Sorry for another late update. This chapter was harder to write since one of the characters was not easy to write for me. My proofreader had to help me try to get into his head though I still feel unsure if I portrayed him right. If you feel his character is off or out of character, then I apologize in advance.
I do not own Hetalia
Please enjoy your read
Chapter 8
A pair of violet eyes stared calmly out the window, admiring the clear view of the city before him. It was such a lovely day. The sun was shining brightly and the clouds looked soft and fluffy as ever. He was in a good mood. This city called Berlin was his…
Or at least half of it.
But it won't be like this for long. There was that annoying pesky wall that divided Berlin into two cities: East Berlin and West Berlin. The East side belonged to him, Soviet Union or also known as Russia. The west belonged to England, France, and the Americans. Even though they didn't have their own representative of their nation, they had been just as arrogant and annoying as those European nations, but it won't be long until he squeezed them out of the other half of Berlin. He made sure to cut off all routes to West Berlin so those nations wouldn't be able to send their supplies to that city. Once those humans realize their doom, they'll come and join him. Making all of Berlin his.
Russia was smiling to himself at his brilliant scheme. Just as he was mentally complimenting himself, the sound of rapid knocking came from the double doors behind him.
Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock!
"Sir! Dhere is urgent news!" A panicked voice came from outside the room.
"You may enter," Russia allowed the man entry without taking his eyes from the view outside. "Vhat is it?"
"It's de Allied forces sir! Dhey are sending aircrafts to Vest Berlin!" A man in a Soviet Union uniform announced upon entering the room.
"VHAT!?" Russia turned around towards the man and exclaimed in surprise.
Before the man could say anything else, there was a loud roar of engines from outside. Russia turned back to the window and looked towards the sky. Sure enough, several planes flew overhead towards West Berlin.
"Damn dose nations!" cursed Russia. He grabbed a pair of binoculars from a cabinet and looked towards the area where the planes were landing, in time to see the doors of one of the planes opened up and several men in light brown uniforms jumped out.
A man with the excitement of a curious child caught his eyes. Russia couldn't get a clear look of his face, but he could make out blond golden hair. As Russia observed the blonde, the man turned to look in the direction of East Berlin. Then the man took a deep breath and…
"FUCK YOU, COMMIE! TRY STOPPING US NOW!"
Russia almost dropped his binoculars.
The man's voice was so loud that even Russia could hear it echoing from where he stood. Russia was bewildered by how strong that man's lungs were and even more for his vocal cords. Did he implanted a speaker in his throat? If it wasn't for those offending words, Russia would've been amused.
Through his binoculars, one of the men with the blond gave him a hard slap behind the head. Another face palmed, three others laughed, and the rest stared if they weren't unloading cargo.
How dare an insignificant human challenged him! Him! Soviet Union!
Obviously, the man wouldn't know of Russia's, the personification of the nation, existence, but that didn't mean he didn't feel insulted. If only Russia was on the other side of the wall, he would've ripped the man's vocal cords right out of his puny throat and burn it right in front of his eyes.
Kolkolkolkolkolkolkolkolkolkolkol
A creepy and ominous laugh started to emanate from the nation, causing the soldier to back away from him in fear.
After three days of listening to dull reports from each nation, with some amusing arguments and entertaining fist fights on the side, the International meeting of Nations had finally ended. Nations were already clearing out and leaving the meeting room. They were planning to fly back home as soon as possible. Some stayed behind to talk among their allies, whether for business or personal reasons.
One nation sighed as he put away his notes into his briefcase, disappointed that the meeting was over. He was a tall blond haired man with violet eyes with an innocent and kind smile, but… to anyone who knew this nation, he was anything but that.
Russia loved chaos and conflict among nations often from the brawls erupting from the meetings. Fists thrown into faces, furniture used as weapons, and shouts of profanity in more than a dozen languages. Yesterday, Australia let loose a kangaroo by accident. Watching the nations try to catch an energetic marsupial while others fled in panic was like watching those internet videos.
Maybe Japan might've recorded it since that island nation always had his camera on him. He was known for pulling out his camera in a flash and recorded anything he deemed interesting. Russia even saw him taking pictures of a stray cat that was cleaning itself in several different angles in a span of two seconds.
The Russian looked around, trying to find said nation and spotted him with his usual group of friends, Italy and Germany. They seemed to be talking about something fun because the bubbly Italian was almost bouncing on his toes with excitement.
"It's going to so exciting, ve! Do you t'ink d'ey would mention me somewhere in d'eir 'istory?" Italy asked.
"Most rikely you wouldu be mention in the Worldu Warsu since it's more recent," answered Japan.
"Zdravstvujtye, vhat are you dhree talking about? It looks like an interesting conversations," Russia appeared beside them without them noticing.
Italy squeaked and jumped in surprise. Japan still kept his emotionless expression, but his eyebrows did rise slightly. Germany gave the Russian a wary glare, but the German nation tended to glare a lot at just about anything so it could be just his face.
"Uh—Ciao, Russia. We were just talking about 'anging out toged'er, t'at's all," explained Italy, nervously.
"Talking about vhat, may I ask?" Russia questioned.
"We were talking about going to a museum together next week," answered Japan.
"A museum?" Russia was a little surprised by this. "An American museum? Vhy vould you be interested in such a place? It's nodhing but Americans boasting about dheir own history."
"Ve vere invited," answered Germany. "England just so happened to donate to a museum here. Yesterday, one of ze employees invited England and France to visit das museum vhen das items are displayed and ve happened to meet zhem by chance so he invited us as vell."
"So it vas an invitation and England and France are going too," Russia registered to himself. This sounded interesting. Normally, Russia wouldn't even care about anything American since it wasn't like he was on good terms with this country's government. Unfortunately, this country didn't have its own personification or Russia would probably had fun messing with them like how he loved messing with the other nations. "So are you planning to go today?"
"No, most rikely next week," Japan told the Russian. "They're still have not finish with setting up England's items."
"I see," The Russian nodded in understanding. The museum trip would be next week. That meant these five nations were going to stay in the country for awhile, which also meant he could have an extended vacation. His superiors wouldn't mind if he took some days off anyways. "So vhat are your plans for dhis afternoon dhen? Since ve are done vith dhe meeting, ve have time to spend togedher, yes?"
"I wasu already asked to have a family dinner with China," replied Japan.
"My brother vants to go drinking," answered Germany.
"S-Spain invited Romano and I for dinner t-t'is evening," Italy stuttered.
"Dhat's too bad," Russia sighed sadly, but it was quickly replaced with an innocent smile. "Maybe next time like dhat museum. You vouldn't mind me joining, yes?"
All three nation shivered when the Russian sent out a cold threatening aura that said 'If you deny me, very bad things will happen.'
Italy quickly shook his head for dear life in fear, "Of course, not! You can definitely come. Alfred probably won't mind."
"Alfred?" This immediately caught Russia's attention.
"E's de man d'at works at de m-museum and de one d'at invited us," explain Italy. "E's a really nice guy and very friendly. We talked a lot, but mostly about food. I told 'im d'at if 'e wants to eat real good pasta and pizza, 'e should visit my 'ome."
Alfred, huh? To be able to convince five nations, some of them being quite stubborn, to go to a museum full of nothing but stupid American history must be a convincing human.
"Vhat's his last name?" Russia asked.
"J-Jones… Alfred F. Jones…"
He would like to meet this Alfred F. Jones.
"And vhere is dhis museum at, may I ask?"
"These books here will be put in the museum library's special archive," The museum's curator pointed to a box full of old books before pointing to another box that had an antique lamp and radio. "Those will go into the World War exhibition."
"One or two, boss?" Alfred asked for clarification on which World War his superior was indicating.
"Two," clarified the curator. "Make sure to be careful with those. They're fragile."
"On it, sir," Alfred saluted to his boss before he picked up the two boxes with ease and jogged out the storage room to his destinations. First, the library because it was closer. Next, was the World War II room, which was located in the east wing of the museum.
After his boss looked through the items to separate them into groups on which period of history they came from, he told Alfred and the other two workers to bring them to their designated areas. Some can just be added onto the shelves and cases, but there were others that had special placement due to either their size or fragile condition or both.
The young American was humming the Spiderman theme song as he went down the hall. Almost skipping with every step he took. Alfred was in a very good mood today. No, scratch that. He was in an AMAZING mood!
First, he was NOT late for work and was actually on time. Quite a rare occasion for him, but he wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. Second, because he wasn't late today, he got complimented by his boss, which was like rarer than rare! And the third and last reason he was in such a great mood was that today was—wait for that dramatic pause… BARBECUE ANGUS BEEF CHEESEBURGER DAY!
A high quality Angus beef grind into a beautifully shaped patty and seasoned with the right spices before cooking to its smoky and juicy perfection! Topped it with the mildly sweet and nutlike taste of melted swiss cheese and some tenderly cooked mushrooms seasoned with garlic and soy sauce. Not to forget those freshly cut veggies like lettuce, tomatoes, and onions to balance out the strong taste of the burger. To finish everything off, a sprinkle of good old classic steak sauce! Such godlike masterpiece was on the menu only once every two weeks and Alfred had been looking forward to such a day with eagerness.
Today was one hell of an AWESOME day and NOTHING can ruin his bright mood!
After he dropped off the books at the library, he headed east to the World War II exhibit. Before he was turning a corner, he heard two people talking nearby.
"I'm very sorry, sir, but we don't give out personal information of our workers," reasoned one of the people that was talking. That sounded like Dana was in distress.
"Dhen can I meet him? I heard so much about him from my friends so I really vant to meet dhis man," said another voice, which Alfred didn't recognize. There was an accent in the way that person talked. Alfred was quite sure that it was Russian.
Curious about what was going on and a little worried for his female colleague, Alfred went to check it out. He walked to where the Guest Service desk was and sure enough, Dana was talking with a tall blond hair man.
"I must apologize again, sir," Dana sounded nervous when she said that, "but he's currently busy with something right now and he won't be able to…"
"Dana, do you need help?" Alfred studied Dana's face and noticed that she seemed to be not just nervous, but almost pale. Why was she troubled? She was always good with handling guests so why was she acting like this? Alfred turned to the Russian guest and studied him with suspicion.
The stranger was taller than Alfred and that didn't sit well with the American. He wore a long tan coat, tall leather boots, black gloves, and a pink scarf wrapped around his neck. Wasn't it hot wearing all that stuff in this weather? It wasn't a hot day, but even Alfred felt a little sweaty from looking at the man. The man had this innocent child-like smile on his face, yet… why did it make Alfred feel uneasy? He could've sworn that under that angelic smile, there was something very not angelic about him and his instinct was telling him to be careful around this man.
"Oh! Uh—Al! A-aren't you busy right now?" Dana asked with concern, like she didn't want him here.
"I was heading to the East hall to the World War Two room right now when I heard you guys," Alfred lifted the box under his arm slightly to make his point.
"So you're dhe Alfred my friends vere talking about," The Russian spoke as he stared at Alfred with this innocent yet creepy look.
"Huh? How did you…"
"It's on your name tag," the other man cut him off to point at Alfred's chest.
Alfred blinked in obliviousness and looked down. Sure enough, the young American forgot about his name tag pinned to his shirt. He was so used to having it on his uniform the whole time that he forgot it was there.
"Yeah, I'm Alfred. Do you have business with me?" Alfred asked.
"Yes, I heard from my friends about dhis museum and vas curious. I vas also told dhat you personally invited dhem to come next veek and I too vould like to be notified vhen such event vill take place," the Russian explained.
He was one of Arthur's friends, huh? He didn't remember the British ever mentioning he had a Russian friend. Well, it wasn't like Alfred was close enough to the man to know his whole life and who all his friends were. They only met twice afterall.
"So who did you hear about this from?" Alfred asked to make sure.
"From my Italian friend, Feliciano Vargas. You know him, yes?"
"Feliciano? Yeah, I know him," Alfred nodded in confirmation. So this man knew the Italian dude, but this still didn't make the uneasiness go away. "Not to be rude, but who are you? You already know my name, but I don't even know yours."
"Oh! My apologies. My name is Ivan Braginsky and I'm from Russia," the foreigner introduced himself.
Of course, he was another foreigner. Alfred swore he had been meeting a lot more non-American dudes lately.
"You work in the same field as them?"
"Yes, ve are both friends and colleagues," replied Ivan.
"And your purpose here is you want to be invited on the same day I give them a grand tour?" Alfred asked to make sure also.
"Yes," nodded Ivan. "You ask so many questions, Mr. Jones. You vill let me join dhis tour, yes?"
Alfred gave a quick look at Dana, who nodded quickly for him to just agree to the Russian's request, before he turned to Ivan again. Out of nowhere, he felt a strange oppressing feeling emanating from the man. Even though the Russian had a kind smile, Alfred swore he felt a 'deny me and I will make you feel fear you never felt before' aura coming from the man.
He really didn't like this Braginsky guy and he didn't trust him either. Besides, how could Alfred be sure that this Russian wasn't a spy or assassin and faking his identity to get close to Arthur and the others, who were government officials? Or worse, planning to assassinate them during his tour!
No, this had nothing to do with him watching too many spy movies and shows. It was a rational theory!
"You have not answered me, Mr. Jones," told Ivan. "Does all American have such incompetent service or is it just dhis museum."
What?!
"I really don't know vhy dhey are so interested in dhis museum. It's just like any other American museums vith Americans talking about dheir stupid history like dhey are better dhan everybody else," Ivan continued to complain right in front of Alfred and Dana as if they weren't even there.
Was he insulting us Americans? Insulting the very museum he was trying to ask for a tour with two employees in front of him?!
"Not to mention, it had to be a tiny and insignificant museum such as dhis dhat dhey seemed to be so interested in. My country has much better and bigger museum yet dhey never showed any fancy to dhem. I can't fathom vhy Arthur and dhe others vould vant to come in dh…"
"Okay! Hold on, bud!" Alfred immediately cut him off, his anger rising dangerously high. "If you don't like American museums then I believe this place isn't for you and you should just leave and go back to your crappy museums in Russia!"
"ALFRED!" Dana gasped in shock. "You can't say that…"
"You dhink I vant to come here because I vant to see Americans boasting about dheir vars and childish squabble vith each other? I vas only interested because dhe others vere and dhought dhis place might have something interesting. But I'm clearly disappointed," commented Ivan.
"Oh like your Russian history is so great and amazing! Massacring your own royal family and people. At least, America wasn't so blood thirsty and crazy to want to wipe out ours. We only wanted our independence and freedom! Not the death of the royal family!"
"As if your history has never shed blood of your own people. You dhink your country is so clean? How ignorant of you."
"We have our flaws and bloody battles but we learn and grow from them. And we grow fast! Now we're a superpower country in a span of three centuries!"
"Have you forgotten? Russia is also a superpower too," reminded Ivan. There was a strange ominous 'kolkolkolkol' sound emanating from him for some reason. "Don't underestimate Russia, pitiful American boy."
"Not since the end of the Cold War! Now we're stronger and we can probably beat your country to a pulp!" Alfred was not backing down.
"As if you can beat mother Russia. You probably can't even beat me if I vere to use one hand."
"I have taken on a bear so I can definitely take you on, communist bastard!" challenged Alfred.
"Alfred!" cried Dana, both horrified at his rude outburst towards a guest and worried for her colleague when the 'kolkolkolkolkol' sound was getting louder, sending chills down her whole body. "Stop arguing with the guest and just agree to his demands. The boss isn't going to let it slide if he hears that you cu-used inappropriate words."
"Yes, Mr. Jones, just do vhat I say like vhat dhis smart lady said," Ivan said mockingly.
"Oh hell no! He just insulted us! Like hell I'll agree to this bastard's demand!" argued Alfred.
"Dhis is most interesting. Rarely has anyone stood up to me like you do," complimented Ivan, "But none has ever gone back unscathed."
"Are you threatening me!?"
"Vhat if I am?"
Before Alfred can argue again, he felt an immense sting on his arm and nearly squealed in pain.
"What was that for?" Alfred turned to the culprit that just assaulted him, which turned out that Dana was the one that pinched him hard to get his attention.
"Calm down or I will call the boss," warned Dana. "This is getting seriously out of hand."
"Hmph! Fine!" Then the young American turned to Ivan, "But I'm not just gonna agree so easily. Since you think you're so strong, how about an arm wrestling match?"
"Arm wrestling?" Ivan stared at him with slight surprise.
"Yeah, beat me and I'll agree to let you join Arthur's tour group," explained Alfred, "But if I win, I don't give you the tour and you have to leave this museum without making any more trouble. Deal?"
"Dhis should not be so hard. Alright, it's a deal."
There were few things in this world amused Russia. One was watching his enemies groveling at his feet in fear. Two was chaos and fights among nations. And three, watching foolish humans struggle to triumph over him and getting brutally beaten instead. Humans had always been foolish since the beginning of history.
This ignorant young American was no different.
Though watching the American argue with him with immature and childish retorts was amusing and annoying at the same time, he couldn't help but find this boy fascinating. He didn't back down when Russia sent out his killing aura. Any normal human would cower in fear, but this boy didn't. He stood his ground and fought against him.
How interesting…
Russia didn't hate stubborn and strong willed people. Actually, he liked them. Why? Because the feeling of breaking their will and shattering their pride gave Russia huge enjoyment. It was so satisfying to watch his victims slowly succumb to despair and regret when they realized how foolish they were to stand up against him.
When Russia was arguing with the American, he already expected a ridiculous challenge from the boy. But arm wrestling? Russia could have laughed out loud at the choice of duel that the American challenged him to. When it came to strength, Russia was confident he will win. He had years of history to prove it.
Alfred placed his elbow on the table of the service counter with his hand raised. Russia did the same, but grasped the American's hand, calmly. There was no way that Russia could lose to a mere mortal. Even among nations, Russia was considered one of the strongest if not the strongest.
The woman, Dana, looked like she was going to have an anxiety attack.
"I don't think this is a good idea, Al," she whispered to her coworker, but the young American ignored her.
"On the count of three, got it?" Alfred gave the Russian a cocky smile.
"Da," Ivan confirmed.
"Okay, one… two… THREE!"
Ivan watched in enjoyment as Alfred tried to force his hand to go down, but failing. It took three seconds for the young American's face to change from a cocky smile to a confused frown. Looks like he realized that Ivan was not someone as weak as he thought.
Ivan gave the American a smirk, which caused the boy to look offended. Dana was watching them back and forth with worry.
Now, Ivan felt more strength coming from Alfred. Oh? So he didn't give his all? Ivan was now wondering how strong this American was.
With every second that passed, Ivan could feel Alfred putting more strength into his arm. At first, Ivan was perplexed to find a human this strong. But as time went by, the power this human was demonstrating started to surprise him.
Can a human have this much strength?
Their arms were shaking and Russia was losing his smile. How was this possible? Was he actually having a hard time with this insignificant and immature human at arm wrestling? Russia started to put more strength to keep his arm from being pushed back. Their arms were shaking even more and both men started to look serious.
Dana watched the two men glared down at their arms and tried to push each other's arms back. Though, she was still worried about the situation, even she couldn't help but watch the match excitedly. She had never met anyone who was as strong as Alfred so this was a surprise for her.
Time ticked by and their arms were shaking harder…
A few seconds later… their hands were sweating now…
Another few seconds, both men didn't look like they were backing down…
Two seconds… Ivan's arm started to get pushed back.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?"
A loud roar shattered their concentration and they all jolted in shock, including Dana. All Three turned to where the shout came from and two out of three faces went pale as a ghost.
"Boss!" Alfred cried in shock when he saw his superior.
"Alfred! What do you think you are doing? Are you arm wrestling with a guest?!" demanded the man.
"I-I was just…"
"No excuses! Meet me in my office. I'll talk with you later," the curator ordered Alfred, who turned and left with a pout, before turning to Ivan. "I am very sorry for my employee's inappropriate behavior. He doesn't normally act like this. I hope you can forgive him."
The curator continued to apologize and offer compensation to the Russian, but Ivan was too busy staring after Alfred, who stomped away and disappeared behind a corner, and back at his hand with confusion to hear what the man was saying. Ivan was deep in thought.
Who was Alfred F. Jones?
Thank you for reading and please leave a feedback or comment.
Thanks to rainsonata for proofreading
Writing Russia was the hard part of this story, but I kinda wanted to have a Russia and Alfred interaction. He is kind of an important character in the Hetalia series afterall. Trying to get into the mind of someone who loves to torture people while keeping an innocent smile was not easy.
If you're wondering why Alfred seemed weak at the beginning of the arm wrestling match, it was because I had Al use only a certain amount of strength to beat a 'normal' human, not a nation. It's commonly known that Russia is just as strong as Alfred when it came to strength, so the amount of force that Al was using at first wouldn't beat him. Al, being the competitive nation he was, didn't think that something was off but rather he didn't want to lose and began to use more strength as time goes by. He didn't want to use his full strength immediately, but slowly release it until he beats his opponent. That way, a normal person would believe that he just happened to be beaten by someone who was a bit stronger and not "Oh shit! He's Superman!"
