Howdy! Back again and I hope y'all like this chapter, even though I think its a tad melodramatic... Thanks to all who have favorited and reviewed, it's really uplifting! I also and added the explamations of historical events in previous chapters at the bottom of this one. Sorry they wernent there to begin with, I can forget stuff like that easily.
enjoy!
I DON'T OWN HETALIA OR ANY COUNTRY
England stood with his arms crossed in the small victory garden outside the front of his house, trying to strike a deal for the weekend.
"Ok so do you promise not to embarrass me in front of him this weekend?"
The small fairies he was talking to all nodded their heads in unison. "Promise!"
"And don't embarrass him either, he can do that on his own without your help."
"Are we always going to have to act like this?" one small pixie wined while raising her tiny hand.
"I know I can't make you" England sighed "but please at least for this weekend I'd like you all to be nice to America. He's very special to me."
Several of the fairy women started giggling and gossiping to each other in hushed whispers, and a salamander raised his tail to ask a question "Why is America special to England?"
"You dunder'ead!" One leprechaun shouted back "Its because e'fancy's 'im!"
A blush flared up on England's face "In a way of speaking, yes. And that brings me to another issue. When he and I are in my bedroom alone, you can't come in."
This sent a chorus of laughter though the entire crowd of magical creatures, causing England's blush to deepen "Please don't make me ask something like that again." He pleaded "Probably nothing will happen but…" his sentence trailed off as he could see most of the creatures still hadn't calmed down yet, and he waited for them to stop laughing. "Ok so do we all understand the rules now? Also remember that he can't see you, so if I don't talk to one of you its only because I don't want him to think I'm crazy."
This one they seemed not to enjoy "He's the crazy one England!"
"Yeah, we've been your friends longer!"
"Can't we do magic to let him see us?"
"Or perhaps a seer's stone, but I hear they're rare now…"
"Yes, yes I know" England shouted back "Please just try to understand where I'm coming from here!"
"You wont stop seeing us because he doesn't, right England?"
The country gave a half smile and kneeled down to pat the small fairy on his back "Don't worry, nothing like that will ever happen."
"What wont happen?"
England whirled around the see America standing at the gate to his garden with the most puzzled look in the world stitched across his face.
"Uh-Nothing, that is I-how long have you been standing there for?" The older tried standing up straight and looking dignified, while also trying to ignore the cackles issuing from the "imaginary" beings behind him.
"Just a second…" America replied, looking over England's shoulder "Who were you talking to?"
"No one! I mean…Never mind, lets get you inside it's going to rain soon." England walked through the gate and began pushing his former colony towards the front door of his house when his eye suddenly caught on something.
"What are those?"
The younger country looked down at his hands, half forgetting himself "Oh yeah these!" his huge "hero" smile broke across his face as he handed England the bouquet "These are for you, I hope you like them."
England took them in his hands as if half in a dream, no one had ever given him flowers before, well there was that one time, but he liked these roses better.
"T-they're beautiful America, thank you."
He shrugged "Don't mention it, its what us hero's do right?" there was no immediate reply from his former master who stood on the stoop to his front door, staring dumbly at his bouquet for what seemed like hours before grabbing America by his leather jacket and half-throwing him into the house.
"Hey, what was that for?" The younger country protested before seeing England turn around and wrap his whole body around his, gently placing his small blond head in the crook of America's neck. It was a bit stunning to say the least, dramatic displays of affection like this wasn't exactly England's style, but then again, America thought, this was in a way subtle. He knew England was too stiff and proper to just say "I love you" all the time and shower him with kisses, but right now the younger country could just feel the emotions all pouring out at once in the most simple way the small island could think of. America smiled and retuned the embrace in his warm, fuzzy way.
England almost wanted to cry, almost. The glass that encased his heart was breaking again, and the tighter he held on to America the more England swore he could hear it crack. There had to be a reason other than his dumb pride why he would feel this way, he thought, perhaps it was just the after shock all the air raids or battles, it had to be.
England pulled out of the hug and adjusted his jacket "Well I don't think I need to give you a tour of my house, you've practically lived here for the past few years anyway."
America almost laughed at the smaller country's ability to pretend nothing emotional had ever taken place and move on "Yeah true, but its kinda late, and I have jet lag. Do you think I could go to bed early tonight?"
"Oh yes," England's eyes dropped to the floor in thought "that's fine, I will probably be going to bed soon anyway. I just, have to take care of some business first."
The younger country smiled "Ok! I'll just sleep in your room, right?" He turned to walk up the red-carpeted stairs when he felt England grab his hand.
"Wait!" He stared up into America's big blue eyes while forcing a smile across his face "I'll walk you there. It's ok for me to put this work off for just a while longer."
America laughed and jokingly ruffled England's blonde hair "I never took you for much of a procrastinator, England!"
And as they reached the top of the stairs America swore her heard him say "Only when it's letting go."
_*_*_*_
Everything about England's room reeked of royalty. From the heavy golden curtains, to the mahogany floors, to the red and white walls, to the rich floral upholstered chez lounge. Even the names of the things in his room sounded fit-for-a-king-fancy, America said the words over in his head, chez lounge, man it wasn't even his word and it fit England well. Looking around he remembered far too well why he always said the tiny island was so full of himself, if one could build an altar to one's own achievements England had certainly done it with his room, and indeed his whole house. All along the walls were paintings of him and his former bosses riding nobly on horseback into battle, or defeating enemy fleets on the high seas, or just looking…epic, no other word fit the endless parade of England's glorious triumphs. It was times like this, when America was all alone in one of these gargantuan rooms with the high ceilings and staring portraits, he felt like the same small colony he thought was left behind long ago. For all his swagger of a hero, all it took was a few minutes at this house, in this room, to make him seemingly shrink in size and attitude. America remembered once, just once, when he was little England had shown him his home for a weekend as his way of "introducing his brother to the world" but all it proved to do was give the colony a raging inferiority complex towards his master and the rest of his European counterparts, like the whole place screamed at him "But what have you done?" It was these memories that enabled England's house to always seemingly put America back in his place. It was all he could do really just to keep from calling England "sir" when he gave a knock on the door and walked in to the bedroom.
"England! I'm not done changing yet!"
"Oh shut up you squeamish idiot!" the older country rolled his eyes at his former colony's inexplicable shyness.
"I'm not squeamish! I'm dignified." America threw his nose in the air after pulling his shirt over his head.
"Oh, ok!" England's words dripped with sarcasm as he turned towards a globe that he began spinning absentmindedly. Meanwhile America had removed his glasses and climbed into the oversized bed, frowning as he squinted across the room at his former master's face.
"Hey England, are you ok?" England didn't say anything even though America knew he could hear his question. All he did was continue to spin the large wooden globe, tracing all the colonies and countries that had a small English flag stuck on them.
"Do you know what the problem with ruling the world is, America?"
"Hrm?" the younger country tilted his head to the side.
"You have to be the one to give it up."
America spoke his words softly as he could "England, what's wrong? Why are you telling me this?"
England looked up and gave his former colony a small, sad smile, and strode over to where he lay in bed. Then, placing a gentile hand on America's face, leaned down and kissed him first on the forehead, then on the lips, then wrapped his arm around America's back and held him close for a minute.
"Promise you wont become like me."
"What?"
"Promise!"
America blinked "Ok, I promise, but why?"
England turned to walk out of the room and flicked the lights off, leaving America in the dark. He walked to the far corner of his office down the hall to make double sure his former colony could not hear what he was about to do. England stared at the phone for a long moment, taking in the last few centuries bit by bit before he brought them to a conclusive end. He had never been a big nation, and from the beginning everyone made fun of him for it, France, Spain, his own older brothers! No one gave him credit, or thought he could do anything great, so obviously that was exactly what he needed to do, to prove himself to everyone. But Europe alone was simply not enough for England or anyone so what did they all do? Expand. Concour. Colonize. Yet no matter how much land he grabbed or places he claimed, England was still mocked and taunted by his naboers and siblings. That was when he found America, and suddenly their name-calling didn't hurt as much and their fighting never left that same sting. He had a brother now, a real friend that he could call his own, it was perverse and weird and wonderful all at the same time. England invested his heart and all his strength in the small boy and lied to himself that it would be safe there, he protected America because he wanted to protect himself and the investment he made. But this backfired in the cruelest way, and what had been the happiest time in England's life ended at the barrel of a musket.
He became angry, furious really, at everything and everyone. If he could not have America, did he not deserve the world as compensation? Any lingering nagging from France he made sure to shut up and shut down with empire. He took all the compensation he could find, trying to fill in the gaping hole America had left when he tore out his heart, but he came to the edge of the world and what did he find? All those nations were, was compensation that never worked. Egypt didn't have America's eyes, Hong Kong didn't have America's smile, Canada didn't have America's laugh and none of them could ever ever be America. They were all just cheap stand-ins as friends, allies, and yes lovers too, that never amounted to what England needed, no matter how much he made himself believe that they did. This was surely what he felt breaking inside. Wasn't it? This old lie that simply wasn't working anymore and really only hurt him and the rest of the world with him, was breaking inside of him and England knew it. So with all the strength he could muster, England picked up the phone and began to dial.
Hours seemed to pass as America drifted uncomfortably between sleep and waking before he heard the older country walk back into the room and sigh as he slowly climbed into the bed. He placed a gentile hand on America's shoulder and kiss him on the cheek.
"I love you." England whispered, then rolled over to fall asleep.
_*_*_*_
HISTORY!
"Victory Garden": the name given to gardens grown for food in England during the war. Food was heavily rationed so sometimes the only way to get any food was to grow it.
The Leprechaun: Yeah any cryptozoology nerds out there will be going "They're only native to ireland wtf?" but I felt the need to stick one in there.
"Seer's stone": It's a stone with a naturaly made hole in the center. When you look through the hole, it allows you to see spirits.
"There was that one time but England liked these roses better": England is thinking of "the war of the roses" which happened between the house of York and the house of Lancaster. York's symbol was the white rose and Lancaster's symbol was the red rose.
Colonies: England let most of it's colonies go after WWII, the same can not be said for others like France who held on to places like Vietnam and Algeria until revolutions and wars made them let the colonies go.
Ch1
That time America tried to quit drinking: Prohibition, the United states banned alcohol because they thought it would reduce crime. Now isn't that funny? Crime soared and people kept drinking anyway by bootlegging alcohol.
ch3
America's movies: Dance movies were huge in the 40's but fell out of stile and were replaced by b-horror movies and science fiction thrillers. Not all were bad and some, like "The Day the Earth Stood Still" had 'real messages about war and stuff'.
Sending care packages to England: This seriously happened! America gave England tons of food and supplies during the war, yes, but after the war it was a hugely popular idea among Americans to send care packages to English families after the war. This was done mostly because England had to keep rationing food well into the 50's even with help from the U.S. government.