Disclaimer: I do not own anything of Hetalia. I am but a poor, moneyless highschooler who is practicing her writing skills in cheesy fanfiction. Please support Hetalia by buying their books and DVD's and reading Hima's amazing online comics.
Arthur could only guess that a few days had passed. There was not a ray of sunshine in the cave to let him know if it was night or day.
A few things remained constant. The nightmares continued to plague his nights and he always woke up gasping for air and clutching the green shell for dear life. Ivan's words were a constant echo in his mind. It was much like Alfred's brother's had and Arthur often wondered if the voices of sirens were magical in that they never quite left one's mind. As much as he hated it, Ivan's words made him nervous at the smallest of things Alfred would do; when he mentioned being hungry, when he so much as walked in his direction, when Arthur would catch him staring...
In strange twist Ivan had made that human curiosity in Arthur's mind grow like a parasitic growth, fixated on the blue-tailed merman. On occasion Arthur would give into the temptation and ask questions (not too much, he didn't want to seem like he wanted to hear anything from the siren). Gradually he came to know Alfred a bit more. The boy (compared to mermen at least) had a hero complex, a younger brother that Arthur always forgot the name of, had swum around the world twice, wanted to fly, hated the cold, and loved anything sweet.
For Arthur's sake and contrary to Ivan's warnings Alfred began to eat with Arthur. It was a messy sight to be honest. Sometimes Alfred cooked the large swordfish or dolphin (the fish) he would catch but more often than not he was too impatient to wait for the meat to fully cook and ate the fish raw. He ate every part of the fish as well, all except for the bones. Arthur couldn't quite get used to the way Alfred's teeth would seem to sharpen and his incisors elongate when he ate. Yet another reminder of what Alfred really was, a predator, a hunter, a killer with a certain taste for human flesh…
One of the toughest realities Arthur had to face was the treasure. Arthur loved it, loved gold, jade, pearls, rare and expensive artifacts so that when he first saw the cave it was a private heaven. But, as time passed, he slowly realized it was not so. Alfred had gathered the gold and trinkets because they had interested him, held some significance or captured his curiosity. What Arthur came to realize was that he loved treasure for its value, for the money it gave him. In other words, the gold was worthless. Arthur was stuck in the cave, who knows how many feet underwater, with a horde of treasure that he couldn't hold save for a few handfuls. The grandeur of the horde before him quickly faded from Arthur's eyes and the gold did not seem to glitter as pretty anymore. Instead the man began to search for the items with little value, hoping to find some entertainment out of it.
"Why do you have a belt buckle?" he asked one day, holding up the rusty square, "You obviously don't use it."
Alfred looked up from the fire he was cooking fish over, "That? Got it from the Western Shores…you'd call them the Americas. People there wore them on their shoes and hats. I took it as a little souvenir. Lived in the waters there for awhile, loved it there and the people." That at least explained the strange accent.
But of all things, what Arthur couldn't stand was Alfred's lack of clothing. The man could stand it after a few days but he continually found himself more and more uncomfortable with the merman's unclothed torso. "Would you mind putting a shirt on?" he asked angrily, "You put one on before Ivan came, why can't you do it now?"
Alfred pouted and crossed his arms, "It's a hassle to take it off and on. Not to mention it's practically a sin to cover up this," he pointed to his rather muscular chest, "No merman would be caught dead in a shirt; it's a travesty that I'm even wearing pants."
"That's no excuse. As a human I find it very improper and in the company of a human you should follow human etiquette."
"Well, aren't you in the presence of a merman so shouldn't you be following my rules? You've been wearing that same shirt for weeks; you should at least change," seeing Arthur's face he continued even stronger, "What? Scared to show a little skin? It's not like I haven't seen it all before."
Arthur backed away from the advancing merman, "I-I'll change but only when you're out of the room," he grabbed a shirt, holding it like a shield, "You should get a shirt on."
"You should get it off!" Alfred pounced and they both tumbled down (thankfully) onto the blankets, struggling with each other's clothes. They became so absorbed in their squabble that they did not notice two blonde heads emerge from the water not ten feet from them.
That is, not until one of the newcomers started to laugh suggestively, "Ohonhonhon, are we…interrupting something?"
The two looked over to see two long haired sirens, one which was looking at them with a smirk, the other, rather invisible in comparison, blushing profusely. It was only at the sight of the knowing look on the blue eyed siren's face that they looked at their compromising position. Arthur looked up to see Alfred looming over him, shirtless and panting slightly. Alfred looked down to see Arthur pinned below him, looking ruffled with his ripped silk shirt.
The two quickly pushed away from each other and blushing with the violet-eyed blonde.
"It's not what it looks like!"
"-stop bloody staring!"
They spoke at the same time, one looking bashful, and the other angry. Arthur was the first to recover, recognizing the two, "You're the frog that sang to us! And you're…"
"Matthew," the bashful merman sighed.
"Ohonhon, you remember me, capitaine?" the French merman raised a brow.
Arthur couldn't help but to feel an absolute loathing toward him, "Not fondly," he grimaced.
Alfred by this time had recovered and glared at the siren, "Francis…" he growled.
"Please, do not presume I am here for your appetizer. I am only here to accompany Mathieu," Francis flamboyantly waved to Matthew.
Arthur had forgotten about the very quiet copy of Alfred. Alfred visibly brightened at the sight of his twin, "Hey bro! Whatcha doin here?"
Matthew smiled nervously, "I-I'm just checking up on you guys. Are you doing okay Arthur? Al's been feeding you right?"
Arthur nodded and responded a little bitterly, "As good as I can get for a hostage I suppose."
"I'm really sorry for my idiot brother," Matthew said with a rueful smile.
"Hey! Don't talk like I'm not here!"
Francis laughed, "Like we could forget you and your scene moments ago. Tell me, is that a regular occurrence? Have you-?"
"Al," Matthew quickly interrupted before the questions could get out of hand, "Could you and Francis leave so I can speak to Arthur alone for a bit?"
"Aww and here I was thinking you came over to see me. Do I have to leave you?" Alfred whined.
"Don't complain, you owe me and you know it."
Heaving a large sigh Alfred stepped out of his pants and into the water, "Okay. Don't do anything too tricky Mattie. Behave Artie ("Oh whatever")" he turned to Francis and grabbed his arm, "Come on Frenchie, I know this awesome underwater spring we can visit. No bad touching, got it?" and with another Ohonhon they both disappeared below the water.
Matthew stared at the water until deeming it safe, turned to Arthur, "I really am sorry," he said, "I would have said more but Alfred, for all his immaturity, can be pretty intimidating."
"Intimidating? He's an idiot," Arthur huffed.
"He might be that but he's also the strongest merman in existence," Matthew sighted, "The dolt doesn't even know it himself. I can't tell you how scary it was to see him playing with his pet whale," he shivered.
Arthur blinked his eyes at the mental image, "I don't suppose that has anything to do with his heritage? You are his twin, correct? Doesn't that mean you also have abnormal strength?"
Matthew looked uncomfortable at the turn of the conversation, "While Alfred has great strength he has little to no magical ability. I'm kind of his opposite..."
"You can use magic? Can you get me out of here?" Arthur asked excitedly.
At the questions Matthew's expression darkened, "No, even with my ability it would be impossible. It was a miracle Alfred got you in here. You should have been crushed by the pressure and drowned."
Arthur paled, "Are you saying…I'm going to die here?"
Hastily the siren shook his head, "I'll make sure that doesn't happen. Alfred is a nice guy at heart, he just needs to get past his stubbornness and listen to the voice of reason. Give it some time and I'm sure he'll come around to letting you go."
"How long do you suppose that would be?"
Matthew rubbed the back of his head, "A few years or so…"
Arthur groaned. Just his luck. At the mention of it he remembered a certain merman's words, "Umm, Matthew? Is there any possibility of Alfred…cracking?"
"What do you mean?" Matthew asked him.
"Oh you know…," Arthur squirmed inwardly, "him eating me or doing something…bad."
To Arthur's horror the siren paled, "Where did you get that idea?"
"The merman Ivan."
Matthew looked to the side almost ruefully, "Ivan has a rather bleak look of everyone. But Alfred…I thought he was keeping you here at first for less than moral reasons but now I don't think so. The way I see it, if Alfred hasn't done anything by now, he won't do anything at all."
The soft spoken merman's word's made Arthur feel a little better, lessening the weight of Ivan's words, "Thank you," he murmured.
"I think they're coming back," Matthew looked down at the water, "Just hang on okay? I'll be sure to come back and check on you. If you are in desperate need of help throw a flower into the water and ask for the sea witch Eliza but only do so as a last resort, all sea witches ask for payment. And if Alfred is just giving you a hard time, tell him a ghost story, he's scared to death of them."
Ghost stories, eh? Arthur thought when two blonde heads became visible below the water. Before Matthew could explain or Arthur ask about the strange advice the two siren's popped out of the water, "Hey, Mattie! Done talking to Arthur?" The man winced at the sudden increase in volume.
"Yes, we'll get out of your hair now," Matthew said with a small smile.
"What, already? Aren't you guys going to tell us what you talked about?"
"Oui, please, do tell," Francis said with another suggestive smirk.
"That is none of your business," Arthur spat.
Matthew grabbed Francis and started to pull him under, saying quickly, "Arthur's right. We need to go. See you Al, Captain Arthur," Arthur nodded and Alfred enthusiastically waved and said goodbye. All that was left were disappearing ripples.
Armed with new information and determined to get back for all the treatment he had been receiving, Arthur decided to enact his small amount of revenge that night.
It all started with a good natured smile, "Hey Alfred, would you mind keeping me company? I'll let you go when I'm ready to sleep."
They had just finished dinner and Alfred was about to depart like he always did until Arthur spoke up. Alfred literally froze in shock. It was too much for his mind to process: the smile, the happy tone, Arthur had actually called him by his name. To anyone with an ounce of self-preservation, those would have been foreboding signs. To Alfred of course, what had come up was a blank, "….Uh….What?"
Arthur laughed. Laughed. "Come one Alfred, sit by me. I won't bite," he said, patting the spot next to him.
Still shell-shocked, Alfred walked over and plopped down. For the first time he was speechless. Arthur, almost bouncing with giddiness, slapped a hand to the merman's thigh making him jump, "Alfred do you mind telling me how you came by that?" he pointed to a mast head, the old one without a figure.
Reflexively Alfred smiled enthusiastically, "Oh yeah! Got it off this shipwreck I found in a reef. Cool ain't it?"
Arthur nodded, ignoring the butchering of English, "Indeed. In fact, I actually know the ship it came from."
"Really?"
"Yes. That was the proud masthead of the ghostly Bloody Phantom. A pirate ship."
"P-phantom?" Oh, he was going to enjoy this.
"The Bloody Phantom," Arthur sighed and continued in his best ghost-story-telling voice, "Now I don't know if you know this but to not have a figure on the front of your ship, be it a woman or dragon, is terrible luck. But this pirate ship had a way to counter such luck, by strapping live people onto it. They would string up a prisoner or a maiden (virgin most likely) or a mutineer to that there wood and make a live masthead."
Alfred's eyes widened. Arthur spoke barely above a whisper, "Eventually the waves would pound the people to death or they would starve but the crew didn't take the bodies down, no, they just tightened the ropes and left them there, rotting away down to bones and rags. And when everything was washed away by the waves the pirates would find another victim to string up and the process would begin all over again."
"Wow," Alfred squeaked.
"That isn't the end of it," Arthur smirked and leaned in, "Now as you can imagine, the mutilation of the bodies of these poor people and the matter of their death did not come without consequence. The people who died on that masthead were so traumatized and felt so wronged that their very spirits came back from the afterlife," Alfred gave another small, unintelligible squeak, "Even now their ghosts haunt that masthead, waiting for the day they can finally have their revenge…"
Crack! Arthur looked up to see Alfred holding onto two pieces of a now broken masthead, "T-there." Alfred said shakily. He sounded like he was holding back a sob, "Now they aren't here anymore right?"
Arthur faked a gasp, "No! What have you done? Now you've made it worse! Now they will forever haunt you!"
A sob did escape Alfred's lips and he looked around for the non-existent spirits, "W-what do I do?"
"Hurry! Return the wood back to the ship from whence it came from! That's the only way to rid you of the curse!"
Not wasting a second, Alfred ran into the pool, not even bothering with his pants. Arthur watched trying not to laugh when Alfred's blue tail thrashed in the water as it tried to rid itself from the confines of the trousers. It was when the pants flew across the cave and the tail disappeared that Arthur burst out laughing. Oh, revenge had never been sweeter. He really did owe Alfred's brother for the golden piece of intelligence.
When his guffaws subsided into low chuckles Arthur lay down and covered himself in velvet blankets. Might as well get some well deserved rest; who knew when the merman would return? He then proceeded to descend into the sweetest sleep he had in weeks.
His sweetest sleep was disturbed all too soon.
"Arthur! Arthur!" the familiar voice whispered loudly.
"What?" Arthur mumbled, groggily and still half asleep.
"C-can I sleep with you? To protect you from the spirits?" Alfred asked, fear evident on his voice.
Arthur was suddenly much more awake, "What? No! Go sleep where you usually do…"his words trailed away and he lay back down and closed his heavy eyes.
"Don't fall asleep! Please Arthur! I promise I won't annoy you again!"
"Fine!" the man gave an annoyed sigh, "Just let me get some blasted sleep already."
Alfred quickly slipped into the blankets and pressed himself against Arthur (Arthur hoped to God that the merman had put on some clothes). Thankfully Alfred had dried himself off but Arthur still suppressed a shiver when he felt the merman's bare, feverish-like skin. Too close! Arthur's mind screamed and the uncomfortable feeling in his chest grew as Alfred scooted even closer. Arthur was very tempted to push him away but he was too tired to do so.
Closing his eyes, Arthur felt sleep slowly pulling him under.
"Don't fall asleep!"
So much for revenge.
AN: SO SORRY FOR THE LATE CHAPTER! I probably lost some readers just from the time it took for me to update this… All I can say is that I had soooo much homework. 6 AP classes can do that to ya -_-. If anyone deserves thanks for this update it's Threnna for getting me off my butt this morning and getting to work. To make it up to you guys I'll update Wednesday a well.
GhostStory!England was fun to write :3 as well as PissedInHisPants!America. The scary story is mine too haha, hope you found it enjoyable as well.
THE NEXT CHAPTER IS MY FAVORITE OF THIS WHOLE STORY! *spazzes* I can't wait for you guys to read it. In the meantime please review! I'm sorry for not replying to many reviews on the last chapter but seeing as I have a week off of school I should have plenty of time to reply! (And I will post the translations to Ivan's Russian for the last chapter as one reviewer pointed out that I had forgot)