Chapter 9: A heart-warming treaty between two Americans

America and Amelia continued arguing as they drove through a deserted road in the middle of Virginia to New York. It was around 2:30 in the morning and they were both becoming extremely irritated with each other until eventually they were sick of it and just stopped talking. Amelia laid her head on the window and gazed out into the thickness of the trees. She turned and looked at America who was fighting to stay awake, feeling bad she offered her services.

"Do you want me to drive?" Amelia asked.

America looked at her for a moment and answered back. "Nah, the hero can endure *yawn* anything. Just turn on the radio or something." Amelia turned the radio on and turned to a loud station that was playing alternative rock. The announcer came on and began reading out what the next few songs would be. When he finished MCR started to play and Amelia watched in enjoyment as America sang poorly.

"Because the drugs never work

They're gonna give you a smirk

'Cause they got methods of keeping you clean

They're gonna rip up your heads,

Your aspirations to shreds

Another cog in the murder machine! HAHAHA!"

"I've never heard that band."

America looked at her in shock then shrugged it off. "Probably because you're a girl."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean you sexist ass!?"

"What? Isn't that the truth?"

"Hell no it isn't!" Amelia looked down and sighed, her aura changing from frustration to seriousness. "We don't really have music like this on my Earth anymore. Most people normally just sing whatever songs they can come up with. The radios are only used for communication and not many places have enough power that can be used for recording music."

"That's awful. How do you live like that?" America became concerned for the girl he had just spent hours fighting with.

"Well, I still have all my friends and I'm normally too busy to enjoy myself anyways. It's kind of a pain representing America during war ya know."

America thought to himself about how life for him would be different if he didn't own the luxuries he had today. "You at least eat hamburgers right?"

"You kidding? I haven't had any fast food since the war started. All those rations go to the colonies set up around the world." America stopped the car causing Amelia to almost bash her head against the window."

"Why the hell did you do that?!"

"HOW CAN YOU LIVE WITHOUT EATING HAMBURGERS!?"

Amelia looked at the reddened America like he was crazy. She turned down the radio which was still blasting out music. "Those are the sacrifices we had to make when the war started." She turned to the window and stared out.

"Hmph! Well as an American I refuse to let you go on like this. First thing when we get home I'm going to make you the best burger ever!" He slapped her on the back causing her to yelp in pain.

"P-please don't hit my back again." She rubbed where he hit and America began apologizing like a Japanese man would.

She looked at him then smiled. "I'm excited for that burger though. Can it have bacon on it?"

"Of course it can! Who wouldn't want bacon? What about cheese?"

"Mmmmm, definitely! And I think I'm going to want two patties just because!"

"Now you're talking."

The two continued talking like this for twenty five minutes until the engine started to sputter.

"Uh oh…" America tried turning the car back on but the engine was stalled. He got out and waved away the smoke, Amelia then followed. Everything under the hood was smoking and falling apart.

"Jeez man, when was the last time you had this looked at?"

America looked at her with embarrassment. "What are you talking about? This is perfectly normal." He gave a nervous laugh but Amelia just rolled her eyes and closed the hood.

"Well I guess we're stuck in the middle of nowhere until someone comes and gets us." Amelia huffed out in frustration. "You got a phone?"

"Out of battery."

"Damn it."

The two sat down on the hood of the car.

America tried to cheer her up. "Don't worry, someone will come by. Just you wait!" He put his hand around her only this time he wasn't as rough. He didn't know why but his attitude toward her completely changed since when they first met, actually he had begun to look at this girl like a little sister instead of just an annoying stranger.

"I like your optimism. We could use that on our world." She smiled.

"Why do you just smile? Why don't you just laugh or something?" America looked at her in the face and gave her a huge smile.

"Huh? I haven't really had any reason to laugh, why?" She looked away from his face into the woods.

"Well I wanna hear you laugh! Come on try it! HAHAHAHAHA!" He laughed as loudly as possible.

"Hehe." She didn't try very hard.

"Come on! You can do better than that. Try again. HAHAHAHA!"

She looked frustrated. "I can't laugh without reason…not anymore anyways."

"You're as cold as England! Fine, then I'll tell you a joke. What did the cake say to the pizza after it told a bad joke…He said man your jokes sure are cheesy!" There was a silence.

"That was terrible."

"Uh…eh…ya it was."

America looked at Amelia as she gazed at the sky, obviously worried about something.

"So who are you guys fighting anyways?" His question was completely out of the blue. Amelia looked at him with the most serious face that he had ever seen from an American.

"Why?"

"Well you tell me that you all are in such a terrible war but I have no idea what it's about."

She looked down at her hands and then back at him.

"If you must know we're fighting the most vicious, blood thirsty species known to the universe. We call them Kaydoms which is short for Kawodaemons or uncute demons. When they came to our world a few years ago they destroyed our oil tankers, our crops, our homes, everything. Our generals thought a full out attack was in order and, as the naive people we were, the countries agreed. That was how over half of the earth's population was lost. Eventually the death toll was so high that we stopped allowing our military leaders to send out so many troops at once. We set up colonies surrounded by energy fields all over the world but the shields are running out of power and Alice can't cast a strong enough spell to make more."

America hated having to hear this. He looked at Amelia's face which was fighting back tears and began regretting ever asking her about the war. This woman was so much more of a hero than he would have ever been, thinking of the bravery she must have to continue fighting. He felt bad for the hours they had gone through arguing over which of them was the greater hero.

The more Amelia thought of the death toll of the world the more she had to fight to hold her tears back; she couldn't manage this and started bawling her eyes out on America's shoulder. His eyes widened in suprise because of her sudden grasp of his jacket, but he tried comforting her in the best possible way he could.

"I-I'm sorry. I j-just couldn't help it." She muffled out.

"Why are you the one apologizing?" He asked but Amelia didn't here him.

America thought to himself that after everything they had talked about she was the one apologizing. It was weird how his perception of her had changed within a few hours. When they had first met, he was skeptical that she was even sane. Now he knew that every single thing she had said was as truthful as he was patriotic.

America could feel Amelia becoming heavy and her breath slowing but she still had her face buried in his jacket. Her mixture of crying and exhaustion finally put her to sleep on America's lap. He gazed at her and then up at the sky. "I'm sorry too."

-I feel like America is always labeled as the guy who isn't caring or anything so I found it necessary to write this, plus I thought that the story needed a change of pace. Judge it if you want but I'm sticking by it.