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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As it was for every month that had more than one birthday, Virginia's house was filled with the cheerful banter of most of the States, the warm atmosphere batting away the evening chill seeping in from outside. The hostess for the day was in the kitchen, cleaning up after the mess that was baking enough sweets of various kinds and amounts to satisfy the varied tastes of everyone there.
Helping her was Alfred, who had for the majority of the party been his normally cheerful self only to slowly let that fade as he quietly cleaned out one of the pans. Having raised him practically on her own, Ginny liked to think she could read him easily, and there was only one thing she could really think of off the top of her head that could be bothering him right now.
"Did something happen to your friend?" She asked him, mindful of their surroundings.
"Huh?" He looked up from his task and blinked at her, registering the meaning after a few seconds. "Oh no, he's fine - mostly healed up, actually, though his left arm's still a bit stiff."
"Then what's bothering you?"
Alfred started to speak, but stopped, taking a second to think before continuing. "He's been getting restless, and I don't wanna keep him locked up in the house indefinitely while we try and figure out what we need to get him back home."
"I thought you were trying to keep people from learning about him, though," She raised an eyebrow in question.
He sighed, setting the pot down before looking back to her. "I know that, and I'm still not interested in just blindly announcing everything to the world, but I do want to give him a chance to wander around while I'm working. I'm having trouble figuring out who I could ask to help me bluff him as a Native personification…"
Ginny bit her lip, thinking over the others herself and writing off those she already knew would be harder to trust - Isabel and Ben were right out, gossips that they were, and most of the Eastern tribes had actually come into direct contact with the Europeans and so were known at least by face if not name.
She then recalled that he had just returned from a vacation when all this had gone down and had an idea. "What about Teresa?"
Alfred frowned, trying to follow her line of thought. "...wait, you don't mean-"
"She and her sister still have large Native populations," Ginny reminded. "And they tend to keep to themselves, so they aren't as likely to say anything if it comes up."
"Huh," The Nation pondered, lips twitching up in a smile as the plan came together for him. "And since I just came back from vacation, I can just say I met him while I was there and got to know him. I had to leave to get back to work and stuff, he decided he wanted to come along to see the rest of the world since he really hasn't had much of a chance up until now, and I spent a bit of time setting him up in a guest room since he needed to adjust to the time difference."
"Sounds vague enough to work," The Virginian woman nodded, smiling. "And the other Nations should have no reason to know anything about him since he's from the southwest."
'Aside from Mexico," Alfred remembered with a frown. "I don't see her outside of meetings too much, and I'm not planning on dragging Tommy to them in any case, so I think I can put off her realizing something's up for a while, but that might be an issue."
"Do you have any meetings with her coming up?" Ginny asked.
"Well, there's the big World Meeting next month, and I think I might have something to talk with her about after that…"
"Then just have him stay with me during those days - I can keep an eye on him for you so he's not on his own, and you don't have to worry about them ever meeting in person."
"Right," Alfred nodded, smiling in relief. "That'll be easy enough to do, and by then we should be able to get him back safely and we won't have to worry about it anymore."
"Exactly," She smiled, waving a cleaned spoon at him before setting it out on the drying rack. "See, this is why you should talk with me more often - you always worry over everything too much."
"Yes ma," Alfred replied dutifully, grinning as she swat him in the shoulder for the smartass remark.
"Don't think I won't get back at you for being cute; remember who changed your linens after you wet the bed."
The American superpower stuck his tongue out at her. She replied with another swat before they both laughed.
"Seriously, though, go find them and talk to them," Ginny urged, pushing down the hand that had just grabbed the next bowl on the counter. "This is almost done, and you need to get to them before they leave for their hotel since they aren't staying for Thanksgiving this year."
"Yes ma'am," He replied, setting the bowl back down and leaving as she watched.
Ginny huffed, smile still curling her lips up as she shook her head. Really, what would he do without her sometimes?
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"You did it."
Alfred grinned. "I did it."
Chetan shook his head. "That's- I don't have the words."
"Incredible? Amazing?"
"Stupid, more like," The Native boy shook his head. "How do you know they won't try taking over again? You said your side's Canada is still with England - what if he invades through there?"
"Then I'll fight him again," Alfred vowed, straightening up. "As many times as I have to, until he's forced to recognize my independence."
Chetan said nothing for a moment, eventually pressing his hand to the glass. "Just don't get yourself killed doing that, alright?"
Alfred returned the gesture, smile softening as their hands overlapped. "I'll try not to."
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AN: First note – I didn't realize I'd forgotten the flashback scene for last chapter until I reread the story to get myself into the mindset for this chapter, so I went and added that if you wanna read it. Secondly, this story will be going on a brief hiatus for July while I finish up my other works, so yeah hopefully you guys are alright with that. Also this should be the last major thing I need the States for for a while so if you aren't a fan of them they're mostly out of the story after this so rejoice.
(Also I changed Tommy's Native name to something I feel fits better, so that's a thing.)
