Okay ^_^. My apologies for the wait. Special thanks to PeaceGem for checking it over :D
Hetalia does not belong to me; it belongs to Hidekaz Himaruya, de-su-yo!
Probably more swearing because Romano is beginning to inhabit my brain.
"What do you mean?" Arthur asked, "When you said that they were causing trouble? What did they do?"
Alfred's expression didn't change, but remained fixed forwards, mouth stuck in a grimace. "Well...it's a long story..."
"Why do you do that every time you're going to tell tales of your old life?"
"I don't know. I never noticed it before. Anyway, do you want to know or not?"
"Yes!" Arthur nodded, "I want to know!"
"Fine." Alfred sat down on the wet grass, joined shortly by Arthur. "I'll tell."
And he did.
Alfred and Toris arrived in the mountains very out of breath, but somewhat satisfied that they had warned enough people or sent enough onwards to continue the job. Joining all of the other refugees, they flopped down, very out of breath and laughed. They had warned everyone, and while some refused to leave, most joined them into the mountains.
"Dude, we did brilliantly!" Alfred grinned, looking at Toris, who returned the gaze happily.
"I think so too. I feel strangely fulfilled. But," He looked away and grimaced, "I still can't stop thinking about my family. I miss them so much."
"I know, I know." Alfred returned, pulling Toris into a bone-crushing hug, trying to be comforting, "But as I said, your village isn't gone while you're alive. Now," He said, standing up, "I think that we should speak to these people. They don't know what's happening."
"A-are you sure?"
"Yeah. Now stand up!" He held out his hand, as if as a command, which was taken by the brunette, and they stood up together, beginning to address the crowd. There were a lot more people than Toris had expected. He felt a bit clammy and weak at the knees, but still he stayed standing.
Next to him, Alfred, feeling no fear at all, cleared his throat noisily. The general chatter died down, and the collective attention was shifted directly to him and Toris.
"Now, do we all know why we're here?" He began, voice raised. A few people nodded, but there were mostly murmurs in the crowd. "Well, the Alturisian army from the Alpha Aquilae corridor have recently arrived on Acamar and they've begun with southern Merga in their 'conquest', and we all know how they are with that."
There were a few titters here and there, but most people turned completely white. The Alturisian army were famous throughout the universe for their highly strategic and effective methods of conquering whole planets - either leaving them in complete tatters, enslaved for more colonies, or even destroyed. Acamar's army was fairly developed, but nowhere near the level of Altiris'.
"What are we going to do about it, then?" Someone yelled, "We've heard about what happened to other planets...and if they fell, then what chance do we have?"
Toris saw Alfred gulp and look down. This was very, very bad.
"Ah...I think that evacuating everyone is an excellent start."
"But what happens now?" A blonde young woman stood up, yelling. "We haven't got food! We haven't got water! We haven't even got adequate shelter, for god's sake!"
That did it. Panic reigned, people also stood up and began yelling. Babies and young children cried in panic, elder people pushed and screamed at the pair at the front. Toris shrank away in fright.
"Come on, Toris." Alfred said, putting a hand on his arm and helping him back to his side, straight and tall. "You're a warrior now, friend. You can't run from a group of people."
Toris considered. No, he couldn't. Standing up straight again, he tried to attract the attention of the crowd again, unsuccessfully.
Alfred sighed, before letting loose a fearsome roar, "SHUT UP! Listen to me!" There was silence again. Fights halted halfway through punches. "We can't even begin to consider beating the Alturisians if we can't even work together, for goodness' sake! Hell, if we continue like this, then we may as well just go outside and slit our own necks for them! Fighting causes trouble, and that's what they rely on. If we can begin to work together, forget our differences, then we have a pretty damned good chance. Now, do you want to save our planet?" There was a huge roar from the people again. "That. Is. Better. Are we going to make a resistance group?" Another shout.
"Alfred, are you absolutely sure?"
"Dude, I was born to do this. Don't doubt the hero!" He turned back, "Right! I need a few people with me now, please!"
There was no response whatsoever from the crowd. "Come on!" Toris yelled as well, "He needs people to help! Do you want to save your planet?"
Still no response. Minutes passed. Nobody moved or spoke.
"...Come on." Alfred said sadly, after waiting for what seemed like an eternity, and turned away.
"W-wait!" The pair snapped back and looked around for the speaker. It took a few seconds, but a dark-haired young man rose slowly. "I'll come."
"What? Are you serious?" This prompted a nod. "Well, come up, then!"
He almost bowed, but caught himself and trotted merrily up to the front to join Alfred and Toris. He wore a beige shirt and black belt, and his shocking green eyes shone with excitement and happiness.
"Name?"
"Antonio Fernandez Carriedo, sir." He nodded and grinned some more, producing a tomato from his pocket and biting into it.
"Anyone else?"
"Hrkk?" Another man hiccuped and raised his head. He had obviously been sleeping. "I'll...er...come too." He offered and got up slowly and stiffly. He also had brown hair and green eyes, but they didn't glitter as much as Antonio's. In fact, they were half-lidded and enormously tired.
"Are you sure? You looked like you were asleep."
"I was, but I picked up on every single bit of information. I'm Heracles Karpusi." He nodded and joined Antonio's side, refusing the tomato offered to him.
"We'll come too!" Two women with silver hair stood up and ran to the front as well, dragging a pouting blond man and a small boy that shook crazily along with them.
"Katyusha, Natalia, Feliks and Raivis." They offered as they approached Alfred and Toris.
"And me! Don't forget me!" A small boy dashed up with Raivis. "Raivis here can't go without me!"
"I-I can't?"
"Nope! I'm Peter! Peter Kirkland!"
Toris faultered, "Are you sure that we can take small boys with us?"
"Well...I'm not sure. I personally think the more the merrier, but he is only young."
Peter looked horrified and upset. "Please, sir. Please let me come!"
"O-okay. But keep yourself out of trouble."
Peter nodded. "I promise!" But he had his fingers crossed behind his back.
After they had all finished introducing themselves, Alfred turned to the people again. "That's it?" He questioned once more. This time, no-one stood forwards, so Alfred continued to speak. "All right. Thank you. We need all the help that we can get, and this is a nice little group of freedom fighters. We need you all to continue hiding here while we do our work, to save the citizens of our dear planet." He began to walk away, leading the small group behind him, deep into the mountains.
Toris was left, quaking a bit. Gathering up some courage, he began to talk again to the silent group. "Er...you might need to elect someone to take charge...get food, that sort of thing...Bye." He sprinted off in the opposite direction, leaving many, many people silent and confused.
"Look what you've bloody done! I'm all damned wet!" Arthur said, standing up and brushing himself off, "I need to get inside."
"Yes, I think so too." Alfred agreed. It wasn't comfortable in the slightest. He accepted the hand held out to him and hoisted himself to Arthur's level again, looking at him.
"You go inside. I'll put the telescope away."
"You're sure? I can help..."
"No." Arthur swiftly and bluntly refused, shaking his head, "I'll be fine, and I like it out here."
"Well...okay. Just don't get too cold." Alfred said, turning back to the house slowly, and stepping inside the door.
Arthur sighed contentedly. It was peaceful out here, very peaceful and tranquil. He could hear everything, he was alert. He shifted his footing and listened to the grass squidge beneath his feet like a bog. He looked up and saw stars glitter in the sky like...well...glitter. Across velvet. Yes, that was the sky. They looked like eyes. Alfred's eyes. Kind, and annoying, and caring, and-
"Stop digressing." He said to himself, "It's bad enough that you're still out here."
Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness.
Either way, he had to get the telescope back into the shed. He glanced at the wooden hut and bent down, snapping the legs shut, packing it all into itself. This took a shorter amount of time than he had anticipated, so he trailed to the shed and plonked the equipment inside, disturbing a few spiders. It was now that his friends chose to visit.
"Arthur!" One yelled gruffly from behind him, making him jump "Man, we've been looking for you for ages!"
"It's too late for this." Arthur replied, snapping around and looking at the trio in front of him, a hint of anger gracing his impressive eyebrows, "You should know better."
"But Arthur...you've known us for years! You should know by now our normal visiting times."
"I've known you long enough to know that you visit at the absolute worst times." He shot back furiously, "And I presume you're not going to leave me alone until tomorrow now?"
"Whoever said that?"
"You, effectively, looking back on how many times it's happened now. Go shoo now." He flicked his hands at them, "I don't need this."
"Aww, Arthur, you're such a spoilsport!"
Upstairs, Alfred was looking out the window at noises. It sounded like people speaking...or arguing. Shifting his gaze, he looked back down onto Arthur's spiky hair. He seemed to be talking to someone...but he couldn't see who. He couldn't see anyone at all. Arthur was talking to himself. And gesturing at thin air.
"What the...?" It was too late to question. Arthur was heading back inside, and a great wave of tiredness overtook him. He fell asleep as soon as he flopped onto the bed.
There was no need to wake up so early that day because it was a Saturday. Arthur slept well past eleven o' clock, and it was only the light now shining onto his face and the burning sensation it created on his eyes and cheeks that properly woke him up. He opened his eyes against it and found that he was sprawled sideways across the bed, sheets hopelessly tangled.
"Oh, bloody hell..." He propped himself up on his elbows and wriggled out of the strangulating web, grabbing some clothes.
Downstairs, Alfred was eating toast covered in strawberry jam. It was sweet, and he had woken up about three-quarters of an hour before. Hearing thumping above him, he yelled upstairs, asking if Arthur was alright.
"I'm fine-argh!" A particularly loud bang and a smattering of what sounded like books and a stream of choice expletives. It was quite impressive really, Alfred thought, turning back to his breakfast, that one could have such a varied vocabulary of insults, yet so few words to replace them with. He shrugged. It was the way of the earth, the one that he had learnt from his past few days here.
A second later, Arthur stamped noisily down the stairs huffing and strongly resenting his clumsiness, griping for tea and biscuits. Alfred smirked into his own coffee. The wonderful range of vibrant and exciting things the blond could talk about on a morning made him both laugh and coo inwardly. More sharp noises indicated that Arthur had found Alfred's...kind...contributions to the family's cupboards.
"What the bloody fuck is this?" Arthur said, marching into the dining room and holding up a bottle of instant coffee, "And why, pray tell, has it replaced the tea?"
"Hahaha! My friend-" He stood up and put his arm around the Englishman, who obviously struggled, "I thought you should begin to appreciate the heaven on earth that is called coffee, but is in reality pure gold."
"What on earth are you talking about?" He replied, pushing the taller man off his shoulder, "And what have you done with my parents?"
"I'm talking about this coffee. You need to try it. And your parents are out buying stuff. From a supermarket, I think." He nodded, pleased with himself.
"Probably because you just replaced all of our food with coffee. Or something like that. But anyway, you had better bloody drink all of this. And then pay us back."
"But first, try some, please?" Alfred gave him the puppy eyes. Damn, they were adorable, who could say no to those...?
"No, I-urgh..." He faltered, "Bloody fine. I'll try it. But I'm not agreeing to drinking it all for you."
The steaming mug was thrust into his hands as soon as he said "fine" and Alfred was sat in front of him grinning like a maniac. "Drink it." He pushed.
"Bloody hell, don't rush me!"
"You make it sound like you're an old man. Drink it now!"
Arthur stopped, and nodded, raising the mug to his lips and taking a sip. Alfred continued to stare relentlessly at him as if he was some fascinating object of interest at a damned museum! The world seemed to stand still and Arthur lowered the glass, thinking of what to say. Alfred waited silently for the verdict.
...
"Bloody hell, it's terrible!" He made a face and looked at him, "I mean, I'm not that fond of it."
Alfred's face fell drastically. "Dude, how can you not like it? It's pure, molten gold!"
"I think you've sadly mistaken the coffee for the tea. I'm not sure how that's possible, but you obviously have." He stood up, "I'm off to make some scones. If you want, you can join me, but maybe it'd be better if you didn't."
"Sure." Alfred agreed, expression not changing, hands raised. He lowered his voice slightly to continue; "I mean...your friends have had to save you from house fires caused by your cooking before, haven't they?"
"What did you say?"
"Oh, nothing, nothing! I'll just...go." He jumped up and left the house quickly, leaving Arthur standing in complete silence.
The day passed without much occurrence. Arthur managed to not burn the kitchen down, Alfred returned with an assortment of odd shirts and weird footwear and Arthur's parents came home happy. Arthur hid in his room when everyone returned, being slightly antisocial.
However, the day's ordinary-ness was shattered with a ringing of the doorbell.
Michelle went to answer it, more or less prepared for anyone who would want to call around at tea-time. Nothing could have prepared her for the four figures standing on the doorstep, wearing large hats and scarves that trailed round their faces, hiding all but their eyes.
"Hello..." She said, pausing to take in the bizarre people, "And what brings you here?"
"Hello, miss," One of them began, "We're here to ask some questions...do you mind if we step in?"
"Oh, no." She answered, oblivious, "Come in. In fact, we're having dinner right now, do you want to eat with us?"
This was completely and utterly unexpected. How many people would just let strangers walk in and have tea with them? It was unheard of! Until then. The four were completely taken aback at such a random act of kindness...and a gaping window of opportunity. But, they thought, wouldn't it be a bit stupid just to walk into someone's house of an instant invitation? Had information been leaked? Could this house really be home to axe-wielding maniacs or just murderers? This could attract attention, and the smallest of the four turned away, only to be forcefully herded back by a strong hand. The owner of the hand smiled pleasantly and accepted graciously..
"That'd be wonderful miss, but...are you sure? We don't want to interrupt anything."
"Oh, no! It's fine! Trust me! Just come in!" She ushered them all in quickly. The doorframe posed a challenge when they all tried to get through it at once, but eventually, they all filed into the dining room and sat where told to, around the smallish table. It was already a squash, and would no doubt become more of one when the rest of the house came and sat down. A yell came from the other room indicating that they would soon be joined.
"Arthur! Gerhart! Alfred! It's dinner time!"
The call was quickly heeded by Arthur, who slowly dragged himself upstairs to Alfred, took him by the arm, and led him downstairs like he had the day before. He nodded at his mother, didn't look at his father, and traipsed into the dining room, only to be confronted by four strange men, clad heavily in black. They looked at the pair of blonds, and they looked back, paling slightly. Then they bustled out of the room quickly, pushing Michelle back into the other room. Shutting the door, they rounded on her.
"Who are they?" Arthur pushed as soon as they were in silence.
"Who are who? And why did you push me back into here?"
Arthur sighed, "Those men in the other room. Please tell me, it's urgent." Indeed it was. He felt that he recognised...something...about them, and it wasn't a good feeling.
"They're men who want to ask questions."
"Oh, bloody hell," He turned away and smacked his face into his palms in frustration, "What, you just invited them in on a whim?"
"Don't talk to me like that, young man," She retorted to his attitude, "It's polite. There are certain things that we're all expected to do."
"What?" His voice spiralled, "Inviting random groups of men in off the street is something we're all expected to do? I think it's just stupid!"
"Stop there. Now you get in there and don't you dare make a fuss or there will be serious consequences." She pushed past him, opening the door and entering the other room angrily. Alfred backed into the corner, unwilling to get involved in a heated family argument. He had caused enough trouble turning up.
Minutes later, Arthur's breathing calmed and he looked up. "I guess we should go and sit down." He pondered, more to himself than to Alfred.
-o-
"So, what brings you here?" Michelle asked pleasantly to the four over a bowl of mussels in red wine, "You said you wanted to ask questions, didn't you?"
One of them looked up and swallowed, "Ah, yes. We're scientists from the police force, and..." He paused, "Hang on. Er, well..." That was stupid. The whole thing was supposed to stay secret. Three other legs struck him at various points on his shin and his eyes watered with pain. Recovering, he regained his composure, "Yes. Well, before we say anything, this must stay a secret. We just need to know what is happening. In short, our instruments detected unidentified disturbances at midnight on Wednesday outside your house. We were wandering if you saw or heard anything."
Arthur and Alfred turned completely white. Michelle looked at them both, "You were both here then, weren't you?"
Arthur had to lie, and fast. He had been concocting many lies recently, and he feared that at some point that they might contradict each other, he had to be cautious. First thing, he thought, was to get Alfred out of the whole thing. He could complicate things so much.
"I was the only one in the house on Wednesday, and I didn't see anything." He shrugged.
"Then when did Alfred come in?" Gerhart said pushily.
"Thursday after school. We thought we should celebrate finishing our maths with a few days around."
"Right..." The man said, "Well, has anyone been feeling odd recently? Have any electrical devices gone funny?"
"No." Arthur said, giggling nervously, "Are you sure your instruments were functioning properly?"
"Yes, we're sure." He confirmed. "Because they went crazy when we walked past your drive this afternoon."
"Er, potatoes?" Alfred offered, trying to loosen the tension. He stood up and passed the colander over. Loud beeps were emitted from the black bag down on the floor.
There was silence. Everyone looked silently at Alfred with wide eyes. Arthur was screaming with frustration and fury inside, he had just completely given the game away. He thought of the one last method of getting rid of them at his disposal.
"Ha! We've all finished, have we not? I made something earlier that I think everybody'll like." He left the room, and a small clatter alerted everyone that he had picked up a dish. He walked back through to the room and placed it down on the table.
The plate was covered in scones.
I'll save you for what comes next ^_^ It's too graphic. Sorry for the wait, I was away, and I would have had this posted earlier if I hadn't been gone XD
Anyway, hope you enjoyed!