A lot of people asked Darcy why she enlisted in the army.
Years of fighting and she had realized that every month, every week, every day.
Every second, she had a new reason.
It had began with following in her father's foot steps and honoring his death, then her brother's and then her cousin's. Now all Darcy wanted was to keep people safe to protect thier hearts since her family's was broken.
Mid day eating lunch, her friends from the UK sat with her, as well as her good friend Judy a journalist from Montana. Racous laughter filled the room hearty bellows emitting from the soldiers stories of sons and daughters from back home, wives that would meet them with an embrace until they died.
Alas Darcy had no one...her family was dead and her mother was dead on the inside, she had no one to fight for and no one to come home to. Darcy paid it no mind and laughed along with thier stories forgetting her self-pity.
"I miss my little boy, sometimes I fear the next time I come home the lad'll be wed off with a pretty woman and a son of his own" an English soilder named Charlie chuckled, he tucked his long red hair behind one ear. The other men nodded offering the names of thier children and how they want to see them again.
"Darcy do you want any little ones?" Ken a large burly Scottish man asked in his illegible grizzly accent he was usually quiet but as of late had started befriending Darcy (Judy thought he was sweet on her).
Darcy laughed akwardly "I'm not very good with kids but dogs are nice " she smiled softly remembering her Newfoundland Pat who she had to give away before she was deployed. Ken looked back at his food and grunted approvingly, Jerry laughed loudly "Ken you're such a lady killer" he said sarcastically patting Ken on the back.
The flap to the large tent where they were eating opened the canvas flap revealed three men one of which was Chase another nurse and a friend of Judy's, he shyly walked in in front of the two men and lead them to the captain one was fairly tall and broad he had tan skin, blue eyes, and a hollywood smile he was wearing a simple outfit a T-shirt and jeans with a bomber jacket but the way he held himself made him seem as if he was wearing a crown.
The next man was a bit shorter and even more so because of his slouch he wore a scowl and his large eyebrows made him look angrier he wore a long sleeve black shirt with old jeans but he acted like a frumpy old man for looking like a college student. He had pale skin and hair that was the color of dead grass but his eyes were like green fire.
Darcy observed them it was odd she had never seen them before and they didn't look like officials but they sure acted like them. The others at the table emitted small gasps and whispered amonst eachother in counfusion. Darcy leaned over to Charlie "do you know who they are? " She asked quietly peaking over at Judy who was struggling to pull out her note pad in excitment.
Jerry nodded half heartedly "Sort of, you see the short man? Well he's often spotted and photographed with the royal family, mostly the queen, but no one knows who he is and the family won't say anything about it"
Judy wiggled in excitment her golden curls bouncing along with her old dusty glasses "same with the taller one! But he's spotted on white house grounds, giving tours around D.C. and with the presidential family...his name is Alfred he's like D.C.'s urban legend!"
Darcy looked between them counfused when Judy jumped up and ran toward them with the note pad, Darcy couldn't hear it from affar but she scared the shorter man and was so starry eyed in front of the taller one she couldn't ask her questions. She and 'Alfred' returned together leaving the other man to talk with the captain.
They were talking loudly and laughing as they sat down "nice to meet you guys! I'm Ame-Alfred and me and my bro are gunna chill with you guys for awhile!" The rest of the men in the group introduced themselves with smiles (or grunts in Ken's case).
"and you are?" he asked Darcy her dark brown eyes wided "me? Oh I'm Darcy, Darcy Clarkson" she offered him a soft false smile "Clarkson?" The strange blue eyed man moved forward and shook her hand his eyes took a solem color "thanks for all your family has done for this country" he said with sincerity.
Her eyes widend with shock "you knew my brother?" she stammers her hand growing clammy in his grip, The mans head drooped "no" he said softly and let go of her hand.
"I knew your father" he said it so silently no one heard but the woman whos eyes he looked into. before she could ask what he meant by that, considering he was surely to young to have known her father, the other man arrived at the table spouting curses at Alfred that would put a sailor to shame with thier vulgarity.
At some point Darcy couldn't tell what he was saying but Jerry obviously could and was trying to contain his laughter the pale Englishman sat down next to Alfred with a huff and a nasty glare. "Artie I don't know what you're saying when you talk in old timey English, I didn't know Shakespeare remember?" The American said playfully.
"it was Welsh you git, and thats what you get for embarrassing me in front of an officer!" He hissed quietly looking angrily at his food.
"all I said was was-" 'Artie' slapped a hand over Alfred's mouth almost knocking the glasses off his face this earned hidden laughter from the table.
"Are you two married or what?" Charlie said jokingly at thier bickering resulting in laughter from the rest of the table and the smaller man's face turn a hundred shades of red.
"Engaged actually" The blue eyed man said with a bright smile as he held up him and the other mans hand displaying rings on either of thier hands with each others names on them like dog tags. The green eyed man tore his hand away and whacked Alfred upside the head.
The table went silent with suprise and Larry choked on his food "r-really? Congrats how long?" Charlie said covering his suprise but it seemed the American was oblivious to everything "me and Artie-" e began.
"Arthur and I" the brit rolled his eyes "Arthur and I have been engaged for...oh dear god" her turned and whispered it to Arthur resulting in a blush "lets just say a very long time" Alfred concluded not eager to tell the crowd it was thier 69th anniversary this coming May.
They all raised thier eyebrows at that but the conversation was fairly normal from there, afterwards they went about thier daily tasks and included Arthur and Alfred in thier daily lives...oddly enough thier training though fairly good was a bit out dated.
The American was extremly strong and ended up being quite the pack mule while the Englishman had scarily good aim with any weapon. After awhile time passed and twos weeks in they felt like old friends Alfred was blunt and to the point while Arthur had a dark but rich sense of humor. Darcy regarded them as fairly normal and no one had brought up why they had been seen with thier respective government powers...probably because they seem too average to actually have connections with government powers.
Oh had Darcy been wrong.
She had been walking back to the large tent for lunch and passed the large tents they slept in she heard voices and placed herself outside the door.
"England I can't take this anymore!" she heard Alfred say through sobs "America, shh it'll be alright you just need to calm down" Arthur said. America and England? Are those nicknames? She thought to herself.
"y-you don't understand England they'll die! I'll have to watch Pete die again...Darcy looks just like him same deep skin same brown eyes the buzz cut, for gods sake England I can't watch him die again!" the blabbering stopped, my father? How could he have known my father? She thought leaning closer to the tent flap.
A slap resounded "get yourself together America we're nations...everyone leaves us at some point" Darcy backed away just as Arthur, England? Burst through and walked swiftly away Alfred, America? Followed but stopped gripping the canvas flap gritting hs teeth.
"You have some explaining to do" Darcy said sharply placing a hand on Alfred's shoulder he looked at her sadly his nose was red and his eyes were clogged with tears"you heard all that?" he laughed sadly and Darcy nodded.
Alfred looked off after Arthur sadly debating his options before shaking his head and plastering on a false smile "well uh you're not going to beleive me" He muttered looking at the ground "but we're the personifications of our nations America and England, which is how I knew Pe-your father we fought in Veitnam together" he sighed rubbing his forehead "but I guess you probably figured that out already, right?"
"thats why you were with the president and he was...oh...well Afre-America I promise I won't die...but..." Darcy said convincingly looking Alfr-America in the eyes "what was he like?" she asked quieter.
"and how did he die?"
That simple question was the beginning of something great every meal for the next few days was filled with discussion between them...and it began to feel as if Darcy's father was sitting there with him and her every meal, Arthur was still with them but never with Alfred they still wore their rings but they wouldn't look at each other, Alfred eventually dwelled on the topic of Arthurs apparent 'trust issues' but it just resulted in yelling.
Slowly but surely Alfred aplogized to Arthur and comforted himself in knowing Darcy was alive, and slowly but surely Darcy realized she didn't fight for her brother, her father, or her cousin.
People still asked her why she enlisted in the army.
She enlisted for her family.
But now she stays...
For her nation.
AN
Just a drabble/one-shot, the 69 thing was actually an accident I wanted Alfred to propose the day the war ended and they wouldn't get married until it was legal in both thier countries...it just so happened 2014 and 1945 are 69 years appart...