Ms .Elbridge looked down her old crooked nose to see two young boys. The older one, had steel blue eyes hat had fire in them, he had courage, to stand up to her like this. He was also very malnourished, and he wore filthy clothes. The younger one was hiding behind the first, he looked remarkably similar to the brave boy, yet he did not hold the same kind of courage in his eyes. His eyes were broken; they showed a broken spirit, and a broken heart.
"You have to give us food Ms. Elbridge! You're took us in!" Shouted the brave boy.
"I don't have to do anything, get out of my sight you filthy children."
And she slammed the door in their faces.
The brave and broken boys walked away, the rain had started falling harder as the night wore on.
"What a bitch, she feeds all the other kids properly, why not us huh? What the hell did we do to deserve this?!"
The broken boy sighed
"Al, that's our third orphanage this month, I think we need to just accept the fact that nobody wants us. Al you could still go back to Tex, I'm sure she would let you back-
"No."
Alfred stopped walking and gripped the broken boy's shoulders tightly.
"We will find our way out of this, we always do Mattie."
Suddenly a large crash sounded beside their heads, they glanced behind them to see Ms. Elbridge.
"Life is fucking hard kids, get used to it!"
Al woke up in a cold sweat. He hated nightmares, especially the ones that involved his childhood. He sits up in his bed and looked around. He could see he was in the new Hetalia Home Helpers new building.
After several years o the streets after he came of age, he got himself into college, majoring in child psychology with his (foster) brother Matthew Williams. Originally both social workers for a few years, they managed to work their asses off, got sponsored and managed to create their dream company, the Hetalia Home Helpers. Mattie and Al would soon be taking abandoned and abused children to live with them on a permanent basis, and would raise them in the small home. The state government love the idea, hoping to see it do well, so that the group could expand and help the growing foster program in the U.S.A.
Al dragged himself out of bed and pulled a baggy grey shirt over his head. He was pretty skinny, with a scraggily beard and bright blue eyes, his short blonde hair had one unruly piece sticking up, and he needed to wear glasses. He walked to the kitchen of his new house in his boxers, poured himself a cuppa coffee and proceeded to pour half a bottle of whiskey in as well. Nothing like a good drink to start off his day. He called Mattie and soon his brother was bustling around the kitchen, making himself some toast and eggs. Mattie and Al looked pretty similar, even though they weren't related at all. They had become brother s at age 7 for Al and 4 for Mattie, and it had been that way ever since. Al was bouncing up and down in his seat; he was so excited because Ms. Hedervary was coming by today with their first kid. After his cup, Al ran to his room pulled on some jeans and ran to the bathroom to shave.
The house was pretty small, but pretty homey. It had a living room across from the kitchen. The living room had a giant flat screen TV and they had been supplied with tons of video games as well as cable. The kitchen had a long elevated table through the middle; with bar stools as seats, Al loved it. There was then a hallway with 5 bedrooms, two on either side and one at the end, that one was Mattie's. Al had called first dibs on the one master bedroom that was connected to the living room and the bathroom.
Al jumped as the phone started ringing. He heard Mattie pick up.
"Hello this is Matthew Williams how may I help you?"
"Oh you're bringing him over now? Great! We'll be outside shortly, have a nice day!"
*click*
"Al our first kid is here!" Called Mattie.
Al jumped from his stool in the bathroom and ran to the front door just as the doorbell rang. Outside the door stood Eliza Hedervary, she was the kid's agent, and she would be brining most of the kids. She was wearing a tight blue business suit with a bright smile and long curly brown hair.
Beside her stood an 11 year old boy, He had short cut blonde hair, light blue eyes, and he was extremely malnourished. He was wearing clothes that the agency had provided him with, and white shirt and black sweats, and he looked petrified.
"Good morning Mr. Jones, 'm Ms. Hedervary, and I'm Ryan's agent, as well as your liason with the agency. Here's my cared." She says, handing it to him.
"Ah, just call me Al, is this guy Ryan?" He asked peeking behind her.
Ryan continued to stare at the floor, expression not changing.
"Yes it is. Ryan here volunteered for the program, and I'm hoping everything goes well" she says now sitting on Ryan's level. "Ryan this is Mr. Jones, he's going to be your new father as well as Mr. Williams back there."
Ryan's' face looks up, "Hello Sir." He forced out, in a tone of forced respect.
"Hey Ryan, let's show you to your room and Al can settle things up with Ms. Hedervary here. Mattie says warmly as he took Ryan's hand gently and led him away.
As Ryan disappeared with Matt Eliza stood back up. "Mr. Jones I'm terribly sorry to leave you with this one right off the bat, but… Well it's one we really needed to get into a safe place. You guys are different than most homes, under government protection, so his parents won't get him back." She spat out with obvious disgust towards Ryan's parents.
"What's the story?" asked Al, now nervous. Eliza sighed. "Long story short, I'll leave you the files with more detail, but Ryan was pretty badly neglected for a long time. His parents were both drug addicts and didn't do anything to care for the family; no water bills no electricity, no food, just drugs. Ryan ended up supporting his family, and did a pretty good job at keeping then all alive until about a week ago when he came to school late, begging them to help his mom or she was going to die, she had overdosed. His mother is currently in the hospital in a comatose state; his father is and will hopefully stay in jail for the rest of his life, for Ryan's sake. If his mom ever wakes up and gets out of rehab she could potentially get custody of him, so we gave him this option."
"And he took it immediately." Al finished his face now mirroring Eliza's. Sadly, it wasn't even the worse story he ever heard. He smiled at Eliza, "well you don't' need to worry about Ryan any longer. Me and Mattie are going to save him! We'll start with some food..."
Eliza laughed "I sure hope you do, he's about thirty ponds underweight, you should also look to buying him some new clothes."
Eliza glanced at her watch and sighed "I'm sorry Mr. Jones but I really have to go, I will continue to check up on Ryan, call me if you need anything."
She stood up, patted his shoulder awkwardly and then left the house. Al turned around to see Mattie and Ryan emerging from the hallway, Ryan not looking quite so scared.
"So, Ryan, I was thinking we should go grab you some clothes and some stuff for your room. We should also grab some lunch, I know I'm starving!" Alfred said to Ryan.
"Y-You don't have to do that." Said Ryan quietly.
"Nah men don't sweat it, that's what we do! Let's go!" Al bounded happily to their car Ryan following behind reluctantly and Mattie brining up the rear.
The drive to the mall was silent, Ryan just staring out the window the whole time. Mattie was reading Ryan's files and Al was driving. When they arrived they decided to go shopping first.
"So which shirts do you want, polo's?" Al pointed one direction, "or baseball tee's? He pointed the other way. Ryan shrugged "Whichever is the least amount of money." Mattie sighed, "Ryan, money is not a factor you should be considering, and you just pick what you want." Ryan reluctantly pointed to the baseball tees. "Thank you sir." After some more shopping, Al, Ryan, and Mattie went to a fast food place for food. Al ordered a huge burger combo with a large fries and a slushie, Matt order himself a salad and Ryan a happy meal. Ryan protested the whole time. "Seriously guys you don't need to spend so much money on me, I don't need any of this stuff."
After forcing Ryan to eat his food, his cheeks had a bit more color. Alfred had tried to ask him what he liked to do, but all he got was "No sir, you may just take me back to your place." Al sighed, "Please Ryan, call me Al. And are you sure man? We could go to the park, or the movies, we want to get to know you." Alfred tried a reassuring smile.
"Ryan nods, "I would like to go to sleep if that's all right?" He says, still not looking Al in the eyes. Al internally sighs, "Sure thing kiddo."
Mattie walks in, carrying various bags of clothes and other various objects that they had seen Ryan glance at. Ryan looked away and Al noticed he was biting his lip, hard.
"Ryan? You ok?" asks Al, seeing he's stressed out.
"Mr. Jones you don't have to spend so much on me, please…" he says, now deflating into his chair.
Alfred gave Mattie a puzzled look; they would have to talk to him tonight.
When they got home Ryan immediately fell asleep, so Mattie and Al sat on the couch in silence. Mattie was the first to speak.
"Is it me or do we have an extremely unselfish kid on our hands?" He questioned thoughtfully. Al sighed, "I've already texted Eliza but there's nothing indicating this would happen on the files, I think we should just talk to him in the morning.
As fate would have it, Al was woken up in the middle of the night by a knock on his door," come in," he called. Ryan walked in in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle PJ's. "Mr. Jones I'm sorry to bother you but I hoped that you were awake…" Ryan says.
Al smiles. "Ryan you are allowed to come and talk to me when ever you want, and I mean WHEN EVER." Al spoke confidently, as he patted the bed beside him. Ryan sat down at the opposite end of the bed."I'm really sorry you spent all that money on me, I was selfish, I really don't need all those things, and I can eat bread and water I promise I can!" he said all in one breath, he looked to be on the brink of tears.
Al looked into Ryan's eyes, "What's wrong with that Ryan?" Al wondered aloud. "I know how these things work," Ryan spat bitterly, "the boys at the other places told me. You guys get paid to keep me here, but if I cost more money than you make, I'll get sent home, I don't want to go back there you have to return that stuff please!" Ryan was full out crying now. "Al brought Ryan into his lap and wrapped his arms around his stomach in a hug. "Ryan did Eliza not tell you about our situation at all?" Ryan hiccupped. "B-But none of that's true right? Y-You can st-still send me back?" His voice broke. Al smiled gently. "Ryan, it's the truth, you are here to live with me and Mattie for the rest of your life, and you never have to go back if you don't want to. Me and Mattie are your fathers' now." Ryan turned around, "You mean that Al?" Al smiled a big toothy grin, "'course I do bud, bring it in." Ryan tightly wrapped his arms around Alfred's middle. Muffled sobs and 'thank you's' could be heard. They fell asleep in each other's arms.
~2 months later~
Eliza was over at the Hetalia House for the fourth official time since she had brought Ryan. She was currently sitting alone on the couch with Ryan, doing her usual checkup.
"So how have things been going Ryan?" She asked. Ryan grinned, "Things are great! Mattie walks me to school every day and watches Pokémon with me on TV! Al took me to go play baseball last weekend and it was great! He also taught me how to play video games cuz I need to learn to pwn all the noobs. I love it her Eliza!" He finished happily. Eliza grinned. "I'm glad to hear that Ryan, so what about your old school friends Gilbert and Vash?" Ryan's grin dropped slightly, "well we still all hang out at school and stuff but neither of their moms trust Al yet, they say he's too 'rambunctious' whatever that means." Eliza laughed, "Well he is quite the character."
Ryan then blushed and looked down at his knees, "uh… can I ask you a personal question?" He stuttered, getting redder by the second. Now Eliza was curious, "of course Ryan, what is it?"
Ryan went to the living room to go watch TV as Mattie and Al walked in, "so how'd it go?" asked Al. Eliza smiled, "it went great, he's really starting to improve, he's talking and smiling again!" She finished happily. Al and Mattie breathed out simultaneous sighs of relief, "thank god." Eliza grinned "but he did have a special request, he asked me if he could call you two dad, I said yes of course but..." she trailed off. Al's heart melted right then and there. "Finally Tex, I'm doing something right."