My Alfred, My Hero

I think this'll be the last chapter for the evening…whew, 7 chapters in two days! Hope you're all enjoying this as much as I am!

Summary of the past 6 chapters: Ivan has escaped; Natalia was using Arthur's spell book against the other nations; Alfred is now hosting a refuge of sorts; Natalia still somehow has the upper hand against everyone else.

Character Refresh: Natalia (Belarus), Ivan (Russia), Alfred (America), Arthur (England), Raivis (Latvia), Eduard (Estonia), Toris (Lithuania), Francis (France), Ludwig (Germany), Feliciano (Italy), Lovino (South Italy), Antonio (Spain), Yekaterina (Ukraine), Matthew (Canada), Yao (China), Kiku (Japan), Elizaveta (Hungary), Roderich (Austria), Gilbert (Prussia).


Feliciano stirred, wondering where he was for a moment. Then he remembered that he was in the hospital with Ludwig. Turning his head, he looked at the still-unconscious Aryan, tears once again pricking at the corners of his eyes. "Ludwig…Ludwig…" he whispered, curling up closer to him on the hospital bed. "Please wake up."


Arthur blearily stumbled to his bed, collapsing on it and not even bothering to crawl under the covers. It was 4:00 a.m., and he had been up so late looking for his spell book. It had occurred to him that perhaps there was a cure for mysterious illnesses in it, one that he had not yet memorized, but he seemed to have misplaced it. 'I'll just have…to get Flying Mint Bunny…and Captain Hook…and Tinker Bell…to help me…look for it…in the morning,' he thought to himself, his exhausted mind having trouble forming a complete sentence.

He felt as if he had only just closed his eyes when a rough cloth covering his nose and mouth jolted him awake. An iron grip held the cloth in place, and the Brit instinctively tried not to inhale as he fought against his attacker. He could almost taste the sickly sweet smell of the anesthetic on the cloth, which just made him fight back all the more. The darkened room did not enable him to see more than the outline of his attacker, who was dressed in all black. He could, however, see a pair of violet eyes staring intently at him. A million thoughts were flickering through his head before a sudden object striking his temple brought all thoughts to an end.


Matthew wandered aimlessly around Francis' house, the normally cheery and romantic atmosphere seeming dull and lifeless without its owner. Matthew opened the French doors leading to the terrace, where he curled up on a chair in the moonlight. He clutched one of the blankets from the Frenchman's bed, reveling in the scent that was so musky, so flowery, so masculine…so Francis. Matthew's breath hitched, and even with the blanket wrapped around his body, he still felt cold…cold and alone.


Alfred glared at the four nations standing outside of his door. The small group was shifting nervously from foot to foot. Alfred peeked his head out in the corridor, looking to see where Ivan might be hiding. "Where's Ivan?" he demanded. A gentle touch on his shoulder told him that Kiku had joined him at the door.

The vocal Latvian immediately spoke up. "Ivan is in Russia he sent us here because there's danger in Russia Miss Natalia is doing something horrible she had Ivan locked up in the basement of St. Basil's Cathedral -"

"Wait, what?" Kiku interrupted. At a nod from Alfred, the two nations stepped back to allow the Baltics to enter Alfred's apartment. Once they had all entered, Alfred closed and locked the door. He led them all to the living room, where they all sat down.

"Now, you were saying?"


Almost an hour later, Alfred and Kiku were able to piece together the information that the Baltics had given them.

"Lemme get this straight," Alfred said, ticking off the conclusions on his fingers. "Natalia and not Ivan is behind all of this, Natalia had Ivan locked up in the basement of a church, Ivan is currently in Russia confronting her, your bosses are with my boss at the moment, and you are here because Ivan sent you here?"

The Baltics nodded.

Alfred rubbed his tired face. "Well, I guess we have to wait for I-" for the second time that evening he was interrupted by a doorbell. Raivis perked up. "That must be Ivan!" he exclaimed excitedly.

Sure enough, when the American opened the door he was greeted by the sight of the scowling Russian. The two nations eyed each other coldly before Alfred stepped back to allow Ivan to enter.

Ivan slowly entered the living room, closely followed by Alfred. They sat, glaring at each other, before finally Alfred spoke. "Well? What's the deal with Natalia?"

Ivan sneered at being spoken to thus, but answered the American's question. "Natalia has murdered my boss and hers. I do not know how far her reach is in my government, but it must be deep if none of my associates were alerted to what has been happening. She has been striking at the other nations by means of this spell…" Ivan pulled out Arthur's spell book and flipped it open to the page that Natalia had been looking at while in her room.

"Wait – is this Arthur's spell book?" Kiku frowned. Ivan inclined his head in the direction of the Japanese man as everyone crowded around to look at the book.

"Spells? Magic? Dude, what a bunch of baloney!" America laughed. Kiku now frowned at the American. "Clearly it is not 'baloney' if it has been having an effect on the other nations," he chastised. Alfred was left gaping at him. He quickly recovered.

"Well, whatever it is, we should return it to Arthur; he'll know what to do," Alfred said confidently. He stopped when he saw the Baltics all give tired yawns. Alfred realized that he himself was also beginning to lose his stamina.

"Tell you what, you guys can all camp out in here, the lady can stay in the spare -" Yekaterina sighed gratefully that, as the only woman, she would get a room to herself, "- and Kiku can sleep in my room with me." He winked at the now-blushing Japanese man. As he walked to the linen closet and rummaged around for spare blankets, sheets, and pillows, he heard Kiku creep up behind him and hiss in his ear, "Don't even think of doing anything; you are Arthur's, and I am Yao's." Alfred chuckled and whispered back, "I would never."


Alfred's computer dinging crazily woke him up in the still-dark hours of the morning. He lurched out of bed and slapped at the keyboard, trying to shut it up; he didn't want to Skype this early in the morning. The video chat box popped up anyways as Kiku stirred from his side of the bed.

Alfred froze when he saw who was in the video feed.

An evilly grinning Natalia was holding a grimacing Arthur, bound to a chair with cruelly tight ropes. One of Natalia's hands was twined in his blonde locks, exposing his pale throat; the other held a wicked-looking knife pressed up against the Brit's neck with enough force to indent while not breaking the skin…yet.

Alfred's senses kicked in, and he began shouting obscenities at Natalia loud enough to wake the whole apartment. Kiku wandered over to the screen and gasped when he saw what Alfred was seeing. In a few moments Ivan stumbled into the room as well, causing Natalia to grin even wider. Ivan froze.

"Alfred F. Jones." Natalia's voice was fuzzy over the grainy newsfeed. "I have something you want, and you have something I want. I propose a swap. Bring me the book and Ivan, and you get your beloved Brit. If you are not here, in St. Petersburg, within 24 hours …well, you can guess what will happen." Arthur stiffened as the knife finally bit into his skin, though only enough to draw a few drops of blood.

"Don't listen to her, Alfred!" Arthur cried out. A swift yank of his hair cut off any further words he was going to say.

Alfred's blood boiled when he saw this. "You'll never get away with this, Natalia! You don't have the spell book anymore to keep hurting the other nations!" he shouted at her.

She merely smirked back at him. "Do you really think that I need a spell book to hurt him, Alfred?" she whispered, glancing down at Arthur. "Ivan has so kindly built up a store of nuclear missiles over the years." Alfred glared at Ivan, who had the grace to at least look ashamed. "Now that I have access to them, you cannot stop me, and if you try to cast any spells, I will still be able to launch enough rockets to completely wipe out the United Kingdom. You will have the pleasure of watching Mr. Kirkland dissolve into so much radioactive waste…" she trailed off before narrowing her eyes. "Think over your answer carefully. I expect it to be the right one."


And that's all for now, folks! I'm going to bed now…wish me luck on my humanities final!