Chapter Two
AN: I didn't mean to mislead anyone. In fact, there will be no appearance of the Britannia Angel, my apologies. xD HOWEVER, I will state that, for the sake of my fic, their demon personalities are the opposite of their natural personalities. Take that spoiler as you will. But, when he called Arthur, 'Angel' it was merely intended to be a pet name derived from the prefix 'Anglo' in Anglo-Saxon. Now, this chapter gets a little… Not quite 'sexual' but there are brief racy moments.
The demon hovered mere feet from Alfred in the silent room. Hair the color of the blackest of inks. Eyes fitted with thin slitted pupils. Bat-like wings flapping lazily behind him with a long devil's tail that swished about the air as if it had a mind of its own. Dark ram's horns were nestled tightly against his skull, almost obscured by his hair, it was all almost too much for either of the other two occupants in the room.
There was a long, drawn out silence in which everyone just seemed to stare. The longer it stretched, the more agitated the floating demon seemed to become. His tail twitched progressively faster behind him as his expression slowly darkened.
"Don't look so shocked. You created me!" The inverted Alfred pointed at Arthur. "Just like you created him!" His hand snapped out, grabbing the front of Arthur's vest, but as he jerked the fabric forward, another inverted figure surged from Arthur's body. This being resembled the Brit with fangs, horns, wings, a tail, and blazing red hair.
"What the bloody hell was that for? The bloody git didn't even know I was there! I was enjoying that!" The new redheaded Arthur stabbed a finger in Alfred's direction, tail lashing from side to side like an angry cat.
The black haired Alfred glared disdainfully at the redheaded Arthur. "You'd rather I'd left you to live through the eyes of someone else? Pathetic."
"What… are you two? How did I create you?" Arthur asked, baffled, as he moved across the room to help Alfred to his feet.
"He really doesn't know? God, he's dumber than you." He cast a glance indicating the real Alfred. "You cast a spell to banish your lust for Alfred. But tried to stop the spell after you cast it. You were warned what'd happen if your heart wasn't absolutely geared in one direction. Instead of casting out your lust, you amplified it into a tangible being. In other words, I'm Alfred's darkest desires for you. And he," He jerked a thumb towards the redhead. "is your darkest desires for Alfred. In pure demon form."
Before Arthur could reach Alfred, the redheaded demon was at the little blonde's side, coddling him and trying to help him up. "You didn't have to be so violent when you left poor Alfred's body, you know." The demon hissed, steadying the exhausted blonde.
The demon rolled his eyes. "You're a pathetic excuse for a demon." The demon Alfred's wings seemed to flutter, but they also didn't seem to be moving near fast enough to be keeping him airborne.
Oh, if there was ever a time Arthur needed a cup of tea, it was now. Come on, lad! You're English! Keep calm and carry on and all that nonsense. He composed himself and went to the kitchen.
OoOoOoO
In the next several days, Arthur spent nearly all of his free time researching some kind of counter spell but each attempt failed. He'd also been observing the behavior of the two demons. If anything, the Alfred was more tenacious, more obnoxious, much more violent, and lacking that naïve quality that endeared Arthur towards the real Alfred. His own counterpart, on the other hand seemed… docile. Nothing like a demon at all. He was almost submissive unless you set him off. Sweet and coddling towards the real Alfred. He was never so grateful to see Alfred rejecting the advances made by the little redheaded demon. It seemed the Alfred counterpart was ever drawn to the real Arthur and the Arthur counterpart was drawn to the real Alfred. So much so that they resented their real counterparts for having the affections of their targets.
Neither Alfred nor Arthur left the safety of Arthur's house since the incident fearing what reactions the public would have towards the pair of floating demons. Reasonably, they could just pretend like they had no clue what the people were talking about if they pointed and shrieked, but he had a feeling if the masses all saw the same thing it would be difficult to cover. So when the World Conference rolled around, Arthur was at a loss. It wasn't exactly something they could just call in sick for. Especially since it was being held in the United Kingdom.
"Arty, I'm sick." Alfred's voice tore him out of his thoughts and pulled his gaze from the book to look up at the blonde holding a thermometer with his usual redheaded shadow following behind him.
"Show me." Arthur huffed and held out a hand for the thermometer. Alfred handed it over and Arthur twisted it around in the light until the mercury reflected and he was able to read the gauge. Arthur put the thermometer down in his book to mark the page and shut it, standing from his seat, he swatted Alfred upside the head. "Nice try, you bloody git! Did you forget this is a Celsius thermometer? Ninety-nine degrees Celsius is roughly two-hundred and ten degrees of your Fahrenheit! Off to bed with you! We've an early morning."
Oh, that was so not fair! Stupid Celsius being different. Really, he should have known that having spent some time in this house growing up. Probably using this very same thermometer. If it wasn't broken, why replace it? At least, that's how Arthur thought. Didn't matter that there were more advanced and quicker methods now. That was a man who didn't really care for change.
The blonde American brushed past the redheaded devil following him and headed upstairs to his old bedroom where he'd been crashing for the past few nights. This had been a stressful past few days. He was doing his best to ignore the advances of the little devil and just flat out ignore the scathing things his counterpart would say to him. From what the pair of devils would say to eachother, he'd sort of figured out that they can't kill their counterparts. Which was a relief. What worried him was that they'd hinted towards somehow becoming the counterpart. Since hearing this piece of information, he'd been very carefully listening to their conversations for a better understanding of what this meant.
Alfred washed up, with his redheaded shadow still trailing him, and got ready for bed, slipping into sleep rather easily. Arthur wasn't far behind, seeking the comfort of his own bed, doing what he could to pretend the little black haired American devil wasn't following him around.
OoOoOoO
"You're pathetic."
The voice startled the redheaded devil who had been straddling the sleeping American. "Shut up!" He hissed back, trying not to wake said American. He leaned forward, kissing up the sleeping blonde's neck.
"You know he's not dreaming about you." The dark haired American counterpart informed dryly.
"Shut up!" He hissed again, stroking Alfred's hair out of his face. He rolled his body against Alfred's, drawing a small groan from the sleeping country. "He's so lovely when he's asleep. So peaceful."
"So you're gonna give him a wet dream about Arthur because you think he's cute? That won't get you anywhere." The Dark Alfred grabbed the other devil by the base of a wing and jerked him off the sleeping blonde, tossing him into the air. The redhead caught flight and kept himself from hitting the wall, glaring at the black haired devil.
"What are you doing?" He yelped when the American counterpart tried to wrap his hands around Alfred's throat, only to fall right through him.
"Dammit!"
The little redheaded devil rushed to Alfred's side, clinging to him protectively. "Leave him alone!"
"Fine." The devil grumbled and floated towards the door before whirling around and grinning. "I can't touch him, but I can touch my little Angel." He purred deviously and left the room. Arthur's counterpart heard the door lock from the outside, but it wasn't any of his business as long as the devil wasn't hurting his Alfred.
OoOoOoO
In Arthur's bedroom, the blonde slept silently on his side until a hand rested on his shoulder. He snatched the wrist and aimed an old silver pistol under the blonde's chin. When Arthur's eyes registered, he gasped and pulled the antique gun away, sliding it back under his pillow.
"A-Alfred! What are you—?"
"Shh. Those freaking devils are off doing something and I wanted to talk to you in private." The blonde sat down on the edge of Arthur's bed. "Arty, I…" He looked away, blushing for a moment.
"Alfred… you should be in bed." Arthur insisted, also looking away with the barest hint of a blush on his cheeks until a warm hand caught his chin and those lips were pressed against his again. It took Arthur a moment before he responded to them, kissing Alfred back. The younger blonde leaned over him on the bed, one arm braced on the other side of Arthur as he crawled over him until a hand on his chest pushed them apart enough to speak.
"Alfred, we really shouldn't… I mean, this is too early. We just…"
"We just? We've had the hots for eachother for how long now?" Alfred argued, brushing his lips over Arthur's gently.
"Yes, well… I don't want to rush any of this." Those green eyes flickered with something. Sorrow maybe? He'd seen rushed relationships go south, it would seem.
The blue eyed blonde leaned forward, pressing another kiss to Arthur's lips. The English blonde didn't seem to hold up his protests very well under the affections. A cool hand ran under Arthur's shirt, caressing his chest before travelling downward to the waistband of his pants. The anticipation sent a little wave through Arthur's body and then those fingers dipped just ever so slightly beneath the elastic and—
There was a crash from the other room followed by hammering and shouting. Arthur's eyes snapped open and he looked up at the creature kissing him. The blonde hair bled black as the man pulled away with a growl. Wings sprouting from his back along with the rest of his demonic features.
"You!" Arthur accused, pointing a finger at the demon and shoving him completely off his bed.
"I'm gonna kill him!" The demon growled, floating out of the room and down the hall with Arthur scurrying worriedly after.
OoOoOoO
The morning rolled around slowly as the pair failed to sleep after the antics of the devils during the night. After Alfred wound up locked in his room, he took to the couch where he woke not too long after with a pair of warm hands down his pants. It was then that he decided he just wouldn't sleep. That seemed the only way to keep the little redheaded demon's hands out of his pants. Arthur had joined him not too long after.
They got ready for the meeting and mapped out a way to navigate around the alleyways and least populated areas through London to avoid human interaction when the pair of demons refused to stay home. With their coats pulled on, the pair were ready to disembark when there was a knock at the door. Both males jumped but Arthur moved to answer it.
"Ye dinnae wri'e, ye dinnae call…" The Scot greeted with a fox-like grin. "Hoo'd yer spell go?" He pushed past England to peek into the room, seeing Alfred standing there like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar. The Scot hummed approvingly and stepped back out. "Sae, th' kid made i' in time, aye?"
Arthur's brain stalled. For several reasons. The first being that Scotland didn't seem to even pay any notice to the pair of devils floating in the room behind him, nor did he seemed surprised to see Alfred. As a matter of fact, he seemed to have been expecting the American.
"You didn't…" Come to think of it, he never asked Alfred why he'd been there in the first place or how he'd managed to arrive exactly on time. Oh, how had he been so stupid? "This was a set-up. You sent him here to play the part. What kind of sick joke are you playing at, Maverick?"
"What?" and "Oi!" resounded in surround sound from the American and Scot respectively.
"Yer wrang. I's naethin' li'e 'a'!" Scotland protested, but England held up a hand, not wanting to hear any of it.
"He's right, Arty. Scotty left a message on my cell saying you were gonna do something stupid if I didn't save you." Alfred insisted, coming up behind Arthur and putting a hand on his shoulder only to have it shrugged off.
"Get out. Both of you."
OoOoOoO
"Vell… as long as ve're mostly all here, ve should start." It was Germany heading the meeting again. Being in England, it should have been England leading, but he was the only nation not to show. It was unusual for the host of the location not to show up for the meeting, and of all people, England, but there was always a first for everything. He would have suggested one of the other nations within the UK head the meeting but… no one could really understand anything any of them said save for Wales who… never seemed to be one to say much.
"Zis just isn't like Angleterre. I 'ope 'e isn't ill. Per'aps I should pay 'im a visit, non?" The Frenchman crooned from his seat to no one in particular. However, it did earn him a few eye-rolls.
"Maybe he's here and no one can see him? It happens…" Came a voice from an empty seat in almost a whisper that no one seemed to notice. It made the hair on the back of France's neck prickle, but he paid it no mind.
The seat next to Alfred was empty and it bothered him. The demon sank into it and slipped a hand over Alfred's shoulder. The blonde couldn't even find the bother to shrug it off. "I can be your Arthur." The demon spoke and before Alfred could even think to protest, that red hair bled blonde. Horns vanished, wings vanished, tail vanished, and the slitted pupils were now round. "For you." The devil leaned over and kissed the corner of Alfred's mouth tenderly.
"Jou ok, America?" It was Spain. He'd noticed the odd expression on Alfred's face and the way he sort of jumped for no reason as if trying to avoid something that wasn't there.
"Huh? Uh, yeah. Just, uh… nothin'." Alfred muttered and tried to smile. Ok, so no one could see the devils but the two of them. That was a bit of a relief. But how did you live your life with an imaginary friend that no one could—oh… Wow, now he felt like he owed Arthur yet another apology now that he was part of the whole, seeing things that weren't there group.
The meeting was absolute torture. With the wannabe Arthur sitting next to him flirting and touching. Trying desperately to win his affections. He hated to admit it, but this guy was just… Too sweet. He missed bickering with Arthur. It just wasn't the same. As soon as the meeting was over, he stood with the crowd of countries, heading for the door in an almost drone-like state until something happened. His body. For a moment, it felt like he'd been a marionette with its strings cut. He nearly hit the ground, catching himself on his hands and knees. His arms were semi-transparent. This was exactly what had happened in the bedroom the night before!
"Ah… it's happening again." Alfred murmured, feeling lightheaded.
"N-no! We have to get back!" The little devil panicked, tugging on Alfred's arm.
"As if. I'm going home." Alfred replied under his breath, but was hit by another dizzy spell and the hands on his upper arm trying to drag him seemed to slip right through him. "What the hell?"
"You'll disappear! For good!"
"What?" This was something Alfred couldn't fathom. He was the United States of America! The current superpower in the world! He couldn't just disappear without a good valid reason.
"For one of us to become real, our desire has to be fulfilled! We need to stop them!" The little devil's hair faded back to red as his demonic features became visible again in his moment of panic.
Alfred quickly stood, finally giving into the devil's insisting tugs and started running with the frantic redhead until that feeling hit him once more. His entire body just went slack and he hit the ground, fading out slowly. In the back of his mind, he heard that voice calling his name and insisting he get up. It was shouting at him, but he just couldn't move. It seemed to be getting farther and farther away. Images of Arthur flooded his dimming mind. Dammit, he loved that idiot…
TBC…
AN: I hope everyone is still enjoying this Fic. I expect about two more chapters if I don't get carried away. xD