Across The Mirror (Hetalia)
Author: Ashynarr
Summary: Alfred and Tommy met through magic, but stuck together through a mutual kinship borne by more than their mirrored identities. After centuries of friendship, they've reached a comfortable state of affairs between them, but what will happen when Tommy ends up severely injured where Alfred can't help?
Disclaimer: Hetalia's not mine.
Warning: 1p2p Americest
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"You know, you could just wait for him to call back like most people," Ginny side-eyed her temporary companion as they stopped in front of the old colonial house. "You said yourself it's only been a week - let him have his break."
"This isn't something I can afford to put off for any longer," Arthur shook his head, dutifully ignoring the look as he got out of her car. "And he didn't even give warning he'd be out of his office for so long."
"Things do come up, you know," The State replied dryly, getting out as well.
What those things were, specifically, she didn't actually know - Alfred had been rather vague when she'd called in, asking why he was still hanging around in his old house instead of coming over to help her plan out the November party that was coming up this weekend. She had, in fact, been planning to come by the next day if fate (and Arthur Kirkland) hadn't intervened.
(If it'd been anyone else, she would have expressed her own concern, but she'd never really lost that lingering resentment of the man who'd forced her to grow up too fast and raise the personification of her country herself while ignoring her efforts anyways.)
The front door opened almost the moment their feet hit the step, Alfred looking a bit bedraggled but otherwise unharmed. His grin grit just enough for her to realize he really did not want to see them right now, but his tone held none of the attitude she'd expect of such as he invited them inside, shutting the door behind them and inviting them to sit along with him.
"You guys want anything? I've sorta been busy so I might have to wash before I cook…" Alfred rubbed at his next, glancing between them carefully.
"I've been trying to reach you all week," Arthur replied, exasperated. "You were due back six days ago and I had some things that required your input before the next meeting."
"Ah, yeah, totes sorry about that," The American replied sheepishly. "Tony needed my help with some stuff, so I sorta got sidetracked and lost track of time."
"Oh really?" The Brit asked, eyebrow raised. "What sort of project? Another game, perhaps?"
"What? No," Alfred shook his head, looking annoyed now. "He's got a new idea for how our whole Nation-Walking abilities work so he needed someone who could, y'know, actually manage a few hundred miles without getting tired. Didn't think it'd take as long as it has, though, so I might have to put it off for a bit, so yeah…"
Ginny raised her own eyebrow at that - she could see the way his gaze slipped to her when he explained that, practically begging for her to not contradict him. He knew that she knew that he hadn't wandered far from this house, but apparently he didn't want Arthur to think anything was off. "Was that what you were doing? I was wondering why you were hopping all over…"
Arthur scoffed and rolled his eyes, muttering about lazy Nations and skewed priorities while her Nation flashed her a grin. "Sorry, dude, what'd you want to talk about again?"
At least she was going to get an explanation out of this; if it left that Brit in the dark and got him to leave early, all the better.
~0~0~
"See you at the meeting, Artie!" Alfred waved Arthur off later the following morning, Ginny standing alongside him as the Brit waved farewell before ducking into his private jet to get a ride back over to his country. It'd been a long day and night of hosting him, but now that he was gone both of them could relax.
"So, you've been helping Tony, hmm?" Ginny asked, glancing to him as they started Walking their way back towards Alfred's place, the slow pace eating up the miles easily.
"Well, I have been," He agreed easily. "He found a new line of study, and I was helping out."
"And you know I know that's not the full story," She shot back.
Alfred gave her a long, weary look, revealing the bags under his eyes she hadn't caught earlier. "It's a long story, believe me, and I figure you might want proof, so…"
Ginny sighed and nodded. "I'm holding you to that, then."
They came to a stop inside his living room, Alfred pausing to close his eyes and exhale slowly, collecting in thoughts while his State waited as patiently as she could for him to decide on how to start.
"Do you remember that time I went with Arthur to his place as a kid?" He started, giving her pause as she thought back to the incident.
"The mid-1600s, wasn't it?" She asked, receiving an affirmative nod in reply.
"Well, while I was there, I sorta slipped away from him for a few hours and started exploring his house - and he had a ton of old rooms he never visited, so for me it was this huge adventure." Alfred smiled at the memory. "I found this one room blocked off by an old table, and he probably hadn't been in there for at least a century with how dusty and out of the way it was. Of course, that meant there had to be cool treasures in there, right?"
"Trust me, I remember your treasure-hunting days," Ginny replied wryly - she had, after all, chided him many times for getting himself into danger trying to replicate Arthur's wild tales on the sea, many of which she doubted had actually happened.
Alfred laughed softly. "Yeah, those were the days, weren't they? Well, this room he probably had really good reason to block off, because he had some dangerous stuff in there - swords, spellbooks, old bottles and stuff like that."
He hesitated, taking a breath before continuing. "And a mirror."
"A mirror?" Her eyebrow raised, recalling the one he kept in his bedroom.
"Yeah, a mirror." Alfred started making his way upstairs, Ginny following as he continued. "It wasn't really all that impressive looking, so I didn't think it could be dangerous. Then I touched it."
"Was it enchanted?" She caught on fast, but then again, she'd been the one taught some of Arthur's magic before Alfred had appeared and drawn all of his attention away from her.
"It started rippling, so I backed up in case I needed to run. When the image settled, I wasn't staring at my own reflection anymore." He settled a hand on his bedroom door, turning to her with a serious expression. "Do you believe in the multiverse?"
"...I couldn't say one way or the other; that's more Isabel's area." Ginny paused and gave his charge an equally serious look. "You're about to prove her right, aren't you?"
Alfred grinned, pushed down on the handle, and opened the door.
~0~0~
"Hey, Alfred?"
"Huh?" The blond looked up from where he was bandaging his wounds, peering into the old mirror he'd found inside one of the abandoned houses near the last battle.
"Who was the woman who was just with you?" The Native boy asked, glancing towards the doorway said woman had just left through to try and scrounge for food.
"Oh, that's Ginny; she's sorta the person who raised me when Arthur wasn't around…" Alfred smiled softly, glancing back out the doorway. "I owe her a lot, really."
"...I had someone like that," His friend replied after a bit, looking down and away. "When I first came around, one of the smaller Nations looked after me. She kept me fed and clothed and let me stay in her home."
"What happened to her?" The Euro-American asked.
"What else? England found us."
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AN: I blame Kait for getting me to start using our State OCs as recurring characters in my other fics, but to be fair they DO make sense as characters (read: Hima and Japan's Prefectures being canon), and Alfred WOULD interact with them a lot so yeah. If it wasn't blatantly obvious, Ginny is Virginia (and Isabel is California obv), so yeah she's sort of his mom/big sister figure and just knows instinctively when he's not telling her everything.
