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: 2p Hetalia headcanons

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"A friend of yours?"

Alfred's gaze slid from Tommy back to Yao, who looked unruffled by the sudden visitor. "Ah, yeah, he's hanging out with me for a while."

He expected more questions, but the Chinese nation simply nodded and returned to his earlier talking point. "As I was stating, my bosses have agreed to go along with the investment treaty; all we need to do is work out the overall limits and requirements for each side."

"Yeah, no big deal," The American joked, well aware that this hammering would more than likely take all morning at the least. "Just another trade agreement."

"Indeed," His somewhat ally agreed, smile twitching at his lips, before his gaze slid back over to the quietly watching Tommy. "Will he be alright?"

"Huh?"

"Your intern. I'm guessing he isn't quite used to sitting in on such long meetings yet."

"Ah," Did the older Nation actually think that, or was it just a way to get Tommy out of the way? "Tommy, think you'll be alright?"

The addressed Nation blinked, and Alfred guessed he was wondering the same thing before making his decision. "I'll be alright, but thanks for offering."

Yao simply gave the younger man a look, prompting him to raise his hands in defense. "Fine, fine, I'll wait outside for you two to finish."

Only after the door shut behind him did Yao finally turn back to Alfred, eyebrow raised. "I start to see why that one is so tolerant of you."

"Hey," Alfred protested, even though he wasn't completely positive he had the older Nation's thoughts pegged.

"Relax, it was just an observation. Which of your companies have been showing interest in access to my markets?"

The American took a second to recognize the shift back to business, huffing at once again being left wondering just what Yao was thinking before getting to the work he'd accidentally put off. "I've got a list of them sorted by size and services if you want to look through it; if I remember right, the main ones are…"

~0~0~

"Hey, Tommy, ready for lunch?" Alfred shook his friend's shoulder, resisting the urge to laugh when said friend jerked awake and lifted his head from the table to stare at him. His cheek was indented and red from where it'd been pressed against the wood, and just a bit of drool was lingering on his chin.

"Al? Fuck, wha' time is it?" The brunet asked with a yawn, glancing over to the clock in the room and looking back to his friend before registering the time. "Wait, did you spend five hours talking to him?"

"And I'm probably gonna spend another five after lunch dealing with it," Alfred shrugged, waiting for Tommy to push himself up from his chair with a groan. "You napped the whole time?"

"Yeah, figured I'd catch up on sleep," The Native man yawned again,reaching his arms up and shifting them around a bit until a faint but audible crack was heard. "Didn't get much last night."

"Bad dreams or stuff at home?" The other asked, frowning.

"Think it's the former; didn't feel like anything urgent from home, but sometimes it's hard to tell."

"I guess that's good then? Because no news is better than bad and all that…" Alfred trailed off with a slight wince, realizing that there might be no news because of the oddities around, well, what had happened to them.

"I guess," Tommy agreed, offering a smile that wasn't entirely honest. "Still, I can't believe you can get along with that guy for five hours."

Alfred blinked. "You mean Yao? I usually get along with him just fine; he's really chill and fun outside of official business, and if we both have free time we sometimes hang out and do stuff together."

Tommy stared at him for a long moment, eventually shaking his head while walking ahead. "Sometimes I forget that you guys get along so easily over here. 's freaking weird, I swear."

"Hey, it's not that weird!" The Euro-American protested, quick to catch up and walk alongside, quietly directing their path towards the exit. "I mean, I get along with Ivan just fine even though we used to hate each other's guts, and even though his boss really deserves a kick in the nuts, and Arthur and Francis have been fighting since they were born probably and they still hang out a lot. Like, I guess it's just that we've figured out how to separate business and politics from our personal lives?"

"Maybe," Tommy hummed noncommittally, leaving Alfred to wonder once again what he was missing in this conversation.

He hated feeling like he was missing something obvious.

~0~0~

"He can't do this!"

Chetan watched on quietly from his side of the glass as Alfred barely kept himself from shattering the bedframe, fists clenched tightly into the sheets.

"The Justices said no, but he just-" The blond swallowed, turning back to his friend. "I thought I could stop it here, but…"

"I know you tried," The Native boy grimaced, rubbing his arm. "White people are just stupidly stubborn about taking what isn't theirs sometimes."

"He wouldn't even listen to what I had to say, and none of the States seem to care what he's doing is wrong…" Alfred bit his lip. "Why doesn't anyone see this for what it is?"

"Most of your people haven't had the time to get to know us," Chetan replied simply. "How do you think you would have felt about all this if we had never met?"

Alfred found himself unable to reply.

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AN: I meant to post this earlier, but sort of got sidetracked when we had to go get a new modem cause the old one went kaput. I also sort of apologize for how slow these chapters might be, because I'm trying to establish characters and stuff a bit I guess. Like, I'm acknowledging Alfred isn't always the best at reading people (something I'm positive is canon or at least extremely plausible).

I really can't wait to get to the main plot though, but that will be... yeah.