Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia.

Alfred's apartment's ceiling fan always hummed. The first thing Alice heard was something like that.

The lights were so bright when she opened her eyes, Alice immediately shut them again. She tried to make sense of her location without looking, that was too tiring.

There was the humming and soft chatter of television, but it was so low Alice couldn't understand the words. She was lying on something soft, resting probably a sofa or couch of some kind.

After a few minutes of lying there, counting the beat of the hum, Alice opened her eyes again. It was easier to keep them open this time, blinking just a few more times.

Ash had made a home under her fingernails and the blanket draped over her felt so familiar. The room from what she could see was a living room, with a coffee table adorning a stack of textbooks and a cup of discarded coffee.

The TV as on, a news anchor spoke rapidly in words Alice couldn't hear. The anchor suddenly disappeared as the screen filled with a dark video, seemingly taken from a phone. The video shook as it followed flames and lightning in the dark. The fire clashed with the electricity, sparking, bursting, both moving with expertise. Nothing else could really be distinguished from the footage other than that.

Alice shifted in the couch moving to sit up. As she moved she finally caught whisper of the television. "Electra is currently engaged in battle with Columbia on..." But Alice stopped hearing.

Columbia.

Electra.

Britannia.

The memories slipped in again and Alice suddenly became self-conscious.

She wasn't lying on the street where she should be after Electra hit her. The Brit was still dressed in her black clothes, although the shirt was in tatters from both her fire and Electra's lightning. Her mask was missing as were her shoes and the remains of her shirt had been rolled up.

The British hero took another look around the room and its familiarity finally made sense. The fan always hummed in Alfred's living room. The blanket draped over her was one they always shared on movie nights and smelled like buttered popcorn and late nights. The textbooks' covers depicted electrons and neutrons and cosmos. Steam drifted up from the coffee cup.

"Alice!" Someone gasped. The blond turned too quickly and her head pounded. Maddie rushed over to her, dressed in a t-shirt and pajama pants with her long gold colored hair all tied up in a bun atop her head. Alice's own hair had unraveled itself and fell messily down her back. "Are you okay? How do you feel?"

"I can explain." Alice managed to say. Her health definitely didn't matter when all her closest friends now knew her biggest secret. Not to mention Alfred. Where was he? Had he left when he found out? Was he already gone?

Madeline pushed up her glasses and took Alice's wrist, checking her pulse then going about several other things she didn't know what to call. "I need you to answer some questions for me." She ignored Alice. "What's your name?"

"Alice Kirkland."

"Where were you born?"

"London, England."

"When's your birthday?"

"April 23."

"What's my brother's name?"

"Alfred Jones."

"Doesn't look like any concussion or head trauma. Do you remember what happened?" Maddie stopped prodding her and sat on the coffee table.

"Where's Alfred?" Alice decided to give her a taste of her own medicine.

"Out."

"He knows?"

"Knows what?"

"That I'm Britannia!" Alice exclaimed in frustration. Her head still hurt and she wasn't sure she'd be able to walk if she had to, but she needed answers. Maddie wasn't even registering it.

The younger looked surprised before smiling with a little sigh. "Yeah, he knows that."

"Why'd he leave?"

"He'll be back soon, don't worry."

Alice scowled and glanced at the screen behind Maddie. "How did I get here? I just remember Electra and..." She trailed off as Madeline reached behind the books and grabbing her phone.

"It was crazy." Maddie just said before offering her phone to Alice. A video waited to be played on the screen.

The British hero pressed play. The quality wasn't great, but better than the video the news had been showing earlier. Alice could made out herself in her black clothes, thrown backwards as Electra recovered momentarily in white. She watched herself climb to her feet like a drunken person and stumble as Electra easily hit her. She could fuzzily remember these last few minutes of terribly fighting back.

The villain dressed in white hit Alice's chest with a bolt of electricity, which she vaguely remembered too. She remembered it hurt. What happened next, Alice didn't recall.

Her hands went to grip Electra's and the two burst into flames. The city lights flickered rapidly around them, finally awakening from their blackout. It was a solid few seconds before the fire ceased. Alice collapsed in the video, hitting the ground roughly. Electra stumbled frantically and fell away from Alice.

Her skin was terribly blistered and burnt and her silky hair was reduced to brittle strands. She wore wide eyes and a terrified expression, still scrambling away from Alice. Columbia ran into the shot and to where Alice had fallen. A bolt of lightning stretched toward the sky as the video ended, carrying Electra away. Alice held the phone a second longer, watching the frozen black screen.

"I think your powers must have saved you somehow, counteracting the current as it touched you. The shock of it or maybe using that much of your abilities at one time must have cause you to pass out. From there Columbia found you, carried you here, called me to check you out, and then left to find Electra and finish her. You clearly freaked her out and weakened her and he was going to take the advantage to get rid of her." Maddie explained, slowly taking back her phone and setting it aside.

"Columbia knows you?"

Maddie smiled softly. "Trust me, it'll make more sense when he's back."

Alice frowned. "That's not like him."

"Like him?"

"To just go finish off Electra. He's too- nice."

She laughed and Alice cracked a smile too, but laughter would hurt too much. "Well, you're really important to him. After she hurt you, it became more real I guess."

Alice wasn't sure why she was so important to him. At the most, they were friends. Friends who fought crime and didn't know each other's names and faces.

"We thought you were dead." Madeline breathed, cutting off Alice's train of thought.

"What?" Alice asked, wishing she had said something else.

The blond shook her head. "You should rest. Don't stress your body or anything, you're still recovering. When he gets back I'm sure you'll want to be awake and aware. I'm going to go call Gilbert and give him some excuse as to why I'm out at two am." She left before Alice could say anything else.

Without anything more to do, but a million questions still lingering, she laid back down and stared at the ceiling and the humming fan, trying to fit the pieces together.

The door opened and shut quickly, breaking the silence of Alfred's apartment. It pulled Alice out of a doze who had yet to move from the couch. Maddie had come to check on her a few times, but answered little to none of her questions. It was about four in the morning now, the TV had been turned off along with the lights and she was told to sleep a while ago.

Alice didn't. How could she, with so much still up in the air. Was Columbia okay? How did he know Madeline? Where was Alfred?

That last one was the most important. She didn't give a damn about Columbia if Alfred wasn't okay.

Alice sat up at the noise and certainly didn't expect who she saw.

Alfred.

Wearing Columbia's suit.

Alfred was wearing Columbia's suit, a pair of old goggles hanging in his hands and then it all made sense finally. The holds that felt so similar, the laugh, the smile, the voice, it was all so Alfred. She felt stupid now, not even able to tell her boyfriend all dressed up.

Their eyes met in the dark. He looked momentarily shocked, grime and sweat clinging to his skin after whatever fight he had just finished with Electra. Clearly he had won.

"Alice."

"Alfred?"

Without any answer, he rushed to the couch where she sat and engulfed her in a hug, burying his face in her shoulder and holding her her with a shaky breath. "You're okay."

Alice eventually returned the hug fully, still highly confused. "I'm fine."

She heard a sniff from him and she ran her fingers through his messy hair. "I thought you died. You- I shouldn't have let you deal with her alone. I should've been paying attention I could've stopped I-"

"Alfred." Alice hissed. "You didn't do anything. It's not your fault."

"That's the problem." The American pulled away from her, but their faces still inches apart. Sure enough, those gorgeous blue eyes had tears, every once in a while one would escape. He brushed her messy hair back. "I'm supposed to protect you."

She took his face in her hands and pulled him closer, tasting the salty tears as she kissed him. A second later she said. "I don't need protecting, idiot, I'm a superhero."

They both dissolved into late night laughs and they fell into each other's arms finally. They were covered in dirt and ash and tears and it was four in the morning and she almost died and the fan still hummed in the dark but it didn't matter. The sighs of relief and the tight holds and the soft kisses, those mattered.