.
"Go Arthur!"
He sighed, "Okay, so I know her a little bit..."
I laughed, waving at his friend. "Happy Christmas to you too!"
"Ignore her, she'll go away…" he whispered.
"Now why would I want to do that? She could have so many interesting stories about you, and you know, I think I'd like to hear-"
He silenced me with another kiss.
"Now let's get back to work. We've got a lot to do yet."
I looked around me. There was Finland, entertaining all the little kids, and giving them presents that made up for those that they'd lost, Sweden a silent terror at his side. France, surprise surprise, was lurking around a group of women serving tea. Lithuania and the rest of the Baltics were trying to recover possessions, Poland pretending to help outside, but mostly just watching what they did. Japan, China and Russia were all a few streets down, clearing out water. Spain and Romano had been forced on poor Austria, who was struggling to do the task they'd been assigned to without killing his companions. Italy was attempting to, but mostly it was Prussia, Germany and Hungary actually getting anything done, reinforce homes with sandbags. And all the other nations were somewhere or another. We were actually working together, and we were actually achieving something amazing. This was Christmas how it was supposed to be – unified and together.
And England – I could see how much this meant to him. And I'm happy. Happy to have done this. Happy to have him. Happy to-!
Aw man, who am I kidding? This is great, but I'm still going to throw a party later!
THE END
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Three moderately interesting yet useless facts that you didn't know about this piece:
1. The character Colleen wasn't originally called that, and she was actually written American also, to both mirror the UsUk relationship and provide a common ground.
2. I actually wrote this much much longer than it was planned to be!
3. At the time of writing, you United Kingdom-dwellers will know that we actually are experiencing floods. Sadly, I have seen no sign of the Hetalia boys as of yet… ;P
Merry Christmas – Joyeux Noël – Feliz Navidad - Froehliche Weihnachten - Kala Christouyenna - Saint Dan Fai Lok - Buone Feste Natalizie - Kurisumasu Omedeto - Hyvaa Joulua - Pozdrevlyayu S Prazdnikom Rozhdestva S Novim Godom – Happy Christmas
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