I stepped out from my hiding place, walking over to stood right in front of the beaming blond. Because of the lad's upside down position the two of us were eye to eye, one more step would close the gap between us. I had my reasons for not taking that final step. Mainly that if the distance separating us shrunk any more the stench that clung to the boy would've gagged me.

"Oh yea, and why should I? I have no reason to free you. What benefit would letting you go give me, hmm? Maybe I want to keep you hanging upside down like a twat."

The boy's smile faded, his large dimples disappearing. His expression grew more serious, his eyes lost their shimmer, and he knit his eyebrows together. He moved his hand and tried to brush some of his stay hairs out of his face, though gravity held them in place, trying to move them was futile.

"Look pal. I know the world is in a mess, everything's gone to hell. I don't want any trouble. right now all I want is to be right side up again. However, if you really want nothing to do with me, then let me go and I'll be on my way. But you and I both know survival gets easier with an ally. If you want, in exchange for my freedom, I can team up with you for a while."

I scoffed, trying to keep up the outward image of being irritated by the boy. Honestly I felt a bit bad for extinguishing the childish air of the lad.

"Fine, I'll let you go. But if we're to be allies, then I will be in charge. As my first order of business, I order you to take a bath when we get to my base in this state you're a hazard to yourself as well as me." My gaze turned to the tree the blue eyed boy was hung from. If anything the apocalypse was keeping me fit, all of the running and climbing I did. Grabbing branch after branch I pulled myself up the Oak, stopping at the limb on which the trap was attached to. "I'm going to start unknotting the rope now, try not to fall and crack open your head will you?"

"Wait, wait, shouldn't you give me more of a warning before-" the fellow didn't get to finish his sentence before he was on the ground, still upside down, "you untie me…"

"Well you did want to get down didn't you?"

"Yea, but I would rather not have landed on my head." He shifted from his flopped over position he fell into after landing. Rubbing his head, he ran through his golden-brown hair with his hands trying to get the strands to lay in a more natural position. He parted his hair combing more of it over to his left side. The lad then picked out the small leaves and branches that had been caught in his locks.

"You missed a spot." I said, before shifting my view from the lad's face. I didn't want him to think I was staring, and I certainly wasn't!

"Huh? Where?"

"Right there, it's in front of your part, it's sticking almost straight up."

"Oh that, yea it's just like that. No matter what I do it just sticks up like that. I had a friend from Japan he said something about it being common in anime. It's called an uh-hoagie or something like that." He looked around on the ground for his glasses while he spoke. Once he found them he set them back on their usual spot upon his face. Eyes widening as did his smile. "Nice, I can see again!" His head turned and he gazed around the clearing with clear vision. The lad took one glance at me and said, "Dude, what's up with your eyebrows?! I thought it was just my poor vision before, but seriously what's up with them, they're huge!" He joked with a light tone in his voice though it still sounded rather offensive.

"My eyebrows are perfectly normal!" I shouted, warmth flooding to my cheeks, flushing from anger, or embarrassment, or possibly both. My fists clenched urging me to throw a punch. I restrained myself for I'm a gentleman after all. Then huffing before I continued my lecture. "I'll have you know your condition is much worse than mine! Maybe instead of worrying about my completely normal eyebrows, you should worry about your own sorry looking self!" I paused, looking over the boy for more things to point out before continuing on. "Honestly, you managed to fix your hair, though it still needs a good wash, your whole self needs one! Those clothes need to be fixed, the tears may look 'cool' but they're only going to get you killed faster. Not to mention that stench! I'm surprised you haven't lured all the zombies in with your odor!"

"You done?"

"I could go on, but first things first we need to get you cleaned up. We're going to temporary base now so follow closely and don't fall behind."

"Turning, I started to make my way to my temporary shelter, but I was stopped when someone shouted out,

"Hey!"

"What is it?" I responded, turning only my head to the side so I could see the boy on the edge of my vision. He had moved closer to me, his right arm reached out, ready to grab me from behind. "What's your name?"

He sounded sincerely curious as he slowly lowered his arm back down to his side. The lad took another step forward and I turned to face him fully. When he wasn't hanging upside down from a tree, the boy was taller than me. Thankfully, not by much so I didn't need to tilt my head uncomfortably to look him in the eye.

"It's not really a good idea to share personal info like names, it makes it harder to kill if one were to turn."

"Would you rather have me just address you as Mr. Eyebrows?" My rage began to stir inside me once more. The cheeky brat was lucky I even let him down.

"Fine, if you insist we'll use code names." The boy sure knew how to pick a nerve, yet for some reason I had a hard time saying no.

"Fine by me! I'll be US and you'll be UK!" US sounded excited and cheery, like we were two kids playing pretend. It was one of his more charming traits, and one of his most irritating.

"US and UK? Oh how original. Let me guess you're from the United States?"

"How'd you guess?" He sounded too eager, and happy, and cheerful.

"Honestly, how daft can one be?"

"I'm just messing with you dude." He said, laughing it off as if he had told a mildly amusing joke. US playfully punched my arm, which I was not happy about. "Come on UK, let's get to that secret lair or something, I'm looking forward to finally being able to clean up." He started to walk ahead of me, leaving me standing in place, waiting for him to realize his mistake. Before the count of 5, he turned around and asked with an idiotic grin on his face. "Ah, which way is?"

"Idiot, just follow me. And don't memorize the way there! If a trail forms the undead can follow it." Briskly walking, I made my way in front of the American.

There was no way I was going to tell him that fairies were the ones that always showed me the way back to my headquarters, at least not back then. The fairies were the reason I never took the same way back. In fact, I doubt you could even find the place without the help of the spirits. They had been helping me since I was small, and that was one thing the apocalypse couldn't change. I had always been able to see magical creatures, I could understand them. I never met my mother but my father said she could understand them as well. It was a very rare thing, unlike the stories from days of old where everyone could claim to have seen a leprechaun or a dragon. When sciences evolved, people with the sight started to dwindle. Magic and science have a very fine line separating them. Most people had a hard time telling the difference and forgot about the magic, seeing only one side to the coin. The two are opposites ,one cannot be without the other. As for the zombies, they were creatures of science. They couldn't over power magic and magic couldn't over power them. It was most likely thanks to the help from my magical friends, that I survived that long. I walked along through the forest, following a fairy as she guided me back to my base. Before I knew it, I was back home with my new ally in tow.


Notes on cultures! (You'll find these at the ends of come chapters, most of the time it'll be Japanese stuff, "US" is going to bring some stuff up he learned about from Kiku a few times in this story. I know a bit about Japan as I'm learning the language and about the culture.)

US's "uh-hoagie": What US is referring to here is the ahoge (pronounced A-ho-ge) it literally means "foolish hair" a common trope in anime and manga (and I myself have a few hairs that won't do what I tell them to) it's sometimes use to show a foolish or carefree character. However that is not always the case. They are similar to cowlicks as both are hairs that don't lay in a "natural" way. But with an ahoge the hair sticks out from the rest of the hair, literally. Many Hetalia characters have ahoge which is how they got the nickname hetalia curls.


Hey! Guys I got a beta! Thanks so much thelostdoitsu for helping me with this fic! As alway faves, follows, and reviews are appreciated! Now that I have a beta I'm looking over my stories more. (Looking back at some of my old stuff I can't believe what I messed up) My upload schedule may alter a bit, but still, seeing people reading, and liking my stories really motivates me to write more. Anyway, hope you all are enjoying this. Until I write next time, see ya later!