Patrick snapped back to reality by Alfred calling his name. "Hey dude…could you erm…clean him up a bit. I gotta get rid of the barf" Alfred nodded at the bowl that he was holding an arms length away.
Patrick jumped down from his chair and took his brother without hesitation to the bathroom, doing his best to only breathe out of his mouth and block out the stench. "Jeez Art you smell like the ally behind the pub after Saint Patricks day". He laughed uneasily as he wet an obnoxious American flag cloth and whipped the sick off Arthurs face.
His skin had become increasingly pale and clammy as his fever rose. Arthur blinked slowly not really seeing what was going on around him due to his fever induced haze.
Patrick worriedly dabbed at his face with the cool clothe. "Your gwoing to be jwust fine, bwig bwother is going to look after you". His lisp reminded him that he wasn't all that big at the moment. For probably the hundredth time since yesterday Patrick wondered if he would ever return to normal.
After a few minuets being lost in thought he became aware of a small weight on his shoulder. Patrick looked down to see Arthur had fallen asleep leaning him, still sitting on the edge of the bath. "Oh bunny… you never change." He whispered as not to wake him.
Dylan entered the bathroom having heard from America what had happened, "Someone looks tired, why don't you two take a nap on the couch? You're not looking too good too Pat" Dylan frowned noting the sickly tint to Patricks face as he pulled the sick covered dress off Arthur and tossing it in the laundry basket.
It was a good thing Arthur was so out of it, otherwise he would have been mortified by being dressed in one of America's shirts. "Go on Pat, go sleep before I change my mind".
Patrick grinned taking Arthur back "like you would, your jwust an old swoftie"
Dylan swatted at him with the wet cloth chuckling as the two scurried off to the couch. He watched them make their selves comfy, or rather Patrick building a little pillow nest for the two of them, then curling up inside with Arthur rested still fast asleep on his lap.
Dylan smiled fondly at the sight. Those two had always clashed, the short temper does run in the family after all. He grabbed a knitted blanket from Americas supply closet and took it into the living room.
"You two need to stay wa-" Dylan cut off when he realised the two were already snoring softly. They both looked terrible. So pale and flushed at the same time. Their little cheeks were red from fever, nether seeming to be able to breathe properly. Arthur in particular, his chest slowly rose and fell in worryingly uneven patterns.
"Iggy Dude! Feeling any better!" Alfred practically yelled as he came barrelling into the room carrying a burger of all things. They had just finished breakfast.
"Quiet" Dylan shushed him grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him into the kitchen. He wrinkled his nose slightly at the lingering scent of sick that hung in the air. "Their asleep and I would appreciate it if you let them get their much needed rest"
"Yeah I totally get it!" Alfred grinned like an idiot taking a bite of his burger
"You clearly do not, let me explain something to you America. Your country is huge"
"Yeah it is!"
"Shut up and listen you twat. Your country is massive, so much bigger than the UK as a whole, never mind just England or Ireland. When something happens in America, like an earth quake or flooding or even an incoming snow storm. The effect on you is small due the overall lacking effect that one little snow storm has on your country as a whole."
Alfred nodded slowly as if he were starting to catch on.
"So you can see how something like flooding that would barley give you a headache, could make Arty and Pat sick like this" Dylan folded his arms.
"How come you call them that? Iggy goes crazy whenever I call him anything other than Arthur or England. But you guys never call each other by your real names." Alfred asked
Dylan rolled his eyes, it was completely unrelated to what he was talking about. But then again America had never been one to stay on topic. "It's because we're brothers. Only family can get away with calling England Arty, Ireland Pat and Scotland Al. It's a privilege reserved for the Kirkland's alone."
Alfred frowned, even when he had been a colony he could never remember Iggy letting him call him Arty. He had always scolded the younger nation. Alfred had never thought of the Kirkland brothers as being particularly close, but it would seem he didn't know as much about them as he thought.
Meanwhile Allister and Matt had just arrived at Walmart.
It was understandably packed with people with the snow storm due to hit any day now. Everyone was in a panic trying to grab everything they could need from the shelves.
For the first time since leaving the house as he stood in the door way watching the chaos that is Walmart shoppers, Allister was actually glad he wasn't with his brothers. They were so small now, they could easily be carried off in this physio crowd.
"Ok so we need food, clothes and medicine." Matt seemed to materialise from thin air pushing a shopping cart. Allister jumped to the side expecting him to another crazy shopper. "I think that we should get the medicine first, we can last a couple days on what's in the ice box. But your bros getting better are the top priority"
Once again Allister had to remind himself that this sweet natured be it a little too quiet nation was actually the twin brother to that obnoxious American. "So what are we waiting around for" he stepped forward only to be knocked to the ground by a man in my little pony pjs carrying several large house plants.
"Watch it kid!" he spat hurrying to a check out not even bothering to check if the red head was ok.
Allister was seething, he knew Americans could be rude but this was taking the biscuit. He was just about ready to free the man of some of his teeth when Matt put his hand on his shoulder.
"He's not worth it, if we don't hurry there may not be any medicine left. Your brothers are the most important thing eh?" Matt's words seemed to for the moment pacify the angry scot. But he swore if he ever saw that creep again he would make him sorry.
"It's pretty busy so stay close…" Matt wondered if he would be able to convince the Scottish nation to fide in the cart. However he didn't think he would go for it. He was Arthur's older brother after all, and from what he had seen he was the reason all the Kirkland's were so proud and stubborn.
Allister held onto the side of the cart like his life depended on it as the pair made their way through the crowd. It was like a mosh pit. Everyone was pushing and shoving seemingly unaware of what they were actually grabbing.
One man made the mistake of grabbing Allister's arm and proclaiming he got the last leg of lamb and how it was a shame it was so skinny and bony. It's safe to say Allister made sure that man's arm was the one that was considered bony after that, especially since a bone was now visual.
After what seemed like endless hours of pushing and shoving they finally got to the pharmacy section which was thankfully a lot calmer than the rest of the store.
"The kids section is just across from here, why don't you pick some stuff out for you and your bros while I get the stuff here" Matt suggested while talking to the Pharmacists.
Allister nodded and hurried over to the kids section wanted to get what they needed before the empty isle was flooded with crazy Americans.
The first thing that caught his eye was the toys. For some reason he felt a surge of excitement and want just from looking at them. The Nerf gun in particular looked really cool. Allister shook his head, confused as to why he wanted kids stuff like that all of a sudden. "Must just be some weird American marketing brainwashing thing" he mumbled to himself moving past the toys and to the clothes.
Allister certainly had some fun picking out his brothers clothes, his mischievous side really coming into play.
He picked up about five shirts for Dylan, every one of them with some form of dragon on them. He also grabbed three pairs of jeans, a couple pairs of shorts, some red dragon and some light up trainers.
For Patrick he grabbed him two light green shirts that seemed to of been left over from a saint Patricks day, one reading 'kiss me I'm Irish' and the other having the picture of a rainbow leading to a pot of gold on it. He also grabbed him some shoes and pants as well but he couldn't really find him anything else embarrassing to wear.
When it came to Arthur, Allister may have gone a little over board. He picked him up seven sets of shirts and pants all with rabbits or unicorns on them, five sets jumpers, and three pairs of baby shoes. And probably the thing his brother would defiantly love or hate him for, a mint green onesie that bore a shocking resemblance to flying mint bunny.
For himself he just kept it simple, shoes, shirts pants and of course enough fitting underwear and socks for all of them.
He was about to head back to Matt with the cart when he spotted a lone dummy for sale with the rest of the kid stuff. 'Couldn't hurt' he shrugged reaching for it. As soon as his hand reached for it, it was slapped away by an overaggressive middle-aged woman.
"That's mine I saw it first so hands off brat!" She yelled reaching for it, but Allister got their first.
"No way, I saw it first so its mine" He spat back
"Don't be stupid your way too old to use a pacifier, my little angel here needs it" The woman cooed to a nine year old standing behind her picking his nose.
"It's not fer me, it me wee brothers" Allister stepped away from the mad woman not wanting to get into a fight with her over something as ridiculous.
"Just like you immigrants, first you take our jobs now stuff from our kids! You're worse than Hitler!" She yelled trying to grab him.
Luckily Allister had seen her coming and had jumped back, she did however manage to scratch him with her neon pink press on nails leaving an ugly red mark on Allister's pale arm.
Allister was just about ready to say screw it and punch the bitch in the face, when he was interrupted.
"Is there a problem here?" A soft voice asked from behind him. Allister glanced behind him to see Matt pushing a cart full of supplies towards them, he must have grabbed he food while Allister was fending of the middle aged fury. Looks like it sometimes pays to be invisible.
The woman was about to go into a full on rant about how the brat was stealing from her son when she noticed Matt put a hand on Allister's bony shoulder.
She also noticed how tall and muscular he was even under his coat. She looked him up and down before giving him a creepy cougar smile. "No problem at all. In fact I was just talking about how hard it is to be a single parent now a days. I'm sure you understand Mr?"
"Too young for you, come on Allister we need to get going" With that the two walked past the dumbstruck woman like she was nothing but a cat on the street.