Chapter 4

July 4th, C.E. 2063

America's Independence Day.

But Alfred's absence was very unusual. The young nation was always present in the meeting even at his birthday. Although after the meeting ended he would storm off to the place of his party, inviting all other members of the meeting, including Arthur and even Ivan. While the former mostly skipped the party, the latter always came. Well Arthur came, sometimes, and it was usually not long, unlike Ivan.

He had used a lot of reasons just to avoid the party – works, errands and other domestic matters – but the truth was that it was still hard for him to forget that day, when he let go of America. He was still bitter about it, though it had lessened over the years… but he could never forget it completely.

Now all nations in the World sat inside the meeting room with the exception of Al. His seat was empty and no one dared to sit there, for one or many reasons.

Arthur scanned the room, and noticed one other seat empty. Sparing his watch a glance, the Brit frowned. It was 10.15 a.m., and the meeting itself had started 15 minutes ago. That empty seat belonged to Matthew, and he wasn't usually late to the meeting – in fact he was one of the first ones to arrive there. So where could he be?

And Francis' expression was getting even worse with each passing minutes, Arthur noticed. It was rather strange; Francis wouldn't wear that kind of expression except in critical moments, so what had happened to the Canadian?

This week's meeting took place in Osaka, Japan, and so the black-haired youth was the host of the meeting. And like every other meetings, the host was given the first chance to speak and to open the meeting.

Kiku sat on his seat silently, but he was fidgeting every now and then. Arthur noticed… it was like he was still waiting for Al to show up. But the Briton knew that the chance of that was very small to none at all… and when he was about to ask Kiku to start, the Japanese finally decided to stand up, commanding everyone's attention.

"Um, can I have everybody's attention please?" Kiku's voice issued from the end of the room. When all heads turned to his direction, his faced paled slightly and he cleared his throat. "Uh, okay. Alfred-san and Matthew-san are not here by the moment… but I suppose… can I ask one of you to help to take the notes for them both?"

"I'll do it." Arthur's voice issued from the other end of the room, and paid no heed the heads that turned to his direction. He was going to do this for Al and Matthew, God, so why were they staring at him? After few seconds passed and they still hadn't looked back, the Brit raised his eyebrows and half-growled, "what?" And when he did so those who had been staring at him immediately looked down and pretended to scribble some notes, or few that glanced at the clock.

"So," Kiku began again after they all returned to the normal state. "Our main issue in this week's meeting, as we all know, is the wars and commotions. It's been going on for too long to be ignored… and although I know that most of you don't have any connections with the nations that are facing them, I think it's necessary for us to help them." Kiku paused, drawing a breath. He eyed the table for a while, trying to focus on how to say the next thing.

"What's the next thing, aru?" Yao asked, eyeing the unusual behavior of the young nation.

"Ah, yes." Kiku coughed and then sat back down. "I don't know whether if all of you that are inside this room knew already… but… our next topic - important or not I have no idea - is America."

Gasps could be heard from around the room, and Arthur threw a quick glance. Most of them had a surprised look, even the usually stoic Berwald had a shocked glint behind his glasses. Francis, he'd been wearing that grim expression ever since the beginning of the meeting, and it was even worse now.

Ivan, on the other hand, was still smiling that same smile he usually used… even Toris who sat beside him was shuffling away bit by bit. It wasn't that maniacal, sardonic smile he'd saw when someone pissed him off… and then he suddenly turned to face Arthur.

"Hm? What's wrong, Arthur?" Ivan asked, still smiling.

Surprised because he was found staring, the Briton coughed and shook his head. "Ah, it's nothing, Ivan."

"Uh, people? Can I have your attention back, please?" Kiku called, effectively silencing the whispers. "So as I was saying-" He was cut off by a rather loud slam.

Everyone turned their heads to the entrance door to see a flustered Matthew standing there, panting heavily. He was sweaty – which wasn't really strange considering the hot summer – but his expression was unusual. While he usually had the calm look, it was replaced by a panicked one now.

Francis stood up and walked over to the Canadian, grabbing him by his shoulder. "Mathieu, are you okay?"

"Y-Yes, I'm f-fine, Francis," he stammered, looking frantically for the host of the meeting. He gave up one second after, and bolted upright. "G-Guys, y-you – oh whatever – turn on the TV! Turn it on, quick!"

"Matthew, what's wrong?" Arthur asked gently, trying to calm the Canadian down.

"It-it's-" He shook his head, closing his eyes shut. "Ar-Arthur, A-Alfred, he's-" Matthew was cut off by the rather blaring voice of the TV.

Kiku fumbled with the remote clumsily since he was also shocked, and managed to lower the volume. There, on the wide screen was a chaotic situation, masses of people running to every direction. The reporter just stood there, covering his ears and seemingly yelling into his mike.

"Kiku, find another channel that's using English, I can't understand what he's talking about!" Arthur commanded, which the Japanese followed immediately.

"Y-Yes, Arthur-san, immediately."

When he did find the channel where the reporter was using English, everyone in the room clamped their mouth shut. Even Ivan stopped smiling and only stared expression-less at the screen.

Few others, such as Matthew, Kiku, Francis and of course Arthur gawked; the look on their faces of blatant horror.

"I'm standing right here in the middle of the chaotic mess in front of the White House – there's really nothing I can explain now, except that this is the result of the previous shocking event… which may I say people, is bad. Horribly bad."

"What in the name of God happened?!" The Briton almost yelled, but held himself back. This was not the correct time to get angry – the situation was already tense. "Matthew, what happened exactly? The reason why you came running into here."

The Canadian drew a breath, and then tried to stop his quivering. He eventually stopped, and that's when he stood up from his crouching position. "Alfred's boss – America's president was killed. Shot down above the podium when he was giving speech on the very day of its independence."

The room became eerily silent, every nation deep in their own thoughts. It was Yao who broke the silence. "…Killed, aru?"

"…Yes, killed. Dead, added with the fact that he fell right in front of Al's own eyes."

Francis gasped quietly, and whispered, "mon dieu, that must be very terrifying for l'Amerique… not just Alfred, I mean…"

Arthur shot him a wry glance, "you won't even know the half of it, Francis. And I mean it, a lot."

"Uhm, guys?" Kiku called, pointing to the screen, "I think you all should see this."

"…And here is the short playback of what had happened before this mess –"

The President was standing on the podium, orating in a way that they could say blazing. Alfred stood at the end of the row, smiling brightly and as proud as ever. And then a single gunshot was heard, and not a second later the President disappeared from the podium. Silence followed immediately, and Al's face turned pale white, his jaw hanging open in a shocked look.

The President of the United States was shot down, killed; in front of his very own eyes.

Then it all changed into a chaos when one person screamed. Masses of people began to move, slowly at first, then gradually entering the panicked level. Screams, yells, pushing and pulling; they were all mixed into one. The security guards couldn't really do anything to stop that amount of people rushing everywhere.

In a flash before the recording ended, the nations could see a blurred image near the podium, moving too fast to be captured by the camera; and then the recording ended.

"That's all that we've managed to record... but even if it's not enough to satisfy you, we hope that at least you know of America's current condition, on the very day of its independence."

The nations were still silent, unable to speak or pretty much anything else. The only audible sound inside the room was Francis' gentle soothing for the Canadian.

Kiku collected himself again, and coughed to get everyone's attention. "Now people, I think it's clear what our main issue should be, yes?"

"Gotcha agree with you there, man." Gilbert replied.

"We can't let Alfred stay that way, da?" Ivan added.

And so they prepared themselves for one of the most important meetings up to date, as it concerned Alfred – America – very much.

****

Alfred sat on the couch inside his usual office inside the White House, body still trembling as he buried his face in his palms. His Boss was just killed… shot, when he was giving his speech in front of the people!

Well, when he thought about it again, within that amount of people the chance of someone having a firearm was big enough… but still, the securities could've checked and stopped them, right?

…Except that one of the securities had let them in.

He quickly grabbed his private phone and called one of his – drinking – senior inside the military… Colonel Douglas Hunter.

"Huh? …Yeah, get me to the Colonel – what? He's busy? I don't care how, just get me through to him! From… tell him the brat need to know something. Immediately."

"'ullo." The gruff reply came from the other side.

"Hey, Doug." Alfred greeted curtly.

"Whaddya want?" The Colonel answered, "I'm busy dealing with those bastards."

"That's why I'm calling you… listen. I have a question here."

He could hear the Colonel shuffling himself into a better position. "Spit it out, kid."

Alfred grabbed a pen and a small paper, and began, "listen, d'you have the list of the securities that are supposed to guard the field today? Their names, or whatever you have."

"I have 'em, lad. How should I send it t'you? Manually is impossible, remember that. All men's alert is high after that incident."

Thinking about it for a moment, Al answered, "how 'bout tonight, 8 o'clock? At your usual bar?"

"That'll do. Anythin' else you need or want to tell?"

Capping his pen, the American smiled slightly. "That's all, Colonel. Thanks for your help."

"Anytime, brat."

After the telephone line closed, Alfred slumped into the couch and sighed. Boy, it had been a very exhausting day… and he still had to take care about lots of other things,

Now that he paused for a moment, another different matter came to his mind. There was a World Meeting today, and he didn't attend it because of today's event. Surely Matthew would know, yes? It was rare for him not to attend the meeting… but after several consequent times skipping that wasn't rare anymore.

****

Hours later Alfred found himself lazily eyeing his people inside his usual bar. Really, even after such tragic event that morning, could people just forget things like that so easily? He shook his head. Men changed year after years, and even if he was still young compared to other nations such as Arthur, he knew what had happened, and what would continue to happen. It was life, and what could he do to change such powerful thing?

A voice interrupted him from his thoughts, and the American looked up to see his superior glaring down to him. "Hey there, Doug." He slurred a bit, alcohol beginning to take its toll.

"'ere." The standing man slapped a brown envelope on the table. "That's all I could get for ya."

"Ah." Al replied rather unintelligently, nodding slowly. "Thanks a bunch, Colonel. Care for a drink or two?"

"No can do, brat." Douglas huffed, rubbing his temples. "Still need to do more works, preparations for tomorrow."

The young nation nodded, and waved his hand at the retreating man. But he felt like he still had something to tell the Colonel… he just couldn't figure what it was. Ah, whatever.

Alfred returned his attention to the bar, taking a sip from his glass. He'd had too much today… and although he knew alcohol couldn't finish his problem, at least it could relax him a bit. Make him forget about the current things. Maybe, just maybe… that was the main reason for people to drink – to forget their problems, even for just a moment…

A/N: Okay, so this is pretty much a transition chapter and HARD to write. It's hard and made my head dizzy, so if there's a lot of grammar mistakes, I'm sorry…

Anyway, on to the next. As far as I know Denmark, Norway and Holland haven't got their human names… right? So I've got their names, but I need your opinions too… Denmark: Vilhelminus Baunsgaard; Norway: Johann Brudtland (he's a guy, right?); and Holland: Ruud van Marijnen.

Anyone have better names or suggestion? Please tell me, I'd appreciate it a lot if you'd help :)

…speaking about it, Hetalia's official movie will be out around June, yes?