Consolations
They found him in a field, conjured of old memories. It expanded on all sides and green, very green grass swayed prettily on soft wind below open skies. It was a mental recreation of the field England had first found him in. But at the very edge of his eyes and far in the distance it becomes the eternal darkness that was his mind. It was and will always be simply an illusion.
"Hey, Alfred," One came up behind him, Four close behind. They stayed a distance back, not touching him.
Alfred didn't say anything. He sat with one leg on the ground and holding the other to his chest, facing away from them. One hand absentmindedly tore up the grass while the other wrapped around his leg.
"Alfie?" Four reached out to touch him but stopped short when One shook his head, "Did we be bad? We no mean to, I no mean to. I sorry you sad."
There was another silence before Alfred took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, "It's just… you guys don't really know the extent of what you're wishing for, do you?"
One gave a dry laugh, dark humor brightening his already bright eyes, but now some blue had seeped back into the green irises, "Why should we? We've been locked in here for the majority of our lives."
Alfred flinched while One continued.
"People out there don't matter to us, and it's not like we'll ever even need to know them. Besides, even if we did understand to some extent-"
"Why would you care?" Alfred finished off for him. He finally turned around and they could see sadness in the sky blue eyes.
"I'm telling it as it is, Alfred," One said, but with no malice at all in the blunt words.
"That's the problem, One."
Four lifted his arms in the universal sign for asking for a hug. Alfred leaned over and hugged him, looking over the identical body to One, who walked closer and briefly embraced the both of them with Four in the middle. He withdrew and then it was just Four still hugging him. The sleeved arms were comforting even if they could offer no real protection.
"Don't be sad, Alfie. We no want hurt you."
Alfred smiled, "I know you would never. Intentionally."
One offered him a small smile, "It's true, Al. Not even Five would."
"Mmm," Alfred rubbed part of Four's back with the pads of his fingers, knowing that an old burn scar was there. He really should have been more careful… "Most of the time…"
"You want go back now?" Four asked, his red eyes, now infused slightly with blue, looked up innocently at him, "Thwee and Two were worwy abwout you."
"Really now?" Alfred looked at One, who shrugged.
"In their own, weird sort of way."
Alfred chuckled to himself, still hugging Four. Whenever Two was worried about one of them he would begin tapping out a rhythm and look at One or Alfred to go comfort them. It came off as rather cold, but Alfred found that Two was concerned with making things worse with his inability and unwillingness to show what he's really thinking and feeling.
Three, also, rarely went to comfort others himself. Sympathy was something he couldn't afford, even to his other personifications, or brothers, as they called themselves. Instead he'd do barely noticeable but kind things, small comforts of compassion. Softening words, little notes with words he'd never say aloud, and sometimes baking little pastries with the love he'll always deny.
Five, on the other hand…
"How's Five?" Alfred asked.
One winced visibly and he felt Four flinch a little. The childish personification then unwrapped himself from Alfred and lay down, eagle-spread on the incredibly realistic illusion of grass. He stared straight up into the blue sky above them, perhaps trying to find where the sky ended and the illusion faded.
"He's… training again. You might want to stay away from him for a while."
"Sure," He'd have to go talk to Five later.
They walked in companionable silence through the field. They were heading towards the small slit of blackness all the way towards the end of the illusion. However, with each step, the end illusion remained at the same distance from them. Yet if one ignore that fact, it really was like walking through a meadow. And a perfect one at that. No bugs were there to annoy them and the lush, full greenery was devoid of branches or dead plant growth to trip them or disturb the scene. To their right, beautiful woods, much like the one found in fairy tales, swayed in the soft breeze.
He walked quietly with One, carrying Four piggy-back style for he had fallen asleep in the grass earlier. Soft snores and murmurs emitted from the crimson eyed personification.
Finally the outline of the house appeared from the black gap at the end of their vision. However, saying it was a house was an understatement. A gleaming white marble mansion stood among a perfectly manicured lawn on a leveled hill. A large fountain with a statue of America himself stood in the center, spewing water making elaborate patterns around it. Alfred sighed, as he did every time he saw it. Two, who had designed the entire mansion, could get vain at times.
A paved driveway circled the fountain, extending outwards towards them, and, as they watched, it paved itself and the road made its way past them. As they looked ahead, the house assembled itself from blackness, brick by brick, column by column. In all truth, it looked like watching a video of the creation of a house sped up. Think History Channel style.
Columns lined up on either side of the great wooden doors, extending from the top to the bottom of the twenty feet tall first floor. Windows looked out from above and behind the columns and the marble structure extended on either side. The mansion had five floors above ground and several more below.
However, as it was his mind they were in, the space inside never made sense. Something that would appear as a broom closet could be the size of the White House when inside. The house's layout was confusing because of it. He liked to name it after a magical castle in one of England's books, Hogwarts.
It took a while but they finally made it to the front doors, at this time Four had woken up and already ran inside. Alfred hesitated before opening the door. A hand landed on his shoulder and he looked back to see One smile at him.
"C'mon, we go swimming later, if you want."
Alfred smiled back and nodded, "Sounds fun."
One opened the door and gesture for him to go in, "After you, Al."
"Aren't you the gentleman?" Alfred chuckled, crossing the threshold.
"Meh, Two's the one who really gets into that stuff. See you soon?"
"I'm keeping you to that offer of swimming."
"I know. Good luck with Five."
"I'll need it."
"May the Force be with you."
"Star Wars. There's other movies to quote from, you know."
"Meh."
They parted ways, One headed down a small hall behind a hidden door while Alfred made his way down the enormous entrance hall.
Silver and grey arches and columns are planted in regular intervals on either side of him. After the long trip down, he finds himself in a room even larger than the hall. Elegant staircases wind down on either sides of another great oak door, behind, he knew, was a ballroom of great proportions.
It was a very beautiful house, but cold, extremely so. There were no pictures or objects or trinkets that showed if people were really living in here. The temperature was kept very low, usually around 50º Fahrenheit. The blue, silver, white, and light gray color scheme reminded Alfred of Three's eyes… Cold and professional at best, inhospitable and apathetic at worst. At the very corner of his eyes he could see the ever present darkness swirling away at the ends of this pretty image of a mansion.
Footsteps caught his attention and he looked up to see Two coming down from the balcony above the stairs. Neither of them say a word as Two continued going down the stairs. He walked straight from the staircase to Alfred, stopping at a distance where their noses were little more than a foot from each other.
Two lifted an eyebrow at him, eyes as unreadable as ever.
"I'm fine," Alfred mumbled, looking away from the feline yellow eyes.
Two only stood there, unmoving. Tense silence holds in between them, but this is the usual with Two. Finally the other personification raised his hand and snapped his fingers, making Alfred instinctively look at him. Using the hand he snapped with, his right hand, he pressed his index and middle fingers parallel to his lips before pressing the fingers to Alfred's forehead.
Without explaining the action at all, he gently brushed past Alfred, a hand finding his to give a folded note. Steps echoed in the silent hall for a too short time, and when Alfred looked around Two was nowhere to be seen although there were no places to hide or disappear to. Alfred didn't even bother to wonder about what had just happened, used to the silent man's antics. Instead he unfolded and read the small note. Two's beautiful calligraphy greeted his eyes.
Cooking is good for the soul.
Remember to hydrate yourself. (That means drink water.)
I'll join you two for swimming.
P.S. Don't drown. It'd be troublesome to get you back to solid ground.
Alfred read the letter. Then reread it. And reread it again.
It was so like Two that it wasn't even funny. He could even hear the sarcasm on the second line.
He wondered who told Two about One and him going swimming, but pushed it out of his mind. Two was just strange most of the time. As for the rest of the note… Well, experience had shown him that he'll just have to wait a while until the meaning became clear. Whether that it be within minutes or days or even years.
He had walked up the stairs, taking his time and running his hand along the handrail. When he got to the top he slowly crossed the balcony to the doors behind. Slipping inside, he found a long hallway, perpendicular to the door and lined with one way mirrors. The mirrors allowed him to look down into the ballroom without being seen. He walked the perimeter of the room until he found the door he was looking for, a gray, modern one that lead into the meeting room they used the most often.
Before opening the door, he glanced behind him into the one-way mirror that hid him from the empty ballroom. His gaze searched through the ballroom, taking in the grand piano and lifted stage and the bar in the corner. The ceiling, above even the level he was at, arched into a mostly glass dome with a large chandelier coming down from it.
It was beautiful and large and would probably be wonderful for conducting parties or balls with hundreds of people during day or night or both. But only five, sometimes six people lived in this house. The sheer vastness of the mansion made it all the more intimidating and lonely.
Tearing his eyes away from the surprisingly sad scene of the ballroom, he opened the door and went inside. It was the same room as he had been in at first. However, the design was more elaborate this time as one of them had willed it back into perfection. At first it had been an emergency meeting and they only used a simple design in the short time they had.
The room was large and imposing, much different from how it was at first. It extended for a good bit then dipped down a couple of steps into a lower platform where a long holographic war table stood in front of a missing wall. The missing wall was the one farthest from where Alfred was standing now, the darkness was held at bay there. Just all consuming blackness.
By experience that he would rather forget, he knew that when his physical body was awake the darkness would be replaced by whatever his eyes were seeing. They, whoever was inside the house, would be able to get into his mind by crossing into it. Other than that they could just watch what he was doing. Unless he didn't want them to, of course. They wouldn't, and couldn't, intrude on his privacy…
Still, the walls were a metallic gray and lined with uniform sized screens, relaying information in many different languages. Futuristic computers lined the upper platform, holograms, interactive screens, and many other devices that were just fantasy to most other people. It was all the inventions that Three could make, should he be able to go out. The technology in here was decades beyond anything in this time on Earth.
His footsteps echoed on the metal floor as he crossed the upper platform to the stairs.
Three was sitting on the end of the table, examining several holographs that coming out of the table. He didn't acknowledge Alfred until the other man came down the short stairs and sat on the seat directly to his right.
"Have you completed your session of guilt induced anguish?" Three didn't grace him with any acknowledgement besides the blunt words, his hands still controlling the holographs.
"For now," Alfred said just as bluntly back.
"In optimistic expectation, for me, you have assured our brothers of your temporary recovery," It was strange how Three, the least caring of the others, was always the one to most freely refer to them as brothers. Alfred wasn't sure why he did so, but he and the others thought it was because it was the most affectionate name he could bestow them without sounding too affectionate.
"I did," He answered.
Finally Three looked at him, albeit a swift and calculating glance. His silvery eyes locked onto Alfred's blue ones. They always gave Alfred the chills, his eyes. Usually the blue in his silver-gray eyes made his irises look more or less normal, but the way they flashed in the light made them appear to be blank alien eyes with their disappeared irises. They were the scariest of all their eyes, even compared to the cat's eye yellow that colored Two's irises or the all consuming black vortex that was Five's. As for Four's blood red eyes… they were too childish and innocent for the most part…
"Five wishes for you to accompany him for a short 'talk' as soon as possible. He is currently in the exercise room training, as always. I suggest you be expeditious in speed to rendezvous with him."
"Okay, thanks," Alfred got up; the conversation was clearly over, even if he didn't have an angry Five waiting for him.
As he stood and turned to leave he felt something be pressed to his lips, his hands raise and grabs the object. He lifts it to see… a hamburger. It was one of those homemade, grilled to perfection type of hamburgers with actually fresh vegetables and proper cheese melted onto it. He spun around to see Three still doing work on the holographs, this time slowly spinning a holograph of the Earth and marking several cities. Three hated to eat hamburgers, let alone cook them…
"Thank you," Alfred mumbled, trying to figure out what was going on in Three's mind.
"Five has been anticipating your arrival for an unchivalrous amount of time. I advise you to hasten your departure."
Despite the cold words, Alfred smiled to himself as he left the room.
Alfred stood at the side of the exercise room, tensely watching Five beat up the blue punching bag in the center of the room. Well, what he could see of the room. The ever present darkness almost completely wrapped around the entirety of the room. The only things that formed in it were two punching bags that hung from the ceiling, the immediate ground that Five and Alfred were standing on, and the door from which he came in. The rest was only darkness.
Evidently Five didn't bother to form the rest of the room and Alfred wasn't going to either. Alfred watched mutely as Five beat the punching bag with his bare fists. Five believed that gloves were for weaklings.
The tension was nearly palpable as Five continued to train and the thuds of the bag being hit were the only things keeping the silence from being all consuming.
Finally Five stopped and, without looking at him, much like Three, he motioned to the other punching bag, a red one, a clear indication for Alfred to train as well.
Alfred approached the bag and more of the floor appeared as he walked. Gently he pushed the bag to get the feel of it. The inside was made of solid metal. Slight padding covered the metal, but not nearly enough to protect his hands from breaking or chapping. Alfred wasn't fazed, though, this was Five's usual training. Plus, if he got hurt in this house it wouldn't affect his physical body, though he could get sore.
He didn't know how much time passed as they both hit the bags, but he noticed Five putting more and more power into each punch until one particularly hard blow forced his punching bag to break off from where it hung in the ceiling with a cracking sound and the punching bag, its chain, and part of the ceiling flung off into the darkness.
Alfred continued punching his own.
Five stood looking at where the punching bag had disappeared for a while before turning and holding Alfred's bag, preventing it from swinging.
The black eyes locked onto the blue ones and he said curtly, "You ran away."
"I can't go against all five of you," Alfred said, looking him directly in the eye.
"So? You ran away. That says something about you."
"That I'm smart enough to know when to retreat?"
"Don't get smart on me, Zero," Five glared at him and stepped closer, pushing the punching bag away. He jabbed a finger into Alfred's chest, "You could have stayed and you should have. Show us your worth, survival of the fittest as they say."
Alfred continued looking at him straight in the eye even though he couldn't do that with the others. Five always brought out the stronger, more defiant side in him, for better or worse, "That or win a Darwin Award."
Five took his hand back as his eyes narrowed, "The others were worried about you," At this he rolled his eyes in mild contempt.
"I told them I was fine."
"So did I."
Now it was Alfred's turn to glare at him, "You know what? You are a jerk. What makes you think that you're better than everyone else? What would you do in my place for all this?"
"I wouldn't back down. I would actually fight until I win," Five scoffed, a certain gleam in his eyes.
"Until the land is burned and salted and you're surrounded by the dead, sounds like you."
"Don't get all poetic, that's what we have Two for."'
"We have him for a lot of things."
"I know."
Neither of them said anything until Five sighed and put his hands on Alfred's shoulders.
"If you want my advice, here it is: keep moving forward, don't forget, but never regret, and survive. That's really the only advice I can give you."
Alfred snorted before softening his glare and he smiled slightly, "Thanks Five."
Then, without warning, he launched himself at Five in a hug, wrapping his arms around Five's shoulders.
"Get off me!"
"Make me!"
Five put his hands on Alfred's waist, trying to push him off. Alfred just laughed, knowing it annoyed Five to no end and the other man wouldn't hurt one of them.
"Hug therapy, Five!"
"Don't pull an Italy on me!"
"Am I interrupting a moment?" Both of them turned to see Two standing in the doorway, the ever unreadable expression on his face. He said in a completely flat voice, "You can continue, I'll just wait."
Five roughly pushed Alfred off of him, "We weren't doing anything!"
"I don't mind, really," Two said, "I should have knocked, my apologies."
"No, seriously, we weren't doing anything!" Alfred protested.
"It's fine," Two said in his deadpan tone that he always uses, the one without any inflections, "I fully support the two of you as long as it doesn't keep me up at night."
"No- what? No!" Alfred spluttered as the rest of the sentence processed in his mind.
"Don't lie, Alfred, it's a sin. I just wanted to tell you that One and I are waiting at the pool. I will leave now so you two can… finish up," He said impassively, then gave a short bow and left.
Alfred looked at Five, "Was he joking?"
"I don't know."
They then said simultaneously, "He's Two."
I do not own Hetalia, History Channel, Hogwarts, or Star Wars.
Yes! My longest chapter to date! This was the first time I actually tried putting description in my writing, I hope I conveyed it correctly.
Okay, I've been trying to explain Three's eyes, and I think I got it. Have any of you seen "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter"? You know the part at the beginning when his mother dies and her eyes go all weird from spasming? It's kind of like that.
Also, I know that we haven't seen many of the other nations yet, I'm sorry for that but I'm trying to give you guys a sense of how the personalities are. As for the Confederacy, there was more than one of them that became it. There was actually two of the personalities in the Confederacy, one main one and a helper. And, just to eliminate one factor, Two is ALWAYS neutral.
Challenge time: I'm trying to start new stories and update all my existing ones on New Years. I'm trying to get as many people as possible to update and start new stories on the week of New Years, can any one join me in this?
Please review, I just spent all of today and yesterday on this.
