Author's note: BOO! I'M BACK! Only explanation for why this is later than normal is the usual author one: Life happens.

PS: I had to give senior convocation in front of the entire high school community, because 'it's our school tradition and you won't graduate otherwise!' and guess what I wrote my 15 minute speech on:

Hetalia. Actually my speech is titled, 'All About APH America'

I even show them the first episode, where you see them in a world conference~

Needless to say, I'm hella proud ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Warning 9: Shit ton of continuity errors, so I'll try my best to solve in a timely and orderly fashion. I hope.

Disclaimer: Nope. Unfortunately I still don't own anything. Or else it'd be all about my bae APH America.


CHAPTER III:

"And you feel a weird familiar feeling too?" I sit up.

He nods.

"What the fuck," I say, the situation slowly sinking in.

He knows what I mean. He knows what I mean. He knows what I mean.

I'm not alone.

He snorts. I raise an eyebrow.

He shakes his head, smiling. "It's just so surreal. I mean we already look freakishly alike, we both don't seem to remember anything from 5 years ago, and you just feel-" he waves his hands in the air towards me, "-familiar, I guess. I- I can't put my finger on what seems familiar- but it just does."

I nod. Something about being here with Matt... It feels like I've known him all my life.

Who knows, I just might have.

"So I'm not the only one."

"No," he smiles at me, "We're in this together."

"It's too weird to be coincidence," I remark.

Matt stops smiling. "That's true too."

We both look away.

This brings up so many possibilities. There must be some sort of connection… what if we are here because of this...?

I focus on the rails that made up the bed's head board. The artificial lighting made bars shine, and I could see my distorted reflection frowning back at me.

I look back at Matt.

His small frown makes my chest hurt.

"So… what have you been doing these past 5 years?" I suddenly ask, trying to lighten up the mood.

He looks up, surprised.

"I-I own a small bakery in Ottawa," he answers softly.

I raise an eyebrow, tilting my head. "A baker?"

Matt narrows his eyes, crossing his arms. "W-What's wrong with that?"

I shake my head. "Nothing, I just imagined you being a lumberjack or something like 'cause of those big guns you have there."

Matt's face reddens, uncrossing his arms unconsciously as he splutters, "B-big g-guns?!"

"You know-" I gesture towards him, "-your arms. You look strong." I smirk. "But you're probably not as strong as me."

Matt rolls his eyes. "What about you? A garbage man?"

"I'm a police officer over in a local station in DC," I say in a proud voice.

Matt raises an eyebrow. "How am I not surprised?" he teases.

This time, I roll my eyes.

"So what? You beat up the bad guys all in the name of justice?"

"So what if I do," I mumble, not meeting his gaze.

Matt bursts out laughing. "Y-you fight in- ha- the n-name of j-justice?! W-wow -ha- I can't b-believe you- That's so lame- ha-"

"S-shut up! It's just a dream I had ever since I was a kid-" I stop, frowning.

Matt sobers up. We both look down again.

Matt quietly speaks up. "What do you think we were like when we were kids?"

I shrug. It wasn't as if I hadn't imagine what my childhood could have been like.

Some of my dreams alluded to them, memories of strange people and even stranger lands all blurring into an unedited movie seen through a child's innocent eyes.

They were full of running around in big green fields and lying down on the cool grass. If I just closed my eyes I could see the sunlight filtering through the tall grass... the birds chirping… the breeze playfully ruffling my hair... and a man holding out his hand… 'let's go home' he said...

Sometimes it was of nights spent gazing at the brilliant constellations, counting all the stars with my naked eye, squinting to see if I could count more… the grasshoppers chirping… and conversing with a strange friend…

Sometimes is was of simple afternoons spent playing with action figure and reading comics, my elbows and knees chafing against the scratchy carpet… the sunlight filtering through my windows… the dust mites dancing… and smile gracing my lips…

Sometimes it was of frosty winter days, full of big snowball fights followed up by warm cups of hot chocolate and tasty s'mores… wrapped around the warmth of the toasty fires and the comfort of friends and family laughing with me… the arm of familiar man slung over my shoulder... his violet eyes smiling at me…

Who knows.

Matt interrupts my thoughts. "Do you think we might have been neighbors?"

I snort. "We were probably cousins. Hell, you could even pass off as my brother if it weren't for your weird Canadian accent."

Matt turns red again. "My- my accent isn't weird, yours is!"

"Suuuuuure," I drawl.

He rolls his eyes again.

A few minutes pass before he speaks up again, "Do you think- do you think the others are same too?"

I look upwards. "Maybe?" I shrug, "I don't know."

It would just confirm my suspicions if they are though.

The lights suddenly flicker. "10 minutes until curfew," a disembodied voice speaks out.

"What the fuck?!" I exclaim, my hands gripping the edge of the bed. Matt looks completely calm, waving me off.

"It's normal, it just means that it's almost time for bed."

"Bedtime?" I yawn, "I guess it is." I lie back down on the bed, placing my glasses onto the nightstand. Looking up at the slowly dimming lights, I speak up again.

"Y'know, I just realized we aren't wearing shoes."

"Yeah, but that's the least of our worries now."

"I suppose that's why the floors are so well-heated."

Matt snorts.

"Also, it could be to prevent us from escaping."

Matt keeps quiet.

I roll over to my side. "Where are the bathrooms?" I ask, trying to ease the atmosphere.

"We literally went there on our way back, Al."

"Still, you're like the master navigator of halls, I don't even know where half the shit in this place is."

"Well, this is technically your first day, so there is no way you would where anything is. I'll show it to you tomorrow, it's almost curfew time, remember? And don't tell me you have pee now. I told you to finish up your business there."

"I know, I know. It's just-" I yawn again, "I'm still sorta curious about this place."

I bet you 5 bucks he's shaking his head now.

"Oh come on, don't tell me you aren't curious."

His fuzzy shape moves, probably to face me. "Yeah, but I'm not suicidal."

"Don't tell me none of you tried breaking one of these 'rules'. Whatever the hell the 'rules' even are."

"The curfew one is really the only one that's explicit. Other than the occasional times the scientists take us to do who-knows-what, they don't really interact with us or tell us to do anything."

"And y'all just accept it."

"Well the doors lock after curfew time," he adds helpfully.

"... That makes sense I guess. Wait, so you have tried it before," I say smugly.

"Really Al?"

"What? You just said 'how could I ever dare to step a toe out of line', and now you're confessing in trying to break out."

"I'm surprised you haven't."

"I would, but I'm not suicidal."

"Again, really Al?"

"Wait… this means the doors lock around the 10 minute curfew time?"

"I guess."

"But what if you have to pee?"

"Well if you have to pee, well tough luck, you're going to have to wait until the next day."

"This happened to you, didn't it," I tease.

"... Shut up."

A few moments pass before I pipe up. "I have a shit ton of questions to ask, but can't figure out what to ask first."

"Makes sense, I guess."

It's more than that though. Weird as it may sound, but I don't really want to escape. There's the weird sense of familiarity and I don't know, I just don't think I should leave. That's what scares me the most. I feel as though there is some sort of purpose for me to be here, I mean duh, that's why people are kidnapped. But I feel as though I need to stay and figure out what that is.

I suppose it does sound like some twisted form of Stockholm syndrome.

"I want to know what's happening, but for some reason, I don't want to leave," I confess quietly.

I freeze. I don't know what made me confess.

A few beats pass.

Fuck, he probably thinks I'm insane.

"Me too..." Matt whispers back. I relax again.

He knows what I mean. He knows what I mean. He knows what I mean.

I'm not alone.

"Well, we'll figure out all this shit tomorrow," I say, louder this time, "I need some sleep in order to function. After all, y'all will be helpless without the hero's help," I say jokingly.

"... You're really weird, you know that?"

"Aww, but you love me anyway."

This time, we both freeze.

The disembodied voice cuts through again. "It is curfew time. All lights will turn off now." And then everything goes dark.

"I don't know about that Al," Matt says softly, "but I feel as though I once did… and maybe I can again."

I stare into the darkness. I suppose he was right, hell, I shared his sentiments.

"I get it." I reply simply, "But no homo though," I add on, "I'm open-minded, but you seem more like a bro than a hoe."

Matt snorts again. "Whatever you say Al. You were the one complimenting my 'big guns' earlier."

"Just because I'm not tapping it, doesn't mean I can't appreciate. I have eyes, y'know."

"Yeah, yeah. Go to sleep, Mr. Hero."

I snort. "G'night Matt."

"Good night Al."

I close my eyes…

So, I've been kidnapped, met a bunch of strangers who don't really feel like strangers, somehow survived one day in this ridiculous white place...

… it's dark…

I still don't how I'm gonna escape, or even if I want to. I want to find out why we're here, hell I want to figure out what is behind those locked doors.

I want to stay with them longer…

… and nice…


... I open eyes, recoiling at the sight of bright lights. "What the fuck! Why's it so bright?!"

"Good morning to you too," I hear Matt groggily say.

"Shuuuut uuuuup."

"You're the one who started it."

"Ugh," I groan, slowly sitting up and patting the nightstand for my glasses. After finding them, I put them and the world gets a lot clearer. Matt's sitting up too, rubbing his eyes. His hair's a mess, his blonde curls sticking up everywhere. I snort at the sight.

"What?" Matt says, his face scrunching up in a confused expression. I shake my head.

"Nothing really… it's just you're not having the best hair day."

Matt pouts. "Shut up."

I grin.

Suddenly, our stomachs grumble at the same time. Matt and I look at each other.

And suddenly burst out laughing. I double over while Matt falls back onto the bed.

"L-let's go get- ha- some -ha- some food," I say, still chuckling. Matt nods in agreement, unable to speak between his giggles. When we finally calm down, Matt stuffs his glasses onto his face and stands up to tidy up his bed. I look at the mess on my bed.

Nah, I'll clean up later.

I stretch out my limbs, a pleasant tingle running through my spine with every satisfying crack. I bend over and touch my toes and stretch up again, my body tensing and clenching with the motion. I do a couple more stretches, my body falling into the rhythm automatically. After a few more, I relax.

I sniff my clothes. Slightly sweaty, but it'll last the day. "Hey, what about clothes?"

Matt turns to face me, finished up with fixing up his bedspreads. He tilts his head to the side, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, do we have spare clothes or anything? Although I don't really care for clothes," I tug the white t-shirt, "It'd be great if we had a spare."

Matt waves me off. "Oh we do. The carbon copy of this all-whites-and-greys outfit. It's under your bed."

"Under my bed- dude why didn't you say so earlier?!"

Matt rubs the back of his neck, "I-I forgot?" he sheepishly says, "There's more stuff down there. Toiletries, towels, and all that stuff are already in bathroom as you saw yesterday, but there are some extra down there. The spare clothes should be there too."

I drop down and look under the bed to see a large box. Pulling the box out, I open to see that Matt is right, there was everything there. Well, all general items.

"Except shoes."

Matt shakes his head fondly, crouching down to pull out his own. "Come on, let's head to bathrooms before we miss breakfast too. I think they already gave the announcement, because we woke up after the lights turned on."

"Y'know Matt, it would be nice if you just told me about all of this before."

"W-well," he splutters, "It's the first time I've had a roommate." He looks down, biting his lip, "I don't know how to handle all of this."

Great. Way to be a jerk Al.

I clap his shoulder, causing him to pitch forward. He pouts, rubbing his shoulder. "Relax dude, just joking. C'mon, let's go, I'm starving."

"Oh really? I couldn't tell."

And the snarky Matt is back.

I roll my eyes. "Whatever you say Matt," I mock him, "Let's go."


Matt and I walk into the cafeteria completely refreshed and reenergized.

Heh. I wish.

Somehow Matt and I ended up getting a toothpaste fight, resulting in us having to change our clothes twice. He has surprisingly good aim too, causing me to also have to shower twice. Said some shit about how he got practice from frosting one to many maple cookies.

He went quiet after that.

We left our clothes in the weird chute in the bathroom that Matt said was some sort of laundry chute. Whatever man, it looked weird as hell. Like it sucked the clothes out of my hands. Also, apparently all the stuff would just be cleaned and put into our room.

Like that's not creepy at all.

Grabbing some form of breakfast, All-American breakfast for me and stack of pancakes for Matt, we make a beeline to our table- damn I've been here for a day and I'm already calling it our table- and plop down onto our seats, dropping the trays onto the table.

"Hey guys!" I say, waving my hand.

"Hey Alfie and Mattie!" Feli replies, waving excitedly back.

Lovino just rolls his eyes and grunts a greeting.

Ivan smiles, but his eyes are still cold when he turns to face me.

"Hello Alfred, Matt," Kiku says, snapping my attention away from Ivan.

Ludwig just nods his head in acknowledgement.

"Yo!" Gilbert yells, food spitting out his mouth as he grins. Ludwig rolls his eyes, and smacks a napkin onto his face.

"Chew and swallow before you talk idiot," he says, and Gilbert's words are swallowed by the napkin.

Francis shakes his head, watching their odd interaction before turning towards us, his lips turning up into a sly smile. "Hello there darlings," he purrs. Arthur rolls his eyes and shoves him, causing him to pitch forward and nearly hit his breakfast.

"Dear me! Arthur you brute, you nearly made my beautiful face be stained," he says dramatically.

Arthur just rolls his eyes again, "Shut up frog. Besides it would have been an improvement for your face," he sneers.

Francis gasps. "How dare you- you-"

Ludwig cuts him off before he could continue, "Will you two just be quiet for once," he groans, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Francis and Arthur glare at each other before turning to face opposite directions.

They're like 5-year olds.

Shaking my head, I turn to dig into my heavenly breakfast. The amazing smell of bacon, eggs and toast wafts into my nose, and I could just taste in my mouth.

Yum, yum, yum, delicioso.

I close my eyes, take a bite and nearly moan.

Damn whoever made this bacon is a godsend.

I open my eyes to see the table staring at me.

"Wha?" I ask, my mouth still full with the heavenly food. All of their faces are red, even Matt's. I swallow, raising an eyebrow. "You guys good?"

Arthur splutters, "O-of course we are! Why would we not be!"

I raise both eyebrows, "Ok then. Whatever you say Art."

"Art?! What the bloody hell- how dare you-" he says, still red and flapping around his arms. Francis and Gilbert snicker while Matt and Feli giggle. Ivan's eyes grow brighter and his smile broadens. Even Kiku, Ludwig and Lovino look like they're trying hard not to smile.

I hold out my hands placating, "Ok, ok calm down. I won't call you that. I just- why don't you just eat your weird British breakfast thing."

"Excuse me? My weird British breakfast thing?" he grits out.

Shit.

"I-I mean, uh, no judgement," this is a train wreck "but you're literally drinking leaf water and some weird hard biscuit."

Fucking shit. Seriously Al, gotta work on the head-to-mouth filter.

He explodes, turning even redder, "You blasted Americans- think you're all that whereas all you do is always butcher the language and speak with your mouths full- no proper decency I tell you-"

"Excuse me?!" I drop my fork and knife, and stand up "You wanna fight?"

"Excuse me," Kiku starts, holding up his arms in placating gesture. "Please, we should avoid-" the rest of his sentence is drowned out by Arthur.

"See? Such atrocious grammar, what the bloody hell is 'wanna'-"

"Well, it's called American English, which is a legit thing-"

"American English? Pah, you call that English?"

"Ah, you two bicker like an old-married couple~" Francis drawls.

"Shut up Francis," we say at the same time, not even bothering to look at him.

"I talk the way I wanna, it's a free country-"

"Well pardon me for bursting your bubble, but we are currently not in America-"

"I think everyone should calm down, no?" Ivan says, a cold smile plastered onto his lips and his head tilted to the side.

"I'm well aware, thank you very much. But I can't bring myself to give two fucks for you stupid pretentious English-"

"Pretentious?! Pretentious he says! Listen here boy-"

Gilbert just cackles like a madman.

"Shut up!" Ludwig yells, "You two are behaving like children!"

Arthur and I ignore him.

In the background I could hear Feli prod Lovino, pestering him about, 'They're speaking Italian, no? Why are they talking about English, they're not even speaking it now,' to which Lovino just shrugs.

"GUYS!"

We immediately shut up, turning around see Matt fuming.

"Will you guys just stop fighting for a second? People are staring," he scolds. Looking around, I notice that a bunch of the tables are staring at us.

The both of us go quiet, Arthur looks away and I sit down again.

The rest of the lot gape at Matt.

"Thank you," Matt says, before noticing all the wide-eyed stares.

"What?" he says self consciously.

Aww, cute.

I slap his back, and Matt falls forward. "Nice going bro! Old man Artie-"

"Old man?! Artie?! How dare-"

Before he can finish, the doors of the cafeteria suddenly burst open. Several men and women cloaked in white lab coats walk in.

I nudge Matt, who's still rubbing his shoulder. "Are those the scientists?"

He nods. "What do they want?" I ask.

"Probably to pick out the next one," he whispers.

"Pick out the next one? What-"

Arthur butts in. "Pipe down, will you? Do try not to draw attention to us."

"Well explain what's going on," I retort.

"What do you think?" he hisses back, "They're here to pick out the next one."

"Very explanatory."

"Oh, so you do know big words."

I roll my eyes. "Very funny."

"Guys," Matt warns.

"But seriously, what's going on?" I ask again.

"You know how I said that the scientists take us and do some experiments?" Matt says, look at me meaningfully.

"Yeah- oh," I look up to see the scientists coming closer to our table.

Wait- closer to our table?!

I scan the faces of everyone our table. They're all quiet, their faces not betraying anything. It's surprising to see them so serious, but then again I've only know them for a day.

Has it really been just a day?

I look around the room. Everyone's quiet too, all of their faces stuck in a serious expression. The air is thick with some sort of fearful anticipation.

I look towards them again. Yep, the group's heading right towards us.

"Matt?" I whisper before I could control myself.

"Yeah Al?" he whispers back.

"Why are they coming closer to us?"

Matt doesn't reply, instead staring at them.

We all watch with horrified fascination as one of them steps forward, standing right in front of our table. She's unfamiliar, and her pretty Indian features are twisted up in grimace.

She opens up her mouth and says, "Mr. Williams, will you please follow us?"


Author's note: Shit just go real. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

PS: Next chapter is going to be in Canada's POV. GET PUMPED!

Shout out to those who have Read/Favorited/Followed/Reviewed~

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-acrazyfangirl4