"France! France!"
"What's wrong Angleterre?"
"Look at it! In the sky…it's going to hit us!"
A soft chuckle. "No, Arthur, the sun won't hit us. It's setting so it only seems bigger from here."
"But…but it looks like it could just…just…drop down and squish everything!"
"Well, that would be horrible, but it will never happen. The world won't end that easily, Arthur. She has already survived hundreds of years with the Sun as her neighbor—I fail to see that she will not continue the same cycle for many years to come."
The small nation did not respond immediately, taking another weary look at the sun.
"If you say so, France."
"I still believe you, you know."
France, stripped of his shirt and lying a shallow hole of earth, looked up quizzically at the Englishman.
"What in God's name are you talking about?"
England snorted. "Well, of course an old man like you would forget. Long ago, when we were younger, you told me—the world would never end like this."
"Well, only a fool like you would not be able to recognize that I can not predict the future." France laid his head back down in the dirt with a quiet thud, sighing.
Arthur only 'hmm'ed in response, turning his head back to the horizon. He, Alfred, Matthew, Francis, and several other nations had managed to find each other amidst the chaos, and had now set up camp somewhere in the Swiss Alps. Most nations had forgone their shirts and some even cut away their pants to make shorts. With the Earth so hot and so little water around, keeping cool became a primary concern of all. Luckily, the group had managed to find a cliff that cast a shadow over the land below it and stopped to rest for the day…or just for some amount of time. The days and nights all blended together now, Arthur mused.
Kiku seemed to understand what exactly was happening to the Earth and-in accordance-the sun. Arthur had no interest in complicated sciences and equations and theories, unlike Alfred, who often listened intently to the Asian nation's explanations. It gave them something to distract themselves with, he supposed, because there was little to do on a dead Earth.
Arthur himself had become close friends with Yao-old men must stick together, Alfred had joked- and the two often spent their days talking of the past and better times or assisting in the survival of their little group, however futile it might be.
"You look troubled, Arthur." The Englishman drowsily lifted his head up, squinting in the afternoon brightness.
"Aren't we all lately, Yao?"
"True, very true." The Chinese man nodded, a light smile adorning his still youthful face as he sat himself down beside Arthur, leaning back against the wall of the cliff.
"What worries you today, Arthur?"
He did not answer immediately. A more appropriate question, he thought, would be what didn't worry him?
"Many things. Many, many things."
Yao said nothing, only staring patiently at the blonde nation, knowing he was not finished.
"But I suppose the largest trouble is-Why? Why are we doing this, and why are we still here for that matter? Why do we discuss and debate the end of the world when it will soon have no point? Why do we attempt to garner the last scraps of food and traces of liquid on this desolate planet when it will do us no good in the end? I'm just so tired, Yao…" he trailed off.
"Well, every being feels the need to have a purpose to live-aru. As it was back in the time of the humans- people struggled so that they might one day find happiness or love, wealth or success. In the end, they all did die, but the logic of it is that they had a purpose in their lives and, because of it, truly lived-aru."
Arthur said nothing, and Yao continued, "There is simply very little to live for in this hellish place, so I believe I understand what you are feeling. As for myself, I feel blessed to be here."
The other nation raised a thick eyebrow "Blessed? How in the Queen's name do you feel blessed? I would have loved to have died along with everyone else. Not a very pleasant death, I must say, but at least I would have ended my life knowing that I did live, as you say. Not ending it wasting away in a desert."
"Well, I would have to assume the feeling is different for everyone else here, as the rest of you are younger than me, but it is, in a sense, soothing. I was born with civilization and I am here to see the end of it. I am blessed because most did not make it this far and, though the state of our Earth is grim, I still have something to live for. And I believe you do too Arthur, though you perhaps you do not realize it." The Chinese man finished, a content expression adorning his face. Before Arthur could respond, another voice broke through the mid day heat.
"Brother! Brother, come back here! Why are you sitting with stuffy, old Arthur? I hope you know I'm much more fun than he is!" The voice taunted, ending with a jubilant laugh.
Yao smiled, his eyes softening. "Give me a minute, Young-soo. Old men like us need some quiet time every once in a while-aru." The raven haired man slowly stood and stretched, groaning as his back cracked with old age.
"A reason to live can come in many forms, Arthur." Yao stated, offering him one last smile before turning to his small, pseudo-family.
Arthur gave a small smile back, waving to the man's retreating form.
The blonde man turned his gaze back to the other blonde lying next to him. Francis had been silent throughout his and Yao's conversation.
Using his hands to support his weight, Arthur scooted over towards Francis, closing the few feet that separated them. He placed a hand on The Frenchman's shoulder, and in turn the Frenchman cracked open his eyes to gaze at Arthur.
Arthur gazed back, and gently began to run his fingers through Francis' hair, no longer the elegant color and style it used to be. Only short, choppy, and dull blonde hair remained, having been cut long ago out of convenience.
In response, Francis only languidly let his eyelids droop back down.
Arthur turned his gaze to the horizon. It was larger, now, and an angry shade of dusky yet vibrant orange. He began to notice, he thought, that layers of color were being thrown off the bright sphere, just little by little as time passed. He didn't want to believe it, but eventually there was no denying what was taking place. He turned to Francis, sitting beside him, and examined his weathered and exhausted expression, looking toward that same horizon. Arthur slowly entwined his fingers with the other man's and returned his eyes back to the violent spectacle before them.
He told him the world would never end, and Arthur believed him as the sun blackened and fell.
In the end, Arthur thought, having someone to share the end with made it much more inviting.
This is a de-anon from the kink meme. The prompt was something involving this quote-
He told him the world would never end, and Arthur believed him as the sun blackened and fell.
This apocalypse situation is based on the natural life cycle of the sun. Scientists have predicted that, over the next few million years, the sun will gradually become larger, and therefore make the Earth hotter. What actually takes place in the fic is the sun becoming a red giant star and then sort of imploding on itself and becoming a planetary nebula. What that means is that the sun will eventually become absolutely HUGE (it probably would have actually swallowed up Earth by that stage, but this is fanfiction) and then fizzle out to a very small star.
The OP's quote inspired me because I imagine that this implosion/end of the sun will look like it is darkening and just falling out of the sky. For more info just type in 'sun' to Wikipedia and go down to the 'Life Cycle' section. It's pretty interesting stuff.
The date of this was kept very vague because it is impossible for the human race to survive to this point in the sun's life cycle. I just always thought it would be interesting to have the nations in this kind of setting. Also, the last section is not directly after Arthur and Yao's conversation. Truly, I have no idea on how far in the future it would be, but it's in a different time than the rest of the story.