Thank you all for the reviews and favorites, I didn't realize how special this story was to some people, and that really means a lot! Also for the first time, I uploaded twice this year lol, my goal is to finish this story hopefully by the end of the year, so stay tuned for chapter 6.
The man was probably a tea snorting snob. That's what Australia had mentally decided, being too stubborn to think otherwise.
As he sat at a wooden table, only being able to smell the familiar aroma of tea, he was tempted to escape through the back just so he wouldn't need to be reminded of that liquid. His Arthur loved tea to bits and pieces, he would probably go crazy without it.
They had arrived back at America's house an hour ago, the place looking less grand than Australia had imagined. It didn't stick out all compared to the neighbor's homes, and was only slightly more secluded being hidden by trees. But if he had passed by it, Australia wouldn't have thought anything of it.
Alfred— or America was happily eating away at a pile of burnt scones, he didn't seem bothered or even seemed to notice that they weren't the highest quality of scones. He guessed that Arthur simply never improved in cooking. Yet another reason as to why he wasn't cut out for parenting.
Australia remembered with a frown when this Arthur also offered him some of the scones, a happy smile on his face. The Englishman was probably happy from the idiot blonde already choking down his bland food, and probably wanted to feel more assured of himself by having Australia also eating his food.
But as the rule goes, never eat a poisoned thing twice. Australia learned this out in the wild, and he learned this upon eating Arthur's food for the first time. He didn't care if he starved to death, he'd prefer that over whatever it was England thought passed for food.
Hearing the creaking of the wood floors, Australia turned to the entrance of the kitchen as England was exiting it, a teapot in his hands as he placed it down gently on the table. "Now then, we can properly talk now that we have some tea." England said sitting down to a chair across from Australia, staring at him squarely in the eyes.
He was assessing him, for England was always suspicious of others, even somebody as young looking as Australia.
Pouring tea into Australia's teacup, he continued to stare at him critically. As he finished the excruciatingly long process of tea pouring, he nodded to himself in confirmation? "You're an orphan." The blonde man concluded.
"What?" Australia blanched out. That wasn't a complete lie, but as stated the countries perception of parents and what they meant to them was different from a humans idea. By definition Australia was indeed an orphan, but that definitely wasn't the reason why he was there. Unless you really wanted to stretch things out.
The man drank from his own teacup, reminding Australia of the dark liquid as he stared down at his own. Clearing his throat he put down the porcelain cup. "You have a peculiar accent and have gotten lost in that forest alongside Alfred, you don't seemed too cleaned up either. So I'm assuming you ran away from your orphanage."
With all that staring earlier Australia was almost certain that the other saw right through him, and saw that he was a country. That didn't seem to be the case. Instead he thought him to be something else simply because his clothes just managed to get dirt and his accent that sounded goofy no thanks to England.
Sinking down into his seat, Australia begrudgingly nodded. "Yeah, that's right mate.." he muttered, drinking slowly from his cup. He didn't mind the tea so much. After awhile of rejecting to drink the brit's tea, he concluded that the tea tasted better in the past. Even if the blonde was awful at cooking it did seem he knew how to make tea.
Looking like he was proud of himself for guessing correctly about Australia's situation, England puffed out his chest a little. "I'm quite good at deducing things I must say, so it's only expected that I figured out you were an orphan." Not seeing that Australia looked uncomfortable, the blonde continued. "Now, you mentioned your name was Jett, correct?"
Australia nodded, hoping that he'd be able to convince this man that he was and steal a spell book before running. Because no way was he going to ask for help from him. It already freaked him out so much that he was acting so different from how he's supposed to.
"That's an odd name.." England mumbled as he thought about it. "I haven't heard of it before either, so a very unique one.."
Feeling his face go red from embarrassment, Australia didn't bother telling him that he made it up. Even in his own time it wasn't a common name, he was probably the first to have it.
Whatever, it was a better name then whatever England came up with is what Australia thought to himself.
"Yeah I guess so!" Australia said as he slurped his tea loudly.
The blonde didn't look too pleased with the loud noise but otherwise didn't say anything. If he had known Australia personally he would've scolded him, no denying. But as he was a guest Australia was going to gladly take advantage of it.
America looked over at England excitedly as he took a big bite from his scone. "Oh yeah, Eng— Arth— England!" America stumbled on which name to use, since they hadn't told England that Australia knew their secret quite yet. "Jett thought!—"
"Alfred." England said sternly as he interrupted America, nervously glancing over at Australia he returned his gaze to America. "Don't eat with your mouth open.
It seemed to be a gentle reminder to use the correct names, but nevertheless America got the memo. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you!" Suddenly pushing aside what he was going to tell England, he decided to bring up something else. "Jett knows about our secret!"
England's breath hitched as he stared at America with wide eyes. "He what."
"Yeah! It's so cool—"
Australia felt the tension rise in the room, something America didn't seem to notice. Australia knew this feeling, usually it was when England would scold him harshly then lock him in his room as punishment.
He almost felt bad for the young colony, he wanted to warn him to stop talking before England made the punishment worse, until-
England let out a tired breath, giving America a stern look. "Did you tell him Alfred? Remember what I said about telling humans about our secret, it'll only cause hysteria and confusion. Especially to a young child like him."
Well that was a lot calmer than what Australia expected. Still, he sat tensely in his seat preparing to leave if things got any worse. Maybe he was more of a ticking time bomb back then, only waiting to explode?
Quickly, America shook his head. "No, I didn't! He already knew, I swear!" A few of the scone crumbs flew from his mouth.
This surprised the empire, looking confused momentarily as he glanced over at Australia, the suspicion returning again. England didn't even bother to scold America again about eating with his mouth closed.
Now that the attention of the British Empire was back on him, Australia avoided eye contact. Now Australia was about to be the one to tell Alfred to shut up, if he said any more England would start to believe he was some sort of spy, or worse, realize he's a nation and try to colonize him again.
Maybe now he should excuse himself and go steal his spellbook? Where would England even keep a spellbook.
"So Jett.." England said slowly. "How did you know about our secret? Where exactly are you from?"
Before Australia could say anymore, America giddily spoke up. "Right! I was gunna tell you—"
"America that's not proper English."
"Going— that Jett thought we were in England. Isn't that funny?" The colony smiled over at Australia. "You had to ride a boat from there silly, how did you forget?"
Now Australia reaffirmed his belief of hating America. It was like he couldn't catch a hint and maybe not over share things. Of course it all came from innocent naiveness, but England was an extremely paranoid country, he could end up in prison if America continued.
No. Australia shook his head, America was a victim of the empire as well, right now he didn't need to dislike him. Even if he did blabber too much, the kid probably just enjoyed talking.
"So you're from England?" Asked non other than England, he had a raised eyebrow. "I mean..with an accent like yours I'm assuming you come from a rural area, because it's very different."
"Yep." Australia nodded. "I'm from England."
"You don't look or feel like you're from there though.." England mumbled. "How exactly did you learn about our secret then? If you're from a rural area, and grew up in an orphanage?" England asked, changing the topic.
Quick, he needed to come up with an excuse. His mind raced for one. "Ah— well, the old lady who took care of us told us all about you nations." Australia suppressed a wince, maybe he'd be able to pass it off?
"Oh? Is that so?" England frowned. He didn't think that just anybody knew about their secret, he must've not thought it was so lax.
And it wasn't, it was for the most party a good kept secret, especially for one so big. However for England, finding out some old lady who ran an orphanage in an unknown part of England was almost mortifying, if any other nation found out they'd never let him live it down.
"And what's her name if I may ask?"
You may not ask. Is what Australia wanted to say but nevertheless quickly replied. "Theodore— " that was a male's name, England's eyes narrowed, Australia nearly choked on his own saliva. "Theodora." That was a name right? Using his own name for a situation like this, Australia guessed his unwanted name did have its uses.
"You all referred to her by her first name?" England shook his head, sighing as he leaned back in his seat by a fraction. "No, never mind that, we can discuss this at a later date." Looking at Australia concerned, he said something else on his mind. "You're probably tired from being stuck in the woods all night, did you travel here with somebody by chance? Adopted maybe?"
"I—" Australia didn't even know how to describe his situation in the first place. "I actually don't remember how I got here!" He laughed nervously. It was weird being shown even a mild amount of concern.
It was almost comical that England thought he was an orphan. Something so outlandish. Thinking about his whole made up backstory it was as outlandish as the thought that England came up with it. But in a sense he was adopted, that idea was weird.
"Odd, very odd. Maybe you injured yourself while out in the forest?" England looked down contemplatively. "You don't look injured but I'll make sure and check, if you don't mind." The man began to stand up from his seat, Australia gulped down the rest of his drink.
Quickly putting down his cup he frantically waved his hands around. "Ya don't have to worry about a thing sir! I feel perfectly fine—" and then a hand was suddenly on his forehead, one that was much more callous than what you'd expect someone who looked high class to have.
Australia looked up at England with wide green eyes, now in too much shock to speak.
"You don't appear to have a fever.." Mumbled the blonde as he then took the young Australian's head into his hands and looked over it.
Was this what it felt like to have somebody be concerned over you? Australia continued to sit frozen in his seat. Of course he has had Canada be concerned over him before, but not England, never England. If he ever injured himself by accident, the Englishman would show more annoyance than concern, telling him to be careful next time.
But now he was actively trying to help Australia, even if Australia himself knew that there was nothing wrong about him, but rather he simply wasn't supposed to be there.
"You seem fine, no sign of any injury." Then looking at him directly in the eyes, he nodded to himself. "And no brain commotion it seems...you never know however."
Nodding slowly, Australia stared down at his empty teacup, now too awkward to look at the Englishman.
"Well until you 'remember' how you got here, why don't you stay here for the time being?" Suggested the Brit as he went to go clean up the porcelain teacups. "I'll try to help you out to the best of my abilities."
Giving him another nod, Australia felt like he was going to give out at any moment, the experience seemed so surreal. This of course was probably all a ruse to make him feel comfortable so that he'd reveal how he knew about the nations and probably try to erase his memories of them with magic, Australia couldn't be too careful.
England left to the kitchen.
Little America looked excitedly over at Australia. "Are ya gunna— going to stay here?" He gasped.
"Guess so!" He said attempting to feign a smile.
America dropped the scone in his hand and jumped up from his seat. "This is going to be awesome, wait here! I needa show you something." He scurried away from the dining room.
But was it going to be 'awesome' as America elegantly put it? With the fear of them discovering his real identity and fear of changing the future, Australia felt the stress come to him.
He was in a different time, one where he didn't belong. He was seeing a different England with the America that changed things for the worst, he didn't belong with them either. Finding a spell book without raising suspicions was all he had to do, but how was he going to do it?
Thank you once again for reading this story! If you have any constructive criticism to give me, please let me know! Also, if you'd like to friend me on discord, my user: is Val ?#9650