Chapter 24: The night time walks

Alice walked in and closed the door, but then she was attacked by Amelia. "What the hell man?! Where did you go?!" Amelia shook Alice back and forth.

"A-A-Amelia, s-stop i-i-t!" Amelia let go and pointed an accusing finger at Alice.

"What happened to you? It doesn't take that long to tie a shoelace, do you know how much grief you put me through?!"

The other girls came and surrounded Alice while she still had her back against the door, all of them looking menacingly at her. "Explain." François demanded.

Alice pushed them out of the way and turned back to them. "It's a long story, and I'm not sure how you're going to react."

The girls looked at her in confusion. "It's not rike we're going anywhere, terr us."

Alice looked at all of them then, after a short moment of silence, she began.

"Remember the man I told you about yesterday?"

"The one that didn't walk you home?" François sat down on one of the chairs by the fireplace.

Alice sat down as well, but the other three remained up. "Well, I didn't realize it until half way through the night but the man was France."

François stood up in shock, and the others nearly fainted, though Alice remained seated and she held her posture.

"You mean, they know we're here?" Feliciana gasped as Alice nodded her head.

"Yes, but they can help us."

"But… I thought we didn't want to involve them in our war, da?"

Alice stood up and went over by a little snack table that was set up for any guests that came in and picked up a scone. "They became involved them when we fell through the portal." She took a bite of the scone, allowing what she had just said to sink into everyone.

"Also, you should know that they will be coming by tomorrow."

"You did all this without our consent?" Amelia looked at her furiously but Alice kept her face straight and emotionless.

"Do you honestly want this to keep going? In any case if we keep visible ties to them we may not have to face being arrested for trespassing on military property, and they can probably get us a flight to Iceland in no time."

There was silence, than Sakura looked up at Alice. "When are they coming tomorrow?

"I'm not sure, but we can always tell the landlady to tell them where we are."

"This is such a bad idea, we should leave now! Of all this time I thought it would be Amelia or Feliciana to get us caught, but not you!" François was under the impression that Alice didn't care for their mission anymore though she was dead wrong.

"But, don't you want to get back to our world?" Alice remained calm though she used her hair to hide the despair on her face.

"Of course I do, but there's no reason we should go endangering another world because of it! We've already lost two of our friends; do you really want more to end up gone?"

Alice got up and kicked François onto the floor, the others quick to help her back up. "What was that fo…"

"We haven't lost anyone yet, but it sounds like you've already decided to give up on them. If you weren't so thick skulled and wrapped up in yourself then maybe you would have realized that!"

Alice stomped up the stairs, but before disappearing she shouted "Oh, and by the way, Chun will be coming with the others, or did you think she was dead?"

Feliciana went to try and comfort her but Anya stopped her before she could. "No, it's best to let her simmer down on her own, why don't we go out and get some ice cream or something."

Feliciana denied her then turned to François. "I don't know, François thinks I may give us away if we go outside."

"N-no, I didn't mean it like that, it's just…"

"Shut up, nobody cares." Amelia glared at François as she walked up the stairs. "I'm going to bed; we should be rested for tomorrow since we've got visitors coming."

She went into the empty room even though she shared the same room as Alice, then Feliciana went up as well, but not before giving François a good old fashioned Italian glare. Sakura, who didn't have any words left in her, walked up in attempt to comfort Feliciana.

François sat down on the couch, bitter towards herself. "I'm such an idiot."

Anya sat next to her, gazing at her with sympathy. "Da, you are, but don't let that get you down."

François looked at Anya who was giving her a light smile. "How do you do that?"

Anya looked at her with confusion. "Do what?"

"How do you stay so happy? You always seem to have a smile on even when we're in serious trouble. How do you do that?"

Anya sat back and rested her hands behind her head. "Well someone has to do it."

"I don't think I understand."

Anya looked back at her, still holding her smile. "We live in war which can bring anyone, country or human, to their knees. If people started to constantly live in fear, hate, and blood then they might forget how to smile. I want to be the reminder to others so that they don't forget."

François was moved by this, and then she started to remember how Anya used to be. "You're smile has changed throughout the years, hasn't it?"

Anya blushed a little at her remark. "I guess you could say that, I do admit I was much more violent then." She rubbed the back of her head in slight embarrassment then got back on her feet. "Da, I think I'll be going to bed as well."

"Bonne nuit." She watched as Anya went up the stairs.

François sat in the room alone, wondering whether or not to go to bed. "It's only nine thirty; I might as well go out and take a walk to tire myself out." She decided.

She got up and grabbed the pepper spray Anya had gotten for Alice and a hat off the rack then headed out the door onto the dark streets of Great Britain.

Elsewhere at the house of England, France had gathered everyone up in the living room. "This better be important, I have more important things to do other than listen to your babbling." England shot as he sipped tea out of a teacup.

"Just shut up and listen you punk." France took a sip of a breath in and began talking. "Well, this may sound unbelievable but I've found the others."

England spat out his tea while the others gasped in surprise. Chun jumped up quickly and with a stern face asked "When and where aru?"

"Erm, yesterday I found one of them but it was only a few moments ago that I found out the whereabouts of the others."

"This is wonderfur!" Japan exclaimed.

"Ve~, I hope Feli isn't still mad at me."

England put down his tea. "Wait a tick, why didn't you tell us yesterday?"

They all looked at France with suspicion as he tugged on his collar slightly. "That is for me to know and for you to not find out, I told you and that's all that matters."

America shrugged off his remark and sat down on the couch. "Whatever man, so who'd you find yesterday anyways?"

"Ya, I thought you were on a date." England took another sip of tea.

"Funny story about that actually, you see, the woman was Alice."

All at once everyone's eyes widened like moons. "WHAT?"

"It was quite strange actually, I didn't realize it was her since she had cut her hair and wasn't wearing her glasses, though she didn't seem to recognize me either until we got on the Ferris wheel."

England sat down and started to think of Alice and France together, something like this enraged him.

"Don't you think that they're going to leave now that they know that we know of their whereabouts?" Germany asked.

"Non, while talking with Alice we agreed to have everyone meet tomorrow."

"Where aru?" China had sat back down but he was at the edge of the seat.

"Hmm, she didn't say exactly. Either the boarding home or the café I suppose."

England was growing a little more furious with every word that came out of the Frenchie's mouth. He was about to have an outburst of sheer anger so he quickly got up, grabbed his coat, and walked out the door.

Everyone was silent as the door shut behind England, than Russia spoke up. "That was strange."

"Hai, why wourd Mr. Engrand just wark out?"

"Who knows, he's always doing weird things. He probably went out for a drink or something."

They sat there and continued on discussing what they were going to do tomorrow while England was walking the streets, trying to blow out all the hot steam that had built up in him.

"Idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot!" England kept repeating over and over while he watched his feet take each step. "Why should I care anyways, it's not like Alice likes me. Hell, she probably hates me."

He kept walking, his pace growing faster and faster with each step. "Idiot, idiot, bloody idiot."

His feet couldn't keep up with his anger and eventually they had tripped over themselves. "Oh hell!" He fell forward and embraced to make contact with the concrete when instead he fell on something soft. He looked up to see what he had fallen when he saw the dazed face of Françoise staring back at him.

"Par tous les vents (what the hell)?" She pushed him off, feeling for the pepper spray she had grabbed earlier; she felt the pepper spray and grasped it.

England got up and began to apologize. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't see you the-…François?" He rubbed his eyes into focus but was met by the stinging sensation of pepper spray.

"Get away from me you perverted freak!" François flipped England onto his back before she realized who she was beating up.

"Monsieur England?"

England writhed in pain on the concrete as he tried to rub the sting out of his eyes. "What the bloody hell woman; what's wrong with you?!"

"I thought you were a random creep, and there's no need for such language…bâtard."

He got up shakily, still covering his eyes with his sleeves. "Jeezus woman, what did you spray me with?"

François looked at the canister. "Erm, it says Inferno hot pepper spray." She watched as England continued to wipe his eyes.

She helped England to a bench on a bridge and sat him down while his watery eyes blurred his vision.

"Let me see." She tried moving England's hand out of the way but he tensed them up and continued rubbing his eyes.

"It's fine, I can deal with it myself."

"You obviously can't, now let me see." Reluctantly, England moved his eyes away and saw a very blurry François staring at him.

He scooted away from her slightly. "You don't have to be so close."

"Stop acting like a child and let me see before I have to pin you down."

Again she put her face close to England's and examined his eyes, making him uncomfortable. Then she scooted back. "It's just a little red; it should go away in a few hours or so, sorry about that."

"It's fine."

His eyes stopped stinging so much after a while though he could still feel it whenever there was a cold gush of air; he looked over at François who was shivering slightly in the cold. Feeling bad, he took off his jacket and put it over François.

"Aren't you quite the gentleman?" She joked though she got a cold reply.

"Think nothing of it, I was getting hot."

François turned back and faced the river that was rushing with water. "So why are you out here at this hour anyways?"

"I could ask you the same thing!" England turned to François but she shot him a warning glare.

England lied back on the bench and looked at the river with Françoise. "I'm just a little shaken by the fact that we found you all again."

"Understandable."

"What about you? Why are you out here?"

"I guess you could say I overreacted to the matter."

"So it seems that we're in the same boat."

"Seems so"

Françoise looked up at the sky again. "What time is it?"

England looked at his watch then stood up in shock. "Bloody hell, we've been sitting here for an entire hour!"

"Goodness, what have we been doing?" François stood up next to England and looked around in the darkness, wondering if anything was out there.

"Guess we better get going then." England and François walked off the bridge then England turned to Françoise. "W-would you like me to walk you back?"

"Why, are you worried for my safety?" She smiled teasingly at England who blushed at her statement.

"O-of course not, it's just that there are a lot of weird men out there and it's dark and…" Françoise didn't let him finish; instead she grabbed his arm and leaned her head on it.

"It's quite some lengths away. It may be best if you did walk me home." She led England towards the boarding home, still holding onto his arm.

While walking next to a deli shop, England heard footsteps behind them and turned to see a shadowy figure cloaked in a black hoody.

"Hand over your money and the girl and nobody gets hurt, got it?" He pulled out a knife from his jacket.

England stepped in front of François who was seemingly unfazed by what was going on. "Back off or I'll give you a good old fashioned English beating."

The thief didn't back away, but instead he lunged toward the two, though he wasn't prepared to be countered by England who grabbed his arm, kicked the knife out of his hand, and held the man down.

"It seems that the tables have turned, mate." Françoise was amused by England's quote.

"You are quite a foolish thief." She smirked. "You shouldn't have set him off; he just got out of prison you know." Françoise added on.

"I'll do what you want, just don't hurt me. Please, I'll do anything."

England let the man up then looked at his face. He was around his twenties and he had big bushy eyebrows, a long face, and brown hair. "Run, and if I ever catch you again I'll make sure that they only bury your head at your funeral."

He let the man go and watched as he stumbled away into the darkness. François reattached herself to England's arm. "Mon héros."

"I'll go to the officials tomorrow and report him." The two continued walking until they reached the place François was staying at.

"Thank you, monsieur England. Would you like your jacket back?"

"No, it's fine. I'm going see you tomorrow so you can just give it back to me then."

François smiled at him. "Well then, until tomorrow." She walked up to the door and opened it ajar. "Get home safely."

"Ya, ya. Sleep well."

She opened the door the rest of the way and tiptoed inside, leaving England alone to walk back to his house which was pretty much just around the corner. He stepped inside and crept to his own bed. "Tomorrow huh?" He whispered to himself as he flopped onto the bed.

"This'll be interesting."

- Finally, they're all getting back together. If I had to deal with that I'd be like "screw it" and leave or something. :P

-I finished this chapter at exactly 1:11 AM...soooo tired. Probably should get to bed soon...after twenty minutes or so of internet surfing.

-Thank you everyone for giving me such awesome support. Hugs for everyone!