A/N *In the end, guilt overcame me for uploading a stupid note instead of a full chapter, so I decided to procrastinate on my reading and get up the real chapter 8. I'm a pro at cramming anyways. :3 English teachers love me and hate me at the same time. xD Btw, I'll delete the Author Note after I finish reading Sense and Sensibility. It's ugly. x; *

Ch 8

"Goodbye."

The Atlantic Ocean pressed down on the trigger. Eyes narrowed, Alfred grabbed on to Arthur and rolled out of the way. America's glasses slipped off his nose, sliding along the floor with a loud clatter. The jolt caused the older nation to stir slightly.

"What the hell, America? Run!"

Alfred grinned down at Arthur, "What do you think? I'm gonna save you, England! Because I'm the hero!"

Reaching out, he grasped his glasses. Putting them on, Alfred turned towards the Atlantic Ocean, Arthur's pistol in his hand.

"You… idiot…" Arthur breathed, before slipping back into unconsciousness.

Ignoring him, Alfred watched his opponent carefully. For some reason, seeing England so badly beat up really angered the young nation. His heart was fired, and there was no more of the naïve country who tried to start a world summit by munching on hamburgers. Instead, there was a true leader. As the Atlantic Ocean prepared to shoot, Alfred's clear vision could see the bunching of the muscles in his chest. Suddenly launching himself to the right, he flung himself upon the larger enemy, deliberately driving him away from the insensible Arthur.

"What the--?" the Atlantic Ocean asked, figuring out Alfred's plan, "Why do you put yourself in so much danger for him?"

"None of your business," Alfred responded, and bringing up the butt of the pistol, hit the Atlantic Ocean on the temple as hard as he could. His adversary staggered and roared, throwing the lithe country off of him. Alfred skidded along the floor, his vision getting blurry. Not yet, he thought, forcing himself to his feet. His foe also appeared unsteady. Whoever won the last blow won all.

The Atlantic Ocean seemed to realize this as well. He crouched down and, in one last amazing feat of strength, launched himself towards Alfred. Unwilling to kill, America shot once, catching his opponent in the shoulder. The body of water bellowed in pain, but kept on coming. He collided with Alfred, bringing both of them down. Also summoning the last of his vigor, Alfred focused on that wounded shoulder, shooting rapidly until the force of the bullets lifted his foe bodily off him. The Atlantic Ocean slammed into the ground next to him, twitched one last time, then moved no more. Satisfied that Arthur was no longer in danger, Alfred finally allowed the raging blackness to overcome him.

-xxx-

He awoke to worried whispering.

"He pushed himself too far…" Feliciano crossed his arms, sighing. He was sitting on a chair, leaning on Romano. "He should've fallen unconscious a long time before he did, and I think the added stress had some negative effects on his body."

"Since when have you been this smart?" Romano grumbled, "You change so much when I'm not around."

"Germany taught me some medical stuff~" the other twin responded, earning himself a pout and lecture from Romano to stop hanging out with those kinds of people. Arthur stood to the side of them, freshly bandaged and watching with a slight smile on his face. Suddenly, he glanced towards Alfred, who was attempting to prop himself up on the bed. His lips parted slightly, and he rushed over, forcing the younger nation down.

"Don't push yourself!" Arthur shouted, his previous I'm-an-old-gentleman-watching-two-cute-rascals-arguing demeanor gone. The previously mentioned rascals exchanged glances, grinning at each other. England was acting… different.

"Fine, fine," America moped, "Where am I?"

"Japan's house."

"Eehh~~?!" Alfred shouted, "Then what's Italy doing here? Shouldn't you guys be heading towards EurAsia?"

"Well…" Feliciano rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish smile, "When you guys stopped responding on the radio, Japan made me turn back to check on you. When I found you, he ordered me to return to his house and take care of you two. He and Korea are still going to EurAsia. They found out that the Indian Ocean is there."

Alfred trembled. With their forces so diminished, he had no idea how the North attack group would fare. And he was the reason it was so few in number in the first place. Both Arthur and Feliciano had to save him. Some hero he was.

"Japan…" he muttered.

Arthur watched his friend. He thought back to when he found out what Kiku had done. There had been much sputtering before he had finally regained his composure. He had never regretted the Anglo-Japanese alliance, but this was going a bit too far. Of course it had been a lie when he insisted to Kiku that he had formed it only for himself. That Japan… he was still relatively new to world affairs, but he put so much on his own shoulders.

"I have to go help him!" Alfred shouted suddenly and, attempting to get out of his bed, got tangled in the sheets and fell royally on his face.

"You aren't in any position to be helping anyone, aru." Wang Yao strode into the room, his left arm in a sling. He grimaced down at Alfred and, throwing something into the tangled mass of blankets where America's arms were supposed to be, said, "Japan told me to give this to you. He said that you and England might enjoy playing it while you two are recovering, aru."

Alfred glanced down at the small box that had been flung into his arms. In bold flaming letters, the cover read Dynasty Warriors 6.

A/N *I love that game. xD There was no way I could've resisted mentioning it. :3 *

"But…" Alfred glanced at China. Though the game looked tantalizingly fun, he knew he couldn't play when a friend was in danger. He could feel his sapphire eyes widening as the tears began to swim in them.

"Don't give me that look, aru!" Wang Yao shied away from Alfred's puppy eyes. The immortal nation sighed, shaking his head, "You know, America, you're always worried about yourself being the hero. I think what you don't notice is that the rest of us are strong too, aru. Japan is my boasted-about little brother. I think he's more capable than you give him credit for. Trust in him, aru."

"I think he's right," Arthur added, "Japan has never let me down before."

Alfred fell silent. It was true that in his conceited thoughts about himself being a hero, he had never really seen what the other nations were capable about. He glanced down regretfully at sorry state he was in, looking more like a deformed ghost than a hero. And no matter how small and frail-seeming Kiku was, Alfred knew he couldn't never imagine the Oriental country losing. Yes, he should have more faith in Kiku… he needed to have more faith in Kiku. He gripped Dynasty Warriors 6 tightly, and turning to Arthur, shouted, "Let's beat this game, and when Japan comes back, I'll play him on versus mode in Dynasty Warriors 4 and kick his butt!"

And, in his jet, Kiku sneezed violently. Must be the allergies brought on by my old age, he mused.

A/N *Hope you liked it~ Please review! It's what keeps me going. And also, I'm taking advantage of my sort-of-hiatus to post a few polls on my profile about future chapters. The most IMPORTANT question is: Would you like to follow around characters while Alfred and Arthur recover? This would mean that I would take a break from our two healing main characters and write about Japan's battle, the West assault (who you guys probably already forgot about. xD), and other countries, both recovering and fighting. Please, PLEASE ANSWER THIS! and if you're too lazy to go to my polls, than post it in your review. Thank you so much~~ -Bows- *

A/N *And about that last corny joke, I'm pretty sure about 99% of you know where it's from, but just to make sure, in Asian cultures, it's said people sneeze when others talk about them. Yeah.*