HIYA. Before I start:
1) anything in { brackets } are little notes Alfred jotted down while writing (this is a journal)
2) warnings: language, possible OOCness, and a protective older brother ^_^ If you have a problem with language, then please read the clean version on my deviant art (remove the spaces)- http : / chibi dreamer 258 . deviantart . com /
3) Enjoy!
edit: I changed some minor parts. If you've already read this, you don't have to reread it; I didn't change the plotline or anything. I just added a couple phrases here and there to make the story flow a bit better, nothing major.
Chapter One: The Earth Trembles at Hell's Arrival
'Ughhhh. Why does the sun have to be so bright? Just gimme 5 more minutes, PLEASE.'
I open my eyes groggily only to be instantly blinded by the morning light. 'Damn sun. Why do you have to wake me up early on a Saturday? Seriously?'
After a few moments, I turn away from the window before opening my eyes again. The bald eagle clock on my wall says it's almost 10. 'Great. So much for sleeping in till noon,' I groan.
I lay in bed for a few more minutes before letting out a sigh. 'Well, it's not like I'm gonna fall asleep again anyway', I tell myself as I sit up and rub the sleep out of my eyes. 'Maybe a shower will wake me up...'
Three minutes later and hot water is cascading down my body. Sleep still has a few fingers clouding my mind, but I'll let the shower work its magic. 'I'm glad school's ending next week; thank God summer is finally here. Oh! And my birthday is coming up too! Sweet! The fireworks display will be awesome! Mom and Dad will be outta town, though. That sucks... Wait, I can invite Kiku to stay over! He can bring that new game he got from his trip, too! And the pool should be finished by then, so I can invite the guys from school too. Hehe, if we're lucky, we'll even get complaints from the neighbors...{ I'm not sure what else my mind drifted to in the shower, but I remember I was hella excited about it. I kinda wish I could remember... }*
Now fully awake from my shower, my next order of business was calming down stomach. He tends to get real pissy when I don't feed him.
I could hear voices from the TV as I head to the kitchen. 'Mattie is probably watching cartoons or something…' Matthew, or Mattie as I call him, is my six year old brother and the shyest little dude EVER. Seriously, he's super quiet and stuff; the total opposite of yours truly. But he's my bro, which automatically makes him awesome. And even though he's just a kid, he can already kick ass in sports, especially in hockey and basketball. Some of the parents at his school are complaining about him or some shite, but screw them. They're just jealous that Mattie has skills and their loser kids don't.
I pour cereal and milk into a bowl then join Mattie in the living room. I was right; he was watching cartoons. He had the TV on Boomerang where Scooby-Doo and the Gang were once again solving another mystery.
"G'morning, " Mattie glances at me before returning his attention to Shaggy and Scooby getting stuck in yet another trap.
"'Morning. What's up?" I ask as I plop myself onto the couch
"Nothin'," he replies, eyes on the TV.
"Hn." I take a bite of cereal. "Where's Mom?"
"She's at the spa with Miss Eliza for 'Girl Time'." He air quotes the last two words.
'Wait, the spa? …? Oh. Riiiight' Ok, backstory: My mom and the Miss Elizaveta Héderváry have been best friends since high school. Lately, Mom's been helping Eliza get over her break-up with that Gilbert dude. Seriously, she keeps jumping back and forth between him and Mr. Edelstein, the music teacher at my school. Dad said that it's been like that since the two of them graduated from college, which was like FOREVER ago. Geez, lady can't make up her mind! She keeps it up, and she'll be eternally single.
Speaking of which, I didn't see Dad yet, either. I didn't need to ask Matt where he was, though. He spends all his Saturdays doing one of the following: 1) Read; usually something Shakespearean or whatever 2) Embroider { Don't even ask… } or 3) Grade papers for the European History course he teaches at the college. My Dad is actually a born and raised Brit who moved to the states to chase after my mom*. He's such a closet romantic- but don't tell him that! He'll just deny it until the day hell freezes over.
Matt and I continued to watch in silence, me munching on my cereal and Mattie sitting "criss-cross apple-sauce" style. He got up at one point and said he was gonna get some juice. I wasn't really paying attention; I was watching Shaggy get his humongo sandwich stolen by Scooby. Scooby was licking his ... lips? mouth? ... whatever, and Shaggy was wondering dumbly where his sandwich went. The ghost came up behind them and was about to jump them-
My vision blurred suddenly as the entire world shook violently. 'Aw hell, an earthquake? FUCK!' The quake didn't start off gentle and gradually get stronger like other quakes- nope, it just happened. One moment gravity was normal, the next I felt like I had been thrown into a drying machine strapped to a roller coaster at Six Flags. The TV and several paintings were thrown from their wall mounts. The couch, the bureau, and everything else, me included, were two feet from its original position. The first tremor had thrown me sideways, my cereal bowl flying in the other direction. I was now sprawled across the floor, covering my neck and trying to get my bearings.
A sharp cry pierced the groaning of the shaking earth. My eyes widen in realization. 'Shit! Mattie's in the kitchen!'. The crashing of dishes was audible as they fell mercilessly from the cabinets. I sprang into action and fought the earthquake, heading towards the kitchen. My insides were screaming from being shaken every which way while I avoided the haphazard mess now strewn about, but my stomach froze when I reached the entrance. He wasn't in the kitchen. 'Oh God, where is he?' A sick feeling entered my stomach. I didn't have any more time to think when the house suddenly lurched and threw me against the wall. My glasses were almost knocked off, but I was able to catch them in time. Something warm trickled down my right arm. 'Shit'. I looked down and saw a line of red on my right arm. A shard of glass of the same color lay not far.
'Damn it, Mattie, you better be ok!', I swore as I did my best to crawl/drag myself to the dining room with one arm { which is VERY hard to do during a quake, just so y'know }. 'Where the hell are you?', I wanted to scream, but couldn't since the shaking made me feel like I was being choked to death. Halfway there, I looked up and noticed Mattie beneath the table already. He was using the technique they taught in school and was on his knees, bent down, clutching the back of his neck. His violet eyes were filled with fear when they met mine. I'm not ashamed to say that I could've cried right there and then. 'Oh God, thank you so, so very much, Mattie's ok. I promise to never complain about school or church ever again, and I'll even give tithes and stop picking on the nerds at school, too.', I silently prayed as I scrambled to the table and my brother. I imitated his position but held him in my left arm, using my right to cover my neck. He was trembling like crazy, the poor guy.
"Hey, we're gonna be alright. Don't worry, ok?" I try to encourage him. He was too frightened to reply and leaned into me more.
The quake seemed to have grown stronger. 'Hope Dad's ok. Please let him be ok' my worry turned to him now that I knew Mattie and I were safe. 'He was in the den right? Maybe, I don't know, I didn't check! Shit, what if something happened to him? Shut up, Dad will be fine. He can take care of himself. Don't panic, it's not heroic of you. Focus on you and Mattie and live through this first.' My gut tightened a bit and I held Matt closer as the quake continued in full force.
The chandelier above us crashed down onto the table, and shards of glass fell around us from above. Mattie let out a cry and I held him tighter, if that was possible. I removed my hand from my neck to throw away any glass that came close to us.
Not long later, Dad appeared in the hallway, leaning against the wall for support against the quake. I let out a breath of relief. He noticed us under the dining table and struggled his way towards us.
"Are you and Matthew alright?" he asked with his British accent. He made it to the table and copied our positions.
"Yeah, we're cool, considering the circumstance," Flashing him a grin. Dad doesn't need to know that I wondered if all the adrenaline would give me a heart attack. "Where were you?" I ask.
"My study. I was going to remain underneath my desk, but I wanted to check on you both," he replied. His eyes narrowed at the trail of blood on my arm. "Are you injured?" he asked, now worried.
'Oh, yeah, my arm' I remembered. "Nah, it's just a small scratch. I'll bandage it later." I took back what I said about the adrenaline. Honestly, I didn't feel any pain at the moment.
He nodded and we waited out the rest of the quake in silence. Dad took the job of throwing away more glass shards. The earthquake continued for another good long minute as strong as it had started before receding into a distant rumble. It didn't die down anymore than that, though, and I could tell Dad was getting impatient. Despite the continued tremor, he didn't want to wait any longer and turned to Mattie.
"Matthew, stay under the table. Your brother and I are going to go outside and try to figure out what the bloody hell is going on and see if anybody needs help." Dad instructed.
Mattie looked up at him with wide eyes and barely choked out a "What?" as Dad fished around in his pocket and handed Mattie his phone.
"You'll be fine as long as you stay here. If anything happens, call Alfred's cell phone, understand?" Mattie swallowed and nodded. Dad smiled, "That's my boy" and ruffled his hair. He hoisted himself up from beneath the table and said, "We'll only be gone a few minutes. I promise. Come on, Alfred."
I rolled my eyes, "'K" and gave Mattie one last squeeze before I followed Dad. The two of us struggled to the front door, losing our balance more than once and having to grab the wall. My still-bleeding arm didn't help. 'Earthquakes are a bitch when they don't scare the hell out of you', I grimaced. But before long, we were in front of our house grabbing the fence for support. The first thing I noticed was the neighborhood that stretched out below us.
Our house sits near the top of a hill outside the greater LA area and has one of the best views around. The metropolis extends a good distance away until it meets the ocean, and our neighborhood and the town is nestled comfortably within the hill. I turned my attention to our neighbors, some of them already out and inspecting the damage like me and Dad. I saw most houses were pretty much intact, save for fallen chimneys and other residential extremities. 'Mr. Wang is gonna be so bummed about his backyard', I mused as I took in the damage. 'I'm surprised the houses didn't totally collapse, though…' { If you'd been there, you'd have been surprised too }
The streets, including ours, were completely torn apart, reduced to crumbling, jagged, chunks of asphalt. They kinda looked like messily broken up graham crackers { I seriously don't know where that came from }. Trees everywhere were toppled, a few of them falling onto a few unfortunate homes. Water jetted into the air from broken hydrants.
'Ugh, my head is going to split from the noise'. I plugged my ears. Every single car alarm was blaring throughout the hill. The noise combined into an irritating orchestra of din, amplified even more by the shape of the hills.
After looking at the neighborhood below, I turned to look at the Vargas's, the only other house that can be seen on our street. Their sons, Lovino and Feliciano, were high school seniors and they sometimes gave me rides to school. Did I mention that they both drive Ferraris? Well they do. But looking at their driveway now, I knew those rides were now long gone. Their cars were the very definition of 'epically totaled'. Their pine tree had fallen flat and crushed both beauties. I seriously felt like I could cry.
The Vargas family had come out into their front yard. 'Wait till Lovino sees his car', I mourned. I watched them all, but they didn't even seem to notice their totally wrecked rides. In fact, they weren't even looking at them. They were looking at the city beyond.
"Oh, my dear Lord," I heard Dad breathe. 'Did I miss something?' I wondered. He, too, was looking at the city. I walked up to stand behind him and followed suit. What I saw made my blood turn cold. My eyes widened as the color drained out of my face and I clutched my injured arm closer to my body. Nothing crossed my mind as horror took over my whole body.
There, on the horizon, where land meets ocean, hovering above the earth and blanketing everything below in shadow, was an airship. An enormous, fucking airship that we now knew was the cause of the earthquake. An impossibly large and powerful laser shot from the mouth of the gargantuan beast.
And it cut through the Los Angeles metropolis like butter.
End Chapter 1
A/N: GAH FINALLY FINISHED! *runs around the house in ecstacy* this took me forever to write, mostly because my SAT is in 2 weeks and inspiration for this story abandoned me.
*1: Yes, this is me being lazy. Live with it.
*2: I actually based this off of my parents. My dad didn't change countries, but he flew across America to be with my mom when she had to live in the East Coast for two months. This was before they were married, and about a year later, they said their vows XD
~I apologize for the crappy ending
~OMG please don't shoot me! D: *hides from Pru/Hun and Aus/Hun shippers* I have read countless fics of both couples and have rewatched the anime thrice, but I still can't decide which couple I like better. I knew that if I shipped either one, I'd get shot, so I tried to make Hungary's relationship as ambiguous as possible *gets shot anyway* T_T
~Alfred's and Matthew's mom is an OC. No, it is not France.
~Did you find Alfred OOC? I couldn't tell. Hormonal teenage boys are so hard to get into the mindset of...
~I took free reign with all their ages. Sorry if it bothers you. I'm keeping the story integrity as close as I can to my head canon, and the ages I have here are the closest as they were in the dream [read: nightmare]. And is it just me, or doesn't older!brotherly!America just make you go "AWWWWW! XD"
~If any of you were wondering, I tried to keep a Hacienda Heights setting going for their neighborhood. I *used to* live in the lower suburbs and I've never been to Hacienda; I've only seen pictures of the view from up there, so I just used my imagination. I apologize if you are a citizen of Hacienda and find my imagination to be utterly and completely wrong.
Me: Yay! Disclaimers a la Britain! :D
Britain: What? Why the bloody hell am I doing it?
Me : Cause ya didn't get enough screen time, 's why. And you're dying in the next chapter.
Britain: WHAT?
Me: Just do the disclaimers already dammit!
Britain: Ugh, FINE. Coco does not own Hetalia or any of its characters. And as much as she likes Scooby-Doo, she doesn't own that either.
Me: Bummer =P. America, s'your turn!
America: Coco thanks you for reading and demands you leave a heroic comment!
Me: Heroic wasn't in the script.
America: =P
Me: Canada! Please finish this off! *throws script at him*
Canada: *reads from script* O-oh, umm, comment or else she'll sic me and America on you- wait, what?
Me: YUP! KAY BYE XD