My Alfred, My Hero
This last and final chapter is dedicated to Clare, who has put up with many a shenanigan on my part and who has faithfully read this story as it progresses and endured my enthusiasm for the story and all of you readers. Thank you, Clare! You are amazing.
Character Refresh: Natalia (Belarus), Ivan (Russia), Alfred (America), Arthur (England), Raivis (Latvia), Eduard (Estonia), Toris (Lithuania), Francis (France), Ludwig (Germany), Feliciano (Italy), Lovino (South Italy), Antonio (Spain), Yekaterina (Ukraine), Matthew (Canada), Yao (China), Kiku (Japan), Elizaveta (Hungary), Roderich (Austria), Gilbert (Prussia).
Alfred started at the beginning, when he and the others had been deciding their course of action after they had received Natalia's message. He explained how he had convinced the others to stay in Washington, D.C. and try and hack into the missile system in order to divert the missiles should Natalia try and launch them after all. He explained that he had had a miniscule microphone in the fur of his bomber jacket so that the others could keep track of him and his conversation with Natalia. He skipped over the part of his confrontation with Natalia that Arthur had been conscious of and instead narrated what all had happened after Arthur had fallen. He brushed over the hours during which he had waited for the others to come and how they had apparently deactivated the missile launchers just minutes before Natalia went to push the button.
"And so we successfully averted a global disaster!" Alfred said cheerfully. He fist pumped the air. "I am the hero!"
Arthur rolled his eyes. "Yes, Alfred, you saved the world, but what I don't understand is why I am conscious. If I remember correctly the spell that Natalia used, I shouldn't be awake and well right now."
Alfred looked ever so slightly sheepish now. "Uh…you know how you kind of incinerated the book I gave Natalia? Well, that wasn't your spell book." Arthur gaped at him.
"You have this habit of going all noble and everything, so I figured that you probably had some way of self-destructing the book should it fall into the wrong hands, so before I left for Russia, Ivan, Kiku and I all made a copy of the book. We were pretty sure of the spell that Natalia was trying to use, so we left that spell alone in the copy, but for every other spell, we switched it ever so slightly so that it wouldn't work if she tried to use it. I was right in thinking that she would try and use the spell she used on Francis, Ludwig, and everyone else on you, and I knew that if she did, I would need that spell book to use a spell to make you all better."
Arthur's emerald eyes widened at the implications of the American's words. "You…y… you said a spell? You used magic? You believe in magic? But you said earlier that you didn't!"
Alfred immediately corrected Arthur. "I didn't actually say anything; if this plan was to work, then I needed you to believe that I still didn't believe in magic. I had to convince Natalia somehow that I didn't believe in magic, and the only way to do that was to make you believe it, too. I'm sorry for hurting you." Alfred hung his head.
Arthur was silent for a while. "But you used magic?" he finally said.
Alfred brought his beautiful blue eyes up to Arthur's gaze. "I used magic, Arthur. I believe in magic now. I believe in you."
Arthur's vision went blurry at those last words as tears clouded his eyes. He leaned forward to meet Alfred's embrace, and they grasped each other in a hug. "I love you, Arthur," Alfred whispered for only Arthur to hear. Arthur could only nod, but he gripped his beloved American all the tighter in response.
A cough behind them caused them to break apart. Clearing his throat and straightening the tie of his uniform, Arthur said, "One last thing: why did you kiss me again?"
In response, Alfred pointed to the page in the spell book. Arthur's eyes bugged out and he turned beet red. "I'm going to have to change that," he muttered.
A knock at the door interrupted Arthur's midmorning tea. Setting the delicate china down on its saucer, he rose and answered the door. He staggered back a few steps as a tidal force struck him and hugged him. "Yes, Alfred, it's nice to see you too," Arthur awkwardly patted the American's back. Alfred let go of him and grinned.
"Hey, man, do ya think you could show me some more of that magic in your spell book?" he asked.
"As soon as I am done my tea," Arthur responded, sighing. He led Alfred into the sitting room and sipped his tea as Alfred chattered on about Matthew and Francis and what they were up to these days.
In the passing months since the 'Natalia Incident', as it was commonly being called by the other nations now, the stricken nations had been woken and had made quick recoveries. Alfred had refused to kiss any of the other nations, so Matthew had cast the spell for Francis; Feliciano had kept kissing Ludwig even after he was awake; Kiku had eventually kissed Yao, though it had taken quite some encouraging since Alfred wanted to stay and torture Kiku as Kiku had tortured him when kissing Arthur; Antonio had cast the spell for Lovino, who had promptly smacked him and let loose a flow of foul words as soon as he had regained consciousness; and Gilbert had had to kiss both Roderich and Elizaveta, the former who had proceeded to punch every inch of Gilbert's body that he could reach and the latter who had pulled out her frying pan and whacked all of the parts of Gilbert that Roderich had missed, as well as some he hadn't.
It had been agreed that some of the spells in Arthur's spell book were better off not existing, so he and Alfred had gone through the entire large volume and burned the pages listing spells that were of an overtly destructive nature. There were spells in the book that Arthur had not even known were there, and he was glad to be rid of some of the more harmful ones.
For a while, everyone had wondered what to do about the country of Belarus, who now lacked a nation personification. Ivan had been about to annex Belarus for Russia when a little girl had been found. She was the spitting image of the old Natalia, but luckily she lacked her predecessor's creepier mannerisms. Ivan was now happily a big brother once again, and he lavished all the love a big brother could give on the new Natalia.
Arthur was brought back to the present once his reminiscing of the past few months was done. He finished his tea and led Alfred into his basement. Lighting a torch held in a sconce by the door, he walked down the steps to the darkened room below. Alfred came closer to Arthur as their surroundings got progressively darker until he was practically on top of the Brit.
"There aren't any ghosts down here, right?" he whispered in a small voice.
Arthur sighed. "No, Alfred, there are no ghosts."
They reached the bottom of the steps, and Arthur led Alfred to a stool by a desk next to the far wall. The spidery black pentagram in the middle of the stone floor glittered as Arthur lit more torches around the perimeter of the room. Setting the original torch in an empty sconce, he pulled his spell book from the shelf and said to Alfred, "Did you have any particular spell in mind?"
Alfred thought for a moment and said, "Can you cast the one where the room lights up in red, white, and blue? And make sure it's in the stars and stripes!" Arthur groaned; the young nation always insisted that red, white, and blue looked better on his flag than they did on the Union Jack. Nonetheless, Arthur complied.
He pulled on his black cloak that he always wore when casting magic. Opening up the book to the appropriate page, he began chanting and lighting the candles at each tip of the pentagram. Raising his hands, he finished the incantation, and the room burst into a shimmering red, white, and blue sheen. It seemed as if the walls and ceiling were coated in a shimmering and fluttering American flag.
Arthur felt a pair of strong arms slip around his waist. "You're not done the spell yet," Alfred said. Arthur frowned at him and looked back at the page. Scrawled in pencil at the bottom of the page was an addition to the spell. Now kiss the one who is nearest you and thy spell shall be complete, it read. Arthur rolled his eyes and, setting the book down, twisted in the American's embrace so that he was facing him, amusement written all over his face.
"When did you write that bit in?" he asked.
Alfred's face reflected the shimmering of the lights as well as his love for the Brit, and Arthur's heart fluttered. "I did it when we were going through your spell book a few months ago. Come on, Arthur; I'm the hero, and I haven't even gotten a thank-you kiss from you yet!" He grinned mischievously down at the smaller nation, looking deep into his green eyes with his own blue ones.
Arthur rolled his eyes at this last statement and brought his arms up around Alfred's neck. "You are a greedy hero," he smirked up at Alfred. Leaning forward so that their lips almost touched, he whispered. "But you are a hero. You're my hero. My Alfred…my hero."
I realized that I left Ludwig and Feliciano and Kiku and Yao out of the "getting better" part, so I went back and added it in... but anyways, there you have it, people! Thank you all so much for reading this!