"Okay. So, today I'll be showing all y'all my workout routine and what I eat, in an effort to promote fitness or whatever. I dunno, my boss's wife told me to— she thought it'd be good if the American people saw an actual person or something, and told me I needed to get off my ass and start promoting health and fitness amongst the general populace." America set up the camera. "But she also told me to, like, say what I'm thinking during this. So that's cool. Um, I don't really think at all when I'm working out— I just focus really hard on counting what I'm doing. So I'll just speed it up and then, when I actually do have thoughts, I'll just stop for those."
America had shared the video with England first to get some sort of feedback on the editing. There wasn't much to say; America hadn't inserted any music to go over the sped up bits, but it depressed England so sincerely that he thought any sort of music would act as mockery.
After a period in which America apparently didn't have a single thought that wasn't related to repetitions, America paused and said, "Well. I'm feeling kinda weak, so I guess I'm gonna eat." America took the camera, and the footage cut to a scene of a pan of hot oil.
"Pretty much everyday, I eat fried rice paper and an egg." America dropped a piece of rice paper into the oil; it shriveled immediately, and America shook it harshly with tongs before putting it on a paper towel. "I guess the rice paper looks cool when it's frying and stuff, but I don't really like eating it. It doesn't taste that good unless it's hot, but it's never hot enough these days. Might've just been a change in perspective, I guess. I don't know what happened."
The footage cut again to America sitting at a table with a Coke Zero and the food he'd made. "I've still got a lot of working out to do after this. Ideally I wouldn't eat in the middle of the workout, 'cause that's really dumb, but I just get really weak after the first half. I'm not sure why. I guess ideally I wouldn't eat afterward either, except for maybe a can of tuna, so... eh." America leaned off-camera to eat; eventually he noted that he ate only so he could remain hopeless, convinced that eating so many calories would negate any effects of working out to begin with. England didn't understand that remark, as America was having a single fried rice paper and an egg— even though the rice paper was fried, it still wasn't very many calories at all.
"So obviously, you know," America continued. "Obviously I feel bad about eating such crap food, but it's whatever. This is the only carb I still eat anymore." America said this lightly, but the crack of a joke laid beyond any conceivable horizon. "I considered just replacing it with lettuce or something, but I can't— I can't lose this."
After that America went back to working out. It was hard to maintain interest in what he was doing, so England focused instead on the window in the background; at the start of the video it had been pitch black outside, but for the past several minutes of sped-up footage, the sun had been rising. England wondered how long America could possibly spend working out each day; at first he'd been focusing on leg exercises, but for what must have been the past hour and a half or so, he'd been focusing only on core and weight exercises. The sun continued to rise on a work out that surely had to be over soon.
By far the best commentary America provided was about what he happened to be drinking. "You know, some of you might be saying, 'Alfred, are you okay? You work out for a really long time and you only drink Coke Zero and LaCroix and stale, five-day-old tap water while you're doing it, and you consider rice paper and an egg to be a meal. You seem to really hate yourself.' And, well... duh. I hate myself, that is true, or else I wouldn't spend money on LaCroix." After that America added, "You totally shouldn't try that at home. Drink something other than carbonated beverages— I got really bad stomach ulcers once cause I would drink, like, a full pack of Coke Zeros each day. I stopped doing that, but as a result I just drink less liquid now. So drink water or even juice if you have to."
Eventually the workout was about over, and America just looked more upset than anything, a clear contrast from the beautiful sunny day just beyond his window. The video ended and England responded, That was painful to watch. Are you okay?
A: Yeah.
England didn't know what to say to that, so he asked instead, Do you have a goal in mind?
A: yeah, to get ripped lmao
E: I'm pretty sure that's not the way to go about it. Surely you can only work out so long before it becomes counterproductive.
A: That's why I take days off. Chill, dude. I eat everyday, I eat like shit too. Obviously everything's all good. Working out is just fun, that's all.
England wondered if he should call America, if such discussions were better left to voices than texts. However, he had nothing to say that he thought would genuinely help. England let the message go unanswered.
...
America seemed happy enough at the next world meeting, and physically he looked okay— good, even. England had no idea how America was pulling that off with an apparent lack of protein, but he hoped it meant that everything was alright, that this was just some sort of phase like all the other phases America had went through. Granted, this one was quite a bit more worrisome than, say, his Western phase— but still, England hoped almost foolishly that everything was alright.
"What did your First Lady think of the video?"
"She told me that it was shit and she couldn't use it because I'd be a bad influence on the American people, and then said she was really worried about me. She made me drink a smoothie and we had a whole discussion on how I felt about it."
"How did you feel about the smoothie?"
"It felt okay. Nothing to kill myself over."
Usually England might have scoffed at such a joke, but there was no dawn in America's words. It seemed more of a confession, untouched by the usual wryness that might have accompanied America's poor-taste jokes.
For the rest of the world meeting, everything was normal. America was there, and England could see that he was fine. He clung to the idea that everything was fine.
A/N: It occurs to me that I've been writing a lot of stuff like this lately, so I feel the need to say that this particular story isn't based off experience. I just wrote this 'cause it's common for men to focus more on gaining muscle than necessarily becoming thinner when they fall into EDs and similar things, and I personally haven't seen anyone talk/write about that in fiction. (I can't speak as to whether this is true for the majority of cases for men or not; there's little information on males with EDs to begin with.) Still, I didn't spend a whole lot of time explicitly discussing the muscle building thing because it kinda bums me out. I might write a bit more on it later, but I didn't want to spend too much time on it here.
A review would be 10/10. Have a great day.