- Chapter 2 –
"What did you say? His memory is broken? You can't be serious!" Francis said on the phone
as Alfred called him. "No , I'm serious, He doesn't even remember his name. "Alfred looked over
to Arthur who was observing the living room. He picked up lamps and crawled over the carpet to
find pieces of food in between the hairs. "Can you come over please and help me take care
of him?" Alfred asked sighing.
Exactly four and a half minutes later Francis arrived at Alfred's and Arthur's house. He was shocked
to see Britain take the fridge apart and stacking all of Alfred's hamburgers on the kitchen table.
"Britain?", he asked carefully. Britain looked up, "That's me right?", he asked excited, "Who are you?".
Francis came closer slowly and shook his hand, "I am France… nice to meet you", he said.
"Nice to meet you too, France!" Arthur smiled at him and Francis couldn't prevent the big blushing
smile that conquered his face now. "He really doesn't know me anymore" he said with slight
excitement in his voice. Alfred took a hamburger from the stack and said with his
mouth full; "I know right! It's creepy!"
"So… what should we do to get Britain's mind to work again?" Alfred asked. Francis seemed
to think of something but he didn't say anything. All of a sudden he took a big frying pan
from the counter top and smashed it against Britain's head. Britain fell on the floor but was
still conscious. Alfred ran over to Arthur and helped him up. "Are you ok?"
"Yes" Britain shook his had and got back to stacking hamburgers "What the hell is wrong
with you!?" Alfred yelled at Francis, "Why did you do that?" Francis shrugged and said: "In the
movies this always works.", he said and prepared himself a glass of wine.
"Well… Google says that one can get his memory back when he sees something that he really
likes or cares about." Alfred read from his computer. "Tea!", Francis called out, "Tea and scones!"
They went to the kitchen and looked for some tea. Alfred prepared a cup of tea for Arthur while
Francis was taking him to the living room to sit quietly on a chair. When the tea was ready
Alfred gave the cup to Arthur. "What's this?", Arthur asked and took the cup. "It's tea, Britain.
You love tea." Alfred sighed but the only thing Arthur did was put his finger in the hot tea and burned
himself. "Alright…", Alfred sighed, "Let me check if we have scones." He checked the kitchen but
he couldn't find any scones. "He ate them all yesterday I believe", he said, "I'm going to get new
ones, ok? Can you take care of Britain while I'm gone?" "Of course I can", he grinned and laughed
in his own French kind of way.
Alfred had left the house to get some scones and meanwhile Francis looked after Arthur. They sat on
the couch and Francis was trying to get Arthur to drink wine. "Just take a sip, it won't hurt you!" He tried,
but Arthur looked at him with puppy eyes and asked: "Do you tell the truth?" "I promise it's just a delicious
drink that will make you feel light and fluffy like a cloud, Britain, trust me and try it." Francis said while
stroking Arthur's hair behind his ear. Arthur looked at the glass of wine and took it. He took a sip and smiled
at Francis "You're right it's yummy!" he yelled happily and took another sip. "Drink as much as you like,
my friend!" Francis laughed and filled another glass for himself.
A few glasses later, Francis had darkened the room and lit some candles, Arthur said: "You were so right!
I really feel light and fluffy!" he started laughing for no reason and Francis laughed too. Francis took a sip
and said: "Actually…", he giggled, "it is called being tipsy." Now they laughed even harder and Arthur
leaned on Francis' shoulder, looked deeply in his eyes and said: "You… my dear France…", he hiccoughed,
"you have such a funny accent!" they giggled together and when they stopped Arthur laid his head on
Francis' shoulder and closed his eyes. He sighed happily. "You know, France. I only know you for a few
hours…" he whispered, "but I can see a great friendship starting from this point." Francis smiled and put
his arm around Arthur. "You know?" he said, "I actually know you for a very long time, but you never seemed
to like me." His smile disappeared. Arthur hugged Francis and said: "When it hasn't been like this right here...
I don't even want to have my memory back at all." Francis closed his eyes and so they sat on the couch
hugging until Alfred came back.
"Sorry I'm late! I had to go through seven wall-marts to finally find some scones!" Alfred yelled as he came in.
He entered the living room to find Francis and Arthur hugging on the couch and watching a movie.
"What has been going on here?" he asked as he lifted an empty wine bottle from the table. "France, can I
talk to you for a second?" France liberated himself from Arthur's arms and sneaked his way to Alfred. "What is it?"
"I searched through seven, yes seven, wall-marts to find scones and meanwhile you are filling Britain
up with wine?" he whispered, so Britain couldn't hear him. "You said I had to take care of him, so I did. Did he
break anything? No. Did he sneak out of the house? No. so what's the problem?" Francis whispered back. Alfred
looked over to Arthur and saw that he was nearly sleeping. His head tilted and he shocked back up repeatedly.
"Ok, you're right, France, but now we can't test the scones on him, He's to tired and drunk." Francis looked at
Arthur and smiled. He looked at his feet. "I mean… Do we really have to get old Britain back? I think… the new
Britain is nicer." He muttered shyly. "Old Britain would never have drunk wine with me. Old Britain would never
say he likes me, even though he does." He looked at Alfred with shiny eyes. Alfred thought about the moment he
took off Arthur's shirt. "You're kind of right, I guess… Old Britain would never have allowed me to strip him down
to naked and wash him, even when he couldn't move his legs.", he said apologizing and looked at France,
"Maybe we should let him be. He's happy, and he finally isn't afraid to be friends with us. We should at least
give him this one night to get used to being nice. Maybe he will remember that he likes us now when he is old
Britain again." He didn't believe his last words but he hoped it would work.
Alfred was tired from all the scone-shopping so he took another bottle of wine out of the cupboard and opened it.
Normally he would refuse drinking wine but since Britain tried it, he thought he could give it a try as well. It actually
tasted good and when he started feeling a little light headed he could actually talk to Francis pretty seriously.
They talked about the past. About all the conflicts they have had with each other and with Arthur. About the good
and the bad things that had happened between all of them. At one point they both couldn't think of anything to talk
about anymore so they decided to go to bed. Alfred had offered Francis his bed. Alfred himself would sleep on the
couch this night.
Francis got one of Alfred's Captain America pyjamas and went to his room. On his way he passed Britain's room
peeked through a gap from the open door. Britain wasn't sleeping. He sat up straight in his bed and he probably
couldn't sleep. Francis looked down the hallway to see if Alfred wasn't watching him and entered Britain's room.
"Hi", he said shyly.
- End of Chapter 2 -
