Disclaimer: I don't own APH, but I do own my computer, more or less.
AN: Well, this white stuff falls on the ground in winter and we got a lot of it. So, today's the second snowday in a row. ^-^ My research paper from hell got finished last night and I'm back from London, which was absolutely amazing. The only bad thing about the trip is I'm awake all the time...like, I'm not tired until one in the morning, but then I wake up at five every morning. I started this chapter this morning at five when I found out we didn't have school, so sorry if it's a little incoherent. Okay, enough talking, enjoy the slightly longer chapter in with all the states!
Ages:
Original thirteen: 13; 1791 to 1796: 12; 1803 to 1850: 11; 1858 to 1876: 10; 1889 to 1912: 9; Alaska: 6; Hawaii: 5.
"Alfred, I know what the situation is," the President said as soon as Russia had left the hall.
"Y-You do?" Alfred asked, surprised.
"News travels fast. I received a phone call this morning."
"What's the plan? How'm I gettin' rid of 'im?" Alfred twinged slightly. He just realized he was talking with his southern accent and he hadn't noticed at all.
"We're not getting rid of him."
"What?!"
"I believe that you and he should go stay with Alaska for a while, perhaps a month?"
Alfred found that he couldn't respond. He just stared like an idiot at his boss.
"I talked to his boss already. Russia's desire to go see Alaska is no political ploy. It may be that he is truly feeling remorse for what happened to her. I see no reason why he shouldn't have a chance to rectify it. There's not much harm he can do either."
"B-But, boss, it's Russia!"
The president gave Alfred a sharp look. "That's also part of the reason why I think you should go with him. You and he have not had the best relationship, but it's time things changed. The Cold War is over; he is no longer our enemy. You will do this and come to some sort of agreement with Russia: you two will no longer be so hostile to each other. From what I've seen and heard, you're the one who is more hostile and provokes the conflicts—"
"I don't do that!"
"Yes, you do, Alfred. The states are all in town for a dinner, they're leaving tomorrow to go back to their respective homes. You and Russia will have dinner with them tonight, at six, and then tomorrow, you will accompany Alaska home. I've arranged it all. Is that acceptable?"
Alfred really didn't have a choice. "Yessir."
The president's face softened slightly. "Come on, Alfred. Give me a smile; you're acting like I sentenced you to death. It's just for a month."
Alfred tried to smile. "I'm the chief cook, no problem."
"Get on then."
Alfred walked down the hall, heading to his room, his head jammed full of ideas. What was he going to do? Apparently it was inevitable. He was going to be spending the next month with Russia, the guy who Iggy had summoned when he was actually summoning demons. Russia was pure evil and scary to boot.
He ignored the thoughts of moments when Russia had been gentle. Upon first meeting, reaching out a gentle hand to brush Alfred' hair out of his eyes. Telling Alfred that everything would be fine during the Civil War. Holding on so tight…
Alfred entered his room, leaning against the closed door, sinking slightly. He pulled his tie off roughly and was about to toss it off when someone suddenly was towering over him.
"Iv-Russia, what are you doing—what are you doing? Back up."
"Nyet."
Russia had Alfred pinned up against the door again. He was half bent over, so they were face to face. Alfred's eyes darted across Russia's face, trying to find something recognizable there. Anger. Resentment. Disgust. Sadness.
"What is it?"
"влюбленность…You infuriate me to no end."
"Y'all ain't no walk in the park either."
Russia sneered. "What a disgusting accent. Everything about you…"
Alfred rammed his shoulder into Russia's arm, trying to get away. Russia didn't look fazed.
"What type of freak are you, commie?"
"Your worst nightmare, дa?"
"If you don't want to be here, why don't you just leave—what are you doing?!"
Russia had moved even closer, so his body was pinning Alfred to door while his fingers clumsily unbuttoned Alfred's shirt. Alfred tried to stop him, but it didn't work. Alfred's shirt came off and was thrown to the ground.
"где это?" Russia's eyes were roaming across Alfred, making Alfred feel even more uncomfortable.
"Look, can you—stop, please. Russia!"
"This is Mason Dixon…" Russia commented almost sadly as he traced over a faint scar across Alfred's waist. Ivan's hands were freezing.
"What are you doing?"
"The War of 1812…" Russia traced the scar on Alfred' collarbone, left side. Matthew had a similar scar.
"Russia, stop!" Alfred attempted to shove Russia out of the way, but the other nation was much larger than him.
A demonic light entered Russia's eyes. He seized Alfred's arms. "You do not want to do that, подсόлнечник. I do not want to hurt you, but I will if I need to, дa? I would not recommend moving and, if you yell or get their attention, it will not look good for you."
"Tch…" Alfred wrenched his arms out of Russia's grip. "Hurry up then, commie bastard."
One of Russia's cold hands gripped his hip tightly as he traced over the scars.
"The Revolutionary War." That scar was fainter than the rest, stretching from his shoulder diagonally to the center of his chest.
The scar above Alfred's heart that looked what a piece of cloth would look like if ripped in two and then set to heal was "The Civil War…"
"Are you done?" Alfred asked faintly.
"Nyet."
Russia was scrutinizing Alfred. Alfred unconsciously brought up a hand and rested it on Ivan's head. Russia looked up, questioning. Alfred looked off to the right at the floor. Ivan's hair was soft. He was just keeping it out of his face, right? Not a big deal.
Russia's hand rested over Alfred's heart. "I was wrong."
"About what?"
Ivan straightened up, Alfred's hand falling to his shoulder. "It is nothing."
"Really?"
Ivan took Alfred's hand with both of his and brought it to his mouth, where he gently kissed the palm.
"It is nothing. Get ready."
—
Alfred and Russia were standing in a very large dining room, where fifty two chairs had been put around a huge table. It was where the State dinners were held.
"How many are coming,милый?"
"Just the states, so fifty of them. My old protectorates almost colonies aren't showing up and the possessions I have said it's too cold for them."
Just then, fifty children invaded the room with a loud commotion. All of them ran over to Alfred to hug him and talk to him. Russia was sort of left alone, except for wary looks from some of the states.
Except for one state.
"Пáпа! Пáпа!"
Russia felt the air be knocked out of him as a tiny six year old girl flung herself at him.
"H-Hello, Alaska."
After five minutes, Alfred yelled above the din that everyone should sit down and start eating, because little Hawaii was already falling asleep.
Alfred and Russia sat down next to each other, with Alaska hanging onto Ivan until he motioned to the chair next to him. Alfred leaned over and whispered to Russia.
"Are you okay with her hanging on you like that?"
"It is fine—"
"Hey, Dad, what's with the Russki?" asked a stern looking girl of thirteen who Alfred quietly told Ivan was Virginia.
"He's not going to attack Georgia again, is he?" asked Florida.
"He ain't gonna so much as lookit her!" shouted a rebellious boy who was wearing cut up jeans and a red plaid shirt. "If y'all try, I swear I'm gonna beat you up and secede from the Union!"
"South Carolina, you're gonna do what I say and shut your trap! No one's leavin' the Union, got it?" Alfred shouted, standing up from his chair.
Russia and New York tugged Alfred back down. Russia leaned over, still holding Alfred's hand.
"Calm down, ЛЮбÓВНИК."
Alfred took a few calming breaths before talking again.
"First off, Russia did not, nor has he ever attacked Georgia. Am I correct?"
One of the girls sitting next to South Carolina nodded.
"Second off, is that any way to greet a guest? You'd think I didn't actually try to raise you!"
"You didn't!" said California.
Texas yelled over, "I had to raise myself!"
"You can stop bragging about being your nation," West Virginia retorted.
"West, when are you going to come back?" Virginia asked.
"Never. You're too hard headed."
"Children, please try to stay on topic," Alfred injected. "Virginia, you and West Virginia will not become one state, so just let it go. Same goes for the Dakotas and the Carolinas. No one is allowed to take over Rhode Island or Connecticut…I think that covers all the main bases."
"Dad, you haven't told us why he's here," Delaware pointed out.
"Russia's here, because…"
"I am here to see how Alaska is doing. I have not seen her in years," Russia explained.
"You going to try and take her back?" asked Pennsylvania, tensing up.
"No one is taking anyone!" Alfred said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Quieter, he said so only Russia could hear, "The first thirteen are always riling for a fight and then the southern states just want to fight for the sake of fighting. The West is fairly indifferent and Hawaii and Alaska are too young to get involved. Sorry about this."
"It is no problem," Russia replied, squeezing Alfred's hand slightly.
"Dad, are you with him?"
Alfred's face went bright red. "New Jersey! I am not with him!"
"You know it's fine, right?" California smiled widely.
"What does that mean? Be with him?" asked a male dressed like he was in the musical Oklahoma.
Maryland sighed. "You seriously don't know? You're young."
"I'm only nine!"
Alfred buried his face in his hands. "I hate family dinners."
Ivan cleared his throat. "American children? Your attention, дa?"
The conversations that had sprung up around the table stopped as all the states looked at him.
"Please…do not make assumptions…Это печалит Альфред. Я не хотел его видеть грустные."
"Sorry? But, what did you say?" asked Washington.
"You spoke in Russian, I think," explained Oregon. "I don't remember much of it."
Hawaii stood up on her chair, "Can we all stop arguing?"
Everyone around the table except for Ivan and Alfred said something to the effects of: "Aw…sure…you're so cute Hawaii!"
"Dad, lighten up," New York said cheerfully during dinner while the rest of the states and Russia were involved in some story about how all the states had been obtained. "We're all sitting here, being polite, acting like we've got some manners…well, most of us."
"It's not that."
"You've also got a guy who you're totally into next to you."
"W-What?!"
"Don't act so oblivious. You two are so into each other."
"N-No we're not!'
"You two haven't been able to keep your eyes off of each other and you've been holding hands the whole time."
Alfred glanced down and realized that. He tried to subtly free his hand, but Russia didn't let go.
"Why haven't any of you said anyth—"
"Because, you're denying it and California doesn't want to force you into anything. It's obvious to everyone, you just haven't realized it yet. Besides, we all want to see you happy."
"I've been plenty happy before."
"Yeah, prior to the Revolution. You were depressed afterwards and you've never really been happy since the Revolution."
"You don't know anything, loyalist."
"They controlled my economy, Dad. Isn't that how you got Hawaii?"
"Where did you learn to be like this?"
"I learned from the best. All of us, including South Carolina, want you to be happy."
The rest of dinner passed quickly and quietly, with the only blip happening when Wisconsin had flipped out about communism. Luckily, Virginia and Ohio were ready and caught him. South Carolina had only threatened to leave the Union once that whole night, so it was an improvement. Alfred tried not to think it, but dinner had gone much smoother with Russia there.
The next morning, the three of them were on a plane to Alaska.
Translations:
влюбленность-Love
где это?-Where is it?
подсόлнечник-Sunflower
милый-dear
Пáпа! Пáпа!- Dad! Dad!
Это печалит Альфред. Я не хотел его видеть грустные.-It makes him sad. I do not like to see him sad.
AN: Explanations of the state interactions...South Carolina's portrayed as he is because SC is always threatening to leave the Union up to the Civil War and even now there's problems with it and the rest of the country and my APUSH teacher is always ragging on SC in class (no offense is meant, by the way, I'm satirizing). Anything else, you can ask, because there's a lot of those types of jokes going on and I would explain, there's just a lot going on. Um, the sexes of the states are done sort of randomly, the ages correspond to when/how they were obtained.
Russia was looking for something specific...any guesses? (that scene is the result of cabin fever, by the way) Oh, the reason why Washington and Oregon are semi-nice to Russia is at one point they almost became part of Russian America. Oregon Country was wanted by Spain, England, Russia, and America. America won that conflict. California's semi-nice also because Russia had ports there briefly. Okay, I seriously will stop talking.
Shout Outs: shishunki (we totally should! I meant to reply back sooner, but I got caught up), sakerat, foxyyaoi123, morbidlyfrozen, Sexykill69, tocool456, Sageleisa (I needed to be mean to Kiku because it's a plot device. You'll understand next chapter...I think), RmfD, ChildOfLily (I'm lovin' your review so hard!), otaku no baka (I copped out and just made them all children...but I tried to think of how they'd all be parts of Alfred and that confused me exceptionally. It confused me! :D), Mr. Sora Majiggers, WhimsicalSchmoo, greenpanic6, ai-08, Kirihara Hisoka, TheSarcasticUchihaFan (I have a few ideas of what Alfred's going to say...none of them PG), and Tie-dyed Trickster (Thanks! This is literally what I think about during class). THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!
