Babies, in England's opinion, were rather like America: obnoxiously loud, fussy and always late. This is why, almost a week after her due date, Arthur was not the least bit surprised to be sitting with Her Royal Highness the Queen of Great Britain enjoying afternoon tea and waiting for news concerning the arrival of the Duchess of Cambridge's first born child and future ruler of the United Kingdom.

Despite Arthur's relaxed attitude he could sense that the Queen was quite edgy. She usually allowed herself to relax during their almost daily ritual of afternoon tea but recently had been driven to distraction. Every time a servant knocked to enter the room she would draw herself up fully and lean ever so slightly forward in her chair but when the news was given to her she would wave them away and, once they were gone, allow her disapointment to show on her face. Arthur couldn't say he blamed her, it was after all the birth of her first great-grandchild, and any royal's birth was eagerly awaited by the family, the countries and by extension Arthur himself. Even his older brothers felt some anticipation even if they refrained from showing it quite as much.

As the personification of the country of England and the UK, Arthur would be the first to greet the future ruler after the immediate family. It was a superstition that the child would not grow to be healthy if Arthur did not see them and give his approval, that had come about after one of England's previous King's first born had been born sickly and died young following continuous bad health which was blamed on the fact that England had not been present at the birth. Even now the tradition was upheld for royal children to be introduced to Arthur soon after their birth, and although Arthur rolled his eyes at the belief that he controlled their fate it did make sense for the children to bond to their country quickly.

Smiling, Arthur set his tea cup on it's dish and laid it on the table.

"Not long now I suppose." he said cheerfully glancing at the grandfather clock at the end of the room as if it held a countdown of the hours.

"I should hope not. The poor girl is overdue by almost a week as it is."

"And you are just as anxious to see the babe as you were almost nine months ago." they both smiled at the memory of when they had found out the news together from the Prince.

The queen sighed. "I hope the baby does come soon, if it is not delivered by this Friday I will not have the chance to see it for another 2 months."

This lead to a discussion of the Queen's 'holiday' she would be taking to visit other countries and their bosses. Eventually though the conversation steered back to the topic of children.

"Do you ever get lonely?" she asked suddenly. Arthur had been taking a sip of tea and almost choked in surprise.

"What do you mean?"

"Children. You cannot have them, I was just wondering if that ever made you feel lonely."
Arthur thought seriously for a moment. His thoughts traveled to Alfred and his colonial days when Arthur treated him as his dear younger brother, raising him the best he knew how. He thought of Sealand, how sweet he had been as a newborn (Arthur refused to acknowledge him as even a micro-nation) entity, of India and Hong Kong, of Australia. None of them were his children exactly but they did somewhat fill the void, at least until they grew up and declared independence one by one.

"I have had the great responsibility of raising a few nations. I have watched them grow from a young age. I would be lying if I said it was an entirely enjoyable or rewarding experience but it was fulfilling being needed by someone in such a dependent way. Now that they have grown up I sometimes feel lonely yes, but I have been priveleged in a way some nations have not." he spoke carefully, trying to word the strange emotions he felt properly.

The Queen inclined her head once and turned the discussion once more to safer topics.


Later, after he bid farewell to Her Majesty, he began his walk home and let the more bitter emotions his memories brought up take hold. He would always deny the gut wrenching sadness thoughts of America's revolution brought him. That more than anything continued to bring him down, his favourite little brother was the first to leave him, the first to hurt him, the first to twist his mind to rage and pain. After Alfred he barely noticed the others leave, he pushed all his feelings too deep so he wouldn't be faced with that kind of pain again.

The chime of 'Amazing Grace' from his pocket snapped Arthur back to reality. Pulling the phone out of his pocket, he stared at the caller ID. Number 10.

"Hello?" he asked a little perplexed.

"Mr Kirkland sir!" a slightly panicked voice responded.

"Yes, what is it? I'll have you know it's rather late and I have already finished my work for the day, if there is anything new I would be more than happy too start on it tomorrow." he snapped. He knew it couldn't be an emergency or the display would have read 'PM'.

"Um, well, I know you did sir or have rather! But it's just someone has turned-"

"Yo wassup dudes!" A voice interrupted in the background. Arthur groaned as the unmistakable voice of Alfred F. Jones carried on his inane babble. "Where's Iggy at? I thought Mr stuffy would be couped up here. What does he take his work ho-" the rest was cut off as a door closed.

"-up." the caller finished. "He demands to see you right away but I highly doubt it is a political visit as he appears to have come on his own, do you want me to send him away?"

"No don't bother, the bloody fool will just end up wreaking havoc in London until I turn up to drag him away otherwise. Tell him I'll be there in ten minutes and try to keep him occupied in the mean time." Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose to try and ward off the headache he could feel approaching.

To be quite honest Arthur could have gotten there in half the time if he just got a taxi but he wanted to get as much peace as he could before meeting with the boisterous younger nation. He had not yet passed Downing street on his way home, as usual he walked through St. James Park where he would normally begin heading to Westminister station as it gave him some solace in his bustling capital,this time instead of crossing and going straight on down King Charles street, Arthur found himself turning left and heading towards the back gates that cut Downing street off from the rest of London.

Nodding at the guard on duty he was quickly let through, behind him tourists ahh-ed at the opening gates and a few cameras snapped pictures. It always amused Arthur at the sheer mass of people who would crowd both entrances just to get a glimpse of the famous black door. Fortunately there were no news crews outside today so Arthur could easily slip inside.

In theory.

No sooner had Arthur been let in then a loud irritating american voice shouted from across the hall.

"Yo, Britain! Dude I've been waiting for ages man." and then he just had the bloody nerve to grin at him whilst every single person turned to stare at the annoyed brit standing in the entryway.

Clearing his throat Arthur tugged nervously at his collar. "Sorry," he muttered as he made his way over to the obnoxious teen. "Git, keep your voice down will you! People are working." he growled at Alfred resisting the urge to hit him.

"Whatever man, hey I'm starving do you like, have any food around here?" Arthur blinked at him and frowned.

"I don't bloody live here you idiot, if it was food you wanted why didn't you stay at home?" he grumbled. The others in the hall had made their way back to where they were supposed to be leaving the two nations to themselves.

"I came to visit but if I'm not welcome I can just leave," he pulled the kicked puppy look on and stared at Arthur with huge, impossibly blue eyes until he relented.

"Git, fine. Let's go back to my house and I'll cook you something."

"On second thoughts, I'm not hungry." Alfred pulled a disgusted face.

"Bastard! There's nothing wrong with my cooking you wanker!" Arthur finally gave in a whacked the cocky american on the shoulder.


The entire taxi ride home seemed to consist of Alfred poking fun at Arthur and Arthur yelling and swearing back at him. Once they reached his home Alfred hopped out and headed straight for the front door leaving Arthur to pay and apologise profusely to an amused driver.

Sighing Arthur let them in and proceeded to the kitchen where he automatically filled the kettle and switched it on for a cup of tea.

"You want anything America?" he yelled over his shoulder as he fumbled with a new packet of earl grey.

"Got any coffee?" the hopeful response came from directly behind him making Arthur jump a little. He had expected the other nation to be fiddling with his telly in the other room like he usually did but it seemed like he had decided to follow Arthur to the kitchen instead.

"Um...yeah," he checked in his cupboard, he had only bought this for when Alfred visited or he felt like a cup of the hot beverage both of which were rare so it was stashed right at the back and mostly untouched.

Whilst the kettle was boiling Arthur turned to face Alfred still armed with a slight frown.

"Why are you here?" Alfred rolled his eyes.

"Nice to see you too England."

Arthur blushed and immediately went on the defensive, "Well it's not as if I invited you and it's not political-" he was cut off.

"Who said?" Alfred raised an eyebrow.

"I-it's obvious isn't it?" he spluttered, "You're here on your own so it can't be..." he trailed off at the look on Alfred's face.

"What so I need people to hold my hand for anything work related?" his eyes sparked in challenge.

"No, that's not what I said." he glared back.

An uncomfortable silence followed with both men trying to force the other to back down. Finally Alfred sighed and ran a hand through his wheat blond hair.

"Why do we always seem to end up fighting?" he asked with an almost shy smile on his face. Arthur let out a puff of air as he turned away to pour the now boiled water into the two mugs. Alfred was being surprisingly melancholy today. Usually the cheerful teen never seemed to shut up or be able to go more than a few minutes on the same conversation or without a games console of some kind.

"I don't know America. I guess after all these years we still can't seem to find any common ground. Here." he turned back and handed Alfred his coffee.

They walked over to the large table in the middle of the kitchen. That table used to hold so many of his houses residents, now it was only used on a regular basis by Arthur and his three older brothers.

After a few minutes of awkward silence broken only by the occasional slurp from Alfred and the clink of the mugs against wood Arthur decided to try again.

"So, uh," he cleared his throat, "it is nice and all to um see you and whatnot, but is there a reason for the visit?"

Alfred met his eyes and quickly looked away again down at his hands, "I heard the baby's going to be born soon..."

Arthur blinked in surprise. "That's why you're here?"

Alfred blushed. "I thought you might be... well you see sometimes you, I..." at his apparent loss for words Alfred became visibly frustrated. Finally he let out an irritated sigh and met Arthur's gaze. "I thought you would be sad because you want a kid."

A shocked silence followed. This time it was Arthur who couldn't keep a steady eye and looked away from his former charge.

"I didn't mean to be so-" Alfred tried to apologise for his lack of tact.

"How did you know about that?" his voice was low and emotionless making Alfred frown a little, why would Arthur never show him his emotions unless he was angry or drunk?

"You were always so happy when I was a kid but now, I know you hate me for my independence because it drove us apart. I saw you once, just watching the princes when they were kids(*) and you had this look. I knew then that you didn't want a little brother, you wanted a son." he sounded so bitter it made Arthur look up.

"But you're neither, are you Alfred." he said softly with no malice in his voice.

Alfred looked up at the use of his human name and the hurt look in his eyes changed to something indescribable. Arthur wasn't sure if he had upset the younger nation or not but when he stood up Alfred joined him. After a few tense moments Arthur went to leave the room until Alfred reached out and grabbed his arm.

"I'm sorry." he whispered.

Arthur closed his eyes and momentarily allowed himself to be comforted. When he opened them again he nodded and removed Alfred hand from his arm. Alfred slowly stepped forward until he was standing directly in front of Arthur.

"It's okay." he murmured as he wrapped his arms around the shorter man.

So this is my first hetalia fanfiction both on this sight and well, ever! Please leave reviews so I can see what you think and I may continue this or just leave it as a depressing oneshot with no real conclusion :/
(*) this is during a visit to America's Disney world, Arthur apparently joined them XD