England groaned in annoyance. It wasn't that America and Dixie were bad singers, they were actually both very good, to his surprise. It was that Alfred was driving at least ten miles over the speed limit, and Dixie had the window rolled down so he could yell the lyrics out to the whole world. All of the noise was giving him a headache. He almost felt at home, which terrified him. He didn't want to be reminded of his brothers back in Europe. They were annoying, rude, and constantly undermined his authority. Honestly, couldn't they just accept the fact that he had conquered them fair and square? All that aside, the singing was beginning to get to him.
Dixie leaned his whole head out of the window as he sang the last verse of the song. England didn't even know what the name of the song was.
"I'll place my knapsack on my back, my rifle on my shoulder. I'll march away to the firing line and kill that Yankee soldier, and kill that Yankee soldier. I'll march away to the firing line... And I'll kill that Yankee soldier!" at this declaration he let out a whoop of joy.
Alfred just smirked and began to swerve even more recklessly around the other traffic on the road. Dixie brought his head back in the car and pouted at him as if he had just ruined his day.
"Don't care, South. Don't care." laughed America.
"Alfred, the awesome me just has to ask, what exactly is your plan? Or are you running into this willy-nilly like you did the first time?" Prussia interrupted what was quickly becoming an almost fight between the two people in the front seats.
Dixie looked back at Prussia. "He ran into something 'willy-nilly'?" He seemed almost surprised at this revelation. "Whenever I've seen him set his mind to somthin' he definitely ain't 'willy-nilly' as you put it."
"No," England sighed, "No, his revolution was definitely 'willy-nilly' at the beginning."
Alfred just smirked with pride and satisfaction. He looked almost like a cat who had caught a mouse.
"The awesome me made the whole revolution successful though," added Prussia. "After all, I was the one who trained him and the other 13. Let me tell you, none of them could shoot for shit. Totally unawesome. But then I came along, and boom! You made history, brought England down a notch too. You're welcome. No offense, Arthur."
"No, I'm pretty sure offense was meant in that statement." laughed Dixie.
England just looked sour, as if he had swallowed lime juice. "Either way, the past is past. And it would hardly be wise to antagonize you now, Alfred."
"Anyways, I was wondering, since it's getting late, where would the awesome me be sleeping tonight?" asked Prussia.
Alfred nodded his head and was about to say something when Dixie interrupted him. "Take this exit. Right now!" Alfred swerved through both lanes of traffic and nearly hit the divider. Prussia let out a yell, he was enjoying Alfred's driving. England held onto the door and looked rather nauseous, and very angry. Dixie was still giving Alfred directions. After a couple sharp turns, Alfred parked in a spot, perfectly may I add, right in front of the local Kroger's.
Prussia let out a breathless laugh. "That was the most fun I've had in a while. We should go driving again at some point. When are you free?"
Alfred turned in his seat to properly look at Prussia. His face held an expression of exasperation and mild shock as if Prussia had just asked a stupid question, one where the answer was very clearly obvious.
"General, I'm The United States of America, I'm always free."
Dixie just coughed into his hand, as if smothering a laugh. "Anyway nerds, I'ma go get us some supper. England would you mind coming with me? Thanks. Also, Jack, I'll need your wallet too, if you don't mind."
"You have your own, don't use my money!" protested Alfred.
"I've got ten dollars plus change. That's not enough to get food." countered Dixie
"Fine." Alfred almost threw his wallet at Dixie, who caught it with a smile of thanks and proceeded to look through the contents.
"Mk, what have we here? Ooh, 150 in dollars, cool. 50 euro, 100 Swiss francs, why do you have swiss franc? And 155 pounds. Wonderful, absolutely wonderful. So we've got 160 and change to buy ourselves two weeks of food."
"I could probably exchange the pounds if you wanted?" offered England.
"Naw, that's fine. We'll get by. Come on, sooner we go, sooner supper's ready." sighed Dixie.
They both left the car and made their way to the grocery store. Once they entered, Dixie immediately went to the dried foods section. He got a bag of rice, and some dried vegetables. England stood by. He had no real purpose here, he had just gone because he was a gentleman, and if someone asked him politely to accompany them, he would. Unless it was the frog, or Russia, or any of his siblings, or colonies. Except for Canada. Canada was a very polite nation when you took the time to acknowledge him, which he did. Let no one say he wasn't a gentleman. They browsed the store for a while longer, adding ground meat to the basket and canned beans, celery, onions, and bell peppers to the odd assortment of foodstuffs. When Dixie was finally done gathering all of the necessary items, he had two baskets full, one of dried goods and spices, the other of perishables, meat and vegetables mostly. England had added tea and coffee to drink.
"Before we go back, England, I just had to ask." Began Dixie, "Why'd you offer to help Jack? This ain't an international affair."
England contemplated the question for a long while. "I don't know. America is my younger brother. And I guess I just felt as though I owed him. He did help when I needed it, late of course, but he gave assistance, and as a gentleman, I ought to repay him. He is also rather powerful, I'd hate to have to fight him now. Why?"
"I am a part of him, a part of the United States. I don't want you to take advantage of any presumed weaknesses. I don't like him, sometimes, and he can be annoying, but I swore loyalty. That is important to me, so I will do what I can to protect my home. Look, just promise not to tell anyone about the states, and don't bother us."
England looked at him, "Certainly. Alfred has good reason to keep his states secret from the world. I won't interfere in your issues."
"Good. And just so you know, Canada knows about the states, but not me. So if you want to talk to the Canuck you can, just don't mention me, if you can help it." grinned Dixie. He then turned heel and marched over to the car. England followed slightly bemused. America was a weird country.
~~Time Skip~~
The four of them ended up eating in a local church. They weren't supposed to, but Prussia was kind enough to pick the lock to the side door. Dixie set up a small cooking fire outside the door and prepared the meal while Alfred began to organize the pews so they could sleep.
"Supper's finished! Jack, get the plates and silverware for the rest of us," called Dixie.
After a semblance of order had been achieved, and everyone had dishes to eat the food with, Alfred dug in. Both European countries, however, were more hesitant. The dish was rice, but it looked like it had been dragged through the mud and vegetables had been added later to make it somewhat edible.
"Pardon me, but what exactly is this?" queried England.
"Dirty rice," said Dixie, without looking up. "It's rice with meat and vegetables and spices. Eat, it's good. And if you don't we might eat it for you."
At this confirmation that the food was edible, Prussia and England ate. All four of them were done pretty quickly, and once they had all finished Alfred took the dishes to wash.
"Alright. We should probably make a more formalized plan for this operation." began Dixie. "But first, any questions?"
"Yes, why did you get sad, just after we left? You stopped singing briefly," asked Prussia. "I didn't see anything different with that town? And the song wasn't horribly sad."
"We drove through Bull Run." sighed Alfred.
"Manassas. Get it straight Jack." snapped Dixie, but there didn't seem to be the usual vigor behind the words.
"Why is that important?" interrupted England.
Both representations of the United States looked up, "Battle of Bull Run." Alfred said, right as Dixie said "Battle of Manassas." They both proceeded to glare at each other.
"I beat your ass both times, it's Manassas." snarled Dixie.
"Another question." interrupted Prussia, "Why are you calling America Jack? My awesome self doesn't get it."
Dixie smirked. "Oh, that's easy. It's 'cause he's English."
"'M not English. England's English, I ain't." countered Alfred
England looked confused. He looked back and forth from America to Confederacy, and then back to America. Then he laughed. "Thank you, Confederacy. I do think I'll have to keep that in mind."
Prussia frowned, "I still don't get it. What's so funny about a wrong name?"
"Don't worry about it," rushed America, "Let's continue. What do we need to prepare for?"
"Well, if we're going to Mexico, don't you think he'd be expecting you?" began Prussia. "I don't know what we're going to do to counter that. He could sense our awesomeness once we cross the border."
"I think," began England slowly, "I think that since neither you nor Dixie are actually nations, we could sneak you in, Mexico would only really know about America and I."
"That's sensible. However, we must take into consideration that he holds a defensive position." Dixie added, "so we'd essentially be taking a fort. 'Cause Mexico will be able to fortify the property and use the surrounding land to his advantage. We also don't have the time or numbers to perform a proper siege."
Alfred yawned, "I think we should all turn in. We've got a ways to go tomorrow. I'm guessing 15 hours of travel. And I'd like a solid 5 hours of sleep at least."
The rest of the party nodded in agreement and began to clean up all unnecessary items they had gotten out. Eventually, everyone fell asleep. England next to Prussia, and America next to Dixie.
